Here Comes the Neighbourhood

            On Tuesday morning I woke up at 5:30 in a rare case it seems of having slept through the alarm. I made up for the lost time by only singing one verse and one chorus of my songs during rehearsal.

I finished placing all the chords for “J’suis snob” by Boris Vian but I’ll have to run through the song with my guitar a couple of times to make sure.

            I finished posting the lyrics and chords to “Les capotes anglaises” by Serge Gainsbourg and “The English Condoms” by me on Christian’s Translations.

            I finally finished washing the floor at the northeast corner of my living room. This was especially satisfying because now I don’t have to pull the set of shelves out anymore and I can start putting everything back on it. Pulling it out meant I had to remove my stereo and make sure none of the wires became undone. Then I would have to slide it back into the corner and be even more careful about the wires.

            I made a salad for lunch with leftover sautéed red pepper and onion, grape tomatoes, radishes and cucumber. I dressed it with flaxseed oil and balsamic vinegar.

            I did some exercises and took a bike ride to Bloor and Ossington, south to Queen and then home.

            I got caught up on my journal.

            I worked on “My Blood in a Bug", which I don't know is going to be a long prose piece or a collection of poetry yet.

            I had three little potatoes, a pork chop and some gravy for dinner while watching parts 24 and 25 of Victory at Sea.

            Part 24 was about the building of the 1726 kilometre Ledo Road to China in 1942 through what used to be Burma and is now Myanmar. It was an international effort by soldiers freeing up the jungle and by engineers building the road and the pipeline. But before this the documentary goes back to how it started with Japan conquering first China and then Burma to take the raw materials it needed to conquer the world. When Japan occupies China the Chinese mass migrate inland to Chunking.  The Chinese have no weapons to match those of Japan and so they instigate a scorched earth policy to rob Japan of its resources. Japan conquers Thailand without a fight, thereby cutting China off from her allies. The Allied leaders meet at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec to plan how to reconnect with China. The old route was to ship supplies to the port of Rangoon and transport them by rail to Lashio but Japan has cut that route off. The Allies ship supplies by rail from Calcutta to Ledo and then begin building the road to Lashio and then to Chunking. The road was built by 1500 US soldiers, 60% of which were African American. There’s a grand celebration in Chunking when the first convoy arrives. The Ledo Road was renamed the Stilwell Road by the Chinese in honour of US General Stilwell. Much of the road now has been taken over by jungle.

            Part 25 was about the final kamikaze attack April 1 to June 22, 1945 on the Allied fleet as it conquered Okinawa. 350 suicide planes were involved and they caused one seventh of all the US casualties of the entire war. The aircraft carrier Intrepid was struck by five kamikaze planes. During the battle the US President Roosevelt dies back in Washington. This was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific theatre. 150,000 Okinawans were killed, which was half the population. Some of them were killed by US soldiers who couldn't distinguish the Japanese from the natives. 90% of the buildings were destroyed along with most of the cultural artefacts. Okinawans were drafted and boys 14-17 were put on the front line. Half of them were killed, some in suicide attacks against tanks. 77,000 Japanese soldiers died and 14,000 US soldiers. More mental health issues arose from Okinawa than any battle in the Pacific.