PRESIDENT ULYSSES S. GRANT and FAMILY in Real 3-D (3# of 3) -- An Okinawa Story
I was using these original albumen stereoviews of the American Civil War General and President as cardboard stuffers under one of my kitchen table legs --- to keep the darn table from wobbling. Old and rare 3-D views are perfect for that. Hey, not really. But seriously --- I hate wobbly tables.
Although the two images in each of these stereo-pairs appear to be the same, they are completely DIFFERENT. On one side is someone who many see as a GREAT MAN and a GREAT LEADER. On the other side, is a POOR LEADER and SCANDAL PLAGUED failure. Via Free-View, Stereoscope, or Anyglyph conversion, you can see him as no other 2-D image will allow.
Here's a fair overview of his full and complicated life :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant
WHY AM I POSTING THESE THREE STEREOVIEWS OF GRANT ???
Here, I combine a few words from the above Wiki link, with lots of my own :
"........Grant went on a World Tour in 1877 to 1879 after the end of his second term in the White House. In Japan, where he was lauded as a great Samurai-type of sword-wielding Victor (they could hardly have cared less about his having been a two-term President) he was cordially received by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken at the Imperial Palace. Today in the Shibakoen section of Tokyo, a tree still stands that Grant planted during his stay.
However, during that stay, where the relatively young Emperor Meiji sought out President Grant's companionship and advice on Affairs of State, certain meetings were held on a highly critical matter that had only just come up.
In 1879, the Meiji government of Japan announced the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands [OKINAWA]. China objected, and Grant was asked to arbitrate the matter. He decided that Japan's claim to the islands was stronger and ruled in Japan's favor......."
At the time, the fact that Grant had cast his lot with Japan as an ARBITRATING RULER on the forced annexation of the independent Kingdom of Okinawa --- against the will of the Okinawans and their recently abducted King --- was kept a total secret, even as Okinawa hoped and waited for China to come and rescue Okinawa and evict the unwelcome Japanese Military occupation.
However, other writers say that Grant washed his hands of the issue by telling both China and Japan to work things out for themselves by direct negotiation --- again, leaving the people of Okinawa out of the process. If such was the case, his conditional abstention was just another form of allowing Okinawa to get stabbed in the back, when he had the opportunity to recommend Japan to "Restore the freedom and independence of Okinawa".
Unfortunately, Grant instead took the politically easy way out by coddling the ways of Imperialism. It would be only a matter of years before America itself would likewise forsake its founding values, and try to take the Philippines (and other territories) for its own. Grant was just a forerunner of the "Washington elite" who had no regard for established countries, island nations, or peoples whose independence (or desire for it) was a fact already established.
Neither the American GRANT nor the Japanese Emperor MEIJI (and his Advisers) had ANY RIGHT (except the "Right of Might", which is no "right" at all) to be tossing dice and sticking pins in a map to say "From today, the Okinawans can go screw themselves".
CHINA emphatically protested Japan's military takeover of Okinawa, and the Japanese destruction of the Ryukyuan Kingdom, saying that Okinawa and the Okinawans should remain a Free and Independent Nation.
In 1895, Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War, thus bringing the diplomatic protests over Okinawa to an effective end.
Today, Okinawa remains friends with China, and the best public garden there is a Chinese one in Central Naha City.
Today, my wife's family and relatives --- whose ancestors are all buried in Chinese-style tombs --- live with Japanese citizenship, and Japanese education. At a big tourist site on Okinawa, I asked the souvenir vendors why none of the goods are marked with prices. Their response :
".......If an Okinawan wants to buy something, we tell them it's 100 yen. If an American Serviceman from one of the Military Bases wants to buy it, we tell them 200 yen. If a Japanese tourist wants to buy it, it's 300 yen....."
Comments and faves
el.nalga@gmail.com (47 months ago | reply)
a little hello!!!
this picture´s great!
Nalgaman
kurokojpn (47 months ago | reply)
This is outstanding background and perspective. Thank you.
Okinawa Soba (47 months ago | reply)
Glad you like it.
David C. Foster (47 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Veterans of the American Civil War, and we'd love to have this added to the group!