(Tokyo Suburbs, in Early May with Rice Fields; Click to enlarge if you like Japan.)
"Reward Thee Openly"
[Updated on December 5, 2011]
SECTION I: Otto von Bismarck
According to Naoki Kojima, a notable Japanese author who died on Sep. 14, 2008, the German political hero in the 19th century Bismarck finally married a humble young woman who turned out to be a great wife for him later, though local Germans said that Lady Bismarck did not somehow look like a beautiful woman. Kojima concluded that her gentle heart, but not her outward charm, made Bismarck great.
But, Bismarck had tried to marry a young British woman twice before, each in vain.
Especially one of them was a very beautiful daughter of an English clergyman, though she was just 17 years old. However, as her rich father found that Bismarck's financial state was so poor, she was forced to leave him, which she observed.
Then, Bismarck fell in love with a young beautiful German woman who happened to be a fiance of his old friend. Though she also fell in live with Bismarck, she opted to keep her promise of marriage with her fiance. And, she married her fiance but died a few years later.
Around the age of thirty Bismarck had an intense friendship with Marie von Thadden, newly-married to a friend of his. Under her influence, he became a Pietist Lutheran, and later recorded that at Marie's deathbed (from typhoid) he prayed for the first time since his childhood.
Bismarck married Marie's cousin, the noblewoman Johanna von Puttkamer (Viartlum, 11 April 1824 - Varzin, 27 November 1894) at Alt-Kolziglow on 28 July 1847. Their long and happy marriage produced three children, Herbert (b. 1849), Wilhelm (b. 1852) and Marie (b. 1847). Johanna was a shy, retiring and deeply religious woman - although famed for her sharp tongue in later life - and in his public life Bismarck was sometimes accompanied by his sister Malwine ("Malle") von Arnim.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck
In 1871, the first official envoy of the Empire of Japan to Europe and America traveled Germany to be received in audience by the German Emperor and Bismarck.
As it was just three years after the Meiji Restoration (fall of the last samurai regime), the Japanese envoy actually and mostly consisted of ex-samurai leaders. And, they all observed Bismarck closely and got highly impressed.
Author Kojima wrote that Hirobumi Ito, the most successful Japanese politician in the 19th century and the early 20th century, even imitated a way of Bismarck's smoking for a long time in his long career in the Imperial Government.
Frankly, it is said that Hirobumi Ito is the politician the most trusted by Meiji Emperor of Japan.
Yet, on Bismarck's gravestone it is written "Loyal German Servant of Kaiser William I".
Now the point is: to understand the Japanese politics, you have to learn Hirobumi Ito.
To understand Hirobumi Ito, you have to learn Otto von Bismarck of Germany.
To understand Otto von Bismarck, you have to learn his pious wife but not a beautiful daughter of a rich English clergyman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%C5%8D_Hirobumi
SECTION II: Princess Diana and Marilyn Monroe
The true implication of the shock the tragic death of Princess Diana delivered to the world is that the only precedence of Princess Diana's death is that mysterious death of Marilyn Monroe.
(To be continued...)
(Russian is tough and ancient; German is weighty and old; and English is tricky and traditional. Français n'est ni italien ni espagnol. Therefore, apart from the language, a white swan must be Russian and an ugly duckling is...is...is not Japanese!
http://www.zianet.com/jw_laurie/Sounds/summerpl.mid
Source:http://www.zianet.com/jw_laurie/midipage.html)
Mat 6:2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Mat 6:3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
Mat 6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.