USS Indianapolis

I always wondered if the story of the Indianapolis was how it was presented in the movie "Jaws" in that men were left to drown or be eaten by sharks because the Navy did not want to divulge the mission of the ship prior to the atomic bombing of Japan.  I read an old article recently that cast some doubt on that theory.  The ship was hit by two or three torpedoes on July 29, 1945 and sunk within 13 minutes and only 318 men survived.  A court of inquiry was convened on Aug 13, 1945 and a court-martial of the Captain followed by the end of December.  This source says that no distress signal was sent due to destruction of the communications system on board the ship and the rapid sinking thereof.  In WWII there were 436 US naval vessels lost to enemy action and a court-martial for the Indianapolis was the only legal action taken.  The captain was found to have failed to follow a "zigzag" course which was blamed for the loss.  During the trial in December, of Captain McVay, the Japanese commander-a Commander Hashimoto-of the sub that sank the ship was brought to the trail to testify and he noted no criticism of McVay for his actions.  Many in this country-including some in Congress-were outraged at this decision to have Hashimoto testify.  McVay's career was over but other than that it does not seem much legal action was taken against him.  In Dec 1960 the survivors held their first reunion and many greeted McVay warmly.  Interestingly or cruelly, the Navy re-used the name "Indianapolis" for a nuclear submarine.  (A point here might be that Hollywood does not always-if ever-present the truth when a good story line is possible).

(Source:  "The Agony of the Indianapolis" by Kenneth E. Ethridge.  American Heritage Magazine Aug/Sept 1982).

"New Deal"

I came across an interesting item on NPR OnLine yesterday.  It was about a FDR New Deal program that built towns for groups of people outside of major cities and across much of country.  It appears that there were about 100 of these towns constructed in the 1930's and the one being noted in this source was the town of Roosevelt, NJ.  I visited the site some years ago to photograph a mural painted by Ben Shahn under a WPA program (actually it was under another of the federal government's programs but I don't remember the exact name at this moment).  That mural covered an entire wall over the entrance to a middle school cafeteria; most of the New Deal murals were painted in post offices.  

The towns had some kind of factory and a 500 acre farm that was intended to produce a product for sale.  The gov't built homes along with the factory and farm and gave them to people who moved from a city area, to "be owned and run by the residents".  Roosevelt was populated by NYC garment worker.  It seems most of the towns "failed" because they couldn't  produce enough to make a profit; but obviously some parts of the towns still exist.  If you google "New Deal Towns" a list of these towns should be found.

(Source:  "New Deal Town Turns 75. Utopian Ideals Long Gone: by Janet Babin at www.npr.org.  9/23/12)

Rice Cultivation pre Civil War

I came across this reference to rice cultivation by African Americans slaves in South Carolina, while reading an article about the Air Force inadvertently dropping an atomic bomb on Mars Bluff, SC in 1958.  In 1993 historian Amelia Wallace Vernon wrote a book entitled African Americans at Mars Bluff, South Carolina.  The book "...documents the successful private cultivation of rice by slaves in Mars Bluff and their descendants into the twentieth century and develops persuasive evidence that the technical expertise to raise rice in South Carolina (and Louisiana) came from slaves brought over from middle Africa, where it was the staple crop".  This piece of history is noted in this article because the bomb that was dropped in 1958 landed  a few hundred yards from those rice fields of Pre-Civil War time.

(Source:  "Aircraft 53-1876A has lost a device" by Clark Rumrill.  American Heritage Magazine Sept 2000).

Mitt Romney Aug 2012

I gather from the acceptance speech that Romney delivered at the  GOP convention this past week that the following are points made during that review (at least in the mind of this newspaper).

1.  Romney would repeal ObamaCare (I don't think a president has that ability; maybe we will see).
2.  Romney picked on the memory of Jimmy Carter, in a negative way.
3.  Romney gave no details on how he will reduce the federal deficit and create 12 million new jobs.
4.  He would extend the Bush era tax cuts (and I assume that is for all) that are due to expire at the end of
.        the year.
5.  He would further cut "another 20 % in tax rates".
6.  He provided no details on which tax breaks he will end.
(Source:  The Record newspaper on 8/31/12)

Bosnia War

War raged in the former Yugoslavia region of Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 during which the "siege of Sarajevo" was the longest in modern history.  For three and a half years the world (UN and other nations) did noting to stop the killing.  During this war one in every two Bosnians was forced to flee his home.  50,000 Bosnian women were raped leading to the first conviction for sexual violence on it own as a "crime against humanity".  This war was the deadliest in Europe since WWII and in 1995 an "uneasy peace" in Bosnia-Herzogovina with the struggle still going on.  My knowledge of this war is limited and a lot more research is needed by anyone wishing to know more.  (It is also my belief that the crime of rape was committed against a Muslim population by Christian members of Serbia and Bosnia.  If this is true it might help explain why many Muslims feel hatred toward other religious groups in the region and world)

(Source:  Movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey").

Witchcraft trials of 1730

I read recently of witchcraft trials in Mount Holly in NJ in 1730 in which a witch and a wizard were put on "trial".  The townspeople, in an effort to be fair, choose two of their number to undergo the same "tests" as the suspected witches "as a sort of litmus test to prove their fairness".  The four were all stripped naked and tied hand and foot and dropped into a pond.   "It was thought that anyone who was a witch would float on the surface of the water, while an innocent would sink to the bottom".  One of the test persons sank while the   other and the two accused floated to the surface.  There was no further indication of what happened next.  I think the interesting point here is that an account of this was recorded by one "Benjamin Franklin" who as "an enlightened thinker of his day...poke fun at folk beliefs which still persisted as well as to have a joke at the expense of Burlington County residents, whom Philadelphians saw as rustic, rural yokels".  I post this because I wonder if the "test" we have always heard about-the sinking in water when dunked-was in fact made up by this "Benjamin Franklin" just to ridicule those who believed in witches.  I am also assuming that the Benjamin Franklin noted here is the one history books record the existence of.
(Source: "The Mount Holly Witch Trials of 1730" by Michael Vikovic in Weird New Jersey volume number 19.  This source is questionable; I have no knowledge of the magazines value as a source of history).

WW II Relocation Camps

Many of us have heard about and noted in our classes about the detention of Japanese Americans on the West Coast starting after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Of the 120,000 so detained, two-thirds of them were citizens; most had their property taken without compensation and got nothing back after the war.  What I had not heard of before was that Canada did the same thing.  A Canadian environmentalist and broadcaster-David Suzuki-notes that "there were 22,000 Japanese Canadians put in camps".  More research is needed.

(Source:  "A Progressive Interview With David Suzuki" by Mathew Rothschild.  The Progessive Dec 2010 Jan 2011).