I've never met so many Japanese until I attended UMM at 1995 my freshmen year. I've grown to love the Japanese people after I meet a new one pretty much every year since 1995. Many of them have been exchange students from Kansai Gaidai University (Suita, Takatsuki, Osaka city), which UMM has sent students in the past and still does today!
Yoko ( Toyokawa-shi, Aichi) and Noriko (Osaka) with my former floormate (Tyra Pruitt of Louisiana) my freshmen year (picture taken at Spooner Hall 96'-97)
Before as a Filipino-American, whose great-grandfather was killed my a Japanese during WWII, my heart was different. It was changed after I grew in my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ (see personal story) during my freshmen year and meeting a Japanese international student that was studying at UMM and living next door in my floor at Clayton A. Gay Hall II-I.
Postcard sent from, Ritsuko (Moriguchi, Osaka) the first Japanse int'l student I met at UMM from 95'-96'
This morning (3/22/04), I was riding my bike to the RFC to workout. Then I saw Yuko walking, which we talked about her leaving UMM by the end of the semester. I asked her what her experience has been like so far. She told me she can't wait to go home and her perspective of America is a lot different compared to her expectation before arriving here. I asked her to give me an example, which she mentioned the education system. She feels it's good here as they make you "think" compared to being "fed with information" back in Japan.
I love the friendliness and smiles of the Japanese students that has come through UMM. Below are some resources I've found so far:
Samurai and Kamikaze
I just read a book on the history of WWII during the Pacific War when Japanese w/Samurai beliefs did suicide missions with their planes (khamikazees). This is very similar to the current war in the Middle East or Muslim world where "terrorist" or "suicide bombers" are willing to kill themselves for the "faith". I decided to do some research on this subject and this is what I found.
My brother, who works for Saphire Inc. in Minneapolis asked me if I know of anyone that knows Japanese and is good at computers. I searched the internet and came up with some links in this page. I finally found one and this one might be a good start->
*I attended an annual picnic this past weekend (6/18/05) with a former UMM Alumn-Gina, who loves Japanese culture. We met a lot of folks and UMM connections (e.g. Matt-91' Alumn, Ge-95/96 UMM Student, John-son of former UMM student, etc..), which many are JET Alumns (first time I ever heard about this teaching exchange program)!
Japanese plane displayed at the Fargo Air Museum for the Annual Air Show 05' at Fargo, ND
"He started seminary studies in the fall of 1941, and barely was able to finish his school year when he was interned in a detention camp for Japanese-Americans in Poston, Ariz.
Conditions there were spartan. There were no blankets for cold nights, and one dish towel for 300 people. At Christmas, Buddhists, Shintoists and Christians sang together in a performance of Handel's "Messiah."
After a year, he was released and went east to Philadelphia, where he studied at what is now Palmer Theological Seminary.
In 1946 he was called to Minneapolis to help with a Nisei Christian fellowship meeting at First Baptist Church. Within a year, Wada helped organize the Twin City Independent Church, which first met at the University of Minnesota YMCA.
He helped relocate interned Japanese in the Twin Cities, got a bachelor of arts degree at Hamline University in 1947 and a bachelor of divinity degree at Bethel Seminary in 1948. In 1958, he received a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.
One of the rail systems going through the Japan countryside (post card provided by my friend, Gina Nordstrom-irigato-thanks, who has had the chance to visit friends she met that came to UMM)
"February 2, 1942
Registration of enemy aliens began. FBI also started random search-and-seizure raids at the homes and businesses of Japanese aliens.
Gen. DeWitt and Thomas C. Clark met with Gov. Olson to brief him on plans to evacuate enemy aliens from the West Coast. The governor said removing the Japanese from California might mean the troublesome necessity of importing large numbers of Negro and Mexican laborers. Gov. Olson wanted ten days to study the problem and come up with an alternative plan.
February 11, 1942
Sec. of War Stimson met with the President to ask for authorization to remove alien and citizen Japanese. The President gave his approval.
June 8, 1942
Battle of Midway ended the Japanese naval threat to San Francisco and the mainland. Four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk. The United States lost the carrier Yorktown
June 22, 1942
Japanese submarine shelled a military depot at Fort Stevens, Oregon. It was the first attack by a foreign power on a continental U.S. military installation since the War of 1812.
-Itnernement Camps during WWII
Baseball:
"The makers of "American Pastime" (Warner) have set out to capture the struggle to maintain dignity amid the fear and loss that permeated those days. Directed by Desmond Nakano, whose own jazz-singing, L.A.-born father was interned at the Manzanar camp in California, the film will have a short theatrical run in Los Angeles and Tokyo before its May 22 home video release."
Baseball Behind Barbed Wire: 1942 to 1945 "
With the entry of the US into World War II, the federal government in 1942 ordered 112,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast to be forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to 10 internment camps in desolate areas of America.
In every camp, internees attempted to counter the boredom and harsh conditions of internment life by developing thriving sports activities. Baseball, in particular, provided a much needed diversion for players and fans alike. Internees at Gila River, for instance, developed a year round baseball league with 32 teams and championship games drawing crowds into the thousands. As George Omachi recalls, "It was demeaning and humiliating to be incarcerated in your own country. Without baseball, camp life would have been miserable."
-World War II
Battle of Iwo Jima
"Iwo Jima; Inside the Battle 1 of 5"
Flags of Our Fathers, Warner Brothers movie by Speilberg and Eastwood (American side perspective)
*saw this Saturday, June 9th of 2007
Related Sites: Wikipedia "One of the most famous photographs in history was taken by Joe Rosenthal at the Battle of Iwo Jima, during the Second World War. The image of five Marines and one sailor raising Old Glory on Mount Suribachi has been reprinted countless times, and has become an enduring symbol of American heroism. But while almost everyone has seen the photo, few Americans really understood what it represented, and fewer still knew who the men in the photo were."
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
*saw this during Memorial Weekend (Monday, May 28th of 2007)-free "war movies" (except this new release) rental from Movie Gallery
Reviews: IMDB "[a letter to Saigo's wife] We soldiers dig. We dig all day. This is the hole that we will fight and die in. Am I digging my own grave?"...
"It does not matter who fights on the right or wrong side of WWII. This film goes beyond that. It is about what is right or wrong for the individual human being. It excels as a story about the human heart." Wikipedia "On December 6, 2006, the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures named Letters from Iwo Jima the best film of 2006. [4][5] On December 10, 2006, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association named Letters from Iwo Jima Best Picture of 2006. Furthermore, director Clint Eastwood was runner-up for directing honors.[6] In addition, the American Film Institute named it one of the 10 best films of 2006. It was also named Best Film in a Foreign Language on January 15 during the Golden Globe Awards. It had been nominated for Best Film in a Foreign Language; and Clint Eastwood held a nomination for Best Director." Rotten Tomatoes
Related Sites:
"The battle was marked by some of the fiercest fighting of the campaign. The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with vast bunkers, hidden artillery, and 11 miles (18 km) of tunnels.[citation needed] The battle was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands, and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously; of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, 20,000 were killed, and only 216 taken prisoner....
As the flag went up, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal had just landed on the beach at the foot of Mt. Suribachi. He decided that he wanted the flag as a souvenir. Popular legend has it that Colonel Johnson wanted the flag for himself; in fact, he believed that the flag belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, who had captured that section of the island. He sent Sergeant Mike Strank (who was photographed in the Flag Raising picture) to scrounge up a second flag, and sent that one up the volcano to replace the first. As the first flag came down, the second went up, and it was then that Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took the famous photograph "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" of the replacement flag being planted on the mountain's summit....
After Mount Suribachi
Several M4A3 Sherman tanks equipped with flamethrowers were used to clear Japanese bunkers
Several M4A3 Sherman tanks equipped with flamethrowers were used to clear Japanese bunkers
Despite the loss of Mt. Suribachi, the Japanese still held a strong position. Kuribayashi still had the equivalent of eight infantry battalions, a tank regiment, two artillery and three heavy mortar battalions, plus the 5,000 gunners and naval infantry. The struggle to take the Motoyama Plateau, including "Turkey Knob" was to take the better part of three weeks. The Japanese actually had the Marines outgunned in this area, and the extensive tunnels allowed the Japanese to reappear in areas thought "safe".
The fighting was extremely fierce. Japanese troops would occasionally spring out of tunnels and ambush the Marines. However, the situation heavily favored American victory despite the Japanese advantage of superior firepower. Though the Marines occasionally encountered defensive positions augmented by artillery, they were still able to advance. The Marines learned that firearms were relatively ineffective against the Japanese defenders and learned to effectively use flamethrowers and grenades to flush out Japanese troops in the tunnels. One of the technological innovations of the battle, the 8 Sherman M4A3R3 medium tanks equipped with the Navy Mark I flame thrower ("Ronson" or Zippo Tanks), proved very effective at clearing the Japanese positions....
Final days of the battle
"The life of your father is just like a lamp before the wind." - Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, in a letter to his son[4]
With the landing area secure, more troops and heavy equipment came ashore and the invasion proceeded north to capture the airfields and the remainder of the island. Most Japanese soldiers fought to the death. On the night of 25 March, a 300-man Japanese force launched a final counterattack in the vicinity of Airfield Number 2. Army pilots, Seabees and Marines of the 5th Pioneer Battalion and 28th Marines fought the Japanese force until morning but suffered heavy casualties—more than 100 killed and another 200 American wounded. The island was officially declared "secured" the following day.
Although still a matter of speculation due to conflicting accounts from surviving Japanese veterans, it has been said that Kuribayashi himself led this final assault which unlike the loud banzai charge of previous battles, was characterised as a 'silent' attack. If ever proven true, Kuribayashi will have been the highest ranking Japanese officer to ever personally lead an attack during World War II. Additionally, this would also be Kuribayashi's final act of departure from the normal practice of the commanding Japanese officers committing seppuku behind the lines while the rest perished in the banzai charge, as happened during the battles of Saipan and Okinawa....
Aftermath
The United States Navy has commissioned several ships of the name USS Iwo Jima.
The USMC War Memorial outside Washington, D.C. memorializes all U.S. Marines with a statue of the famous picture.
On February 19, 1985, an event called the "Reunion of Honor" was held. It was on this day in 1945 when U.S. forces invaded Iwo Jima.
The veterans of both sides who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima attended the event. The place was the invasion beach where U.S. forces landed. A monument on which writings were engraved by both sides was built at the center of the meeting place. Japanese attended at the mountain side, where the Japanese writing was carved, and Americans attended at the shore side, where the English writing was carved. After unveiling, and offering of flowers were made, the representatives of both countries approached the monument; upon meeting, they shook hands. The old soldiers embraced each other and cried.
The combined Japan-U.S. memorial service of the 50th anniversary of the battle was held in front of this monument on March, 1995. Further memorial services have been held on later anniversaries. Iwo Jima-Wikipedia
-State
Local WWII hero buried at Fort Snelling
Posted at: 06/29/2007 12:11:41 PM (KSAX)
RICHFIELD, Minn. (AP) - A funeral will be held Friday morning for one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War Two.
Services for Charles Lindberg of Richfield were held at 11 a.m. at Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel, with burial in Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
Lindberg died Sunday at age 86.
It was Lindberg's patrol that raised the first American flag on Mount Suribachi in 1945, not to be confused with the second flag-raising captured in the famous Associated Press photograph.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Charles Lindberg, Last Survivor of Iwo Jima Flag Raising, Dies at Age 86
Monday, June 25, 2007 (foxnews) ..."Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ship's whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget," he said. "It didn't last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves."
The moment was captured by Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer from the Marine Corps' Leatherneck magazine. It was the first time a foreign flag flew on Japanese soil, according to the book "Flags of Our Fathers," by James Bradley with Ron Powers. Bradley's father, Navy Corpsman John Bradley, was one of the men in the famous photo of the second flag-raising.
"We thought it would be a slaughterhouse up on Suribachi," Lindberg said in the book. "I still don't understand why we were not attacked."
Three of the men in the first raising never saw their photos. They were among the more than 6,800 U.S. servicemen killed in the five-week battle for the island.
By Lindberg's account, his commander ordered the first flag replaced and safeguarded because he worried someone would take it as a souvenir. Lindberg was back in combat when six men raised the second, larger flag about four hours later.
Rosenthal's photo of the second flag-raising became one of the most enduring images of the war and the model for the U.S. Marine Corps memorial in Washington.
Rosenthal, who died last year, always denied accusations that he staged the photo, and he never claimed it depicted the first raising of a flag over the island.
Lindberg was shot through the arm on March 1 and evacuated.
There remained lingering disputes over the identity of at least one man in the first flag-raising. A California veteran of Iwo Jima, Raymond Jacobs, has said he believes he is the man with a radio on his back who had usually been identified as Pfc. Gene Marshall, a radio operator with the 5th Marine Division who died in 1987. The other men involved in the raising all have died.
Last year's film "Flags of Our Fathers," based on the book, features a character named Lindberg played by Alessandro Mastrobuono, according to the Internet Movie Database.
After his discharge in January 1946, Lindberg -- no relation to Charles Lindbergh the aviator -- went home to Grand Forks, N.D. He moved to Richfield in 1951 and became an electrician.
No one, he said, believed him when he said he raised the first flag at Iwo Jima. "I was called a liar," he said. In 1954, Lindberg was invited to Washington for the dedication of the Marine memorial. It carried the names of the second group of flag-raisers, but not the first.
He spent his final years trying to raise awareness of the first flag-raising, speaking to veterans groups and at schools. He sold autographed copies of Lowery's photos through catalogs.
A back room in his neat house was filled with souvenirs of the battle, including a huge mural based on one of Lowery's photos. Prints of the photos were kept handy for visitors, and Lindberg's Silver Star and Purple Heart were in little boxes on a side table.
The Minnesota Legislature passed a resolution in Lindberg's honor in 1995. His face appears on a huge mural in Long Prairie of the battle for Iwo Jima, and his likeness is etched into the black granite walls of Soldiers Field in Rochester."
-Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki "The first nuclear device, called "Gadget," was detonated during the "Trinity" test near Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were the second and third to be detonated and as of 2007 the only ones ever detonated in a military action. (See Weapons of Mass Destruction.)": Hiroshima "During World War II, the Second Army and Chugoku Regional Army were headquartered in Hiroshima. The city also had large depots of military supplies, and was a key center for shipping.[4]
On August 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of the American Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 70,000 people. Approximately 69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and 6.6 percent severely damaged.[4] In the following months, an estimated 60,000 more people died from injuries or radiation poisoning.[5] [6] In all, 60 percent of deaths are estimated to be caused by burns, 20 percent due to trauma from the blast, and 20 percent due to radiation illness.[7] Since 1945, several thousand more hibakusha have died of illnesses caused by the bomb, including leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, lung cancer, breast cancer, and cancer of the esophagus, thyroid, stomach, and colon.[8]
After the nuclear attack, Hiroshima was rebuilt and the closest surviving building to the location of the bomb's detonation was designated the Genbaku Dome (原爆ドーム) or "Atomic Dome", a part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The city government continues to advocate the abolition of all nuclear weapons.[9][10]" Nagasaki "On 9 August 1945, Nagasaki was the target of the world's second atomic bomb attack at 11:02 a.m., when the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated 40,000 people were killed. According to statistics given at the Nagasaki Peace Park, the dead totaled 73,884, injured 74,909 and diseased 120,820...
The city was rebuilt after the war, albeit dramatically changed. New temples were built, as well as new churches due to an increase in the presence of Christianity. Nagasaki is the seat of a Catholic archdiocese led by Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Tagami."
-Other Atrocities :
CHINA
"What dose Japanese solders have done to Chinses people in World War II.
They killed lots of children,women,civilians.As the Chinese people were sufering,Japanese were cheering for this war and the crime.There was even a killing competition in Japanese Army"
TAIWAN
"Missionary in Japan preaches a sermon that includes a testimony about how God helped him get rid of a huge root of bitterness, allowing him to finally forgive. Forgiveness is still difficult, it always will be. This sermon includes a key for being able to forgive"
"On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. The Boshin War of 1867–1868 led to the resignation of the shogunate, and the Meiji Restoration established a government centered around the emperor. Adopting Western political, judicial and military institutions, a parliamentary system modeled after the British parliament was introduced, with Itō Hirobumi as the first Prime Minister in 1882. Meiji era reforms transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrialized world power that embarked on a number of military conflicts to increase access to natural resources. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Korea, Taiwan and the southern half of Sakhalin.[17]
The early twentieth century saw a brief period of "Taisho democracy" overshadowed by the rise of Japanese expansionism and militarization. World War I enabled Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to expand its influence and territorial holdings. Japan continued its expansionist policy by occupying Manchuria in 1931. As a result of international condemnation for this occupation, Japan resigned from the League of Nations two years later. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany, joining the Axis Powers in 1941.[18]"
Related Sites: History of the Japanese Catholic Church "A Christian born in Korea. During the Korean invasion of Hideyoshi, still young Otaa has been protected by a Christian Yukinaga Konishi. Influenced by his wife, she became a Christian and got baptized in the name of Julia. After the battle of Sekigahara, she served in the house of Ieyasu Tokugawa. But in 1612, she has been expelled to Kozushima in Izu during the prohibition of religion At the present, every year in May, the Julia festival is celebrated in Kozushima, by Koreans and Japanese in memory of Otaa who had been a witness of God's love"
A Memorial for Japanese Martyrs
Nijo Castle, Ninomaru Goten (Kyoto): The center of Momoyama Art-The castle, built in 1603, is an example of the opulent shoin-zukuri style of the Momoyama era with decorative paintings, metalwork fixtures and ornamental sculptures.
Another postcard given to me from one of several from (Noriko of Hirakatu-City, Osaka) former UMM Japanese Int'l students I've met since 1996-1997.
"We believe every single person has the power to make a tremendous difference in our world. Too often we're just not sure what to do, how to help, or how or where to get started. These 101 ideas will propel you to get started, and then guide you as you move forward. No matter where you live; how much money you make (or don't make); whether you are healthy or sick; whether you are young or old; whether you are busy or have a lot of free time - YOU can make a difference! Take a minute and watch our exclusive flash movie. THANKS! You'll never be the same!"
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