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When the skittish Turks turned tail and fled from Tirgoviste that day, there was one man among them who had tried to rally them back in place, but to no avail. He knew and understood the mind games of men like Dracula; he remembered his own father, the Dragon, telling him that a good general can cause an enemy more discombobulation by using his brain over his blade. This man was none other than Radu, Dracula's younger brother.
Having remained in Turkey all these years, Radu had become fully indoctrinated into the Ottoman culture and its army, and now served as an officer in the Janissary Corps. Forced to ride back to the Danube with his retreating company, Radu was angry and disenchanted that one bugaboo trick caused by his murderous sibling had literally stymied the advance of his proud (but superstitious) adopted countrymen. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Radu was the son of the Dragon, too, considering himself every bit as wily as Dracula, and he was determined not to crawl back to Turkeyland empty-handed. Had Tirgoviste fallen, he was to have been its commander; with Dracula dead, he was to have been the Prince of Wallachia, That would have made him the Ottoman Empire's first crowned power in Romania. The honor it would have meant! But...he wasn't through yet.
When the sultan and his forces returned below the Danube, Radu remained behind, ready to play a mind game of his own. With the help of ambassadors already planted among the elite d'corps of Wallachia, Radu wiggled his way into the circle of the discontented boyar class who had been wanting for years to, but had no army, oust Dracula. Radu offered them a deal that seemed to accommodate everyone: Support him for the throne of Wallachia, and he would promise them 1) a truce with the Turks so that no more bloodshed would be spilled on Wallachian soil; 2) the return of their gentry-class power that his brother had taken away from them; and 3) his brother's exile. To the exuberant boyars, this also meant an end to the fearsome impalings, the wretched nights wondering if and when they and their families would be hauled out to die like dogs. They threw their entire support to Radu.
Dracula learned that his brother was in the vicinity, and since there was no love lost between the bothers, suspected him of intrigue. He knew that he had allied himself with the Turks, but since his scouts had not reported a Turkish force anywhere near Trigoviste, Dracula made a mistake: He let his guard down. Perhaps he had convinced himself that one son of the Dragon could not bare-face betray another. He failed, then, to heed obvious signs until the revolt began. The boyars, assisted with a brigade of Turks who materialized seemingly out of air, attacked the Prince's Palace.
But, Dracula, his wife and a tiny group of his most faithful followers happened to be vacationing in his castle north of the city at the time. When Radu discovered this, he hastened his forces to Poenari, across the Arges River from the castle, and commenced a cannonade. Dracula's few gunners were no match for Radu's polished artillery and the walls of the castle began to chip away. After three days of incessant drilling, a courier brought Dracula a message from Radu warning that unless he surrender immediately, he and all the inhabitants within the walls would be impaled upon capture. Dracula's wife, frightened, threw herself off the tower, choosing suicide to the bleak alternative.
His reign over, his wife gone, the beaten prince scrambled for the salle-port, which led to the banks of the Arges. Under the cover of flora and darkness, he sidestepped a rush of Turks fording the river for a frontal assault. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Before the siege had begun, Dracula had been planning to visit Hungary's latest monarch, Matthias Corvinus, to establish relations for another crusade against the Turks. The king was wont to spend his leisure in the Carpathian Mountains, in Brasov, where Dracula knew he was at the moment. With the situation changed in Wallachia, the fugitive hoped that Matthias, who was the son of his late ally, White Knight Jonas Hunyadi, would give him political refuge.
Keeping ahead of his traitor-brother's pursuit, Dracula headed northwest towards Brasov. Crossing the wild Transylvanian Alps, he found shelter in an abandoned castle near Dobrins. (It is interesting to note that this sanctuary was not far south of the famed Borgo Pass, where Bram Stoker placed his vampire's castle.) Fed and clothed by loyal peasants who knew and respected the "Turk slayer," he eventually moved on, succored by sheepherders, until he reached Brasov.
But, the greeting he received by Matthias was not the one he had hoped for. The king had him arrested and imprisoned.
The reason for Matthias' action was, as most dealings in Romania were at the time, political. Radu's strong aristocratic backing in Wallachia had helped him ingratiate himself with old European bloodlines who preferred his reform government to his brother's dictatorship. As King of Hungary, Matthias felt compelled to play a level field and avoid being the dissident — that is, supporting an unwanted, dethroned prince.
For months, political prisoner Dracula's new home was the medieval Solomon's Tower, a penal fortress in the Visegrad Palace, located in the south of Hungary. Though forsaken, Dracula could look out at the beautiful landscape surrounding his place of confinement. Columnist Caroline Wren, who toured the site for Central Europe Online, describes the scenery: "The view afforded by the climb up to the citadel is superb. Its position, spectacularly resting on a crag and overlooking Nagymaros and the Borzsony Mountains on the east bank of the Danube Bend, makes it well worth the climb."
Confined to his cell, the former prince practiced a strange habit of impaling spiders, roaches and mice that he would trap. According to prison guards, he would skewer them with slivers of wood pried from the floorboards of his cell and display them, trophies, on his windowsill. He'd sink into a reverie after stabbing them, gazing in awe at their tiny twitches until they finally lay still. (In Dracula, the novel, a psychotic character called Renfield, confined to an asylum, captures and devours insects; some he displays before consuming them. Coincidence?)
After Radu was safely on the throne in Wallachia and the furor of Dracula's overthrow died down, the terms of the Impaler's "imprisonment" faded along with it. While legally remaining in custody of the king over the next decade, Dracula was free to come and go in Transylvania, providing he keep en communicado with King Matthias or his administrators. Quickly removed from the dreary convict's ward and given an apartment in the palace, Dracula's image blossomed from state prisoner to more of a royal confidante. His presence at balls, social dinners and, after a time, even chamber meetings became apparent.
Early in his "incarceration," he was introduced to the lovely, statuesque Countess Ilona Szilagy, cousin of King Mathias. The king obviously sanctioned the romance, for the couple quickly became engaged. The betrothal, without a doubt, skyrocketed Dracula's influence in the nobility had caused his detractors to muzzle their opinions. It also seems likely that Dracula must have been on his best behavior — no fits of angst or anger, no impalings — for the marriage, one of noblesse oblige, seems to have worked very well. The couple lived in quarters in Badu, Transylvania, given to them by the king, and within three years Ilona gave her husband two strapping sons, one named Vlad, the other whose name remains uncertain.
But Dracula, husband and father aside, yearned for the war-like times. And they were coming again — fast. Radu had turned out to be a disappointment, conceding more to the Turks and less to the boyars to whom he had promised a slow disenfranchisement from Turkey. Many currently in high powers, from King Matthias to the prince of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, had taken personal affront with Radu's treachery against his native Romania and against everything the great Dragon had stood for. But no one was more opposed to Radu than his own insulted brother, Dracula. These three men conceived his downfall.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
German committee in Paris 4.ger.0003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
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THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
505. Ambassador Horikiri Urges Japan to Decorate Outstanding Italians Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
In view of the strained feelings existing on the part of the Italian government, on October 9, 1941 Ambassador Horikiri urged approval of his plan to confer Japanese decorations on various outstanding Italians,[1225] and particularly on Mr. Guido Rocco, chief of the foreign newspaper division of the Italian Propaganda Office. Mr. Rocco, who held several Italian medals of honor had been previously decorated by the Japanese government because of his services in behalf of Japan at the time of the signing of the Tripartite Pact and was considered of value to the Empire.[1226]
506. Ambassador Horikiri Reports on the Italian Economic Situation
On October 14, 1941 Ambassador Horikiri reported in detail concerning the economic situation in Italy.[1227] Pointing out that the grain harvest would be better than that of the preceding year, he indicated that the need for supplying the occupied areas outside of Italy was more difficult than the problem of supplying the people within the country. A rationing system was being applied to various foods, and government control of some commodities was in operation and would be extended. Non-defense industries were being curtailed, iron and oil supplies were limited, and great numbers of skilled workers were going to Germany. On the other hand stocks were going up, and the sale of government bonds was booming.[1228]
According to Ambassador Horikiri, there was much unrest in Italy because of the increasing economic controls of the government, but strong measures were being taken to reassure the people and remove their fears.[1229 Speculation concerning the ]internal collapse of Italy and rumors sponsored by the Allies relating to the possibility of a separate peace with Italy were deemed by the Japanese Ambassador to be unworthy of consideration.
Government officials in Rome were considerably heartened by the progress of the Russian war and were anticipating considerable new gains in the Near East. It was also expected that the difficult Mediterranean and northern African problems would be solved in the near future. In addition, there was a tendency to believe that the United States would not go beyond the position which she was now taking.[1230] However, Ambassador Horikiri commented that the anti-Italian feeling in Croatia had not become less strong than in the past.[1231]
507. Italian Envoy Urges Action by Japan
Mr. Paulucci, head of a recent Italian mission to Japan, informed Ambassador Horikiri on October 14, 1941 of Italy's belief that Japan would enter the war when Germany and Italy attacked Russia. Urging that Japan should strike immediately against Russia, Mr. Paulucci remarked that he had but two fears, one, that Italy and Germany would lose the support of Japan, and the other, that Britain and the United States might attempt to do in the Far East what they had done in the past in Europe. Japan's entrance into the war against Russia did not necessarily mean that the United States would become involved since there was a strong anti-communistic sentiment in the country. Furthermore, he did not believe that the United States had reached the stage where it could effectively fight in the war.
Mr. Paulucci also impressed Ambassador Horikiri with the fact that after Russia had been defeated, Japan would have access by land to the Axis countries and to many essential materials. Russia's resorting to guerilla warfare would not be too difficult a problem to solve once military supplies had been cut off by Japan.[1232]
[1225] III, 950.
[1226] III, 951.
[1227] III, 952.
[1228] Ibid.
[1229] III, 953.
[1230] Ibid.
[1231] Ibid.
[1232] III, 954.
[253]
In regard to Japan's plans to move southward, Mr. Paulucci explained that he felt Hitler had placed too much stock in the invasion of the British Isles, since England would lose her main fighting power only if she were to be defeated in the Near East, the Mediterranean area and in Egypt. He suggested, therefore, that it was of the utmost importance to have the German government realize at this time the importance of:
(1) The manipulation of Turkey;
(2) The military moves in the Near East, Mediterranean and Egypt;
(3) Access to the Near Eastern oil.
With the accomplishment of these aims and the subsequent joining of the Axis powers by land and sea, not even the United States could compete with the power available to the Tripartite Powers.[1233]
508. Ambassador Horikiri Objects to Ending Japanese Trade with Italy
On October 15, 1941 Ambassador Horikiri referred to the recent closing, with the exception of Mitsubishi, of all Japanese houses in Rome as compared with a mere reduction of Japanese personnel in Berlin. The Ambassador stressed the necessity of keeping the various businesses open at this time in order not to slight the Italians.[1234]
Ambassador Horikiri also encouraged Japan to renew the Italian-East African compensatory trade agreement for a year.[1235] An agreement, which would be effective from June 30, 1941 to June 30, 1942, was achieved on October 17, 1941.[1236]
[1233] Ibid.
[1234] III, 955.
[1235] III, 956.
[1236] III, 957.
[254]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
PART C—JAPANESE DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
(j) Japanese-French Relations
509. Japan Requests Increase in Japan-Thailand Plane Service
Japan had demanded French cooperation in increasing regular plane service from Japan to Thailand, but the French had delayed in replying. According to a Japanese report of August 7, 1941, the French Attache for Air in Tokyo could make the following counter-proposal:
(1) a. Semi-weekly service between Tokyo, Hanoi, and Bangkok.
b. Semi-weekly service between Formosa, Canton, Hanoi and Bangkok. Total of four north-bound lines. (Abandon the line which detoured to Saigon).
c. Bi-weekly seaplane arrivals in Saigon.
(2) a. The French also be permitted to operate the same number of planes over the same course.
b. In order that contact with the French Concession in Shanghai may be established, the French planes be permitted to stop at Shanghai.
c. Materials be made available in Japan.
The French agreed to approve paragraph (1), which was a rewording of Japanese demands, on the condition that the Japanese approve paragraph (2) of the French counter-proposal. However, in retransmitting these terms to Vichy and Hanoi, Foreign Minister Teijiro Toyoda pointed out that paragraph (1) conflicted with the original request made by Japan, and though Japan could not approve points (a) and (b) of paragraph (2), it was willing to make suitable arrangements in regard to point (c).
Foreign Minister Toyoda was anxious that negotiations be conducted along the lines of the original Japanese proposals, and he felt that Hanoi would be the best place in which to conduct them. Since two seaplane trips had already been made to transport a committee for the purpose of establishing definite boundaries, and since several more of these trips would be made, it was necessary that Japan establish a regular seaplane service as soon as possible. Further details in regard to the committee's investigating the boundary were not given at this time.[1237]
510. France Asks Permission to Exchange Soldiers Between Shanghai and French Indo-China
Tokyo announced on August 7, 1941 that, in consideration of France's request to move 350 French soldiers from the Shanghai French Concession to French Indo-China, Foreign Minister Toyoda had granted tacit consent. Although it was difficult to grant such permission to France alone, the Foreign Minister felt that Japan could allow the requested exchange of soldiers in view of the special relationship existing between France and Japan.[1238]
France had also asked that the French language be used for telegraphic communication between Japan and French Indo-China, in addition to Japanese, English, and German. Japan's "special consideration" to France in granting both of these requests was to be stressed when the recognition of the Nanking regime was discussed with Vice Premier Jean Francois Darlan, the Japanese Ambassador to Vichy was advised.[1239]
[1237] III, 958.
[1238] III, 959.
[1239] III, 960.
[255]
511. Japan Insists That France Recognize the Wang Regime
Japan had insisted that France recognize Wang Ching-wei's government on the occasion of the signing of the Franco-Japanese agreement on July 29, 1941, but Vice Premier Darlan had promised only to give due consideration to the matter. Questioned by Ambassador Sotomatsu Kato on August 2, 1941, French Council President Bunoir Messien had replied that this question should not be discussed until public excitement, aroused as a result of the French Indo-Chinese question, had quieted down.
On August 5, 1941, calling on Vice Premier Darlan, whom he found to be away, Ambassador Kato had instead interviewed Acting Vice Minister Ernest Lagarde. The Japanese Ambassador was again advised that although Vice Premier Darlan was not opposed to the recognition, he felt that the matter should be shelved for two or three months. But Ambassador Kato replied that although the recognition "affects but one part of the Far East, the realization of this matter is of the utmost importance" and requested that France reach a speedy decision.[1240]
512. Japan Demands Further French "Cooperation"
On August 8, 1941 a Japanese representative in Shanghai, presumably Consul General Tateki Horiuchi, pointed out that the lack of a definite policy in regard to French rights and interests in the various parts of China was confusing to Japanese officials. Since Japan had succeeded in getting the French to agree to the joint defense of French Indo-China, he thought it best to make France adopt a policy of cooperation in respect to settling the China incident. The three principal points of his proposed cooperative agreement were: (1) that the French recognize the People's Government, thereby making the position of the French officials in China clear and their exercise of power easier, (2) that France agree to Japan's right to supervise the methods of guarding French concessions, controlling materials, using French currency, and to accept the People's Government's right to make proposals concerning them, and (3) that the French withdraw their garrisons or use them jointly with Japanese garrisons for defense. He remarked that in adjusting French relations with regard to the China incident, it would be unrealistic for Japan to use gentle methods since it had just exercised strong pressure in settling the French Indo-China question.[1241]
513. Japan Attempts to Limit Its Exchange Agreement with France
After Tokyo had granted special consideration in the interchange of French troops, Consul Horiuchi in Shanghai was disturbed to learn that the French request included relief of French forces in Tientsin and Hankow as well as in Shanghai.[1242] Pointing out that the original French request and the Japanese reply had referred only to the relief of the Shanghai detachment, he asked that the inconsistency between the requests made by the French in Shanghai and by the French in Tokyo be investigated.[1243]
514. Japan Plans to Send Investigating Committee to French Indo-China
Mr. Ken Harada, of the Japanese diplomatic staff in Vichy, conferred with General Arnald on August 8, 1941, to request the cooperation of French Indo-Chinese authorities with a Japanese committee of investigation which was being sent into their area. Expressing surprise at the number of people which Japan planned to include in this group, Mr. Arnald declared that he would answer the Japanese request for permission as soon as he had conferred with Colonial Minister Rear Admiral Charles Platon.[1244] On August 12, after Mr. Arnald had announced that
[1240] III, 961.
[1241] III, 962.
[1242] III, 963.
[1243] Ibid.
[1244] III, 964.
[256]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
the French had consented to the proposal submitted by Japan, and had agreed to send instructions to the Governor General in French Indo-China,[1245] Mr. Ken Harada said there was no need for the various stipulations previously requested by the French.
515. Marshal Petain Broadcasts to the French People
After successive French Cabinet conferences, Marshal Philippe Petain spoke at 9:00 p.m. on August 12, 1941 to the whole of France. In his address he warned the French people of their desperate economic and political situation and pleaded for understanding from the United States. Marshal Petain also announced the appointment of Vice Premier Jean Francois Darlan to the post of Minister of National Defense. He aroused a sensation by his statement that the most damage to the work of reconstructing France had been caused by the supporters of the regime of yesteryear and the supporters of the trusts who stood between him and his people, and that in order to break their power, first of all, he must strike their leaders.[1246]
516. Ambassador Kato's Opinions on Conditions in France
The Japanese Ambassador in Vichy intermittently informed his government of the internal conditions and opinions of the people in France. On August 14, 1941 he reported that the situation had grown more and more strained, with a shortage of materials, particularly of food, resulting in economic desperation and an increase in anti-German and anti-Vichy antipathy. Not only were the activities of the Free French and the Communist Party troublesome throughout both the occupied and unoccupied areas, but also the propaganda activities of England, the United States and the DeGaullists had played havoc with the "esprit francais" to such an extent that the Vichy government was beginning to feel that maintaining peace and order might be beyond its power.[1247]
517. Japan Demands Rubber Supply Allotment to the United States
A Japanese demand that 5,000 tons of Indo-Chinese rubber, which had been promised to the United States, be diverted by France to Japan, caused Mr. Harada, the Counsellor at the Vichy Embassy on August 12, 1941, to confer with Mr. Arnald of the Vichy Foreign Office. The French official declared that an agreement with the United States for the rubber had already been signed, and inasmuch as it was necessary that French Indo-China maintain its trade status with America, it would be very difficult to divert the supply to Japan. It was divulged at this time that plans were being made to transport rubber to France by way of South America, and although at least a part of the rubber would have to be diverted to Germany, Mr. Arnald begged that Japan, in her demands on French Indo-China, consider the present poverty of France.[1248]
Possibly as a means of delaying its unavoidable compliance with Japanese demands, France asked that the negotiations be conducted in Tokyo, and protested that before diverting the rubber to Japan, the approval of the American authorities would have to be secured. France also asked that Japan advise the United States of the action which was to be taken.[1249]
Difficulty was foreseen in Japan's paying for the rubber, since France, already holding many transferable yen, was reluctant to receive more of this currency in payment for commodities, and, furthermore, was anxious that Japan speed up its Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire exports to French Indo-China.[1250]
[1245] III, 965.
[1246] III, 966.
[1247] Ibid.
[1248] III, 967.
[1249] III, 968.
[1250] III, 969.
[257]
Finally, French Official Arnald disclosed on August 30, 1941 that as a result of conversations with the United States, it would be possible to transfer the requested 5,000 tons of rubber to Japan. Of the remaining 7 tons of French Indo-China rubber, the French government had decided that 4 tons would be allotted to Germany and 3 tons to Japan. Japan, however, declared that 6 tons of her required rubber would still be lacking, and requested, therefore, that if it were found impossible to ship any part of the French or German allotments for 1941, these quantities also be transferred to Japan.[1251]
518. Japanese Occupation Expenses Create Difficulty in Currency Exchange
To provide funds for the expenses of its occupation troops in French Indo-China, Japan arranged to make piasters[1252] available to its forces through an exchange of currency between the Bank of Indo-China and the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank. However, it was still necessary to work out the details of exchange, and during August, September and October 1941, dispatches pertaining to this matter continued to flow between Vichy and Tokyo, and Hanoi and Tokyo.
On August 16, 1941 Ambassador Kato sent to Tokyo the terms of the exchange agreement which had been presented to him two days before by the French Foreign Office. The payment of occupation expenses was to be left to the Bank of Indo-China and the Bank of Japan, although it was suggested that when Japanese forces needed piasters, they should pay to the Bank of Indo-China the dollars of transferable yen requested by the French government, after which the Bank of Indo-China would pay out an equivalent in piasters.[1253]
On August 18, 1941 the Japanese Finance Ministry declared that Tokyo had been momentarily expecting receipt of funds amounting to 4,500,000 Japanese dollars, which was the payment specified in the text of the joint-defense treaty, to cover military expenses of the Japanese Army of Occupation for August. Japanese military authorities insisted that payment of the August apportionment was to be made by the night of August 16, 1941, and formal representations were to be made to the Governor General of Indo-China for the continuance of conversations on payment terms of the Yokohama Specie Band representatives.[1254]
Because France was not operating with money exported by Japan to French Indo-China, its holdings of transferable yen already amounted to considerable sums. For this reason France was hoping to be paid, to some extent, in gold for materials supplied to Japanese troops at Saigon. However, since France, by September 1, 1941, had consented to accept transferable yen, Ambassador Kato in Vichy asked whether Japan had already agreed to pay the full amount in gold on the spot.[1255]
519. Japan Vetoes a Proposed German Legation in Indo-China
There appeared to be no reason to establish a proposed German delegation in Indo-China, Japan informed its Ambassador in Berlin on August 21, 1941. Japan felt that the German Armistice Commission in France was sufficient, although it had no basic reason to oppose the German move. Should the German government establish such a body despite Japanese opposition, Japan would have to adopt new measures regarding the present Franco-Japanese defense cooperation.[1256]
In discussing Germany's motive for such action, Japan argued that the Germans had acknowleged that they had no political "claims" on French Indo-China, and that it was Japan's intention to give Germany full economic assistance in the matter of supplying necessary com-
[1251] III, 970.
[1252] The piastre, a Thaiese monetary unit, is equivalent to $0.083692 or roughly $.08 of the American dollar.
[1253] III, 971.
[1254] III, 972.
[1255] III, 973.
[1256] III, 974.
[258]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
modities. Foreign Minister Toyoda claimed that since the establishment of a German agency in French Indo-China would needlessly complicate the "status" of French Indo-China, Japan could not favor the proposed plan. For these reasons, he asked that Germany reconsider its proposal.[1257]
Japan also informed its representatives both in Hanoi and Berlin that in view of the relationship existing between Japan and Indo-China, the Japanese government should be notified in case French Indo-China entered into any new permanent political relationship with another country. In this matter, it would be proper for Germany to notify the Japanese government in advance.[1258]
520. Japan Demands French Concurrence in the Establishment of the Japan-Thailand Air Route
After appealing to Germany for support in the establishment of plane service between Japan and Thailand as it had done before in the case of the Franco-Japanese joint-defense agreement negotiations, Japan learned from Ambassador Oshima that France, under clause twelve of the Armistice Agreement, needed Germany's permission before joining the air route, but did not require its approval of Japanese operational plans. Ambassador Oshima suggested that the question as to whether the French should join the air route be postponed, but that negotiations to have the Japanese demands recognized at once be continued.[1259]
On September 2, 1941 Japan demanded that an end be made to the procrastination of French Indo-Chinese authorities, who claimed that the Governor General of French Indo-China had no authority to approve the air route, unless Japan first secured the understanding of the German authorities through the Vichy government. Foreign Minister Toyoda declared that the German authorities had offered no objection, as evidenced by Ambassador Oshima's report to the Foreign Minister on August 22, 1941,[1260] and as a result of this, Ambassador Kato informed French Official Arnald, that France and Japan would settle the problem by themselves.
521. Ambassador Kato Reports on the Attempted Assassination of Mr. Pierre Laval and Mr. Marcel Deat
Following the shooting at Versailles on August 27, 1941 of Mr. Pierre Laval, former French Premier, and Mr. Marcel Deat, editor of the Paris newspaper L'Oeuvre, both ardent advocates of Franco-Nazi collaboration, Ambassador Kato on September 1, 1941 made a report to his home government on the anti-German tendencies in France. In connection with the shooting, the French government had disclosed the fact that the Communist Party had been spreading anti-German sentiment and had issued orders to aid the DeGaulle movement. Other instances of anti-German sentiment, Mr. Kato explained, were railway sabotages and the assassination of German soldiers.[1261]
522. Japan Increases Demands for Indo-China Rubber
Apparently not having received the wire from Ambassador Kato on the previous day to the effect that the rubber supply (5,000 tons) formerly marked for the United States could be diverted to Japan, Foreign Minister Toyoda declared on September 1, 1941 that he did not believe that any agreement concerning rubber for America had been signed, and there was no reason to obtain America's consent in the matter. Therefore, he instructed Ambassador Kato to arrange for the purchase with free yen of the 5,000 tons of rubber without any conditions Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
[1267] III, 975.
[1258] Ibid.
[1258] III, 976.
[1269] III, 976.
[1260] III, 977-978.
[1261] III, 979.
[259]
attached.[1262] Ambassador Kato reported that since there had been no objection from the German committee in Paris, the French had gone ahead with the export of the 5,000 tons of rubber to America.[1263]
Meanwhile the question of the French Indo-Chinese rubber supply was being discussed in Berlin. On September 5, 1941, in a conference with Ambassador Oshima, Vice Minister Ernst Von Weizsacker expressed Germany's feeling that the transportation of rubber to Germany from Japan had not been given sufficient consideration, since of the 25,000 tons of French Indo-China rubber marked for America for 1941, 15,000 tons had been consigned to Japan, and negotiations were then in progress for the allotment of the remaining 10,000 tons to Japan. These figures appeared to pertain to the total annual output of rubber rather than the immediate supply on hand in the French colonies.[1264]
Since 9,000 of the 15,000 tons earmarked for France had already been shipped, Germany decided that 4,000 tons of the remaining French shipment should be transferred to Japan.[1265]
By September 10, 1941 the shipment of 5,000 tons of rubber to America had been stopped, for the conversations between the United States and France regarding the French allotment were discontinued. Japanese officials in Berlin were informed of the representations which had been made to the Vichy Commercial Attache. These were:
(a) France is to prohibit the export to the United States in view of the close Japanese-German cooperation.
(b) The supplementary amount to be given Japan is 10,000 tons.
(c) The German "schedule" is approved.[1266]
523. Japan Decrees Expulsion of Hostile Chinese in French Indo-China
A warning was transmitted to Japanese representatives in Vichy and in Hanoi on September 2, 1941 that the personnel of the Chungking regime in French Indo-China would have to be expelled or imprisoned. Foreign Minister Toyoda pointed out that the activity of the Chungking regime might cause some unforeseen incident since the Japanese Army of Occupation was instructed to blockade Chungking. If the French Indo-Chinese authorities took no steps in eradicating these elements or procrastinated too long, Japan might be forced to take the initiative.[1267] The Foreign Minister declared that this matter was so important that instructions concerning it would be sent to the Japanese Army of Occupation in French Indo-China.[1268]
On September 11, 1941 the Japanese Consul at Saigon, visiting the Chief of the Bureau for the preservation of Public Peace, inquired concerning the status of Chinese consular offices. The Saigon official answered that it was not clear whether the consular offices would be closed, but that the staff members of the Ministry had been withdrawn to a city near the southeastern coast of French Indo-China with only a caretaker left in Saigon.[1269]
In Vichy, the removal of pro-Chungking Chinese was still being discussed. On September 16, 1941, when Mr. Harada had cited a newspaper report that the representatives of the Chungking regime were withdrawing from Saigon, Vice Minister Roshier, a French official, informed him that the French government had heard nothing to support these reports. Mr. Harada then pointed out the inconsistency of having Chungking representatives remain in the areas in which Japanese forces were stationed, and again requested that the matter be settled quickly.[1270]
[1262] III, 980.
[1263] III, 981.
[1261] III, 982.
[1266] III, 983-984.
[1266] III, 985.
[1267] III, 986.
[1268] III, 987.
[1269] III, 988.
[1270] III, 989.
[260]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
524. French Vice Premier Doubts German Propaganda
On September 6, 1941 the Japanese Ambassador at Vichy, reporting on a conversation with Vice Premier Darlan which had been held on the previous day, said that the French Vice Premier, now also the Minister of Defense, had stated that, although Russia had had more arms and war material than Germany had estimated, three-fourths of this quantity had been lost. Since it was understood that after gaining a foothold in Leningrad, Moscow, and Kharkov by mid-October 1941, Germany would temporarily cease activity, the Vice Premier declared that he would like to see France and Germany reach some sort of settlement by that time. The French official also expressed doubt as to the authenticity of Germany's reports of the number of war losses, since the announced figure of 100,000 dead and wounded appeared to be too small.[1271]
525. France Resists Japan's Insistent Requests for Recognition of Nanking
Japan secretly informed its representatives in China that when France had recognized the Wang regime, discussions would be undertaken to reconsider the request of the French that Japan grant permission for the relief of the Tientsin detachment.[1272] In spite of continued pressure, Vice Premier Darlan reiterated on September 8, 1941 that although France had no objection to recognizing the Nanking regime, in view of previous French-Chungking relations, the state wished to "take more time about it".[1273]
527. Japanese Official Suggests That Domei News Agency Be Admonished
Mr. S. Baron Araki, a Japanese official in French Indo-China, who was extremely concerned about reports in Japanese newspapers that many DeGaullists, pro-British, and Americans were leaving French Indo-China, asked on September 10, 1941 that the Domei home office be admonished to exercise great care before publishing similar reports, which were nothing but the false propaganda of the British and would lead to an unpleasant situation.[1275]
528. Japanese Diplomatic Staff in Vichy Experiences Privations of War
The Japanese Ambassador in Vichy, finding it impossible to obtain fish and meat in France, informed Tokyo on September 11, 1941, that the members of his diplomatic staff were forced to be vegetarians, and had lost a lot of weight. He requested 100 cases of food of 60 cans each, as well as other items enumerated in a previous dispatch to Tokyo on July 10, 1941.[1276]
529. Germany Agrees to Shipment of French Rubber to Japan
Acting on instructions from the German government, the German Commerical Attache informed officials in Tokyo on September 16, 1941 that Germany had agreed to send an additional amount of 10,000 tons of rubber to Japan, and also that Germany had agreed to divide equally between Japan and Germany the production increase exceeding 68,000 tons.[1277]
Transmitted to Vichy and Saigon for reference was the information that France had permitted the French Indo-China governor to ship 5,000 tons of rubber as the September allotment to Japan. This led the German Commercial Attache in Tokyo, who reported this fact, to believe that the French colonies were prepared to fulfill Japan's demands after this date, just as before.[1278]
[1271] III, 990.
[1272] III, 991.
[1273] III, 992.
[1275] III, 994.
[1276] III, 995.
[1277] III, 996.
[1278] III, 997.
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
505. Ambassador Horikiri Urges Japan to Decorate Outstanding Italians Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
In view of the strained feelings existing on the part of the Italian government, on October 9, 1941 Ambassador Horikiri urged approval of his plan to confer Japanese decorations on various outstanding Italians,[1225] and particularly on Mr. Guido Rocco, chief of the foreign newspaper division of the Italian Propaganda Office. Mr. Rocco, who held several Italian medals of honor had been previously decorated by the Japanese government because of his services in behalf of Japan at the time of the signing of the Tripartite Pact and was considered of value to the Empire.[1226]
506. Ambassador Horikiri Reports on the Italian Economic Situation
On October 14, 1941 Ambassador Horikiri reported in detail concerning the economic situation in Italy.[1227] Pointing out that the grain harvest would be better than that of the preceding year, he indicated that the need for supplying the occupied areas outside of Italy was more difficult than the problem of supplying the people within the country. A rationing system was being applied to various foods, and government control of some commodities was in operation and would be extended. Non-defense industries were being curtailed, iron and oil supplies were limited, and great numbers of skilled workers were going to Germany. On the other hand stocks were going up, and the sale of government bonds was booming.[1228]
According to Ambassador Horikiri, there was much unrest in Italy because of the increasing economic controls of the government, but strong measures were being taken to reassure the people and remove their fears.[1229 Speculation concerning the ]internal collapse of Italy and rumors sponsored by the Allies relating to the possibility of a separate peace with Italy were deemed by the Japanese Ambassador to be unworthy of consideration.
Government officials in Rome were considerably heartened by the progress of the Russian war and were anticipating considerable new gains in the Near East. It was also expected that the difficult Mediterranean and northern African problems would be solved in the near future. In addition, there was a tendency to believe that the United States would not go beyond the position which she was now taking.[1230] However, Ambassador Horikiri commented that the anti-Italian feeling in Croatia had not become less strong than in the past.[1231]
507. Italian Envoy Urges Action by Japan
Mr. Paulucci, head of a recent Italian mission to Japan, informed Ambassador Horikiri on October 14, 1941 of Italy's belief that Japan would enter the war when Germany and Italy attacked Russia. Urging that Japan should strike immediately against Russia, Mr. Paulucci remarked that he had but two fears, one, that Italy and Germany would lose the support of Japan, and the other, that Britain and the United States might attempt to do in the Far East what they had done in the past in Europe. Japan's entrance into the war against Russia did not necessarily mean that the United States would become involved since there was a strong anti-communistic sentiment in the country. Furthermore, he did not believe that the United States had reached the stage where it could effectively fight in the war.
Mr. Paulucci also impressed Ambassador Horikiri with the fact that after Russia had been defeated, Japan would have access by land to the Axis countries and to many essential materials. Russia's resorting to guerilla warfare would not be too difficult a problem to solve once military supplies had been cut off by Japan.[1232]
[1225] III, 950.
[1226] III, 951.
[1227] III, 952.
[1228] Ibid.
[1229] III, 953.
[1230] Ibid.
[1231] Ibid.
[1232] III, 954.
[253]
In regard to Japan's plans to move southward, Mr. Paulucci explained that he felt Hitler had placed too much stock in the invasion of the British Isles, since England would lose her main fighting power only if she were to be defeated in the Near East, the Mediterranean area and in Egypt. He suggested, therefore, that it was of the utmost importance to have the German government realize at this time the importance of:
(1) The manipulation of Turkey;
(2) The military moves in the Near East, Mediterranean and Egypt;
(3) Access to the Near Eastern oil.
With the accomplishment of these aims and the subsequent joining of the Axis powers by land and sea, not even the United States could compete with the power available to the Tripartite Powers.[1233]
508. Ambassador Horikiri Objects to Ending Japanese Trade with Italy
On October 15, 1941 Ambassador Horikiri referred to the recent closing, with the exception of Mitsubishi, of all Japanese houses in Rome as compared with a mere reduction of Japanese personnel in Berlin. The Ambassador stressed the necessity of keeping the various businesses open at this time in order not to slight the Italians.[1234]
Ambassador Horikiri also encouraged Japan to renew the Italian-East African compensatory trade agreement for a year.[1235] An agreement, which would be effective from June 30, 1941 to June 30, 1942, was achieved on October 17, 1941.[1236]
[1233] Ibid.
[1234] III, 955.
[1235] III, 956.
[1236] III, 957.
[254]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
PART C—JAPANESE DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
(j) Japanese-French Relations
509. Japan Requests Increase in Japan-Thailand Plane Service
Japan had demanded French cooperation in increasing regular plane service from Japan to Thailand, but the French had delayed in replying. According to a Japanese report of August 7, 1941, the French Attache for Air in Tokyo could make the following counter-proposal:
(1) a. Semi-weekly service between Tokyo, Hanoi, and Bangkok.
b. Semi-weekly service between Formosa, Canton, Hanoi and Bangkok. Total of four north-bound lines. (Abandon the line which detoured to Saigon).
c. Bi-weekly seaplane arrivals in Saigon.
(2) a. The French also be permitted to operate the same number of planes over the same course.
b. In order that contact with the French Concession in Shanghai may be established, the French planes be permitted to stop at Shanghai.
c. Materials be made available in Japan.
The French agreed to approve paragraph (1), which was a rewording of Japanese demands, on the condition that the Japanese approve paragraph (2) of the French counter-proposal. However, in retransmitting these terms to Vichy and Hanoi, Foreign Minister Teijiro Toyoda pointed out that paragraph (1) conflicted with the original request made by Japan, and though Japan could not approve points (a) and (b) of paragraph (2), it was willing to make suitable arrangements in regard to point (c).
Foreign Minister Toyoda was anxious that negotiations be conducted along the lines of the original Japanese proposals, and he felt that Hanoi would be the best place in which to conduct them. Since two seaplane trips had already been made to transport a committee for the purpose of establishing definite boundaries, and since several more of these trips would be made, it was necessary that Japan establish a regular seaplane service as soon as possible. Further details in regard to the committee's investigating the boundary were not given at this time.[1237]
510. France Asks Permission to Exchange Soldiers Between Shanghai and French Indo-China
Tokyo announced on August 7, 1941 that, in consideration of France's request to move 350 French soldiers from the Shanghai French Concession to French Indo-China, Foreign Minister Toyoda had granted tacit consent. Although it was difficult to grant such permission to France alone, the Foreign Minister felt that Japan could allow the requested exchange of soldiers in view of the special relationship existing between France and Japan.[1238]
France had also asked that the French language be used for telegraphic communication between Japan and French Indo-China, in addition to Japanese, English, and German. Japan's "special consideration" to France in granting both of these requests was to be stressed when the recognition of the Nanking regime was discussed with Vice Premier Jean Francois Darlan, the Japanese Ambassador to Vichy was advised.[1239]
[1237] III, 958.
[1238] III, 959.
[1239] III, 960.
[255]
511. Japan Insists That France Recognize the Wang Regime
Japan had insisted that France recognize Wang Ching-wei's government on the occasion of the signing of the Franco-Japanese agreement on July 29, 1941, but Vice Premier Darlan had promised only to give due consideration to the matter. Questioned by Ambassador Sotomatsu Kato on August 2, 1941, French Council President Bunoir Messien had replied that this question should not be discussed until public excitement, aroused as a result of the French Indo-Chinese question, had quieted down.
On August 5, 1941, calling on Vice Premier Darlan, whom he found to be away, Ambassador Kato had instead interviewed Acting Vice Minister Ernest Lagarde. The Japanese Ambassador was again advised that although Vice Premier Darlan was not opposed to the recognition, he felt that the matter should be shelved for two or three months. But Ambassador Kato replied that although the recognition "affects but one part of the Far East, the realization of this matter is of the utmost importance" and requested that France reach a speedy decision.[1240]
512. Japan Demands Further French "Cooperation"
On August 8, 1941 a Japanese representative in Shanghai, presumably Consul General Tateki Horiuchi, pointed out that the lack of a definite policy in regard to French rights and interests in the various parts of China was confusing to Japanese officials. Since Japan had succeeded in getting the French to agree to the joint defense of French Indo-China, he thought it best to make France adopt a policy of cooperation in respect to settling the China incident. The three principal points of his proposed cooperative agreement were: (1) that the French recognize the People's Government, thereby making the position of the French officials in China clear and their exercise of power easier, (2) that France agree to Japan's right to supervise the methods of guarding French concessions, controlling materials, using French currency, and to accept the People's Government's right to make proposals concerning them, and (3) that the French withdraw their garrisons or use them jointly with Japanese garrisons for defense. He remarked that in adjusting French relations with regard to the China incident, it would be unrealistic for Japan to use gentle methods since it had just exercised strong pressure in settling the French Indo-China question.[1241]
513. Japan Attempts to Limit Its Exchange Agreement with France
After Tokyo had granted special consideration in the interchange of French troops, Consul Horiuchi in Shanghai was disturbed to learn that the French request included relief of French forces in Tientsin and Hankow as well as in Shanghai.[1242] Pointing out that the original French request and the Japanese reply had referred only to the relief of the Shanghai detachment, he asked that the inconsistency between the requests made by the French in Shanghai and by the French in Tokyo be investigated.[1243]
514. Japan Plans to Send Investigating Committee to French Indo-China
Mr. Ken Harada, of the Japanese diplomatic staff in Vichy, conferred with General Arnald on August 8, 1941, to request the cooperation of French Indo-Chinese authorities with a Japanese committee of investigation which was being sent into their area. Expressing surprise at the number of people which Japan planned to include in this group, Mr. Arnald declared that he would answer the Japanese request for permission as soon as he had conferred with Colonial Minister Rear Admiral Charles Platon.[1244] On August 12, after Mr. Arnald had announced that
[1240] III, 961.
[1241] III, 962.
[1242] III, 963.
[1243] Ibid.
[1244] III, 964.
[256]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
the French had consented to the proposal submitted by Japan, and had agreed to send instructions to the Governor General in French Indo-China,[1245] Mr. Ken Harada said there was no need for the various stipulations previously requested by the French.
515. Marshal Petain Broadcasts to the French People
After successive French Cabinet conferences, Marshal Philippe Petain spoke at 9:00 p.m. on August 12, 1941 to the whole of France. In his address he warned the French people of their desperate economic and political situation and pleaded for understanding from the United States. Marshal Petain also announced the appointment of Vice Premier Jean Francois Darlan to the post of Minister of National Defense. He aroused a sensation by his statement that the most damage to the work of reconstructing France had been caused by the supporters of the regime of yesteryear and the supporters of the trusts who stood between him and his people, and that in order to break their power, first of all, he must strike their leaders.[1246]
516. Ambassador Kato's Opinions on Conditions in France
The Japanese Ambassador in Vichy intermittently informed his government of the internal conditions and opinions of the people in France. On August 14, 1941 he reported that the situation had grown more and more strained, with a shortage of materials, particularly of food, resulting in economic desperation and an increase in anti-German and anti-Vichy antipathy. Not only were the activities of the Free French and the Communist Party troublesome throughout both the occupied and unoccupied areas, but also the propaganda activities of England, the United States and the DeGaullists had played havoc with the "esprit francais" to such an extent that the Vichy government was beginning to feel that maintaining peace and order might be beyond its power.[1247]
517. Japan Demands Rubber Supply Allotment to the United States
A Japanese demand that 5,000 tons of Indo-Chinese rubber, which had been promised to the United States, be diverted by France to Japan, caused Mr. Harada, the Counsellor at the Vichy Embassy on August 12, 1941, to confer with Mr. Arnald of the Vichy Foreign Office. The French official declared that an agreement with the United States for the rubber had already been signed, and inasmuch as it was necessary that French Indo-China maintain its trade status with America, it would be very difficult to divert the supply to Japan. It was divulged at this time that plans were being made to transport rubber to France by way of South America, and although at least a part of the rubber would have to be diverted to Germany, Mr. Arnald begged that Japan, in her demands on French Indo-China, consider the present poverty of France.[1248]
Possibly as a means of delaying its unavoidable compliance with Japanese demands, France asked that the negotiations be conducted in Tokyo, and protested that before diverting the rubber to Japan, the approval of the American authorities would have to be secured. France also asked that Japan advise the United States of the action which was to be taken.[1249]
Difficulty was foreseen in Japan's paying for the rubber, since France, already holding many transferable yen, was reluctant to receive more of this currency in payment for commodities, and, furthermore, was anxious that Japan speed up its Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire exports to French Indo-China.[1250]
[1245] III, 965.
[1246] III, 966.
[1247] Ibid.
[1248] III, 967.
[1249] III, 968.
[1250] III, 969.
[257]
Finally, French Official Arnald disclosed on August 30, 1941 that as a result of conversations with the United States, it would be possible to transfer the requested 5,000 tons of rubber to Japan. Of the remaining 7 tons of French Indo-China rubber, the French government had decided that 4 tons would be allotted to Germany and 3 tons to Japan. Japan, however, declared that 6 tons of her required rubber would still be lacking, and requested, therefore, that if it were found impossible to ship any part of the French or German allotments for 1941, these quantities also be transferred to Japan.[1251]
518. Japanese Occupation Expenses Create Difficulty in Currency Exchange
To provide funds for the expenses of its occupation troops in French Indo-China, Japan arranged to make piasters[1252] available to its forces through an exchange of currency between the Bank of Indo-China and the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank. However, it was still necessary to work out the details of exchange, and during August, September and October 1941, dispatches pertaining to this matter continued to flow between Vichy and Tokyo, and Hanoi and Tokyo.
On August 16, 1941 Ambassador Kato sent to Tokyo the terms of the exchange agreement which had been presented to him two days before by the French Foreign Office. The payment of occupation expenses was to be left to the Bank of Indo-China and the Bank of Japan, although it was suggested that when Japanese forces needed piasters, they should pay to the Bank of Indo-China the dollars of transferable yen requested by the French government, after which the Bank of Indo-China would pay out an equivalent in piasters.[1253]
On August 18, 1941 the Japanese Finance Ministry declared that Tokyo had been momentarily expecting receipt of funds amounting to 4,500,000 Japanese dollars, which was the payment specified in the text of the joint-defense treaty, to cover military expenses of the Japanese Army of Occupation for August. Japanese military authorities insisted that payment of the August apportionment was to be made by the night of August 16, 1941, and formal representations were to be made to the Governor General of Indo-China for the continuance of conversations on payment terms of the Yokohama Specie Band representatives.[1254]
Because France was not operating with money exported by Japan to French Indo-China, its holdings of transferable yen already amounted to considerable sums. For this reason France was hoping to be paid, to some extent, in gold for materials supplied to Japanese troops at Saigon. However, since France, by September 1, 1941, had consented to accept transferable yen, Ambassador Kato in Vichy asked whether Japan had already agreed to pay the full amount in gold on the spot.[1255]
519. Japan Vetoes a Proposed German Legation in Indo-China
There appeared to be no reason to establish a proposed German delegation in Indo-China, Japan informed its Ambassador in Berlin on August 21, 1941. Japan felt that the German Armistice Commission in France was sufficient, although it had no basic reason to oppose the German move. Should the German government establish such a body despite Japanese opposition, Japan would have to adopt new measures regarding the present Franco-Japanese defense cooperation.[1256]
In discussing Germany's motive for such action, Japan argued that the Germans had acknowleged that they had no political "claims" on French Indo-China, and that it was Japan's intention to give Germany full economic assistance in the matter of supplying necessary com-
[1251] III, 970.
[1252] The piastre, a Thaiese monetary unit, is equivalent to $0.083692 or roughly $.08 of the American dollar.
[1253] III, 971.
[1254] III, 972.
[1255] III, 973.
[1256] III, 974.
[258]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
modities. Foreign Minister Toyoda claimed that since the establishment of a German agency in French Indo-China would needlessly complicate the "status" of French Indo-China, Japan could not favor the proposed plan. For these reasons, he asked that Germany reconsider its proposal.[1257]
Japan also informed its representatives both in Hanoi and Berlin that in view of the relationship existing between Japan and Indo-China, the Japanese government should be notified in case French Indo-China entered into any new permanent political relationship with another country. In this matter, it would be proper for Germany to notify the Japanese government in advance.[1258]
520. Japan Demands French Concurrence in the Establishment of the Japan-Thailand Air Route
After appealing to Germany for support in the establishment of plane service between Japan and Thailand as it had done before in the case of the Franco-Japanese joint-defense agreement negotiations, Japan learned from Ambassador Oshima that France, under clause twelve of the Armistice Agreement, needed Germany's permission before joining the air route, but did not require its approval of Japanese operational plans. Ambassador Oshima suggested that the question as to whether the French should join the air route be postponed, but that negotiations to have the Japanese demands recognized at once be continued.[1259]
On September 2, 1941 Japan demanded that an end be made to the procrastination of French Indo-Chinese authorities, who claimed that the Governor General of French Indo-China had no authority to approve the air route, unless Japan first secured the understanding of the German authorities through the Vichy government. Foreign Minister Toyoda declared that the German authorities had offered no objection, as evidenced by Ambassador Oshima's report to the Foreign Minister on August 22, 1941,[1260] and as a result of this, Ambassador Kato informed French Official Arnald, that France and Japan would settle the problem by themselves.
521. Ambassador Kato Reports on the Attempted Assassination of Mr. Pierre Laval and Mr. Marcel Deat
Following the shooting at Versailles on August 27, 1941 of Mr. Pierre Laval, former French Premier, and Mr. Marcel Deat, editor of the Paris newspaper L'Oeuvre, both ardent advocates of Franco-Nazi collaboration, Ambassador Kato on September 1, 1941 made a report to his home government on the anti-German tendencies in France. In connection with the shooting, the French government had disclosed the fact that the Communist Party had been spreading anti-German sentiment and had issued orders to aid the DeGaulle movement. Other instances of anti-German sentiment, Mr. Kato explained, were railway sabotages and the assassination of German soldiers.[1261]
522. Japan Increases Demands for Indo-China Rubber
Apparently not having received the wire from Ambassador Kato on the previous day to the effect that the rubber supply (5,000 tons) formerly marked for the United States could be diverted to Japan, Foreign Minister Toyoda declared on September 1, 1941 that he did not believe that any agreement concerning rubber for America had been signed, and there was no reason to obtain America's consent in the matter. Therefore, he instructed Ambassador Kato to arrange for the purchase with free yen of the 5,000 tons of rubber without any conditions Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
[1267] III, 975.
[1258] Ibid.
[1258] III, 976.
[1269] III, 976.
[1260] III, 977-978.
[1261] III, 979.
[259]
attached.[1262] Ambassador Kato reported that since there had been no objection from the German committee in Paris, the French had gone ahead with the export of the 5,000 tons of rubber to America.[1263]
Meanwhile the question of the French Indo-Chinese rubber supply was being discussed in Berlin. On September 5, 1941, in a conference with Ambassador Oshima, Vice Minister Ernst Von Weizsacker expressed Germany's feeling that the transportation of rubber to Germany from Japan had not been given sufficient consideration, since of the 25,000 tons of French Indo-China rubber marked for America for 1941, 15,000 tons had been consigned to Japan, and negotiations were then in progress for the allotment of the remaining 10,000 tons to Japan. These figures appeared to pertain to the total annual output of rubber rather than the immediate supply on hand in the French colonies.[1264]
Since 9,000 of the 15,000 tons earmarked for France had already been shipped, Germany decided that 4,000 tons of the remaining French shipment should be transferred to Japan.[1265]
By September 10, 1941 the shipment of 5,000 tons of rubber to America had been stopped, for the conversations between the United States and France regarding the French allotment were discontinued. Japanese officials in Berlin were informed of the representations which had been made to the Vichy Commercial Attache. These were:
(a) France is to prohibit the export to the United States in view of the close Japanese-German cooperation.
(b) The supplementary amount to be given Japan is 10,000 tons.
(c) The German "schedule" is approved.[1266]
523. Japan Decrees Expulsion of Hostile Chinese in French Indo-China
A warning was transmitted to Japanese representatives in Vichy and in Hanoi on September 2, 1941 that the personnel of the Chungking regime in French Indo-China would have to be expelled or imprisoned. Foreign Minister Toyoda pointed out that the activity of the Chungking regime might cause some unforeseen incident since the Japanese Army of Occupation was instructed to blockade Chungking. If the French Indo-Chinese authorities took no steps in eradicating these elements or procrastinated too long, Japan might be forced to take the initiative.[1267] The Foreign Minister declared that this matter was so important that instructions concerning it would be sent to the Japanese Army of Occupation in French Indo-China.[1268]
On September 11, 1941 the Japanese Consul at Saigon, visiting the Chief of the Bureau for the preservation of Public Peace, inquired concerning the status of Chinese consular offices. The Saigon official answered that it was not clear whether the consular offices would be closed, but that the staff members of the Ministry had been withdrawn to a city near the southeastern coast of French Indo-China with only a caretaker left in Saigon.[1269]
In Vichy, the removal of pro-Chungking Chinese was still being discussed. On September 16, 1941, when Mr. Harada had cited a newspaper report that the representatives of the Chungking regime were withdrawing from Saigon, Vice Minister Roshier, a French official, informed him that the French government had heard nothing to support these reports. Mr. Harada then pointed out the inconsistency of having Chungking representatives remain in the areas in which Japanese forces were stationed, and again requested that the matter be settled quickly.[1270]
[1262] III, 980.
[1263] III, 981.
[1261] III, 982.
[1266] III, 983-984.
[1266] III, 985.
[1267] III, 986.
[1268] III, 987.
[1269] III, 988.
[1270] III, 989.
[260]
THE "MAGIC" BACKGROUND OF PEARL HARBOR
524. French Vice Premier Doubts German Propaganda
On September 6, 1941 the Japanese Ambassador at Vichy, reporting on a conversation with Vice Premier Darlan which had been held on the previous day, said that the French Vice Premier, now also the Minister of Defense, had stated that, although Russia had had more arms and war material than Germany had estimated, three-fourths of this quantity had been lost. Since it was understood that after gaining a foothold in Leningrad, Moscow, and Kharkov by mid-October 1941, Germany would temporarily cease activity, the Vice Premier declared that he would like to see France and Germany reach some sort of settlement by that time. The French official also expressed doubt as to the authenticity of Germany's reports of the number of war losses, since the announced figure of 100,000 dead and wounded appeared to be too small.[1271]
525. France Resists Japan's Insistent Requests for Recognition of Nanking
Japan secretly informed its representatives in China that when France had recognized the Wang regime, discussions would be undertaken to reconsider the request of the French that Japan grant permission for the relief of the Tientsin detachment.[1272] In spite of continued pressure, Vice Premier Darlan reiterated on September 8, 1941 that although France had no objection to recognizing the Nanking regime, in view of previous French-Chungking relations, the state wished to "take more time about it".[1273]
527. Japanese Official Suggests That Domei News Agency Be Admonished
Mr. S. Baron Araki, a Japanese official in French Indo-China, who was extremely concerned about reports in Japanese newspapers that many DeGaullists, pro-British, and Americans were leaving French Indo-China, asked on September 10, 1941 that the Domei home office be admonished to exercise great care before publishing similar reports, which were nothing but the false propaganda of the British and would lead to an unpleasant situation.[1275]
528. Japanese Diplomatic Staff in Vichy Experiences Privations of War
The Japanese Ambassador in Vichy, finding it impossible to obtain fish and meat in France, informed Tokyo on September 11, 1941, that the members of his diplomatic staff were forced to be vegetarians, and had lost a lot of weight. He requested 100 cases of food of 60 cans each, as well as other items enumerated in a previous dispatch to Tokyo on July 10, 1941.[1276]
529. Germany Agrees to Shipment of French Rubber to Japan
Acting on instructions from the German government, the German Commerical Attache informed officials in Tokyo on September 16, 1941 that Germany had agreed to send an additional amount of 10,000 tons of rubber to Japan, and also that Germany had agreed to divide equally between Japan and Germany the production increase exceeding 68,000 tons.[1277]
Transmitted to Vichy and Saigon for reference was the information that France had permitted the French Indo-China governor to ship 5,000 tons of rubber as the September allotment to Japan. This led the German Commercial Attache in Tokyo, who reported this fact, to believe that the French colonies were prepared to fulfill Japan's demands after this date, just as before.[1278]
[1271] III, 990.
[1272] III, 991.
[1273] III, 992.
[1275] III, 994.
[1276] III, 995.
[1277] III, 996.
[1278] III, 997.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
economics 5.eco.0 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Synopsis
While the boys are in shop class, they decide to get Tweek and Craig to fight each other. Meanwhile, Kenny avoids the whole mess by taking Home Economics instead. The boys schedule the fight for after school, so that it isn't disrupted by the shop teacher (Mr. Adler), who is still mourning the tragic death of his former fiancee. Tweek and Craig, it turns out, do not know how to fight. The boys take Tweek and Craig under their wing to train them for the big fight.
Full Recap
The boys (sans Kenny) take shop class so they won't be sissies. They also let their instructor, Mr. Adler; know that both Tweek and Craig are troublemakers. Meanwhile, over in home economics, Wendy is mad because she wanted shop class and Kenny is delighted because he is in home economics. Is the reason for Kenny's delight that he might be a sissy, or is there just less danger of being killed? For a distraction in their shop class, Cartman bets with Stan and Kyle that Craig will be able to beat Tweek in a fight. They instigate a fight between the two that will take place after school. The shop teacher is having live action daydream about a woman. When Tweek and Craig both go home after school, the boys go their respective houses to instigate the boys. The fight is set again for the following day. Mr. Adler has an unsuccessful date, since he is still obsessing over his live action daydream.
The next day the boys hold a press conference for the big fight. When the words begin to fly between our boys, they break out into a fight, while Tweek, Craig, and the other children just sit and watch. In home economics the teacher instructs the girls and Kenny on tips for the 1st date. In shop Mr. Adler keeps having his daydream. After school its time for the big fight, but neither boy really knows what to do. The fight is postponed, while the combatants are trained in the art of fighting. Jimbo and Ned teach Tweek the art of boxing (dirty), while Cartman gets Craig instructed in the fine art of Sumo wrestling. Mr. Adler's dreams continue about the woman who he never got to say goodbye to.
In home economics the teacher instructs the girls and Kenny on nagging tips. The home economics teacher suggests to Kenny (to his horror) that she is going to transfer him to shop since his lack of home economic skills won't get him a husband. Its fight time and the boys begin their fight; meanwhile Mr. Adler makes plans to commit suicide using a table saw. Mr. Adler gets distracted from this task, when Kenny transfers into the and the Tweek and Craig's fight breaks its way into the workshop. The boys' fighting results in Kenny being killed by a circular saw. When Mr. Adler retrieves Kenny's body, he sees in Kenny's face the images of the woman and some of his other dead relatives.
At the hospital the children go to visit Tweek and Craig and the boys confess their guilt to them about how they manipulated them into fighting. They proceed to do it to them again, causing Tweek and Craig to get out of their hospital beds and start fighting all over again.
Kenny dies when Tweek and Craig's fight knocks him into a circular saw and from there a bucket of nails.
Synopsis
While the boys are in shop class, they decide to get Tweek and Craig to fight each other. Meanwhile, Kenny avoids the whole mess by taking Home Economics instead. The boys schedule the fight for after school, so that it isn't disrupted by the shop teacher (Mr. Adler), who is still mourning the tragic death of his former fiancee. Tweek and Craig, it turns out, do not know how to fight. The boys take Tweek and Craig under their wing to train them for the big fight.
Full Recap
The boys (sans Kenny) take shop class so they won't be sissies. They also let their instructor, Mr. Adler; know that both Tweek and Craig are troublemakers. Meanwhile, over in home economics, Wendy is mad because she wanted shop class and Kenny is delighted because he is in home economics. Is the reason for Kenny's delight that he might be a sissy, or is there just less danger of being killed? For a distraction in their shop class, Cartman bets with Stan and Kyle that Craig will be able to beat Tweek in a fight. They instigate a fight between the two that will take place after school. The shop teacher is having live action daydream about a woman. When Tweek and Craig both go home after school, the boys go their respective houses to instigate the boys. The fight is set again for the following day. Mr. Adler has an unsuccessful date, since he is still obsessing over his live action daydream.
The next day the boys hold a press conference for the big fight. When the words begin to fly between our boys, they break out into a fight, while Tweek, Craig, and the other children just sit and watch. In home economics the teacher instructs the girls and Kenny on tips for the 1st date. In shop Mr. Adler keeps having his daydream. After school its time for the big fight, but neither boy really knows what to do. The fight is postponed, while the combatants are trained in the art of fighting. Jimbo and Ned teach Tweek the art of boxing (dirty), while Cartman gets Craig instructed in the fine art of Sumo wrestling. Mr. Adler's dreams continue about the woman who he never got to say goodbye to.
In home economics the teacher instructs the girls and Kenny on nagging tips. The home economics teacher suggests to Kenny (to his horror) that she is going to transfer him to shop since his lack of home economic skills won't get him a husband. Its fight time and the boys begin their fight; meanwhile Mr. Adler makes plans to commit suicide using a table saw. Mr. Adler gets distracted from this task, when Kenny transfers into the and the Tweek and Craig's fight breaks its way into the workshop. The boys' fighting results in Kenny being killed by a circular saw. When Mr. Adler retrieves Kenny's body, he sees in Kenny's face the images of the woman and some of his other dead relatives.
At the hospital the children go to visit Tweek and Craig and the boys confess their guilt to them about how they manipulated them into fighting. They proceed to do it to them again, causing Tweek and Craig to get out of their hospital beds and start fighting all over again.
Kenny dies when Tweek and Craig's fight knocks him into a circular saw and from there a bucket of nails.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
satisfying 6.bts.003004 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Thanks to better screening, prevention and treatment, death rates from cancer in the United States have declined steadily in recent decades. But a new study finds that while college graduates have benefited from this trend, people who didn’t finish high school have lagged behind and even missed out on some of these gains.
Much of the discrepancy stems from differences between the groups in taking preventive measures such as quitting smoking or using cancer screening options, says study coauthor Ahmedin Jemal, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta.
But a lot can also be traced to the fact that 47 million people in the United States are uninsured, he says. Education levels closely track with socioeconomic levels, and that means access to good health care and insurance coverage to pay for it, he says.
Jemal and his colleagues analyzed data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from death certificates filed in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The research team concentrated on people ages 25 to 64 who had died from 1993 to 2001, calculating mortality rates during that time period for the four most common cancers—lung, colorectal, breast and prostate. The sampling of the non-Hispanic population included more than 500,000 deaths.
The researchers report in the July 16 Journal of the National Cancer Institute that while some death rates fell dramatically between these time posts, significant differences emerged across the board based on educational background. For example, the death rate from lung cancer over that span dropped by 5 percent annually in white men and 7 percent annually in black men who had been through college. But among men who had dropped out of high school, the lung cancer death rate remained largely unchanged in whites and dropped less than 1 percent a year in blacks.
Meanwhile, colorectal cancer fell significantly over that time in men and women, black and white, who had gone to college, but not in their counterparts who hadn’t finished high school.
Other research shows that roughly 50 percent or more of highly educated people get regular colonoscopies that can catch and remove colorectal cancer early, but that among poorly educated people the number is closer to 30 percent, Jemal says. “The difference by education is mind-boggling,” he says.
Among whites, breast cancer death rates declined broadly, and women with more education showed greater decreases. But among black women, only those with four years of college showed clear declines.
In men, prostate cancer deaths showed a strong education-related decline among white men, but less of a decline for black men.
Much of the effect seen in this study could reflect access to health care, says health economist Cathy Bradley of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. But another factor could play an equally important role, she says.
“I think education is a marker for something else,” she says. “People who invest in an education also invest in their health and place a higher value on the future than on the present.” Hypothetically, this prioritizing would be reflected in lifestyle, and these people might even seek out jobs with better insurance plans.
In contrast, people who don’t invest in the future, as in a high school diploma or a college degree, may place more value on the present, she says. Because cancer is an invisible disease whose causes have little immediate impact, these people may concentrate on satisfying immediate needs and show less regard for future risks. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Thanks to better screening, prevention and treatment, death rates from cancer in the United States have declined steadily in recent decades. But a new study finds that while college graduates have benefited from this trend, people who didn’t finish high school have lagged behind and even missed out on some of these gains.
Much of the discrepancy stems from differences between the groups in taking preventive measures such as quitting smoking or using cancer screening options, says study coauthor Ahmedin Jemal, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta.
But a lot can also be traced to the fact that 47 million people in the United States are uninsured, he says. Education levels closely track with socioeconomic levels, and that means access to good health care and insurance coverage to pay for it, he says.
Jemal and his colleagues analyzed data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from death certificates filed in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The research team concentrated on people ages 25 to 64 who had died from 1993 to 2001, calculating mortality rates during that time period for the four most common cancers—lung, colorectal, breast and prostate. The sampling of the non-Hispanic population included more than 500,000 deaths.
The researchers report in the July 16 Journal of the National Cancer Institute that while some death rates fell dramatically between these time posts, significant differences emerged across the board based on educational background. For example, the death rate from lung cancer over that span dropped by 5 percent annually in white men and 7 percent annually in black men who had been through college. But among men who had dropped out of high school, the lung cancer death rate remained largely unchanged in whites and dropped less than 1 percent a year in blacks.
Meanwhile, colorectal cancer fell significantly over that time in men and women, black and white, who had gone to college, but not in their counterparts who hadn’t finished high school.
Other research shows that roughly 50 percent or more of highly educated people get regular colonoscopies that can catch and remove colorectal cancer early, but that among poorly educated people the number is closer to 30 percent, Jemal says. “The difference by education is mind-boggling,” he says.
Among whites, breast cancer death rates declined broadly, and women with more education showed greater decreases. But among black women, only those with four years of college showed clear declines.
In men, prostate cancer deaths showed a strong education-related decline among white men, but less of a decline for black men.
Much of the effect seen in this study could reflect access to health care, says health economist Cathy Bradley of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. But another factor could play an equally important role, she says.
“I think education is a marker for something else,” she says. “People who invest in an education also invest in their health and place a higher value on the future than on the present.” Hypothetically, this prioritizing would be reflected in lifestyle, and these people might even seek out jobs with better insurance plans.
In contrast, people who don’t invest in the future, as in a high school diploma or a college degree, may place more value on the present, she says. Because cancer is an invisible disease whose causes have little immediate impact, these people may concentrate on satisfying immediate needs and show less regard for future risks. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Monday, May 4, 2009
neorons 4.neu.0001 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Most of the brain does fine with its original brain cells, but parts involved in smelling and remembering sometimes need some new recruits.
In mice, new neurons are needed to remember mazes and keep their scent-sensing organs plump (but aren’t necessary for detecting smells), a new study shows. Another recent study demonstrates that some antidepressants require neurogenesis — the creation of fresh neurons — to work.
Both studies are part of a new wave of research that shows neurogenesis — once thought to be impossible in the brain — plays an important role in the organ’s function.
“These are both very good papers and consistent with the growing appreciation for the importance of adult neurogenesis in general and in particular in behavior,” says Fred “Rusty” Gage, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.
Neurogenesis creates new neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain linked to learning and memory, and in the olfactory bulb, an organ that detects smells and pheromones. But scientists didn’t know why it was necessary to make new cells in those brain regions.
Japanese researchers led by Ryoichiro Kageyama, a neuroscientist at Kyoto University, report August 31 in an advance online publication of Nature Neuroscience that neurogenesis plays different roles in the two brain structures.
Nearly all of the cells in the olfactory bulb are replaced, and that refreshing of neurons is required to maintain the shape and volume of the bulb, the researchers report. But mice with shrunken olfactory bulbs had no trouble sniffing out sweet treats, suggesting that a few old neurons are all that’s needed to maintain a sense of smell.
Neural stem cells that make new olfactory bulb neurons seem to act like the adult stem cells that maintain skin, blood and gut, says Kageyama. But the researchers don’t yet understand why a breakdown in maintenance doesn’t destroy the mice’s sense of smell.
“Smell is so important for mice that redundancy in olfaction could be intensive,” Kageyama says. “It is also possible that the mice have some olfactory defect that we are so far not aware of.” The team has not yet tested whether mice with atrophied olfactory bulbs can still detect pheromones.
In contrast to the olfactory bulb, far fewer new neurons are added to the hippocampus. More than 10 percent of neurons are replaced in the hippocampus, but their addition doesn’t make the brain region bigger, and blocking neurogenesis doesn’t make the hippocampus shrink, Kageyama and his colleagues found. There might be only a few new neurons, but they are important for mice to form memories, the researchers say. Blocking neurogenesis impaired mice’s ability to remember a maze for more than week, while mice with intact hippocampuses remembered the maze two weeks after learning to run it.
“It’s not a straightforward linkage between neurogenesis and memory,” says Paul Frankland, a neuroscientist at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute in Toronto, who was not involved in the new studies.Memories can still form in the absence of neurogenesis, but may be subtly different from those made when new neurons are present, he says. Neurogenesis may help form a timeline for memories, with new neurons helping to keep track of memories formed at the time the cells joined the hippocampus.
Neurogenesis in the hippocampus slows down as mice age. Similar slowing in people could help explain why memory fails as people get older, Kageyama says.
Another mystery about neurogenesis concerns antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, the class of drug that includes Prozac. Those drugs were previously shown to stimulate neurogenesis in the hippocampus, but scientists were not sure if that was a side effect of the medication or necessary for its action.
Now, a study on mice in the Aug. 14 Neuron shows that neurogenesis in the hippocampus depends on the action of a protein called TRKB, and that neurogenesis is required for the antidepressant effects of SSRIs.
That doesn’t mean that depression is caused by a defect in neurogenesis, says Luis Parada, who led the study with colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. But the research could shed light on why some people don’t respond to antidepressant therapy and lead to the development of new drugs to treat depression.
“There is exciting evidence that in a variety of animal models neurogenesis accompanies response to antidepressants,” he says. “We’re getting an idea of what molecules mediate this.”
Most of the brain does fine with its original brain cells, but parts involved in smelling and remembering sometimes need some new recruits.
In mice, new neurons are needed to remember mazes and keep their scent-sensing organs plump (but aren’t necessary for detecting smells), a new study shows. Another recent study demonstrates that some antidepressants require neurogenesis — the creation of fresh neurons — to work.
Both studies are part of a new wave of research that shows neurogenesis — once thought to be impossible in the brain — plays an important role in the organ’s function.
“These are both very good papers and consistent with the growing appreciation for the importance of adult neurogenesis in general and in particular in behavior,” says Fred “Rusty” Gage, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.
Neurogenesis creates new neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain linked to learning and memory, and in the olfactory bulb, an organ that detects smells and pheromones. But scientists didn’t know why it was necessary to make new cells in those brain regions.
Japanese researchers led by Ryoichiro Kageyama, a neuroscientist at Kyoto University, report August 31 in an advance online publication of Nature Neuroscience that neurogenesis plays different roles in the two brain structures.
Nearly all of the cells in the olfactory bulb are replaced, and that refreshing of neurons is required to maintain the shape and volume of the bulb, the researchers report. But mice with shrunken olfactory bulbs had no trouble sniffing out sweet treats, suggesting that a few old neurons are all that’s needed to maintain a sense of smell.
Neural stem cells that make new olfactory bulb neurons seem to act like the adult stem cells that maintain skin, blood and gut, says Kageyama. But the researchers don’t yet understand why a breakdown in maintenance doesn’t destroy the mice’s sense of smell.
“Smell is so important for mice that redundancy in olfaction could be intensive,” Kageyama says. “It is also possible that the mice have some olfactory defect that we are so far not aware of.” The team has not yet tested whether mice with atrophied olfactory bulbs can still detect pheromones.
In contrast to the olfactory bulb, far fewer new neurons are added to the hippocampus. More than 10 percent of neurons are replaced in the hippocampus, but their addition doesn’t make the brain region bigger, and blocking neurogenesis doesn’t make the hippocampus shrink, Kageyama and his colleagues found. There might be only a few new neurons, but they are important for mice to form memories, the researchers say. Blocking neurogenesis impaired mice’s ability to remember a maze for more than week, while mice with intact hippocampuses remembered the maze two weeks after learning to run it.
“It’s not a straightforward linkage between neurogenesis and memory,” says Paul Frankland, a neuroscientist at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute in Toronto, who was not involved in the new studies.Memories can still form in the absence of neurogenesis, but may be subtly different from those made when new neurons are present, he says. Neurogenesis may help form a timeline for memories, with new neurons helping to keep track of memories formed at the time the cells joined the hippocampus.
Neurogenesis in the hippocampus slows down as mice age. Similar slowing in people could help explain why memory fails as people get older, Kageyama says.
Another mystery about neurogenesis concerns antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, the class of drug that includes Prozac. Those drugs were previously shown to stimulate neurogenesis in the hippocampus, but scientists were not sure if that was a side effect of the medication or necessary for its action.
Now, a study on mice in the Aug. 14 Neuron shows that neurogenesis in the hippocampus depends on the action of a protein called TRKB, and that neurogenesis is required for the antidepressant effects of SSRIs.
That doesn’t mean that depression is caused by a defect in neurogenesis, says Luis Parada, who led the study with colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. But the research could shed light on why some people don’t respond to antidepressant therapy and lead to the development of new drugs to treat depression.
“There is exciting evidence that in a variety of animal models neurogenesis accompanies response to antidepressants,” he says. “We’re getting an idea of what molecules mediate this.”
Friday, May 1, 2009
architecture 7.arc.0098 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
When it comes to sensory information detected by the body, pain is king, and itch is the court jester. But that insistent, tingly feeling—satisfied only by a scratch—is anything but funny to the millions of people who suffer from it chronically.
Garden-variety itches related to histamine, like the kind caused by an angry rash of chicken pox or poison ivy, annoy everyone, but most can be subdued with drugs like Benadryl. But another type of itch is not mollified by these drugs, and therein lies the rub. Pathological itch — called the “itch that laughs at Benadryl” by neuroscientist and itch investigator Glenn Giesler Jr. of the University of Minnesota—is no joke.
Not often pursued by scientists who look at sensation, itch research has lagged far behind investigations of other bodily cues. But in recent years, scientists have begun studying pathological itch seriously. This year researchers found nerve fibers—long, thin strands that carry information from the outer skin to the spinal cord and ultimately, the brain—built to detect this often-devastating type of itch. The new results show that it has its own pathway to the brain.
“That’s the hottest topic in the field right now, the idea of different pathways for different itches,” says Earl Carstens, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Davis who studies the details of how these itches travel to the brain. The discovery of these fibers has also led some researchers to rethink the relationship between pain and itch.
“In the last two years, there has been an exponential growth of publications in the field, with major findings,” says Gil Yosipovitch, a researcher and clinician at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who founded the International Forum for the Study of Itch in 2005.
Increasing attention to itch is good news for the estimated 17 million Americans with severe, chronic itch from atopic eczema, a skin disease marked by dry, itchy skin, and other itchy conditions. A large study on itch conducted in Oslo in 2004 found that 8 percent of more than 18,000 adult Norwegians surveyed suffered from chronic itch. Itch often afflicts the weakest: It is a well-known but understudied symptom in people with liver failure, multiple sclerosis, HIV and late-stage cancer. Painkillers may help the seriously ill, but often replace pain with severe itchiness. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO And depression rates soar among people who itch constantly.
It’s easy to imagine why. Think of spiny insect legs scurrying up the neck, and of lice, mosquitoes, bedbugs and chiggers crawling on, burrowing in and biting tender parts of the skin. Now magnify those sensations by months, years or even decades.
For patients and doctors, the worst part of this itch is that there is almost no way to treat it. Antihistamines like Benadryl, the tried-and-true way of blocking itch caused by bug bites and hives, have no effect on more serious itch conditions. In many cases, the best (and only) advice has remained unchanged for many years: Moisturize, wear loose clothing and, whatever you do, don’t scratch.
“It’s maddening,” says Susan Lipworth, a board member of the National Eczema Association, based in San Rafael, Calif., who has suffered from severe eczema-related itching for 14 years. The insatiable desire to scratch has left her body scarred with seeping wounds. “I love my doctors, but there is nothing for this,” she says.
access
Enlargemagnify
NEVER-ENDING ITCHENLARGE Pathological itch, unlike garden-variety itch, cannot be subdued with drugs like Benadryl. Amy Guip
The original itching
Plants and bugs can make us itch. So can scratchy wool sweaters. It turns out that itch can even be brought on by the power of suggestion.
You feel an itch on the skin. But its roots lie deep in the brain and spinal cord, a finding that emerged from scientists’ first modern attempts to understand itch in the 1970s and 1980s. Studying the itches brought on by things like poison ivy, scientists showed that after contact with the plant’s toxins, the skin releases a chemical called histamine from specialized cells that cause the skin to swell, redden and itch.
Early work by European researchers showed that histamine causes intense itch when injected directly into human skin. It wasn’t until 1997 that a German research group led by Martin Schmelz, now at the University of Heidelberg in Mannheim, discovered the first itch nerve fibers, which responded primarily to histamine and were shown not to be sensitive to pain (SN: 10/18/97, p. 245).
“The idea was fabulous,” says Robert LaMotte, a neurobiologist at Yale University and a leader of studies on the newly discovered chronic itch fibers.
Until the 1997 finding, most researchers thought that itch was a weaker form of pain, and probably sensed by pain-related nerves. Scientists believed that if an itchy stimulus was increased to a high enough level, the itch would turn into an “ouch.” Conversely, if a painful poke was lessened enough, the pain would feel itchy. But the discovery of fibers that responded to histamine but not to a painful pinch revealed itch as a sensation unto itself.
“The idea that histamine is the main itch mediator in the skin was prevalent for a long time,” Carstens says.
The study of histamine itch led to major gains in understanding a chemical that causes itch and the fibers that detect it, but in a sense, it was a red herring. Even then scientists knew that some itching didn’t appear to involve histamine.
Laughing at Benadryl
access
Enlargemagnify
ITCHY PATHWAYSENLARGE Researchers have identified two distinct types of nerve fibers that respond to itchy sensations, passing signals from the skin to the brain. View the diagram for more details.Charles Floyd
“It all started with the observations of itch that are resistant to antihistamines. That’s why we embarked on this research,” says Matthias Ringkamp, a neurobiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who has worked with LaMotte on the chronic types of itch.
Another clue also led scientists to look for separate pathways for these types of itch: The nerve endings discovered by Schmelz’s group in 1997 cannot detect many types of itch, like the kind caused by unlined prickly wool pants raking against dry winter legs. Researchers thought it might be possible to use temporary nonhistamine itches as experimental proxies for chronic, debilitating itches.
To study the itches in the lab, scientists turned to cowhage, a major ingredient in pranksters’ itching powder. Back in the 1950s, scientists had described the curiously itchy effects of cowhage, or Mucuna pruriens, a tropical plant with white or purple flowers that produces nutritious beans. Its seedpods are coated with tiny lances called spicules. When lodged in the skin, the spicules produce an intense, pure and reproducible itch that lasts for about six minutes. (Probably a very long six minutes for the study participants.)
“You can take Benadryl all day, and if you jump into a cowhage plant, you’ll itch like no tomorrow,” says Giesler, whose University of Minnesota research group was, in 2004, one of the first since the 1950s to take advantage of cowhage’s itchiness. “Right away, we realized that cowhage was a different type of itch.”
To draw distinctions between itches, a team of researchers led by Ringkamp conducted experiments using histamine for the usual itch and using cowhage to represent chronic itch. Although the study subjects found both substances to be itchy, the characteristics of the itches were markedly distinct. The itchy area caused by cowhage was restricted to the site of application; the histamine itch spread out from the original site. When an antihistamine was applied to the itches, the cowhage itch persisted.
But when Ringkamp and colleagues treated the itches with the compound that makes chili peppers hot —capsaicin, which triggers a pain response — they blocked the cowhage itch, while leaving the histamine itch unaffected. There was another notable difference. The cowhage itch disappeared in about six minutes, while the histamine itch lasted longer.
These results, published in 2007 in the Journal of Neuroscience, showed that while the sensation of the two itches caused by histamine and cowhage felt similar to participants, the mechanisms were undoubtedly different.
Since, like almost all types of chronic, pathological itches, the itch produced by cowhage is impervious to antihistamines, scientists reasoned that if they could figure out exactly which neural fibers were responsible for a cowhage itch, they might understand how pathological itch works. Then, they could figure out how to treat it. The scientists concluded that different itch fibers may carry distinct itch messages to the brain.
Because the histamine-sensing itch fibers could not detect itchy mechanical stimuli, like a scratchy wool sweater, the researchers turned to another likely culprit: pain fibers.
Pain and the itch
Called an “exquisite pleasure” by researcher G.H. Bishop in 1948, scratching an itch is deeply satisfying, probably because the pain caused by scratching overrides itch fiber activity. But the relationship between pain and itch is, to put it mildly, complicated.
After the 1997 discovery of the itch-specific fibers, itch and pain were uncoupled. The new data on cowhage-induced itch suggests that pain and itch, in some cases, do seem to be linked, and perhaps detected by the very same fibers. The finding makes the idea of a clean separation a bit fuzzier.
To see the activity of individual fibers that might respond to pain and itch, LaMotte’s team began eavesdropping on the neurons of monkeys. The researchers wanted to know if a type of nerve fiber that detects pain caused by heat and mechanical forces, such as a pinch, could also sense a cowhage-induced itch.
To test this idea, thin, conductive wires were inserted into the skin of a sedated monkey, and different types of stimuli were applied to the arm: Heat and capsaicin to cause pain, and cowhage and histamine to bring on the itch.
The team tapped into individual nerve endings as they responded to pain. A few showed a weak response when histamine was applied. But the majority of the nerve fibers responded strongly to cowhage. The same fibers known to detect painful stimuli like a hard poke or a burn could also detect the cowhage itch. These fibers were pulling double duty.
Vocabulary for itch fibers is lacking, so Ringkamp’s group described these new itch fibers, in the July 23 Journal of Neuroscience, by their pain fiber names.
Cowhage itch has a private pathway to the brain, independent of the histamine-related pathway, and scientists assume chronic itch conditions do too, Carstens says. “The idea is that there are now at least two separate mechanisms and pathways for itch, one for histamine and another one for cowhage,” he says.
Ringkamp explains: “These two kinds of itch induce two different types of neuronal populations.”
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire And then there’s the contagious itch, similar to the yawn that can overtake a room. In a 2000 study titled “Observations during an Itch-Inducing Lecture,” viewing slide shows starring fleas, mites and allergic rashes led people to scratch themselves.
Even reading about itches may be enough to cause the sensation. (Sorry for the scratch marks.)
Understanding the architecture of the types of nerve fibers that detect itch and the complicated brain processing that makes a person want to scratch, scientists say, will lead to a greater understanding of how bodies perceive these sensations. As LaMotte, the neurobiologist from Yale, puts it, “This is a window into how the brain processes stimuli.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Despite all this progress, most researchers in the field agree that the task of classifying and describing all of the different sensory fibers in skin is in its infancy. Scientists, they say, have just scratched the surface.
When it comes to sensory information detected by the body, pain is king, and itch is the court jester. But that insistent, tingly feeling—satisfied only by a scratch—is anything but funny to the millions of people who suffer from it chronically.
Garden-variety itches related to histamine, like the kind caused by an angry rash of chicken pox or poison ivy, annoy everyone, but most can be subdued with drugs like Benadryl. But another type of itch is not mollified by these drugs, and therein lies the rub. Pathological itch — called the “itch that laughs at Benadryl” by neuroscientist and itch investigator Glenn Giesler Jr. of the University of Minnesota—is no joke.
Not often pursued by scientists who look at sensation, itch research has lagged far behind investigations of other bodily cues. But in recent years, scientists have begun studying pathological itch seriously. This year researchers found nerve fibers—long, thin strands that carry information from the outer skin to the spinal cord and ultimately, the brain—built to detect this often-devastating type of itch. The new results show that it has its own pathway to the brain.
“That’s the hottest topic in the field right now, the idea of different pathways for different itches,” says Earl Carstens, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Davis who studies the details of how these itches travel to the brain. The discovery of these fibers has also led some researchers to rethink the relationship between pain and itch.
“In the last two years, there has been an exponential growth of publications in the field, with major findings,” says Gil Yosipovitch, a researcher and clinician at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who founded the International Forum for the Study of Itch in 2005.
Increasing attention to itch is good news for the estimated 17 million Americans with severe, chronic itch from atopic eczema, a skin disease marked by dry, itchy skin, and other itchy conditions. A large study on itch conducted in Oslo in 2004 found that 8 percent of more than 18,000 adult Norwegians surveyed suffered from chronic itch. Itch often afflicts the weakest: It is a well-known but understudied symptom in people with liver failure, multiple sclerosis, HIV and late-stage cancer. Painkillers may help the seriously ill, but often replace pain with severe itchiness. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO And depression rates soar among people who itch constantly.
It’s easy to imagine why. Think of spiny insect legs scurrying up the neck, and of lice, mosquitoes, bedbugs and chiggers crawling on, burrowing in and biting tender parts of the skin. Now magnify those sensations by months, years or even decades.
For patients and doctors, the worst part of this itch is that there is almost no way to treat it. Antihistamines like Benadryl, the tried-and-true way of blocking itch caused by bug bites and hives, have no effect on more serious itch conditions. In many cases, the best (and only) advice has remained unchanged for many years: Moisturize, wear loose clothing and, whatever you do, don’t scratch.
“It’s maddening,” says Susan Lipworth, a board member of the National Eczema Association, based in San Rafael, Calif., who has suffered from severe eczema-related itching for 14 years. The insatiable desire to scratch has left her body scarred with seeping wounds. “I love my doctors, but there is nothing for this,” she says.
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Enlargemagnify
NEVER-ENDING ITCHENLARGE Pathological itch, unlike garden-variety itch, cannot be subdued with drugs like Benadryl. Amy Guip
The original itching
Plants and bugs can make us itch. So can scratchy wool sweaters. It turns out that itch can even be brought on by the power of suggestion.
You feel an itch on the skin. But its roots lie deep in the brain and spinal cord, a finding that emerged from scientists’ first modern attempts to understand itch in the 1970s and 1980s. Studying the itches brought on by things like poison ivy, scientists showed that after contact with the plant’s toxins, the skin releases a chemical called histamine from specialized cells that cause the skin to swell, redden and itch.
Early work by European researchers showed that histamine causes intense itch when injected directly into human skin. It wasn’t until 1997 that a German research group led by Martin Schmelz, now at the University of Heidelberg in Mannheim, discovered the first itch nerve fibers, which responded primarily to histamine and were shown not to be sensitive to pain (SN: 10/18/97, p. 245).
“The idea was fabulous,” says Robert LaMotte, a neurobiologist at Yale University and a leader of studies on the newly discovered chronic itch fibers.
Until the 1997 finding, most researchers thought that itch was a weaker form of pain, and probably sensed by pain-related nerves. Scientists believed that if an itchy stimulus was increased to a high enough level, the itch would turn into an “ouch.” Conversely, if a painful poke was lessened enough, the pain would feel itchy. But the discovery of fibers that responded to histamine but not to a painful pinch revealed itch as a sensation unto itself.
“The idea that histamine is the main itch mediator in the skin was prevalent for a long time,” Carstens says.
The study of histamine itch led to major gains in understanding a chemical that causes itch and the fibers that detect it, but in a sense, it was a red herring. Even then scientists knew that some itching didn’t appear to involve histamine.
Laughing at Benadryl
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Enlargemagnify
ITCHY PATHWAYSENLARGE Researchers have identified two distinct types of nerve fibers that respond to itchy sensations, passing signals from the skin to the brain. View the diagram for more details.Charles Floyd
“It all started with the observations of itch that are resistant to antihistamines. That’s why we embarked on this research,” says Matthias Ringkamp, a neurobiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who has worked with LaMotte on the chronic types of itch.
Another clue also led scientists to look for separate pathways for these types of itch: The nerve endings discovered by Schmelz’s group in 1997 cannot detect many types of itch, like the kind caused by unlined prickly wool pants raking against dry winter legs. Researchers thought it might be possible to use temporary nonhistamine itches as experimental proxies for chronic, debilitating itches.
To study the itches in the lab, scientists turned to cowhage, a major ingredient in pranksters’ itching powder. Back in the 1950s, scientists had described the curiously itchy effects of cowhage, or Mucuna pruriens, a tropical plant with white or purple flowers that produces nutritious beans. Its seedpods are coated with tiny lances called spicules. When lodged in the skin, the spicules produce an intense, pure and reproducible itch that lasts for about six minutes. (Probably a very long six minutes for the study participants.)
“You can take Benadryl all day, and if you jump into a cowhage plant, you’ll itch like no tomorrow,” says Giesler, whose University of Minnesota research group was, in 2004, one of the first since the 1950s to take advantage of cowhage’s itchiness. “Right away, we realized that cowhage was a different type of itch.”
To draw distinctions between itches, a team of researchers led by Ringkamp conducted experiments using histamine for the usual itch and using cowhage to represent chronic itch. Although the study subjects found both substances to be itchy, the characteristics of the itches were markedly distinct. The itchy area caused by cowhage was restricted to the site of application; the histamine itch spread out from the original site. When an antihistamine was applied to the itches, the cowhage itch persisted.
But when Ringkamp and colleagues treated the itches with the compound that makes chili peppers hot —capsaicin, which triggers a pain response — they blocked the cowhage itch, while leaving the histamine itch unaffected. There was another notable difference. The cowhage itch disappeared in about six minutes, while the histamine itch lasted longer.
These results, published in 2007 in the Journal of Neuroscience, showed that while the sensation of the two itches caused by histamine and cowhage felt similar to participants, the mechanisms were undoubtedly different.
Since, like almost all types of chronic, pathological itches, the itch produced by cowhage is impervious to antihistamines, scientists reasoned that if they could figure out exactly which neural fibers were responsible for a cowhage itch, they might understand how pathological itch works. Then, they could figure out how to treat it. The scientists concluded that different itch fibers may carry distinct itch messages to the brain.
Because the histamine-sensing itch fibers could not detect itchy mechanical stimuli, like a scratchy wool sweater, the researchers turned to another likely culprit: pain fibers.
Pain and the itch
Called an “exquisite pleasure” by researcher G.H. Bishop in 1948, scratching an itch is deeply satisfying, probably because the pain caused by scratching overrides itch fiber activity. But the relationship between pain and itch is, to put it mildly, complicated.
After the 1997 discovery of the itch-specific fibers, itch and pain were uncoupled. The new data on cowhage-induced itch suggests that pain and itch, in some cases, do seem to be linked, and perhaps detected by the very same fibers. The finding makes the idea of a clean separation a bit fuzzier.
To see the activity of individual fibers that might respond to pain and itch, LaMotte’s team began eavesdropping on the neurons of monkeys. The researchers wanted to know if a type of nerve fiber that detects pain caused by heat and mechanical forces, such as a pinch, could also sense a cowhage-induced itch.
To test this idea, thin, conductive wires were inserted into the skin of a sedated monkey, and different types of stimuli were applied to the arm: Heat and capsaicin to cause pain, and cowhage and histamine to bring on the itch.
The team tapped into individual nerve endings as they responded to pain. A few showed a weak response when histamine was applied. But the majority of the nerve fibers responded strongly to cowhage. The same fibers known to detect painful stimuli like a hard poke or a burn could also detect the cowhage itch. These fibers were pulling double duty.
Vocabulary for itch fibers is lacking, so Ringkamp’s group described these new itch fibers, in the July 23 Journal of Neuroscience, by their pain fiber names.
Cowhage itch has a private pathway to the brain, independent of the histamine-related pathway, and scientists assume chronic itch conditions do too, Carstens says. “The idea is that there are now at least two separate mechanisms and pathways for itch, one for histamine and another one for cowhage,” he says.
Ringkamp explains: “These two kinds of itch induce two different types of neuronal populations.”
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire And then there’s the contagious itch, similar to the yawn that can overtake a room. In a 2000 study titled “Observations during an Itch-Inducing Lecture,” viewing slide shows starring fleas, mites and allergic rashes led people to scratch themselves.
Even reading about itches may be enough to cause the sensation. (Sorry for the scratch marks.)
Understanding the architecture of the types of nerve fibers that detect itch and the complicated brain processing that makes a person want to scratch, scientists say, will lead to a greater understanding of how bodies perceive these sensations. As LaMotte, the neurobiologist from Yale, puts it, “This is a window into how the brain processes stimuli.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Despite all this progress, most researchers in the field agree that the task of classifying and describing all of the different sensory fibers in skin is in its infancy. Scientists, they say, have just scratched the surface.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
hiv 3.hiv.1`12 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Babies born infected with HIV should be treated as soon as possible, a large trial shows
By Nathan Seppa
Web edition : Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
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Babies infected with HIV from birth should be given powerful drugs to fight the virus as soon as possible, researchers in South Africa find. In a comparison of treatment strategies, the team reports that babies getting medication, even when they are just weeks old, showed dramatically better survival in subsequent months than those treated only after HIV-related symptoms appeared later. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire The study appears in the Nov. 20 New England Journal of Medicine.http://Louis-J-Sheehan.de
“I think it’s a landmark trial,” says Edward Handelsman, a pediatrician at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. “It’s the first large, randomized clinical trial which absolutely, positively establishes this benefit to early treatment. And it provides a path — as far as I’m concerned a mandate — to start improving our methods of identifying [HIV-positive] infants early.” NIAID partly funded the study.
Preliminary results from this trial were made available to scientists in 2007. The early findings, now bolstered by final data, have led to a wholesale change in medical guidelines for treating infants who acquire HIV from their mothers in utero or during birth. The new treatment guidelines went into effect during the past year worldwide. They call for virus testing within three weeks after birth and immediate treatment for HIV-positive babies regardless of their immune CD4 T cell counts or symptoms.
Previously, HIV-positive babies were routinely treated only when their CD4 T cell count dropped sharply or when clear medical problems arose. But at that point the babies often plunged into a downward spiral.
“If you have a strong virus attack, the immature immune system not only loses CD4 T cells — other immune cells get depleted,” says study coauthor Avy Violari, a pediatrician at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. This cascade weakens the body’s ability to fight other infections. HIV in an infant, she says, “is the worst-case scenario.”
Even so, the question of when to start treating a baby born HIV-positive had been mired in controversy, says Peter Havens, a pediatrician at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Earlier guidelines had recommended that doctors wait until clear symptoms arose because of worries that early treatment might contribute to viral resistance to drugs or cause side effects in infants.
“But a lot of people have felt that, because HIV progresses so rapidly in young children, you might be better off treating everybody under a year of age,” Havens says. “This study clearly documents that.”
To clarify the value of early medication, Violari and her colleagues identified 377 infants in Cape Town and Soweto who were HIV-positive but whose CD4 T cell counts were still in the safe range. Starting in 2005, researchers began to assign infants of an average age of 7 weeks to one of two different regimens. One group of 125 infants got the standard treatment, in which medication was delayed until an infant’s T cells plunged or other symptoms arose. The other 252 infants were started on the cocktail of antiretroviral drugs promptly.
The children were then monitored at regular visits to clinics. But in June 2007, the scientists stopped assigning children to the delayed treatment group when evidence became clear that those treated earlier were benefiting. At that point, the children had been in the trial for 40 weeks, on average. During this time, 16 percent of the delayed-treatment infants died, compared with only 4 percent of those who had started receiving medication earlier. The most common infections striking both groups were gastrointestinal ailments, pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis. Babies getting treated earlier were more apt to experience a drop in neutrophils, a kind of white blood cell. But even with this side effect, their survival rates remained much higher.
As children grow, they become better able to live with an HIV infection. Thanks to improved drugs, the outlook for HIV-positive children has changed dramatically in the past two decades, Havens says. “The life expectancy for children with an HIV infection who can take their medicines … is unknown,” he says. “They’re not just growing into adulthood; [they are] running businesses and finishing college.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
But children born HIV-positive in Africa face a different reality, says Violari. “There are other disease, for example, and more challenges [such as] limited availability of drugs,” she says. The death rate during the first year of life for infants born with HIV in Africa is roughly 35 percent. By two years, it’s 52 percent, a 2004 study found.
She and her colleagues will continue to monitor the children in their study until 2011.
Babies born infected with HIV should be treated as soon as possible, a large trial shows
By Nathan Seppa
Web edition : Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
font_down font_up Text Size
Babies infected with HIV from birth should be given powerful drugs to fight the virus as soon as possible, researchers in South Africa find. In a comparison of treatment strategies, the team reports that babies getting medication, even when they are just weeks old, showed dramatically better survival in subsequent months than those treated only after HIV-related symptoms appeared later. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire The study appears in the Nov. 20 New England Journal of Medicine.http://Louis-J-Sheehan.de
“I think it’s a landmark trial,” says Edward Handelsman, a pediatrician at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. “It’s the first large, randomized clinical trial which absolutely, positively establishes this benefit to early treatment. And it provides a path — as far as I’m concerned a mandate — to start improving our methods of identifying [HIV-positive] infants early.” NIAID partly funded the study.
Preliminary results from this trial were made available to scientists in 2007. The early findings, now bolstered by final data, have led to a wholesale change in medical guidelines for treating infants who acquire HIV from their mothers in utero or during birth. The new treatment guidelines went into effect during the past year worldwide. They call for virus testing within three weeks after birth and immediate treatment for HIV-positive babies regardless of their immune CD4 T cell counts or symptoms.
Previously, HIV-positive babies were routinely treated only when their CD4 T cell count dropped sharply or when clear medical problems arose. But at that point the babies often plunged into a downward spiral.
“If you have a strong virus attack, the immature immune system not only loses CD4 T cells — other immune cells get depleted,” says study coauthor Avy Violari, a pediatrician at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. This cascade weakens the body’s ability to fight other infections. HIV in an infant, she says, “is the worst-case scenario.”
Even so, the question of when to start treating a baby born HIV-positive had been mired in controversy, says Peter Havens, a pediatrician at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Earlier guidelines had recommended that doctors wait until clear symptoms arose because of worries that early treatment might contribute to viral resistance to drugs or cause side effects in infants.
“But a lot of people have felt that, because HIV progresses so rapidly in young children, you might be better off treating everybody under a year of age,” Havens says. “This study clearly documents that.”
To clarify the value of early medication, Violari and her colleagues identified 377 infants in Cape Town and Soweto who were HIV-positive but whose CD4 T cell counts were still in the safe range. Starting in 2005, researchers began to assign infants of an average age of 7 weeks to one of two different regimens. One group of 125 infants got the standard treatment, in which medication was delayed until an infant’s T cells plunged or other symptoms arose. The other 252 infants were started on the cocktail of antiretroviral drugs promptly.
The children were then monitored at regular visits to clinics. But in June 2007, the scientists stopped assigning children to the delayed treatment group when evidence became clear that those treated earlier were benefiting. At that point, the children had been in the trial for 40 weeks, on average. During this time, 16 percent of the delayed-treatment infants died, compared with only 4 percent of those who had started receiving medication earlier. The most common infections striking both groups were gastrointestinal ailments, pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis. Babies getting treated earlier were more apt to experience a drop in neutrophils, a kind of white blood cell. But even with this side effect, their survival rates remained much higher.
As children grow, they become better able to live with an HIV infection. Thanks to improved drugs, the outlook for HIV-positive children has changed dramatically in the past two decades, Havens says. “The life expectancy for children with an HIV infection who can take their medicines … is unknown,” he says. “They’re not just growing into adulthood; [they are] running businesses and finishing college.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
But children born HIV-positive in Africa face a different reality, says Violari. “There are other disease, for example, and more challenges [such as] limited availability of drugs,” she says. The death rate during the first year of life for infants born with HIV in Africa is roughly 35 percent. By two years, it’s 52 percent, a 2004 study found.
She and her colleagues will continue to monitor the children in their study until 2011.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
question 3.que.001 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Fruit flies don’t get cancer, but a protein first discovered in Drosophila could prove to be a chemotherapy target that may stop even the most aggressive cancers in their tracks.
A protein known as the “seven in absentia homolog,” or SIAH, may help put the brakes on runaway cancers, said Amy Tang, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on December 14 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. http://Louis-j-sheehan.com
In fruit flies, the protein “seven in absentia” is an enzyme that tags other proteins for destruction. It is also at the end of a chain of chemical reactions — called the RAS pathway — that drives cells to proliferate.
In a majority of human cancers, the RAS pathway gets geared up and sent into overdrive so that cells grow out of control. Many researchers have tried to target a protein on the RAS pathway to slow down or halt the growth of cancer cells. But Tang and her colleagues decided to look farther down the chain than others have looked to see if more effective targets for chemotherapy could be found.
Tang and her colleagues discovered that, in humans, a version of seven in absentia is found in rapidly dividing cells. The team examined tissue samples from more than 100 pancreatic cancer patients and found high amounts of SIAH in cancer cells: the more aggressive the cancer, the more SIAH in the tumor cells.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates that almost 38,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed in the United States in 2008 and more than 34,000 people will die from pancreatic cancer.
Since the enzyme is abundant in cancer cells, but not in healthy cells, Tang reasoned that attacking SIAH might also knock out cancer cells. The researchers inactivated SIAH in mice with cancer. The therapy had dramatic effects on tumors in the mice.
“I did not see reduced [tumors]. I did not see depressed. I saw abolished,” Tang says. The more aggressive the cancer, the more effective inactivating the enzyme was in melting the tumors. “It was actually shocking to me.”http://Louis-j-sheehan.com
Disrupting the enzyme also abolished breast and lung tumors as well as pancreatic cancer in the mice. As dramatic as the results were, Tang wasn’t satisfied with merely destroying tumors.
“Tumorigenesis does not kill. Metastasis kills,” she says.
But attacking SIAH also blocked metastasis: Cancer cells did not spread to other parts of a mouse’s body, the researchers found. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Tang’s methods of attacking SIAH are not currently practical for use in humans, but she is hopeful that pharmaceutical companies could develop chemotherapy drugs that would specifically interfere with the enzyme’s activity in cancer cells.
“We’ve given the whole cancer field a new target,” Tang says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
There is no question that Tang has identified a critical molecule for cancer proliferation, but her work is plagued by the same reality as all cancer research, says Mark Kieran, the director of pediatric medical neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “The reality check is that turning off a major regulatory pathway is hard,” he says. “If it were easy we would have done it already any number of times.”
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Fruit flies don’t get cancer, but a protein first discovered in Drosophila could prove to be a chemotherapy target that may stop even the most aggressive cancers in their tracks.
A protein known as the “seven in absentia homolog,” or SIAH, may help put the brakes on runaway cancers, said Amy Tang, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on December 14 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. http://Louis-j-sheehan.com
In fruit flies, the protein “seven in absentia” is an enzyme that tags other proteins for destruction. It is also at the end of a chain of chemical reactions — called the RAS pathway — that drives cells to proliferate.
In a majority of human cancers, the RAS pathway gets geared up and sent into overdrive so that cells grow out of control. Many researchers have tried to target a protein on the RAS pathway to slow down or halt the growth of cancer cells. But Tang and her colleagues decided to look farther down the chain than others have looked to see if more effective targets for chemotherapy could be found.
Tang and her colleagues discovered that, in humans, a version of seven in absentia is found in rapidly dividing cells. The team examined tissue samples from more than 100 pancreatic cancer patients and found high amounts of SIAH in cancer cells: the more aggressive the cancer, the more SIAH in the tumor cells.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates that almost 38,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed in the United States in 2008 and more than 34,000 people will die from pancreatic cancer.
Since the enzyme is abundant in cancer cells, but not in healthy cells, Tang reasoned that attacking SIAH might also knock out cancer cells. The researchers inactivated SIAH in mice with cancer. The therapy had dramatic effects on tumors in the mice.
“I did not see reduced [tumors]. I did not see depressed. I saw abolished,” Tang says. The more aggressive the cancer, the more effective inactivating the enzyme was in melting the tumors. “It was actually shocking to me.”http://Louis-j-sheehan.com
Disrupting the enzyme also abolished breast and lung tumors as well as pancreatic cancer in the mice. As dramatic as the results were, Tang wasn’t satisfied with merely destroying tumors.
“Tumorigenesis does not kill. Metastasis kills,” she says.
But attacking SIAH also blocked metastasis: Cancer cells did not spread to other parts of a mouse’s body, the researchers found. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Tang’s methods of attacking SIAH are not currently practical for use in humans, but she is hopeful that pharmaceutical companies could develop chemotherapy drugs that would specifically interfere with the enzyme’s activity in cancer cells.
“We’ve given the whole cancer field a new target,” Tang says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
There is no question that Tang has identified a critical molecule for cancer proliferation, but her work is plagued by the same reality as all cancer research, says Mark Kieran, the director of pediatric medical neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “The reality check is that turning off a major regulatory pathway is hard,” he says. “If it were easy we would have done it already any number of times.”
Friday, April 10, 2009
proteins 6.pro.0003 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Yukon Cornelius isn’t the only one with a taste for metals. While most people probably can’t find silver and gold by nibbling snow, as Cornelius seems to do in the Rudolph movie*, new research shows that taste buds can detect iron, zinc, copper, magnesium and other metals.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
The source of metallic taste has long been elusive, but a study in the Feb. 25 Journal of Neuroscience traces the sensation to a combination of proteins used in detecting sweetness and the pain of red-hot chili peppers, and other as-of-yet unidentified proteins.
Scientists used to believe that there were only a handful of tastes the tongue could register — sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami, a delicious, meaty taste found in monosodium glutamate, Parmesan cheese and portobello mushrooms. Scientists define a taste as something that is detected by a specific combination of proteins in taste buds, as distinct from a flavor that results from a combination of tastes and odors.
But it would be impossible to describe all the differences between chicken soup and lobster bisque using only the known tastes, says Johannes le Coutre of the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. So researchers think there are many other taste sensations. Le Coutre, Céline Riera and colleagues conducted the new study to find out if they could explain just one of them — metallic taste.
The researchers fed mice water containing varying concentrations of metal salts. Mice preferred water with low concentrations of iron and zinc over distilled water, but avoided high concentrations of the metals. The mice rejected copper or magnesium sulfate at any concentration.
The team found that mice lacking either the TRPM5 protein, which is involved in detecting sweet, umami and bitter tastes, or the T1R3 protein, another sweet and umami-detecting protein, shunned iron and zinc even at low concentrations, but lost some of their aversion to magnesium and copper.
Another protein, called TRPV1, is involved in the pain response to spicy foods. Mice that lack TRPV1 overcame some dislike of copper salts and high concentrations of iron. Those results indicate that the three proteins — involved in other tastes — are components of metallic taste.
But other proteins, independent of these three, must still be working as metal detectors because none of the mice completely lost their aversion to magnesium and copper or high concentrations of iron and zinc. The researchers don’t yet know which additional proteins are involved in the full response to metal.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
“This is the most sophisticated work to date on metallic taste,” says Michael Tordoff of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. People show a similar response to metallic tastes, preferring the low concentrations of metals found in mineral or tap water to the taste of soft or distilled water, he says.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
Researchers are on the trail of other possible tastes, including sets of proteins that might detect fats or starches, Tordoff says. “The idea that there are four or five basic tastes is dying, and this is another nail in that coffin — probably a rusty nail given that it’s metallic taste.”Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
*Scenes deleted from some versions of the movie reveal that Cornelius was actually looking for peppermint, not silver and gold.
Yukon Cornelius isn’t the only one with a taste for metals. While most people probably can’t find silver and gold by nibbling snow, as Cornelius seems to do in the Rudolph movie*, new research shows that taste buds can detect iron, zinc, copper, magnesium and other metals.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
The source of metallic taste has long been elusive, but a study in the Feb. 25 Journal of Neuroscience traces the sensation to a combination of proteins used in detecting sweetness and the pain of red-hot chili peppers, and other as-of-yet unidentified proteins.
Scientists used to believe that there were only a handful of tastes the tongue could register — sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami, a delicious, meaty taste found in monosodium glutamate, Parmesan cheese and portobello mushrooms. Scientists define a taste as something that is detected by a specific combination of proteins in taste buds, as distinct from a flavor that results from a combination of tastes and odors.
But it would be impossible to describe all the differences between chicken soup and lobster bisque using only the known tastes, says Johannes le Coutre of the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. So researchers think there are many other taste sensations. Le Coutre, Céline Riera and colleagues conducted the new study to find out if they could explain just one of them — metallic taste.
The researchers fed mice water containing varying concentrations of metal salts. Mice preferred water with low concentrations of iron and zinc over distilled water, but avoided high concentrations of the metals. The mice rejected copper or magnesium sulfate at any concentration.
The team found that mice lacking either the TRPM5 protein, which is involved in detecting sweet, umami and bitter tastes, or the T1R3 protein, another sweet and umami-detecting protein, shunned iron and zinc even at low concentrations, but lost some of their aversion to magnesium and copper.
Another protein, called TRPV1, is involved in the pain response to spicy foods. Mice that lack TRPV1 overcame some dislike of copper salts and high concentrations of iron. Those results indicate that the three proteins — involved in other tastes — are components of metallic taste.
But other proteins, independent of these three, must still be working as metal detectors because none of the mice completely lost their aversion to magnesium and copper or high concentrations of iron and zinc. The researchers don’t yet know which additional proteins are involved in the full response to metal.Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
“This is the most sophisticated work to date on metallic taste,” says Michael Tordoff of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. People show a similar response to metallic tastes, preferring the low concentrations of metals found in mineral or tap water to the taste of soft or distilled water, he says.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
Researchers are on the trail of other possible tastes, including sets of proteins that might detect fats or starches, Tordoff says. “The idea that there are four or five basic tastes is dying, and this is another nail in that coffin — probably a rusty nail given that it’s metallic taste.”Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
*Scenes deleted from some versions of the movie reveal that Cornelius was actually looking for peppermint, not silver and gold.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
noise 3.noi.00098 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
When astronomers launched a balloon-borne experiment from Palestine, Texas three summers ago, they expected to find a faint radio signal from the slight warming of interstellar space by an early generation of stars. Instead, Al Kogut of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and his colleagues discovered a booming, uniformly distributed radio noise six times louder than anyone had predicted.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
The team described the mysterious and pervasive radio static January 7 at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. They also posted four reports online detailing their analyses and interpretation of the data at http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0562, http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0559, http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0555 and http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0546.
The researchers calculate that the radio noise is much too large to be accounted for by the combined emissions of all the galaxies in the universe that emit radio waves. They also suggest that the static could be signals generated by the first supermassive black holes. Cosmologist David Spergel of Princeton University, not a member of the discovery team, says the static could also be from the first generation of stars. “And those are the most conservative explanations,” he adds.
Kogut and his colleagues base their findings on 2.5 hours of data gathered during a flight of seven radio receivers called ARCADE (Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission).
ARCADE’s radio receivers, which were cooled to a temperature just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero for the balloon flight on July 22, 2006, are the first detectors capable of definitively identifying the strange radio signals, Kogut says.
Kogut adds that a retrospective analysis of several other low-frequency radio-wave studies in the 1980s and 1990s hints at the unexpected static.
Because ARCADE operates at the same low temperature as the cosmic microwave background — the whisper of radiation left over from the Big Bang that itself was accidentally discovered as radio noise — heat from the instrument can’t be confused with the radio signals it detects. Emissions from the sky are also compared to an onboard radio-emitting source.
Data from the 36-kilometer-altitude flight, in which ARCADE examined about 7 percent of the sky centered over eastern Texas, reveals a pattern of radio signals that strongly resembles synchrotron emission.
Such emission is generated by electrons accelerated to high speeds by strong magnetic fields. Electrons energized by the maelstrom of activity, including intense magnetic fields, associated with an active supermassive black hole could produce this radiation, notes Spergel. So could star-forming regions, in which massive, short-lived stars explode as supernovas, accelerating charged particles to high speeds, he adds.
Kogut and his collaborators, who include Michael Seiffert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., don’t know the distance from which the radio signals originate. But the radio static does not match any known pattern from sources in the Milky Way. Nor can it be accounted for by nearby supermassive black holes or other radio sources in nearby galaxies, which are well studied, Kogut says. And a new population of radio-emitting galaxies, too faint to be observed directly, would have to vastly outnumber all the known galaxies in the universe in order to produce such a strong radio signal. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
By process of elimination, that leaves some unknown source — possibly the first generation of supermassive black holes or the first stars — from the early universe. The radio spectrum seen by ARCADE “is telling us that we’re actually seeing a signature from a period of time that we know very little about and are very interested in,” says Spergel. A more exotic, less likely possibility, he adds, is radio emission from some new type of elementary particle. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Observations with the proposed Square Kilometer Array, a network of low-frequency radio telescopes astronomers are hoping to build, could more sensitively probe the radio static and possibly resolve the mystery background into individual sources, Spergel says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
When astronomers launched a balloon-borne experiment from Palestine, Texas three summers ago, they expected to find a faint radio signal from the slight warming of interstellar space by an early generation of stars. Instead, Al Kogut of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and his colleagues discovered a booming, uniformly distributed radio noise six times louder than anyone had predicted.http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
The team described the mysterious and pervasive radio static January 7 at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. They also posted four reports online detailing their analyses and interpretation of the data at http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0562, http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0559, http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0555 and http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.0546.
The researchers calculate that the radio noise is much too large to be accounted for by the combined emissions of all the galaxies in the universe that emit radio waves. They also suggest that the static could be signals generated by the first supermassive black holes. Cosmologist David Spergel of Princeton University, not a member of the discovery team, says the static could also be from the first generation of stars. “And those are the most conservative explanations,” he adds.
Kogut and his colleagues base their findings on 2.5 hours of data gathered during a flight of seven radio receivers called ARCADE (Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission).
ARCADE’s radio receivers, which were cooled to a temperature just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero for the balloon flight on July 22, 2006, are the first detectors capable of definitively identifying the strange radio signals, Kogut says.
Kogut adds that a retrospective analysis of several other low-frequency radio-wave studies in the 1980s and 1990s hints at the unexpected static.
Because ARCADE operates at the same low temperature as the cosmic microwave background — the whisper of radiation left over from the Big Bang that itself was accidentally discovered as radio noise — heat from the instrument can’t be confused with the radio signals it detects. Emissions from the sky are also compared to an onboard radio-emitting source.
Data from the 36-kilometer-altitude flight, in which ARCADE examined about 7 percent of the sky centered over eastern Texas, reveals a pattern of radio signals that strongly resembles synchrotron emission.
Such emission is generated by electrons accelerated to high speeds by strong magnetic fields. Electrons energized by the maelstrom of activity, including intense magnetic fields, associated with an active supermassive black hole could produce this radiation, notes Spergel. So could star-forming regions, in which massive, short-lived stars explode as supernovas, accelerating charged particles to high speeds, he adds.
Kogut and his collaborators, who include Michael Seiffert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., don’t know the distance from which the radio signals originate. But the radio static does not match any known pattern from sources in the Milky Way. Nor can it be accounted for by nearby supermassive black holes or other radio sources in nearby galaxies, which are well studied, Kogut says. And a new population of radio-emitting galaxies, too faint to be observed directly, would have to vastly outnumber all the known galaxies in the universe in order to produce such a strong radio signal. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO
By process of elimination, that leaves some unknown source — possibly the first generation of supermassive black holes or the first stars — from the early universe. The radio spectrum seen by ARCADE “is telling us that we’re actually seeing a signature from a period of time that we know very little about and are very interested in,” says Spergel. A more exotic, less likely possibility, he adds, is radio emission from some new type of elementary particle. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Observations with the proposed Square Kilometer Array, a network of low-frequency radio telescopes astronomers are hoping to build, could more sensitively probe the radio static and possibly resolve the mystery background into individual sources, Spergel says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
armstrong 5.arm.0 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
September 17, 2003
Garner Ted Armstrong, Evangelist, 73, Dies
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Garner Ted Armstrong, a silver-haired television evangelist known for his easy charm and dark message, died on Monday in Tyler, Tex. He was 73.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son Mark said. http://louisjsheehan.blogstream.com
Mr. Armstrong was the son of the evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong, who called himself the ''only apostle of our time'' and used radio to build a ministry that eventually reached millions with its message of the imminent end of the world to be followed by the second coming of Christ. An advertising man, he called his denomination the Radio Church of God. http://louisjsheehan.blogstream.com
Garner Ted Armstrong took the story into the television age. Speaking extemporaneously and informally, he brought wry humor to his apocalyptic forecasts, which were routinely peppered with actual news reports of disasters.
He was at first reluctant to follow in his father's footsteps, but by the 1950's had become the star of the radio and television programs of his father's church, by then renamed the Worldwide Church of God. Both programs were called ''The World Tomorrow,'' with the radio version heard on 360 stations on five continents and the television version seen by 20 million people on 165 stations.
In addition to spreading a spiritual message, the church grew materially to include Ambassador College in Pasadena, Calif., and a sizable publishing operation. By the end of the 1970's, The New York Times reported that it took in more than $70 million a year, more than Billy Graham and Oral Roberts combined.
The narrative of Mr. Armstrong's life had elements of biblical stories and some that recalled Elmer Gantry, the lustful evangelist of Sinclair Lewis's novel.
The most dramatic event came in 1978, when his father excommunicated him because of doctrinal disagreements and accusations of sexual misconduct that were widely reported in the news media. Six years earlier, he was taken off the air for four months after it was discovered that he had been engaged in an extramarital affair, according to the reference book Contemporary Authors.
After his excommunication, Mr. Armstrong formed another church, the Church of God International. But he was asked to step down as leader of that church in 1995 after a Texas woman accused him of sexually assaulting her during two massage sessions. He then formed the Intercontinental Church of God, remaining its president until his death.
No criminal charges were ever filed in the incident.
But with each division, Mr. Armstrong's reach lessened. At the end, he was on about 100 cable television stations and a handful of radio stations.
The rift with his father never healed, in part because Garner Ted had accused Herbert of stealing millions from his own church.
''I tried repeatedly to call him and get in touch with him through letters, but he refused to talk to me,'' the younger Mr. Armstrong said in an interview with The Associated Press at the time of his father's death, at 93, in 1986.
''My biggest regret is not being able to see my father face to face during these past years,'' he said.
Garner Ted Armstrong was born on Feb. 9, 1930, in Portland, Ore. His father saw his birth as a miracle, because his wife had recovered from an anemic condition shortly before he was born. Herbert Armstrong dedicated his newborn son to God ''for him to use as he had need,'' he said in his privately printed autobiography.
In October 1933, Herbert made his first radio broadcast in Salem, Ore. Early the next year, he published the first Plain Truth magazine on mimeographed paper.
The theology he espoused was the same his son would later hold, even as he moved between churches. It blended fundamental Christianity with some tenets of Judaism and Seventh-Day Sabbath doctrine; it departed from mainstream Christianity in rejecting the Trinity and regarding Christmas and Easter as pagan holidays; it held that Anglo-Saxons are the lineal descendants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
Members gave the church 10 percent to 40 percent of their income, a tradition Garner Ted continued.
He graduated from high school in Eugene, Ore., in 1947, the year that his father moved his religious headquarters to Pasadena because of the broadcasting facilities there.
Mr. Armstrong joined the Navy in 1948, partly to escape his father's authority. After his honorable discharge, he worked in his father's mail processing office. He entered the church's Ambassador College in 1952.
The next year, he underwent a spiritual conversion and was baptized in his father's church, and married Shirley Hammer, who survives him, along with their sons, Mark, David and Matthew. All live in Tyler.
A daily feature on Mr. Armstrong's Web site is news that may portend the end of the world. Yesterday's report included a water crisis in the Russian Far East, cholera in Liberia and the death of 200 civilians in the Congo. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
September 17, 2003
Garner Ted Armstrong, Evangelist, 73, Dies
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Garner Ted Armstrong, a silver-haired television evangelist known for his easy charm and dark message, died on Monday in Tyler, Tex. He was 73.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son Mark said. http://louisjsheehan.blogstream.com
Mr. Armstrong was the son of the evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong, who called himself the ''only apostle of our time'' and used radio to build a ministry that eventually reached millions with its message of the imminent end of the world to be followed by the second coming of Christ. An advertising man, he called his denomination the Radio Church of God. http://louisjsheehan.blogstream.com
Garner Ted Armstrong took the story into the television age. Speaking extemporaneously and informally, he brought wry humor to his apocalyptic forecasts, which were routinely peppered with actual news reports of disasters.
He was at first reluctant to follow in his father's footsteps, but by the 1950's had become the star of the radio and television programs of his father's church, by then renamed the Worldwide Church of God. Both programs were called ''The World Tomorrow,'' with the radio version heard on 360 stations on five continents and the television version seen by 20 million people on 165 stations.
In addition to spreading a spiritual message, the church grew materially to include Ambassador College in Pasadena, Calif., and a sizable publishing operation. By the end of the 1970's, The New York Times reported that it took in more than $70 million a year, more than Billy Graham and Oral Roberts combined.
The narrative of Mr. Armstrong's life had elements of biblical stories and some that recalled Elmer Gantry, the lustful evangelist of Sinclair Lewis's novel.
The most dramatic event came in 1978, when his father excommunicated him because of doctrinal disagreements and accusations of sexual misconduct that were widely reported in the news media. Six years earlier, he was taken off the air for four months after it was discovered that he had been engaged in an extramarital affair, according to the reference book Contemporary Authors.
After his excommunication, Mr. Armstrong formed another church, the Church of God International. But he was asked to step down as leader of that church in 1995 after a Texas woman accused him of sexually assaulting her during two massage sessions. He then formed the Intercontinental Church of God, remaining its president until his death.
No criminal charges were ever filed in the incident.
But with each division, Mr. Armstrong's reach lessened. At the end, he was on about 100 cable television stations and a handful of radio stations.
The rift with his father never healed, in part because Garner Ted had accused Herbert of stealing millions from his own church.
''I tried repeatedly to call him and get in touch with him through letters, but he refused to talk to me,'' the younger Mr. Armstrong said in an interview with The Associated Press at the time of his father's death, at 93, in 1986.
''My biggest regret is not being able to see my father face to face during these past years,'' he said.
Garner Ted Armstrong was born on Feb. 9, 1930, in Portland, Ore. His father saw his birth as a miracle, because his wife had recovered from an anemic condition shortly before he was born. Herbert Armstrong dedicated his newborn son to God ''for him to use as he had need,'' he said in his privately printed autobiography.
In October 1933, Herbert made his first radio broadcast in Salem, Ore. Early the next year, he published the first Plain Truth magazine on mimeographed paper.
The theology he espoused was the same his son would later hold, even as he moved between churches. It blended fundamental Christianity with some tenets of Judaism and Seventh-Day Sabbath doctrine; it departed from mainstream Christianity in rejecting the Trinity and regarding Christmas and Easter as pagan holidays; it held that Anglo-Saxons are the lineal descendants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
Members gave the church 10 percent to 40 percent of their income, a tradition Garner Ted continued.
He graduated from high school in Eugene, Ore., in 1947, the year that his father moved his religious headquarters to Pasadena because of the broadcasting facilities there.
Mr. Armstrong joined the Navy in 1948, partly to escape his father's authority. After his honorable discharge, he worked in his father's mail processing office. He entered the church's Ambassador College in 1952.
The next year, he underwent a spiritual conversion and was baptized in his father's church, and married Shirley Hammer, who survives him, along with their sons, Mark, David and Matthew. All live in Tyler.
A daily feature on Mr. Armstrong's Web site is news that may portend the end of the world. Yesterday's report included a water crisis in the Russian Far East, cholera in Liberia and the death of 200 civilians in the Congo. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
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