Another Japanese atrocity remembered

Another Japanese atrocity remembered

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-25-2015 WED)

 

Traveled the previous night by bus.  Through the South Expressway and the suburban roads leading to San Pablo City, I saw overhead street lights whiz by, punctuating the dark sky and twinkling dots of thousands of vehicles darting past and forward.  It reminded me of all the nighttime road travels through the cities and expressways of every country I had visited.  At night roads and cities everywhere seem the same.  But there is a rumble across the world today that may one day destroy all these basic structures of modern civilization--the rumble of global war.

 

I have traveled to San Pablo, Laguna to participate in the unveiling of one historical monument.  It is a small but very important event, which I am helping to report to the Filipino nation to refresh its memory of wars--especially of global wars--that nobody should ever want and that everybody should instead actively work on to banish from the future of mankind.

 

The Second World War saw at least one million Filipino civilians killed when its total population then was only 16 million or around seven percent of its people.  That’s not counting the many more who died from hunger and disease as a result of that war.

 

There is this famous Doomsday Clock established in 1947 by members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and originally hung on its office wall at the University of Chicago.  The Clock is there to represent a “countdown to possible global catastrophe” from nuclear war, originally set at seven minutes to midnight and reset 20 times since reflecting the highs and lows of the chances of nuclear war.

 

Last Jan. 22 this was again reset two minutes forward, bringing the world just three minutes before midnight.  The next nuclear war (World War II was the first since the US used atomic bombs) can indeed wipe out civilization as we know it today.

 

Before I digress too far, let me quote the text of the monument against militarization and war in remembrance of the massacre:

 

“In Memoriam: San Pablo City Chinese Massacre Victims Feb. 24, 1945

 

“After the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II, Japanese soldiers invaded the Philippines.  Countless overseas Chinese were tortured and killed.

 

“On Feb. 24, 1945, more than 600 Chinese males aged 16 to 50 who lived in San Pablo City were called to assemble in the town cathedral, without reason, and massacred.  The cruel act of the Japanese soldiers was atrocious.  After the defeat of Japan, the Chinese in San Pablo City collected the scattered remains of their dead and buried them in San Pablo Chinese Cemetery.  The victims were remembered and revered annually.

 

“Feb. 23, 2015 marks the 70th death anniversary of the massacre.  In memory of the massacre, the San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce resolved to build a monument to commemorate the massacre of Chinese town-mates and to invoke the people’s awareness against the possible resurgence of Japanese militarism and atrocities.

 

“With the inscription of President Ma Ying-jeou, we raise this monument for the next generations to remember the death of the innocents and against Japanese militarism.

 

“By San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce

Feb. 24, 2015”

 

The Second World War reduced the Philippines from an idyllic country of agricultural abundance and industrial promise to a nation savaged economically and morally.  Its pre-war capital Manila, the Pearl of the Orient, became WWII’s second most devastated city (as often cited, second only to Warsaw, Poland).  That war was a war of imperialist powers seeking to subjugate other nations to exploit their natural resources and markets.  Out of that war, owing to its unique geographical assets, only one super-imperialist triumphed, making it Fortress America.

 

Today, under the direction of the US of A, the Japanese ruling class is being led to a revival of its militarism--even though this is opposed, as confirmed by surveys, by 70 percent of the Japanese people.  By any measure, the US is prepping its Asian ally for the “next war.”

 

The Washington Blog had a recent article, “America Has Been At War 93 Percent of the Time--222 Out of 239 Years--Since 1776” and listed all its wars down to the latest in 2015, the “War on Terror in Somalia, Syria and Yemen; Civil war in Ukraine,” adding that “Indeed, most of the military operations launched since World War II have (been) launched by the US.”

 

America needs a new major war and Japan is joining no matter the howls of protest--ditto the Philippines.

 

We are, thus, reminded of this George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...”

 

That monument to a Japanese massacre of innocents in San Pablo City serves as a major addition to the already countless reminders dotting this land--even as this nation is always in danger of forgetting.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tues. to Fri., 5-6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search You Tube Talk News TV Feb 21 2015; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 02-25-2015 WED)

 

Traveled the previous night by bus.  Through the South Expressway and the suburban roads leading to San Pablo City, I saw overhead street lights whiz by, punctuating the dark sky and twinkling dots of thousands of vehicles darting past and forward.  It reminded me of all the nighttime road travels through the cities and expressways of every country I had visited.  At night roads and cities everywhere seem the same.  But there is a rumble across the world today that may one day destroy all these basic structures of modern civilization--the rumble of global war.

 

I have traveled to San Pablo, Laguna to participate in the unveiling of one historical monument.  It is a small but very important event, which I am helping to report to the Filipino nation to refresh its memory of wars--especially of global wars--that nobody should ever want and that everybody should instead actively work on to banish from the future of mankind.

 

The Second World War saw at least one million Filipino civilians killed when its total population then was only 16 million or around seven percent of its people.  That’s not counting the many more who died from hunger and disease as a result of that war.

 

There is this famous Doomsday Clock established in 1947 by members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and originally hung on its office wall at the University of Chicago.  The Clock is there to represent a “countdown to possible global catastrophe” from nuclear war, originally set at seven minutes to midnight and reset 20 times since reflecting the highs and lows of the chances of nuclear war.

 

Last Jan. 22 this was again reset two minutes forward, bringing the world just three minutes before midnight.  The next nuclear war (World War II was the first since the US used atomic bombs) can indeed wipe out civilization as we know it today.

 

Before I digress too far, let me quote the text of the monument against militarization and war in remembrance of the massacre:

 

“In Memoriam: San Pablo City Chinese Massacre Victims Feb. 24, 1945

 

“After the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II, Japanese soldiers invaded the Philippines.  Countless overseas Chinese were tortured and killed.

 

“On Feb. 24, 1945, more than 600 Chinese males aged 16 to 50 who lived in San Pablo City were called to assemble in the town cathedral, without reason, and massacred.  The cruel act of the Japanese soldiers was atrocious.  After the defeat of Japan, the Chinese in San Pablo City collected the scattered remains of their dead and buried them in San Pablo Chinese Cemetery.  The victims were remembered and revered annually.

 

“Feb. 23, 2015 marks the 70th death anniversary of the massacre.  In memory of the massacre, the San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce resolved to build a monument to commemorate the massacre of Chinese town-mates and to invoke the people’s awareness against the possible resurgence of Japanese militarism and atrocities.

 

“With the inscription of President Ma Ying-jeou, we raise this monument for the next generations to remember the death of the innocents and against Japanese militarism.

 

“By San Pablo Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce

Feb. 24, 2015”

 

The Second World War reduced the Philippines from an idyllic country of agricultural abundance and industrial promise to a nation savaged economically and morally.  Its pre-war capital Manila, the Pearl of the Orient, became WWII’s second most devastated city (as often cited, second only to Warsaw, Poland).  That war was a war of imperialist powers seeking to subjugate other nations to exploit their natural resources and markets.  Out of that war, owing to its unique geographical assets, only one super-imperialist triumphed, making it Fortress America.

 

Today, under the direction of the US of A, the Japanese ruling class is being led to a revival of its militarism--even though this is opposed, as confirmed by surveys, by 70 percent of the Japanese people.  By any measure, the US is prepping its Asian ally for the “next war.”

 

The Washington Blog had a recent article, “America Has Been At War 93 Percent of the Time--222 Out of 239 Years--Since 1776” and listed all its wars down to the latest in 2015, the “War on Terror in Somalia, Syria and Yemen; Civil war in Ukraine,” adding that “Indeed, most of the military operations launched since World War II have (been) launched by the US.”

 

America needs a new major war and Japan is joining no matter the howls of protest--ditto the Philippines.

 

We are, thus, reminded of this George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...”

 

That monument to a Japanese massacre of innocents in San Pablo City serves as a major addition to the already countless reminders dotting this land--even as this nation is always in danger of forgetting.

 

(Listen to Sulô ng Pilipino, 1098 AM, dwAD, Tues. to Fri., 5-6 p.m.; watch GNN Talk News TV with HTL on Destiny Cable Channel 8, SkyCable Channel 213, Saturday, 8 p.m. and replay Sunday, 8 a.m.; search You Tube Talk News TV Feb 21 2015; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0917-8658664)