PC HAS BEEN a lifelong expression with me. PC stands for Pacific Citizen, of course. Thirty years ago, another "pc" loomed: personal computer. Some wondered whether to use "P.C. with periods" for distinction, but our Style Manual ruled we not change and, besides, enunciating the periods was ridiculous.
PC loomed again last month, but in geographic form - Panama Canal. I agreed with the knowledgeable lecturer on the Canal aboard the cruise ship "Volandam" that going through one set of locks would suffice for experience.
That took all of four hours in the early morning: up at 5, then encountering a huge crowd at the bow at 5:30 waiting to see the first gate of Gatún Lock open as "mules" on each side of the ship guiding it inside the two gates. Fresh water from the lake above gradually lifts the ship to match the level of Gatún Lake, 85 feet above sea level, in Panama.
As ships approach the southern end to exit, they negotiate two more locks. The canal is a N/S affair; the Atlantic side is further west than the Pacific exit.
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In search of a book about the Canal at the ship's library, there was David McCullough's "The Path Between The Seas" (1977) with Asian angles I never expected in the history of the Canal. But foremost is the story of how President Roosevelt took Panama in the "interests of collective civilization to justify the recognition of the Republic of Panama." (The quotes were from my U.S. diplomatic history book of college days.)
In order to build the canal, France began in 1850 and needed and built a railroad to haul out the earth being excavated. Meantime, Commodore Perry forced Japan in 1854 to open its ports to Western commerce.
By 1856, the railroad was running from Balboa on the Pacific to Aspinwall (Colón) by the Atlantic. Thousands of Chinese came to work (many from Canada and Jamaica) and fell victim of the scourge and "melancholia," a cause for ailing Chinese "to commit suicide by hanging, drowning or impaling themselves on sharpened bamboo," as McCullough found.
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In 1860, the Grand Embassy, comprised of 18 diplomats (Manjiro was the official interpreter) in samurai robes wearing two swords, arrived in San Francisco aboard Japan's first steamship Kanrin Maru. They passed through Panama to reach Washington and exchange documents ratifying the Harris Treaty of Amity and Commerce. They were the first Japanese to cross the Isthmus on the Panama Railroad.
By 1870, the French ran out of money to complete the Canal. Their hope for success relied upon Ferdinand de Lesseps of Suez Canal fame. The U.S. secured the French rights, property, housing, equipment and paid lofty indemnities to France and Colombia.
The second Japanese case at the Canal happened around 1904 as U.S. took over what the French could not tackle - the massive slice through the Continental Divide, the Culebra Pass about 1,000 feet high, lowering ships through two sets of locks to exit the Canal.
Chicago construction engineer John Stevens was chosen by President Theodore Roosevelt to complete the Canal. Stevens sought 15,000 Chinese into the Canal Zone, though U.S. had excluded importation of such labor since 1882. Hence, large contractors of Japanese labor were contacted. An inspection team from Japan reported the Isthmus was "too unsafe to risk the lives of their men." The yellow-fever scare also undermined Steven's bid for labor. Bigger equipment, more locomotives, wider rail tracks became his answer.
The third case involved seven Japanese merchant ships at Boston, New York and Philadelphia in early 1941. Because of a U.S. oil embargo effective July 1, the Japanese government called her ships home by July 16 but because of the delay encountered by going through the Panama Canal, they sailed around Cape Horn.
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And the Nisei angle ...
P.C. columnist, photo journalist Elmer Ogawa, who covered the Pacific Northwest, served with the coast artillery in the Canal Zone in the 1930s. Exploits of Nisei during WWII dealt with men of the 100th/442nd in Europe, MIS in the Pacific, but nary the platoon of Nisei from the motor pool at Camp Barkeley, Texas, who were transferred to the Canal Zone. Leading the group was T/3 Henry Miyata of El Centro, now retired in West Covina, Calif.
Some of us off the Volandam toured by motor coach the other half of the 40-mile long Canal and redevelopment ongoing in the historic old town of Panama City. Army barracks have been improved with air-conditioning and currently house Canal workers.
We also learned that residents of Aruba in the Dutch West Indies have a five-letter word for "trash": s-u-s-h-i, believe it or not.
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