Sometimes it can be hard to remember anniversaries with so much happening in the world around. Tucker Carlson's on leave for 9 days. Liz Truss is poised to take over the UK. UK media are in flames because Amnesty painted the Ukrainian Comedian as a Hitler. And of course the latest tragic developments at 1600 Dementia Drive don't help much either.
Billboard's secondary publication Musician pleaded for better music in the early 1980s. They saw one Aussie act as having potential. 'Their lead singer commands the stage like a Bible Belt preacher', they wrote. 'They've grown into a cult down under', the magazine added. But no one in the West had ever heard of them and few remembered their name.
The group traveled to Hiroshima in 1985 on the 40-year anniversary of the Gift of Enola Gay and came back to Sydney fired up as never before, ripping off four tracks in swift succession, their finest work ever according to many critics. The most noteworthy of the four tracks - and it's a close race - is 'Blossom and Blood'.
Perhaps you've heard of Julian Assange. Perhaps you've seen the movie 'Underground'. Perhaps, then, you've heard of his 'Wanker Worm' which was used to delay and cripple a NASA launch carrying a nuclear payload. Perhaps then you remember the tagline at the bottom of the Wanker Worm logon screen.
'You talk of times of peace for all and then prepare for war.'
That's a line from 'Blossom and Blood'.
昭和天皇
昭和天皇, or Emperor Shōwa, or more commonly Hirohito, sent four pleas to the Truman White House in 1945. His military - his people - were batshit insane. The Red Army had finally crushed Nazism in Europe and now Stalin was helping the US in the Far East. In 20 short days the Russians managed the surrender of 1.2 million Japanese soldiers. US forces were firebombing the living daylights out of the Japanese coast. It was a rout. Hirohito wanted Truman's help to effect a surrender.
Truman never replied. Oppenheimer wasn't ready.
FDR had wanted Henry Wallace to be VP again in 1944. The Democrats opposed Wallace. Wallace had declared a war on corruption in the 'swamp'. The Democrats were having none of that. They forced through the nomination of an obscure nobody over the pleas of Eleanor Roosevelt. When FDR passed away on 12 April 1945, the joint chiefs took over.
Rhymes
History never repeats itself, goes the saying, but it can sometimes rhyme.
Short Memory
Civilisation - what a misnomer - is like living in a goldfish bowl today.
Ordinary people in the street in Germany were asked after WWII:
'How could you let this happen?'
Their near-invariable response was:
'But we didn't know!'
Nearly no one will understand what that track does to modes and time signatures, much less pay attention to its lyric import.
Some Say That's Progress
'If you read the history books you'll see the same things happen again and again, repeat repeat, short memory they've all got it, when are we going to play it again.'
Winds Over Tokyo
Once a year the wind blows from Hiroshima to Tokyo. The cherry blossoms...
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/775
'The goal of any imperialism is to dominate the world. The entire history of post-World War II conflicts is an attempt by the United States to establish world domination in the course of bloody wars that cost the lives of millions of people.'
Postscript
'If it is necessary to turn the country into a cemetery in order to pacify it, I will not hesitate to do so.'
Happy Anniversary.