OMNI “PEARL HARBOR DAY,” COLONIAL PACIFIC WORLD WAR II NEWSLETTER #5, March 23, 2013. Compiled by Dick Bennett. Another in OMNI’s NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS series for a Culture of Nonviolent, Positive Peace.
Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/
Contents of #1 2008
Dick: US History of Wars of Aggression Includes WWII in the Pacific
Contents of #2 2010
Dick: Review of David Swanson’s War Is a Lie
Contents #3 2011
Dick: US Empire and WWII in Pacific
Wikianswers
Wiest and Mattson
Chomsky: Backgrounds
Revolutionary Work
Contents #4 2012
Dick: No Choice But War
Maslin Reviews Bradley
TomDispatch/Klare: It Wasn’t Al-Qaeda, It’s China
Cyber Pearl Harbor ?
Climate Pearl Harbor ?
Contents #5 March 23, 2013
Conroy, et al., West Across the Pacific, Revisionist Account
Giving and Asking Forgiveness: Japan
by Dick Bennett, December 22, 2012
Following WWII, with the assistance of Frank Buchman’s Moral Re-armament Movement, Japanese leaders began to apologize to the nations and peoples it had harmed by its invasions, exploitations, and killings. In 1950 Japanese emissaries visited European countries and the US Japan
In 1955 the Japanese government sent a representative to the Philippines Japan
In 1950 the Japanese delegation to the US included the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Hiroshima
Unfortunately, these apologies for their nation’s atrociousness failed to inspire the United States with similar considerateness for other countries or to impede US US United States knowingly and intentionally imposed economic strangulation upon Japan ” (preceding the bombing of Pearl Harbor ), “aware that the Japanese economy was being wrecked to a degree that would have been intolerable if this nation had been on the receiving end. The US United States
As the Saturday Evening Post suggested, the US Japan in the Pacific and East Asian rim; its embargo drove Japan to the violence of Pearl Harbor . It too should apologize for the “war without mercy,” as John Dower epitomizes WWII in the Pacific, in which so many died needlessly. Pearl Harbor offers “an abiding lesson. . .that has been little noticed,” Worth writes. “Never inflict upon another major military power a policy which would cause you yourself to go to war. . . .And don’t be surprised that if they do decide to retaliate, that they seek out a time and a place that inflicts the maximum harm and humiliation upon your cause” (219).
But the war was not the only foul-up, to repeat the euphemism. The atomic bombs led quickly to the development of hydrogen bombs. The US forcibly removed citizens of the Marshall Islands
References:
See earlier newsletters on “Pearl Harbor Day”/Colonial Pacific World War II.
--Dower, John. War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon, 1986.
--Michael Henderson. The Forgiveness Factor: Stories of Hope in a World of Conflict. Grosvenor, 1996. Chapter 4, “Japan
--Roland Worth, Jr. No Choice But War: The United States Embargo Against Japan
West Across the Pacific: American Involvement in East Asia from 1898 to the Vietnam War
March 28, 2008 This book addresses the problem of a country telling a grand narrative to itself that does not hold up under closer examination, a narrative that leads to possibly avoidable war. In particular, the book explains and questions the narrative the United States was telling itself about East Asia and the Pacific in the late 1930s, with (in retrospect) the Pacific War only a few years away. Through empirical methods, it details how the standard narrative failed to understand what was really happening based on documents that later became available. The documents researched are from the Diet Library in Japan , the Foreign Office in London , the National Archives in Washington , the University of Hawai’i library in Honolulu United States , unlike European imperialist powers, involved itself in East Asia in order to bring openness (the Open Door) and democracy; and that it was increasingly confronted by an opposing force, Japan United States culpable of a “neo-imperialism,” just as the European powers and Japan Iraq Vietnam veterans, by drawing lessons from the Japanese war in China for the American war in Vietnam Vietnam
See Robert Shaffer’s rev. in Peace and Change (Jan. 2013).
Compiled by Dick Bennett
Synonyms of Infamy: shame, ignominy, wickedness, iniquity, heinousness, outrageousness, odiousness, many more.
x = Foreign: aggressive wars, invasions, interventions, WMD, anything against non-citizens, other nations. Entries in bold = invasions or other actions by US that killed people illegally and unnecessarily.
The December 7, 1941, Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor was proclaimed “a day of infamy” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The following list of US attacks on others (mainly from the “Hidden History of the United States 2012 Calendar” by The Progressive) includes some events not equal in scope or intensity to the Pearl Harbor bombings and some events much more horrendous. The list is offered in process of discovery of which entries should be omitted, revised, and added. I intend eventually to include all illegal US interventions and invasions reported by William Blum in Killing Hope and Rogue Nation and by other authors. Send me your suggestions on the list as it is, and especially send significant Days of Infamy absent from this list, accompanied by source(s).
MUSLIM/CHRISTIAN ROOTS
711: Moors (Berbers, Arabs) conquer Iberian Peninsula
732: Battle of Poitiers
1096: The Crusades begin, a series of Western Christian military invasions to recover the Holy Land from Muslim control. Like the Muslim Jihadi today, they were promised earthly, spiritual, and eternal rewards.
1492: Granada , last Moorish enclave in Spain
1609, April 9: King Philip III of Spain , the most powerful nation in Europe , decreed expulsion of all Spaniards of Muslim descent.
COLONIAL AND 19THCENTURY
August 20, 1619: First black slaves land at Jamestown
xJune 5, 1637: 600 Pequot Indians killed by colonists at Mystic, CT
April 6, 1712: 20 blacks burned or hanged after NYC slave revolt
May 30, 1741: 31 Blacks and four whites executed for plotting slave revolt
August 29, 1758 First Indian reservation established
Oct. 26, 1749: Black slavery legalized in Georgia
xMay 31, 1779: Washington
Nov 1, 1836: Seminole war protesting removal from Florida
Nov. 11, 1931: Nat Turner hanged
xMay 23, 1838: Cherokee begin Trail of Tears, 1,200 mile forced march to Oklahoma
xMarch 11, 1853: U.S. troops intervene in Nicaragua
March 6, 1857: Supreme Court upholds slavery in Dred Scott decision
April 12, 1861: Civil War begins
March 3, 1863: First national conscription act passed
July 13, 1863: Draft riots begin in NYC, leaving 1,000 dead
April 12, 1864: Confederate soldiers massacre more than 350 prisoners of war
November 29, 1864: 133 Cheyenne and Arapahoe—mostly women and children—killed by Colorado
July 28, 1868: 14th Amendment ratified, guaranteeing due process to all but Native Americans
June 6, 1872: Susan B. Anthony fined for voting
xFebruary 28, 1877: U.S. Government seizes Black Hills from Lakota Sioux in violation of treaty
June 21, 1877: Ten “Molly Maguires’ hanged in Penn.
xSeptember 5, 1877: Crazy Horse assassinated while in custody
xOct. 4, 1877: Chief Joseph surrenders with last Nez Perce people
November 3, 1883: Supreme Court rules that Native Americans are ‘aliens’
xMarch 20, 1886: U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua
xSeptember 4, 1886: Geronimo, Apache chief, surrenders to Arizona Territory
July 21, 1887: 20 striking railroad workers killed by state troops in Pittsburgh
November 11, 1887: Four Chicago labor organizers hanged for alleged Haymarket conspiracy
December 15, 1890: Sitting Bull killed by police at Standing Rock Reservation, South Dakota
Dec. 29, 1890: 150 Sioux massacred by troops at Wounded Knee , S.D.
July 6, 1892: Strikers at Homestead , PA
xJanuary 17, 1893: Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii deposed by the U.S.
xJuly 6, 1894: US troops intervene in Nicaragua
xMay 2, 1896: U.S. troops intervene in Nicaragua
Sept. 21, 1896: Militia sent to Leadville , Colorado
September 10, 1897: 19 striking miners killed, 40 wounded , by sheriff’s deputies at Latimer , Pennsylvania
xApril 25, 1898: U.S. declares war on Spain
July 25, 1898: US troops invade Puerto Rico against Spain
August 13, 1898: Admiral Dewey captures Manilla
20TH CENTURY
xFebruary 18, 1908: U.S.
xMarines invade Nicaragua
July 22, 1910: 20 blacks lynched by mob in Palestine , TX
xAugust 14, 1912: U.S Marines invade Nicaragua
April 20, 1914: Ludlow Massacre: 13 children and 7 adults killed when Colorado National Guard burn striking miners camp
July 28, 1915: US troops land in Haiti
November 19, 1915: IWW organizer Joe Hill executed
xNovember 29, 1916: U.S. established military government in Dominican Republic
July 9, 1917: Emma Goldman sentenced to two years for aiding draft resisters
September 5, 1917: IWW halls in 48 cities raided by Federal agents
Sept. 14, 1918: Eugene V. Debs sentenced to prison for opposing U.S.
Sept. 28, 1917: 166 Wobblies indicted for interfering in the war effort
January 2, 1920: 6,000 alleged communists arrested nationwide in “Palmer Raids”
April 21, 1921: Police fire on striking miners in Butte , Montana
May 2, 1924: Supreme Court upholds involuntary sterilization of mentally retarded persons
November 1, 1951: 5,000 U.S. Soldiers exposed to radiation by nuclear weapons test in Nevada
August 24, 1954: Congress passes Communist Control Act
July 24, 1925: John Scopes convicted in TN of teaching evolution
xMay 7, 1926: U.S. troops intervene in Nicaragua
xJanuary 6, 1927: US Marines invade Nicaragua
xMarch 5, 1927: U.S. Marines land in China
April 9, 1927: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti sentenced to death in U.S.
August 23, 1927: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti executed in Massachutsetts
April 6, 1931: Scottsboro Boys trial begins in Alabama
March 7, 1932: Four killed when police fire on hunger march in Detroit
July 27, 1932: Two killed when US Army attacks encampment of WWII vets demanding bonus benefits
June 29, 1940: Alien registration (Smith) Act enacted
xAugust 13, 1942: Manhattan Project begins developing A-bomb
Sept. 27, 1944: First large-scale plutonium-producing reactor begins operation at Hanford , Washington
xFebruary 3, 1945: U.S. aircraft drops 3,000 tons of explosives on Berlin
July 16, 1945: First atomic bomb exploded at Alamogordo , NM
xAugust 6, 1945: Hiroshima
xAugust 9, 1945: Nagasaki
July 1, 1946: Atomic bomb test at Bikini atoll in Pacific
June 23, 1947: Senate overrides pres. Truman’s veto of anti-union Taft-Hartley Act
July 11, 1947: 8 black prisoners killed in GA for refusing to work
July 26, 1947: Dept. of “Defense” established formalizing US National Security State
Sept. 18, 1947: The CIA and the national Security Council are established under the national Security Act.
November 24, 1947: House of Representatives cites Hollywood Ten for contempt of Congress
July 20, 1948: US indicts 12 Communist Party leaders
Oct. 14, 1949: 11 Communist Party members found guilty of conspiring overthrow of US
June 9, 1950: Two of Hollywood Ten imprisoned
June 15, 1950: US
xJuly 29, 1950: DuPont wins contract to produce H-bomb at Savannah River , SC
xOct. 7, 1950: US invades North Korea
July 9, 1951: Dashiell Hammett sentenced to six months’ for refusing to cooperate with anti-communist inquiry
April 8, 1952: President Truman orders seizure of steel mills
xOct. 31, 1952: US explodes first hydrogen bomb in Marshall Islands
xJanuary 3, 1953: President Truman announces development of H-bomb
xJune 20, 1953: US military mission arrives in Saigon
xAugust 19, 1953: Iranian Premier Mohammed Mossadegh ousted with CIA connivance
xMarch 1, 1954: Bikini Island H-bomb test irradiates 7,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean and contaminates Japanese fishermen
xApril 19, 15–megaton bomb dropped in South Pacific
June 19, 1953: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg executed
August 24, 1954: Congress passes Communist Control Act
xOct. 13, 1954: Air Force orders production of first supersonic bomber
August 6, 1957: 11 peace activists arrested at Nevada
February 14, 1958: Part of A-bomb accidentally dropped in ocean near Savannah , Georgia
July 8, 1958: US and S. Africa sign nuclear cooperation treaty
xJuly 9, 1958: Pres. Eisenhower sends 14,000 troops armed with nuclear rockets, into Lebanon
Sept. 14, 1959: Landrum-Griffin act passed limiting trade union activities
xJanuary 3, 1961: United States breaks diplomatic ties with Cuba
June 5, 1961: USSC orders US Communist party to register with Justice Dept.
Oct. 12, 1961: FBI launches Socialist Worker Disruption Program
xJuly 10, 1962: US rejects Soviet proposal of complete and general disarmament
August 18, 1962: Five arrested while attempting to disrupt launching of Polaris submarine, Groton , Connecticut
October 3, 1962: US closes ports to ships with cargo to Cuba
Oct. 22, 1962: Pres. Kennedy orders blockade of Cuba
Sept. 20, 1963: 63 arrested for flocking bulldozers in Syracuse , New York
xJanuary 9, 1964: US troops kill 21 protesters in Panama
xMay 15, 1964: US illegally begins bombing Laos
xAugust 7, 1964: Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
December 7, 1964: Mario Savio, leader of Berkeley Free Speech movement, arrested
xApril 28, 1965: U.S. Marines land in Dominican Republic
August 31, 1965: Congress declares it is a crime to destroy draft cards
December 13, 1966: First U.S. Bombing of Hanoi
July 23, 1967: Week of racial rioting begins in Detroit
August 25, 1967: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorizes COINTELPRO activities against Black Nationalist groups
Oct. 21, 1967: 700 arrested in VN War protest at Pentagon
April 4, 1968, MLK Jr. assassinated
August 28, 1968: Hundreds arrested in Chicago
December 9, 1968: Underground blast in Nevada
Sept. 26. 1969: Chicago
December 4, Chicago
xApril 29, 1970: President Nixon announces invasion of Cambodia
May 4, 1970: Ohio National Guard kills four unarmed students at Kent State University
April 11, 1970: Six blacks protesting prison brutality killed by Augusta , Georgia
May 14, 1970: Mississippi state police kill two black students at Jackson State University
December 18, 1970: Underground nuclear test in Nevada blows cloud of radioactive dust 8,000 feet in air into Wyoming
May 3, 1971: 12,000 arrested in protest against Vietnam War in Washington D.C.
Sept. 13, 1971: Prison uprising at Attica , New York
December 30, 1971: Daniel Ellsberg indicted by a Federal grand jury for releasing Pentagon Papers to news media
June 17, 1972: Watergate break-in
December 14, 1972: President Nixon authorizes Christmas bombing of Hanoi
xSept. 11, 1973: Military coup overthrows elected Chilean President Salvador Allende
Oct. 20, 1973: Pres. fires Cox and Ruckelshaus
September 8, 1974: President Ford pardons former President Nixon
July 2, 1976: USSC declares death penalty “not unconstitutionally severe”
August 22, 1976: 179 arrested at anti-nuclear rally in Seabrook , New Hampshire
xOct. 18, 1978: Pres. Carter orders production of neutron bomb components
xMarch 19, 1979: President Eisenhower states willingness to launch first-strike nuclear attack
April 28, 1979: 5,000 protest, 284 arrested at Rocky Flats nuclear –weapons facility, Colorado
November 27, 1980: Justice Department moves to drop charges against former FBI Director L. Patrick Gray III for authorizing agents to break into homes without search warrants
December 2, 1980: Four U.S. Catholic missionary women killed by death squads in El Salvador
xMay 21, 1981: Senate approves $20 billion program for chemical and nerve-gas weapons
August 3, 1981: 11,500 air-traffic controllers strike and are fired by President Reagan
Sept. 15, 1981: 1,000 arrested in week-long protest at Diablo Canyon
December 1981: President Regan authorizes CIA to conduct domestic surveillance
June 20, 1982: 2,500 arrested in two days during blockade of Lawrence Livermore labs
August 12, 1982: 12 arrested in sea blockade of first Trident submarine, near Hood Canal , Washington
August 17, 1982: Enten Eller becomes first draft resister since the Vietnam War to be convicted, Roanoke , Virginia
Sept. 29, 1982: U.S. Marines land in Lebanon
Oct. 1, 1982: First Trident submarine, U.S.S. Ohio
May 24, 1983: Congress approves $625 Million for research and development of MX missile
Oct. 25, 1983: 5,000 US Marines and Army Rangers invade Grenada
November 14, 1983: First U.S. cruise missile arrives at Greenham Common , England
xApril 14, 1986: U.S. bombs Libya
July 3, 1988: US Navy shoots down Iranian airliner, killing 290 civilians
December 20, 1989: U.S. Invades Panama
xJanuary 12, 1991: Congress votes to allow US troops to be used in offensive operations in Iraq
xJanuary 16, 1991: Persian Gulf War begins with US bombing of Baghdad
April 29, 1992: Cops acquitted of beating Rodney King, leading to L.A.
December 24. 1992: President Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger and five other Reagan aides involved in the Iran-contra affair
April 19, 1993: FBI agents attack the Branch Dravidian compound in Waco , Texas
July 17, 1998: in Rome , US voted against the International Criminal Court, one of 7, including China , Libya , Qatar , Yemen , and Israel
xMarch 24, 1999: U.S & NATO begin 78 days of bombing Yugoslavia
21st CENTURY
December 12, 2000: U.S. Supreme Court halts Florida
April 7, 2001: Cincinnati
xOctober 7, 2001: invasion of Afghanistan
Oct. 26, 2001: Bush signs US Patriot Act
xMarch 19, 2003: Invasion of Iraq
xApril 9,2003: Baghdad
xJanuary 4, 2004: America
Dec. 16, 2005: Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act—HR 4437—made illegal aliens and those who harbor or assist them felons (= Nazi Germany)
Sept. 28, 2006: Military Commissions Act passed by Congress
xOct. 26, 2006: Pres. Bush signs law to build 700-mile fence on US-Mexican border
April 5, 2010: WV mine explosion kills 29 miners
June 21, 2010: Supreme Court ruling Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, Obama Admin. argued that advice is felonious “material support” for terrorism and won, “maybe the worst…attack on civil liberties” under Obama. Chomsky, Power Systems, pp. 70-71.
May 1, 2011: Osama Bin Laden killed
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END COLONIAL PACIFIC WWII NEWSLETTER #5 2013