This is the story of the Pacific and its people, of the peaceful sea and the lands and lives it touches, and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company as a public service, and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific Basin. This broadcast series comes to you as another feature of the NBC Inter-American University of the Air, with drama of the past and present, and commentary by Owen Lattimore, authority on the Pacific and director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. Monsoon Asia, the geography of rice and rain. This is Monsoon Asia, southeastern Asia, where the rain drives down in torrents, and the lush green vegetation rivals man for existence. Burma, Thailand, French Indochina, British Malaya, the Philippines, the Netherlands Indies. Here, there is no winter, no autumn, no spring, but only a rainy season and a dry season, caused by the monsoon winds. Half the year, the monsoon winds blow from the sea, bringing rain. Half the year, they blow from the land, and Monsoon Asia broils in the dry heat. Monsoon Asia, land of fabulous riches, for centuries the battleground for imperial power. In Monsoon Asia live 147 million people, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, whites. Here is a mosaic of races and religions and cultures built on an economy of rice and rain. Nearly every man grows his own rice. They work in that water-covered field without seeming to notice the water. That is their rice idea. They accept this work as their existence. There must be millions of rice growers like these people. There are many millions. Far more men in the world grow rice than grow wheat. Ninety-five percent of all rice in the world is produced and consumed here in Monsoon Asia. But with a plot as small as this one, how can these people working this paddy here get more than a bare living? Well, they live under adverse conditions, all right, and this is the basis for some of the great problems of these millions of people. No food has as much social and economic importance as rice. But what of tin and rubber and the other rich resources of Southeast Asia? They are important, but rice is the food of millions. Rice is the main crop of Burma as it is ours, and it is our leading export. Rice is the life of the people of Monsoon Asia. The fighting for the riches of the Indies started centuries ago. Men fought for the spices of the Moluccas, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and men fought for the copra, the dried meat of the coconut, and the riches beneath the earth's surface, oil, tin, iron, chromite, nickel, coal, bauxite, and manganese. And much later, they were to fight for the priceless rubber of Malaya and Indonesia. These wondrous riches, it was, that brought the wanderers and the traders to Monsoon Asia. The land of the Khmer is beautiful and rich beyond anything we have ever seen. The temples are repositories of enormous wealth. These are Annamite travelers returned after a visit to Cambodia. Their father, did you see him? Yes. We saw him arrayed in dazzling splendor. He has soldiers around him always, but we could not tell how great his army is. But his wealth is fantastic. The ladies of his court live in unbelievable luxury. Everywhere there are glittering jewels. How great is this incomparable city of Anca? It is a great rectangular enclosure, two miles in each direction, and it is surrounded by a wall 20 to 30 feet high. And inside the enclosure is the temple of Angkor Wat, which has wondrous terraces and galleries. The walls are ornately carved and decorated with statuary. You say a million persons live at Angkor Thom. Are there more people, many more, living in the surrounding country? Oh, 20 or 30 million people. Yeah, then they must be strong. They are intelligent and resourceful, and their army is well equipped. You saw visitors from other lands at Angkor Thom? We saw visitors from Thailand who stood as amazed as we. The streets of Angkor Thom are filled with people. Enough! We must march against Cambodia at once if we are to march, or the armies of our neighbors will leave their people. To this fabulous southeast corner of Asia, to the thousands of islands of the Indies and the Philippines came men of many races and creeds, Mongolians, Indians, Arabs. From India came Hindus and Buddhists, from the north came Chinese Confucianism, from Arabia came Mohammedans. For centuries Arabs sailed before the wind to monsoon Asia in their ancient dhars. By the 13th century sea traffic to Southeast Asia had developed to such a stage that a giant Chinese junk was fitted out in Arabia for a voyage through the Indian Ocean. For weeks they've been carrying supplies aboard this great junk. The voyage will be long. None but Ibn Battuta would dare such a great voyage. Ibn Battuta is the greatest traveler of all the Arabs. Yes, none but Ibn Battuta could bring a junk so magnificent back here from across the sea. The Chinese built it. Ah, they are wise and cunning. Everyone knows the Chinese are truly the wealthiest people on earth. The junk is large as a floating city. It will carry a crew of 1,000 men, where our 400 are soldiers. 1,000 men? Yesterday I stole a board and feared for my life until I could get safely ashore. You saw the decks? Ah, yes. They are so large that garden herbs and ginger grow in gardens on them. And there are houses built on the decks for the chief officers and their wives. It is so big. How can those sails of bamboo matting pull it through the sea? See those oar holes? Those are for oars? Yes. Oars so large that ten to thirty men pull on each oar. Ibn Battuta is great indeed. Soon now the junk will be loaded. And then with the three smaller junks that are its tenders, it will sail out across the sea. Before the wind, Ibn Battuta the Arab sailed his great junk, large as a floating city, to the riches of the Indies. With bamboo matting sails, flapping in the wind against the tall peak mass, the great junk sailed out into the uncharted Indian Ocean and anchored off the Nicobar Islands. Ibn Battuta wrote in his log, Here we went ashore in search of fresh water. Natives were fearful of us and would not permit any ship to sail in front of their houses. Fresh water was brought down to the shore by elephants. None of us could speak the language of the natives and neither could they speak ours. We traded by signs. Men went about naked and the women wore a girdle of leaves only. All were remarkable for the ugliness of their dog-like faces. From here we sailed eastward. Ibn Battuta the Arab sailed his great junk across the Indian Ocean to Akyab and Rangoon in Burma, where today battles of the Pacific War are being fought and where still more important battles are in prospect. Down the Straits of Malacca, Ibn Battuta sailed with his Muslim traders. From Sumatra, Ibn Battuta sailed to Java, then up with the changing winds to Singapore, up to Thailand and Cambodia, then up the Mekong River. What a wide and lazy river. It is yellow as gold. Yes, and it leads to the greatest metropolis of all ages, Angkor Thang. We have heard of it for years. I am eager to see it. All the world stands in awe at its wonders. What was truly a vegetation there along the shore, coconut trees, and there is a banana tree and a flowering vine more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. Yes, and see the native huts. They build them higher, stilts. How strange. That is to protect the natives against the floods in the rainy seas. Yes, and against the tigers in the dry season. Look at the rice paddies between the huts. Here there are rice paddies everywhere. What is that ahead of us? The river widens out. The lake. The opalescent lake the travelers are told about. Yes, like a great opal. What are those along the shore? Those great white birds? Those are herons. Ah, herons. They are like a picture standing there in the opal water of the lake with the rich birds you behind them. So this is the setting for Angkor Thang. We are close to the great city now. It is said that it is only a short distance from the shore. Soon we will stop and then we shall go inland to behold the glory of Angkor Thang and Angkor Wat. Ibn Matuta found the most advanced civilization of his time at Angkor Thang, a grandiose city in the steaming jungles of monsoon Asia where the Cambodians led a life of enlightenment and luxury while Europe was sunk in the dark ages. This monsoon Asia where in the 13th century men were already scrambling for riches and where 700 years later the Japanese were to strike in their quest for empire. Word of the riches of the Indies spread. Columbus dreamed of a shorter route to the Indies and in 1510, Alba Kirkky in command of ten Portuguese vessels put in at Malacca, the main port in the Monaco incident. For 40 days the Portuguese ships traded at Malacca. Alba Kirkky won the friendship and the confidence of the Sultan Ahmed Shah. You have been most gracious to us, Commander Alba Kirkky. This is Sultan Ahmed Shah. You and your men have brought gifts of dollars and gold by the chest. We are honored by the friendliness of your majesty and here, here accept with our humble wishes this cloth. Ah, this beautiful cloth. It is woven of gold and silk. It is yours, your majesty. You have made me most happy. This cloth surpasses any ever seen in this land. We brought it across the seas for your majesty. What more do you require from us that you present such rich presents? We only request one thing of our friend. Should he be well inclined to the white man? Think what it is that I may hear it, for if it is in my power, I will comply with the requests of my friend. We wish only a piece of ground to the extent of what the skin of a beast may cover. Then let not my friends be unhappy. Let them take whatever spot of ground they like best to the extent of their request. How can we thank your gracious majesty? It is yours. You summon me, your majesty. It is my order that my friend may take whatever spot of ground he wishes to the extent of what the skin of a beast may cover. See that my friend has his choice of whatever land he... You drive this next stake here. Oldest stake so I can strike it. Watch well that you don't strike me. Put the cord around the stake and stretch the cord to that further stake there. Aye aye sir. But commander, his majesty the sultan ordered that you might take a spot of land to the extent of what the skin of a beast may cover. That is all we are taking. But this spot is large enough for a great building. We have cut the skin of the beast into cords and tied them one to the other. We are only measuring out the four spides with this cord. But this is more than the skin of a beast could cover. It is measured by the skin of the beast and we are taking no more. Thank his majesty for his grace. Bring them all here to drive this stake. Coming over. Hurry. The commander says we must start the building at once. You plan to build here? At once. Spades and bricks and mortar are already being brought from our ships. And soon you will see here a house larger than you ever knew. From the ten ships lying in the harbor came builders brought from Portugal for the purpose. Within the four sides of the space outlined by the cord, Albuquerque's men set feverishly about the construction of the great house. In the walls they left large square apertures for guns. The natives looked down and asked, what is the reason for leaving those openings? Those? Oh they are the openings that the white men require for windows. While the builders were busy on the great house in the daytime, the night was used for other purposes. Easy, easy. Those lines are strong enough to hold the cannon? Yes sir. We are using double tackles you see. If the line should part, the cannon would drop and kill every man in that boat below there. Besides, we should lose the cannon. It will hold. Easy, easy there. Throw it away, little more, little more. Give them a hand to get the cannon down into the boat there. Pull it over there. That is well. That is good. You have the cannon safely in the boat. That is the first one sir. The rest should be easier. We can get these cannons ashore and into the fort at night sir, but what of the small arms? Pack the small arms in chests and bring them ashore in the daytime. Should anyone inquire? Tell them that their contents are closed. Yes sir. We have all the cannons and the small arms ashore. And in the fort before. When the Portuguese arms were in order in the fort, Afonso Albuquerque at midnight gave the order and from the apertures, thundered the guns. Where is Commander Albuquerque? How did the natives behave in the city? They are in panic. Oh Commander Albuquerque. The Sultan Ahmed Shah. What happened to him? He ran away sir. The guns destroyed all the houses of the people and their palm trunk fort and the Sultan and his people have fled in all directions. We will take possession of Malacca at once. The first of the empire builders had come to Monsoon Asia. With sword and money and blandishments they established themselves. From their base at Malacca, the Portuguese reached out for their goal, the Molucca. The wind is coming up. The wind is not our greatest danger in these waters. We have a Malay pilot and he knows well the waters of the archipelago. Sometime the Javanese will be laying in wait for us. We are armed. Yeah but we are no match for them. One ship against many. They have opposed the spread of our trade, especially to the Spice Islands from the very first. The Sultans of Java and Sumatra have harried our ships whenever we have come through here. But they have never been able to stop our Spice Trade. But they will keep trying. They know the Spice Trade is the prize of the Indians. Well soon we will be in the Moluccas. Sail home! Sail home! The lookout spotted the ship. We're away! Two points south of Fort Baal. Can you see it? Yes, yes, there. There off the Fort Baal. That's a native warship. A Macassarese vessel. I can tell by the readings. All hands! All hands! Man the pieces! Enemy ships! Man the pieces! Sail home! Sail home! Sail home! Sail home! We're on the way! Get ahead! Three vessels! Get ahead! Three vessels! Those two are Javanese vessels and the other one is Bandanese. They have germed forces. Macassarese, Javanese and Bandanese. They'll be closing in on us to try to board us. And their knives are sharp. Those, those, those cannons! We must hold them off! If they close without, we are lost! Oh guns loaded, sir! Draw your truck laces! They're closing on us! Fire! Enemy! With the Cors, the Portuguese kept their hold on the Spice Islands and expanded it with the passing years. From the Indies, they brought spices and silks and white sandalwood to Lisbon. And here too came traders from rival nations to buy and to dream of empires of their own in monsoon Asia. For nearly a hundred years, Portugal kept secret her routes to the Orient, her charts and her sailing direction, hoarded them like emeralds and rubies and then... I have come to you because you are a merchant. Yeah? You have been to Lisbon? Oh, many times. Our merchant cities here in Holland have grown upon the Lisbon trade. What is your name again? Kwan Linh Shorten. Yours, Kwan Linh Shorten. Kwan Linh Shorten, yeah. And you know the Eastern Wouts? I have talked to sailors of the Portuguese ships. But they are forbidden to talk to foreigners. I was a writer to the Bishop of Goa. And there the Portuguese sailors came to the Cathedral. Yeah? So I have come to Holland. And to you because you are a Dutch merchant. How tall is your knowledge of the Portuguese Wouts? I could chart a course to the Indies. If I fitted out a ship, would you sail in it? Yeah, I would. The Indies is great wealth. The Portuguese hold the Malaccas. The Spice Islands. There might be an opportunity for us. There might be. They must be fascinating, the Indies. Best we go there and see. We could star out by building. The scramble for empire in Monsoon Asia was on. Portugal was there. Soon would come Britain and Spain and France. And much later the other Western powers. And here they would fight the latest of the empire builders. The Americans. Southeast Asia with its rice and rain. With its riches that have become legend through the centuries. Had fallen under the shadow of the Westerners. And now for some hundreds of years the struggle here was to be an important part of the great conflict between the East and the West in the Pacific War. Monsoon Asia with its teeming millions, its many races and colors and creeds. Has influenced the entire world. And here to tell its underlying meaning is Owen Lattimore. Authority on the Pacific and Director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Lattimore. Half of the people alive in the world today live in Asia. They total about one billion people. The region in which they are most densely concentrated is Monsoon Asia. When we Americans think of a densely populated area, we think of an industrial area where many people live crowded together because they work at machines in factories. In American farming areas people live at a comfortable distance apart with plenty of land and lots of fresh air between them. Monsoon Asia is just the opposite of this. Here it is farming that crowds people together. A peculiar kind of farming regulated by the monsoon seasons. During the wet monsoon the combination of heavy rain and steady heat produces a terrific growth of plants and trees and crops. The people of Monsoon Asia long ago devoted their attention to growing the one crop which produces the most food per acre during the monsoon rains. Rice has become part of the rhythm of human life. The coming of the rains every year is almost as regular as if it were all part of a huge clockwork machine run by nature. Matching this clockwork of nature, the cultivation of rice has grown into a mechanical clockwork of human society. It takes so many days for the water to soak the earth into deep soft mud. Stir up the mud with a wooden plow. If you have a water buffalo to drag the plow, so much the better. But if you do not, men and women can turn the soft mud over by digging. Then plant the seeds by hand. And just so many days later the tusks of young rice will begin to show. When the tusks are just so high, pluck them out of the mud and transplant them into another field to grow and ripen. This field must be weeded and irrigated at regular intervals until the grain ripens ready for the harvest. Over and over again, in cases hundreds of miles apart, I have seen this done in exactly the same way. When they dig, when they plant, when they weed, and when they harvest, men and women do the same thing over and over again as if their muscles were machined. The reaper uses a one-handed sickle. Gathering a tuft of stalks in his left hand, he draws the sickle against them with his right hand. Some kinds of rice have very loose grains, easily shaken off if the stalks are carried away from the field. So the threshing is done right on the spot. Big woven baskets are set out in the field. The harvesters pick up double handfuls of stalks and with a hooping motion lash them down on the rim of the basket so that the heads of grain are shaken off into the basket. This kind of farming is about as different from ours as it could be. It is more like gardening, the most intensive kind of market gardening. It eats up human labor with a hunger that is never satisfied, for digging, for weeding, for tending and cleaning the irrigation ditches, for building terraces to grow rice on the hillsides as well as in the flat valleys. We measure farming by the number of acres a man can tend. In monsoon Asia they measure labor by the amount needed for a few square yards. This is the part of the world which needs the most people per square mile in order to grow the most food per square foot. And this is what sets the pattern of the history of civilization within the geography of rice and grain. Conditions favored the early beginnings of civilization. More people lived together than in most early civilizations and this made it necessary to develop organization and government. Out of organization and government there developed ruling classes which had leisure, time to think and have ideas, the power to give orders and an ample reserve of manpower to carry out orders and fulfill ideas. On the other hand, the civilizations of the region of rice and grain never developed machinery as a substitute for manpower. Machinery is what multiplies and extends the work done by human muscles. For the rulers of the lands of rice and grain, ample manpower was the sum and substance of all work and effort. They never worried about finding substitutes for human labor. Their only problem was how much they could do with human labor. The civilizations of monsoon Asia accomplished remarkable things in engineering, but in canning vast irrigation works and building with huge blocks of stone, the motive power which they used was human muscle, not engines. A civilization which depends entirely on human muscle may be very sophisticated but fatally weak. We can see this from the ruins of luxurious palaces and cities in monsoon Asia. If the manpower failed for some reason, a plague or a barbarian invasion, the life-giving monsoon rains became suddenly an overwhelming menace. In a couple of years, the fast-growing vines and the jungle could swarm over a city that it had taken decades to build. In the modern world, our problems join up with those of monsoon Asia. Surplus manpower choked the growth of machinery in Asia. Lack of manpower stimulated the invention and use of machinery in pioneer America. Today we live in a world in which the machine has become so powerful that on the one hand there is no country which machinery cannot invade, while on the other hand the use of machinery cannot be denied to any people. At the same time, there is a political problem that goes along with machinery. The political system known as democracy is betweenbrother of mechanized factory industry. The history of the industrial revolution is inseparable from the history of the American and French revolutions. Today the machine has access to every country in the world. At the same time, the people of every country in the world demand access to political democracy. Since half the people of the world live in the Asiatic countries in which there is the least machinery, we can describe our problem in two ways. If we are to have freedom, men must own machines and must not be owned by machines. And if we are to have a democratic world, then we must allow for the development of political democracy among that half of humanity which at present does not have political democracy. Monsoon Asia is no longer a distant region of strange climatic behavior. It is part of the problem of contemporary America. Thank you, Mr. Lattimore. Music You have just heard the seventh program of the new series, The Pacific Story. Next week at the same time over most of these stations, the eighth will be broadcast. Monsoon Asia, Adventurers and International Rivalry, with drama of the past and present and commentary by Owen Lattimore, authority on the Pacific, and director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. You may secure an illuminating handbook of the Pacific Story with background information on each program in the series, with suggested further reading. This Pacific Story manual will be sent to you for 25 cents in coin to cover cost of printing and mailing. Address, the University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Music The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Markwas. The musical score is composed and conducted by Charles Vance, your narrator, Gain Whitman. This program has been presented as a public service and another feature of the Inter-American University of the Air by the National Broadcasting Company and the independent radio stations associated with the NBC network. This is the National Broadcasting Company. Music
