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Access from Overseas
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I see… So, many people like the above article, don’t they?
Yes, they do. And you know what? These folks love your pictures as well.
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And they loved to read your email.
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Subj:I’m glad
you got your postcard FINALLY.
From: diane@vancouver.ca
To: barclay1720@aol.com
Date: Tue., Apr 3, 2012 7:31 pm
Pacific Daylight Saving Time
Hello, Kato!
Thanks for the above article and the fascinating information.
It was good to see you this afternoon at Joe Fortes.
The librarian tells me that you’re now paying rent and that you’re one of their best tenants; quiet, peaceful, intelligent and mindful. Not bad.
There could be worse places to hang out in, that’s for sure!
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I’m glad you got your postcard FINALLY.
… seems that everyone I sent those to had the same experience as you did.
They’ve taken over 20 days to reach Vancouver.
Bit too long, I’d say.
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Did you like the stamp?
I’ve got a thing for stamps and these are special ones, apparently, and just to be used for postcards.
I thought they were very attractive myself .. unique.
Thanks again for all of this material.
I’m still digesting it ~ you are such a sleuth, kiddo.
I’m glad to know that they loved it, but how about the biker granny? Who the hell is she?
Good question! Actually, the above granny’s picture has been taken from the following book cover.
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So, Kato, you read the above book, didn’t you?
Yes, I did. I borrowed it from Vancouver Public Library as usual.
Tell me, Kato, what makes you talk about this elderly woman.
I read the following passage.
Fifty Years After WWII
and My Remembrance
A year before the end of the war, my husband was sent to the island of the southern Philippines when a red conscription card was delivered to our home.
We had been married for seven and a half years.
Although I had heard that he was sent to Mindanao island at first, then to Cebu, I hadn’t received any letter from my husband.
My husband was a 36-year-old civilian who used to say that he’d like to study painting in Paris after the war.
He was kind of a dreamer, I suppose.
Without realizing his dream, however, he died on the battle ground.
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I clearly remember the day he went to war with two young men in the neighborhood. 。。。 I carried my 12-month-old daughter on my back while taking the hands of four-year-old son and six-year-old daughter.
With neighbors and send-off friends, we went to the nearby station, but I couldn’t find my husband.
I was quite concerned about what happened to my husband.
The departure time of the train was looming, and the send-off party was ready at the platform.
When I went up together, to my surprise, my husband was standing all alone at the end of the long platform.
My husband was a pacifist who hated wars and loved liberty.
Probably because he was forced to go to war, he might have taken such a behavior as a resistance.
My heart really ached whenever I thought about how he could manage to get along with disgruntled sergeants in the army of tough military disciplines.
In March 1946, I received an official notice of my husband’s death.
I said to myself, “My dear… You died because you stood alone at the end of the platform when you went to war.”
Two young men who went to war with my husband returned home safely.
My husband returned but he turned into a tiny pebble in the urn.
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I wonder how he died in the southern Philippines.
Since I didn’t see his death myself, my thought about his death remains blurred.
。。。
When you encounter an unbearable distress, you can’t shed tears.
I had such a first-hand experience when I had to face the death of my husband.
When I received the urn, I had to think about how we would have to survive before I had a time to shed tears.
I had to support my three children and my mother-in-law and father-in-law.
Thinking about the difficulties as well as the chaos in the post-war years, I swore to myself, “I’ll support my kids and my in-laws by all means and I’ll never let them starve to death.”
Such being the case, I did not afford to shed tears.
。。。
Thanks to English I studied hard at the girls’ Catholic high school in Yokohama, I started working in a foreign trading company.
Immediately after the war, my father-in-law died unfortunately.
I lived with my mother-in-law for another 25 years.
Although some people made quick money in the post-war mess in many cases, our life with a single bread earner was rather poor.
However, I thanked God for the fact that we were healthy through all these years.
When the occupation authorities returned a Yokohama department store to the Japanese hands, my younger daughter asked me, “What is a department store?”
“It is a store where you can buy anything.”
Then my daughter told me, “Mama, please buy me a father.”
I was really troubled.
My younger daughter is now living in Toronto, and I live with her family.
I’ve been here in this city for 18 years since I immigrated to Canada.
I’m now accustomed to a Canadian way of living.
Although I don’t have much luxury, I enjoy this moderate lifestyle.
And friendship I have built since I came here is a real asset for the life of an 85-year-old grandmother.
I really appreciate the kindness of my friends.
I lost my husband in the Philippines and my brother in Okinawa.
My “life after the war” or remembrance will be always with me until my death.
At the end, however, I can certainly tell you, “I have no regrets about the fact that the militaristic Japan is gone now.”
When I received the urn, I had to think about how we would have to survive before I had a time to shed tears.
I had to support my three children and my mother-in-law and father-in-law.
Thinking about the difficulties as well as the chaos in the post-war years, I swore to myself, “I’ll support my kids and my in-laws by all means and I’ll never let them starve to death.”
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How come you were so moved by the above passage?
Well … she said that her favorite movie was “Waterloo Bridge” and that it gave her a lift so that she could put up with the hardship whenever she viewed it. So I borrowed the DVD from Vancouver Public Library and viewed it myself.
The film opens after Britain’s declaration of World War II.
Roy Cronin, an army colonel, is being driven to London’s Waterloo Station en route to France, and briefly alights on Waterloo Bridge to reminisce about events which occurred during the First World War when he met Myra Lester, a ballerina, whom he had planned to marry.
Roy and Myra serendipituously meet on Waterloo Bridge and strike up an immediate rapport.
On parting, Myra invites Roy to attend that evening’s ballet performance.
Roy, already enamored with the ballerina, cancels his dinner appointment with a fellow officer to attend the ballet.
At the show’s end, Roy sends a note to Myra to join him for dinner.
The note is intercepted by the director of the ballet troupe, Madame Olga Kirowa who forbids Myra from continuing her relationship with Roy.
Madame Olga ultimately learns of Myra’s disobedience and dismisses her from the ballet troupe.
Myra and another dancer, Kitty, who has sided with her friend is also asked to leave.
Both young women then join together, sharing a small apartment, and look for work.
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Hours before his planned marriage to Myra, Roy is suddenly deployed to active military duty in France,
but assures Myra that his family will look after her and safeguard her welfare while he is away.
Subsequently, Myra and Roy’s mother, Lady Margaret Cronin, arrange to meet at a fashionable restaurant; their first introduction to each other.
Awaiting Lady Cronin’s very belated arrival, Myra scans a newspaper and faints on seeing the name of her fiancé Roy in a list of war dead.
Dazed by grief and proffered wine, she relates poorly to Roy’s mother in a session of awkward miscommunication.
She is reticent and apprehensive in the presence of the aristocratic, yet kindly Lady Cronin and does not disclose her knowledge of Roy’s reported death.
Lady Cronin gracefully retreats, baffled by Myra’s behavior.
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Unable to find employment, Kitty and Myra face a dire financial situation.
Belatedly, Myra, who believed that Kitty was working as a stage performer, learns her friend has been working as a prostitute to support both of them.
Too proud to reach out to Roy’s mother for help, the heartbroken Myra finds it necessary to join her friend Kitty in the same profession.
A year passes.
While offering herself to departing and arriving soldiers at Waterloo Station, Myra catches sight of an arriving Roy, who is alive and well.
He had been wounded and interned in a POW camp for year.
A reconciliation occurs; a joyous one for Roy, a bittersweet one for Myra.
The couple visit Roy’s mother at their estate in Scotland, where Myra, guilt-ridden, is confronted by the impossibility of a happy marriage to Roy.
Her career of prostitution has made her feel she is beyond redemption, unworthy of Roy’s love.
Myra discloses her story to Roy’s mother, who is sympathetic, but Myra tells her she cannot do Roy the injustice and then leaves Roy a goodbye note, and goes away ‘forever’, returning to London.
Roy follows, and with the aid of Kitty, looks for her, finally discovering the truth in the process.
Meanwhile, Myra, depressed, reminiscing on and then traversing Waterloo Bridge, the location where the love affair began, takes her own life by walking into the path of a moving truck.
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SOURCE:”Waterloo Bridge (1940 film)”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ummmm… sounds quite tragic yet interesting. I think I’m gonna borrow the DVD. Kato, why do you think this movie becomes the granny’s favorite?
Well … you see, the granny had to support three children and two in-laws during the difficulties and chaos in the post-war era, and she did that by all means without working on the street like Kitty and Myra.
I see… she feels self-satisfied and assured that she did the right thing whenever she views the movie. Is that all?
No, that’s not all. For the granny, Robert Taylor talks to her like her late husband, who is liberal-minded and kind-hearted.
So, she seems to be with the late husband whenever she watches the movie.
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Yes, she does. You’re telling me, Diane.
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【Himiko’s Monologue】
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How romantic it is!
Romance, however, doesn’t fill up your stomach.
I’m now quite hungry.
During the summer vacation, Diane enjoyed a mind-blowing duck lunch in a French medieval village.
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Diane also enjoyed pasta dinner.
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The duck dish looks great, and the pasta seems delicious,
but I’d rather eat some sushi now.
How about you?
Do you like sushi?
I’m sure you do.
Why don’t you make California rolls?
I’ll show you how to make those rolls.
California Rolls
An Easy Sushi Recipe
Now, you know how to do it.
Enjoy it to the hilt.
In any case, I hope Kato will write another interesting article soon.
So please come back to see me.
The contemporary version, internationally known as “sushi”, was created by Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858) at the end of the Edo period in Tokyo.
Sushi invented by Hanaya was an early form of fast food that was not fermented (therefore prepared quickly) and could be conveniently eaten with one’s hands.
Originally, this sushi was known as Edomae zushi because it used freshly caught fish in the Edo-mae (Edo Bay or Tokyo Bay).
Though the fish used in modern sushi no longer usually comes from Tokyo Bay, it is still formally known as Edomae nigiri-zushi.
I like temaki sushi.
It is easy to make.
Here are the step-by-step instructions.
It is written in Japanese… So, unfortunately, you cannot read it… Anyway, in the above article I talked about his famous novel—“The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Diane, have you read the novel?
Yes, I read it a long time ago.
By the way, Diane, have you watched the following movie?
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Trailer (1939)
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No, I haven’t, but I viewed the following musical:
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So, Diane, you like musicals, eh?
Yes, I do… Talking about Victor Hugo, is he famous even in Japan?
Oh, yes! When I was a kid, I read a story about the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean.
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Did you like it?
I didn’t like it too much, but one scene was clearly implanted into my mind.
What kind of scene is that?
Well… Valjean, using the alias Monsieur Madeleine, has become a wealthy factory owner and is appointed mayor of a certain town. Walking down the street, he sees a man named Fauchelevent pinned under the wheels of a cart. When no one volunteers to lift the cart, even for pay, he decides to rescue Fauchelevent himself. He crawls underneath the cart, manages to lift it, and frees him.
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The town’s police inspector, Inspector Javert, who was an adjutant guard at the Bagne of Toulon during Valjean’s incarceration, becomes suspicious of the mayor after witnessing this remarkable feat of strength. He has known only one other man, a convict named Jean Valjean, who could accomplish it.
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How old were you when you read it for the first time.
I was ten or eleven years old, I suppose.
So, you were an avid reader, eh?
No, not really… in those days, the story of Jean Valjean was quite popular among the children of my age… so, naturally it interested me to a great extent.
So, you watched it on April 8, 2016, huh? … How did you like it?
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I wasn’t impressed so much as I read the original story.
Talking about Lady Hugo, is she related to Victor Hugo?
Yes, of course, she is the youngest daughter of Victor Hugo.
Adèle Hugo
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(28 July 1830 – 21 April 1915)
Adèle Hugo was the fifth and youngest child of French writer Victor Hugo.
She is remembered for developing schizophrenia as a young woman, which led to a romantic obsession with a British military officer who rejected her.
Her story has been retold in film and books, such as “The Story of Adele H.”
Childhood
Adèle Hugo was raised in a cultured, affluent home in Paris, the youngest child of Adèle (née Foucher) and Victor Hugo, France’s most famous writer.
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Adèle Foucher
Adèle enjoyed playing the piano, and was known for her beauty and long dark hair.
She sat for portraits by several well-known Parisian artists.
In 1851, the Hugo family moved to the island of Jersey, after Victor Hugo was forced into political exile.
The family remained on the Channel Islands until 1870.
It was in Jersey that Adèle met Albert Pinson, the object of her obsession.
Illness and pursuit of Albert Pinson
Signs of mental illness became apparent in Adèle in 1856.
Adèle became romantically involved with a British army officer, Albert Pinson.
Pinson proposed marriage to Adèle in 1855, but she rejected the proposal.
Adèle had a change of heart, wanting to reconcile with Pinson, but he refused to be involved any further with Adèle.
Pinson continued his military career, being sent to the Sixteenth Foot Regiment in Bedfordshire in 1856, where he seldom saw Adèle.
Pinson then went to Ireland in 1858, upon promotion to lieutenant, where he was stationed until 1861.
Despite Pinson’s rejection, she continued pursuing him.
Pinson developed a reputation for living a “life of debauchery”.
Adèle followed him when he was stationed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1863.
Adèle’s family worried for her well-being, and tried to track her whereabouts by letters.
In 1866, Pinson was stationed to Barbados, the British colonial centre in the Caribbean region.
He completely abandoned Adèle when he left Barbados in 1869.
Adèle did not find her way back to France until 1872, and in the interim, the Hugo family was unable to track her activities.
The mystery of Adèle’s life in Barbados may have been revealed in an anonymous letter to the editor—signed only “P”—published in the New-York Tribune on May 27, 1885.
The head of the Catholic mission in Trinidad, Cathonoy, gave a similar account of Adèle’s wretched situation in Barbados in a letter dated September 8, 1885.
He relates an incident where he met a Barbadian woman of African descent, named Madame Céline Alvarez Baa, who requested that a mass be said for Victor Hugo after news of the author’s death.
Curious to know the reason for Madame Baa’s interest in Victor Hugo, Cathonoy asked questions, and learned that Madame Baa had given Adèle shelter when she was abandoned on Barbados, where she was known as “Madame Pinson”.
Adèle had been found wandering the streets, talking to herself, detached from her surroundings.
Madame Baa took the initiative to take Adèle to her family in Paris.
Adèle was then left in medical care.
A grateful Victor Hugo reimbursed Madame Baa for her expenses.
Erotomania
Adèle’s obsession was a manifestation of erotomania.
Along with her other symptoms of mental illness, including hallucinations, Adèle’s condition indicates schizophrenia.
The illness appeared in other members of the Hugo family.
Victor Hugo’s brother Eugène was also schizophrenic.
She was ultimately sent to live in a mental institution for the affluent outside Paris.
She remained there until her death.
Out of Victor Hugo’s five children, Adele was the only one who outlived him.
Much of what is known about Adèle’s life and her pursuit of Pinson comes from her diaries and letters.
Adèle kept a journal while she lived on Jersey and Guernsey, which she titled Journal de l’Exil (Diary of the Exile).
She stopped keeping a diary by the time she landed in Barbados, due to her mental deterioration.
SOURCES: “Adèle Hugo”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How come you picked up Adele Hugo all of a sudden?
Well. . . I viewed the film: “The Story of Adele H.” a few years ago.
This is a 1975 French historical docudrama directed by François Truffaut, based on Adèle Hugo’s diaries.
It shows the life of Adèle Hugo, the daughter of world-famous Victor Hugo, whose obsessive unrequited love for a military officer leads to her downfall and insanity.
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Her father places her in an asylum in Saint-Mandé, where she lives for the next forty years.
She gardens, plays the piano and writes in her journal.
Adèle Hugo died in Paris in 1915 at the age of 85.
Although it is an heartbreaking drama, the film almost appears like a dramedy when Adèle views the show of a greedy hypnotizer.
At the time I laughed my head off to death.
Superb is the performance of 20-year-old Isabelle Adjani as Adèle Hugo.
Did you really laugh your head off to death?
Well… of course, I exaggerated a bit, but the scene appeared quite hilarious… You should view the movie.
I think I’m gonna book the DVD.
You’d better hurry… Four people are still waiting…
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【Himiko’s Monologue】
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Well…, have you ever watched the movie of the Jean Valjean story?
If you speak Japanese, there is a Japanese version.
Here it is.
The following movie was made in 1950.
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Jean Valjean is played by Sessue Hayakawa (早川 雪洲 1889-1973) who starred in Japanese, American, French, German, and British films.
Hayakawa was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the silent era of the 1910s and 1920s.
He was the first actor of Asian descent to find stardom as a leading man in the United States and Europe.
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His broodingly handsome good looks and typecasting as a sexually dominant villain made him a heartthrob among American women during a time of racial discrimination, and he became one of the first male sex symbols of Hollywood.
During those years, Hayakawa was as well-known and popular as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, although today his name is largely unknown to the public.
In any case, I expect Kato will write another interesting article soon.
Kato watched “The Arabian Nights” or “One Thousand and One Nights” as his 1001th movie.
You might just as well want to view it.
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The stories in “the Arabian Nights” were collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa.
The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature.
In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazār Afsān which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.
What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryār and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves.
The stories proceed from this original tale.
Some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord.
Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.
Kato. . . , are you talking about an unknown tragedy?
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Yes, that’s right. . . Diane, you don’t like it, do you?
Well . . . honestly, I prefer comedy to tragedy.
Yes, yes, yes,… of course, it’s understandable.
But, Kato, how come you pick up an unknown tragedy among all other things.
Good question! . . . Actually, a couple of days ago, I read the following passage from the book borrowed at Vancouver Public Library. . .
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What is not well known in Japan is the rape done by the Soviet Union soldiers in the occupied area before arriving in Berlin.
This happened not only in Germany, but also in the countries of Eastern Europe, which lie between the Soviet Union border and Germany.
Thus, the total number of Soviet army rapes rose to a tremendous number.
Naturally, rape didn’t stop there because the women resisted, and the soldiers committed war crimes such as assault, injury and murder.
According to one theory, Soviet soldiers killed about 10% of raped women.
Besides, there were other women who committed suicide.
Naturally, sexually transmitted diseases spread among victims, and then transmitted to families as well.
It was even more miserable if the women got pregnant. . . .
The rate of pregnancy by rape done by the Soviet Union soldiers became as high as 20 percent. . . .
It is reported that 11,000 German women became pregnant by the Soviet army’s rape after the fall of Berlin, and 1,100 “Russian” children were born because they were not abandoned due to religious or other reasons. . . .
After all, although rape is a war crime that is unforgivable for women, it must be said that it is strange that only Japanese army is criticized in terms of “comfort woman” issue.
I see. . . As a matter of fact, I once read a story about the Soviet Union army who raped the Japanese women when the Soviet Union army invaded Manchuria.
Oh, did you?
So, the Soviet Union army also raped the women while they advanced along the way to reach Berlin, didn’t they?
Yes, you’re telling me, Diane. . . In fact, I viewed a movie made based on those historical facts. . .
Did you?
Yes, I borrowed a DVD at Vancouver Public Library last November and watched the following movie. . .
Directed by Anne Fontaine in 2016 based on the real events, this French drama delves into the aftermath of mass rapes by Soviet soldiers at the convent in Poland.
The pregnant nuns go through an unprecedented crisis of faith.
Though it does not seem easy to watch, its nuanced exploration of the minds of the strict Mother Superior as well as the victimized nuns appears well worth watching.
The Innocents
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The Innocents, also known as Agnus Dei, is a 2016 French film directed by Anne Fontaine, which features Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek and Vincent Macaigne in its cast.
The script is by Sabrina B. Karine, Pascal Bonitzer, Anne Fontaine and Alice Vial, after an original idea by Philippe Maynial.
Maynial took inspiration from the experiences of his aunt, Madeleine Pauliac, a French Red Cross doctor who worked in Poland after World War II, dealing with the aftermath of mass rapes by Soviet soldiers.
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Producer Eric and Nicola Altmeyer (French version) who knew about the tragic incident that happened in the Polish monastery immediately after World War II from Dr. Pauliac’s diary, and the French director Anne Fontine I asked for a production.
Director Fontaine goes to the field with Polish historians to investigate.
And you get confirmation that the incident actually happened in the three abbeys.
Born in a Catholic family, Director Fontine has two nuns aunts.
In order to understand the movements of the nuns, I experienced life as a “practitioner” in a Benedictine abbey similar to a movie.
“Today the war and terrorism have killed the general public all over the world. The most important thing is strong solidarity. It is important to find hope even in a desperate situation,” said Fontaine.
Summary
In Warsaw, December 1945, a nun known as Sister Maria approaches a young French female student doctor, Mathilde Beaulieu, serving with an army unit. She says there are sick women in need and is not satisfied with a referral to the Polish Red Cross.
Beaulieu decides to go at night to the nun’s convent, where one woman has given birth.
The Mother Superior tells her that the nun was thrown out by her family and was taken in out of charity.
Beaulieu tells the Mother Superior (Abbess) that she works for the French Red Cross.
A novice nun at the convent is grieving the death of another nun.
Confined to her cell, she engages in morning prayer.
Later the Abbess discloses to Beaulieu that several nuns at the convent were raped by Russian soldiers, relating that the experience was nightmarish, and they wish to keep this a secret.
Seven of the nuns are pregnant.
Some of the pregnant nuns are reluctant to be examined intimately by the doctor, believing this will violate their vow of chastity.
One of the nuns confesses to Mother Superior that her faith has been deeply shaken by these events.
Soldiers come to the convent believing the nuns are harboring an enemy soldier.
However, Beaulieu convinces them she is there to deal with an emergency outbreak of typhus.
The Mother Superior is badly shaken by the threat of the soldiers, and thanks the doctor for her presence of mind.
Beaulieu realizes that she too was raped.
The Master of Novices tells the doctor that every day she is reminded of these harsh events.
She relates how faith has become more difficult for her but it is the cross she bears.
When Beaulieu returns to headquarters, her boss chastises her for having been away without leave.
He says that the military is a place of order and discipline.
At a later visit at the convent, Beaulieu is present when another novice nun gives birth unexpectedly.
This nun had not realized she was pregnant, and does not seem to know she has given birth.
The Abbess had given orders that she be notified of all births, but Beaulieu requests that she not be notified immediately.
The doctor needs to focus on care for the newborn.
A different nun, Sister Zofia, takes responsibility for the child.
Beaulieu asks the Master of Novices if she ever regrets her life as a nun.
The novice replies, “Faith is 24 hours of doubt with one minute of hope”, going on to describe her difficulties with the practice.
Beaulieu returns to the army medical unit, and discovers the unit is going to be transferred out of the area.
Several nuns are about to give birth at once.
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Beaulieu returns to the convent with a male Jewish colleague.
She assures the nuns that he will keep their secret.
The doctor visits the baby whose existence has been kept secret from the Abbess.
The Master of Novices plans to take the baby to the Zofia’s family, but the baby is discovered by the abbess.
The Abbess is upset that she was lied to and tells the Master of Novices that she has been corrupted by “that French woman”, who has brought scandal and disorder to the convent.
The Master of Novices replies, “Forgive me, but scandal and disorder were already here”.
The Mother Superior has been telling everyone that she takes the babies to families who have agreed to adopt, but she abandons this baby in front of a crucifix on a country walking path, after baptising it.
Zofia is distraught, knowing the child is missing.
The Mother Superior privately prays that she have the courage to continue on the path she has chosen.
Meanwhile, Sister Zofia commits suicide by jumping from an upper ledge, dying shortly after her wounded body is discovered.
When the Master of Novices goes to Zofia’s family to report her death, she discovers that Zofia’s mother never knew Zofia had a child, nor that she has been caring for the baby.
The Master of Novices decides to not tell the mother the truth.
This is the Master of Novices’ first realization that the Abbess has been dishonest about the fate of the babies.
She confronts the Abbess demanding the truth.
She says she entrusted the child to God, saying “Don’t you believe in Providence?”
At the medical base, Beaulieu is getting ready to finally leave the area.
The Master of Novices brings three babies to the base to protect them from the Abbess.
Beaulieu first notices that many orphans living on the street have been helping personnel at the base from time to time.
It occurs to her that the nuns could start raising many of these children and open an orphanage, thus avoiding questions about where the babies are coming from.
One of the nuns decides to leave the convent and raise her own child, and another decides to leave, but allow her baby to be raised by the nuns.
Source: “The Innocents (2016 film)”
Free encyclopedia Wikipedia
Oh. . . What a heart-wrenching story it is!
Yes, it is. . . Anyway, it is said that Soviet troops rushed to the abbey and raped them one after another. . . Ten months later, many of them would give birth in the last month. . .
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It looks like the convent has become a nursery. . .
In other words, Kato, are you defending the Japanese army who was to blame for the so-called “comfort woman” problem?
Oh no, I am NOT. . . But, I’d say that the above tragedy was much worse than the “comfort woman” problem. . . Don’t you thin so, Diane?
Well. . . The so-called “comfort woman” problem seems as bad as the above unknown tragedy.
Anyway, I’m NOT defending the Japanese army nor the Soviet Union army who did those bad things, but I’d say that during the war there were so many rapes in any of occupied countries. . . Even now, there has been news that Syrian government forces did “systematic rape”.
No kidding!?
If you cannot believe, read the following article.
UN probe accuses Syrian troops
of ‘systematic’ rape
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2018/03/16
Syrian troops and government-linked militia have systematically used rape and sexual violence against civilians, atrocities that amount to crimes against humanity, a UN-backed inquiry said Thursday, reports AFP.
Rebel fighters have committed similar violations, amounting to war crimes, but at a rate “considerably less common than rape by government forces and associated militia”, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria (COI) said in a new report.
The findings, submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, are based on 454 interviews with sources that include survivors, eye witnesses and medical workers.
The Damascus government has never granted COI investigators access to Syria.
Overall, the report adds to the overwhelming accounts of hellish suffering endured by Syrian civilians during the conflict that has claimed more than 350,000 lives as it enters its eighth year.
A woman from Syria’s third city of Homs told COI investigators that in 2012 “government forces entered her home and raped her daughter in front of her and her husband before shooting the daughter and the father”, the report said.
“The mother was then raped by two soldiers,” it added, in one of many examples of extreme violence.
Checkpoints controlled by the government or its allies, as well as detention centres, were identified as a main areas where sexual violence was perpetrated.
The COI notes that government troops detained “thousands of women and girls” from 2011 to the end of 2017, the period covered in the report.
So, Kato, you defend the Japanese army because they resorted to “comfort women” so that they didn’t have to rape the women in the occupied countries, don’t you?
No, I don’t. . . I am not admiring the “comfort women system”. . .
So how come you let me know about the rapes of the Soviet Union army in Poland?
Well . . . , even the German troops had raped the Russian women during the Soviet invasion.
Oh really?
Yes, they did. . . Besides, even the American troops had raped the French women during and after the Normandy landing operation.
The Dark Side of Liberation
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By Jennifer Schuessler
May 20, 2013
The soldiers who landed in Normandy on D-Day were greeted as liberators, but by the time American G.I.’s were headed back home in late 1945, many French citizens viewed them in a very different light.
In the port city of Le Havre, the mayor was bombarded with letters from angry residents complaining about drunkenness, jeep accidents, sexual assault — “a regime of terror,” as one put it, “imposed by bandits in uniform.”
This isn’t the “greatest generation” as it has come to be depicted in popular histories.
But in “What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American G.I. in World War II France,” the historian Mary Louise Roberts draws on French archives, American military records, wartime propaganda and other sources to advance a provocative argument: The liberation of France was “sold” to soldiers not as a battle for freedom but as an erotic adventure among oversexed Frenchwomen, stirring up a “tsunami of male lust” that a battered and mistrustful population often saw as a second assault on its sovereignty and dignity.
“I could not believe what I was reading,” Ms. Roberts, a professor of French history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, recalled of the moment she came across the citizen complaints in an obscure archive in Le Havre.
“I took out my little camera and began photographing the pages. I did not go to the bathroom for eight hours.”
“What Soldiers Do,” to be officially published next month by the University of Chicago Press, arrives just as sexual misbehavior inside the military is high on the national agenda, thanks to a recent Pentagon report estimating that some 26,000 service members had been sexually assaulted in 2012, more than a one-third increase since 2010.
While Ms. Roberts’s arguments may be a hard sell to readers used to more purely heroic narratives, her book is winning praise from some scholarly colleagues.
“Our culture has embalmed World War II as ‘the good war,’ and we don’t revisit the corpse very often,” said David M. Kennedy, a historian at Stanford University and the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945.”
“What Soldiers Do,” he added, is “a breath of fresh air,” providing less of an “aha” than, as he put it, an “of course.”
Mary Louise Roberts has written “What Soldiers Do,” a book about sexual assaults by Americans fighting in France.
Ms. Roberts, whose parents met in 1944 when her father was training as a naval officer, emphasizes that American soldiers’ heroism and sacrifice were very real, and inspired genuine gratitude.
But French sources, she argues, also reveal deep ambivalence on the part of the liberated.
“Struggles between American and French officials over sex,” she writes, “rekindled the unresolved question of who exactly was in charge.”
Sex was certainly on the liberators’ minds.
The book cites military propaganda and press accounts depicting France as “a tremendous brothel inhabited by 40 million hedonists,” as Life magazine put it.
(Sample sentences from a French phrase guide in the newspaper Stars and Stripes: “You are very pretty” and “Are your parents at home?”)
On the ground, however, the grateful kisses captured by photojournalists gave way to something less picturesque.
In the National Archives in College Park, Md., Ms. Roberts found evidence — including one blurry, curling snapshot — supporting long-circulating colorful anecdotes about the Blue and Gray Corral, a brothel set up near the village of St. Renan in September 1944 by Maj. Gen. Charles H. Gerhardt, commander of the infantry division that landed at Omaha Beach, partly to counter a wave of rape accusations against G.I.’s.
(It was shut down after a mere five hours.)
In France, Ms. Roberts also found a desperate letter from the mayor of Le Havre in August 1945 urging American commanders to set up brothels outside the city, to halt the “scenes contrary to decency” that overran the streets, day and night.
They refused, partly, Ms. Roberts argues, out of concern that condoning prostitution would look bad to “American mothers and sweethearts,” as one soldier put it.
Keeping G.I. sex hidden from the home front, she writes, ensured that it would be on full public view in France: a “two-sided attitude,” she said, that is reflected in the current military sexual abuse crisis.
Ms. Roberts is not the first scholar to bring the sexual side of World War II into clearer view.
The 1990s brought a surge of scholarship on the Soviet Army’s mass rapes on the Eastern front, fed partly by the international campaign to have rape recognized as a war crime after the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
At the same time, gender historians began taking a closer look at “fraternization” by American soldiers, with particular attention to what women thought they were getting out of the bargain.
Besides, although the Nazi Jewish extermination and slaughter operations are notorious and well known to the world, the systematic slaughter that the former Soviet Union did against Ukrainians was hardly known until recently.
Oh . . .? Are you saying, Kato, the high-level executives of the former Soviet Union had systematically slaughtered Ukrainians?
Yes, they did. . . Actually, I didn’t even know at all until recently, but I watched the following documentary. . .
Directed by Yurij Luhovy in 2010, this 76-minute documentary delves into genocide against the Ukrainian nation with declassified rare footage while interviewing survivors and historians.
The Holodomor (killing by starvation) took place in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed millions of Ukraines.
During the Holodomor, millions of people of Ukraine, the majority of who were ethnic ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine.
Since 2006, the Holodomor has been recognized by Ukraine and 15 other countries as a genocide of the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet government.
Amazing, shocking and heart-wrenching!
Holodomor
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The Holodomor (derived from морити голодом, “to kill by starvation”) was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians.
It is also known as the Terror-Famine and Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, and sometimes referred to as the Great Famine or The Ukrainian Genocide of 1932–33.
It was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1932–33, which affected the major grain-producing areas of the country.
During the Holodomor, millions of inhabitants of Ukraine, the majority of whom were ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine.
Since 2006, the Holodomor has been recognized by Ukraine and 15 other countries as a genocide of the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet government.
Early estimates of the death toll by scholars and government officials varied greatly.
According to higher estimates, up to 12 million ethnic Ukrainians were said to have perished as a result of the famine.
A U.N. joint statement signed by 25 countries in 2003 declared that 7–10 million perished.
Research has since narrowed the estimates to between 3.3 and 7.5 million.
According to the findings of the Court of Appeal of Kiev in 2010, the demographic losses due to the famine amounted to 10 million, with 3.9 million direct famine deaths, and a further 6.1 million birth deficits.
Some scholars believe that the famine was planned by Joseph Stalin to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement.
Using Holodomor in reference to the famine emphasises its man-made aspects, arguing that actions such as rejection of outside aid, confiscation of all household foodstuffs, and restriction of population movement confer intent, defining the famine as genocide; the loss of life has been compared to that of the Holocaust.
The causes are still a subject of academic debate, and some historians dispute its characterization as a genocide.
Source: “Holodomor”
Free encyclopedia Wikipedia”
Oh. . . How horrible! . . . Four to fourteen million Ukrainians died because they were deprived of livestock and farmland by forced relocation. . . It sounds much worse than the Holocaust by the Nazi, doesn’t it?
I suppose so. . . Horodomor is one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century. . . There were others such as the Armenian massacre, the Holocaust, the Pol Poto massacre, the Rwanda massacre, etc.! . . . In other words, historically, wars and dictators have produced tragedies all over the world
I see. . .
At the time of the Communist Party dictatorship in general, and Mao Zedong in particular, China’s “Great Leap Forward” (1958-1962) was a reckless plan, which resulted in 10 million people dead. . . Moreover, even in North Korea, a former BBC reporter, British journalist Jasper Becker, points out based on data from the UN that the population of North Korea was 24 million, but in 2005 it dropped to 19 million. . . That is, five million North Koreans were starved to death in just 10 years. . .
Unbelievable! . . . Both wars and dictators create such horrible tragedies, huh?
Yes, you’re telling me.
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【Himiko’s Monologue】
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Do you think that both wars and dictators create such horrible tragedies, too?
What? . . . You don’t like to talk about tragedies at all, do you?
“Tell me another interesting story!”
If you say so, I’ll show you the following clip:
Here’s a clip for a certain woman to use for making love.
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How do you like the above music?
Are you tired of sexy music?
Well… here’s a mood-changing tune just for you.
Gess what?… You can now laught to the last tears.
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Mr. Mathane
In any road, I expect Kato will write another interesting article soon.
Kato watched “The Arabian Nights” or “One Thousand and One Nights” as his 1001th movie.
You might just as well want to view it.
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The stories in “the Arabian Nights” were collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa.
The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature.
In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazār Afsān which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.
What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryār and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves.
The stories proceed from this original tale.
Some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord.
Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.
Cleopatra is a 1934 American epic film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
A retelling of the story of Cleopatra VII of Egypt, the screenplay was written by Waldemar Young and Vincent Lawrence and was based on Bartlett Cormack’s adaptation of historical material.
Claudette Colbert stars as Cleopatra, Warren William as Julius Caesar, and Henry Wilcoxon as Mark Antony.
Nominated for five Academy Awards, Cleopatra was the first DeMille film to receive a nomination for Best Picture.
Victor Milner won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
PLOT
In 48 BC, Cleopatra vies with her brother Ptolemy for control of Egypt.
Pothinos (Leonard Mudie) kidnaps her and Apollodorus (Irving Pichel) and strands them in the desert.
When Pothinos informs Julius Caesar that the queen has fled the country, Caesar is ready to sign an agreement with Ptolemy when Apollodorus appears, bearing a gift carpet for the Roman. When Apollodorus unrolls it, Cleopatra emerges, much to Pothinos’ surprise. He tries to deny who she is. However, Caesar sees through the deception and Cleopatra soon beguiles Caesar with the prospect of the riches of not only Egypt, but also India. Later, when they are seemingly alone, she spots a sandal peeking out from underneath a curtain and thrusts a spear into the hidden Pothinos, foiling his assassination attempt. Caesar makes Cleopatra the sole ruler of Egypt, and begins an affair with her.
Caesar eventually returns to Rome with Cleopatra to the cheers of the masses, but Roman unease is directed at Cleopatra.
Cassius (Ian Maclaren), Casca (Edwin Maxwell), Brutus (Arthur Hohl) and other powerful Romans become disgruntled, rightly suspecting that he intends to abolish the Roman Republic and make himself emperor, with Cleopatra as his empress (after divorcing Calpurnia, played by Gertrude Michael).
Ignoring the forebodings of Calpurnia, Cleopatra, and a soothsayer (Harry Beresford) who warns him about the Ides of March, Caesar goes to announce his intentions to the Senate.
Before he can do so, he is assassinated.
Cleopatra is heartbroken at the news.
At first, she wants to go to him, but Apollodorus tells her that Caesar did not love her, only her power and wealth, and that Egypt needs her.
They return home.
Bitter rivals Marc Antony and Octavian (Ian Keith) are named co-rulers of Rome.
Antony, disdainful of women, invites Cleopatra to meet with him in Tarsus, intending to bring her back to Rome as a captive.
Enobarbus (C. Aubrey Smith), his close friend, warns Antony against meeting Cleopatra, but he goes anyway.
She entices him to her barge and throws a party with many exotic animals and beautiful dancers, and soon seduces him.
Together, they sail to Egypt.
King Herod (Joseph Schildkraut), who has secretly allied himself with Octavian, visits the lovers.
He informs Cleopatra privately that Rome and Octavian can be appeased if Antony were to be poisoned.
Herod also tells Antony the same thing, with the roles reversed.
Antony laughs off his suggestion, but a reluctant Cleopatra, reminded of her duty to Egypt by Apollodorus, tests a poison on a condemned murderer (Edgar Dearing) to see how it works.
Before Antony can drink the fatal wine, however, they receive news that Octavian has declared war.
Antony orders his generals and legions to gather, but Enobarbus informs him that they have all deserted out of loyalty to Rome.
Enobarbus tells his comrade that he can wrest control of Rome away from Octavian by having Cleopatra killed, but Antony refuses to consider it.
Enobarbus bids Antony goodbye, as he will not fight for an Egyptian queen against Rome.
A short montage sequence shows the fighting between the forces of Antony and Octavian, ending in the naval Battle of Actium.
Antony fights on with the Egyptian army, and is defeated.
Octavian and his soldiers surround and besiege Antony and Cleopatra.
Antony is mocked when he offers to fight them one by one.
Without his knowledge, Cleopatra opens the gate and offers to cede Egypt in return for Antony’s life in exile, but Octavian turns her down.
Meanwhile, Antony believes that she has deserted him for his rival and stabs himself.
When Cleopatra returns, she is heartbroken to find him dying.
They reconcile before he perishes.
Then, with the gates breached, Cleopatra kills herself with a poisonous snake and is found sitting on her throne, dead.
SOURCE: “Cleopatra (1934 film)”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So, Kato, you’re a Cleopatra fan, huh?
Yes, I am. Diane, have you seen this movie?
No, not this one, but I watched the 1963 version:
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How did you like it?
Fabulous and spectacular! I love it. How about you, Kato?
I viwed both versions… The 1934 version seems better simply because I like Claudette Colbert more than Elizabeth Taylor.
So, is that the reson you bring up the 1934 version?
Yes, but there’s another reason.
Tell me, Kato.
Last night, Cleopatra showed up in my dream… That’s the main reason I’ve decide to write this article.
You gotta be kidding!
Nope, I’m quite serious.
Then tell me about your dream.
It goes like this:
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Kato, you forget something quite important.
Hmm…? Do I? What is that?
So, I’ve come out this way. I can’t go home until I tell you my story.
Where are you going back?
Of course, I’ll go back up the heaven.
Do you wanna make me believe it?
Well… they say, if you believe it, you’ll be saved.
I’ve already been saved, so I don’t have to believe what you say.
Anyway, I’m the woman you’re talking about.
So, do you really mean that you’re Cleopatra, eh?
Yes, I do… I’m the one you’ve desperately wanted to meet. How do I look?
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Well… You look great, but I’m worried about you.
Why is that?
You see, I like a naked woman, but if you remain naked for an hour or so, you’ll catch a cold.
Kato, I know you love to see a naked woman.
Yes, I do… but could you cover between your legs. Otherwise, I cannot concentrate on talking with you.
Alright…
Well…, now, how do I look?
You’re still wearing nothing.
But I’ve covered it between my legs, haven’t I?
Yes, but if I move to your left, I can see it.
Then don’t move, Kato.
Okay… I’ll stay here… Now please read the following passage:
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Cleopatra perhaps started to view Antony as a liability by the late summer of 31 BC, when she prepared to leave Egypt to her son Caesarion.
Cleopatra planned to relinquish her throne to him, taking her fleet from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea and then setting sail to a foreign port, perhaps in India, where she could spend time recuperating.
However, these plans were ultimately abandoned when Malichus I, as advised by Octavian’s governor of Syria, Quintus Didius, managed to burn Cleopatra’s fleet in revenge for his losses in a war with Herod that Cleopatra had largely initiated.
Cleopatra had no other option but to stay in Egypt and negotiate with Octavian.
Although most likely later pro-Octavian propaganda, it was reported that at this time Cleopatra started testing the strengths of various poisons on prisoners and even her own servants.
Cleopatra had Caesarion enter into the ranks of the ephebi, which, along with reliefs on a stele from Koptos dated 21 September 31 BC, demonstrated that Cleopatra was now grooming her son to become the sole ruler of Egypt.
In a show of solidarity, Antony also had Marcus Antonius Antyllus, his son with Fulvia, enter the ephebi at the same time.
Separate messages and envoys from Antony and Cleopatra were then sent to Octavian, still stationed at Rhodes, although Octavian seems to have only replied to Cleopatra.
Cleopatra requested that her children should inherit Egypt and that Antony should be allowed to live in exile in Egypt, offering Octavian money in the future and immediately sending him lavish gifts.
Octavian sent his diplomat Thyrsos to Cleopatra after she threatened to burn herself and vast amounts of her treasure within a tomb already under construction.
Thyrsos advised her to kill Antony so that her life would be spared, but when Antony suspected foul intent, he had this diplomat flogged and sent back to Octavian without a deal.
After lengthy negotiations that ultimately produced no results, Octavian set out to invade Egypt in the spring of 30 BC.
SOURCE: “Cleopatra”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What about the above passage?
You see, Thyrsos advised you to kill Antony so that your life would be spared. Right?
Yes, he did.
Many people still believe that you were a femme fatal who simply took advantage of Anthony. You didn’t really love him at all.
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Kato, do you also believe that crap?
Well…, I’m not too sure, but you appear quite seductive, and you did indeed attract Julius Caesar and caused his downfall eventually.
Actually, that’s why I’m here to tell you the truth.
Oh…? Then tell me your story, Cleopatra.
Okay…
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I’m a bit tired… You might feel easy if I lie down like this.
Suit yourself, Cleopatra…
Actually, I started to view Antony as a liability by the late summer of 31 BC, but I still loved him.
Oh, did you?
Yes, I did… And Anthony knew that Thyrsos advised me to kill Antony so that my life would be spared.
What happened beteen you and Anthony.
I wanted Anthony to know my heart somehow.
So what did you do?
About a week after Thyrsos’s advice, I was attractively dressed than usual and arrived at the dinner table.
To eat with Anthony?
Yes, that’s right.
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Anthony said he was thirsty and grabbed a glass of wine, but I talked about a domesticated lion to draw his attention.
Well then…?
Anthony listened to me. When he was listening to it, I picked flowers from the crown and put them in Anthony’s glass.
Why is that?
The flower was sprayed with poison.
I see… So if he drinks, he’ll die… Is that it?
Yes, that’s right. After I finished talking, Anthony tried to bring the glass to the mouth. And he was about to drink it.
Did he drink it?
Of course not. I took the glass from his hand.
Why is that? If you killed him, your life would be spared.
Instead, I told my maid Carmion to bring me one of death-row prisoners.
Why is that?
I gave the prisoner Anthony’s glass and told him to drink that wine.
Naturally, the prisoner died, didn’t he?
Of course, he did… He had to die sooner or later… It would be better off if he died while drinking wine, instead of being crucified.
Well then…?
Anthony appeared flabbergasted. So, I said to him. “If I could live without you, I would not take the glass from your hands.”
I see. . . Does that mean Anthony came to know your true heart and loved you more than before?
Yes, he did… Now, Kato, you finally come to know that I AM Cleopatra, don’t you?
Diane, how do you like my dream?
Quite interesting! I didn’t know you’re such a romantic dreamteller.
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【Himiko’s Monologue】
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Do you believe that Kato actually dreamed the above story?
What? You don’t really care about it, do you?
“Tell me another interesting story!”
If you say so, I’ll show you the following clip:
Here’s a clip for a certain woman to use for making love.
(sexygal2.jpg)
How do you like the above music?
Are you tired of sexy music?
Well… here’s a mood-changing tune just for you.
Gess what?… You can now laught to the last tears.
(mrmathane.jpg)
Mr. Mathane
In any road, I expect Kato will write another interesting article soon.
Kato watched “The Arabian Nights” or “One Thousand and One Nights” as his 1001th movie.
You might just as well want to view it.
(1001nite.jpg)
(1001nite10.jpg)
The stories in “the Arabian Nights” were collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa.
The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature.
In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazār Afsān which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.
What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryār and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves.
The stories proceed from this original tale.
Some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord.
Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.
Denman Blog2 