A new BBC documentary explores a little-known chapter of WW2 history:
“The Fall of Singapore: The Great Betrayal,” a BBC documentary now airing in Britain, reveals that not only did British officials provide the Japanese with all the technology and know-how they used to attack Pearl Harbor, but that for 20 years, a distinguished British peer fed them so much crucial military information that, without his actions, the attack might never have happened.
In 1919, William Forbes-Sempill, a high-level wing commander whose father had been an aide to King George V, led a mission to Japan — then a British ally — to help them develop an air base.
But when Japan developed their own aircraft carrier several years later, Britain, at the urging of the United States, broke the alliance. Sempill took a job advising other foreign governments on aircraft sales, but also secretly continued assisting Japan.
The other “betrayer” in the documentary is Frederick Joseph Rutland, a pilot who provided the Japanese with useful information about aircraft carrier warfare. In the Independent’s review of the documentary, the class distinction between Rutland and Forbes-Sempill is noted:
Forbes-Sempill, in particular, seemed to occupy that murky no man’s land that still exists between the promotion of the British arms industry and pre-emptive assistance to the enemy.
He also exemplified another national trait that hasn’t entirely disappeared, which is the tendency of the British upper crust to look after their own when a chap is unfortunate enough to back the wrong horse. Forbes-Sempill assisted the Japanese with their anti-espionage activities. He was also an anti-Semite, with ideological reasons for sympathising with the Axis powers, but when he was caught making calls to the Japanese after the outbreak of hostilities, Churchill intervened to soften the terms of his punishment. While Rutland, who’d worked his way up through the ranks, was interned, Forbes-Sempill was offered the choice of resigning his Naval commission or taking up a position in northern Scotland, where he could do no harm. Floreat Etona, I guess.
The full documentary can be viewed online (requires UK IP address – use google to find other viewing options).
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An Irish exchange student has been found dead in Tokyo:
“Nicola Furlong (21), a Dublin City University student, travelled to Tokyo on an exchange programme last October and was studying in the city.
However, she was found dead in a hotel room yesterday after attending a concert.”
The Tokyo Shimbun reports that two American citizens, a 23-year-old dancer named James Blackston (ジェイムス・ブラックストン) and an unnamed 19-year-old, have been arrested. Police believe that the men sexually assaulted Furlong and/or another woman. Marks found on her neck indicate that she was strangled.
According to the article, witnesses say that Furlong had been drinking alcohol with another female exchange student in Shibuya on the night of the 24th. They became so drunk they couldn’t walk (ファーロングさんと女子留学生は歩けないほど酔っていて), and the two men were seen pushing/carrying them into a taxi. Inside the taxi, they allegedly fondled the girls. The taxi took them to a hotel in Shinjuku, where Furlong was found dead the next morning.
Japanese netizens have googled around and posted this link (cached) on 2channel, which seems to advertise a professional dancer named James “Kingtight” Blackston (pictured above) who supposedly appeared in music videos for the Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, and J. Lo. Another website lists a James Blackston as a dancer for a Omarion & Marques Houston performance in Osaka. (Blackston was not in the hotel room at the time the woman’s body was found, but because the 19-year-old is considered a minor under Japanese law, the media can only report Blackston’s name.)
Update: Here is a little more information, from the Mainichi Shimbun.
The two men — the 19-year-old musician and 23-year-old dancer James Blackston — were arrested on suspicion of giving drinks with high alcoholic content to Furlong’s friend, a 21-year-old Irishwoman, leading her to fall unconscious and then groping her inside a taxi, the officials said.
The two have denied the allegations, they said. But footage from a surveillance camera in the taxi shows they were touching the unconscious woman, according to investigations.
Furlong and the female friend went to a live house in Tokyo’s Koto Ward for a concert on Wednesday night. They were approached afterward by the two men, they had a meal together and then went to the hotel where the men were staying, they said.
As the two men had booked separate rooms, Furlong went into the U.S. teen’s room and her friend to the other man’s room.
At around 3:20 a.m. Thursday, a guest complained to the hotel that a loud noise could be heard from one of the rooms. A hotel employee went to the room and found the woman believed to be the Irish student on the floor lying near the bed face up and the U.S. teen standing nearby, they said.
It should also be clarified that the arrests reported in the Japanese media were for sexual assault, not for murder.
Update 2: Cyzo has a story in Japanese about how James Blackston was a “famous” dancer. The article contains the following quote from police:
「アルコール度数の高い酒を飲ませてホテルに誘うのは来日するアメリカ人タレントによくある手口、特にヒップホップやR＆B系のコンサート界隈では被害の話もよく耳にする」
American performers who come to Japan will often get girls to drink strong alcoholic beverages and then take the girls back to their hotel rooms. It is especially common with Hip Hop / R&B concerts.
According to the Japanese media, the men were arrested for a specific type of sexual assault – “準強制わいせつ罪.” Wikipedia defines it as sexual assault that occurs when a victim is rendered unsound of mind or unable to resist.
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The Christian Science Monitor reports on yet another episode in the ongoing tale of Korean ultra-nationalists who want the rest of the world to care about the Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima/Dokdo) :
“The latest ploy: a Napa Valley wine produced by Korean-American dentist Ahn Jae-hyun at his Dokdo Winery that uses the island post code as its moniker.
Illustrating the fervor with which such attempts to garner attention for Korea’s sovereign claims over the outcrop, when the wine debuted on the Korean market the local distributor pledged to donate all proceeds to nonprofit groups promoting Korean sovereign claims in other countries.”
Meanwhile, in Australia, Sydney International Airport has suspended a Korean ultra-nationalist ad campaign after receiving a complaint from the local Japanese consulate. The campaign was displaying large images of the Liancourt Rocks declaring them to be Korean territory in the “East Sea.” To the uninformed, it might look like a normal tourism ad. Airport authorities probably accepted the ad campaign without realizing that it was actually the work of anti-Japanese organizations that are obsessed with territorial disputes.
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A screen capture from a Japanese TV program comparing the heights of Japan’s most famous towers:
Tokyo Sky Tree, Tokyo Tower, Nagoya TV Tower, and Sapporo TV Tower are broadcasting towers that double as tourist attractions. Osaka’s Tsutenkaku is…just a tourist attraction.
[Hat tip to Daniel]
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