Wilbur > Recent Status Updates

-Yasit Arafat was a generally well liked leader of the PLO by the Muslims in Lebanon. He knew how to play all sides against each other
- Israel invaded Beirut June 1982 (led by Begin & Sharon) but author claims they didn’t know the ‘real’ Lebanon. And were used by the Christian militias to do their bidding
- Other Arab countries were preoccupied with Iran revolution and didn’t come to the aid of the PLO

- Nov 16 1970 Hafez Assad seizes power in Syria after a coup and his main allies are the Alawites (offshoot of Shia)
- Alawites were about 11% of population but in 1960 they dominated the army and the Baath party. Sunni’s were 70% looked down on the Alawites
- Hama, Syria was historically a center of Sunni Muslims
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- the PLO, Phalangists, and other private militias had their own spokespeople for reporters to contact for information and requests for interviews
- the commodore hotel is where a lot of the journalists would stay due to its access to a telex
- journalists relied heavily on their ‘fixers’ usually locals who could get any task done

- June 1982 Israel invades Lebanon
- Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes describes “the state of nature” of govt and society broke down.
- author claims he was half wrong bc men will do anything to avoid being poor and solitary
- people would try and go back to normal life in between the sporadic explosion which would rarely last more than a week

- post WWI republic of Lebanon formed with a merger between the Maronites (lived in mountains) and Sunnis the 2 largest religions at the time
- after WWI Turkish Ottoman Empire who ruled for 400 fell and Syria and Lebanon fell to France
- 1920 Maronites convinced French to set up Lebanese state where Christians would dominate but it would not just include Mt Lebanon enclave that they shared with the Druse

- Alexander the Great, Greek, conquered the Persian (Achaemenid) empire 330 BC
- Romans conquered the Greeks around 146 BC
- The western Roman Empire fell to nomadic tribes around 475 AD. Eastern empire (Byzantine) lasted 1453 fell to the Turks
- The new Persian empire (Sassanian) rose up around 224 AD and fell to the Arab forces around 650 AD they were already weak from fighting the Roman’s for hundreds of years

- the Kushan empire stretched from N India to Central Asia during the first centuries and the kings patronized Buddhism and was helped spread by merchants
- however to the west the Sassanian Persian empire in 224AD persecuted the Buddhists and helped spread Zoroastrianism by replacing building and land with new architecture and suppression of other cultures

- The Persian empire ruled from Greece to India from 550 - 330BC
- Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered the Persians with battles of Issus and Guagamela around 330BC
- The Han dynasty of China, tired of paying tribute, went to war with the nomadic people of the west (Xiongnu) and conquered the land all the way to India around 119BC and formally establishing the Silk Road connecting the east to the west

- Author gives a few reasons as to how the Japanese could have been okay with this massacre
- “Three all policy”: orders to Loot, Kill, and burn all
- also employed chemical warfare by dropping fleas, putting diseases in waters, leaving laced food, and syringes
- transfer of oppression: Japanese soldiers were oppressed by their superiors so it was easy for them to do worse to the Chinese

- the Nanking massacre has been one of great controversy in Japan. This is due to large amounts of censorship (both govt and private) and the failure of the govt to aknowledge the entirety of it. People who have spoke up are met with resistance and even threats to their life

- the Cold War began when Soviet Union sieges Poland and park of Germany
- 1949 China communist forces of Mao Tse-tung forced Chiang Kai-shek to retreat to Taiwan
- 1950 the Korean War broke out
- Not wanting to disrupt Japan’s stable government during this time the US left the pre war bureaucracy
- this left a lot of Nanking victims feeling like justice was not served when china invited Japan to make alliance

- allies began preparing to bring Japan to trial in March 1944 and actual trials took place in Nanking and Tokyo
- Nanking Trails began Aug 1946 ended Feb 1947 and focal point was Tani Hisao Lt General in 1937
- IMTFE trials held in TYO began May 1946. Most of blame fell on commander Matsui Iwane but may have been a scapegoat since he was sick when Nanking was invaded

- worst part of Nanking was during first 6-8 weeks but occupation lasted until Aug 14 when USA dropped the second bomb
- Most of the destruction was caused by arson
- Jan 1 1938 Japanese put in place a new govt
- Chinese were taxes heavy and had property confiscated. Opium use became a problem and medical experiments were also kept secret
- Nanking was able to recover pre war food levels in about a year

- the world knew about Nanking while it was happening and Japan printed pictures on newspaper before international criticism
- three notable journalists Frank Tillman, Archibald Steele, C. Yates all left a few days after massacre began
- video was taken of USS Panay attack, US had cracked Japan comms, pics were leaked
- Japan attempted propaganda campaigns of pictures and articles

- the safety zone in Nanking was established after a French priest saw the idea of a neutral zone in Shanghai and the effort was led by foreigners
- the book speaks of 3 people German John Rabe Nazi who helped Chinese and worked at Siemens responsible for power and phones, Robert Wilson at one point the only surgeon left, and Wilhelmina Vautrin head of Ginling college who helped thousands of women

- about half the population of Nanking had left before the Japanese arrived. Those who stayed were most likely too old, young, sick, or poor to leave. There were a few who were excited about the Japanese arriving

- the Japanese were relentless. There were killing contests, torture, rapes, and it was estimated the the death toll was near 300,000+

- Nanking is a city with a a lot of history and has been invaded 3 times. (6th century, 1853 by taping rebels, 1937 by Japan)
- August fighting starts in Shanghai and end of month it falls to Japan
- Nanking falls and leader of nationalists Chiang Kai-shek leaves Tang Sheng-chich in charge of defense in November
- govt officials moved west and by DEC 90,000 troops moved to Nanking for defense

- Nanking was located in a bend on the Yangtze River making it easy for the Japanese to flank and trap it from the south
- Late November the Japanese moved in 3 diff groups to surround the city
- General Matsui was in charge but he fell ill with TB and Prince Asaka assumed command
- Matsui had given orders to take the city civilly
-However Asaka (or his staff officer) gave the command to kill all. This is not clear

- why did the Japanese act this way in Nanking and why did officers and govt allow it?

- author argues that the history of Japan is rooted in bushido and military power.
-1852 US marched on and demanded Japan to open and trade with a show of military power. Japan had no choice but to agree but they planned to learn the western way and get revenge for this humiliation

- 50 days before before final triumph of Catherine WWII was declared in Europe. Demand for radium would skyrocket again (190g of radium used in WWII vs 30g used in WWI)

- now with manhattan project safety standards were introduced for plutonium thank to the girls

- 1956 after public concern the AEC established a commission to study the effects of radiation and once again studied the girls for decades

- insurance refused to cover Radium dial so they only had a single lawyer on Feb 10 1938

- radium dial found guilty and forced to pay Cantherine Donahue on April 1938

- first radium case was filed in 1925 in NJ

- Radium dial appealed all the way up to supreme court but still ended up loosing. Grossman was able to generate a lot of publicity to help the case

- 1925 Jay Cook filed 2 lawsuits against radium dial. April 17 court ruled against women and went up to Supreme Court but they lost. Cook resigned as their lawyer

- Dec 1936 radium dial closed but they were found again in NY

- girls went to Chicago and found a new lawyer Leonard Grossman in July 1937

- new trial date was in Feb 1938

- Radium Dial knew of radium poising since atleast 1925 but they lied to employees and to the public with their ads

- Dr.Loffler of Ottawa agreed to test to the girls for radium which confirms orange girls were radioactive. They met with Chicago lawyer James Cook who brought suit against radium dial in summer of 1934

- being in a small town and in an economic downturn girls were shunned by a lot of people

- 1931 Martland figures out that radium is giving the girls sarcomas

- May 14 1931 Irene La Porte filed suit against USRC. She dies June 16th but her husband would fight for years and this is the case would be the one that led to judgement for Orange girls

- June 1928 Radium dial company chose to get ahead. The printed ads saying mesotherium was the cause and radium was safe. Only Ella cruse filed a lawsuit

- fall 1928 5 girls did first examination where USRC was being shady but 3 docs still agreed they were still radioactive

- Nov 1928 Von Sochocky dies

- Feb 1929 Ella cruse in Illinois kept postponing trial for to lawyers trouble in gathering data

- The trial went to court and it seems as if the judge was on the girls side

- Von Sochocky flipped and lied in court

- USRC lawyers were able to postpone until sept 1928. 5 months away

- berry got o other lawyers to switch with him in order to move up to May

- judge Clark a respected judge stepped in and served as mediator

- Berry was now to get the help of Walter Lippmann on the most influential journalists of the 20th century

- first Trial date was on Jan 12 1928

- oct 15 1927 they did up mollie magia to test her for radiation. They found she had not died of syphillis

- Dec 1927 Ella Eckett dies and the find a sarcoma in her shoulder

- Dr.Flinn was a major reason why no lawsuits were filed in Connecticut against the Waterbury Clock company. He was lying to the girls and helped the company settle outside of court

- upon investigation Berry found that Flinn was never given a medial license. He was pretending the be a doctor

- Ottawa 1926 radium dial invents and implements the glass pen. However the girls found it inefficient and rules weren’t really enforced so they went back to original brushes

- No Ottawa women had fallen ill up to this point

- girls were unaware of data and reports that had already been published in NY and NJ

- 1926 law signed to make radium necrosis a compensate disease. However it was very specific and didn’t cover most symptoms

- USRC settled case with the 3 girls

- Dec 1926 Dr.Flinn published his report and found that radium was not the cause and that is was bacterial. He had already told drinker he thought he was radium. He was paid by radium companies

- DDS Knef tries to blackmail USRC to pay him but fails