Here’s the giant guitar sign at the Hard Rock. There are no native Indians at these casinos unless they are putting on a show. The daily operations are contracted out to professional gambling management companies, and the Indians get $3,000 per head per month. No need to gamble at that point. I was on a Sunday scooter trek.
It was broiling by 8:00 AM, but I went out for a fancy breakfast thanks to bingo. There are few long stretches of roadway on the Atlantic coast where once can just drive for a few hours. Like Mexico City, there is haphazard traffic seven days a week and bad traffic light synchronization. Stop-go every few blocks, but I did make it 40 miles up north. Let me change that from fancy breakfast to expensive breakfast. No names, but that’s one place I’ll pass on, the quality just wasn’t there. I should have gone to Senor Café but beware, that place has caught on and their prices are same as downtown. A coffee and empanada that ran me $1.40 when I came to town is now $3.00.
Most detective novels are around the same, yet I still read a couple per month. Always some ex-policeman, or ex-military type who can get most any information they want by making a phone call to an old buddy still on the inside. But I also read history, and except for Michener, most of it is non-fiction. Actually, I think they got those literary terms mixed up back on day one. It should be fact and non-fact so the fairy tales get the connotatively negative label.
This week, I’m reading a 992 page history of 20th century Japan, “The Rising Sun”. It is a 1970 work, but I’ve been meaning to learn more about the Japanese side of the war. I will probably always regard them as sneak-attackers, but recognize that is the only way to hit an opponent who is ten times your size. And I will certainly always regard anyone who is okay with the feudal system as being functionally retarded, along with their emperors. But I also understand that America provoked them and must share the blame for Pearl Harbor.
I hope to learn about the Japanese viewpoint, particularly why they struck south when they had Manchuria. It is falsely but popularly believed in the west that Manchuria was part of China. It was not. The Americans took over the west, the Russians took over Siberia, and Manchuria was a wilderness up for grabs. Historians who report on the railway explosion at Mukden often fail to mention it was built by the Russians. Anyway, I’ve already learned between 1910 and 1941, Japan sunk a billion dollars into Manchuria, which they called Manchukuo.
Potentially, I may learn about some of the military atrocities. There is usually a reason for non-professional conduct, as there was in the German army after the Warsaw uprising. From Wehrmacht’s point of view, they were putting down rebellion and civil unrest during wartime. I find no evidence they acted any differently because the rebels where Jewish, although it didn’t help any.
Propaganda works both ways. Here is a photo published for years as evidence of Japanese brutality during the “Death March”. I always wondered how men who were supposed to be dropping on their feet had the energy to carry litters. I also picked up the lack of standard uniforms, something I’d expect to see in troops who recently surrendered. It turns out witnesses later reported this was not the “Death March”, but some solders carrying friends weak from malaria to the mess hall. While there was undeniable cruelty, I’m trying to sift out a few facts. One thing certain, however, is the terrible role played by American government employees overseas. If I was in power, I’d pack up the entire diplomatic corps and send them home. They are known by reputation to be wasters of public funds, unavailable to help when needed, and constantly throwing useless dinner parties on our dime. When in doubt, assume they are all spies, since that is what the foreigners do. Time after time, the warning signs of war and insurrection are missed because the ambassador was away at a reception or the opera with the other grinning glad-handers.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
