Friday, December 9, 2016

PEARL HARBOR DAY, COLONIAL PACIFIC WWII NEWSLETTER #8

OMNI
“PEARL HARBOR DAY,” COLONIAL PACIFIC WORLD WAR II NEWSLETTER #8, December 7, 2016 (Rev.)
Compiled by Dick Bennett FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE AND JUSTICE.

Pearl Harbor Newsletters No. 7 at end
OMNI’s Newsletters, Index, Blog at end

What’s at Stake:  
     Reporter Frank Lockwood on December 8 wrote:  “Wednesday, on the 75th anniversary of the unprovoked attack…”  One thing is true here:  it is the 75th, but the Pearl Harbor attack was provoked.  The 75th anniversary is the 75th year US leaders and apparently most of the public have repeated the “unprovoked” myth.   It was well to remember US soldier and sailor victims, but after 75 years the assertion of a falsehood becomes the harmful illness of imperial delusion.   For a quick cure, read Roland Worth, Jr., No Choice But War; then if you seek more understanding, read these newsletters, and then the 35 newsletters on US imperialism.  Why does this matter?  The myth of an abused exceptional nation beloved by god and history has led to a history of threatening war and committing slaughter, our nation right now bombing seven other nations, and our trigger and targets ready for nuclear winter.   We can perhaps reduce this violence by rejecting the ignorant myth of the “unprovoked” Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, bombing, still celebrated after 75 years.  From the perspective of world peace, the truth about Pearl Harbor removes another falsely justified and glorified war from US history.  And the increase in truth and peace might provide fertile ground for the study in public schools of books on US war myths like Worshipping the Myths of World War II: Reflections on America’s Dedication to War by Edward W. Wood, Jr.  When the truth finally sinks into the public consciousness that perhaps the only just invasion and bombing the US has performed against another sovereign nation was in the European Theater of WWII, the jingoism will end.
    

Pearl Harbor Newsletter #8, December 7,  2016
Why the Attack:
Especially beginning with #3, each of the preceding numbers of Pearl Harbor Day Newsletter contains writings similarly arguing US provocation of the Pearl Harbor bombing.  See particularly #6. --Dick]


Remembered in the NADG, that has learned nothing, or will admit nothing, about the provocations of Pearl Harbor:
Donald Stratton’s New Book
Lauren Bruner’s Recollections
Frank Lockwood’s Report with Dick’s Critique

To repeat: How U.S. Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor By Robert Higgs.  Posted: Mon. May 1, 2006.   Also published in The Freeman.    http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1930   See #5 for full text.


Remembered in the NADG 2016

Donald Stratton, All the Gallant Men (2016), recounts the battle that destroyed the U.S. Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941, leading to the US declaring war on Japan on December 8.   Stratton is one of only five living survivors from the USS Arizona.  “Grit and Gallantry,” an excerpt from the book, was published in Parade (Oct. 30, 2016) in the NADG.  

Audrey McAvoy.  “Pearl Harbor Survivor Plans His Return.”  NADG (Dec. 6, 2016).   Lauren Bruner, one of five remaining survivors of the sunk battleship Arizona, gives his recollections of Dec. 7, 1941, and of his life after the war.

Frank E. Lockwood.  “Pearl Harbor Survivor, Arkansan Joins Ceremony.”  NADG (Dec. 8, 2016, p. 1).  The “unprovoked myth” alive but racked with osteoporosis and hardening of arteries.  “Wednesday, on the 75th anniversary of the unprovoked attack, [Harold] Mainer joined Vice President-elect Mike Pence, U.S. Sen. John McCain and other dignitaries at the National World War II Memorial….”   God of the universe is drafted for approval:  “The Logan County native looked on as a bugler played taps, and bowed his head as the U..S. Navy Ceremonial Band played ‘Eternal Father, Strong to Save…”  No reasonable person will claim that the creator of the universe billions of years ago, a universe now composed of billions of solar systems within billions of galaxies, bestowed upon this nation his or her special favor.  And Senator McCain reinforced that arrogant hyperbole by hymning the US empire:   “…Wednesday’s ceremony marked ‘one of the dates on which history swung on its great hinge and the world was forever changed.’  Dec. 67 marks ‘the beginning our country’s rise to its pre-eminence among the nations of the world, a pre-eminence we maintain to this day, to our benefit and the benefit of humanity,’ he said.”   Preeminence in military power to dominate and destroy yes, but not by any other measure.

(I included the following item post-publication).   Mari Yamaguchi (AP).  “Seems Pearl Harbor Visit Not First.”  NADG (Dec. 9, 2016).  News media erroneously reported that Shinzo Abe was the first Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor.  Prime Minister Yoshida had visited twice before.    “In 1951, Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida “made a brief visit” after signing “a peace treaty with the Allied powers and other nations” in San Francisco.   En route to SF, Yoshida “also stopped in Hawaii and laid flowers at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.”  This behavior might be easily forgotten or suppressed in the US, since it displays a humility utterly lacking in We Are Number One US leaders.  Later, another Japanese PM traveled the countries it had conquered or attacked during WWII to apologize.  



A possibly important point about google, mainstream media, official narratives of the propaganda system, and efforts to counter them.  From Dec. 7 to 9 I tried several times using different word combinations to find scholarship contesting the official story, such as those I have gathered in my 8 newsletters, and found only one, by Higgs.  Despite or because of this absence, this will probably be my final newsletter on Pearl Harbor Day, because although the myth of an unprovoked attack by Japan has been thoroughly exposed and refuted, google still reflects the jingoistic propaganda system that propagates the lie.

Contents #6, December 7, 2013
Ienaga, Pacific War, 1931-1945 (2010, 2 Reviews)
George Victor, Pearl Harbor Myth (2007)
Robert Higgs, US Economic Warfare Provoked Attack  (essay 2012)
Greaves, Seeds. . .of Infamy
Tansill, Back Door to War
Morgenstern, Secret War


Pearl Harbor Day, Colonial Pacific WWII Newsletter #7, December 7, 2015
Dick, Pearl Harbor No Unprovoked Stab in the Back
Robert Higgs, Economic Warfare Provoked Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor 
Dick, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Remembers Pearl Harbor
Books Reviewed in Colonial Pacific WWII Newsletters
Dick, OMNI’s National DAYS Project


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END PEARL HARBOR DAY NEWSLETTER #8, December 7, 2016

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