Philosophy

"Religio," the Latin match for "religion," is supposed to mean the "prudence" or awe of the supernatural, called God or Allah, that gives order to the natural world. You know, the Arabic match for religion, "taqwa," has the same meaning. In a Chinese character, 「信仰」(sinko), a correspondent for "religion," has a different meaning. It refers to the seriousness in stating something is true. But it's hard to say something is true because human beings are parts of the whole of the universe; each of them is just a part, so it cannot see the whole so that it has trouble finding what it should do. In short, human beings are required to realize their ignorance. I would say "sinko" is the same in meaning as "religion" and "taqwa."

Religions are cultural matters, this awareness gives rise to Philosophy born in Greece in which cultural matters will be excluded as can be. Talk among cultural areas has to be based on such a philosophy. Do you think now the world has philosophical attitudes?

Paranoid Policy

Did you read the article in Washingtonpost?

The US administration in handling North Korea has been in Paranoid Policy. They just fear they would fail in the same way as it did against Iraq. More important, they overlook the crucial difference between North Korea and Iraq, however. Iraq Helped terror groups, while North Korea has organized and surpervised terrors. Terrorists use violenct actions or military power to get what it want to get. In short, North Korea is a terrorist country.

The US made two mistakes. First, it assaulted Iraq without getting any proof that Iraq helped Al Quaeda to terror on 9/11, finding itself in impasse in Iraq. Second, it excluded violent actions as a choice in handling North Korea only because it failed in Iraq.

I learned in my highschool days one of the good points of the US was the US tried to find what it should or will do not preoccupied with any rule but centering on the right way because the matter you are facing shouldn't be identical with any of the events in the past.

Terrorists, again, use violent actions or weapons to get what they want to get. I don't understand why the US could exclude the choice in handling terrorists as well as take away the name of North Korea on the terrorist group list. I have to say the US is not on the right way.

Righteousness

I read Bush's speech in VFW, which was criticized in Bostonglobe for his views on Vietnam War.

To me, what annoyed me most is the sentence, "They(the Japanese in WWII) killed Americans because we stood in the way of their attempt to force their ideology on others."

The sentence expresses what Matthew Arnold called Hebrewism, based on the words in the Hebrews, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see(11/1)."

Bush, you should know that there can be differences between what you think right and what we think right. Japanese do not think our grandfathers were thoroughly correct, while they reject the Americans was perfectly right.

Big Sigh

On August 6 sixty two years ago, a nuclear bomb was exploded in Hiroshima to kill 140,000 persons including civilians. Whether the decision was right or not has been one of the controbersial topics in Japan.

According to the Gallup Poll 2005, fifty-seven percent of the Americans approved dropping an Atomic bomb on Hiroshima mainly because it reduced the number of the possible persons who would die in the war. Forty one percent of the Americans thought it was useful even for lessing the number of the possible Japanese who would die because they must have fought to their death.


But what if they were going to surrender and the American leaders knew it?

Secretery of War Henry Stimson (July 16th, 1945) and the President Truman knew it. Below is the diary of Truman of the United States of America (July 18th 1945).

Ate breakfast with nephew Harry, a sergeant in the Field Artillery. He is a good soldier and a nice boy. They took him off Queen Elizabeth at Glasco and flew him here. Sending him home Friday. Went to lunch with P.M., at 1:30 walked around to British Hqrs. Met at the gate by Mr. Churchill. Guard of honor drawn up. Fine body of men Scottish Guards. Band played Star Spangled Banner. Inspected Guard and went in for lunch. P.M. and I ate alone. Discussed Manhattan (it is a success). Decided to tell Stalin about it. Stalin had told P.M. of telegram from Jap Emperor asking for peace. Stalin also read his answer to me. It was satisfactory. Believe Japs will fold up before Russia comes in.

The Japanese leaders had tried to asked Russia to settle the war since the spring, so they needed to find a good time when Japan should surrender.

Do you think it necessary to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima in the way effective enough to succeed in surprise-attack(it is discovered that Enola Gay, the combat plane loading the atomic bomb, pretended to go away from Hiroshima to let Hiroshima lift the warning)?

But many of the Japanese know Japan's flying corps did surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which triggered the war between Japan and USA, though Japan didn't plan doing that (the diplomats didn't submit that by the date), so some of them conclude they're not qualified to blame USA either.

However, I was stunned to read the article in Bostonglobe, shown below:

Relations between the two countries have long been contentious and mutually distrustful. From Pyongyang's perspective, Japan's military alliance with the United States and its history of harsh colonial rule have remained impediments to normal relations. From Tokyo's perspective, North Korea's brazen abduction of Japanese nationals during the late 1970s and early 1980s, its repressive authoritarianism, and its flagrant militarism make North Korea a repellent neighbor.

According to this article, a feud has been established between Japan and North Korea for the reasons above.

But I doubt that Pyongyang has the view. It just tried to unite two Koreas into one by any means necessary(one of the examples). In doing that, N. Korea abducted some of the foreigners including Japanese to make them help N. Korea, and began to be criticized by Japan.

You know, N. Korea had to do those secretly and has to hide Kim Jong Il was involved in those terrors, so it needs to build the feud for the alleged reasons, one of which should be Japanese alliance with USA, which is also useful for legitimating its nuclear programme.

I love and read Bostonglobe, a liberal newspaper in US, but liberals often blame countries which seemed to be allied with American conservatives. I completely agree with Norman Mailer saying in Big Empty,

Where is the good American who does not nod his or her head in blank despair at his or her desire to believe --- even a little of what they rush to tell us all the time?

Do not allow N. Korea and some faction to deceive you.

Related article: NO POLICE.

No Justice 2

In Aljazeera English, you can read views on the Koreans abducted by the Taliban.

I don’t think the Taliban can justify what they are doing because they are doing that to Koreans. Can the Taliban admit Koreans do the same thing to Muslims living in other areas because they are categorized into Islamite? A Japanese young man was also killed there. He was blamed for taking a trip there though he was warned not to go there. I should admit he made a mistake but the persons who killed the Japanese must be charged more bitterly with their killing him.

No Police 2

Last week, six party talks adjourned to require North Korea and the neighbours to meet the requirements. NK will get so much oil and dismantle nuclear program in return, while Japan is required to show less hostility toward NK on abduction issue, and the US take the name of NK out of the list of goverments supporting terrorists, according to Washingtonpost. The neighbours gave a villain what it wanted because the villain threatened them with nuclear programme. Even in the international situation in which diverse values go, do you think the neighbors made a right decision?

Related article: No Police

Barbarians

Japan Argues to Hunt Minke Whales (washingtonpost)
Moratorium on Commercial Whaling Upheld (washingtonpost)

This news has reminded me of the words of Claude Levi-Strauss about "barbarian." The persons called "barbarians," he said, should refer to the ones who do not accept anything they are not familiar with. Before, Japanese found it strange that some westerners eat cattle, but have accepted them as food. You know, what you should live on depends upon its geographical environment. Japan has been an isolated island country where they have found foodstuff peculiar to the island. It seems to me that anti-whaling factions have something hidden against Japan in their minds. Let me call them barbarians.

If you have questions as to the status quo of whales, go to the website.

Easier Solution

I don't want to conclude the shootings in Virginia Tech must have been attributed to just abnormality in the person because discontent should lead to such abrupt massacre in some cases. I think we must recognize the current society has been incomplete, and such awareness may bring something to prevent another tragedy from assaulting us not you. I haven't organized my thought, but I'm sure it should be the first step into a possible better reformation of some part in the society.

Stookey Songs for the Abuductee

Here, you can listen to the song for Yokota Megumi, abducted by North Korean agents, composed by Paul Stookey.

Related article: No Justice

NO COMFORT?

Did you read the articles in NY Times, L.A. Times, and Bostonglobe about the sex slaves?

I was disappointed to read them because the writers seem to have written them before seeing the issue in perspective.

According to me, Japan will appologize and accept the call (though it apoligized more than once) if it is based on fair judgment and investigation into the truth, in correct judicial proceedings. But I don't think it is fair to charge a suspected person with the alleged atrocity its accusers describe.

More important, it doesn't matter if the Korean's explanation is true or not. What matters most should be found in "Agreement on the Settlement of Problem concerning Property and Claims and the Economic Cooperation between the Japan and Republic of Korea."

South Korea, in normalizing relationship with Japan after the World War II, stated that it would take care of all of the Korean individuals who were victimized by the Japan Army, taking 300 million dollars and more from Japan, as the compensation. Sadly, the Korean government spent all the money for developing the country, without gaining permission from the nation.

No Police

I'm stunned that Six Party Talk has ended in that way. What a deal is it that Norht Korea would be offered much oil while letting them know and permitting IAEA to inspect the institutions where nuclear weapons are said to have been produced! Neither justice nor cause-and-effect coherence can be found there. North Korea would not lose anything while the other countries would pay.

What they are saying is Japan needs to have nuclear weapons to claim the abductees should be returned to their home country. And I will tell China and South Korea that they haven't been qualified to blame Japan for what it did because they have allowed North Korea to do the same evil things as the alleged atrocities Japan did against them during the first half of the 20th century. Evil is evil. In their countries, can they tell their children the resolution can be called fair?

North Korea, I'm adamant, must be a regular rogue toward civilians. The world has no police to arrest villains. The US may have failed in Iraq but should not have learned how he made the mistake. In both cases, no justification in cutting deals has been made. North Korea is one of those countries like Russia, as described in "Potemkin Justice"(Washingtonpost), though it's much poor in power and quality.

P.S. A Good Deal with North Korea (Boston Blobe), Nuclear Bargaining and U.S. Flexibility Credited in Nuclear Deal With N. Korea (Washingtonpost), Pact With North Korea Draws Fire From a Wide Range of Critics in U.S. (New York Times).

Against Russia

Japanese fisherboats were taken to Russia for their alleged operations (I don't know what they have done!). A couple of months ago, a Japanese fisherboat was also assaulted and one of the crews was shot dead for their ill management and in a Russian court the captain was told to admit they were doing something in the wrong place and pay a penalty of about 1500,000 yen, or he would not be home. Reading some articles concerning this in BBC, I would be lured to conclude Russia was trying to build a borderline between Japan and Russia around the Japanese Nothern territory which was taken from Japan after the WWII, in order to silence the fact that the territory was illegitimately belonging to Russia.

To the World

To the World Whom it May Concern,

　　　　Japan seems to have been charged with its alleged attempts to whitewash the atrocities it committed during the wars in the first half of the 20th century. Some have found three symptoms of its kind in 1) some of the descriptions in the Japanese history textbooks, 2) the Japanese insistence on its own dominion over Takeshima (alleged by Korea), and 3) the present Japanese Prime Minister’s frequent visits to Yasukuni Shrine. However, I wonder how these can be regarded as the symptoms because I observe they are just indicative of Japan’s repentance and responsibility for what it did in the wars, and its results. In another expression, Japan has a firm determination not to appeal to arms to resolve international conflicts with any other countries. So, I don’t understand how those interpretations can go so far. Let me try to rectify the misunderstandings.

1) As to the Descriptions in textbooks
　　　　Again, one of the biggest lessons the wars gave Japan was you should not appeal to arms to handle international affairs because a war is just a competition in arm, so it cannot work as a way to judge what is right over a matter in question. This must have been an axiom to Japan, but our (great-) grandfathers were driven to the wars. Why? Japan thinks it necessary to study more about the international wars in the first half of the previous century, to trace how he forced himself to participate in the wars, the Shino-Japanese war and the Pacific War, whose whole picture, according to researchers, has remained incomplete. Some attribute its decisive cause to the Japanese being extremely evil. But Japan thinks it is just a layman’s answer. A factual survey of Japan’s actions during the wars shows he did so many things, some of which should be categorized as bitter wrongdoings and others should not. Some persons think the latter actions should not be described in the textbooks, but Japan wants to get a whole picture of the wars to trace the true cause(s) of the biggest tragedy that the world had ever had, so those descriptions need to be in the textbooks, in order to let the students see the wars in perspective.

2) Takeshima (Dokto)
　　　　Which country has the authorized dominion over Takeshima (Dokto)? This has been difficult to settle because there has been no clear logic in showing who the true owner of the island has been. In the beginning, what can give the authority to either of them? Is it factual records or documents? They cannot because they are just pieces of information, so they cannot give an unerring answer to the problem, so that each of the two countries is allowed to cling to his own assertion while ignoring the opponent’s statement. What should they do then? One of the most possible solutions might be to ask the International Court of Justice for help. Japan suggested doing so, but Korea has refused to agree. I don’t know why.
　　　　What I want to let Korea know most is that Korea is doing the same thing as Japan did against Korea before. Korea has put its army in Takeshima to prevent any Japanese civilian fishermen from approaching to the island. In short, Korea has appealed to arms to handle international affairs. I suggest Korea should leave the Takeshima matter to the International Court of Justice. Let me tell you Japan is not going to handle this matter with weapon.

3) Yasukuni Shrine
　　　　I would say this is a matter of intercultural conflict. So, I think Japan needs to describe and delineate how Shinto, a Japanese idiosyncratic religion, lets Japanese pay homage at the shrine. Those who have criticized the Japanese Prime Minister’s frequent visits to Yasukuni Shrine, I’m saying, do not know what the visits mean. Do you know Shinto has no doctrine to cling to and its reason? There are so many religions in the world, but they look the same in that they may help us understand or accept a fact complicated, unfathomable, and susceptible to several readings, like why we are mortal, why my baby was gone at his or her birth, why I have had no leg since I was born, why a person whom I thought honest and sincere kills another person, etc. You can say that the kind of fact should be a phenomenon in which two or more opposite interpretations can go. On the contrary, the religions are different from each other in their ways to help or let persons understand or accept those facts. I’m saying some who criticize the visits are ignorant of the way adopted in Shinto.
　　　　An event becomes a problem to you when the event collides with the one you have had. Can you guess what Shinto requires you to do then? It advises you to let those incompatible things coexist peacefully and tranquilly. In Shinto, “praying” is correspondent in meaning with not “admiring or worshipping someone” but “contemplating the kind of situation in which there are two or more things that are inconsistent with each other.” More important, the wars were an amalgam of so many phases: Japan competed with and was lost to US in the Pacific War while Japan invaded China in the Shino-Japan War like the Powers did in the world then, and the Japanese leaders committed awful mistakes in adopting strategies and made so many Japanese soldiers die in vain though they did not intend (they were not wise enough). To Japanese, those were mingled indistinctively in the wars. You should not see just one element, or you would not be able to see the wars in wider perspective. I would say that the Japanese Prime Minister praying at Yasukuni Shrine indicates an attempt to let the whole disastrous wars remain in the Japanese minds, including Japan’s remorsefulness over having made so many mistakes and their results, distress and anguish, and his grief and lamentation for those who were forced to live and survive in the Dark Age.

NY Times(August 14, 1945)

Townhall (August 20, 2006)

Who caused Katrina？

Some TV programs and websites have let us know Katrina may have been caused by Japanese Mafias. Was it a joke? Even if it was a joke, I don't like it because I know how disastrous a damage Katrina brought to some of the Southern states where my friends are there.

The TV programs and websites has reported how some of Americans blamed President Bush and FEMA for their slow responses and alleged discrimination. But my rough scrutiny of the websites and the blogs conveying the views of some of you on "who is to blame?" has revealed that the damage would have been much smaller if the New Orleans Mayor Nagin, who looks an African American at a first glance, had followed the instructions prescribed in New Orleans Official website, that is currently unavailable unless you are qualified to see it.

I'm confusing and wondering why some of not only Americans but also the world has blamed the President so bitterly. To me, it's like a political teasing, as adopted by some of the persons who belong to minority groups. My study disclosed how the minorities in the US HAVE incurred so much distress, but it seems to me it is not fair. I'm sure that is not the way my American friends will do it.

China, that looks sly to Japan.

Did you read the article in BBC, which reported the Japanese protest against China's move to get oil gas buried in the exclusive economic zone of Japan, though the place where it began to dig it is within the EEZ of China. We have the rule that an exclusive economic zone should be within 370 km from the mainland of a country. But China stated it is not from the mainland but from the continental shelf to justify siphon the gas there. Moreover, after the Japanese protest, China told Japan to work together. Japan refused its offer because it is buried under the Japanese EEZ, and permitted a Japanese company to get the gas; then, China began to say that Japan was so agressive.

Japan has been avoiding exploring such area because it didn't want any trouble with China. Then, China began to do that. In this kind of case, many of Japanese think China should not do that if it doesn't want any trouble with Japan. But I know this kind of thinking looks a little bit abstinent to some of you. Do you think the Chinese move can be OK?

No Justice

Japan is going to be isolated because it is trying to get back the abductees from North Korea in the meeting of the six countries, the US, Russia, China, South Korea, North Korea and Japan. You know, North Korea was a communist country, so it tried to communize and absorb South Korea into One Korea. Then, it abducted more than 100 Japanese to use them as secret agents for North Korea. It was a terrible crime or terror. You should imagine you're suddenly kidnapped and sent to North Korea, and you are forced to live there and to be trained as a secret agent. They have never seen their parents for more than twenty five years. Don't you think it's bitter? But the other four countries, the US, Russia, China, and South Korea, have decided to ignore the evil crime. I'm very disappointed because the problem of on which side is justice is going to be handled by whether you have nuclear weapon or not. Rather, it seems to me, a Japanese, that they are going to isolate Japan as they did to Japan in the first half of the 20th century. Do you know what it means? Isolation is the first stage toward attributing complicated and unresolved matters to the country isolated.

A remark on a report by a Chinese

Today, I found and read a report written by a Chinese who were interested in Japanese Nobel Prize Winners in Literature, came to Japan to study some of them for three years and came to hate Japanese because he felt discriminated and underestimated there. Now he is back in China, leading some group protesting against Japan. In the report, he explained how he came to dislike Japanese. He attributed his hatred toward Japan not to the brainstorming imposed on the Chinese but to his encounter with Japanese scorn for Chinese during his stay in Japan. He even found the sign "No Chinese" in front of a bathhouse in Japan. According to him, more than 90 percent of those Chinese who come and stay in Japan should become anti-Japanese, even though he loved Japanese culture before coming to Japan.

The report, he says, is the first chapter of the six. The other chapters, not published yet, are designed to describe 1) Japanese are ignorant of China and Chinese, 2) The good relationship among the East Asian countries (China, Korea, and Japan) has been destroyed by Japanese ally with the Western countries, 3) Japan is preoccupied with the illusion it has been superior to China, 4) China is requiring Japan not to give China much money but to show something sincere, and 5) Japan should ally with China to create a peaceful relation among China, Korea, and Japan, and to change the power balance in the world.

I love to read all of them. I cannot wait. The five topic sentences are attractive enough to drive me make small comments on them.

Concerning 1 and 3, I cannot say he isn't right. Some of us have categorized China as a developing country, based on the western standard of "progress," and we've been forced to update our concept of China. Now many of us recognize they don't know about China as well as Korea. But I would say this is vice versa. They don't know well about us, either.

As to the sign of "No Chinese," I'm not sure exactly why, but many of us guess some conflicts got the owner to hang out the sign. I would say they should have been caused by some cultural differences in manner, especially in distinction between public and private spheres. Bathhouses are both public and private places in Japan. There, you're required to keep some rules in your minds. I mean some Chinese would violate some of the rules common to many of Japanese. The owner, I would conclude, should have tried to preclude the bad-manner reputation because s/he was afraid Japanese customers would not come to the bathhouse.

It would be hard for me to explain and define all of the deeds that may look tacky to most Japanese. You know, customs and etiquettes in many cases refuse logical explanation. Japan has been an isolated island country since its birth, so it has engendered some cultural manners that may look absurd or illogical to you. And let me tell the Chinese it would take much more time to be familiar with a culture alien to you. Some say your three year stay would make your host country look so bitter. I have studied in a graduate school in US, but I would not like the US unless I had got two kind American friends there. The impression of a host foreign country, I would say, depends to some degree upon your company there in the first stage of your conformity to the country.

Additionally, Chinese are notorious for two reasons. First, I hear that many of Chinese don't adjust themselves to foregin environments even if they have to settle there. More important, we're scared of the Chinese because we know they come to Japan to earn just money, even if they dislike and hate Japan, and then commit crimes. Of course, it may be just rumors. But if your countrymen are assaulted by some persons belonging to one single group, some of us should be so scared of the whole group as to make a rule to preclude them. Anyway, we need to talk for mutual understanding.

His assertions in 2 and 5 sound quite interesting and right, but this is a matter of ours, as was in the early stage of the 20th century. One of the Japanese intelligensia proposed then Japan should get out of the East Asia to survive in the World revolving on the Imperialism. We don't think the judgment was the most appropriate, but we don't criticize it as the most inappropriate. Let us think about it, anyway.

The statement in 4 concerns historical matters. We're wondering why some of the Chinese like to criticize Japan referring to what it did in the past in spite of their recognition that Japan was not quite cruel and evil. The late Chinese leaders, like Deng Xiaoping, Chiang Kaishek, and Mao Tse-tung, suggested that Japan should not be blamed in their writings. I cannot trust those Chinese who know they should not criticize Japan but have criticized it for their own purposes.

remaining or forged?

Did you see the pictures? I don't understand why they need to let their children inherit such hatred against Japan from the children's great grandparents? I partly understand they cannot forgive those who killed their parents and relatives, but I don't think it good to teach them such hostility in public school. I would say the antipathy has not remained but been forged in their minds to create their own nationalism that their great grandparents really wanted to be against Japan and other imperialistic countries 100 years ago. If they want to make their occupation of Liancourt Rocks secure, they only have to leave the case to the World court, as suggested by the Japanese government. I'm afraid now some of the Korean children will offend and assault the innocent great grandchildren of the Japanese who colonized Korea 100 years ago, and that the South Korean government has no intention to be friendly with Japan. I would say they need it as the only available virtual enemy to encourage their people to work and study harder to get the country to be strong enough to assuage their anger and anguish against themselves in the past, who did nothing for their country. I would also say I could share those feelings, though.

You could read this to learn that the US supported South Korea to create the hostility to some degrees after the WWII.

Antiwar Pact

Japan has been trying to draft new laws in some of the international committees like NPT, that will bring about a peaceful society without any war, for it knows the stark fact that a war works as a game like soccer, baseball, just to decide which wins in a battle; so it does not help to judge which is right over a matter. Therefore, in the NPT meeting, Japan tried to make articles that will disarm some countries(China and US) and will prevent others(the countries in the Middle East, and North Korea) from using nuclear power strategically. But they refused it, for the proposition seems to them absurd in this real world. The NPT has been useless already. Japan has to get the seat of the permanent members of the United Nation Security Council to accomplish the purpose that it tried to attain in drafting the second article in the Paris antiwar pact in 1928.

Anti Binary Oppositions

A Japanese was killed in Iraq, who was employed as a bodyguard or something in a company. We will never forget two innocent Japanese have been killed in Iraq. Japan may have looked offensive to some in supporting the USA in the war and sending the army there, but we're adamant that the Japanese army was sent there to keep some area ivolved peaceful. I mean Japan was trying to play a different role in Iraq from the ones any other country did. You will see how many of Japanese dislike binary oppositions after studying about Japan. Our detachment from the oppisitions, which may seem to be vague, would be found in the history of Japan except in the first half of the twentieth century. Anyway, we will never forget those killings while I know some would think Japan was against them.