Move

On the day after back from Aberdeen, I attended another gangsters' meeting.

There was, alas, nothing vigorous for discussion. Much of the time was spent on the plan of moving to the new block next year - and what the hospital (administration) planned to do with the original one.

Well, that's probably the major ball game our extra-terrestrial friends are playing at the moment.

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In the middle of the meeting, LS whispered at my ears, "Why is there so many elaborated plans for using the old block ? Was it not having some fatal flaw in construction to begin with, so that our noble Council members agreed to give money and built the new one ?"

It took me a while to recollect my memory and realized she was right.

"It doesn't matter. The Council per se had election twice since that decision; all of the present ones are new to this business and would not notice ..." I said to myself.

Tea

Spent an afternoon in Aberdeen - I was the invigilator of the Part I examination.

Alas, the examination consisted of two MCQ papers, each for three hours, with an hour of break in between. There were three invigilators: a consultant geriatrician, a representative from the British Council, and myself.

During the break, the secretaries from the College - whose office was upstairs - came and helped collecting the paper.

"Do you need to order some snack in the canteen ?" One of them suggested, "It would be lucky if we could leave before 7:30 PM."

I duly complied. Two hours later, I took a 15-minute break and went to the canteen.

No one was there.

Oh, there was one - a waitress. She recognized me immediately and gave me a bowel of noodle - that's my afternoon tea.

Hastily I finished with my break - there's a sense of uneasiness to eat alone in a huge canteen.

On my way back, I couldn't wave away that very question in my mind: How could this business survive ?

PS. After the examination, the lady from the British Council asked how senior those candidate doctors were.

"You know, a few of them asked me what did Surname and Initials mean ..." She pointed to me a small area of the answer sheet.

Letter

My recent bedtime reading is "分類尺牘大全" by 王天恨.

I found the sordid volume in the shelf of my father-in-law some months ago. In short, it is kind of a collection of sample letters - similar to those you expect if there exists a book Letter Writing for the Idiots - written in traditional Chinese (文言文).

And, therefore, I am the idiot.

It's an enjoyable experience, with interesting points here and there. For example, "逕啟者", the well known header in Chinese letter, was supposed to mean To the one who open this letter, I tell you directly and is not meant for politeness. Similarly, "XX尊前" was used originally as "XX樽前", implying the sender and receiver are sitting together with a bottle of wine and having some friendly discussion.

Alas, when did the modern Chinese become so superficial ?

PS. I agree the author has a romantic name. Too bad he was merely a poor educated Chinese brought up in the traditional way - too common a species (and therefore of little value) fifty years ago; unbelievably outdated nowadays, but also paradoxically highly precious.

Guadalcanal

My first lesson on the Pacific War was about the Battle of Guadalcanal - from a book of the same title.

(My father gave this small volume to me during a summer holiday of my primary school.)

I shall not describe the details of the campaign here. Suffice to say, as soon as the US army took the control of the airport at the very beginning, the fate of the Japanese soldiers were no different from what Dr. Sheppard heard from Hercule Poirot (in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd): There is only one way out - and that way does not lead to freedom.

Alas, that's the first time I came to realize most matters have a few determining factors; to excel in one crucial thing usually bears more fruit than to have a diffuse target and be all-rounded on everything.

Yes, that's the 20/80 rule - we all know so well nowadays.

Hopping

The famous strategy that the US army used in the Pacific War was island hopping (跳島戰術), which is not without interest to meticulous students.

The idea was simple: The Allied army attacked only Pacific islands that were strategically important and poorly defended, while bypassing those heavily fortified by the Japanese soldiers.

This strategy worked. The Allies used submarine and air forces to isolate Japanese bases and limit their supply. As a result, troops on islands that had been bypassed became useless; they would either surrender or die of negligence.

PS. The strategy was generally regarded as devised by the US general Douglas McArthur. That's not entirely correct - a few of his colleagues played a crucial role in its development. Nonetheless, we almost always quote only the first author when referring to a paper, do we not ?

Midway

Although I said it was a bit of luck of Uncle Sam in the Midway Island, it is in fact difficult to tell whether it was sheer luck, or it was some fortunate happenings awarded to those who were well prepared.

The detailed sequence of the event on 4 June 1942 (what a date !) is well know. The Japanese carrier Akagi (赤城) sank for just one bomb, Soryu (蒼龍) for three, and Kaga (加賀) for merely a few more - lost with the carriers were the accompanying aircraft and experienced crews.

Why were these well-armed carriers so fragile ? It was luck: The American dive-bombers arrived at the perfect time to attack the Japanese carriers: armed Japanese strike aircraft filled the hangar decks, fuel hoses snaked across the decks as refueling operations were hastily completed, and bombs and torpedoes were stacked around the hangar, making the Japanese carriers extraordinarily vulnerable.

But, why were the US army so lucky ?

They did their homework. Oh, I mean they broke the code of electric communication between Japanese army some time before the battle, so that the Americans were well informed of the whereabouts of the naval force under Emperor Showa.

Alas, I shall not dwell on the story. Just that next time when you want to complain of having tough luck, make sure you've done your part well.

PS. I learn much about the happenings at the Midway island from a history teacher of mine in the secondary school, who apparently wrote his master thesis on this topic. I must thank (not him but) my headmaster for allowing such kind of irrelevant teaching in his school.

Hiroshima

A little friend used the atomic bombing of Hiroshima to describe my blog several days ago.

I beg to disagree - but there's really some truth in it.

You know what. Before 6th August 1945, the Japanese army was long on the verge of failure. Well, it was a little bit of luck of Uncle Sam at the Midway Island. But, by the summar of 1945, the naval force under Emperor Showa was essentially demolished; Iwo Jima and Okinawa were at the hands of the US army; Tokyo was paralyzed by repeated incendiary bombings.

Therefore, even if there was no Manhattan project, the result of the Pacific war would no doubt be the same - just that the failure of the Japanese army would be an enduring torture.

And, it may not be an entirely bad thing to see the collapse of the military government: Japanese people became more cohesive than ever, and they soon evolved to be a super-power of economy; Hiroshima is merely a small scar in their history.

PS. Don't worry. There is, as yet, no Nagasaki.