It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, March 15, 2021
Risk of death for men 60% higher than for women in study of 28 countries
A large study of people in 28 countries found men aged 50 and over had a 60% greater risk of death than women, partly explained by heavier rates of smoking and heart disease in men, although the gap varied across countries, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
"Many studies have examined the potential impact of social, behavioural and biological factors on sex differences in mortality, but few have been able to investigate potential variation across countries," writes Dr. Yu-Tzu Wu, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, and Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, with coauthors. "Different cultural traditions, historical contexts, and economic and societal development may influence gender experiences in different countries, and thus variably affect the health status of men and women."
The study examined different socioeconomic (education, wealth), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol consumption), health (heart diseases, diabetes, hypertension and depression) and social (spouse, living alone) factors that might contribute to the mortality gap between men and women aged 50 and older. The data included more than 179,000 people across 28 countries and more than half (55%) were women.
"[T]he effects of sex on mortality should include not only physiologic variation between men and women but also the social construct of gender, which differs across societies. In particular, the large variation across countries may imply a greater effect of gender than sex. Although the biology of the sexes is consistent across populations, variation in cultural, societal and historical contexts can lead to different life experiences of men and women and variation in the mortality gap across countries."
The findings are consistent with the literature on life expectancy and death rates.
"The heterogeneity of sex differences in mortality across countries may indicate the substantial impact of gender on healthy aging in addition to biological sex, and the crucial contributions of smoking may also vary across different populations," write the authors.
The researchers recommend that public health policies should account for sex- and gender-based differences and the influence of social and cultural factors on health.
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National poll: Pandemic has negatively impacted teens' mental health
Nearly half of parents have noticed a new or worsening mental health condition in their teen since the pandemic started; 3 in 4 say COVID-19 has negatively affected teens' social interactions.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - For teens, pandemic restrictions may have meant months of virtual school, less time with friends and canceling activities like sports, band concerts and prom.
And for young people who rely heavily on social connections for emotional support, these adjustments may have taken a heavy toll on mental health, a new national poll suggests.
Forty-six percent of parents say their teen has shown signs of a new or worsening mental health condition since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at Michigan Medicine. Parents of teen girls were more likely to say their child had a new onset or worsening of depressive symptoms and anxiety than parents of teen boys.
"Just as young people are at the age of being biologically primed to seek independence from their families, COVID-19 precautions have kept them at home," says poll co-director and Mott pediatrician Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H.
"Pandemic-related lifestyle changes have wreaked havoc on teens' lives, with many experiencing disruptions to their normal routines. Our poll suggests that pandemic-era changes may have had a significant mental health impact for some teenagers."
The nationally representative report is based on responses from 977 parents of teens ages 13-18.
One in three teen girls and one in five teen boys have experienced new or worsening anxiety, the poll suggests. More parents of teen girls than parents of teen boys note an increase in anxiety/worry (36% vs. 19%) or depression/sadness (31% vs. 18%).
But similar proportions of parents report negative changes in their teen's sleep (24% for girls vs. 21% for boys), withdrawing from family (14% vs. 13%) and aggressive behavior (8% vs. 9%).
Recent research has shown teen depression during the pandemic to be associated with teens' own fears and uncertainties, as well as high levels of parental stress, Freed notes.
"Isolation during the pandemic may be triggering new problems for some teens but for others, the situation has exacerbated existing emotional health issues," Freed says.
Parents in the poll say their kids seem hardest hit by changes in social interactions over the last year, with three in four reporting a negative impact on their teen's connections to friends.
Many parents say their teens have been texting (64%), using social media (56%), online gaming (43%), and talking on the phone (35%) every day or almost every day. Few parents say their teens have been getting together in person with friends daily or almost every day, indoors (9%) or outdoors (6%).
"Peer groups and social interactions are a critical part of development during adolescence. But these opportunities have been limited during the pandemic," Freed says. "Many teens may feel frustrated, anxious and disconnected due to social distancing and missing usual social outlets, like sports, extracurricular activities and hanging out with friends."
Parents who note negative changes in their teens' mental health have tried different strategies to help their teen, the Mott Poll suggests, including relaxing COVID-19 rules and family rules on social media, seeking professional help and even using mental health apps.
"Parents play a critical role in helping their teens cope with the stress of the pandemic," Freed says. "There are strategies parents can engage to help, whether or not their teen is showing signs of problems. One of the most important things for parents to do is keep lines of communication open; ask their teen how they are doing and create the space for them to speak honestly so they can provide help when needed."
More Mott Poll findings on methods parents have used to improve children's mental health and what Mott experts recommend:
1. Relaxing family rules
Half of parents have tried relaxing family COVID-19 rules to allow their teen to have more contact with friends, with most (81%) saying it has helped. Freed says families should encourage social interactions that follow COVID-19 safety guidelines, such as spending time outside or participating in activities wearing masks and socially distanced.
Half of parents have also loosened social media restrictions - and most (70%) say it helped. Experts recommend that families allow teens to engage with peers on age-appropriate platforms but to continue providing boundaries to ensure screen time doesn't interfere with other health-related behaviors, such as physical activity and sleep. This could mean banning electronics close to bedtime, encouraging or only allowing social media use during designated times of the day.
2. Talking to an expert
One in four parents sought help for their teen from a mental health provider, with three-fourths feeling it helped.
A third of parents also talked to teachers or school counselors, with over half (57%) saying that strategy was helpful.
"Teens may experience a wide range of severity of mental health problems, but if parents hear their teen express any thoughts of suicide or self-harm, they should seek mental health assistance immediately," Freed says.
3. Trying a Web-based program
A quarter of parents encouraged their teen to try a web-based program or app to improve their mental health, and 60% say it has helped. A third of parents in the poll also looked for information online (58% say it helped.)
Apps may make therapy more accessible, efficient, and portable, Freed notes, but parents should consult their primary care provider or other trusted sources for app recommendations as well as for online resources about teen mental health.
4. Keeping communication open but also giving space
One in seven parents in the poll reported their teen has withdrawn from family since the start of the pandemic.
Parents may try to show teens they're not alone by sharing some of their own worries and successful strategies that help them cope while asking questions that create a safe space for candid conversations.
At the same time, Freed notes, it's also normal for teens to crave privacy from their family. Giving them space for some quiet time, creative time or music time can be helpful to their mental health.
5. Encouraging sleep hygiene
Child health experts emphasize the importance of sleep for teens, especially when they are under stress. Almost one in four parents in the Mott Poll say their teens were experiencing negative changes in their sleep since the pandemic started.
Experts recommend helping teens craft a healthy and productive routine to their days and nights - whether they're in virtual or in-person school. This includes a regular sleep and wake cycle that fits with their online learning schedule, other responsibilities around the house and their interactions with peers and family. Making time to get outside is also helpful in regulating sleep.
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Model predicts urban development and greenhouses gasses will fuel urban floods
When rain began falling in northern Georgia on Sept. 15, 2009, little did Atlantans know that they would bear witness to epic flooding throughout the city. Neighborhoods, like Peachtree Hills, were submerged; Georgia's busiest expressway was underwater, as were roads and bridges; untreated sewage mingled with rising flood waters; cars and people were swept away. Then-Georgia-governor, Sonny Perdue, declared a state of emergency.
Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico fueled the flood of 2009. A decade later, Arizona State University researchers are asking whether a combination of urban development--and climate change fueled by greenhouse gasses--could bring about comparable scenarios in U.S. cities. Based on a just-published study, the answer is yes.
"When we account for these twin forcing agents of environmental change, the effect of the built environment and the effect of greenhouse gasses, we note a strong tendency toward increased extreme precipitation over future US metropolitan regions," said Matei Georgescu, associate professor in ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and lead author of the study.
Previous studies have shown that urban development modifies precipitation, thanks to what's known as the urban heat-island effect, the difference between the temperature in a city and the surrounding rural area. As a city grows, it gets warmer. The added warmth adds energy to the air, which forces it to rise faster, condense, form precipitation and rain out over the city or downwind of the city. So, the amount of precipitation a city receives either increases or decreases in response to the urban heat-island effect.
However, when greenhouse gasses and urban development are both taken into account, regional climate modeling focused on the continental United States shows compensating impacts between the effect of urban development and greenhouse gas emissions on extreme precipitation.
Researchers have not previously looked at these two variables in tandem. Studies on future precipitation over urban environments typically examine effects for a limited number of events, and they do not account for the twin forcing agents of urban- and greenhouse-gas induced climate change.
"This new study is unique," said Georgescu. "We used climate-scale simulations with a regional climate model to examine potential changes in future extreme precipitation resulting from both urban expansion and increases in greenhouse gasses, across dozens of cities across the continental United States."
In essence, the new study showed that incorporating greenhouse gasses into a regional climate model offset the sometimes-diminishing effect of urban development on extreme precipitation, said Georgescu.
"These are the effects our cities are likely to experience when accounting for the twin forcing agents of urban expansion and greenhouse gas emissions, simultaneously," explained Georgescu. "What this means for U.S. cities in the future is the need for a consistent response to an increase in extreme precipitation. We're no longer likely to see a decrease in precipitation as we've seen before."
Like Atlanta, cities across the U.S., including Denver, Phoenix and Houston, appear to be vulnerable to extreme precipitation and its resultant flooding. Georgescu said the study's findings show the pressing need for cities to develop policies to address flooding that threatens each city's unique resilience and planned infrastructure investments.
"If we trust the models' capability to simulate average and extreme precipitation so well, and our results demonstrate such simulation skill, then we can conduct simulations that include future urbanization, future greenhouse gasses, separately and then together, and trust what the model will tell us," explained Georgescu.
But it's not just about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he noted. "It's also about how you build cities. How extensive they are, how vertical they are, how dense they are, how much vegetation there is, how much waste heat you put into the environment through electricity use, through air conditioning, or through transportation. All of these things can impact future precipitation in our cities."
In fact, the study has important implications for climate change adaptation and planning. The study highlights the complex and regionally specific ways in which the competing forces of greenhouse gases and urban development can impact rainfall across U.S. metropolitan regions, explained Ashley Broadbent, assistant research professor in ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.
"This complexity reinforces that future adaptation efforts must be informed by simulations that account for these interacting agents of environmental change," he said.
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Additional study authors include M. Wang and M. Moustaoui, ASU; and E. Scott Krayenhoff, ASU and University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation through the Urban Water Innovation Network.
'Reducing global warming matters for freshwater fish species'
The habitats of freshwater fish species are threatened by global warming, mainly due to rising water temperatures. A 3.2-degree Celsius increase in global mean temperature would threaten more than half of the habitat for one third of all freshwater fish species. The number of species at risk is ten times smaller if warming is limited to 1.5 degrees. This is the conclusion of a study led by Radboud University, in collaboration with Utrecht University, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Leiden University and others, and published in Nature Communications on March 15th.
Many studies have already assessed the potential impacts of climate change on animal and plant species in terrestrial systems. "However, freshwater fish species have been largely ignored, even though they represent approximately a quarter of the global known vertebrate diversity", says Valerio Barbarossa, lead author of the paper. This is the first study that investigated the potential impact of climate change on approximately 11,500 freshwater fish species around the globe.
Clear differences between global warming scenarios
With a global rise of 3.2 degrees Celsius, a scenario expected if there are no further emission cuts after current governments' pledges for 2030, over one third of the freshwater species have more than half of their present-day habitats threatened by extremes in water temperature or streamflow.
If global warming is limited to 2 degrees, 9% of the species would have more than a half of their habitat threatened. If warming is limited to 1.5 degrees, the number of species at risk reduces to 4%. "These numbers indicate that limiting global warming really matters for freshwater fish species, just as previous research has shown that it matters for species in terrestrial systems", says Barbarossa.
Temperature and flow
The researchers modelled future extremes in water flow and temperature and identified where these may exceed present-day extremes within the habitats of the fish species. "Water temperature and water flow are two key habitat factors for freshwater fish species. Climate change will amplify extremes in flow and temperature, which may reduce the amount of suitable habitat. This in turn is an important indicator of extinction risk", says Aafke Schipper, environmental researcher at Radboud University and PBL and co-author of the study.
The results of the study indicate that changes in water temperature are much more threatening than changes in flow extremes, reflecting that global warming will lead to rising water temperatures nearly everywhere. The findings further show that threats to freshwater fish species are particularly high in tropical waters.
Man-made barriers
"The numbers of species at risk represent a worst-case scenario in the sense that we assume that fish will not be able to move to other parts of the watershed or adapt to changed conditions", continues Barbarossa. "We have also considered a scenario in which species could move freely across the watershed and "escape" altered conditions. In that case, climate change threats would be substantially lower. However, many freshwater systems are fragmented, which impedes fish from moving to more suitable conditions."
River systems worldwide are characterized by an increasing number of many man-made barriers like dams, weirs, sluices or culverts. These reduce the connectivity of freshwater habitats and limit opportunities for fish to respond to climate change by shifting their ranges. This in turn stresses the need to limit global warming, the authors conclude, if we want to safeguard freshwater biodiversity.
WWII-era Japanese internee reburied by family
The family of a Japanese man interned during World War II have buried his remains 75 years after he went missing near a California internment camp. Giichi Matsumura was one of thousands of people of Japanese descent interned during the war. (March 15)
Lost to mountain, Japanese internee's bones return home
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US Japanese Internee Final Burial
Lilah Matsumura, 11, prays for for her great-grandfather, Giichi Matsumura, during a memorial service at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, Calif., Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. Giichi Matsumura, who died in the Sierra Nevada on a fishing trip while he was at the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar, was reburied in the same plot with his wife 75 years later after his remains were unearthed from a mountainside grave. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) BRIAN MELLEY Sun, March 14, 2021, 9:15 AM·15 min read
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — When Giichi Matsumura arrived at his final resting place in late December, the people who knew him best when he disappeared from a Japanese internment camp in 1945 already were there.
His wife, Ito, who had mourned his passing for 60 years before her death in 2005, was buried in the same plot, as was his daughter, Kazue, who died in 2018. His father, Katsuzo, who died in 1963, was nearby. His brother and two of his three sons were a short walk away, all buried in the shady, grassy haven of Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica.
They last saw Giichi alive in the waning days of World War II at the Manzanar internment camp, one of 10 where the U.S. government held more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent for more than three years, claiming without evidence they might betray America in the war.
In the summer of 1945, Matsumura hiked from camp into the nearby Sierra Nevada, the rugged spine of California, and never returned. His remains were committed to a lonely mountainside grave left to the elements.
His journey home, 75 years in the making, only happened after a hiker bound for the summit of Mount Williamson, a massive peak overshadowing Manzanar, veered off route near a lake and spotted a skull in the rocks. He and his partner uncovered a full a skeleton under granite blocks.
It was 2019, and the duty to bring him back fell to a granddaughter born decades after he died.
Lori Matsumura never expected to play that role. She knew of her grandfather’s unfortunate death, but it wasn’t something she often thought about.
Then an Inyo County sheriff's sergeant phoned and asked for a DNA sample to see if the unearthed bones belonged to her grandfather, the only Manzanar prisoner who died in the mountains.
“It was a complete surprise when I received a call from the sheriff,” Lori said. “There were stories my grandmother told me about her husband passing on the mountain. They were stories to me, and it wasn’t reality. But then when the sheriff called it, you know, brought it into reality.”
That conversation set her on the first step of a mission to reunite her ancestors, a journey that awakened her to a history she had largely seen through a child’s eyes, the edges softened by a generation more inclined to look forward than dwell in the past. Stories that once seemed rosy lost their bloom when faced with the harsh landscape where her relatives spent more than three years in captivity.
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Until the U.S. entered WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Giichi Matsumura and his family lived what seemed like a quiet life in the leafy oasis of Santa Monica Canyon, a retreat for artists and stars of old Hollywood.
Born in the Fukui prefecture on the coast of the Sea of Japan, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1916, arriving in San Francisco on a steam ship with a single bag. His father already was there and they worked as gardeners and lived on property owned by the Marquez family, Mexican land grant owners of an area that became parts of Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
Giichi’s wife, Ito, arrived from Kyoto in 1924, according to U.S. Census records. The couple had four children born in the U.S.: sons Masaru, Tsutomo and Uwao, and a daughter, Kazue, the youngest. Kazue, Lori’s aunt, recalled a fun childhood in an interview by Rose Masters, a ranger with the Manzanar National Historic Site, a few months before her death in 2018.
Her mother would pull her in a wagon to play at the beach. She remembers seeing the actor Leo Carrillo, later known as sidekick Pancho to TV’s “The Cisco Kid,” doing lasso tricks.
Giichi Matsumura, who signed up for the World War I draft, registered again on Feb. 14, 1942. Five days later, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order that would force people of Japanese descent on the West Coast into prison camps in waves.
Under an April 20, 1942 order, the Matsumura family had about a week to leave their life in the canyon behind.
Kazue, who wasn’t even aware there was a war, recalled her experience as a 7-year-old.
Her father had to give away his car and they were only allowed to bring a single suitcase to camp.
She had been excited about taking a bus trip, but the novelty after a long ride from LA through the desert along the dramatic eastern flank of the Sierra quickly faded when they arrived at Manzanar.
“I noticed it was all dirt,” she said. “Nothing there. Like a desert.”
Manzanar, which means apple orchard in Spanish, quickly became home to 10,000 people of Japanese descent — two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens — living in hundreds of cramped, tar-paper covered barracks.
The family would have shared a barrack with four to six other families, each unit separated only by a thin wall that did not extend to the pitched roof. There was little privacy.
The shacks were so poorly built that frequent winds blew sand through the cracks in walls and floors. There was no insulation, making scorching summers intolerable and frigid winters unbearable.
Giichi Matsumura worked as a cook. In his spare time, he painted watercolors, capturing the guard tower, barracks and Mount Williamson, the second-highest peak in California.
His eldest son, Masaru, Lori’s father, had been about to graduate from high school when they were imprisoned. Instead, he had to wait until the next spring when he was in the internment camp’s first graduating class.
Lori remembers her father talking about the camp’s most infamous incident when guards shot into a crowd of people, killing two and injuring nine.
But she doesn’t know much about his time there. He didn’t like to discuss it.
What she knew came mostly from her grandmother and Aunt Kazue, who lived together across the street, stories about squashing scorpions on the way to the bathroom using geta — elevated wooden sandals.
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Lori Matsumura always meant to visit Manzanar. But she’s not sure she would have made the more than three-hour drive north from Los Angeles.
Now she had to go.
A few weeks after the sheriff’s call, she and her boyfriend, Thomas Storesund, drove to the station in Lone Pine where she gave an oral swab for DNA. They then drove a few miles north where the National Park Service operates the camp as a sort of living museum.
The sentry house still stands at the entrance. A replica of one of the eight guard towers looms overhead and replica barracks, a latrine and a mess hall recreate what the camp looked like, minus hundreds of other structures crammed into a square mile of high desert surrounded by barbed wire.
The buildings display vestiges of life in camp and some of the many indignities experienced, such as the loyalty questionnaire adults had to complete.
“How could something like this happen in America?” Lori thought.
But she wasn’t struck by the gravity of her family’s loss until she visited where they had lived.
Standing near a sign for Block 18, Matsumura looked out at an inhospitable barren patch of scraggly rabbitbrush, fiddleneck weed and a row of barren locust trees. She was filled with sorrow.
“I was blown away by how desolate the place was,” she said. “Seeing it in person made it so sad for me. I don’t think I could have survived that.”
For the first time, Matsumura felt a connection to the place her family lived. She was walking in their footsteps. It was now real.
While the buildings were gone, one reminder stood out: Mount Williamson standing at 14,374 feet (4,381 meters) to the west. It was the site of her grandfather’s first grave.
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Giichi Matsumura left camp July 29, 1945 heading toward that peak with a group of trout fishermen for a several-day outing. He planned to sketch and paint.
Prisoners had been free to leave camp six months earlier, but about 4,000 internees remained. Many, like the Matsumuras, had nowhere to go or feared racist reprisals in places they once called home.
Ito Matsumura didn’t want her husband to go on the trip. She forbade him from taking his art supplies because she feared he would stop to paint and get lost, Lori’s Aunt Kazue recalled.
It takes at least a full day to ascend about 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) to reach the chain of lakes where they were destined. The trail eventually ends and hikers must navigate a forbidding jumble of granite in the thin air at the high altitude.
On Aug. 2, Matsumura stopped to paint as others fished.
When a storm blew in, the fishermen, who had been there before, knew where to shelter in a cave, said Don Hosokawa, whose father, Frank, was on the trip. The men couldn’t find Giichi after the storm and returned to camp, hoping he headed there.
Exactly what happened to Giichi Matsumura remains unknown. Aunt Kazue said she heard her father slipped on wet rocks and hit his head. Don Hosokawa said the body was later found next to a bloody rock.
His disappearance came four days before the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima that would hasten the Japanese surrender.
Three search parties looked for him in the following weeks. They found only his sweater.
About a month after he was lost, a hiker from nearby Independence was trying to summit Mount Williamson with her husband and a friend, but rain ruined their plans. They stopped for lunch, and Mary DeDecker, a botanist, noticed a branch in the rocks below, which struck her as unusual because trees don’t grow at that altitude.
A closer look revealed a body.
A small burial party from camp made a last trip into the mountains, carrying a sheet from Ito Matsumura to wrap her husband in. They buried him under granite and affixed a simple piece of paper to a block to mark the grave. In Japanese characters, it gave his name, age and said, “Rest in Peace.”
The group returned with locks of his hair and nail clippings, a Buddhist tradition for a body that couldn’t be returned.
About 150 people attended a funeral ceremony back at the camp. A photo by Toyo Miyatake, famous for documenting Manzanar life, shows mourners in dark suits and dresses behind a wall of crepe paper flowers.
Aunt Kazue lamented that it was difficult never having seen her father's corpse or his gravesite.
“To this day it seems like he’s not passed away,” she said. “It seems like he’s gone some place because I don’t see his body.”
At the Manzanar cemetery, where a tall white obelisk is often decorated with chains of origami cranes left by visitors, a sign says 150 people died at camp. Most were cremated and their ashes buried after their families left camp. One man, Giichi Matsumura, the sign says, died exploring the Sierra and “is buried high in the mountains above you.”
That sign will have to be changed.
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The gravesite was not widely known so it initially appeared to be a mystery when hikers unearthed it Oct. 7, 2019. Officers from Inyo County Sheriff’s Office flew by helicopter to retrieve the remains.
When word reached rangers and historians at Manzanar, they had a hunch who it was.
“It wasn’t a huge mystery,” Ranger Patricia Biggs told Lori Matsumura in February last year. “We would have been amazed if it wasn’t your grandfather.”
Sgt. Nate Derr had called Matsumura for a DNA sample because she was listed at the historic site as a contact person for her aunt. It took about three months for the Department of Justice to match her DNA with a tooth from the remains to positively identify her grandfather.
Derr notified her in January last year. Then she had to decide what to do with the bones.
Manzanar wouldn’t allow her grandfather to be buried in the small cemetery where only six bodies, interred when the camp was operating, remain. His bones also couldn’t be returned to the mountain.
The thought of scattering his ashes at one of those places held some appeal. Although it’s illegal to scatter ashes on public lands, Lori said she was told by one official that no one would stop her.
But it was unlikely her family would trek up the mountain for a burial service and returning him to a place he’d been captive seemed in poor taste.
After consulting her siblings and cousins, they decided he should be cremated and laid to rest with his wife. His name was already on the grave marker, his toenail clippings and hair buried with her.
Lori had to sign paperwork amending the death certificate from a burial to a cremation. And she wanted to view the remains.
On Presidents Day last year, she and other family members went to the small city of Bishop, about 45 minutes north of Manzanar, to Brune Mortuary, which is also the county coroner’s office.
Coroner Jason Molinar began to lead Lori and her niece, Lilah, from his office to a private viewing room when Lori halted in the doorway to reassure the 11-year-old, who was scared.
“They’re just his bones. That’s all it is,” Lori told the girl.
Laid on a sheet-covered gurney were the remains of the grandfather she’d never met.
The skeleton was roughly arranged in order. The skull was bleached white, most likely from sun exposure. The ribs, spine and joints were stained a shade of brown.
Molinar pointed to a coil of fishing line, the remains of a rusty pocket knife and two buttons found with the bones. A pair of shoes and belt he had worn were next to his lower leg bones.
It was remarkable to find the body 99% intact, Molinar said, a testament to a good burial in a climate where the remains were probably encased in snow and ice much of the year and undisturbed by people or critters.
“The crazy part is the fact that it’s this well-preserved,” he said. “Usually after this many years, you just find fragments.”
Lori made a video call to her sister, Lisa Reilly, who lives in San Francisco and couldn’t make the trip.
“Do you want to see Grandpa’s bones?” she asked.
She then turned the camera to the skeleton and artifacts. She paused at the skull and pointed out the sutures, the fine cracks where the bones of the skull are joined that had begun to separate from exposure. The cracks had led the hikers to speculate on social media about foul play.
Lori and her niece stood with their hands clasped in prayer and heads bowed. They prayed he would rest in peace and be reunited with his family.
After the viewing, they went to Manzanar to donate the shoes, belt, fishing line and knife, to be put on display.
As Biggs looked at the weather-beaten shoes and withered belt, she was almost overcome with emotion.
“I just want to have a moment,” the ranger said. “Out of respect. Wow. It’s amazing to me the things that last forever and the things that don’t.”
In a guest book, Lori’s nephew, Lukas, 9, wrote: “We are bringing you home Great Grampa Giichi Matsumura. We love you.”
Two weeks later, Lori retrieved the ashes.
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Lost once and found twice, it was now time to properly bury Giichi Matsumura.
On Dec. 21, Lori, her brothers, Wayne and Clyde, along with Clyde’s wife, Narumol, and two children brought his ashes to a burial service at Woodlawn, which is a block from where they grew up.
The Rev. Shumyo Kojima, a Buddhist priest, assembled a small altar with a framed photo of Giichi Matsumura in front of the box containing his remains.
“He moved from the high Sierra to here. All of you are eyewitnesses,” Kojima said. “This is a kind of house-warming party. So, everyone will be here to celebrate his new residence.”
Kojima lit incense and picked up a bell that he rang at different intervals as he chanted ancient sutras, bowing repeatedly.
Each family member stepped forward to sprinkle incense in a burner while Kojima chanted.
Kojima showed a document from the Zenshuji Buddhist Temple that recorded memorial services Ito held for her husband on important milestone anniversaries over the years. It showed how she kept thinking about him, the priest said.
Three cemetery workers then moved the altar to reveal a hole in the ground. One of them placed the box of ashes in the shallow grave.
As the interwoven threads of incense smoke drifted northeast — the direction of Manzanar — the family members each took a turn dropping a shovel full of dirt on the box.
The grave-diggers finished the job and placed a bouquet of white flowers on the grass. Kojima sprinkled water over the grave for purification.
Lori Matsumura wished the hikers hadn’t disturbed the grave. She imagined it was a beautiful setting in mountains her grandfather admired.
Yet she was satisfied he was back with those who loved him.
“His body is laid to rest with everyone, so it’s kind of just closed the chapter on my dad and his siblings and parents,” she said.
She only regretted they weren’t alive to see it.
Michael Flynn could face thousands of dollars in penalties as the Army reviews a Pentagon watchdog report
Sarah Al-Arshani Sat, March 13, 2021, Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, leaves the federal court with his lawyer Sidney Powell, left, following a status conference with Judge Emmet Sullivan, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
The Army is reviewing a watchdog report on money Michael Flynn earned from foreign governments.
The report is from a delayed Department of Defense investigation which was launched in 2017. The investigation was paused because of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The US Army is reviewing an internal watchdog report from the Department of Defense into former national security advisor Michael Flynn, The Washington Post reported.
In April 2017, the Pentagon launched an investigation into money Flynn received from Russian and Turkish interests after his retirement but before he joined former President Donald Trump's administration.
In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to investigators as part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Flynn admitted that he misled investigators in a January 2017 interview about his communications with Russia's then-ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.
He was initially cooperative with the FBI, but in 2019, he reversed course, fired his entire defense team, and hired Sidney Powell as his lawyer. In January 2020, Flynn tried to retract his guilty plea.
Trump pardoned Flynn last November.
CNN reported that then-special counsel Robert Mueller's probe investigation into the 2016 election had put the DoD's investigation into Flynn on hold.
The DoD Inspector General's office did not reply to Insider's email request for comment at the time of publication.
DoD spokeswoman Dwrena Allen told CNN that following Flynn's pardon, they were granted permission from the Department of Justice to resume the investigation, which was completed on January 27, 2021.
The investigation looked into whether or not Flynn violated the Constitution's emoluments clause, which stipulates that officials such as retired military members can't accept money or gifts from foreign governments.
The Post reported that the payments from Russia were from 2015, when Flynn was paid $45,000 for appearing next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gala dinner for the state-controlled outlet RT. His company, Flynn Intel Group, was also paid $530,000 by a Netherlands-based company, Inovo BV, in 2016. The company was founded by a Turkish businessman and lobbies on behalf of Turkey.
In 2017, the DoD said that Flynn did not seek permission to work as a foreign agent on behalf of Turkey.
The results of the report could mean, Flynn, who retired from the Army as a three-star general in 2014, could face tens of thousands of dollars in penalties.
Korean battery firm offers Georgia plant as dispute lingers
Sat, March 13, 2021
ATLANTA (AP) — With a giant battery factory in northeast Georgia hanging in the balance of a trade dispute, South Korean company LG Energy Solution is now telling some Georgia officials that it could build its own factory in the state if rival SK Innovation can't proceed.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports LG Energy Solution CEO Jong Hyun Kim wrote a Wednesday letter to Democratic U.S. Sen Raphael Warnock on Wednesday saying LG “is prepared to do whatever we can to help the people and workers of Georgia."
Kim also wrote that if some other entity acquires the SK plant, LG could help run the $2.6 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Commerce, where SK plans to hire 2,600 workers.
“Multiple investors and manufacturers … will be interested in the Commerce plant due to increased demand for electric vehicle batteries,” Kim wrote.
Thursday, LG announced plans to build at least two new plants and spend more than $4.5 billion to make electric vehicle batteries in the United States, in addition to a plant it already operates in Holland, Michigan, one it's building in Lordstown, Ohio, and one it could build in Spring Hill, Tennessee. All those plants are in partnership with General Motors.
LG's overture comes as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday renewed his call for President Joe Biden to override a federal trade decision that threatens SK's ability to move ahead.
The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in February that SK stole 22 trade secrets from LG and that SK should be barred from importing, making or selling batteries in the United States for 10 years.
SK has contracts to supply batteries for an electric Ford F-150 truck and an electric Volkswagen SUV to be manufactured in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The commission said SK can supply batteries to Ford Motor Co. for four years and to Volkswagen for two years. SK can also repair and replace batteries in Kia vehicles that have already been sold.
An SK spokesperson said in an emailed statement that “it is simply impossible for someone to acquire an EV battery manufacturing facility and run it to produce batteries acceptable to a major auto company.”
“LG’s monopolization of the U.S. battery supply chain will only set the U.S. further back in its effort to catch up with China,” the spokesperson wrote.
Biden has until April to review or block the ruling and both side are lobbying him, part of a chess game that also involves talks between the companies. SK lost the ruling in part because it destroyed evidence. The commission called the move “extraordinary” and concluded that top SK executives ordered the destruction.
SK said this week that its directors had rejected LG's demands for compensation. LG said it was “regrettable” that SK wasn't willing to negotiate and said LG would accept cash, royalties on future battery sales, or an ownership share in SK's business.
Georgia gave $300 million in free land, cash and other incentives for the SK factory, which is now partially built and is supposed to open in 2022.
The Little-Known History Behind the People of Color Who Joined the Royal Family Long Before Meghan
Suyin Haynes Fri, March 12, 2021 The submission of the Maharajah Duleep Singh to Sir Henry Hardinge as the battle of Sobraon ends the 1st Sikh War in India in 1846 Credit - Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
In the televised interview given by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, to Oprah earlier this week, the couple spoke of the way they had been treated by the Royal Family, and the racist media headlines that increasingly targeted Meghan after the couple’s wedding in 2018.
“When I joined that family, that was the last time, until we came here, that I saw my passport, my driver’s licence, my keys. All that gets turned over. I didn’t see any of that anymore,” Meghan said, speaking candidly about experiencing suicidal thoughts and wanting to seek help for her mental health, yet being told by “The Firm” that she couldn’t.
These details, of how the Firm operates, as well as the racist coverage of Meghan, struck a chord with historian Priya Atwal, author of Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire, whose research specializes in empire, monarchy and cultural politics across Britain and South Asia. On March 7, the day before the interview aired in the U.S., Atwal posted a Twitter thread detailing the experiences of other people of color from across the British Empire who became Queen Victoria’s “godchildren” over the 1850s and 1860s, noting some of the parallels between the way they were treated by the institution and the press, and the current situation with Meghan. The thread quickly went viral, and Atwal was “blown away” by its popularity.
She says that despite the different circumstances, comparisons between the situations show how little has changed within the machinery of the monarchy. “The problem remains that the culture of royalty and the way the institution operates to protect its own image is actually very problematic. It tries to assimilate these people, because ultimately, it doesn’t care about those people to the same degree as it does about the crown,” says Atwal. “And if the interests of the crown are being messed with, then it doesn’t really matter what collateral damage happens to the lives of those people that are being assimilated. They are expendable.'
Queen Victoria’s imperial godchildren
The mid-19th century was a period of rapid change for Britain, the British Empire and the British monarchy. The Empire was dramatically expanding around the world, with control of India transferring to the direct rule of the British Crown starting in 1858, and trading networks in Asia and Africa plundering nations for their natural resources. Starting with Sarah Forbes Bonetta, who was born in West Africa and held captive for two years before being presented as a “gift” in 1850 to a British naval captain representing Queen Victoria, the monarch informally adopted several wards as her godchildren from different corners of her vast empire. And while Atwal says that Victoria did take a personal interest in all of these young children from across the Empire and took them under her wing, “they essentially were put up as poster children in many respects.”
Sara Forbes Bonetta, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, with her husband James Davies on Sept. 15, 1862Camille Silvy—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Among them were Princess Gouramma of Coorg, who came with her father to England in 1852 at the age of 11, after they were exiled and deposed from rule by the British in southwest India. Gouramma became the first Indian Royal to convert to Christianity and took on the name Victoria in her baptism, in a ceremony where the Queen became her godmother. And while Gouramma was often seen with the Royal Family and was given fine clothing and jewelry along with the title of honorary princess, her life and upbringing was closely controlled by Queen Victoria. “Victoria doesn’t allow Gouramma to see her father again, and Gouramma eventually loses the ability to speak Hindi, her mother tongue. It’s really cruel,” says Atwal. “The lens through which Gouramma is seen is through this colonial mindset. It’s all about making sure that what she does and how she behaves fits with a way that will protect the royal family.” Gouramma tried to run away several times as a teenager, and Atwal says that the young princess felt very misunderstood—another parallel with the modern-day Meghan.
Queen Victoria also tried, unsuccessfully, to matchmake Gouramma with another ward of the Empire she had a close relationship with—Maharaja Duleep Singh, who converted to Christianity and settled in the U.K. in 1854 at the age of 16, after he was removed from his title in the Punjab, northern India. The Queen became godmother to Duleep Singh’s children, including Sophia Duleep Singh, who would later become a suffragette.
In the 1860s, Victoria became the godmother of two more children: Prince Alamayu, son of the Emperor of Abyssinia, and Albert Victor Pōmare, who was born in England in 1863 when a group of Maori people visited as part of a trip organized by a Wesleyan preacher. The children lived with other families or “caretakers”—including members of the upper middle class in the case of Gouramma, the family of the naval captain the case of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, and an army officer in the case of Alamayu. Victoria also played a role in directing their education and comportment, or behavior, training. “There was an element of sympathy—[Victoria] saw them as kin really, in many respects, they were royal, and they were Christians,” says Atwal.
The Ex-Rajah Of Coorg, And His Daughter Princess Gouramma, And Suite, 1852Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images) Control of the Royal Family’s image
Part of the reason why these children were taken under Victoria’s wing was because the British Royal Family was projecting a new image for themselves, not only within British society, but across the Empire, says Atwal. Much of the way we understand the Royal Family today, as a public-facing family and in its relationship with the media, was consolidated during the Victorian era, alongside the development of photographic practice and mass printed media.
As has been well documented, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert started the concept of the royal family photo album as photography became more technologically advanced; Victoria was particularly fond of the medium. Within these albums were photographs of their wards, including Gouramma and Sarah Forbes Bonetta. “So in a way, they see each other as family, even if they were adopted members of the family,” says Atwal. These photographs contributed to the public image of the monarchy, and ultimately projected one that was a “squeaky clean model royal family,” she says, adding that the monarchy’s status has become more dependent on public opinion over time, and so the need to protect that image has become more important. “Everything has to work in the benefit of the monarchy, the crown and the British royal family. That has been a consistent theme throughout history, especially recent history.”
Duleep Singh, Maharajah of Lahore, 1837-1893. Engraved by D.J. Pound from a photograph by Mayall. From the book "The Drawing-Room Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages" Published in London 1859.Universal History Archive/Getty Images
And when the godchildren fell out of favor or did anything to tarnish that model image, they would incur the wrath of the printed press of the era too. By the 1870s, Duleep Singh’s finances were dwindling from years of living a lavish lifestyle, and his increasing anger at the annexation of the Punjab led to his plotting a rebellion against the British Raj. “When it’s reported in the press, it’s explosive, and he is vilified in the British media,” says Atwal, who is currently researching Duleep Singh’s life. Cartoons ridiculing him appeared in the press, leaning into colonial tropes and propaganda to portray him in a negative light.
“In terms of the racism and the history and the tropes thrown at [Meghan], it originates in that earlier period,” says Atwal. She says that these issues have been intensified by the way mass media has developed today, and how the same tropes and racist comments are then amplified on social media. “In many respects, we’re dealing with old problems that have massively expanded, because of the way that the media landscape has developed.” The tabloid press grew to become a staple of British society over the 20th century, and has been involved in several scandals and tragedies in recent decades, including the involvement of the paparazzi in the car chase that ultimately killed Princess Diana in 1997, and in the phone-hacking scandal, where several high-profile journalists were found to have hacked people’s phones for information, including members of the Royal Family.
For Atwal, the fact that there has been much surprise, and interest in general, in response to her Twitter thread proves how much of this history has fallen out of public consciousness. “It just goes to show that within the wider knowledge of the history of race and Empire, we’ve got a long way to go.”
Deaths of police in failed Port-au-Prince slum operation sparks #FreeHaiti hashtag, outrage
Jacqueline Charles Sat, March 13, 2021
The United Nations is calling on Haitian authorities to clarify the circumstances surrounding the deaths and injuries of several members of the Haiti National Police in a police operation turned deadly in a Port-au-Prince slum known for harboring kidnapped victims and a notorious gang.
In a statement issued Saturday, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti said it is shocked by the deaths of members of the security forces in Village de Dieu, Village of God, on Friday. It did not specify how many officers were killed but expressed condolences to the families of the victims, the HNP and to the Haitian people.
Acting Haiti National Police General Director Léon Charles confirmed during a brief press conference Saturday that four officers had been killed and eight wounded. Five officers have been discharged from the hospital, while three are in stable condition, he said. Haiti police also have been unable to locate another officer.
“In a deleterious security context, it is imperative that the circumstances surrounding the tragic events of March 12 be clarified, and that the perpetrators of this killing be arrested, prosecuted and brought to justice. The same is true for all serious crimes committed in the country,” the U.N., which has trained the force, said.
The failed anti-gang operation by specialized units of the Haitian police have shaken Haitians and triggered the trending #FreeHaiti hastag on social media. Many have been seeking answers as to how officers were ambushed by an armed gang under the command of a leader in a slum run by a guy who goes by the name “Izo” and “5 Seconds.”
Significant amounts of ammunition were stolen and two armored police vehicles were commandeered, one of which was set ablaze. Video shared on social media show armed gang leaders desecrating the bodies of slain SWAT officers. One photo also showed heavily armed men sitting on the hood of one of the armored vehicles, riddled with bullets.
The bursts of gunfire from the operation could be heard all morning Friday in Port-au-Prince. That same day, a House Foreign Affairs Committee met in a virtual hearing to discus the ongoing political crisis and deteriorating human rights in Haiti. Several members of Congress, concerned about reports about the force being weakened and politicized, asked questions of the all-female panel of witnesses about the Haiti National Police and its ability to confront armed gangs, which have multiplied in recent years.
The police force, which currently stands at an estimated 14,997 officers, has benefited from millions of dollars in funding and training from the U.S., as well as Canada and the U.N. But it has not been enough to counter poor working conditions, a lack of proper equipment and funding from the government, which recently increased its police budget.
Most were unaware of what was taking place in Port-au-Prince, where police were being outgunned in a stark reminder of the country’s revolting security environment. But soon, on Twitter, the #FreeHaiti hashtag started trending as word spread about the slain officers and the failed operation.
On Saturday, #FreeHaiti had been retweeted more than 250,000 times by Haitians including influencers and well-known celebrities like rapper Cardi B and actor Jimmy Jean-Louis.
Officers have struggled to rein in criminality in Haiti, where several kidnapped victims have reported being taken by individuals in police uniforms and in vehicles with official license plates.
Charles, in a press conference, offered little detail about what went wrong in Friday’s operation, and how his units were ambushed. He said that police have been engaged in a battle against organized crime, especially kidnappings.
“The operation yesterday was a decisive phase in the actions we had already carried out against this phenomenon,” Charles said, describing Village of God as “one of the places where they hold most of the people who are kidnapped.”
He offered sympathy to the families of the slain officers, while stressing that the police will not back down. “The police cannot retreat,” he said. “We have a mission to finish and we are going to keep the engagement we took, which is to protect and serve the population.”
The violence is a new low for Haiti, which has been wrestling with widening insecurity, armed gangs and for-ransom kidnappings. During a live broadcast Saturday of the popular political talk radio show Ranmase on Radio Caraibes, the sister of one of the slain SWAT officers, Wislet Desilus, pleaded for her brother’s body. She said that the gang had requested $2 million in order for her mother to receive his corpse.
“My brother died since yesterday, he was ripped apart. Whatever you can give me, I will take it,” she said, adding that her mother is poor and the family has no money. “Even if it’s just a piece of him that I can bury to console me, so I can tell his child something.”
She said when she heard the news, she went to the SWAT base. “I didn’t find anyone there to receive me; I didn’t find anyone who could give me any information,” she said. “Everyone I found said they couldn’t do anything for me.”
On Monday, a high-ranking gang leader of the Village de Dieu gang, Peterson Benjamin, appeared in federal court in Fort Lauderdale on charges related to the kidnapping of five U.S. citizens, including three minors, in Haiti last year. He faces a nine-count indictment by a Washington, D.C., grand jury, which includes charges of hostage taking and possessing a firearm during a violent crime.
Benjamin was arrested by Haitian police and turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which flew him to South Florida on March 5, along with convicted drug trafficker Lissner Mathieu. Benjamin was taken into custody by the Drug and Enforcement Administration for probation violation.