Copyright © 2009 Jim Sizemore.

I’ve made up my mind to begin the story on January 1st as the story begins there, only the year was 1941.  So, come next week I’ll start the tale of what happened to me so long ago during the war years in England.

By the way, why is it that we can remember events so clearly from years past, but we often have trouble remembering what we had for breakfast this morning?  Not really; I’m lucky, you see, that I am healthy and my memory is still quite sharp.  All those newspaper crossword puzzles we’ve solved daily must have sharpened the memory cells, thank goodness.

Tonight, it’s a quick one.

Adolf Hitler, secure in the Wolf’s Lair, his East Prussian fortress outside of Rastenburg, was an unhappy dictator.  Just two weeks before, his forces had been forced from the outskirts of Moscow by a massive Soviet counteroffensive.  Hitler had ordered his men to hold their positions, but against the Red Army’s 60-division onslaught, there was little to do but retreat

It’s not as though they were terribly outnumbered, but the Soviets were warm, refreshed, and operating with a supply chain measured in the 10’s of miles.  The Wehrmacht, on the other hand, had equipment that wasn’t prepared to run in the cold, and the soldiers, exhausted after 6 months of constant war and 600+ miles, didn’t even have the winter clothes necessary to face temperatures that were 30 degrees below zero.

Hitler’s response?…start firing his commanders.  General Bock was shown the door in early December.  Walther von Brauchitsch, a Field Marshal, was sacked for the events around Moscow.  Gerd von Rundstedt, a very capable leader, was fired for suggesting that his armies in the southern Russia be allowed to withdraw from Rostov.

One might, at first, wonder who was left to actually run the army.  Each of these men (and numerous others) were replaced.  But on December 19, 1941, Hitler took matters into his own hands, naming himself Commander-in-Chief of the army and, for all intents and purposes, taking over day-to-day operations.

Those in the army could hardly believe it.  The Bohemian corporal, with but minimal experience in tactics or command, was now controlling their men at the most critical juncture of the war.  Those who had just been fired could only shake their heads in frustration.  And Allied leaders all over the world probably took a moment to celebrate the one single decision that most weakened their enemy.

By Steven G. Mehta

I thought I would start this week by creating a new feature reflecting the history of mediation.  This feature will discuss mediation as the term has been used in history, and how mediation has worked, not worked or been used in historical terms.   This feature will try to use documents or news from the past to reflect on the history of mediation.

Here is one discussion of mediation in history shortly before world war II starting for the United States.  Here is a piece from Time Magazine on February 10, 1941

Far East: Mediation: It’s Wonderful

The war between Thailand and French Indo-China ended last week. The victor was Japan. Nobody had asked Japan to mediate the quarrel, which had gone on intermittently in the swampy jungles along the Mekong River since October, but fortnight ago Tokyo offered its services. When the offer was not immediately accepted, Japan became insistent, threatening. Nipponese warlords insisted that, as “the most stabilizing power in the Far East,” Japan alone had the right to settle Oriental differences. Under duress Vichy, then Thailand, accepted.

Last week the stage was set for mediation, Nipponese style. The Japanese cruiser Natori steamed into Saigon harbor. Off the southeast Indo-Chinese coast appeared two Japanese aircraft carriers, two cruisers and two torpedo boats. Planes from the carriers cruised low over the city. At an appointed hour six French and six Thai delegates were taken aboard the Natori, where seven white-uniformed Japanese officers headed by Chief of the Japanese Military Mission in Indo-China Major General Raishiro Sumita received them with bows and toothy smiles.

Tea was served; then the delegates prepared to mediate. Before either Thailand or Indo-China could present a claim or grievance, Japan handed both a bill for her services as mediator — to be paid in advance. She demanded: a virtual monopoly over Indo-China’s production of rice, rubber and coal; a free hand to exploit Indo-China’s natural resources; military garrisons along the Chinese frontier; Japanese inspectors at all Indo-Chinese customs houses ; a naval base at strategic Camranh Bay and defense concessions at Saigon; air bases throughout Indo-China. From Thailand she demanded a naval base in the Gulf of Siam for a fleet of 15 battleships, cruisers and auxiliary craft. Unless the terms were accepted on the spot, it was intimated, naval units would go into action and invasion of both countries would follow. The delegates signed.

To read more: click here

To be honest, I am not sure that society historically has used the term mediation properly.  The problem with using the term mediation in all areas of conflict resolution is that the term gets blurred.   This is especially true when the public is asked about mediation.  Invariably I ask plaintiffs in mediation if they know what mediation is.  They always tell me that it is when a third party listens to the evidence and makes a decision.  Other variations of that answer often follow.  Or people will tell me they don’t know the difference between an arbitrator and a mediator.  Historical references as these above do not, unfortunately, help the process of understanding mediation.

That is why the ABA’s program to try and educate about the concept of mediation is a good one.

This is a day in mediation history.

Actors: Abbott Bud,Costello Lou,Carlson Richard,Auer Mischa,Lawrence Marc,Howard Shemp,Hicks Russell,Davidson William B.,Lewis Ted,Orchestra Ted Lewis’,Comedy,Horror,Mystery,

How to make a fake ghost detector?
I want to make a fake ghost detector (basicly it looks like one but it does not find them) one with LED’s that will light up if i push buttons or some thing like that (I don’t want all the LED’s to go on at the same time). So if the signal is weak i can have 2 led’s on not 5. And i would like it to be hand held size ( size of and Iphone) If that is not findable or make-able anything will do. If you have any ideas please tell me or sent me a link of where i can find insructions to do so.
Thanks
Examples are like these pictures
http://zedomax.com/blog/wp-content/uploa ds/2009/10/c651_ghost_hunter_emf_meter.j pg

http://www.abateelectronics.com/prghost. html

or if you don’t know any of thoses what about this… I think all the LED’s turn on at once. If you know how to make it please tell me.
http://www.travelchannel.com/Ghost_Adven tures_Live/photos/gear-03.html

The Wolf Man is a 1941 monster horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood’s depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf movie, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London.

Trivia:

• Larry Talbot’s brother’s name was John.
• In the first version of the script, Larry was not the prodigal son of Sir John Talbot, nor related to him in any way. He was an American engineer who comes to fix Sir John’s telescope, and ends up getting trapped in the werewolf curse.
• Lon Chaney Jr.’s make-up took six hours to apply, and three hours to get off.
• Larry had been away 18 years working on Mt. Wilson Observatory in California.
• The first transformation takes place with Talbot in an undershirt (although he is fully dressed in a dark shirt
  

  Lon Chaney, Jr and Evelyn Ankers

  once on the prowl). Only the feet transform on screen in six lapse dissolves. In the second transformation there are eleven shots – again of feet only. The third transformation features 17 face shots in a continuous dissolve.

• The Wolfman battled a bear in one scene but unfortunately the bear ran away during filming. What few scenes were filmed were put into the theatrical trailer.
• “Even a man who is pure at heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” This quote has been listed in some sources as an authentic Gypsy or Eastern European folk saying. Writer Curt Siodmak admits that he simply made it up. Nonetheless, the rhyme would be recited in every future Universal film appearance of the Wolf Man, and would also be quoted in Van Helsing (2004). (Albeit, slightly modified, “The moon is shining bright.” rather than “The autumn moon is bright.”)
• Larry’s silver wolf-headed cane, the only known surviving prop from the movie, currently resides in the personal collection of genre film archivist Bob Burns. Burns, who was a schoolboy at the time, was given the cane head by the man who made it for the film, prop-maker Ellis Burman.
• Maria Ouspenskaya, who played the old Gypsy woman, was only six years older than Bela Lugosi, who played her son.
• According to the documentary on the Recent Wolf Man DVD collection, the script for The Wolf Man was influenced by writer Curt Siodmak’s experiences in Nazi Germany. Siodmak had been living a normal life in Germany only to have it thrown into chaos and himself on the run when the Nazis took control, just as Larry Talbot finds his normal life thrown into chaos and himself on the run once he is turned into a werewolf. Also, the wolfman himself can be seen as a metaphor for the Nazis: an otherwise good man who is transformed into a vicious killing animal who knows who his next victim will be when he sees the symbol of a pentagram (i.e., a star) on them.
• Curt Siodmak’s first draft lacked all werewolf scenes and the hallucinatory sequence.
• Dick Foran was originally cast in the role of Larry Talbot. He was replaced just one week before filming began.
• It was originally given the working title, “Destiny,” which had been the preliminary title of a number of Universal films that decade (including Son of Dracula (1943)).
• Universal, lacking a theater chain, had planned to market the film as part of a double bill (with The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942)) but feared that the public would avoid an all-horror bill after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Evelyn Ankers had a rough time on the set. Lon Chaney Jr. delighted in sneaking up on her in full makeup and scaring her senseless. In other deleted scene, a bear was to wrestle with the werewolf but broke loose, chasing the actress up into the soundstage’s rafters.
• Despite Universal’s apprehensions over the public’s appetite for horror movies following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the film became one of the studio’s top grossers in 1942.
• The silver top of Larry’s wolf-head cane was made of vulcanized rubber so none of the actors or stunt doubles would get injured if they were accidentally hit by it.
• Universal had another unproduced werewolf script originally planned as a vehicle for Boris Karloff on file but writer Curt Siodmak did not utilize any of it for his script.
• Silent film actor Gibson Gowland appears in this film as a villager present at the death of Larry Talbot. He also had been present during the Phantom’s death scene in the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera (1925), becoming the only actor to appear in death scenes performed by both Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney Jr.
• In this movie, we’re told that a werewolf is “a human being who becomes a wolf at certain times of the year … ‘when the wolf-bane blooms and the autumn moon is bright,’” and the moon is never depicted in the film. This is the only one of the Universal series of Wolf Man films in which the full moon is never shown. In the sequel, the folklore is changed to “when the moon is full and bright.”
• Larry Talbot and his father Sir John attend church on Sunday in the village, but the doorway and steps of the village church looks more like that of a cathedral. In fact, it was a cathedral – part of the original set built for the legendary silent version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923/I), which had starred Lon Chaney Jr.’s famous father, Lon Chaney and which stood on the Universal back lot for over 20 years.
• The “wolf” that Larry Talbot fights with was Lon Chaney Jr.’s own German Shepherd.
• The first Universal picture since The Black Cat (1934) to introduce the major characters during the opening credits – and the actors playing them – with brief clips from the movie.

My Top 10:

A perfect example of Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography in Citizen Kane, keeping both Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten in focus.

1. Citizen Kane
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. Fantasia
4. The Lady Eve
5. Suspicion
6. High Sierra
7. Ball of Fire
8. How Green Was My Valley
9. The Little Foxes
10. Pepe le Moko

Academy Awards:

• Best Picture:  How Green Was My Valley
• Best Director:  John Ford  (How Green Was My Valley)
• Best Actor:  Gary Cooper  (Sergeant York)
• Best Actress:  Joan Fontaine  (Suspicion)
• Best Supporting Actor:  Donald Walsh  (How Green Was My Valley)
• Best Supporting Actress:  Mary Astor  (The Great Lie)
• Best Screenplay:  Here Comes Mr. Jordan
• Best Original Screenplay:  Citizen Kane
• Best Original Story:  Here Comes Mr. Jordan

Consensus Awards:

• Best Picture:  Citizen Kane
• Best Director:  John Ford  (How Green Was My Valley)
• Best Actor:  Gary Cooper  (Sergeant York)
• Best Actress:  Joan Fontaine  (Suspicion)

Top 5 Films  (Top 1000)

• Citizen Kane – #1
• The Lady Eve – #114
• The Maltese Falcon – #161
• Fantasia – #279
• How Green Was My Valley – #355

Top 5 Awards Points

1. How Green Was My Valley – 570
2. Citizen Kane – 505
3. Sergeant York – 475
4. Here Comes Mr. Jordan – 345
5. The Little Foxes – 300

AFI Top 100 Films:

• Citizen Kane – #1  (both polls)
• The Maltese Falcon – #23  (1998) / #31  (2007)
• Fantasia – #58  (1998)

Nighthawk Awards:

Barbara Stanwyck showing her seductive allure to Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve (1941)

• Best Picture:  Citizen Kane
• Best Director:  Orson Welles  (Citizen Kane)
• Best Actor:  Orson Welles  (Citizen Kane)
• Best Actress:  Barbara Stanwyck  (The Lady Eve)
• Best Supporting Actor:  Sydney Greenstreet  (The Maltese Falcon)
• Best Supporting Actress:  Teresa Wright  (The Little Foxes)
• Best Adapted Screenplay:  The Maltese Falcon (from the novel by Dashiell Hammett)
• Best Original Screenplay:  Citizen Kane

Nighthawk Notables:

• Best Film to Watch Over and Over:  The Maltese Falcon
• Best Scene:  “The Dance of the Hours” in Fantasia – dancing hippos!!!
• Best Line:  “Men like my father cannot die.  They are with us still, as real in memory as they were in the flesh – loving and beloved forever.”  (How Green Was My Valley – Roddy McDowall)
• Best Ending:  Citizen Kane

Ebert Great Films:

• The Lady Eve
• Citizen Kane
• The Maltese Falcon

John Huston and Orson Welles both make their film debuts, perhaps the two best in film history.  Yet, somehow, in the end, it is John Ford, the older master who comes out on top at the Oscars, winning his first Best Picture and his third Best Director.  But Huston and Welles will continue to make their influence known as the dark shadows and fog of Falcon and the new innovations in filming from Kane influence the most enduring genre to emerge from the war: Film Noir.

Film History: In spite of the Hearst newspapers refusing to even mention the title of Citizen Kane it goes on to win Best Picture from both critics groups and get nominated for 9 Oscars.  Today it is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential film ever made.  Ava Gardner is spotted in a photograph and signed to a 7 year contract with MGM while Rita Hayworth gets her first starring role.  Frank Capra becomes the first major film industry figure to join the armed forces, signing up 5 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Greta Garbo retires from films.  George Raft turns down roles in both High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, allowing Humphrey Bogart to catapult into stardom.  Edwin S. Porter, the silent film pioneer, dies.

Academy Awards: How Green Was My Valley wins Best Picture while having fewer nominations than Sergeant York, the first winner since 1934 to not lead the field in nominations.  John Ford wins Best Director, joining Frank Capra with 3 Oscars.  Orson Welles beats Charlie Chaplin’s mark from the year before by getting 4 nominations for the same film (Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor).  The Little Foxes sets a new record by going 0 for 9, a mark that will stand until 1977.  Best Documentary is added as a category.  Instead of Best Score and Best Original Score, the categories are changed to Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.  Joan Fontaine wins Best Actress over her sister, Olivia de Havilland.  Citizen Kane and Sergeant York compete against each other directly in 9 categories with Kane winning once and York twice.  In five categories (Picture, Director, Editing, Dramatic Score, Interior Decoration – B&W), Citizen Kane, Sergeant York, How Green Was My Valley and Little Foxes all compete with each other.  Cary Grant finally gets Oscar nominated – for the sentimental melodrama Penny Serenade.  Walter Brennan is nominated but loses for the first time after three wins.  Fox President Darryl F. Zanuck opens How Green Was My Valley on the last day of Oscar eligibility to keep the film fresh in the voters minds, the first to do so.

• Worst Oscar:  Best Editing for Sergeant York
• Worst Oscar Nomination:  Best Editing for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Worst Oscar Omission:  Best Director for John Huston  (The Maltese Falcon)
• Worst Oscar-Nominated Film:  All American Co-Ed
• Worst Oscar Category:  Cinematography  (Color)
• Best Oscar Category:  Best Supporting Actress
• Oscar / Nighthawk Awards Agreement:  Best Original Screenplay

Awards: Gary Cooper becomes the first person to win Best Actor from the New York Film Critics and go on to win the Oscar.  Citizen Kane joins the growing list of films to win both the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review and lose at the Oscars.  John Ford wins Best Director from the NYFC for the third consecutive year and fourth time overall.  Joan Fontaine joins Luise Rainer and Vivien Leigh as winners of both the NYFC and the Oscar.  Pepe le Moko wins Best Foreign Film from the NBR while the NYFC declines to name one, citing the scarcity of Foreign films due to the war.  Neither group will choose a Best Foreign Film again until 1946.

Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery in Hitchcock's Screwball Comedy classic: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

Under-appreciated Film of 1941:

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (dir.  Alfred Hitchcock)

That this film is forgotten and that the atrocity with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie should have re-used the title is a travesty.

Of course, that this film is forgotten is not entirely the fault of modern audiences.  While dreck like All American Co-Ed, Blood and Sand, Son of Monte Cristo and Las Vegas Nights were receiving Oscar nominations (ensuring that completists like me would eventually track them down), this film gets not a single mention.  Nor did Hitchcock try to keep it around for posterity, given his view of the film:

That picture was done as a friendly gesture to Carole Lombard.  At the time, she was married to Clark Gable, and she asked whether I’d do a picture with her.  In a weak moment I accepted, and I more or less followed Norman Krasna’s screenplay.  Since I really didn’t understand the type of people who were portrayed in the film, all I did was to photograph the scenes as written.  (Hitchcock/Truffaut, p 139)

That’s it for the mention in the book, except later when Truffaut says that the comedies were an “out and out waste of time” and Hitchcock agrees.  Hitchcock spends more time in the book explaining Carole Lombard’s practical joke on the set about Hitchcock’s famous “actors are cattle” comment.  They don’t talk about the film at all.

And that’s a shame, because, coming on at the tail end of the great Screwball Comedies, this is a great example.  It highlights Carole Lombard’s phenomenal comedic gifts, one of her best performances (along with My Man Godfrey and To Be or Not to Be).  It is more tragic that it is forgotten as it was the last film Lombard lived to see as she died early in 1942 in a plane crash while on a war bond drive before To Be was released.

It also stars Robert Montgomery in one of his best roles.  Montgomery often gets forgotten when talking about stars of the forties in lieu of such wooden performers as Tyrone Power and Victor Mature, but it was Montgomery who had truly great range, with his killer in Night Must Fall, his reincarnated boxer in Here Comes Mr. Jordan and his detective in Ride the Pink Horse.  And the two of them have such wonderful chemistry as a couple who find out by accident that their marriage was never truly legal and how that pulls them apart and how they are eventually back together.  In some ways it is a remake of The Awful Truth with a few different twists thrown in and lacking the supporting performance of Ralph Bellamy.  But while Truth has been immortalized by the presence of Cary Grant and the Oscar for Best Director, no such praises come this way for Smith.

Take a couple of hours to watch it.  Especially the opening scenes, where we slowly learn that they have been fighting for two days and that they never leave the room when they are fighting; they stay together until they can work it out.  Watch how Montgomery tries to sneak a fast one past Lombard and watch their reactions with each other.  Don’t let yourself miss such a wonderful film.

So many years later, and this speech is still chilling and inspiring when heard. I hope this date will never be forgotten. I pray that this would be a reminder that we are all ONE nation and we shouldn’t wait for another attack like this or 9/11 to come together as a Nation.

All those lives lost… they paid a terrible price; they will never be forgotten.

Pearl Harbor

It was 68 years ago today – December 7, 1941 – that bombs fell on Pearl Harbor.  It was a stealthy attack that took the lives of more than 2,400 Americans, threaten internment of 150,000 people of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii and was a tipping point for the nation which jumped headlong into its 2nd major war of the century.  It was a day filled with sacrifices and heroism – one that should not be forgotten.

Just six years earlier Harley-Davidson founded the Japanese motorcycle industry.  In fact, from the H-D history page it states:

“1935 — The Japanese motorcycle industry is founded as a result of Harley-Davidson licensing blueprints, tools, dies and machinery to the Sankyo Company of Japan. The result is the Rikuo motorcycle.”

Rikuo Motorcycle

Very little is known about the specifics and mindful of the results Harley-Davidson isn’t doing much talking.  It bears a similarity to the clandestine support the U.S. provided Muslim fighters during the 10-years the U.S.S.R. fought in Afghanistan.  Maybe that’s an overreach?   At any rate, the highly ironic consequence of Milwaukee’s quest for export markets in the 1920s resulted in helping Japan ready for World War II.   It was during the “economic slump” of the 1930s that the creation of a Japanese big twin occurred. It’s known that during the 1920s, Arthur Davidson had aggressively pursued new sales openings, including the establishment of the Harley-Davidson Sales Company of Japan.  It had a comprehensive network of dealers, agencies and spares. In fact, the Milwaukee motorcycle stood so high that Harley’s soon became Japan’s official police motorcycle.

Harley-Davidson exports to Japan all but ceased in the wake of the 1929 Wall Street crash and Great Depression as the global economic crisis crippled the yen. The story might have stopped there but for Alfred Childs, head of Harley’s Japanese operation, who asked: “Why not build Harleys there?”

The motor company was skeptical, but Childs’ persistence finally convince management and the first overseas factory began production at Shinagawa, near Tokyo.  Motorcycles built with tooling, plans, blueprints and expertise directly from Milwaukee — Harley-Davidson built a factory that was considered the most modern in the world. By 1935 Shinagawa was manufacturing complete motorcycles, mainly 74-inch V-series flathead twins.  In 1930, these had become the official motorcycle of the Japanese Imperial Army. Later, when the army became the effective civil power, it declined the chance to convert production to the new OHV Knucklehead, preferring the proven durability of the H-D side-valve twin. It was at this point that the Sankyo corporation forcibly took over control of the “H-D” factory and began selling Japanese Harleys under the Rikuo name. The “74″ twin became the Rikuo Model 97.

As it became clear that Japan readied for World War II, Harley cut its losses and got out.  As military demand increased (especially after the Japanese invasion of China in 1937), Rikuo sub-licensed the product to Nihon Jidosha (“Japan Combustion Equipment Co.”). Its “Harleys” were variants of the model 97s, entitled Kuro Hagane (“Black Iron”).

Eerily, the factory had only a few more years to run. Nihon Jidosha was located in Hiroshima.

Research Sources:
Yokohama Kanagawa Prefecture photos of Japanese Harley History HERE.
Classic Bike article (1998) by Hugo Vanneck HERE.
Rikuo (Riku’O) Motor Web Site HERE.
H-D Museum Photos HERE.
FBI History 1930 – 1945 HERE.

Photo courtesy of Nippon News and National Archives.

All Rights Reserved © Northwest Harley Blog

The words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt found on this website.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our secretary of state a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese government also launched as attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.

And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. . .”

The USS Arizona on December 7, 1941.

The USS Arizona Memorial.

Photos from this site.

Ever wonder why four dorms at Ohio State are named…Halloran, Scott, Blackburn, and Haverfield?

They are named for the four Ohio State graduates who were killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 68 years ago today.

-Jim Haverfield had joined the Navy not long after graduating from Ohio State University in 1939. Commissioned an ensign, he was assigned to the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. His body yet resides within the wreckage of that sunken battleship after the Japanese attack 68 years ago today.

-Ensign William I. Halloran, a 1938 OSU journalism graduate was, like Haverfield, an officer aboard the USS Arizona who went down with the ship.

-John T. “Jack” Blackburn, who graduated from Columbus North High School and attended OSU, was lost when the USS Utah went down.

-Robert R. Scott, another former OSU student, became the university’s first recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery he displayed during the Dec. 7 attack. Scott’s below-decks battle station aboard the USS California began flooding not long after the battleship was hit, though Scott refused to abandon the compressor he was running and on which the guns topside relied. “This is my station and I will stay and give them air as long as the guns are going,” Scott is reported to have said before ultimately drowning during the attack.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/12/07/PEARL_HARBOR.ART_ART_12-07-09_A1_C8FTR6K.html?sid=101

Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.  A day to remember a the brave people who passed on December 7, 1941.  And to tell the ones who survived that we appreciate your service.

I’m sure everyone is familiar with this declaration issued by then-President Franklin S. Trumavelt:

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

However, often forgotten* is the next part of Trumavelt’s speech:

“However, Americans may take comfort in the fact that the attack cemented the friendship between two of our country’s greatest heroes — Capt. Rafe McCawley and Capt. Danny Walker. These two brave men, who fought one another over the love of nurse Evelyn Johnson, put aside their differences and took to the skies to defend all that they hold dear.

“So, in conclusion, it’s a date which will live in infamy, but also a date on which all men and women can come together in praise of McCawley and Walker, as well as that guy who looked like Cuba Gooding Jr. who manned a giant gun to shoot down the Japanese planes that were dropping bombs on us that fell from the sky in gorgeous tracking shots and then blew up real good.”

*Another great WWII-era quote from President Trumavelt nearly lost to history is this gem:

“When Emperor Hirohito is dead, Trumavelt will eat his heart. Before he dies, Trumavelt will put his children under the knife, so that Emperor Hirohito will know his seed is wiped out forever.”

I already wrote about this last year, so I’ll try not to repeat myself (please click here to see my post from last year…with pictures).

At 8:30AM on 1941 December 7 (Hawaiian time), (and 3:30PM on December 8 in Japan), the U.S. Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by Japanese Kamikaze pilots.

It is taught in America that it was a sneak attack by the Japanese, but in Japan it’s said that America’s embargo on Japan was a declaration of war.

Either way, war is bad all around and it’d be nice if the world could be peaceful.

+++
And also, as I mention in my post last year, 1980 December 8 was the day that John Lennon was murdered.

“December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” – FDR

Click here to read and listen to FDR’s full speech.

Remember:

Sixty-eight years ago today, the Japanese Empire attacked our naval base at Pearl Harbor without warning or a declaration of war.  Within hours, their navy attacked American positions throughout the Pacific, including the Philippines, destroying our outposts and claiming the entire Pacific Ocean as their possession.  With the fortunate exception of several aircraft carriers that had been on an exercise that morning, the US had almost no Pacific Fleet, and many feared an invasion of the West Coast.

The lesson from that war is that appeasement and complacency doesn’t keep one from having to fight a war.  It usually forces one to fight from an extreme disadvantage.  That’s a lesson we have not remembered in dealing with expansionist powers in our own time, even after a second shock like 9/11 after years of complacency in dealing with al-Qaeda.  We’re falling back to treating radical Islamist terrorism like a Law and Order episode, and allowing one of the main drivers of radical Islamist terror, Iran, to arm itself with nuclear weapons with no consequences whatsoever.

How do you learn from your past mistakes? Unfortunately, this is something the United States has always had a tough time with.

“History is a race between education and catastrophe.” – H.G. Wells.

December 7th has always had a special meaning to me, ever since I was much, much younger. That’s probably a legacy of my grandfather, Charles Miller, for all the stories he told me as I grew up. He was a veteran of the Army Air Forces of World War II, and remembered Pearl Harbor quite vividly. It was his 9/11, he commented. The moment where the world stood still and no one really knew what to do. People were scared, people cried, people went crazy, just as they did a little less than seventy years later. However, in that, they realized the strength of the American people and the American republic.

It may have been a different era, and there probably aren’t very many left who can recall the events of that day, but the message still applies. The meaning of the stories told to me by my grandfather still ring true today. It was December 7th, 1941 that united America once again in a fight against tyranny, oppression and injustice worldwide. That December day spoke of the true character of the American soul, someone who never gives up even when the worst happens. The events at Pearl Harbor motivated Americans to get involved in a conflict that they had tried to shy away from, and without our help, the result might have been far different.

To me, I have nothing but respect for the men who sacrificed that day and decided to sacrifice in memory of that day throughout the course of the war. They truly were the ‘greatest generation’ and I feel that the message of Pearl Harbor is often overlooked these days. In weakness, unity, resolve and determination bring strength. After pain, perseverance, toil and love for ones neighbor bring back the pleasure and happiness.

I write this blog entry in the memory of 2,402 men and women who died that day. Their sacrifice has not gone forgotten. Their memory still motivates us. And it’s only right that we pay tribute to that.

Welcome to a Monday edition of the Surf Report.

.: God :

What does it mean to be a man?

Mark Driscoll believes that the transition from boyhood to manhood is marked by the following 5 events:

1. Leave your parents home.

2. Finish education/ vocational degree.

3. Start a career-track job vs. a dead-end job.

4. Meet/ marry a woman.

5. Have children.

My thoughts:

• Not everyone is “called” to marry.
• I agree that no transitional event marks when one becomes a man.
• There is nothing wrong with marrying later in life.
• Being single does not equal being irresponsible.
• Playing videogames/ interest in videogames is not a sign of immaturity. Videogames are as valid as a hobby as sports. (I agree when Mark speaks of how dumb it is when people throw their lives away playing videogames.)

Your thoughts?

.: Life :

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt

.: Gaming :

Recently Syp over @ Bio Break had a great post that outlined a year of free-to-play MMO’s. This got me thinking, why not play an MMO a week? Sounds like the ultimate MMO tourist challenge to me! As you might have guessed from the header above, I have decided to play Maple Story this week. Time for some quirky Korean fun! Thoughts and comments will be shared in next week’s Surf Report (12/14/09). Stay tuned.

That is it for this weeks Surf Report. Make sure to comment below and have a good week!

I have uploaded another image of Morrison Field showing the base headquarters on what it must have looked like in the early morning hours of late 1941.
Today is Dec 6th, tomorrow is Dec 7th the 68th aniversary of Pearl Harbor. Looking at this image depicting an air base in the states I wonder how life changed on bases such as these in the hours between December 6th and Dec 7th 1941.

Base Headquarters Morrison field

I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Ours was very good.  Our son, his wife, and their children came over, entertained us, and helped us eat enchiladas and all the trimmings.  I drank too much soda and ate too much, but all in all, a great day.

As the food settles, I’m going to do something most of you have never done…

I’m mentioning Pearl Harbor and Mount Yushan in the same sentence.

Prett daring, eh?

Actually, it’s not as provocative as it seems, as we’ll see.

On November 26, 1941, the Kido Butai left Kyushu in northern Japan.  It’s destination?…Pearl Harbor.  Better known as the Japanese 1st Air Fleet, Kido Butai was led by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo.  Comprised of six aircraft carriers with more than 400 aircraft, two battleships, numerous escorts, and 23 submarines, it was the largest naval fleet in the world at that time.  It’s job was to attack the U.S. fleet stationed at Pearl and do enough damage to knock the U.S. out of the war before it could get started.

But before the fleet could commence its attacks, it needed to get the green light from higher up.  It would come in the form of a coded message, and that’s where Mount Yushan comes in.

Mount Yushan is the tallest mountain…on the island of Taiwan.  But in 1941, Taiwan was not a sovereign nation (and some still believe that to be true).  Having been annexed in 1900, Taiwan was under Japanese control, and Yushan had been named Niitaka by the new owners.

So as the 1st Air FleetAdmiral pulled out of port, Admiral Nagumo awaited the coded message that would come from his superiors.  Its contents, “Niitakayama Nobore” (“Climb Mount Niitaka”), would give the fleet permission to complete its mission.  But against the day that the final order came, the trick would be to keep this massive fleet a secret as it moved south as east.  That would prove to be a most delicate task.

Recommended Reading:  At Dawn We Slept

Some artists ––– oh, say, Leonardo Da Vinci —— are known for their discipline and concentration. Consider the number of sketches he made for a horse statue that was never completed. Others, however, have taken the tack that to be an artist or an intellectual, you must somehow be undisciplined, clueless, and/or completely self-absorbed. THOSE are the kind Hollywood likes. After you’ve been awed by Leonardo at the High’s Hand of the Genius exhibition at our 12-hour artfest Go All Night, why not visit with some of his lesser brethren?

Eleanor Ringel Cater’s picks:

Barton Fink

Barton Fink (1991)

Leave it to the brothers Coen to come up with something as hilariously berserk and mind-teasingly perverse as this surreal black comedy about (of all things) writer’s block. A High-minded New York playwright, Barton Fink (John Turturro) is lured to 1941 Hollywood to give “that Barton Fink feeling” to a Wallace Beery wrestling movie. On one level, the film is about Fink’s Day-of-the-Locust encounters with moguls, producers and washed-up self-loathing Southern writers who’ve sold out to the flicks. But then there’s also the Earle, the hotel where Barton is holed up to write his masterpiece. A hotel worthy of The Shining, it’s also home to genial traveling salesman, John Goodman, who’s got stories to tell. LOTS of ‘em. The picture is a brainy goof, fleshed out by the brilliant performances, the rich production design and the Coen’s ever-clever camera. It’s as bleakly funny and tantalizingly obtuse as a Beckett on-act. I’ll give you the life of the mind…..

Naked Lunch (1991)

It will eat you alive if you’re not well-versed in the coded cool of Beat junkie icon, William S. Burroughs, or the insect-infected visions of director David Cronenberg (The Fly). And even if you are, this mercilessly exacting black comedy will leave its teeth marks on you.

Part biography, part literary adaptation, the film is less a literal rendering of the writer’s scandalous 1959 novel than a jazz-riff interpretation. Turning down the role of Robocop 3 (!), Peter Weller is the Burroughs surrogate who travels from 1953 New York to the Interzone — a kind of surreal Tangiers of the mind, populated by sweaty addicts, decadent ex-patriots and typewriters that mutate into giant talking bugs. However, those less than enthralled with Burroughs’ masturbatory self-infatuation may find this daring demanding picture something of a Pyrrhic victory. That is, more worthily done, perhaps, than worth doing.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Too much is never enough for fabled gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and director Terry Gilliam. You could almost say they are a match made in excess heaven (or hell). This is Hollywood’s second attempt to translate Thompson’s 1971 book about his drug-drenched trip to Vegas, the first being the rather abysmal Where the Buffalo Roam, starring a game Bill Murray.

Here, it’s the ever-unpredictable Johnny Depp who takes on the role of Raoul Duke (Thompson’s alter-ego) and a chunked-up pre-Oscar Benicio Del Toro plays Dr. Gonzo, Duke’s lawyer/companion-in-chaos. The assignment — as if it matters — is a dirt-bike race. Their true quest is to ingest every kind of “uppers, downers, screamers, laughers” they can find. Plus several oceans of booze. However, like most drug experiences, the film has a downside, too. Barely making it out of Vegas alive the first time, they’re dragged back in (like Pacino in Godfather III) for another round of the same thing.

Still, Depp is astonishing, Joe Coker by way of John Belushi and pure pandemonium on the prowl. The movie isn’t exactly a success, but it’s the most glorious kind of failure: Imaginative, uncompromising and true to itself. A tip: if hearing Debbie Reynolds tell a Vegas crowd, “Let’s rock and roll!” doesn’t crack you up, you don’t want any part of this movie. Not even the good parts.

Linda Dubler’s picks:

A Bucket of Blood

A Bucket of Blood (1959)

With its lurid title and down at the heels production values, A Bucket of Blood is a sterling example of legendary B-movie producer/director Roger Corman’s talent for entertaining, inspired schlock. The film’s central character, Walter Paisley (Dick Miller), is a bus boy at a beatnik coffee house who is so inept he makes Maynard G. Krebs look like Jackson Pollock.

Poor, talentless Walter longs for the limelight, so when his landlady’s cat dies accidentally, he covers the stiff feline in plaster, a la George Segal, and presents the critter as a work of art. The hipsters are wowed, and soon the would-be-genius is trolling for additional bodies to receive the Paisley treatment. The lively script was written by Charles Griffith, screenwriter for The Little Shop of Horrors. Corman mentored Scorsese, Coppola, and Jonathan Demme among others, so even if you’re not a B-movie fan, consider taking a look.

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

The grass is always greener – even for those who’ve successfully made it to the other side. Such is the case for Sullivan, a sought-after Hollywood director known for hits like Ants in Your Pants of 1939. Yearning for the gravity and respect that genius endows, this would be Steinbeck declares he’s finished with fluff and ready to undertake his masterpiece, a gritty, relevant opus called Oh Brother Where Art Thou? But before he can write about the common man, it would help to meet a few.

Sullivan and his fetching, hold-the-hooey secretary (Veronica Lake, famous for her peek-a-boo wave) take to the road in a luxuriously appointed Airstream in search of America. Preston Sturges, a treasure of American cinema and the writer/director behind The Palm Beach Story and The Lady Eve, mixes comedy with melodrama in this delicious satire of self-importance and fame.

The Lady Eve (1941) , Ball of Fire (1941) , and Bringing Up Baby (1938)

The movies are full of evil geniuses (Dr. Frankenstein and his many peers), troubled geniuses (viz. any standard issue artist bio pic, from Lust for Life to Basquiat), even idiotic geniuses (e.g. Austin Powers), but my favorite variety are the clueless intellectuals, beloved by the makes of classic screwball comedies. Invariably men, these champions of book learnin’ are short on smarts and easy marks for women who either thing or two about the world, or are so ditzy they defy comprehension.

In The Lady Eve, Henry Fonda is a herpetologist (a snake specialist to be precise) who makes an appetizing victim for slithery card-sharp Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck shows up again in Ball of Fire as Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer who knows her way around a colloquialism, who ends up hiding out in a house full of lexographers, among them sexy language specialist Prof. Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper). And in what’s probably my favorite American comedy, Katherine Hepburn is as untamed as the titular leopard Baby, driving poor paleontologist Cary Grant around the bend and into her waiting arms. After a lousy day or a lousy week, any one of these gems will help to chase away the blues.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel knew what full-scale assaults looked like, and this didn’t look like one.  Having just returned to North Africa from Italy (where he had celebrated his 50th birthday), he was greeted with the news that a large contingent of tanks…British tanks…were gathering to the east.  But Rommel had plans, and he didn’t want them interrupted by a British “sortie”.  And in Rommel’s mind, a “sortie” is what it was.

Field Marshal Rommel was wrong.

That large contingent of British tanks was actually a force numbering almost 750, nearly twice the number of tanks Rommel possessed.  Their destination?…Tobruk.  Coincidentally, those plans of Rommel’s that I mentioned?…they involved Tobruk as well.

Several months back, we mentioned the tremendous initial success Rommel had when he arrived in North Africa in early 1941.  Rather than sit around, he immediately took the offensive and began pushing the British out of Libya.  Tobruk was a British-held port city just west of the Egyptian border.  After the Desert Fox’s initial push, it became the last British bastion in Libya, and had been under seige since early April.

The Afrika Korps was preparing its final assault on Tobruk, scheduled for November 20th, when it was interrupted by British General Claude Auchinleck’s forces from the west.  Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June had taken immense pressure off the British, and they were able to move more arms and equipment to Egypt, assembling a considerable force with one objective:  relieving Tobruk.

On November 18, 1941, the relief of Tobruk (Operation Crusader) began as the British, with help from New Zealand, Indian, and Polish forces, crossed from Egypt into Libya.  They had desperately hoped their numerically superior air forces would be able to preface the operation with successful air strikes of their own, but massive storms with torrential rains put paid to that.  Those storms would also affect some pre-operation clandestine missions that we’ll discuss in the future.

Anyways, Operation Crusader got off to a pretty good start for the British.  And as we’ll probably see, it would continue to go well, eventually pushing the Afrika Korps back some distance westward and relieving Tobruk.

Recommended Reading:  The Battle of Alamein – I’ve got a couple good sources dealing with North Africa, but haven’t mananged more than a cursory browse through any of them.  That will change next year.

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