2. i saw AMANDA CULLEN!!!! Her last "real" chorale concert was last night and it was great. Plus I got to see Mama Cullen and that was lovely too. We're already planning a reunion post haste. Let's hope it sticks!
The Duke University Chorale
Amanda and me 3. Carey's moving to Charlotte! Excited, you betcha! Seein him next week will make hump day just a little more interesting.
4. Should I go to Charlotte for the GCC Alumni thing???
5. Man, I can smell my gym clothes from here...gross.
6. Amy will be in the states SO SOON!
7. Why don't people return phone calls. I'm not always the best, agreed, but come on people!!
8. I finished Franny and Zooey. I didn't like this book again until the last 30 pages. What's with these books. I understand that it's a "classic', a "must read", but I don't get it. I think there's too much dialogue and the scenes are extended too much. I'm not an English Major (contrary to popular thought, and obvious by my writing) so I guess I don't fully appreciate the book's value. Oh well.
9. I have finished reading the Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang. It's a great narrative, from several perspectives, of the Rape of Nanking that took place beginning in the Fall of 1937 when Japan invaded China. 400,000 people were killed, totured, and raped. Some were killed to take care of the "food and supply shortage" but most for sport. It is gruesome and difficult to read at times, but it is an incredible read and is easy to become absorbed by the horror. At times you feel completely devastated and drained. Interestingly enough, Japan just issued an apology about the so called "comfort" houses, which were military owned brothels filled with true prostitutes and women that had been kidnapped for the sole purpose of suiting soldiers "needs." This is significant because it happened this month. That means the only denied it for over seventy years. What's sick is that there is a revionist camp in Japan today still trying to ignore and deny the whole thing.
10. I heard from Giada, my friend in Verona. It truly made my day!
11. Mike finally updated his blog...finally
2 comments:
I'm sorry-- I'm one of those ones who hasn't returned a call from you. I'm a jerk and I really am sorry!
It seems like the Asian community in the United States has no problem with Japan being portrayed heroically in World War II.
http://azntv.com/axawards/night_of_excellence/winners.aspx
Outstanding Film: Letters from Iwo Jima
Nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima tells the untold story of the Japanese soldiers who defended their homeland against invading American forces during World War II. With little defense other than sheer will and the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima itself, the unprecedented tactics of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai) and his men transform what was predicted to be a swift defeat into nearly 40 days of heroic and resourceful combat. Their sacrifices, struggles, courage and compassion live on in the taut, gripping film Rolling Stone calls “unique and unforgettable.” It is the powerful companion to Flags of our Fathers.
—-
I am not one to hold a grudge but the Japanese used Chinese citizens for chemical warfare testing. The Chinese still haven’t forgiven them for that.
And somehow American history has lost the stories of how the Japanese treated American Prisoners of War
And how about the Rape of Nanking?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EL3h8rTwvg
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4920138942953644691
But, no to Clint Eastwood (and I guess the American Asian Community who honored his film) the Japanese soldiers were merely defending their homeland against those mean olde invading American imperialists.
Clint Eastwood is a traitor to America who has denigrated all those who fought in the Pacific as merely racist imperialists going after the yellow men instead of the liberators of Asia which they really were.
I spit on Clint Eastwood! No wonder Hollyweird can’t distinguish the good guys from the bad guys in Iraq when they can’t even do that when it comes to the Japanese in World War II.
By the way, on the Truth Serum video, of course I disagree with the whole part accusing Bush or America covering it up in order to get access to the scientific research that the Japanese inhumanly performed. That is just insane.
But everything else on that Truth Serum video seems historically accurate. If that isn’t the case, I would really appreciate someone educating me to the inaccuracies in the video.
I do wonder why we didn’t after World War II convict Japanese of War Crimes to the extent we did the Germans. They Japanese did terrible things to AMERICAN POWs. From my understanding the Japanese treated American POWs far worst by and large than the Germans did. And then of course there was the way they treated the Asian Civilian communities they invaded. They never seemed to be personally held accountable for it the way the Germans were the Holocaust.
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