Unfortunately, as forecast, there was no cricket the Emirates Chester Le Street yesterday. I awoke in the morning to find the day damp and wet but it cleared around 9 am here on Tyneside and remained so until after lunch. Evidently there had been much water falling overnight at the Emirates and this had continued for longer as the only announcement on BBC Newcastle at 11 was to say there were no immediate prospects of play and this was followed by the new of no play before lunch time. It was only during the afternoon that the rain returned and persisted that the announcement was made of no play at all during the day. For the club and the local authority a blank day like this on a Saturday is a potential financial disaster. The staff will have arrived to prepare food and serve drinks as well host the entrances and sell tickets.
One of the best crowds of the season will have been anticipated for the game between the closest playing competitors and with a long history of Durham and Tyneside people visiting Headingly for International and some championship games before Durham became a top cricket playing side and some Yorkshire folk travelling to watch Durham when their county is playing away. Because of the City location in the area of the Metropolitan University which brings in students to add to the regular membership and because of its fine history, the County is able to command a greater on going crowd of supporters than the middle of no where location of counties such as Durham and Hampshire. Although clubs take out expensive insurance a rained off match in this way can be a disaster for those already struggling to meet the costs of redevelopment to achieve better facilities for players and supporters to International stadium levels.
I write this on Sunday morning 6.15 when for the second day in succession there has been rain overnight, the skies are grey and heavy and air feels damp. I quickly lose all enthusiasm and energy on such days and there was no inclination to go to the leisure and yesterday little enthusiasm for project work or new writings. I therefore watch a lot of television and eat more than was good for me with a mini cooked breakfast, a Mex Tex or Tex Mex, which ever way round one prefers, platter for lunch, soup, olive salad with become and cheese quiche for tea, a helping of a chocolate chip whip for lunch and the excellent inexpensive black grapes from Morrisons plus not one but two pecan twirls.
15.30 Around 10.30 with the skies clear hear and having organised food and drink I set off for the cricket stopping at Shield’s Morrisons for some soft rolls. There was some 90 minutes of play before the skies darkened and the players went off for bad light and knowing that heavy rains was not far away. Durham and won the toss and asked Yorkshire to bat playing Onions and Steve Harmison for the first time this season together with Collingwood, Borthwick and Blackwell, potentially the strongest of sides with exception young Ben Stokes out for another month having broken a finger. As the rain was heaving and comprehensive I was not optimistic about any play following the taking of an early lunch and decided to return home listening to the lunchtime chat during the Test Match. The opportunity was being taken to give publicity for a new type of cricket called Cage cricket ideal for urban areas, unused tennis courts, indoor centres, in fact anywhere which can offer the space and boundaries required for what is intended to be a 6 player one hour game of around 30 overs. I will leave to another writing what I have learned so far about this development launched earlier in the month at Hampshire with Sir Ian Botham.
I caught up with America has Got Talent where four may have been five programmes were shown in succession yesterday. These programmes are filled with advertising and breaks and for at least half each hour of broadcasting with Piers Morgan taking over the role of Simon Cowell as the judge telling the truth. There was some good talent and some potential season competition winners. I struggle hard to remember even these acts. There was a large black Metro Train worker with a powerful jazzy blues rocking big mama of a voice; an illusionist who switched himself into the position of his assistant contained in a raised transparent box in a seamless move which no one can still work out how the trick is accomplished. It will be interesting to see if he can achieve better in the semi finals and finals of the competition. There were also several dance groups whose precision and novelty entertained but the majority of those selected to go to Vegas will not be selected to perform again for the audience unless they adopt the British approach this season where some acts were asked to perform again in two or three act competition for places, although in some instances the outcome was evident but at least it provided the opportunity for also rans to bring themselves to the attention of the public in their state and local communities.
There was also the second episode of the new series of Camelot, King Arthur, Merlin and all that. The character of Merlin is very different from all those previously portrayed on screen who like to perform tricks and heroic deeds on behalf of the King and concept which they served. Although young Merlin and Young Arthur changed the image from the traditional fatherly figure, the character has always been understanding and likeable. In this series of ten episodes he is played by Joseph Fiennes the younger brother of Ralph, as a cunning bossy man with his own agenda and determined to mould King Arthur into the kind of leader he is determined to have. He is in not likeable and therefore attracts no sympathy. Arthur has his limitations and comes across as an ordinary young man ill equipped for the role that has been thrust upon him. The two characters one wants to see progress are both female. The half sister Morgan has a clear idea of herself and what she wants and has transformed her father’s castle into a seductive feminine home masking steel eyed ambition with the technical wizard skills to achieve what she wants. She is willing to offer her body to achieve goals as long as the male in question remains her subject whatever the official public presentation. She is placed as her champion young black woman former slave inherited from her father’s household and given her the authority to employ only those from his service who can be trusted to serve them, dismissing the others. It is evident she will represent the dark side of womanhood, when in fact she is just performing as well and better than men of her time.
The other character is Guinevere who it is evident will represent the loyal, thoughtful, high minded and romantic female kind. She has already appeared to Arthur in a dream observed by Merlin and introduced to the King at his Coronation Party where attracted because of the dream he is disappointed to find that she is engaged to his right hand knight alongside his brother. In the second episode they go off together to find a warrior Knight to join the King’s Party and attracts other good fighting Knights to strengthen their fighting force potential. They take the action after the family of Guinevere is forced to leave their home because of an attack by marauders/brigands and seek the King’s sanctuary. At first Merlin advises the King against offering hospitality but when he learns that the girl was shortly to be married to the betrothed and that in the circumstances the marriage will be postponed he immediately changes his position and announces that the marriage will take place at Camelot within the week. He warns Merlin that the girl is not for him.
She is uncertain that this is the right thing to do after meeting the King and the Coronation and seeing that he is attracted to her, Her betrothal was arranged by her mother and the fiancée is regarded as a good man, of social position and wealth who will protect her and her family. Her maid servant advises that she may fall in love in time or find that he gives her children who she will love and fulfil her life. She knows this will not be enough but will do her duty in the circumstances.
Merlin accepts an invitation to a feat in his honour at his father’s former Castle. Morgan sends her new personal assistant, dressed in finery but apparently unaccompanied with the invitation which Merlin wants to refuse but is over ruled. They have an enjoyable meal after which Arthur has another dream in which he and Guinevere become lovers before she carries out her obligations as a betrothed. Merlin also appears to have met his match with Morgan who appears to imprison in his bed but he emphasises that he has the superior power and is giving her the opportunity to accept and play her part in creating the new era world of her half brother. The series has already been aired in the USA achieving an audience of one million viewers or thereabouts.
I watched two films which are also above loyalty, duty and honour. The first is PT 109, the fictionalised account of the role of President John F Kennedy in World War II. He is played by Cliff Robertson an actor then 40 playing a young man of 24. The true story is that Kennedy was declared unfit for military service but used his father’s influence to gain a naval commission with the help of the Director of Naval Intelligence who had served his father as an attaché. He was given a desk job at Naval headquarters but after the attack on Pearl Harbour used that same influence to get himself into active service and into a dangerous front line role becoming a lieutenant in charge of a PT (Patrol Torpedo) boat which is a comparatively small craft with about a dozen men.
In August 1943, along with two other similar vessels, with whom direct contact was lost, he was undertaking night time patrols near New Georgia in the Solomon Island when in full darkness he was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and sunk. He is reputed to have held a meeting with the survivors, some wounded and two lost, to decide whether to surrender or seek escape. They decided to swim to the nearest island where unable to find food and water they went onto another. From where they were rescued Kennedy towed the most injured member of the crew by a sling device around his head after swimming for several hours to get himself and the other crew members out of the sea and ashore.
In the film several members of crew commenced to have doubts they would be rescued and but Kennedy was able to send a message cut out in the skin of a coconut to one of the Australian radio operators based on the islands via sympathetic islanders who relayed the information to the naval command HQ who sent out a rescue vessel and all the men survived.
In the film this incident occurs after one which in fact takes place after his subsequent appointment to a PT vessel converted into a gun boat when in October of 43 he participated in the rescue of men who had been airborne and trapped on an island. In the film they had sufficient fuel to reach the island and rescue the men but then had to be towed home just before the tide swept them back in range of enemy heavy gunfire. He continued to skipper this vessel until discharge in 1945. For his rescue efforts he was given a citation and Purple Heart and three bronze stars. This was a young man who suffered from back problems which continued throughout his adult life.
In the film he is joined by another skipper, Robert Culp who had his boat sunk and on one mission by a desk bound career naval officer who had never seen action and who shoots down an enemy plane. It was also customary for those surviving a sinking or other major battle experience to be given a brief period of home shore leave before being reassigned. One of the reasons Kennedy considered surrendering and then decided against taken home leave was because he was then a single man where as several of his crew were married with families. Whatever was the reality of political and personal later life it is evident that he possessed a sense of responsible reality, leadership understanding and concern for others which shone brightly throughout his life and irrespective of his family wealth, status and influence.
While PT 109 can be described as a standard wartime that is good and engaging but not exceptional film, Only The Brave falls under the exceptional category. However before giving my account of this film I watched the well trodden story of the Kennedy family in a new series on BBC 2, following on as it does from another new series on the History Channel. I watched waiting to see if anything new emerged and which had with it veracity. The series was to have been shown on the History Channel in he USA and Canada and was then dropped. It was then rejected by other channels in the USA until taken up by channels in the UK, Canada, Ireland and Australia.
I suspect I know the reason why the series is not being shown in the USA based on the first two episodes. The programme attempts to ,provide a rounded picture of the principal characters and most of all Joseph P Kennedy who advises his sons that it does not matter who you are but what the public think you are. He tells Jack on his wedding day the golden rule is to keep his infidelities out of the media and ensure the women keep their mouths shut. He offers to create a fund of $1 for Jackie if she does not divorce Jack and becomes the first Lady after he has got Jack the Presidency in 1960. She refuses the offer but agrees to stay.
The first two episodes switches between election day 1960 and the events beforehand from when the family lived in London where Joseph was the Ambassador planning to run for the Presidency against Roosevelt. His approach was to argue that Hitler could be trusted to keep his word about not attacking other countries once he had united the German peoples of Europe and that the USA should in effect mind its own business. Given the extent of his funding of the Party and standing he did not anticipate he would be sacked bringing his dream to an end. When Roosevelt required him to resign he switched his attention and money to making his eldest son the President. Joseph Junior is presented as being fully in favour of his prospective political career to the extent that he expressed resentment when John returns home a hero after his efforts to rescue and help the crew of his PT 109 to survive. The reason for the resentment is that he sees John’s public standing as affecting his candidacy for Congress after the war en route to the Presidency. Dad was more cynical saying that he had never met anyone that could not be bought.
Unscrupulous, vindictive, ruthless, uncompromising are all descriptions which accurately describe the man but he was never a hypocrite seeing himself and human behaviour as what it is in reality rather than what we would like it to be.
When John was missing after his ship had been rammed by the enemy the visit the local clergy who knowing of his agnosticism are puzzled by his visit, He wants them to pray for the safe return of his son adding that he has sinned so much in the past God will not listen to his prayers. When the news is given that Joseph junior has been killed in action he refuses to pray for the soul of his son even to console his suffering wife.
The programme states that John wanted to teach history at Harvard and chase girls but once father decided that he had achieve what he and the elder brother had not, there was no turning away despite his lack of interest and initial ability. The programme suggests that the turning point was addressing a meeting of mothers who had all lost sons in World War 11 and cast aside the prepared speech and spoke of the loss he and his family felt with the death of the eldest son. However because of the strength of the Italian vote and loyalty to a Congressional candidate of Italian background, Joseph has the master stroke of finding another Italian in the district with the same surname and meeting the costs of putting his name on ballot so to divide the voting through mistakes.
John’s philandering was so well known that when Jackie told her mother she was to marry, she did everything she could to persuade her against doing so forecasting the kind of marriage she would have. Jackie was determined that therefore must have cursed her poor judgement when after the marriage her husband appeared to take up every offer made to him and she wryly comments that she had hoped he would have thrown some back. The programme suggests that he even accepted an offer from a campaign intern on Election night and that Jackie became aware of the relationship as did Bobby. There is also the inference that Joseph’s wife was aware of her husband philandering including that with his personal assistant. There were two other indications of the reality of this family and their quest for power. Bobby felt that his job was well done in being his brother’s campaign organiser under the direction of their father and wanted to move is already large family to Boston to practice law. He explains his intentions to his father after the victory and it appears his father understands, will give full support and then embraces his son to show his appreciation. He later gives John the list of names for his first cabinet of state and this includes Bobby as the Attorney General because he is needed to watch John’s back. Similarly Jackie pregnant with her second child is excused a media interview on election day at John’s insistence and Bobby arranges for his wife to undertake the task, something she is very willing to do. Joseph disagrees and orders Jackie through Bobby and John because of the better image for the future President. I have to say that it can be said that history paid Joseph back in full for his ambition. I shall watch the remaining programmes to see what other truths are presented. It is noteworthy that from the scheduling that the series ends with the assassination of Bobby. Teddy appears to escape.
I now come to the to the third film about honour and integrity and which again illumines the rotten core of the USA in the past.
Only the Brave is a little known film about the 100th Infantry Battalion of 442 Regiment of the United States Army made up of 1000 second generation Japanese Americans, many of whose families were interned and some imprisoned following the attack by Japan on the Pacific Island base of Pearl Harbour. As with the Battalions of all black Americans they were often used by their all white masters to take on the most dangerous and bloody of assignments. The film concentrates on one of their last actions when heavily depleted through deaths and injuries on the campaign through Italy and into Germany they were called upon to break through superior German forces to rescue a small all white unit of less than 300 men. This they succeeded with continuing huge losses to themselves. The film is a fictionalised account of some of he lives of these men. It overlooks the increased prejudice and persecution which the survivors faced after the war despite the unit battalion receiving more honours than any other.
The facts are that 110000 individuals of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast were removed from their homes and work and placed in guarded camps. However back in Hawaii although martial law and curfew was imposed the 150000 of the 400000 population continued to live in their home and to work for the USA a decision which was governed by economics than security.
It is therefore not surprising that when the decision came to create a Regiment from Japanese Americans there were 10000 volunteers from the Islands and only 1500 from the mainland and of these some 3000 from the islands and 800 from the mainland were drafted. Because of the length of the campaign and level of casualties the initial force was replaced three and a half times
It was towards the end of the war in Europe that after only two days of resting the survivors of the campaign to date were selected to attempt the rescue of 275 white men cut off for more than a week surrounded by the enemy. 230 were rescued by the special combat and out 346 men who broke through the lines to open a corridor by which the white men could leave only 25 came back with them unhurt. Because of their service 21 Medal of honour were awarded, 560 Silver stars, 4000 Bronze starts and 9486 Purple Hearts. Only in 2010 was the Congressional medal of Honour awarded to the 442 Regimental Combat team and 100th Infantry Battalion. The reception of the survivors was typical of a country that had done its best tom exterminate the Native American and hen treated the black citizens with slave owning mentality until the 1960 and 70’s. There was resistance when Hawaii attempted to become a State of the union because recognition meant having a state where whiles were in the minority. It was the role of the Japanese Hawaiians in World War II which swayed opinion in favour, eventully.
One of the best crowds of the season will have been anticipated for the game between the closest playing competitors and with a long history of Durham and Tyneside people visiting Headingly for International and some championship games before Durham became a top cricket playing side and some Yorkshire folk travelling to watch Durham when their county is playing away. Because of the City location in the area of the Metropolitan University which brings in students to add to the regular membership and because of its fine history, the County is able to command a greater on going crowd of supporters than the middle of no where location of counties such as Durham and Hampshire. Although clubs take out expensive insurance a rained off match in this way can be a disaster for those already struggling to meet the costs of redevelopment to achieve better facilities for players and supporters to International stadium levels.
I write this on Sunday morning 6.15 when for the second day in succession there has been rain overnight, the skies are grey and heavy and air feels damp. I quickly lose all enthusiasm and energy on such days and there was no inclination to go to the leisure and yesterday little enthusiasm for project work or new writings. I therefore watch a lot of television and eat more than was good for me with a mini cooked breakfast, a Mex Tex or Tex Mex, which ever way round one prefers, platter for lunch, soup, olive salad with become and cheese quiche for tea, a helping of a chocolate chip whip for lunch and the excellent inexpensive black grapes from Morrisons plus not one but two pecan twirls.
15.30 Around 10.30 with the skies clear hear and having organised food and drink I set off for the cricket stopping at Shield’s Morrisons for some soft rolls. There was some 90 minutes of play before the skies darkened and the players went off for bad light and knowing that heavy rains was not far away. Durham and won the toss and asked Yorkshire to bat playing Onions and Steve Harmison for the first time this season together with Collingwood, Borthwick and Blackwell, potentially the strongest of sides with exception young Ben Stokes out for another month having broken a finger. As the rain was heaving and comprehensive I was not optimistic about any play following the taking of an early lunch and decided to return home listening to the lunchtime chat during the Test Match. The opportunity was being taken to give publicity for a new type of cricket called Cage cricket ideal for urban areas, unused tennis courts, indoor centres, in fact anywhere which can offer the space and boundaries required for what is intended to be a 6 player one hour game of around 30 overs. I will leave to another writing what I have learned so far about this development launched earlier in the month at Hampshire with Sir Ian Botham.
I caught up with America has Got Talent where four may have been five programmes were shown in succession yesterday. These programmes are filled with advertising and breaks and for at least half each hour of broadcasting with Piers Morgan taking over the role of Simon Cowell as the judge telling the truth. There was some good talent and some potential season competition winners. I struggle hard to remember even these acts. There was a large black Metro Train worker with a powerful jazzy blues rocking big mama of a voice; an illusionist who switched himself into the position of his assistant contained in a raised transparent box in a seamless move which no one can still work out how the trick is accomplished. It will be interesting to see if he can achieve better in the semi finals and finals of the competition. There were also several dance groups whose precision and novelty entertained but the majority of those selected to go to Vegas will not be selected to perform again for the audience unless they adopt the British approach this season where some acts were asked to perform again in two or three act competition for places, although in some instances the outcome was evident but at least it provided the opportunity for also rans to bring themselves to the attention of the public in their state and local communities.
There was also the second episode of the new series of Camelot, King Arthur, Merlin and all that. The character of Merlin is very different from all those previously portrayed on screen who like to perform tricks and heroic deeds on behalf of the King and concept which they served. Although young Merlin and Young Arthur changed the image from the traditional fatherly figure, the character has always been understanding and likeable. In this series of ten episodes he is played by Joseph Fiennes the younger brother of Ralph, as a cunning bossy man with his own agenda and determined to mould King Arthur into the kind of leader he is determined to have. He is in not likeable and therefore attracts no sympathy. Arthur has his limitations and comes across as an ordinary young man ill equipped for the role that has been thrust upon him. The two characters one wants to see progress are both female. The half sister Morgan has a clear idea of herself and what she wants and has transformed her father’s castle into a seductive feminine home masking steel eyed ambition with the technical wizard skills to achieve what she wants. She is willing to offer her body to achieve goals as long as the male in question remains her subject whatever the official public presentation. She is placed as her champion young black woman former slave inherited from her father’s household and given her the authority to employ only those from his service who can be trusted to serve them, dismissing the others. It is evident she will represent the dark side of womanhood, when in fact she is just performing as well and better than men of her time.
The other character is Guinevere who it is evident will represent the loyal, thoughtful, high minded and romantic female kind. She has already appeared to Arthur in a dream observed by Merlin and introduced to the King at his Coronation Party where attracted because of the dream he is disappointed to find that she is engaged to his right hand knight alongside his brother. In the second episode they go off together to find a warrior Knight to join the King’s Party and attracts other good fighting Knights to strengthen their fighting force potential. They take the action after the family of Guinevere is forced to leave their home because of an attack by marauders/brigands and seek the King’s sanctuary. At first Merlin advises the King against offering hospitality but when he learns that the girl was shortly to be married to the betrothed and that in the circumstances the marriage will be postponed he immediately changes his position and announces that the marriage will take place at Camelot within the week. He warns Merlin that the girl is not for him.
She is uncertain that this is the right thing to do after meeting the King and the Coronation and seeing that he is attracted to her, Her betrothal was arranged by her mother and the fiancée is regarded as a good man, of social position and wealth who will protect her and her family. Her maid servant advises that she may fall in love in time or find that he gives her children who she will love and fulfil her life. She knows this will not be enough but will do her duty in the circumstances.
Merlin accepts an invitation to a feat in his honour at his father’s former Castle. Morgan sends her new personal assistant, dressed in finery but apparently unaccompanied with the invitation which Merlin wants to refuse but is over ruled. They have an enjoyable meal after which Arthur has another dream in which he and Guinevere become lovers before she carries out her obligations as a betrothed. Merlin also appears to have met his match with Morgan who appears to imprison in his bed but he emphasises that he has the superior power and is giving her the opportunity to accept and play her part in creating the new era world of her half brother. The series has already been aired in the USA achieving an audience of one million viewers or thereabouts.
I watched two films which are also above loyalty, duty and honour. The first is PT 109, the fictionalised account of the role of President John F Kennedy in World War II. He is played by Cliff Robertson an actor then 40 playing a young man of 24. The true story is that Kennedy was declared unfit for military service but used his father’s influence to gain a naval commission with the help of the Director of Naval Intelligence who had served his father as an attaché. He was given a desk job at Naval headquarters but after the attack on Pearl Harbour used that same influence to get himself into active service and into a dangerous front line role becoming a lieutenant in charge of a PT (Patrol Torpedo) boat which is a comparatively small craft with about a dozen men.
In August 1943, along with two other similar vessels, with whom direct contact was lost, he was undertaking night time patrols near New Georgia in the Solomon Island when in full darkness he was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and sunk. He is reputed to have held a meeting with the survivors, some wounded and two lost, to decide whether to surrender or seek escape. They decided to swim to the nearest island where unable to find food and water they went onto another. From where they were rescued Kennedy towed the most injured member of the crew by a sling device around his head after swimming for several hours to get himself and the other crew members out of the sea and ashore.
In the film several members of crew commenced to have doubts they would be rescued and but Kennedy was able to send a message cut out in the skin of a coconut to one of the Australian radio operators based on the islands via sympathetic islanders who relayed the information to the naval command HQ who sent out a rescue vessel and all the men survived.
In the film this incident occurs after one which in fact takes place after his subsequent appointment to a PT vessel converted into a gun boat when in October of 43 he participated in the rescue of men who had been airborne and trapped on an island. In the film they had sufficient fuel to reach the island and rescue the men but then had to be towed home just before the tide swept them back in range of enemy heavy gunfire. He continued to skipper this vessel until discharge in 1945. For his rescue efforts he was given a citation and Purple Heart and three bronze stars. This was a young man who suffered from back problems which continued throughout his adult life.
In the film he is joined by another skipper, Robert Culp who had his boat sunk and on one mission by a desk bound career naval officer who had never seen action and who shoots down an enemy plane. It was also customary for those surviving a sinking or other major battle experience to be given a brief period of home shore leave before being reassigned. One of the reasons Kennedy considered surrendering and then decided against taken home leave was because he was then a single man where as several of his crew were married with families. Whatever was the reality of political and personal later life it is evident that he possessed a sense of responsible reality, leadership understanding and concern for others which shone brightly throughout his life and irrespective of his family wealth, status and influence.
While PT 109 can be described as a standard wartime that is good and engaging but not exceptional film, Only The Brave falls under the exceptional category. However before giving my account of this film I watched the well trodden story of the Kennedy family in a new series on BBC 2, following on as it does from another new series on the History Channel. I watched waiting to see if anything new emerged and which had with it veracity. The series was to have been shown on the History Channel in he USA and Canada and was then dropped. It was then rejected by other channels in the USA until taken up by channels in the UK, Canada, Ireland and Australia.
I suspect I know the reason why the series is not being shown in the USA based on the first two episodes. The programme attempts to ,provide a rounded picture of the principal characters and most of all Joseph P Kennedy who advises his sons that it does not matter who you are but what the public think you are. He tells Jack on his wedding day the golden rule is to keep his infidelities out of the media and ensure the women keep their mouths shut. He offers to create a fund of $1 for Jackie if she does not divorce Jack and becomes the first Lady after he has got Jack the Presidency in 1960. She refuses the offer but agrees to stay.
The first two episodes switches between election day 1960 and the events beforehand from when the family lived in London where Joseph was the Ambassador planning to run for the Presidency against Roosevelt. His approach was to argue that Hitler could be trusted to keep his word about not attacking other countries once he had united the German peoples of Europe and that the USA should in effect mind its own business. Given the extent of his funding of the Party and standing he did not anticipate he would be sacked bringing his dream to an end. When Roosevelt required him to resign he switched his attention and money to making his eldest son the President. Joseph Junior is presented as being fully in favour of his prospective political career to the extent that he expressed resentment when John returns home a hero after his efforts to rescue and help the crew of his PT 109 to survive. The reason for the resentment is that he sees John’s public standing as affecting his candidacy for Congress after the war en route to the Presidency. Dad was more cynical saying that he had never met anyone that could not be bought.
Unscrupulous, vindictive, ruthless, uncompromising are all descriptions which accurately describe the man but he was never a hypocrite seeing himself and human behaviour as what it is in reality rather than what we would like it to be.
When John was missing after his ship had been rammed by the enemy the visit the local clergy who knowing of his agnosticism are puzzled by his visit, He wants them to pray for the safe return of his son adding that he has sinned so much in the past God will not listen to his prayers. When the news is given that Joseph junior has been killed in action he refuses to pray for the soul of his son even to console his suffering wife.
The programme states that John wanted to teach history at Harvard and chase girls but once father decided that he had achieve what he and the elder brother had not, there was no turning away despite his lack of interest and initial ability. The programme suggests that the turning point was addressing a meeting of mothers who had all lost sons in World War 11 and cast aside the prepared speech and spoke of the loss he and his family felt with the death of the eldest son. However because of the strength of the Italian vote and loyalty to a Congressional candidate of Italian background, Joseph has the master stroke of finding another Italian in the district with the same surname and meeting the costs of putting his name on ballot so to divide the voting through mistakes.
John’s philandering was so well known that when Jackie told her mother she was to marry, she did everything she could to persuade her against doing so forecasting the kind of marriage she would have. Jackie was determined that therefore must have cursed her poor judgement when after the marriage her husband appeared to take up every offer made to him and she wryly comments that she had hoped he would have thrown some back. The programme suggests that he even accepted an offer from a campaign intern on Election night and that Jackie became aware of the relationship as did Bobby. There is also the inference that Joseph’s wife was aware of her husband philandering including that with his personal assistant. There were two other indications of the reality of this family and their quest for power. Bobby felt that his job was well done in being his brother’s campaign organiser under the direction of their father and wanted to move is already large family to Boston to practice law. He explains his intentions to his father after the victory and it appears his father understands, will give full support and then embraces his son to show his appreciation. He later gives John the list of names for his first cabinet of state and this includes Bobby as the Attorney General because he is needed to watch John’s back. Similarly Jackie pregnant with her second child is excused a media interview on election day at John’s insistence and Bobby arranges for his wife to undertake the task, something she is very willing to do. Joseph disagrees and orders Jackie through Bobby and John because of the better image for the future President. I have to say that it can be said that history paid Joseph back in full for his ambition. I shall watch the remaining programmes to see what other truths are presented. It is noteworthy that from the scheduling that the series ends with the assassination of Bobby. Teddy appears to escape.
I now come to the to the third film about honour and integrity and which again illumines the rotten core of the USA in the past.
Only the Brave is a little known film about the 100th Infantry Battalion of 442 Regiment of the United States Army made up of 1000 second generation Japanese Americans, many of whose families were interned and some imprisoned following the attack by Japan on the Pacific Island base of Pearl Harbour. As with the Battalions of all black Americans they were often used by their all white masters to take on the most dangerous and bloody of assignments. The film concentrates on one of their last actions when heavily depleted through deaths and injuries on the campaign through Italy and into Germany they were called upon to break through superior German forces to rescue a small all white unit of less than 300 men. This they succeeded with continuing huge losses to themselves. The film is a fictionalised account of some of he lives of these men. It overlooks the increased prejudice and persecution which the survivors faced after the war despite the unit battalion receiving more honours than any other.
The facts are that 110000 individuals of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast were removed from their homes and work and placed in guarded camps. However back in Hawaii although martial law and curfew was imposed the 150000 of the 400000 population continued to live in their home and to work for the USA a decision which was governed by economics than security.
It is therefore not surprising that when the decision came to create a Regiment from Japanese Americans there were 10000 volunteers from the Islands and only 1500 from the mainland and of these some 3000 from the islands and 800 from the mainland were drafted. Because of the length of the campaign and level of casualties the initial force was replaced three and a half times
It was towards the end of the war in Europe that after only two days of resting the survivors of the campaign to date were selected to attempt the rescue of 275 white men cut off for more than a week surrounded by the enemy. 230 were rescued by the special combat and out 346 men who broke through the lines to open a corridor by which the white men could leave only 25 came back with them unhurt. Because of their service 21 Medal of honour were awarded, 560 Silver stars, 4000 Bronze starts and 9486 Purple Hearts. Only in 2010 was the Congressional medal of Honour awarded to the 442 Regimental Combat team and 100th Infantry Battalion. The reception of the survivors was typical of a country that had done its best tom exterminate the Native American and hen treated the black citizens with slave owning mentality until the 1960 and 70’s. There was resistance when Hawaii attempted to become a State of the union because recognition meant having a state where whiles were in the minority. It was the role of the Japanese Hawaiians in World War II which swayed opinion in favour, eventully.
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