Picture of the Day - Miscellaneous

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Police chased the radical activists to the corner in 1972 and this was almost the end of protest movements.
Thinking back, this might have been the moment when Japan had woken up from the postwar sleep as Japanese nationalists came back with LDP.

Chasing Japan Red Army in 1972

Source: 「あさま山荘」から白日に 疑心暗鬼が生んだリンチ死 特別連載・サンデー毎日が見た100年のスキャンダル／21〈サンデー毎日〉 | 週刊エコノミスト Online


Source: 「私も向こう側にいたかも」 連合赤軍と向き合い続ける元検事 | 毎日新聞
 
I remember when I was station at Yamada Camp ( Kokura arsenal) in 1966 there was only about 100 USAF personnel , but about 500 Japanese workers that came thru the gates every morning that did most of the work, that we were supposed to supervise.
I had a about 40 year old Japanese crew chief/translator, 8 men and me , barely 20, was in charge overall.
He'd probably been doing this work longer than I had been on earth.

So one day my crew chief told me no one would be at work the next day because their union was calling a strike.
I grew up in the coalfields of SW Va. I was use to strikes of every variety, so I asked him what the strike was about.
He just said it had been a long time since their union had called for a strike.
I didn't know if it was just his natural politeness that he really didn't want to make me fill any responsibility for their grievances, or he just didn't think it was important to tell me.
So the next day the front gate was closed and guarded, about a thousand people was out front, with a lot of bull horns and screaming.
What they were saying I have no idea, because my language skills wasn't good enough to understand anything they were saying.
Then the next day everybody was back at work like nothing had happened
 
Interesting story again about the Yamada Camp, tyrodtom.
I think they were yelling "Ameko dete-ike!" or "Yankee Go Home!"
 
tyrodtom said:
That was about 18 months after I left Yamada, and went to Nakon Phanom, Thailand.
I might have heard some Yankee, go home, in English, but most of it was in Japanese.
Click to expand...
安保粉砕 Anpo funsai = Destroy US-Japan Security Treaty!
闘争勝利 Toso shori = Victory for our protest!
輸送阻止！ Yuso soshi = Stop Transport!
山田弾薬庫を撤去しろ！ Yamada dan-yaku-ko wo tekkyo shiro = Remove Yamada Camp!
弾薬輸送反対 Danyaku yuso hantai = No ammunition transport!
ベトナム戦争反対！ No War in Vietnam!


 
Makoto Oda (小田実 1932-2007)

Leader of a civil union "Peace to Vietnam Committee (1965-1974)". With financial aid from Soviet Union, he supported US deserters as the JATEC - Japan Technical Committee to Aid Anti War GIs. Graduated from Tokyo University, he was popular as a clear-mind commentator on TV. Many of left-wing activists at the time were generally highly educated.

Makoto Oda

Source: 小田実の出演時間


Source: 写真 #9：小田実全集 公式サイト - 講談社
 
When I was there in 1966 most of the local Japanese didn't even seem to know we were there.
When we'd go off base in civilian clothes everybody seemed to assume we were US Navy, or merchant marine off some ship at Kokura harbor.
I was there for 6 months in late 66, and the Vietnam war was just beginning to escalate.
Our job was to inspect munitions, and it's packaging, that had been stored elsewhere in Asia, and prepare it for shipment to Vietnam, or Thailand.
They built a new barracks while I was there, so they were getting the base ready for a greater workload.
I lived in that new barracks for about a month when I and several of my buddies got orders for various other bases in South East Asia.
My impression of the video of the 69 protest is that it was a lot of noise and chanting slogans, but nobody really got in the way or hurt anything.
Like they were just going thru the motions.
Like the strike that they had at the front gate in 66, it might have been a strike and a protest, but beyond a lot of noise for a few hours, nothing that made much of a impression on me.
 
Shinpachi said:
Many of left-wing activists at the time were generally highly educated.
Click to expand...

That was something common that Reds have higher "modern" educations than other "opposition" groups and partys.

In Iran, many of famous modern writers, artists, etc... were Red, or supported their ways.

In contrast, the "Black" movement, or "religious oposition", were generally educated traditional and old ways.

Some of most famous persons that the "Reds" have provided, are:

Bozorg Alavi, Taqi Arani, Iraj Eskandari, Jafar Pishe-vari, Djalal Al-e Ahmad, Ahmad Shamloo, Samad Behrangi, Houshang Tabari, H. A. Sayeh, Khosrow Golsorkhi, Farrokhi Yazdi, and so many others...
 
In my case as a factory worker, union paid $10 for a person/hour for a demonstration.
 
Last edited:
In the case of Japan, such highly educated people do not understand the importance of unity like LDP and tend to go into the internal struggle soon. LDP ocuupies only 1/3 supporters but takes control of the country. The rest 2/3 are scattered by themselves.
 
Shinpachi said:
In the case of Japan, such highly educated people do not understand the importance of unity...
Click to expand...

Same here... Generally speaking, they just want to fill their own pockets...

That's why I don't trust politians, and believe "Militarism", in the meaning of pointing expert and graduated people with military background into important positions, could be better than just have a degree in politics or other sciences. Like what was common in Pahlavi era.

However, among these many types of "ism" s, I follow nationalism.
 
Shinpachi said:
Interesting story again about the Yamada Camp, tyrodtom.
I think they were yelling "Ameko dete-ike!" or "Yankee Go Home!"
Click to expand...
The only time I ever saw any "Ami Go Home" signs were a few painted on an autobahn overpass between Checkpoint Alpha in Helmstedt at the West/East German border and Checkpoint Bravo at the entrance to Berlin. This was in East Germany so it was not surprising, only mildly amusing that they would trot out such an antique, overworked, and trite phrase such as that.
 
Frankly I am surprised to know Germans thought same. If I may update my research, the Yankee-go-home spirit seems to be understood by recent Japanese highly educated people like this.

"..... Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-US but pro-US. I firmly believe that, without the alliance with the US, there will be no peace and security for Japan. However, I do not believe that Japan can protect its peace and security by completely trusting and obeying the US."

Source: 問題だらけの「防衛３文書」を読んでわかった、岸田政権の「絶望的な限界」 「米国の良い子」は正しいのか？
 
I would have the same sentiment (in quotes) were the situation reversed. There is a profound distinction between vassal state (like the Warsaw Pact countries) and an alliance of equals.
 
Actually, the Germans did not feel that way at all. Even the East Germans could not wait to shrug off the yoke of the Soviet Union and embrace the West. Only die-hard East government officials and some sympathizers evidenced hostility to the Americans. No where was it more apparent to the Germans who treated them better than in the 4 sectors of Berlin. In the British sector, the people were doing well but the relationship between the Germans and the British was a bit restrained. The French did almost nothing for the Berliners in their sector but there was no evident hostility. The American sector was prosperous and the Germans felt secure living there. The Berlin Airlift proved that they would not, and had not, been abandoned.

In the Soviet sector of Berlin it was another matter altogether. The Germans living there exhibited an air of gloom and despair. There was no laughter, happiness, or even bright colors- everything was gray and a cloud of suspicion and fear was everywhere. As an American soldier I could travel to all sectors of Berlin but in East Berlin, the Soviet sector, there was a difference in the way I was perceived. People were afraid if being seen looking at me. Any evidence of curiosity or friendliness would result in their being taken in by the STASI (secret police) for questioning. To avoid looking at me directly, the Germans would look at my reflection in a glass shop window. A visit to an East Berlin restaurant, The Bucharest, resulted in me and three fellow American GIs being seated at a table that was already occupied by one middle-aged German fellow. The poor man was scared to death of us- actually not of us but of being observed in such close proximity to Americans, and soldiers at that! He immediately looked down at his plate and never once looked up. Trying to set his coffee cup down in his saucer, he was so nervous and his hands were shaking so badly that the rattling was like castanets. He hurriedly finished a few bites of his lunch and bolted away from the table. One must feel sorry for people living in a system that generates so much fear. It was not an uncommon occurrence in the Soviet sector. I've said this before. but if you want to get an idea of what it was like, watch the movie "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold". This film captures the atmosphere there at that time very accurately.

Driving along the Karl Marx Allee (formerly Stalin Allee) we took a turn off the wide boulevard and just behind the newly-constructed buildings lining that thoroughfare there were still bombed out buildings. In one place there was a "volunteer" work party of young girls that were clearing out rubble from a collapsed structure under the strict supervision of a stocky middle-aged Commissar (?) who reminded me of a women's' prison guard. She was trying to keep the girls' attention focused on their jobs instead of looking and smiling at us. I guess the girls were young enough to not really consider the peril that they were in for showing interest in American soldiers in uniform.

These observations took place in 1962 & 1963. The Berlin Wall had just been erected less than 6 months before my first trip to Berlin so things were still tense with the Soviets. I encountered Soviet soldiers in East Berlin only once. On a main street I stopped to look in a big shop window and heard an unfamiliar language behind me. It was a group of a half-dozen Soviet enlisted men in uniform looking over my uniform; when they noticed my 1st Missile Battalion, 38th Artillery unit crest, the level of excitement rose to a high pitch. The crest featured a guided missile surrounded by an atomic nucleus! Our missile was a Corporal Type IIB that carried either a conventional or nuclear warhead and evidentally they were very impressed, pointing and speaking excitedly in Russian. I sure would have liked to know what they were saying! They were polite and behaved themselves and eventually drifted on down the sidewalk, still discussing whatever.
 
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