Timeline of Terror
Book Description
The 9/11 Report for Every American
On December 5, 2005, the 9/11 Commission issued its final report card on the government’s fulfillment of the recommendations issued in July 2004: one A, twelve Bs, nine Cs, twelve Ds, three Fs, and four incompletes. Here is stunning evidence that Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, with more than sixty years of experience in the comic-book industry between them, were right: far, far too few Americans have read, grasped, and demanded action on the Commission’s investigation into the events of that tragic day and the lessons America must learn.
Using every skill and storytelling method Jacobson and Colón have learned over the decades, they have produced the most accessible version of the 9/11 Report. Jacobson’s text frequently follows word for word the original report, faithfully captures its investigative thoroughness, and covers its entire scope, even including the Commission’s final report card. Colón’s stunning artwork powerfully conveys the facts, insights, and urgency of the original. Published on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States, an event that has left no aspect of American foreign or domestic policy untouched, The 9/11 Report puts at every American’s fingertips the most defining event of the century.
Customer Reviews:
9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.......2007-09-19
Naturally, this graphic adaptation has been getting a lot of flack from different people related to the September 11th attacks, because they still feel that comics are for a child's enjoyment, to entertain and encourage a child's humor, and they don't know that in some ways they can do more than books in both informing through words and explaining through art. Sometimes a lot more can be said through a picture with words.
I have to say though, after sloughing through this graphic adaptation of the 9/11 Report, I will not be reading that long and important source any time soon. The graphic novel is heavy and complicated enough to get through. But if one wishes to get the complete story of not just exactly what happened on September 11th, 2001, but all the events leading up to it with the terrorists and the state of our foreign policy with the Middle East, then pick up this graphic novel and take it all in . . . it's all there.
Apart from the introduction from two of the commissioners of the 9/11 Report, the graphic adaptation begins with a four-way split streamline of the four planes, when they took off and under what circumstances, what happened on the planes with the hijackers, and what the eventual resulting attack was. What makes this quite fascinating is that by charting them all together one can see the initial plan of having all the hijackers carry out their plans at the same time, but due to different circumstances and delays this was not the case.
In the next chapter, the authors go into detail on how the FAA and different government bodies could have and should have done things differently according to all their previous regulations. It does prove that had everyone been doing what they should've, some of those planes may not have hit those targets, or at least something else and less devastating might have happened.
The rest of the book is spent in going into the history of the circumstances that led up to the hijackers boarding the planes. It's heavy reading, but the pictures make it a lot clearer and easier to understand. One gets a full picture on everyone and what they were doing, and how many different people and places were involved. It's actually quite surprising.
The book (as I'm sure the 9/11 Report does also) is clear in pointing out that while the Bush administration was certainly to blame in some cases, the previous Clinton administration was very much also, and even had everything been working smoothly, the attacks may still have not been prevented. One can say they would've never happened had Clinton carried out the assassination of Usama Bin Laden, as he'd planned in the late 90s; but one can also say had Bush focused on terrorism in the Middle East when he came into office, as all his advisors were telling him (specifically Richard Clarke), then again September 11th may never have happened.
While I'm sure the graphic adaptation covers nowhere near the same ground as the actual report, it nevertheless serves its own unique purpose in making everything more succinct and clearer and easier to understand as a whole. It's the perfect book to keep in one's library so that one day in the future one can pick it up again, read it, and understand exactly what happened and more importantly why on September 11th, 2001.
For more book reviews, and other writings, go to www.alexctelander.com
Lies, lies, lies..........2007-08-19
This book is simply to designed to misinform stupid people about 9/11.
9/11 was an "inside job" that murdered 2700 people.
This is a crime.
amazing read.......2007-06-06
great book. it made the report seem alot more interesting that it probably was. organized, with great drawings and some cool large fold out map type pages.
Explained a lot!.......2007-05-16
I didn't have time to read the 9-11 Commission's report, and its breadth overwhelmed me. This book explained all the main points in the report with easy language, graphics and impartiality. All lengthy, complicated reports should be done in comic-book style like this was-- then people will read them and understand what is really going on in the world. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know what led up to 9-11.
Great 9/11 account..........2007-04-11
This is a great review of the events of 9/11. Lots of background on both the preparation by the terrorists and the lack of preparation that made the US vulnerable. A very enjoyable read for all ages, well, maybe not the little ones!
Book Description
In September of 1939, the world was astounded by Germany's ability to defeat Poland in less than a month. With the world still puzzled by the suddenness of this event, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France fell in rapid succession to the German onslaught, leaving Britain in shock. Greece and Yugoslavia were rapidly over-run during April of 1941, while German-Italian forces advanced rapidly in North Africa. Russia's turn was next, when German forces began pulverizing their forces in June of 1941. How had Germany achieved victory after victory, often against numerically superior enemy forces? The answer came in two words-Panzer and Blitzkrieg. When and how had Germany built its Panzer forces and trained them for the Blitzkrieg? When was each Panzer unit formed? What was their organization? Why were Panzer units disbursed among the Panzer-Divisions. leichte Divisions, and Armee-Korps? When were the various types of Panzers developed? What were their armament, armor protection, capability? How many of each type were produced? What tactics did they use? How successful were they in combat? This is the only book that provides detailed answers to these and other questions related to how German tankers fought in World War II. Tom Jentz found the answers to these questions bu digging through original records for the past tweny-five years. The content os this book is derived solely from these original records consisting of war diaries, reports, and technical and tactical manuals written during the war. The story is told as recorded by those responsible for decisions in developing the Panzertruppen and by those who fought in the Panzers. As work on this book progressed it became apparent that the story of the Panzertruppen was divided into two distinctly separate phases; offensive and defensive. This first volume presents the offensive phase up to October 1942. A second volume is planned that will cover the defensive phase to the end of the war. Tom Jentz is also the author of Germany's Panther Tank: The Quest of Combat Supremacy(available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.). , over 200 b/w photos, 8 1/2" x 11"
Customer Reviews:
Superb reference source!.......2005-10-17
Thomas Jentz's book proves to be a fantastic source of information regarding the German Panzer forces during World War II. This volume covers the period from the early 1930s to 1942. It uses primary German sources that revealed the evolutionary stages of the German panzer formations, their weapons and numbers as the years rolled by. The book also reflects on German perception of how they did, how their tanks performed and needs for changes.
The book reflects the closeness to the source German material. The author expects the reader to have a fine tune knowledge of the German military prior to reading this book. If you have to look up to see the difference between a Panzer 38(t) to Panzer IVd, this book is probably not for you. The unit organization tables are done in the unfamiliar German symbolism instead of your usual NATO symbols so that can be confusing to the novice.
The book seem to be written for people who wants a greater understanding of the German panzer formations and thier gradual metamorphosis. The second volume covers the second half of the war when the German forces were mostly on the defensive mode.
Overall, highly informative reading material, not for the casual reader since this book don't exactly read like a best seller.
Untainted Excellent Info.......2005-06-10
Fantastic books! The detail and information is great. These are not "spec" books of German tanks. The wonderful inclusion of original correspondence between Beck, Fromm, Guderian, etc is fascinating reading. The extensive usage of original German terminology makes for difficult reading (unless you are fluent in German) but is very much appreciated to avoid errors of translation.
Best $50 I've spent.......2004-08-04
This is perhaps the most usefull book on the German panzer forces in World War II, and anyone interested in the subject needs a copy.
In the first portion of the book, Jentz provides a thorough history of the development and employment of panzer formations. This includes initial formation of the first units, the development of prototypes and early equipment, as well as German armored doctrine and tactics.
The remaining portion of the book covers the employment of the Panzer divisions in war from 1939-1942. In this section, Jentz provides a wealth of information. One very usefull feature is that the organization of panzer companies, battalions, and divisions are tracked (along with the translated text of orders changing the organizations) and presented in tables or figures. Given that the Germans frequently changed the organization of these units, this is very valuable information.
Jentz also presents tank strengths and tank types for each division at the start of major operations as part of orders of battle for the panzer divisions. For example, it is thus possible to quickly look up how many Panzer II tanks were available for the invasion of France, and the amount that each division had.
The end of the book has a number of appendices, which provide data on monthly on-hand strength of each tank as well as technical data on for German and a variety of Allied tanks.
I also strongly recommend Jentz's follow-up to this, which is Panzer Truppen volume II, and covers 1943-1945.
Great Book!.......1999-07-07
I agree with the other reviewers. These two books are excellent! If you have any interest in German panzer, tactics and deployment i strongly recommend you to buy them. The 'combat reports' from the officers writing about there experinence during there fight with the enemy, trying to explain the good and bad how to use there tanks is great and gives you a deeper feeling of the problems they had. A must buy!
Essential to any WWII historian.......1999-05-08
Both this volume and volume 2, are excellent sources of primary documentation. Both use war diary, and after-action reports to describe tactics and weapons evolution. As I said in a review of vol.2, by allowing the crews and their platoon-battalion commanders to speak the book has an immediacy that can't be duplicated in other works of the same subject. The author assumes the reader has at least general familiarity with German operations, and knowledge of German WWII military terms and ranks. Probably not for a general interest reader.
Amazon.com
From 1963 to 1966 the U.S. government assembled a team of prominent thinkers from all walks of life to determine what would happen if "peace broke out." The group, surprisingly but with unassailable logic, determined that war was necessary and desirable and that the government should do all it could to maintain the status quo. If peace became inevitable, the report suggested everything from creating an outer-space menace to setting up some new, socially acceptable form of slavery. The report was leaked in 1967 by a conference member harboring a guilty conscience, and it scandalized Washington.
Not.
The ultimate compliment for any form of political satire is to be taken seriously by the people it is skewering. On that scale Report from Iron Mountain, which has been a lightning rod for both Right and Left since its appearance, could hardly be more successful. The hoax, written in perfect think-tankese, captures the mix of Olympian detachment and awesome cynicism that has flowed out of Washington for much of the American Century. Lewin's book (and he really did write it) exposes the mindset that we can thank for Vietnam and so much else.
Report from Iron Mountain was bolstered, if not trumped, by reality--the Pentagon Papers and the Pax Americana, a Defense Department plan to take over Latin America, emerged soon after. But the book's enduring popularity, particularly among those who never got the joke (apparently Lewin had to sue to get right-wing groups convinced of the book's authenticity to stop printing and selling copies) suggests that the governmental worldview that Report from Iron Mountain lampoons--as well as the paranoia that that immorality unleashes in the citizenry--is very much with us. --Michael Gerber
Book Description
Unveils a hitherto top-secret report of a government commission that was requested to explore the consequences of lasting peace on American society. The shoching results of the study, as revealed in this report, led the government to conceal the existence of the commission - they had found that, among other things, peace may never be possible; that even if it were, it would probably be undesirable, that "defending the national interest" is not the real purpose of war; that war is necessary; that war deaths should be planned and budgeted. REPORT FROM IRON MOUNTAIN tells the story of how the project was formed, how it operated, what happend to it. It includes the complet, verbatim text of the commission's hitherto classified report.
Customer Reviews:
An Alleged Antimilitarist Hoax (Or is it?)........2007-05-17
_Report From Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace_ first appeared in 1967 published by The Dial Press and claimed to be a government report compiled by leading scholars who met at Iron Mountain in New York on the possibility and desirability of peace following the Cold War. This edition is published by the Free Press in 1996 and makes the claim that the report itself was a hoax (a spoof on think tank jargon) and was written by Leonard C. Lewin. However, whether or not the report is actually a hoax is difficult to determine, as disinformation is a speciality of the government agencies which release such reports. It should be noted though that even if the report itself is a hoax, that it nevertheless represents the kind of thinking that is typical of the elites. Unfortunately, in the Introduction to this book, written by Victor Navasky, we are treated to the usual establishment apologetics with much fustian about "paranoid ultraright conspiracy theorists", "militiamen", and "right wing libertarian weirdos". Such commentary is all-too-typical and should be simply ignored by anyone who has a working brain and dares to think outside the box. The report itself composes the majority of this book, followed by an afterword by the "author" and some appendices on the "Iron Mountain Affair". It is alleged that when L.B.J. discovered that this report had been "leaked" that he "hit the roof". And, this represents the typical reaction of government officials to those who dare to challenge their reigning hegemony.
The report claims for itself to have been received by Leonard C. Lewin from one "John Doe", who leaked the report to him after it was compiled by 15 leading scholars who met in secret. (Later, Lewin would claim that the entire thing was a hoax and that he wrote the report himself. Whether or not this is accurate is of course difficult to determine.) The report claims that it represents a sort of "peace games" study similar to the "war games" played by the Rand Corporation. The report claims to be a study examining the central issue of the transformation of American society from one in which there is a constant readiness to make war to one in which peace would be sustainable. However, the findings of this report are such that a lasting peace is neither desirable nor sustainable that is most disturbing. Following the Cold War (under constant threat of turning "hot"), the United States entered a period in which disarmament became an option. The author(s) first consider various scenarios under which disarmament may occur, including effects of disarmament on the economy (potentially highly negative). The author(s) next consider war and peace as social systems. Following this, they turn to a discussion of the functions of war. The first function of war is economic, in the sense that the author(s) claim that rather than being a "drain" or producing "waste", war actually vitalizes the economy and provides protection against depressions. The second function of war is political, in the sense that the author(s) claim that the elimination of war would lead to the elimination of the nation-state and that war provides a safeguard against class conflict. The third function of war is sociological, in the sense that the author(s) claim that war gives rise to social cohesion and serves as a means of controlling social dissidence and destructive antisocial tendencies. The fourth function of war is ecological, in the sense that the author(s) claim that war serves as an evolutionary device for maintaining an ecological balance between human population and the supplies available for its survival. The fifth function of war is cultural and scientific, in the sense that the
author(s) claim that creative arts and scientific and technological progress are made possible by war. Finally, the author(s) include a section entitled "Other", where they consider war as a general social release, war as a generational stabilizer, war as an ideological clarifier, and war as the basis for inter-national understanding. The author(s) then consider substitutes for the functions of war. These include economic (social-welfare expenditures, the problem of unemployment, health, education, housing, etc.), political (mentioning the possibility of uniting experiences, "alternate enemies" such as space aliens, and the flying saucer phenomenon), sociological (Peace Corps and Job Corps, but also more bizarre phenomena such as human sacrifice among primitive cultures, blood games, and inquisitions), ecological (birth control and eugenics), and cultural and scientific (creative arts, science, and space-related research). The author(s) conclude that each of these substitutes is fraught with difficulties and thus it will be necessary to continue maintenance of government control over war and peace.
This report is infamous for what it has to say about the possibilities of peace. It would seem that the author(s) (noted high government officials and scholars of repute) believe that a lasting peace is neither possible nor desirable. For those who doubt this on the other hand, it would appear that such officials cynically manipulate the public so as to consolidate their own power within the military-industrial complex. If war is indeed a sort of "make-work" project similar to the Great Pyramids of ancient Eygpt, then it remains to be seen whether or not a lasting peace cannot be achieved. This book is highly recommended for those who seriously consider the possibilities of war and peace. Despite the fact that it is alleged to be a hoax, it nevertheless has much to say to us about the thinking and direction in which the global elites intend to take us.
Deviant but brilliant !!.......2006-04-02
Hoax or reality, this report sheds a clear light on the process of elitist thinking and planning. It did not only predict but planned our future. The present situation in the world is the greatest proof of the authenticity of this report.
It's a book worth reading. If you find it buy it...
it was LEAKED: LATER the later spin was that it was a "hoax".......2004-11-10
It's very real.
The foreword is only by Leonard Lewin. He is not the author. It was first published by the Dial Press, NY.
It is not a novel, but rather a report written by the members of a 15-man "Special Study Group" commissioned, they believe, by some governmental entity which wished to remain unknown. The report is addressed to that unknown requestor, the work of the group having been completed after about two and a half years of labor. The members of the group knew that they had been carefully screened and selected for the task, that they represented the highest levels of scholarship, experience, and expertise in a wide range of the physical and social sciences, that they possessed years of service in business, government, and academe, and that among them they had access to a vast proportion of the country's resources in the social and physical science fields. The Special Study Group was clearly possessed of outstanding establishmentarian credentials.
The book comes to us because one of the members of the group, identified only as John Doe, approached Mr. Lewin several months after the completed report had been submitted, and sought his help in getting the report commercially published, since he ("Doe") felt that the public had a right to be apprised of its existence, even though the group had previously agreed to keep it secret. Mr. Lewin, having agreed to serve in that capacity, wrote a foreword spelling out these circumstances and passing on what little he learned from "Doe" concerning the study's origin and its participants.
He further revealed his personal reaction to the conclusions of the report, conclusions which he said he does not share.
In Griffin's The Creature From Jekyll Island, he makes reference to The Report From Iron Mountain. I encourage you to read and absorb his interpretation, which has an emphasis somewhat different than this review. Griffin supplies evidence of the authenticity of the Report by quoting the written assertion to that effect by Harvard's establishmentarian professor John Kenneth Galbraith, who admitted to participating in the study in at least a consultative capacity.
I would also like to borrow from Griffin's conclusions concerning the study's importance. He asks why this study differs from any other think tank effort, and then writes (p. 525): "The answer is that this one was commissioned and executed, not by ivory tower dreamers and theoreticians, but by people who are in charge. It is the brainchild of the CFR....So many things that otherwise are incomprehensible suddenly become perfectly clear: foreign aid, wasteful spending, the destruction of American industry, a job corps, gun control, a national police force, the apparent demise of Soviet power, a UN army, disarmament, world bank, a world money, the surrender of national independence through treaties,..."
Be Prepared if Peace Breaks Out.......2003-11-10
The Foreword tells of a "Special Study Group" that produced a Secret Report. It concluded that "peace is not in the best interest of a stable society". The space program, the anti-ballistic missile, the fallout-shelter programs were all designed to spend vast sums of tax dollars. The purpose of this book is to explain "aspects of American policy otherwise incomprehensible by the ordinary standards of common sense", and warn about the schemes of the ruling class. But not all readers will appreciate this subtle satire. Does the "high uric acid" symbolize something wrong (p.xxii)?
Section 1 says their mission was to study the effects of peace on society. Section 2 tells of problems in converting war factories to peaceful use (p.22). Section 3 discusses the problems of disarmament: economic reinvestment, or "the non-military functions of war in modern societies" (p.25). Section 4 points out that plans for peace assume wars support the social systems. War resolves conflicts of interest between nations or classes (p.28). Since conflicts of interest are eternal, so is war. Peace is what breaks out between wars (p.29). Section 5 discusses the function of war: it is used by and for a ruling class to defend "the national interest". Its non-military function is to subject the economy to complete and arbitrary central control (p.35). It stabilizes the economy of industrial societies by creating an artificial demand, and protects against another depression. The civilian standard of living rose during WW II. A military force is needed both for a foreign policy, and to assure the legitimacy and existence of a government (p.39); it can absorb the unemployed. One item in this satire is to link restrictions on grain production in America to "famine in Asia"! Another is to claim a lower speed limit would save 40,000 lives a year (p.46)! But the funniest item is the claim that the Department of Defense is stockpiling birds (p.51)! "War is the principal motivational force for the development of science at every level." From poison gas to atomic bombs.
Section 6 says substitutes for the functions of war must be "wasteful", and operate free of the supply-demand system. All depressions occurred during low military spending (p.58). Alternatives to military spending are inadequate because they cost too little (p.60). The uncontrolled and arbitrary spending on space research make it a good alternative. The end of war would mean the end of national sovereignty. There would be no effective external pressure for a nation to organize itself politically. How to employ the unemployed? The WPA and CCC provide examples. An expanded prison system ("slavery"?) holds the unemployed. Do we need a "menacing social enemy" to serve a function? Would we need to re-create the Spanish Inquisition or witch hunts for "national security" (p.71)? Should procreation be limited to artificial insemination and laboratory embryos to control population levels (p.73)? Would birth control pills be put into water and essential foods? An excess population is war material (p.74). Would scientific progress cease in a peaceful world (p.78)? Section 7 has a Summary and Conclusions. War is not a means to an end but the purpose of modern societies. War has five non-military functions: economic, political, sociological, ecological, and cultural-scientific. They discuss the criteria, models, and evaluation of substitutes for the functions of war. "Genuine total peace ... would be destabilizing" (pp.90-91) Our government should plan for the possibility of a general peace because of its dangers to society (p.94). Section 8 has their recommendations. The best satire is the last sentence in the book (p.101). But the book seems to use a lot of words to say very little. It wasn't written by a George Orwell or Aldous Huxley.
first read this in college, had to read again........2002-09-10
still a very good satire on "what if" from the past. reads very quickly.
Book Description
During World War II, an estimated 200,000 girls and young women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese imperial military, which was authorized by the highest levels of Japan's wartime government. This system resulted in the largest, most methodical and most deadly mass rape of women in recorded history.
Japan's Kem pei tai political police and their collaborators tricked or abducted females as young as eleven years old and imprisoned them in military rape camps known as "comfort stations," situated throughout Asia. These "comfort women" were forced to service as many as fifty Japanese soldiers a day. They were often beaten, starved, and made to endure abortions or injections with sterilizing drugs. Only a few of the women survived, and those that did suffered permanent physical and emotional damage.
Little was known about the true scope of this crime against humanity until 1991, when after almost fifty years of silence, seventy-four-year-old Kim Hak-soon bravely told the world of her experiences as a comfort woman. Her testimony gave others the strength to tell their stories. The Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues (WCCW) carefully transcribed and translated the stories of nineteen survivors, which are now presented in this book.
These courageous women have shared their experiences to document a crime that must never be repeated. They seek a formal apology and reparation from Japan's government for the horrors it imposed on them. Thus far, that government has responded with gestures that many survivors regard as a new and more subtle form of the same degradation they have faced throughout their lives.
This is not simply a history book. COMFORT WOMEN SPEAK documents the lives of nineteen courageous women who continue to fight to bring to account one of the most powerful governments in the world.
Customer Reviews:
Japan's other "forgotten" Holocaust.......2007-08-03
Having lived in Japan for twenty-three years, I have seen too much
whitewashing and denial by the Japanese government whenever there's any
attempt by outside scholars or journalists to report on wartime atrocities
carried out by the Japanese Imperial Army against its former colonial or
imperial subjects. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prevented Japan's national
television station NHK from broadcasting even a one-hour documentary about
the heinous comfort stations and Japan's brutal wartime system of sex
slavery and serial rape. The sex slaves were twice victimized. First by
Japanese soldiers in the field who looked upon these enslaved women and children as nothing more than "masturbation machines", the diseased or broken "machines" were taken out and disposed of with a gunshot to the head. After Japan's half-hearted surrender in l945, the thousands of
'liberated' sex slaves were victimized again by the total whitewashing or denial of these atrocities by postwar Japan. Shinzo Abe and his ilk are no better than those Europeans who deny the Holocaust when they deceitfully suggest that the women forced into Japan's wartime hell of sex slavery were just "common prostitutes", which I have heard in Japan a number of times. Abe is certainly just a very common politician, bought
and paid for. Part of the problem has also been America's Eurocentric
focus for far too long. The crimes against these former sex slaves were
all but ignored during the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in the late l940's.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Thankfully the U.S. House of Representatives saw fit to offer the last surviving sex slaves some measure of justice by passing the sex slave Congressional Resolution this
past week (Aug. 1st, 2007). The Resolution soundly condemns Japan's
wartime involvement in mass serial rape and sex slavery on a scale that
has never before been seen in the annals of mankind's inhumanity. The
Resolution states in no uncertain terms that Japan must make a very formal apology to the last surviving sex slaves for the suffering and
inhumane brutality inflicted upon them during the long war years (Japan
began invading Asia in l931!). And most importantly, the Resolution wants
Japan to include accurate accounts of the sex slave atrocities in the
nation's Ministry of Education high school history textbooks. High school students in Japan learn little or nothing about WWII, except
Hiroshima. This is by design. The government wants all Japanese to think
of themselves as victims of "white man's colonialism" and that Japan
fought WWII to "liberate" all of Asia from the yoke of western imperialism. Korea, China, the Philippines, Malayasia, Indonesia, and
even Vietnam are fed up with Japan's revisionist lies and self-serving
distortions. I am a former English teacher at Japan's elite Waseda University. Students at that school admitted to me that they never learn
about "greater East Asian War" because there is no time during the academic year to include such information on the university entrance exams! Japanese professors at both Tokyo University and Asia University
completely deny the Rape of Nanking as just communist Chinese propaganda.
Many Japanese prefer the revisionist version of WWII and feel that this
is the best way to deal with the past. The rest of Asia is fed up.
And many Americans too with such denials. The same Japanese leaders
who deny the atrocities at Nanking or the suffering of the sex slaves
enjoy paying homage to 14 Class A war criminals, including Tojo Hideki, at Tokyo's now infamous Yasukuni Shrine. Please read the
book "Comfort Women Speak". Just as survivors of the Holocaust have given
testimony to the world so that the world will know and never forget, so
we owe it to the victims of Japanese wartime racism and aggression to
never forget their "season in hell" either. Read also "Silence Broken:
the Korean Comfort Women". The euphemism "comfort woman" was introduced
by the Japanese to avoid dealing in an intellectually honest way with the
horrors of sex slavery, prison camps, and serial rape. Based on this sort of deceitful historiography, Auschwitz concentration camp was just a "holiday work camp".
The Japanese love to dissemble and lie about past atrocities. But the world is beginning to wake up to the truth. I wrote a letter to Sen.
Edward Kennedy in l987 to protest Japan's whitewashing of the sex slave
atrocities. Finally after twenty years the U.S. government responded.
Read "Comfort Women Speak" and find out why Mike Honda urged his fellow
Congressional representatives to pass the resolution. In time even the
Japanese might see the wisdom of such a resolution. Review by Naomi's husband, Robert McKinney.
remembering the past is the only way to redemption.......2004-02-09
This is a painful book to read. Everytime I heard the victims' voice I trembled. But the review from Hiromo is THE MOST shockingly inhumane voice/action since the end of the war - which according to her didn't kill millions, nor did it raped tens of thousands, angered a whole Asia and its people for the past half century. The more denial of the unthinkable crime, the longer it takes to forgive. I am the third generation of Japanese war victim and I am shooting a film about comfort woman, or the denial of it, right this moment. I don't want my grandchild to fight for the same justice 50 years later, and you may not want your grandchild to defend it as you did on all major Amazon Japanese war crime books, which by the way, thanks to you, now I know what books to get for my film research.
Shame for those of you who found all the denial reviews "useful", while considered all the praise ones "Not helpful". The other day at my library in San Francisco one of you people stole all my comfort women topic books but left the rest untouched. COMFORT WOMEN SPEAK is one of them. So for serious reader, definitely read this book and see what the "patriotic Japanese" are defending for/or scared of.
Another book to help you understand the issue in depth is YUKI TANAKA's Japan's Comfort Women. It tackles the US occupation and their own use of the "comfort station" system. Again, just like to deny that Atomic Bombing in Hiroshima ever happened, Japanese women never raped by Allies soldiers or the ordinary Japanese don't deserve peace, dignity and fairness would be unthinkable, to deny the value of voices from the last victims of the War is to deprieve the right to redemption of young Japanese generations to come.
This
A shameful episode.......2004-01-15
Stark and moving. The sheer numbers of women dragged into sex slavery, the extreme youth of many, and the brutality of their experience... That a handful of courageous women were allowed to tell their story is the first step to justice for the comfort women. It demands our attention.
I'm curious, what in Japanese society prompted them to establish such an "institution"? Even today, Japanese sex culture is problematic, to say the least, with its manga and Lolita fetish.
The sad thing is the American government has opposed the suit against Japan brought by some comfort women in the California courts, based on what it claims is the settlement of all claims in the 1951 treaty. I'll bet no Koreans and Filipinos were represented there.
The reviewer below should be ashamed at his atrocity denial. Elsewhere on Amazon he denies the Nanking incident. Civilized people would not tolerate such unreconstructed behavior from a German, and the same standard should apply to Japanese.
Contrary to Hiromi's assertions, the Japanese government apologized not to save Korean face, but its own. Imagine the national shame if this controversy kept appearing in the headlines, and Japan had to pay reparations. Ishihara is hardly a bleeding-heart liberal, if he was party to such concessions the truth must have been damning.
"They had picnic, sports-day, fun evening and diner [sic] party with Japanese soldiers"? This lame attempt at justification makes me ill. He doesn't refute the kidnapping, the 11-year-old sex slaves, nor the frequency of debasement these women faced.
"...there are unbelievable amount of propaganda spreaded by so-called anti-Japanese Japanese out there." So if a person questions the actions of his government, past or present, we should not believe him? I can see Hiromi would have made a good life during the fascist era. False patriotism - the last refuge of a scoundrel.
I am sorry, but these claims are all invalidated........2003-11-17
It is true that the Secretary-General of the Cabinet of Japan, Yohei Kono, admitted that there were evidences that show the Japanese Army kidnapped women to force them into "sex-slaves" and apologized to the ex-comfort women. Nevertheless, it is also true that, in fact, Kono had no evidences that substantiate the accusation and the ex-comfort women were never cross-examined. Later, the vice-Secretary-General, Nobuo Ishihara, admitted to a journalist that there was a "deal" between the South Korean government and the Japanese government to make the apology for saving South Korea's face so afterwards South Korean would never demand compensations as the government.
Many Japanese scholars and researchers on this issue examined the ex-comfort women's testimonies and concluded that none of them were reliable and substantiated.
Let us look into other testimonies made by comfort women and recorded by the U.S. force. Those women's photo is shown in this book at the page opposite of "contents".
They confided in those American soldiers that they lived comparatively "luxurious" lives thanks to the good money the Japanese soldiers paid for the "comfort" they provided. They had enough money to go to shopping in larger cities and the Japanese always gave them presents. They had picnic, sports-day, fun evening and diner party with Japanese soldiers. The Japanese Army tightly controlled traders who run the comfort stations so that the women would never be physically or financially abused.
This document is found in the book called "Documents of the Comfort Women" edited by Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a leading proponent of the accusation of kidnapping and forcing those women to the sex-slave state by the Japanese Army. On the contrary to the accusation, The women were paid three times more of average Japanese soldiers and some of them went home after working for a few years and built a big house. Most Japanese soldiers were always thankful to them. Some even married to the comfort women. However different those facts are from what you had believed, it is true and, actually, well documented.
Still, you may think the report of Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy to the United Nations in this book (p112) authentic, but it is based on those invalid testimonies and a sole testimony of an ex-Japanese soldier, Seiji Yoshida who claimed that he was working in woman hunt operations which was later debunked and he publicly admitted it was a lie. Another book Ms. Coomaraswamy relied on is G.Hicks's "Comfort Women" which had already debunked by many scholars and researchers. Furthermore, Ms. Coomaraswamy's academic consultant is above-mentioned Yoshiaki Yoshimi, who also debunked and admitted in a TV debate programme that he had no evidences at all. So, now you know even a Special Rapporteur for the United Nations is not free of prejudice.
I urge everyone who are interested in this issue to know that there are unbelievable amount of propaganda spreaded by so-called anti-Japanese Japanese out there. And works of scholars are no exception.
Book Description
A must for the World War II fighter buff, this book is a fascinating look into the minds of U.S. and British engineers, company and NACA test pilots, and Army and Navy/Marine Corps combat pilots, and presents their late 1944 views of then-current and possible future fighter aircraft. This report is an official verbatim transcript of the proceedings of a Joint Fighter Conference held at the U.S. Navy's Patuxent River test center for eight days in October 1944, and includes frank discussion on the operational and technical capabilities of the P-39, P-47, P-51, P-38, Corsair, Hellcat, P-61, YP-59, Mosquito, Spitfire, and other Allied aircraft, as well as the Japanese Zero. Participants include: Charles Lindbergh, Lloyd Child, Allen Chilton, Lt. Peter Twiss, Maj. Thomas Lanphier, Jack Woolams, Boone Guyton and scores of others. This conference is believed to be the last of several conducted in wartime in an effort to promote cross-talk between manufacturers, military servicearms, and Allies, in order to obtain the best possible fighter aircraft., over 100 b/w photographs, charts, 6" x 9"
Customer Reviews:
A difficult but rewarding read........2000-05-25
This book is a transcript of the Joint Fighter Conference along with related materials--photos of the aircraft involved and their data and "comment" cards. It is a difficult read. Basic reference material on aeronuatical and engineering terms may be necessary for the average reader and helpful for the informed reader. An overall impression is that this book is still timely. One point that comes to mind is that the qualities of a good day light dog fighter, are unchanged and may be timeless (good visibiility, maneuverability, and acceleration [think F-16]). Also there was criticism of aerodynamic add-on shortcuts to solve a problem-- something that is happening currenntly with the Super Hornet. Topics of discussion are varied ranging from maneuverability to cockpit visibility to armour and armament with stops at stroboscopic effects of propellers, to external fuel tanks. What would come to be called ergonomics was discussed in regard to making the cockpit more comfortable and usable for the pilot. A fair number of those in attendance and a large number of those flying the conference aircraft were manufacturer test pilots and reps. I got the impression there may have been some company one-upsmanship going on. Incidentally the "comment cards" are based on "one hop" impressions, so if your favorite aircraft is disrespected a little, don't worry too much. I was surprised by a number of things such as the mention of some fairly obscure aircraft (eg. the G.M. P-75, Curtis XF-14) and the absence of any discussion of enemy aircraft then being encountered. I was shocked by a comment near the end of the conference that the air war is being won by "quantity rather than by quality" (the P-38 and P-51 are specifically mentioned) and at least one contractor agrees. I have never read of heard anything before suggesting quality was lacking in late War U.S. aircraft as a whole. If you're a WWII fighter buff and don't mind having to put some research and effort into your reading you will be rewarded by this book.
Essential for "hard-core" WWII Aviation junkies.......1998-09-28
Despite a title to fill the mouth ( _Report of Joint Fighter Conference, NAS Patuxent River, MD 16-23 October 1944_) this book is a gem to those who have a serious interest in understanding the deeper layers of air combat during WWII. Briefly, the Joint Conference was a gathering of 400 Allied combat pilots, engineers and test pilots. They had a "fly off" of every major US aircraft at the time. The British delegation brought a Seafire II and a Mosquito. The evaluators even had a late model Zero to use for comparison. Edited by noted aviation author Francis Dean, the book is in two parts. The 250 page report itself is a transcript of the discussion among experts that took place each afternoon after the morning's fly-off. Each session centered on one topic or another, although the tangents were numerous. I should warn that the conversation is far over the head of the material presented in garden variety books about aircraft. But I found it fascinating being a "fly on the wall" as the men who made and flew the great fighters of WWII dissect them piece by piece. The last 100 pages is made up of technical evaluations of the respective aircraft. This is not a work for the casual reader. However, if you know the rudiments of aviation and have the WWII "Warbird" bug, there's really nothing like this. (The Conference Report provided Mr. Dean with some of the material used in his splendid _America's One Hundred Thousand: US Production Fighters of World War Two_ [Schiffer, 1997])
Amazon.com
While living in Argentina in 1960, Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped and smuggled to Israel where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity. The New Yorker magazine sent Hannah Arendt to cover the trial. While covering the technical aspects of the trial, Arendt also explored the wider themes inherent in the trial, such as the nature of justice, the behavior of the Jewish leadership during the Nazi Régime, and, most controversially, the nature of Evil itself.
Far from being evil incarnate, as the prosecution painted Eichmann, Arendt maintains that he was an average man, a petty bureaucrat interested only in furthering his career, and the evil he did came from the seductive power of the totalitarian state and an unthinking adherence to the Nazi cause. Indeed, Eichmann's only defense during the trial was "I was just following orders."
Arendt's analysis of the seductive nature of evil is a disturbing one. We would like to think that anyone who would perpetrate such horror on the world is different from us, and that such atrocities are rarities in our world. But the history of groups such as the Jews, Kurds, Bosnians, and Native Americans, to name but a few, seems to suggest that such evil is all too commonplace. In revealing Eichmann as the pedestrian little man that he was, Arendt shows us that the veneer of civilization is a thin one indeed.
Customer Reviews:
Report of Banality of Evil and Poor Human performance.......2007-05-19
Burned question like roll of Romania in holocaust, the little understanding about treacherous behave of Jewish leaders starting from supposing clever Jewish intellectuals of Germany, Hungary and Poland mentally paralyzed by sneaky performance of Germany machine of extermination (I ask forgiveness to use "sneak" to try to explain the human's perfidy); the little silly Zionist mind of the strange Mr. Kastner and other Zionist fellows. Far more astonishing is how poor and failing was the human performance of these involuntary protagonists of the holocaust.
Let be clear: briefly a tragedy expressed very well in this book.
And if we want to look straight in the eyes of following generations we have to accept our fallings and weaknesses and by exposition of this tragic holocaust trying to prevent future mistakes.
This Eichmann was nothing; what was in his mind is secondary and of no importance to his acts. The clerk of the dead Eichmann, was a primitive guy with unfortunate instincts to manipulate his victims. How was this guy, what was in his mind, how he perform is of no importance and this is the smallest revelation in Hanna Arendt book.
AN OVER-RATED ACCOUNT.......2007-04-09
As a lifelong admirer of Hannah Arendt, especially her thrillingly suggestive "The Human Condition," I was surprised, when I finally picked up her "Eichmann in Jerusalem," to find it a poor account of the subject: disorganized, digressive, meandering. Arendt seems to start the story in the middle and assume too much background from her readers, a fault that grows only more irritating with the distance of time. Every straightforward discussion soon degenerates into a thicket of scholarly throat-clearing and asides. This is the sort of story best handled by a clear-eyed journalist who starts the story at the beginning, introduces every strand properly, nails every discussion with plenty of concreta, and never abandons the reader. Properly told, this story should get more interesting as it proceeds; with Arendt, it only gets more boring and tiring.
Best Non-Fiction Book of the 20th Century?.......2006-12-25
Originally appearing as a series of articles in The New Yorker, Arendt's account of Eichmann's trial is one of the landmark works of journalism from one of the century's finest historians and philosophers. She writes like the native German-speaker she is (long sentences, many clauses), but her dense style suits the complexity of her subject. Sharply critical of the Israeli government's approach to the trial, Arendt guides the reader through each step of the case while we watch her understanding of Eichmann's actions and motives grow. Her brief history of deportations from Europe is as deeply moving as her philosophical justification for the ultimate verdict is incisive. Surprisingly funny at times, always keenly observed, and a thrilling narrative, Eichmann in Jerusalem is one of my favorite books and one of the finest books about the Holocaust and what it reveals about human behavior.
Eichmann in??.......2006-12-12
The most serious flaw in this work is the lack of detail provided about Eichmann himself. For a book where Eichmann is the central character, it is surprising how little time Arendt devotes to the man himself. Of course, the larger picture of the Nazi killing of the Jews must be provided, but it seems Arednt errs too closely on the macro side, leaving aside the micro. Her propensity to study mass, totalitarian movements left her little prepared to write a biography, or report on a trial of one man.
That said, there are some wonderful passages of analysis here, well worth tackling. You can sense Arednt's simmering resentment at every turn, and her spite and rage are a strange pleasure to read. In a world where moral categories are too often drawn in strict black and white, Arednt in Eichmann in Jerusalem was not afraid to write a book almost entirely in gray.
Should be required high school reading.......2006-11-09
The most important factor in my decision to give this book five stars is courageousness with which Arendt was willing to expound controversial ideas, especially since her subject matter was intimately related to such a sensitive topic, the Holocaust. A few of those ideas come to mind:
1. The principal concept formulated in this book is that atrocities such as the Holocaust are not the result of evil masterminds. Even though Arendt leaves room for evil masterminds as secondary factors, to her the most important factor contributing to such crimes against humanity is the "banality" (best understood as "commonplaceness", not "boring", as another reviewer suggests) of evil. We are all evil, in the end. The biggest moral lesson from the book is derived from this concept; that moral lesson is that we are all frighteningly too capable of the kind of evil the Nazis were guilty of. If we spend all day captivated by the evil of Hitler we will have no time left to reflect on our own immorality.
2. Another concept that Arendt develops is that the Jews were surprisingly passive in response to their situation. Now, obviously there are room for exceptions, and perhaps fairly large exceptions, but nevertheless this turned out to be a very controversial idea. I do, however, feel that Arendt successfully defends this position to the point that perhaps a second subtitle to this book might have been: "the banality of cowardice". This problem, too, must be seen in the proper light, for it show us that when faced with an evil attacker too many of us are willing to shy away from the fight.
Aside from the philosophical point, this book is about a remarkable trial. Adolf Eichmann was a former Nazi official, kidnapped out of Argentina by Israeli Mossad agents, and tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Israeli government. I especially admire Arendt's position on this point because she isn't afraid to criticize the Israeli government for its conduct during the trial (Arendt is Jewish, in case you didn't know). Specifically, Arendt shows that the government attempted to make the world feel guilty about the Holocaust by paint Eichmann as the mastermind of that evil scheme.
This book is well written and helps the reader understand the complexities surrounding the Holocaust and the trial of Eichmann, issues that most people tend to see a simply black and white. I think this book should be required reading in high school because it is a model of good writing and effective academic inquiry.
Customer Reviews:
Re-assessment of an influential reference book.......2007-06-26
This book has become the great oracle upon which most subsequent works and educational curricula on the subject have been based. In this short review, I will deal with only the Summary (pp. 1-23) as the remainder of the Report (which includes the Recommendations) is simply an amplification of the major theories, assumptions and speculations advanced in the summarized portion.
The original Report was published in December 1982; a reprint was published in 1997 with a prologue by The Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, and a forward by Tetsuden Kashima, who praises the Report as infallible. It is regrettable, however, that this new edition does not include any documentary evidence, of which there is an abundance, showing the other side of the story. It is no wonder, however -- unbiased revelation of facts would have been too hard a pill to swallow.
The title of the Report is presumptuous, in that it implies the justice of all the Nikkei was denied. There is no mention, however, of the injustices committed by any of those arrested, or who engaged in subversive activities while at the centers, or the renunciants, or even the injustices committed by the Issei, the Nisei and the Kibei against each other. The Report one-sidedly places all the blame upon the U.S. Government and the general American public. The Nikkei, including enemy alien Japanese, are portrayed consistently as the innocent victims, "against whom no charges were, or could have been, brought" (page 10), a statement as wild as it is nonsensical. Thousands of Nikkei were never affected by the evacuation -- what personal justice of theirs was denied?
If there is anything "denied" in this Report, it is a full and unprejudiced view of the facts made available to the American public.
Here, then, are my comments on a few excerpts from the Summary:
Page 1: "the Commission held 20 days of hearings... hearing testimony from more than 750 witnesses"
This would mean there were 40 witnesses per day, at approximately 15 minutes per testimony. It is hard to see how this was accomplished, especially with time for questioning. The actual number of witnesses giving testimony, as listed in the Report's Notes, is only around 340. Most of the Report's conclusions are apparently, therefore, taken from these few testimonies, as well as already existing books, testimonials, diaries, letters, memos, and transcribed telephone conversations dealing with the subject. Objectivity is an apparent victim in this Report.
Page 2: "Japanese immigrants who,... despite long residence in the United States, were not permitted to become American citizens"
This is a commonly-heard assumption that all Issei in the U.S. would have become U.S. citizens had they been allowed. Yet history shows otherwise, where not all resident aliens wanted U.S. citizenship. Many Issei were planning on returning to Japan once they were able to make enough money, and tens of thousands did return prior to WWII. This intention of eventual return to Japan is not taken into consideration in the Report. Instead, the U.S. Govt. is blamed for its callous and unmerciful immigration laws. It is presumptuous of the Commission to imply all Japanese aliens wanted to become Americans.
Also ignored are the 20,000 or so Nikkei who were living outside of the military zones, hence never under obligation to evacuate. Their testimonies are lacking from this Report. Similarly lacking are the testimonies of tens of thousands who did not "lose everything they had," but returned to their farms and businesses after leaving the relocation centers.
Page 2-3: "This policy of exclusion, removal and detention was executed against 120,000 people without individual review... without regard for their demonstrated loyalty"
This statement in itself is reason enough to doubt the integrity of this Report. The number 120,000 is taken from official War Relocation Authority statistics, and is the total of all who were ever in a relocation center, including those who were born there. Why the Commission uses this number is without explanation -- some 10,000 souls who were never there at the start were somehow excluded, removed and detained. The historians and advisers to the Commission must have been out to lunch when this figure was decided upon. There was obviously an ulterior motive.
How can one execute "exclusion, removal and detention" against the unborn? Furthermore, how can babies and toddlers demonstrate loyalty? How could any of the 50,000 or so children at the centers been able to demonstrate their loyalty to the U.S.?
Finally, I shall use the following paragraph as a summary of the Summary:
"The promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions which followed from it -- detention, ending detention and ending exclusion -- were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership. Widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan. A grave injustice was done to American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II."
This is the main theme of the entire Report -- there was no necessity. There was no "documented act of espionage, sabotage or fifth column activity" by any Nikkei. This, however, flies in the face of the facts -- an abundance of intelligence documentation proving there were both Issei and Nisei involved in espionage on the West Coast. The Commission was ignorant, willfully ignorant, of this overwhelming evidence. They are the ones, sadly, who do not permit the conclusion, for a truthful conclusion would abruptly end their premeditated demands of apology and redress.
There indeed was "analysis of military conditions." To say otherwise shows a lack of honest research and a great disrespect toward our military leaders, leaders who knew far more than those on the Commission. The ineptitude lies at the feet of those advisers and researchers who purposely left out hard evidence that would have shown the Commission the sandy foundation upon which they were building.
The mantra, "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership," in reality comes back to sting the Commission.
There was no racism -- thousands of Japanese Americans in the U.S. did not complain of racism before or during WWII, including those who evacuated or were relocated to other parts of the U.S. They lived without prejudice. The Commission seems to have trouble understanding the difference between race and nationality. No wonder, of course, since the Commission thought "resident alien Japanese" were somehow different from the Japanese against whom the U.S. was fighting at the time. For a real study of racism, the Commission should have checked into Imperial Japan of the past, and the Japan of 1982.
"War hysteria" is a most-odd term chosen by the Commission. That the American people were hysterical about the war and took it out on the Nikkei is taking social behavior too far, and blaming all Americans for the behavior of a few. The truth was that there were thousands of Americans helping their fellow Americans evacuate, and then also to relocate and resettle. Was it "war hysteria" that caused teachers and pastors and neighbors to go out of their way to help the Nikkei, including those who had become their enemies after Pearl Harbor?
The hysteria surely must have been on the part of the Commission, and the activist audience at the hearings. This, by the way, is not at all far from the truth -- only a short reading of the record of hearings will be convincing.
Finally, the "failure of political leadership" means, to the Commission and its crowd of supporters, that, first of all, our President failed, then next our Vice-President, then the President's Cabinet, then all the members of Congress, then the State Governors, and then, most of all, our military leaders. In other words, the United States was in a state of utter chaos, existing under an oppressive lack of leadership. In its place was the rule of hysterical prejudice aimed at the people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.
Ah, but such was not the case at all, most fortunately, and for which all Nikkei now should ever be grateful. When the empire of Japan suddenly and deliberately attacked the United States of America, an amazing piece of American political and social machinery was put into motion. Quick was our resolve, and intense our deliberations, to use all measures possible for the safety of our beloved country, for every citizen of the United States, knowing full well the implications of what the Japanese forces had just accomplished in relative short time throughout the whole Pacific region.
No, there was no failure, especially on part of our political leaders, especially concerning the treatment of 71,531 Americans of Japanese descent and 38,709 enemy alien Japanese. On the contrary, our leaders, whom we elected, even our President for the 4th time, and those whom he chose to assist him in leading our country, by that very God-given right of authority, planned and executed, most successfully, one of the greatest mass movements of people in the history of the United States, beginning from an evacuation and culminating in a resettlement, a program unequaled in its care and preservation of a sole ethnic group, comprised of both citizens and aliens.
The only failure I am able to ascertain is of this Report's main objective -- to prove that the constitutional rights of American citizens were violated. Nikkei stereotyping, pro-redress activism, and the lack of political discernment were the reasons the Recommendations were approved. Serious researchers look forward to the day a new Commission will correct the injustices of this Report.
Garbage History created by activists for politicians.......2004-05-06
Ron Takagi's weak excuses attempting to explain away the disloyalty of Japanese-Americans segregated at Tule Lake is absurd!
Disloyals were caught up in the fanatical propoganda of Japanese militarism, a cult equally as insidious as Nazism. Hakko-ichiu, the Kokutai, Japanese racial superiority and military successes from Tsushima Strait to Manchukuo caught the attention of ethnic Japanese in colonies throughout the world, regardless of where they were born. The doctrine was being taught in Japanese "language-schools" throughout the world, and by Nichi-ren priests at Buddhist Temples throughout the world...
Takagi's comments are a weak attempt at explaining away the history 60 years later.....
Here's but one example of the many pro-Japan military groups that existed long before Pearl Harbor and who's followers were segregated at Tule Lake...
The Black Dragons were the Amur River Society (Kokuryu-kai) in 1930s and 1940s Japan. The Black Dragons were ultranationalists heavily involved in the conquest of China, and as spies and fifth columnists subverting nations targeted for conquest. The Black Dragons were active up and down the Pacific Coast of North and South America. In the United States, Black Dragons were a concern to Lieutenant Commander K.D. Ringle of U.S. Navy Intelligence and other security officials. On December 7, 1942; Black Dragons led Banzai! cheers at the U.S. Manzanar Relocation Center; the anniversary of the Japanese attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Black Dragons led and fomented riots and carried out acts of violence at Manzanar, Tule Lake Segregation Center, and other sites where Japanese enemy aliens and Americans of Japanese ancestry were located. The Black Dragons and other ultranationalist organizations provided the nucleus for the formation of the postwar Yakuza organized crime syndicates. See (Dubro and Kaplan, pages 36, 67, 85 and 192). Also see Tony Matthews in Shadows Dancing, pages 43, 46 and 222-223. A number of Black Dragon members were in the Japanese government and many were charged as war criminals in 1945.
Well Done Summary and Analysis of WWII Internment.......2004-02-07
This book is a masterful summary of events surrounding the wartime relocation and detention activities, and a strong indictment of the policies that led to them. The report and its recommendations were instrumental in effecting a presidential apology and monetary restitution to surviving Japanese Americans and members of the Aleut community.
As for the accusations and charges that all Japanese Americans were probably disloyal and untrustworthy, it should be known that INTERNED Japanese Americans did volunteer to serve in the Japanese-American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442d Regimental Combat Team during World War II. If you read the book Go For Broke (written by Chester Tanaka), it tells about the bravery of one of the MOST decorated combat unit in the U.S. Army. At least 680 of them were killed in action fighting the Germans in Italy and Western Europe. At least 1200 came from mainland U.S. concentration camps and rest came from Hawaii, where Executive Order 9066 to intern the West Coast Japanese-American community did not apply.
And in Strangers From A Different Shore by Ronald Takaki (pages 397-404), it states at least 33,000 Japanese-Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
They also served in the Pacific front as translators, reconnaissance, etc. and General Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence in the Pacific, estimated that Japanese-American intelligence work help shorten the Pacific war by 2 years
So if Japanese Americans were considered to be DISLOYAL, then why would the President of the U.S. allow them to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces?
Well in Mr. Takaki's book on page 397 it states that President Roosevelt wanted to neutralize Japanese propaganda about WW II being a race war. So in February 1943, President Roosevelt authorized to allow Japanese-American men, including those INTERNED in detention camps such as Tule Lake center, to register for the draft by signing loyalty questionnaires in which they simply answer "yes" to serving in combat duty and swearing to unqualified allegiance to the U.S.
I would like to also reply to comments made by other customers about this book.
* One customer made this comment: "After loyalty screening, eighteen thousand Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans were segregated at a special center for disloyals at Tule Lake California where regular military "Banzai" drills in support of Emperor Hirohito were held. "
The customer is correct that Japanese-Americans detained at the Tule Lake detention center held mass demonstrations, but they were NOT expressing support for the Japanese emperor.
If you read the book A Fence Away from Freedom by Ellen Levine (pages 134-137, 231-240), the author writes that the Japanese-Americans were protesting on October 15, 1943, the death of an inmate who was killed in a truck accident.
In February 1943, President Roosevelt authorized to allow Japanese-American men to register for the draft by signing loyalty documents.
Several young Japanese-American men protested about the unfairness of being interned inside detention centers AND being asked to register for the draft by NOT showing up for Army physical exams.
These Tule Lake internees were actually INDICTED for trying to resist the draft registration!
But on July 29, 1944, Federal Judge Louis E. Goodman dismissed indictments against 26 Tule Lake draft resisters and declared: "It is shocking to the conscience that an American citizen be confined on the ground of disloyalty, and then, while so under duress and restraint, be compelled to serve in the armed forces, or be prosecuted for not yielding to such compulsion."
* Another comment that was made: "In a questionnaire, over 26% of Japanese-Americans of military age at the time said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States."
As mentioned above President Roosevelt DID authorized in 1943 to allow Japanese-American men to register for the draft by signing loyalty questionnaires.
But as Mr. Ronald Takaki states in his book Strangers From A Different Shore on page 397, these Japanese-American men wanted to PROTEST their INTERNMENT in the detention camps and therefore answered "no" to unqualified allegiance to the U.S.
They were placed in detention camps BECAUSE the U.S. government thought they might be DISLOYAL enough to commit sabotage or espionage, and ALL of them were classified by the Selective Service as IV-C - enemy aliens - because they were considered untrustworthy and therefore were NOT allowed to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces!
All of these books should be read by all those who want a more detailed overview and background of the controversial relocation and detention of Japanese Americans during WWII, which is now more relevant and important as ever because of the September 11 terrorist attack and the resulting racial profiling and detention of Arab Americans.
This isn't a report. It's a legal brief!.......2004-01-09
This is what happens when the history of the United States is decided via politically motivated congressional commissions. Personally, I believe the role of the legislature is to legislate, not re-educate.
This "study" as some call it was prepared by a commission that included NOT ONE recognized World War Two historian or intelligence specialist. It was prepared by a group of activist, liberal products of the 1960s counter movement who were hand-picked by the Japanese American Citizens League and the National Council on Japanese American Redress. The conclusons of this study are terribly flawed, having been decided before the "research" had even begun.
Upon publication, the commission embarassingly admitted they had never heard of MAGIC intelligence, although it was readily available to them as declassified NSA documents. (MAGIC was the name for the broken Japanese diplomatic code indicating widespread espionage amongst ethnic Japanese along the West Coast. In fact this type of "total intelligence" had been the norm as early as the Nishin War and Russo-Japanese War.)
None of the witnesses were required to testify under oath. Japanese-American politicians planted many of the most heinous myths on the floor of congress and not under oath. Witnesses called to support government's decision were met with catcalls and howling from the opposition. In short it was a circus.
For the truth, read "MAGIC" by retired National Security Executive David Lowman. Two-Thirds of the book contains declassified NSA documents related to the era. Read and decide for yourself.
In the meantime, did you know:
It is well-documented that the evacuation was not motivated by racism, as so often claimed today, but by information obtained by the U.S. from pre-war decoded Japanese diplomatic messages and other intelligence revealing the existence of espionage and the potential for sabotage involving then-unidentified resident Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans living within the West Coast Japanese community. Many of these messages and associated intelligence documents have since been declassified and are available in a number of historical publications.
Only persons of Japanese ancestry (alien and citizen) residing in the West Coast military zones were affected by the evacuation order. Those living elsewhere were not affected at all.
It is not true that Japanese-Americans were "interned. Only Japanese nationals (enemy aliens) arrested and given individual hearings were interned. Such persons were held for deportation in Department of Justice camps. Those evacuated were not interned. They were first given an opportunity to voluntarily move to areas outside the military zones. Those unable or unwilling to do so were sent to Relocation Centers operated by the War Relocation Authority.
At the time, the JACL (Japanese American Citizens League) officially supported the government's evacuation order and urged all enemy alien Japanese and Japanese Americans to cooperate and assist the government in their own self interest.
It is also misleading and in error to state that those affected by the evacuation orders were all "Japanese-Americans." Approximately two-thirds of the ADULTS among those evacuated were Japanese nationals--enemy aliens subject to detention under long-standing law. The vast majority of evacuated Japanese-Americans (U.S. citizens) were children at the time. Their average age was only 15 years. In addition, between 50 and 75 percent of Japanese-Americans over age 17 were also citizens of Japan (dual citizens) under Japanese law. Thousands had been educated in Japan, some having returned to the U.S. holding reserve rank in the Japanese armed forces.
During the war, more than 33,000 evacuees voluntarily left the relocation centers to accept outside employment in areas outside of the military zones. An additional 4,300 left to attend colleges in the East.
In a recent study made by the National Park Service for the Manzanar memorial site, it was revealed that during the war over 26% of Japanese Americans over military age said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States.
According to War Relocation Authority records, 13,000 applications renouncing their U.S. citizenship and requesting expatriation to Japan were filed by or on behalf of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Over 5,000 such applications had been processed by the end of the war.
After loyalty screening, eighteen thousand Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans were segregated at a special center for disloyals at Tule Lake California where regular military "Banzai" drills in support of Emperor Hirohito were held.
The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Constitutionality of the evacuation/relocation in Korematsu v. U.S., 1944 term. In summing up for the 6-3 majority, Justice Black wrote:
"There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some, the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot -- by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight -- now say that at the time these actions were unjustified." That decision has never been reversed and stands to this day.
It should be noted that the relocation centers had many amenities. Accredited schools, their own newspapers, stores, churches, hospitals, all sorts of sports and recreational facilities. The centers also had the highest per capita wartime birth rates for any wartime U.S. community with over 6,000 babies being born therein during the war.
After the war, personal property losses of those evacuated were compensated under the Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 in which over 26,000 claims were settled in amounts up to $100,000. Only 15 claims were ever appealed.
Ever since Pres. Reagan signed into law (against the advice of his own Justice Department) the results of this terribly flawed "study", million of taxpayer dollars have been provided annually to support it. That's why this subject is in your newspapers, on T.V., museums, libraries, bookstores and especially schools...all at taxpayer expense and it isn't correct history!
Well, your kids are learning it anyway.
Politicians have no place writing this country's history.
Fataly flawed yet accepted almost everywhere.......2003-11-25
Yes, Personal Justice Denied purports to be thorough
Yes, Personal Justice Denied claims to be an unbiased reading of all of the relevant material on the subject of Relocation and Internment during WWII
Yes, Personal Justice Denied was produced by a body of respected lawmakers and appointees.
No, Personal Justice Denied report what it claims too.
Being neither Japanese nor alive at the time of the WWII internment, I assume that my discussion of this book will be roundly ignored. That's fine - I am rarely ever accused of being the most PC guy on the block. I do, however, know my military intelligence.
As a specific indictment of this work (and as mentioned in other reviews), read David Lowman's MAGIC,The Untold Story of US Intelligence and the Evacuation of
Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WWII.
Really.
The commission that produced PJD was created in a political atmosphere by politicians with an agenda. That agenda was to rewrite the history of Japanese nationals living in the US during WWII. A political commission may well be biased towards, and ignore data that damages, the political climate of the day. PJD is exactly that - a political document which totally ignores military fact.
Military fact is this; you can't tell everyone every chunk of data you use to come to a decision. Doing that endangers your ability to continue to GAIN information using secret channels. If you tell people where you got your data, it's no longer a secret you see. This is the case with MAGIC and the Japanese internment camps. The error on the part of the government in preventing the full story of why people were relocated (and in some cases repatriated) is in waiting too long to declassify relevant documents.
The important point about declassifying documents, especially in this case, is you as the government do not KNOW the agenda of every special interest group out there. Had the folks in charge of declassifying documents realized that Japanese lobbyists were about to bring up a long dead and assumed settled issue I bet they would have hustled those documents out of their storage boxes. It is quite difficult to keep track of every lobby and which issues are going to become popular at any given time. I mention that the issue was considered settled due to the fact that, after WWII US citizens in internment camps were returned to their homes(where possible) and offered redress for the financial burden they suffered. This they accepted and life went on. PJD is the result of lobbyists succeeding in convincing politicians that that redress was for the specifically FINANCIAL burden suffered - not for MENTAL anguish. That where PJD came from you see; legal word craft.
All of that said, the commission then proceeded to ignore relevant intelligence data. That data being intercepted communications between persons living in the US and Japan specifically creating a Japanese intelligence network BEFORE Pearl Harbor with the express purpose, stated in CLEAR TEXT(post decryption) of providing war time intelligence and committing acts of sabotage within the US.
But why should I rewrite Lowman's book! Buy this book but do NOT make up your mind about this issue without reading David Lowman's; MAGIC,The Untold Story of US Intelligence and the Evacuation of
Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WWII.
If you make up your mind about US internment of Japanese peoples during WWII without reading the WHOLE story, you will be wrong.
Book Description
Though every politician claims to be tough on crime, our policies have been maddeningly ineffective. Confronting this explosive issue, the National Criminal Justice Commission provides the most compelling study of crime in American in more than two decades.
Customer Reviews:
Must read for those in the justice system.......2001-02-02
The United States of American has over the last ten years developed a strategy of increasing the average prison sentences for a range of crimes. The mechanics of this process are complex. The reason being that each state and the Federal Government have distinct criminal law systems. To summarise a large number of states have been passing laws which remove judicial discretion from sentencing substituting a range of fixed sentences for various forms of crime. These can either be three strikes and your in legislation, mandatory sentences for specific crimes or sentencing grid legislation. The Federal Government has also been waging the "war on drugs". The overall effect of this legislation is for the prison population to increase enormously and especially for afro Americans to be incarcerated in large numbers. The imprisonment rate in the States is similar to that of countries such as Russia and South Africa, places which have experienced social break down to an extent that it dwarfs America.
This book is a strong argument for changing the structure of criminal justice in America. It is largely a statistical analysis and as such it presents material in a dispassionate way. It is not a rhetorical book of left leaning propaganda but a book that looks at hard facts. The rate of imprisonment is now so high that the authors suggest that if imprisonment rates were to be reduced to European levels the unemployment rate could increase by 1% or 2%. The cost of imprisonment in most states is so high that it is outdistancing higher education. The pressure of constructing prisons and maintaining them is that it is limiting the ability of some states to cover normal expenses. California has had to reduce some welfare and highway construction.
The authors present a strong case for how these policies impact unfairly on different racial groups. One of the more chilling sets of figures are the rates of imprisonment for Afro Americans. The authors show that of the age group 20 to 30 1/3 of Afro Americans are either in jail, on parole or on probation.
Most commentators have suggested that the current system instead of punishing more violent offenders tends instead to give long prison terms to low level offenders who have reasonable prospects of reform. A change to non custodial options plus lessening some offences for minor crime could lessen the cost to the community with more or less no real change in the incidence of offending.
The book is thought provoking well argued and easy to read. A must read for all in the field.
A compelling indictment of a failed system.......2000-05-16
This is a very important book. It should be required reading for all Congressmen and Senators, both federal and State. The situation it depicts will wreak havoc on the fabric of American society, unless corrected. The book not only points at the most pressing problems in our system of criminal justice, but also offers intelligent and powerful recipes for action. Should be also required reading for all colleges of criminal justice. Balanced, objective, yet full of passion for justice and for the America we all love, want and deserve. A must for true patriots.
Excellent book on crime in America for insiders and everyone.......1999-09-14
This well-written and easy-read of a book is a must for anyone who is even remotely interested in thestate of crime and criminal justice in America. The book lays out the past, present and future of crime policy in easy to understand prose. the book takes on all of the hard issues and addresses them clearly and objectively. This book not only defines the issues, it also lays out great ideas for solving some of the big problems in crime. Enjoy.
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- The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script
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Public Policy
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| Nonfiction
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State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Authorized Edition)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Vintage)
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The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
The cave paintings in Altamira, Spain, tell stories. Mostly they tell tales of the hunt. Drawn during the Paleolithic Stone Age, they still amaze us with their lucidity and directness. As an artist, and as an editor and writer in the graphic medium, we each pay homage to those delineators and interpreters of experience. They offered accounts of what happened and provided a way of remembering, honoring, and learning. When retold by the fire's flickering light, these stories must have lent the drawings a compelling, virtual movement. There is something eerie, but deeply gratifying, in knowing that a direct line runs from our contemporary comic art to these earliest efforts to record and convey what happened. Storyteller, audience, drawings depicting continuity of event: it all sounds familiar. In a culture that has become the most visually oriented in the history of humankind, comics retain the original concept of storytelling and remain a potent force of information.
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