War Without Mercy: Raceand Power in the Pacific WarBy John DowerPantheon, 398 pp., $22.50

By Jeremy Solomon

AT A TIME WHEN TRADE TEN-sions between the US.and Japan are rising andwhen each country's im-

ages of the other seem to be revert-ing to older negative stereotypes,some reminiscent of World War II,a book comes along that examinesthe importance of race in thePacific arena of World War II.

Using popular sources—songs,movies and cartoons—as well asgovernment and academic docu-ments, John Dower presents a fas-cinating, if frightening, picture ofhow both sides dehumanized theother using racial and culturalstereotypes, and how this amplifieda conflict most Western correspon-dents found "more savage than inthe European theater."

To Americans and the British, theJapanese were subhuman orsuperhuman (depending on thestate of the war), either apes, giantsor vermin but rarely humans likethemselves. A simian image of theenemy and the use of the hunt asa metaphor for fighting theJapanese were particularly com-mon in Western depictions of thePacific conflict. Behind these im-ages, of course, lay hundreds ofyears of European and Americanprejudice toward the non-white na-tives of the New World, black Afri-can slaves and Asian immigrants inthe US.—prejudices reinforced by19th-century Western science.

Because Europeans and Amer-icans were their former tutors inthe ways of the modern world, thesituation was a little more compli-cated for the Japanese. As a result,they viewed the Americans and Brit-ish as demons and themselves—theYamato race—as purer, more moralthan their foes. Justifications forthese beliefs were found in the Con-fucian classics from China, the indig-enous Shinto religion and folk beliefsabout strangers and outsiders.

Louseous JapanicasThe first serious outbreak of this lice epidemic was officially noted on December 7,1941, at Honolulu, T. H. To the Marine Corps, especially trained in combating thistype of pestilence, was assigned the gigantic task of extermination. Extensive experi-ments on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan have shown that this louse inhabits coralatolls in the South Pacific, particularly pill boxes, palm trees, caves, swamps and jungles.

Flame throwers, mortars, grenades and bayonets have proven to be an effective rem-edy. But before a complete cure may be effected the origin of the plague, the breedinggrounds around the Tokyo area, must be completely annihilated.

A graphic from the March 1945 Marine monthly Leatherneck. U.S. incendiary bombing of Japanese cities began the same month.

U.S., Japanese racialin a 'good' war that

Dower traces the racist imagesof World War II to older culturalstereotypes and, fundamentally, tounequal power relations on bothsides of the Pacific.

Startling to read of—especiallyto one reared on the myth of theGood War—is the visceral racehate and brutality Allied fightingmen brought to Pacific battlefields.One reads that Allied soldiers muti-lated the bodies of the Japanesewar dead for "souvenirs," torturedand executed prisoners and shothelpless sailors and airmen in thewater. Adm. William Halsey, whoexhorted his men to "Kill Japs, kill

Japs, kill more Japs," stated thefeelings of many Americans whenhe said that he hoped that at theend of the war Japanese would onlybe spoken in hell. Brutality was alsorampant on the Japanese side, andhatred and atrocity fed a bloodbaththat ended with the atomic bomb-ings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Ironically, in 1937 the Japanesebombings of Chinese cities drewhorrified reactions from world gov-ernments.Racism in sharp relief: Dowersees that the war had at least onepositive effect: it hastened a revolu-tion in racial consciousness. By

salvoswasn't

forcing Western powers to criticizeNazi ideology, the conflict broughtinto sharper relief the pervasiveracism in the US. toward blacks,Jews and other minorities, and re-sulted in greater demands for racial

RACISM

Both sides now: knuckle-walking Nipponese; Roosevelt crucified.

How Tough Are the Japanese?TIMr or* ••« Mu«b*r fan o

equality in the US. Also, Japanesevictories in the Pacific showedAsian nationalities that Westernerswere not invincible, therebystrengthening national movementsin that part of the globe.

After the war the communists,the Chinese in particular, becamethe inhuman horde threateningWestern civilization, while the US.and Japan became allies and trad-ing partners. These rapid changes

A simian image ofthe enemy and theuse of the hunt as ametaphor forfighting theJapanese wereespecially commonin the West.

showed the stereotypes to be bothmalleable and resilient. As Dowerwrites: "Enemies changed withwrenching suddenness; but the

impressively impervious to drasticalteration, and in its peculiar wayprovided psychological continuityand stability from the World Warto the Cold War."

Today, as economic competitionstiffens, in both the US. and Japanthe pejorative images and ways ofthinking return. Thus a high-rank-ing US. trade delegate to Japan in1983 spoke to a Democratic Partymeeting of "the little yellow men,you know, Honda." And a recent ar-ticle in the New York Times Maga-zine likened resurgent Japanesenationalism to a "national neu-rosis," much in the way Americansocial and behavioral scientistssought to explain the Japanese intheir wartime "national character"studies. The national characterstudies, Dower points out, oftensimply reinforced popular preju-dices that the Japanese were men-tally ill and emotionally stunted.

For their part the Japanese haverecently been snapping up copiesof books that purport to show howJews secretly control the US., andlast October Prime Minister Yasu-hiro Nakasone stated that the U.S.was unable to compete economi-cally with Japan because of thepresence of large numbers ofblacks and Hispanics in the US.

Dower ends his book by notingthat this latest round of U.S.-Japanese competition has no pre-cedent: in this round the prize isworld economic and technologicalpreeminence, and for the first timethere is the feeling that the US. isno longer number one. It remainsto be seen how the US. and Japan-allies and trading partners in aworld of nuclear weapons andenormous international trade—will settle their differences. Mconcept of 'the enemy' remained

IN THESE TIMES APRIL 29-MAY 5, 1987 21

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TrialContinued from page 3 ,., ^ing director of the Nuclear Weapons FreezeCampaign.)

As for what the Reagan administration andthe CIA are doing in Central America, Ellsbergsaid: "There is an uncanny resemblance—afeeling I am reliving the experience of whathappened in Vietnam," where the Americanpublic is being misled about the govern-ment's real intentions. "I believe the planning

. processes [for Vietnam and Nicaragua] arealmost identical," he testified. "1 believe weare moving toward direct combat involve-ment." ^

• Ralph McGehee, after testifying, washugged by Edgar Chamorro. What theyshared was not so much a friendship but anemotional tie—they both had been tools ofthe CIA in planning and carrying out the mur-der of civilians.. McGehee served as director of the CIA's"dirty tricks" division. In that ^capacity hedirected the Phoenix program in Vietnam.McGehee testified that he oversaw the mur-der of 20,000 Vietnamese civilians, and alsosaid that from 1954 through 1964 Vietnamwas a failed CIA covert operation. Momentslater, when he testified how the CIA orches-trated the overthrow of Sukarno in Indonesiain 1964, resulting in the murder of 500,000to a million Indonesians, one of the jurorsbegan to cry.

As to the way the CIA treated Congress,McGehee testified: "They were treated likethe proverbial mushroom. You're kept in thedark and you're fed manure." The deceptionof the president, he said, was a continuingpractice of the agency.

In an interview after his court appearance,McGehee said he dichiot puHt-past formerCIA Director William Casey to be playingpossum following surgery to remove a can-cerous brain tumor in order to avoid testify-ing under oath about what he knows con-

cerning arms sales to Iran and diversion ofprofits fjrj9||J|oje sales to the contras.

*i@lalnlrjro '̂t!6rnier priest and ex^leaderof the Nicaraguan Depiocratic Force (FDN,the ClA-sponsored umbrella front group forthe contras), was recruited by the CIA in1982. His role, he said, was to serve as amoderate "front man" for the contras to winsupport from a reluctant U.S. Congress. Aspart of his duties, Chamorro testified that hetranslated from English to Spanish the infa-mous "assassination manual," a CIA-au-thored hOw-to pamphlet on terrorizing acivilian population that advocated, amongother things-, assassinating Nicaraguanjudges and public officials.

Chamorro also testified that he bribedmembers of the Honduran press with moneygiven to him by the CIA. In addition, whenthe CIA mined Nicaraguan harbors in Janu-ary 1984, Chamorro testified he wasawakened late that night and given a press.release to read claiming the FDN had beenresppnsibli? for the mining. Chamorro alsodescribed from the witness stand how it had:

been contra policy to take no prisoners, touse land mines that would not kill but rathermaim and cripple Nicaraguans in order tomake them a burden on the Sandinista gov-ernment. When Chamorro grew disgustedwith the killing and the atrocities being com-mitted by the contras, he protested and theCIA removed him as an FDN leader.

In an interview outside the courthouse,Chamorro said his role was straight out ofa Kafka novel: "Orders came from the castle.But who's giving the orders? Who's makingthe decisions? I tried to ask who was respon-sible? Is anybody responsible to stop thekilling?" We were being used, he sadly con-cluded. :^rti,,,,,iv;:.tf

The trial attracted the hWonal mlaHspotlight, in large part because of Amy Car-ter. A daughter of a former president facingjail for crimes against the state made for agreat story—and everyone was there, from

AMERICAN PCWRBMOST SUCCESSFUL CAMPUSEVENT OF THE 80's:Shown in more than 100 Americancolleges. 60% invite the presentation backwithin one year!Shown 10 times in Harvard, 7 in Yale, 6in Cornell, 4 in Stanford, 4 in George-town, 3 in Dartmouth, 3 in Brown... and15 times in Berkeley!Required for freshman orientation inDartmouth, Cornell, Boston University etc.

BACKGROUNDThe show is based on the 5 years a youngDane, Jacob Holdt, hitchhiked over100,000 miles in the USA. He bought filmfor his camera by selling blood twiceweekly. He lived in more than 400 homes- from the poorest southern sharecroppers,to some of America's wealthiest families(Pabst, Rockefeller). He joined the rebel-lion in Wounded Knee, followed criminalsin the ghettos during muggings, sneakedinside to work in southern slave campsand infiltrated secret Ku Klux Klanmeetings. While working with prisoners hesaw two of his friends assassinated. By thetime he returned to Denmark 12 of hisAmerican friends had^been murdered.

?!%"Not since Jacob Riis' bdefepf social criticismHow the Other Wa/f/i vest has there been aspowerful a record of American living as Ameri-can Pictures. Its presentation at the Cannes FilmFestival created a sensation."The San Francisco Film Festival.

"What makes American Pictures so disturbinglypowerful is the cumulative, effects of Holdt'sphotographs combined with his outsider'sanalysis of the dynamics of poverty and oppres-sion in the US."Los Angeles Times

A show anda book of aDanishvagabond'sjourneythrough theunderclass

"Powerful, intense"New York Times

THE BOOKThe book, which is based on the show, isan international-bestseller. The VillageVoice revealed that the U.S. State Depart-ment grew worried about its impact over-seas and commissioned photographers topresent the "other side" of America. Writrten in a personal tone it is now a popularclassroom supplement in Americanschools. 800 photos, the bulk in color.

order_ _copy of the book. I enclose amoney order or check of $15 paperback___or $18 for hardcover___.I would like a possible showing of AmericanPictures in my high school, college:_____

I would like the book mailed to:

Send to: AMERICAN PICTURESP.O.Box 2123 New York, N.Y. 10009

the New York Times to People to the Guar-dian.

But Carter's presence, with her disdain forfashion, proved both a boon to the defenseand a distraction, as cameras and reportersfollowed her every movement. Instead offocusing on the trial's contents, many repor-ters, apparently on instructions from theireditors, wrote frivolous accounts detailingCarter's clothing, her hair style and even howmuch she spent on toothpaste.

Yet throughout the media inquisition, Car-ter, a sophomore who attends Brown Univer-sity iaProvidence, RX, neverlosther compo-sure. Although she politely answered allquestions in a soft voice, she repeatedly rep-rimanded the media for paying: so much at-tention to her,while ignoring the crimes com-mitted by the CIA.

By the trial's end, no one. doubted her sin-cerity when she pledged to coptiiiue her ac-tivity. On the witness stand, she explained

; tiie reasons for her political aetivity as fol-lows; "As a fO'year-oIdi I've Been followingthe situation ittNiearagua" Th&ElA's covertrole there has "striking parallels to mybrother's generation in Vietnam.... I thoughtI should act now."

On the courthouse steps, to the loudapplause^ supporters af|er she had beenacquitted of disorderly conduct charges forsitting down in front of a bus, Carter urged

people to go, toheadquarters, to protest, and get arfssgjiflpApril 27; "And bring yoar-pafenfei"sfeftWg44

Would she, ask her. par«#te tftscome, top?"I'll try," she said with a smile. "I don!t tellthem what to do and they dorft tell me whattodo."

Unlike Carter, Abbie Hoffman, am elderstatesman of campus radicalism, had littleinhibition about courting the news media.He grabbed every opportunity to get his mes-sage across. ; •

Hoffman represented himself at the-trial,which at times seemed a ted decision. Hefumbled badly, for example, when examiningdefense witness Dr. Paul Epstein, a Bostpn,Mass., .physician who visited Nicaragua in1983 and 1987. The prosecution kept object-ing as Hoffman failed to ask questions in aproper legal fashion. Finally, the judge inter-vened,; rephrasing the questions sP as to getthrough the testimony. . |;

Most of Hoffman's closing statement wasstricken by the judge, who ruled that hisarguments were not relevant to the trial. Bptthe closing contained Hoffman's mostmemorable turn of phrase. We do not havea problem "with the CIA gathering intelli^gence," he told the jury. "This country needsintelligence," he said with a straight face. [QRichard Asinof writes regularly for In TheseTimes.

FowlerContinued from page 13which dispassionately watches an unbridledmarketplace work its will while turning ablind eye to the interests of the consumer."Listen to Rep. Al Swift (D-WA), an old broad-

22 IN THESE TIMES APRIL 29-MAY 5.-1987

1 to *Tinffie1i^^buVe goftp'clap for KoTit'll disappear." And their sentiments arejoined by heavyweights in both houses notknown for leaning toward liberal agendas.Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) and Sen. ErnestHollings (D-SC), who head the committeesthat oversee telecommunications, have bothdeclared their intention to send strong mes-sages to the FCC—to get the commissionback to the mandate Congress gave it.

Of course, what they're registering is notjust a sudden surge of public-interest feelingbut the battle to keep agenda-setting in thehands of the lawmakers, not the bureaucrats.But the result may be legislation that re-es-tablishes the public interest as a communi-cations priority.Everything old is new again: Considersome of the proposed bills. The bill reaffirm-ing the Fairness Doctrine, backed withbreathtaking bipartisanship (and we're talk-ing New Rightist Rep. Newt Gingrich [R-GA]co-sponsoring John Dingell's bill) is movingquickly through both houses. It may be ableto override the inevitable veto, while ac-cumulating enough evidence to defeat aprobable Supreme Court challenge. Two billsin the House spell out in minute detail forthe FCC what a decent affirmative action hir-ing policy looks like, and Al Swift is discus-sing EEO language in a bill he's proposingdealing with comparative renewal. The rulerequiring owners to hold stations three yearscould be restored- by legislation. A Housebill may soon be matched with a parallel billin the Senate calling fora freeze on telephoneaccess charges.

And consider congressional hearings,which even when they don't result in legisla-tion let the Commission know what it canget away with. Rep. Markey's hearings ontelephone subscriber line charges revealed

the weaknesses irethe'FCC'^'let the littleguy pay" policy, and have forced the FCC tocough ,upu«ei«e«dafcu4Qjgi^/e bypass* is aproblem. Soon come hearin^Srtfteida^ageto news, to public affairs and to employmentof women and minorities; 'as a result'. <$takeovers at all three TV netwoW

oroasly to shake the invisible hana may!a resurgence of pro-public interesffelpa-tion, or at least a spate of the kind of legis-lation that is disparagingly called ̂ pero-management" by insiders. fFh^Mttle withCongress Will "assuredly be joined byFowler's designated successor. Dennis Pat-rick shares Fowler's perspective, althoughhe's a far cooler customer, making fewerenemies on his way to his objectives.

As the political tide shifts, the challengeis to define the public interest in a changingera for telecommunications. The FCC'sindecency decision shows that it's easy toinvoke the public interest in the service ofcensorship. And that's a temptation not un-known in the halls of Congress.

The sound reconstruction of a public inter-est policy will have to be undertaken not onlyby political insiders but also by public in-terest and community organizers. It will getworked out at the local, state and nationallevels. While Fowler's tenure has beenmarked by'protecting the public from di-verse views in programming and securingcorporate privilege to exploit new technol-ogy's potential in the telephone industry, thereal task in the wake of FowTer wil| requirea commitment to diversity* pluralism andbroad access to our communications net-works.

Eagerly urging public advocates on is ir-repressible radio personality Howard Stem,who ended his first show after the ruling byurging listeners to support the ACLU andprotest in front of the FCC. After persistingin using no-no words, Stern said, "If this isn'tRussia, if we still have our rights, then I'll beback [for his next scheduled show]." Nowlet's see, that's freedom of speech, not free-dom after speech.... Q©1987 Pat Aufderheide

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• CHICAGO •May 9

Come join DSA in celebration at thisyear's Norman Thomas-Eugene V.Debs 29th annual dinner. We will behonoring Jacquelyne Grimshaw, Direc-tor of the Mayor's Office of Intergovern-mental Affairs and Deputy CampaignDirector; and Heather Booth, Co-Direc-tor of Citizen Action and founder of the

Midwest Academy—major contributorsto the re-election of Harold Washing-ton. Lynn Williams, President of theUnited Steel Workers of America, willspeak on the 50th anniversary of theMemorial Day Massacre of the RepublicSteelworkers. Saturday, May 9, 1987;6:00 p.m. Cocktails, 7:00 p.m. Dinner.For more info call the Chicago DSA of-fice at (312) 384-0327.

May 11

A jazz/blues party for the CrossroadsFund at Lilly's, 2515 Lincoln, featuringErwin Heifer and the Chicago BoogieEnsemble, and David Hernandez andStreet Sounds, 6-9 p.m. Celebrateanother year of funding social changeprojects, and say good-bye to Jean Har-disty, who will be leaving Chicago. Tick-ets: $30. Call 987-0941.

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By Osha DavidsonFRESNO. CALIFORNIA

V ECt7ABLK FARMER TOM WILLEY PULLS ATone end of his bushy mustache andwith his other hand points to anearby almond orchard where im-

mature nuts the size of dimes shine hardand green in the California sun.

'The guy who owns that place keeps bor-rowing money year after year and nevermakes it back," says Willey. "He's about 60and he's built up a hell of an equity, butevery year it's just eroding, eroding, eroding.He's on his knees every night praying thatthe damn urban development will come outhere and he'll be able to sell out for $50,000an acre before he's not worth anything."

Willey. a short and wiry Los Angeles nativein his mid-30s, removes his dark green capwhich bears the legend "New Farm." thename of a favorite magazine, and wipes hisbrow. "Man. that is sick" he pronounces,shaking his head sympathetically at hisneighbor's predicament. "And that is the fu-ture of farming."

1 have come to Fresno County, California,to look into the future of Iowa, my homestate. A recent study by the CongressionalOffice on Technology Assessment warns thatif current trends continue in the Midwest,the heartland's broad-based agricultural sys-tem will soon resemble California's corpo-rate-dominated one. And Fresno County isthe heart of California's agribusiness.

Located in the San Joaquin Valley. Fresnois the largest agricultural producing countyin America. If it were a state, Fresno county's:arm production would rank higher than 25J5. states.The colony system: At the end of theast century, speculators bought up most of

the valley's fertile land and divided it intoJO to Ififl acre lots which they advertisedacross the country. The Colony System, ast was called, produced a strong and diverseommunity of small family farms that grew

various fruits, vegetables and livestock, simi-ar in many ways to the farm system that

still dominates the Midwest.Soon after World War I, however, large

rorporations began moving into the area,wallowing up one farm after another until

today agribusiness giants like Sun-Maid andTenneco rule the valley and family farmersike Tom Willey and his wife Denesse exist>nly between the cracks of the enormouscorporate system.

The Willeys say a combination of smartmarketing, hard work and sheer luck keepshem in business. They grow a panoply of'trendy" vegetables (gourmet varieties withnames like Arugula, French Fillet Beans andiaby Savoy Spinach) on 35 acres of rented

property just east of Fresno. The only landhe couple own is the one-half acre of f i l l -

dirth beneath their house in town.'The few family farmers who are getting

through right now are the ones who leaseheir land or who already owned it 15 years

ago," says Denesse, who is as rotund as hermsband is thin but shares his dark browneyes and his love for farming. "We joke aboutt," she admits, "but the best thing that everlappened to us was when the bank refusedo loan us any money."

Already this year there have been threewholesale auctions in which 20 to 40 localarms were sold. Bank officials predict a netoss of 25 to 30 percent of area farms overhe next five years in an area already domi-

nated by huge corporate farms.On a drive through the east side of the

/alley, in the Willey's old Honda car that hasts front passenger seat removed ("Our sec-

ond pick-up." jokes Denesse), the effects ofcorporate control are not at first obvious.

Row upon row of grape trellises stretchacross the flat valley floor, the individualplants appearing brown and stump-like intheir early spring quiescence. The long dryseason is just beginning here (it wi l l not rainagain until September), and the importanceof the irrigation ditches that criss-cross thearea is obvious.

'This used to be a diversified farmingarea." shouts Tom over the clatter of theengine. "Just look at it now. Mile after mileof grapes—and all of one kind. This isa table-grape farm."One hell of a place: The roads are asstraight as the rows of grape trellises andare named, fi t t ingly, after varieties of grapes.

"We should show him Del Key," Denesseyells, half turning toward her husband as wedrive past Thompson (the popular seedlesstable grape) Street.

"Oh, yeah, you've got to see Del Key."agrees Tom, nodding fiercely. That is one

hell of a place."Five minutes later we rumble into Del Rev

where the crate is king. This is a packing-house town, where the produce from the sur-rounding valley farms is brought to be pro-cessed, boxed and shipped out. What ap-peared from a distance to be large dark-col-ored buildings, perhaps three or four storiestall, turns out to be mammoth stacks ofwooden fruit crates that surround and towerover the many steel-walled packing shedslining Del Rey's narrow streets.

"This is all there is to Del Rey." says Tomas we pass one enclave of crates afteranother. The few people who live here areMexicans who work in the sheds during theseason. It's a dirt-poor town."

We pass through Del Rey's "residentialarea," a short tract of tiny houses squeezedin between the stacks of fruit crates. We seea total of three people: two children playingin their dusty front yard and a woman, prob-ably their mother, who watches them, andus. from her front steps.

"Farmers used to pack their own produce."Tom says. "Now you've got these corporatepackinghouses. Some of them send their owncrews to your farm; they pick the crop andput it in their bins, take it to their pack-inghouse where they pack it under theirlabel, market it and ship it out. And they giveyou whatever the fuck they want to."

Tom is by nature soft-spoken, and as hespeaks his voice never rises to a level abovewhat is necessary to be heard over the car'sengine, but his anger and bitterness aboutwhat has happened, and continues to hap-pen, to the family farmer in California isclear.Serf ing in California: "See." he continuesas Denesse heads the car out of Del Rey andback out into open farm country. "You don'thave the corporations owning all thefarms—they don't need to. They just takeover the money-making end of it and let thefarmer become a kind of serf. A great systemhuh?"

We drive back toward Fresno, past endlessstretches of grape trellises, fields that arepunctuated by occasional dark mounds ofpomace, the residue of grape stems andseeds that are piled into heaps !!() to 30 feethigh to dry and be used as cattle feed. TheSierra Nevada mountains rise above the val-ley floor to the east, their snowy peaks turn-ing a light purple in the late afternoon sun,I think of a conversation I had the day beforewith an agriculture professor at a nearbycollege.

The agriculture of the year 2000 andhevond is, nnt go jn f l t ohp the traditionalagriculture we've had For ~ywKsCJ)tglowing with anticipator)' relish. "Agricul-ture is really going to be handled by largecorporations, by the chemical intktsUicsJij'ont and Uniuu C-uriwde are going to be doing

the farming, with the appropriate mment of the large corporations.

It strikes me that both the professor andTom Willey are predicting a similar futurefor agriculture. Their reactions «re verv d i f -ferent , of course, because while the profes-sor will be the beneficiary of that future, theWilleys will be the victims.

As we reach the fringes of Fresno we passa section of farmland that is being trans-formed into suburbia. With farming unprofit-able for the small operator, many farmersare selling out to urban developers who sub-divide the land into small tracts that are inturn sold to affluent city dwellers with ayearning for the "country life."

The blob." Tom calls the process.A brightly painted billboard announces

the offering of a new "estate": Appleseed.Two-acre parcels just minutes from down-town Fresno (and about 15 minutes from thewooden crate canyons of Del Rey, a pieceof information not listed on the sign).

"Jesus." says Tom, pointing to the solehouse as yet built on the former farmland.It is a miniature castle, complete withwooden-shingled turret and topped by asmall red flag that flaps in the wind. Heshakes his head in disgust. "Jesus," he saysagain, this time softly, almost inaudibly.

The next day as my plane returns me tothe Midwest, i gaze down through spottyclouds at the spring fields below and at themany tiny towns—mere light-coloredsmudges from this altitude—and I try to im-agine what those rolling hil ls that 1 haveknown all my life wilt look like covered withpacking crates and imitation castles. ill)Osha Davidson, a frequent contributor to InThese Times, specializes in farm issues. Heis currently working on a book about the crisisin rural America.

24 IN THESE TIMES APRIL 29-MAY 5, 1987

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