Secret HistoryS


Attention

GHQ's press code and Japan: Then and Now

GHQ Tokyo 1952
© The Postil MagazineGeneral MacArthur’s GHQ for the Far East Command in Tokyo, Japan; photo ca. 1952.
The United States advertises itself as the "land of the free." When it fights wars, it boasts of bringing to others the freedom its citizens enjoy. But does this hold true in reality? When the United States fought the Empire of Japan in the middle of the twentieth century, Washington brought, not freedom to an unfree country, but unfreedom to the free. It accomplished this, in part, through the censorship regime which Washington imposed on Japan in the postwar (Yamamoto Taketoshi 2013). One aspect of this censorship regime was the press code.

Intellectual and author Eto Jun declared Japan under the control of GHQ occupation to be a "closed-off discursive space." (Eto 1994) The hatch closing off Japan discursively, and by extension epistemologically, was the September 19, 1945 directive, "SCAPIN-33 Press Code for Japan." (One of the main objectives of the Americans in imposing the press code was to conceal their own war crimes. (Kawasaki Kenko 2006, 38-40)) The press code banned discussion, in print or other media, of thirty topics. There was to be no criticism of the victors in the Greater East Asia War, no mention of the term "Greater East Asia War" (the term "Pacific War," although historically inaccurate, is used even today instead), no mention of the black market in occupied Japan, no mention of rapes by American GIs of Japanese women, and no criticism of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thus was born Washington's censorship regime in Japan (Hirai Kazuko 2023, Monica Braw 1991).

Washington's press code was urgent business, for Washington had many sins it needed to conceal, many crimes for which it desired to blame the Japanese. Many brave truth-tellers in Japan fought back. One such soul is Ishikawa Koyo, a photographer who documented the firebombing of Tokyo on March 9 and 10, 1945. GHQ tried to confiscate the negatives of the photos Ishikawa took, but Ishikawa refused. GHQ eventually relented, only forbidding Ishikawa to display his photos in public (Ishikawa 1974, 17-21, Richard Sams and Saotome Katsumoto 2015, Mark Clapson 2019, 219-221). But Ishikawa's bravery seems lost in the onslaught of disinformation. The War Guilt Information Program (WGIP) was a psy-op designed to convince both Japanese and Americans alike (for both knew the truth equally well, and Americans probably needed more convincing of that truth's opposite than did Japanese) that the war in Asia had been entirely the fault of Japan (Aoyagi Takehiko 2017, Takahashi Shiro 2019, Sekino Michio 2015). Americans were also directly subject to GHQ suppression. Helen Mears, for instance, an insightful critic of Occupation policy and Washington behavior, found publication of her book on the Occupation, Mirror for Americans: Japan, temporarily forbidden anywhere outside the United States (Kevin Y. Kim 2019, 145).

Info

Submerged ancient bridge discovered in a Spanish cave reveals earlier human settlement in the western Mediterranean

phreatic overgrowths
© M.À. PerellóBogdan Onac studies the phreatic overgrowths seen in this photo. They grow exactly at sea level and offer a more accurate reconstrution of past sea level history. He used these to determine the age of the submerged bridge.
A new study led by the University of South Florida has shed light on the human colonization of the western Mediterranean, revealing that humans settled there much earlier than previously believed. This research, detailed in a recent issue of the journal, Communications Earth & Environment, challenges long-held assumptions and narrows the gap between the settlement timelines of islands throughout the Mediterranean region.

Reconstructing early human colonization on Mediterranean islands is challenging due to limited archaeological evidence. By studying a 25-foot submerged bridge, an interdisciplinary research team - led by USF geology Professor Bogdan Onac - was able to provide compelling evidence of earlier human activity inside Genovesa Cave, located in the Spanish island of Mallorca.

"The presence of this submerged bridge and other artifacts indicates a sophisticated level of activity, implying that early settlers recognized the cave's water resources and strategically built infrastructure to navigate it," Onac said.

The cave, located near Mallorca's coast, has passages now flooded due to rising sea levels, with distinct calcite encrustations forming during periods of high sea level. These formations, along with a light-colored band on the submerged bridge, serve as proxies for precisely tracking historical sea-level changes and dating the bridge's construction.

Blue Planet

Isolation, endogamy, smallpox, present in early medieval, Christian, 'cave village' in Spain

medieval
© GPAC (Grupo de investigación en Patrimonio Construido) Basque Country UniversityAerial view of the excavated area in the early medieval settlement of Las Gobas (Condado de Treviño, Spain). / GPAC (Grupo de investigación en Patrimonio Construido) Basque Country University.
An archaeogenetic study sheds new light on the isolated medieval community Las Gobas in northern Spain. Besides isolation and endogamy, researchers have also identified the variola virus, which can offer a new explanation of how smallpox entered Iberia.

Researchers from Sweden and Spain have conducted a comprehensive archaeogenetic study on a community that lived on the border between the northern Christian kingdoms and Al-Andalus during the early Medieval period. This dynamic era, especially in the Iberian Peninsula, was marked by religious competition, power struggles, and significant human mobility — factors that shaped the foundation of modern Europe.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, focused on Las Gobas, a rural site in northern Spain's Burgos province, near the village of Laño. The community existed from the mid-6th to the 11th century and is notable for its church and living areas carved into caves. The site also provides evidence of violence, likely from sword blows, found on some of the buried individuals. Forty-one burials were excavated, and 39 of them were subjected to archaeogenetic analysis.

Comment: Other research suggests that, indeed, this certainly was an interesting period: And check out: In Search of the Miraculous: Holy Grail Symbolism & Early Christian Mystery, with Laura Knight-Jadczyk




Bizarro Earth

How Qatar spreads chaos in the Middle East and fuels Islam in Europe

logo
© Kamran Jebreili/File/APQatari employee of Al Jazeera Arabic TV news channel and Logo
Qatar may be a tiny nation, but it packs a serious punch that threatens the global order, writes Polish journalist Adam Starzynski.

People who have been following international news closely in recent years might have noticed that Qatar keeps appearing in the headlines and clearly punches well above its weight in world affairs for a country with only 300,000 citizens.

Lately, Qatar has been in the spotlight for housing the Hamas leadership while at the same time playing the role of the main negotiator, together with Egypt, for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Qatar also served as a safe haven for the Taliban for many years, and in 2020, facilitated a peace agreement between the United States and the Islamist group.

In between, Doha has also managed to organize the World Cup in football and was behind the largest corruption scandal in the history of the European Parliament, known as "Qatargate."

However, Qatar's main influence operation is its decades-long campaign to sponsor the spread of radical Islamist movements and mosques in the Middle East and Europe. Apart from sponsoring the construction of huge mosques and associations, Qatar is running an advanced media and PR campaign, creating fertile ground for these foreign Islamist movements to take root in their new countries.

Cassiopaea

6,000-year-old Dolmen of Menga suggests Neolithic builders had 'amazingly' precise understanding of science

Dolmen of Menga
© Cavan Images/GettyArchaeologists used laser scans and diagrams from earlier excavations to investigate the construction of the Dolmen of Menga.
The Neolithic farmers and herders who built a massive stone chamber in southern Spain nearly 6,000 years ago possessed a good rudimentary grasp of physics, geometry, geology and architectural principles, finds a detailed study of the site.

Using data from a high-resolution laser scan, as well as unpublished photos and diagrams from earlier excavations, archaeologists pieced together a probable construction process for the monument known as the Dolmen of Menga. Their findings, published on 23 August in Science Advances1, reveal new insights into the structure and its Neolithic builders' technical abilities.

The dolmen pre-dates the main stone circle at Stonehenge in the United Kingdom by about 1,000 years, but the construction process described in the study would have involved similar techniques and demanded a similar level of engineering.


Comment: And yet the recent discovery at Stonehenge suggests that researchers consistently underestimate our neolithic forebears: Stonehenge altar stone hails from Scotland


Comment: There's a wealth of evidence showing that 'high civilisations' existed numerous times in the past, and that they likely even had scientific knowledge that our age has yet to discover:


Info

Humans were living near West Papua at least 55,000 years ago, study finds

New evidence from West Papua offers fresh clues about how and when humans first moved into the Pacific.

Hand Stencils
© Tristan Russell, CC BY-SAHand stencils of unknown age from the Raja Ampat Islands. Research from these islands sheds light on early human history.
In the deep human past, highly skilled seafarers made daring crossings from Asia to the Pacific Islands. It was a migration of global importance that shaped the distribution of our species — Homo sapiens — across the planet.

These mariners became the ancestors of people who live in the region today, from West Papua to Aotearoa New Zealand.

For archaeologists, however, the precise timing, location and nature of these maritime dispersals have been unclear.

For the first time, our new research provides direct evidence that seafarers travelled along the equator to reach islands off the coast of West Papua more than 50 millennia ago.

Archaeology

Archaeologists announce discovery of iconic sword lost in WWII Germany

japanese 17th century sword berlin
© State Museums of Berlin, Museum of Prehistory and Early History / Anica KelpOverall view of the Wakizashi sword after the restoration processing. The fragmented textile wrapping with parts of the ray skin and the underlying decorative element made of copper (Menuki) is clearly visible.
Archaeologists unearthed a symbolic 17th-century Japanese sword amid ongoing excavations on the oldest market square in Berlin, Germany, the Berlin State Museums announced Thursday.

The archaeologists, from the Berlin State Office for Monument Preservation, found the rusty sword amid World War II-related rubble dug up from cellars buried beneath the Stralauer Straße in the Molkenmarkt ("Whey Market") area, a translation of the announcement revealed.

Initially believed to be a WWII parade saber, the sword was later found during restoration work to be a fragmentary Japanese short sword called a wakizashi, according to the statement.

Comment: From the original article (machine translation):
Restoration of the sword at the Museum of Pre- and Early History

During the restoration work, however, a sensation revealed itself. The strongly corroded sword turned out to be a fragmentary Japanese short sword, a Wakizashi. The handle of the sword was severely damaged by heat. However, the wood of the handle was still given and in places the wrapping of textile and ray skin. After the restoration were exposed to the oxidized and 1 cm wide handle clamps, the motif of Daikoku was shown. He is one of the seven lucky gods of Japan, to be recognized by his attributes of hammer and rice bag. Likewise, after the parade sheet after the release, melted ornaments of chrysanthemum and waterline motifs came to the fore. Based on the motifs and style, the handle could be taken to the Edo period (17 to 19th. century) are dated.

In addition, the sword was X-rayed before the start of the restoration work in order to be able to locate a possibly existing forging brand in advance. A signature of the blacksmith was not found, but the sword kept another surprise on the X-ray images. It became clear that the blade was originally longer and was shortened. The handle probably did not belong to the blade at that time and was attached afterwards. In the handle fishing, two holes, which served to attach the handle by means of two wooden pins, were recognised. However, the existing handle was only fixed by one of these holes. This suggests that the abridged blade has experienced a secondary use as a shorter wakizashi. It is therefore considerably older than the handle and may even come from the 16th century.

Matthias Wemhoff, State Archaeologist of Berlin and Director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin:
This finding shows once again which surprising objects are waiting for their discovery in Berlin's ground. Who could have imagined that at a time when Japan was isolated and hardly a European traveller came to the country, such a long-used and richly decorated weapon has reached Berlin?
How Wakizashi, whose property was once reserved as a suspended weapon, reached a filled-in cellar of a Berlin residential and commercial building, can only be speculated at this time. Perhaps the sword was a gift from the Takenouchi mission in 1862, or the Iwakura mission of Japanese envoys who visited Europe and the rest of the Western world to build relationships and gather impressions eleven years later. The spatial proximity of the whey market with its surrounding Adelspalais to the Berlin Palace speaks for it. In the castle, Wilhelm I was still king received the Japanese embassy of the Takenochi mission and in 1873 the embassy of the Iwakura mission as Emperor. However, the origin of the sword cannot be associated with the biographies of the former house owners of Stralauer Straße on the Molkenmarkt.

The discovery of the Japanese short sword in the middle of Berlin once again shows what secrets there are still in the earth of the metropolis and how important a detailed reappraisal of the findings in the restoration workshops of the Museum Für Vor- und Frühgeschichte is.



Colosseum

Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic diversity of post-Roman elites

roman belt
© Caterina GiostraCollegno, tomb 143. Iron 'multiple' belt elements with silver and brass inlay.
A new study of ancient DNA by a team of international researchers and co-led by Krishna R. Veeramah, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University, provides insight into the development and social structures of European rural communities following the fall of the Roman Empire.

The findings, published in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest that early medieval elites, or those of higher social status, were initially made up of multiple families with distinct genetic ancestries. However, over time, these families intermarried and also the local communities integrated genetically diverse newcomers from a variety of different social and cultural backgrounds.

The research team combined paleogenomic, archaeological, and isotopic data to shed light on the community that used a cemetery in Collegno, Italy, as a burial site during the 6th to 8th centuries CE. Researchers sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 28 individuals from the cemetery and incorporated data from 24 previously published genomes. They also studied individuals' patterns of social mobility, burial patterns, and diet.

Comment: The period that followed the collapse of the Roman empire certainly is fascinating, particularly because so many developments seem to have been happening, some of which have been deemed exceptional, and in an era we know so little about: See also: 'Exceptional' trove of 24 ancient statues found immersed in Tuscan spa, sheds light on transition between Etruscan and Roman period

And check out: In Search of the Miraculous: Holy Grail Symbolism & Early Christian Mystery, with Laura Knight-Jadczyk




Red Flag

What the hell is happening in Trieste?

LHD boat
© reddit.comItalian Navy's new LHD Trieste launch
To answer this question, bearing in mind the subject of the closed-door meeting, a few words are enough: the next theatre of war.

A few days ago, a secret meeting was held in Trieste, attended by authorities of various kinds: members of NATO, members of the Atlantic Council, members of the Hungarian think tank Danube linked to Viktor Orbán, members of Donald Trump's entourage, members of the Italian Armed Forces and Police force, representatives of the city government and representatives of the local Freemasonry. You will not find this information elsewhere. The topic of the meeting was the militarisation of the port of Trieste. Which is the reason?

The strategic role of Trieste in the Trimarium doctrine

The year was 1942: a book destined to become a cornerstone of American maritime strategic science was published in the United States of America. It was entitled America's Strategy in World Politics and was written by the academic geographer Nicholas John Spykman, one of the fathers of maritime geopolitics and a spiritual pupil of Sir Halford Mackinder. Apparently, the book in question was not a success with the general public, while it became a veritable bible of 'sea route' strategy for all powerful thalassocrats, introducing the Rimland concept that we use in geopolitics today.

There is a small chapter in the text devoted to a particular topic: the Trimariumdoctrine, today better known by its modernized name of Three Seas Initiative (3SI or TSI). It is a strategy that will become the golden rule for maintaining American power on the continent of Europe. The 3SI, also known as the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Sea doctrine, is today regarded as a strategic initiative in which 13 member states participate, namely Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, plus 2 de facto added states that are Moldova and Ukraine, and was officially launched as a project in 2015 by Polish President Andrzej Duda and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovič under the careful coordination of the U.S. State Department.

A coincidence? Definitely not.

Comment: The implications of certain secrets? Some relevant surprises here!


Map

Zelensky's new delusion: Why has the Ukrainian leader decided to claim multiple regions of Russia?

Zelensky
© RT

Comment: On August 6 2024, the Ukrainian army, supported and trained by NATO, see Russian spy agency names states enabling Kiev's Kursk incursion, crossed the broder to Russia north of Sumy in Ukraine. Recently there was, Zelensky reveals goals of Kursk Region incursion but earlier in the year, Zelensky's governement made a statement about areas which in their opinion were "historically inhabited by Ukrainians", and Kursk was one of them. The article gives some of the background with more included in the comment section.


President Vladimir Zelensky's decree on Russian lands "historically inhabited by Ukrainians" opens a hornet's nest

At the end of January, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree on "Russian Territories Historically Inhabited by Ukrainians," which includes measures aimed at "preserving the national identity of Ukrainians" in Russia.

"This is the restoration of the truth about the historical past for the sake of Ukraine's future," Zelensky said in a video address on his country's annual Day of Unity.

The published decree states that the Kiev government has been instructed to develop and submit an action plan to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine concerning a number of historical Russian borderlands - namely, Kuban Region and Starodubshchyna, as well as northern and eastern Slobozhanshchyna, which correspond to Russia's present-day Krasnodar, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, and Rostov regions.

The government will also have to "debunk Russian myths about Ukraine" and "develop interaction between Ukrainians and the peoples enslaved by Russia."

"For centuries, Russia has systematically committed and continues to commit acts aimed at destroying [Ukrainian] national identity, oppressing Ukrainians, violating their rights and freedoms, including on lands which they had historically inhabited," Zelensky said.

Despite its declarative tone, the decree caused fierce controversy in both Ukrainian and Russian media. Although the document is mainly informational (especially given the failure of last year's counteroffensive and the difficult situation at the front), it demonstrates that, for Ukraine's political elite, the military conflict isn't the only problem; there is also the issue of the two conflicting "visions" of the post-Soviet space and its political, cultural, and economic transformation. Russia's vision is multinational, conservative, and focused on sovereignty, while Ukraine's is mono-ethnic, Westernized, and focused on globalization.

Below, RT explores why Vladimir Zelensky started a territorial dispute with Russia two years into the military conflict, explains who had historically inhabited the border regions and who resides there today, and comments on what makes Ukraine's "imperial" project vulnerable.

Comment:
1) The author wrote: "the concept of identity is perhaps the main issue in the current conflict." Other points could have been included. Below are some themes and topics as found in older SOTT articles:

About the intention of the West to break up and control Russia: Related to the history of the conflict in Ukraine: 2) From the same source, there was two weeks before the article by Petr Lavrenin:
22 Jan, 2024 18:07
Zelensky brands parts of Russia 'historically' Ukrainian

The president has listed six regions in a decree demanding that Ukrainian "national identity" be preserved inside the neighboring country

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky declared six Russian regions to be "historically inhabited by Ukrainians" in a decree published on Monday. The list does not include any of the territory that Kiev claims sovereignty over in the ongoing conflict with Moscow, and focuses on globally recognized parts of Russia.

The document includes Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod regions, all of which border Ukraine. It also lists Voronezh, Rostov, and Krasnodar regions, all of which bordered Ukraine before 2014, when Crimea decided to join Russia in a referendum and the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics declared independence from Kiev.

Zelensky claimed the population of these territories had been subjected to "the policy of forced Russification," and ordered the government in Kiev to develop "an action plan" to "preserve" Ukrainian "national identity" in Russia.

The decree calls on Russia to "provide Ukrainians living in its territories" with access to education in the Ukrainian language, as well as access to Ukrainian-language mass media and special "civil, social, cultural, and religious rights."


Zelensky and his handlers demands from Russia what they themselves do not wish to give their own population including the minorities in Western Ukraine.


Moscow has never imposed any restrictions on the Ukrainian language. Russia's education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, said in July 2022 that "no one was banning" it, and that it would be taught in schools where necessary.

Zelensky's decree also tasks the Ukrainian government and the National Security and Defense Council with "collecting and studying facts and testimonies about crimes" supposedly committed against Ukrainians in Russia throughout its history, as well as "countering disinformation and propaganda" about Ukrainian history, allegedly spread by Moscow.

The president also instructed the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences to "prepare materials" on the "thousand-year-old history" of Ukraine and distribute them around the world. The country's educational programs and textbooks should also contain "the true history of ethnic Ukrainians," Zelensky added.

The Russian regions mentioned in the decree have repeatedly been targeted by Ukrainian missile and drone attacks as well as shelling since the start of hostilities with Moscow in February 2022. Zelensky's decree comes just weeks after Kiev launched a major attack on the city of Belgorod. The strike, which according to the Russian Defense Ministry involved the use of banned cluster munitions, claimed the lives of 25 people, including children, and left more than a hundred injured.

In mid-January, a child was injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Voronezh - the capital of another region Zelensky claimed was "historically inhabited by Ukrainians."

The developments come amid Kiev's attempts to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) - the country's biggest Christian denomination, which is reported to have more than 8,000 parishes. The Ukrainian government has long accused it of having ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Ukraine in its pre-2014 borders was largely "created" by the Soviet leadership over the course of the 20th century. Historically, "Ukrainian lands" included a much smaller territory, he has argued.

When the Cossacks living on the territory of modern Ukraine broke away from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century following the Bogdan Khmelnitsky uprising and asked the then-Tsardom of Russia to take them in, the territory they controlled effectively amounted to present-day Kiev, Chernigov, and Zhitomir regions - three areas in the north of Ukraine, the Russian president said in 2022.
3) Going back in history, which country lost the most people during WWI? The Wiki says it was Russia, (2,840,000 to 3,394,369) which at the time included much of Ukraine. The Russian Civil War (7 November 1917 - 25 October 1922), required from both sides a combined 3 million lives. During the Soviet Union and WWII the number of lives lost was about 27 million.

Given that Experts warned for decades that NATO expansion would lead to war: Why did nobody listen to them? and that NATO-Russia confrontation 'could last decades' - Stoltenberg it is too early to say how many lives will be lost in the current conflict which so far has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of refugees and displaced people.

There is also the possibility that the loss of life will spread. One indication might be: EU lost $1.5 trillion in revenue due to anti-Russia sanctions and the tendency among the countries which finance the war in Ukraine to defund their own social services and infrastructure projects in favour of military related expenses.