This post is dedicated to showing that yes women can kick ass too. Though this woman outdoes anything the Women's Lib movement was able to come up with:
Tomoe Gozen
Tomoe Gozen is one of the few examples of a female samurai warrior in Japanese history. More than simply a defender of the homestead in time of necessity, she is described as a warrior of peerless skill, going into battle like a man. She was either the wife of Minamoto Yoshinaka, or by some sources a female attendant, but in either case is described as one of Yoshinaka's senior captains. Yoshinaka was one of the Minamoto lords who fought against the Taira in the Gempei War, and after the Minomoto victory at Kurikawa in 1084 placed Kyoto in Minamoto hands, Yoshinaka felt that he should become the overall leader of the clan.
Yoshinaka's feeling was contested by Minamoto Yoritomo. Yorimoto's forces attacked Yoshinkaka and Gozen at Awazu, and despite putting up a tremendous fight, their forces were overwhelmed. With only a handful of warriors standing, Yoshinaka ordered his wife to flee the field rather than face capture and death. Accounts vary of what followed. Some say that Gozen stayed and died with her husband, while others state that she fled the battlefield. In the latter instance, there is further uncertainty. Most accounts state that she fled with a severed head, but again sources vary between claiming that she took the head of an enemy soldier named Onda no Hachiro Moroshige, or that of her husband taken to keep him from capture. A final debate surrounds the fate of Gozen after her escape, as some state that she cast herself into the sea with her husband's head, while others assert that she became a nun.
I don't believe women should be in combat but there is always some exception to the rule. Excuse me while I try and regain my female readership after that comment. *grin*
Update: Believe it or not but I actually found a French site regarding the naginata (what was basically the women's weapon of choice in historical Japan). No reason for posting other than I just found that funny...
Talk About Foresight
Reason Online is running an article that was first written back in February of '02 and it still speaks volumes 2 years later into our fight against terrorism. Though the article kind of breaks into two different topics, the inability of journalists to "get" the military and its members and the ever present need to change the way our military approaches the challenges of new forms of warfare, it still manages to cover all the bases. Today our journalists, even after being "embedded," know nothing of war or warfare and our military leadership still needs to recognize that the "conventional" army is no longer so conventional. Both issues are vital to how well America will do in this current war and future wars and cannot be left to a "generational" timeframe that has plagued both institutions of media and military.
I really need to make a change in the world. Hopefully at the end I can say more than "J'ai vecu." That's what the French will try and say though...
Posted at 06:30 PM in Military Matters, Outside Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)