The Potsdam Declaration outlined the terms for Japan’s surrender in WWII commencing with the warning: “We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.” The mention of “unconditional surrender” and a warning came at the end of the declaration: “We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now […]
Delivery of key components of Hiroshima atomic bomb
On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking in shark-infested waters. This “On This Day” item in The New York Times today brought my […]
WILL THEY EVER LEARN? – Comfort Women / Sex Slaves
Around January 1944, a number of young women were forcibly removed from our concentration camp in central Java, Camp Moentilan (Muntilan), to serve as comfort women / sex slaves. This was all hush-hush as far as we children were concerned and nobody used the word “sex”, but we had a good inkling of what was […]
WILL THEY EVER LEARN? – The comfort women issue
The subject of the use of “comfort women” by the Japanese military during World War II has popped up in the news repeatedly starting in 2007 when Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister at that time, denied that the Japanese military had forced women into sexual slavery during World War II in an orchestrated way. […]
Galangal: Is it contagious?
A long time ago, a friend turned up unannounced for a visit at our herb farm. He carried a gallon plastic pot holding a pretty green ginger-like plant, which he called “galangal”. A gift to his wife from her Indonesian relatives, the plant had arrived as a tiny slip of a thing several months before […]
Balinese Dancer
Wajang puppets swaying against the candle light like finding nemo