Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • April 21, 2010 vivors of Pearl Harbor, one of the Bataan Death March, several of Pacific landings, several whose relatives didn’t survive Pacific landings, and several German and Japanese air raid survivors. One of my cousins was on the third ship into Tokyo Bay and had earlier survived a kamikaze attack. Some of the guys who fought wave the flag, and others see the whole Pacific War as a set-up by the Roosevelt administration: That’s FDR, not TR. The difference is most often ethnic or related to IQ: Irish-Americans and German-Americans see themselves as having been sucked into a war to save Britain and the British Empire from Hitler, while Confederate sympathizers who trivialize slavery and hard-core racists see the war against Japan as an attempt to save the neighborhood. The Japanese Empire, in its heyday, actually was the leading advocate of victims of white racism. Malcolm X once said that his greatest ambition was to join the Imperial Japanese Army. He beat the U.S. draft by pretending to be crazy. Read his book. The hard-core war supporters haven’t read much. If they read Bradley’s book, or if Clint Eastwood showed them a film about it, it could do them a power of good. Taft-Katsura started in 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry shoved his way into Japan at cannon point and demanded treaties from the sullen Japanese. In the 1860s, a U.S. Navy warship, the “U.S.S. Wyoming,” joined British, French, and Dutch ships in bombarding Japanese clan forts that had tried to win respect for Japanese sovereignty. Japanese men, women, and children were killed by American shells in their own country. The Americans also forced a treaty on the Japanese so Americans who defrauded a Japanese merchant or raped a Japanese woman could only be tried in American courts located in Japan. Over on the other side of the Sea of Japan, a U.S. merchant ship, the “Swallow,” was wrecked off Korea, still entirely isolated from Western nations. The Koreans gave the shipwrecked seamen food, warm clothing, and horses, and told them to leave the country and not come back. A few months later, an American surplus warship manned by civilians, the “General Sherman,” tried to force its way into Korea lobbing shells that also killed women and children. The astounded Koreans rallied, swarmed on board, beheaded the invaders – all adult males and mostly Chinese who didn’t want to be there -- and sank the ship. This “act of war” led to an 1871 invasion by U.S. Marines and armed sailors. The Koreans lost heavy casualties, but most fought to the death, and the Grant administration, which was corrupt but not overtly vicious, did not invade further. “Friendly” Americans like Charles LeGendre, who had most of his face shot off in the Civil War, and Durham White Stevens, whose father worked in the U.S. Indian Service, shortly arrived to subvert Japan from the inside. The Americans gave the Japanese – the most warlike of the Asian peoples – concessions carved out of China and Korea in return for the Anglo-American design of keeping Russia out of the Pacific Rim. LeGendre died of apoplexy – poison? – in 1900. Stevens, his replacement, was gunned down by Korean patriots in the streets of San Francisco in 1909. Koreans celebrate this event like Guy Fawkes Day in England. Meanwhile, Chinese patriots like Sun Yat-sen and Japanese patriots like Torazo Miyazaki had joined hands to try to modernize Japan, China, and Korea to form a bastion against colonialism by Russia, Britain, France, and the United States. Dr. Sun and Miyazaki were trying to run guns to the Filipinos to foster their resistance while Americans were killing the Filipinos for resisting. The Taft-Katsura Agreement put a stop to Japan’s anticolonialism only due to Japanese exasperation with the in-fighting of the Korean dynasty. Queen Min, heroine of Korean legend, had been murdered by a mixed mob of Japanese and Koreans in 1895 when she betrayed Japan in favor of China, and some Japanese nationals and many Korean friends of Japan were murdered. Her timid husband demoted his late wife to the status of common prostitute and asked Russia for help. Enough was enough! Hirobumi Ito, Japan’s one-man anti-colonial Army, kicked in his door and told the King of Korea and his courtiers to sign an alliance with Japan to keep the Russians out of Asia – with the secret but avid support of both Britain, Japan’s ally since 1902, and the United States. Hirobumi the Hun is the arch-villain of Korean history, but Americans of the time absolutely loved him. He was a feature of Washington lawn parties where he gave the Princeton Tiger cheer, and drank everybody under the table. Ito never trusted whites and he didn’t want to annex Korea outright. He was satisfied with the deal he and Katsura cut with Taft. The Korean Army rebelled, and the Japanese pulped them without much trouble, but they also started to build schools, hospitals, and banks. Ito was murdered in Russian-owned Manchuria by a Korean gunman who became a dead national hero a few months after the Koreans settled up with Durham White Stevens. Stevens had also betrayed the Japanese, and was considered no loss anywhere in Asia, but Ito seems to have been surprised that the Koreans didn’t like him. Once he was dead, the Japanese annexed Korea outright and the real abuse began. Taft-Katsura didn’t cause Pearl Harbor. The Japanese spent the next 30 years beating up and educating the Koreans and nobody but the missionaries cared. The Japanese war on China – mutual-fault, according to most honest observers --also rated yawns from everyone but a few humanitarians and a few communists. America’s interest in fighting Japan perked up only when the Japanese took over French Indochina from Vichy France, an ally of Nazi Germany. At this point, one communist and several pro-British or pro-Chinese partisans provoked a war that the Japanese didn’t want. Read Bradley’s book as a coming attraction. Friends have told me I must read “The Imperial Cruise” by James Bradley. I intend to do so, but not this year. I must state that I have a conflict of interests. I have a book that covers the same era awaiting publication. Bradley’s best-seller, “Flag of Our Fathers,” describes how his father, as a Navy Corpsman serving with the Marines on Iwo Jima, helped raise the flag over Mount Suribachi. Bradley’s second book, “Flyboys,” describes how George Bush the elder was rescued after being shot down on an air strike over Iwo Jima, and how the other eight guys who were shot down fell into the hands of the Japanese, who ate them. Curtis LeMay, a senior American commander, remarked of his own exploits in the fire-bombing of Japanese cities, “We scorched and baked to death more people in Tokyo…than went up in vapor in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.” That’s the difference between civilized men and savages. Savages eat enemy aviators. Civilized men scorch women and children and just leave them. I’ve seen some of the photos. A Japanese baby is shown burned to a crisp while the Japanese mother is also burned to a crisp except for her lower back, where she would have been carrying the baby. Then good old Doctor Seuss made an award-winning 1946 documentary to show they were both asking for it, and today we honor him in “Read across America.” Aviators whose planes couldn’t be fitted with napalm were strafing Japanese civilians. One guy almost got my wife’s aunt, who jumped into a ditch just in time to evade the double string of bullets from what sounded like a P-51. The next day, what sounds like the same plane almost got my wife’s elderly flower-arranging teacher. Killing all these people, or trying to kill them from the air so our young men wouldn’t have to face their young men man-to-man, of course, shows how just how manly we are. I had six relatives in World War II, and I volunteered to fight in Vietnam, on the ground. I never got there, but I signed the papers. Killing women and children rather than enemy soldiers is patriotism for little old ladies, not real men. Don’t wave the flag in my face – I might burst out laughing. Bradley took a dangerous detour when he wrote his latest book, “The Imperial Cruise,” which, according to people who have read it, describes the voyage that led to the United States and Japan signing the Taft-Katsura Agreement. William Howard Taft, U.S. governor of the Philippines, later president of the United States, and still later a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, cut a deal with Taro Katsura, foreign minister of Japan. The United States got to take advantage of the Philippines without Japanese interference and the Japanese got to do the same in Korea without American interference. Taft-Katsura was seen by Bradley, at least according to his critics, as an overstatement of the duplicity that fostered wicked Japanese militarism and got innocent American boys killed at Pearl Harbor. I’ve talked to sur- ‘The Imperial Cruise’: An author’s dangerous detour Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: I am keenly aware how important the upcoming council elections are for determining the future of Ridgewood. I have resided and raised a family here since 1978 and have seen the village change in many ways over the years. Currently the village is facing major challenges on several fronts, and important decisions have to be made. I have studied the published platforms of the four council candidates and noticed that one stands out from the others: that of Bernadette Coghlan-Walsh. Here is someone who is willing to state frankly where she stands on each issue, what she believes are the facts and to take a stand based on those facts. Whether it be the Valley Hospital renewal issue, the Graydon Pool issue, or the decision whether to build a parking garage, Coghlan-Walsh cuts to the chase, gives us the facts, and tells us what she thinks. She does not play it safe and wait until after the election to reveal her true opinions on these important decisions facing our town. How refreshing and honest. As a mother of three children, she is aware of the needs of children and is concerned about maintaining quality schools in the face of the state’s budget cuts. Her candor, combined with an extensive career in specialized real estate appraisal and many years of dedicated volunteer work, make her qualified, in my opinion, to hold a council chair in Ridgewood. I am confident that a vote for Supports Coghlan & Walsh Couglan-Walsh is a vote for the betterment of Ridgewood. With confidence, knowing exactly what I will get, I cast will my vote for Walsh. Diane Palacios Ridgewood Dear Editor: It is with sincere gratitude that I recognize the tireless efforts of Fresh Air Fund volunteers in Northern New Jersey as the country celebrates National Volunteer Week. Their commitment to helping New York City children is exemplary for all community members and truly embodies the spirit of the 2010 National Volunteer Week theme, “Celebrating People in Action.” Fresh Air volunteers work in several capacities throughout the year in 13 northeastern states and Canada to help make the fund’s programs possible. Caring Fresh Air host families open their homes and share the everyday joys of summertime with their Fresh Air guests. Our local volunteer leaders -- many of whom are also hosts -- serve on our local committees, plan summer activities, publicize the program, and interview prospective host families. Additionally, individuals and businesses give generously of their time and resources to make the Friendly Town host family program throughout this area a great success each and every summer. The Fresh Air fund, and independent, not-for-profit (continued on page 23) Appreciates volunteers