We’ve seen and discussed the devastation in Japan. In Peter Schwenger’s “America’s Hiroshima” in a television show, the TV host urged the audience to be generous in their giving to the Hiroshima Maidens because it is “the American way” (235). It is as though “[a] kind action to one person can be put in the balance with one hundred thousand dead” (Schwenger 238); one life cannot pay for another life. The kind act of surgically fixing the Hiroshima Maidens does not erase the horrors of the atomic bombs; although some would like to think so.
I brought this up because I want to talk about the power of media. The Americans watching the show would feel superior and good about themselves for helping the Hiroshima Maidens-- they may even feel righteous as part of a nation that’s helping the maidens forgetting the fact that it was the US that bombed Japan. The TV show controls what is transmitted, so what the Americans are seeing are filtered facts.
In Gojira when a news reporter interviewed a resident of the island, the interviewer doubted first hand witness information. Why? Perhaps it is because the islander is uneducated and without authority, whereas when the Professor speaks everyone listens without doubt. This reminded me of the yellow rain which affect the Hmong people in the jungle of Laos.
Yellow rain is believed to cause death and deformation; however, there were not enough information and test results were not sufficient to conclude whether it is a chemical weapon used on the Hmong or not. In “The Fact of the Matter” which focuses on truth, a Harvard professor countered an eyewitness, experienced, Hmong person’s account of what he saw (for more information, I’ve include the link below).
Going back to what America is willing to do as an act of kindness; the Hmong people were recruited by the CIA during the Vietnam war. While the U.S. soldiers were busy engaging in battles with Northern Vietnam, the Hmong were fighting against the “neutral” Laos in what is known as the Secret War. It is called the Secret War because the U.S. government did not divulge the fact that they are engage in battle with Laos to its citizens. U.S. citizens were already unhappy, at the time, about the war in Vietnam, had the war with Laos was made known the U.S. may be faced with even larger scales or riots. The Hmong fought with the U.S. with the promised of a place in the U.S. if they lost. More than thirty years after the war and most of the Hmong are still hiding in the jungle waiting for refuge, waiting for the promise of a home. Each day they live in fear of being found by the Laotian soldiers and they never stay in the same place for more than a week. What have the U.S. done? Those who surrender to the Lao government or was sent to Laos from Thailand were never heard or seen again.
The Hmong race is not known in the U.S. or very few people know about them; they are still a secret. Unlike Japan, the Hmong people have no country and thus no power to back them up. They depend upon surrounding countries. This is a humanitarian situation. (For more information about the Hmong and their journey, I’ve provided links below).
Yellow rain: http://www.citypages.com/2012-11-14/news/behind-laos-s-yellow-rain-and-tears/
Yellow rain: http://www.citypages.com/2012-11-14/news/behind-laos-s-yellow-rain-and-tears/
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