The Other Victims of GW Bush’s War Racket

First you heard about the so-called victims of ‘Friendly Fire,’ now come the victims of ‘Friendly Rape’

Story Highlights

• Official: “My jaw dropped” after women described rape, sex abuse in military
• Hearing prompts allegations of “cover-up” after top Defense official doesn’t show
• Mom of slain pregnant soldier: Victim shouldn’t have burden to “generate evidence”
• Woman describes rape: “He still comes after me in my dreams”

GW Bush Military’s Comfort Women?

WASHINGTON (CNN) – July 31, 2008 – A congresswoman said Thursday that her “jaw dropped” when military doctors told her that four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military.

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach said she was raped by a fellow Marine. A Marine has been charged in her death.

A government report indicates that the numbers could be even higher.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault.

She said she recently visited a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Los Angeles area, where women told her horror stories of being raped in the military.

“My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military,” said Harman, who has long sought better protection of women in the military.

“Twenty-nine percent say they were raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and downward spirals many of their lives have taken since.

“We have an epidemic here,” she said. “Women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.“

As of July 24, 100 women had died in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.

In 2007, Harman said, only 181 out of 2,212 reports of military sexual assaults, or 8 percent, were referred to courts martial. By comparison, she said, 40 percent of those arrested in the civilian world on such charges are prosecuted.

Defense statistics show that military commanders took unspecified action, which can include anything from punishment to dismissal, in an additional 419 cases.

But when it came time for the military to defend itself, the panel was told that the Pentagon’s top official on sexual abuse, Dr. Kaye Whitley, was ordered not to show up despite a subpoena.

Lauterbach's mother, Mary Lauterbach, right, says her daughter's rape allegation was virtually ignored by the military.

I don’t know what you’re trying to cover up here, but we’re not going to allow it,” Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said to the Defense official who relayed the news of Whitley’s no-show. “This is unacceptable.”

Rep. John Tierney, the panel’s chairman and a Democrat from Massachusetts, angrily responded, “these actions by the Defense Department are inexplicable.”

“The Defense Department appears to be willfully and blatantly advising Dr. Whitley not to comply with a duly authorized congressional subpoena,” Tierney said.

An Army official who did testify said the Army takes allegations of sexual abuse extremely seriously.

“Even one sexual assault violates the very essence of what it means to be a soldier, and it’s a betrayal of the Army’s core values,” Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle said.

The committee also heard from Mary Lauterbach, the mother of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, a 20-year-old pregnant Marine who was killed in December, allegedly by a fellow Marine.

Mary Lauterbach said her daughter filed a rape claim with the military against Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean seven months before he was accused of killing her. Video

“I believe that Maria would be alive today if the Marines had provided a more effective system to protect the victims of sexual assault,” she said.

In the months after her daughter filed the rape claim, she said, the military didn’t seem to take her seriously, and the onus was on “Maria to connect the dots.”

“The victim should not have the burden to generate evidence for the command,” Lauterbach told the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs. “Maria is dead, but there will be many more victims in the future, I promise you. I’m here to ask you to do what you can to help change how the military treats victims of crime and to ensure the victims receive the support and protection they need and they deserve.”

Another woman, Ingrid Torres, described being raped on a U.S. base in Korea when she worked with the American Red Cross.

“I was raped while I slept,” she said.

Ingrid Torres said she was attacked on a U.S. base in Korea: "I was raped while I slept."

The man who assaulted her, she said, was a flight director who was found guilty and dismissed from the Air Force.

Fighting back tears, Torres added, “he still comes after me in my dreams.”

The Government Accountability Office released preliminary results from an investigation into sexual assaults in the military and the Coast Guard. The GAO found that the “occurrences of sexual assault may be exceeding the rates being reported.”

“At the 14 installations where GAO administered its survey, 103 service members indicated that they had been sexually assaulted within the preceding 12 months. Of these, 52 service members indicated that they did not report the sexual assault,” the GAO said.

The office found that the military and Coast Guard have established policies to address sexual assault but that the implementation of the programs is hampered by an array of factors, including that “most, but not all, commanders support the programs.”

“Left unchecked, these challenges can discourage or prevent some service members from using the programs when needed,” the GAO said.

Tierney said, “what’s at stake here goes to the very core of the values of the military and the nation itself.

“When our sons and daughters put their lives on the line to defend the rest of us, the last thing they should fear is being attacked by one of our own.” (Copyright: the author or news agency. )

Related Links

• Sexually assaulted troops struggle to recover
• U.S. Navy Fires Captain of Japan-Bound Nuclear Warship
• Houston, We Have a Problem!

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Words of the Day: Stop Japan Aggression!

Japanese plans for regional supremacy must be thwarted at ANY cost!

Once again, the inherent violence in Japanese culture poses a present and serious threat to the safety of its neighbors and rest of the world. The world community must NOT allow Japan to re-militarize.

Emperor Akihito prepares to greet the crowd on his birthday on Dec. 23, 2004. Photo by Philbert Ono. Originally uploaded by en:User:Photojpn.org

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo — by en:user:jpatokal

GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

Early Shōwa era [From Wikipedia]

Emperor Shōwa dressed as commander of the Imperial General Headquarters

During the first part of the Showa era, according to the Meiji Constitution, the Emperor had the “supreme command of the Army and the Navy” (Article 11). Hirohito was thus legally supreme commander of the Imperial General Headquarters, expanded in 1937 and by which the military decisions were made.

The primary sources such as the “Sugiyama memo”, and the diaries of Fumimaro Konoe and Koichi Kido, describe in detail the many informal meetings the Emperor had with his chiefs of staff and ministers. These documents show that he was kept informed of all military operations and frequently questioned his senior staff and asked for changes.

According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Hirohito authorized by specific orders, transmitted by the Chief of staff of the Army such as prince Kan’in or Hajime Sugiyama, the use of chemical weapons against Chinese civilians and soldiers. For example, he authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the invasion of Wuhan in 1938. [2] Such weapons were also authorized during the invasion of Changde[3].

According to historians Akira Fujiwara and Akira Yamada, Hirohito even made major interventions in some military operations. For example, he pressed Sugiyama four times, on January and February 1942, to increase troop strength and launch attack on Bataan. [4] On August 1943, he scolded Sugiyama who could not stop the American advance on the Solomon Islands and asked him to consider other places to attack. [5].

Soldiers parading before the Showa Emperor Hirohito on Shirayuki

Most of the imperial interventions were made by direct orders such as the crushing of the rebellion during the February 26 Incident. Only in rare moments of special importance, decisions were made in Imperial council. The Imperial government used this special institution to sanction the invasion of China, the Greater East Asia War and to end the war. In 1945, executing the decision approved in Imperial conference, Emperor Showa for the first and last time directly ordered via recorded radio broadcast to all of Japan, as his last role as commander-in-chief, the surrender to United States forces. (Quoted from Wikipedia.)

References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. – Japan

1. Peter Wetzler, Hirohito and War, University of Hawai’i press, 1998, p.3
2. Yoshimi and Matsuno, Dokugasusen Kankei Shiryo II, Kaisetsu, 1997, p.25-29, Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the making of modern Japan, 2001, p.361.
3. Daniel Barenblatt, A plague upon Humanity, HarperCollns, 2004, pp.220-221
4. Fujiwara, Shōwa tennō no ju-go nen senso, 1991, p.135-138, Yamada, Daigensui Shōwa tennō, 1994, p.180, 181, 185
5. Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the making of modern Japan, 2001, p.466,citing the Sugiyama memo, p.24
6. Norimitsu Onishi (October 20, 2007). “A Japanese royal known for talking up a storm“, International Herald Tribune.

Time for apology and reparation to Filipino women

Even when they’re all dead, they won’t go away!

Filipino women seek Japan’s apology for WWII rapes

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two dozen elderly Filipino women and their supporters protested outside the Japanese Embassy in Manila on Friday demanding a clear-cut apology and compensation from Tokyo for wartime sexual slavery.

Japan has acknowledged its troops forced women into front-line brothels across Asia during World War II, and its leaders have apologized.

But last year, many surviving “comfort women” were outraged when then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said there was no proof the women were coerced.

“The Japanese government should publicly apologize and put in history how the women were abducted and forced to serve in the comfort women system,” said Rechilda Extremadura, head of a group called Lila-Pilipina that has documented 174 cases of Filipino women who were forced into wartime brothels. About 100 women remain alive.

“This is a war crime,” Extremadura said. “But the Japanese government continues to be deaf.”

Former Filipino comfort woman Piedad Nobleza, 86, holds slogans during a demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in suburban Manila on Friday Aug. 15, 2008. Elderly Filipino women and their supporters demanded Tokyo's clear-cut apology and compensation for wartime sexual slavery by Japanese troops. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila). Source: Inquirer.net. Image may be subject to copyright.

Virginia Villarma, 79, said she was victimized between 1943 and 1944. “We can never forget what they did to us. Until now, it’s been a wound in our chest.”

The Japanese Embassy in Manila refused to immediately answer a request for comment and asked that questions be e-mailed.

Tokyo has generally refused to pay damages to individuals for the war, saying the issue was settled between governments in postwar treaties. Japanese courts have rejected a number of lawsuits brought by former sex slaves.

Related Links:

• 63 years after WWII, ‘comfort women’ await justice
• This Article

Since when breaking the law is a crime in Japan?

Democracy English Japanese Style!

NHK criticized for airing ‘government PR’

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) concealed the fact that its subsidiaries were paid to organize symposiums that were aired and withheld the identities of sponsors of many of the events, including government ministries.

About 10 such programs, worth up to 30 million yen per symposium, were aired on NHK channels- a public broadcaster.

Japan’s Broadcast Law requires NHK, which is financed from fees paid by viewers, to remain impartial and refrain from showing programs that represent the interests of a specific person or group—including the government. More…

But hey, when you can violate the traffic laws with impunity, why not the Broadcast Law?

Related Links:

• Violating the Speed Limit (visiting the 10-rule-90 principle, again!)
• Suckers Paradox
• With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemies?

Only when they don’t fear you!

8 Teens arrested over robberies

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN -

Eight teenagers have been arrested in Ome, western Tokyo, in connection with a string of robberies targeting “people who look weak,” including two mentally disabled people, police said Friday.

The suspects, including six third-year junior high school students, took a total of 93,000 yen in cash as well as cellphones in seven robberies during the six months through June. The six victims were between 13 and 20 years old.

Police quoted the two leaders of the gang as asking, “What is wrong with bullying those people?”(IHT/Asahi: August 23,2008 )

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200808230055.html

Nagasaki Bomb Radiation Deathtoll Reached 145,984

Japan marks 63rd anniversary of Nagasaki nuke

Japan remembered the 63rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki today with a call to the world powers for nuclear disarmament.

About 30,000 of Nagasaki’s population died instantly, and 70,000 more perished within months of the atomic bombing on August 9, 1945. The annually updated official death toll from radiation illness caused by the bomb, codenamed “Fat Man” after Winston Churchill, reached 145,984 this year.

“The United States and Russia must take the lead in striving to abolish nuclear weapons,” Nagasaki mayor said at the solemn ceremony.

“These two countries … should begin implementing broad reductions of nuclear weapons instead of deepening their conflict over, among others, the introduction of a missile-defence system in Europe.”

The mayor also asked China, Britain and France to reduce their nuclear arms, but did not mention Israel.

Would anyone trust Fukuda with their dead grandmother?

Unperturbed by the Chinese poisonous gyoza scandal, Japan PM Fukuda laid a wreath for the Nagasaki victims at the ceremony. He said: “I vow to lead the international community for permanent peace.” But would anyone trust Fukuda with their dead grandmother?

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda offers a wreath for the atomic bomb victims in Nagasaki, western Japan, during a ceremony commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the city’s atomic bomb blast, August 9, 2008. REUTERS/Kyodo. Image may be subject to copyright.

People Mean Nothing to Japanese Govt

In the previous post Houston, We Have a Problem! the author asked two simple questions:

• Is the Foreign Ministry in Japan a foreign interest entity?

• What about the welfare of Japanese people?

First Poisonous Gyoza, then Leaky Nuke Sub. What next?

Here’s the answer:

China behind ‘gyoza’ cover-up

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN – August 9, 2008

At Beijing’s request, the Fukuda administration withheld public disclosure of a poisoning outbreak in China involving frozen “gyoza” dumplings, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said.

“There’s nothing wrong with what we did,” Komura declared Thursday in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun and other media.

China’s Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese Embassy in Beijing in early July that several Chinese people fell ill in June after eating pesticide-tainted gyoza made by Tianyang Food, according to Komura.

The products had been recalled after Japanese consumers became sick from eating imported Tianyang Food gyoza products last December and in January.

Japanese media only learned this week about the incident in China.

According to Komura, Beijing asked Tokyo not to disclose the matter on grounds an investigation was under way and that revealing the information would hinder it. Chinese officials promised to provide more details as the investigation progressed.

In Japan, the information was shared only among officials at the prime minister’s office, the National Police Agency and the Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters Thursday that he was informed of the poisoning case in China around the time of the July 7-9 Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.

Fukuda met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G-8 summit, and Komura held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Singapore in late July.

Komura said the officials discussed, with the new information in mind, speeding up collaborative police investigation efforts.

Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-general of the main opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), criticized the government’s handling of the problem.

“Shouldn’t the government have insisted on disclosing the fact, even if China asked it to cover it up?” he asked at a news conference Thursday.

“The government is so weak-kneed, and from the way it has handled the situation, we can’t call it a government that shares the mind-set of consumers.” (IHT/Asahi: August 9,2008 )

Related Links:

• Lack of ‘gyoza’ disclosure leaves bitter taste

Houston, We Have a Problem!

Is the Foreign Ministry in Japan a foreign interest entity? What about the welfare of Japanese people?

U.S. says submarine leaked radiation in 3 Japan ports

TOKYO (Reuters) – A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine which has steadily been leaking a small amount of radiation for over two years stopped at three Japanese ports, as well as Guam and Pearl Harbor, the United States and Japan said on Thursday.

Japan was notified by the United States last week that the nuclear-powered USS Houston had been leaking water containing a small amount of radiation, but was told at the time that it was unclear when the leak had started.

A statement from the U.S. government on Thursday said the Houston had been leaking radiation from June 2006 to July 2008.

During that time, the Houston docked at the Japanese ports of Yokosuka, 45 km (30 miles) southwest of Tokyo and in the southern island of Okinawa, as well as at Sasebo, 980 km (610 miles) southwest of Tokyo, the U.S. statement said.

The Leaky USS Houston (SSN-713), a Los Angeles-class submarine. They say it is “safe!” USS Houston was launched on 21 March 1981 sponsored by Barbara Bush, wife of then Vice-President of the United States George H. W. Bush. Houston was commissioned on 25 September 1982. (Wikipedia)

Both the U.S. and Japanese governments said the radiation leak was too small to cause harm.

“We do not think that the amount of leakage would have any impact on humans or the environment,” a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

The Houston may have also released a small amount of radioactivity into Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Guam, the U.S. statement said.

The radiation leak is a fresh blow for Tokyo and Washington, which has been planning to station a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan, the only nation in the world to have suffered nuclear attacks.

Local residents and civic groups expressed concern over the deployment of the USS George Washington after a fire on the nuclear-powered warship in May. They called for more information about that fire.

Japan said the Houston’s radiation leak would not have any impact on the plan to deploy the George Washington at Yokosuka.

“The United States assures strict procedures and prevention systems for nuclear-powered warships coming into port, and Japan is also checking the radiation levels 24 hours a day,” the foreign ministry official said.

The Houston radiation leak caused a big media stir in Japan last week, with the foreign ministry criticized for failing to disclose the leak promptly to the government and the public. (Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Paul Tait). Copyright the author or respective news agency.

If radiation leaks were a bad thing, why would USS Houston be leaking for 26 months?

Related Links:

• U.S. Navy Fires Captain of Japan-Bound Nuclear Warship

• The Other Victims of GW Bush’s War Racket

Nuking of Hiroshima: 63 Years On

Hiroshima marks A-bomb anniversary

IHT/Asahi: August 6,2008

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200808060285.html

HIROSHIMA–Hiroshima marked the 63rd anniversary of its atomic bombing Wednesday with Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba saying he hopes the new U.S. president will support the elimination of nuclear weapons.

“We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival,” said Akiba in his Peace Declaration.

“The only way to protect citizens from a nuclear attack is the total abolition of nuclear weapons,” he added.

Akiba delivered the declaration during a somber ceremony held in the Peace Memorial Park that was attended by about 45,000 people, including hibakusha atomic-bomb survivors, bereaved families and dignitaries.

This year for the first time, the average age of surviving victims topped the 75-year mark to reach 75.1 years. The number of hibakusha living in and out of Japan has declined to 243,692.

On Wednesday, the names of 5,302 hibakusha who died during the past year were added to those stored inside the park’s cenotaph honoring the A-bomb victims. The total number of the deceased now stands at 258,310.

Chased by the flame. A survivor painted the picture of memoir, thirty years after the bombing. (Source)

As the Peace Bell tolled at 8:15 a.m., the moment the U.S. atomic bomb dubbed “Little Boy” was dropped on the city on Aug. 6, 1945, participants at the Peace Memorial Park bowed their heads in one minute of silent prayer.

Representatives from a record 55 countries attended the ceremony, including those from China, which sent delegates for the first time.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, attending the event for the first time since he took office last September, said at the ceremony, “Today, here in Hiroshima, I swear that our country will continue to adhere to the three nonnuclear principles, and that we will stand at the forefront of the international community toward the realization of the abolition of nuclear weapons, as well as of permanent peace.”

In April, the government set new certification standards for recognizing sufferers of atomic-bomb diseases. Since then it has lost four court cases in which plaintiffs not covered by the new standards won recognition as sufferers of radiation-caused illnesses.

Flames won!

As a result, public distrust in the government’s certification system continues to simmer.

“We will continue our efforts, so that we can assist as many people who are suffering as possible,” said Fukuda.

In his Peace Declaration, Mayor Akiba also called on the government to show more sympathy in recognizing A-bomb patients.

“Because the effects of that atomic bomb, still eating away at the minds and bodies of the hibakusha, have for decades been so underestimated, a complete picture of the damage has yet to emerge,” he said.

Akiba made a rare reference to the politics of the world’s sole nuclear superpower, expressing his hopes that the next American president will back nuclear abolition.

“Even leaders previously central to creating and implementing U.S. nuclear policy are now repeatedly demanding a world without nuclear weapons,” he said.

The statement was in a reference to recent proposals on the elimination of nuclear weapons by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other former U.S. political leaders. ( IHT/Asahi: August 6,2008 )

Related Video Links:

• US Bombing of HiROSHiMA, NAGASAKi
• WHY HIROSHIMA?

Recently publicized photos:

• Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives
  

U.S. Navy Fires Captain of Japan-Bound Nuclear Warship

Why?

Because the Navy experienced “a loss of confidence in his ability to command and his failure to meet mission requirements and readiness standards.”

What For?

Unauthorized smoking ignited some 130 liters of lubrication oil that was improperly stored in an auxiliary boiler on the starboard side of the ship.

Really? Was it a joint?

Yes. The fire blazed for 12 hours, burnt one sailor and injured 36 others. Don’t know what sort of weed it was that started the fireworks!

What about the exotic weapons and the nuclear reactors on board the supercarrier?

Don’t know!

Don’t know? How can you trust the sailors aboard a nuclear warship who smoke without permission, store highly flammable oil improperly … Do they play chicken [or Russian Roulette] with the weapons during breaks, too?

Hope not!

What if a couple of sailors had an unauthorized drink or two and decided to play Star Wars’ “May the Force Be With You” game with the ship’s smorgasbord of weapons, or mess around with the two nuclear fission pressurized water reactors? Isn’t that possible, given the sailors’ inadequate training and poor discipline?

Well!

How close did you say the Yokosuka Naval Base was to the heavily populated Yokohama and Tokyo?

Yokosuka Naval Base is situated about 30 km south of Yokohama and 45 km southwest of Tokyo!

USS George Washington (CVN73) Photographed November 19, 1997. REUTERS/Files. Image may be subject to copyright. See Notice of Fair Use!

The following excerpts are from Wikipedia:

On May 22, 2008 a fire was reported on the ship off the Pacific Coast of South America that burned one sailor and injured 36 others. There were no fatalities on the ship. The Navy defined the incident as ’serious’. According to a statement from Naval Air Forces’ public affairs office, the fire broke out in the ship’s air-conditioning and refrigeration space and an auxiliary boiler room. The fire spread via a cableway and caused extreme heat in some parts of the ship. It took 12 hours for the ship’s crew to contain and extinguish the fire.

On July 13, 13,000 Japanese protested in Yokosuka against the basing of George Washington in Japan, saying that the onboard fire showed that the nuclear-powered carrier was unsafe. The US Navy said that Rear Admiral James Kelly, commander of US Naval Forces Japan, is planning to meet soon with Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya, who has requested that the US military fully explain the fire and what preventive measures the navy plans to take.

On July 30 the Navy confirmed that improperly stored flammable oil was a major factor in the seriousness of the fire, and that the blaze was likely triggered by unauthorized smoking. It was also simultaneously announced by ADM Robert F. Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, that the carrier’s commanding officer, CAPT David C. Dykhoff, had been relieved of his duties citing “a loss of confidence in his ability to command and his failure to meet mission requirements and readiness standards.” The ship’s Executive officer, CAPT David M. Dober, was also relieved for “substandard performance.

How could any sane government entrust multi billion dollar dangerous nuclear toys like George Washington in the hands of inexperienced, undisciplined sailors and simply wish nothing would go wrong?

Wishful thinking!

Related Links

• The Other Victims of GW Bush’s War Racket

• Houston, We Have a Problem!