What the hell is this? I had no idea that the Japanese constructed an attack on the Philippines like just 10 hours after Pearl Harbor. I had no idea about this history let alone that America sided with the Philippines and resisted on the Bataan Peninsula. After them taking beatings, torture and we both fought for something. Americans for what we love and the Filipinos with their love of Liberty. The fact that the first lady of Roosevelt highlighted this brotherhood that happened on the battlefield. What she said was, “Fighting in Bataan has been an excellent example of what happens when two different races respect each other. Men of different races and backgrounds have fought side by side and praised each other’s heroism and courage.” Also a poem stating, “Bataan has fallen. With heads of bloody but unbowed, we yielded to the enemy… We have stood up uncomplaining, Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, We have done all that human endurance could bear… Our defeat is our victory.” This was touching and brave of us. Two races coming together for a better cause that I had no idea about and expanding my knowledge of history. Different things that happen in war that details that I wasn’t aware of. Thanks Takaki for shining light on those events.

When Imperial Japan formally surrendered to the United States, many accepted the news and returned home. For some though, the news sounded like a ploy to demoralize Japanese forces. Hiroo Onoda did not leave his position after U.S. forces landed near his position in Lubang on February 1945. For almost 30 years, Onoda remained in his position maintaining his role as an intelligence officer. Onoda had an “indomitable spirit” that pleas from his family and leaflets dropped to him urging him to surrender did not move him. It was not until a young traveler named Norio Suzuki, who was seeking Onoda, spoke to him that Onoda decided that it was finally enough. On March 1974, Onoda came out of hiding and formally surrendered after his superior returned to reverse his orders. When he returned to Japan, he was praised as a hero. He died at the age of 91 on January 17, 2014.

A soldier of such unbreakable will likely live down in history.

I only heard things about the show, such as what actors are playing in it or how funny this or that episode was, but never took a chance to watch it myself because I’m not a large fan of live-action series. The issue of the show’s episode “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra” had the actors portray Asians via Fu Manchu mustaches and stereotypical Chinese clothing, along with accents that are deemed Asian. Sure the executives of the show apologized on Twitter, but I think the damage has already been done and this shows they did not think of everyone who would be in their viewing audience. Looks like Asians in media are still portrayed by old stereotypes since it’s so much easier for them to portray that rather than a normal Asian or Asian American today. Maybe we could be overreacting about this whole thing since it was all done for comedy, but did it not occur that maybe they could have hired Asian extras for the roles? Then again, how the executives tell them to act could still make it stereotypical.

Oh media.

Paull Shin, a Korean American senator of Washington state, resigned on January 7, 2014 due to being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which causes problems with memory and thinking. Born in Korea, Shin lived out on the streets until an American soldier adopted him and took him stateside. He earned a GED, Ph. D, taught students for 31 years, and swore into office on 1999. Shin also served as a Washington State Representative. According to Senate Minority Leader Sharon Nelson, Shin would not be an easy person to replace since he was an “incredible, honorable leader.” A replacement for Shin will be announced on January 21 by the Snohomish County Council.

It’s  a secret to everybody.

Born on June 24, 1946 in Hawaii, Ellison S. Onizuka was the first Asian American to travel to space. Before his career in NASA, Onizuka served in the United States Air Force in 1970. He was chosen to be an astronaut candidate on January 1978 for NASA. Before joining the Challenger crew, Onizuka served aboard the Discovery, which completed 48 orbits around the Earth and logged him 74 hours, or about 3 days, in space. Onizuka, along with the rest of the Challenger‘s crew, died on January 18, 1986 after a minute and thirteen seconds into Challenger‘s liftoff. After his death, he was awarded with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Proof is in the pudding.

The 1986 Challenger explosion:

On January 28, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded 1 min and 13 secs after it’s launch.  One of the members on board of the space shuttle was Ellison Onizuka.  Onizuka was the first Asian American to fly in space.  In 1985, he flew to space on the space shuttle Discovery.  And then, in 1986, aboard the Challenger, he and his six crew members died.

Sources:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/onizuka.html

http://onizukamemorial.org/biography

HIMYM:

There was an episode of How I Met Your Mother that had a few of the characters dressed stereotypically as Asians.  Naturally, many people got offended by this.  I have never seen an episode of this show, so I can’t say in what context they may have been doing this, but unfortunately I think that making fun of different races and cultures happens way too often in our society.  I watched the part of the episode where they were dressed as Asians, and all I can say is I didn’t find it funny; it was pretty ridiculous in my opinion.

Sources:

http://www.thefrisky.com/2014-01-15/how-i-met-your-mother-puts-white-characters-in-asian-yellowface/

Paull Shin:

Paull Shin was the first Korean American that was elected in the Senate.  He was elected in the senate in 1998, and is now resigning due to difficulties with Alzheimers.  Apparently he was an orphan in Korea and was adopted by an American soldier and brought to America.  This was a part of Shin’s resignation statement: “I have loved this place and the work we do here on behalf of the people of Washington. Unfortunately, I have determined with the assistance of my family that recent health problems and a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease make it impossible for me to represent my constituents in the manner they deserve.”

sources:

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/politicsnorthwest/2014/01/07/state-sen-paull-shin-resigns-citing-alzheimers-as-factor/

WWII Stragglers:

I am honestly amazed at the story of Hiroo Onoda.  He served in the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII.  He survived 30 years in a jungle in the Philippines, rather than surrender.  This just blows my mind!  30 years!  I can’t even imagine that.   “Onoda was an intelligence officer who came out of hiding, standing but emaciated, in fatigues patched many times over, on Lubang island in the Philippines in March 1974, on his 52nd birthday. He surrendered only when his former commander flew there to reverse his 1945 orders to stay behind and spy on American troops.”  The loyalty of the Japanese culture is amazing, “Before and during the war, Japanese were taught absolute loyalty to the nation and the emperor. Soldiers in the Imperial Army observed a code that said death was preferable to surrender.”

Sources:

http://www.htrnews.com/viewart/20140118/MAN0101/301190179/

As per the assignment I investigated these four topics: Challenger, Paull [sic] Shin, WWII Straglers, and the letest episode of “How I met Your Mother (HIMYM)” (Season 9, Episode 14) and related them back to the program.

At a club meeting early in the day I remembered that I had to complete this assignment. In a boring fashion I started at the beigning of the list and worked my way down. After researching “Challenger” the connection I came up with was that Ellison Shoji Onizuka was aboard that space shuttle and it’s explosion had a tone of media coverage. Onizuka was the first Asian/American in space, reaching the destination in 1985 and was one of the seven people that about a year later on the Challenger mission.

After reading the above topic and feeling a little down I moved on to read about Paull Shin. Born in South Korea in 1935 and adopted to Ray Paull, a U.S. Army officer who was in South Korea for the war, Paull Shin became the first Korean/American elected to the Washington State Legislation.

I found the World War II Stragglers to be quite interesting in two respects. According to Wikipedia’s Japanese Holdout, Japanese soldiers located throughout the Pacific kept on fighting the War till the 1980s. Wikipedia suggests the reasoning behind these stragglers was either due to the loss of communication during the end of the war so they did not get the message or because of the Japanese “strong dogmatic or militaristic principles”, which I’m assuming the writer on the post was referring to bushido , as this article points out is a code that “demands bravery and unflinching self-sacrifice. Honor comes from death, disgrace from surrender.” All of that I found interesting because it was not something I had heard of before and that time wise WWII was not over till the 1980s. Which got me thinking of our programs theme with time and how despite the reasoning behind the Japanese soldiers continuing to fight for them a war that for others was in the past and over was still a present aspect in their lives. And I was feeling pretty good about how nice these connections were seeming to come along, till I moved on to the last topic.

Before searching the news for Episode 14 of “How I Met Your Mother” I decided to watch it. Now I use to watch this show all the time and like it. I had a bit of info on the episode from a friend who pointed out from her musing online, the main racist themes of yellowface, and usual mockery of culture but also that this show doesn’t have a ton of non-white actors in it which adds to the impact this had. So I was on the watch for this as I started the episode, but there was no missing any of it.  My first notes on the episode start as Marshall goes to learn a mighty slap at a Kung Fu school. In this scene when he asks the instructor if he can learn a slap and the instructor says no because he teaches Kung Fu that is a sacred art (which they make fun of the whole episode) and not slapping, Marshall acts out his words like the instructor doesn’t know what he is talking about. To make this scene even better in the background there are Katanas along the walls. After learning that there is a special slap that he can learn from masters Marshall embarks on his journey. We have Robin and Lilli, dressed in Chinese attire and both are made fun of their age by looking younger than they are. And while their make-up is done in a “China Doll” fashion they weren’t as bad a Ted. With Ted waring a wig of long braided hair to simulate Chinese historical hair customs,  he is mistaken as a women and then turns to show the audience his face with the long eyebrows and long goatee that wise masters have in Kung Fu movies.

After being enraged over what I saw I looked up news articles for the episode and what I found frustrated me even more. All the articles that popped up on the first page were on the creators apology for their unintentional racism with the exception of Kai Ma’s Article Dear How I Met Your Mother: ‘Asian’ Is Not a Costume. All the articles had the statement from the creators that said while they were trying to have a laugh at Kung Fu movies, which they hold dear (Obviously because Katana’s are a part of Kung Fu), they did not mean to offend anyone. And while some also included some of the tweets that went out like “#YellowFace” and “#HowIMetYourRacisim” they did not go into the real issues like Ma’s article. The big reason the focus on the apology and the apology itself frustrates me is this intention vs. impact concept (if you want to know more or don’t know what I’m talking about check this out). Yes the creators just wanted to make fun of Kung Fu movies and didn’t want to hurt or upset anyone but they did and instead of trying to understand how they did offend people their apology only defends what they did.