Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Monday, March 11, 2024

Monday, March 11, 1974. The Obstinate

Imperial Japanese Army Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda formally in the Philippines.  He had been recently informed by his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, that the war was over.


Originally part of a party of four such soldiers, one who abandoned the group in 1949 to surrender, they carried out guerilla raids which ultimately reduced Onoda to the sole survivor.  Their ongoing obstinacy was frankly irrational as well as deadly.

He found post-war Japan disappointing and became a cattle rancher in Brazil.

Contrary to popular belief, he was not the last Japanese soldier still holding out.  At least one more, Teruo Nakamura, who was Taiwanese, was in Indonesia.  He was actually a private and of native Taiwanese background, with a poor command of Japanese and Chinese.  He'd be captured in December 1974.  Another, Fumio Nakahara, may have been holding out in the Philippines as late as 1980, although that has never been determined.

A ceasefire between Iraq and the Kurdish Democratic Party was subject to an ultimatum, which provided that Kurdistan could be autonomous.  The offer would expire without acceptance, and a renewed war resumed.

The United Kingdom tended its Oil Embargo related state of emergency.

Last prior:

Friday, March 8, 1974. Exit Brady Bunch

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Monday, February 21, 1944. Eniwetok secured, Japanese staff changes.

Today in World War II History—February 21, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Feb. 21, 1944: US secures Eniwetok Island in Eniwetok Atoll, and lands on and takes 7 other islands in the atoll.

Sarah Sundin's blog.

The islands had been fiercely defended by the Japanese. 

On the same day, Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo became the Chief of Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army in addition to his political role..  Admiral Shimada replaced Admiral Nagano as Chief of Staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Japanese resistance on the Green Islands ends.

It was Day Two of the Big Week.


US crewed German anti tank gun, Cisterna, Italy.  February 21, 1944.

Churchill informed Stalin that the Polish government in exile would accept the Curzon Line and that they would cooperate in the future with the USSR, but Stalin remained recalcitrant.

On the same day, the Red Army took Soltsy and Kholm.

Lt. Col. Henry G. Leanard Jr. explaining assault tactics to visiting Russian naval officers at the U.S. Assault Training Center. February 21, 1944.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Wars and Rumors of War, 2024. Part I. New Year, last year's wars.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

Matthew, Chapter 24.


Only the dead have seen the end of the war.

George Santayana

January 1, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

This major war is now in its third calendar year.

Hamas Israeli War

The Prime Minister of Israel has stated that this campaign will carry on for many months.

An Israeli airstrike killed 35 in Gaza.

The U.S. Navy sunk three Houthi boats attempting to attack a merchant vessel.

Venezuela v Guyana border dispute.

Venezuela is conducting a joint arms exercise in response to the Royal Navy dispatching a ship to Guyana.

January 2, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

A change in Norwegian law allows Norwegian arms manufacturers to sell arms directly to Ukraine.

How much of a defense industry Norway has, of course, is another matter.

January 3, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

An Israeli airstrike sent Saleh Arouri to the next world, where he will have to make an account for his actions.  An Islamic radical his entire life, he was the founder of Hamas' military wing.  

He went to his end in Beirut.

From ISW:

Israeli forces are transitioning to the third phase of their operations in the northern Gaza Strip, which will very likely enable Hamas to reconstitute itself militarily. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it withdrew five brigades from the northern Gaza Strip on December 31. This reduction in forces is part of what the IDF has described as its third phase in the strip, which also involves ending major combat operations, releasing reservists, transitioning to “targeted raids,” and establishing a security buffer zone within the Gaza Strip.

January 4, 2024

US/Mexico Border Crisis

The Justice Department has sued Texas on over a new law that would allow Texas police to arrest illegal immigrants on the basis of their illegality. 

My prediction is that this suit will likely fail.

Hamas Israeli War

Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel that launching a full-scale war on Lebanon Islamist targets would be "very costly," and that the assassination of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut would not go unpunished.

Sort of in the D'uh category.

Cont:

Islamic State v. Iran

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran.  The attack occured during a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.  The Sunni group regards Shiites, which most Iranians are, with Iran being a Shiite theocracy, as apostates.

January 5, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Putin signed a decree signed speeding up citizenship for foreigners enlisting in the Russian army.

Somalian Civil War

From ISW: 

Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with the de facto independent Somaliland Republic, a breakaway region of Somalia, to lease a naval port that will give it Red Sea access in exchange for formally recognizing Somaliland.

January 7, 2024

The Korean Conflict

North Korea issued one of its threatening proclamations through Communist princess Kim Yo Jong.

These are moronic, as without China, and North Korea cannot really depend on China, South Korea would be eliminated as an entity in the event of war.

South Korea may soon not be able to fill its conscript levies due to a declining population.

Russo Ukrainian War

Japan's foreign minister visited Ukraine.

Russia seems to have resumed its strategy of attempting localized offensives that degrade its own forces.

The Ukrainians have been conducting a drone offensive against targets in Crimea.

January 9, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

News reports hold that Russia has deployed 35,000 men of the Russian National Guard, some equipped with World War Two vintage rifles, to occupied regions of Ukraine as security forces.

January 10, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

Anthony Blinken has indicated the US rejects the concept of resettling the Gazan Levantines from that area even though, of course, its an untenable ghetto. 

Iran v. The West

Iranian backed Houthis launched 50 drones at shipping today, all of which were shot down by the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy.

Iran is using the current Hamas Israeli War as a pretext to try to advance its interest in the region.

January 11, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

The US and UK hit targets with missiles inside of Yemen, from which Houthi drone strikes have been coming. A Houthi spokesman actually complained about it.

January 12, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

From ISW:

Mexican Border Crisis.

The State of Texas, using the Texas National Guard, has seized Shelby Park in Eagle Pass in order to prevent Federal authorities from processing migrants.

January 13, 2024

Hamas Israeli War.

The US struck Houthi targets again yesterday.

Turkey v. Kurds

Turkish air raids struck Kurdish militant targets in Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil in northern Iraq. This was in retaliation for a Kurdish attack on a Turkish base in Iraq.

January 16, 2024

Iran v Everyone

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missile attacks in Syria and in Iraq’s Kurdistan region yesterday.

Korean Conflict

The North Korean Communist Clown state announced it is no longer pursuing reconciliation with South Korea, which actually dovetails nicely with general younger South Korean desires.

There's speculation on why this was announced, but in reality, any reunion between the countries at this point makes the ongoing Communist monarchy in North Korean irrelevant in every fashion so quickly, it isn't funny.

January 17, 2024

Hamas Israeli War/Iran v Everyone

The US is placing the Houthi's back on the terrorist list.

Iran v. Everyone

Iran conducted missile strikes on a Sunni militia site in Pakistan.

January 18, 2024

Hamas Israeli War/Iran v Everyone

The US conducted a fourth round of strikes on the Houthis.

Pakistan v. Baloch militants.

Pakistan conducted strikes inside Iran against Baloch militants.

January 20, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

The Estonian state will not extend the residence permit of the head of the Estonian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church in Estonia) of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Yevgeniy, whose civil name is Valeri Reshetnikov, because his activities are a security threat to Estonia

Estonian government.

Cont:

The Middle East

Somebody (probably Israel) hit Iranian Revolutionary Guard figures inside of Syria.  In turn, US sites in Iraq were hit.by Iranian backed militia's.

Iran is the common thread here. 

January 21, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a two state solution for Gaza.

This is widely seen as a terrible thing to have done, but frankly, Gaza isn't viable as an isolated political unit and always has depended on economic support from the outside to get by. Geographically, it should be part of Israel or Egypt, and that's a simple economic and topographic fact.  It shouldn't be part of another state.

For that matter, a Palestinian state makes little to no sense.  It would be minute.

Those are the rough, real facts to deal with.  Levantines that live within the borders of what had been pre-1948 Palestine either have to live within Israel, realistically, or be relocated in some instances to an Arab state that could host them, none of which are willing to do it.

Russo Ukrainian War

President Zylenskyy expressed concerns about remarks made by Donald Trump regarding securing peace.

Concern is warranted given Trump's admiration for dictators and his increasingly erratic if not demented behavior.

January 22, 2024

China v. Taiwan

Recent statements by GOP candidate Donald Trump have risen concerns that his commitment to Taiwan, which has been a GOP hallmark, is low.  

FWIW, Trump raised Taiwanese semiconductor production as something the US should have done something about, seemingly failing to grasp that if it falls to China, we're in a world of semiconductor hurt.

On one of the weekend shows, it was recently revealed that Trump has a gigantic exaggerated fear of nuclear war.  He also clearly has a thing for strongmen.

January 23, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

Numerous nations are lining up against Israel and demanding a Palestinian state be part of a peace package, even though such a state, if within the boundaries of the former Palestinian mandate, would not be economically viable.  

Saudi Arabia, with a large landmass and a labor deficit, has stated it will not normalize relations with Israel unless a Palestinian state is created.

British and American forces hit Houthi ones again.

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine conducted successful drone strikes against targets in Leningrad and Tula oblasts.

Boarder Crisis

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Federal agents to remove razor wire on the Texas/Mexico border, but it is merely a ruling on a temporary injunction, so the actual ruling, in terms of the issues, means next to nothing whatsoever.

January 24, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Due to political infighting, the US is out of funding for Ukraine and the pipeline is therefore shut.

January 25, 2024

Hamas Israeli War

From ISW:

Israel proposed a two-month pause in fighting in exchange for Hamas releasing over several phases the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip. The first phase would have Hamas return women, men over 60 years old, and hostages in critical medical condition. Israeli media reported that the "next phases" would include the release of female IDF soldiers, civilian males under the age of 60, Israeli male soldiers, and the bodies of hostages. An anonymous Israeli official told an Israeli journalist that the proposal includes redeploying the IDF out of main population centers in the Gaza Strip to allow Palestinian civilians to return to these areas. The official added that this proposal does not include the release of all 6,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

This would be a major concession from Israel, but it doesn't seem to have generated much news.

Russo Ukrainian War

A Russian Il-76 military transporting Ukrainian POWs for an exchange crashed in Yablonovo, Belgorod Oblast. The Russians have accused Ukraine of shooting it down.

Patriarch Krill urged the Russian government to extend the draft deferment for fathers, now set at fathers with four children, down to father's with three, out of concern for the declining Russian population.

Slovakia, whose current government is close to Putin, pleadged support for the integrity of Ukraine's internationally recognized borders.

Middle East

Houthi's attempted to attack U.S. Navy escorts with ballistic missiles unsuccessfully.

US/Mexico Border

An attempt in Congress to get a bill passed to address the border is stalled with Donald Trump now entering the picture, opposing it, something that is hard not to be quite skeptical about.

This will messs up aid to Ukraine as well.

January 27, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

US/Mexico Border

January 27, 2024

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson declared that a budget measure that the Senate did pass providing aid to Ukraine and addressing the US/Mexico border may be dead on arrival at the House.

Trump appears to wish to preserve the border issues, and a second of today's GOP opposes aid to Ukraine.  An unresolved weirdness of populist and Putin, acquired from Trump, remains unresolved.

Also:

Governor Gordon Supports Texas’ Right to Secure its Border

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Gordon has issued a statement in support of border security Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas’ constitutional right to defend and protect itself in the face of the crisis at the southern border.

“I remain committed to a secure border, and to supporting states struggling with the ongoing security crisis along our southern border. That’s why Wyoming has offered resources and committed them to this effort, most recently responding to Governor Greg Abbott's  Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) request for law enforcement officers. I recognize the importance of secure borders and the vulnerabilities that a lack of resolve to securing those borders has brought to our country.

Secure borders prevent criminals and deadly drugs like fentanyl from entering our country and making their way to Wyoming. Wyoming stands in solidarity with Governor Abbott and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy to secure the border and protect American citizens. We are all border states now.”

Governor Gordon was also one of 25 Governors who signed a joint statement in support of Texas Governor Abbott and Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense.

Related to this, Denver Colorado reports it has an illegal/refugee populaton of 40,000.

Middle East

The Houthi's hit and set on faire an oil tanker.

China v The West

China’s intelligence agency has warned the Chinese to beware of “exotic beauties” who they fear are opserating as honey traps.

Intersingly, honey traps were a favorite Communist tactic for gathering intelligence.

Hamas Israeli War

Numerous Western countries have suspended contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, after it was learned that twelve of its members particpated in the Hamas attacks on Israel.

January 28, 2024

Picking up where we left off yesterday:

Hamas Israeli War

Numerous Western countries have suspended contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, after it was learned that twelve of its members particpated in the Hamas attacks on Israel.

The agency's head warns that UNRWA is collapsing given that nine countries have withdrawn from it and famine looms.

This is a tragedy, but it also tells us something about the UN and th total lack of viability of the Palestinian Authority's territorial regions, although of course a war is on.

Clearly, something needs to be done. That something, requires new oversight, and some hard decisions that nobody wants to make.

January 29, 2024

The Middle East

Three American troops were killed and more injured by an Iranian backed militia drone strike on a US base in Jordan.  The base is near the border with Jordan.

I was unaware we had any bases in Jordan.

January 31, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

The Russians have launched an offensive in the Kharkiv-Luhansk Oblast

Last Prior Edition:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part XII. γλυκύ δ᾽ἀπείρῳ πόλεμος. πεπειραμένων δέ τις ταρβεῖ προσιόντα νιν καρδία περισσῶς.

Friday, December 1, 2023

Wednesday, December 1, 1943. The Tehran Conference concludes.

The Tehran Conference concluded.  The results of the conference were far-reaching.

2023 Russian stamp commemorating the Tehran Conference. Russia has good reason to celebrate its results.

Politically, the British and Soviets decided in the Curzon Line as the eastern border of Poland and the Oder-Nesse Line as the western border.  Roosevelt excluded himself from the Polish border question, as he feared that adjusting Poland's borders would have a negative impact on his chance in the 1944 Presidential Election.

Adjusting the border guaranteed that large numbers of people would be forcibly relocated.

An agreement was reached that the Baltic States would not rejoin the Soviet Union until after the citizens of those countries voted on the question.  Stalin would not agree to international supervision of such an election.

The Soviet Union agreed to join the war against the Japaneses upon the conclusion of the war in Europe.

The parties agreed to support Yugoslav Partisans, who were largely Communist.

The parties agreed to try to get Turkey to enter the war.

Operation Overlord was agreed to be launched in May, 1944, together with Operation Dragoon and Operation Bagration.

All in all, it was the Soviet Union that came out on top in the conference.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Thursday, November 22, 1973. Oily shifting sands and tides.

Japan, which had not yet come under the Arab oil embargo, dropped its support for Israel and joined the United Nations in calling for a separate Palestinian state.  In doing so, it was seeking to avoid the oil sanction.


Saudi Arabia warned the US that it would reduce oil production by 80% if the US did not stop supporting Israel, and that the country would destroy its oil wells if attacked.

Friday, November 10, 2023

Saturday, November 10, 1923. The loyal dog Hachikō (ハチ公).


Hachikō (ハチ公) an Akita, was born. The dog would return daily to wait for his deceased owner to return from work for over nine years, living to be eleven years old.

The Saturday magazines were on the stand.

Former President Woodrow Wilson condemned the U.S. isolationist policy as "cowardly and dishonorable" in a radio address.

Crown Prince Wilhelm of German returned to Germany from the Netherlands.


Ludendorff was released on parole, demonstrating one of the problems Weimar Germany had with suppressing anti-democratic uprisings. . . the tendency to let those on the right, go.

Monday, November 6, 2023

Saturday, November 6, 1943. The Red Army retakes Kiev


Today in World War II History—November 6, 1943: Hitler names Field Marshal Albert Kesselring commander of all German forces in Italy. Submarine USS Pampanito is commissioned at Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH.
Sarah Sundin.

The Pampanito is now in San Francisco and may be toured.  Well worth doing.

The Red Army took Kiev.  Most of the German forces successfully withdrew and avoided capture.

The Greater East Asia Conference, a conference of Japan and its puppet states, concluded and issues a final declaration, which stated:
It is the basic principle for the establishment of world peace that the nations of the world have each its proper place, and enjoy prosperity in common through mutual aid and assistance.

The United States of America and the British Empire have in seeking their own prosperity oppressed other nations and peoples. Especially in East Asia, they indulged in insatiable aggression and exploitation, and sought to satisfy their inordinate ambition of enslaving the entire region, and finally they came to menace seriously the stability of East Asia. Herein lies the cause of the recent war. The countries of Greater East Asia, with a view to contributing to the cause of world peace, undertake to cooperate toward prosecuting the War of Greater East Asia to a successful conclusion, liberating their region from the yoke of British-American domination, and ensuring their self-existence and self-defense, and in constructing a Greater East Asia in accordance with the following principles:

The countries of Greater East Asia through mutual cooperation will ensure the stability of their region and construct an order of common prosperity and well-being based upon justice.
The countries of Greater East Asia will ensure the fraternity of nations in their region, by respecting one another's sovereignty and independence and practicing mutual assistance and amity.
The countries of Greater East Asia by respecting one another's traditions and developing the creative faculties of each race, will enhance the culture and civilization of Greater East Asia.
The countries of Greater East Asia will endeavor to accelerate their economic development through close cooperation upon a basis of reciprocity and to promote thereby the general prosperity of their region.
The countries of Greater East Asia will cultivate friendly relations with all the countries of the world, and work for the abolition of racial discrimination, the promotion of cultural intercourse and the opening of resources throughout the world, and contribute thereby to the progress of mankind.
This entity issuing anything at this point is somewhat surreal, as Japanese fortunes had clearly turned in the war and they were obviously losing.

The participating entities were Japan, Manchukuo; The "Reorganized National Government of China" governed from Nanjing, the Kingdom of Thailand; the State of Burma; and the Second Philippine Republic.  Only Thailand was really independent.

The USS Beatty was torpedoed off of Algeria by Junkers Ju 88, resulting in its sinking.   The U-226 and U842 were sunk by the Royal Navy in the Atlantic.

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Thursday, November 4, 1943. Island hopping.

 A seaplane tender in Aleutian waters trains a 40mm battery on an unidentified aircraft, November 4, 1943.

The U.S. War Department concluded that attacking Japan from mainland China was impracticable.  Therefore, the island strategy was solidly recommended.

An uprising broke out at the Szebnie concentration camp in Poland following the execution of over 1,000 of its prisoners. The SS rapidly suppressed it and the inmates are shipped to Auschwitz.

The Red Army broke out of its Dniepr bridgeheads.

A newly arrived Japanese Imperial Navy task force consisting of ten cruisers and ten destroyers is spotted by the U.S. Navy near Rabaul resulting in Task Force 38 preparing to strike it from the air.

The Allies achieve full lateral communications through Isernia in Italy.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—November 4, 1943: Plutonium processing plant opens at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for atomic bomb development as the X-10 graphite reactor reaches criticality.

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Wednesday, October 21, 1943. Indian declaration.


The Provisional Government of Azad Hind ("Free India") was declared with Subhas Chandra as president.  Its territory, such as it was, were those portions of Indian occupied by Japan.

It immediately declared it was entering the war on the Japanese side, an example of really not grasping the direction things were headed in, and in fact already well advanced towards.

On the same day, Japan began drafting high school and university students.

The Germans began liquidating the Minsk Ghetto as they were retreating from Belarus.

The RAF made a highly destructive raid on Kassel.

Algerian Jews, 140,000 in number were restored French citizenship, which had been restricted, along with the same for Algerian Arabs, on March 17, 1942 by Gen. Henri Giraud.  Arabs had to apply for restoration of their French citizenship.

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Monday, October 18, 1943. Jewish Romans transported to Auschwitz.

Germany transported Roman Jews to Auschwitz.   Rome had one of the oldest Jewish populations in Europe.

Japan transferred four provinces of British Malaya to its ally Thailand.

Perry Mason was broadcast on the CBS Radio Network for the first time.  It would run until December 20, 1955.

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Sunday, October 17, 1943. The Burma Railway completed.

The German surface raider Michel was torpedoed and sunk off of Japan by the USS Tarpon.  On the same day the German's lost the U-540, U-631 and U-841 in the Atlantic.

The Burma Railway, constructed with Asian slave labor and Allied POWs, was completed.

Tamils working on the bridge.

The railway may be best remembered today due to the fairly inaccurate movie, The Bridge On the River Kwai, which is nonetheless a great movie.

POW illustration of the construction of Bridge 227 across the Kwai.

A second concrete bridge replaced the original wooden bridge shortly after its construction. It was destroyed by the RAF in February 1945.  Shortly after the war, most of the original railway was dismantled and only the original 81 miles remains in use.

The Third Moscow Conference begins.


It would begin to work on the post-war world.

Chicago began running its subway for the first time.

Monday, October 16, 2023

Saturday, October 16, 1943. Arrest of Roman Jews.

German police arrested 1,259 Jews in Rome. 252 were subsequently released.  Unlike in France, the Germans did not attempt to use Italian police, as they were deemed unreliable.

News of the impending arrest had caused many others to previously take refuge with non-Jewish friends or in Catholic churches and institutions.

Approximately 1500 people from the US and 1500 people from Japan were at the start of a repatriation process as the  MS Gripsholm and theTeia Maru, docked alongside of each other at the Portuguese Indian port of Mormugao.

The U-470, U-533, U-844 and U-964 were  sunk.

The B-25D 'Red Wrath' of the 498th 'Falcons' Bomb Squadron, 345th 'Air Apaches' Bomb Group bombing Japanese anti-aircraft sites, Wewak & Boram, New Guinea, October 16, 1943.

Today in World War II History—October 16, 1943: After transfer from Italy, US Ninth Air Force is re-formed as a tactical force at Sunninghill, England, under Lt. Gen. Lewis Brereton . . . 

From Sarah Sundin's blog, which also includes a variety of other interesting events not noted here.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Saturday, October 13, 2023. Our Lady of Akita.

The Virgin Mary appears to Sr. Agnes Sasagawa at Akita, Japan, for the third and final time, telling her:

My dear daughter, listen well to what I have to say to you. You will inform your superior

.As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them.

With courage, speak to your superior. He will know how to encourage each one of you to pray and to accomplish works of reparation.

It is Bishop Ito, who directs your community.

You have still something to ask? Today is the last time that I will speak to you in living voice. From now on you will obey the one sent to you and your superior.

Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.

The prior two messages were:

July 6, 1973

My daughter, my novice, you have obeyed me well in abandoning all to follow me. Is the infirmity of your ears painful? Your deafness will be healed, be sure. Does the wound of your hand cause you to suffer? Pray in reparation for the sins of men. Each person in this community is my irreplaceable daughter. Do you say well the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist? Then, let us pray it together."

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, truly present in Holy Eucharist, I consecrate my body and soul to be entirely one with Your Heart, being sacrificed at every instant on all the altars of the world and giving praise to the Father pleading for the coming of His Kingdom.

Please receive this humble offering of myself. Use me as You will for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.

"Most holy Mother of God, never let me be separated from Your Divine Son. Please defend and protect me as Your Special Child. Amen.

When the prayer was finished, the Heavenly Voice said: "Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests. Since your Baptism you have always prayed faithfully for them. Continue to pray very much...very much. Tell your superior all that passed today and obey him in everything that he will tell you. He has asked that you pray with fervor.

August 3, 1973

My daughter, my novice, do you love the Lord? If you love the Lord, listen to what I have to say to you.

It is very important...You will convey it to your superior.

Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates.

In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. With my Son I have intervened so many times to appease the wrath of the Father. I have prevented the coming of calamities by offering Him the sufferings of the Son on the Cross, His Precious Blood, and beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father's anger. I desire this also from your community...that it love poverty, that it sanctify itself and pray in reparation for the ingratitude and outrages of so many men.

Recite the prayer of the Handmaids of the Eucharist with awareness of its meaning; put it into practice; offer in reparation (whatever God may send) for sins. Let each one endeavor, according to capacity and position, to offer herself entirely to the Lord.

Even in a secular institute prayer is necessary. Already souls who wish to pray are on the way to being gathered together. Without attaching to much attention to the form, be faithful and fervent in prayer to console the Master."Is what you think in your heart true? Are you truly decided to become the rejected stone? My novice, you who wish to belong without reserve to the Lord, to become the spouse worthy of the Spouse, make your vows knowing that you must be fastened to the Cross with three nails. These three nails are poverty, chastity, and obedience. Of the three, obedience is the foundation. In total abandon, let yourself be led by your superior. He will know how to understand you and to direct you.

A solid theological opinion, such as held by such as Jimmy Akin, is that messages from the Virgin Mary, when they occur (and no Catholic is obligated to regard them as genuine), are specific for their time.  He feels, in this instance, that the warning from Our Lady pertained to the period in issue.

The message, however, has been getting a lot of attention recently, in part due to the Synod.  It's the following line that such people are focused on:

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

Am I adopting this view?  No, I'm not adopting any view at all. But I will note that the rapid expression of moral laxity that some clerics, including Bishops and Cardinals, are now expressing, is distressing.  It tends to fly in the face of human experience, and I'd argue evolutionary biology, as well as seemingly the long standing positions of the Church, dating back to St. Paul. 

Sr. Agnes Sasagawa remains alive fifity years later.

On the same day, everyone on board Aeroflot Flight 964 was killed with the Tu-104 crashed on its approach at Moscow.  Aeroflot is the world's most dangerous major airline.

Gordie How was joined by his sons Marty and Mark for the Houston Aeros opening World Hockey Association match against the Los Angeles Sharks, the first time father and sons had played in that fashion.

Monday, October 2, 2023

Saturday, October 2, 1943. Japan extends conscription to university students.


The Japanese government ended the student deferment for conscription.

I am surprised to learn, frankly, that they had been deferred.

Japan had 45 universities and other additional institutions of higher education at the start of the war, and the number actually expanded during it.  The university system itself only extended back to 1877, to this was quite an expansion over a short period of time.

The Second Battle of Smolensk ended in a victory for the Red Army.

The Soviets gave Romanian POWs the choice of joining a Soviet formed Romanian division or remaining POWs.

Sweden issued a proclamation welcoming Danish refugees.  Sarah Sundin notes on her blog:

Today in World War II History—October 2, 1943: During the night of Oct. 1-2, the Nazis arrest Danish Jews, but most are in hiding, and only 284 are arrested.

The German governor of Poland Hans Frank created a court staffed by the Gestapo, which was authorized to carry out sentences immediately.  

The Australians took Finschafen, New Guinea.

The U.S. 6th Corps took Benevento, Italy.  The British 78th Division crossed the Biferno.  British commandos occupied Termoli.

Friday, September 22, 2023

Wednesday, September 23, 1943. State of Emergency

It was day two of Operation Source.

It would take until March, 1944, to repair the Tirpitz.

Having commenced killing surrendered Italian soldiers at Cephalonia the day prior, the Germans started killing Jews, both Italians and non Italians, at Lake Maggiore.

On the same day, over the recommendation of local administrator, Gestapo member Werner Best, Hitler approved the planned deportation of Danish Jews, to commence on October 2.  As earlier noted, the actions of the Danish underground, combined with a local diplomat providing them information, frustrated this effort and most escaped to Sweden.

Best would be convicted of war crimes after the war and serve a prison sentence.

The German Governor General of Belarus was assassinated by his maid, a secret Soviet partisan, who placed a bomb in his bedroom.

Japanese Prime Minister Tojo declared a state of emergency.  Plans were made for the evacuation of Tokyo.

The Huon Peninsula Campaign began on New Guinea with the US and Australian landing at Scarlet Beach.


As part of the offensive, the Battle of Finschhafen began between Australian and Japanese forces, following the Australian landing at Katika.

The Red Army took Anapa in the Kuban Peninsula, and Novomoskovosk. 

Toni Basel, popular in the 1980s, was born.  This is an odd thought as it means that her teen pop hit came when she was well past the age that it normally would.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Sunday, September 16, 1923. The Amakasu Incident.

Prominent anarchists, Sakae Ōsugi and Noe Itō, his wife and Sakae's 6-year-old nephew Munekazu Tachibana, were beaten to death by the Kenpeitai, under the command of Masahiko Amakasu. The bodies were then thrown into a well in what would become the Amakasu Incident.

The soldiers responsible were court-martialed, with their defense being impromptu national defense.  The convicted defendants received relatively light sentences.

Oklahoma was clamping down on the KKK.



 

Saturday, September 2, 2023

Sunday, September 2, 1923. Japanese Choas

Admiral Yamamoto Gonnohyōe was installed as Prime Minister of Japan for the second in the wake of the death of Katō Tomosaburō, who had died on August 24.

The Kantō Massacre (関東大虐殺) of non-Japanese minorities began in Japan in the aftermath of the earthquake of hte prior day. Vigilantes targeted Korean on the island of Honshu, at first with the encouragement of local police, and then with the participation of police and the Imperial Japanese Army. Approximately 6,000 people of Korean, Chinese or Ryukyuan descent were killed following rumors that minorities were seeking to overthrow the Japanese government during the chaos following the earthquake.  The violence would continue through the 16th with the Army turning on left wing groups.


100,000 German nationalist gathered in Nuremberg for "German Day", comm orating the German victory over the French at Sedan in the Franco Prussian War.  In Stuttgart, German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann suggested that passive resistance to French occupation should end.

Friday, September 1, 2023

Saturday, September 1, 1923. The Great Kantō Earthquake (関東大地震).

An earthquake struck Tokyo, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, that killed over 120,000 people.

Much of that would have been due to construction conditions. 

Nihonbashi and Kanda seen from the roof of Dai-ichi Sogo building.


President Coolidge sent a message to the Emperor of Japan as a result of the earthquake

Washington, September 1, 1923.
At the moment when the news of the great disaster which has befallen the people of Japan is being received I am moved to offer you in my own name and in that of the American people the most heartfelt sympathy and to express to your Majesty my sincere desire to be of any possible assistance in alleviating the terrible suffering to your people.

Calvin Coolidge

The League of Nations met to discuss Italian aggression at Corfu.  Italy let the League know that it would ignore the League.

Rocco Marchegiano, better known as Rocky Marcianao, was born in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Monday, August 28, 2023

Tuesday, August 27, 1923. 37 Hours.

Former Governor of Pennsylvania, William Cameron Sproul, opined that Prohibition helped kill William G. Harding, noting:

He was accustomed to an occasional drink of scotch. I was his personal friend and I know, and in that laborious task of a trip to Alaska, I'm sure he missed it.

U.S. Army pilots Lowell Smith and John Richter broke an aviation endurance record by staying aloft for 37 consecutive hours over Rockwell Field in San Diego, a feat made possible by air-to-air refueling. The accomplishment is impressive, if frankly, pointless.

German offered to end passive resistance to French occupation of the Ruhr in exchange for the release of deportees and prisoners, and the guarantee of the "safety of life and subsistence of the Ruhr population."

Japanese Crown Prince Hirohito, the future emperor, moved into Akasaka Palace.  The intended temporary state would end up bing a period of five years due to an earthquake destroying housing in Tokyo.

The patent for Lincoln longs, applied for on August 31, 1920, was granted.

Cohen in arrest after murder.

Louis Cohen, aka Louis Kushner, mob hit man, killed Nathan Kaplan, gangster, while the latter was being transferred by a police car in New York City.  

Kaplan was likely killed under orders of rival Louis Buchalter, aka Louis Lepke, aka Lepke Buchalter, who would rise up to be head of Murder Incorporated.  Buchalter would later receive the death penalty and be executed in 1944. Cohen was gunned down in a mob hit in 1939.

Of interest, these figures were all Jewish gangsters, something we've forgotten about over time, mostly remembering the Sicilian Mafia.  Indeed, Murder Inc. tended to use Jewish and Italian hitman in their role for the Mafia, which insulated the Mafia from direct involvement.