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Japan would be forced into a "fairly early attack" to seize<br />
British Malayan rubber and Dutch Indonesian oil, and that<br />
an attack on the U.S. Philippine colony was "certain."<br />
(13)<br />
The New Deal wanted and expected not only an<br />
all-out war for the Pacific, but a "surprise" Japanese attack<br />
as well. Their only disappointment on Dec. 7, 1941<br />
was that instead of concentrating on the Philippines, the<br />
Japanese military struck first at Hawaii. There was no<br />
question of "self-defense" there. The Pacific war was the<br />
mutual child of imperialist competition and imperialist appetites.<br />
To President Roosevelt the prize was worth the<br />
risks. China was his first goal, just as it was for Japanese<br />
imperialism. A friend of the President recalls: "At the<br />
White House, the making of FDR's China policy was<br />
almost as great a secret as the atom bomb. " Roosevelt saw<br />
that the sun had set on the old European colonial rule in<br />
Asia, and that the dynamic expansion of the small<br />
Japanese Empire proved how weak and rotten European<br />
power was. In his mind, he saw that if China were<br />
nominally free but under U.S. hegemony (via the Kuomintang<br />
regime), it could be the center for Amerikan takeover<br />
of all Asia.*<br />
because the war was also a patriotic war of national<br />
defense in some nations. Both China and the U.S.S.R., invaded<br />
and partially occupied by Axis Powers, made<br />
alliance with competing imperialists of the Allied Powers.<br />
There is nothing surprising or incorrect about that. Taking<br />
advantage of this the revisionists claimed that democraticminded<br />
people in all nations should therefore support the<br />
Allied Powers. But why should the anti-colonial movement<br />
in an oppressed nation that was invaded and occupied by<br />
the U.S. (or France or Great Britain) support its own oppressor?<br />
One might just as well argue that the Chinese people<br />
should have supported the Japanese occupation during<br />
WWII because Mexico was oppressed by U.S. imperialism<br />
(in fact, the Japanese Empire advanced such lines of propaganda).<br />
Contrary to the revisionists, World War I1 was<br />
not a war of "democracy vs. fascism," but a complex<br />
struggle between imperialist powers, and between<br />
capitalism and socialism.<br />
The New Deal was prepared to do whatever<br />
necessary to modernize and stabilize U.S. imperialism's<br />
home base, because it was playing for the biggest stakes in<br />
the world. In the Pittsburgh Courier's words: "The stake<br />
is the right to EXPLOIT the darker peoples of the world. "<br />
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, after<br />
meeting with Roos.evelt and his staff, wrote a British<br />
general in some alarm: "I must enlighten you about the<br />
American view. China bulks as large in the minds of many<br />
of them as Great Britain. " (14)<br />
Some confusion about the nature of the Second<br />
Imperialist World War has arisen among comrades here<br />
*FDR was always appreciative of China's potential value<br />
because of his family's direct connection. Roosevelt often<br />
mentioned his family's long "friendship" with China -<br />
on his mother's side, the Delano family fortune was made<br />
through a leading role in the opium trade in 19th century<br />
China.<br />
3. The War On The "Home Front"<br />
As Euro-Amerikan settlers gathered themselves to<br />
conquer Asia, Europe, Afrika, and hold .onto Latin<br />
Amerika, they started their war effort by attacking the oppressed<br />
closest at hand - those already within the U.S.<br />
Empire. In Puerto Rico, the colonial occupation tightened<br />
its already deadly hold on the masses, so that their very<br />
lives could be squeezed out to help pay for the U.S. war effort.<br />
It is to the eternal honor of the Nationalist Party,<br />
already terribly wounded by repression, that it resisted this<br />
imperialist mobilization as best it could.<br />
The Nationalist Party denounced the military conscription<br />
of Puerto Rican youth, who were to be cannon<br />
fodder f ~ the r same U.S. Army that was oppressing their<br />
own nation. On the eve of Selective Service registration in<br />
1940, the Nationalist Party declared: "If Puerto Ricans are<br />
the first line of defense of democracy in America, we claim<br />
the right to fight in the front line and for that reason we demand<br />
that democracy b~ a reality in Puerto Rico, recogniz-<br />
ing our national sovereignty. " (15) The newspapers on the<br />
Island were afraid to print Nationalist statements for fear<br />
of U.S. prosecution - a fear that the U.S. Government<br />
said was well founded. (16)<br />
Some members of the Nationalist Party began<br />
openly refusing to register for the draft. Juan Estrada Garcia<br />
told the jury when he was tried that his concern was for<br />
"the masses who live dying of malaria, hookworm and<br />
tuberculosis for lack of food." (17) This was a just concern.<br />
Puerto Ricans had the highest death rate in the<br />
Western Hemisphere, thanks to the "Yanki" occupation<br />
that robbed them of everything needed for life. Every year<br />
3,000 died from tuberculosis alone out of a population of 2<br />
million. Over half were totally destitute, on relief. (18)<br />
80% of the population had hookworm, and the life expectancy<br />
was only 46 years. Small wonder, when even those<br />
lucky ones who had jobs didn't earn enough to ensure sur-<br />
94 vival - in 1941, the jibaros (the sugar cane workers)