ASIAN HISTORY EDITION

Student Were The Japanese

Really WW II’s
GODSWILL PUBLISHING CO.
Enemy No 1?
Volume 8 Number 8
ROMEL RIVERA
World War II laid bare the inherent
racism of the Western colonizers. Racism
thrived enough to ensure that Americans
and British hated the Japanese more
than the Nazi Germans.
The Allied Forces played the race card
to the hilt using many propaganda
methods. They were goaded by a grow-
ing Chinese lobby and by vocal Ameri-
can trade protectionist entrepreneurs
who feared the entry into the U.S. of
inexpensive Japanese goods. The cam-
paign successfully cajoled the American
public into a pro-war, anti-Japan posi-
tion. Thus by 1939, historian
Michael C.C. Adams
World War II in Asia notes, polls
showed that

Why Japan
more Ameri-
cans favored
military aid to
China rather
then to Britain

Wanted to or France. The

Japanese had
become
America’s villain of

Conquer the choice.

continued on page 4

World The smaller image is a movie

poster for the Academy Award
nominated Japanese anime
film (2004) Howl’s Moving
Castle. The bigger image,
however, is a true-to-life pro-
paganda poster for Japan’s
HANNAH ISBERTO imperial dream in World War
II—to found the Greater East
Asia co Prosperity Sphere.

DID YOU WATCH SPIRITED AWAY? Do you like this movie

World War II Created
Victims and Victimizers 4 better than Howl’s Moving Castle? With whom do you identify more,
Goku or Gohan?
BONUS Will Japan Go
to War Again?
8 Today Pinoy teeners like you enjoy Japanese anime. Like your Japa-
nese counterparts, you hoard all things “kawaii” (cute) like Hello Kitty or
Nagomimakuri. Most likely, all these make it hard for you to remember
How Well Do You Know
World War II? 12 continued on page 2

Cover Story
FOLLOWING EXECUTIVE ORDER NO.
210, “Establishing the Policy to Strengthen
the Use of English Language as a Medium
of Instruction in the Educational System,”
and DepED Order No. 36, s. 2006 that
instructs Philippine schools to allot at least
70 percent of teaching time to be carried
out in English, Student Agenda is
increasing the number of English language
articles beginning this month.
continued from page 1
that just two generations back, or
some 60 years ago, during the
time of our lolos and lolas, our
country was at war with the
Japanese.
Or, more correctly, since we
were a former colony of the
Americans, and Japan was at war
with America, our country was
doomed to become a major
theater where the battles of
World War II were fought.
Also, the Japanese invaded us
on December 8, 1941. Having
grown powerful in decades past,
they wanted to build a Greater
East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
throughout southeast Asia. Our
country was among
the other Asian
countries that Japan
sought to dominate.
The Roots
But Japan’s
endeavor to dominate
Asia began much,
much earlier, in the
medieval period
(1185-1600). That
time saw the rise of
the samurai to
power.Let’s pretend
we can go back to
this period:
At this time,
Japanese society falls
into war and wide-
spread destruction. Samuari. Hand-colored albumen silver print by Felice Beato, 1860s.
2 Volume 8 Number 8
This is conducive to the rise of
samurai— or warrior class—to
power. By the 1500s, a class of
territorial military lords, or
daimyo, emerges. The daimyo
establish their domains (called
“han”), which are maintained by
samurai retainers. The samurai
serve in the armies of specific
daimyo and live in towns built
around the castles of these
feudal lords.
Soon, political power devolves
from the court nobles to warrior
families. Military leaders eventu-
ally rule the land, and even when
the emperor and his court remain
in place, they hold no real power.
In this war society, the supreme
military leader is one who leads his
government in battle. The first
“shogun” or head of the samurai,
in fact, holds court from his
bakufu,” or military field tent.
Eventually, samurai culture
expands to become Japanese
culture itself. The samurai values
of service to a lord and personal
loyalty become central to Japa-
nese tradition. Zen Buddhism,
SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007
PAGE 2 BLACK
which emphasizes personal en-
lightenment through discipline and
meditation—and appeals to the
warrior samurai—becomes central
to Japanese culture. Meditation
places for the samurai—such as
gardens of raked sand (represent-
ing water) and rocks (representing
mountains) become common in
most Japanese temples. The
ceremony of serving tea becomes
a formal Zen ritual. This cer-
emony—and the tea room or tea
house built for this purpose—
become central to Japanese
architecture.
With warfare so intense and
society so torn apart, the main
goal of the diamyos who reunify
Japan in 1600 is to establish order.
The next period, the Tokugawa
(1600-1868), is thus marked with
the end of warfare. At the same
time, this period also marks
Japan’s spectacular commercial
development and urbanization. By
the 18th century, Edo (now
Tokyo) is the largest city in the
world. It is the hub of one of the
most advanced and prosperous
economies in
the
preindustrial
world.
Facing the
Challenge of
the West
In 1853, the
United States
sends a naval
delegation, led
by Commodore
Matthew
Perry, to
“open” Japa-
nese ports. By
that time, the
Japanese are
well aware of
the “Unequal
Agenda
S t u d e n t Agenda
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Why Japan Wanted to Conquer The World

Treaties” that study. They borrow and

have been adopt Western political,
imposed military, technological,
upon China in economic and social forms –
the previous repeating a pattern of
10 years deliberate borrowing and
since the adaptation seen previously
Opium War in the classical Heian period
of 1839-42. when Japan studied Chinese
Western civilization, particularly in
nations were the 7th to the 8th century.
able to
impose these Rapid Growth
treaties The path Japan takes
because of turns out to be correct, and
their superior the country’s takeoff is
military explosive. From 1890
power. The through 1938, Japan’s GDP
Japanese grew 3.3 percent each year,
respond to far faster than the United
the threat of States and the countries of
foreign Western Europe at a similar
domination. stage of development.
In 1868 a Keep It Up Russia, cartoon published in Brooklyn Eagle, February 2, 1904 Manufacturing grew
group of especially rapidly, soaring
disaffected from 8 percent of GDP in
feudal lords, court aristocrats, and want Japan to become economi- 1888 to 32 percent by 1938.
samurai respond by overthrowing cally and militarily powerful so In less than 50 years, Japan is
Japan’s military government and that it can retain its independence transformed into a modern indus-
replacing it with a new imperial in the face of Western colonialism. trial power. It has a constitution, a
government under the Meiji Yet Japan has no modern parliament, a national compulsory
emperor. machinery, steel mills, steam educational system, a modern
While the emperor’s power engines, telegraphs, railroads, army and navy, roads, trains and
remains the same, reformers use postal system, or telegraph. The
the imperial symbol to rally public newspapers. It has economic,
support and national sentiment for a few natural political and
rapid modernization. China cannot resources aside social changes
do the same. There, a foreign from coal and silk. that took
power, the Manchus, holds Nor does it have place during
imperial power from 1644-1911 modern business the preceding
(Qing dynasty). Thus, they cannot institutions, such as 250 years of
mobilize popular support for social banking and public peace under
and political transformation to corporations. Its the Tokugawa
meet the challenge of the West. main resource is a shogunate
The Meiji Restoration, as it population that is (1600 - 1868)
came to be known, ends 250 highly literate. lay the basis
years of self isolation for Japan The Japanese for this rapid
and introduces an era of rapid draw on their main Photo of U.S. Commodore Matthew C. transforma-
economic change. The country’s strength. They carry Perry, from http://www.history.navy.mil/ tion.
branches/teach/pearl/kanagawa/
new rulers adopt the slogan “Rich out modernization friends4.htm continued on
Country, Strong Army.” They by very deliberate page 10

S t u d e n t Agenda
Agenda Volume 8 Number 8 3

Special Feature
continued from page 1
Moreover, writer John Dower
notes, the publications that
regularly featured Japanese
atrocities did not give much
coverage to the genocide of the
Jews. In fact, the film series Frank
Capra directed for the U.S. Army,
“Why We Fight”, did not even
mention the Holocaust at all.
Dehumanizing the Enemy
Instead, Japanese soldiers—
and sadly, all Japanese—were
depicted as subhuman: insects,
monkeys, apes, rodents, or simply
as barbarians who had to be
wiped out or exterminated.
Typical during that time were
cartoons like that found in the
American Legion Magazine. This
magazine published a cartoon of
monkeys in a zoo who had posted
a sign reading, “Any similarity
between us and the Japs is purely
coincidental.”
By 1943, a U.S. Army poll
found that roughly half of all G.I.s
believed it was necessary to kill all
Japanese on earth before peace
could be achieved. Their superiors
appeared to agree. Generals like
the Australian Sir Thomas Blamey
informed his troops that, “Beneath
the thin veneer of a few genera-
tions of civilization, (the Japanese)
is a subhuman beast.” By Decem-
ber of that year, there were more
troops and equipment in the
Pacific than in Europe.
American feelings for the
Japanese did not soften after the
war. As a December 1945 For-
tune poll revealed, nearly 23
percent of those questioned
wished the U.S. could have
dropped “many more (atomic
bombs) before the Japanese had
a chance to surrender.”
This virulent brand of genocidal
hatred resulted from a massive
4 Volume 8 Number 8
PAGE 4 BLACK
PAGE 4 ORANGE
public relations effort to
demonize the enemy in
the Pacific and thus
justify anything in the
name of victory. One
good example is when
the New York Times
(that newspaper of
record) ran an ad that
showed a Japanese
being killed with a
flamethrower. The ad
bore the headline:
“Clearing Out a Rat’s
Nest.”
Even during the war
itself, race antagonisms
and ignorance culmi-
nated in the Allied
Forces acting out their
predetermined role in a
self-fulfilling prophecy: Rubbing It In,1944. Published in the New York Sun, Au-
If a subhuman (the gust 20, 1944. Crayon, India ink, opaque white, and graph-
ite with scraping out. Art Wood Collection of Cartoon
Japanese) will fight to and Caricature Prints and photographs DiviionLC-DIG-
death like an animal, ppmsca-03646 (11)
those fighting on “the
side of good” were simply left with American do in the war” –when a
no alternative except to slaughter Marine officer stood over a
them unmercifully. Since Japanese Japanese corpse and urinated
soldiers were under pressure not into its mouth.
to surrender and were often killed
when they did, this became a self- ON THE OTHER HAND, horror
fulfilling prophesy. stories about Japanese atrocities
General Blamey later told the abounded, and these fueled
New York Times: “Fighting Japs is further the animosity. Mostly, the
not like fighting normal human stories were true, too: Of the
beings. The Jap is a little barbar- 235,473 U.S. and U.K. prisoners
ian… We are not dealing with reported captured by Germany
humans, as we know them. We and Italy combined, only 4 per-
are dealing with something cent (9,348) died. In contrast, an
primitive. Our troops have the astonishing 27 percent of Japan’s
right view of the Japs. They regard Anglo-American POWs (35,756
them as vermin.” This was quoted of 132,134) did not survive.
by the Times on the front page. Indeed, the list of Japanese war
Eugene B. Sledge, author of crimes was long. This included the
“With the Old Breed: At Peleliu Rape of Nanking, the Bataan
and Okinawa,” wrote of his Death March, and incidents such
comrades “harvesting gold teeth” as the time when the marines on
from the enemy dead. In Guadalcanal were ambushed by
Okinawa, Sledge witnessed “the Japanese soldiers pretending to
most repulsive thing I ever saw an
SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007 S t u d e n t Agenda
 PAGE 5 BLACK
PAGE 5 ORANGE
surrender. Japanese atrocities
were enough to stir up Allied fury.
At the same time, the Japanese
themselves wrestled with their own
brand of racism. They believed
that they were tasked with elevat-
ing the “Yamato race” the “pure
race”, the “leading race” –unique
among the races and cultures of
the world. They believed that this
uniqueness made them superior.
They used certain visual im-
ages—such as the sun, sword,
cherry blossom, snow-capped Mt.
Fuji, and abstract “brightness”
and auspicious colors like red and
white—as symbols of the purity of
the Japanese spirit. Such intense
cultural fixations on the notion of
purity led the self encouraged
Japanese soldiers to behave in an
extremely harsh and brutal way
toward non-Japanese.
Still, in many ways the anti-
Japanese hatred of Allied soldiers
and of those rooting for them
back home was the anticipated
“British and Australian soldiers” by Carl Giles, Post. 1944. The cartoon depicts smiling British
and Australian soldiers under their national flags pointing bayonets at an unarmed Japanese
soldier. The soldier is racially-stereotyped, depicted as subhuman.
S t u d e n t Agenda
Special Feature
outcome of the government’s
deadly campaign to manipulate
sentiment. While predictable, the
results were no less appalling:
Dower reports that in April
1943, an American mother
petitioned authorities to permit her
son to mail her an ear he had cut
off a Japanese soldier in the South
Pacific. She wished to nail it in
front of her door for all to see.
A former war correspondent in
the Pacific, Edgar L. Jones, put it
best. When he asked in the
February 1946 Atlantic Monthly,
he replied: “What kind of war do
civilians suppose we fought
anyway? We shot prisoners in cold
blood, wiped out hospitals, strafed
lifeboats, killed or mistreated
enemy civilians, finished off the
enemy wounded, tossed the dying
into a hole with the dead, and in
the Pacific boiled flesh off enemy
skulls to make table ornaments for
sweethearts, or carved their bones
into letter openers…”
Hatred Based on Myths
The official word was equally
repugnant.
Elliot Roosevelt, the president’s
son and confidant, told Henry
Wallace in 1945 that America
should bomb Japan “until we
have destroyed about half the
Japanese civilian population.”
Paul V. McNutt, chairman of
the War Manpower Commission,
went a little further when he
advocated to a public audience in
April 1945 the “extermination of
the Japanese in toto.” Secretary of
War Henry Stimson concurred,
stating that, “to get on with
Japan, one had to treat her
rough, unlike other countries.”
Because of these sentiments,
U.S. bombers killed four to five
times as many civilians in the last
five months of the Pacific war than
in three years of Allied bombing in
Europe combined. Then,
there was the man who
would eventually give the
order to drop the atomic
bomb on Japanese civilians:
“We used (the bomb)
against those who aban-
doned all pretense of
obeying international laws
of warfare,” U.S. President
Harry Truman later ex-
plained, justifying his
decision to nuke people that
he termed “savages, ruth-
less, merciless and fanatic.”
Racist feelings were
encouraged by three basic
myths:
 The “suicide psychology”
involved the myth that since
the fanatical Japanese
would rather die than
continued on page 11
Volume 8 Number 8 5
 PAGE 6 BLACK

Special Feature
World War II Created Victims ...

My Personal Experience of the

Atomic Bomb
ON APRIL 12, 1945, Japanese children were collectively evacuated to
the countrysides, while their parents stayed behind in the cities to
help in Japan’s war effort. This are excerpts, from the story of one
such young girl, Tadataka Kuribayashi, whose parents become
victims of the atomic blast in Hiroshima. The full story can be read
at: www.csi.ad.jp/ABOMB/RERF/setb-4.html. When Mother told me about the
death of Father... My heart was wrung.
We didn’t know if my elder brother,
…The weather was fine in the village immediately.” and a simple map of the who had gone abroad to war was dead
on the morning of the 6 August...Cool place was shown... or alive...
breeze blew under ginkgo trees, and …I looked for Mother with my Mother told me to take the cloth
the cicadas seemed to be singing the teacher. It was a big room with tens of off her back. I found brown burns all
joys of summer. Suddenly I felt tatami mats, and the spaces between A- over her back. Because of the burns,
something warm on my left cheek and bomb survivors lying on futon (bed- she couldn’t lie on her back. Why does
turned back. It seemed like a strong clothes) produced a forlorn atmo- my mother, as innocent as a person
reflection from a mirror. Then a sphere. We took one round, but could be, have to be tortured like this?
roaring sound shook the whole village. couldn’t find her. While I took the From that day, I took care of her
While I was wondering what had second round, looking into the face of for 2 nights and 3 days. However, the
happened, a column of clouds ap- each person, I was astonished to find only medicine provided was mercuro-
peared above the mountains in the Mother, lying on her face and ex- chrome. ..No one had disposed of my
south. That was not an ordinary cloud hausted. She was a small person, but mother’s urine, so her lower body gave
but of a superb pink color. Gradually it she looked even smaller... out a stench. Her stool was not
assumed the shape of a like that of a human being. Its
mushroom and rose to the color and smell were like those
sky.Though I was small, I of internal organs that had been
felt something unusual had melted and had become a sticky
happened. However, I liquid. I felt that the only way to
didn’t even imagine that the give humaneness back to her
big city of Hiroshima had was to clean the chamber pot
instantaneously become a often...
sheet of fire...Soon I heard ...AT LUNCH-TIME ON 4
that many people with September, the third day,
severe burns had returned Mother started to writhe in pain.
to the village. All of these Her unusual action completely
people were from the upset me. All I could do was to
village and were working in absentmindedly look at my
Hiroshima. Since then, there suffering Mother. After suffering
was no communication for 30 minutes, she regained her
from the parents…. calmness. However, it was the
last calmness, the sign of the end
...AT THE BEGINNING of life. I continued calling her
OF SEPTEMBER, I name, clinging to her body.
received a wrinkled-up Tears welled up in the eyes of
postcard. Though my my speechless mother and tears
mother’s name was men- rolled down her cheek. I
tioned, the handwriting with wondered if the tears were from
a pencil, some parts of the sorrow of eternal parting
which were blurred, was between mother and child or
not my mother’s. The card from an anxiety about my
simply said, “I am in the future. I shall never forget the
reception center in tears of my Mother I saw on
Miyajima. Come here The author (middle, front, standing) during happier days. that day.

6 Volume 8 Number 8 SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007 S t u d e n t Agenda

Agenda
 PAGE 7 BLACK
and Victimizers
Comfort Women
MANILA, August 18, 1999—Maria
Rosa Luna Henson died of a
heart attack at the Pasay City
hospital on this rainswept night.
She was 69.
Mrs. Henson burst into the
national consciousness in 1992,
when she broke half-a-
century’s silence to talk about
her ordeal as a “comfort
woman” in a World War II
rape camp. Her example
inspired other women to come
out with their own stories,
belying earlier claims that the
Japanese forces did not set up
“comfort stations” in the
Philippines as they did in Korea,
Taiwan and Indonesia.
Lola Rosa was an outspo- Chinese girl from one of the Japanese Army’s “comfort battalions” waits
ken, intelligent and courageous for her turn to be interrogated. Image created by the United Kingdom
government in 1945.
woman who overcame great
odds to become a champion of justice
for the most secret and silent victims of and acting as a courier for messages.
World War II. Her widely read
autobiography, Comfort Woman:
Slave of Destiny, published by the
Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism in 1996, is a touchingly
honest account of her life and times
and is the only autobiography ever
written by any of the over 200,000 sex
slaves kept by the Japanese in Asia.
Lola Rosa wrote Comfort Woman
in her own unsteady hand, on ruled
pad paper, using the English she had
learned in school. The effort took over
a year and entailed a great deal of
painful recollection of a life that has
seen epic suffering. In Comfort
Woman, Lola Rosa wrote of her ordeal
when she was raped by Japanese
soldiers while gathering firewood in
what is now Fort Bonifacio. Fearful for
her safety, her mother brought her to a
village in Pampanga, where Lola Rosa
joined the Hukbalahap guerrillas,
gathering food and medicine for them,
S t u d e n t Agenda
Agenda
Special Feature
said
re-
best
that for her,
membering was the
revenge.
Lola Rosa’s story is
one of survival
rather than
victimhood. In the
five years since she
went public with
her secret, she
fought hard for
justice for comfort
women, joining
marches, appearing
in Congress, even
filing a lawsuit in a
Tokyo court. She
was independent
and outspoken.
(Philippine Center
for INvestigative
Journalism)
COMFORT WOMEN is a euphe-
mism for women who were forced
While transporting a cartload of guns,
to provide sex in military brothels
she was stopped by a Japanese sentry in Japanese-occupied countries
who forcibly took her to a hospital in during World War II.
Angeles City which had been turned According to Chuo University
into a garrison. There, at the age of 14, professor Yoshiaki Yoshimi, there
her life as a comfort woman began. For were about 2,000 centers where as
nine months until her rescue by Huk many as 200,000 Korean, Filipino,
guerrillas, scores of Japanese soldiers Taiwanese, Burmese, Indonesian,
raped her everyday. Dutch, Australian and some Japa-
Lola Rosa told no one but her nese women were forced to engage
mother of what had been done to her. in sexual activity with Imperial
Not even the man she later married soldiers.
knew; her children found out only The Japanese government does
not fully recognize allegations of
after she had come out into the open in
large scale forced prostitution and,
1992. Abandoned by her husband, she
as such, does not additionally
raised three children on her own,
compensate the participants
working as a laundrywoman, and later
as a sweeper in a cigarette factory. She beyond what they earned during
their period of service. However,
did not go mad only through faith and
the Japanese government has
the sheer effort of will, she said. She
repeatedly offered apologies for
also vowed to remember. To her dying
any wounds they have caused and
day, Lola Rosa had a prodigious
has established the Asian Women’s
memory for dates and events. She once Fund.
Volume 8 Number 8 7
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Asian News

POLITICS and GOVERNANCE

News Analysis: Will Japan Reach For Empire Again?
“Lies, damned lies, and The Japanese note their Self boycott on bilateral high-level
statistics.” Defense Force (SDF) currently has a contacts.
Novelist Mark Twain’s famous mere 240,000 personnel. Even In fact, the rivalry between
quip indicates how dangerous it is acknowledging their highly capable Japan and China, profiled last year
to rely on simple statistics to navy, Japan’s forces are small by the BBC, increasingly drives
gauge complex issues: Japan’s compared with the 2.25 million under tension between the two countries,
pacifist constitution strictly bans arms in China, the one million-plus- and a competition for scarce
the creation of a regional offshore
regular army, as oil resources plays
well as the its part.
spending of more Yet, with Sino-
than 1 percent of Japanese ties at
its Gross Domes- their worst since
tic Product on the the 1970s, the
military. friction over
But 1 percent history and oil
of Japan’s GDP is platforms are
enough to rank it merely symptoms
fourth in world of deeper frictions,
military spending, as Masaru
with only the Tamamoto of the
United States, The Japan Insti-
China, and France tute of Interna-
ahead on the list. tional Affairs
At the same explains in a recent
time, Japan’s wary article. “Some
neighbors never A Japanese soldier in Iraq, together with other troops from other countries. liken current Sino-
put much faith in Japanese relations
the 1 percent to the Anglo-
limitation. Reforms of the Japanese strong North Korean military, or German rivalry prior to World
military’s command structure took even the 660,000 South Koreans in War I,” writes Kent Calder, an
effect in the middle of 2005, and uniform. East Asia expert, in the current
enabled joint operations (Yomiuri Still, Japan’s neighbors see the issue of Foreign Affairs.
Shimbum) between air, land and numbers in a different light. They are The South Asia Analysis
sea forces. also painfully aware that an economic Group, an India-based think tank,
The real reason for the change superpower can quickly choose to sees a more assertive policy, citing
was the botched 1995 effort to diversify into military efforts. In Japan’s decision to send warships
coordinate naval and ground 2005, China, South Korea, and the and military support staff to aid
rescue efforts after the Kobe Philippines have all traded barbs with U.S.-led forces in Iraq. The paper
earthquake. But many of Japan’s Japan over historical issues related to says Japan seems to be engaged in
neighbors see the joint excercises Japan’s brutal conduct during World tentative “steps towards more
as a threat. They also see it as a War II. Anger about glossed-over assertive approaches in enhancing
chance that Japan’s military will atrocities in Japanese primary school its military profile.”
continue the abuses of the 1930s text books sparked anti-Japanese But it also notes that this is a
and 1940s. rioting last year in China, and long way from the South East
Do any of these developments Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere of the
constitute evidence of a Koizumi’s decision to visit the World War II era.
remilitarizing Japan? controversial Yasukuni war shrine CSMonitor, Bloomberg, Washington Post,
for a fifth year led China to reaffirm a Japan Institute of International Affairs
Image: Yakushini Shrine

8 Volume 8 Number 8 SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007 S t u d e n t Agenda

PAGE 9 BLACK
PAGE 9 ORANGE
World Leaders Welcome, Condemn Saddam Hussein’s Execution
World political and religious
leaders were divided over whether
former Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein’s execution Dec. 29 was a
milestone toward peace or further
conflict in the Middle East.
In Washington, U.S. President
George W. Bush said Saddam was
executed “after receiving a fair trial
—the kind of justice he denied the
victims of his brutal regime.”
“Bringing Saddam Hussein to
justice will not end the violence in
Iraq, but it is an important mile-
stone on Iraq’s course to becoming
a democracy that can govern,
sustain and defend itself, and be an
ally in the war on terror,” Bush said
in a statement.
In London, Foreign Secretary
Margaret Beckett said Saddam had
“now been held to account for at
least some of the appalling crimes
he committed against the Iraqi
people,” while at the same time
condemning the death penalty.
“We have made our position
very clear to the Iraqi authorities,
but we respect their decision as that
of a sovereign nation,” Beckett said
in a statement.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki
Tuomioja, whose country currently
holds the rotating European Union
presidency, reiterated the bloc’s
opposition to the death penalty.
“The European Union has a
very consistent stand . . . on
opposing the death penalty and it
should not have been applied in this
case either, even though there is no
doubt about Saddam Hussein’s guilt
over serious violations against
human rights,” Tuomioja said in
Helsinki.
He also said that the court case
against Saddam “gave cause for
some serious objections,” but did
not elaborate.
S t u d e n t Agenda
Asian News
PEACE and HUMAN SECURITY
The Vatican’s spokesman, the Rev. be carried out. We are disappointed
Federico Lombardi, called the execution that it has been,” External Affairs
“tragic and reason for sadness.” Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a
Speaking on Vatican Radio, statement.
Lombardi said Saddam’s death “will “We hope that this unfortunate
not help efforts aimed at justice and event will not affect the process of
reconciliation” and “risks increasing reconciliation, restoration of peace
violence.” He also reiterated the and normalcy in Iraq,” he added.
Vatican’s opposition to the death In Pakistan, an Islamic ally in the
penalty. U.S.-led war on terror, a leader of a
The former Iraqi dictator was coalition of six religious parties said
executed before dawn on Dec. 29 in Saddam had not received justice.
Baghdad. The hanging took place near “We have no sympathy with
the beginning of the festival of Eid al- Saddam Hussein, but we will also
Adha, one of the two most important say that he did not get justice,”
holidays in Islam. Liaquat Baluch, a leader of the
In Afghanistan, President Hamid Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, also
Karzai appeared to criticize the timing known as the United Action Forum,
of the execution, but said it was “the told The Associated Press by phone.
work of the Iraqi government” and “The execution of Saddam
would have “no effect” on Afghanistan. Hussein will further destabilize Iraq.
“We wish to say that Eid is a day There will be more sectarian
for happiness and reconciliation. It is violence in Iraq, and we believe that
not a day for revenge,” Karzai told the execution of Saddam Hussein is
reporters at the presidential palace after part of the American plan to
offering an Eid prayer at Kabul’s main disintegrate Iraq,” he added.
mosque early Saturday. Associated Press
In Australia, another U.S. ally
in the Iraq war, Prime Minister
John Howard said the execution
was significant because Iraqis had
given the brutal dictator a fair trial.
“I believe there is something
quite heroic about a country that is
going through the pain and the
suffering that Iraq is going
through, yet still extends due
process to somebody who was a
tyrant and brutal suppressor and
murderer of his people,” Howard
told reporters.
“That is the mark of a country
that is trying against fearful odds to
embrace democracy,” he said.
Indian officials worried the
execution could trigger more
sectarian violence.
“We had already expressed the
hope that the execution would not
Volume 8 Number 8 9
 PAGE 10 BLACK

Asian News
Why Japan Wanted
SOCIETY and CULTURE to Conquer the
Chinese Face Stigma For Having Hepatitis B World
continued from page 3
IN CHINA, as elsewhere, people his computer and health-education
with HIV/AIDS often suffer dis- materials in October. He saw this as Increasing Militarism
crimination. But a far bigger group of retaliation for his campaigns on But the worldwide economic
virus carriers in China encounters behalf of the children as well as 156 slump of the 1930s, combined
similar bigotry. For 130m Chinese hepatitis B-carrying university with other factors, leads Japan to
carrying the hepatitis B virus, which students in Urumqi, expelled from increasingly centralize and milita-
can cause fatal liver diseases, it can their colleges last year. rize its economy. The government
be hard to get a job—or even a Seven of the children’s families passes laws giving itself control
decent education, as a group of tried to sue the local education over imports, power to direct
schoolchildren in the far west bureau, but came under pressure. private bank loans to priority
recently found out. Activists say some of the parents industries and firms, and authority
Carriers of hepatitis B often show were told by police to drop the case. to promote heavy industries
no symptoms. In China, many first A lawyer representing the parents, needed by military—such as
learn they are infected when they Zhang Yuanxin, says the parents petroleum, machine tools, aircraft,
apply for work or a place at univer- agreed to do so this week. State- iron and steel, and automobiles.
sity and undergo medical examina- controlled newspapers had already As Japan becomes a strong
tions. In September elite state-run gone quiet about the issue. economy, it also becomes a
boarding schools in Urumqi, about Lu Jun, who runs a website in the modern military power. This is
2,400km (1,500 miles) west of central city of Zhengzhou to provide first demonstrated in 1894-95 and
Beijing, gave new entrants a blood information for fellow hepatitis B then in 1905-06. Japan defeats
test and barred entry to 19 children carriers, says that there has been less China, long the preeminent power
found with the virus. Hepatitis B, like international pressure on China to act in East Asia, in the Sino-Japanese
HIV, cannot be transmitted through than on HIV/AIDS. This year China War of 1894-95 over influence in
food or casual contact. But victims of issued a statute banning discrimina- the Korean peninsula.
discrimination are often reluctant to tion against people with HIV/AIDS, Japan then defeats Russia, a
draw attention to their plight. but it has yet to do the same for major Western power, in the
However, these parents were in hepatitis B, which kills many more Russo-Japanese War of 1905-06
anguish at the loss of a golden people in China than does AIDS. over rights in Manchuria and
educational opportunity. A small local Korea . Chinese reformers and
NGO, the Snow Lotus HIV/AIDS revolutionaries base themselves in
Education Japan. Western nations
Institute, took now take note of
up the children’s Japan’s new power.
cause and Japan’s rise as a
published details military power coincides
on the internet. with its emergence from
State-run a long isolation. Thus, its
newspapers entry into the interna-
picked up the tional political system
story. comes at a time when
The authori- imperialism dominates.
ties in Urumqi, Many European coun-
however, have tries and the U.S. have
dug in their colonies in Asia, Africa
heels. Chang and the Americas. Japan
Kun, who rapidly becomes a major
founded the participant in this system
NGO, fled to and seeks to dominate
Beijing after its East Asian neighbors,
police raided his DAMAGED LIVES: An HIV-positive man rests at a care center in the southern China and Korea.
office and seized Indian city of Pondicherry, His wife, also HIV positive, sleeps on the floor with
their son. HIV-positive people in India face a lot of stigma.

10 Volume 8 Number 8 SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007 S t u d e n t Agenda

Agenda
 PAGE 11 BLACK
Why Japan Wanted to Conquer The World
By 1910, Japan annexes Korea
as a colony. It then takes control
over indigenous Korean modern-
ization efforts. In 1931, Japan
takes control of Manchuria and
establishes the puppet state of
“Manchukuo.” In 1937, Japan
invades the rest of China. All of
these lead up to its war against
the United States and its entry
into World War II.
Conflict with the United States
In 1940, Japan occupies French
Indochina (Vietnam) following an
From an American propaganda poster
agreement with the French Vichy
government. It joins the Axis
powers of Germany and Italy.
These actions intensify Japan’s
conflict with the U.S. and Great
Britain. The two countries react
with an oil boycott. The resulting
oil shortage—and failures to solve
the conflict diplomatically—force
Japan to decide to capture the oil
rich Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)
and to start a war with U.S. and
Britain.
Agenda
S t u d e n t Agenda
Attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, without
warning and while negotiations
between American and Japanese
diplomats are still in progress,
Japanese carrier-based aircraft
attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the
main U.S. naval base in the Pacific.
Simultaneous attacks are launched
by the Japanese army, navy, and air
force against the Philippines, Guam,
Wake Island, Midway Island, Hong
Kong, British Malaya, and
Thailand. On December 8,
the U.S. declares war on
Japan, as do all Allied
powers, except USSR
which has a neutrality treaty
with Japan.
For about a year follow-
ing the successful surprise
attacks, Japan maintains the
offensive in southeast Asia
and the islands of the South
Pacific. Having already
invaded China, Japan rapidly
makes conquests in the
Pacific and southeast Asia.
In the early 1940s Japan
founds the Greater East
Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,
claiming to unite Asian
nations against Western
domination. In effect, this
brings much of Asia under
Japanese control as part of
its political and economic
empire. It makes effective
propaganda of the slogan
“Asia for Asians.” Some nationalistic
elements in some of the South and
Southeast Asian countries, in fact,
support Japan because they see this
as an apparent way to free them-
selves from Western imperialism.
For sure, Japanese conquests of
the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma,
Malaya and Indonesia end Western
colonial administration in these
areas. But Japanese rule during
World War II is extremely harsh.
Were The Japanese
Really WW II’s
Enemy No 1?
continued from page 3
surrender, they “invited destruction.”
 The second rationalization had
its roots in World War I and the
treaty that ended it. “Anything less
than a thoroughgoing defeat
would be “incomplete” and invite
the Japanese to use peace as a
chance to prepare for war…as the
Germans did between World War I
and II.
 Finally, there was the myth that
Japan needed a “psychological
purge,” and that they needed to be
castigated in the form of “great
destruction and suffering.” As Algar
Hiss proferred at the time, “(
Japan’s) entire national psychology
(must) be radically modified.”
Strangely, these premises are all
inherently racist. Worse, these
rationalizations are just too similar
to those used for the extermination
of Native Americans in the 18th
century, or the enslavement of
Africans in the 1600s.
Thankfully, today we know that
no race is superior to another. No
one race deserves to be treated
barbarically, no one race is respon-
sible for all barbaric acts in the
world. Humans all, we are all
members of the human race.
* The Allied Forced involved: Poland,
United Kingdom, France, Australia, New
Zealand, Nepal, South Africa, Canada,
Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Greece, Kingdom of
Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, Tannu Tuva,
Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras,
Nicaragua, United States of America,
Republic of China, Guatemala, Cuba,
Czechoslovakia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil,
Ethiopia, Iraq, Bolivia, Iran, Italy,
Colombia, Liberia.
Volume 8 Number 8 11
 PAGE 12 BLACK
PAGE 12 ORANGE

Mga Gawain

How Well Do You Know World War II?

Four Quizzes On World War II
○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

1 10 Questions On the Two Bombings

That Ended The War
5. 9. What day did the bomb

○
1. What was the name of Who was the Emperor of
○

○
○

Japan during WWII? get dropped on Hiroshima?

○
the Conference that Truman,
○

○
○

Stalin, and Churchill

○
○

a. Himushi a. Aug. 9

○
attended to decide what
○

○
b. Zumauw b. Sept. 9
○

to do about the war?

○
○

c. Centerkan c. Nov. 25

○
○

○
a. 1945 Conference d. Hirohito d. Aug. 6
○

○
○

○
b. Potsdam Conference
○

10. When did the bomb get

○
c. New York Conference
○

○
6. What was the name of the A-
○

dropped on Nagasaki?

○
d. Berlin Conference
○

○
bomb dropped on Hiroshima?
○

○
2. What type of plane
○

○ a. Aug. 6
○

dropped the A-bomb on the a. Little Boy b. Aug. 9

○

○
○

b. Little Man c. Nov. 25

○

two cities?
○

c. Fat Man d. Sept. 9

○

○
○

d. Fat Boy
○

a. B-29
○

b. P-80
○

7. What was the name of the A-

○

c. B-17
○

d. F4F bomb dropped on

○
○

Nagasaki?
○

3. What was the name of the

○
○

plane that dropped the A- a. Fat Man

○

bomb on Hiroshima? b. Fat Boy

○
○

c. Little Boy
○

a. Sweetheart d. Little Man

○
○

b. Enola Gay
○

c. Dixie
○

8. What did the A-

○

d. Blue Gal
○

bomb dropped over

○

4. Who flew the plane that Nagasaki blow up over?

○
○

dropped the A-bomb on

○

a. Tennis Court
○

Hiroshima?
○

b. Gym
○

c. Golf Course
○

a. Paul Tibbets
○

b. Ben Lang d. School

○
○

c. George Charter
○

d. Nick Heiser
○
○

12 Volume 8 Number 8 SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007 S t u d e n t Agenda

 PAGE 13 BLACK
PAGE 13 ORANGE

Teacher’s Corner

2 Crossword

○
○
○
Down

○
1. * Military Music Maker: U.S. Marine ___

○
2. Pro Pedalist’s org.

○
○
3. * Armed vessel

○
4. Author of “Common Ground: A Turbu-

○
lent Decade in the Lives of Three American

○
Families”: J. Anthony ___

○
5. Type of Movie: Shoot-___-Up

○
○
6. * Elite military person: U.S. Navy ___

○
7. One of the Great Lakes

○
8. Mr. Lewis

○
9. Heavenly body

○
10. “Silk” in Strasbourg

○
11. Soapy Stuff in Sinks

○
○
12. QB’s feat

○
13. * Military award: ___ Cross

○
18. * MacArthur’s replacement in the Ko-

○
rean War

○
21. Ms. Carrere

○
○
22. Dutch genre and portrait painter: Gerard

○
___ Borsch

○
23. NHL official

○
26. * Place to Place a Poppy

○
28. Fiber Fabricated From Flax Fiber

○
29. Mr. Gershwin

○
○
30. Straightaway
○
○
31. Alternative introducer
32. Heard on a DiCaprio film set: “___ isn’t
○

ready, yet. You’ll have to shoot a different

○

scene.”
○
○

34. * The Tomb of the Unknown ___

○

37. * In the North Atlantic, the British sunk

Across
○

53. Walled area the what on May 27th, 1941?

○

1. * Reveille Rouser 54. Three-toed sloth 40. Ms. Novak

○

6. Minute Moment in a Minute 41. Here: French

55. Ms. Arnaz
○

9. “Hey, you!” 44. Continental acronym

○

57. * A General may give the what?

13. Household appliance
○

62. Particular Person in Publicity, punily 47. * Certain clergymen who serve during
14. Period of time
○

63. Milk Makers wartime

○

15. Noisy 64. Jelly that is used as a mold for meats 48. Fish eggs
○

16. Have proof: Put it ___ 66. Think, archaically 50. Gordimer the Writer
○

17. * Military Move 51. Santa’s friend

67. Sketch Show, smallily
○

19. Musical item, for short

○

68. * Begin warfare 52. Chinese dynasty

20. * Warring troops meet at them
○

69. Fancy Finish to “Fin” 56. Shipping container

23. * Ms. Riveter
○

70. Tokyo, once 57. Keats wrote them

○

24. Simone Beauvoir connecter 71. Bird Beds 58. Dawn Chong, and others
○

25. Olive genus 59. Surface

○

27. * It’s where #34D is located, in the States 60. Keep watch on
○

33. Flat Floats

○

61. Capital city in Europe

35. Heard on a Lake: “Should ___ back to
○

62. Photos
○

the docks now?” 65. Benatar the Singer

○

36. Mr. Lowe 66. * VETERANS DAY: “Lest ___ Forget”

○

38. Initials of an internationally renowned 68. Indefinite article

○

violinist
○

39. * Scene of a bloody military campaign

○
○

during World War II

○

42. Chinese unit of distance

○

43. Bronze money

○

45. Hair bugs

○

46. * Opposing forces fought fiercely here

○
○

three times during World War I

○

49. * Deadly reminders of war

○
○
○
○

S t u d e n t Agenda Volume 8 Number 8 13

 PAGE 14 BLACK

Mga Gawain

3 Japan Invades the United States

“How much do you know about the Japanese invasion of the United States in World War II?
Did you even know that the United States was invaded? Either way, you’re sure to learn
something. Have fun!”

1. What island
chain did the Japa- 8.The Ameri-
nese invade? cans invaded
Attu May 11,
Answer: (One 1943 in order
Word) to reclaim part
of their home-
2. In what year did land. On which
bay did the
the Japanese begin
southern inva-
their invasion?
sion force land?

3. Which Japanese a. Beach Red

general was in b. Massacre Bay
charge of the c. Blood Bay
invasion? d. Black Bay

a. Hideki Tojo 9. How many

b. Isoroku Yamamoto
days did it take for the Americans
c. Hideichiro Higuda
○

to reclaim Attu?
○
○

Hirohito
6. The Japanese captured
○
○

○
○

something very special on the a. 34

○
○

4. Where was Alaska bombed

○

b. 5
○

island of Kiska. What was it?

○
○

before any islands were taken? c. 18

○
○

d. 13
○

a. A very strategic mountain on

○
○

a. Dutch Harbor which to battle and defend.

○
○

○
○

b. Prince William Sound b. A weather station along with 10. How did the Americans
○
○

c. Unimak Island ten men.

○
○

defeat the Japanese at Kiska?

○
○

d. Anchorage c. A large treasure.

○
○

d. American military secrets.

○
○

a. They didn’t have to. The

○
○

5. Who was the only civilian Japanese had left.

○
○

7. On which island did the

○
○

casualty of the Japanese invasion b. A brutal struggle resulted in an

○
○

American victory, much like

○

of Attu and Kiska? Americans build a makeshift

○

○
○

airbase in order to more easily Attu.

○
○

c. A ship with all the Japanese on

○

a. Charles Foster Jones, a radio attack Attu and Kiska?

○

○
○

operator. board was sunk.

○
○

d. The Japanese committed mass

○

b. Isqalit, an Aleut Native. a. Unalaska

○

○
○

c. Etta Jones, Mr. Jones’ wife. b. Atka suicide.

○
○

d. Dave Johnson, a missionary. c. Amchitka

○

○
○

d. Adak
○
○

○
○

14 Volume 8 Number 8 SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007 Agenda

S t u d e n t Agenda
PAGE 15 BLACK
World War II in Context

Mga Gawain

4 World War II In Context

○
○
1.Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 8. The Battle of the Atlantic was

○
What codename was given to this

○
○
Germany can be attributed to a critical operation? the longest battle of WWII.

○
○

○
○
series of intriguing events, one them

○
○
being the Reichstag fire. In which a. Chromite True

○
○

○
b. Cobra

○
year did this occur? False

○
○
c. Tiger

○
○

○
○
d. Dynamo
a. 1934 9. In a more obscure part of the

○
○

○
b. 1932
○

world in early 1942, this famous

○
5. The Japanese launch a massive
○

c. 1936

○
American general gained fame after
○

○
d. 1933
○

carrier-based attack against the overseeing the retreat from Burma.

○
○

○
United States naval base in Pearl
○

○
2. In 1931, the Japanese invaded
○

Harbor, December 7, 1941. Which a. Merrill

○
○

○
other two bases were bombed on b. MacArthur
○

the long desired Chinese province

○
○

the same or the following day? c. Stilwell

○
of Manchuria, securing vast
○

○
d. Bradley
○

amounts of natural resources for

○
○

a. Philippines and Midway

○
their people and army. Who was
○

○
b. Philippines and Guam
named head of this new asset? 10. The Battle of Midway began
○

○
○

c. Wake Island and Guam

○
○

June 4, 1942. This crucial battle in

○
a. Takashi Hashiguchi d. Midway and Guam
○

○
the Pacific Theater led to the sinking
○

b. Mitsuo Homma ○
○

of the Japanese aircraft carriers

○

c. Jisaburo Ozawa
○

Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, and the Kaga.

○

6.From May 1940 onwards, the

○

d. Henry Pu Yi
○

The American Navy in turn lost the

○
○

British people had Winston Churchill wounded carrier Yorktown. What

○

3. On September 1, 1939 Hitler’s to look up to. Shortly before enter-

○

American destroyer was also sunk

○

invasion of Poland began, an act ing politics in 1900, in what field trying to rescue sailors from the
○

had he made his living?

○

that finally plunged the world into Yorktown?

○

war. The Poles fought bravely for

○

a. commercial fishing
○

weeks, but an invasion from the a. Exetur

○

Soviets doomed them. On what b. accountancy b. Johnson

○

c. journalism
○

c. Hammann
○

date did the Soviet invasion occur?

○

d. shipping owner d. Hartman

○

○
○

a. October 10
○

b. September 25 7.June 1941 marked Hitler’s 11. Late in October 1942 marked
○

○
○

the turn of the tide for the Germans

○

c. September 17 invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler

○

d. October 3 in North Africa. General Montgom-

○

reminded any of his reluctant

○

ery of the British Eighth Army deliv-

○

generals that it was the German

○

ered a decisive blow to Rommel’s

4.Hitler’s ambitions having turned
○

people’s destiny to occupy these

○
○

Afrikakorps near the small village of

○

extensive lands. What was this

○

west in the spring of 1940, led to

○

El Alamein in Egypt. Strangely

○

“ideology” named?
○

conquest of France and the hurried

○

enough, Rommel was absent, back

○
○

evacuation of the B.E.F., French

○

home ailing. Who was in com-

○

a. Einsatzgruppe
○

Army and other remnants of Allied

○

mand?
○

b. Untermensch
○

units at Dunkirk. A maritime opera-

○
○

c. Verdunkeln a. General Lloyd Frenendall

○

tion of titanic proportions succeeds

○

d. Lebensraum b. General Hermann Hoff

○

in the rescue of over 300,000 men.

○
○

c. General Karl von Ludendorf

○
○

d. General Georg von Stumme

○

○
○

○
○

S t u d e n t Agenda
Agenda 15
○

Volume 8 Number 8
 Mga Gawain

World
War II in
Asia
6 Easy Questions on the War
Encircle the answer.

1. Some historians consider 3. In 1942, the British suffered 5. What was the first clear Allied
Japan’s 1931 conquest of their worst military defeat ever victory over Japan in World War
what Chinese region to be the when Japanese forces captured II?
true start of World War II? about 85,000 British soldiers in The Battle of the Coral Sea
Xinjiang what Pacific region? The Battle of Midway
Manchuria Hong Kong The Doolittle raid
Mongolia Malaya
Singapore 6.On what date did an Ameri-
2. How many war planes did can B-29 bomber drop the first
Japan launch against the U.S.
4.What country was U.S. Gen- atomic bomb used in warfare?
fleet in Hawaii on Dec. 7, eral Douglas MacArthur referring Aug. 6, 1945
1941? to when he famously proclaimed Aug. 9, 1945
130 “I shall return”? Aug. 14, 1945
350 Burma
530 China
The Philippines

Ang Student Agenda

Ang Student Agenda ay ay pinamamahalaan nina:
inilalathala ng Godswill Ang Danilova R. Molintas
Publishing Co. Godswill Publishing Co. Patnugot
Student ay pinamumunuan John N. Ponsaran
Nag-oopisina ito sa ng mga sumusunod: Margarette M. Teodosio
No. 26 20th Avenue, Maria Katrina X. Zuno
GODSWILL PUBLISHING CO. Murphy, Cubao Hannah Isberto
Willis C. Bawayan Romel Rivera
Quezon City Nimfa U. Sabacan Manunulat
at may telepono bilang
Dave Lorenzo Jr.
438-8566, Litrato
913-3726 (telefax) Luisa Gorgonio
Disenyo

16 Volume 8 Number 8 SCHOOLYEAR 2006-2007 S t u d e n t Agenda