UCLA Center for East
Asian Studies
Today in Asian History
January 18
1778 English Captain James Cook sighted Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau in the Hawai'ian Islands. Go Pacific, a tour company, has assembled an excellent collection of links concerning the history and culture of the Hawai'ian Islands. Their page on Captain Cook, includes his worries that Western intrusion into the Pacific would bring about the "despoilation" of the region. In later voyages, Cook himself contributed to this destruction in battles with the people of the islands and died there in 1780. An short illustrated biography of Cook is also available. The Polynesian Voyaging Society has an interesting website with information about how the islands came to be peopled. As part of its research, the Society engages in the construction and sailing of replica vessels.
1915 Japan presented its "Twenty-One Demands" to the Chinese government. Among the demands were the transfer of German rights in Shandong province to the Japanese, extension of Japanese rights in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, and the right of the Japanese to appoint advisers to the Chinese military, police, and government. Ironically, it was Okuma Shigenobu, who had negotiated an end to Japan's unequal treaties with the West, who presented these demands to the Chinese government headed by Yuan Shikai.
1948 Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi broke a five day fast, which he engaged in so as to encourage a halt to rioting between Hindus and Muslims in newly independent India. Albert Einstein eulogized Gandhi's death later in the month saying, "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth." Manas, a site based at UCLA devoted to South Asian history and culture includes a page on Gandhi's life and legacy. Several sites offer quotations from Gandhi's writings and pronouncements. One of these "The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi" (compiled by Prabhu and Rao) is well organized and includes these passages from Gandhi on fasting.
"My religion teaches me that, whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray."
"They [fasts] are a part of my being. I can as well do without my eyes, for instance, as I can without fasts. What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner."
1955 Chinese military forces captured Yijiangshan, 8 miles north of Dachen Islands, in their ongoing battle with Taiwan forces. The "Remembering Chiang Ching-kuo" web page includes a picture of the lowering of Taiwan's Republic of China flag on Dachen Island on February 10, 1955.
1962 United States forces began using herbicides in Vietnam so as to remove potential hiding places of Vietcong guerrillas. Writing in the October 1996 issue of Vietnam, Tony Spletstoser reports that between 1965 (and the escalation of the American role in the war) and 1971 the U.S. sprayed almost twelve million gallons of "Agent Orange" (2,4,5-T, which got its common name from the painted orange bands around the 55-gallon drums storing the chemical). More than two million gallons of another chemical, "Agent Blue," were sprayed in Vietnam during this period. The same site features a photo of an American plane spraying Agent Orange during Operation Ranch Hand.
1966 The Chinese People's Liberation Army political department called for implementation of Minister of Defense Lin Biao's (
, 1907-1971) 5-point principle of keeping politics in the fore. Later in the year, the second edition of The Quotations of Mao Zedong was released with Lin's foreword. Lin circulated the first edition among the army in 1964.
1967 During China's Cultural Revolution, Red Guards attempted to force workers from other places to return to their jobs by closing all Beijing stores.
1998 In Tokyo, police arrested Isaka Takehiko, chief financial officer of the Japan Highway Public Corporation, and two former Nomura Securities Company officers and charged them with bribery. Isaka previously worked for the Ministry of Finance and was accused of accepting ¥2.5 million worth of "entertainment" from the Nomura officials. On January 19, 1998, The Japan Times carried an article about these arrests and the continuing investigation of Nomura. Bribery scandals rocked Japan for much 1997 and 1998. In March 1998, the Nando Times reported that Central Bank officials received millions of yen worth of entertainment from banks they ostensibly supervised. The Washington Post reported on a wave of Ministry of Finance resignations as more information about the bribery for favors scandal reached the public. Nomura is a global corporation. Click here to visit the corporation's European website's report on the Nomura's global reach.
The AI "Today in Asian History" page is compiled by Clayton Dube. He welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send them to <cdube@isop.ucla.edu>.
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