~ “I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.” Ronald Reagan.
When my family and I first came to Japan, in Spring,1972, we flew on an American contract airline, via Honolulu and Wake Island, from Travis AFB, California.
We arrived at Yokota AFB in the northeast outskirts of greater Tokyo at night. An Army staff car and driver picked us up and took us the two and a half hour trip to Camp Zama, the old Japanese Army military academy grounds, and dropped us off at a BOQ, where we would stay until we received our household goods and could move into quarters.
Other than that I never had any occasion to travel to Yokota, except in 1974 to try a batch of criminal cases for the Air Force when their legal staff there had placed themselves in a conflict-of-interest situation, where they would rotate prosecutors and defense lawyers, so ended up arguing both sides of the case on different days. It was a big Buddha-weed bust on an AF transport heading back to the States. A civilian lawyer caught them at it, called them out, and those cases had to be retried. Egg on the Air Force’s face.
In all, I traveled back and forth to Yokota three times in normal daylight hours and we went through a small city of half a million, actually a suburb of Tokyo, named Hachioji. The first time, I wasn’t prepared.
Driving through what looked like just more endless city, just like the several miles on the south side of Tokyo, where I lived, my driver, a Japanese man in a suit, turned around, and said, “Captain, we are coming to Hachioji City. Please roll up windows, lock door, and look straight ahead. Make no face.”
Shortly, along the narrow streets that Japanese called “two-lane highways”, people began coming out of the shops and little 3-stooler restaurants they would lunch at, and began pounding on the car, shriek curses (I guess), spitting, making hand gestures, with scowls that could cause an exorcist to squirm.
In a couple of minutes they either quit or we left the city[…]
The attacking planes came in two waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 AM, the second at 8:55. By 9:55 it was all over. By 1:00 PM the carriers that launched the planes from 274 miles off the coast of Oahu were heading back to Japan.
Behind them they left chaos, 2,403 dead, 188 destroyed planes and a crippled Pacific Fleet that included 8 damaged or destroyed battleships. In one stroke the Japanese action silenced the debate that had divided Americans ever since the German defeat of France left England alone in the fight against the Nazi terror.
Approximately three hours later, Japanese planes began a day-long attack on American facilities in the Philippines. (Because the islands are located across the International Dateline, the local Philippine time was just after 5 AM on December 8.) Farther to the west, the Japanese struck at Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand in a coordinated attempt to use surprise in order inflict as much damage as quickly as possible to strategic targets.
Although stunned by the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet’s aircraft carriers, submarines and, most importantly, its fuel oil storage facilities emerged unscathed. These assets formed the foundation for the American response that led to victory at the Battle of Midway the following June and ultimately to the total destruction of the Japanese Empire four years later.
Aboard the USS Arizona
The battleships moored along ‘Battleship Row’ are the primary target of the attack’s first wave. Ten minutes after the beginning of the attack a bomb crashes through the Arizona’s two armored decks igniting its magazine….
Honors: Distinguished Unit Citations: 1 (all units). MH-3.
Commanders:
Maj. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright (November 1940-December 1941)
Brig. Gen. Mason S. Lough (December 1941-May 1942).
Inactivated: 30 April 1947 in the Philippine Islands.
Combat Chronicle
Units of the Philippine Division were on security missions at Manila, Fort McKinley, and Bataan prior to the declaration of war in the Pacific, 8 December 1941. After undergoing 2 days of bombings, the Division moved into the field to cover the withdrawal of troops to Bataan and to resist the enemy in the Subic Bay area. From 11 to 23 December, positions were organized and strengthened and on 23 December the Division was assigned to the Bataan Defense Forces….
I am writing this blog for the benefit of my children and grand children and the new generations of Filipinos who have no knowledge or memory of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. It was 13 days before my 7th birthday when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in the morning, Sunday , December 7, 1941. That same day in the evening, Japanese planes had taken off to attack several targets in the Philippines. The Japanese had planned six landings: Bataan, Aparri, Vigan, Legaspi, Davao and Jolo Island. For the sake of clarity in this narrative, here are the important dates of that war:…
…When Japan started bombing the Philippines, I was in 2nd grade at the Jaro Elementary School,Iloilo. When my family heard of the bombings, we all panic and decided we moved from the city of Jaro, a most likely bombing target to our farm in Barotac Viejo, least likely target for bombing and Japanese occupation. Barotac Viejo,my mother’s ancestral town is a small town about 60 Km North of Jaro, Iloilo City.
I remember every one in my family was in chaotic mood and within a couple of days we packed all the essentials we could take and the rest of our household goods we left behind at our residence in Arguelles Street. I remember clearly my mother ordered all her china and sterling silver buried at the backyard of our house. We left all the furnitures and household goods that were heavy and cumbersome….
Let us remember this day that changed the lives of Americans forever 70 years ago.
Remember all those who perished that day and the terrible destruction brought about by those who sought to destruct this great nation.
Let us also remember and thank all those who made the ultimate sacrifice and the sacrifice of their families and loved ones so that we could be free. For they are our heroes America.
There are entities who would apologize for the bravery, sacrifice and heroic efforts of the U. S. Military as if these brave souls had committed an act most unforgivable.
Nothing could be further from the truth and our heroes have nothing for which to apologize.
In fact, we as a nation, seventy-seveb years later, still owe them the greatest of debt and no attempts at re-writing history will render it otherwise. We will not allow it.
We honor the men, women, their families and friends on this day, seventy years later.
(1) Lord, Walter, Day of Infamy (1957), Prange, Gordon, At Dawn We Slept (1981), Wallin, VAdm. Homer N. Pearl Harbor: Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal (1968).
(2) [Nota Bene: These combat chronicles, current as of October 1948, are reproduced from The Army Almanac: A Book of Facts Concerning the Army of the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950, pp. 510-592.]
The Veteran’s Day we celebrate now was originally known as Armistice Day until 1954. The purpose of the holiday was to commemorate the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. Presidents often participate in ceremonies on November 11th at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, now the Tomb of the Unknowns, at Arlington National Cemetery, which is located across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. President Roosevelt attended Armistice Day events at Arlington every November during his tenure in office. Presented here are photos from four of those years from the Harris and Ewing Photograph Collection held by the Library of Congress. 1936
In 1936, General John J. Pershing joined FDR in paying tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Now Tomb of the Unknowns). As his schedule notes, the President “motored” out to Arlington at 10:45 AM for the 11:00 event. General Pershing had served as commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I.
Secretary of War Harry Woodring provided remarks, and Pershing placed a white chrysanthemum wreath on the President’s and the American people’s behalf at the foot of the tomb. A solemn crowd then heard a bugler play taps. The President returned to the White House at 11:45.
1937
In 1937, the President was accompanied by his mother to ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery.
1938
In 1938, Roosevelt arrived at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the end of World War I. He was accompanied by his military aides Captain Daniel Callaghan and Colonel Edwin “Pa” Watson.
Earlier that year, he’d signed a bill making Armistice Day a national legal holiday. The future Cuban dictator, who largely exercised control over Cuba at the time, Fulgencio Batista, also attended the ceremonies. Over twenty years later, he’d be overthrown by a young revolutionary named Fidel Castro.
More important than any other guests, even the President, were World War I service members and war mothers. One such veteran was Alex Stern, who lost his leg at the battle of Meuse-Argonne. Nearby, Mrs. Rosa M. Cawood, a war mother, takes a photo of President Roosevelt during the ceremony.
1939
Armistice Day events at Arlington in 1939 were again a somber occasion to mark the sacrifices made by so many Americans, as well as their Allied counterparts, during World War I. That year’s ceremonies were held in the dark shadow of the new European war, which would ultimately become World War II. Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison, son of inventor Thomas Edison, delivered remarks.
Gaijin, pronounced “guy-jin” is a Japanese word meaning “foreigner”.
But it is much more than that.
I lived in Japan 1972-1975 as an Army officer. And I had studied Japanese for four semesters in college to satisfy my language requirements. A solid C-student, I came away with the speaking and reading ability of a Japanese second grader. But I had a good ear for spoken Japanese.
My secretary there, Mrs Minami, who I’ve written about at VeteransTales.org, was an American-born Japanese who had spent WWII in an internment camp out west. She was a GS-grade secretary, and my anchor as to Japanese ways. We were good friends and exchanged letters into the 90s, long after I left the Army.
Mrs Minami schooled me about manners in speaking with Japanese, as there were three ways to speak to a person, depending on their rank; someone beneath you, someone your equal, and someone above you. I was eager to learn this, for if I spoke in the honorific to a Japanese man, he would think I was not a mere “gaijin”, which, as every secretary who tried to talk to John Kerry knows, goes nowhere..
Mrs Minami warned me about that word “gaijin” as well as two other terms I had learned in college that were not acceptable in Japan any longer; “Kon-koku-jin” and “Kai-koku-jin”, which were names Japanese had used for Koreans and Chinese during their occupation during World War II. “Never call a Korean, of which there many in Japan, Konkokujin, for it is a great insult” she warned.
The other word she advised me against was “gai-jin”, which, as Google will tell you means “foreigner.” Only it means so much more. It really meant “dirty, filthy foreigner”. She said “gaijin” was similar to what white Americans once called Negros while she was a girl in Wyoming. You know, the N-word, only color had nothing to do with it. It meant every foreigner.
And the Japanese government had carried on a national campaign against its use since the 1950s. It was never used in respectable company, but still, you heard it muttered on the streets, usually by lower classes, and usually because they thought the foreigners wouldn’t understand them. I heard it many times, mostly in bars, crowded restaurants and crowded trains during rush hour.
I even had the chance to throw it back at them once, while on a beach in Hawaii.
It was also the first thing I thought of when I watched the closing ceremony of the US Open tennis championship on Saturday.
Naomi Osaka became the first Japanese national to win a tennis Grand Slam title. Ever.
And she defeated Serena Williams, who was in search of her 24th Grand Slam title, trying for the second time in a row to tie the all-time record. She was denied at Wimbledon in July, and now again at Forrest Hills.
Nor did the tourney spokespeople who made no bones about the fact that Naomi Osaka should not have been the champion in the first place.
Serena has a history of this kind of behavior (you can look it up) and will have to deal with her demons, but perhaps karma has other plans. And perhaps the PC police inside US Tennis may even take a lesson in hiding their boorishness and bias, as if they were a Harvard Admissions Committee.
Derivative. Orig. photo by Pixabay.
Perspective
It is at this point that I blocked out the chatter surrounding the dust up(s) between Serena Williams and U. S. Tennis umpire, Carlos Ramos. I needed to gain my own perspective and so I reviewed the matches and incidents leading up to the explosion last weekend:
We must thank Serena Williams for giving credence, albeit unintentionally to the myth of the “ugly American.” Williams has earned the title “Gaijin” hands down.
The U. S. Open Committee or whatever they call themselves are deserving as well of the title of “ugly American.” Clearly, they had not prepared a Plan B presentation in the event Serena Williams lost, which she did. Naomi Osaka deserved better[…]
300,000 American Soldiers assaulted the continent of Europe ion June sixth of 1944. They died by the thousands as they tried to gain a beach-head allowing access into Nazi Germany. My closest brothers went the night before, the Airborne Divisions.
I don’t know if I’d have been able to ride one of those landing craft to the beach, just like I don’t know if I could have “dressed right and covered down” while Pickett’s Division assaulted the Union center at Gettysburg. On the other hand, jump out of an airplane and deal with what you get… Doesn’t sound impossible. Even that was ugly but it was war, that’s ugly 24/7/365. PVT John Steele, 2/505th Parachute Regiment, got caught on the steeple of the church in Ste Mere Eglise. LGOPS of 30 men took objectives planned for forces of 300. 300,000 Americans went ashore in spite of the Nazi’s desires. Then proceeded to kick their Nazi ass.
President Reagan remembered and understood…
The 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment has a silver punch bowl and a set of silver cups taken from a Nazi Battalion HQ. Along with the punchbowl is a dispatch from the Nazi Battalion Commander to his Commander. In the dispatch the Bn CDR describes his tactical situation as “American parachutists…devils in baggy pants…are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can’t sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere…”
Guess what bitches, you’re fighting Americans now. The Nazi’s had the same issues right up until they surrendered[…]
We found this great tribute video by the American Veterans Center about baseball players who put their careers on hold to serve their country during World War II. Watch it below.
