Day: June 17, 2004

Following the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Europe, let’s not forget that WWII had a warfront in the Pacific side, and so the NY Times reports how, with less fanfare, Saipan of the Northern Mariana Islands honors the D-Days of the Pacific. The article notes;

[M]any Saipan veterans and their supporters gathered here on Tuesday said that just as in World War II, the American popular mind continued to relegate the Pacific theater to second-class status…. Jerry Facey, co-chairman of the Saipan’s 60th Anniversary Committee, said that during two years of organizing Tuesday’s events, he received a long series of “no’s” from Washington politicians and Pentagon brass who were invited to attend the ceremonies. Recalling the last big commemoration that he organized, he said: “It is just like the 50th, we were overshadowed by Normandy. We are so remote, people just forget.”

Recollecting the liberation of a region from Japanese occupation, and reflecting after 60 years of lives lost and lives changed:

On Sunday, a memorial was dedicated to the 933 indigenous people who died in the World War II battles and their aftermath.

On Tuesday, this new monument was at the end of the short parade, which saw some of the octogenarian veterans walking, others riding while standing in the backs of two balky World War II-era military trucks.

“It’s changed a lot, but we sure love it,” Hal Olsen, a Navy veteran from New Jersey, shouted down from one truck, referring to Saipan, and perhaps to the open-air thrill of riding in the back of a truck.

Hmm. Must be very nice there at this time of year, a nice one more chance for the veterans to enjoy paradise and recall how it was once not paradise.

The NY news cable channel NY1 is having “Brooklyn Week.” Such a nice coverage, especially the stuff on Brooklyn cuisine, (Brooklyn being a place of different restaurants and livelihoods).

Fascinating story on Simmie Knox, the artist who painted the official White House portraits of the Clintons – who just happens to be the first African-American commissioned to paint a presidential portrait.

Interesting article in Law.com – top-notched law professors being poached, traded, and signed like they’re professional athletes, and the law school deans or presidents who talk about this. Amusing.

Law.com also had this inspiring article about Vanita Gupta, a young Asian-American attorney, and the progress of her legal career.

And so there you go. Some stuff.