The Coming War on China
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
A nuclear war between the United States and China is not only imaginable but a current 'contingency', says the Pentagon. Filmed over two years across five potential flashpoints in Asia and the Pacific, THE COMING WAR ON CHINA reveals the build-up to war on more than 400 US military bases that encircle China in a 'perfect noose'.
Using rare archive and remarkable interviews with witnesses, Pilger's film discloses America's secret history in the region - the destruction wrought by the equivalent of one Hiroshima every day for 12 years, and the top secret 'Project 4.1' that made guinea pigs of the population of the Marshall Islands.
In key interviews from Pentagon war planners to members of China's confident new political class, who rarely feature in Western reports, Pilger's film challenges the notion and propaganda of China as a new 'enemy'.
THE COMING WAR ON CHINA is also a film about the human spirit and the rise of an extraordinary resistance in faraway places. On the island of Okinawa, home to 32 US bases, the population is challenging the greatest military power in the world. On the Korean island of Jeju, villagers block the entrance to a new nuclear naval base, with its missiles aimed at China.
'A sobering message against war. A powerful call for peace. There are better and more constructive ways of dealing with China's rise than what war mongers and military hawks advocate.' Zhiqun Zhu, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Bucknell University
'Terrific new film...The Coming War gives the impression we are looking into the past, though its warning is aimed to the future...John Pilger has made yet another enthralling film.' Martin Billheimer, CounterPunch
'Donald Trump is inadvertently doing his darndest to endow John Pilger's eye-opening polemic The Coming War on China with an air of chillingly urgent topicality.' Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter
'This is a must-watch documentary for anyone interested in Sino-US relations. Whether you are for or against the 'China Threat Theory,' you will find it thought-provoking.' Chien-Kai Chen, Assistant Professor of International Studies, Rhodes College
'[Pilger] is fully aware that China has negotiated the best trade deals in the region, that their vast industrialisation has poisoned the planet and sped up global warming, and that their record on human rights is atrocious. Yet shouldn't we be sitting around a table with them to discuss this, rather than pointing weapons of global destruction at them instead?...A very persuasive piece of filmmaking.' John Parker, Entertainment Focus
'The view from China is threatening. 'If you stood on the tallest building in Beijing and looked out of the Pacific Ocean,' James Bradley, author of The China Mirage, tells Pilger, 'you'd see American warships, you'd see Guam is about to sink because there are so many missiles pointed at China. You'd look up at Korea and see American armaments pointing at China, you'd see Japan, which is basically...a glove over the American fist. I think if I was Chinese I'd have...to worry about American aggressiveness.'' Newsweek
'Pilger's argument, supported by the talking heads he interviews, is that China's current military expansion should primarily be understood as a defensive response rather than an aggressive one...The great lunacy of all this, he argues, is that the brinkmanship is driven not by America's defensive needs but by the hunt for profits.' Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald
'Pilger interviews Pentagon war planners, members of China's emerging political class and those resisting the presence of US military bases in South Korea for the film, which suggests that the US is seeking to cut off China's access to oil, gas and other raw materials.' iNews
'Pilger's take on American militarism and its shocking exploitation of Pacific territories such as the Marshall Islands, where the inhabitants were guinea pigs for sustained nuclear weapons tests, is damning.' Craig Mathieson, Brisbane Times
'A gripping film...a strong corrective to our bland and complacent indifference. ****' Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
'(Pilger) remains in the vanguard of journalism, able to eloquently challenge accepted beliefs and in doing so shine a light in corners you suspect other media, who sup from the same trough as those in power, would rather not venture.' Camden Review
'It sounds like alarmist talk, but over the course of his film, his tenacity for research aims to prove it's anything but.' John Noonan, FilmInk
'A sane, sober, necessary, deeply troubling bucketful of worries.' Euan Ferguson, The Guardian
'What makes the ignorant and outdated perception of a so-called yellow peril so absurd is that never before have the economies of two superpowers been so interdependent.' The (London) Times
'His expose of the atrocities still being committed there is just part of this far-reaching documentary about the relationship between the US and China since World War II, in light of recent inflammatory statements made by President Trump. Here are stories apparently left untold by the mainstream news media. ***** Five Stars.' Sun-Herald, Sydney; Sunday Age, Melbourne
Citation
Main credits
Pilger, John (screenwriter)
Pilger, John (film director)
Pilger, John (film producer)
Pilger, John (presenter)
Other credits
Editor, Joe Frost; camera, Rupert Binsley [and 3 others]; original music, Joe Frost.
Distributor subjects
Activism; Asian Studies; China; Foreign Policy, US; Geography; Global Issues; History; International Studies; Japan; Journalism; Military; Pacific Studies; Sociology; War and PeaceKeywords
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SHOT DESCRIPTION |
TIMECODE |
NARRATIVE
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Music |
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Dartmouth Films logo |
10:00:00:00 |
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Archive B&W still: Man in front of rubble |
10:00:06:17 |
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10:00:00:16 Music in |
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Archive B&W still: US Air force plane dropping bombs Archive B&W still: cemetery Archive B&W still: man in wheelchair Archive B&W still: Woman with child on back, tank b/h Archive B&W still: Woman crying & hiding in long grass |
10:00:17:10
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Archive press conference clip: Gen. Franklin Blaisdell, Space operations & Integration Director speaking from Pentagon Archive B&W still: skull, man smoking b/h
Archive press conference clip: Gen FB |
10:00:53
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Gen. Franklin Blaisdell: I pity a country that, err, would come up against us. Um, the synergy with air, land and sea forces and, err, and our ability to control the battle space and seize the high ground is devastating. All countries respect the power of the United States and they respect, err, how dominant we are in this region. And we get better and better and better.
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10:00:57:19 Music out
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Fade to black |
10:01:17 |
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Programme title GFX o/l: The Coming War on China Fade to black screen |
10:01:19
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GFX o/l: A film by John Pilger |
10:01:25
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Archive news report clip: Huw Edwards – Tonight at 10
Archive news report clip: Aerial South China Sea |
10:01:31
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Huw Edwards - news report: Tonight at 10, a rare glimpse of China’s ambitious expansion in one of the world's most contested regions. We report from the South China Sea where the Chinese are warning off anyone who comes to close to their building programme.
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10:01:34 archive Music in – BBC news |
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Archive news report clip: CBS News GFX Archive news report: MCU presenter speaking on CBS This Morning Archive news clip: Subi Reef GFX |
10:01:46 |
CBS news report: We continue our look this morning at what China does not want you to see. The United States says the superpower is reclaiming land in the South China Sea.
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10:01:49 archive Music out |
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Archive news report clip: MCU presenter speaking on FOX NEWS |
10:01:54 |
Fox news report: The fact tha t we are dealing with a situation right now where we, the US, has to be much more aggressive in dealing with the Chinese government.
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Archive news report clip: MCU presenter BREAKING NEWS CNN NEWSROOM |
10:02:01 |
CNN news report: CNN has learnt that the US navy is about to send a destroyer there - let's go to our CNN chief…
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Archive news report clip: CNN Exclusive journalist with naval officer walking t/w jet, in jet |
10:02:07 |
CNN news report: CNN got exclusive access to classified US surveillance flights over the islands.
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Archive news report clip: CNN Exclusive – naval control room |
10:02:14 |
VO (John Pilger): The threat of China is becoming big news. The media is beating the drums of war as the world is being primed to regard China as a new enemy.
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Archive news report clip: CNN Exclusive – map of South China Sea |
10:02:25 |
CNN: China’s alarming creation of entirely new territories in the South China Sea is one part of a broader military push that some fear is to challenge US dominance in the region.
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GV aerial navy control ships GV aerial island sequence Archive news report clip: CNN Exclusive in naval control room
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10:02:36 |
VO (John Pilger): China is building airstrips in the South China Sea on disputed islands condemned by an international tribunal. This is now a flashpoint for war between China and America.
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10:02:41:05 Music in |
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GFX map: South China Sea with US base locations encircling China |
10:02:53
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VO (John Pilger): What is not news is that China itself is under threat. These American bases form a giant noose encircling China with missiles, bombers, warships, all the way from Australia through the Pacific to Asia and beyond.
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10:03:06:08 Music out |
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MCU James Bradley i/v GFX o/l: James Bradley Author ‘The China Mirage’ |
10:03:13
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James Bradley: I mean if you were in Beijing looking out, you stood on the tallest building in Beijing and looked out of the Pacific Ocean, you'd see American warships, you'd see Guam is about to sink because there are so many missiles pointed at China. You'd look up at Korea and see American armaments pointing at China, you'd see Japan, which is basically, err, err, Japan's a glove over the American fist. I think if I was Chinese I'd have a little to worry about, about American aggressiveness.
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MCU Bruce Cumings i/v GFX o/l: Professor Bruce Cumings historian |
10:03:43
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Prof. Bruce Cumings: If we have China surrounded, err, and we are doing more all the time to try and keep it surrounded and deepen that containment of China, err, but China presents a fascinating case of a country that is independent, doesn't have foreign bases on its territory, err, growing very rapidly, not as rapidly now as it did for 30 years but still the 2nd ranking economy in the world.
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MCU Dana Rohrabacher i/v GFX o/l: Congressman Dana Rohrabacher |
10:04:08
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Dana Rohrabacher: We have an adversary and that adversary is China and that adversary, err, unless there is dramatic reform inside China, will be our enemy someday.
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MCU Eric Li i/v GFX o/l: Eric Li entrepreneur & social scientist |
10:04:20
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Eric Li: One myth, err, I think really that needs to be dispelled was that somehow China is aiming to replace America and, and going to run the world. It's not... well first of all the Chinese are not that stupid. The West with its Christian, err, roots are about converting other people into their beliefs. The Chinese are not about that. It's, it's just the co-... I'm, I, again I'm not degrading the Western culture, I'm just pointing out the inherent nature, the DNA is of two different cultures. The Chinese 2,000 years ago built the Great Wall to keep the barbarians out, not to invade them.
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GV aerial naval ships
WS naval ships
WS naval ships with helicopter
GV aerial naval ships |
10:05:02 |
VO (John Pilger): As the world's economic power moves rapidly to Asia, the response of the United States is to deploy the majority of its naval forces to Asia and the Pacific. This massive military build up is known in Washington as the 'pivot to Asia'. The target is China.
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10:04:55:12 music in |
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Archive LRASM advert clip with fighter jet Archive CS naval ship GFX o/l: BLUE FORCE DEPLOYMENT Archive clip bomb launch GFX o/l: LRASM SHIP-LAUNCHED AGAINST SAG CRUISER |
10:05:27 |
VO (John Pilger): The great power game in the 21st century is called is Perpetual War.
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Archive clip: HA CS ship launcher Archive clip: satellite shot GFX o/l: SATELLITE TRANSMITHS HOSTILE SAG LOCATION |
10:05:35 |
VO (John Pilger): For America’s unchallenged arms' industry, the annual prize is huge profits from almost 600 billion dollars worth of military spending.
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10:05:23:13 music out |
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Archive Reuters programme: electo-magnetic gun in action |
10:05:49 |
Archive Reuters programme: Once an imaginary weapon on Star Wars the electro-magnetic gun is now reality.
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MCU American naval personnel PTC |
10:05:54 |
American Man i/v: You are sitting here thinking about these next generation and futuristic ideas and we've got scientists who have designed these and it's coming to life.
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10:05:39:01 music in
10:05:46:18 music out |
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Archive clip: bomb launch in action |
10:06:04 |
VO (John Pilger): And the smartest weapons need enemies.
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Archive Obama speech clip: MS President Obama GFX o/l: Canberra, Australia 17 November 2011 Archive clip: WS Obama making speech to sitting personnel Archive Obama speech clip: MS President Obama |
10:06:09 |
President Obama: As a Pacific nation, the United States will play a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future. I have directed my national security team to make our presence and mission in the Asia Pacific a top priority.
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MCU James Bradley i/v MCU John Pilger i/v |
10:06:23 |
John Pilger: In one sense is the US already at war with China?
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MCU James Bradley i/v
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10:06:28 |
James Bradley: Yes on the ground and in the air. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack Obama, has committed to trillions of dollars of, err, to our nuclear arsenal, he's committing trillions of future dollars to war in space and we need an enemy for all this money and China is the perfect enemy.
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LA CU American flag MS John Pilger PTC in front of Washington Monument |
10:06:55 |
John Pilger PTC: The aim of this film is to break a silence. The United States and China may well be on a path for war and nuclear war is no longer unthinkable. In a few years China has become the world's second biggest economic power. The United States is the world's biggest military power with bases and missiles and ships covering every continent, every ocean. 'China is a threat to this dominance', says Washington, but who is the threat? This film is about shifting power and great danger. It is also a film about the human spirit and the rise of an extraordinary resistant among people on the front line of a coming war with the words, never again, have an urgent meaning for all of us.
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GV aerial sunlight through clouds MCU JP looking out of airplane window |
10:07:45 |
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10:07:39:21 Music in |
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GV aerial of island with airplane wing
GV Bikini Island
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10:07:46 |
VO (John Pilger): This is Bikini, the rim of an ancient underwater volcano in the Marshall Islands. With its necklace of 23 islands, Bikini is a place of beauty and silence and menace.
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GV aerial Emerald lagoon with crater
Fade to black |
10:08:13 |
VO (John Pilger): Look closely where the emerald lagoon suddenly falls into a vast black hole. This is the crater of one of the greatest manmade explosions, the hydrogen bomb they call Bravo. It vaporised an entire island and poisoned almost everything and everyone. As our plane flew low we seemed to touch its deathly void.
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GFX o/l: The secret of the Marshall Islands |
10:08:47 |
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10:08:42:23 Music out |
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GFX globe map circling to Marshall Islands, close in to Marshall Islands GFX o/l: Bikini Rongelap Kwajalein |
10:08:53
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VO (John Pilger): The Marshall Islands lie in the vast Pacific Ocean between the United States and Asia. Captured from the Japanese in World War II, they have long been America’s strategic secret; its stepping stone to Asia and China.
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Archive B&W clip: men launching sailing boat |
10:09:11 |
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10:09:07:23 Music in |
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Archive B&W clip: sailing boats on water Archive B&W clip: man pulling up enormous shell 10:07:29.15: man climbing coconut tree Archive B&W clip: coconuts dropping to ground |
10:09:17 |
VO (John Pilger): People here sustain themselves for thousands of years with abundant fish, breadfruit and coconuts.
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Archive B&W clip: CS man on boat Archive B&W clip: sailing boats Archive B&W clip: men bringing catch to shore Archive B&W clip: woman drinking from coconut |
10:09:29 |
VO (John Pilger): They were skilled navigators that sailed by the stars. Westerners might call this paradise.
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GFX o/l subtitles: It was beautiful to live there Archive clip: children playing GFX o/l: We had everything we needed. |
10:09:40 |
Rinok Riklon [subtitled]: It was beautiful to live there. It was bountiful. We had everything we needed.
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MCU Rinok i/v GFX o/l: Rinok Riklon GFX o/l subtitles: There were times when I would visit other islands and harvest food, big bundles of crabs and oysters at low tide. |
10:09:47 |
Rinok Riklon [subtitled]: There were times when I would visit other islands and harvest food, big bundles of crabs and oysters at low tide.
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10:09:45:09 Music out |
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Archive B&W clip: locals on beach folding US flag Archive B&W clip: children playing Archive B&W clip: women weaving on ground
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10:10:00
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VO (John Pilger): All that changed in 1946 when the United States took over the Marshall Islands as a trust territory. With an obligation to protect the health and wellbeing of the people.
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Archive clip: palm trees during nuclear bomb explosion Archive clip: bomb explosions |
10:10:16 |
VO (John Pilger): A nightmare began; the islands were turned into a laboratory for the testing of nuclear weapons and the people into guinea pigs.
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10:10:12:07 music in |
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Archive B&W clip: making propaganda movie with locals |
10:10:29 |
Archive Film maker: Crossroads, scene 24, take two.
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10:10:33 |
VO (John Pilger): In this propaganda film the Bikini islanders are being deceived. Unknown to them plans were already underway to destroy their paradise forever.
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10:10:26:24 music out |
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10:10:47 |
Archive film maker: Will you ask King Juda, that the United States Government now, wants to attempt to turn this great destructive force into something good for mankind and that these experiments, here at Bikini, are the first step in that direction.
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10:11:06 |
[Man in film speaks in native tongue]
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10:11:12 |
Archive filmmaker: Tell him that's fine, everything being in god's hands it must be good.
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10:11:17 |
[Man in film speaks in native tongue]
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Archive aerial news clip: GV naval ships Archive news clip: WS naval ships on sea |
10:11:24 |
Archive news report: 87 ships take position three miles off Bikini to suffer the shattering impact of the 5th atomic bomb. Here…
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10:11:27 Archive music in |
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Archive clip: boats on water |
10:11:31 |
VO (John Pilger): An armada of war ships was assembled in Bikini lagoon in order to blow them to bits.
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10:11:40 Archive music out
10:11:27:12 music in |
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Archive news clip: ship anchoring Archive news clip: deck of ship Archive news clip: crate being lifted with livestock Archive news clip: animals used as experiments |
10:11:48 |
Archive news report: The decks of the 73 test ships anchored in Bikini lagoon are scenes of feverish activity as scientist plot experimental programmes designed to furnish data on blast effects of the mighty atom bomb.
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10:11:51 Archive music in
10:11:36:24 music out |
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Archive news clip: men dragging sheep and fixing them into metal holder |
10:12:01 |
VO (John Pilger): Animals were strapped to their decks like a perverse Noah's Ark. The experiment was to see how they died, how they burnt.
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10:12:07 Archive Music out
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Archive news clip: CU ointment being put on shaved sheep, CS ointment being put on sheep |
10:12:13 |
Archive news report: Special ointments are applied to determine their protective quality. Other parts of the exposed areas being left bare to the atom blast.
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10:12:16 Archive music in |
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Archive clip: LA MCU man with goggles smoking Archive clip: atom bomb explosion |
10:12:24
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Archive footage: Three, two, one, take off.
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10:12:27 Archive music out/in
10:12:51 Archive Music out |
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WS beach GFX o/l subtitles: Early in the morning when the bomb fell... CU Nerje i/v GFX o/l: Nerje Joseph GFX subtitles o/l: we were sleeping when we heard this loud noise. We ran out to see what it was. We didn't know what it was. We didn't know what it was. It was dawn. The whole sky lit up with every colour like a massive rainbow, blue, red, green, yellow. |
10:12:51 |
Nerje Joseph [subtitled]: Early in the morning when the bomb fell... we were sleeping when we heard this loud noise. We ran out to see what it was. We didn't know what it was. We didn't know what it was. It was dawn. The whole sky lit up with every colour like a massive rainbow, blue, red, green, yellow.
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CU Betty Edmond i/v GFX o/l: Betty Edmond GFX subtitles: We were all screaming. I tried to hide behind my parents. |
10:13:20 |
Betty Edmond [subtitled]: We were all screaming. I tried to hide behind my parents.
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MCU Lemoyo Abon i/v GFX o/l: Lemoyo Abon GFX subtitles: We were terrified. We thought it must be another war or the end of the world. |
10:13:31 |
Lemoyo Abon [subtitled]: We were terrified. We thought it must be another war or the end of the world.
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GV beach MS John P walking
CS deserted bunker, pan to R |
10:13:52 |
VO (John Pilger): Being on Bikini today is disturbing ghosts. I had to struggle thorough the jungle to the bunker where they pressed the button at 6.45 on the morning of H-bomb test.
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CS John P walking t/w camera insider bunker
CU milk powder boxes on shelf MS J Pilger removing glasses as walking inside bunker CS sign in bunker, JP to L
WS inside bunker |
10:14:08
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VO (John Pilger): Now claimed by the undergrowth, it's like a subterranean temple to modern time. They drank milkmaid powdered milk, smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes and later this sign was erected that is beyond irony it says: Please leave this property as you find it. Thank you for your kindness and understanding.
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Archive B&W news report: women in bikinis being judged by panel |
10:14:49 |
Archive news report: The mademoiselles give their all for their art and you can just bet that that audience is giving with the wolf calls.
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10:14:52 Archive music in |
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Archive B&W news report: women dancing in bikinis |
10:14:55 |
Archive news report: The bikini named after the atomic explosion in the Pacific. The bikini was an explosion everywhere.
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10:15:02 Archive music out/in |
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Archive illustration: woman in a bikini Archive still: bomb with woman in bikini straddling it Archive still: model in a bikini |
10:15:03 |
VO (John Pilger): In 1946 the Bikini swimsuit was launched to celebrate the nuclear explosions that had destroyed life on Bikini island. The inventor of the Bikini, a Frenchman, made his fortune.
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10:15:13 archive Music out |
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CU magazine still: Women’s health mag with Gwyneth Paltrow on cover |
10:15:20 |
VO (John Pilger): Today a bikini body is promoted in magazines as an object of desire and good health.
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CS still of locals women with JP in b/g |
10:15:29 |
VO (John Pilger): The bodies of the people of Bikini and other islands are the most eradiated in the world. All these woman have had thyroid cancer.
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10:15:24:06 Music in |
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Archive still of burn wounds, tilt up to MCU Nerje Joseph i/v GFX subtitles: We were bathing at the well. White dust started falling from the sky. I reached to catch the powder. We used it as soap powder to wash our hair. A few days later my hair started falling out. |
10:15:41 |
Nerje Joseph [subtitled]: We were bathing at the well. White dust started falling from the sky. I reached to catch the powder. We used it as soap powder to wash our hair. A few days later my hair started falling out.
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10:15:44:15 Music out |
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MCU Lemoyo Abon i/v GFX subtitles: Some people were in agony. Others had diarrhoea. Some kids were itching all over. |
10:16:02 |
Lemoyo Abon [subtitled]: Some people were in agony. Others had diarrhoea. Some kids were itching all over.
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10:16:03:21 Music in |
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WS path with palm trees to L, POV someone walking
WS cemetery |
10:16:13 |
VO (John Pilger): Today Bikini is unfit for human life, radiation poisons the food and water, our shoes registered unsafe on a Geiger counter. The abandoned cemetery looks out to where the sun rose one morning, then rose again as apocalypse.
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GV beach landscape LA WS cemetery with palm trees |
10:16:37 |
VO (John Pilger): The equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb was exploded in these islands every day for 12 years.
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10:16:55:00 Music out |
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CS Welcome to Bikini Atoll sign
GV island from boat POV CU wake splashing up slowmo MS JP on boat GV island and sea from boat |
10:16:49 |
VO (John Pilger): A scared beauty has returned to the island but the people haven't. Exiled to baron islands, many of them starved. In 1968 President Lydon Johnson told them it was safe to go home.
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Archive footage: US officers checking radiation with detector |
10:17:12 |
VO (John Pilger): But it wasn't safe and the US authorities knew it wasn't safe.
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CU Lemoyo Abon i/v GFX subtitles: What the Americans did was no accident. They came here and destroyed our land. They came to test the effects of a nuclear bomb on us. It was no accident. |
10:17:18 |
Lemoyo Abon [subtitled]: What the Americans did was no accident. They came here and destroyed our land. They came to test the effects of a nuclear bomb on us. It was no accident.
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MCU Giff Johnson i/v GFX o/l: Giff Johnson Editor, Marshall Islands Journal Archive still, tilt up photo: burnt boy standing and being checked over by man |
10:17:39 |
Giff Johnson: What happened at a result of the Bravo test was that a cover-up was launched very shortly after March 1. I mean there is such a history of wrong information, outright lies, deception; there was no, no attempt to take the most conservative approach and make sure that everybody was okay.
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MS PTC Gene Curbow GFX o/l: Gene Curbow US nuclear test weatherman CU mug shots of lesions with description written below
MS PTC Gene Curbow
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10:18:03 |
Gene Curbow: They knew where the radioactive fallout was going to go, err, and they took that risk and when they had detonated the bomb, knowing full well which way it was going to go. Err, they still have an opportunity to, err, evacuate, even on the day of the shock but these people were not evacuated, we were not evacuated and the people on Utirik were not evacuated. So it only leaves one, err, want to believe that number one, the United States needed some guinea pigs to study what err the effects of radiation would do and err that's a pretty strong indication that the United States knew that.
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CU Thomas Armbruster GFX o/l: Thomas H. Armbruster US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands MS JP to R talking to TA, f/g CU Thomas Armbruster MS JP to R talking to TA, f/g
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10:18:42 |
John Pilger: It seems extraordinary... Here we are this far into the 21st century talking to people still frightened of all that nuclear fallout, all those tests, all those years ago. The impression I get is that there is so little trust among people.
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CU Thomas Armbruster i/v
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10:19:00 |
Thomas H. Armbruster: The US is trying to provide as much information, as much good information as we can and so I wouldn’t accept the characterisation that, err, that there had been lies and cover-ups.
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MS JP to R talking to TA, f/g
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10:19:12 |
John Pilger: The word guinea pigs comes up a lot from these survivors.
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CU Thomas Armbruster |
10:19:16 |
Thomas H. Armbruster: I would refer you to our Embassy website on that.
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MS JP to R talking to TA, f/g
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10:19:20 |
John Pilger: I've read it.
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CU Thomas Armbruster |
10:19:21 |
Thomas H. Armbruster: And that question was looked at during the Clinton administration and that was not the conclusion they came to.
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CU typed report Program 4 – biomedical studies, zoom to XCU to 4.1, pan to R to word ‘mice’, pan to R and XXCU to word ‘human’ |
10:19:29 |
VO (John Pilger): The secret of the Marshall Islands is project 4.1. Declassified documents reveal a scientific programme that began as a study of mice and became a study of human beings exposed to radiation.
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10:19:23:11 Music in |
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Archive news report clip: Atomic Energy lab sign CS 7 men posing
Archive news report clip: CU Lebon, another man, John |
10:19:48 |
Archive News report: Chicago is where it all began and to the AEC Argonne labs in Chicago last week came seven men, natives of the Marshall Islands. Lebon is from Utirik, he and the rest were radiated by our March 1954 hydrogen bomb test. John is Mayor of Rongerlap, which is 100 miles from Bikini.
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10:19:47:01 Music out |
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Archive news report clip: MS man leading John to test area and John undergoing tests |
10:20:09 |
Archive News report: John as we said is a savage but a happy, amenable savage. His grandfather ran almost naked on his coral atoll. The white man brought money and religion and a market for his [unclear]. John reads, knows about a god and is a pretty good mayor. The iron room is a radiation detector for human beings. Inside John, the Mayor, whose first visit to the white man's country meant San Francisco cable cars and Chicago's skyscrapers and streamline trains, whose first visit to the white man's country meant the iron room.
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Archive news report clip: Dr leaving iron room, pressing buttons on test equipment, CU equipment Archive news report clip: 7 men posing for cameras
7 men leaving the lab in long winter coats
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10:20:47 |
Archive News Report: A savage governs his life by ritual and he understands this because he thinks of it as a new ritual. Sitting alone, inside the room, outside strange kind of priest in long white coat. When the ritual of the iron room was over for John, it began for the others. As each finished he was told it was over and he was given apples and other good things to eat. Then he took off the ritual clothing and the seven men put on the suits and topcoats they had been lent in Hawaii, which they would return in Hawaii on their way back in the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
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Archive clip: US man checking eyes and face of locals
MCU Tony speaking at press conference GFX o/l: Tony de Brum Foreign Minister, Republic of the Marshall Islands |
10:21:25 |
Tony de Brum: United States government documents clearly demonstrate that it's scientists conducted human radiation experiments with Marshallese citizens. Some of our people were injected with or cohorts to drink fluids laced with radiation. Other experimentation involved the purposeful and premature resettling of people on islands highly contaminated by weapon cysts to study how human beings absorb radiation from their foods and environment.
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Archive clip: people getting off boats to return to Rongelap
Archive clip: baggage being lifted to island |
10:22:00 |
VO (John Pilger): These people are guinea pigs, they are part of the experiment of Project 4.1. They are being returned to Rongelap, an atoll 100 miles from Bikini, by the US navy. They were told repeatedly it was safe to go home.
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Archive footage: John Anjay and wife on boat Archive still: John Anjay and wife on boat
Archive footage: John with his son on boat CU baby with Majua CS boy looking out from boat deck Archive clip: white men lifting luggage |
10:22:26 |
VO (John Pilger): This happy couple believe they were going home to safety, the man is John Anjay, the mayor of Rongelap, the happy savage from the iron room in Chicago. His wife is Majua and this is their baby son, Lekoj. They had no idea of the horror that lay ahead.
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Archive b&w still: US atomic energy official by map GFX o/l: “That island is by far the most contaminated place on earth…it will be interesting to get a measure of human uptake when people live in a contaminated environment” |
10:22:48 |
VO (John Pilger): They are being returned to an island described by US atomic energy official as 'by far the most contaminated place on earth'. He added, 'it will be interesting to get a measure of human uptake when people live in a contaminated environment’.
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Archive GV aerial of island
Archive footage: MS woman being examined by doctor |
10:23:11 |
VO (John Pilger): The people of Rongelap remained on their poisoned island for 28 years as guinea pigs. The object of regular scientific examination.
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10:23:06:09 music in |
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GFX subtitles o/l: There was sickness all around us CU Lemoyo i/v GFX subtitles o/l: and we didn't understand what cancer was. My mother also had thyroid cancer. They gave her drugs but no surgery. My sister also got thyroid cancer. It wasn't an accident. They knew what they were doing. It was a secret project. |
10:23:29 |
Lemoyo Abon [subtitled]: There was sickness all around us and we didn't understand what cancer was. My mother also had thyroid cancer. They gave her drugs but no surgery. My sister also got thyroid cancer. It wasn't an accident. They knew what they were doing. It was a secret project.
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10:23:18:14 music out |
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Archive footage: young girl on crutches with other children
Archive footage: disabled child lying down MCU man holding disabled child |
10:24:04 |
VO (John Pilger): The islanders pleaded with the US authorities to move them to safety as evidence emerged that the second generation, the children, were also poisoned.
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Archive footage: Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior WS Rainbow warrior through trees from island Archive footage: women on boat Archive footage: Greenpeace personnel lifting child into boat and the local people boarding boat |
10:24:32 |
VO (John Pilger): Desperate to leave the islanders called on Greenpeace to rescue them. This ship, the Rainbow Warrior, moved the entire population to an uncontaminated island. They called it Operation Exodus.
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10:24:28:07 Music in |
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WS Rainbow warrior Fade to black |
10:25:16 |
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10:25:18:12 Music out |
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Archive b&w clip: Connard checking burns and hair loss of locals |
10:25:29 |
VO (John Pilger): This is Doctor Robert Connard, a leading medical specialist of the Brookhaven National Laboratories. Connard devoted his distinguished career to examining the islanders. He wrote 'the habitation of these people on the island will afford the most valuable, radiation data on human beings. The various radioisotopes present can be traced from the soil to the food chain and into human beings'.
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10:25:20:12 Music in
10:26:09:12 Music out
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Archive still: Connard with islander, pull out to group of islanders Archive still sequence: islanders in NY |
10:26:14 |
VO (John Pilger): Doctor Connard gained the trust of whole communities when he brought the islanders to New York to be examined he showed them the sites and had them over for a barbeque.
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10:26:05:11 Music in |
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Archive still: Connard with injured man
Archive still of card from Connard to John |
10:26:34 |
VO (John Pilger): When John Anjain's son died aged 18, Doctor Connard sent the man they called a savage a sympathy card, 'from your friend, Bob'.
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Archive clip: John with his wife Majua on boat
MS Majua Archive still: Lekoj |
10:26:51 |
VO (John Pilger): In 1957 Majua Anjain was the smiling young woman seen here on her way back to Rongelap, unaware of the danger she and her family faced. This is Majua 28 years later, grieving the death of her son, Lekoj, from radiation poisoning.
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MS Majua i/v with GFX subtitles o/l: To my mind...they used him as if he was an animal. They continuously punctured his body... in the way you might cut up a chicken. He bled from the things they stuck in him. He was like a laboratory animal. I saw this with my own eyes... it was something that tore at my heart as I watched them treat him like a guinea pig and this is what is always on my mind. They destroyed my son; they used him... like a worthless animal. This is the one thing, which I can never forgive. That's all. |
10:27:16 |
Majua Anjain [subtitled]: To my mind...they used him as if he was an animal. They continuously punctured his body... in the way you might cut up a chicken. He bled from the things they stuck in him. He was like a laboratory animal. I saw this with my own eyes... it was something that tore at my heart as I watched them treat him like a guinea pig and this is what is always on my mind. They destroyed my son; they used him... like a worthless animal. This is the one thing, which I can never forgive. That's all.
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10:27:10:04 Music out |
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Archive clip still of Majua |
10:28:45 |
VO (John Pilger): Like her son and her husband Majua died from ovarian cancer.
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MS JP to R talking to TA, f/g
CU Thomas Armbruster |
10:28:53 |
John Pilger: I don't see any great clinics that have been established by, if not the department of energy, certainly not by the US government.
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CU Thomas Armbruster i/v
Archive still: JP standing by the Whole Body Counting Facility |
10:29:03 |
Thomas H. Armbruster: There's a clinic downtown in Majuro, there is also a whole body counter, you can have the plutonium in your body measured as well, anyone can, for free.
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10:29:07:09 Music in |
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Pull into close up of sign
WS men entering body counting facility MS doctor and man being tested CS TV screen showing bomb blast |
10:29:15 |
VO (John Pilger): This is the plutonium measuring shop where they measure the radiation in your body. People waiting to be tested are welcomed with a video showing their islands being blown up.
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10:29:26:13 Music out |
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10:29:36
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VO (John Pilger): And this reassuring commentary.
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MS Bill Jackson PTC |
10:29:39 |
Bill Jackson footage: [first words in native language] Bill Jackson, Programme Manager of the Department of Energy, DOE Marshall Islands Programme.
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CS TV screen showing bomb blast Fade to black |
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Fade into MS still of Rinok in her shack
MS HA still of Rinok and children
MS Rinok sitting outside shack CS shacks |
10:29:57 |
VO (John Pilger): This is Rinok, a refugee from the poisoned island of Rongelap, whose family own land and lived a secure prosperous life. Now she lives in shack in the capital Majuro with her children and grandchildren. She has no water, no sanitation.
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CU Rinok i/v GFX o/l: Rinok Riklon GFX subtitle o/l: Sometimes when we are out of water, we have to ask from house to house to get some. CS Rinok with granddaughter |
10:30:20 |
Rinok [subtitled]: Sometimes when we are out of water, we have to ask from house to house to get some.
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CU Rinok |
10:30:34 |
John Pilger: And power? She has electricity?
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CU Rinok with subtitle o/l: No, in the house I live in there is no electricity. |
10:30:36 |
Rinok [subtitled]: No, in the house I live in there is no electricity.
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MS Rinok making headband
CU Rinok’s hands working
MCU granddaughter XCU Rinok CU hands sewing flowers into headband MCU Rinok sewing |
10:30:46 |
VO (John Pilger): In 1986 the United States granted limited independence to the Marshall Islanders on condition that they accepted a mere 150 million dollars compensation for the damage called by nuclear testing. A Claims Tribunal was set up and soon ran out of money and appealed to the US Congress more than a decade ago, still awaits a reply.
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XCU Rinok i/v with GFX subtitle o/l: We have to count every penny and I have to support the kids that live with me. CS kids by shack HA MS disable child swinging in swing |
10:31:17 |
Rinok [subtitled]: We have to count eve ry penny and I have to support the kids that live with me.
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Archive still: CU Darleen Johnson, pull out to MCU
Archive conference speech by Darleen
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10:31:37 |
VO (John Pilger): Darleen Kaju Johnson was a young health worker who became the champion of her people after she had discovered the full extent of their suffering caused by nuclear testing, that many more islands were poisoned than the Americans claimed. This remarkable speech in 1983 broke the silence.
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Archive conference clip: MS Darleen speaking at podium GFX o/l: World Council of Churches Vancouver 1983
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10:32:00 |
Darleen: I bring greetings from the Marshall Islands and throughout Micronesia. We have hundreds of woman who have miscarriages, we have leukaemia cancers, we have thyroid cancers, we have stillbirth babies. We have nowadays, I just come back from home, and I have talked to many woman and man in the population is that we have babies we call jellyfish babies, a baby is born on a labour table and it moves up and down like this, it's a colour of an ugly thing, it is not shaped like a human being. It moves up and down like this on a labour table because that thing is breathing. That is a baby.
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Archive still of Darleen & Giff’s wedding day
CU book ‘Don’t Ever Whisper’ |
10:32:47 |
VO (John Pilger): In 1982 Darleen married Gif Johnson the author of this tribute to his wife.
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MCU Giff Johnson i/v
MS still of Darleen |
10:32:57 |
Gif Johnson: Darleen was one of the most liveliest, most entertaining individuals that err I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. She was the, a voice for the voiceless.
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Archive still: Darleen posing on bridge
Fade to black |
10:33:13 |
VO (John Pilger): Like so many Marshall Islanders, Darleen died of cancer aged 45.
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10:33:04:09 Music in 10:33:19:03 Music out |
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GV aerial Kwajalein WS satellite dish at base |
10:33:28 |
VO (John Pilger): This is one of the largest of the island, Kwajalein, which is occupied by one of America’s most important and secretive bases.
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GFX map: Marshall Islands GFX o/l: Marshall Islands Pull in to GFX o/l Ronald Reagan Missile Test Site |
10:33:40 |
VO (John Pilger): Known as the Ronald Reagan test site, it is a missile launch site that commands the Pacific Ocean all the way to Asia and China.
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10:33:31:13 Music in |
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WS boats in port next to US base
CS base CS weapon with U.S. ARMY on side WS missile in base Archive footage: bomb launch GFX poster with o/l: United States Space Command Vision for 2020 Satellite image with GFX o/l: SATELLITE TRANSMITS HOSTILE SAG LOCATION |
10:33:55 |
VO (John Pilger): Here the people of the Marshall Islands are once again being subjected to the testing of weapons of mass destruction designed for a coming war. The base is part of a remarkable plan known as Vision 2020. Devised in the 1990s, its aim is described officially as full spectrum dominance.
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GFX poster with quote from General Howell M. Estes III |
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VO (John Pilger): This means control of all land, sea, air, cyber space and space.
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Archive footage of bomb launch |
10:34:32 Music out |
Voice: Five, four, three, two, one... ignition.
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10:34:27:00 Music out |
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Archive footage, tilt up to launched bomb |
10:34:40 |
VO (John Pilger): From California, almost 5,000 miles away, the US air force tests its intercontinental ballistic missiles by firing them at the Marshall Islands.
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MCU Rick Wayman GFX o/l: Rick Wayman Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Archive footage of test bomb in sky |
10:34:55 |
Rick Wayman: Imagine a missile coming screaming out of the sky, it's absolutely terrifying. There, I think that there's, there's really nothing that, that I can imagine that, that would be more terrifying than this and we are talking about devices that any one of them could go off course.
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WS US base CS people on bikes CS woman and man with dog CS man on bike waving to camera with walkers MS boy on bike WS kids in swimming pool |
10:35:16 |
VO (John Pilger): None of this disturbs life on the base where small town America has been recreated, a wonderland of the suburban good life.
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MS waiter giving good to Americans MS woman MCU man at table |
10:35:29 |
Waiter:
Women: Thank you, thank you.
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10:35:19:21 Music in |
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HA MS women at table talking to camera |
10:35:33 |
American woman: Fabulous, there's nothing better than living on a tropical island.
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MCU woman talking to camera
WS Americans dining out on island |
10:35:37 |
American woman 2: I pretty much have beachfront property, you know, it's great; I love it here.
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10:35:44:14 Music out |
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GV aerial Ebeye island Tracking shot of rubbish WS slums of Ebeye
MS islanders coming off boat WS port
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10:35:51 |
VO (John Pilger): Just across the bay is Ebeye island, known as the slum of the Pacific, more than 12,000 people live here on a strip of land less than a mile long. Many of them refugees from what is now the missile base and from islands poisoned from nuclear testing.
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10:35:40:17 Music in
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GV boat ferrying people CS men working on golf course WS golf course WS man watering golf course CS boat ferrying islanders MS islanders on boat
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10:36:16 |
VO (John Pilger): Every day people from Ebeye are brought to work on the missile base to water the gardens and the golf course. Then they are ferried back to their poverty.
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CU woman hand’s on head MCU man sleeping on boat CS ferry on water WS Ebeye |
10:36:33 |
VO (John Pilger): This is apartheid in the Pacific. |
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Moving CS of houses on island CU rusty equipment CU flies on rubbish slowmo CS boys by water, pull to focus on rubbish b/h WS girl standing on rubble, US base b/h |
10:36:45 |
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10:36:39:19 Music out 10:36:37:10 Music in |
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MCU Santa i/v with GFX o/l: Santa Korok |
10:37:01 |
Santa Korok: Ebeye needs a lot of things...
John Pilger: Quite.
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10:36:57:00 Music out |
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10:37:03 |
Santa Korok: Medicines...
John Pilger: Getting medicines.
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MCU JP with Santa in f/g |
10:37:04 |
Santa Korok: ...educating and job. Vegetable and fruits.
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MCU JP speaking with Santa in f/g |
10:37:09 |
John Pilger: Vegetables and fruits.
Santa Korok: Yes.
John Pilger: Here we are, it's a tropical island and you need vegetable and fruit.
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GV aerial Ebeye |
10:37:13 |
Santa Korok: Yes.
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10:36:55:16 Music in |
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CS water’s edge
WS unused mechanical equipment in water CS Lucky Star supermarket |
10:37:18 |
VO (John Pilger): Fish, vegetables and fruit were once abundant on Ebeye. Today fish is contaminated by toxic pollutants, says the environmental protection agency.
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10:37:28:20 Music out
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LA CS rows of processed tinned foods
WS children by shacks |
10:37:34 |
VO (John Pilger): Now the only food most people can afford is processed and imported. They have the highest rate of diabetes in the world.
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MCU children playing cards MCU JP speaking with Santa, f/g CU empty can thrown on ground, pull focus to US base behind |
10:37:50 |
John Pilger: When someone gets really ill, do they go to the hospital over on the base because they've got a pretty modern clinic over there?
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MCU Santa i/v |
10:38:00 |
Santa Korok: They don't treat, treat them with medicine; they just go there for taking the blood and then x-ray.
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MCU JP speaking with Santa, f/g |
10:38:09 |
John Pilger: So what happens when someone is seriously ill?
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MCU Santa i/v |
10:38:13 |
Santa Korok: They cannot do anything.
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MCU Thomas Armbruster MCU JP speaking with TA
MCU Thomas Armbruster MCU JP speaking with TA
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10:38:15
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John Pilger: The most consistent example given is the example of the Ronald Reagan missile site and Ebeye next to it. On the Ronald Reagan missile site there is a vivid example of the United States - golf courses and err, err swimming pools and all kinds of amenities. Erm, right next to it is what is called the slum of the Pacific.
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MCU Thomas Armbruster i/v
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10:38:44
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Thomas H. Armbruster: It's a, it's a challenge. Ebeye, err, is in great need right now - we talked about infrastructure. One of the projects the US is working with our Australian colleagues and with the Asian Development bank is a sewer and water project, desperately needed for Ebeye. Ebeye is overcrowded, err, the schools need repair...
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MCU JP speaking with TA
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10:39:03
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John Pilger: Actually the US military did a survey back in the 70s and found that the sewers didn't work and the water didn't run, and the electricity wasn't there, it only happened not all that long ago, they found almost exactly the same thing - why, why hasn't that been fixed?
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MCU Thomas Armbruster i/v |
10:39:18
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Thomas H. Armbruster: There is complete agreement that Ebeye should be a priority and not only because of the, the current activities of the Ronald Reagan space and missile defence site but there is also now an additional, err, component that is providing for global security and that's the space fence project by the air force.
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WS man by rubble on water’s edge
WS derelict school bus
CU boy in derelict bus WS boy in derelict bus CU boy in rain WS children playing in rain slowmo WS children playing in rain |
10:39:38 |
VO (John Pilger): Every missile fired on the Marshall Islands by the US military costs 100 million dollars each. This derelict school bus is the only one on Ebeye, they can't afford to replace it.
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WS US base
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10:40:10 |
Abacca Anjain-Maddison: The base is not good for us. The people of Marshall Islands we have no need for it.
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CU Abacca |
10:40:16 |
John Pilger: It is being used to test missiles to fire at countries like China.
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CU Abacca i/v GFX o/l: Abacca Anjain Maddison
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10:40:23 |
Abacca Anjain-Maddison: Yes and anywhere else if they want to.
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CU Abacca |
10:40:27 |
John Pilger: What would you like to see happen there?
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CU Abacca i/v
Fade to black |
10:40:32 |
Abacca Anjain-Maddison: I want our land back.
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GFX o/l: China Rises |
10:40:36 |
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10:40:34:23 Music in |
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WS Shanghai with boats passing on river slowmo WS people walking in street CS JP with James Bradley amongst crowds MS JP with James Bradley CU book ‘The China Mirage’, pull to XCU |
10:40:41 |
VO (John Pilger): This is Shanghai, the historic port on the Yangtze River, China's greatest city. I had arranged to meet the American author, James Bradley, whose latest best-selling book, The China Mirage, reveals an extraordinary hidden history of American power and modern China.
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10:40:47:04 Music out
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MCU James Bradley i/v GFX o/l: James Bradley Author ‘The china Mirage’
MCU JP nodding MCU James Bradley i/v
Archive illustration: The Chinese Must Go
MCU James Bradley i/v
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10:41:12 |
James Bradley: It was almost illegal for someone like me to know a Chinese for almost all of American history. The Chinese came to America to mine gold and build the railroads and Americans decided we didn't like the competition so in 1882 we had the Chinese Exclusion Acts which kept the Chinese out of the United States for about 100 years. So you have the largest population in the world that can't come to the United States so at just the point we are putting the Statue of Liberty saying we welcome everybody, we were erecting a wall saying, we welcome everybody except those Chinese.
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Archive illustration: woman with Chinese man baby
Archive illustration: California man pulling Chinese man by hair |
10:41:50 |
VO (John Pilger): Fear of a rising China today is the latest chapter in a history of propaganda that presented the Chinese as uncouth and infantile.
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10:41:57:22 Music in 10:42:08:13 Music out
10:42:07:20 Music in
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Archive silent film clip featuring Chinese man |
10:42:04 |
VO (John Pilger): To Western popular and political culture, the Chinese became the yellow peril and racial stereotype bore the constant theme of fear and threat.
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10:42:17:04 Music out
10:42:17 Archive music in
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Archive film clip – Evil Fu-Manchu |
10:42:23 |
TV programme: Boris Carloff as the evil Fu-Manchu, his passion for power twisting hi s brilliant mind as he revels in the horrors of human sacrifice and torture. Behind the mask of Fu-Manchu.
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10:42:23 Archive music out/ in |
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Archive illustration: Chinese opium den |
10:42:49 |
VO (John Pilger): This caricatured of an entire people, concealed another agenda - opium.
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10:42:33 archive Music out
10:42:49:03 Music in |
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10:43:02 |
VO (John Pilger): For the American elite in the 19th century, China was a goldmine of drugs.
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Archive illustration Warren Delano
MCU James Bradley i/v
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10:43:09 |
James Bradley: Warren Delano, the grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the American opium king of China; he was the biggest American opium dealer second to the British. He welcomed the first American ship into China to help out with the opium wars. Much of the East coast of America, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, err, were born from err opium money. The American industrial revolution was funded by huge pools of money - where did this come from? It came from illegal drugs in the biggest market in the world, China.
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10:43:07:04 Music out |
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MCU JP speaking
MCU James Bradley |
10:43:47 |
John Pilger: Let me get this right, the grandfather of arguably the most liberal president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was a drug runner.
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MCU James Bradley i/v
Archive still: Franklin Roosevelt
MCU James Bradley i/v
MCU JP nodding MCU James Bradley i/v |
10:43:58 |
James Bradley: Yes sir. Franklin Delano Roosevelt never made much money in his life. He had public service jobs that were very lowly paid but he had Yangtze at summer homes, he had mansions at New York City, the kids went to private schools. He inherited a fortune from Warren Delano his father, who was the American opium king of China. If you scratch anyone with the name F orbes in their name, John, err, Forbes Kerry, secretary of state John Forbes Kerry...
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MCU JP speaking |
10:44:28 |
John Pilger: That’s the present Secretary of State.
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MCU James Bradley i/v
Archive illustration: John Forbes’ grandfather
MCU James Bradley i/v |
10:44:30 |
James Bradley: ... Yes sir. You'll find opium money; his great grandfather was an opium dealer. How big was opium money? Opium money built the first industrial city in the United States, lower Massachusetts. It built the first five railroads in the United States. Opium money all over the East Coast but it wasn't talked about, it was called the China trade and if you go to various museums you can see teas and silks, err, err, exhibited and they keep quiet about all that big opium money.
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Archive illustration: China Archive illustration: Boats on Chinese waters
Archive footage: Foreign armies in China
Archive footage: Shanghai poverty |
10:45:03 |
VO (John Pilger): In the scramble to get opium money, China was invaded and colonised by Britain and the other imperial powers. Foreign armies grabbed whole sways of China. This is the American army in Tiananmen Square, Peking in 1900. Great cities like Shanghai were taken over and declared concessions and foreigners lived a life of privilege and luxury amidst terrible poverty imposed on the Chinese.
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10:44:55:24 Music in
10:45:08:14 Music out
10:45:30:20 Music in |
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10:45:50 |
VO (John Pilger): A resistance known as the Boxer Rebellion was put down with the savagery.
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10:45:58 |
VO (John Pilger): This rape of China set the tone for how China was perceived in the West well into the 20th century.
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Archive B&W footage: MCU Theodore H White PTC |
10:46:08 |
VO (John Pilger): This is the distinguished historian, Theodore H White, an advisor to the White House, speaking in the 1960s.
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10:46:04:00 Music out |
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Archive B&W footage: MCU Theodore H White PTC |
10:46:18 |
Theodore H White: Perhaps China is too vast to be governed by mercy yet if Chinese mind craves order, they must be brought to recognise they are the biggest factor in the world's disorder. And we must untangle the madness of their mind. The most difficult task in the world is to reach the minds of men that hate you.
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Archive B&W footage: couple getting out of car WS race track Uniformed officer
Archive footage: Chiang Kai-shek on wedding day
Archive footage: Mei-ling Soong Archive footage: WS communist marches Mao Zedong |
10:46:46 |
VO (John Pilger): What White was really complaining out was the loss of a China, that the imperial West could dominate, and the defeat of General Chiang Kai-shek, who with this famously powerful Christian wife, Mei-ling Soong, guarded America’s interest in China. That is until they were thrown out in 1949 by a communist revolution led by Mao Zedong.
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Archive footage of Mao Zedong
MCU James Bradley i/v
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10:47:17 |
James Bradley: Mao had beaten Chiang Kai-shek three times in huge battles involving millions of com batants. Mao was a winner in this contest from the early 1930s on, but we knew very little about it and people don't understand that even today.
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Archive news report footage: foreigners fleeing the communists and boarding ship
Archive footage: Communist celebration |
10:47:35 |
Archive news report: Shanghai hears the message clearly as foreign businessmen board up their shops. Go now, go quickly or communism marches. Take what you can but flee. In [unclear] haste the western powers evacuate the city that they have built, for good and bad alike must leave. The businessman come for profit as well as missionaries come to heal, must say goodbye as out the Yangtze steams the last of western influence and farewell to a century.
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10:47:17 Archive music in
10:47:49 Archive Music out |
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Archive footage: Mao |
10:48:11 |
VO (John Pilger): Even today, it's difficult to understand the paranoia ignited by Mao's revolution.
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Archive MCU Nixon press conference GFX o/l: Richard Nixon US Vice-President 1953 |
10:48:21 |
Richard Nixon As we look at China on the map we can see that China is the basic cause of all our troubles in Asia.
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Archive i/v footage of MCU Edward Teller GFX o/l: Edward Teller ‘Father of the H-bomb’ 1966 |
10:48:28 |
Edward Teller: I believe that for the sake of our safety it is necessary to be prepared for the possibility of a Chinese missile attack on the United States.
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Archive b&w footage: MCU Mao |
10:48:50 |
VO (John Pilger): One of the myths about Mao was that he was an implacable enemy of the capitalist West.
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10:48:47:08 Music in 10:49:16:02 Music out |
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WS Shanghai from river with boats passing slowmo WS buildings of Shanghai MS people walking Shanghai streets LA WS skyscrapers |
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WS street scene WS HSBC building MS couple WS skyscrapers MCU mannequin WS crowds on street MS girls having photo taken WS view Shanghai |
10:49:08 |
VO (John Pilger): Shanghai today is a prosperous international city and still run by the communists, at least in name.
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MCU John Pilger PTC |
10:49:25 |
John Pilger: When I was last in China more than a generation ago the loudest noise was the tinkling of bicycle bells. Mao had just died, the streets were dark, the universities were closed. The chaos of the Cultural Revolution had given way to a great silence. We're exhausted was the freest comment I heard. Coming back the change is barely comprehensible. Here in Shanghai the freedom bears no comparison. Yes, there are issues with human rights, especially the right to speak against the state and challenge its power.
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MS family taking photos in front of water’s edge MS couple looking at phone |
10:50:03 |
VO (John Pilger): Since I was last here millions of people have been lifted out of poverty, many of them into an entirely new middle class.
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MCU John Pilger PTC
XCU Hurun Report |
10:50:12 |
John Pilger: This epic is still barely understood in the West, or should that be wilfully misunderstood? The truth is that China has matched America at its own great game of capitalism and that is unforgivable.
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CU pile of Hurun reports
CU rich list in report
MCU Rupert Hoogewerf
CU Hurun Report sign |
10:50:27 |
VO (John Pilger): One measure of China's new capitalism is the Hurun Rich List. This league table of China's new mega rich is published by Rupert Hoogewerf, an old Etonian whose Chinese name is Hu Run.
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CU holding certificate, tilt up to Rupert and woman |
10:50:48 |
VO (John Pilger): He's been given many awards, including China's Man of the Year.
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MCU Rupert Hoogewerf i/v
MS woman walking past Hurun Report building HA CS woman at computer MCU woman at computer CU Hurun Report on computer MCU Rupert i/v
WS skyscrapers of Shanghai |
10:50:54 |
Rupert Hoogewerf: This year, 2015, has probably been the most extraordinary year of wealth creation in the history of China again. You know, and I've been doing this list for 15, 16 years, I have never seen a year like 2015. You know, normally for 200 million pounds or 300 million dollars, err, we find say about 800 thousand people. This year, 2015, it's, it's doubled. There'll be more dollar billionaires known about in China than in the US. So the US up until now has been the leader in terms of business, err, um, you know, the most successful business tycoons in the world, China 2015 will have overtaken the US. So amazing.
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LA WS people walking across road CS JP walking t/w camera CS Mao waxworks museum MS JP looking at Mao museum picture info CU Mao museum pic CS The Founding of the Communist Party of China MS JP being shown Mao souvenir |
10:51:41 |
VO (John Pilger): Modern China is full of telling ironies. Not least this museum that was once the house where Mao and his comrades secretly founded the Communist Party of China in 1921.
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WS Dolce & Gabbana shop CS reflection of shoppers in mirror reflection CU Armani Jeans shop sign CS Apple building WS Apple building CU Evian building sign MS woman with Evian having picture taken |
10:52:09 |
VO (John Pilger): Today it stands in the heart of an exclusive, very capitalist shopping district.
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MS John Pilger PTC |
10:52:25 |
John Pilger: When you leave the shrine to China's Great Revolution you're confronted by a surreal spectacle, for right outside where the Chinese Communist Party was born are the very symbols of capitalism - Starbucks, Apple, Cartier, Dolce Gabbana and down there perhaps the free market's greatest triumph, bottled water that ensures you live young, costing six pounds for a small bottle in my hotel. Would Mao spin in his tomb if he was here? I'm not so sure. Hidden history is always a key to the truth. Five years before his Great Communist Revolution in 1949 Mao sent this secret message to Washington. China must industrialise, wrote Mao, this can only be done by free enterprise. Chinese and American interests fit together, economically and politically. America need not fear that we will not be cooperative. We cannot risk crossing America; we cannot risk any conflict. Mao received no reply. Nothing has changed.
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Archive MCU still of Mao
MCU James Bradley i/v Archive footage: White House |
10:53:44 |
James Bradley: Mao Zedong was looking to be a friend with the United States from the beginning. Mao says I will go meet Franklin Roosevelt in the White House. Mao reaches out in 1950 to Harry Truman, he reaches out to Dwight Eisenhower, his hand was tossed away.
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10:53:53:12 Music in |
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Archive footage: US Demonstrations against communism Archive still of Daily News: Top US Reds Arrested |
10:54:04 |
VO (John Pilger): This opportunity that might have changed history, prevented wars, saved countless lives was lost because the truth of Mao's overtures was denied in the Washington of the 1950s.
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Archive still of group of men |
10:54:03 |
VO (John Pilger): State Department officials who had carried Mao's messages were condemned unjustly as communist traitors.
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MCU James Bradley i/v
Archive GV B&W aerial of Washington DC
MCU James Bradley i/v |
10:54:31 |
James Bradley: Everybody who knew Mao, who spoke Chinese, was gone. In the 1950s the State Department had no employees who spoke Chinese. It's resulted in us not having relations with the number one most populous country in the world.
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10:54:25:24 Music out
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CU poster of Deng Xiaoping, pull out to poster board with street in front
WS GAP shop, tilt down to crowds outside CU bronze bull statue HA WS Chinese flags on building HA CS building with flag |
10:54:50 |
VO (John Pilger): In 1979 this man, Deng Xiaoping, became China's paramount leader. He said socialism does not mean shared poverty. This was code for the most radical reforms since Mao's revolution, the return of capitalism to China. But this time controlled by the Communist Party.
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MS group of youths CU sign Privilege Banking LA CU Starbucks sign MS couple at table on phones CU Estee Lauder poster WS crowds looking at Shanghai from river’s pier |
10:55:22 |
VO (John Pilger): To be rich is glorious, Deng was reported as saying. America was now threatened by the emergence of the vast image of itself.
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POV WS from car of road LA WS block of flats WS entering gated community Tilt up to WS block of flats |
10:55:40 |
VO (John Pilger): This is one of many very exclusive gated communities where an apartment is one of the prizes of the new communism.
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Archive still: Zhang Weiwei, pull out to show Deng Xiaoping in pic |
10:55:56 |
VO (John Pilger): I'd arranged to see Professor Zhang Weiwei, a close aide of the late Deng Xiaoping, the man who changed China.
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MCU Zhang i/v GFX o/l: Professor Zhang Weiwei
MCU JP nodding MCU Zhang i/v
MCU JP nodding MCU Zhang i/v
MCU JP nodding MCU Zhang i/v
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10:56:06 |
Zhang Weiwei: Deng is, um a really, extremely, err, long term visionary, leader with a exceedingly long term, err, strategic vision for his country, err, for his people. Err, China still following that path, yeah. Actually this is a, really a tradition from China's long history. You look at even like Mao and he said we should, you know, surpass UK, err, by which year we should surpass United States, by which year. So this tradition continues to this day. Even Xi Jinping today is also doing the same, yeah. Actually what many Chinese, err, have problem with Western media is the stereotypes about China. If you are, err, you, err, contend with stereotypes you miss so many things, you know. If BBC broadcast something they are happy to always mention this communist dictatorship, this autocracy. No actually with this kind of label, you know, you cannot understand this China as it is. But if you watch BBC or CNN or read Economist and try to understand China it will be a failure. It's impossible.
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HA WS Eric speaking at conference LA CS Eric speaking at conference |
10:57:22 |
Eric Li: Multiple parties fight for political power and everyone voting on them as the only path to salvation to the long suffering...
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MS Eric speaking at conference |
10:57:39 |
John Pilger VO This is Eric Li, a Shanghai venture capitalist, educated in America and typical of a new confident political class.
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MCU Eric i/v GFX o/l: Eric Li Entrepreneur& social scientist
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10:57:41 |
Eric Li: Now in China, err, there are a lot of problems, err, but at the moment the Chinese, the party state, has proven an extraordinary ability to change. I mean I make the joke how i-, in America you can change political parties but you can't change the policies. In China you cannot change the party but you can change policies. Err, so in the 65 or 66 years, China's being run by one single party yet the, the political changes that have taken place in China this past 66 years have been wider and broader and greater than probably any other major country in modern memory.
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MCU JP speaking
MCU Eric Li |
10:58:25 |
John Pilger: So in that time China's ceased to be communist, is that what you're saying?
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MCU Eric Li i/v |
10:58:30 |
Eric Li: Well, China is a market economy and it's a vibrant market economy but it is not a capitalist country. Here is why. There is no way a group of billionaires could control the politburo, as billionaires control American policymaking. So in China you have a vibrant market economy, but capital does not rise above political authority. Capital is not, does not have enshrined rights. In America, capital, the interests of capital and capital itself, has risen above the na-, the American nation. The political authority cannot check the power of capital. That's why America is a capitalist country but China is not.
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XCU book ‘Socialism is great!’ |
10:59:24 |
VO (John Pilger): This is the ironic title of a best selling book by Zhang Lijia, a journalist and critic.
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MCU Zhang Lijia i/v GFX o/l: Zhang Lijia Journalist
MCU women posing
MCU woman with son
MCU youths doing victory sign
MCU Zhang Lijia i/v |
10:59:33 |
Zhang Lijia: Many Americans imagine that Chinese people live a miserable repressed life with no freedom whatsoever. That's not quite true. If you t, speak to many ordinary Chinese people they will tell you they feel their life are quite free. There are si-, some, so-, some 500 million people being lifted out of poverty and some would say probably 600 million people, that's a great achievement. Err, for many Americans the yellow peril has never left them. I think there is a fear about China, of course there is a fear of China as a rapid rise but it also has a lot to do, err, with China's, err, the label as a communist and state.
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MCU Eric i/v |
11:00:23 |
Eric Li: China's objectives are modest compare with their weight. They're not trying to run the world, they're not even trying to run Asia-Pacific. I think they want to keep America from dominating the Asia-Pacific so they have what they believe is their rightful place in Asia-Pacific because of long civilisation, long history and their size. Um, so their objectives are really modest compared with their capacity.
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MCU Zhang Weiwei MCU JP speaking to ZW
MCU Zhang Weiwei i/v |
11:00:54 |
John Pilger: The, the wealth, the new wealth in China, they often say this is, this is the product of self-made entrepreneurial skill...
Zhang Weiwei: Yeah.
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MCU JP speaking to ZW
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11:01:04 |
John Pilger: But is it not also the product of the exploitation of people at the bottom? What are known in China as migrants but they're not really migrants, they're Chinese.
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MCU Zhang Weiwei i/v
WS slum buildings by river |
11:01:16 |
Zhang Weiwei: If you really, you know, err, go to talk to these migrant workers, err, you will find quite surprisingly over the past five to seven years they have experienced a greater income increase than any other social groups. China not a class society.
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CS entering migrant house MS woman with crossed arms by entrance of house MS boy eating at table WS river by industrial estate |
11:01:42 |
VO (John Pilger): But China is a class society. These are the homes of migrant workers, people who build and service the new China.
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WS by entrance of migrant houses, boy on scooter MS woman hanging up washing LA WS washing hung up |
11:02:01 |
VO (John Pilger): Here it's not uncommon for three families to share one tiny flat.
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MCU Zhang Lijia i/v
WS workers walking t/w camera MS man lifting laundry bundle MS woman washing hair outside
MCU Zhang Lijia i/v |
11:02:11 |
Zhang Lijia: You know, you would associate a socialist country with equal-, with equality but unfortunately since the reform has started, China has become one of the most unequal society in the world. The income gap is widening. Government I feel have retreated some of the t-, responsibilities, left the market to take over. But the market does not always treat women kindly. Some, um, private companies they would just refuse to hire, um, childbearing age women. And sometimes when women become pregnant they will sack them because they don't want to pay the maternity leave. And in fact the income gap has, um, grown much bigger, err, between men and woman.
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MCU Zhang Weiwei nodding
MCU JP speaking |
11:02:55 |
John Pilger: Your old boss, Deng Xiaoping, presided over the bloodshed in Tiananmen Square. What would you say to the survivors of Tiananmen Square because so many of those did fight for what they saw as democratic change in China?
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MCU Zhang Weiwei i/v
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11:03:19 |
Zhang Weiwei: In 1989 there were two political forces. One was those represented by the Chinese students, their hero was Mikhail Gorbachev who happened to be in Beijing. Their slogan was Soviet Union's today, China's tomorrow. So the idea was political reform first, other reform second otherwise China will be hopeless. And Deng's message which opposite, he thought Gorbachev was a idiot. He thought, you know, China must have economic reform first, other reform second. This priority must be set clearly. Unfortunately at that particular moment in 1989 the two political forces could not reach a compromise so definitely a tragedy occurred, yeah.
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WS still of Tiananmen square aftermath, pull out CS still of corpses |
11:04:13 |
VO (John Pilger): It was more than just a tragedy, it was a massacre. The memory of which remains a raw presence in modern China.
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11:04:07:22 Music in
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MCU Zhang Weiwei nodding MCU JP speaking |
11:04:25 |
John Pilger: Why does the Chinese state still fear the few, the few who speak out? And I'm thinking of...
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11:04:21:00 Music out |
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MCU Zhang Weiwei i/v |
11:04:35 |
Zhang Weiwei: Liu Xiaobo...
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Archive still: Liu Xiaobo |
11:04:37 |
John Pilger: Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, this is a man won the Nobel Peace Prize...
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11:04:41 |
Zhang Weiwei: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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11:04:41 |
John Pilger: And, and he's in prison.
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MCU Zhang Weiwei i/v |
11:04:44 |
Zhang Weiwei: He's violated the Chinese law, you know, by a big margin. So actually the freedom of expression, similar views are aired by many people but he's really going to the extreme.
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Archive b&w still: CU Liu Xiaobo, pull in to XCU |
11:04:59 |
VO (John Pilger): Liu Xiaobo challenged the government to implement democratic reforms and has spent a total of 13 years in prison.
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11:04:51:24 Music in |
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MCU Zhang Weiwei MCU JP speaking |
11:05:11 |
John Pilger: Why can't a confident China accept a criticism like that?
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11:05:06:13 Music out |
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MCU Zhang Weiwei i/v
MCU JP MCU Zhang Weiwei i/v |
11:05:16 |
Zhang Weiwei: So Nobel Peace Committee makes huge mistake and owe the Chinese an explanation. If you cross the line, cross, you violate the constitution, you violate so many laws, you should be punished.
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Archive still: MS demonstrator speaking to crowd Archive still: WS workers protesting Archive still: Young workers protesting |
11:05:34 |
VO (John Pilger): And yet in China today the spirit of protest and dissent lives on in different forms. In 2015 strikes and community protests and activism reached record levels. This resistance is seldom reported in the West.
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11:05:22:16 Music in
11:05:52:15 Music out
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MCU Zhang Lijia i/v
Archive still: workers protesting
MCU Zhang Lijia i/v |
11:05:56 |
Zhang Lijia: So there are lots of pr otest in China, err, typically for example land being grabbed by officials to, for commercial development and the farmers are not being compensated properly. But the farmers now know, more aware of their rights so they protest. Or young workers from the factory they demand a better wage or bet-, better working condition. But many of the protests they are economic driven, not political driven. They are regional, not nationwide. So these kind of things will unlikely develop into real movement or so-called, you call that, revolution.
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11:06:36 |
John Pilger: Yeah. So the Maoist Revolution was the last revolution?
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Fade to black |
11:06:39 |
Zhang Lijia: Well never say never.
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Black screen GFX o/l: Resistance Fade to black |
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CS military helicopter arriving at base WS Okinawa US base CU sign: US Marine Corps Facility POV from car, view of base LA military helicopter in sky WS jet taking off LA WS helicopter HA WS helicopters above WS barbed wire of base |
11:06:55 |
VO (John Pilger): The Japanese island of Okinawa is occupied by 32 military installations. From here the United States has attacked Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq. The sky is full of planes and helicopters.
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11:06:45:03 Music in |
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CU barbed wire WS women walking next to fence WS military fencing |
11:07:24 |
VO (John Pilger): Wherever people go they are fenced in and told to keep out.
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11:07:29:00 Music out/in |
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GFX map: USA CHINA, pull in to Okinawa CS workers demonstrating |
11:07:35 |
VO (John Pilger): Okinawa is the front line of a becoming war with China. |
11:07:27:20 Music out |
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MCU still: Fumiko Shimabukuro |
11:07:48 |
VO (John Pilger): Aged 87, Fumiko Shimabukuro is one of the leaders of a nonviolent resistance that's challenging Washington's pivot to Asia.
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MS Fumiko amongst security personnel GFX o/l subtitles: I'll stay right here. It's a truck. I'm here to stop it. Don't touch me. |
11:08:00 |
Fumiko [subtitled]: I'll stay right here. It's a truck. I'm here to stop it. Don't touch me.
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GFX subtitle o/l: You're in the way! CS men dragging Fumiko away |
11:07=8:08 |
Guards [subtitled]: You're in the way!
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MS Fumiko GFX subtitle o/l: Put that away!
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11:08:21 |
Fumiko [subtitled]: Put that away!
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GFX subtitle o/l: Get off the road.
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11:08:24 |
Guards [subtitled]: Get off the road.
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MCU Fumiko GFX subtitle o/l: I tried to knock the camera out of his hand. |
11:08:28 |
Fumiko [subtitles]: I tried to knock the camera out of his hand.
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You couldn't reach. WS demonstrators by side of road |
11:08:35 |
Protestor [subtitled]: You couldn't reach.
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MCU Fumiko i/v GFX subtitle o/l: We must not have the misery of war eve again. My duty as a survivor of war is to see the military bases out of Okinawa. HA WS helicopter flying overhead MCU old woman with baby |
11:08:39 |
Fumiko [subtitled]: We must not have the misery of war eve again. My duty as a survivor of war is to see the military bases out of Okinawa.
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Archive footage: naval ships shooting and footage of American invasion
GV clouds in sunset sky slowmo HA WS sun reflection on water |
11:08:59 |
VO (John Pilger): Fumiko is a survivor. A quarter of the civilians on the island were killed in the American invasion in 1945 and a fear of war has been passed through the generations.
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GV sunset over sea Wide u/w shot of marine life |
11:09:24 |
VO (John Pilger): Today those who witnessed these horrors live in a place of extraordinary beauty surrounded by coral reefs and a unique marine life.
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11:09:13:09 Music in
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WS sea with grass in f/g
WS couple walking on cliffs by sea POV from car of US base
CU palm tree, sea b/g |
11:09:46 |
VO (John Pilger): It was here in Henoko Bay that the survivors of World War II sought refuge, and it's this they're now fighting to save. It's an epic struggle that pits this island nation against the greatest military power on earth.
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11:09:43:08 Music out
11:09:50:11 Music in 11:10:03:13 Music out |
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CS interior of office of former governor of Okinawa, pictures on wall MCU John Pilger PTC
CU photo: General MacArthur arrival |
11:10:13 |
John Pilger: This is the office of a former governor of Okinawa, Ota Masahide. What he has done is create not so much a museum but an appeal to the outside world to understand the resistance in Okinawa, to understand the suffering, to read its hidden history. It begins in 1945 when the Americans invaded. Here is General MacArthur arriving in Okinawa.
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Archive still: military by straw hut CS statue of bulldozer CU bayonet CU statue of American army officer CU statue of Okinawa man shouting Archive b&w still: demonstrators of Okinawa |
11:10:48 |
VO (John Pilger): A second invasion happened 10 years later. Known as the Bulldozers and Bayonets Campaign, the American forces seized prime agricultural land, burned farmhouses and killed livestock. The dispossessed people of Okinawa marched the length of Japan appealing for help.
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11:10:40:02 Music in
11:11:01:06 Music out |
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MS John Pilger PTC amongst pictures Archive still: demonstrators under airplane take-off MS JP PTC CU still of US Marine warning sign MS JP PTC
Archive still: Demonstrators Archive still: People of the world sign MCU JP PTC CS stone entrance to office
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11:11:11 |
John Pilger: This wall is devoted to a resistance in Okinawa that never ceases. Everywhere people go on the island they are confronted by this sign. It tells them they must not go past this fence topped with barbed wire. These fences run like great ribbons across the island and the bases themselves cut sways across Okinawa. But all around them are people with this continuing demonstration, this continuing resistance. And they have a message, its people of the world, watch Japan and the US are doing, don't let them force the bases on Okinawa.
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MCU two people blessing and clapping GFX o/l: The people of Okinawa have made it clear, they don't want more bases. MCU Takumu i/v GFX o/l: Takuma Higashionna city councillor GFX subtitles: The situation really angers me. I really want the government of Japan to stand up for us and confront the American government. A military base here would spell the end of the dugong sanctuary.
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11:12:01 |
Takuma Higashionna [subtitled]: The people of Okinawa have made it clear, they don't want more bases. The situation really angers me. I really want the government of Japan to stand up for us and confront the American government. A military base here would spell the end of the dugong sanctuary. |
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HA CS Dugong in water GFX subtitle o/l: The Dugong is a special animal that brings happiness to Okinawa. It's deep inside our folklore and spiritual life. MS Takuma i/v GFX subtitle o/l: Dugongs are curious animals, and always make friends with turtles. They come close to those who they know will never harm them. |
11:12:28 |
Takuma Higashionna [subtitled]: The Dugong is a special animal that brings happiness to Okinawa. It's deep inside our folklore and spiritual life. Dugongs are curious animals, and always make friends with turtles. They come close to those who they know will never harm them.
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WS signs on wire fencing of base WS bay WS US marine base CU signs on fence |
11:12:51
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VO (John Pilger): All this will be lost when much of the bay becomes concrete runways for bombers at Camp Schwab, the huge US marine base behind this fence.
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WS arena housing government elections CS men on phones sitting down celebrating win |
11:13:08 |
VO (John Pilger): In 2014 Okinawans elected a new governor, Takeshi Onaga, who won by a landslide on one issue, stopping the new base at Henoko. This was election night outside the American base at Camp Schwab.
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GFX subtitle o/l: It's in! Really? Thank you. He did it.
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11:13:28 |
Supporter [subtitled]: It's in! Really? Thank you. He did it.
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WS supporters celebrating GFX subtitle o/l: Victory! |
11:13:41 |
Supporter [subtitled]: Victory!
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MCU Fumiko speaking to people GFX subtitle o/l: Today's victory is precious. It brought tears to my eyes. We fought well. But it's not over. I'll keep fighting until there are no bases. I've never felt so happy to be alive. |
11:13:46 |
Fumiko Shimabukuro [subtitled]: Today's victory is precious. It brought tears to my eyes. We fought well. But it's not over. I'll keep fighting until there are no bases. I've never felt so happy to be alive.
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MS supporters singing |
11:14:08 |
[Group of people singing] We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh give me your heart, I do believe. We shall overcome some day.
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WS boat on sea GFX o/l: New Year’s Day 2015 |
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WS women doing tai-chi on beach MS group of men praying CU pouring tea WS people praying on beach WS people standing on beach Archive still: CU Shinzō Abe WS US military on road
LA WS helicopter |
11:14:40 |
VO (John Pilger): The New Year's celebration of their victory was bittersweet. The government in Tokyo resented this unprecedented challenge to its authority. The issue is now in the Japanese courts. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has also made clear that with the backing of his powerful patron America and he wants to reawaken Japan's nationalism and reclaim it’s military power.
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XCU man with drum |
11:15:19 |
Man: [singing]
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CS women at ceremony lighting incense stick
XCU incense stick
LA CS helicopter above
CU sign being held by demonstrator WS helicopters circling |
11:15:24 |
VO (John Pilger): While we were filming this ceremony outside the base on a day when people paid respect to their departed loved ones giant American helicopters circled above us intimidating as always.
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MCU woman
WS helicopter
Archive still: helicopter crash at school |
11:15:51 |
VO (John Pilger): The threat of these low flying aircraft is a constant presence in Okinawa. Teachers often can't teach because of the noise and the fear.
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Archive still: Americans looking for survivors Archive still: US officer carrying child |
11:16:11 |
VO (John Pilger): This was the carnage when an American fighter crashed into a primary school after the pilot had ejected safely.
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11:16:01:23 Music in
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Archive still: boy on stretcher |
11:16:27 |
VO (John Pilger): Haru Akira, age seven, was terribly burned.
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MCU Haru Arakiki i/v GFX o/l: Haru Arakiki Akira’s mother GFX subtitles o/l: It was about 10:30am. A sergeant came to tell us that a plane had crashed in Ishikawa. We all went to the Miyamori Elementary School. Archive still: crash site GFX subtitle o/l: I still didn't know where my son was. Someone said my son was at the main hospital. MCU Haru Arakiki i/v GFX subtitle o/l: Then someone pointed him out to me. He looked burned. I couldn't stand seeing him like that. |
11:16:33 |
Haru Arakiki [subtitled]: It was about 10:30am. A sergeant came to tell us that a plane had crashed in Ishikawa. We all went to the Miyamori Elementary School. I still didn't know where my son was. Someone said my son was at the main hospital. Then someone pointed him out to me. He looked burned. I couldn't stand seeing him like that.
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11:16:30:10 Music out |
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MCU Haru Arakiki i/v GFX subtitle o/l: Burned? Charred… I can’t talk any more… |
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Woman: Burned?
Haru Arakiki: Charred…. I can't talk any more...
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CU shelf of ornaments, pan to R picture of Haru Akira |
11:17:40 |
VO (John Pilger): Akira suffered throughout his youth and died from his injuries aged 21.
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WS helicopters in sky GV US air base WS military aircraft take off crash
CS Osprey crash
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11:17:52 |
VO (John Pilger): Another tragedy waits to happen on Okinawa, US military aircraft have been involved in 44 accidents on the island. The latest threat is this hybrid plane, the Osprey, notorious for its safety issues.
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WS streets of Okinawa at night with young people outside bars
MS two men grabbing a woman |
11:18:28 |
VO (John Pilger): Wherever the military is based in Asia there is a relationship with local people, especially women, that often breeds resentment.
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11:18:15:20 Music in
11:18:40:01 Music out/in
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Archive still: Demonstration and riot pictures showing burned cars |
11:18:47 |
VO (John Pilger): In Okinawa this resentment ignited a riot in 1970. Scores of American GIs were pulled from their cars, which were set alight. For Washington and its compliant ally in Tokyo, it's this kind of insurrection that they fear.
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CU flowers on ground HA CU picture woman next to flowers CU police tape XCU picture of woman |
11:19:15 |
VO (John Pilger): During the making of this film a young woman was raped and murdered by an American military contractor from one of the bases.
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11:19:12:14 Music out |
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WS demonstration crowds |
11:19:25 |
Demonstrator: [shouts in native language]
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Fade to black |
11:19:31 |
VO (John Pilger): It was the latest of thousands of cases of violence and it brought massive crowds into the streets, demanding an end to the military occupation of their country.
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Archive footage: Mace missile taking off
Archive still: man by missile Archive still: Launchpad in Okinawa Archive still: cartoons of Chinese on aircrafts, pull out to air force personnel |
11:19:51 |
VO (John Pilger): This is a Mace missile designed to carry a nuclear warhead. During the Cold War, the United States secretly installed nuclear weapons at this launchpad in Okinawa. Most of them were aimed at China.
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11:20:00:24 Music in |
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CS statues of women CU entrance to the Soka Gakkai LA WS JP with Kiyoshi |
11:20:15 |
VO (John Pilger): Today the nuclear missile site is run by a Buddhist organisation, the Soka Gakkai, as a peace museum.
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11:20:13:23 Music out |
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MS JP with Kiyoshi GFX o/l: Kiyoshi Sawada Soka Gakkai
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11:20:25 |
Kiyoshi Sawadi: In 1962 the atomic weapons [unclear] on the missile was almost launched.
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11:20:35 |
John Pilger: They're almost launched?
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MCU Kiyoshi sync |
11:20:36 |
Kiyoshi Sawadi: Yeah, according to the, err, spokesman of this military base, said they were ordered to prepare. Then, err, received second order to stop it.
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Archive b&w still: missile
Archive b&w still: Missile aircraft taking off |
11:20:50 |
VO (John Pilger): One of the American serviceman whose job was to fire the Mace missiles has since revealed that China was a nuclear target during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
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11:20:41:20 Music in |
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XCU John Bordne i/v GFX o/l: John Bordne US missile airman Okinawa 1961-63
Archive footage: military operating launch room MCU John Bordne i/v |
11:21:05 |
John Bordne: We were told that we w-, had to launch all the missiles. But we only had one missile headed towards Russia and we did not see why we should have to involve the other countries. The captain suggested that, err, everybody crack the doors open so it would take less time to launch the missile if the doors were cracked open.
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11:21:01:06 Music out |
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Archive footage: military operating launch room XCU launch lock Military operating launch room
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11:21:31 |
VO (John Pilger): One of the launch crews was on the point of firing their missiles when a duty officer suspected the order was false.
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CU John Bordne i/v
Archive footage: inside military launch area
CU John Bordne i/v
Archive footage: inside military launch area
MCU John Bordne i/v
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11:21:40 |
John Bordne: The launch officer on the B-side was told to send two men over there with 45s and to sho ot anybody that tried to launch until the situation was resolved. And it would only take like 15, 20 seconds to run the distance between the, the two, err, command centres. So those two men kept that whole crew at bay, err, while we made a decision as to what to do. And it wasn't very long, maybe two or three seconds later, where a very nervous major came over the intercom, err, issuing the, the stand down order. And then we just kind of looked at each other like we could've exterminated the whole planet.
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Archive footage: Alert force vehicle, personnel getting into car |
11:22:32 |
VO (John Pilger): The major who had given the launch order was quietly court marshalled and dismissed from the air force.
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MS John Bordne i/v
XCU John Bordne i/v |
11:22:42 |
John Bordne: That morning is just as familiar to me and as clear as yesterday morning is. And this is 53 years later. And how clear blue the sky was and it was just some very light clouds and there was a perfect breeze blowing and the perfect temperature. I did not know what the temperature was but it just felt perfect. And we were all just kind of taking it in and taking in the smell of the air and the sea and the land mixture together and everything smelled so beautiful.
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CU map of China with km circle markings
MS Kiyoshi & JP
CU map of China |
11:23:13 |
John Pilger: This is very interesting because it shows the cities in China...
Kiyoshi Sawadi: Uh-huh… Right.
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MS Kiyoshi & JP pointing to map |
11:23:20 |
John Pilger: …where these Mace missiles were aimed at...
Kiyoshi Sawadi: Yes.
John Pilger: Which, which ones do we have here?
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CU pointing to map
Archive footage: missile launch WS b&w still of destroyed buildings |
11:23:27 |
Kiyoshi Sawadi: This Okinawa island. So, err, within 2000 kilometres you find Peking or Beijing, Xi'an, UK and Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tai-, err, the Taiwan Taipei and, err, Pyongyang, North Korea within the range of missile.
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CU sculptures by Kinjo Minouru |
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11:24:07:00 Music in 11:25:20:14 Music out/in |
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WS of sculptures by Kinjo Minouru |
11:24:29 |
VO (John Pilger): This is the work of the Okinawan sculptor Kinjo Minoru. It's a tribute to the suffering and resistance of the people of this island.
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HA CS sculptures of faces by artist Koh Gilchung
MS sculpture of man holding body of boy |
11:25:05 |
VO (John Pilger): More than a thousand miles away on the Korean island of Jeju, these symbols of a struggle are hauntingly similar. The work of Koh Gilchung represent another fight of island people for freedom.
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GV seascape WS rocks by sea WS river with sun reflection |
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11:25:48:08 Music out
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CS water rushing over rocks WS riverside XCU spider’s web WS water rushing over rocks GV island and sea edge |
11:25:34 |
VO (John Pilger): A semi-tropical sanctuary of unusual beauty, Jeju Island is a World Heritage site. The government of South Korea declared it an island of world peace.
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WS military base construction
CS barbed wire fencing |
11:25:54 |
VO (John Pilger): But on this island of peace has been built one of the most provocative military bases in the world, less than 400 miles from Shanghai.
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WS military base, pan to R
Archive stills: American aircraft carriers Archive still: CS submarine submerging Archive still: Destroyer with bomb launch, pull to CU
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11:26:09 |
VO (John Pilger): Like Okinawa and the Marshall Islands, this is America's frontline in its so-called pivot to Asia. Here in once unspoiled Gangjeong village, the South Korean navy has built a base for American aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and destroyers equipped with the Aegis Ballistic Missile aimed at China's defences.
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GFX map of USA China, pull in to Jeju Island |
11:26:42
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VO (John Pilger): China's lifelines to the world in oil, trade, resources depend on shipping that comes through choke points like this.
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MCU Bruce Gagnon i/v GFX o/l: Bruce Gagnon Global Network Against Space Weapons |
11:26:54 |
Bruce Gagnon: The US pivot into the Asia-Pacific is really intended to create the ability to put a loaded gun to the head of China and say, you know, err, you will do as we say otherwise we will be able to restrict, we'll be able to shut down, choke off your importation of oil and other resources.
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CS sign – No! Naval Base, pull out to demonstrators holding signs WS demonstrators outside base MS policeman by demonstrators MS police marching around demonstrators |
11:27:13 |
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MS priests staging outside mass
CS worshippers singing |
11:27:29 |
VO (John Pilger): For nine years, every day, often twice a day, these Catholic priests have staged a mass that blocks the gates of the new military base on Jeju Island.
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MCU worshippers CU sign – No! Naval Base, tilt down to MCU worshipper CS outside mass MCU man praying WS demonstrators being removed by police |
11:27:53 |
VO (John Pilger): In a country where political demonstrations can be easily banned, unlike powerful religions, the tactic has produced this spectacle of resistance.
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MS Father MJ-h watching Archive WS Father MJ-h demonstrating on car, police tackle him down Archive still: Father MJ-h on ground in pain |
11:28:24 |
VO (John Pilger): Father Mun Jeong-hyeon has led the fight to stop the base being built and several times suffered serious injury.
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11:28:35:00 music in |
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WS Father MJ-h singing |
11:28:47 |
[Mun Jeong-hyeon singing]
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MCU MJ-h sync GFX o/l: Father Mun Jeong-hyeon
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11:28:57 |
Mun Jeong-hyeon: I sing four songs every day before mass, during the mass, at the end of the mass and, err, the end of the rosary. But, err, the content of song is very beautiful. The, the writer and the composer is, err, the musician from this island. So I love him very much and he gave me the song that I practice. And I became a master to sing that song because I practice every day before mass...
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11:28:43:19 music out |
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11:29:30 |
John Pilger: Well you, you sing it with such passion.
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MCU MJ-h singing |
11:29:34 |
[Mun Jeong-hyeon singing]
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MCU MJ-h sync |
11:29:43 |
Mun Jeong-hyeon: Sometimes we just wait, typhoon, you know, typhoon struck...
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11:29:48 |
John Pilger: Do you sing then? Do you, do you have a mass when the typhoon strikes?
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11:29:51 |
Mun Jeong-hyeon: Oh yes, during the... No exception.
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WS US base |
11:29:57 |
John Pilger: What will happen if this base becomes operational?
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CU MJ-h i/v
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11:30:03 |
Mun Jeong-hyeon: They have, err, destroyed the environment, destroyed life of villagers. No, we should be witness of that, err, oppression and violence, you know.
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11:30:14 |
John Pilger: Why do they do it?
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MCU MJ-h i/v
LA CS MJ-h t/w camera kneeling to pray |
11:30:14 |
Mun Jeong-hyeon: Well they'd like to rule the Pacific area, whole area, right. They'd like to make China isolated in this globe. It means US government want to be emperor of this world.
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LA CS Wildflower b/h MJ-h
MS Wildflower sewing LA MS MJ-h |
11:30:35 |
John Pilger: Meanwhile a Quaker called Mr Oh joins them with his own ritual of protest, accompanied by an artist called Wild Flower.
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GFX subtitle o/l: When Mr. Oh Cheol-keun performs his bowing meditation MCU Wildflower i/v GFX o/l: ‘Wild Flower’ (Deul Kkot) GFX subtitle o/l: he lies down on the road making it hard for drivers to see him. It's very dangerous. WS MJ-h praying on ground GFX subtitle o/l: So by being visible by his side I can protect him from the cars. |
11:30:51 |
Wild Flower [subtitled]: When Mr. Oh Cheol-keun performs his bowing meditation he lies down on the road making it hard for drivers to see him. It's very dangerous. So by being visible by his side I can protect him from the cars.
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CU Wildflower’s hands sewing GFX subtitle o/l: And I find my Zen by doing needlework. CU MS Wildflower’s sewing GFX subtitle o/l: Sewing affects your brainwaves, in the same as meditation. LA MS MJ-h praying |
11:31:13 |
Wild Flower [subtitled]: And I find my Zen by doing needlework. Sewing affects your brainwaves, in the same as meditation. |
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MCU Wildflower i/v GFX subtitle o/l: I think this naval base is clearly a US war station as is the base on Daechuri village. In the south, east and west of the peninsular the US army bases are lining up and Jeju island is the last link in the chain of military bases they've built in the West Sea. It's the final piece, and it's clearly directed against China the base could trigger conflicts with China and threaten the peace in north east Asia. It really is the biggest threat. Fade to black |
11:31:29 |
Wild Flower [subtitled]: I think this naval base is clearly a US war station as is the base on Daechuri village. In the south, east and west of the peninsular the US army bases are lining up and Jeju island is the last link in the chain of military bases they've built in the West Sea. It's the final piece, and it's clearly directed against China the base could trigger conflicts with China and threaten the peace in north east Asia. It really is the biggest threat.
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Black screen with GFX o/l: Empire |
11:32:13 |
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WS Washington Monument CU military statues WS US flags flying GFX map USA China, military base areas circled |
11:32:30 |
VO (John Pilger): This is the centre of an empire that never speaks its name, whose power is represented in this extraordinary world map of American military bases. Four thousand bases in the United States, almost a thousand bases spread across every continent.
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11:32:31:08 Music in
11:32:54:15 Music out |
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MCU Bruce Cumings i/v GFX o/l: Professor Bruce Cumings historian
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11:32:58 |
Bruce Cumings: The archipelago of empire, err, the bases that we have around the world, hidden in plain sight are the, the real territory of our empire. Err, but at the same time we maintain independent governments in Japan or South Korea or Germany, err, they don't have autonomy when it comes to foreign policy. So it's a very sophisticated and effective system, err, where, whereby we pat ourselves on the back for, err, helping to midwife, err, democracy in Japan and Germany and South Korea and various other places while keeping the lid on, err, in, in that we don't know what these countries would do if they were fully independent. And, and the beauty of this system is that most people pay no attention to it at all, they think it's just a natural occurrence to have 50 thousand American troops in, in Japan.
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MCU Daniel Russel i/v GFX o/l: Daniel R. Russel US Assistant Secretary of State |
11:33:50 |
Daniel R. Russel: The-, there's no country that has better anti-imperial credit, err, cred than, err, the United States and we are not trying to recreate the glories of the, err, the British Empire. We're arguing that the world is round. We have a global policy and all nations have global rights.
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MCU Bruce Cumings i/v |
11:34:10 |
Bruce Cumings: No ocean has ever been dominated the way the US dominates the Pacific. Navy and Air Force. Err, they claim in the Pearl Harbour headquarters of the, err, Pacific Command, they claim to be responsible for 52 percent of the earth, err, surface. And when you look at their logo it shows, err, an eagle over the Aleutian Islands with one talon coming down somewhere near Seattle and the other coming down right over Beijing. So, err, Beijing, err, looks at a network of bases, a real archipelago of empire that's been built up since the Korean War.
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MCU Daniel Russel
MCU John Pilger speaking |
11:34:52 |
John Pilger: You have had, and still have, an arc of, of bases that start in Australia and go through the Pacific.
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MCU Daniel Russel i/v
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11:35:00 |
Daniel R. Russel: No, we have no bases in Australia.
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MCU John Pilger speaking
MCU Daniel Russel i/v
MCU John Pilger speaking
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11:35:03 |
John Pilger: You have Pine Gap, you have Darwin and you have...
Daniel R. Russel: No.
John Pilger: ...a new facility in Western Australia.
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MCU Daniel Russel i/v
Archive still: Pine Gap base GFX o/l: Pine Gap base, Alice Springs Planned and set up by the CIA |
11:35:08 |
Daniel R. Russel: No, err, to speak precisely we, we have no military bases in Australia. What we do is, err, operate with and in Australian bases but we're not in the basing business nowadays.
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MCU David Vine i/v GFX o/l: David Vine Author ‘Base Nation’ Archive still: WS US base in Africa GFX o/l: Secret ‘lily pad’ base, Africa
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11:35:29 |
David Vine: There's a growing collection of what are referred to as lily pad bases. Um, these are bases that have typically two, three hundred troops, um, no family members, very few amenities and are often quite secretive. They're bases that are frequently constructed within a foreign country's base to disguise it. Um, and, and generally are not referred to as bases.
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Archive still: WS US base Archive clip: Delta Force ad |
11:35:55 |
VO (John Pilger): Many of these bases have been set up to combat China's worldwide economic influence. From them the United States operates a secret army of Special Forces in 147 countries.
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11:35:47:01 Music in |
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MCU Dana Rohrabacher i/v GFX o/l: Dana Rohrabacher Committee on Foreign Affairs
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11:36:14 |
Dana Rohrabacher: If you're going to be a free country rather than give in to every gangster regime in the world, you're going to have to take a risk. Because those gangsters they want to, they, they want to eliminate good people in the world so they can, err, err, and, and in China they want to dominate all of the, all of the Far East. They want to dominate… just like Japan wanted to before World War II, their goal was to dominate that part of the world. Today because there has been no political reform in Beijing, these guys want to dominate a huge chunk of the planet.
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11:36:10:17 Music out |
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Archive clip: C-Span2 BOOKTV MS Andrew Krepinevich iv |
11:36:45 |
VO (John Pilger): This is Andrew Krepinevich is a former Pentagon war planner and the author of war games aimed at China.
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MCU Andrew Krepinevich MCU John Pilger speaking to AK
MCU Andrew Krepinevich
MCU John Pilger speaking to AP |
11:36:55 |
John Pilger: You've written that air strikes and naval blockades have a, a role to play in punishing China. You've describe the need for sea mines, you've described the need for Special Forces, US Special Forces and missiles placed in islands. This sounds like a preparation for war.
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MCU Andrew Krepinevich i/v GFX o/l: Andrew Krepinevich |
11:37:19 |
Andrew Krepinevich: Um, our, our first President George Washington said if you want peace prepare for war. And essentially, err, what the United States is doing again is responding to provocative behaviour, err, on the part of China. And just as we did in the Cold War, the idea was, err, to have a position of military strength such that your adversaries were not temped to act, err, in aggressive ways or try and employ coercion to get their way.
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MCU John Pilger speaking to AK
MCU Andrew Krepinevich MCU John Pilger speaking to AK MCU Andrew Krepinevich
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11:37:48 |
John Pilger: I mean just last week the US Navy sent a guided missile destroyer into the Spratly Islands in South China Sea. And what was different about this I think was that Chinese fighters scrambled. That sounds like an escalator.
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MCU Andrew Krepinevich i/v
MCU JP nodding
MCU Andrew Krepinevich i/v
MCU JP nodding
MCU Andrew Krepinevich i/v
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11:38:07 |
Andrew Krepinevich: Well the, err, again, from an American perspective the, the escalation was the Chinese speeding to militarise these islands in the first place. Err, moving, err, it's military capabilities down into that region, err, engaging in provocative behaviour against, err, the commercial activities and, and military, err, forces of, of other minor countries in the region that have claim to those islands. So it's a response to Chinese intimidation, err, rather...
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MCU JP speaking to AK
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11:38:34 |
John Pilger: H-, how, excuse me, how, how is commerce being intimated in the South China Sea?
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MCU Andrew Krepinevich i/v
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11:38:40 |
Andrew Krepinevich: There have been no military forces, no military bases there. Err, the Chinese...
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MCU JP speaking to AK
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11:38:44 |
John Pilger: Except the United States military base.
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MCU Andrew Krepinevich i/v
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11:38:46 |
Andrew Krepinevich: Not in the South China Sea...
John Pilger: In, in, in...
Andrew Krepinevich: And not even in the Philippines because the United States withdrew its forces in the Philippines.
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MCU JP speaking to AK
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11:38:51 |
John Pilger: But the United States is back in the Philippines?
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Archive news report: News Desk – Barnaby Lo Manilla |
11:38:55 |
CCTV News: Philippines and the United States have announced five different locations scattered all throughout the Philippines were US troops will be stationed on a rotational basis.
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Archive still GFX map: CCTV NEWS South China Sea showing Bases
GV Aerial: island with US base |
11:39:05 |
VO (John Pilger): This threat to China from yet more US bases on its doorstop was not an issue when an Arbitration Tribunal ruled against China's claims to the strategic Spratly Islands in the south China sea.
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GV aerials: Ships from different positions
US flag |
11:39:22 |
VO (John Pilger): In 2015 the US Navy rehearsed a blockade that would cut China’s lifeline of oil and trade and raw materials. The Danger of confrontations grows by the day
A regional dispute has now become a flashpoint between China and America. |
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MCU Daniel Russel
MCU JP speaking to DR
MCU Daniel Russel
MCU JP speaking to DR |
11:39:40 |
John Pilger: The US Navy is on the doorstep of China regardless of disputed islands and is there with low-draft ships, planes, battle groups, it's right on the doorstep. What if Chinese ships, what if the equivalent was off California?
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MCU Daniel Russel i/v
MCU JP MCU Daniel Russel i/v |
11:39:59 |
Daniel R. Russel: Well, John, we ask ourselves that question regularly and it's, it's important to put yourself in the other guys' shoes. Err, so look we don't operate in the Pacific in an effort to scare China, to contain China, to back foot China. Our operations, err, and our presence, it first of all is warmly welcomed by the vast majority of the coastal states but secondly is fully accepted by the Chinese - time after time...
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MCU JP speaking to DR
MCU Daniel Russel i/v |
11:40:35 |
John Pilger: I-, is it, excuse me, is it fully accepted?
Daniel R. Russel: Yes, by their, by their words. The Chinese...
John Pilger: My impression, my impression is that they're scared.
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GFX map of South China sea showing circled US bases circling China |
11:40:45 |
VO (John Pilger): And this is what they're scared of, a noose of bases right round China.
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11:40:37:19 Music in |
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11:40:57 |
VO (John Pilger): Missiles, bombers, drones, warships. A provocation of war.
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11:41:02:16 Music out |
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Archive Obama speech GFX o/l: Prague 5 April 2009 Archive footage people applauding Obama in Prague |
11:41:07 |
Barack Obama: Today, I state clearly and with conviction, America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
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Archive clip: Obama listening to applause |
11:41:20 |
VO (John Pilger): Under Obama nuclear warhead spending has risen higher than under any President since the end of the Cold War.
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MCU Bruce Gagnon i/v GFX o/l: Bruce Gagnon Global Network Against Space Weapons |
11:41:29 |
Bruce Gagnon: It's all a magician's show because at the same time that Obama is talking about that, not only is he spending a trillion dollars to modernise US nuclear forces, but he's deploying these missile defence systems to encircle Russia and China which makes it impossible to get rid of nuclear weapons in that climate.
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MCU Ted Postol i/v GFX o/l: Ted Postol Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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11:41:49 |
Ted Postol: Everybody wants to look like they're tough. See I gotta be tough, I gotta try and get a, I'm not afraid of doing anything military, I'm not afraid of threatening, I'm, you know, I'm a hairy chested gorilla. And, err, you know, and you don't want to look like you're weak so what you do is you talk more and more aggressively and, err, and you let, and if you don't want to do it yourself because you maybe think it doesn't look very Presidential you let somebody under you do the talking. And we have gotten into a state, the United States has gotten into a situation where there's a lot of military s-, err, you know, sabre-rattling and it's really being orchestrated from the top.
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MCU JP speaking to TP |
11:42:33 |
John Pilger: Yeah, this seems incredibly dangerous, all of this.
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MCU Ted Postol i/v |
11:42:38 |
Ted Postol: That's an understatement I think but I agree.
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MCU Stephen Starr GFX o/l: Stephen Starr Clinical Science Program University of Missouri
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11:42:42 |
Stephen Starr: When you routinely plan for mass murder you become conditioned to it. That's what this is. We accept it, oh yeah, we have, we have nuclear weapons.
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WS military naval ships
GV aerial military naval ships
MCU Stephen Starr |
11:42:51 |
John Pilger: The Defence Secretary he's just announced that there will be war ships and Special Forces and planes sent to the Philippines. And the Wall Street Journal has described this as the vanguard of a major US presence in South East Asia. That sounds like...
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MCU Stephen Starr i/v |
11:43:10 |
Stephen Starr: Where does this end? What's, what's the purpose? I mean, where are we going to stop the process before it starts a war? And then if the war starts where does that end?
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Archive footage: nuclear bomb explosion sequence |
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11:43:15:14 Music in 11:43:58:04 Music out |
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MCU Stephen Starr i/v |
11:44:06 |
Stephen Starr: The scientific studies that I teach by the scientists that predict that the earth can be made essential uninhabitable from nuclear war. The scientists have been begging the Obama administration, well they wouldn't say begging, but they've made multiple requests to meet with him and discuss these predictions because they're peer reviewed studies. And they've been turned down over and over again. They've been peripherally told that, well we don't think, err, the long term environmental consequences of nuclear war are all that important if the immediate effects of nuclear war don't stop it. But the long-term environmental consequences of nuclear war are liable to wipe out the human race.
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Archive footage: military airplane in flight |
11:44:41 |
John Pilger: In one exchange, nuclear exchange, between the US and China what could be the consequences?
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11:44:34:12 Music in
11:44:43:24 Music out |
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MCU Stephen Starr i/v
Archive clip: Nuclear bomb explosion
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11:44:49 |
Stephen Starr: Well let me just give you an example of what one Chinese, four or five-megaton warhead would do to a city in the United States if it got through. Err, the detonation of that weapon over a city would instantly ignite about six or seven hundred square miles on fire. Then, and within 20 to 30 minutes all of those fires would coalesce into a single gigantic firestorm. There would be no escape from it so all the people there would perish.
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MCU Stephen Starr i/v
GFX world map showing smoke covering map
Archive illustration: aftermath of nuclear bomb, man in field darkened field
Fade to black |
11:45:16 |
Stephen Starr: So the US with say hundreds of nuclear weapons on Chinese cities. Well when you combine all the smoke from these nuclear weapons detonating it actually creates millions of tons of smoke, black carbon smoke, that will rise above cloud level into the stratosphere where it's heated by the sun, and so acts like a solar collector. And that smoke because of that will stay there for 10 years or longer. And what the smoke does is it blocks warming sunlight from reaching the surface of the earth and it becomes so cold in a matter of just a couple of weeks that will, the temperatures will fall below freezing every day for one to three years. And it will, it will become too cold to grow food crops for at least 10 years or longer.
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11:44:59:23 music in
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MCU Ted Postol i/v |
11:46:12 |
Ted Postol: I mean there's, there's like a total disconnect with the changing world. You have a giant rising power, in this case China, why would you expect the giant rising power to not want to have more control over its destiny. What we should be doing in my view is trying to cultivate a sense of, err, friendship and cooperation and we can have our differences with them. If we think they're doing something in trade that we don't like, let's have it out with them. But this sabre-rattling is the worst thing we can possibly do.
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11:45:12:15 music out
11:45:30:15 music in
11:45:48:15 music out |
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W: Archive: C-Spain Republican National Convention Cleveland
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11:46:42 |
Donald Trump: It is time to show the whole world that America is back bigger and better and stronger than ever before (clapping and cheering)
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MCU: Archive: Donald Trump w/ US flags behind
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11:47:01 |
Donald Trump: We don’t have victories any more. We used to have victories but we don’t have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating let’s say China in a trade deal. They kill us. |
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MS: Archive: Donald Trump w/ crowd of supporters behind
Wide shot of crowd
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11:47:18 |
Donald Trump: We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing. It’s the greatest theft in the history of the world (clapping and cheering) |
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Archive: MS Donald Trump speaking
Wide shot of crowd
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11:47:31 |
VO (John Pilger): The new president Donald Trump has a problem with China. The urgent question now is will Trump continue with the provocations revealed in this film and take us all to the edge of war. |
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MCU Eric Li i/v GFX o/l: Eric Li Social scientist |
11:47:50 |
Eric Li: There never have been two countries more interdependent on each other than China and the US in history. Err, and China is the largest trading nation in the world and in history. So China's economy and, and, and their society and their lives are, are, are, are linked to the entire world, including America and the West and all, and all the other countries. So, so I think interdependence between these two countries and among all the nations of the world, um, speak to peace.
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Still image: CU Lemoyo Abon Still image: CU Zhang Lijia, pull out to MCU Still image: MS kids posing for camera Still image: CU Rinok, pull out to MCU Still image: CU woman |
11:48:23 |
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11:48:17:00 Music in |
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Still image: MCU smiling woman wearing blue top Still image: MCU Santa Korok Still image: CU Abacca A.M Still image: MS Fumiko smiling Still image: MS two women and man smiling Still image: John Pilger with MS Mun Jeong-hyeon |
11:48:53 |
VO (John Pilger): We don't have to accept the word of those who conjure up threats and false enemies that justify the business and profit of war if we recognise there is another superpower. And that's us, ordinary people everywhere like the people of Okinawa, Jeju Island, the Marshall Islands, China, the United States. By speaking out, they deliver a warning to all of us. Can we really afford to be silent?
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11:48:55:09 Music out |
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Fade to black |
11:49:31 |
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Credit roll GFX o/l: Written, produced and presented by JOHN PILGER
Directed by JOHN PILGER
Edited by JOE FROST
Line Producer SANDRA LEEMING
Executive Producer CHRISTOPHER HIRD
Assistant Director BRUNO SORRENTINO
Archive Producers JACQUI EDWARDS PAUL GARDNER JIM ANDERSON
Camera RUPERT BINSLEY OWEN SCURFIELD BRUNO SORRENTINO JOSEPH ZAFAR
Sound ZUBIN SAROSH GILES KHAN JOUNI ELO COOPER SENG
Research CHENG LEER (SHANGHAI) PROFESSOR DAN BROUDY, MAKI SUNAWAWA, JON MITCHELL (OKINAWA) TOM RAINEY-SMITH (JEJU) THANKS TO GIFF JOHNSON, KENNETH A. KEDI, THERESA KEDI, ABACCA ANJAIN MADDISON, ADAM HOROWITZ (MARSHALL ISLANDS) THANKS TO GREG MELLO, LOS ALAMOS STUDY GROUP, USA; JAMES BRADLEY; PROFESSOR DAVID VINE
Production Manager LAUREN SIMPSON
Production Assistant JULIA SCHONHEIT BECKY KUKLA
Head of Distribution MATT HIRD
Post-Production DIRECTORS CUT, LONDON
Post-Production Manager ADAM CALDOW
Online Editor ANDY NICHOLSON
Colourist ANDREW ELLIOTT
Dubbing Mixer THADDAIOS YIANNI
Graphic Designer CHARLES GATWARD
Special Tribute to:
'The Ghosts of Jeju', a film by Regis Tremblay 'Nuclear Savage' a film by Adam Horowitz 'Half Life', a film by Dennis O'Rourke 'We Shall Overcome', a film by Chie Mikami 'Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb', a film by Stanley Kubrick
Archive Special Thanks to Tracey Spring, Camerawork, Australia The Advertising Archives The United Nations Air Force Space and Missile Museum Alamy AP Archive Archive.org Australian Parliament BBC Book TV Brookhaven National Laboratory Brucke-Osteuropa Buyout Footage CBS News CCTV Ceska Televize CNN News Critical Past C-SPAN eFootage Film Archives Footage Farm Fox News Gaumont Pathe Archives Getty Images Greenpeace
Historic Films Archive John Service Family Journeyman Pictures/ABC Australia Kinolibarary Kyodo News International Larry Gray Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Library of Congress Lina Hoshino Lobster Films Masato Higo Massachusetts Historical Society National Archives and Records Administration NatureFootage NASA NBC Universal Archives Nuclear Testing Archive Pictures From History/CPA Media Producers Library Reuters Pictures Rex/Shutterstock TED Tofoo Films U.S. Department of Defense U.S. Navy Women's Health World Council of Churches
Original Music JOE FROST
Additional Music "Beet" Composed and performed by musicians of the Marshall Islands Published by Saydisc Records Courtesy of Fanshaw Enterprises
"The East Is Red" Written by Li Youyuan Performed by the East Is Red Choir Published by China Record Corporation Courtesy of CRC Jianian Cultural Development Co., Ltd
"America the Beautiful" Composed by Sameul A. Ward and Katharine Lee Bates Performed by The United States Navy Band Sea Chanters Chorus
"We'll Meet Again" Composed by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles Performed by Vera Lynn Published by Music Sales Limited Courtesy of Parlophone/Warner Music
With thanks to: Hiroshi Ashitomi Alison Bradley Choi Sung-hee Cho Kyung-chul Koh Gil-chun Charles Clover Mark Corcoran Professor Bruce Cumings Matt Kennard Duel Kkot Professor Shen Dingli Oliver Doward Robert Eldridge Professor Amitai Etzioni Marc Francis Bruce Gagnon Christopher Geair Bill Graham Larry Gray Kiko Ginoza Simon Goldberg John Gittings Niels Hahn Jon Herbertsson Yuka & Masato Higa Marina Higa Altred Hitchfield Munetaka Ishikawa Roseanne Jackson
Joyakgol Kang Dong-kyun Kanako Koga Lina Koleilat Grace Lamb-Atkinson Donna Lang Mark Manning James Matayoshi Maki Matsumoto Professor Gavan McCormack Professor Alfred F. McCoy Maher Nasser Chie Mikami Father Mun Jeong-hyeon Victoria Musguin Jack Niedenthal Oh Cheol-geun Dr. Luke Oman Park Lydia Eun-young Stephen Perry Steven Starr Soka Gakkai Suzuyo Takazato Regis Tremblay Yao Ruhui Yang Yoon-mo Zhang Yichao
Produced in association with SBS-TV Australia
A film produced with the support of
Bertha Foundation [logo] Reva & David Logan Foundation [logo]
And with special thanks to our 1,119 individual crowd-funders
[list of crowd-funders]
www.johnpilger.com
@johnpilger
A Dartmouth Films Production ©Secret Country Films MMXVI |
11:49:35 |
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