Sunday, March 16, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 16, 1968:
My Lai massacre.
The My Lai massacre was a United States war crime committed on 16 March 1968, involving the mass murder of unarmed civilians in Sơn Mỹ village, Quảng Ngãi province, South Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. At least 347 and up to 504 civilians, almost all women, children, and elderly men, were murdered by U.S. Army soldiers, some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and some soldiers mutilated and raped children as young as 12. The incident was the largest massacre of civilians by U.S. forces in the 20th century.
The killing began while the troops were searching the village for guerillas, and continued after they realized that no guerillas seemed to be present. Villagers were gathered together, held in the open, then murdered with automatic weapons, bayonets, and hand grenades; one large group of villagers was shot in an irrigation ditch. Soldiers also burned down homes and killed livestock. Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr. and his helicopter crew are credited with attempting to stop the massacre. On the same day, B Company massacred an additional 60 to 155 people in the nearby hamlet of My Khe 4.
The massacre was originally reported as a battle against Viet Cong troops, and was covered up in initial investigations by the U.S. Army. The efforts of veteran Ronald Ridenhour and journalist Seymour Hersh broke the news of the massacre to the American public in November 1969, prompting global outrage and contributing to domestic opposition to involvement in the war. Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., (1943 – 2024) the leader of 1st Platoon in C Company, was convicted. He was found guilty of murdering 22 villagers and originally given a life sentence, but served three-and-a-half years under house arrest after U.S. president Richard Nixon commuted his sentence.
Calley worked at his father-in-law's store and became a gemologist and obtained his real estate license, which had initially been denied due to his criminal record. During his divorce proceedings, Calley stated that he had prostate cancer and gastrointestinal problems that gave him no chance of earning a living. He died at the age of 80.
William Calley Jr. mugshot for charges involving the My Lai massacre.
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ONE HIT WONDERS
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A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with only one hit single that overshadows their other work.
- Wikipedia
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The strange thing about One Hit Wonders is how brightly they shone with their one hit at the time and then fizzled out, largely dropping from view.
Here are some.
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MACARENA
About:
"Macarena" is a song by Spanish pop duo Los del Río, originally recorded for their 1993 album A mí me gusta.
A remix by Miami-based producers the Bayside Boys, who added a section with English lyrics and expanded its popularity, initially peaked at No. 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in late 1995. The Bayside Boys mix enjoyed a significant revival the following year when it re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 1 for 14 weeks between August and November 1996. Its resurgence was aided by a dance craze that became a cultural phenomenon throughout the latter half of 1996 and early 1997.
The song got the group ranked the "No. 1 Greatest One-Hit Wonder of All Time" by VH1 in 2002.
Los del Rio version, with part English lyrics:
Bayside Boys remix:
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TURNING JAPANESE
"Turning Japanese" is a song by English band the Vapors, from their 1980 album New Clear Days. It was an international hit, becoming the band's most well-known song. The song prominently features the Oriental riff played on guitar.
About:
According to songwriter David Fenton, "Turning Japanese is all the clichés about angst and youth and turning into something you didn't expect." Fenton intended the song to be a love song, with the character of the song "pining over a photograph of his ex-girlfriend" in his bedroom, drawing from Fenton's own experience of being rejected. Fenton wrote the song in his flat, but had problems writing the chorus. He said that the chorus then came to him suddenly when he woke up at 4 a.m. with the lyric "Turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese" in his head, and he used it even though the words and the song title did not "really mean much".
The band suspected they would score a hit with "Turning Japanese", even delaying its release in order to make it their second single, hoping to avoid becoming "one-hit wonders". Nonetheless, they never matched the single's success. In Australia, it spent two weeks at No. 1 during June 1980. The song was also a minor hit in Japan.
The Vapors' did not chart again in the US, however they had a couple of other minor hits in the UK. After releasing another album in 1981 they called it quits. After the band disbanded Fenton retired from creating music and went to work in the music industry as a lawyer.
Video:
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COME ON EILEEN
Come On Eileen" is a song by the English group Dexys Midnight Runners, written by singer/songwriter and group founder Kevin Rowland, released in the United Kingdom in June 1982 as a single from their second studio album Too-Rye-Ay. "Come On Eileen" was an enormous hit, going to #1 in America, the UK and Australia and won Best British Single at the 1983 Brit Awards.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dexys went through numerous personnel changes over the course of three albums and 13 singles, with only singer/songwriter/co-founder Kevin Rowland remaining in the band through all of the transitions. The band broke up in 1987.
This song is based on a true story. Eileen was a girl that Kevin Rowland grew up with. Their relationship became romantic when the pair were 13, and according to Rowland, it turned sexual a year or two later. Rowland was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy in church. Sex was a taboo subject, and considered "dirty" - something that fascinated him. When he wrote this song, Rowland was expressing the feelings of that adolescent enjoying his first sexual relationship and dreaming of being free from the strictures of a buttoned-down society. The song describes the thin line between love and lust.
By the way:
The band's name was inspired by the amphetamine drug Dexedrine, which is commonly known as "Dexys" (Contrary to popular belief, the band's name does not have an apostrophe). The band itself steered away from drinking and drugs, saying nothing should interfere with their dedication to music.
Video:
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Saturday, March 15, 2025
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
"Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true."
- Julius Caesar
ON THIS DAY
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March 15, 44 BC:
Julius Caesar assassinated.
Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC), a Roman general, defeated his political rival Pompey in a civil war and subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC.
Fearful of his power, domination of the state, and the possibility that he might make himself king, a group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius assassinated Caesar on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC. A new series of civil wars broke out and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents thirteen years later. Octavian then set about solidifying his power, transforming the Republic into the Roman Empire.
By the Way:
I have a pen holder on my office desk that looks like this:
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POETRY SPOT - HENRY LAWSON
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Glossary:
Riverina:
An agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation.
Gundagai:
A country town in New South Wales, Australia, 390 kilometres (240 mi) south-west of Sydney.
Kirk:
Scottish word for church.
Flanders:
The Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium. The battles that took place in Flanders during the First World War centering on Ypres in 1914, 1915 and then 1917, resulted in an unprecedented level of carnage, death and destruction scarcely possible to imagine.
Mirk:
An archaic variant of murk, meaning darkness or gloom.
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Sung version:
John Schumann and the Vagabond Crew:
Another version:
A further version:
Recited:
Jack Thompson
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Synopsis:
Spoilers ahead. Come back to this if you want te read the poem first.
Scots of the Riverina is a 1917 Australian bush poem by Henry Lawson. It relates the story of a boy who left his home in Riverina and is shunned by his family until he dies in World War I.
It is set in the Riverina, New South Wales in the town of Gundagai. It tells of a boy who leaves home at the start of the harvest to move to the city, an unheard of and unforgivable thing for a Scot to do in the early 1900s, according to the poet: "They were Scots of the Riverina, and to run from home was a crime."
The boy's father, the old "Scot of the Riverina", burns all of his son's letters, removes his son's name from the Family Bible, and vows to never speak of his son again. Eventually the boy goes to war and is killed at Flanders. The poem ends with the father writing his son's name back into the bible.
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Poem:
Scots of the Riverina
- Henry Lawson (1917)
The boy cleared out to the city from his home at harvest time —
They were Scots of the Riverina, and to run from home was a crime.
The old man burned his letters, the first and last he burned,
And he scratched his name from the Bible when the old wife's back was turned.
A year went past and another. There were calls from the firing-line;
They heard the boy had enlisted, but the old man made no sign.
His name must never be mentioned on the farm by Gundagai —
They were Scots of the Riverina with ever the kirk hard by.
The boy came home on his "final", and the township's bonfire burned.
His mother's arms were about him; but the old man's back was turned.
The daughters begged for pardon till the old man raised his hand —
A Scot of the Riverina who was hard to understand.
The boy was killed in Flanders, where the best and bravest die.
There were tears at the Grahame homestead and grief in Gundagai;
But the old man ploughed at daybreak and the old man ploughed till the mirk —
There were furrows of pain in the orchard while his housefolk went to the kirk.
The hurricane lamp in the rafters dimly and dimly burned;
And the old man died at the table when the old wife's back was turned.
Face down on his bare arms folded he sank with his wild grey hair
Outspread o'er the open Bible and a name re-written there.
Friday, March 14, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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14 March, 1964:
Jack Ruby found guilty.
Mugshot of Jack Ruby taken November 24, 1963, after his arrest for killing Lee Harvey Oswald.
Jack Ruby (1911 – 1967) was an American nightclub owner who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Ruby shot and mortally wounded Oswald in Dallas Police Headquarters and was immediately arrested. The shooting happened on live television.
Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald
On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of murder with malice and was sentenced to death, the first courtroom verdict to be televised in the United States.
Ruby's conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the grounds that "an oral confession of premeditation made while in police custody" should have been ruled inadmissible, because it violated a Texas criminal statute. The court also ruled that the venue should have been changed to a Texas county other than the one in which the high-profile crime had been committed. He was granted a new trial, but Ruby fell ill, was diagnosed with cancer, and died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967.
In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald, that Ruby shot Oswald on impulse and in retaliation for the Kennedy assassination. The commission's findings have been supported by some writers but also challenged by various critics who hypothesise that Ruby was part of a conspiracy surrounding the Kennedy assassination.
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FUNNY FRIDAY
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Good morning, Byters.
Son Elliot is marrying his sweetheart Helen next week, a lovely lass of Scottish origin, and people have been arriving from overseas for that event. So today’s theme is . . . travel.
Caution: risqué content ahead.
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SOME HUMOUR:
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A traveler enters a pub.
The barkeep says, "Welcome! What are you drinking?" The traveler, weary from her long journey, responds simply, "Your finest ale, please." The barkeep tells her, "Brilliant." As he pours her a pint of his finest ale, he makes her an offer.
"Since you are a first time customer, I will offer you a gift I offer all of my first time customers." The traveler blushed and nodded at the bartender, who was easy on her eyes.
"You may choose either this first pint of ale is free or instead you may pay for the beer and I will give you a piece of valuable advice." The traveler pondered this for a moment, knowing her coin purse is light.
"Though my purse is light, barkeep, I am intrigued by your offer. I will pay for my ale, now please share the valuable advice." The barkeep grinned, counting the coins she had given him, looked her in the eye and said, "You should've taken the free pint."
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I was gonna tell a joke about time traveling
But you guys didn't like it
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An overweight time traveler goes back in time to ancient Rome. He realizes he needs clothes to blend in to he goes to the nearest shop and asks the owner, "Do you have XL togas?" The owner relies "Yes but why so many?"
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A man was speeding down an Alabama highway, feeling secure in a gaggle of cars all traveling at the same speed. However, as they passed a speed trap, he got nailed with an infrared speed detector and was pulled over.
The officer handed him the citation, received his signature and was about to walk away when the man asked, "Officer, I know I was speeding, but I don't think it's fair - there were plenty of other cars around me who were going just as fast, so why did I get the ticket?"
"Ever go a fishin'?" the policeman asked the man. "Ummm, yeah..." the startled man replied. The officer grinned and added, "Did you ever catch 'em all?"
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Taxiing down the tarmac, the 767 abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After a hour-long wait, it finally took off.
A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, "What, exactly, was the problem?"
"The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine," explained the flight attendant. "It took us a while to find a new pilot."
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Many years ago a man was travelling through the mountains of Switzerland. Nightfall was rapidly approaching and he had nowhere to sleep.
He went up to a farmhouse and asked the farmer if he could spend the night. The farmer told him that he could sleep in the barn.
As the story goes, the farmer's daughter asked her father, "Who is that man going into the barn?" "That fellow is travelling through," said the farmer. "Needs a place to stay for the night, so, I told him he could sleep in the barn."
The daughter said, "Perhaps he is hungry." So she prepared him a plate of food for him and then took it out to the barn. About an hour later, the daughter returned. Her clothing dishevelled and straw in her hair.
Straight up to bed she went. The farmer's wife was very observant. She then suggested that perhaps the man was thirsty. So she fetched a bottle of wine, took it out to the barn, and she too did not return for an hour. Her clothing was askew, her blouse buttoned incorrectly. She also headed straight to bed.
The next morning at sunrise the man in the barn got up and continued on his journey, waving to the farmer as he left. When the daughter awoke and learned that the visitor was gone, she broke into tears. "How could he leave without even saying goodbye," she cried. "We made such passionate love last night!"
"What?" shouted the father as he angrily ran out of the house looking for the man, who by now was halfway up the mountain. The farmer screamed up at him, "I'm going to get you! You had sex with my daughter!" The man looked back down from the mountainside, cupped his hand next to his mouth, and yelled out... "LAIDTHEOLADEETOO!"
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A man is traveling in Scotland...
He stops one night in a small village and goes into the pub for a drink. He notices that one of the patrons is looking at him and is clearly drunk, after a few minutes he gets up and walk over to the traveler and in an angry voice says...
"Do you see the furniture in this pub? I crafted it all by hand, shaped and finished it to perfection but do they call me Colin the furniture maker? NO!" and he wanders back to his table and resumes drinking.
A few minutes later he walks up to the traveler again and in an even angrier voice says...
"Do you see that boat at the dock on the lake? I built that boat using planks from trees I cut down myself, I sawed and planed them with my own hands and used them to build a beautiful boat that has sailed this lake for years but, do they call me Colin the boatwright? NO!" and again he wanders back to his table.
Again, after few more minutes he walks over to the traveler and in a voice filled with rage he yells "Do you see that painting on the wall, I spent months getting all the colours and lighting just right so it's the most beautiful painting of our lake ever created by man, but do they call me Colin the artist? NO!... but you fuck just one sheep..."
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A traveling salesman is driving past a farmhouse when he sees a pig with a wooden leg.
This piques his curiosity, so he goes to the house and knocks on the door. The farmer answers.
"What's the story with the pig with the wooden leg?" asks the salesman.
"Let me tell you about that pig," says the farmer. "That is no ordinary pig."
"One night about six months ago my house caught on fire. That pig came into the house, nudged me awake, and led me through the smoke to safety. That pig saved my life!"
"That really is some pig," the salesman agrees. "But why does he have a wooden leg?"
"Well," says the farmer, "a pig like that you don't eat all at once."
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LIMERICK OF THE WEEK:
A crossword compiler named Moss
Who found himself quite at a loss
When asked, 'Why so blue?'
Said, 'I haven't a clue
I'm 2 Down to put 1 Across.'
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GALLERY:
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RELIGION SPOT:
God decides to take a vacation...
So he goes to his travel agent to get some recommendations. God asks the agent where he should go and the agent says, "How about the Moon? It's supposed to be all the rage right now."
God thinks about it and says, "No... I'd like to go somewhere with a little more atmosphere."
So the agents says, "Okay, well how about Mars? It's really nice this time of year."
God considers it for a second and then says, "No... I'd really like to go somewhere with water."
The agent goes, "Oh well I've got the perfect place, how about Earth? It's got beautiful water and lots of atmosphere!"
God thinks about it again before saying, "No... I went there a couple thousand years ago and knocked up some Jewish girl and they've been talking about it ever since."
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CORN CORNER:
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In the Old West, cowboys travelling home in the dark used to tie a lantern to their horse's saddle to help them find their way.
It was an early form of saddle-light navigation.
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Being a musician is great for travelling and meeting new people. Throughout my career I have met amazing humans.
Once I met this Italian opera singer, amazing gal. Some other time an irish theremine player. But the other day I met a polish sound engineer. And a czech one too. And a czech one too. And a czech one too.
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I was gutted this afternoon when my wife told me my 6 year old son wasn't actually mine.
She then said I need to pay more attention at school pick up.
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A Jewish Optimist and a Jewish Pessimist read a newspaper.
The Jewish Pessimist says “things can’t possibly get worse.” The Jewish Optimist responds: “of course they can!”
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What did the pirate say on his 80th birthday?
Aye matey.
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I’ve told my friend that I’ve spent only $98 at IKEA
He complimented me for my great self-restraint.
To be honest, I couldn’t have eaten another hot dog.
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Thursday, March 13, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 13, 1930:
Clyde Tombaugh announces discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory.
(The planet, not Mickey Mouse’s pet dog, but have you ever wondered how a clothes-wearing mouse who has a clothes-wearing friend who is a dog (Goofy), and both of whom speak, also has a pet dog without clothes who can only bark?)
Pluto is a dwarf planet made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has roughly one-sixth the mass of the Moon, and one-third its volume.
On February 18, 1930, after nearly a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates taken on January 23 and 29. The discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory on March 13, 1930.
Clyde Tombaugh in Kansas
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union formally redefined the term planet to exclude dwarf planets such as Pluto. Many planetary astronomers, however, continue to consider Pluto and other dwarf planets to be planets.
By the Way:
The name Pluto came from the Roman god of the underworld.
Disney’s Pluto first appeared in the 1930 film The Chain Gang, as a nameless bloodhound tracking escaped prisoner Mickey. He next appeared in the 1930 film The Picnic, however he was portrayed as Minnie's dog, and was named "Rover". In his third appearance, The Moose Hunt (1931), he appeared as Mickey's pet, and was finally given the name "Pluto". Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen claimed they changed the name to Pluto because: "We thought the name [Rover] was too common, so we had to look for something else. ... We changed it to Pluto the Pup ... but I don't honestly remember why." Some Disney animators reportedly believed that Disney chose the name "Pluto" to capitalise on the then-newly-named ninth planet of Pluto. However, animation historian John Canemaker states that Disney chose the name simply because he once had a dog named Pluto.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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March 12, 1930:
Gandhi begins the Salt March.
The Salt March was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India, led by Mahatma Gandhi. The 24-day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. The march was the first act in an even-larger campaign of civil disobedience (satyagraha) that Gandhi waged against British rule in India that extended into early 1931 and garnered Gandhi widespread support among the Indian populace and considerable worldwide attention.
Salt production and distribution in India had long been a lucrative monopoly of the British. Through a series of laws, the Indian populace was prohibited from producing or selling salt independently, and instead Indians were required to buy expensive, heavily taxed salt that often was imported. This affected the great majority of Indians, who could not afford to buy it. Indian protests against the salt tax began in the 19th century and remained a major contentious issue throughout the period of British rule of the subcontinent.
In early 1930 Gandhi decided to mount a highly visible demonstration against the increasingly repressive salt tax by marching from his religious retreat to the Arabian Sea coast. He set out on foot on March 12, 1930, accompanied by several dozen followers. Hundreds more joined the core group of followers as they made their way to the sea, and on April 5 the entourage reached Dandi after a journey of some 240 miles (385 km). On the morning of April 6, Gandhi and his followers picked up handfuls of salt along the shore, thus technically “producing” salt and breaking the law.
No arrests were made that day, and Gandhi continued his satyagraha against the salt tax for the next two months, exhorting other Indians to break the salt laws by committing acts of civil disobedience. Thousands were arrested and imprisoned, including Jawaharlal Nehru in April and Gandhi himself in early May after he informed Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, of his intention to march on the nearby Dharasana saltworks. News of Gandhi’s detention spurred tens of thousands more to join the satyagraha. The march on the saltworks went ahead as planned on May 21, 1930 and many of the some 2,500 peaceful marchers were attacked and beaten by police. By the end of the year, some 60,000 people were in jail.
Gandhi was released from custody in January 1931 and began negotiations with Lord Irwin aimed at ending the satyagraha campaign. A truce subsequently was declared, which was formalised in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact that was signed on March 5.
Sculpture in New Delhi, India, depicting Mahatma Gandhi leading the 1930 Salt March.
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By the way, from the vault:
Pamela Hicks, daughter of Lord Mountbatten (the last Governor General of India), writing in The Telegraph about the impending marriage of Elizabeth and Phillip:Princess Elizabeth had written me a sweet letter asking me to be one of her bridesmaids and I, of course, was honoured to accept.Before we left, my parents saw Mahatma Gandhi and he told my father: ‘I so want to give Princess Elizabeth a present, but I have given all my possessions away.’My father, however, knew he still had his spinning wheel and he told Gandhi: ‘If a cloth could be made from yarn you have spun, that would be like receiving the Crown Jewels’And so this was done and we took his present to Britain for the wedding, but Queen Mary wrongly thought it was a loincloth and thought it was the most ‘indelicate’ gift.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2025
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March 11, 2011:
Tsunami, Fukushima nuclear plant accident, Japan.
On 11 March 2011 the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan happened off the country's eastern coast. The 9.0-magnitude quake was so forceful it shifted the Earth off its axis. It triggered a tsunami which swept over Japan's main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map.
A boat sits atop a building in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami which devastated a vast area of northeastern Pacific coast of Japan
At the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the gigantic wave surged over coastal defences and flooded the reactors, sparking a major disaster. Authorities set up an exclusion zone which grew larger and larger as radiation leaked from the plant, forcing more than 150,000 people to evacuate from the area.
More than a decade later, that zone remains in place and many residents have not returned. Authorities believe it will take up to 40 years to finish the work of decontamination, which has already cost Japan trillions of yen.
The accident was rated seven (the maximum severity) on the International Nuclear Event Scale by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. It is regarded as the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, which was also rated a seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
Despite this, there were no deaths caused by acute radiation
syndrome. Given the uncertain health effects of low-dose radiation, cancer
deaths cannot be ruled out. However, studies by the World Health
Organisation and Tokyo University have shown that no discernible increase in
the rate of cancer deaths is expected. Predicted future cancer deaths due
to accumulated radiation exposures in the population living near Fukushima have
ranged in the academic literature from none to hundreds.
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Monday, March 10, 2025
'ON THIS DAY' WEEK
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March 10, 1945:
WW2 - US aircraft begin firebombing Tokyo.
On 10 March 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) conducted a devastating firebombing raid on Tokyo, the Japanese capital city. This attack was code-named Operation Meetinghouse and is known as the Tokyo Great Air Raid in Japan. Bombs dropped from 279 Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers burned out much of eastern Tokyo. More than 90,000 and possibly over 100,000 Japanese people were killed, mostly civilians, and one million were left homeless, making it the most destructive single air attack in human history. The Japanese air and civil defenses proved largely inadequate; 14 American aircraft and 96 airmen were lost.
The attack on Tokyo was an intensification of the air raids on Japan which had begun in June 1944. Prior to this operation, the USAAF had focused on a precision bombing campaign against Japanese industrial facilities. These attacks were generally unsuccessful, which contributed to the decision to shift to firebombing. The operation during the early hours of 10 March was the first major firebombing raid against a Japanese city. The USAAF units employed significantly different tactics from those used in precision raids, including bombing by night with the aircraft flying at low altitudes. The extensive destruction caused by the raid led to these tactics becoming standard for the USAAF's B-29s until the end of the war.
There has been a long-running debate over the morality of the 10 March firebombing of Tokyo. The raid is often cited as a key example in criticism of the Allies' strategic bombing campaigns. Many historians and commentators argue that it was not acceptable for the USAAF to deliberately target civilians, and other historians believe that the USAAF had no choice but to change to area bombing tactics given that the precision bombing campaign had failed. It is generally acknowledged that the tactics used against Tokyo and in similar subsequent raids were militarily successful. The attack is commemorated in Japan at two official memorials, several neighborhood memorials, and a privately owned museum
A residential section of Tokyo left in utter ruins after Operation Meetinghouse's destructive air raids. March 10, 1945. Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo was a city largely comprised of wooden buildings, the bombing used strategic napalm-filled firebombs to ensure maximum destruction and pain.
A road passing through a part of Tokyo that was destroyed in the 10 March 1945 air raid.
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Sunday, March 9, 2025
'ON THIS DAY' WEEK
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March 9, 1974:
Last Japanese soldier in the Philippines surrenders, 29 years after World War II ended.
Hiroo Onoda c 1944
Hiroo Onoda (1922 – 2014) was a Japanese soldier who served as a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. One of the last Japanese holdouts, Onoda continued fighting for nearly 29 years after the war's end in 1945, carrying out guerrilla warfare on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974.
Onoda initially held out with three other soldiers: one surrendered in 1950, and two were killed, one in 1954 and one in 1972. The men did not believe flyers and letters from their families stating that the war was over. They survived on wild fruits, game, and stolen rice, and occasionally engaged in shootouts with locals and the police. Onoda was contacted in the jungles of Lubang by a Japanese explorer in 1974, but still refused to surrender until he was formally relieved of duty by his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who flew from Japan to the island to issue the order.
The Japanese government offered him a large sum of money in back pay, which he refused. When money was pressed on him by well-wishers, he donated it to Yasukuni Shrine.
Onoda was reportedly unhappy at receiving such attention and at what he saw as the withering of traditional Japanese values. He wrote No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, a best-selling autobiography published in 1974. In April 1975, he followed the example of his elder brother Tadao and left Japan for Brazil, where he became a cattle farmer.
He married in 1976 and assumed a leading role in the Colônia Jamic ("Jamic Colony"), a Japanese Brazilian community in Terenos, Mato Grosso do Sul. After reading about a case in which a Japanese teenager murdered his parents in 1980, Onoda returned to Japan in 1984 and established the Onoda Shizen Juku ("Onoda Nature School"), an educational camp for young people in Fukushima Prefecture.
After the war, Filipino media interviewed villagers who had lived on Lubang during Onoda's time in hiding and alleged that he and his men had killed up to 30 civilians. Onoda did not mention these deaths in his autobiography. In 1996, he visited the town of Looc on Lubang after his wife Machie arranged a US$10,000 scholarship donation on his behalf to the local school. The town council presented Onoda with a resolution asking him to compensate the families of seven people whom he had allegedly killed, and about 50 relatives of the alleged victims staged a protest against his visit.
After 1984, Onoda spent three months of the year in Brazil and the rest in Japan.
On 16 January 2014, Onoda, aged 91, died of heart failure resulting from pneumonia at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo.
Hiroo Onoda only emerged from the jungle in 1974 after being personally ordered by his commanding officer.
Onoda surrendering his sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos at a ceremony on 11 March 1974
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Saturday, March 8, 2025
QUOTE FOR THE DAY
I attended an all day webinar yesterday where one of the early speakers began with a slide similar to this featuring a quote by Mark Twain:
Her comments:
- When she was in practice, she had intentions each day of tackling her ‘too hard’ basket.
- However, she would prioritise by dealing with the quick and short things first, intending to get those out of the way and then getto the 'too hard' basket items.
- By 3.30pm she was looking for biscuits.
- By 4.00pm she had given up on attacking the too hard basket and resolved that she would do it tomorrow.
- Then it would all happen again.
- She finally reversed the order.
- As per Mark Twain’s advice, do the hard things first.
- Once you start, it isn’t as hard as you thought it would be.
ON THIS DAY
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March 8, 2014:
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 lost contact and disappeared.
The missing aircraft pictured in December 2011
Flight 370 MH-370 was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned destination, Beijing Capital International Airport in China. The cause of its disappearance has not been determined. It is widely regarded as the greatest mystery in aviation history, and remains the single deadliest case of aircraft disappearance.
The crew of the Boeing 777 last communicated with air traffic control (ATC) around 38 minutes after takeoff when the flight was over the South China Sea. The aircraft was lost from ATC's secondary surveillance radar screens minutes later but was tracked by the Malaysian military's primary radar system for another hour, deviating westward from its planned flight path, crossing the Malay Peninsula and Andaman Sea. It left radar range 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia.
With all 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard presumed dead, the disappearance of Flight 370 was the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777, the deadliest of 2014, and the deadliest in Malaysia Airlines' history until it was surpassed in all three regards by Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down by Russian-backed forces while flying over Ukraine four months later on 17 July 2014.
The search for the missing aircraft became the most expensive search in the history of aviation. It focused initially on the South China Sea and Andaman Sea, before analysis of the aircraft's automated communications with an Inmarsat satellite indicated that the plane had travelled far southward over the southern Indian Ocean. Several pieces of debris washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean during 2015 and 2016; many of these were confirmed to have originated from Flight 370.
After a three-year search across 120,000 km2 (46,000 sq mi) of ocean failed to locate the aircraft. A second search launched in January 2018 by private contractor Ocean Infinity also ended without success after six months. It was announced on 26 February 2025 that Ocean Infinity intends to begin searching again.
It has been reported that the plane’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. The revelation, which Malaysia withheld from a lengthy public report on the investigation, is the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide.
MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
Flight 370's disappearance brought to public attention the limits of aircraft tracking and flight recorders, including the limited battery life of underwater locator beacons (an issue that had been raised about four years earlier following the loss of Air France Flight 447, but had never been resolved). In response to Flight 370's disappearance, the International Civil Aviation Organization adopted new standards for aircraft position reporting over open ocean, extended recording time for cockpit voice recorders, and, starting from 2020, new aircraft designs have been required to have a means of recovering the flight recorders, or the information they contain, before they sink into the water.
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Friday, March 7, 2025
ON THIS DAY
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I have previously said that when the 'On This Day' is lengthy I will skip the usual Bytes item.
Unfortunately this item is lengthy but I don't want to deprive Byters of Funny Friday so hoefully you will enjoy both.
The day following will be 'On This Day' Week, all lengthier but interesting items from history.
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March 7, 1530:
The Pope refuses Henry VIII's divorce.
When Martin Luther issued grievances about the Catholic Church in 1517, King Henry VIII took it upon himself to personally repudiate the arguments of the Protestant Reformation leader. The pope rewarded Henry with the lofty title of Fidei Defensor, or Defender of the Faith.
Barely a decade later, the same Henry VIII would break decisively with the Catholic Church, accept the role of Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolve the nation’s monasteries, absorbing and redistributing their massive property as he saw fit. The former “Defender of the Faith” ushered in the English Reformation.
His first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, had failed to produce a son and male heir to the throne.
King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
Henry had also become infatuated with one of his wife’s ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn, whose sister Mary had previously been his lover. Anne encouraged the king’s attention, but shrewdly refused to become his mistress, setting her sights on a higher goal, marriage.
Anne Boleyn
Henry asked Pope Clement VII to grant him a divorce from Catherine. He argued that the marriage was against God’s will, due to the fact that Catherine had briefly been married to Henry’s late brother, Arthur.
At the time, the title of Holy Roman Emperor belonged to King Charles V of Spain—Catherine of Aragon’s nephew. Clement VII was not inclined to grant Henry a divorce from the emperor’s aunt. On March 7, 1530 Clement refused Henry’s application for a divorce.
Eager to marry Anne, Henry appointed Thomas Cranmer as the Archbishop of Canterbury, after which Cranmer quickly granted Henry’s divorce from Catherine. In June 1533, the heavily pregnant Anne Boleyn was crowned queen of England in a lavish ceremony.
Parliament’s passage of the Act of Supremacy in 1534 solidified the break from the Catholic Church and made the king the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Anne Boleyn failed to produce a son but she did give birth to a daughter who would become Elizabeth I.
By 1536, Henry had fallen for another lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. That May, after her former ally Thomas Cromwell helped engineer her conviction of adultery, incest and conspiracy against the king, Anne was executed.
Jane Seymour
In October 1537, Jane Seymour gave birth to Henry’s first male heir, the future King Edward VI, before dying of complications from childbirth two weeks later. Henry died in 1547, Edward died young in 1553, and his Catholic half-sister, Queen Mary I, reversed many of the religious changes during her reign. Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of Anne Boleyn and ruler of England for nearly 50 years, completed the Reformation her father had begun.
The 6 wives of King Henry VIII
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