"first to go and bury my father" - The Takeshima Islands

The Sagami Bay, Southwest of Tokyo

The Takeshima Islands

The Korean Peninsula was annexed to the Empire of Japan between 1910 and 1945.

Thus, Koreans are trying to  revenge this past.

In this movement, Korea today claims to the world that the Sea of Japan should be called the East Sea.  However, the East Sea is just part of the Sea of Japan (where Takeshima Island is situated).  Traditionally Koreans called the sea area off the Korean Peninsula the East Sea.  So, the East Sea is just part of the Sea of Japan facing Russia and Japan.

In this irrational manner, South Koreans today also claim that Takeshima Island belongs to South Korea, which is denied by historical facts.

Now, the Japanese Government has a Web site to explain how the Takeshima Islands in the Sea of Japan belong to Japan.

Outline of Takeshima Issue 

1. Recognition of Takeshima 

In Japan, a group of islands currently known as Takeshima were once called "Matsushima" and the island now known as Utsuryo, located approximately 92 km west-northwest of Takeshima, used to be called "Takeshima" or "Isotakeshima." Although there has been a period of temporary confusion concerning the names of Takeshima and Utsuryo Island due to an error in the charting of Utsuryo Island by European explorers and others, it is obvious from a variety of written documents that Japan has long recognized the existence of "Matsushima" and "Takeshima". For example, on many maps, including the Kaisei Nippon Yochi Rotei Zenzu (Revised Complete Map of Japanese Land and Roads - first published in 1779) by Sekisui Nagakubo, which is the most prominent published cartographic projection of Japan, the locations of Utsuryo Island and Takeshima are accurately recorded at their current position between the Korean Peninsula and the Oki Islands. On the other hand, there is no evidence showing that the republic of Korea(ROK) has long recognized the existence of Takeshima.

2. Sovereignty of Takeshima 

In Japan, since Jinkichi Ohya and Ichibei Murakawa, who were both merchants of Yonago in the Houki-no-kuni region in the Tottori clan, received permission for passage to Utsuryo Island (then "Takeshima") from the Shogunate via the feudal lord of Tottori at the beginning of the Edo Period in the early 17th century, the two families took turns in traveling to Utsuryo Island once every year and engaging in activities such as harvesting abalone, hunting sea lions and the felling bamboo and other trees. Takeshima that was in the route to Utsuryo Island was used as a docking point for ships and a fishing ground. Japan established the sovereignty of Takeshima by the beginning of the Edo Period, in the mid 17th century at the very latest. 

3. Prohibition of Passage to Utsuryo Island 

The business activities on Utsuryo Island conducted by the Ohya and Murakawa families continued peacefully for about 70 years. However, when the Murakawa family traveled to the island in 1692, and when the Ohya family traveled there in 1693, they encountered many Koreans on the island engaged in fishing. This led to the initiation of negotiations between the governments of Japan and Korea as to the sovereignty of Utsuryo Island. Eventually the Shogunate issued a ban on the passage of ships to Utsuryo Island in January 1696 (So called "Takeshima Ikken - The Affair of Takeshima"). On the other hand, passage to Takeshima was not banned. This clearly shows that Japan has regarded Takeshima as its territory since then.

4. Incorporation of Takeshima into Shimane Prefecture 

Around Takeshima, full-scale sea lion hunting started at the beginning of the 1900s. However, because sea lion hunting soon became excessively competitive, Yozaburo Nakai, a resident of the Oki Islands in Shimane Prefecture, to stabilize his sea lion hunting business, submitted a request in September 1904 to three government ministers (Home Minister, Foreign Minister, and Agriculture and Commerce Minister) for the incorporation of the Lyanko Islands (note) into the territory, as well as for a 10-year lease. Upon this request, the government, in consideration of the opinions of the Shimane Prefectural government, issued a cabinet decision that the government reaffirmed its intention to incorporate Takeshima into Shimane Prefecture and claim sovereignty over the island.
(Note) "Lyanko Islands" was a Japanese colloquial term for Takeshima derived from "Liancourt Islands," the Western name given to Takeshima. At that time, Utsuryo Island was called "Matsushima" in addition to "Takeshima" and the current Takeshima called "Lyanko Islands" in addition to "Matsushima" because of charting errors by European explorers.

5. Takeshima Immediately After World War II 

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Instruction Note (SCAPIN) No. 677 issued by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) in 1946 classified Takeshima as one of the specified areas where Japan should cease exerting political or administrative power. In addition, SCAPIN No. 1033 designated Takeshima as an area outside the zone within which Japanese fishing boats were permitted to operate. However, both SCAPIN documents contained a statement that they should not be regarded as an ultimate determination in the policy of the Allies concerning the assignment of Japanese sovereign territory. It is also clear that the treatment of Takeshima before the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which established the territory of Japan, became effective does not influence the issue of the sovereignty of Takeshima.

6. Treatment of Takeshima in the Process of Drafting the San Francisco Peace Treaty 

The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed in September 1951, stipulates that Japan, recognizing the independence of Korea, renounces all right title and claim to Korea, including the islands of Quelpart, Port Hamilton and Dagelet". Upon learning of the content of this part of the Treaty drafted by the United States and the United Kingdom, the ROK requested the United States to add Takeshima as one of the regions for which Japan would renounce all right, title and claim. The United States rejected the request by responding that Takeshima had never been treated as part of Korea and does not appear ever before to have been claimed by Korea. Such correspondence clearly shows that Takeshima was affirmed as part of the territory of Japan.

7. Takeshima as a Bombing Range for U.S. Forces 

The U.S. Forces used Takeshima as a bombing range for the U.S. Forces from July 1951 based on Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Instruction Note (SCAPIN) No. 2160. In July 1952, as the U.S. Forces expressed its desire to continue to use Takeshima, the Joint Committee established for the purpose of the implementing of the Japan-U.S. Administrative Agreement, designated Takeshima as a bombing range for the U.S. Forces. The Agreement stipulated that the Joint Committee shall serve as the means for consultation in determining the facilities and areas in Japan. Therefore, the fact that Takeshima was discussed by the Committee and the fact that the island was designated as an area for use by the U.S. Forces stationed in Japan clearly indicate that Takeshima is part of the territory of Japan.

8. Installation of "Syngman Rhee Line" and Illegal Occupation of Takeshima by the Republic of Korea 

In January 1952, the President of the ROK, Syngman Rhee, issued a declaration concerning maritime sovereignty, with which he installed the so-called "Syngman Rhee Line". Installation of this line encompassing the Takeshima islands was a unilateral act in contravention of international law. In July 1953, a Japanese patrol vessel of the Maritime Safety Agency (now the Japan Coast Guard) was fired on by Korean officers supporting and protecting Korean fishermen. In June 1954, the ROK Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the ROK Coast Guard had dispatched a permanent battalion to Takeshima. Since then, the ROK has kept security personnel stationed on Takeshima and constructed lodgings, a monitoring facility, lighthouse, port and docking facilities.
The occupation of Takeshima by the ROK is illegal, with no basis in international law. No measure taken by the ROK concerning Takeshima during its illegal occupation has any legal justification. Such acts are not acceptable in any way, given Japan'position on its sovereignty over Takeshima. Japan has been consistently making strong protests against each and every measure taken by the ROK with respect to Takeshima and demanding the withdrawal of the measure.

9. Proposal of Submission to the International Court of Justice 

Since the installation of the "Syngman Rhee Line" by the ROK, Japan has repeatedly protested against the ROK's actions, such as claims of sovereignty over Takeshima, fishing activities around Takeshima, firing at patrol vessels and the construction of structures on the island. With the intention to peacefully resolve the dispute, Japan proposed, with a note verbal, in September 1954 to the ROK the submission of the dispute to the International Court of Justice; the ROK rejected the proposal in October of the same year. In addition, on the occasion of Foreign Ministerial talks in March 1962, Zentaro Kosaka, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, made a proposal to Choi Duk-Shin, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of the ROK, to refer the issue to the Court, and again this proposal was not accepted by the ROK. This situation has remained the same until now.

 http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/takeshima/position.html

As Korea was annexed to the Empire of Japan from 1910 to 1945, South Koreans are trying to avenge the past history on the current Japanese.  South Koreans are trying to get the part of the Japanese territory Takeshima no matter how it is clear and self-evident that the islands in the Sea of Japan belong to Japan.

Truth of Japan's Annexation of the Korean Peninsula

For another instance, the UK colonized various African and Asian regions, nations, and kingdoms. The British took natural resources from those colonies to Great Britain to manufacture various products.  Then it sold them to people in colonies.  Of course, for example, some Indians earned money through trade with the UK, but the UK Government forced them to deposit money they earned in banks in London.  The rule of the UK in colonies was essentially complete exploitation.

But, the rule of the Empire of Japan in Korea was utterly different while the Empire annexed and governed the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.  The Empire tried to pull up the social and industrial level of Korea as much as possible.  Tokyo wanted to make Korea eventually an integral part of the Empire with equal status.  Japanese leaders at the time wanted to make Korea true extension of the empire but not a simple colony.

The Empire of Japan started modernization and westernization since the middle of the 19th century over the fall of the last samurai regime the Tokugawa shogun presided over.  While the Empire succeeded in tackling this difficult task, it observed the Korean Kingdom.  The Korean Kingdom had also closed the country like Japan of the samurai era.  So, Japanese politicians forced Korea to open the door, though Tokyo used some military powers to do so.  It was partly because the Russian Empire was aiming at colonizing East Asia; the military pressure from the Russian Empire on the Empire of Japan was so huge.  Japanese needed a big buffer zone in the Korean Peninsula as Russians got big interest in Manchuria, north of the Peninsula, through imperialistic negotiation with the Qing dynasty.

But after decades, Japanese leaders found that the Korean Kingdom did not show progress enough to stand with the Empire against Russians invading East Asia.  So, Tokyo decided to annex Korea to the Empire.

At the time, starvation was prevailing in the Korean Peninsula as the skill level of Korean agriculture was far behind the Japanese one.  So, Tokyo offered to the Korean Government two thirds of funds needed to save starving Koreans.

After integration of Korea, the Japanese Government allocated 10% of the Japanese national budget to Korea so as to develop and improve social infrastructure, educational and medical systems, railroad systems, etc. As a result, the population of Korea increased to 22.5 million in 1940, though it was only 13.3 million before 1910 when Korea was annexed to the Empire of Japan.

Before the political integration of Korea into the Empire, the Korean society was split into two: the noble class and farmers, etc.  The Korean noble class respected Confucius and the Chinese traditional culture.  They used mainly Chinese letters in reading and writing, while the literacy rate among all the Koreans was less than 10% before the annexation.  But under the Japanese rule, it was recommended that Korean schools taught Hangul letters which were unique Korean letters and which were easy for ordinary Koreans to learn.  Of curse, the Japanese language was also taught in schools in Korea as Koreans were now of Japanese nationality, and the literacy rate among Koreans went up to 65% by 1936.  In this way, Japanese liberated poor Koreans from an oppressive environment they were forced to live in by the Korean noble class.

So, the Korean society could undergo modernization and westernization with huge support and help from the Empire of Japan.  Similar condition was observed in development of Taiwan that had been under the Japanese administration since 1895.  Indeed, the Empire of Japan invested funds into those areas annexed to the Empire more than it could get from them.  

However, after WWII, Koreans got independent, though they were split into two nations: one under the strong influence of the Soviet Union and another of the US.

The Korean Peninsula also unfortunately underwent a war from 1950 to 1953 between the South and the North.  Behind the South there was the US and behind the North there were two communist countries: the USSR and China.

And, today, Koreans never cease to blame Japan for the past Japanese rule on the Korean Peninsula, as if a prosperous and highly-civilized kingdom had been conquered, controlled, and colonized by militarist Japanese.  They never cease to blame Japan even in the US.  But the story on the Japanese side is very different as you now know.

Seoul Before and After the Annexation to the Empire of Japan
http://azplanning.cocolog-nifty.com/neko/2011/07/post-47ee.html 

The Empire of Japan founded the Seul Imperial University to educate Koreans.
http://nandakorea.sakura.ne.jp/html/nikkanrekisi.html

The Empire of Japan built in Korea the second largest hydro power generation plant in Asia to supply electricity for Korea and Manchuria.
http://nandakorea.sakura.ne.jp/html/nikkanrekisi.html

A Lie about Korean Women

There is a Japanese man who falsely diffused the story of Korean women who were forced to work for Imperial soldiers by the Imperial Government of Japan.

Though the man actually admitted that he had lied after his book on this theme were widely read, strong influences of his false act for justice could be widely seen in South Korea and the U.S.  The book explained how Korean women had been taken forcibly by officials of the Imperial Government of Japan without consent into the special work for Imperial soldiers.  But it was later proved to be a fictitious story.   

The Japanese Government conducted research, several times since 1990s, on any official documents left indicating that the Imperial Government had been officially involved in collecting such Korean women.  But no evidence was found.

Yūto Yoshida (born 15 October 1913) is a Japanese writer and former soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army. He has published under a variety of pen names, including Seiji Yoshida, Tōji Yoshida, and Eiji Yoshida. 

Originally from Yamaguchi Prefecture on the Sea of Japan, Yoshida was stationed in Korea, then a colony of Japan, during World War II; he claimed that he assisted police to kidnap over 2,000 women from various rural areas of the Korean peninsula to serve as comfort women.[3] After the war, he ran as a Japanese Communist Party candidate in the 1947 Shimonoseki city council elections, but was defeated. 

In 1977 and again in 1983, Yoshida published memoirs about his actions during the war.[3] His books and a subsequent 1991 media interview have been credited with bringing about an apology to Korea by Foreign Affairs minister Yōhei Kōno.[4] As Yoshida's memoirs became widely known, he began to attract suspicion. Ikuhiko Hata, a historian at Takushoku University and one of Yoshida's leading critics, pointed to inconsistencies between Yoshida's 1977 and 1983 memoirs, using these to assert that his claims are fabricated.[3] South Korean newspaper interviews with residents of Jeju Island, where the forced recruitment allegedly took place, found no one who admitted to remembering a sweep through a button factory there which Yoshida detailed in his 1983 memoirs.[2][3] In May 1996, weekly magazine Shūkan Shinchō published remarks by Yoshida made to them in an interview, admitting that portions of his work had been made up. He stated that "There is no profit in writing the truth in books. Hiding the facts and mixing them with your own assertions is something that newspapers do all the time too".[5][6][7] In June 2009, 李栄薫(이영훈), who is a professor of Seoul National University, argued that Yoshida's testimony has spread among Korean society after Yoshida published books.  

Since then, revisionist historians seeking to deny or downplay the existence of comfort women commonly mention Yoshida and his testimony; they cherry-pick his work as an example of low-credibility writing and attack his claims that specific women in certain locations were enslaved as comfort women, with the aim of denying that any women anywhere were victims of sexual violence by the Imperial Japanese Army.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiji_Yoshida 

Even today it is well known that South Korea sends many prostitutes to the world, many of whom are actually in Japan.  And, when Koreans were poorer than today, there must have been many women who were recruited by those in such business.  The traders must have had special connection with some units of the Imperial Army. 

In addition, as Korea was annexed to the Empire of Japan in 1910, Koreans were actually Japanese till 1945.

Anyway, what Japanese officials and experts on this issue point to is that the Imperial Government in Tokyo never issued an order to use Korean women for Imperial soldiers, though they admit that there were such women following Imperial troops. The Japanese authority today thinks those women were under private contracts. 

So, South Koreans today lie that the Imperial Government was responsible for existence of those Korean women.  And, they lie also when claiming that 200,000 Korean women were abused for such a purpose.  It is a big lie. 


### ###

In 1992, a professor of Seoul University and others made a survey on surviving 55 women who voluntarily submitted their names as the so-called comfort women.  An interview per person was conducted in five to six times taking long time.  But, it was judged that more than half of them gave garbled statements.  Finally, they could report testimonies of only 19 women.

Tsutomu Nishioka, a Japanese expert on the history of modern Korea, further checked contents of the reports on those 19 Korean women.  He found that only four of them were victims of "forced recruitment."  But, locations two of the four mentioned as their past work places were found to have not existed during WWII.  And, the remaining two of the four women identified themselves as professional prostitutes in written complaints they submitted to a court when the Japanese Government was set to sue by them.
  
So, finally, there are no Korean women identified so far as true victims of the Imperial Government of Japan that allegedly issued an order to abuse Korean women for Imperial soldiers.


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Mat 8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

"how many baskets full of fragments" - A Letter by Ambassador Grew

Tokyo...

A Letter by Ambassador Grew

In 1932, Joseph Clark Grew came to Tokyo from Washington DC as the ambassdor to the Empire of Japan.

Grew was a cousin of John Pierpont Morgan who founded the Morgan banking empire.  Grew got many friends in Tokyo, especially in the upper class of the Japanese society, including the imperial family.  He was also a good observer of the Empire without a racial prejudice and preconceived ideas based on the European sense of mastery.  

Tokyo, May 11, 1933
My dear Mr. Secretary:

For your information I am enclosing a copy of a special report from the Military Attaché of the Embassy, describing the Japanese Army's methods of increasing its strength by means of voluntary contributions from the people and indicating, in the closing paragraphs, the tremendous military power which Japan is developing. This report gives an admirable picture of one phase of Japan's fighting strength, but I would like to describe to you, briefly the whole picture as I see it; that is, the strength of the Japanese nation as a whole and particularly the strength of the combined Japanese fighting machine. Japan is so often spoken of as a small, over-crowded nation , cooped up within the confines of a few small islands, without natural resources, and largely dependent upon foreign sources for its foodstuffs, that people in other countries sometimes fail to appreciate the facts and to realize the actual and potential power of these people.

The Japanese Empire is not a small country, as compared with the countries of Europe, at least. The Empire itself, without "Manchukuo," has an area considerably greater than that of France or Germany and much more than that of either Spain or Italy. Including the area of "Manchukuo," which to all practical purposes is under Japanese control, the total area of Japan and its dependencies is greater than that of France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark combined. The population of the Japanese Empire proper is 90 millions; with that of "Manchukuo" it is around 120 millions, or nearly the same as that of the United States. And these people (or that part of them which is of the Japanese race) are intelligent, industrious, energetic, extremely nationalistic, war-loving, aggressive and, it must be admitted, somewhat unscrupulous. So Japan cannot be considered as a small or a weak country. Nor is it living on the verge of starvation, keeping the wolf from the door by super-human exertions. Japan can and does raise enough foodstuffs (even without "Manchukuo") to feed the population quite comfortably, and in years of large harvests is embarrassed by the surplus of foodstuffs....

However, although we are faced with this tremendously powerful fighting machine across the Pacific, I think that our anxiety can be lessened by the fact that this machine does not seem to be designed for aggressive action outside of the Far East. The Japanese fighting machine, unless I am very much mistaken, is designed for the purpose of keeping Western nations from interfering while Japan carries out its ambitions in Asia, whatever they may be. It is true that the Japanese fighting forces consider the United States as their potential enemy, and sometimes direct their maneuvers against a potential American attack be sea or air, but that is because they think that the United States is standing in the path of the nation's natural expansion and is more apt to interfere with Japan's ambitious than are the European nations.

Whether directed at us or not, however, I believe that it would be well for us to keep this tremendous Japanese fighting machine in mind when discussing disarmament.

More than the size of the nation or the strength of its fighting machine, however, the thing which makes the Japanese nation actually so powerful and potentially so menacing, is the national morale and esprit de corps-a spirit which perhaps has not been equaled since the days when the Mongol hordes followed Genghis Khan in his conquest of Asia. The force of a nation bound together with great moral determination, fired with national ambition, and peopled by a race with unbounded capacity for courageous self-sacrifice is not easy to overestimate.

Respectfully yours

Joseph C. Grew 

Truly, to fight until the end, defeat, and occupy any part of the US was not a national aim for the Empire of Japan even when it started to attack Pearl Harbor.

The Imperial Government could not withdraw its troops from China though the US requested so.  But the Imperial Navy relied on crude oil it imported from the US for fuel of the imperial fleets while the US decided to stop exporting oil to the Empire in the summer of 1941 or several months before the Pearl Harbor attack.

So, in order to secure its freedom of military operation in China and Southeast Asia (to obtain natural resources), the Empire of Japan had to eradicate the interference power of the US.  Its war against the US in WWII was not aimed at occupying Hawaii, landing on California, and taking American territory (except its colony the Philippines).

But how did they justify such an adventurous war against the US whose GDP was ten times larger than that of the Empire at the time?

Leaders of the Empire of Japan in late 1930s thought or expected that Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, and the Empire of Japan could form an anti-Anglo-Saxon coalition.  Nonetheless, Tokyo did not abolish its treaty with Germany despite Hitler's launching a war against the Soviet Union.

Of course, the history should have been very different if the Imperial military had started to attack the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 as Germany was advancing in the territory of the USSR toward Moscow.  Imperial leaders actually studied this possible war, but finally they gave up the idea because expected casualties of the imperial troops could not match what it would be able to get in east Siberia.  The Imperial Government decided to go and get rich natural resources in Southeast Asia where western powers built great infrastructure through their rule in colonies.

Anyway it was a crazy era as the Empire of Japan was making war against China, the US, and possibly the Soviet Union (though the USSR invaded the Japanese territory of the Manchukuo a week before the Empire surrendered to the US and its allies).

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ryoutarou18810801/folder/1515102.html


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Mar 8:19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
Mar 8:20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
Mar 8:21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

"Having eyes, see ye not?" - How to Know the God

The Tokyo Railway Station

How to Know the God

The God is almighty and omnipotent.

But how?

He must record every phenomenon on the earth.  He must know, for example, every number of any item.  He must know the number of hairs of every person on the earth.  He must know the number of leaves of every plant on this earth.  He must know the total number of rocks, stones, and grains of sand.

He must also know every movement of each hair of every person with a time stamp. He must record every movement of every creature.  He must record it at every angle.  He must have a complete record of every person along with a flow of time.

So, He must have a complete record of the earth since its creation.

But for what?  For the final judgment?

However, one thing sure is that we can imagine such ability of the God.  And, while we can imagine such ability of the God, if the God cannot do it, He cannot be almighty and omnipotent.

And, other important issue is how the God lives?

The life of the God must be very different from living of a human being who is born and die.  What does it mean for the God to live?  He must not be born and die in a human sense.  It is beyond our imagination.

Of course you can deny existence of the God.  But it does not lead you anywhere.  Civilization of mankind grew with people thinking about the God to play leading roles.  By thinking about the God, mankind got wiser and accumulated knowledge.

Nonetheless, extreme pursuit of the God might result in too much awe in the God or confusion and fatigue in brain work.

Accordingly, it is safer to think about the God based on the holy books or some authentic documents such as the Bible if you cannot rely on a long tradition of your religion, including Judaism.

In the modern world some scholars studied the God.  But they seem to have been thinking at a lower level than that observed 2000 years ago.  As time went by, people came to use more phrases and logic but the level at which they researched the God looked like getting lower.  At the lower level, they think using merely more words but without more correct understanding.

Maybe for Christianity, early followers of Christ had the highest level of understanding of the God.  As time went by, words Christians used to describe the God increased and got enriched but their level got lower.

So, top scholars of a religion always refer to original words the founder of the religion used while he was teaching original followers.

And as the God is almighty and omnipotent, every answer for any question about Him must be found in the holy book or the Bible.

In this context, the Gospels must be the most important source for knowledge of the God and Christ Jesus.

http://www.vip-club.tv/indexbible.htm

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Mar 8:18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
Mar 8:19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
Mar 8:20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
Mar 8:21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

"For nothing is secret" - Truth of Japan's Annexation of the Korean Peninsula

The National Diet Bldg. Street, Tokyo

Truth of Japan's Annexation of the Korean Peninsula

For another instance, the UK colonized various African and Asian regions, nations, and kingdoms. The British took natural resources from those colonies to Great Britain to manufacture various products.  Then it sold them to people in colonies.  Of course, for example, some Indians earned money through trade with the UK, but the UK Government forced them to deposit money they earned in banks in London.  The rule of the UK in colonies was essentially complete exploitation.

But, the rule of the Empire of Japan in Korea was utterly different while the Empire annexed and governed the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.  The Empire tried to pull up the social and industrial level of Korea as much as possible.  Tokyo wanted to make Korea eventually an integral part of the Empire with equal status.  Japanese leaders at the time wanted to make Korea true extension of the empire but not a simple colony.

The Empire of Japan started modernization and westernization since the middle of the 19th century over the fall of the last samurai regime the Tokugawa shogun presided over.  While the Empire succeeded in tackling this difficult task, it observed the Korean Kingdom.  The Korean Kingdom had also closed the country like Japan of the samurai era.  So, Japanese politicians forced Korea to open the door, though Tokyo used some military powers to do so.  It was partly because the Russian Empire was aiming at colonizing East Asia; the military pressure from the Russian Empire on the Empire of Japan was so huge.  Japanese needed a big buffer zone in the Korean Peninsula as Russians got big interest in Manchuria, north of the Peninsula, through imperialistic negotiation with the Qing dynasty.

But after decades, Japanese leaders found that the Korean Kingdom did not show progress enough to stand with the Empire against Russians invading East Asia.  So, Tokyo decided to annex Korea to the Empire.

At the time, starvation was prevailing in the Korean Peninsula as the skill level of Korean agriculture was far behind the Japanese one.  So, Tokyo offered to the Korean Government two thirds of funds needed to save starving Koreans.

After integration of Korea, the Japanese Government allocated 10% of the Japanese national budget to Korea so as to develop and improve social infrastructure, educational and medical systems, railroad systems, etc. As a result, the population of Korea increased to 22.5 million in 1940, though it was only 13.3 million before 1910 when Korea was annexed to the Empire of Japan.

Before the political integration of Korea into the Empire, the Korean society was split into two: the noble class and farmers, etc.  The Korean noble class respected Confucius and the Chinese traditional culture.  They used mainly Chinese letters in reading and writing, while the literacy rate among all the Koreans was less than 10% before the annexation.  But under the Japanese rule, it was recommended that Korean schools taught Hangul letters which were unique Korean letters and which were easy for ordinary Koreans to learn.  Of curse, the Japanese language was also taught in schools in Korea as Koreans were now of Japanese nationality, and the literacy rate among Koreans went up to 65% by 1936.  In this way, Japanese liberated poor Koreans from an oppressive environment they were forced to live in by the Korean noble class.

So, the Korean society could undergo modernization and westernization with huge support and help from the Empire of Japan.  Similar condition was observed in development of Taiwan that had been under the Japanese administration since 1895.  Indeed, the Empire of Japan invested funds into those areas annexed to the Empire more than it could get from them.  

However, after WWII, Koreans got independent, though they were split into two nations: one under the strong influence of the Soviet Union and another of the US.

The Korean Peninsula also unfortunately underwent a war from 1950 to 1953 between the South and the North.  Behind the South there was the US and behind the North there were two communist countries: the USSR and China.

And, today, Koreans never cease to blame Japan for the past Japanese rule on the Korean Peninsula, as if a prosperous and highly-civilized kingdom had been conquered, controlled, and colonized by militarist Japanese.  They never cease to blame Japan even in the US.  But the story on the Japanese side is very different as you now know.

Seoul Before and After the Annexation to the Empire of Japan
http://azplanning.cocolog-nifty.com/neko/2011/07/post-47ee.html


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Luk 8:17 For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.

"my judgment is true" - Cruel War

Mt. Fuji in August, 100 Km Far

Cruel War

Some shallow professor of Harvard criticized Japanese for their atrocity in Southeast Asia during WWII.

But Americans were as cruel as Japanese during WWII.

American troops 'murdered Japanese PoWs' 

By Ben Fenton12:01AM BST 06 Aug 2005

American and Australian soldiers massacred Japanese prisoners of war, according to one of the most detailed studies of memoirs of the Second World War in the Pacific, published this week. 

It also discloses that the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army were far from the cruel, mindless troops of popular legend, and that Gen Douglas MacArthur wanted to launch nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union from an underground airstrip in Britain.

In The Faraway War, published to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima atom bomb and of VJ Day, Prof Richard Aldrich of Nottingham University has gathered the diaries of men and women from across the Pacific war front, from the common soldier to the highest general.

He said: "We have this stereotypical idea that the Japanese were all cruel and robotic while the Allied forces were tough but fair in their treatment of the enemy.

"But I was very surprised by much of what I found and had to rethink all those stereotypes." 

Prof Aldrich found several examples confirming what became an American policy in some parts of the Pacific theatre not to take prisoners of war.

He quotes the diaries of Charles Lindbergh, the American aviation pioneer, who toured the Far East visiting United States units. On one occasion he commented to a group of senior officers that very few Japanese seemed to be taken prisoner.

"Oh, we could take more if we wanted to," one of the officers replied. "But our boys don't like to take prisoners.

"It doesn't encourage the rest to surrender when they hear of their buddies being marched out on the flying field and machine-guns turned loose on them."...

They were particularly concerned that the skulls of dead Japanese soldiers were often displayed as gruesome mascots by some units, while US marines made a speciality of collecting ears.

Australian troops are also shown not to like taking prisoners. Prof Aldrich quotes the 1943 diary of Eddie Stanton, an Australian posted to Goodenough Island off Papua New Guinea. "Japanese are still being shot all over the place," he wrote. "The necessity for capturing them has ceased to worry anyone. Nippo soldiers are just so much machine-gun practice. Too many of our soldiers are tied up guarding them."

Till the Empire of Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, 48,000 Japanese soldiers became prisoners of war taken by US troops after battles.

Further, after August 15, 1945,  500,000 Japanese soldiers were put under the control of the US forces.  Among therm, about 6,000 died for various reasons.  But it is believed that there were many Japanese soldiers who were killed before they were taken prisoner.

And another issue should be checked: existence of African American soldiers in the Pacific Theater of WWII:

Did black soldiers fight along side white soldiers on the island of Iwo Jima during WW2? I ask because director Spike Lee is accusing the director of the movie (Flags of our Fathers) Clint Eastwood almost of racism for not showing black soldiers in this WW2 film. I know blacks fought honorably during WW2 but did they fight this particular battle that would make Spike Lee accusations true? 

Yes they did. they were known as the Montford Point Marines. They received this title due to where they did their training.Only 1200 existed during this time, however due to personal racism many of them men stayed in the one unit. Although Franklin Roosevelt directed the de-segregation of the military, they didn't enforce it. this unit did land on almost every island in the Pacific and did play a huge part in the overall picture. Even after serving heroically during WWII, the Marines were still forced to train at a segregated camp. it was later closed on Sept 9 1949. the Montford point Marines were not used as main assault elements. they served as litter bearers, and as security for the rear elements. So it could only be logically said that blacks did fight along side whites on Iwo Jima, However they did not serve in the attack on Mount Suribachi. in fact the First Black Marine Corps Officer came from this unit.They're you go everyone the truth!!! 

Source(s):
U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations, U.S. Army officer candidate.
USMC a complete history-marine Corps Association

Any war can be uglier when taking prisoners and generating racial discrimination.



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Joh 8:15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.
Joh 8:16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.

"And he touched her hand" - Samurai Japan

The National Diet Bldg., Tokyo

Samurai Japan

Today everybody knows that there is no militarism in Japan.

But during WWII, Japan was guided by leaders who observed militarism.  And those generals and admirals of the Imperial Army and Navy were of a very different kind of military men in the world, including the US.

From the beginning, the modern and westernized Japan was established in the late 19th century not by revolutionary civilians but by professional warriors called samurai.

This modern Japan was a product of a civil war between samurais subject to the samurai king (shogun) from the Tokugawa clan and those who had been potential enemies of the Tokugawa clan since the early 17th century.  Tokugawa shoguns had governed Japan from 1603 to 1868.  It was a rule by sword.

In the Japanese society, samurais formed their own social class.  Originally they were from the noble class and gradually became feudal lords controlling a certain feud and their vassals while being subject to the imperial court in Kyoto.  But since the 12th century, they came to take over political power from the imperial court and the noble class so as to establish the central government of Japan apart from the traditional and nominal imperial government in Kyoto where the emperor lived.  Though the emperor was not abolished, the head of all the samurai clans in Japan who formed government was actually king of Japan.

Samurais performed functions of not only warriors but also of bureaucrats, scholars, engineers, artists, and so on.  They lived on rice farmers in their territory produced and paid as tax.  They sold rice in big market in Osaka, southwest of Kyoto, to get money.

And, while heads of the Tokugawa clan became a shogun generation after generation, they closed   the country.  It was because Tokugawa samurais had observed many Vatican missionaries coming to Japan and preaching Christianity in the latter half of the 16th century.  But Japanese Christians showed more faith in Christ, the Vatican, or Spain or Portugal than in samurai lords.  Tokugawa leaders were afraid that Japan might come to be under a strong influence of Europeans.  So, to forbid Christianity, they closed the country.

But in the late 19th century, the Tokugawa regime could not any more resist strong requests from western powers, especially the US, to open the door of Japan.

And as other samurai clans, including potential enemies of the Tokugawa clan, saw the shogun unable to stand the foreign pressure, they lost respect to the shogun.  They thought it was time to topple the Tokugawa regime and take over power.  Those anti-Tokugawa samurais took the emperor in Kyoto on their side to launch a war against the shogun who presided over Japan from Edo (presently Tokyo).  And after a civil war, the Tokugawa regime fell, though a decisive battle in Tokyo could be avoided.

So, this big change of the political regime is called the Meiji Restoration (of the imperial authority) as anti-Tokugawa samurais set the emperor as the sole and absolute monarch of new Japan.

Along with modernization and westernization of the Japanese society following the Meiji Restoration with Meiji Emperor, samurais became modern bureaucrats, policemen, army and navy generals, professors, teachers, medical doctors, engineers, businessmen, etc.  They formed the leading core of new Japan as the elites.  And finally, they founded the Empire of Japan with the constitution they made in reference to that of Germany.

So, the Empire of Japan was ruled by the underlying samurai spirit.  Old codes of conduct samurais had followed for centuries also survived.  In this context, the Empire of Japan was from the beginning established by professional military men or warriors unlike other nations in Europe,　America, and Asia.  So, the Empire of Japan was unique.  At the core in the minds of the elites of the Empire, there was the samurai spirit.

In other word, the Empire of Japan was essentially a nation of militarism, though in the Japanese sense.

That is why Japan could catch up with western powers by rapidly introducing technology and modern weapons into the nation from the late 19th century to the end of WWII.

However, the political paradigm of samurais could not allow the Imperial Government to avoid a military clash with the US.  The Pearl Harbor attack became inevitable due to their samurai paradigm.

And, as the Empire of Japan fell in August of 1945 through the cruel war against the US, this samurai spirit had gone.  Today, no Japanese elites identify themselves as direct descendants of samurais of the middle of the 19th century.

Democratic Japan after WWII is truly something new in its history.  But Japan and Japanese cannot be free from its 2000-year long history.  As Japan has still the emperor, it should still keep some part of the samurai spirit.


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Mat 8:15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.

"when Jesus was come into Peter's house" - Racial Point of View on WWII

Tokyo...

Racial Point of View on WWII

A political leader of the Empire of Japan had thought, before the Pearl Harbor attack, that Europeans and Americans could not be trusted.

Europeans and Americans had colonized various parts of Africa and Asia using their advanced weapons.  But when the Empire of Japan started to colonize some part of East Asia, they blamed Tokyo so harshly.  Europeans and Americans criticized the Empire of Japan for building colonies in barbarous fashion.  They regarded those activities by the Empire as an act of barbarism.

Europeans and Americans justified their occupation of African and Asian regions as permitted actions based on their superiority of culture, technology, and military strength.  But when the Empire of Japan started to do the same thing in East Asia, they blamed the Empire as an inhuman invader.

Indeed, before the end of WWII, race discrimination was a common practice by Europeans and Americans.  Most parts of the world outside Europe were occupied by western powers.  No Africans and Asians were respected as the same human beings as the European race.  Even Japanese were not so respected as they are today, though the Empire of Japan was the only major non-European country in the League of Nations which had been established after WWI.

So, before WWII, even the Japanese people were well aware of this arrogance of the European race.  However, the Japanese people were confident in their ability to absorb and apply the modern European civilization, since the Empire had defeated the Russian Empire in the war made between 1904 and 1905 (with help from the UK).

Accordingly, when the Japanese people heard that the Imperial Navy had successfully attacked US naval bases in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941, they were excited and got extremely glad.  The Japanese people thought that they could eradicate western powers from East Asia by force now that the strongest western power the US was hit hard and suppressed by the Imperial military.  Though the Imperial Government did not mention anything about how the war against the US would proceed and an armistice would be declared in any future, the Japanese people were very optimistic in the war.  They probably thought that this war against the US would become something similar to the Japanese-Russo War that was fought 40 years ago.  "The Empire and the US will cease fire while maintaining power and influence on each side and enter negotiations to settle new borders," they vaguely expected.

However, the war ended in August 1945 with the US invasion of Okinawa, atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and USSR's entry into war.  Capital Tokyo was devastated by American air raids.  The only effective strategy for the Imperial forces was kamikaze attacks which forced pilots to commit a suicide to hit US naval ships with their planes.

Truly, at the end of the Pacific Theater of WWII, the Imperial Navy lost almost all the battle ships and aircraft carriers, though it had thousands of attack planes for the final battle in the mainland.  The Imperial Army could still mobilize three million troops in Japan proper in addition to one million troops stationed in China, but there was no hope to stop American invasion into mainland Japan.

So, it was extremely difficult for the Imperial Government and the Emperor to persuade Army generals to surrender to the US as they were determined to fight in the four major islands of Japan till all the resources were lost if it had meant to sacrifice tens of millions of lives, including women and children.  It took a very tough course but finally the Emperor himself expressed his will to surrender, and thus leaders of the Imperial military gave up finally.  All the Japanese people also followed suit, but nobody was sure how cruel the coming US occupation of Japan would be.

But, to the surprise of the Japanese people, occupation of Japan by US forces after WWII was not so cruel at all.  General MacArthur did only execute a handful of top leaders of the Empire (class-A criminals) as retaliation through the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals. (The number of Japanese B-class and C-class war criminals who were executed after WWII was about 1,000 in war tribunals set up in various parts of East Asia.)  Even the Emperor was not held responsible.  The Japanese people naturally accepted the American style of democracy General MacArthur aggressively introduced into Japan so as to suppress Japanese militarism.

In this process after WWII, the Japanese people came to trust the US.  The US did not try to get and expand territory and colony in East Asia, though the UK, France and the Netherlands tried to restore their colonial rule in their former colonies in Southeast Asia.   In fact, the US allowed its former colony the Philippines to get independent.  (The US has kept many military bases in Japan after WWII, though.)

And as the time went by, the world came to adopt prohibition of racial discrimination.

Today nobody thinks that the European race is inherently superior to other races.  But, in 1941, even the Japanese race had to attack Pearl Harbor to demonstrate its ability to fight modern warfare like the European race.

The　Imperial Navy Fighter "Zero" in 1942 in the South Pacific Ocean
http://omoixtukiritekitou.blog79.fc2.com/blog-entry-1275.html

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Mat 8:14 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.
Mat 8:15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.

"his servant was healed in the selfsame hour" - Bird's Account on Korea

The Tokyo Tower

Bird's Account on Korea

Isabella Lucy Bird (1831 – 1904), a nineteenth-century English explorer and writer, travelled Japan and Korea as well.

Her remarks about Korea in the late 19th centuru is interessting.  We can see how Korea was in a difficult situation with Japanese prevailing in various sectors of Korea.  And in the extension of this trend, Korea was finally annexed to the Empire of Japan in the early 20th cetury.

The Japanese settlement is far more populous, extensive, and pretentious. Their Consulate is imposing enough for a legation. They have several streets of small shops, which supply the needs chiefly of people of their own nationality, for foreigners patronize Ah Wong and Itai, and the Koreans, who hate the Japanese with a hatred three centuries old, also deal chiefly with the Chinese. But though the Japanese were out- stripped in trade by the Chinese, their position in Korea, even before the war, was an influential one. They gave “postal facilities” between the treaty ports and Seoul and carried the foreign mails, and they established branches of the First National Bank 1 in the capital and treaty ports, with which the resident foreigners have for years transacted their business, and in which they have full confidence. I lost no time in opening an account with this Bank in Chemulpo, receiving an English check-book and pass-book, and on all occasions courtesy and all needed help. Partly owing to the fact that English cottons for Korea are made in bales too big for the Lilliputian Korean pony, involving reduction to more manageable dimen-sions on being landed, and partly to causes which obtain elsewhere, the Japanese are so successfully pushing their cottons in Korea, that while they constituted only 3 per cent, of the imports in 1887, they had risen to something like 40 per cent, in 1894. 2 There is a rapidly growing demand for yarn to be woven on native looms. The Japanese are well to the front with steam and sailing tonnage. Of 198 steamers entered in-wards in 1893, 132 were Japanese; and out of 325 sailing vessels, 232 were Japanese. It is on record that an English merchantman was once seen in Chemulpo roads, but actually the British mercantile flag, unless on a chartered steamer, is not known in Korean waters. Nor was there in 1894 an English merchant in the Korean treaty ports, or an English house of business, large or small, in Korea...

I shrink from describing intra-mural Seoul. 1 I thought it the foulest city on earth till I saw Peking, and its smells the most odious, till I encountered those of Shao-shing ! For a great city and a capital its meanness is indescribable. Etiquette forbids the erection of two-storied houses, consequently an estimated quarter of a million people are living on "the ground," chiefly in labyrinthine alleys, many of them not wide enough for two loaded bulls to pass, indeed barely wide enough for one man to pass a loaded bull, and further narrowed by a series of vile holes or green, slimy ditches, which receive the solid and liquid refuse of the houses, their foul and fetid margins being the favorite resort of half-naked children, begrimed with dirt, and of big, mangy, blear-eyed dogs, which wallow in the slime or blink in the sun. There too the itinerant vendor of “small wares,” and candies dyed flaring colors with aniline dyes, establishes himself, puts a few planks across the ditch, and his goods, worth perhaps a dollar, thereon. But even Seoul has its "spring cleaning,” and I encountered on the sand plain of the Han, on the ferry, and on the road from Ma-pu to Seoul, innumerable bulls carrying panniers laden with the contents of the city ditches.  

http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/Bird/IsabellaBird.pdf

It is still a mystery why the Empire of Japan annexed Korea while investing money into Korea more than it could take from Korea and why the then Korean king (emperor), Korean Government, and Korean elites, and Korean people accepted this integration to the Empire of Japan in 1910.

But a Japanese point of view is that as Koreans could not modernize their nation to stand against China and Russia, the Empire of Japan had to intervene in the Korean economy and politics.  As the Japanese elites envisaged that Korean would be sooner or later become a virtual colony of the Russian Empire like Manchuria, it became the number-one national security for the Empire to secure Korea on the Japanese side.

If Russians had colonized, occupied, or fully controlled Korea around 1900, the Russian forces would further apply military and political pressure on the Empire of Japan so as to take any advantage in relationships with the Empire in terms of trade and politics.  Russians might further try to take Japanese territory by force.

To defend the Empire of Japan itself, it had to directly control Korea for modernization and westernization of the Korean society.  The Empire had to develop the Korean economy and raise the living standards of Koreans to make them stand with Japanese against Russians.

But it means that Japanese came to despise Koreans as incompetent people.  And this tendency came to apply to Chinese.  The Japanese people came to fancy themselves as the number one race in Asia.  However, they had to correct this attitude after the war against the US between 1941 and 1945 which ended with atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Accordingly the Empire of Japan fell, and Koreans became independent again.


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Mat 8:13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

"so great faith, no, not in Israel" - Yasukuni Shrine and Emperor

The Tokyo Tower, Tokyo

Yasukuni Shrine and Emperor

Showa Emperor of Japan (Emperor Hirohito) stopped voluntarily going and praying in the Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo, from a certain period of time after WWII.

The emperor visited the Shrine on November 21, 1975 as his last religious mission to Yasukuni.

It is said that it was because class-A war criminals of the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals established in Tokyo by the US and allies' supreme commander General MacArthur after WWII were enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine in 1978 with other war victims.

Traditionally the Yasukuni Shrine was the place to worship fallen soldiers who fought for the emperor in and after the civil war on the Meiji Restoration of the imperial authority of 1860s..  Accordingly, it had been customary for the emperor to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine on appropriate occasions.

So, after the second world war, Showa Emperor sometimes visited the Shrine.  But after he knew that class-A war criminals of the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals were also enshrined there in 1978, he stopped this de-facto duty.

The class-A war criminals were those leaders of the Empire of Japan who led the nation to wars against China, the US, etc. in 1930s and early 1940s.  When the Empire surrendered in the summer of 1945 to the US and its allies, they were arrested by US officers subject to the order from General MacArthur.   And they were judged in the special court set up by the General.

There were 28 class-A criminals who were took to the court, and seven of them were sentenced to death.  Hideki Tojo, an Army general of the Empire who was prime minister at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, was one of the seven ex-elites to be executed in 1948 by the American forces that were occupying Japan after WWII.

So, the Yasukuni Shrine decided to regard those executed class-A war criminals as ordinary service members who lost their lives in wars made for the emperor and the Empire of Japan. The Shrine did not take them as criminals but respectable military men like others who had died in previous wars and civil wars.

However, Showa Emperor did not accept it.  For the Emperor, who was in the imperial throne from 1926 to 1989, those class-A criminals were not ordinary fallen-soldiers who fought and died for the Imperial House and the Empire.  The Emperor could not worship them as gods, though every fallen soldier was believed to become a god in principle, according to the shinto religion.

Showa Emperor refused to pay religious respect to those ex-top elites of the Empire, namely the class-A war criminals, who had once led the Empire with the Emperor himself before WWII.

Of course after WWII, Showa Emperor never led the defense forces of Japan as the supreme commander.  The Emperor became a symbol of peace-loving Japan after WWII.  He also became very friendly to the US and even officially visited Washington DC in 1975.

And, it looked as though Showa Emperor trusted the US military forces stationed in Japan subject to the Japan-US Security Treaty after WWII more than the old Imperial Army and Navy that were disbanded in 1945.

By avoiding showing religious respect to those class-A war criminals in the Yasukuni Shrine, the Emperor expressed implicitly or explicitly his standpoint after WWII not only to the Japanese people but also American parties concerned.

Showa Emperor at Yasukuni Shrine before WWII
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/okiwindom/27825953.html



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Mat 8:10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

"What might this parable be?" - Okinawa and Nixon

Tokyo...

Okinawa and Nixon

Okinawa Prefecture is one of the most special autonomous bodies in Japan.

It is situated in the most southern and western part of the Japanese Archipelago.  It consists of tens or more of islands situated between the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea.  It takes the position between Taiwan and Kyusyu, one of the major islands of Japan.

   http://www.pref.okinawa.jp/kodomo/sugata/a1_01z.html

Okinawa was once an independent kingdom, though Okinawa residents are undoubtedly of the Japanese race.  Okinawa was so far away from Nara, the center of ancient Japan, and Kyoto, the imperial capital of Japan since the 8th century.  Accordingly, until the 17th century, Okinawa was independent from political power in Japan proper, consisting of four major islands.  Rather, as it was close to the Chinese Continent, the Okinawa (Ryukyu) kingdom was nominally subject to imperial courts of China, though this ambiguous situation was ended when the Empire of Japan was established in the late 19th century.  Okinawa became a prefecture of the Empire.

During WWII, Okinawa became the only battleground within the inherent Japanese territory.

The Battle of Okinawa continued from March 26 to June 20 of 1945.  The Imperial Army and Navy deployed 116,400 soldiers against 548,000 American soldiers coming on ships to land on the mainland of Okinawa and other peripheral islands. The Imperial military headquarters in Tokyo sent 1,900 military planes for kamikaze missions around Okinawa Island.

The US lost 12,520 soldiers and the Empire of Japan lost 94,136 soldiers and 94,000 civilians in this Battle of Okinawa.

After the end of WWII in 1945, the US continued to occupy Okinawa to run the administration.  Okinawa citizens were separated from mainland Japan.  The Japanese Constitution and laws did not apply in Okinawa.

So, after WWII it became a big political issue for Tokyo to take back Okinawa.  However, as the US lost so many soldiers in the Battle of Okinawa, the American military was against the idea of returning Okinawa to Japan, though Japan and the US became very friendly with each other after WWII.

However, On May 15, 1972, the administration right over Okinawa was returned to Japan without any costs (except some secret agreements on defense issues).  It was one of the major and last transactions to settle territorial disputes in the world after WWII.

And, it was then regarded as great diplomatic success for the then prime minister of Japan Eisaku Sato.   Sato later even received the Nobel Peace Prize.

But it was his old brother Nobuskuke Kishi who paved the way for this diplomatic success by Sato.  Kishi was prime minister of Japan between 1957 and 1960, though his younger brother Sato assumed the PM office between 1964 and 1972.

When Kishi was PM of Japan, he visited the US to meet President Dwight Eisenhower.  Kishi consolidated a diplomatic tie with the Eisenhower Administration.  And the Vice President for Eisenhower was Richard Nixon.

When Nixon later lost a presidential election against John F. Kennedy and failed in an election for the governor of California, Kishi supported Nixon.  Kishi invited Nixon to Japan and asked some top business leaders of Japan to financially support the unlucky American politician.  And, eventually, Nixon won the presidential election in 1968.

Then, former Japanese prime minister Kishi traveled to the White House to meet Nixon and asked the president to treat his younger brother Sato, the then PM of Japan, with favor especially in terms of the Okinawa issue.  
  
Eventually, negotiations between Tokyo and Washington over the reversion of Okinawa to Japan went well to the advantage of Japan.  Prime Minister Eisaku Sato could take back Okinawa under the Japanese sovereignty in 1972 with help from President Richard Nixon.

So, a personal relationship between a US president and Japanese prime ministers made the difficult achievement possible.  Okinawa returned to Japan as Nixon was familiar with some Japanese elites in politics and business.

Nonetheless, it is interesting that one of Nixon's aids, Mr. Henry Kissinger, does not look like being pro-Japanese at all, even today.

In addition the Senkaku Islands are duly part of Okinawa Prefecture, which the US Government admits, tough China and Taiwan claim their right on Senkaku so groundlessly.

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Luk 8:9 And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
Luk 8:10 And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

"and bare fruit an hundredfold" - Hiroshima/Nagasaki Air Defense in 1945

Nagata-cho, Tokyo

 Hiroshima/Nagasaki Air Defense in 1945 

When the Imperial military of Japan surrendered to the US forces in August 1945, there were 5,000 Japanese military planes prepared for final battles on mainland Japan.

The Imperial Army and Navy kept 5,000 military planes in safe bases and facilities.   They did not fully use those war planes for defense of Japanese cities under sever air raids by US B29 bombers and other attack planes.

Top leaders of the Imperial military ordered not to make full efforts to intercept B29 bombers and other American carrier-based attack planes that were flying to Japan for air raids almost everyday.  Imperial generals intended to use 5,000 military planes at hand for planned large-scale kamikaze attacks onto coming US fleets and troops for landing on main Japanese islands.

For this reason, though the Imperial military had fighter planes that could reach 10,000 meters (30,000 feet) above the ground and intercept mighty B29 bombers, those planes were not fully used for air defense.  In other word, Imperial military leaders saved those fighter planes for the coming kamikaze missions against US fleets and troops to land on Japan.  So, they sacrificed Japanese civilians and citizens to be defenselessly attacked by B29 bombers and other US attack planes.

US B29 Bombers
http://www.geocities.jp/torikai007/war/1945/konoe.html

However, as the Imperial military surrendered to the US forces on August 15, 1945, the total of 5,000 fully-equipped military planes were left unused in military bases in Japan proper.

But, if the Empire had used fully these war planes to defend Japanese cities from US bombers, they could have probably shot down the B29s carrying atomic bombs to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9.

The Shiden-Kai Fighter Plane of the Imperial Navy of Japan (in 1945?)
http://shidenkai.net/about.html

In addition, the radio interception division of the Chief Administration for Intelligence of the Empire of Japan succeeded in decoding radio messages B29 bombers sent to their bases and the US while flying to Japan for air raids.

Those B29 bombers used mostly call signs of V400, V500, and V700 for their radio communications.  But Japanese radio soldiers found that some B29s started to use a new call sign of V600.  And while each of the call signs V400, V500, and V700 was assigned to almost 100 B29s, the call sign V600 was assigned to only a dozen B29s.  Accordingly, staff members of the radio interception division started to think that B29s using the V600 code were operated for a special mission.

And on the early morning of August 6, 1945, the Japanese radio staff found that a B29 using the V600 call sign was passing the sky over Hiroshima.  This B29 was a reconnaissance plane preceding the B29 carrying the atomic bomb. Staff of the radio interception division thought this B29 was engaged in a special mission.  But this information was not relayed to the top level of the air defense headquarters in Hiroshima.

Accordingly, no Japanese fighters such as a Shiden-Kai were not scrambled to shoot down the B29s in the sky over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Actually, in the morning of the day, one Shiden-Kai was flying through Hiroshima from Hyogo Prefecture (near Osaka) to Nagasaki.  The Japanese pilot actually witnessed the historic atomic bomb attack by a B29 on Hiroshima.  He observed, from the sky, a big blast and a big mushroom-cloud in Hiroshima.  He saw the big lively city Hiroshima he had observed a moment before suddenly being blown off.  The city in fire and smokes became flattened with just rubble in a very short period of time.

And, it is also said that three days later on August 9 the Imperial military also detected the similar pattern of an air raid by a B29 on Nagasaki several hours before the actual bombing.  So, if the commander of the air defense had ordered Shiden-Kais and other fighter planes to intercept the B29, the Nagasaki atomic bomb attack might have been prevented.

So, there was at least a small chance that the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be prevented unless the Imperial Army and Navy did not plan to fight final battles on mainland Japan against US troops and fleets rushing to the mainland.  The Imperial Army and Navy should have full efforts to shoot down B29s as many as possible with available fighter planes even while waiting for the landing on mainland Japan by US forces.

Finally, after the atomic (nuclear) bomb attack on Hiroshima, there was a strange rumor prevailing in some shelters where hundreds and more victims injured by the nuclear blast were carried in.  "The Imperial military had attacked New York with a Japanese atomic bomb in retaliation for the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack."  Indeed, Hiroshima survivors got information so quickly that they were attacked by a horrible new type of bomb called an "Atomic bomb."  And they believed that the Imperial military must have staged a counterattack to America for them.

When the US troops landed on Japan after WWII, they destroyed all the remaining Japanese military planes left in military bases.  The number of those planes was said to be 13,000, including those without fuel and necessary equipment.


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Luk 8:8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

"some fell among thorns" - Truth of Globalization of Economy

Prime Minister's Official Residence, Tokyo

Truth of Globalization of Economy

There are no countries where everybody is rich.

However, there are some countries, especially in Europe, where poor people do not live a very miserable life.  In such countries, even the poorest people can enjoy some types of social benefits so as not to become homeless or insurgents.

But not all the countries can be such European nations blessed with rich natural resources, moderate population, advantageous geographical conditions of being closer to major advanced Western European countries, etc.

Those European countries with a smaller gap between the rich and the poor are exceptional.  Their merit is based on advantages of Western Europe to other regions such as Africa.

And as a whole Western European countries enjoy a higher level of living standards with a relatively smaller gap between the rich and the poor.  It is because Western Europe has accumulated great wealth by colonizing Africa, Asia, and America in the past to take various natural resources at lower costs or for free and also by developing advanced technology through the Industrial Revolution.  The economic advantages of Western Europe relies on these conditions.  And based on these advantages of Western Europe, those blessed European countries can enjoy a small gap between the rich and the poor.

Turning to the US, we find a combination of a kind of Western Europe and colonized regions in one nation.  There are two types of Americans: those who can enjoy a rich life like rich Western Europeans and others who have to live like poor Africans, Asians, or Latin Americans though they live in an environment far better than that in Africa, etc.  The high living standards of Americans are also supported by poor Latin Americans.

Indeed, in the US the gap between the poor and the rich must be far smaller in some states, especially those on the East Coast.  If they are independent nations, they would look liker those blessed North European countries supported by poor people and regions within the US and Latin American countries.

Put simply, this economic system that is prevailing in Western Europe and the US cannot make all the world rich.  It will not eradicate the gap between the rich and the poor.  So, it is unlikely that G20 countries will become like those blessed European countries.  There will be many rich men in every country, like those in Western Europe and the US, but they still need their own poor "African, Asian, or Latin American people" for them to enjoy a rich life.  They need victims.

So, the issue is the globalization of economy.  And, the old question "Will the globalization make all the people on the earth rich?" must be addressed.

http://blog.chinatells.com/2009/10/3149

From the beginning, this globalization was not intended to make all the people in the world rich.

It is just like the great success of the modern Western European/American Civilization was not intended to make all the people in the world rich.

Nonetheless, European colonialists did not intend to make all the colonized people poor.  They just wanted to make themselves richer by keeping and administrating their colonies.  So, if it was necessary to make some colonized people rich for European colonists to be richer, they would accept existence such rich local Africans, Asians, or Latin Americans.

The globalization of economy is intended to make rich Western Europeans and Americans richer by diffusing and expanding advanced industry and market to developing countries, such as China, India, Brazil, etc. as a new form of acquiring wealth.  So, those rich people in advanced countries do not mind whether or not the globalization of economy would make some Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans rich so long as they can be richer due to globalization of economy.

Those very and super-rich people in New York and London have never worked on the planning of globalization of economy to make all the Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans rich while there are many poor people in the US and the UK.  But those people with wealth and power in the US and the UK or any other advanced countries would not mind if some Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans become rich so long as those rich people in America and Europe can win them in competition and keep their dominance over Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

And it is unlikely that this globalization of economy would make all the people in the world rich by chance against expectations of those rich Americans and Europeans who have promoted this globalization of economy.

In addition, it is the economic success of Taiwan, South Korea, and China that those rich Americans and Europeans came to realize that the era of globalization came.  And it is Japan that allowed Taiwan, South Korea, and China to economically succeed by offering Japanese technology and funds.  And this provision of Japanese technology and funds was done so efficiently due to great development and application of the advanced computer and telecommunications technologies.

The origin of this globalization of economy is Japan.  And, Japan itself did not intend to make all the people in the world rich, though it has not been against making all the Chinese, South Koreans, and Taiwanese rich.      


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Luk 8:7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

"because it lacked moisture" - Hiroshima and Related Stories

The Tokyo Railway Station, Tokyo

Hiroshima and Related Stories

When Hiroshima, one of major cities in western Japan, was attacked by a US B29 bomber that released an atomic (nuclear) bomb onto the ground zero, most of Hiroshima citizens thought it was just one common example of US air raids that were being conducted all over the Empire of Japan.

Surviving Hiroshima victims did not think that it was a very, very extraordinary attack with one super-bomb that could kill 100,000 people instantly with its blast. They thought that Hiroshima was attacked like Tokyo where tens of thousands of innocent citizens were killed in bombing by 300 B29 bombers on March 10, 1945.  Hiroshima people did not think it was an attack that would be remembered in human history forever.  And almost nobody thought at the time that the great devastation of the city and great losses of human lives in Hiroshima would persuade the Imperial Government to surrender to the US and its allies.  Like most of citizens of the Empire of Japan, Hiroshima survivors were still prepared for the final mainland battles against US troops expected to carry out landing operation on Japan proper.

However, most of the elite Japanese soon realized that the US military used an atomic bomb when they heard the news that Hiroshima was devastated by one B29 bomber.  The Imperial Government soon dispatched scientists to Hiroshima who confirmed that it was an atomic bomb that had been used by checking residual radiation, for example, recorded in films in a camera shop.

To tell the truth, the Empire of Japan itself had a plan to develop a nuclear bomb.  (Actually there were a few cyclotｒons in the Empire during WWII.) The best scientists of the Empire at the time were recruited for this project.  One of them was Hideki Yukawa who received the first Nobel Prize for Physics for Japan in 1949.

However, after WWII, Yukawa never talked about his experience in joining the development of the Japanese-version of atomic bombs.  Rather, Yukawa was invited to study in the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, the US.  Where he met Albert Einstein.  Einstein frequently talked with Yukawa and confessed how he had taken an initiative in recommending the US Government to develop atomic bombs as he had been afraid of Hitler so much.  

Later Einstein and Yukawa planned peace movement together. Today, Yukawa was remembered by Japanese as a great scientist who sought the world peace earnestly after WWII but not as a member of the atomic-bomb development team led by the Imperial military during WWII.   　
      
However, it was J. Robert Oppenheimer that invited Yukuawa to Princeton after WWII, while Oppenheimer was in charge of development of nuclear bombs in the US during WWII.  And it is said that Oppenheimer made some contribution to Yukawa's receiving of the Nobel Prize, though Yukawa's theory about mesons as a source of the force that combines a proton and a neutron in an atomic nucleus was one of the greatest attainments in the history of science.

So, the Hiroshima tragedy linked the Japanese greatest scientist, Hideki Yukawa, to Einstein and Oppenheimer in a peaceful way, probably, for future peace of the world, at least.


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Luk 8:6 And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.