thousandcranes

Miki Sawada

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 22:06:10 GMT

2000 Nightmares and a Rising Sun

On September 19, 1901, Hisaya Iwasaka, the third president of Mitsubishi, and his wife Shizuko welcomed into this world their new baby girl, Miki. At Miki’s christening ceremony, she was held by a famous sumo wrestler for luck. It was an appropriate choice, as Miki grew to become a very strong-willed child. She spurned the toys and activities meant for Japanese girls, preferring the company and rough activities of the boys. At one point, she was challenged to a fighting match by a cousin 3 years her senior. She defeated him easily and then several times again in view of a large number of relatives. She was said to be “unruly, rebellious, and something of a showoff”.

From the beginning, Miki was her grandmother Kise’s favorite grandchild, and spent her first 22 years sleeping in her grandmother’s room where she got to hear many stories about her ancestry and the founding of the Mitsubishi company. She was immersed in the traditional Japanese mindset of reverence for and obligation to her ancestors. In fact, Miki was brought up in an environment that was a mixture of Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto venerates ancestors as deities.

When Miki came down with the whooping cough, she was sent to the family villa in Oiso, Japan under the company of a nurse. When the lady thought that Miki was asleep, she would read out loud from a book. Once, Miki overheard her clearly, but pretended to still be asleep. She heard the nurse read the phrase – “love your neighbor”, and it stuck in her mind. Later she heard the lady reading about a rebellious son that had run off from home and squandered his inheritance. At some point, the wastrel returned and his father ran out to welcome him back and forgave him. Miki was struck at the contrast between the book her nurse was reading from and the books Miki’s mother had given her to read – one in which a father becomes a Buddhist monk and abandons his wife and son, and another book in which a mother brings up her son with the sole focus of him avenging his father’s death. After pressing the timid nurse about the book she had overheard her reading from, Miki learned that it was the Christian Bible. The experience engendered in her a strong desire to learn about Christianity, which horrified Miki’s family.

When she was a late teenager, Miki’s family worked hard to find a husband for her. But she was unimpressed with them as well as with the men that her cousins had married. She considered them to be rude to their teachers to others they considered beneath themselves. After one of Miki's suitors was particularly insistent and followed Miki around at a garden party to the point of annoyance, she sucked in the filling of a cream puff and blew it all over him. Her mother took her home and they rode in the car together in a “frozen silence”.

Eventually, it was arranged for Miki to meet Renzo Sawada, a young officer in the diplomatic core. Because he was of some stature in society, he was acceptable to the family, and because he was a Christian, Miki was apparently open to the arrangement, although her father basically made the decision for her. They were married on July 1, 1922 in a Christian chapel.

Renzo was soon assigned to the Japanese embassy in Bueno Aires and the Sawadas lived near the presidential residence there. Miki made friends with President de Alvear’s wife, who was an opera singer from Vienna. Miki's first child, a son they named Shin’ichi, was born in Argentina.

In 1924, Renzo was assigned to Peking, and along the way Miki stopped in Japan and remained there to have her second boy Hisao. After joining her husband in China, she had another son, Akira. In Peking, Miki joined a group of Christian women who met for worship meetings in a Japanese restaurant. They would try to talk and sing over all of the boisterous, if not, profane noise their husbands were making in adjoining rooms. Miki would address the ladies at the top of her lungs. Once, one of the workers heard something Miki said, leading her to decide to become a Christian. This prompted one of the Japanese men to warn the others not to let their women go near Miki or she would convert them to Christianity.

In 1931, Renzo was assigned to England. While living in London, Miki was very active in amateur drama as well as in church. At first, she attended a Methodist church, but to save money on gasoline, made the decision to go to the Anglican church that the family’s governess had been taking the children to. One Sunday after church, for some reason, the rector introduced Miki to a lady in the congregation. The lady invited her to go on a road trip to the countryside. “If you’re a golf widow today, why not come with me? I’d like to show you a beautiful part of England.” After about a 3-hour ride, they arrived at a settlement consisting of a large building surrounded by many cottages. It was one of many orphanages that had been set up all over England by Dr. Thomas Barnardo in the previous century after a large number of children had been orphaned by cholera, many of them ending up on the street.

Miki toured the facility extensively, and being impressed with the operation, offered to volunteer there once a week. She later wrote, contrasting this experience with her privileged life to that point: “Until then, I lived in a happiness given to me by others, but now I realized that I was far happier in giving something rather than in always receiving.”

Less than 3 years after arriving in England, the Sawadas were transferred to Paris. Once again, Miki was very active socially, and spent a lot of time taking painting classes. She also attended live shows, and doing so, met the entertainer Josephine Baker, daughter of a Spanish father and African-American mother. Josephine was immediately popular in France, and in addition to her notoriety, she showed kindness and generosity to the workers. Late at night, she would tour the slums and distribute candy to the children. Miki would go with her and see the love with which Josephine was regarded by the poor people of Paris.

After 15 months, the Sawadas were transferred to New York where Renzo became the consul general. Miki enjoyed the frankness of Americans, being very frank herself and freely expressed her thoughts and opinions. She also participated in amateur drama. Having gotten involved in the Episcopal church, Miki was invited to speak in many churches throughout the country.

At one point, Miki heard that Josephine Baker was coming to the U.S. to perform in the Ziegfeld Follies. While the ship Josephine arrived on was filled with other famous individuals and met by large crowds, only Miki and a Ziegfeld agent was present to greet Josephine. The agent gave a terse greeting and left almost immediately. Miki was left then to provide a ride to Josephine. The awkwardness of the greeting was followed by great difficulty in Josephine finding any place to reside. At hotel after hotel, Josephine was told that no rooms were available. Finally, Miki asked the building custodian of her apartment if Josephine could stay there. Replying “The official residence of the consul general is under extraterritoriality, and we have no right to say anything about what you may do. But when the other tenants learn that a Negro is living in the same building, they’ll all move out.” Ultimately, Miki obtained the grudging consent of the manager of the studio Miki was renting for her painting, for Josephine to stay there. The approval stipulated that Josephine had to use the back door and the freight elevator.

Josephine was also treated coldly by the other performers in the Ziegfeld Follies. At one point, she overheard some of the ladies suggest they all wear masks so their boyfriends wouldn’t see them dancing with a Negro. Josephine, who had tried to ignore all of the slights until then, snapped back “You want to wear a mask because of your poor dancing!” Josephine eventually broke her contract and returned to France and became a citizen there. She served in the French Resistance and the Red Cross during World War II and was decorated by General Dwight Eisenhower after the war. She finally returned to the US to participate in a massive civil rights demonstration in Washington DC in 1963.

During the war, diplomats were regarded with suspicion by the Japanese police, mainly because they were known to have foreign friends. Under such toxicity, Miki who was in Japan alone, while her husband served overseas, eventually chose to live in the family villa in Oiso. Even so, Miki was often followed, questioned, and accused by the secret police but never got in any real trouble.

After the war, the holdings of Miki’s family were subject by the occupying American force to a 90% tax, and much of the wealth of the family disappeared as a result. The Supreme Commander of Allied Powers (SCAP, Douglas MacArthur, confiscated houses for the use of American personnel and Miki and her father moved to a small caretaker’s cottage on the grounds of their Tokyo estate. Her father was also forced to give up all of his business holdings as part of the SCAP effort to dissolve large business interests regarded as having aided the Japanese war machine.

It would seem that a lady born to and raised in privilege, and placed in positions of status and prestige as an adult would find what happened to her family and holdings in post-war Japan to be an overwhelming, hopeless disaster. But Miki was purpose driven, not status driven, and purpose had great plans for her.

On June 28, 1946, not quite a year into the occupation, Miki heard on the early morning news that a child of mixed American and Japanese parentage had been born. The reporter spoke of it in a positive light, but was soon fired over his rosy appraisal of the event. While he had suggested that it symbolized a reconciliation process, the populace in general regarded it as a shameful reminder of defeat.

But for Miki, “This newscast aroused something that had long been concealed deep in my heart. That something was the evening glow that I had watched in the woods of Dr. Barnardo’s home in England fifteen years before. The reflection of that beautiful glow flamed up and touched off a fire in my heart. I felt strongly that the work to which I should devote myself was right there in this glow.”

Over the next few weeks, abandoned, dead mixed blood babies were beginning to surface in Japan – the progeny of occupying forces and desperately poor Japanese women. A black baby with kinky hair, a white child with its blue eyes half open. Another baby dug up from a ditch. As if there hadn’t been already enough motivation to act, one day on a train, a thin bundle wrapped in a purple cloth fell into her lap from the rack above. As she was trying to put the bundle back on the rack, two policemen came into the car and demanded to know what was in the package. When she opened the bundle for their inspection, she was stunned to find the body of a black baby. As she was trying to explain that the child was not hers, one of the policemen noticed that the book she had been reading was written in English, and accused her of having a foreign boyfriend and implying the baby was the result, and demanding that she get off the train with them at the next stop.

Then, while suddenly disrobing to everyone’s astonishment, she firmly demanded they find a doctor that could examine her and tell them whether or not she could possibly have recently had a baby. As the scene was playing out, an elderly passenger shed his timidity, came forward and told the police that he had remembered seeing a young girl enter the car with the purple bundle earlier. At that assertion, the police took custody of the bundle and let Miki go. But Miki was quickly becoming convinced that the Lord was directing her to “become a mother to many of the babies like him who are all over the country”.

With her children grown and with her relationship with Renzo having become distant, she sought and received his blessing to be free of the responsibilities of a wife and pursue her calling. When she described her plans to her father, tears formed in his eyes. She knew he was supportive of her intentions, but when she asked to use the family villa in Oiso, he had to tell her that it had been turned over to the government in partial payment for taxes. But instead of being discouraged, Miki used the help of several influential American friends to get permission to use the villa as an Orphanage. She then worked feverishly to raise funds from all of the sources she could think of to pay for the property and add needed buildings, writing thousands of letters, appealing to friends, occupation forces, and American churches. She was able to raise some money from these sources as well as from a bequest of a British governess, Elizabeth Saunders, who had lived in Japan and entrusted a befriended British author with applying her lifetime savings to be used “for those who cannot help themselves”. After receiving the modest legacy, Miki named the developing childrens’ home in memory of Elizabeth Saunders.

The first few years of operation of the Elizabeth Saunders Home involved a constant struggle to bring in enough money, food and medicine, whereas there was never a shortage of needful mixed blood, orphaned, abandoned, discarded infants and children. They were found out in the cold, at the foot of a statue, in front of a train station, restrooms, vegetable markets, and other public places. Or they came from other institutions that did not want to host mixed-blood babies. Mothers and grandmothers would also bring children to Miki, wanting to avoid the shunning of their neighbors. Thirty one children were left surreptitiously over time around the home and grounds, to be found later by Miki and her staff, including one child (left under a bush) that Miki nearly stepped on in the dark one night.

Besides the difficulties of acquiring enough food to feed undernourished children, given food shortages in Japan in general, medicines were also in short supply and the children suffered from worms, scabies, and epidemics. One challenge was the fact that regulations forbade dispensing American medicines to foreign nationals. One American doctor would come late at night, after his duty hours, to care for the children and he and other medics would disregard the regulations and would bring supplies that had been discarded or declared surplus. He was eventually caught by a disapproving superior and transferred away.

One child, sick with double pneumonia, was continually declining and Miki expected that he would soon die. One morning, a package showed up , sent by a Mrs. Joseph C. Grew, wife of the former American ambassador. The package contained food, and most importantly, two vials of penicillin, which ended up saving the child’s life. Mrs. Grew was herself astonished at the news of the penicillin vials. She had had no idea the package she had ordered for Miki contained the most unlikely of medication that could otherwise only be acquired with a doctor’s prescription.

One night after the evening feeding, Miki learned that there would be no more milk to supply the midnight feeding or for the older children at breakfast. At midnight, while she was listening to the hungry howls, not even imagining how she was going to feed a hundred children, she heard a car drive up, stop, and drive away. The driver had left a big box on the ground with a message reading: “From an admirer”. The box contained four cases of powdered milk.

At the end of one year, Miki was in the process of settling her accounts and paying bills, per Japanese custom. She had tried all December to scrape up enough money to meet her obligations. She had long since sold all of her known valuable belongings to pay bills, but that evening ended up finding a silver vase with an imperial crest on it. She managed to get a trifling sum for it from a pawnbroker. Even with that, she only had half of the money she needed to pay her debts.

On the way home from the pawnbroker, a gentleman saw her as she was changing trains and called out to her. He explained that he had known her in China and that he had borrowed some money from her and had never paid her back. He handed her the sum, saw his train coming and wished her well as he promptly departed. The additional money was enough to allow her to exactly meet her debts.

Miki had to navigate through a whooping cough epidemic which claimed the lives of seven of her children, and then face cruel criticism in an anonymously written note left on her gate, likening her operation to that of an infamous orphanage in which 120 orphans had died of neglect. Conversely, she also had to endure physical attacks from hoodlums and ruffians, and tirades from others, all of whom had contempt for her effort to care for children whose existence they regarded as loathsome.

But the iron-willed, headstrong, daughter of samurai resolve continued to operate within the will and providence of the Lord. A boy-cousin defeating, suitor dismissing, Buddhism spurning, racism fighting ninja for Christ stayed the course for legions of desperately needful children over three decades. Miki made use of her networking skills, strong international friendships, and great aptitude for communication to rally resources from a vast array of individuals and organizations in a number of countries.

As the economy improved and focus could be drawn away from simple survival, Miki saw to it that her children were educated and received vocational or academic training. She helped those with special abilities in the arts to advance their talents, sometimes even receiving mentoring from famous individuals. She spearheaded the creation of a farm in Brazil where some of her older children would learn agricultural skills, work ethic, and management experience.

Miki worked feverishly to place children with their American families, when they could be identified and were found to be open to adoption. A specific example was her effort to unite little “Mike” with his father who was serving a sentence in the Ft. Leavenworth prison. Among all of the family members she tracked down in the United States, none was more receptive to and grateful for meeting his child than Mike’s father, after Miki had worked with the prison wardens to arrange the meeting. The first encounter was so emotional and gratifying that the wardens chose to overlook the specified time limitation, allowing Mike and his father to be together for a while longer. In addition, the child’s aunt and grandmother ended up raising him in Little Rock. Years later during a reunion Miki, Mike and his father (by then out of prison and happily married) walked through a park while the father, wiping away tears, told Miki how grateful he was that she had worked to place Mike with his own family instead of another.

Miki passed away on May 12, 1980 (interestingly on the birthday of Florence Nightingale). She left a family of about two thousand individuals, who through her investment, were able to bring value to the world. The former residents have held many reunions over the years. The Elizabeth Saunders Home still operates in Oiso, Japan, though no longer tasked with any need to look after unwanted mixed-blood children.

Source: “The Least of These – Miki Sawada and Her Children”, by Elizabeth Anne Hemphill, First Edition, 1980.

Two Names of Wonder

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 23:31:04 GMT

In Judges 13, a very important interchange between two individuals occurs. Interestingly, we are not provided with the names of either one. One is a woman, referred to as Manoah's wife, and the other is referred to as "The angel of the Lord". The angel appears to Manoah's wife, up to that time "barren and childless", and tells her that she is going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.

"Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

She tells her husband about the visitation and instructions, and Manoah prays to the Lord for the "man" to appear again and provide instructions. Interestingly, in answer, the angel does appear again, but once again it's to Manoah's wife, and she has to go get Manoah. The angel waits and when Manoah asks him for instructions, the angel begins with "Your wife must do all that I have told her.", repeats his instructions, and says "She must do everything I have commanded her.". In other words, the visitation to Manoah's wife should have been regarded as sufficient.

Manoah proceeds to ask the angel his name and gets the reply "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding." (Very interesting, right? One translation*: "You wouldn't understand -"). Manoah asks the angel to accept a meal, but the angel suggests that Manoah make an offering to the Lord. When Manoah offers a sacrifice, the angle jumps into the fire and ascends to Heaven, scaring the daylights out of Manoah. "We are doomed to die!", he said to his wife. "We have seen God!". But his wife answered, "If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands nor shown us all these things or told us this".

So an unnamed angel visits an unnamed woman and entrusts her to an extremely important job. The woman then has to use logic to calm down her named, panicking husband (to whom the angel did not choose to appear directly to).

The business of God does not have to conform to human convention, whether in a male-dominated society or otherwise. If the Lord understands that the reliable, calm, intelligent person is a woman instead of a man, that's completely His business. If the name of the angel and the name of the woman are not revealed, it doesn't detract from the extreme importance of the event and its results.

Most Biblical text used here is from the New International Version

*The Message version: "You wouldn't understand -"

(Good News version: "... It is a name of wonder.")

Counterinvasion

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 21:50:51 GMT

The role of Helena and Constantine in the final conquest of Rome for Christ

In 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey laid siege to and overwhelmed Jerusalem, ending a century of Hebrew independence. The Romans created a client kingdom called Palestine, and Roman governors and corrupt Hebrew kings shared in governing the region, while zealous Jewish agitators attempted rebellions and craved a Messiah that would overthrow the Romans and restore independence. The Romans enforced a “peace” in the empire, and assuming Hebrews played by the rules, they could travel widely throughout the empire over a network of Roman roads and sea lanes.

At the end of the first century of Roman rule in Palestine, Jesus of Nazareth began teaching a new Way to Hebrew followers. Many of them hoped that he would be the Messiah that would overthrow Rome. He did intend to establish a new realm among people, but it was not one that His followers understood. And with respect to Rome, he had much greater ambitions. Among His last acts on Earth was to give his followers a “Great Commission”. As history reveals, the first part of that commission amounted to a counterinvasion, as it were, of the Roman Empire.

The soldiers of the counterinvasion were meek, humble, largely poor and uneducated followers of The Way, called Christians, who through pain, adversity, persecution and divine assistance, brought a message of hope across the Roman roads and sea lanes and formed an immutable juggernaut that would eventually conquer the Empire. The followers, however, paid with their blood, offering their fragile bodies as fodder for lions, fire, sword, and myriad other monsters of brutality that the Roman leadership and their sadistic co-belligerents could conjure.

Often the brutality originated with narcissistic emperors who demanded to be worshipped, or were otherwise offended by the audacity of Christians not to worship Roman gods. Particularly harsh Roman leaders were Diocletian and (especially) Galerius, who collectively reigned from 284 to 311 AD. Indeed, more than a quarter millenium had passed since the beginning of this counterinvasion when the Diocletianic Persecution began in earnest in 303 AD as a rage-filled response to a burning of the Imperial Palace. Regardless of who set the fire, it was blamed on Christians and used as a reason to purge the empire of Christianity.

Whereas Diocletian requested that the “Edict against the Christians” be pursued without bloodshed, Galerius, who ruled in the eastern portion of the empire, demanded that Christians refusing to sacrifice to Roman gods be burned alive. Local judges, whose discretionary power included execution, often imposed such sentences. Another edict demanded arrest and imprisonment of all bishops and priests. So many clergy were imprisoned that ordinary criminals were released in order to relieve prison crowding.

During the reign of Diocletian, a child named Gaius Flavis Valerius Constantinus, called “Constantine”, was born at Naissus (in present day Serbia). Constantine’s father, Constantius, was a military commander and Constantine grew up in the imperial court. His Greek mother, Flavia Julia Helena, called “Helena”, played the primary role in his upbringing while his father was off on various military campaigns. Constantine “had a deep regard and affection for” Helena. Constantius had apparently met Helena at a tavern or inn where she worked as a waitress. Details of the attraction are scant, but something about Helena, a lowly wage worker, was worth bearing the scrutiny and judgment of Constantius’ status-conscious sphere of associations for over a decade. Eventually, Constantius put Helena aside so he could marry a woman, Theodora, of greater perceived status, and Constantine and Helena remained in Nicomedia at the court of Diocletian. Constantius and Theodora had several children, but none of them ever achieved notable status.

In 305, Constantius and Galerius were both elevated at Diocletians behest to the status of “Augustus” and ruled the far west and far east of the Empire, respectively. Diocletian’s maneuver caused a co-ruler, Maximimian to reluctantly step down, as well. While Galerius rabidly pursued the edicts against Christians, Constantius chose not to . In 306, Constantius requested that his son Constantine join him in Britain. Helena traveled as far west as Trier (now in Germany) and then was able to live safely in a fortress there under Constantius’ domain. After Constantius’ sudden death later in 306, Constantine was proclaimed Augustus by his father’s troops. Through some political maneuvering, Constantine assumed control of the Rhineland while Maxentius, another ranking individual, assumed control of Italy.

Meanwhile in the East, Galerius continued to persecute Christians until 311, at which time, from his deathbed, he suddenly issued the “Edict of Toleration by Galerius”. Galerius, dying from a painful illness, admitted that the attempted eradication of Christianity had failed, and in fact, asked that Christians pray for him.

Historian Eusebius claimed that Helena converted to Christianity following her son becoming emperor. However, it is possible that she may have already been a Christian or at least sympathetic to Christianity for many years. She is thought to have been from northwestern Asia minor, where Christianity had been heavily established for a couple of centuries. One thing that is clear is that Helena later basically “owned” the push of Christianity to official prominence. Constantine gave her unlimited access to the imperial treasury to aid in her voyages to the Holy Land to locate Christian relics. She also constructed and beautified multiple churches in Palestine. She also had a temple built earlier by Hadrian to a Roman god (either Venus or Jupiter) destroyed.

In 312 AD, as tax-happy Maxentius’ rule in Rome was waning and about to implode, Constantine crossed in to Italy with a large army to engage him. On the day before the battle, Constantine saw an image of a cross superimposed upon the sun. That night he had a dream in which Christ appeared to him and explained the vision to mean he should carry the sign of the cross into battle. Though outnumbered, Constantine quickly defeated Maxentius and consolidated his control of the western part of the Roman empire. The next year, he issued the Edict of Milan which required toleration of all religions. The edict was later co-signed by Licinius, the emperor of the eastern part of the empire, but Licinius soon turned against the Christians. Constantine later defeated Licinius in the east, prompted to action in part by Licinius’ execution of Christians and destruction of churches. At the age of 52, Constantine was fully in charge of the entire Roman Empire.

Constantine’s victories, rule, and legalization of Christianity marked the successful conclusion of the counterinvasion of Rome out of Israel that had begun 300 years before. This pivotal human was ushered into life, protected and influenced by a once lowly waitress who had captured the heart of a very powerful man. Helena gave counsel and support to Constantine the rest of her life. She acted in official capacity, supporting building projects throughout the empire using capital from the treasury. She established relief funds, granted official mercies, and undertook a famous journey to the Holy Land, in part to engender and in some cases, restore a sense of community among various rival Christian groups that had become disenfranchised.

As notable as these historic details are, how rich it would be to have transcripts of the conversations between mother and son, particularly in his formative youth. And the first conversation at the dining hall or tavern between Constantius and Helena – What did she say that caught his attention? Did she exhibit quick responses, moxie, deep insight, humor, empathy? Somehow, she became worth the snarky comments Constantius might endure in court and the questioning of his judgement that might come from his superiors. Somehow, her son with Constantius was the one requested from Britain, and not any children of aristocratic Theodora. And somehow, her son, the emperor would trust her with conducting affairs of state, full access to the treasury, and an enduring role as ambassador of goodwill throughout the empire. The good news for us is that these events happened. Maybe we'll get to learn the finer details someday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(63_BC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian

https://www.ancient.eu/Constantine_I/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena,_mother_of_Constantine_I

https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/helena-c-255-329

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerius

https://www.bible-history.com/biblemaps/the-spread-of-christianity-2/

Hannah Milhous Nixon

Thu, 24 Dec 2020 21:26:20 GMT

A Quaker Saint

When I first became conscious of the price of gasoline as a child, it was 36.9 cents per gallon at my Mom’s favorite gas station, and the price stayed at about that level until the Fall that I started 6 ^th grade. All of the sudden, prices started going sharply up and we were all hearing on the news about an oil embargo led by Saudia Arabia against the United States. Much later, I learned that the Saudis took that action in response to the assistance that the United States had provided Israel after they were invaded by Syria and Egypt, with Soviet material support, in the Fall of 1973.

The embargo led to the Energy Crisis, and I spent my late youth wondering when the United States would be able to become energy independent.

Whose idea was it to help Israel, given the great cost that the United States would incur? European nations had already declined Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir’s personal appeal for military assistance. Arab nations had already threatened to use oil as a weapon against any country that aided Israel. The answer is Present Richard Nixon, who in fact had a reputation for being antisemitic. Why would he do such an unrewarding thing when he was already embroiled in a scandal that would ultimately cost him his presidency?

On October 6, 1973 (Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish culture), Egypt and Syria launched a joint attack simultaneously across Israel’s southwest and north-east borders. The invaders, largely supplied by the Soviet Union, enjoyed a massive advantage of tanks over Israel and made extensive incursions into Israeli territory, or at least, territory that Israel had seized from them the last time they had staged an invasion attempt. The invaders also had a huge inventory of antiaircraft missiles (also provided by the Soviets) that were used against Israeli planes trying to stop the incursion of the tanks.

One night, Richard Nixon received a phone call from Golda Meir, pleading for assistance. One source quotes the president as saying

“I could almost hear my mother’s voice. She would tell me stories and read to me from the Old Testament, the heroes of the Bible. And one afternoon, she said, ‘Richard, someday you’re going to be in a position where you can help save the Jewish people. And when that day comes, you must do everything in your power.’”

Hannah Milhous Nixon, the president’s mother, is known to have heavily influenced her son all of his life. He described her as “a Quaker saint”.

At first, the United States attempted to provide material assistance to Israel by loading equipment on El Al airliners, so that American aircraft would not be seen providing obvious support. However, it became obvious that a much more extensive airlift would be necessary, and President Nixon ordered the US military to “send everything that can fly”. Only one European nation, Portugal, allowed the US airlift to refuel on their soil. But the United States delivered a massive amount of materials and fighter aircraft to Israel over about a month. The U.S. support helped Israel survive the invasion and an effective ceasefire was eventually implemented.

While the experience caused pain to the United States economically in the 1970s, it showed the world that the Soviets couldn’t expect to simply supply their proxies with military equipment and expect to enforce their geographic objectives. The experience also led to a sustained period of energy innovation in the United States, including the invention of the modern lithium battery, vast increases in the energy conversion efficiency of solar cells, and a wide variety of clever improvements in oil and gas extraction technology. But the satisfaction of being allowed to assist Israel, the “Apple of God’s Eye”, at a crucial time is a reward in itself, and will be a lasting testimony to American character for ages to come.

https://rabbidaniellapin.com/hannah-nixons-foreign-policy/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Milhous_Nixon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nickel_Grass

The Legacy of Clotilda

Sat, 19 Dec 2020 17:41:02 GMT

When a graceful arm raises a hammer

For better or worse, men are greatly affected by the beauty of a young lady. They can stop a man in his tracks, make him forget what he was thinking about, and suddenly supplant all of his priorities. And simply hearing of the beauty of a woman can lead a man to take arduous steps to find out more about her and to see her, regardless of language or locality, especially if the man is a king.

The beauty of princess Clotilde of Burgundy was well known. She was born in Lyon France within a region of Romanized Celts. A spiritual heiress, as it were, of the Church of Smyrna from the Revelation, she was also devout follower of Christ. One can only imagine the angst she must have felt when a pagan king of a powerful, ferocious and barbaric tribe of Germans demanded her hand in marriage.

But the feelings and fears of a young lady, even a princess, have historically been subordinate to political expedience and ambition. Her uncle Gundobad handed her over to the Frankish king Clovis, and it was up to Clotilde to sink or swim from that point on. However, the full potency of a man’s physical strength, volition, ruthlessness, and command structure cannot compare to the insidious power of love. Clovis was out of his league.

The old man kept his composure as he regarded the stunning defeat of his troops. The invading cavalry had pierced his lines, scattered his men, and then chased down and annihilated many of them. At almost 80, Duke Odo summoned his reserve of energy, strength, and imagination and led his remaining force north to warn an old enemy Charles about their now common threat – an invasion by the Umayyad governor, Abdul Rahman.

The Umayyad invasion of Europe from North Africa had begun 20 years earlier. They conquered most of Spain in just 7 years, and bolstered their cavalry with the powerful and intelligent Andalusian horse. Time after time, the Umayyad cavalry would wedge into European infantry and convert terrified men into decomposing flesh. The Umayyads would then loot the nearby towns, churches and abbeys, wait for the local harvest to be gathered and stored up, and move on to exploit the productivity of the next victims.

Duke Odo and his surviving troops made their way north to warn the Frankish mayor Charles, while Abdul Raman consolidated resources near Bordeaux. Word on the Umayyad street was that the city of Tours was wealthy and would make a fine acquisition to share with his marauding companions. When the harvest was collected the Umayyad army would move north and attack.

While the beauty and form of a woman can have a stupefying initial effect on a man, it doesn’t really have the power to capture his volition over the long term. If a man is already powerful like the king of the Franks, the comeliness of his wife is only going to go so far. The love of a woman – that’s different. It grips the soul, and severance of such bonding can leave a mortal wound.

Clovis was a pagan, but according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “Clotilda, as wife of Clovis, soon acquired a great ascendancy over him, of which she availed herself to exhort him to embrace the Catholic Faith.” You don’t get to be chief by being feeble-minded, so one may conjecture that Clotilda drew his respect intellectually as well as in terms of character. She succeeded in convincing Clovis to permit the baptism of their first son, Ingomir.

Unfortunately, Ingomir died in infancy and Clovis used the mishap as justification to question the power of and the need to follow Clotilda’s God. Stewardship and expedience are cornerstones of military leadership. When one is constantly averting or overcoming danger, there is no room for chasing fantasy and euphoria even at the longing behest of one’s beautiful and adored wife.

Time and time again, the fierce Umayyad cavalry smashed European defenses and ravaged villages, churches and abbeys as they plowed through Aquitaine and headed north to ransack Poitiers and then Tours. As the immutable force ravaged the land, Duke Odo warned Charles Martel of the threat and agreed to form an alliance under Charles’ command. Knowing that the Umayyad force wanted to sack Tours, Charles hid the combined army in an elevated forest along the Umayyad path.

Charles army consisted mostly of infantry. It also included some light cavalry, but which was no match for Rahman’s cavalry. As Rahman proceeded toward Tours, he became aware of Charles’ army but did not know the size, as the Franks chose to remain mostly hidden in the forest. The Umayyads and Franks exchanged skirmishes for seven days as Rahman consolidated his fighting force.

On October 10, 732, not wanting to wait any longer because of the impending European winter, Rahman began a sustained assault on Charles’ army. The expectation was that the Frankish infantry would quickly dissolve and scatter under the punishing drive of the Umayyad cavalry.

At some point, a neighboring Frankish tribe under King Sigebert came under attack by a confederation of Germanic tribes called the Alemanni, and Clovis responded to Sigebert’s request for help. During an ensuing battle Clovis witnessed his warriors being killed. He prayed to his wife’s God in tears:

"O Jesus Christ, you who as Clotilde tells me are the son of the Living God, you who give succor to those who are in danger, and victory to those accorded who hope in Thee, I seek the glory of devotion with your assistance: If you give me victory over these enemies, and if I experience the miracles that the people committed to your name say they have had, I believe in you, and I will be baptized in your name. Indeed, I invoked my gods, and, as I am experiencing, they failed to help me, which makes me believe that they are endowed with no powers, that they do not come to the aid of those who serve. It's to you I cry now, I want to believe in you if only I may be saved from my opponents."

The Alemanni were defeated and Clovis kept his vow, accepting baptism and embracing Christianity, which spread throughout his kingdom. His reign greatly strengthened the Merovingian dynasty and the Merovingian Franks eventually used extensive church assets and support to equip their army. Two hundred and thirty six years after Clovis’ conversion, the descendant army and the church were thrown into a desperate stand against a seemingly unstoppable Umayyad invasion.

As the Umayyad Cavalry smashed into the front line, the Franks unexpectedly remained in place, hacking away at horse and rider with a seasoned, deadly ferocity. One source wrote “The men of the north seemed like a sea that cannot be moved”. The Umayyad launched assault after assault, gaining ground against the outer Frankish line, but then meeting resistance from the inner lines. At one point, Duke Odo sent a raiding party to the Umayyad camp, where the spoils of war were kept.

When word of the camp raid reached the Umayyad army, many of the fighters began to break away, against Rahman’s orders, in order to rescue their ill-gained riches. Rahman was eventually left exposed and was killed in battle. The attacking Umayyad force quickly disintegrated and retreated to Spain, never to return to France. Charles Martel (or “Charles the Hammer”) then overthrew the Merovingian king, establishing the Carolingian Dynasty. Christendom spread to the entirety of Europe.

It is a remarkable and satisfying thought that the faith, influence, and resolve of a beautiful young woman could so thoroughly affect the destiny of Western Europe and eventually the Americas. Whether her original motive was to ensure that her husband would be with her in eternity, the effect on the future of many people was profound. While these events stand out, the fact of the woman as a power broker is an undeniable, integral part of Creation.

https://thewarthemerrier.com/frank-moorish-war-the-battle-of-river-garonne-732/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odo_the_Great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP16DwOQcBE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb8pGJy2aXs

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/gregory-clovisconv.asp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tolbiac

Gloria

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 19:29:38 GMT

Gloria

Gloria was born into a family where the father wanted a boy, and to a mother who would be killed by the father just a few years later. She grew up in a house with neither parent, and later was molested and physically abused by her stepfather. As a young lady, she was nearly murdered by her sister, and later in life, she was nearly murdered by a cousin.

While Gloria experienced many disadvantages due simply to having been born female, she managed to cope with her circumstances and eventually succeed. She was very observant, very studious, hard-working, was very courageous, and ended up gaining the confidence of those who were willing to work with her.

As it turns out, Gloria has a very special place in world history. She is actually known as Queen Elizabeth (I), and was later in life given a title "Gloriana". She was one of the best monarchs of all time, anywhere, and possibly the most intelligent. Elizabeth stood up to the foremost world power, Spain, who intended to invade England, and nearly destroyed Spain's navy, twice! If not for Elizabeth, the New World would be completely different, and the United States quite possibly would not even exist.

There are a number of things to observe in the ultimate success of a woman so victimized from practically the beginning of her life.

She almost always let rational thought prevail over fear.
She learned how to communicate extremely well, including in multiple other languages
She won over a very hostile Parliament that was about to tear her apart over granting of "monopolies" to favored individuals. She did so with a gifted combination of eloquence and humility.
She bought time and out maneuvered foreign enemies through strategic foreign alliances.
She gave a very inspirational speech to the Navy just before they took on the enormous Spanish Armada.
Her enemies were both men and women.
Her sister, Queen Mary and her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots tried to destroy her.
Her governess/tutor Kat Ashley tried to protect her from molestation.
Her military commander, the 2nd Earl of Essex Robert Devereux, tried to overthrow her.
Her chief of security, Sir Francis Walsingham, protected her many times.
God appears to have figured heavily in her survival and success.
Her sister Mary and her brother Edward, both ahead of Elizabeth in the line of succession, died early of natural causes.
While the English navy could shoot enemy sailors, they couldn't sink the ships. However, gale- force winds came along and dashed the Spanish ships into the coast of the Netherlands.
Elizabeth's spies and allies seemed to be in the right places at the crucial times to hear or intercept dangerous communications.

Sources:

Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen, with David Starkey. History – British Collection; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmhak-RI67o&t=457s

American History: English Settlers Establish Colonies in the New World; http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/jamestown-raleigh-powhatan-pilgrims/1511366.html

United States History: Spanish Armada; http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1134.html