Film review: Afghanistan, Messengers from a Dark Past (2007), by Hossein Sadre and Florence Gavage, *****

Synopsis
Having been ravaged by over twenty-five years of civil war and strife, Afghanistan has today lost nearly all that made up its rich cultural past, as well as the pride of its inhabitants, in the days when caravans trod across the Silk Route. Long before these dark years, the various Afghan clans had already seen internal conflicts caused by their geographic isolation and the resulting political and social weakness. The principle of “divide and rule” became very easy to apply to these peoples who had no thirst for conquest.

This documentary goes back to the very early periods in the history of Afghanistan and its most ancient inhabitants, some 2.000 years ago: The Hazaras.

Over the centuries, they were colonized and their identities gradually eroded. From Arab conquests to the rule of the British-backed Amir Abdul Rahman Khan in the 1870s, right up to the Taliban, who destroyed the Bamyian Buddhas with the help of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, a century of persecution, torture and humiliation finally subdued the Hazara people who were left without even a strand of hope.

You can view this film on Youtube by kind concession of the authors:

You can view Part 1/2 here:


You can view Part 2/2 here:

Recensione: La Quarta Sponda - La Guerra di Libia 1911-1912 (ed. 2007), di Sergio Romano, *****

Nascita e crescita dell'occupazione italiana in Libia

Sinossi

Considerata a lungo un episodio poco luminoso del nostro nazionalismo, la guerra italo-turca fu in realtà molto più complessa, e meno provinciale, di quanto possa sembrare. La vollero non solo i nazionalisti, ma anche i cattolici, buona parte dei democratici e persino alcuni socialisti. Per ragioni diverse suscitò consensi nella borghesia del Nord e fra i contadini del Sud. Giovanni Giolitti, allora primo ministro, la preparò forse controvoglia perché il Paese gliela chiedeva.

L'Italia che guardava alla "quarta sponda" come alla terra promessa andò alla conquista della Libia per ansia di riscatto, ma, attaccando l'impero ottomano, rischiava di riaccendere un braciere tutt'altro che spento, con focolai prossimi a nuove scintille (crisi marocchina e guerre balcaniche) e che sarebbe esploso, due anni dopo, nel primo conflitto mondiale.

Ho letto l'edizione del 2007 ma il libro è di esattamente 30 anni prima.


Recensione

L'Italia il primo paese ad effettuare un bombardamento aereo

Il libro è una descrizione puntuale degli avvenimenti che portarono alla conquista italiana della Libia, della campagna militare che ne seguì, e degli strascichi fino alla Grande Guerra, dove Italia e Turchia si ritrovarono di nuovo una contro l'altra. Il facile sbarco delle prime truppe, le alterne vicende dei combattimenti a terra, i negoziati di pace, il tutto viene trattato da Romano con la necessaria freddezza dello storico e con la meticolosità del ricercatore scrupoloso. Tantissimi i dettagli forniti, forse anche troppi da digerire per il lettore medio. Ma consola sapere che c'è tutto, o quasi, nel libro, che si legge con piacere ma serve anche da opera di riferimento cui tornare per rinfrescare la memoria.

Lettura piacevole ma che richiede un certo impegno e concentrazione, molto stimolante. Non molto utile invece il capitolo finale su Gheddafi, e destinato ad diventare obsoleto in breve tempo, al contrario del libro che probabilmente resterà valido nel tempo.

Utile anche un breve glossario alla fine, mentre come quasi sempre per i libri italiani manca un vero indice, c'è solo un indice dei nomi ed un sommario con titoli dei capitoli che comunque ne svelano il contenuto e facilitano la ricerca.

Recensione: Nagasaki Per Scelta o Per Forza, di Fred Olivi, ****

Fred Olivi in his B29

Sinossi

Oscurata per più di cinquant'anni dalla più nota missione dell'Enola Gay su Hiroshima e dalle poche e cattive informazioni diffuse e coperte da segreto militare, la missione del B29 Superfortress "Bockscar", compiuta il 9 agosto 1945 su Nagasaki, è rimasta fino a oggi quasi sconosciuta. Scritto dal copilota del "Bockscar", Luogotenente Colonnello Fred J. Olivi, italo-americano di prima generazione, "Nagasaki per scelta o per forza" rivela i veri dettagli legati alla Missione 16, le fasi segrete dell'addestramento e i dati sull'impiego di "Fat Man", la bomba atomica al plutonio tre volte più potente di quella all'uranio sganciata su Hiroshima pochi giorni prima.

Book Review: Decision At Nagasaki - The Mission That Almost Failed, by Fred Olivi ****

Review
When they decided to leave Italy to find a better future in America, in 1905, Fred Olivi's parents surely could not imagine that their son would become famous forty years later for dropping the most powerful weapon in history on the far away Japanese Empire! This is a personal history more than war history. The personal history of one of the many million Italians who contributed to make America for what it is, both in peacetime and at war. Fred joined the Air Force and on 9 August 1945 was assigned as copilot to the "Bockscar", the B-20 bomber that was to undertake the second nuclear bombing in history, three days after that of Hiroshima.

Book Review: Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World, by Tim Ecott, *****

Synopsis
A brilliant mix of vivid reportage, history and science. Historical diving bells, greek sponge divers, world war two frogmen and record-setting breath hold divers compete for space with misunderstood sharks, weeping turtles, smiling dolphins and erotically shaped sea slugs. From Ireland to Florida, Papua New Guinea to Vienna and the Bahamas to Seychelles, Neutral Buoyancy is travel writing of the most fascinating, readable kind; providing a window - or a view from a glass bottomed boat - on a rich, unfamiliar and unique destination. Travel writing of this quality makes Neutral Buoyancy a must for all armchair travellers, not just divers.

Book Review: Dear Mom, a Sniper's Vietnam, by Joseph T. Ward, ***

Synopsis
The letters Joseph Ward, one of the elite Marine Scout Snipers, wrote home reveal a side of the Vietnam war seldom seen. Whether under nigthly mortar attack in An Hoa, with a Marine company in the bullet-scarred jungle, on secret missions to Laos, or on dangerous two-man hunter-kills, Ward lived the war in a way few men did. And he fought the enemy as few men did--up close and personal.

Book Review: "Sideshow: Nixon, Kissinger and the Destruction of Cambodia", by W. Shawcross, ****

Synopsis
Although there are many books and films dealing with the Vietnam War, Sideshow tells the truth about America's secret and illegal war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973. William Shawcross interviewed hundreds of people of all nationalities, including cabinet ministers, military men, and civil servants, and extensively researched U.S. Government documents. This full-scale investigation—with material new to this edition—exposes how Kissinger and Nixon treated Cambodia as a sideshow. Although the president and his assistant claimed that a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia was necessary to eliminate North Vietnamese soldiers who were attacking American troops across the border, Shawcross maintains that the bombings only spread the conflict, but led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent massacre of a third of Cambodia's population.

Book review: Voices of S-21 (1999) by David Chandler, ****

Synopsys

The horrific torture and execution of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during the 1970s is one of the century's major human disasters. David Chandler, a world-renowned historian of Cambodia, examines the Khmer Rouge phenomenon by focusing on one of its key institutions, the secret prison outside Phnom Penh known by the code name "S-21." The facility was an interrogation center where more than 14,000 "enemies" were questioned, tortured, and made to confess to counterrevolutionary crimes. Fewer than a dozen prisoners left S-21 alive.

During the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) era, the existence of S-21 was known only to those inside it and a few high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials. When invading Vietnamese troops discovered the prison in 1979, murdered bodies lay strewn about and instruments of torture were still in place. An extensive archive containing photographs of victims, cadre notebooks, and DK publications was also found. Chandler utilizes evidence from the S-21 archive as well as materials that have surfaced elsewhere in Phnom Penh. He also interviews survivors of S-21 and former workers from the prison.

Documenting the violence and terror that took place within S-21 is only part of Chandler's story. Equally important is his attempt to understand what happened there in terms that might be useful to survivors, historians, and the rest of us. Chandler discusses the "culture of obedience" and its attendant dehumanization, citing parallels between the Khmer Rouge executions and the Moscow Show Trails of the 1930s, Nazi genocide, Indonesian massacres in 1965-66, the Argentine military's use of torture in the 1970s, and the recent mass killings in Bosnia and Rwanda. In each of these instances, Chandler shows how turning victims into "others" in a manner that was systematically devaluing and racialist made it easier to mistreat and kill them. More than a chronicle of Khmer Rouge barbarism, Voices from S-21 is also a judicious examination of the psychological dimensions of state-sponsored terrorism that conditions human beings to commit acts of unspeakable brutality.

Review

This book is a useful reference for raw data from some of the protagonists. It is not easy or pleasant reading, but it does constitute a useful addition to the library of anyone researching the Khmer Rouge.

Book Review: "First they killed my father", by Loung Ung, *****

Synopsis
An unforgettable narrative of war crimes and desperate actions from a childhood survivor of Cambodia's brutal Pol Pot regime.

4. - 11 AUG: Beyond Angkor: silk, coconut, miniatures and land mines

More Angkor

A second day at the ruins of Angkor and I begin to feel more comfortable in the company of the Khmer gods. The initial awe give room to avid curiosity about the individual pieces of art, the urban setting, the organization of that amazing ancient culture. Heat and humidity are merciless, but I am getting used to them...

Book Review: River of Time, by Jon Swain, *****

Synopsis

Between 1970 and 1975 Jon Swain, the English journalist portrayed in David Puttnam's film, "The Killing Fields", lived in the lands of the Mekong river. This is his account of those years, and the way in which the tumultuous events affected his perceptions of life and death as Europe never could. He also describes the beauty of the Mekong landscape - the villages along its banks, surrounded by mangoes, bananas and coconuts, and the exquisite women, the odours of opium, and the region's other face - that of violence and corruption.

He was in Phnom Penh just before the fall of the city to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975. He was captured and was going to be executed. His life was saved by Dith Pran, the New York Times interpreter, a story told by the film The Killing Fields. In Indo-China Swain formed a passionate love affair with a French-Vietnamese girl. The demands of a war correspondent ran roughshod over his personal life and the relationship ended.

Book Review: In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors (2001), by Doug Stanton, *****

Synopsis

The USS Indianapolis was the last ship sunk during the Second World War. Savaged by a salvo of torpedoes from a Japanese submarine, the warship, one of the fastest in the US Navy, sank in a matter of minutes. One thousand two hundred men went into the water, and only 321 were to survive. This is their story. On 30 July 1945 the Indianapolis was returning from the small island of Tinian, having delivered the components of the atom bomb ‘little boy’, which was to decimate Hiroshima and bring on the end of the war. As the torpedoes ripped into the side of the ship hundreds of men were killed. Those lucky enough to survive were to face extremes of physical and mental hardship in the water. Many were left to float in the ocean with little or no food or drinking water in deteriorating life jackets and, most chillingly of all, open to attacks by sharks...

Recensione: In Sudamerica, di Italo Moretti, ****

Sinossi
Dei fatti che hanno segnato la storia dei Paesi latinoamericani negli ultimi trent'anni si parla sempre più spesso, per la loro influenza sulla politica e la diplomazia europea dei giorni nostri - si pensi al caso Pinochet, o ai figli dei desaparecidos adottati dagli stessi carnefici dei genitori. Moretti ha seguito per la Rai le vicende di quei paesi (in particolare Cile e Argentina) dai primi anni '70. Nel suo saggio racconta quanto ha visto e vissuto, riportando brani inediti delle interviste ai protagonisti della storia sudamericana.

Dive n. 209: Kensho Maru, Chuuk Lagoon, 31m, 40'

Click on the drawing to enlarge

I did this dive alone with my guide Johnny, a local Chuukese who knows this wreck like the back of his hand. He takes me around the dark, silty bowels of the ship with unfailing dexterity. We visited the engine room, where all kinds of tools are still neatly hanging on their racks. The radio room is in great shape, the big apparatus still on its feet. Lots of plates and bowls lying around.

Tea cup in the Kensho maru

Immersione con Johnny, guida locale. Sono da solo, gli altri hanno preferito tornare sul Betty. Johnny conosce il relitto come le sue tasche, mi porta in giro nel buio con grande sicurezza. Andiamo in sala macchine, poi in sala trasmissioni, dove l'enorme apparato radio è ancora tutto intero. Molte suppellettili, coppette di ceramica, vasellame.

Buy this book on Operation Hailstone, the attack by American navy on Chuuk in February 1944.

Dive n. 207: Yamagiri, Chuuk Lagoon, 30m, 35'

Interessante elica di motore, e gli enormi proiettili da 18 pollici (46 cm) i più grandi mai costruiti e destinati alle corazzate Yamato e Musashi che stazionarono a Truk nel 1943.

18-inch shells

Artillery shells

Spare propeller

You can watch a video by Andrew Lee here

Dive n. 206: Fumizuki, Chuuk Lagoon, 33m, 35'

Fumizuki in 1926

Drawing by the Thorfinn yacht

Dive on the cruiser Fumizuki.

The Fumitsuki was a Mutsuki Class Destroyer built in 1926, 320ft/97m long with a gross tonnage of 1,913 tons normal, and 1,590 tons light after reconstruction. She was driven by 2-shaft Parsons geared turbines and 4 Kampon boilers. She could carry a complement of 150 officers and crew. She was one of only two real Japanese Navy combat ships sunk in Truk Lagoon.

She was capable of over 33.5 knots fully loaded, but was under repair at the time of her demise. The name translates as “the 7th month of the moon calendar when rice/flowers ripen.” Information from Trukwreckdiving.com

I can see the railway used to move equipment of the bridge and torpedo launchers.

Fumizuki evading attack during Operation Hailstone

Railway to move shells on ship

Torpedo launchers

Dive 203: Unkai Maru

Military transport ship built in Newcastle in 1905 and sold to a Japanese shipping company in 1921. Requisitioned by Imperial Japanese Navy for the war.

U.S. newspaper aboard from time Japan and U.S. were still neutral

Gas mask

American newspaper from California!

See this video by Rod MacDonald on the Unkai Maru

Dive n. 204: Rio de Janeiro Maru, Chuuk Lagoon, 33m, 40'

Drawing by the yacht Thorfinn

Interesting dive on the Rio de Janeiro Maru where I can photograph the hugh props and tons of bottles of sake.

Stay tuned for more pics as I scan them...

Dives n. 199, 200, 202: Nippo Maru, Chuuk Lagoon

Three memorable dives. I could see lots of artillery pieces by the stern, a tank by the bow, and the beautifully preserved pilothouse

Artillery piece

Command bridge

Tank

Dive n. 201: Sankisan Maru, Chuuk Lagoon, 23m, 54'

Click on the picture to view it in full size

Drawing by the Thorfinn

In this wreck of transport ship Sankisan I could see and photograph tons of truck tires, mountains of bullets and lots of airplane engines.

My pictures are being scanned... to be included soon!