OCEANIA RIVIERA DEPARTS YOKOHAMA

 Lunch on Day 11.

The Diamond Princess docked across the pier from us.

The speaker today was Adam Tanner, author in residence at Harvard.  

He spoke on:  Japanese View of the Pearl Harbor Attack--How Tokyo justified its World War Two aggression.

• I already provided some background information about this subject in my 24April2025 posting.
• Having been born in 1940 in Honolulu, I was a little more than one year old when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.  I thus was a U.S. citizen, and being of Japanese descent, lived through my life with a sense of discomfort about what people felt about my loyalties.  Of course, I was American, and schools taught me about that Day of Infamy, and how terrible the Japanese were about starting World War II in the Pacific.

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  Now in my 80's, for the first time I'm beginning to realize that just maybe, Japan was cornered in desperation, and had to become aggressive to survive as a nation.
• Not shown in the graphic to the right, but the Meiji Restoration in 1868 was crucial, when militaristic samurai warriors become political leaders of the central government.
• They saw what happened to China, about how Western Powers made the emperor a puppet.  
• They observed how European countries split up and colonized Africa from 1884-1914, gaining access to resources.

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  They understood how the Monroe Doctrine was promulgated to keep European nations out of the Americas, and the U.S. itself became the colonizer, even into the Pacific with the Philippines and Hawaii.

• 
  The best way to survive was for Japan to become an international power, a level seemingly reserved for Western countries.  To attain that level of capability, as Japan had no natural resources, their selected option was to copy the Americans and Europeans.  Thus, those conquests of Taiwan in 1895, Korea in 1910 and Manchuria in 1931.
• In 1940 the U.S. announced a ban on oil exports to Japan, and further cut off shipments of iron, steel and aviation fuel
• 
  With few other options, Japan expanded its reach into the Pacific-Asian region and joined the Axis.  Not quite what they really wanted, but their presence gave Germany and Italy entrance into the Pacific.

• 
  The above is part of what Tanner said.
• You can read about the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1947.

• Tanner's next lecture will be on Japan during the period of occupation from 1945 to 1952 under General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.

We had front row seats to the departure of the Oceania Riviera from Yokohama.  Hawaiian poke bowl (actually, it was the international version, which, in addition to raw tuna, also added mango and other ingredients), miso udon soup, beer and Glenfiddich over rocks.

Even after our departure snack, we saw some dishes mentioned for dinner in the Grand Dining Room, so there we later went.  The best seared foie gras I've had in a long time.

The wines were Raymond red blend and Chardonnay.  White asparagus and potato waffle.

Prime rib.

We then went to the Riviera Lounge to see the performance of vocalist Heather Sullivan.

The Four Corners band from the Philippines turned out to be Saturday Night Fever disco night.

Walked 4969 steps today.

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