Christmas Every Day

1853-54 Commodore Perry blows the doors off Japan

Japan, under the Tokugawa shogunate, was a notoriously isolated part of the planet. For 250 years the military government of the puppet emperors had barred all foreigners, save for a tiny number of Dutch ships, from entering Japan and forbade all Japanese from leaving the country or returning from abroad. This flew in the face of American and European desires for expanded trade with Asia — China had only recently been forced to accept commerce, diplomatic recognition, and the intrusion of missionaries.

On July 8, 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japanese waters with a fleet of steamships equipped with modern artillery. He bullied his way into delivering a note from President Fillmore which demanded diplomatic and trade openness from the government of Japan. Perry promised that he would return in 1854, leaving the shogunate in a bind: contact with foreigners had proved toxic to China and would doubtless mean social upheaval, but militarily there was no way to resist the pressures from the outside world. The Russian empire, France, and Britain were certain to want whatever rights were granted to the Americans. When asked their opinion of options, half of the great feudal lords wanted to resist and half wanted to capitulate.

When Perry returned in February 1854 with an even bigger fleet, the Japanese government had decided to yield to the foreigners’ importunities. The wiser of their statesmen saw that the future was steam-powered and explosively advanced; Japan could learn from the barbarians and, in time, beat them at their own imperialist game. And so it proved to be so.

The dark side of patriarchy

As citizens of the United States of America celebrate their Independence Day, it is time for my annual lament over the success of their 18th-century rebellion from the crown. Americans, and the world, would have been better served by remaining subjects of His Britannic Majesty George III. A democratic trans-Atlantic empire, free of slavery and with an unwritten evolving constitution, might well have been in the cards.

In 1776 the aforementioned king directed the Church of England to pray for the success of efforts to put down the ill-advised tumult in the thirteen errant colonies. Here are two prayers uttered to that end.

O Lord God of our salvation, in whose hands are the issues of life and death, of good and evil, and without whose aid the wisest counsels of frail men, and the multitude of an host, and all the instruments of war are but weak and vain; incline thine ear, we pray thee, to the earnest and devout supplications of thy servants, who, not confiding in the splendour of any thing that is great, or the stability of any thing that is strong here below, do most humbly flee, O Lord, unto thee for succour, and put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Be thou to us a tower of defence against the assaults of our enemies, our shield and buckler in the day of battle, and so bless the arms of our gracious Sovereign, in the maintenance of His just and lawful rights, and prosper His endeavours to restore tranquillity among His unhappy deluded subjects in America, now in open rebellion against His Crown, in defiance of all subordination and legal government, that we being preserved by thy help and goodness from all perils and disasters, and made happily triumphant over all the disturbers of our peace, may joyfully laud and magnify thy glorious Name; and serve thee from generation to generation in all godliness and quietness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Blessed Lord, who hast commanded us by thy beloved Son to love our Enemies, and to extend our charity in praying even for those, who despitefully use us, give grace we beseech thee, to our unhappy fellow subjects in America, that seeing and confessing the error of their ways, and having a due sense of their ingratitude for the many blessings of thy Providence, preserved to them by the indulgent care and protection of these kingdoms, they may again return to their duty, and make themselves worthy of thy pardon and forgiveness: Grant us in the mean time not only strength and courage to withstand them, but charity to forgive and pity them, to shew a willingness to receive them again as friends and brethren, upon just and reasonable terms, and to treat them with mercy and kindness for the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1867 Anti-Confederation sentiments

The enthusiasm of four British North American colonies for Confederation was not shared by others on the continent. Prince Edward Island with a tiny population was worried about being swamped by numbers if they joined Canada East, Canada West,  Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick in a Canadian nation. They had no interest in a trans-Canadian railway and, though they had hosted the critical Charlottetown Conference, they declined to sign on to Confederation in 1867.

It was a close-run thing as well in Nova Scotia where Joseph Howe called for staying out but the most vociferous opponents of union were in Newfoundland, the oldest of all British colonies. Here are the lyrics to a rousing anti-Canadian anthem.

Prince Edward Island finally gave into the siren song of the promise of a steamer connection to the mainland and capitulated in 1873. Despite a vain attempt at independence which failed during the Depression of the 1930s, Newfoundland stayed outside Canada until a dodgy referendum of 1948 brought the Rock in.

More tough love

Both my readers will recall an entry a few days ago which chronicled the parenting skills of on Don Alonso Guzman who lent a knife to an enemy threatening to kill Alonso’s son. Today we consider the maternal feelings of one of the Renaissance’s most embattled women, Caterina Sforza.

Caterina (1463-1509) was the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Milan and was married at age a very early age to Girolamo Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, lord of a pair of cities in the Romagna, Forli and Imola. She became well known for her intelligence and beauty and quickly gained a reputation for a strong-willed courage which her husband lacked.

In 1488, her husband was murdered and their castle of Forli was under siege. Her children had fallen into the hands of the enemy, the Orsi family, and they in true Italian Renaissance style, threatened to kill the kids if Caterina did not surrender. According to one account, she taunted her foes, exposed her genital, and shouted “Fatelo, se volete: impiccateli pure davanti a me … qui ho quanto basta per farne altri!” (“Do it, if you want to: hang them even in front of me … here I have what’s necessary to make others!”) The Orsis were over-awed and her children were spared.

Caterina was no saint. She ordered murders, dealt with Machiavelli, and went on to endure much more — siege, treason, the murder of yet another husband, rape, and dungeons. She deserves to be better remembered than she is. Those interested should read The Tigress of Forli by Elizabeth Lev.

1292 Tough love

With Father’s Day in the recent past, it is time to consider Francis Bacon’s observation that he who has a wife and children “hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.”

In the 13th century a welter of kingdoms in Spain, both Muslim and Christian, were at war with each other. King Sancho IV of Castile had taken the castle of Tarifa (at the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula) from the Moors and placed its command in the hands of Don Alonso Perez de Guzman who moved into the fortress with his family, all except his son who was in care of the king’s brother John. 

John was a bit of weasel who had already rebelled against his brother and been forgiven but in 12921 he turned again on the king. This time he called in Muslim troops from North Africa and besieged Tarifa. John believed that he had, in the son of Don Alonso, a key to an easy surrender of the castle. He had used the threat to kill a child hostage before to great effect and so, showing the bound child to the defenders, shouted “Alonso Perez de Guzman! Know that unless you yield this stronghold to me immediately, you shall behold the death of your own son at my hand!”

Looking down at the prince, the besiegers, and his weeping son, Alonso replied, “I did not beget a son to be made use of against my country, but that he should serve her against her foes. Should Don Juan put him to death, he will but confer honour on me, true life on my son, and on himself eternal shame in this world and everlasting wrath after death. So far am I from yielding this place or betraying my trust, that in case you should need a weapon for your cruel purpose, here is my own knife!” And he threw down his dagger at John’s feet.

John promptly picked up the knife and cut the boy’s throat. His Berber allies were disgusted and eventually the siege was abandoned. Prince John became a pariah and could find no refuge in Christian Spain, living in exile in Muslim Granada.

Don Alozonzo was heaped with honours by his king and his descendants became the Dukes of Medina-Sidonia, the greatest house of Spanish nobility.

The last of the Last Words offerings (for a while):

1917 A very interesting game of baseball

On June 23, 1917 the Boston Red Sox were hosting the Washington Senators at Fenway Park. While Boston had an enviable recent record, having won the World Series in 1915 and 1916, their guests were less successful, the butt of the joke “Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League”.

On the mound for the Bosox was Babe Ruth. He gave up a walk on four pitches to the first batter, which provoked him into a confrontation with the umpire Brick Owens who had a lengthy history of encounters with enraged players and fans. Ruth politely contended that the vision of the irascible overseer was somehow deficient on this occasion (his exact words were “Why don’t you open your god-damned eyes?”) and Owens promptly excused the Babe from further participation in the contest. On his way to the showers, the Bambino responded by punching the cantankerous arbiter. The Crimson Hose were then obliged to call for a replacement. Manager Bill Carrigan’s gaze fell upon Ernie Shore, no slouch as a hurler of the horsehide orb, who was allowed only five warm-up pitches and stood upon the hill almost cold. What followed was major league history.

Shore, “the Carolina Professor” (he taught mathematics in the off-season), eyed Ray Morgan, the Griffsters’ runner at first base; Morgan eyed Shore, and on the latter’s first pitch headed toward second base where he was ignominiously thrown out. The next 26 batters were set down in order by Shore with the last out being served up by a Washington pitcher who (it is shameful to recall) attempted a bunt, thus violating the Unwritten Rule against late-inning bunts in a potential no-hitter.

At the time Shore was credited with a perfect game but the statisticians now consider the game to be a shared no-hitter.

 

More famous last words

1944

Tank ambush in Normandy

The June 6 D-Day landings were successful, in part, because of the German decision to station their heavy armour back from the beaches. Their theory was that their panzer divisions would be spared the initial aerial and naval bombardments that the Allies would use to secure their foothold, but that they could soon rush forward to crush the enemy. However, Allied mastery of the skies meant that German tanks could only move cautiously and at night. Consequently, Allied forces were able to penetrate inland before they encountered significant armoured opposition.

On June 13, British units moved toward the high ground near the village of Villers-Bocage. There they were ambushed by an SS panzer unit led by Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittman whose Tiger tank wrought havoc on the unsuspecting British. Within minutes Wittman had destroyed fourteen tanks and fifteen personnel carriers, along with two anti-tank guns – an astonishing feat that won him enormous propaganda fame in Germany and the decoration of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Military historians have called this the greatest single-handed action in tank warfare.

Wittman’s career did not last much longer. Less than two months later, his panzer unit was ambushed in turn by British and Canadian armoured formations, equipped with the up-gunned Sherman Firefly, one of the few Allied machines capable of taking on Tigers. A shot through the turret of Wittman’s tank ignited ammunition killing him and his crew.

Names of tank designs vary from country to country. Americans name their machines after generals: Sherman, Grant, Stuart, Abrams, Patton; Germans name theirs after deadly felines: Panther, Tiger, Leopard; British names all begin with the letter C: Churchill, Comet, Centurion, Chieftain, Challenger, etc. Iraqi forces employed the Lion of Babylon; Egyptians relied on the Ramses; South Koreans put their trust in the Black Tiger.