Entries this day: AM_transcription Afternoon State_of_My_Life This_afternoon alan_nelson_speech_about_Vietnam finished_speech zzzz_extra_hour!

AM transcription

(transcribed 3:34pm JST Tuesday 24 May 2005)

2:00pm

Met the other Bulgarian girl who is super cute in the Topaz Dining Room today. Her name is Slavena. So it's Kremena and Slavena. Slavena told me how to say thankyou in Bulgarian, cause I said it in Russian and she was like, "that is Russian" and she told me I could say "blogodaria" in Bulgarian.

We're about to go to the second half of the GET meeting today.

2:17pm

The wind is blowing faster than the ship today, so the smoke is blowing forward. The waves are going just a bit faster than the ship. They aren't huge, but good decent size, like an order of magnitude bigger than what we see near Galveston; like 10 meter wave length and amplitude of a couple of meters.

Afternoon

3:42pm JST Tuesday 24 May 2005

We've finished our second GET meeting thing, preparing for the Orientation tomorrow plus GET interviews tomorrow and after Hong Kong.

Hitomi said HI to me as I walked past the internet enabled computers. She said access was really slow and I witnessed the computer logging off as she tried to run Gmail. Not sure what the issue was there.

State of My Life

3:45pm JST Tuesday 24 May 2005

State Of My Life Address

1. I don't know how long it's been since I've written one of these.

2. I never got to see Muscle Musical which was playing around the time we left. Shawn (maybe) said it was really good.

3. I'm on PB's 49th Global Voyage around the world; we have just gotten started: have seen Kobe so far, and tomorrow we'll be in Hong Kong.

4. We're having some nice gentle rolling today. I don't know how to quantify it, but they are big enough to feel and enjoy, but not so big that things are moving around on their own.

   The sky is overcast, but not dark, though there are a few dark spots of clouds around.

5. I haven't seen any 'wild animals.'

6. We have not met our students yet; we've been organizing ways to sort students and get them into useful classes. Similar levels, good class dynamics; that kinda thing.

7. I've met several peeps, but haven't had any rally-calibre conversations so far (we've been too busy). Close: with Annete Cox, a seminary something something who is looking at an overview of religions, not really getting *into* the religions. She's married to a guy named Alan Nelson, who is one of our guest speakers. Oh that reminds me I want to transcribe some of the notes I took in his lecture. There will be a lot of lectures.

8. My roommates are Shawn and Shinji (a CC). Shawn is really funny. I have a little bit of dirt that I bought and poured water on. No visible growth yet.

9. I'm using janette's quilt and Gail's jammie jams every night.

10. I've met Slavena and Kremena, but I can't instantly tell them apart yet.

    I learned how to say blogodaria today. "Thank you" in Bulgarian.

This afternoon

7:33pm JST Tuesday 24 May 2005

Got costumes for our GET Orientation tomorrow; we're doing a Fashion Show game show thing.

alan nelson speech about Vietnam

8:44pm JST Tuesday 24 May 2005

Sitting by 時子 (ときこ (call me "Toko")) from Saitama at Alan Nelson's lecture on the Vietnam war. Toko's English is really good. She asked me if I am a GOT teacher, and I'm like, "I'm a GET teacher, but after the voyage I will be a GOT teacher."

I'm on the perimeter of this lecture hall; I can't really see the video of war machinery destroying all in its path. Nightmare.

"You are writing everything?" asks Toko.

"Everything."

こんにちは

I'd like to start the lecture this evening with a song, and the song is Amazing Grace. This song is dedicated to all the human beings who have lost their lives in the Iraqi war. And this song is also dedicated to all the human beings who have lost their lives in wars in Africa. Millions of Africans have lost their lives.

I will do this song in African American gospel style.

One of the things I've done as an American, I have been travelling around Japan since 1996, and I have often wondered why there are still so many American military bases in Japan. And I think mainland Japanese think American military troops are here to protect Japanese. But the American soldiers and the American military bases are not here to protect Japanese people. The American military is here to control your government.

So here in Japan you do not really have a democracy; your government is really a puppet government. You do not really have a Prime Minister. The Prime Minister of Japan is really the Governor of Japan. You have a President. And your President's name is George W. Bush. And so when you're angry, it does no good to go to the Diet in Japan to protest; you have to go to Washington and protest with the rest of us Americans.

Japan is part of the new American Empire.

About 8 years ago I had the opportunity to visit the atomic bomb museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And when I visited the atomic bomb museums, I realized that my country, the United States of America is the king of terrorists. America has taught the whole world how to be terrorists. Because I realized when I went to the museums, that America dropped the bombs on women, children and elderly people.

America dropped nuclear bombs on hospitals, schools, and peoples' homes. So America is in no position to call anyone a terrorist. But then again America has a history of terrorist behavior. If you read the history books of America, it will tell you that the Europeans came to America and the first thing they did was slaughter millions of native americans and take their land.

And then after stealing the native american lands they went to Africa and kidnapped millions of my ancestors and for 400 years they used them as slaves. So America has a long history of terrorising people.

So it's very important for the mainland Japanese people to realize you are an occupied country. You're occupied the same way the Iraqi people are occupied, but the Iraqi peoepe are fighting for their freedom. You are paying for your occupation with your tax money.

So I think it's very important for you to know this because here in mainland Japan you don't see the occupation troops. But go and visit Okinawa, and if you talk to the Okinawan people, you will find they know you are occupied because all the American troops are stationed in Okinawa. I know that you know America is very rich and powerful, and America is very rich and very powerful. But if I could take all of you to America, I will show you the real America, the America of poverty.

I know here in Japan you are very aware of homeless men. In America not only do we have homeless men, but we have homeless women and children. They sleep in the streets and parks in America. I have traveled to many places in mainland Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa; I have crisscrossed your country. In Japan you do have poor areas, but you do not have the slums and ghettos that we have in America.

I was raised in the slums and ghettos in Brooklyn, New York. And in these communities there is always lots of violence and unemployement and alcoholism.

So in 1965 I dropped out of high school and I joined the United States Marine Corps. I was very happy and very proud to be a Marine. And I remember going home to tell my mother I had joined the United States Marine Corps, and I thought she would be very proud of me, and would be happy that she had one less mouth to feed, but she was very angry. She even sat down and started to cry.

But to me my mother just didn't understand that I was tired of being poor and the United States Marine Corps offered me many opportunities that my mother could not.

And this is something that I hope you remember. When you see the American military in Okinawa, and when you see the American military in Iraq, know that they do not come from the middle class of America. They come form the poor families. They come from the working class families. They come from the slums and ghettos. They come to the military because there are no other opportunities for them.

And it's the same thing for the Japanese Self Defense Force soldiers. The Japanese Self Defense Force soldiers do not come from the rich families in Japan. They come from the poor families in Japan. The rich and powerful: their children never join the military; their children travel the world and attend private universities around the world and never have to face the horrors of war.

Koizumi was quick to send other families' children to war, but not his own children. The Prime Minister of Japan: his son is very safe in Tokyo selling beer. It is always the poor chilren of every country that find themselves on the battlefields killing each other.

But I don't think that people really realize how brutal the training is to be a Marine. The first thing they teach you in the military on the very first day, they teach you to keep your mouth shut.

As educators, and as teachers, and as parents, I know you try very hard to get your students and your children to use their minds, but in the military there is no thinking. In the military they teach you every day you are not there to think. They tell you we will do the thinking and you will follow orders. In training you wake up very early in the morning, always before the sun has risen. and you run many miles and do a great amount of physical exercise.

You have to attend many classes, and in these classes they teach you how to take care of your weapons. You learn how to take care of your rifle, and how to take it apart and how to keep it clean. you learn how to throw hand grenades and how to use high explosives. And you attend a class called Hand to Hand combat, and in this class they teach you how to kill your enemies with your bare hands.

The governments in Japan and America love to call their soliders Peace Keepers, but in the military, you don't learn anything about peace. You only learn how to kill. If you visit any military base on Okinawa, you will see the soldiers are not reading books written by Mahatma Ghandi or Martin Luther King; they are reading books on war and how to kill their enemies.

There were over 40 men in my battalion and they were all between 18 and 19 years old. And during our training they would ask us what we wanted to do. We would say "kill" and they would say "I can't hear you," and we would shout "Kill!" and they would say "I can't hear you" and we would shout a the top of our voices "KILL" and then we would growl like lions. That is what it means to go into combat. You will kill and maybe you will die.

After my training was over in America, I was informed I was going to Vietnam war and I was very happy to know I was going to war. But on the way to Vietnam we stopped off on a little island off the coast a Japan. That island was called Okinawa. I was stationed at camp Hansen (sp). Camp Hansen is in Kentown (sp). During the day we would go into the mountains and practice war. This training was very different than what we used in America. We used live ammunition and helicopters. We were trained how to surround villages and not let the people escape.

Everything about the training in Okinawa was different. Even the targets we used to practice shooting our rifles changed in Okinawa.

In America, they tought us to shoot our rifles on a target that looked like this: (drawn bulls eye). This target is called the Bulls Eye Target. The idea of this target is to shoot the bullets into the middle of this target.

So I would like everyone in this audience to take your hand and aim and shoot at this target. At 200 meters away, your bullets will hit the target like this (scattered). But this is not good shooting, because they are all spread out on the target. So the miltiary teaches how to bring all the bullets to one part. This is called grouping. Then they teach you how to move the whole group to the bullseye.

And then when I got to Okinawa, the target changed. The new target looked like this: (human silouette). What is this shape supposed to be? Yes, it represents the image of a human being.

So once again take your hand and shoot this target. We are taught to shoot the bullseye, so where do you thnk we are going to shoot human beings? If you think in the head, please raise your hand.

(20%)

Shoulder? (1%) Arm? (1%) Leg? (10%) Heart? (60%)

Now at this point of the lecture we are going to talk about real war. In real war you cannot shoot at your enemy and miss. Because in real war the enemy doesn't know where you are until you shoot your weapon. And this is why the miltary soldiers wear camoflauge clothing. In the military they teach you to put bushes on your body so you blend into the environment. So in real war, if you shoot your enemy and miss, your enemy will kill you because they know where you are.

So all the people who think head please raise your hand. I'm very sorry to tell you that all of you are dead. The head is the smallest part of the body. And if you shoot at the head you will miss and the enemy will kill you.

Everyone who said leg, please raise your hand. All you people are dead also. The military does not teach you to wound the enemy. The miltary teach you to kill the enemy.

Everyone who said heart, please raise your hand. You people watch too many movies. The heart is a very small part of the body. Most people say heart and I know why you say heart. You say heart because you are very kind and merciful. Because if you shoot someone in the heart they will die instantly with no pain nor suffering. But real war is not about being kind and merciful. We Marines and other soldiers are trained to shoot here (groin). If you shoot here, your bullets will land here (stomach), and remember grouping so it's not one bullet, it's 5, 6, or 7 bullets in the middle of stomach.

You do not die instantly from this wound, and I saw many of my friends, 18 and 19 year old boys die from this wound in Vietnam. You last many hours screaming and crying before you die.

So you can take a look at this, and you can see that war is absolutely brutal. After my training was over in Okinawa, we finally shipped out the Vietnam; I was so excited that I could not seep at night. I was not afraid to go to war, because as a boy, I saw many movies about war. And in the movies there's always the handsome heroes. And in the movies, there is always beautiful music in the background. And in the movies the hero always killed his enemy with honor, face to face. And in the movies the handsome heroes always saves the women and children.

But I've spent 13 months in the jungles of Vietnam, and I've watched many Vietnamese soldiers die. And the first thing I learnd in the jungles of Vietnam was that real war is not what you see in the movies. In real war, there's no handsome hero. In real war, there is no beautiful music in the background. In real war, there is no honor. In real war, no one saves the women and children. In real war, women and children have to save themselves. And in real war you kill your enemy any way you can.

If your enemy is sleeping, you don't wake him up and let him get his gun. You kill your enemy while he is sleeping. If your enemy is eating, you don't wait for him to finish. You kill your enemy while he is eating. If your enemy is using the toilet, you don't wait for him to finish. You kill your enemy while he is at his toilet.

And the people who suffer the most in war is always the women, children and old people. When we attacked the villages, the men would would all grab their guns and run into the jungle. And the women would all grab their children and run into the jungle.

After we killed the men, we would go into the jungle to find where the women and children were hiding. It was always easy to find the women and children's hiding place, because after 3, 4, 5 days of no water and no rice the children would be screaming of hunger pains. So we would go deep into the jungle and stand still and listen, so we could go to the women and children's hiding place.

Old people are too old to run from machine guns and helicopters. Many of the old people are too old to keep up with the women and children. And I've seen the women and children wait and stop in the jungle and the old people would say "go on! go on! we will catch up," but we would find them in the jungle dead and dying alone.

Now these are the scenes that you will not see in the movies.

And these are the scenes you will not see on the evening news.

After we attack the villages, we have to clean up the battlefield, which means you have to gather up the dead people so you can count them. So we bring all the dead people into the village and we separate them all into piles. The men we throw into one pile. The women we throw into another pile. The children we throw into another pile. If the bodies are missing parts: heads, arms, or legs, you have to go find these parts and put them with the bodies.

When we attack the villages, there are two types of people who are left in the village, the dead and the dying. Many people who were dying would crawl out of the village into the jungle to die, and we Marines had to go into the jungle to find where they died. There are two ways of finding the dead people in the jungle. The first way is to go into the jungle, stand still and listen for the flies.

If you follow the sound of the flies, the flies will always lead you to dead bodies. The second way to find dead people is to go into the jungle and start smelling with your nose. Soon you will smell the smell of decomposing, rotting bodies.

The smell of decomposing, rotting bodies is so powerful it will make food jump out of your mouth. It will make your eyes water and your nose run. It will make your body weak. This is the smell I will never forget because this is the smell of war.

There are many good movies about war, movies such as Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, but these movies are not real war because in movies there is no smell. When people go to see movies, you buy popcorn and candy and soda. But if they could make a movie that smelled like real war, you would not be able to eat your popcorn and you would never go to see another war movie again.

The smell of real war is the smell of decomposing, rotting bodies. The smell of real war is the smell of burning bodies. It is the smell of blood and the smell of gunpowder.

After we find the women and children we bring them back to the village and they see the piles of dead bodies. And I've seen the little children run to the pile of dead women, and grab onto their loved ones, screaming and crying.

And I've seen the Vietnamese women pulling their children from the dead bodies, but the children would hold tight, refusing to let go of their dead mothers.

And the old people would go from pile to pile identifying their family members and they would collapse, wailing and crying, realizing there is no one left of their families.

Many people ask me what happened to me in Vietnam that opened my eyes to the horror of war. There are many things that I saw that no one should ever see, but there is one thing that really opened my eyes to the horror of war.

My Marine company was going through a village when we were attacked by Vietnamese soldiers. Many of my friends were wounded and many ran around looking for places of safety. I ran behind a Vietnamese persons house and I went down into their family bunker. The Vietnamese people always built bunkers behind their homes. This is where they would take their famlies when the Americans would begin to bomb their villages.

But once I got down inside the bunker, I ralized there was someone in there with me. It was a 15 or 16 year old Vietnamese girl. And I was surprised that when she looked into my face, she looked at me like I was a monster, but for some reason, even though she was terrified, she was unable to run away. I couldn't understand what was wrong with her. She was breathing very hard and in great pain, so I crawled over to her, and I realized she was naked from the waist down.

I couldn't understand what was wrong with her. She kept breathing hard, and I looked between her legs and I saw the head of a baby, but at the time I didn't realize it was a baby.

I didn't know what was happening to this girl or how to help her, because in the Marines they didn't teach me how to bring life into this world. In the Marines, they only taught me how to kill.

The girl started to push very hard, so I put my hands between her legs and to my shock and suprise a baby came out of her body and into my hands. The baby was covered with afterbirth and steam was rising from its body. The girl snatched her baby from my hands, she bit the umbilical cord with her teeth, wrapped the baby in black rags and ran into the jungle.

At first, I couldn't believe I had witnessed such a thing, but I looked at my hands and I still had the afterbirth from the baby. When I came out of the bunker, I was a different person. My friends kept asking me what was wrong, but I never told them about this girl and her baby.

For me this was a very important moment, because by seeing the baby being born, I realized the Vietnamese people were human beings. And this was very important because through all my training they never called the Vietnamese people human beings. They called the Vietnamese people 'gooks' and 'slant eyes,' and 'commnist,' and we began to believe they were not human.

And this is something that I hope you remember, because this is what all governments do. They dehumanize the humans they send their soldiers to kill.

During WW2, America dropped two nuclear bombs on two major cities in Jaapn: Nagasaki and Hiroshima. To the American soldiers, they were not dropping nuclear bombs on human beings; they were dropping nuclear bombs on 'Japs' and they were the same as rats: not human.

And during WW2, Japanese Imperial soldiers captured and killed many thousands of American and British soldiers, because to the Japanese Imperial soldiers, the American and British soldiers were not humans. They were devils.

And even today, the American military is calling people in Iraq 'sand monkeys,' not humans.

After seeing that baby being born, I went out of my way to make friends with the Vietnamese women. and children. And whenever the Vietnamese mothers would ask me for food, medicane, and blankets, I would steal these things from the American miltiary base and give it to the women and children.

But the Vietnam war is not the first time these things have happend on this planet. These things happen in every war on this planet. These things are happening right now. In places like Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Sudan, and many places in Europe. The things I have told you about happend on the little island of Okinawa. During WW2, the most horrifying land battle took place on the little island of Okinawa. Over 200,000 Okinawan people were killed: men women and children. And during the battle of Okinawa, Okinawan women gave birth to babies in caves, and along roads and river banks. This was the most horrifying time in the history of the Okinawan people. But for the Okinawan people, the war is not over yet, because the American military still occupies their island.

As you all reammber in 1995, there was a terrible rape of a 12 year old Okinawan girl by American military soldiers. But this was not the first time a young woman was raped in Okinawa. Thousands of young women have been raped, but most are unreported because of the shame factor.

Since the end of WW2, thousands of Okinawan people have been killed or cripped or injured beacuse of car accidents caused by the American solderis in Okinawa.

I am very worried about the children of Okinawa because they are surrounded every day by violence.

I have been coming to Okinawa since 1995; I have protested against the American military bases in Okinawa. I want all of the Americans to go home to America where they belong. As an American I want all the American military bases in Japan to be closed. WW2 is over and it is time for the end of the occupation in Japan.

When I came to Japan in 1996, a Japan peace activist gave me a copy of your constitution. When I read the Article Nine of your constituion, I couldn't believe what I was reading. I thought I was reading something written by Mahatma Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr. I thought only Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr could have written such a beautiful thing to live by.

The Article Nine of your constitution is more powerful than any nuclear weapon. The Article Nine of your constitution is more powerful than any army. As I look into the faces of your children, and into your faces, I see something beautiful; you don't know war, and this is the power of your Article Nine.

As I look into the faces of the young Japan students here, I realize their fathers have not gone to war. I realize their brothers and their uncles have not gone to war. That is the beauty of Article Nine, It has saved them from the misery of war.

It is important to realize that every major country knows war. My children in America know war. The British know war. The Germans, the Australians, the Chinese; all their children know war. But you don't know war. Article Nine has saved you from the suffering and the horror and the misery of war.

I wish that every nation on this planet had an Article Nine. The world needs Article Nine. but as you all know there are politicians in Japan working very hard to remove Article Nine from your constitution. And you must never let Article Nine be removed. Because the Article Nine of your constitution is not just important for the Japanese people. The Article Nine of your constitution is important for every human on the planet.

Article Nine has stood and protected you. Now it is time for you to stand and protect Article Nine.

And please remember that world peace does not start in America. And world peace does not start at the United Nations. And world peace does not start in Europe. World peace starts right here in this room with each and every one of us.

So I would like to thank the PB staff for organizing this lecture, and I would like to thank all of you for coming to listen to my story. Thank you.

(awesome clapping)

OK. Now, what we have to do is sing a song. I have to sing a song because I am still in Vietnam. And I think some of you are still in Vietnam.

Sometimes when slaves were able to escape, the slaves had to run away, but they had to forget everything about their past. So they would leave their pain by the riverside. So in this song, we say I am going to lay down my violence down by the riverside; I'm going to lay down my hatred down by the riverside. I ain't going to study war no more.

finished speech

10:03pm

Wow; I've basically done it. Though the typing went to total crap through most of it, I can read it and recover nearly every word. Because the whole thing was translated to Japanese, I had time after most sentences to catch up while typing.

Iwiasnthat eveyr aton on thi palnt hand an A9. the world needs A9. but as you all know there are politican in J woreknig very hard to remboe A9 from youer constintutin. and you must nver let the A9 be removed. b eause the A9 of your C is not just improatn for hte J popek the A9 of your C is imporatn for every huamn on you planet.

11:00am CST Wednesday 25 May 2005

Now I've just finished correcting the rest of his speech. I did the first half last night and the second half today.

zzzz extra hour!

12:36am JST Wednesday 25 May 2005

Yay! We get an extra hour! So actually

11:37pm CST Tuesday 24 May 2005

CST = China Standard Time, I guess.

I'm just(!) over halfway done correcting my transcription of Alan's lecture; I'm glad I was able to do it, and look forward to people going "ooooh aaaah" when I distribute it. I like that I can type pretty quickly.

I hope I'm this excited about all our extra hours on this voyage!

11:59pm

My GPS shows 842 kilometers to Hong Kong, and we're going 32 kilometers/hour.