Word: bergamini
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...restoration that began about 10 years ago has been drawing tourists, however, and today museums, restaurants and hotels have started to move in. Among the latter is L'Hotel in Pietra, hotelinpietra.it. When Brazilian owner Cristina Bergamini first stepped inside the abandoned 13th century church that would become the hotel, the white stone of the church's ancient walls was black with soot and its floor was buried under decades of garbage. "I could show you some photos you wouldn't believe," says Bergamini...
...true, as David Bergamini alleges, that the Emperor of Japan steered his nation into World War II, lost the war and then emerged smelling like a rose to become chief of state of the world's third superpower, perhaps he really is a god, after...
...that Hirohito eventually "inherited from his great-grandfather a mission, which was to rid Asia of white men." As early as 1921, when Hirohito became regent for his ailing father, he organized a cabal of young officers notably including Major Hideki Tojo, to undertake any mission the throne desired. Bergamini insists that two years before the fighting broke out, Hirohito personally "directed his General Staff to plan...
...strategist named Yamamoto communicated to Hirohito a plan for a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Because strict secrecy was imposed, even War Minister Tojo knew nothing about the plan until after he became Prime Minister, two months before the attack. "Hirohito alone stood at the top of the mountain," Bergamini writes. "He alone had full access to army planning, navy planning." When it finally came time to decide, Hirohito called in his Lord Privy Seal and said: "Instruct Prime Minister Tojo to proceed according to plan...
...Hirohito was a formidable war leader," according to Bergamini, "tireless, dedicated, meticulous, clever and patient." But when the war came to an end at Hiroshima, the Emperor and his vassals began plotting to "convince outside observers, especially Americans, that the sacred Emperor had been a victim rather than villain of Japanese militarism." This suited the Allies admirably; without at least some semblance of the imperial system, General MacArthur estimated, he would need 20,000 American administrators to govern Japan and a million troops to police it. "There is no specific or tangible evidence," said MacArthur, "to connect the Emperor with...