From: fester@island.COM (Mike Fester)
Subject: Re: Relativity and Pearl Harbor (was: Japanese atrocities)
Organization: /usr/local/rn/organization
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 16:07:54 GMT

In article <14f9k3INNf3p@agate.berkeley.edu> elrod@ocf.berkeley.edu (Edward L. Rodriguez) writes:
>Now, I understand that this is a sensitive issue.  Again, I'm not saying that
>Pearl Harbor wasn't a tragedy.  As I have written, it was.  Whenever young
>men are slaughtered it is a tragedy.  But Mr. Fester has again missed the
>point.  I was simply saying that what happened to Asian CIVILIANS was just
>as bad if not worse than what happened to our boys at Pearl Harbor.  The

No, your point was that you don't see how Americans have any reason to complain
about Pearl Harbor, as Asia was treated by the Japanese even more horribly.

>I do not profess to be an expert on Japan.  I do know that Americans continue 
>to refer to Pearl Harbor in the most indignant manner.  I know that Hiroshima
>continues to memorialize the victims of the bomb.  In reference to that,
>the Japanese did not obliterate Honolulu or any mainland American city.  You
>decide who should complain more.

They did TRY to obliterate our cities, with several half-baked attempts to
firebomb forests in Oregon and Northern California, with the hope that these
fires would spread and burn (eg) San Francisco. They jsut weren't as good
at it as they would have liked to be.

>In addition, Mr. Fester wrote:
>"BTW, there was a little thing called the 'Bataan Death March."

>Yes, indeed there was.  Perhaps all the upset over Pearl Harbor belittles
>the suffering that many other American soldiers endured at the hands of the
>Japanese.  In the recent wave of Japan-bashing revolving around trade 

And perhaps there never would have been a 'Bataan Death march', had there
not been a Pearl Harbor, with the state of war it started.

>imbalance and car imports, there was plenty of talk about Pearl Harbor,
>not so much about Bataan, or Guadalcanal, or Midway, or Iwa Jima (etc.,
>etc., etc.).

Strangley, Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack against a neutral power, wheras
the others you mention occurred during war time. Perhaps there is a difference.

>I suppose that Pearl Harbor was and is a sort of battle cry, akin to "Remember
>the Alamo!"  We should not let the emotion that has become entwined with
>this cry let us lose sight of the rest of the war.

As our relations with Mexico seem pretty good (and our relations with Japan seem
so as well), I would say that these "battle cries" are not really of much
consequence (we also seem quite amicable with Spain, yet there was another
"battle cry": "Remember the Maine").

>If Mr. Fester would like to discuss this further, I suggest email.  This
>vein could easily deteriorate into an ugly flame war.  I dare say it has
>already moved in that direction.

What's to discuss? If you really are interested in Japanese relations, they
are routinely discussed in soc.culture.japan, which you indicated that you
read. You'll get numerous other opinions there as well.

Mike
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