Never again, never forget

This afternoon I paid a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, on 14th Street between C Street and Independence Avenue SW in Washington, D.C. I had long wondered why this country needed a museum devoted to history's greatest crime - the U.S., after all, wasn't directly involved except in the capacity of American troops (along with their British and Soviet allies) acting as liberators of the notorious death camps. Or so I thought. But after witnessing the various exhibitions, I realized that the Holocaust isn't something that can be thought of only in terms of its victims and those who victimized them. No, what happened during those dark years belongs in the collective consciousness of everyone on this planet, and siting a Holocaust museum in this nation's capital ensures that a great many people from all over the world will learn what happened, and ensure that nothing like this ever occurs again...I hope.

Photography of the exhibits isn't permitted, which is just as well, because many of the photographs are extremely graphic, to say the least. You start on the fourth floor, which explores the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and the step-by-step escalation in the persecution of the Jews and other groups (socialists, homosexuals, Roma etc.) deemed inferior or threatening by the National Socialists. The third floor covers World War II and the Final Solution in all its horrific details. Among the more disturbing things on display are an actual railroad car used to transport people to the death camps, film of the gruesome medical experiments performed by the likes of Mengele and personal effects of the victims, collected after they had been led off to the gas chambers. The second floor goes into detail on the liberation of the camps at the hands of the horrified Allied soldiers, as well as exhibits on those who risked their lives to save Jews from certain death. It goes without saying that these three floors make for an extremely sobering experience.

I'm not talented enough with words to accurately express the depths of the simultaneous feelings of rage and sadness I felt while making my way through the museum. I came away with the knowledge that while the 20th century saw some horrific crimes against mankind (Stalin's purges, atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, the horrendous loss of life in China caused by Mao Zedong, the killing fields of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge), nothing can compare with the Holocaust, the result of a charismatic madman and his unholy amalgamation of eugenics, ideology and racism, and carried out with the acquiescence of far too many people who knew better. If I had my way, all those who in recent years who have so casually thrown out terms like "Hitler" and "Nazi" to denigrate those they disagree with politically should be forced to spend as long as necessary in this museum to realize how, by doing so, they are shaming and cheapening the memory of those who suffered at the hands of the real murderers.

Every visitor to the museum is encouraged to pick up an Identification Card, which tells the story of a real person who lived through the Holocaust. Herman Klein was a Czechoslovak Jew who spent time in Auschwitz and a labor camp built in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto, before being liberated from Dachau by U.S. troops.

In the span of only seven months, I have visited both the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and have seen for myself the two greatest atrocities ever committed by human beings against human beings. In the case of the former, it was my government that carried out the terrible act. In the latter, it was my government (along with too many others) that could have done so much more to at least alleviate some of the suffering of the Jews by opening up our borders before the war, but didn't (antisemitism was rife in the State Department, my current employer, in the 1930's). The tragedy of the Holocaust may have been a singular evil, but it is one that must never be forgotten. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thankfully, remain the only cities (so far) to have suffered nuclear destruction. The same can't be when it comes to genocide, unfortunately, as Rwanda and Srebenica demonstrate. Never forget what happened, but even more importantly, make sure it never happens again.

You say Remembrance Day, I say Veterans Day...

In any event, it's a national holiday, meaning that tomorrow I don't need to go to school, and thus further retarding my progress in the struggle to learn enough passable Mandarin Chinese to be posted to Shanghai 上海. But that's a problem to be put off until Tuesday - today was glorious, absolutely glorious (let me say it again!) weather-wise, with clear skies and warm temperatures, and a perfect day to take our new Honda Accord ホンダ・アコード out for a spin (well, at least I did, anyway).

Yes, the Kaminoge family has a new car. We weren't planning on buying one as I had assumed a privately-owned vehicle wouldn't be necessary in Shanghai, but apparently I was mistaken (like that's never happened before, right?). So we took the plunge and purchased a new automobile. Let's just hope the recent uproar over the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 will have died down by the time we get there early next year, or our Japanese-made car (parts of which were manufactured in Suzuka 鈴鹿 in Mie Prefecture 三重県, not far from where Pamela and I used to live in Yokkaichi 四日市) may face the wrath of knee-jerk (and blatantly manipulated and misdirected) Chinese nationalism. Here's my daughter modeling the newest addition to our family:

And so it was that I drove the Accord today to Leesylvania State Park, yet another jewel in the Virginia State Park system. I'm starting to believe all those signs I keep seeing saying that Virginia's parks have been voted America's best. Leesylvania State Park combines beautiful riverside and gorgeous forest scenery with an informative dollop of history - the land was once owned by General Robert E. Lee's father. My hike consisted of two separate long walks on either side of the visitor center parking lot. I began by walking along the Potomac Trail, named for the river it parallels:

The railroad crossing saw a lot of action while I was there today. Just as I was walking under the bridge, an Amtrak express train came roaring across, while all day long lengthy freight trains passed back and forth:

The autumn colors have been with us for quite some time now, and the park was still ablaze with the foliage of fall:

The Powell's Creek Trail went past an overlook of pond lilies and waders searching for a meal:

A spur trail led to this beaver dam. The builder couldn't be seen, but at least a half-dozen snapping turtles and one loud goose made their presences felt:

After a couple of hours tromping along the Bushey Point and Powell's Creek Trails, I headed back toward, and then passed, the visitor's center, with the Potomac River on my right this time. As it turns out, most of the river lies in Maryland, as the state line on this fishing wharf indicated. In the late 1950's, a floating casino took advantage of this fact by mooring here, and thus avoiding Virginia's laws against gambling, even though the border was only a few feet away. You gotta love federalism:

Not far past this wharf, the two-mile (3.2 kilometers) Lee's Woods Historical Interpretive Trail led off into the forest. The first point of interest was this old fireplace, which is all that remains from a hunting lodge that was built on this spot in 1926:

Next up was the site of a Confederate Civil War battery. Looking out over the Potomac from here, it was obvious why this location was chosen to be fortified by the Rebs:

Some nice-looking homes or boathouses could be seen in the distance. I'm assuming the owners and/or residents have gotten used to the constant rumble of locomotives in the background:

On virtually every hike I've done in Virginia, I've come across the ruins of an old house. The Lee Woods Trail was no exception - the foundation blocks and chimney are all that remain of the home of a Confederate colonel named John Fairfax, first constructed around 1825 and destroyed by fire around the time the Chicago Cubs last won the World Series:

Later on, the trail passed by the site of the former Henry Lee plantation, built circa 1750 and named "Leesylvania", or "Lee's Woods" (this Henry Lee was the grandfather of Robert E. Lee). The path eventually came to the Lee-Fairfax cemetery at top of a ridge, where a wrought-iron fence and a bronze plaque indicate that Henry Lee and his wife lie in repose here. Please let me know if you see anything "ghostly" in this picture, so that I may post it on YouTube and generate lots of gullible comments along the lines of "Proof that ghosts exist", as well as the cries of "Fake", the latter being buttressed with homophobic slurs:

Eventually I made my way back downhill after only having encounters with the still-living instead of the dearly-departed, and soon returned to the parked Accord, calling it a day. In all, I walked 7.8 miles (12.6 kilometers) in about 4½ hours, with an elevation gain of 650 feet (198 meters). And because it was Veterans Day today, the usual $5 park entrance fee was waived. Considering what we've spent on buying the new car, any penny that can be saved is greatly appreciated.

On the way back to Falls Church, I drove past this restaurant in Woodbridge. According to this website:

Based on real customer spending behavior, Little Taipei is rated 31/100, making it #11 ranked Chinese place around Woodbridge and is frequented by 50-65 Year Olds...

Rocking the creek

Washington, D.C. is a densely-packed metropolis with its fair share of crime and decrepit neighborhoods, though the city has apparently gotten better since the early 1990's, when things were so bad the Washington Bullets NBA team felt compelled to change their nickname to the less evocative Wizards. So it's somewhat surprising to find that the District has within its, er, district a national park twice the size of New York's Central Park - Rock Creek Park, an oasis of greenery covering 1754 acres (710 hectares) under the administration of the National Park Service. On Friday, I was being reminded of how poor my listening and speaking skills were while trying to interact with Chinese students at Georgetown University (my fault, not theirs'); today, just a few miles away from the teeming Georgetown area, my family and I encountered not one, but two deer. The first one was a white-tailed doe that came running up to Amber and me, stopped to look at us for a moment, and then turned tail (rimshot) and ran off in a different direction. The other was a buck we espied on the other side of a dry creek bed. In both cases, I wasn't able to get off a photo before the deer disappeared into the woods, but both encounters (especially the first one) drove home the point that you don't have to leave the boundaries of the District of Columbia in order to commune with nature. Here are a few photos of our family walk today in Rock Creek Park:

My daughter stands on one of the dirt-covered fortifications, all that remain of Fort DeRussy, a Civil War-era outpost that once guarded Washington from the threat of Confederate attack.

Above, the trees were still ablaze with the colors of fall (well, some anyway), while the ground was carpeted with fallen leaves, often obscuring the trails.

Some of the footpaths were surprisingly undulating, but the girls held up well. The above pic was the only shot I could get of my camera-shy spouse.

Other than getting to see the deer, the other highlight of our walk today was the beauty of Rock Creek itself. Rock Creek Park is a gem, and the perfect place for a family hike on a clear, comfortably cold (40°F/4.5°C) Sunday. Altogether, the three of us covered six miles (9.7 kilometers) this afternoon, with an elevation gain of 840 feet (256 meters).

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween has been a memorable one, to say the least, mostly because I was the recipient of an unexpected five-day weekend. If you've been following the news recently, you're certainly aware of Hurricane Sandy and the destruction it has wrought upon New York and New Jersey. With the storm approaching amid dire warnings of high winds and flooding in the Washington, D.C. metro area, school was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday for both my daughter and me, and we spent two mostly boring days stuck indoors while the rain came down and the wind howled outside. Fortunately, though, our area was spared from the worst effects of Sandy, and except for some flickering lights on Monday evening, our power stayed on the whole time (unlike the apartment complex across the street from ours, which was in darkness all throughout Monday night). However, while our electricity supply remained stable, other areas were not so fortunate. Amber's elementary school was without power until late Tuesday night, and we didn't get word that she would have school today until around ten p.m. last night. In my case, it was even worse - FSI remained in the dark, necessitating yet another day off today. 

So how does one enjoy an unexpected day of (paid) freedom, especially when the temperatures are in the mid-40's (around 7°C) and the skies are overcast and still threatening to rain? In my case, I took a long walk this morning through downtown Falls Church, the city in northern Virginia where we've been living since May. Thanks to a number of signs pointing out historical sights, there were actually a few things to see along the way. Take, for example, the Dulin Methodist Church, parts of which date from 1869. My wife takes English lessons here three mornings a week:

Down the road from this church, and past a small park looking pretty in the glory of autumn...

...stands a Presbyterian church. Its bell tower was built in 1884. In the parking lot were pumpkins for sale, with an honesty box set up to receive payment. It was the kind of scene where if someone had posted the photo on Facebook and said it had been taken in Taiwan, would have generated numerous comments about how uniquely honest the Taiwanese people are, and how this sort of thing could only happen on the blessed island of Formosa. Sorry to burst your bubble, folks (actually, I enjoy doing this sort of thing), but here is the mid-Atlantic region of the United States:

It wasn't long before I came to the downtown business district. If it wasn't for the constant flow of (albeit slow-moving) traffic along Broad Street, this part of Falls Church could almost qualify as a charming slice of small-town American life. My favorite shop here is the The Local Market, where there is a nice selection of locally-grown produce and locally-made foods - my favorites are the sodas, jams and syrups. Pamela, unfortunately, seems to prefer shopping at large, faceless and impersonal supermarket chains, so we don't patronize this establishment as much as I'd like:

It wouldn't be America without an NRA-approved, Second Amendment-distorting gun shop around:

I walked as far as City Hall before turning around. Next door is the local community center, where my daughter has a ballet class once a week. This complex, and the adjacent park, have played host to a number of local festivals that we've had fun attending, the most recent being a Halloween Carnival on Saturday evening that Amber really enjoyed. The building, surprisingly, looks more like it belongs in the U.S. Southwest than it does here on the East Coast:

The State Theatre, where upcoming acts include NRBQ, Men Without Hats and, yes, Blue Oyster Cult, of "more cowbell" fame:

The route back took me past a couple more historic homes. Construction on the Birch House started in the 1850's and was completed in 1873. It was saved from destruction in 1976:

Tallwood was built in 1870, and once belonged to Dwight Eisenhower's brother Milton, who resided here between 1938 and 1943 (all these facts and more courtesy of the aforementioned historical markers that line both sides of Broad Street). The General and Mamie Eisenhower spent New Year's Eve 1941 here, not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor:

Other houses might not have been historic in any sense, but they were nice to walk by. Many homes were decorated for Halloween:

Of course, today being Halloween, it was entirely appropriate that I took a stroll through Oakwood Cemetery, founded in 1779:

Before returning home, I stopped off at Eden Center, a shopping complex serving the metro area's large Vietnamese community. It's a great place to eat, and I picked up a sandwich and iced milk coffee to have for lunch at home:

Other than Hurricane Sandy, the other reason these past few days have been memorable ones is that this was the first real Halloween for my little one. Amber had been given a taste of the occasion while at kindergarten in Taiwan, but tonight was her first genuine all-American Halloween, and she enjoyed every moment of it, going door-to-door through three of the four buildings in our apartment complex, as well as handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters who knocked on our door. Here is the picture she drew to hang out front...:

...while this was one of the three Jack-o'-lanterns that graced our balcony, taken from the ground floor (we live on the third floor):

As you can see, my little devil made out quite well. Too well, in fact. It looks like our dentist will be able to move into a higher (but lower-paying, if Mitt Romney gets elected next week) tax bracket, thanks to all these treats that will soon pass over Amber's dental work: