Month: December 2021

265: Foreign Commentary Changes Nothing

Mark Podcast
Members of the Lytton Commission examine the South China Railway track at the site of the explosion which the Japanese used as justification for occupying Manchuria.

The Japanese military seized control of Manchuria on a pretext and proclaimed it an independent state. The civilian government in Tokyo reluctantly went along with this.

The League of Nations had been created for exactly this situation: to intervene when a strong country attacked or bullied a weaker one. Now the League faced its first real test.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Edo Lullaby”
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by Wikimedia Commons user Akaniji. Used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

264: What Is a Planet?

Mark Podcast
Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto (indicated by arrows) by detecting its movement in the six days between when these two photos were taken.

Ever since the discovery of the eighth planet, Neptune, astronomers speculated about a possible ninth planet. Some, like American Percival Lowell, used mathematical analysis of the orbit of Uranus to trace the undetected planet’s gravitational effects.

In 1930, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, building on Lowell’s work, discovered the ninth planet. Or did he? (This is a special Christmas episode of the podcast.)

(Correction: Clyde Tombaugh received his degrees in astronomy from the University of Kansas. In an earlier version of this episode, I mistakenly said they were from Kansas State University. I apologize for the error, and the podcast and transcript have been corrected.)

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

eDream

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

263: Discussion Is Useless

Mark Podcast
Japanese newspaper reporting the assassination of Prime Minister Inukai.

The decade of the 1920s began and ended with global economic slowdowns. Between them, Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake.

As Japan struggled with its economic problems and rebuilding from the disaster, right-wing Army commanders took it upon themselves to seize control of Manchuria, which they saw as essential to Japan’s economic and military security.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Kojo no Tsuki” (“Moon Over Desolate Castle”)
Composed in 1901 by Taki Rentaro. Public domain.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

262: The Long March

Mark Podcast
Mao Zedong in 1938.

By 1929, Chiang Kai-shek had realized Sun Yat-sen’s vision of a united China. But much of “united” China was still controlled by warlords, Communists, and the Japanese. Of these, Chiang regarded the Communists as the gravest threat.

As for the Communists, they were forced to abandon their efforts to foment the revolution through organizing China’s small urban proletariat and increasingly the Party came to accept Mao Zedong’s argument that the revolution would spring from China’s numerous disenchanted rural peasant farmers.

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Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

The Nanjing Decade

“Wa Ha Ha”
Traditional. Public domain.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.