Indonesia’s War For Independence From the Dutch Empire In 1940s Illuminated by ‘The East’ Movie

A 2020 Dutch war film, "The East," popped up on my recommendations to stream. It is set in the Dutch East Indies of 1946 during the Indonesian National Revolution, also known as the Indonesian War of Independence. A soldier, deployed to suppress post-WWII rebellion in Indonesia, finds himself torn between duty and conscience when he joins an elite …

Surrender and Occupation of Japan After WWII: American Narrative and Archival Footage

DocuEra: How Japan survived and was rebuilt after WWII. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUn07eYE45M

Japan In 1960 Was At A Crossroads. It Chose Democracy

Spectacles YouTube Channel describes itself as a "love letter to democracy...a new way of seeing politics and the world by sharing the stories that matter to democracy. We hope our work may help you better understand how democracy works, its biggest challenges, and why it's worth treasuring. brought to you by Harry and Philip, two …

A Giant of Statecraft and Diplomacy: Assessing the Career of Henry Kissinger

It is impossible to understand American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century without examining the life of Henry Kissinger. He is called a grand strategist, a realist, a pragmatist, who dealt with the world as it is, not as he wished it to be. He focused on …

Why Did Europe Dominate the World?

Three different theories on how Europeans came to dominate the world between the 1500s and the 1700s through the 20th century are explored in three short videos posted on my Substack. Click.

Honor and Shame in Western and Eastern Cultures Are Handled Differently

One cultural generalization is that Western and Eastern, or Asian. perspectives on honor, shame, guilt, innocence, and fear are different. Westerners tend to believe in transparency, full disclosure, publicly reporting on conflicts, and “telling it like it is,” even if embarrassment is the result. Honesty is a high value in Western cultures. It is the …

Filipino-US Relationship Began With Colonialism

October 18, 1587 marks the first recorded arrival of Filipinos in the continental U.S., in Morro Bay, California – a state that continues to be home to a large subpopulation of Filipino Americans. In fact, Southern California has historically had the largest concentration of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans in the U.S. – with a storied and …

Why The U.S. Became Less Racist Toward Asian Americans

"Between 1940 and 1970, something remarkable happened to Asian Americans. Not only did they surpass African Americans in average household earnings, but they also closed the wage gap with whites," wrote journalist Jeff Guo in The Washington Post in 2016. The reason, one Brown University economist's study suggested, was that their fellow Americans became less …

The Asian American Experience on PBS: An Introduction

Asian Americans is a "five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate personal stories, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history …

Are Filipinos Hispanic?

Reading the twisted history of race in America, I wonder what my grandson, who is Filipino-American but at eight just likes to call himself American, will identify on his census and other forms as his racial identity when he is of age: Asian, Hispanic, Caucasian, of Northern European ancestry, or mixed race? He is of …