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Mission Impossible Becoming a Reality

Everyone agreed that the best strategy was for the U.S. to unleash a surprise bomb attack on the major cities in Japan, but at first almost everyone thought that it was impossible.  Japan is so far away, and the U.S. did not have any significant air base near Japan where she could station her bombers that could fly to bomb Japan and then return safely to the base. [2]  Furthermore, the attack had to be a surprise attack; otherwise, it would be a useless suicide mission because the Japanese fighter planes and anti-aircraft guns could shoot down the American bombers before they could drop their bombs.  What about having the bombers take off from American aircraft carriers?  The first problem with that was that the required bombers normally used a 2,500 feet-runway for takeoff, and the carriers’ runway was less than 500 feet.  Furthermore, after the bombing attack, the bombers needed to land somewhere else, because it was not technically possible for these bomber planes to land on the deck of the carrier.  Another problem was that the carriers could not get too close to Japan, otherwise the Japanese fighter planes and the artillery from many Japanese naval ships near Japan could destroy the American carriers and their escorts. [3]   The Japanese’ defense perimeter was about 400-500 miles outside of Japan.  If the carriers could not get too close to Japan, then the bombers would require more fuel than the maximum fuel capacity of the bombers under their then design.

These were not trivial problems, and it took American ingenuity at its best to transform this mission impossible to reality.  The Doolittle Raid mission was under the command and leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, although the original idea of using longer-range bombers flown from aircraft carriers to bomb Japan came from Captain Francis S. Low, a staff member of Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations.  Colonel Doolittle was not just an ordinary pilot.  He was also a top-rate aeronautical engineer, with a Masters and Ph.D. degrees from MIT.  He was already famous as a record-setting long distance speed pilot, aviation engineering researcher, and a test pilot for the most advanced airplanes.  He was considered by the U.S. government to be too valuable to send to the front line during the early part of WWII, instead they kept him behind the front line as a fighter pilot instructor.   Since there was no nearby airfield for the bombers to take off, the mission had to originate from aircraft carriers.  So Doolittle and his team formulated and practiced new ways of takeoff from runways that were shorter than 500 feet.  To keep the mission a secret, the Doolittle Raid pilots never had a chance to practice taking off from an actual aircraft carrier, although during the planning stage other pilots had demonstrated its feasibility.  They investigated all the available bombers and chose the B-25.  They then made several modifications to the B-25′s design.  To make room for three additional fuel tanks to increase its fuel capacity from 646 to 1,141 gallons, the bomber’s armament was reduced and the 230-pound liaison radio was removed since radio silence was required during the mission.  Mounting steel blast plates on the belly of the fuselage was installed to protect the bombs from anti-aircraft guns.  Because the mission was considered to be extremely dangerous, they chose only volunteers, and people were volunteering without knowing what the mission was except that it was extremely dangerous.

Since it was technically impossible for the bombers to land on the decks of the carriers, the plan was for the bombers after dropping their bombs over Japan to fly to and land on airfields on the east coast of China.   The planners would have preferred for the bombers to land on the airfields of Vladivostok, on the east coast of the Soviet Union just north of Korea, which was several hundred miles closer, but the Soviet Union had just signed a neutrality pact with Japan in April 1941, thus ruling out this possibility.  To keep the mission a secret, besides Doolittle, all the other members of the bombing crews did not even know the target or nature of their mission until shortly before their mission, except that a few sub-team leaders were informed a few days before the rest of the mission team.  They were not allowed to discuss any aspect of their training with anyone, including their wives, and not even among themselves.  As a matter of fact, since it was April 1, 1942 when the bomber crews went on board the carrier USS Hornet, they thought that it might be an April Fool joke.  Even General Chiang Kai-shek, the head of the Chinese government, was not informed about this mission.  In retrospect, this decision is debatable, because many people, including General Claire Chennault of the U.S. thought that had the Chinese government and top U.S. military leaders in China been informed, they probably could have saved most if not all of the bombers, which were destined to go to Chongqing, the wartime capital of China, to become part of the U.S./China air force in China.

The plan was for the  task force [4] to initiate its mission when they reach about 400 miles from the coast of Japan.  However, at 07:38 on the morning of  April 18, 1942, while the task force was still about 600 miles from Japan, it was sighted by a Japanese sentinel boat which radioed an attack warning to Japan.  The U.S. command had to make a quick decision:  to cancel the mission, to continue to get closer to Japan before launching the mission, or to launch the mission then.  The last option was adopted.  After sinking the Japanese sentinel boat, the attacking mission began.  While still about 600 miles from Japan, the first bomber piloted by Doolittle took off from the carrier at 8:20 AM, and the other 15 bombers all took off within the next hour.  Because they flew off about 200 miles before their original departure point, it  meant that they might not have enough fuel to reach China.  Furthermore, because they departed in the morning instead of in the evening, it would be nighttime when the bombers reach the China coast, instead of the morning with daylight.  To reduce the probability of detection by Japanese radar, the bombers flew just above the water line and after reaching Japan just above the tree line.  Surprisingly, they encountered, relatively speaking, small amounts of anti-aircraft fire and even fewer Japanese fighter planes.  Apparently even with the warning from the sentinel boat of the sighting of the task force ships, either the Japanese government was still not expecting that bombers could have flown off the carriers and bomb Japan, or there was a breakdown of communication between the navy that provided an early alert of the presence of the American task force ships and the air defense officials for Tokyo and other cities.  As a matter of fact, upon seeing the bombers, many Japanese on the ground waved to them thinking that it was another practice mission by the Japanese air force.  All but one of the 16 bombers successfully dropped their bombs on 10 military and industrial targets in Tokyo, two in Yokohama and one each in Yokosuka, Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka. [5]

After dropping their bombs, all but one of the 16 bombers turned southwest to China’s Zhejiang Province where several airfields were supposed to be ready to guide them with homing beacons, then refuel them for continuing on to Chongqing. [6]  It was already night time and they encountered bad weather of rain and fog.  For some unknown reason, Vice Admiral William Halsey, commander of the USS Enterprise, did not send the planned signal to Washington to relay the signal to China to alert the ground people at these airfields to turn on the homing beacons.  Perhaps Admiral Halsey was concerned that any communication might be intercepted by the Japanese and therefore would create additional risks for the bombers and the accompanying naval task force.  The bombers did experience the luck of a tail wind after bombing Japan, thus significantly increasing their speed.  Otherwise they would have surely run out of fuel before reaching the coast of Zhejiang Province.  After flying for about 13 hours, the bombers reached the coast of Zhejiang Province as their fuel tanks registered zero or near zero.  Without any homing signals to find the landing fields and guide their landing and encountering bad weather and no fuel to search for the landing fields, the pilots of  all 15 planes either crash landed or bailed out on the coast of or within Zhejiang Province or its next-door Jiangxi Province.

Its Impact on the U.S.

After crashing his plane, Doolittle knew that all his team’s other planes would have faced the same fate.  Because these planes were destined to go to Chongqing to become part of the U.S./China’s air force in China, he thought that his mission had failed, and that he would be court martialed.

Two crew members from two bombers drowned after the crash landing of their aircrafts, and the other eight were captured by the Japanese occupying army.  They were trialed in Shanghai, and three of them (the two pilots and a gunner) were sentenced to a death sentence and were executed on October 14, 1942.  The remaining five were imprisoned first in Shanghai and then in Nanking under extremely harsh conditions, and one of them died.  Later they received slightly better treatment and were even given a copy of the Bible and several other books to read.  They remained as captives until they were freed by American troops in August 1945.  One of these captives, Corporal Jacob DeShazer eventually became a missionary and returned to Japan in 1948, where he served in that capacity for over 30 years.  His biggest accomplishment was probably in 1950 when he converted Mitsuo Fuchida to Christianity; Fuchida was the leader of the first air wave attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.   DeShazer passed away on March 15, 2008.  An elderly woman missionary (who had since passed away) of my church was a classmate of DeShazer at the Pacific Bible College in Seattle.

Only one other man from another bomber died, while bailing out.  All together, only seven out of 80 died directly from the mission.

Even after the bombing, since the American crewmen were still in danger of being captured or killed by the Japanese occupying army in China,  this mission was not immediately made known to the American public.  Later with the help of the local Chinese and Chinese military, all the remaining 64 men (7 were killed, 5 were interned in the Soviet Union, and 4 were Japanese prisoners) of the total bombing team of 80 crewmen escaped from the hunt of the Japanese occupying army and were transported safely to Chongqing.

Even though the actual damage on the Japan targets were relatively minor, the Doolittle Raid had a tremendous impact on the morale of the American people.  It exhibited the spirit that America can strike back.  It signaled to Japan that their own country was not a safe haven.  This was part of the reason that shortly after the Doolittle Raid, Japan decided to launch a massive naval battle to try to capture the Midway Island near Hawaii.  They thought that if they could deal another major blow to the U.S.’s naval forces and captured the Midway Island, then the U.S. would be less likely to have the capability to launch more attacks on Japan, and Japan could also launch additional attacks on Hawaii and perhaps even the U.S. mainland.  As we know, the U.S. won the Battle of Midway in a major way, and that was clearly the turning point from a military naval point of view of the Second World War with Japan.

Just the opposite of Doolittle’s immediate assessment of the Doolittle Raid, President Roosevelt and the American military thought so highly of the Doolittle Raid and Doolittle’s leadership during the planning and execution of the whole mission that one day after his Tokyo raid, he was promoted two grades to Brigadier General, skipping past the grade of full colonel.  About a month later, he also received from President Roosevelt the Medal of Honor, the U.S.’s highest military decoration.  All 80 members of the Doolittle Raid received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Its Impact on China

All of the 15 bombers that went to China (minus the one that went to Vladivostok, Soviet Union) crashed in either Zhejiang Province or the next-door province of Jiangxi.  Some crews landed with the crash and some parachuted before the crash.  The noises from the crashes brought the local Chinese to the crash sites.  Almost immediately, the local Chinese either found American crewmen or the American crewmen found the local Chinese.  After some initial hesitancy and after establishing that these were Americans [7], the local Chinese risked their own lives to help the Americans from being captured by the Japanese occupying army.  For example, a 19-year-old young Chinese woman by the name of Zhao Xiao Bao who was a recent newlywed found four members of one crew, and invited them to her house.  She and her husband gave them clothes and food and a warm fire.  Doolittle found a local house and knocked on the door while saying the only Chinese phrase he knew “I am an American.”  But the Chinese didn’t understand him and turned off all the lights and locked the house even more securely.  Only later using some other means did Doolittle gain the confidence of the Chinese to open their doors to him.  The mission’s only medical doctor was separated from his medical bag when their plane crash landed.  He never found his medical bag, and he regretted that very much, because inside that bag was some medicine that could have stablilized the serious injury to another crew member’s foot that resulted in the foot’s amputation.

The Japanese were actively looking for these Americans as well as the Chinese who were helping the Americans.  So the Chinese had to quickly relocate the Americans to safer sanctuaries.  When Zhao Xiao Bao was relocating the Americans she saved, she saw that in a nearby town, the Japanese had already burned to death all the Chinese in that town who had provided help to the Americans.  However, that didn’t stop Zhao Xiao Bao from continuing her compassionate humanitarian effort.

Because these American crewmen had bombed their country, the Japanese government was especially angry at the Chinese who were helping these Americans from being captured.  Japan sent a large number of army units into Zhejiang Province, and launched more than six hundred air raids to cover the advancing army.  They unleashed a reign of terror, committing massacre after massacre of entire villages where the villagers (sometimes including American missionaries) had provided or suspected of providing shelter and helped the American crewmen to escape.  This was reflected in one of the urgent cables sent by General Chiang Kai-shek to Washington that stated “These Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman and child in those areas — let me repeat — these Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman and child in those areas.”  Those little gifts that the American crewmen gave to the local Chinese as token gifts for their rescue and hospitality, such as the parachutes, gloves, nickels, and dimes, would a few weeks later became the telltale evidence of their presence and led to the torture and death of their Chinese friends.

The Japanese’ vengeance was applied in a blanket manner, and did not consider whether the people they were killing had actually played any role in helping the American crewmen.  For example, the Reverend Charles L. Meeus, a Belgian-born missionary living in China wrote to his Bishop “… They threw hundreds of people to the bottom of their wells to drown there.  They destroyed all the American missions in the vicinity (29 out of 31); they desecrated the graves of all these missionaries; they destroyed the ancestor tablets in the various villages they went through.  Cannibalism is the only terror they spared the Chinese people of Jiangxi.”  In following the trail of revenge by the Japanese, Meeus estimated the number of murdered Chinese to be 25,000 just in the towns he passed through.

In addition, the Japanese military on numerous occasions in many parts of China also unleashed biological weapons of mass destruction.  These weapons included anthrax, glanders, bubonic plague, and cholera.  Two American medical doctors, Professor Michael Flanzblau and Dr. Martin Furmanski (who is also a medical historian), have studied and interviewed dozens of victims of germ warfare in Zhejiang Province.   Based on the results of their study, Dr. Furmanski has published a paper  “An Investigation of the Afflicted Area of Anthrax and Glanders Attacks by Japanese Aggressors.” [8]  Here is a paragraph from this paper:

“We reached the villages and began interviewing the survivors of the 1942 Japanese invasion, and time and again we heard the same account.  The population of most villages had fled to the countryside or hills when the Japanese approached because of the terrible atrocities they knew would occur if they remained.  There were hardships while they hid from the Japanese, but the massive epidemics did not begin until the Japanese left and the Chinese returned to their villages.  Then a wide variety of diseases occurred:  fevers, diarrheas, rashes, and the first cases of rotten leg.  The mortality was terrible:  many families lost at least one member, and sometimes entire families were wiped out.  Entire villages were depopulated.”

What the Japanese did before they left these villages, as documented from Japanese confessions, was to intentionally contaminate the drinking water wells and washing ponds and rice fields, and left contaminated foodstuffs for the hungry returning villagers. [9]

To get a larger photo, click on the above photo.

Besides biological weapons, there are still many abandoned chemical weapons in China (as many as hundreds of thousands of poison gas weapons) that were buried underground or dumped into rivers.  Many have started to leak and led to civilian deaths and injuries.  The United Nations’ Chemical Weapons Convention requires Japan to retrieve and dispose of these weapons, but the task is still far from being completed.

In spite of the massive and tragic inhumane atrocities of how Japan carried out its biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, including carrying out research and experimenting its use on living human captives, it is sad to point out that the top Japanese military leaders, scientists, and doctors of their biological/chemical warfare laboratories/factories, such as Unit 731 in Harbin, China, were never trialed.  In his paper, Dr. Furmanski wrote “The Japanese biological attacks were quickly forgotten after the Japanese surrender.  In a disgraceful agreement with the Japanese biological weapons war criminals, the U.S. offered immunity from war crimes prosecution in exchange for the scientific data the Japanese had collected from murdering Chinese citizens, as well as citizens of other countries, both in their laboratories and in field applications.  The official U.S. and Japanese policy became one of denying the existence of the Japanese biological weapons program.”

The local Chinese knew about the deadly vengeance that the Japanese occupying army could and would inflict on them.  Yet, to their credit they were willing to risk their lives to lend a helping hand to the American crewmen who had risked their lives to bomb Japan and crash-landed in their region.  For helping the Americans who had bombed Japan to escape from being captured by the Japanese occupying army, the Chinese people suffered greatly, to the tune of 250,000 killed in this geographical region from the vengeance that the Japanese  inflicted on them.  These American crewmen never forgot the bravery and sacrifices of the Chinese people.  Several of these Chinese helpers, including Zhao Xiao Bao, were invited to the 50th Anniversary of the Doolittle Reunion in 1992 in South Carolina as a token of appreciation for saving their lives.  It is especially important to recall this historic great friendship between the American people and the Chinese people in light of the current antagonistic stand toward China of many American politicians and the mass media.

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[1] For example, success against the Americans in Wake Island and the Philippines, against the British in Penang, Malaysia, and against the Dutch in Borneo and New Guinea, Indonesia.

[2] Remember that in late 1941 and early 1942, most of the coastal provinces of China were at least partially occupied and controlled by Japan, and the Soviet Union had signed a neutrality pact with Japan which would have forbidden the Soviet Union to allow such use by American bombers.

[3] As a matter of fact, after the take-off of the bombers, the carriers and their naval escorts had to move away from Japan to avoid being attacked and destroyed by the Japanese air and naval powers.

[4] The task force consisted of the carrier USS Hornet which housed the 16 B-25 bombers and their crews of five persons each (pilot, co-pilot, bombardier-navigator, radio operator, and gunner-mechanic), the carrier USS Enterprise with its fighter planes, and 14 other escort ships to provide fighter plane and artillery protection for the USS Hornet and the B-25 bombers.

[5] One bomber jettisoned its bombs before reaching its target when it came under attack by fighter planes after its gun turret malfunctioned.

[6] Zhejiang Province is located on the south-central part of the east coast of China.  Airfields farther north and closer to Japan were already under Japanese occupation.  One of the bombers was extremely low on fuel and landed near Vladivostok where the plane was confiscated and the crew interned.

[7] For example, a crew member would draw a picture of the flag of the Republic of China.

[8] This article is a collection of many articles in the book “Blood-Weeping Accusations:  Records of Anthrax Victims,” 2005.

[9] For more description of Japan’s biological weapons, see the article “Japan’s Biological and Chemical Warfare in China during WWII“.

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To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, Brookdale Community College (BCC)’s Center for WWII Studies & Conflict Resolution is sponsoring a program “America Strikes Back – The Doolittle Raid, April 1942.”  The program is on April 17, 2012, starting at 7:00 PM, at BCC’s Student Life Center.  This event is co-sponsored by the “New Jersey Alliance for Learning & Preserving the History of WWII in Asia” (NJ-ALPHA), which will have a photo exhibit of WWII in Asia.  BCC charges admission of $12 for adults and $5 for students, with free admission to BCC students/staff and NJ-ALPHA members.

Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system.  It belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders, which are the result of the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells.  Dopamine is a chemical released by nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells.  The four primary symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are (1) tremor, or trembling in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face; (2) rigidity, or stiffness of the limbs and trunk; (3) bradykinesia, or slowness of movement; and (4) postural instability, or impaired balance and coordination. As these symptoms become more pronounced, patients may have difficulty walking, talking, or completing other simple tasks.  At advanced stages, cognitive and  behavioural problems and dementia may arise.

This recent study conducted a randomized, controlled trial of 195 patients with stage 1 to 4 affliction with Parkinson’s disease. [3]  These 195 patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups:  Taiji, resistance training, or stretching.  The patients participated in 60-minute exercise sessions twice weekly for 24 weeks.  At the end of 24 weeks, they were given several Parkinson’s disease-related standardized tests to measure various parameters related to strength, movement control, balance, stride length and reach, and number of falls.

The Taiji group performed consistently better than the stretching group in all the above measurements of strength, movement control, balance, stride length and reach, and number of falls.   The Taiji group also outperformed the resistance-training group in the measurements of strength, movement control, balance, stride length and reach, and about the same in the number of falls.  Furthermore, the benefits of Taiji training were maintained at three months after the 6-month study, and no serious adverse effects were observed.  The improvements were statistically significant.

These research findings show that the quality of life of Parkinson disease patients can be improved, because people with Parkinson disease often lose the ability to maintain standing balance and have difficulty walking and are at risk for frequent falls.  Furthermore, current medications do not work well to relieve impaired balance or postural instability, besides having negative side effects, although medications can relieve some symptoms of Parkinson’s disease like tremors.

This study did not offer any explanation on why Taiji can have these positive impacts on Parkinson’s disease.  The cause of Parkinson’s disease is due to insufficient dopamine-generating cells in the midbrain, and the cause of this loss is not known.  Although we do not know how and if practicing Taiji can overcome this chemical problem, we do know that practicing Taiji can give rise to physiological results that can enhance bodily motions.  For example, we know that Taiji exercises and many of the warm-up exercises for Taiji classes can increase the strength and flexibility of the legs, thus increasing the reach and control of the legs and also reducing the probability of falls.  The emphasis in Taiji on waist rotation can increase bodily flexibility and reach.  Taiji movements emphasize proper placements of the feet (e.g., there should be one shoulder-width separation in the transverse direction between the left leg and the right leg, thus increasing the stability and balance.  Taiji’s emphasis on relaxing the whole body can reduce stress and allow the muscles to function efficiently and with increased strength.  Finally, the overall improvement of health from practicing Taiji should also result in some positive implications in various tests of strength, range and flexibility of motion.  Therefore, even though currently we do not know if practicing Taiji can reduce the lost of dopamine-generating cells or perhaps even increase the regeneration of such cells, we do understand that some of the physiological benefits from practicing Taiji could improve the results of tests to measure Parkinson’s disease.

This recent study and many of the other studies during the last 20 years usually involved only a few dozen to a few hundred people.  These studies must be repeated by many other groups and involving an order or two orders of magnitude larger.  Personally, I believe that 20-30 years from now, we will have a strong confirmation of these indications of the positive health benefits of Taiji, and more importantly we will have a better understanding and explanation on why Taiji can lead to these health benefits.

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[1] Taiji is also written as Tai Chi.  For reviews of the health benefits of Taiji, see “Health Benefits of Taiji” and “A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi“.

[2] Fuzhong Li, Ph.D., Peter Harmer, Ph.D., M.P.H., Kathleen Fitzgerald, M.D., Elizabeth Eckstrom, M.D., M.P.H., Ronald Stock, M.D., Johnny Galver, P.T., Gianni Maddalozzo, Ph.D., and Sara S. Batya, M.D.  N Engl J Med 2012; 366:511-519, February 9, 2012.  See “Tai Chi Benefits Patients with Parkinson’s“.

[3] Out of five stages.  The higher the stage the more serious is the problem.

Early Existence,  Byzantium, and the Roman Empire

Istanbul today is a megacity with over 13 million people, or about 18% of Turkey’s population of 73 million.  It is the largest city in Turkey, and is the cultural, economic, and financial center of Turkey.  How did this metropolis come into existence?

Even though there were people living in this area for many centuries, Istanbul came into existence as a city around the 7^th Century B.C.E. [1] when a large number of Greek colonists moved there.  These Greek colonists were led by King Byzas, who named the city Byzantium after himself.

A few centuries later, Rome grew and established the Roman Empire in the first century B.C.E.  As the Roman Empire expanded, its tenacles naturally also reached the strategically located city of Byzantium (see map on the strategic location of Byzantium with respect to Asia, Europe, and Africa; zoom out 4-5 clicks to see a larger geographical area), and Byzantium officially became part of the Roman Empire in A.D. 73.  The city also transformed from mostly Greek to a mixture of Greek and Latin in language and culture.  Even though the city was known as Byzantium, it was actually associated with the Roman Empire, and not with the later Byzantine Empire as discussed next.

Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire

The capital of the Roman Empire was usually Rome, but sometimes also in other cities.  As a matter of fact, in the 3rd century A.D., the Roman Empire was often ruled by four emperors (tetraarchy).  However, in 324 A.D., after defeating his rivals, Constantine the Great (272-337) became the sole emperor of the whole Roman Empire.  Constantine liked Byzantium so much that he set up two capitals for the Roman Empire, with Rome being the capital of the Western Roman Empire and Byzantium, which he called the “New Rome,” as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.   However, his people honored him and called Byzantium “Constantinople.”

In 313 (before he became the ruler of the whole Roman Empire), Constantine, the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, and Licinius, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire agreed and issued the Edict of Milan that proclaimed religious tolerance in the Roman Empire.  This stopped the persecution of Christians (as well as believers of other faiths) and also returned confiscated Christian church properties.

Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 and was the first Christian Roman Emperor.  To honor the Roman Empire’s new religion, a large cathedral was built in 360, and this cathedral in its third version is called Hagia Sophia, or the Church of the Holy Wisdom. The original church was destroyed by fire from rioters in 404, and the second church built on this site in 415 was also destroyed by fire from rioters in 532.  The current magnificent structure was built in 537.  It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, and is famous for its massive dome.  It is considered to be the epitome of Byzantine architecture and sometimes referred to as the building that changed the history of architecture.  It was designed by the Greek physicist Isidore of Miletus and the Greek mathematician Anthemius of Tralles.  Hagia Sophia served as the main Eastern Orthodox Christian church of the Byzantine Empire.

The four minarets (vertical spires) were added during the Ottoman Empire when Hagia Sophia was changed from a Christian cathedral to an Islamic mosque.  Click on the picture to get a full-size picture.

The Western Roman Empire declined and its emperor was deposed by German mercenaries in 476, thus ending the Western Roman Empire.  However, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to flourish for another thousand years until 1453.  Since the Eastern Roman Empire was more Greek in language and culture from that of the Western Roman Empire which was more Latin, the Eastern Roman Empire is known as the Byzantine Empire.

Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire

The Byzantine Empire had a long history of over 1100 years (324-1453).  However, Constantinople began to decline after the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204).  During its last 200-plus years, the Byzantine Empire often flip-flopped between decline and progress.  Finally in 1453, it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks (nomadic tribes from Central Asia), led by Sultan Mehmed II.  Almost immediately Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the capital name was changed from Constantinople to Istanbul.

With the conquer of Constantinople, the Ottoman Turks changed from a nomadic horde to the heirs of the most ancient surviving empire of Europe.  Their success was due partly to the weakness and disunity of their adversaries, and partly to their excellent and far superior military organization.  The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history.  At the height of its power under the reign (1520-1566) of Suleiman the Magnificent, the empire was one of the most powerful states in the world.

Great changes occurred as the Byzantine Empire became the Ottoman Empire.  Religion changed from Christianity to Islam.  Language and culture changed from Greek to Turkish.  To have a symbolic representation of the new Islamic religion that could rival and even surpass the Christian cathedral Hagia Sophia in grandeur and beauty, Sultan Ahmet I in 1616 built the Blue Mosque.  The Blue Mosque aims to overwhelm you with its size, majesty, and splendor.  It is the largest mosque in Istanbul, and gets its name from the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior.  It has 8 domes and 6 minarets.  A minaret is a tall spire that provides a visual focal point and is used for the call to prayer.  Building 6 minarets at the time of construction had its controversy, as only the mosque in the Moslem holy city of Mecca had 6 minarets.  All other mosques should have fewer minarets.  This controversy was later solved by adding a 7th minaret to the Mecca mosque.

The Ottoman Empire lasted until 1923.  When the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Allies in WWI, Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kernal Ataturk successfully waged a war of independence against the Allies, culminating in the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923.

In conclusion, Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul is a beautiful and fascinating city.  It has a gigantic harbor, beautiful sceneries,  magnificent architectures, and a rich history at a location that is probably the most strategic location in the world.

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[1] B.C.E. stands for “Before Common Era,” or “Before Christian Era,” and is also known as B.C. (Before Christ)

First, I want to point out that there are two polarizing camps in assessing China.  One camp thinks that China is a completely dictatorial country that internally treats its citizens with disdain and callousness, and externally treats its neighbors and other countries with aggression and unfairness.  Another camp thinks that China’s various shortcomings are just minor transitional problems from a country transforming itself from a semi-feudal rural society to a modernized industrialized society.  I first discuss the assessment of these two camps which I loosely called the “Essentially Totally Negative Camp” and the “Essentially Totally Positive Camp,” and then discuss the major problems that China must address and overcome if it wants to become a rich and powerful country.

“Essentially Totally Negative Camp”: This camp depicts China as a country with a government that ignores the needs and wishes of its citizens, with the welfare of its people far from the minds of the leaders making the decisions.  The reality is that China before 1949 was even backward compared with other Asian countries and was known as the “Sick Man of Asia.”  Since 1949 it has achieved not only national unity and independence, but during the last 60+ years it has achieved the highest rate of growth of any major economy in the world.  Furthermore, this progress was not made in just the last 30 years.  For example, the life expectancy of its people was already raised from 35 years in 1949 to 68 years in 1980 [1].   In addition, in spite of major mistakes such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, it was during the first 30 years that the essential foundation of China’s industrial revolution was laid.  Land reform, introduced shortly after the 1949 revolution, eliminated the thousand-year gentry-landlord ruling class.  This not only provided land to the poor rural population, it laid the foundation to channel the agrarian surplus (i.e., the fruits of labor of the rural population) to financing state-sponsored industrialization. [2]

This camp also depicts China to have invaded Tibet and destroyed the livelihood of a minority.  The reality is that Tibet has been part of China since the Yuan Dynasty more than 700 years ago, and Tibet before 1949 was a theocratic, semi-feudal, and semi-slave society in which the very small ruling class of landlords and religious leaders (who were also the largest landlords) ruled over the very large class of serfs and slaves, with essentially little educational opportunity for the overwhelming majority of the people.  Furthermore, it is a well-documented historical fact that many Dalai Lama’s or Dalai Lama candidates died at a very young age due to poisons or outright murders by other scheming, power-hungry, competing religious leaders.  These were the types of religious leaders of the “Shangri-La” society often depicted as pre-1949 Tibet by Western movie stars, media, and government leaders.  The reality is that Tibetans are no longer serfs or slaves to the landowners and religious leaders; their life expectancy has more than double; they have much better healthcare, educational, and job opportunities. [3]  It is important to remind ourselves of the United Nations’ 1948 “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” that proclaimed that all people were entitled to enjoy a decent standard of living, have access to adequate medical care, and have an opportunity for a proper education.

Externally this camp depicts China as manipulative in its currency policy and blames the U.S.’s economic problems on the trade balance between the two countries.  In reality, the U.S. is a capitalist society, and capitalism seeks to maximize its profits.  If it can accomplish that by going oversea to manufacture due to lower cost, then that is the capitalist road.  Furthermore, it is very misleading to conclude that because a lot of the American consumer products are made in China, it is therefore losing a lot of jobs to China.  What one neglects to say is that many of the components that go into the products being assembled in China came from many other countries, including the U.S., and the profits from the large differences between the retail price and the wholesale import price create jobs for Americans and end up in the pockets of American companies. [5]  Furthermore, for a product like Apple’s iPhone, it is selling like hotcakes to the Chinese in China even though its price in China is $625 US (as compared to $500 in the U.S.).  However, because the iPhone is manufactured (i.e., assembled) in China, selling the iPhone to the Chinese in China is not considered as export from the U.S. to China.  If doing the trade deficit calculation properly, then one could get a much different picture of the trade deficit issue, and in some cases the trade deficit could even become a trade surplus for the U.S. relative to China! [6]  This camp also neglects to say that by constantly printing more money, the U.S. government is essentially reducing the debt that it owes China.  Instead of trying to address the root causes of the U.S.’s economic problems, it uses China as a scapegoat.

This camp also depicts China as a super aggressive country who wants to dominate and seize territories from its neighboring countries.  The reality is that China has not shown any actions in any way similar to the imperialistic aggressions that many, many foreign powers have inflicted on China for the past 170 years ever since the First Opium War in 1840.  With respect to disputes over territorial sovereignty on various islands in the Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia, invariably China  has good arguments to support its claims that historically these have been Chinese territories, but often due to China being weak for so long and due to interference from foreign imperialistic powers, it has left some of these territorial disputes unsettled. [4]

It is unfortunate not only for China, but for the long-term welfare of the U.S. and for world peace, that the U.S. mass media and government leaders have consistently, and more so recently, been  firmly in this Essentially Totally Negative Camp, and have adopted a very antagonistic and confrontational attitude toward China.  There is no reason to believe that the U.S. mass media and government leaders do not know better, they purposely adopt this political expediancy to deflect the public’s attention from their failed policies to using China as a scapegoat.

“Essentially Totally Positive Camp”: This camp is just the opposite of the Essentially Totally Negative Camp.  When people point out about some of the bad things that have happened or are happening now in China, this camp’s advocates would invariably say that that is just a growing pain or transitional problem from China transforming itself from a semi-feudal, rural society to a modernized, industrialized society, and these problems will go away with time.  For example:

• If you point out the growing gaps between the rich and the poor, this camp’s supporters would say that because China is at the initial stages of industrialization, so the pace setters are bound to reap more profits, and as industrialization becomes more widespread, then more and more people will share in the profits and the rich-poor gap will diminish.
• If you point out the poor customer service attitude of the workers in various government agencies and the enormous bureaucratic red tape and corruption that people have to endure, this camp’s supporters would say that with more education and when the older workers are replaced by future generations of workers, then these problems will improve.
• If you point out that it is essentially impossible to fight the governing structure dominated by the Communist Part at all levels even when the people or office in power is wrong, this camp’s supporters would say that with the proliferation of the web, people can gather mass support to apply pressure to the people or office in power.
• If you point out that often the laws are not clearly stated or they are not strictly enforced so that the decisions are often at the discretion of the people in power, then this camp’s supporters would say that the move to a more legalistic society takes time and it will come.
• If you point out that there is no freedom to choose where you want to live or work, this camp’s supporters would say that an individual’s welfare must be secondary to the welfare of the society as a whole.
• If you point out the inefficiency of a governing unit and there is no mechanism for you to try to change that without suffering a severe backlash for your criticism and action, this camp’s supporters would say that the system will evolve and improve with time.
• If you point out the large environmental pollutions emanating from factories, towns, and industries, this camp’s supporters would say that as industrialization matures and as people’s environmental awareness increases, then the environmental pollution problems will be reduced.

No matter what you say, even if the problems are many and large, this camp’s supporters would always have excuses to minimize the problems, and claim that the problems are just growing pain or transitional problems, and the problems will diminish with time.  Although often there is some validity to their explanations, they would not admit that some of the problems may be fundamental, and these problems will not go away until some significant and fundamental changes are made.

Major Problems That China Must Address: Personally I think both the Essentially Totally Negative Camp and the Essentially Totally Positive Camp are wrong.  The supporters of the Essentially Totally Negative Camp are either being blindly led, or are purposely distorting the facts due to an ulterior motive to deflect people’s attention from our current failed policies to a policy of using China as a scapegoat.  The supporters of the Essentially Totally Positive Camp are too simplistic and idealistic so they have a tendency to just dismiss the problems.  Although people usually can not be identified to be associated purely with one camp or another, the above categorization does have a lot of truth and can help to understand the issue at hand.

I believe that China has made enormous strides since 1949.  It has achieved national unity and independence which it was not able to accomplish for over a hundred years.  It has transformed China from a semi-feudal society toward a modern industrialized society.  It has changed China from being “The Sick Man of Asia” to the world’s second richest country.  With its large resources of intelligence and a hard working ethic in the Chinese people, China has the potential to move up the industrialized value chain from manufacturing to creative design of innovative products and processes, which it must achieve as its standard of living increases and its labor cost is no longer low comparing with some of the other countries in the world.  However, for China to continue its meteoric rise and to maintain stability, it also must overcome many major problems.  Below we list some of these major problems that China needs to address:

• With China’s current system, the children of many of the top government leaders have become top executives of many large private or semi-private/semi-state-owned enterprises, giving rise to huge wealth for these descendants of party leaders.  It seems that the path to corporate success is to be a son or daughter of a top government leader.  This phenomenon must stop.  This is part of the problem of growing gaps between the rich and the poor and of corruption.
• The drive for money and power has become too dominant a theme, leaving by the roadside the drive to do good.
• A single party system with laws not always clearly stated or strictly enforced, coupled with tightly controlled mass media, makes it extremely difficult for different view points to be heard.  The country must be more tolerant of dissent and opposing view points.  For example, it should not be so paranoid about Falun Gong that a book on internal martial arts with the word “Qigong” in the book title is not allowed to be published.  Properly addressing this issue will allow multiple competing ideas to be floated and discussed, a prerequisite for advancement.  Furthermore, it can also go a long way to provide more freedom of religion and human rights protection [7].
• As the population ages, how can the growing number of senior citizens be supported by the shrinking working class who came mostly from single child families?
• Will the children who grew up in single child families be so pampered and spoiled that they cannot become effective team players?
• As the country drives itself to become industrialized and as people and companies drive themselves to maximize profits, very often corners are cut with respect to environmental protection, potentially leaving behind huge problems for future generations to solve.
• How can the country’s political, legal, social, and educational infrastructure transform to support the many changes as a result of solving the above problems?

The above list is by no means exhaustive.  But it is clear that the problems are many and large.  The solutions may not be those that have been adopted in the West, but could be solutions tailored to the historical, social, and cultural environment of China.  However, it will require a determined effort at all levels of the government and its citizens to address these issues.  How these issues are addressed will determine the fate of China.

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[1] For more information on this, read this website’s article “A Discussion of China’s Population Control Policy and Issues.”

[2] For an elaboration on this point, read the article “The Significance of the Chinese Revolution in World History” by Professor Maurice Meisner of “The London School of Economics and Political Science.”

[3] For a more detailed discussion of Tibet, read this website’s article “Some Thoughts on Tibet.”

[4] For a more detailed discussion of one such dispute, read this website’s article “Diao Yu Tai Student Movement:  Recollection 40 Years Later.”

[5] For more detailed explanation of this important and seldom mentioned point using Apple’s iPhone as an example, read the article “How the iPhone Widens the US Trade Deficit with China.”

[6] For an explanation of this even less seldom known fact, read the article “Apple’s China Sales Show Why US Trade Warriors Are Wrong.”

[7] This is not to say that Falun Gong is purely a religious issue and is devoid of ulterior motive.

Taiji and Wuji: The word Taiji (太極) in Chinese means “Great Poles” or “Grand Ultimate.”  The word Wuji (無極) in Chinese means “without pole” or “without opposite” or “the ultimate of nothingness.”  Taiji was invented as a martial art; so in this article I try to explain Taiji and Wuji from a martial arts perspective, instead of from a philosophical perspective.  In Taiji one tries not to oppose an opponent’s attacking force head on, because then whoever is bigger and stronger will win.  The opponent’s attacking force is called a Yang force, usually associated with a strong force.  Instead of opposing the opponent’s attacking force head on, the defender first deflects the attacking force by applying a small force at a small angle from the attacking direction; this can successfully deflect the attack (i.e., an effective defensive movement) because this small deflecting force has a component that is perpendicular to the attacking direction and the attacking force has no component along this direction [2].   This small deflecting force is called a Yin force.  Furthermore, the component of this Yin force that is along the direction of the attacking force, if enlarged, can use the attacker’s momentum to get him off balance (i.e., also an effective offensive movement).  The fact that the Yin force is a defensive movement that also can lead to an offensive movement means that there is a component of Yang in Yin (and vice versa).

In addition, Yang and Yin are not static, and they evolve into each other.  For example, in the above example, when the opponent senses that his attacking force has been deflected and he is being pulled off balance, he changes direction and tries to pull back and move his attacking arm in the opposite direction.  In that instance, he changes his attacking Yang force into a retrieving Yin force.  On the other hand, upon sensing that the attacker is trying to retrieve his arm and move in the opposite direction, the defender also changes direction and attacks with a Yang force along the direction of his opponent’s retrieving movement.  Thus, the original attacker now becomes the defender, and the original defender now becomes the attacker, with corresponding changes of Yang and Yin forces.

In the above discussion, the attacking Yang force of the opponent and the complementary Yin force of the defender can be considered as two opposite poles.  Similarly, the retrieving Yin force of the opponent and the now attacking Yang force of the original defender can also be considered as two opposite poles, except that the poles associated with the two people have reversed.  Furthermore, in order for each person to be able to change direction quickly, there has to be a small component of the Yin force residing in the Yang force.  Likewise, there has to be a small component of the Yang force residing in the Yin force.  The revolving nature of Yang and Yin and the fact that each contains a small component of the other are clearly illustrated in the traditional Taiji symbol:

The black and the white parts represent, respectively, the Yang force and the Yin force.  If you rotate the above diagram, the Yang force becomes the Yin force, and the Yin force becomes the Yang force.  Saying it in another way, the Yang force tapers to a Yin force, and the Yin force tapers to a Yang force.   Furthermore, residing in the Yang force (the black fish-like part of the diagram is a small Yin force (the white dot), and residing in the Yin force (the white fish-like part of the diagram) is a small Yang force (the black dot).

This simple discussion of a small set of movements already captures the essence of Taiji, and it is already reflected in just the second form, “Wild Horse Shakes Its Mane,” in one of the simplest Taiji form sets, the Simplified Yang Style 24 Form Set.

If “Wild Horse Shakes Its Mane” is Form #2 in the Simplified Yang Style 24 Form Set, what is Form #1 “Opening Form”?  The beginning part of “Opening Form” is when the Taiji practitioner just stands upright with hands by his side, with both his body and mind relax.  His weight is equally distributed between his two legs.  He is still, and not moving in any direction.  He is not in a defending position or an attacking position.  There are no poles associated with his body.  His mind is relax and empty.  He can be considered to be in a Wuji state, i.e., no poles and no opposites, in a state of nothingness.  So the beginning of the Opening Form corresponds to a Wuji state.  As the Taiji practitioner proceeds with the rest of Form #1 and into Form #2, he changes from a Wuji state to a Taiji state.  The rest of the movements in this Form Set has the Taiji practitioner moving from one Taiji state to another Taiji state, until he gets to the last form, “Closing Form.”  At the end of the Closing Form, he changes back to a Wuji state.  This transformation, from a Wuji state to a Taiji state then to various Taiji states and finally back to a Wuji state, occurs in every Taiji form set in every Taiji style.

Modern Physics and Cosmology: The transformation from a Wuji state to a Taiji state, or from a state of nothingness to a state with poles, actually has some analogs in modern physics and cosmology.  In modern physics, there is a concept known as “vacuum polarization.”  In quantum electrodynamics, the vacuum is no longer a simple concept, i.e., the nothing in the vacuum can be transformed into something.  In particular, the vacuum can be thought of as a sea of equal number of electrons and positrons.  The vacuum can generate a virtual electron-positron pair which can then annihilate each other.  Since the virtual electrons and positrons are charged, in the presence of an external charged particle or electromagnetic field, the existence of these virtual electron-positron pairs affects, actually reduces, the charge or electromagnetic field of the external charged particle.  Such effects have been experimentally observed, and the experimental results match the theoretical predictions.  When these virtual electron-positron pairs appear, the vacuum changes from a Wuji state (without pole) to a Taiji state (with poles).  When these virtual electron-positron pairs annihilate, the vacuum changes back from a Taiji state  to a Wuji state.

In modern cosmology today, the most prevalent theory is the theory of an “Inflationary Universe,” which is very similar, except for two differences, to the traditional Big Bang theory,  that states that the universe started from a small volume and then expands.  One difference is that very near the beginning of the Big Bang, the universe underwent an enormous expansion (thus the term “inflationary”) for a small fraction of a second.   Another difference is that unlike the traditional Big Bang theory, all the matter/energy of the universe did not have to be present during the original Big Bang, but most of the matter/energy can be created during the brief period of inflation or later during the expansion of the universe.  Even though this theory might seem ad hoc, it does provide an explanation of several experimentally observed phenomena which otherwise could not be explained.

Astronomical observational data during the last 20 years also strongly suggest that not only that the universe is expanding, but the rate of expansion actually increases with time, and that the energy density of our universe is approximately 20 times larger than the traditional energy density associated with normal matter like galaxies, stars, planets, asteroids, inter-galactic gases, etc.   To explain these surprising data, astronomers and physicists postulate that there is something called “Dark Matter” and “Dark Energy” that make up, respectively, approximately 25% and 70% of the universe’s energy density.  Dark Matter  interacts very weakly with ordinary matter.  Dark Energy is especially unusual in that it is gravitationally repulsive.  One possibility is that Dark Energy is a new kind of energy associated with the vacuum that is gravitationally repulsive.  As the universe expands, more space, or more vacuum, is created, and thus more energy can be created.  The vacuum is in a Wuji state, and when matter is created from the vacuum, it is in a Taiji state.  Currently we still know very little about Dark Matter and Dark Energy.  Hopefully with more theoretical and experimental advances, we can determine whether these postulates are valid.

Summary: Wuji means without pole or the ultimate of nothingness.  Taiji means great poles.  In Taijiquan, we usually start in a Wuji state, standing erect with equal weight on both feet, with body and mind relax; thus we are in a state with no pole.  Then we move from a Wuji state to various Taiji states.  In each Taiji state, weight is often non-uniformly distributed between the two legs, arms are usually raised or lower or extended, more emphasis is usually placed on exhaling or inhaling, and the mind is much more alert and focus.   We are either in an attack (Yang) mode, or a defense (Yin) mode, or poised to move directly to an attack or defense mode.  At the end of the form, we move back from a Taiji state to a Wuji state.

This has some analog in modern physics and cosmology.  The vacuum corresponds to nothingness (Wuji state), but it can transform into particle-antiparticle pairs (Taiji state).  In modern cosmology, the transformation of the vacuum to energy/matter (Wuji state to Taiji state) may hold the key to understanding modern cosmology in the form of an inflationary universe with accelerating expansion.

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[1] Taijiquan is another name for Taiji.  When more emphasis is put on Taiji as a martial art, the term Taijiquan is often used instead of the term Taiji.  Taijiquan literally means the “fist of Taiji.”

[2] This is the meaning of the classic Chinese saying that “four ounces can deflect a thousand pounds.”

Early History of Alaska: As we all know, for a long time in the distant past Alaska in North America and Siberia in Asia were connected by land.  So wanderers from Asia traveled across the land connection from Asia into North America.  These early Asian explorers and settlers were the ancestors of today’s Native Americans.  There are three major groups of Native Americans in Alaska:   (1) Aleuts who live mostly in the Aleutian Islands, (2) Inuit (or Eskimos) who live mostly in the northern part of Alaska, and (3) Tlingit who live mostly in the southeastern part of Alaska.

Approximately 10,000 years ago, due to some major geological shift involving sea level changes, the land connection between Asia and North America was broken, and water, now known as the Bering Strait, separated the two continents.

Russian Occupation and Control of Alaska: The origin of European settlers to Alaska is not very clear, but many believe that the first European settlers to Alaska were Russians around the mid-17th century.  The recorded history of European contacts with Alaska began almost a century later.  Shortly before his death in 1725, the czar of Russia, Peter the Great, commissioned Vitus Bering, a Dane who served with the Russian navy, to conduct an expedition going north along the coast of Siberia to try to find where it is joined to America.  Men and material had to be transported 5,000 miles from St. Petersburg to the Pacific Coast of Siberia, and a ship (St. Gabriel) had to be built.  So this expedition didn’t take place until three years later in 1728.  Although this expedition never landed in North America, they did find out that Asia and America were not connected, and named the sea separating the two continents the Bering Strait.

In 1741, Bering launched a second and more ambitious expedition, called the Great Northern Expedition, with the intention to reach America and open trade between the two continents.  The Great Northern Expedition did not achieve its objective of opening trade between the two continents, and many of the expedition members including Bering, did not survive.  However, the expedition did discover large populations of sea otter in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.  In the face of starvation, sea otters provided food to the sailors, even though they disliked the taste and texture of otter flesh.  More importantly, the sea otter pelts could keep them warm.  The Russian fur traders, known as promyshlenniki, knew that the sea otter furs could command enormous prices in the Chinese fur market.  As a matter of fact, they were considered to be so valuable that they were called “soft gold.”  Since the sea otter in Siberia had essentially been decimated, they were overjoyed to hear from the expedition members about the large number and ease of catching them.  This began a flourishing trade by the promyshlenniki.

Although not necessarily reflecting the attitude of the Russian government in St. Petersburg,  the promyshlenniki treated the native Aleuts as barely human, and slaughtered the Aleut men without provocation and enslaved the Aleut women and girls.  Even though the Aleuts tried to fight back, especially in 1762, they had no weapons to match the Russian muskets, and it triggered a reign of terror in the Aleutian Islands so that over the next four years, 3,000 Aleuts (men, women, and children), which was about 10-30% (depending on which estimate is used) of the total Aleut population at that time, were slaughtered.

It took about 20 years until 1784 before the first Russian permanent colony was established on Kodiak Island in Alaska, and it took about another 20 more years until 1804 before Russia set up a Russian-American Company to control all Russian activities in Alaska.  Since there was no attempt at conservation, as the sea otter population got decimated in one locality, the fur traders would move to another locality, thus moving farther east and south in Alaska.  Finally the Russian-American Company transferred its headquarter from Kodiak on Kodiak Island to Sitka (between Juneau and Ketchikan).

Since the main problem for the Russian settlers was a reliable supply of food, as it was very expensive to send supplies from Siberia to Sitka.  One solution was to trade with American traders.  Because the Russians didn’t want to become too dependent on the Americans as they were rivals to become a power in the Pacific coast, an interesting fact of history was that Russia tried to establish a Russian agricultural colony in Northern California.  In 1812, they constructed a fortified settlement, named Fort Ross (an old form of a word for Russia), just north of San Francisco.  The plan was to raise crops and animals that would be shipped to Sitka or other parts of Russian Alaska.  However, the Russian settlers and their native Alaska workers (Aleuts) were not good in raising crops or cattle.  As a matter of fact, the Aleuts, being sea hunters, had never even seen cattle.  Fort Ross was a total  failure to provide food for Russian Alaska, as it barely produced enough food to feed itself.

Economic Decline of Russian Alaska: The two problems of rapidly declining sea otter population due to over-killing and the huge cost of providing supplies to Russian Alaska and the failure of Fort Ross no longer made economic sense, at least in the short term, for Russia to continue its interest in Alaska.  Another interesting piece of history is that in 1841 Russia sold Fort Ross for $30,000 to the American John Sutter, the owner of Sutter’s Mill about 120 miles east of Fort Ross where gold was discovered in 1848.  Adding to these two problems was the fear that Russia was in no position to defend Alaska if another foreign power (e.g., Great Britain) wanted to seize the Alaskan territory.  So around the 1850s, Russia began looking to sell its unprofitable Alaska territory. [1]   This desire was enhanced when Russia was decisively defeated by the British and the French in the Crimea War (1853-1856). [2]  The U.S. was interested, and talks between the two sides continued until 1860 when the U.S. was immersed in its bloody and costly Civil War.

The Alaska Purchase: When the Civil War ended in 1865, the U.S. renewed its interest in purchasing Alaska.  There were several reasons for this interest:

• Alaska was full of potentially profitable natural resources, such as fish, whales, animal furs, minerals, forests
• To facilitate commerce between the U.S. and Asian countries such as China and Japan
• Vast amount of essentially virgin land
• To prevent Alaska from falling into the hands of an unfriendly power
• A relatively low purchase price for such a vast territory (586,400 square miles) [3] due to the great desire of Russia to sell

In a deal that was championed and orchestrated by the then U.S. Secretary of State, William H. Seward, the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867 for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre.  It should be noted that even though the U.S. President (Andrew Johnson) and the U.S. Senate had to approve the purchase, there was very little interest in the U.S. government, besides Seward, or the American public to purchase Alaska, which was considered as a frozen and worthless wasteland.  As a matter of fact, the Alaska Purchase was known as “Seward’s Folly.”  To his credit, when Seward was asked a few years later what was the most important act of his career, he replied without hesitation “The Alaska Purchase.”  With hindsight, Seward was 100% correct.

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[1] Just like the Spanish claiming much of the land in Central and South America, or the U.S. claiming the land of  North America, Russia claimed the land of Alaska even though this land should really belong to the Native Alaskans.

[2] The Crimea War is also remembered for producing Florence Nightingale, who pioneered modern nursing practices while caring for wounded British soldiers.

[3] The Alaska Purchase is the second-largest land deal in the history of the U.S., second only to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase (828,000 square miles).

Early History

To understand the “918 Incident” that took place in the city of Mukden, Manchuria, China (currently known as the city of Shenyang, in Liaoning Province in northeast China), one needs to review the history of that part of the world from the 19th century and earlier. Dating back to several hundred years ago, historically Manchuria was the homeland of several nomadic tribes. In 1644, the dominant tribe at that time (the Jurchens) seized control of Beijing and overthrew the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Since the Manchus (as the people of Manchuria were called) had greatly acculturated the dominant Chinese (Han) culture and language, the Manchus and the Chinese were easily integrated. This gave rise to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). However, with a weakening Qing Dynasty, China was forced to cede to Russia part of Manchuria, north of the Amur River (or Heilong River, 黑龍江) and east of the Ussuri River, as the result of the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and the 1860 Treaty of Peking. Thus, Manchuria was divided into a Russian half known as “Outer Manchuria,” and a remaining Chinese half known as “Inner Manchuria.” In modern usage, Manchuria is usually referred to the “Inner Manchuria” or the Chinese half, and China usually refers to this region as China’s Northeast Region, or the Northeast Provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang (東北三省).

For about two centuries until 1853, Japan adopted a foreign policy of Sakoku (or “locked country,” 鎖國) when except under certain allowed situations, no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. This policy ended when the American Commodore Matthew Perry and the American navy arrived in Japan in 1853 and forced the opening of Japan. This opened Japan’s eyes and made them realize that in many ways they were behind the West. This led to the Meiji Restoration (明治維新) in 1868 which restored the emperor system and also opened the gate for all kinds of Japanese to go abroad to learn from the West, especially the West’s science and technology and to modernize and strengthen Japan into a modern industrial state. With the opening of the country, Japan, being a small country with few natural resources, greedily lust over the territory and natural resources of its neighboring countries, especially Korea, China, and Russia. Thus, Japan also adopted the West’s expansion and imperialistic attitude.

The First Sino-Japanese War

The first country of Japan’s expansion was its closest neighbor Korea, which traditionally had been a tributary state to China, and with large coal and iron ore deposits. Japan wanted to annex Korea, or at least make it an independent state with a pro-Japanese government. A series of conflicts, too long to be described in this article, led to the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) between China and Japan. This war was fought in Korea, Manchuria, and the Penghu Islands near the western coast of Taiwan. Japan won the war. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on 17 April 1895. As the loser, China (1) had to recognize the independence of Korea, (2) had to cede the Liaodong Peninsula (遼東半島) to Japan, (3) had to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to Japan, and (4) had to pay Japan 200 million Kuping taels of silver (or almost four times the Japanese government revenue), (5) had to sign a commercial treaty permitting Japanese ships to operate on the Yangtze River, to operate manufacturing factories in treaty ports and to open four more ports to foreign trade.

However, the ceding of Liaodong Peninsula that includes the ice-free Port Arthur was immediately objected to by Russia, France, and Germany (known as The Triple Intervention) because these foreign powers had their own ambitions to carve up part of China. Facing such strong oppositions, Japan, being a relatively new emerging strong nation, agreed to give up the Liaodong Peninsula in exchange for another 30 million Kuping taels of silver that China had to pay Japan.

The Russo-Japanese War

With its victory over China on the First Sino-Japanese War and the establishment of a pro-Japan government in Korea, Japan had its eyes on expanding further north and west into Manchuria. Russia already controlled Outer Manchuria and would love to own the ice-free port of Port Arthur in Inner Manchuria beyond leasing it from China. The port of Port Arthur, unlike the port of Vladivostok, can be used year round even during the winter months. That was precisely the reason for the Triple Intervention mentioned in the previous paragraph, to keep Russia from gaining this strategic military strength. This mutual imperial interest in Manchuria, was part of the conflict between Russia and Japan. Russia was an established imperial power, while Japan was just an emerging power. Since the British imperial power also wanted to keep Russia from competing with them as a naval power in the Pacific, Britain was willing to side with Japan, which appeared to be a weaker power. So in 1902 Britain and Japan signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This alliance meant that if any nation allied itself with Russia during any war with Japan, then Britain would enter the war on Japan’s side. This also meant that Russia could no longer count on receiving help from either Germany or France in a war with Japan, because of the danger of British involvement in the war. With such an alliance, Japan felt bold enough to commence hostilities with Russia even when the two countries were negotiating a treaty to try to recognize and protect Japan’s primary interests in Korea and Russia’s primary interest in Manchuria. Japan declared war on Russia on February 8, 1904. Even before the war declaration was received by the Russian Government, the Imperial Japanese Navy already attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur.

To the surprise of Russia and everyone else, Japan easily won this war, defeating both the Russian navy and army. This greatly diminished Russia’s prestige, and greatly elevated Japan’s statue as a modern power, and fanned its appetite for more imperialistic expansions. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905. Among other things, Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence [1], and agreed to evacuate Manchuria and to sign over to Japan its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it. [2]

With two major military victories (first against China in 1895 and then against Russia in 1905) in a short span of only 10 years, Japan became even more aggressive and hungrily eyed all of China and other countries in Asia. In the absence of Russian competition and with European nations occupied with World War I, combined with the Great Depression which followed, the Japanese military set about to dominate China and the rest of Asia, thus eventually leading to the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.

Germany’s Sphere of Influence in Shandong Province and Japan’s Twenty One Demands

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Qing Dynasty was incompetent and weak.  Almost all of the world powers carved out many kinds of concessions and spheres of influence over various parts of China.  The 1842 Treaty of Nanking that ended the First Opium War between Great Britain and China was one of many unequal treaties that China was forced to sign.  For this treaty, among other concessions, China ceded Hong Kong to Great Britain as a crown colony.  In the case of Germany, the concession was in the Shandong Province , in particular in 1898 the Jiaozhou Bay (膠州灣) near the port city of Qingdao was transferred to Germany on a 99-year lease, and Qingdao became a German colony, and it was the base for the Imperial German Navy’s Far East Squadron.  During WWI, Japan joined forces with Great Britain and attacked this German colony.  After a month-long seige, Qingdao fell in late 1914 and was occupied by Japanese and British forces.

China declared war on Germany on 14 August 1917.  As an ally of the victors, China expected that the former German colony would be returned to China.  However, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the main treaty from the Paris Peace Conference ending WWI, assigned all confiscated German Pacific territories and islands north of the equator to Japan, including Jiaozhou Bay.  This resulted in major China-wide protests known as the May Fourth Movement, initially organized by students and quickly spread to all segments of the Chinese population.  As a result, the Chinese government refused to sign the Treaty, and the “Shandong Problem” was not resolved until February 1922 when its sovereignty returned to China.

Also during the time of WWI, in January 1915 Japan issued to China the infamous “21 Demands” which among other concessions:

• Confirm Japan’s recent acquisition and expanded Japan’s sphere of influence over the whole Shandong Province
• Extend to Japan into the 21st century the original Russian 25-year lease over parts of Manchuria, and expand it to include Japan’s South Manchuria Railway Zone,  and expanding Japan”s sphere of influence  in southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia
• Bar China from giving any further coastal or island concessions to foreign powers except for Japan
• Give to Japan the right to appoint foreign advisers to the Chinese central government and to administer the Chinese police force

The Chinese population strongly objected to these demands, but on May 25, 1915 the Chinese government agreed to a reduced set of demands with the removal of the last item that severely intrudes on Chinese sovereignty.  This shameful act was agreed to by General Yuan Shikai who was the head of the Chinese government at that time, because he wanted to become an emperor and was willing to pay the price in exchange for Japan to recognize him as the emperor of China.  However, during the May 4 Movement of 1919, the Chinese population did not forget this ugly part of history, because one of the main slogans of this movement was “externally resist foreign powers, and internally rid traitors.”

918 Incident and the Second Sino-Japanese War

It is clear from the above review of the history of China and Japan from around the middle of the 19th century to the 1920′s that Japan adopted a foreign policy of  imperialistic expansion, and its main target was China.  After annexing Korea, its next target was Manchuria to pave the way to all of China.  As a matter of fact, a Japanese slogan of that time was “to conquer the world, you must first conquer China, and to conquer China, you must first conquer Manchuria.”

As discussed earlier in this article, Japan in the 1920′s already had control of some parts of Manchuria, e.g., the area around Port Arthur and South Manchuria Railway Zone.  But that was just like an appetizer.  Japan wanted more, much more.  Japan wanted all of Manchuria, and then all of China and beyond.  Since there were other foreign powers who also had concessions and spheres of influence in China, Japan did not want their imperialistic actions to immediately raise the eyebrows of the other foreign powers, so they made it appear as though China started some incident, and they had no other choice but to respond to it.

On the evening of September 18, 1931, an explosion occurred close to a railroad owned by Japan’s South Manchuria Railway in the Liutiaohu (柳條湖) village in the city of Mukden, now known as Shenyang (瀋陽) in Liaoning Province, Manchuria.   This was not a huge explosion, and the railroad was not destroyed.  However, accusing the Chinese of the act, the Japanese Imperial Army launched a full invasion that led to the occupation of all of Manchuria.  Shortly after that, Japan established a puppet state Manchukuo, headed in name only by Puyi, the last Qing emperor.  Manchuria became the launching ground for Japan’s invasion of the rest of China.  Thus the Chinese consider September 18, 1931 as the beginning of the 14-Year War of Resistance against Japan, and also essentially as the beginning of WWII, even though China did not formally declare war on Japan until December 9, 1941, two days after Pearl Harbor.

China lodged a protest to the League of Nations on this Japanese invasion of Manchuria.  Japan said that it was an act of self defense.  The League of Nations did not accept Japan’s explanation and concluded that there was not sufficient reason to support Japan’s actions.  Japan did not agree and decided to leave the League of Nations.

Even if it were the Chinese who were responsible for the explosion in Mukden, did it warrant an immediate full-scale invasion of another country?  Another theory said that the Mukden Incident was planned and executed by lower-level Japanese officers and did not have the approval of the Japanese high command.  If that were the case, why didn’t Japan launch an investigation of the incident, instead of launching a full-scale attack on another country?  Furthermore, even if it was started by lower-level Japanese officers, the Japanese high command did not reverse course but proceeded to take advantage of it.  I think it is very clear that the only possible explanation is that the 918 Incident was part of a plan by the Japanese government to provide an excuse for their invasion and occupation of Manchuria and then the rest of China.  That is why all peace loving people of the world should not forget the 918 Incident.

918 Eighty Anniversary Commemorative Event

NJ-ALPHA (New Jersey Alliance for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia), the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) of New York, and about 20 other community organizations will sponsor a “918 Eighty Anniversary Commemorative Event” in New York City on September 17-18, 2011, at the CCBA building at 62 Mott Street, New York City.  The two-day event will include a 200+ photo exhibit, a brief memorial ceremony, favorite WWII songs by well-known singers, talks by two invited speakers (one from Taiwan and one from Mainland China), and several excellent films about the 14-Year War of Resistance.  The program is in Chinese and is free, and everyone is invited.  To see more information about the program, click here.

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[1] A few years later in 1910, Japan annexed Korea.
[2] American President Theodore Roosevelt mediated this treaty. Because the U.S. didn’t want Japan to become too strong and compete with the U.S.’s interests in the Pacific region, Japan did not get as much as normally expected with such a clear victory. As a matter of fact, there was a lot of dissatisfaction in Japan, including riots in major cities, that Japan did not receive more, such as financial compensation. It is clear that Japan got much less from the Russo-Japanese War than from the First Sino-Japanese War. In spite of the fact that Roosevelt was essentially just trying to protect America’s imperialist interests in the Pacific, nevertheless, for his mediation role, Roosevelt was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.

Whether the combat is between one army and another army or between an individual fighter and another fighter [1], it is important that you know yourself and your opponent.  Sun Tzu wrote “One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements.  One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will sometimes be victorious, sometimes meet with defeat.  One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated in every engagement.” [2]  In Taiji Push Hands, the most critical technique (and the most difficult technique to master) is to relax your body and mind.  By relaxing your body, you can better sense [3] your opponent’s intentions and movements (know your enemy), which you can then counter with suitable moves (know yourself).  By relaxing your body, you also make it difficult for your opponent to sense your intentions and movements (your opponent will not know you), thus making it more difficult for your opponent to defend against you.  Relaxing mind allows the Taiji practioner to process the information received and choosing the appropriate response quickly and almost automatically (again, know yourself).

Knowing your opponent also means that you are capable of recognizing a weakness or potential weakness of your opponent, sometimes in real time.  Then you can immediately respond with the right attack to take advantage of that weakness.  An example in Taiji Push Hands is when you are pushing your opponent’s arm toward his body, and he is a little slow in defending by letting your push get close to his body before he redirects your push to the side, then you immediately increase the speed and strength of your push directly toward his body.  He will most likely not have enough time to redirect your push before your push is onto his body.

Another illustration in Taiji Push Hands of the concept of keeping your opponent from knowing you is to keep your upper body vertical, and you move forward and backward by shifting your weight on your feet (of course, if you need to move a large distance, then you also have to take a step or two with your feet).  Your opponent’s eyes are normally focused on your upper body, and so it makes it more difficult for your opponent to detect your motion if you keep your upper body straight.

Sun Tzu wrote “Warfare is the Way (Tao) of deception.  Thus although [you are] capable, display incapability to them.  When committed to employing your forces, feign inactivity.  When [your objective] is nearby, make it appear as if distant; when far away, create the illusion of being nearby.”  What Sun Tzu meant is that we have to confuse the opponent by feeding him false information.  For example, we may fake a retreat, and when the opponent pursues you, you lead the opponent into a trap and counter attack.  An example from Taiji Push Hands:  You may purposely soften your resistance; when your opponent thinks there is an opening, he attacks you by pushing hard.  But you are prepared and anticipated this attack, so you implement a lu (捋) motion to pull your opponent in the direction of his push but slightly to the side, thus leading your opponent to losing his balance.

Sun Tzu wrote “It is essential for a general to be tranquil and obscure, upright and self-disciplined, and able to stupify the eyes and ears of the officers and troops, keeping them ignorant.  He alters his management of affairs and changes his strategies to keep other people from recognizing them.  He shifts his position and traverses indirect routes to keep other people from being able to anticipate him.”  What Sun Tzu meant is that you should not do the same thing all the time, then your opponent can easily anticipate your next move.  Instead, you should vary your moves, and vary them not in any pattern.  In Taiji Push Hands, this means that even though your general movement may be determined by your opponent’s previous movement, you can still vary that general movement by changing the movement’s force strength, speed, extent of the movement, and its direction, etc.  Not seeing any pattern, then it will be more difficult for your opponent to anticipate your next move and therefore choose his response.

The above example of varying your movements not in any set pattern is also related to another quote from Sun Tzu “The location where we will engage the enemy must not become known to them.  If it is not known, then the positions that they must prepare to defend will be numerous.  If the positions the enemy prepares to defend are numerous, then the forces we engage will be few.”  Because there are many positions that your opponent needs to defend, your opponent cannot concentrate their defense against one or two positions, thus their defensive forces will also be weaker.

In summary, even though Sun Tzu’s classic “The Art of War” was written primarily for an army commander to lead an army to fight against another army, parts of the classic are also relevant for individual combats.  In particular, it has direct relevance to Taiji Push Hands from a martial arts perspective.

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[1] In the rest of this article, combat refers to both combat between one army and another army, or between an individual fighter and another fighter, although our discussion will be on the latter only.

[2] These quotes are from the English translation “Sun-tzu:  The Are of War” by Ralph D. Sawyer, published by Barnes & Noble, Inc. by arrangement with Westview Press, 1994.

[3] Here we are assuming that the Taiji practitioner is in physical contact with (i.e., touching) the opponent.  For more discussion on Taiji Push Hands, see two previous articles in this website:

• “The Essence of Taijiquan Part 1: Perspective from Taiji Push Hands”
• “Taiji and Martial Arts

Sai Chung was a good and hard-working student who had finished his engineering Bachelor degree in three years and one quarter [2], which normally would have taken four years, while supporting himself with scholarships and working part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer [3]. He then continued at UCB to study for his engineering Ph.D. degree [4]. After one year and two quarters, he basically had finished all his Ph.D. course work. Due to his plans to start the new initiative discussed below, in spite of doing extremely well academically, he left UCB in the summer of 1970. Had he stayed on a little longer and completed a required project, he would have received an engineering Masters degree.

Such a bright and hard-working student obviously had a nice future and could have found an interesting and good-paying technical job in the U.S. and then eventually obtained permanent residency in the U.S. He left all of that and went to Tai O (大澳), a small fishing village on the southwestern shore of Lantau Island (大嶼山), about a 3-hour ride by ferry from Hong Kong Island. Since public education there ended at 6th grade, he went there to offer to the Tai O young students free classes at the junior high level. There was nothing there waiting for him, no place reserved for him to sleep, no school to hold his classes, and no salary to support himself or pay for the school material.

But he did have the moral and financial support of many students in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Boston-Cambridge Area; most like him were foreign students from Hong Kong. Many would contribute $10 per month to help him start this school. In his first year back, he did not tell his parents in Hong Kong, who actually partially relied on Sai Chung to help support his younger brothers and sisters. While he was studying at Berkeley, in spite of taking a heavy course load, Sai Chung worked at various odd jobs and saved enough money so even after he went to Tai O he could still meet his commitment of each month giving his parents $100 U.S. He wrote regular letters to his family, but these letters were mailed back to his close friend at Berkeley who then mailed the letters to Hong Kong.

Besides receiving moral and financial support from his friends in the U.S., equally important was the fact that he also found some like-minded young college graduates in Hong Kong, as well as later a couple other UCB graduates, who joined him as teachers or helpers at this school. As a matter of fact, after he returned to Hong Kong and before he made the final decision to start the Tai O project, he found a friend who recently graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and was then teaching high school, and this friend told Sai Chung that he was committed to go to Tai O to start the project together. This was crucial to the project for at least two reasons. First, it doubled the number of full-time committed people. Secondly, through this person’s contacts in Hong Kong, many college students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as young professionals (including doctors, engineers, and college instructors) would come to Tai O during the weekends to help out. Sometimes on weekends there were as many as 20-30 people helping out. Besides working to develop a curriculum for the school, these people would help in various kinds of community projects such as constructing a small fish reservoir, repairing roads, as well as helping them to construct their building (discussed later).

Initially the two full-time teachers would rent a small place to sleep, and borrowed facilities from various local religious organizations as their class rooms. They taught only in the evenings since these facilities were used by the religious organizations during the day. Their free school was welcomed by the locals, and quickly they had as many as 30-40 students.

After the first year, they started to build a small simple concrete building [5] where they could live, cook, and also use as their office, as well as their factory as discussed later. With very limited funds and resources, it took them about two years (to 1973) to complete this simple building. Before this building was completed, there was no running water and no bathroom. They connected a long hose from a small stream on a nearby hillside to their building. This provided them with water for cooking, drinking, bathing, and washing clothes. They took cold showers outside even during the cold winters. I remembered visiting them in the summer of 1971 and I took a cold shower from this hose. The drainage from this building was by a long hose that drained to the sea. [6]

These students, besides needing help with education, came from poor families. So Sai Chung and his colleagues decided to start a small business to assemble various electronic components for radios and other simple electronic devices. Initially they were a subcontractor for another contractor who sold the assembled products to wholesalers. Later they became a contractor and sold their products directly to the wholesalers. This provided part-time jobs for some of the students during the day, as school was only in the evening, as well as providing a small amount of income to support those students, as well as the school [7].

To start a business, even a small business, requires capital, e.g., to buy the electronic components. No bank would lend you the money without some collateral. Fortunately, the father of another Berkeley student [8] from Hong Kong was willing to provide the collateral. Shortly after starting their business in 1973, the world-wide recession hit Hong Kong near the end of 1973 and lasted for about a year and a half. For a while, they had borrowed a lot of money but there was not enough demand for their products, and they owed a lot of money. So they stopped their business for about half a year. Fortunately, the economy in Hong Kong improved, and they were able to pay off their debts after two-to-three years.

They continued with their school until the latter part of that decade, when Tai O announced that they planned to add a public high school providing junior high and senior high education, thus removing the original motivation for starting their school in Tai O, and led to a phasing out of their school.. As the economy in Hong Kong continued to improve, many Tai O youths were able to find jobs in Hong Kong, thus removing their original motivation for starting their business in Tai O, and led to a phasing out of their business near the end of the 1970 decade.

Besides facing financial issues, they also had to face several other issues. For example, initially there was a lot of suspicion, from both the left and the right of the political spectrum, on what they were doing and why. They had to earn the confidence of their students and parents. They also kept running into problems with the Hong Kong Education Department with respect to required certifications, which led to pressure from the government on the religious organizations that provided facility for their school. So they had to move from the building of a Protestant church to the building of a Catholic church, and then to the building of a Buddhist temple. And at the end, classes were held in the pig-raising facility of the house of one of the students. Although their school was not certified, the education received by the students was still useful to the students.

What motivated Sai Chung and others to do this project? I am sure that they did not do a detailed plan identifying all the problems they might face, and the risks that they might encounter, and work out a mitigation plan. I am also sure that they did not prepare a business plan for their business. They just had a feeling that deep in their hearts they wanted to do something to contribute to the world, and that what they wanted to do was not the traditional career path. They knew that they would encounter a lot of problems, expected and unexpected. They didn’t know how those problems would be solved, but they had the courage and the confidence that when those problems arise, they would rise up to the challenge of solving those problems.

To understand that kind of mentality, we have to go back to that period in history and the environment they were in. Sai Chung attended UCB from 1965 to 1970. This was the period immediately after the Free Speech Movement of 1964-1965, and in the middle of the Anti-Vietnam War Movement and the Third World Movement that occurred in the second half of the 1960 decade. A common denominator of these movements was that students should not live in ivory towers, but should be involved and contribute to improving the welfare of the community and the outside world at large. At the same time, the Cultural Revolution in China began in 1966. Although with hindsight, the Cultural Revolution was not as idealistic as it might have appeared. But based on the information the students had at that time, many of the students believed that they should try new ways of doing things, and they should not just follow the traditional way of their parents and grandparents.

Also, Sai Chung and many of his friends lived in Berkeley’s Chinese Center, an inexpensive residence house that housed about a dozen foreign students from Hong Kong [9]. These students formed a very close relationship [10], and they willingly helped each other. For example, if one of the students did not have enough money to pay for next quarter’s tuition, one of the more well-off students would give him some money. When one of the residents received a package of goodies from home, the whole group would share in the goodies. This type of comradeship and willingness to pool financial resources was actually critical at Tai O. Some of the teachers with no or very little income still had to support their families. Some of the teachers also taught at Tai O’s public school and they would contribute their salary to the pool to help run the school and the business. If it weren’t for that environment that they were immersed in during several of their formative years, the Tai O project would have never taken place, and definitely would not have sustained for that many years.

The Tai O project started with a vision: to help educate the poor children of Tai O whose education normally ended at 6th grade. Sai Chung and his collaborators sacrificed a few years of their normally most productive years to achieve this vision. To a large extent they succeeded. They offered free classes at the junior high level to the Tai O students, and continued doing so until Tai O established a public high school. They also established a small business that provided part-time jobs to some of the students and helped to provide some financial support to these students’ families. Even though they “lost” many of their most productive years, all the people who worked on this project had successful careers post Tai O.

In 1976 Sai Chung married one of the local Tai O girls. In 1978 Sai Chung collaborated with several young professionals in Hong Kong as co-founders of a new electronics manufacturing company, and served as the General Manager of this company as he had practical experience working in manufacturing. For a while, he worked at this company in Hong Kong during weekdays, and went back to Tai O during weekends to do work for the school and the business. This electronics manufacturing company became a very successful company, and Sai Chung hired some of his former Tai O students, as well as additional Tai O youths, to work at this company, thus continuing to help the Tai O youths financially.

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[1] This person wants to remain anonymous, but agrees that we can refer to him by his nickname “Sai Chung.”
[2] UCB changed from a semester system to a quarter system during the period (1965-1970) when Sai Chung was there.
[3] At that time, it was legal for a foreign student to work during the summer as well as during the school year. His family provided him only enough money to pay for the tuition of Sai Chung’s first semester at UCB.
[4] It is possible to go directly from a Bachelor degree to a Ph.D. without first getting a Masters degree.
[5] At that time in Tai O it was actually cheaper for them to build a concrete building than a wooden building, especially when they could mix rocks found on the hillsides with cement.
[6] It was legal in Tai O at that time to connect the drainage pipe for a small building like theirs to the sea.
[7] For those oversea students who agreed to financially support this project, Sai Chung requested a commitment for only one year. So after a couple of years, Sai Chung and his co-workers were basically on their own financially.
[8] This student, after finishing at UCB, also went to Tai O and worked there for 3-4 years.
[9] The Chinese Center was established by a Protestant church, although most of the students residing there were non-religious.
[10] The close relationship that was established during those years at Berkeley carried over to the next 40+ years. They have remained among each other’s best friends all this time.