Guy's Books and Thoughts

This book is the biography of Ranald MacDonald, who got snuck into
Japan in 1849 during its period of �isolation.� He was born to a
Scottish father and Chinook Indian daughter of Chief Comcomly, in what
is now Astoria, Oregon.

The book has all sorts of interesting connections between people. For
example Karl (Charles) Gutzlaff, a German missionary to China,
translated the Bible into Japanese with the help of three shipwrecked
Japanese sailors. Backtracking a bit, these three sailors landed on
the coast of the Pacific Northwest, where they were first found by
Makah Indians. Then they were turned over to the Hudson Bay Company
about 1833-1834. The sailors did try to return to Japan on the United
States ship MORRISON. But the ship was fired upon. So they could
not return home because Japan, with few exceptions, would not allow
its people to return home. I think these sailors found themselves in
Singapore where they met Karl Gutzlaff, and helped him translate the
Bible into Japanese. The quality of the translation was not that
good, since Gutzlaff was a scholar of Chinese, not Japanese. Plus
these fisherman were not highly educated.

Mr. MacDonald decided to go to sea to seek his fortune. It was a
sense of adventure which prompted him to try and sneak into Japan.
There may be a hint of missionary zeal as expressed in one of his
writings. He left the ship he was on, in small boat. His plan was to
capsize his boat and pretend to be a shipwrecked sailor. He brought
some books and supplies with him on the short voyage. He landed on
Rishirii Island, near the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido.
From Northern Japan, he was eventually transported to the city of
Nagasaki on Kyushu, the Southern most major island. There he spent
the remainder of his incarceration, until released in 1849. The
Japanese were eager to learn English. Up until roughly MacDonald�s
time, the only Western power the Japanese officially dealt with were
the Dutch. But Japan began to realize that the British were a force
to be reckoned with. One of their ships sailed into Nagasaki causing
a bit of a scare. Also the Dutch, in their annual report to the
Japanese told how the British defeated the Chinese in the Opium wars.
In addition, American sailors from whaling vessels began to wash up on
Japanese shores. Japan had begun to relax it�s isolation policy a
bit, by incarcerating and deporting people instead of executing them
outright. Sometimes when a ship needed supplies, the Japanese would
give them the supplies and send them on their way.

It was into this world the MacDonald found himself. While the
Japanese did not want outsiders to learn their language, they wanted
their interpreters to learn the languages of other nations. Mr.
MacDonald was an educated native English speaker. This was something
they lacked. They had interpreters who could speak Dutch. And they
even could even consult a Dutchman who knew English, but no native
speakers.

Mr. MacDonald taught the Japanese interpreters English. One of the
interpreters, a Mr. Moriyama, later served as one of the interpreters,
when Commodore Perry sailed into what is now modern day Tokyo Bay. I
think Mr. Schodt�s book shows that one person
can make a difference in the outcome or direction of history.

THIS IS A MUST READ BOOK. The author was Terri Schiavo�s attorney in
the last months of her life. I found his comments about
the �Persistent Vegetative State� to be most informative and
enlightening. He is saying that diagnosis is NOT some carved in
stone, infallible judgment by the doctor. In the back of the book he
recounts cases of supposedly �hopeless� cases of people who made some
recovery. One such person, later went on to compete in triathlons.

The author pointed out that Michael Schiavo restricted the flow of
information. He restricted the visitors and would not allow cameras.
It is interesting that these crusading journalists who boast of their
bravery somehow meekly complied with Michael Schiavo�s orders. I
guess the journalists only want to use the cameras when it comes to
attacking George Bush. When it comes to the starvation of an innocent
women, too bad. The lack of cameras made me think �Michael, what are
you hiding.� George Felos stated how beautiful Terri Schiavo looked
as she was dying. Then why not bring in the cameras?

In this case it looks as if two basic elements were overlooked: money
and another woman Good grief there are numbers of men who killed
their wives or girlfriends for on or the other. In this case Michael
Schiavo got both money and the other woman as his new wife. Spare me
the rhetoric of Michael Schiavo as the loving husband. How about
sadistic bastard? To me the act which says it all was his initial
refusal of communion. I suppose the author does not come from a
sacramental background. So he probalby did not realize the
significance of Michael�s refusal.

I wish President Bush and Governor Bush had been more forceful about
the matter. But apparently they felt they had to honor the judge�s
decision. But there is historical precedence where the president
ignored the judges order. Lincoln ignored the pro Confederate rulings
of the Supreme Court during the Civil War. Congress makes the laws,
the judiciary is supposed to correctly interpret the law, and the
executive branch is supposed to enforce the law.

If one were to read what the Nazi�s were really about, one would see
that Howard Dean and the pro euthanasia crowd were closer to the
Nazi�s than George Bush. The Nazi�s did not say �look at us evil
Nazis committing evil deeds.� Like the euthanasia crowd of today the
Nazi thought they were being �humane� by eliminating sick and disabled
people. I believe a chilling parallel to the Terri Schiavo case can
be found in the essay �Geranium in the window� in Frederic Werthan�s
book A SIGN FOR CAIN. The essay provides a disturbing look at how
children were mistreated and starved to death. The book is out of
print. But I think it can be found in university libraries. Anyway I
will give George and Jeb Bush credit for trying to save Terri�s life.

I should point out Terri Schiavo was not simply a �tool of the
Christian right.� Ralph Nader and Jesse Jackson also favored sparing
Terri�s life. Nat Hentoff, an atheistic member of the ACLU also spoke
out in favor of Terri. So people from opposite sides of the
political spectrum did speak out in favor of Terri, not just members
of the �Christian right.� This was not a matter of imposing morality,
but saving an innocent woman�s life.