That is, today is the day that the European "theatre" of
World War II began with Germany's invasion of Poland.
For the NY Times coverage of the event, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0901.html#article
or
http://tinyurl.com/6hbn23
However, this is a "eurocentric" (tm, Michael Sylvester) view
of what is referred to as World War II (WWII). It is important to
remember that though Japan was an ally of German and attacked
the U.S. on December 7, 1941 (Hawaii time), it had been at war
long before the eruption of hostilities in Europe. One can date
Japan's start of its war (often called the "Pacific War") in a couple
of different ways
(NOTE: Wikipedia sources are used, standard disclaimers apply):
(1) September 18, 1931: "The Mukden Incident" refers to
an "attack" on a Japanese owned railroad near Mukden in
Manchuria which was used by the Japanese government to
invade Manchuria and put it under its control. The "attack"
was, however, orchestrated by the Japanese as a pretext for
the invasion. Japan would control this area until 1945.
For more details, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident
(2) July 7, 1937: "The Second Sino-Japanese War" refers
to the start of full scale military battles between Japan and
Chinese military (both nationalist and communist). The key
incident is known as the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident", a
critical access point to China's major cities. Beijing and
other cities were attacked and captured shortly threreafter.
The "Nanking Massacre" occurred a few months later.
For more info about the "Second Sino-Japanese War"
(NOTE: China and Japan refer to the war in different ways)
see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War
For info about the "Nanking Massacre" see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre
(NOTE: consider the following statement and its implications
for the treatment of enemy combatants:
|On August 6, 1937, Hirohito personally ratified his army's
|proposition to remove the constraints of international law
|on the treatment of Chinese prisoners. This directive also
|advised staff officers to stop using the term "prisoner of war".[11] )
It should probably be noted that the presentation of the
second Sino-Japanese War took on religious tone in order
to maintain public support for it in Japan. It became a "seisen"
or "holy war" with the phrase "hakko ichiu" (one translation is:
all the world under one roof) capturing the core belief. For
more info see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakko_ichiu
So, SNAFU and FUBAR.
Oh, just so this doesn't end on a completely negative note,
Happy Birthday to the following (someone else can provide
the names of psychologists born today):
Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lily Tomlin, Seiji Ozawa
Engelbert Humperdinck (No, not the pop singer but the composer,
perhaps best known for the opera "Hansel and Gretel"),
Phil McGraw (does anyone with a Ph.D. really consider him
a "psychologist"?), Rocky Marciano (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Marciano )
and James J. Corbett (see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Corbett )
For more people born today, see:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/index.html
and much, much more at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1
NOTE: In Singapore, it's "Teacher's Day" though some
people might say "Everyday is Teacher's Day!". ;-)
For more on this "Holiday", see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teachers'_Day
-Mike Palij
New York University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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