Untitled
In February 1945, a woman now dying of lung cancer grabbed two of her children and jumped out the window to escape Imperial Japanese Marines crashing through the door intent on bayoneting everyone in the burning house. Finding no one, they went on to the next house to continue their massacre on a street not far from the Rizal Memorial ballpark, where Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth both played in sunnier days before the forgotten Battle of Manila. The 100,000 civilians who died in the largest urban battle of the Pacific War -- more than at Hiroshima -- are not remembered in beautiful candles floating down darkened rivers or in flights of doves soaring into the blue sky; there is no anti-American significance to their deaths. But they still live in the fading memory of that woman, who hid for two days in the smoldering ruins of the neighborhood until the first American patrols came into view.
I saw my aunt last as she stood in a window of a Sydney hotel and waved goodbye. I hope to see her again.
I bruise you
You bruise me
We both bruise too easily
Too easily to let it show
I love you and that's all I knowBut the ending always comes at last
Endings always come too fast
They come too fast
But they pass too slow
I love you and that's all I know
-- Jimmy Webb and Art Garfunkel
posted by wretchardthecat at 8/14/2005 07:15:00 AM
41 Comments:
Eloquent.
Thanks for sharing, Wretchard.
We all just learned more about you and the underlying sentiments that often show up here: "not remembered in beautiful candles floating down darkened rivers or in flights of doves soaring into the blue sky; there is no anti-American significance to their deaths."
Best wishes and prayers for your aunt.
My condolences.
andrew,
I have known more than a few Japanese over the years. The core of Japanese self superiority exists, no, it thrives. They tend to be legends in their own minds.
There is but a thin veneer of modernism on Japanese society, IMHO
Poignant, but, as with so much of your work, with a core of spring steel.
I recall that when the 50 anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor was being observed, a reporter with considerable experience in Japan said something very interesting – and more than a little disturbing.
He said that the Japanese drew no association between their attack on Pearl Harbor and the American attack on Hiroshima. The attack on Pearl Harbor was simply an act of war in their minds, regrettable perhaps, even a bit shameful, but just war.
The attack on Hiroshima they thought of in the same terms as of a great natural disaster, horrifying, sorrowful, great suffering and a great loss.
But the two attacks were not connected in their minds.
As the writer Larry Miller put it:
“When I see a bumper sticker that says ‘No more Hiroshimas’ I think that I want one that says ‘You first; no more Pearl Harbors.”
My very best wishes and prayers for your aunt.
For those with their head in the sand, this scenario could be replayed today, in upwards of 30 countries around the world.. If it happened in the U.S. or U.K., I have no doubts that the death toll would be far above 100k in those few days before the American and/or Brit Forces gained control again.. Just think of Beslan times 1000, and that was a botched hostage situation and not outright mass murder.. Still doubt me ?? It may not be floating down a river, but my candle burns for those who have suffered in those tragic episodes like what Wretchard describes, Beslan, and all too many more.. Until ALL of the worlds population has been completly civilised and world dominance is no longer anyones objective,and we can ALL live in peace, this will happen again and more candles will burn, lest we not forget..
There is 2 million Vietnamese death in Au-Dau famine 1945 caused by Japanese hoarding foods from farmers for their troops and fuel for their transportation. My parent and parent in law and many Vietnamese are the witnesses. No candle there neither, for no anti-American signficance to their death.
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Vietnamese-Famine-of-1945
Mentality-wise, the Imperial Japanese were the most similar enemy to Al Qaeda we've ever fought. Suicidally inclined, considered their enemies largely subhuman, and treated them accordingly - from fellow Asians to Westerners. Ironically they largely treated fellow Asians even worse than they did Westerners, so much for the Co-prosperity sphere.
Unfortunately, I think at the rate we're going, both stories might have a somewhat similar ending.
My condolences.
Sir:
My respects to your aunt.
safe passage
My brother and I went to see the Great Raid on Friday. It was mostly an old crowd in the audience.
The movie describes Japanese in full retreat and the frontline as very fluid and confused.
This was true to a story our dad told from time to time over the years of his ambulence unit getting ahead US lines and entering Baguio before the frontline of the 33rd Division. The Japanese had evacuated the town but for one Japanese soldier whom dad captured.
It was the high point of that war for dad. His feat was not comparable to the work of the men in The Great Raid but when the colonel in that movie talked about glory as not a public thing but something that successful soldiers carried in their hearts for the rest of their lives...I thought I understood because I thought I saw something of that in my dad.
My family was reminded again of the valor the old man when he was a young man,when the guns cracked as they lowered him in his grave in Pennsylvania last year.
The earth seemed to roll in that green valley where he was laid next to his parents and grandparents. Dad hit the dirt in a way that he might not think complimentary since he was army. But I swear I thought I could hear the skid of jet wheels hitting the deck of an aircraft carrier as dad's casket went down. And the earth did seem to roll like a carrier deck.
The 33rd Infantry division association web page is here
Wretchard, is there anyway to trackback you?
As tragic as what happened in Manila was, it pales to what the Japanese did in Nanking (300,000 civilians, most bayoneted) and innumerable other places in China.
Yesterday, I attended a 60th VJ anniversary celebration held by our local Chinese community (my wife is from Taiwan). these people will fogive, but are determine never to forget. You could ask them what they thought of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; they'd say it was a shame the U.S. only had two nukes at the time.
They had a handful of WWII vets there including three Flying Tiger pilots. I was proud to trigger the lloud and long standing ovation for these men; lest we forget.
As I child I listened to the story of a man who, after being released from Capas concentration camp, went on to being an anti-Japanese guerilla in Calumpit, a town north of Manila. One day the Japanese rounded up all the military age men and lined them up on the highway bridge over the river. The man reminiscing was standing next to his secret commanding officer.
The Japanese brought up a man masked with a bag over his head who pointed out the guerilla commanding officer. The Japanese officer took out his sword and told the guerilla CO he would begin cutting pieces off him until he started identifying his men. He proceeded to do so. What struck the man telling the story was how that officer kept pulling himself back to the position of military attention after his ears, his fingers and different parts of his body were cut. "He was right beside me. He could have turned me in. But he looked straight ahead." Finally the Japanese officer shot him, and all the men were sent home.
A man might steal and cheat for money, but he will only do that for self-respect and love.
Well done. What happened at Manila, and in the Philippine Islands generally in that war is too often forgotten now.
Interested persons would do well to check out "Share of Honor" by Ralph Graves - an excellent novel about life in the Philippines during the war, and the Filipino/American underground that kept up the fight. Mr. Graves was the stepson of Hon. Francis Sayre, the US High Commissoner in 1941.
Other good books include "Bataan, Our Last Ditch" by John W. Whitman -- as good a military history on the sad events of December 41 to Mid 1942 as we are ever likely to have. For the real grognard, look at Louis Morton's "Fall of the Philippines" -- part of the US Army official history of the war. Ward Rutherford's book "Fall of the Philippines" is worth a look.
For the return, and the Battle of Manila, check out Stanley Falk's "Liberation of the Philippines" and Robert Smith's "Triumph in the Philippines."
Can't wait to see "The Great Raid."
When the mayor of Nagasaki declared a 'minute of silence for the victims', I thought of Nanking, Phillipines, Borneo, Saipan, Corregidor, Bataan Death March, Okinawa, northern China, Burma, River Kwae Thailand, ... and the minute was up!
God bless your aunt, for her memory bears stark witness to the truth of those dry, albeit horrific, historical accounts!
there are certainly worse tragedies than death
I saw The Great Raid today. Excellent. A tribute to your aunt and every true freedom fighter. Today in Iraq; tomorrow, who knows.
Wretchard,
Nag-dadasal kami (Claudia at ako) para sa iyong tiya.
Marcus & Claudia
Amazing Stories. What a remarkable life she has lived, from those dark days to modern times in Australia.
Like Tony,
Best wishes and prayers for your aunt.
I'll repost the links on The Great Raid.
Actor Joseph Fiennes was shocked to learn that at Cabanatuan where there were only 500 POWs to be rescued, whereas originally there were 12,000!
So was I.
A woman calling in to the Laura Ingraham show had an uncle that was on the death march and survived, but she said he was a haunted man.
(She didn't get to know him, as he became a firefighter and was run over by his own truck.)
I have written before about my late friend Basil Cuizon, who was also a survivor, but this woman's call reminded me again how remarkable Basil was in that he ALWAYS presented a cheerful demeanor in public.
I imagine he must have had his demons, but it is amazing how some individuals can cope so well, whereas others are forever overcome by the experience.
I'm quite sure I'd be a lot different than Basil, but who can tell except those that were there?
One blessing is that your aunt survived long enough for you to get to know her as an adult.
. The Great Raid.
The extra urgency of the rescue was due to the fact that orders were coming down to eliminate ALL prisoners.
. Review: 'The Great Raid' Worth the Wait (washingtonpost.com)
---
IMDB
. The Great Raid
Joint Statement By Surviving Members Of The Enola Gay Crew
08/07/2005 05:08:32 PM
Surviving members of the Enola Gay crew, in observance of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, last week issued a joint statement reaffirming that none of them regret having dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, in hopes of expediting the end of the war.
The second atomic bomb was dropped on Aug. 9.
Brig. Gen. (ret.) Paul W. Tibbets, who piloted the Enola Gay, said he has received many letters from people worldwide--including Japan--and the vast majority have expressed gratitude that the 509th Composite Group was able to deliver the means that brought the war to a close.
In the joint statement, Tibbets said,
"To our fellow veterans and the American nation, we all echo one sentiment, We pray that reason will prevail among leaders before we ever again need to call upon our nuclear might.
There are no regrets.
We were proud to have served like so many men and women stationed around the world today. To them, to you, we salute you, and goodbye."
Aviation Week, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Wretchard--
Garfunkel's song reminded me of Enya's "Evacuee"
Each time on my leaving home
I run back to my mother's arms,
one last hold and then it's over.
Watching me, you know I cry,
you wave a kiss to say goodbye,
Feel the sky fall down upon me!
All I am,
a child with promises
All I have
are miles full of promises of home.
If only I could stay with you,
my train moves on, you're gone from view,
Now I must wait until it's over.
Days will pass, your words to me,
it seems so long; eternity,
but I must wait until it's over.
It was all so long ago, Wretchard.
Dona nobis pacem.
~D
Ah, but yer a sweet lass, indeed, Dymphna.
Joint Statement By Surviving Members Of The Enola Gay Crew
Must be a dissappointment moment for the Old York Times.
Buddy--
Glad to see your carpal tunnel syndrome has improved.
~D
My desk has a yellowing black-and-white photo of four GI's grinning in front of their tents in wartime Georgia.
They display four left forearms, tattooed the night before with THEIR design, resembling a lucky Ace of Spades and drawn by my father, the one with his arm on Willy's shoulder.
Little Willy Furno was assigned to the Phillipines, and when 3 Ace of Spades returned from the War, they found out Willy didn't live through the Bataan Death March.
I knew this, and more, before I enlisted at age 17, and I am STILL proud to have stood FOR America's freedom, courage and dignity! Still willing to follow Willy into battle against the Sharia-crazed racists and terror-mongers violently dealing hatred and pain today!
Being a Baha'i does NOT mean turning off one's brain!
I will dove tail on Doug's statement. First, given the Imperial Japanese Army's string of atrocities including the Rape of Nanking, the murders in the Philippines (including the Bataan Death March), Burma, Okinawa the River Kwae and so on, the use of the Atom bomb was necessary.
I will also say that military icons such as Gen. Patton and Gen. Lemay were probably not given their just recognition. Considering monsters like Joe Stalin and his psychotic plans such as the "doctors plot" which could have been a pretext for war against the United States, one is grateful that Gen. Lemay blunted that threat with his feared Stratigic Air Command complete with highly trained pilots, nuclear armed bombers, nuclear ICBMs and a command post in air 24/7.
If one reads Wretchard's On a Weekend and follow his links you will get the sense of how extreme (or psychotic) Stalin had become.
If Stalin had the military might to subdue the US he surely would have done so. It may have started with the "doctors plot" or it may have started with an attack similar to Pear Harbor. One thing is certain, totalitarian aggression starts small but, left unchecked grows to enormous sizes. Lemay checked Stalin. In retrospect, walking quietly but having a big stick is a good idea. But, the best defense a good offense.
"NO REGRETS"
[from actual statement]:
Joint Statement By Surviving Members Of The Enola Gay Crew
Together with Great Britain's Churchill, and Russia's Stalin, the President of the United States urged the Japanese to " … proclaim the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces … The alternative," they said, "for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". Ignoring the obvious military situation, the Japanese Prime Minister Baron Kantaro Suzuki issued the Japanese refusal to surrender which included these words: "… there is no other recourse but to ignore it [the surrender demand] entirely and resolutely fight for the successful conclusion of the war." While it is certainly unfortunate this course of action was necessary, for the allies, at that moment in time, there was no other choice. Secretary of War Henry Stinson wrote, "The decision to use the atomic bomb … was our least abhorrent choice".
President Harry S. Truman approved the order to use the atomic bomb... An invasion that would have cost tens of thousands of Japanese and allied lives. Winston Churchill concurred with the decision saying, "To avert a vast, indefinite butchery [the invasion], to bring the war to an end, give peace to the world, to lay healing hands upon its tortured peoples … at the cost of a few explosions, seemed after all our toils and perils, a miracle of deliverance." ...The surviving members of the Enola Gay crew: Paul W. Tibbets (pilot), Theodore J. "Dutch" Van Kirk (navigator) and Morris R. Jeppson (weapon test officer) have repeatedly and humbly proclaimed that, "The use of the atomic weapon was a necessary moment in history. We have no regrets".
See: statement
[Bio of the pilot of the Enola Gay and story of bombing]
[Pilot] Paul Tibbets was born Feb. 23, 1915, son of Enola Gay and Paul Warfield... On February 25th, 1937, Paul enlisted as a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. A year later he got his pilot wings at Kelly Field, Texas and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. He graduated first in his class... 1938 through 1940, while at Fort Benning, he flew O-46 and O-47 observation planes and B-10 bombers. Here he met George Patton, then a Lieutenant Colonel, and destined to become the world-famous tank General in World War Two. While Tibbets was a lowly Second Lieutenant, they went skeet shooting together. Patton was a fierce competitor and did not take it lightly when he lost a few quarters competing with Tibbets... In February 1942, Paul became the Squadron Commander of the 340th Bomb Squadron, 97th Bombardment Group.... He flew 25 missions in B-17s, including the first American Flying Fortress raid against occupied Europe. In November of that year he was in Algeria leading the first bombardment missions in support of the North African invasion... Tibbets' B-17 group was based first at Maison Blanche (outside Algiers), then at Tafaraoui, and then at Biskra. In early 1943, he was transferred to the 12th Air Force, under General Jimmy Doolittle...
[The A bomb]
...Sept. 1944, he reported to Colorado Springs for a top secret assignment - to organize bombardment group to deliver the atomic bomb... he was introduced to General Uzal Ent and Professor Norman Ramsey, who explained the project to him. Tibbets force, the 509th Composite Group, included 15 B-29's and 1,800 men. The 509th settled on Wendover, Utah as their base. Due to its remote location, it was ideal for security. From his old B-17 crew in Europe, he selected Tom Ferebee (bombardier), Sgt. George Caron (tail gunner), Dutch Van Kirk (navigator), and Sgt. Wyatt Duzenberry (flight engineer). These men were assigned to Tibbets' airplane. Bob Lewis flew as co-pilot. As Tibbets could get any men and any planes he needed... 509th quickly filled out, and the entire organization was complete by Dec. 1944... By May, 1945, Tibbets and the 509th had moved out to the Pacific, to the island of Tinian in the Marianas... Tinian was ideal; its 8,500 foot runways were among the longest in the world at the time. Tibbets ran into various confrontations... in part from the secrecy of the operations. He flew back and forth to the States three times between May and July, but missed the first atomic test at Alamogordo because he had to return to Tinian to persuade General Curtis LeMay not to switch the atomic mission to another outfit.
[The 15-foot crate]
The cruiser Indianapolis dropped anchor off Tinian and unloaded a 15-foot wooden crate on July 26th. Inside was the atomic bomb, complete except for a second slug of uranium that a B-29 later delivered. Having delivered its load without incident, Indianapolis moved on toward the Philippines. Four days after departing Tinian, Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine. scientists estimated that a B-29 could survive the shockwave at a distance of eight miles. Flying at 31,000 feet, the B-29 would already be six miles in the air. To gain the extra distance, Tibbetts determined that a sharp 155 degree turn would be the best maneuver. In less than 2 minutes, the B-29 would reverse it direction and fly five miles. Another critical concern was accuracy; using the Norden bombsight, the bombardiers would have to put the bomb within 200 feet of the aiming point... Until this time, Tibbets' own plane had been simply number 82, when he decided to name it Enola Gay, after his confidence-building and loving mother... At the last minute, it was decided to complete the final assembly of the bomb in flight, thus eliminating the risk of it exploding if Enola Gay crashed on take-off... They loaded the bomb into the Enola Gay that afternoon. "Little Boy" was 12 feet long and 28 inches in diameter - bigger than any bomb Tibbetts had ever seen. Its explosive power equalled 20,000 tons of TNT; or roughly as much as two thousand Superfortresses could carry - all in a single bomb that weighed about 9,000 pounds. Deak Parsons practiced the delicate arming process... At 8:30 they received the coded message "Y-3, Q-3, B-2, C-1." The message meant that cloud cover over Hiroshima, the primary target, was less than three-tenths. Tibbets gave the word to his crew, "It's Hiroshima." ...Tom Ferebee peered into his Norden bombsight, and cranked in the information to correct for the south wind. Tibbets reminded the crew to put on their heavy dark Polaroid goggles, to shield their eyes from the blinding blast. It had been calculated to have the intensity of ten suns... 43 seconds later, a tingling in Tibbets' teeth told him of the Hiroshima explosion: the bomb's radioactive forces interacting with his fillings. The bomb exploded at 1890 feet above the ground. Bob Caron, the tail gunner was the only crew member to see the fireball. Even wearing the goggles, he thought he was blinded. The plane raced away, while the shockwave from the explosion raced toward them at 1,100 feet per second. When the shockwave hit, it felt like a near-miss from flak. The mushroom cloud boiled up, 45,000 feet high... The city had completely disappeared under a blanket of smoke and fire. They radioed back to headquarters that the primary target had been bombed visually with good results... Twelve hours after they had taken off, Tibbets and the crew of the Enola Gay touched down, to be greeted by all the military brass that could be mustered: General Carl Spaatz, commander of the Strategic Air Force; General Nathan Twining, chief of the Marianas Air Force; General Thomas F. Farrell and Rear Admiral W.R.E. Purnell, both with the atomic development project; and General John Davies, 313th Wing Commander. Spaatz pinned a Distinguished Service Cross on Tibbets as he descended from the plane... they were debriefed and given a quick medical checkup. The interviewers were skeptical of their accounts of the blast. The news of the atomic bomb was promptly announced to the world. The Japanese were given an ultimatum, to accept the Potsdam call for unconditional surrender, or face further atomic attacks. Three days later, Chuck Sweeney, in Bock's Car, dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.... Not long after the surrender...
See:Bio
Check out:
http://www.enolagay.org/
Wrechard,
For many history is just a story about things that happened a long time ago in places far away. But in fact history happened to real people and many of those real people still live and walk among us.
For me the dozens of members of my family that were murdered in the Holocaust are real. I know their names, I have their photos and to a certain extent I know their stories. For most people the Holocaust is ancient history. They see a simulacrum of the horror, but not the horror itself. For those who lived it, and still live, they know the horror itself. Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Grafenek are not just names for a history lesson, they are the places where my relatives' ashes are.
I have and have had German friends and Japanese friends. All born after the war. They are all nice people and in most, or all, ways like us. None have ever asked me to forgive what happened, which I couldn't do, and I certainly won't forget. We each mourn our own dead, however.
The events will exist in living memory for a long time yet, and in the memories of those that heard the stories second hand for a long while after that. It is only recently that the last widow of a US Civil War veteran died, after all.
x_minus_one,
"Isn't it a fact that the Allied Power was not interested in hunting down war criminals when victims were not Westerners?"
It's not a fact, but it is an article of Leftist faith. Douglas MacArthur has been widely accused of lynching General Tomoyuki Yamashita for his role in the Philippine atrocities, which "only" involved Filipinos. It's been argued, with some truth, that Yamashita was innocent of the Battle of Manila, which was prosecuted by the Japanese Navy. But MacArthur was angry and vengeful.
I do know that Japanese stragglers were hunted down by Filipinos like dogs. My father saw teenaged Japanese soldiers being slowly beaten and hacked to death. The only chance for a surrendering Japanese soldier lay in giving up to the Americans. It's ugly and shameful in retrospect that so easy-going a people as the Filipinos could do this; but it is the truth.
There were exceptions. My grandfather gutshot a Japanese soldier with a '03 Springfield in 1945 and spent the next hours tending to the dying man. Gramps had been tortured as a suspected guerilla at Fort Santiago, but he knew there was a difference between being defending your country and being cruel. The beatings of Japanese stragglers were more likely to be carried out by the instant "resistance fighters" than by real guerillas or regular troops. In my own experience there is less difference between the behavior of races than you'd think, but the gap between a real man and scoundrel is unbridgeable.
Your remark about the implicit racism of Western armies is the funniest thing I've ever heard. It had no operational meaning on Luzon.
In the dishonest vernacular of the modern Left, all the charges hurled at Bush could also be made against FDR: he'd already decided to go to war, all about the oil, he wants a draft, he invaded the wrong country, Hitler had no WMDs, the occupation was a mess, military tribunals, etc., ad nauseum.
BTW, we did give the Japanese a "demonstration bombing"; it was called "Hiroshima". And they still didn't surrender until after Nagasaki. Why would we think a demonstration bombing on an uninhabited island would have yielded a better result?
Thanks for lighting your own floating candle.
Once again, great post.
For an infuriating example of the selective memory of the Japanese, read the recent "Peace Declaration" from the mayor of Hiroshima to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the A bomb. With criticism of the US, France, Britain etc. countries that believe "might is right", it ends with this line regarding the bombing, calling for complete global nuclear disarmament - "we seek to comfort the souls of all of its victims by declaring theat we humbly reaffirm our responsibility never to "repeat the evil". Ironic.
To the list of Japanese atrocities, I would add Ping Fan and "Unit 731" sites of Japanese germ warfare experiments in China. Thousands of Chinese "sacrifices" were made at "factories" that would have made Joseph Mengele proud. Prisoners slated for experiments were referred to as "logs" (Japanese told locals that the facilities were "lumber yards") and "monkeys". Live dissection was common, and it is estimated that over 250,000 Chinese died from plagues that was released (unknowingly) into the countryside.
The Japanese felt racially superior to other Asians (and Westerners for that matter), and saw the subjugation of Asia as their destiny.
So, x minus one, is there any recognition of the thousands of Americans who died freeing millions of non-Japanese Asians from their true racist oppressors?
Frankly, I think x is just a troll trying to get a rise out everyone, but here's an anecdote our our "racism" in Japan:
"My great-grandmother and my grandmother faced the occupiers alone, having ordered the children to hide. The Japanese had been warned that the invading barbarians would rape and pillage. My great-grandmother, a battle-scarred early feminist, hissed, "Get your filthy barbarian shoes off of my floor!" The interpreter refused to interpret. The officer in command insisted. Upon hearing the translation from the red-faced interpreter, the officer sat on the floor and removed his boots, instructing his men to do the same. He apologized to my great-grandmother and grandmother."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/opinion/07ito.html?ex=1281067200&en=e6b897762b09f727&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
For as long as history, groups have annihilated others; usually for ideology (including race and religion) of superiority. At times we're forced to wonder if annihilation isn't the social instinct, and that ideology formed to give it expression.
In stark contrast, for just as long humans have performed acts of compassion and bravery; sometimes for belief, more often for affection. No library could ever hold the records of sacrifice for devotion and love.
Few of us shape world events, but each can shape some part of the whole. In the end, your aunt survived and the silly candles are lit, all because of others' sacrifice. Many of them just ordinary folk from my beloved Valley.
One was a small-time farmer, part-time factory worker, and (according to local gossip) occasional moonshiner and poacher. Member of a pacifist sect, he volunteered and wound up in the Pacific. He was part of the dogged operation moving toward your aunt that day. He'd picked his way through the woods, would pick his way across the city, and then into the woods again.
He may have seen your aunt. After four years covering the advance of American forces, he went home and resumed life; back to factory, chickens, cows, occasional distilling or deer, and driving the church-school bus to his last years. He's long passed, and perhaps your aunt will explain to his wife that his service wasn't the sin she thought it was.
Wretchard, I don't know the solution except tributes like yours. The attempt to use a single instance to commemorate all of them has failed; the Holocaust not only lets people discount other cases, but also overlook current genocides. The ideology that freed the Pacific also permits another ideology to canonize one set of lost innocents and ignore another; in turn raising the probability of recurrence.
Woyaya
It will be hard we know
And the road will be muddy and rough,
But we'll get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.
We are going, heaven knows where we are going,
We'll know we're there.
- Art Garfunkel, 1973
X minus One,
My uncle who is buried in the U.S. cemetery in Manila would likely object to your post.
I wonder if there's any effective difference between historical
ignorance and anti-Americanism.
Sorry to slide off-topic, but that sounds ironical, given how one-sided
and distorted an average "American" presentation of WWII history is. If
judged by any objective metric, like amount of resources and troops
deployed, WWII was definitely mainly a war of the continental Europe,
and its main events occurred at the East front thereof. (As an example,
at the D-Day only about one fifth of the German army was on the West,
and moreover, afterwards, Axis continued to move forces from West to
East). All the facts to the contrary notwithstanding, standard
exposition of WWII usually concentrates on the Pacific theater and
things like African Rommel affair that are completely below radar when
compared with the battles of mainland Europe (like Kursk battle, where 10
thousand tanks were deployed).
Maybe at least some part of presumed "anti-Americanism" is but a
natural reaction to ignorance --where not contempt-- about dozen million
peoples who died fighting for their freedom only be to demoted to the
obscure position by historians with revisionist agendas.
Wretchard
May God grant your aunt the courage and strength for this final voyage, and a place of everlasting comfort and joy in his kingdom.
Amen
On the subject of war criminals, I realize that others may disagree, but I have always thought that General Yamashita was railroaded, and I'm far from being a leftist. His conviction was based on his responsibility for atrocities committed primarily in Manila, mostly by Japanese Navy units in theory under him, but the reality of his command over them was fuzzier. The case is Yamashita v. Styer, 327 U.S. 1 (1946), and in particular I'd recommend the dissent of Mr. Justice Murphy.
I think, also, that many persons who should have been called to account for wartime atrocities, both Japanese and German, were not, for various reasons, some good, some bad.
but it is the truth.
Thanks to all you fellow patrons of the Belmont Club for your uplifting conversation. Thanks most of all to Wretchard, who through this virtually Kerouac-ian burst of honesty and feeling, has told us why we're all drawn here.
There really are Good Guys and Bad Guys in this world.
but it is the truth.
I meant to copy Wretchard saying:
the gap between a real man and scoundrel is unbridgeable.
VJ day 60 years on
.Forgotten Army gathers
Post a Comment
<< Home