INDIAN INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH INTO
TRUE HISTORY
Newsletter No 21 of 16 February 1992
1
News and Current Affairs
1.1
Taj Mahal
Our
friend Mr Arun Bhat informed us that Evening Standard carried a small news item
about Taj Mahal. Another friend Mr Paithankar, went to Luton Public Library and
send us the paper cutting. The paper reported on Friday 30 August 1991, "
Hindu's eyes on Taj Mahal " Hindu revivalists have threatened to stake a
claim to India's Taj Mahal, saying they have evidence the marble mausoleum,
built by a Moslem emperor for his wife, masks a desecrated Hindu shrine.
"
There are convincing arguments to support our view and historians have even
proved this. " said Acharya Giriraj Kishore, leader of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad ( World Hindu Organisation )
We
understand that Acharya Kishore is the Joint Secretary General of the VHP in
India. He is also on the Advisory Body of the monthly magazine " Hindu
Vishwa " of the VHP.
1.2
The Great Mughals
A TV
series based on his book " The Great Mughals " was produced by Bamber
Gascoigne, and shown on Channel 4 in April/May 1990 and Oct/Nov 1990.
1.3
Visitors
Devendra
Kainthola, a Marine Engineer from Gadwal region of Himachal Pradesh, stayed
with Mr Godbole for two days in June 1991. He is now employed by Kuwait
Petroleum Company
1.4
Publicity and Appreciation
A. Due
to the efforts of Dr Acharya, Mr Godbole delivered three lectures at the Arya
Samaj of Ealing West London
1.
Places in London which are of interest to Indian tourists (7 July 1991)
2. Slide
show on Taj Mahal (17 November 1991)
3.
Importance of true History (15 December 1991)
B. On 17
July 1991 we received a letter from Dr Raj Gill of Middlesex Polytechnic. He
said, "I read your book God Save India with immense interest. I will
contact you later. "
C. Prof
More copied our newsletter No. 20 and displayed it on the noticeboard of
Agricultural University, Rahuri, Maharashtra. It was much appreciated by the
staff.
1.5
Around London In Ten Hours
Mr
Godbole has been proposing to his friends since 1983 that the places associated
with Indian freedom fighters, philosophers, scientists, poets and other
dignitaries should we visited by us and shown to visitors from India. His
efforts have now resulted in a booklet entitled, " Around London In Ten
Hours "
1.6
Neglect of Hindu monuments in India
In
August 1990 Mr Godbole visited the famous Shaniwar Wada in Pune. As we get
inside the Delhi Darwaza we see pictures of Hindu dieties painted on walls.
These are now in a poor state . Our kith and kin do not even notice these, let
alone raise voices in protest. But they do have time to watch " The Sword
of Tipu Sultan "
1.7
Tricentenary of martyrdom of King Sambhaji
Sambhaji,
the King of Marathas was captured and tortured to death by Aurangzeb. His
martyrdom has always inspired the Hindus. Tricentenary of that day was
celebrated in Maharashtra on 11 March 1989. What is important is that a book
exposing the true nature of Sambhaji was published by Dr Jayasingrao Pawar of
Kolhapur University. Dr Pawar explains how Indian historians were foolish
enough to believe in the history as written by the British. Nobody ever asked
the question :- how could this king dubbed as useless, defend his kingdom
against the might of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb for nearly 9 years? We hope
to explain important aspects of Sambhaji's life to our readers in the next
newsletter.
A
memorial to this incredible king exists in a village called Vadhu Budruk,
situated in the conflux of the rivers Bheema and Indrayani, and is about 12
miles by road from Pune.
1.8
Computer Technology in India
" Computer
Weekly " of 6 December 1990 carried a report by Chris Gibbs. He says :-
"
Indian services firm plans off-shore assault "
Indian
computer services company CMC has entered the UK facilities management marked
by launching an off-shore service aimed at large companies.
The
Bombay and New Delhi based operation will sell the service to its existing
software client base as well as companies already using facilities management.
Arun
Madan, CMC's international manager, says the UK facilities management market is
worth œ200m and is growing by 25% each year. An off-shore service is now
feasible because of the improvement in global communications, he adds.
CMC
claims users could save up to 50% on facilities management by using its Indian
facility because of the lower labour costs.
The
London Underground says it is negotiating with CMC over a proportion of its
œ18m worth of development work. CMC is working on a œ200,000 timetable system
for London Underground, business it won in the face of competition from a
number of UK based suppliers.
Russell
Fawcett, head of IT for London Underground , says it chose CMC on the basis of
value for money and its innovative approach to the project. He says he is negotiating with CMC
over future contracts but would go out to tender to other suppliers if the idea
looked likely.
Last
month shipping firm P&O signed a software development deal with CMC for a
planning system for the port of Felixtowe. This will be based on Sun Spare
workstations and provide a graphical overview of the port's container storage
yard and also external data provided by shipping lines, agencies and government
departments.
CMC's
other European clients include La Suisse Assurance and Sun Microsystems.
CMC is
the largest Indian IT company with a œ50m turnover this year. It supports and
maintains systems supplied by 40 international manufacturers and has developed
systems for transport, finance, law enforcement, energy, health and education.
We
certainly have the brains. What we lack is the ability to deal with other
people for our benefit.
2
Christian Fraud
The
shroud of Turin
The
Times of 22 August 1988 carried an article entitled " Shadow of a doubt " In it Mr Hugh
Montefiore, a former Bishop of Birmingham, says, " The Carbon-14 tests on
the Holy shroud of Turin carried out at laboratories in Arizona, Zurich and
Oxford cannot definitely prove that this stained and scorched piece of linen
was really used to cover Jesus's dead body, or that the image it bears is truly
that of Christ crucified. But they will establish its approximate age, showing
it to be 1st century or fraudulent, dating only from the middle ages.
Christianity
has a long and not very edifying history of relics, most of which are the fruit
of pious fraud. No
relic has aroused so much interest as the Shroud. This is partly because it
claims to bring us so close to the salvation event of Christianity itself,
partly because the face is so striking, but mostly because the Shroud has been
subjected to intensive scientific tests. In an agnostic age people seem to look
for scientific evidence, although science can neither prove nor disprove the
Christian faith.
Interest
was stimulated in 1898 when an Italian photographed the Shroud in the early
days of photography and discovered on the plate a reverse image of the front
and rear of a naked body on the 14ft linen cloth.
I first
became interested in the Shroud as a New Testament lecturer, on reading Pierre
Barbet's book, The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This French surgeon,
classical and
archaeologist
demonstrated the accuracy of the marks on the Shroud of the lance wound from
which flowed blood and lymph, and also of the hand wounds. In early ( and
contemporary ) Christian art, the nails are shown piercing the hands. Barbet
showed that the weight of the body could be supported on the Cross only if
the nails were driven through the wrist
( as on the Shroud image ). Later, marks were also noted on the body image from
Roman scourging with a two- or three-pronged whip, loaded with bone or lead
balls, and the face image appears swollen, as a result of buffeting.
It was
not until I chaired the London Conference on the Shroud in 1977 that I realised
how great was the potential for scientific testing. A Roman Catholic commission
on the Shroud had recently reported. Two fairly sizeable portions of the Shroud
had been removed for fabric analysis. The weave is of a herringbone pattern
said to be used in 1st century Syria, but not in the middle ages. The linen has
little flax in it, but no wool ( mixing of linen and wool is forbidden in the
Old Testament ). By means of sticky-tape, pollen had been removed from the samples,
and identified with the help of an electron microscope by Dr Max Frei, a
forensic scientist in Zurich. The pollen found is comparable with flora around
Edessa and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The
London conference had been preceded by a meeting in New Mexico at which the
leading spirits were two scientists from the American space agency, NASA.
Through the use of a microdensitometer and by computer image analysis, it had
been established that image on the Shroud was three dimensional, and that the closer
the body was to the cloth, the darker the image. Further tests were suggested
and in 1978 access was granted. Electronic microscopy, radiographic
examination, X-rays, infra-red photography, polen tests and microprobes were
all carried out.
Dr
Walter McCrone, who had already established a reputation for detecting
sophisticated forgery by scientific means, took away samples and threads for
further study. He established that ferrous oxide, similar to "jeweller's
rouge", was present on the image and blood marks. At first he thought that
the image on the Shroud had been touched up by "finger painting". But
later he found evidence of a proteinaceous medium with which the iron pigment
was applied, and concluded that Shroud itself was a medieval forgery,
"typical of tempera painting on cloth introduced into Europe at least as
early as the end of the thirteen century".
This
view coincided with that of two diocean bishops around the time when the Shroud
first came to public attention in the church of Lirey, in France, in 1356. The
Bishop of Troyes told the Pope that he regretted the Papal Legate's permission
to expose the Shroud because his predecessor, after inquiry, had established
that "it had been cunningly painted, the truth being attested by the
artist who painted it". In the middle of the 15th century the Shroud
found its way into the possession of the House of Savoy. It was moved to
Chambery, and in 1573 to Turin Cathedral, where it now lies.
There
is no history of the Shroud ( if it existed ) prior to 1356. Ingenious theories
have been produced. Its first owner had connections with the recently dissolved
Knights Templar and it is said to have been in the possession of the order
after the Crusaders overran Constantinople in 1203. Equally ingenious theories
have been produced to explain how it got from Jerusalem to Constantinople via
Edessa. It is all supposition.
Expectation
that the Shroud will be proved genuine has been somewhat dented by evidence of
pigment and tempera. But this could be medieval touching up of an original
image. Evidence has recently appeared of an outline of dead body - West Indian
- on a mattress in a Liverpool hospice. The image has no known cause.
The
Archbishop of Turin is to be congratulated on permitting the Carbon-14 tests.
Those at Arizona and Zurich have been completed; those at Oxford are thought to
have been; but no one is saying. The results may be known next month after the
Pope's visit to Turin. But what really matters is not the genuineness or
forgery of the Shroud, but the reality which it portrays.
3
Behaviour of Christians and Muslims today.
3.1 Cathedral school loses £28,000 church grant.
On 2
July 1991 David Tyler, educational editor of the TIMES wrote :
A
Cathedral school has lost œ128,000 church grant because it refuses to limit
entry to the children of practising Anglicans.
King's
school in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, has been told by its diocesan board of
education that it must change its admissions policy to ensure it becomes 100
per cent Anglican.
The
Peterborough board has insisted that the school takes only the children of
practising Anglicans, giving preference to children in the diocese and ignoring
claims from brothers and sisters of existing pupils if they do not meet the
first two criteria.
The
school, which provides choristers for the cathedral, insists that, in line with
national Church of England policy, it should reflect the community it serves,
allowing Buddhists and Roman Catholics to be taught alongside children from
Anglican families. Church of England authorities will be watching the
situation, which could affect nearly 5,000 schools.
The
diocese had said it would pay 15 per cent of the £778,000 cost of a new
technology block at the 740 pupil co-educational school. The education department
had agreed to provide the remaining £650,000.
Michael
Barcroft, the headmaster, said it had taken some time for the governors to
" tease out " the reason for the grant being withheld. The school was
told in December that the diocese would provide the £128,000, and it only
recently became clear that the grant would not be paid unless the school
changed its admission policy.
At
present, 70 per cent of the pupils are Anglicans, with the remainder made up of
Baptists, Roman Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs. The school has agreed
to move gradually towards an 80 per cent Anglican intake, but is determined to
meet the needs of brothers and sisters of existing pupils, to serve children
from Ely and to keep some places for non-Anglicans, Mr Barcroft said.
The
desire to reflect the community served by the school in line with a General
Synod decision of 1985 which said all Church schools should serve the wider
community wherever possible.
Mr
Barcroft said the school could no longer wait for the diocese to provide the
money, as the education department grant had to be accepted by March. The
missing funds would be replaced by the governors, parents, the diocese of Ely
and, if necessary, a loan from the local authority. The Very Rev Randolph Wise,
Dean of Peterborough and chairman of the school governors, said he supported
King's policy of serving the whole community.
Voluntary
aided schools are run by local authorities and supported by churches or
charitable foundations who cover 15 per cent of the running costs. In 1989,
there were 4,947 Church of England schools, 2,202 Catholic, 31 Methodists, 21
Jewish and 228 with charitable foundations.
Neither
the board of education nor the Bishop of Peterborough were available for
comment yesterday.
3.2
Church schools win priority for Christians
On 7
November 1991 John Clare, Education Editor of the Daily Telegraph wrote :
A Church
school has an absolute right to give priority to Christian children, three
Appeal Court judges ruled yesterday.
They
upheld a decision by the governors of Bishop Challoner, a Catholic girls'
comprehensive in Tower Hamlets, east London, to refuse admission to a Hindu and
a Muslim because the school was full.
The
decision was criticised by the law centre which presented the rejected girls
case as backing a policy which could lead to educational segregation.
Lords
Justices Balcombe, Taylor and McCowan ruled that the preferences of the parents
of the two rejected girls should not take precedence over the freedom of church
schools - which educate one child in seven - to maintain their religious
character by offering places first to children of their own faith.
They
overturned an earlier High Court ruling that it was unlawful for the school to
use an admission policy that had not been agreed with the local education
authority. They said the fact that there was no agreement was
"irrelevant"
Miss
Elaine Sherratt, a solicitor at Tower Hamlets Law Centre, said, " A
religious policy like this may unconsciously become responsible for racial
segregation in schools.
"
Tower Hamlets is fast becoming Bangladeshi yet church schools in the borough
have no Asian children. Some white parents, having a strong preference for
schools which have not got a lot of Asian children, go through baptisms of
convenience to get their sons and daughters into what are seen as white
schools. "
The
prospectus for Bishop Challoner says, " We expect all parents to uphold
our Catholic ethos. We admit pupils in accordance with the following criteria
in order of priority : baptised Catholics, children of baptised Catholics,
practising Christians, other Christians. "
The
ruling will be welcomed by Catholic schools in multi-racial areas which have
been coming under pressure to adopt policies which reflect the ethnic mix of
the local community.
Cardinal
Basil Hume. the Archbishop of Westminster, has urged such schools " never
to cease to strive to win for God the minds and hearts of the young under your
care, nor to lose sight of the vision of what a Catholic school should be.
"
Anglican
schools, however, are divided. Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, has
criticised the desire of some Christians to send their children to tightly
protected Christian schools, saying it was " socially divisive,
educationally damaging and spiritually unsatisfying. "
The
parents of the two girls were given leave to appeal to the House of Lords.
"
3.3
Treatment of orphans
(A). BBC 1 showed a series of
programmes in 1991 entitled " VISIT " produced by Desmond Wilcox. The
programme on 12 June 1991 (2130 Hrs) was about the Sewer Children of Bogota.
The orphans of the capital of Columbia are afraid of being attacked during the
day. So they live in the city's sewers, and come out looking for food in the
rubbish bins on the streets. Many have been severely beaten up and brutally
murdered by right wing death squads. Wilcox in his comments said that in all
his years as a reporter he never seen such ghastly sights.
(B). BBC Radio 5 broadcasted a news on
29 November 1991 at 0600 hrs. It read " Homeless children demonstrate
against their killing by murder squad in Rio de Janiro the capital of Brazil.
So much
for the humanity of Christians.
3.4
Bigotry
Lord
McKay, the Lord Chancellor, attended Eucrium Mass (A Roman Catholic ceremony)
for one of his dead friends. For this crime the Free Presbyterian Church of
Scotland outcasted him on 20 May 1989.
3.5
Accusations over black expulsions.
On 11
May 1989 Susan MacDonald of The TIMES reported :
Nouakchott
- Mauritania has been accused of deporting many of its black African citizens
under cover of the huge international airlift organised to repatriate
Senegalese after the massacres of the past three weeks. There has long been
tension between the ruling Arabic- speaking Moors and the black Africans here.
In
neighbouring Senegal the press has carried eyewitness accounts of what it says
is a concerted effort by the Mauritanian military Government to deport black
Africans forcibly, whether Mauritanians, Senegalese or from neighbouring
countries.
It is
they say, further proof that Mauritania wants to move towards the Arab North
African fold rather than being considered a sub-Saharan African country.
Mauritania
accuses the Senegalese of taking the same action with Moors of Senegalese
nationality.
3.6
Beirut Hostages
A total
of 57 foreigners, have been held hostage by Shi'ite Muslim groups in Lebanon
since 1984. Of these 11 have been reported or confirmed dead in captivity and
39 were released or escaped.
Terry Waite
Terry
Waite, the envoy of Archbishop of Canterbury was released as a hostage in
Beirut on 19th November 1991 after almost 5 years. He was held captive by
Hezbollah. On his release, Terry Waite told reporters, "I was kept in
total and complete isolation for four years. I saw no one and spoke to no one
apart from a cursory word with the guards who brought my food." (TODAY
20 Nov 1991 p 2)
During
his captivity Terry Waite got a postcard out of the blue. It was a postcard
showing a stained glass window from Bedford showing John Bunyan in jail. Terry
looked at the card and said, " My word Bunyan. You are a lucky fellow. You
have got a window out of which you can look, see the sky and here I am in a
dark room. You have got pen and ink, you can write but here I am, I have got
nothing and you have your own clothes and a table and a chair. " ( TODAY 20 Nov 1991 p 24 )
Terry
revealed that his captors, the Islamic Jihad, had chained him like a dog to the
wall for 23 hours and 50 minutes a day throughout his captivity. And all they could do when they set
him free was say, " We are sorry " Terry said his captors told him,
" We apologise for having captured you. We recognise this was the wrong
thing to do. "
Terry
said, " We have been under shellfire constantly under and to be under
shellfire when you are chained to the wall is not pleasant. "
For the
first three years of Terry's imprisonment his wife Frances did not know if
Terry was alive or dead. She did not know who, if anybody, was holding him hostage.
He
sought release of various Western hostages in Iran, Libya, Beirut during
1980-87. He himself was captured on 20 January 1987.
When
Brian Keenan an Irishman was freed in August 1990, after 52 months in
captivity, he said Waite was alive, he
had heard him coughing in a neighbouring cell. He said further, " Waite
was ill and chained beside an electrical generator that throbbed six hours a
day." John McCarthy the British journalist released on 8 August 1991
brought better news. " Waite was in good shape mentally and physically. He
was being allowed companionship. " The blindfolds, shackles and isolation
from other hostages appears to have ended soon after the release of Brian
Keenan.
With
Beirut in Syrian control the captors moved Waite to Bekka valley in South
Lebanon to join McCarthy in a cell where he was treated by doctors for a lung
problem.
------------------------------------
Tom Sutherland
Tom
Sutherland, a Scots born American was kidnapped while working at the American
University of Beirut in June 1985. He too was released on the same day as
Terry. He was aged 60. He said to the reporters, " ....The hostages had
become an embarrassment to the captors. They realised it doesn't pay. "
Tom and his family face the sad task of burying his 88 year old father who died
of cancer on Saturday, the 16th Nov 1991. ( TODAY 20 Nov 1991 pages 4/5 )
----------------------------
Joseph Cicipio
Joseph
Cicippio was released by Shi'ite Moslem kidnappers on 2 December 1991 after
1908 days. He had recently been taken to hospital by the hostage takers, where
he had undergone a stomach operation. He had been moved at least 20 times but
had seen nothing of any of the other hostages. His wife Elham is Lebanese. But
that was of no use. He was forced to make an emotional farewell goodbye video.
His life was probably saved after his wife made a tearful plea on TV for his
life. He is now aged 61.
( TODAY
3 December 1991, p 12 )
----------------------------------
Terry Anderson
Terry
Anderson was released on 4 December 1991 after nearly 7 years. His daughter
Sulome was born three months after he was kidnapped. Allen Steen an American
journalism professor was released a day earlier after nearly 5 years in
captivity.
Mr
Anderson had came to symbolise the plight of the hostages in American eyes. His
birthday, 27 October has been observed as National Hostage Awareness Day since
1985. At the start of every session of the U S Senate, Senator Daniel Moynihan
placed in the congressional record a speech covering the number of days
Anderson had been held.
He
appeared to have been specifically targeted on in March 1985 when he was
dragged from his car.
(
Evening Standard 4 December 1991 )
------------------------------------------------
Jackie Mann
On 12
May 1989 Squadron Leader Jackie Mann, a 75 year old war veteran went to his
bank in Beirut. Gunmen interrupted him as he returned to his car. They were
hoping to force him into its boot, but used the wrong key and broke in the
lock. They had to thrust him into their own car and speed off...
Mr Mann
used to say, " I am old and I haven't got any money - why on earth would
anyone want to kidnap me ? "
( Daily
Telegraph 25 September 1991 )
He was
released on 26 September 1991. He was former RAF spitfire pilot and oldest of
the western hostages. He was held for 2
1/2 years by pro-Iranian Revolutionary Justice Organisation ( Muslim
fundamentalists ). His wife Sunnie is now 73. They have lived in Beirut for 45
years. Jackie worked as a pilot for
Middle East Airlines for ten years and
was well known locally for looking after stray dogs.
In 2
1/2 years he never saw another human face - not even those of his captors, who
ordered him to cover his head with a towel whenever they entered the room. He
was manached to the wall of his Beirut cell by a three - foot steel chain and
bundled into the boot of a car each time he was moved. Even on his trip to
freedom he was carried in a cardboard box.
He
never received any of the medicine his wife sent to ease the discomfort of his
war wounds.
He had
been treated far worse than any of the other freed hostages. Like others his
food was a ritual bawl of Arabic bread and cheese. He said his life was a
living hell.
Next
move in hostage saga depends on Israel. They are demanding information on
soldier Yossi Fink and air force navigator Ron Arad, both missing for 5 years.
( Daily
Mail 26 September 1991 )
Brief
chronology of events
1989
|
7
March |
Diplomatic
links between Britain and Iran broken
off over Salman Rushdie affair. |
|
12 May |
Ex RAF
pilot Jackie Mann seized in Beirut |
|
3 June |
Ayatollah
Khomeni dies |
1990
|
2
August |
Iraq
invades Kuwait |
|
27
September |
Britain
and Iran restore partial diplomatic Relations |
|
28
November |
Britain
and Syria resume diplomatic relations
after 4 years |
1991
|
January ) February
) |
The
Gulf War. Iraqi forces driven out of Kuwait. |
|
2
April |
Brian
Cooper, a British businessman released from jail in Iran. |
|
11
August |
John
McCarthy hands over letter from Islamic Jihad to UN Secretary General Perez
de Cuellar. American hostage Edward Tracy is released in Lebanon. |
|
24
September |
Jackie
Mann freed. Israelis said they need more
evidence about the fate of 5 servicemen unaccounted for in Lebanon. |
|
6
October |
Kidnappers
release videotape of Terry Anderson
saying he, Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland are all well |
|
21
October |
American
hostage Jesse Turner freed after 5 years as Israel releases 14 Arab prisoners
in South Lebanon. |
|
4
December |
Terry
Anderson, last of the U S hostages is freed after 2454 days ( almost 7 years
) he was held the longest. |
what can Hindus learn ?
We
should note the following :-
1.
Taking of hostages is accepted by Islam. Old men in their 70s, even bodies of
dead men can be used as hostages. How many Mullas or Maulavis condemned the
hostage taking?
2. The
treatment of hostages. If this is how the Muslims behave today with citizens of
powerful America and Europe how would they treat Hindus today and how would
they have behaved in the past?
No
hostage was released on humanitarian grounds. Whether your father/mother is on
the death bed or your wife is expecting a baby it made no difference to the
kidnappers.
3.
Despite such barbarity the British mass media never brought Islam in any
discussion. But they would not lose a single opportunity to denounce Hindu
religion. We have to conclude that the victims and the captors deserved each
other.
4. Iran
and Syria wanted to improve their relations with the West. This became more
important for the two countries with the collapse of Soviet Union as a
superpower in 1990. It suited the West very well. They needed the help of these
two countries for repulsing Saddam Hussein who occupied Kuwait in August 1990.
Britain quickly re-established diplomatic relations with Syria and Iran. The
Gulf war was over in February 1991. One month later Iran released Brian Cooper
a British businessman, held without charge. By now both Iran and Syria had to
put pressure on the kidnappers - who themselves had also realised that holding
the hostages was getting them nowhere. Therefore, between August and December
almost all the western hostages were released.
Such are
the intricate manoeuvres. Hostages were not released by the kidnappers due to
change of heart.
Robert
Maxwell, a Contracts Manager of contractors Wimpey International, was jailed in
Iraq on a spying charge, in 1980. But when the Iran-Iraq war started few months
later Iraq released Mr Maxwell. Iraqis needed British support.
5. Other
nations do not forget their citizens. Terry Anderson was remembered by the U.S
Senate every year till he was released. Israelis were prepared for making a
deal to get back bodies of their dead soldiers.
exercise - How would the Indian Government fare under such
circumstances ?
4
Miscarriage of Justice in Britain
Recently
the British judiciary system has been severely criticised in the mass media and
the public. One by one various persons accused of IRA ( Irish Republican Army )
bombings
of the 1970s have been found not guilty after serving several years in jail.
the guildford four
First
the Guildford four. They were convicted
on 22 October 1975. They appealed on 16 January 1989 and were found not guilty
and freed on 17 October 1989 after having served 14 years in jail. ( It was
discovered that the Police rejigged interview notes )
(
Evening Standard 11 October 1989 )
the birmingham six
Then
came the Birmingham six. They were jailed for life in 1975 for the bombings a
year earlier at two Birmingham pubs, the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the
Town, in which 21 people died. It started the longest ever campaign to prove a
miscarriage of justice.
They
were freed on 14 March 1991 after 16 years behind bars. They may get œ1m each
in compensation.
( Daily
Star 15 March 1991 )
-------------------------
The
case raised deeply disturbing doubts about the integrity of the police, the
competence of the forensic service and the efficacy of the procedure for
appeals. Mr Kenneth
Baker, the Home Secretary immediately appointed a Royal Commission but set a
two year deadline for its report.
---------------------------
Evening
Standard, a right wing paper of London said on 15 March 1991 :-
"
First, the accused in serious criminal cases must at once be given the right of
appeal to a tribunal independent both of the courts and of the police. At
present, alleged improprieties by the police are reviewable only by the police
themselves through the police complaints procedure and by the courts. Errors
made by the courts are reviewable only in higher courts. Errors by the Court of
Appeal are reviewable only by the House of Lords or, ludicrously, by the Court
of Appeal.
Also the
Home Secretary can and should make immediate orders obliging the police to make
tape-recordings of all interviews with suspects and to keep the recordings in
such a way that they cannot subsequently be tampered with. He should also make
an order enabling the defence to have contemporaneous access to any substances
which the prosecution have sent for forensic analysis, so that independent
testing can be done..."
----------------------------------------
The
Court of Appeal in their judgement said, " The detective in charge of the
Birmingham Six and three of the officers in his team were accused of lying at
the original trial 16 years ago. New evidence on police notes suggested that,
in the absence of any explanation, Detective Superintendent George Reade, now
retired, a detective sergeant and two constables were " at least guilty of
deceiving the court. Mr Reade could not explain evidence that notes of interviews
with one of the Six were not contemporaneous but written on different pads in
different pens with pages inserted. No one had been able to think of an honest
answer. ( TIMES 28 March 1991 )
the maguire seven
It was a
routine visit to Wormwood Scrubs that set the Archbishop of Westminster,
Cardinal Basil Hume, on a quiet campaign for justice. He entered a cell to talk
to a frail and painfully thin man suffering from tuberculosis, Guiseppe Conlon,
one of the so-called Maguire Seven jailed for between four and fourteen years
for running an IRA bomb factory, persuaded the cardinal to listen to his story,
" He was struck by the man's sincerity and holiness, " said a friend.
Cardinal
Hume made inquiries and became convinced of the absurdity of the case against
Mr Conlon. The only evidence against Seven - five adults and two children -
were the results of scientific tests showing traces of explosives on their
hands. No hint of explosives was ever found in the Maguire house - the so
called bomb factory.
The
Cardinal visited the prisoner several times and, when Mr Conlon became
critically ill, added his voice to those asking the Home Secretary for a
release on compassionate grounds. The release order came on the day Guiseppe
Conlon died in January 1980. But on his death bed he persuaded influential
people of his innocence and he begged them to clear his name.
Their
efforts were to benefit not only the Maguire family but also Guildford Four.
Guiseppe Conlon had only come to England because his son Gerry had been
arrested in connection with Guildford pub bombings. Annie Maguire's home had
only been raided because another of the Guildford Four, Paul Hill, and Gerry
had given her name to the police. Lords Scarman and Devlin, both Law Lords and
respected authorities in criminal law, publically expressed their disquiet in
1986. Lord Scarman wrote critically : " The trial and appeal process,
which is open and judicial, has shown itself an uncertain instrument for
uncovering irregularities. " Merlyn Rees and Lord Jenkins of Hillhead
also made public their concern. In 1987, Cardinal Hume thought they should form
a deputation to keep pressure on the Home Office to reopen the cases. Defence
lawyers have little doubt that the influence of this liberal wing of the
Establishment helped persuade Douglas Hurd, then Home Secretary, to announce
the police investigation into the Guildford Four case which was ultimately to
show that officers had lied and the Four were innocent. Their acquittal in
October 1989 prompted the Home Secretary to order Sir John May's inquiry into
both the Guildford and Maguire cases. In 1991, more than 10 years after his
death, Guiseppe Conlon, with the rest of the Maguires, was exonerated.
(
Independent 6 December 1991 )
judith ward
Judith
Hard, now aged 43, was released on 11th May 1992 after serving 18 years in
jail. She had been sentenced to life plus 30 years in 1974 after confessing to
have planted the bomb on the M62 coach as a result of which 12 people were killed
and two other bombs at Euston station and Latimer Defence College in
Buckinghamshire.
The most
cursory examination of the evidence which convicted Judy Ward , and that
presented at her appeal, leaves the lingering question of how she could ever
have been charged and found guilty, and why it took so long to secure her
release.
On three
occasions - in 1985, 1987 and 1988 - the Home Office itself carried out, on its
own initiative, secret reviews of the forensic evidence relating to the case.
Why Judy
herself had never sought an appeal or mounted the kind of campaign which
finally freed others ?
Unlike
the " group " cases, Judy had neither political support nor the kind
of extended and dedicated family support that was so vital to the other
campaigns.
Almost
immediately after her conviction IRA bombs exploded in two Birmingham pubs,
killing 21 people and injuring 162.
Her
lawyers advised not to risk an appeal while public outrage was so intense. By
the time the situation calmed, it was too late for a routine appeal.
During
her incarceration, the establishment line was that noisy campaigning only
damaged people's chances of appeal and release and for many long years,
the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six and
Maguire Seven cases certainly seemed to be going nowhere.
In
retrospect, it is clear that keeping your mouth shut only enables the judicial
system to slam the door more firmly on the skeletons in its cupboard.
(
Morning Star 12 May 1992 )
-------------------------------------------
Daily
Telegraph, a right wing daily reported on 5 June :
Formally
quashing her convictions, three appeal judges said the prosecution in a
"most extraordinary case" failed in its basic duty to ensure her a
fair trial.
The
strongest criticism was for the scientists in the Government's Royal Armaments
Research and Development Establishment ( Rarde ), who " took the law into
their own hands" in a concerted effort to keep from the defence key test
results which could have weakened the prosecution case and changed the course
of the trial.
Lord
Justices Glidewell, Nolan and Steyn, in their 139 page ruling, said the
scientists, who produced evidence apparently corroborating Miss Ward's
confessions," became partisan" in their support of the police. They
said in future it should be spelled out " in the clearest terms to
scientists they must " act in the cause of justice "
The
prosecution science witnesses - Douglas Higgs, Walter Elliott ( now dead ) and
George Berryman - "plainly succumbed to the dangers of partisanship."
They "misled both the prosecution and the defence in order to promote a
cause which they had made their own, namely that Miss Ward had been in contact
with nitroglycerine"
The
judges said " the disinclination of the Rarde forensic scientists to
assist the defence " was also a feature of the Maguire Seven case, in
which bomb-making conviction based on scientific evidence were overturned on
appeal.
....Several
cases of key evidence being withheld by prosecution barristers or staff in the
office of the Director of Public Prosecutions were noted.
The
number two on the Ward prosecution team, Peter, now Lord Chief Justice Taylor,
was not named or referred to. But the junior barrister Mr Brian Walsh, now a QC
and judge, was criticised as wholly wrong in drafting a "seriously"
misleading letter to Miss Ward's solicitor about an important police interview
which was passed off as "peripheral"
...Miss
Ward is now known as an attention-seeking fantasist who claimed links with
Republicanism and involvement in IRA activities.
Their
most trenchant criticism was aimed at scientists from Rarde, then based at
Woolwich, south-east London, and now near Seven-oaks, Kent, Lord Justice Steyn
said the fresh scientific evidence given during the appeal had persuaded the
court that the scientific case against Miss Ward was now
"insupportable"
"
For lawyers, jurors and judges, a forensic scientist conjures up the image of a
man in a white coat working in a laboratory....and dedicated only to the
pursuit of scientific truth.
"
The reality is sometimes different. Forensic scientists may become partisan.
The very fact that the police seek their assistance may create a relationship
between the police and forensic scientists.
"
Forensic scientists employed by the government may become to see their function
as helping the police. They may lose their objectivity. That is what must have
happened in this case. "
The head
of the scientific team, Mr Higgs, was accused of "deliberate
falsehood" when he claimed he had forgotten about key tests when he
testified at her trial. He and two others were accused of a "catalogue of
lamentable omissions" and "woefully deficient" disclosure of
evidence.
The
judges said of former Home Office forensic scientist Dr Frank Skuse,
discredited in the Birmingham Six case and not relied on by the Crown in the
Ward Appeal: "If the trial judge had known what we know, he would have
concluded Dr Skuse's evidence was valueless. Dr Skuse's conclusion ( that
nitroglycerine was present under Miss Ward's fingernails ) was wrong and
demonstrably wrong, judged even by the state of forensic science in 1974.
"
Strong
criticism was levelled at West Yorkshire police, the lead force which only
handed over to the DPP 225 out of 1700 statements it took, in contrast to the
Thames Valley and Metropolitan police forces which handed over everything.
"
It must be made clear the course adopted was wholly wrong and led to the
suppression of information which the appellant was entitled to receive.
"
The principle relevance of the statements in question lies in their bearing on
the appellant's proclivities for attention-seeking, fantasy, and the making and
withdrawing of untrue confessions. "
The
three Appeal Court judges singled out several groups for criticism. They were :
west yorkshire police
They
failed to disclose statements in which Ward
* Denied
a claim that she reconnoitred Army HQ in Northern Ireland for the IRA, an
allegation at her trial, on the same day she made the admission.
* Named
a man as responsible for the Euston bombing, with which she was charged.
the dpp's office
It failed
to disclose statements in which she:
*
Falsely claimed in 1972, at the age of 23, to be a 14 year-old girl called
Teresa O'Connell and that she lived an itinerant life in Ireland.
*
Bizarrely drew attention to herself in London six days after the Euston bombing;
in her London hotel room filled with IRA posters, she told a police officer she
had been fingerprinted in Ulster where the RUC could not make a bomb-planting
charge stick.
*
Claimed and then denied she had been gun-running for the IRA, causing an interviewing
officer to conclude she was mentally ill.
* Denied
carrying out IRA activities to leading Scotland Yard officers : the defence was
put off the scent of this interview when it was told in a letter from DPP
lawyer Mr Michael Bibby, on advice from barrister Brian Walsh, that the
discussion had been about "peripheral" matters.
the psychiatrists
Those
who dealt with Ward when she suffered suicidal depression in Riseley remand
centre in 1974 toned down reports on her.
* The
Risley doctor, William Lawson, failed to mention a second suicide attempt and
" astonishingly " said the judges, claimed he did not attach much
significance to it.
* The
extent of her depression, and the fact that she was regarded at one point as
unfit to plead was not disclosed. The defence never knew she had been suicidal
- information which was regarded by the authorities as of potential propaganda
value to the IRA.
* A
report by Dr Lawson, in which he did mention a first suicide attempt but played
down her mental problems, was, the judges thought, sent to the DPP's office as
Dr Lawson said but not then sent to the defence, which was never alerted to
call its own psychiatric evidence.
the scientists
They did
not reveal test results that might have showed:
* That
shoe polish could have distorted results said to show explosives traces.
* That
innocent contamination from explosive debris or a companion was possible. The
judges said the scientists no doubt hoped these would "forever remain
confidential"
*
Discrepancies in some test results in which "very faint" or
"faint" traces were overstated as positive.
-------------------------------------
Evening
Standard, another right wing paper said in it's editorial on 5 June 1992 :
"
By now, after cases such as the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and Maguire
Seven, the details of the prosecution's unlawful and unfair conduct in the
Judith Ward case are depressingly familiar - a confession that was unsound,
forensic evidence that was falsified, material evidence in the defence's favour
that was withheld by the prosecution not only once but many times - in the
court of first instance, in the Court of Appeal and in the subsequent judicial
inquiry. We have seen it all before, and much too often.....
The
significance of the Judith Ward case, however, lies in the Court of Appeal's
insistence that the prosecution must disclose all relevant evidence it holds,
especially evidence that might assist the accused in casting doubt upon the
case against him. Non-disclosure, the Court said, was a potent source of
injustice; the duty to disclose all relevant evidence to help the accused was
not limited to evidence that would obviously advance the accused's case; the
duty of disclosure extended to anything that might arguably assist the defence;
and the duty existed whether or not the defence had made a specific request for
disclosure.......
.... The
police are, of course, under pressure to improve the clear-up rate for crime,
and that means getting more convictions. But from now on it will be the duty of
the prosecution to be fair, and to be seen to be fair, in presenting all the
evidence, especially if some of that evidence might arguably point to the
innocence of the accused. Strongly-worded though the Appeal Court's judgement
is, it does not go far enough; the prosecution should be obliged - and by
statute at that - to disclose all evidence in its possession in its possession.
The Lord Chancellor should bring forward a Bill at once. "
what should we learn?
1. Even
today, in Britain, Police do force the suspects to confess to crimes they did
not commit and yet the Judges and the Juries place explicit belief in the
police.
2.
Judges are thickheaded and just do not see the injustices.
3. The
prosecution hide the evidence which will prove the accused innocent. For
example, the police may have statements from 80 witnesses, but they only pick
up five and ignore others even if they prove the innocence of the accused. The
defence has no access to such statements while the police can keep such
evidence secret for more than 100 years.
4. The
police are under pressure to get results. It does not matter to the public if
any innocent persons are wrongly convicted.
5.
Judges seldom confess their mistakes or say sorry.
6. The
policemen hardly ever get punished. The usual excuses are - It is too late,
peoples' memories fade away, policemen would not get fair hearing because of
the publicity given to the cases in mass media, important witnesses have died.
7.
Police do conspire to pervert the course of justice. They do lie. When one lies
others stick together.
8. The
cases caused uproar only because some persons in authority believed the
innocence of the prisoners.
9.
All these explain why truth does not always come out in courts. Now it should
be easy to follow how historical truth also gets suppressed for a long time for
similar reasons.
10. The
cardinal principle of British Legal system is : they will allow hundred guilty
men go free but not one innocent man shall be sent to prison. Terrifying
thought: so many guilty go free and so many innocent men are convicted. In
his book " Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official " Lt Col
Sleeman remarks in 1844
"
English courts are courts of law, Indian courts used to be courts of justice.
"
Quite
a difference.
5
Racism in Japan
In 1956,
Dr Ambedkar embraced Buddhism. Monks from Japan attended the ceremony. Japan
has been a Buddhist country for centuries. Let us see how they behave. Tom Gill
of Daily Mail reported on 19 October 1990,
5.1
Why Japan is so ruthlessly prejudiced : Land of the rising racist
Japan's
minister of justice, Seiroku Kajiyama was in one of Tokyo's red light districts
recently with a gaggle of Journalists in tow, to observe a police crack-down on
the local prostitutes.
"
Prostitutes really lower the tone " he casually remarked. " It's just
like when blacks move into a white neighbourhood in America and force the white
out "
Kajiyama's
incredibly crass comment caused a predictable uproar among American blacks, who
naturally resent being compared to prostitutes, and the minister was obliged to
make a grovelling apology. The incident had an all too familiar ring to
it...for the fact is that Japanese politicians have a habit of making the sort
of outrageous racist comments that make Nicholas Ridley look like a model of
tact and diplomacy.
Former
prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone has never been forgiven for his 1986 remark
that " the average level of intelligence in the United States is very low
because of all the blacks, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans there. "
...........And
he repeatedly insulted the Ainu, Japan's aborigines, with his Hitlerian claims that the
Japanese were a superior nation because they were a single, pure blooded race.
Then there's Michio Watanbe, a particularly foul-mouthed politician with wide
ministerial experience who, alas, is tipped as a future Japanese prime
minister.
His was
the bizarre claim that black people are financially irresponsible. " They
have no fear of going bankrupt because they know they won't have to pay their
creditors "
......The
problem is especially acute when it comes to black people......The country's
only "blacks" are the 700,000 Koreans living in Japan, many of them
born and bred in the country, the offspring of the slave labour dragooned into
the wartime munitions factories. They have no vote, are heavily discriminated
against and like all foreigners, have to carry ID cards with their
fingerprints. Now that more Asian workers are coming into the country, they too
are getting a taste of Japanese racism.
Last
December the Police Agency had to apologise to the Pakistani Embassy after a
confidential report was leaked which said, " It is absolutely necessary to
wash your hands after questioning Pakistani suspects because many suffer from
contagious skin diseases...Since they have a unique body odour, the detention
rooms will stink."
5.2
Courage of Korean girl who peeled off Japanese disguise
Robert
Whymant reported from Tokyo for Daily
Telegraph on 24 May 1990 : -
FOR MOST
of her 17 years, Kim Tae-ja, from Osaka, hid behind the alias of Yasuko
Nakamura. Then, two years ago, after much heart-searching, she threw aside her
Japanese disguise and reverted to her real, Korean name.
For a
Korean in Japan to announce his or her ethnic origins requires great courage.
Miss
Kim's decision to reveal her true identity will expose her to a lifetime of
discrimination.
But she
decided she could not live a lie all her life, as her mother and father had.
"
My name was Japanese, I speak only Japanese, I know nothing about Korean
culture. In every way I'am Japanese." she said, " The only Korean
thing left to me is my name."
To
underline her pride in her roots, she began a Korean culture study group at
school and appealed to other Koreans hiding behind Japanese names to take part.
None came forward.
Japan is
distrustful of all foreigners, but reserves a special animosity for Koreans.
Most of the 677,000 Koreans use a Japanese name outside their community and try
to pass as Japanese.
Today,
President Roh Tae Woo of South Korea will visit Japan-only the second visit by
a South Korean president.
He will
demand that Japan improve the legal and social status of the Korean population,
two thirds of whom owe allegiance to South Korea, the rest to North Korea.
Though
born and brought up in Japan, and often speaking only Japanese, Koreans are not
eligible to vote or take civil service jobs. Koreans residents report that
landlords refuse to rent to them if they find out that they are not Japanese.
They are
rarely employed by major firms, and most families object strongly to a Korean
marriage partner for their children. Because Koreans are physically
indistinguishable from Japanese, hundreds of private detective agencies do a
brisk business checking whether a prospective spouse, or employee, will
contaminate their customers' bloodline.
No race
relations board exists to protect minority rights.
Only
Japan's estimated three million burakumin, untouchables, are considered a worse
match than a Korean. The burakumin, descendants of an outcast community, are
traditionally engaged in " unclean " occupations, by Shinto and
Buddhist strictures, such as leather work and undertaking.
Japanese-style
apartheid is formalised in the control laws that force lifelong residents to
register as aliens, submit to fingerprinting, and carry an alien's card at all
times.
Should
they seek Japanese citizenship, they must give up their Korean identity, though
one man successfully challenged this rule in the courts.
The
acrimony between the two neighbours goes back centuries. But Japan's "
Korean Problem " today is the immediate legacy of its harsh colonial rule
from 1910 to 1945.
Bitter
memories linger of Emperor Hirohito's order drafting thousands of Korean men
for slave labour in Japan's war industries, while their women were forced into
brothels for Japanese soldiers.
To
smooth the way for President Poh's visit of reconciliation, Japanese agreed to
a modest improvement in the Koreans' status. The most recent generation of
Koreans
and
their descendants will be exempted from the humiliating fingerprinting
requirement, and will be granted permanent residence.
we should note that :-
1. Japan
has not been able to eradicate untouchability. even today. It has 3 million
untouchables, called Burakumins. In addition they also have their aborigines,
called Ainus.
2. Some
700,000 Koreans live in Japan as outcasts even though racially they are akin to
Japanese and also are Buddhists. Still Japanese do not marry Koreans.
3. Dr
Ambedkar and his followers had turned a blind eye to such behaviour of
Buddhists towards Buddhists.
4. Mr
Roh Tae Woo, President of South Korea pleads for Koreans even though they have
been living in Japan for more than 40 years. He did not preach them, " Now
Japan is your country. You should abide by their laws and way of life. You
should not look to Korea for help. I cannot do anything for you. " ( That is what Indian diplomats have been
preaching to Indians since 1947 )
6
Forgive and Forget
6.1
Finns in talks
The
possible return to Finland of the Karelian peninsula, occupied by Stalin's
forces has been discussed at talks between Moscow and Helsinki on renegotiating
the treaty between the two states. (Daily Telegraph 25 September 1991, page 1.
Report on page 11) Note : Finland does not forget the territory it was forced
to secede to Stalin in 1942. Now that communism has collapsed in Russia, they
want their territory back. When will India ask for her territory back from
Pakistan and Bangladesh ? )
6.2
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbour
Michael
Fathers reported for the Independent on 24 October 1991, " When enemies
become tourists "
It is
50 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan cannot recall the incident:
America cannot forget it.
Pearl
Harbor is on one side of the airport. Honolulu and the beach, the main reason
people come here, are a few miles in the other direction. In the morning, when
the jumbo jets fly in from Tokyo, the passengers are put in a bus and usually
dumped on the shore. I say dumped because Pearl Harbor is handy for killing
time. It gives hotels on Waikiki Beach two extra hours to remake rooms for this
week's Japanese tour group after last week's move out.
The
Japanese are taken to a broken iron hulk that was once the battleship Arizona,
with only parts of a gun turret and smoke-stack breaking the water. It was sunk
by Japanese dive bombers in a sneak attack 50 years ago on 7 December 1941. Two
other US warships were lost, 18 were damaged, some beyond repair; 162 aircraft
were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 injured. For Americans,
Pearl Harbor is a place of death and infamy.
The
Japanese who come to Pearl Harbor tend to be young married couples on their
honeymoon, or groups of young men in their twenties whose age would have made
them the pilots of 1941. They have no idea what they are doing at Pearl Harbor,
until perhaps the film begins to roll in the Visitor Centre and planes with red
" meat balls " on their wings and fuselage begin to torpedo, bomb and
strafe the American Pacific Fleet.
" I
suggest you introduce this memorial because we in Japan do not know very much
about Pearl Harbor. " an anonymous man wrote in a survey of Japanese
visitors earlier this year. As was the case in 1941, so is the case in 1991 -
no one in Hawaii knew what the Japanese were thinking. They still don't. Few
Japanese bothered to respond. " I feel very sorry for the US but please
remember Hiroshima " wrote Miss Konaki, as if she did not realise Pearl
Harbor led directly to the atomic bomb. Said another Japanese, " the movie
appeared to favour the Americans. "
Well
they won the war. And they were victims first. And we all know that the
Japanese Education Ministry has rewritten school textbooks to " soften
" the less savoury aspects of Japan's war in the Pacific. After all, the
attack on Pearl Harbor was launched before Japan declared war on the US and
while the two sides were negotiating. But Japan has said it did not plan that
way and clerical bunging prevented the telegram being handed over in Washington
before the attack.
Whatever
the history, the Hawaiian tourist industry knows its market. In all the
guidebooks there is not a single reference to Japan at Pearl Harbor. "
Step back in time 50 years " you are urged. " Board the Arizona
Memorial. Watch actual footage of the attack on that infamous day."
Perhaps the American copywriters are taking their cue from the Education
Ministry in Tokyo. At some one million a year, Japanese make up the biggest
group of foreign visitors to Hawaii. They also own most of the hotels and
restaurants.
The
fudging, however, does not seem to upset the Pearl Harbor veterans who act as
guides at the Arizona Memorial What annoys them more than anything else is that
" 60 per cent to 70 per cent " of "Orientals " fall asleep
during the film. When they wake up or are on the platform above the sunken
Arizona " they are often laughing their heads off. Americans don't like
that one bit. " says Bob Kinzler, 69, a survivor of the Pearl Harbor
attack and now a guide. " The Japanese, and Chinese for that matter - and
even some Europeans - really don't know what this memorial is all about. "
It is
hard today for a foreigner, especially of the post-war generation, to realise
how deeply the scar cuts into the American psyche. Pearl Harbor was a turning point
in American history. It was about deviousness and not being prepared. It took
the US into the Second World War and turned it into a superpower. Presidents,
senators, congressmen and the military have vowed ever since there would never
be another Pearl harbor. And on the 50th anniversary, Americans are being asked
to " contemplate the meaning of this event in our history. "
As a
non-American, when I contemplate Pearl harbor, I think of the Japanese. What
does an American think about? "
This anniversary and commemoration is not directed against Japan. " says a
State Department official. No representative of a foreign government has been
invited to Pearl Harbor on 7 December, especially not members of the former
Allied powers. That would embarrass Japan, Washington's closest ally in the
Pacific.
The 50th
anniversary is thus billed as strictly an American affair. George Bush will be
on the platform above the Arizona - stopping off on his way back from Japan.
Perhaps to reassure Japan that no offence is meant, he will commemorate
Thanksgiving, America's most important festival. He will also have visited
allies such as Singapore and Australia, who want strong US military presence in
the region to counter Japan once more.
Officially,
the Japanese have been forgiven - but only just. They have not been forgotten,
however, especially now that US xenophobia sees another peril in Japan's
economic success and its widespread and commanding penetration of the North American
market.
There is
no mood for reconciliation in Middle America.
"
We didn't invite them then [1941], so why should we invite them now ? says Mr
Kinzler. " Emotions are too deep for diplomacy or compromise. We want to
keep the commemoration on our side because that's the way it happened. "
If the
US navy had its way, the commemoration would be scuttled in favour of
celebration to mark victory in the Battle of Midway seven months later. From
then on, it was all downhill for Japan. America's servicemen don't like to
be reminded of defeat. Pearl Harbor does just that. But Pearl Harbor is
bigger than the navy. It is an American symbol that no one wants to give up or,
more important, to share.
Terry
McCarthy reported from Tokyo for the Independent on 6 December 1991 :-
The
scars of Pearl Harbor that will not heal
Fifty
years after Japanese planes began their dive-bombing runs on the US Pacific
Force in Pearl Harbor, the scars refuse to heal in the US and Japan continues
to treat the war as embarrassing diplomatic faux-pax best forgotten.
Japanese
parliament was widely reported to be preparing an apology for the attack to
mark tomorrow's 50th anniversary but yesterday it seemed that was in serious
doubt. Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and opposition
parties could not agree on the wording of the resolution containing the
apology. " It looks very unlikely that a resolution can be passed. "
said one Socialist Party official.
The
Kyodo news agency reported that the LDP hardened its objection to an apology
after President George Bush ruled out a suggestion that Washington should
apologise for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. "
What is the meaning of issuing a resolution when Bush has said that the
use of the atom bomb was justified to end the war? " it quoted an
unidentified senior LDP official as saying.
Americans
though, still feel they owed an apology, " Damn right, they should
apologise. They started it (the war) " said Andy Fetzko, a 74 year old
army veteran who survived a Japanese strafing attack on the nearby Schofield
Barracks.
Throwing
fuel on this fire, and just in time for tomorrow's anniversary, historians are
producing a whole new crop of conspiracy theories about this attack.
In
" Betrayal at Pearl Harbor " How Churchill lured Roosevelt into the
War, James Rushbridger and Eric Nave argue that Winston Churchill already knew
that the Japanese fleet was steaming towards Hawaii to bomb Pearl Harbor,
because British intelligence had managed to decipher a Japanese military code.
But he hid this from President Franklin Roosevelt, the book claims, to make
sure the attack went ahead and the US would enter the war
"
Betrayal at Pearl Harbor ", which the British Government tried to block
under the Official Secrets Act, presents one of the more intriguing of a whole
series of conspiracy theories and historical re-evaluation that have been
released or reprocessed this year. Another theory suggests that Roosevelt
himself knew in advance, but concealed this from the American people. A US
author published a book this year arguing that the whole Japanese strategy of a
surprise attack on the US fleet had been borrowed from a speculative book
called The Great Pacific War, written in 1925 by a British journalist.
Far from
clarifying the events, the new material seems only to have added to the
confusion and deep emotion surrounding the event.
In
Japan, a different type of confusion reigns; was Pearl Harbor a dishonourable
sneak attack or a masterly coup ? The Japanese Foreign Ministry maintains that
the declaration of war meant to be delivered minutes before the planes began
their bombing, but that a bureaucratic mix-up in the embassy in Washington was
responsible for the delay. None the less, in one of the few conciliatory
gestures in the midst of a minefield of recriminations, Taizo Watanabe, the
Foreign Ministry spokesman, admitted on Tuesday that Japan " definitely "
violated international law with its attack on Pearl Harbor.
But
there is still no consensus in Japan on whether the Japanese government should
apologise. Many Japanese commentators still argue that the US forced Japanese
into the war by cutting off its oil supplies. " It will take decades or
even centuries before the correct judgement is delivered on who is responsible
for the war " Nobuo Ishihara, deputy chief cabinet secretary, said earlier
this year, inspiring howls of protest from the US.
we should note that :-
1.
Japanese form the biggest group of tourists to Hawaii. As much as Americans
hate the Japanese they cannot ignore the practical realities. Americans cannot
afford to offend the Japanese. The guidebooks avoid mention of Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbour. The remembrance day was therefore kept as an U.S affair.
(i.e. others were not invited. )
2. After
the Pearl Harbour disaster, Americans have learnt their lesson. They have vowed
that there would never be another Pearl Harbour.
3.
Americans would not apologise for dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, therefore even the most left wing Japanese politicians refused to
apologise for the attack on Pearl Harbour. President Bush justified dropping
atom bombs because it saved American lives. We must realise that for Americans
their interests always come first. In 1970-72 Lt. Kelly was convicted of Me Lai
massacre in Vietnam. But the judges refused to sentence him saying, " the
crime was not committed on U.S soil and the victims were non-Americans. "
4. It is
possible that Churchill knew of Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbour, but kept
quiet. After all he desperately wanted the U.S to join in World War II. The aid
Roosevelt was giving secretly to Britain was not enough. It is equally possible
that even Roosevelt kept the information secret himself. He wanted U.S to join
in the war but public opinion was strongly against it.
There
has always been a suspicion that the British sank the U.S ship s.s Lusitania
and blamed it on the Germans and forced U.S to join in World War I.
Churchill
himself had initially ordered bombardment of civilian targets in Germany to
attract strong retaliatory bombing of British cities by the Germans. That was
necessary for preparing the British people to the war effort and end the "
phony war. " After all, Churchill and Roosevelt were not descendants of
Dharmaraj.
7
Things they will not tell you
We
always form our opinion from what we see on TV or read in the newspapers. There
are many things which are hidden from the viewers/readers. We intend to tell
some such examples.
At the
time of Diwali 1988, Ravindra Ghule and Yuvaraj Ohol, two youngsters from
Ghorpadi, Pune arrived in London. They had travelled on their bicycles from
India. They were surprised to find that they were given lukewarm reception by
the Maharashtrians, who were having a Diwali dinner. They found shelter food
and accommodation in the Gurudwaras. The Sikhs appreciated their spirit and
admired their venture. They collected money for the two and eventually sent
them to America. Sikhs told them that their quarrel is with politicians not
with Hindus of any province.
8
Indian Freedom Fighters abroad
From the
copy of the Indian War of Independence 1857, kept in the India Office Library
we know that the book was available in USA from - F H Publication Co.
749 Third Avenue
New York
or from
B R Cama, 25 Rue de Ponthien Paris.
The book
reference no. in the I.O.L is T 16722.