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Saturday, August 15, 2009
"I Judge No Man"
Now the yearly national memorial service has started in Tokyo to appease the spirits, souls, and minds of the fallen soldiers of the Second World War and their bereaved families.
The Emperor and the Empress have entered the ceremonial hall and the Prime Minister has delivered a speech. Everybody is expected to observe a silent prayer for one minute at 12:00 of this Japan Time on August 15.
...Now it was finished while the live TV broadcast is going on all over Japan.
(His Majesty Emperor and Her Majesty Empress are still standing before a tall wooden-pillar symbol with 6,000 respectable elderly people behind...)
*** *** *** ***
I will go and check the Suruga Bay, since a great earthquake hit it recently and there is a park where Mt. Fuji can be observed rather near.
I did not go and check the Chuetsu region, to tell the truth, though it was hit by a great earthquake several years ago and I felt somehow badly for my omission.
And, tomorrow is Sunday, August 16 as you know.
Accordingly, I will pass through Tokyo by train, which might be overlooked by the God.
*** *** *** ***
*** *** *** ***
This evening I was sitting on a bench in front of a holy pond.
There, I found a cormorant ("U") some 50 meters away and a kingfisher ("Kawasemi") some 30 meters away in the pond.
They perched on a metal bar of a frame structure set up for some water project on the holy pond each.
I watched a cormorant on the right hand side and a kingfisher on the left hand side, alternately.
They are types of birds I could rarely encounter on the spot.
Indeed, I had just visited two shinto shrines nearby, making a humble offering each.
So, as humble miracles, I could observe two rare birds, a cormorant and a kingfisher, on a pond in a city of 1.2 million residents around Tokyo in the evening of August 15, 2009.
(S'il vous plaît parler de votre ville natale, ma princesse, si elle mai être à ce jour. But, wherever I am, it can be my last place like in the case of those brave soldiers.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/90305-hurusatonohanashiwosiyou.htm)
Joh 8:13 The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.
Joh 8:14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.
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.
Friday, August 14, 2009
"She Arose, and Ministered unto Them"
(NHK TV reporting Aso vs. Hatoyama debate)
(TV Asahi reporting earthquake-hit "Tomei" highway)
(Fuji TV reporting a North Korea's gorgeous but mysterious resort)(All observed by EEE Reporter humble himself, so that you may click to enlarge.)
SECRET OF IMPERIAL SAMURAI REGIME BEFORE 1945
The samurai period of Japan usually means an era where there were no civilians in the government, since only samurais (military officers) were qualified for bureaucrats.
And, even till 1945 after Japan's modernization started in 1868, a majority of Japanese bureaucrats were sons or grandsons of samurai(s) who had lived in the traditional samurai world insulated from outer world; accordingly the samurai era is regarded as having continued till 1945 or the end of WWII.
Japanese samurai were far more sophisticated and educated than Korean warriors, Chinese warriors, Indian warriors, European warriors, and American officers and generals, since they were trained intellectually as members of the top social class, namely the "Bushi (samurai)" class, higher than any other class except the imperial families while high-ranking samurai had also aristocratic titles.
For example, in the Edo period (1603-1867), the Japanese social classes were ordered in the following way: the bushi (samurai) class as No.1, the farmer class as No.2, the craftsman class as No.3, and the merchant class as No.4.
Yet, it is a kind of miracle that samurais never ventured into overseas war during the Edo period, though one of the early Tokugawa Shoguns (governing great samurai generals) forbade sending samurai beyond the sea for war or any purposes.
Then what changed these peaceful samurais into cruel officers and generals in WWII?
Devils coming from Europe and America?
Or is there anybody to take a legal case for samurai or Imperial officers and generals of WWII before the God (but not allied forces)?
SECTION I: Samurai Period: 1192 - 1945
There are only few historians and professors who can agree with me, regarding August 1945 as the last moment of the samurai era in Japan.
In my theory the 750-year-long samurai era was finally closed when the Empire of Japan surrendered to the allied forces, mostly consisting of the U.S. with atomic bombs and a million troops and thousands of military planes further prepared for invasion of Mainland Japan and the U.S.S.R. with a million troops and thousands of heavy tanks funneled from Europe to the Far East prepared for invasion of the Japanese northern territory, on August 15, 1945.
The Imperial Army and Navy were under the code, rule, and spirits of samurai militarism. They belonged to the samurai spiritual world rather than a modern citizen-oriented world.
After the 1868 Meiji restoration of the long-minimized authority of the emperor and subsequent modernization, the Japanese society was reasonably liberalized and intensively industrialized while importing and remodelling various Western cultural products.
But, the core of the Imperial Military was the samurai paradigm, since most of officers and generals were ex-samurai or sons and grandsons of samurai who lived before the Meiji restoration.
It is true that the Empire of Japan was superficially well modernized and westernized since the late 19th century. But, its military was apparently based on the time-honored samurai moral, while the Imperial Military was the largest sector in the Empire.
Accordingly, Imperial officers and generals all behaved as honest descendants of samurai who lived before the Meiji restoration. (Even Imperial Family members were implicitly requested to behave like samurai after the Meiji Restoration...)
That is why officers and generals of the Empire forced their conscript soldiers to fight like a samurai whose main mission was to fight and die for his lord with gladness if not from the bottom of the heart. (When politicians and generals of the Empire found that European and American politicians and generals were not genuine gentlemen, they came to more rely on traditional samurai ethics...)
However, there was a huge gap between forcibly-drafted ordinary soldiers of the Imperial Army/Navy and Imperial (samurai-spirited) officers and generals. It was just like a samurai leading peace-loving farmers and townsmen to a war zone where ten times more Chinese troops or ten-times-more armed U.S. troops were waiting for them. Iron discipline and control was a must, no matter how cruel it looked to non-samurais.
Accordingly, cruel things happened, which could be only rationalized and justified in the samurai world, not only to Chinese citizens and U.S. soldiers but also to the drafted and dutiful Japanese soldiers.
It is so, since the Japanese history is divided into three periods:
I. Pre-Samurai Period: till 1192
II. Samurai Period: 1192 - 1945
III: Post-Samurai Period: from 1945
So, Ah, how much I like to see many historians and professors agree with me, regarding August 1945 as the last moment of the samurai era in Japan and thus interpreting every cruel act by the Imperial Military from a different view, since samurai as leaders of the nation live ultimately for fight and death (of their own or enemies) as their profession to defend territory!
(Accordingly samurai were good learners of Buddhism, Confucianism, and other classical literature, since there were no samurais who could not make verses...)
*** ***
Nonetheless, after all the samurais were gone with their spirits having been upon their descendants, Japan started to grow in a different direction since 1945 to be the second largest and advanced economy in the world, especially adopting the New Constitution drafted by young American Christians working in the General Headquarters of the allied forces stationed in Japan for several years after August 1945.
Yet, the reason why the new Pacifist Constitution has worked well in the post-war society of Japan can be also found in the Japanese history.
SECTION II: Taira-Minamoto War: The First Major War among Samurai Clans
But, how could samurais hold the political hegemony in Japan 800 years ago?
How could they nullify the Imperial authority having been exercised over Japan since ancient days?
It was established through a war and a victory of an ambitious samurai clan over another loyal to the Imperial Court in 1192.
-----
The Genpei War (Genpei kassen, Genpei gassen) (1180–1185) was a conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans and in late-Heian period Japan. It resulted in the fall of the Taira clan and establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpei_War
-----
(To be continued...)
(Si tout le monde est parti, ma princesse, le soleil, le ciel et la mer restera. Nobody has ever won the sun, the sky, and the sea. That is why there is no other way but being humble before the sun, the sky, and the sea. Yet, your Lord must be the God Almighty...Anyway take it easy, since I am here.
http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/thwin/jazz/z010.htm
Source:http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/thwin/index.html
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/0910-yozoranotrumpet.htm )
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.
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.
(TV Asahi reporting earthquake-hit "Tomei" highway)
(Fuji TV reporting a North Korea's gorgeous but mysterious resort)(All observed by EEE Reporter humble himself, so that you may click to enlarge.)
SECRET OF IMPERIAL SAMURAI REGIME BEFORE 1945
The samurai period of Japan usually means an era where there were no civilians in the government, since only samurais (military officers) were qualified for bureaucrats.
And, even till 1945 after Japan's modernization started in 1868, a majority of Japanese bureaucrats were sons or grandsons of samurai(s) who had lived in the traditional samurai world insulated from outer world; accordingly the samurai era is regarded as having continued till 1945 or the end of WWII.
Japanese samurai were far more sophisticated and educated than Korean warriors, Chinese warriors, Indian warriors, European warriors, and American officers and generals, since they were trained intellectually as members of the top social class, namely the "Bushi (samurai)" class, higher than any other class except the imperial families while high-ranking samurai had also aristocratic titles.
For example, in the Edo period (1603-1867), the Japanese social classes were ordered in the following way: the bushi (samurai) class as No.1, the farmer class as No.2, the craftsman class as No.3, and the merchant class as No.4.
Yet, it is a kind of miracle that samurais never ventured into overseas war during the Edo period, though one of the early Tokugawa Shoguns (governing great samurai generals) forbade sending samurai beyond the sea for war or any purposes.
Then what changed these peaceful samurais into cruel officers and generals in WWII?
Devils coming from Europe and America?
Or is there anybody to take a legal case for samurai or Imperial officers and generals of WWII before the God (but not allied forces)?
SECTION I: Samurai Period: 1192 - 1945
There are only few historians and professors who can agree with me, regarding August 1945 as the last moment of the samurai era in Japan.
In my theory the 750-year-long samurai era was finally closed when the Empire of Japan surrendered to the allied forces, mostly consisting of the U.S. with atomic bombs and a million troops and thousands of military planes further prepared for invasion of Mainland Japan and the U.S.S.R. with a million troops and thousands of heavy tanks funneled from Europe to the Far East prepared for invasion of the Japanese northern territory, on August 15, 1945.
The Imperial Army and Navy were under the code, rule, and spirits of samurai militarism. They belonged to the samurai spiritual world rather than a modern citizen-oriented world.
After the 1868 Meiji restoration of the long-minimized authority of the emperor and subsequent modernization, the Japanese society was reasonably liberalized and intensively industrialized while importing and remodelling various Western cultural products.
But, the core of the Imperial Military was the samurai paradigm, since most of officers and generals were ex-samurai or sons and grandsons of samurai who lived before the Meiji restoration.
It is true that the Empire of Japan was superficially well modernized and westernized since the late 19th century. But, its military was apparently based on the time-honored samurai moral, while the Imperial Military was the largest sector in the Empire.
Accordingly, Imperial officers and generals all behaved as honest descendants of samurai who lived before the Meiji restoration. (Even Imperial Family members were implicitly requested to behave like samurai after the Meiji Restoration...)
That is why officers and generals of the Empire forced their conscript soldiers to fight like a samurai whose main mission was to fight and die for his lord with gladness if not from the bottom of the heart. (When politicians and generals of the Empire found that European and American politicians and generals were not genuine gentlemen, they came to more rely on traditional samurai ethics...)
However, there was a huge gap between forcibly-drafted ordinary soldiers of the Imperial Army/Navy and Imperial (samurai-spirited) officers and generals. It was just like a samurai leading peace-loving farmers and townsmen to a war zone where ten times more Chinese troops or ten-times-more armed U.S. troops were waiting for them. Iron discipline and control was a must, no matter how cruel it looked to non-samurais.
Accordingly, cruel things happened, which could be only rationalized and justified in the samurai world, not only to Chinese citizens and U.S. soldiers but also to the drafted and dutiful Japanese soldiers.
It is so, since the Japanese history is divided into three periods:
I. Pre-Samurai Period: till 1192
II. Samurai Period: 1192 - 1945
III: Post-Samurai Period: from 1945
So, Ah, how much I like to see many historians and professors agree with me, regarding August 1945 as the last moment of the samurai era in Japan and thus interpreting every cruel act by the Imperial Military from a different view, since samurai as leaders of the nation live ultimately for fight and death (of their own or enemies) as their profession to defend territory!
(Accordingly samurai were good learners of Buddhism, Confucianism, and other classical literature, since there were no samurais who could not make verses...)
*** ***
Nonetheless, after all the samurais were gone with their spirits having been upon their descendants, Japan started to grow in a different direction since 1945 to be the second largest and advanced economy in the world, especially adopting the New Constitution drafted by young American Christians working in the General Headquarters of the allied forces stationed in Japan for several years after August 1945.
Yet, the reason why the new Pacifist Constitution has worked well in the post-war society of Japan can be also found in the Japanese history.
SECTION II: Taira-Minamoto War: The First Major War among Samurai Clans
But, how could samurais hold the political hegemony in Japan 800 years ago?
How could they nullify the Imperial authority having been exercised over Japan since ancient days?
It was established through a war and a victory of an ambitious samurai clan over another loyal to the Imperial Court in 1192.
-----
The Genpei War (Genpei kassen, Genpei gassen) (1180–1185) was a conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans and in late-Heian period Japan. It resulted in the fall of the Taira clan and establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpei_War
-----
(To be continued...)
(Si tout le monde est parti, ma princesse, le soleil, le ciel et la mer restera. Nobody has ever won the sun, the sky, and the sea. That is why there is no other way but being humble before the sun, the sky, and the sea. Yet, your Lord must be the God Almighty...Anyway take it easy, since I am here.
http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/thwin/jazz/z010.htm
Source:http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/thwin/index.html
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/0910-yozoranotrumpet.htm )
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.
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.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
"The Leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Leaven of Herod"
(Around the Tokyo Bay)
Rice and Samurai
When I was a student I happened to have a decent friend who happened to bring up an idea to spend a few days in an island in the south of the Tokyo Bay or just in a humble part of the Pacific Ocean.
We went there on board a ship full of young people and families going to spend their summer holidays on the island well known as a suitable spot for surfing.
I could not remember what I specifically did and what my friend specifically did on the island. He was not a type of guy who would frankly speak to a young woman in a tourist site or get absorbed in surfing or marine sports, since he was an elite student (the fact of which had to be, or was had better have, hidden in most of communications with strangers in those days).
Besides, in a next room of a Japanese-style tourist home we lodged in, a family of a young couple and a little child took up their quarters. They looked like having narrowly secured their summer holidays while working hard as humble and poor members of the laboring class in the Japanese society.
So, I think I was spending my own time there, riding on a rental bicycle, moving around, watching the nature and people.
Then at one point, I walked on white sands from a beach to a forest to find a small shinto shrine in it. With a white bright noon sun ahead, on the ground still covered with white shining beach sands, and surrounded by lively but tranquil green grass and tree leaves (though not of palm trees), there was a humble wooden shrine.
I really felt a very peaceful feeling there, standing and facing the old small shrine in the shade of summer greens on the white sands of an island south of Tokyo.
This is one of my memory about a serene summer vacation of decades ago.
It is so, since today is reportedly the peak of summer-holiday traffic jams in Japan, while the God has shown His displeasure to pleasure-seeking Japanese travellers over the Tokaido traffic line, the main part of Japan's transportation and industrial networks, by allowing for the occurrence of an earthquake of intensity 6 lower to shut down part of the expressway connecting Tokyo to western Japan.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/13_11.html
SECTION I: Samurai Economy
The Edo Period or the Tokugawa Period (1603-1867) of Japan is an era when the strongest samurai clan, the Tokugawas, governed whole Japan from the capital Edo, presently Tokyo.
The economy of the Edo Period was based on a rice standard system in addition to money economy.
Farmers paid taxes with rice. A samurai lord and his family members and subjects lived on the rice, but they could also earn money by selling redundant rice in market. With the money earned this way, a samurai lord and his family members and subjects could buy commodities, goods, and products and services from market or craftsmen and merchants living in towns and streets build around a big castle where a samurai lord lived.
The Tokugawa government (led by "Shogun") and samurai lords (called "Daimyo") all over Japan sold their rice mostly in the market set up in Osaka, a central city in western Japan. Accordingly, Osaka became the only major city that bore comparison with Edo in terms of economy, commerce, and culture, though the imperial capital Kyoto is not far from Osaka.
In this market system, dealing in futures, credit dealing, and other modern business sachems were fully developed in the Japanese society. The Tokugawa samurai elite tried to put the market under its control, but the sword could not win the power of free market. The huge rice trade market in Osaka grew as a free market.
Coins were struck and issued by the Tokugawa regime, as the central government, to circulate them nationwide. But, each samurai lord published his own unique bills (a kind of banknotes called "Han-satsu") that could only circulate in his territory. Even major merchants published their own unique bills ("Shi-satsu") allowed to use in their trade.
The Tokugawa Government issued three types of coins: gold, silver, and copper ones. But, the gold coins were mainly circulated in Edo and eastern Japan while the silver coins in Osaka and western Japan. (A large gold mine was in Sado north of Edo, but a large gold mine was in Iwami west of Osaka, both on the Sea of Japan.) In this way, Japan was clearly divided into the west (Osaka bloc) and the east (Edo bloc) economically just until 140 years ago.
(http://www.abura-ya.com/naruhodo/rekishi/rekish16.html)
It's time for the Japanese Government today to review merits of the rice standard system as well as "Han-satsu" and "Shi-satsu" bills allowed to circulate in a specified and restricted zone.
Indeed, structural reform in any country should be based on exhaustive study on its unique environment, culture, and history (due to a lack of which the so-called Japan's Koizumi reformation is yet to result in success after eight years of his and his successors' eras).
Truly, economists in the U.S., the U.K., and China and India should study the Japanese history before commenting on anything related to the Japanese economy.
SECTION II: Taira-Minamoto War: The First Major War among Samurai Clans
(To be conrinued...)
(Près de mes ancêtres "terre d'origine, ma princesse, il est le plus grand et le plus ancien sanctuaire sacré du shintoïsme, though it is not north of Tokyo. I can visit it if in autumn, winter, or spring as it is by the sea...
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/121-hokkikou.htm )
Mar 8:13 And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.
Mar 8:14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.
Mar 8:15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
"No Sign be Given unto this Generation"
(Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo...)
No Signs but History Long or Short
Nowadays more people are talking about future and past prime ministers of Japan.
(Even top TV journalist Mr. Soichiro Tahara is reportedly travelling here and there to help hopeful candidates of the Liberal Democratic Party to seek the seat.)
So, I might say also that some past prime ministers were unique and others were not so unique.
Former Prime Minister Mr. Junichiro Koizumi (in PM office b/w 2001 and 2006) was a long divorced man without a wife for decades, while one of his sons is going to succeed him as a national lawmaker in the upcoming election.
Former Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe had no children though he had an active wife who even joined the Tokyo City marathon.
Former Prime Minister Mr. Yasuo Fukuda had suffered no scandals in his private life and political life while his son cannot run for the coming general election as Mr. Yasuo Fukuda himself is going to run since the LDP is facing an upwind.
Looking back to their days in Japanese premiership, there was a big change in moods of voters during the Abe Administration. As poor and criminal handling of pension funds in a large scale by government officials was exposed, an approval rate for the then Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe plummeted down, resulting in a victory of the DPJ in a national election for the Upper House of the National Diet in 2007.
Former Prime Minister Mr. Yasuo Fukuda tried to tie up with DPJ in vain. So, next Prime Minister, namely active-duty Mr. Taro Aso changed a policy to defeat the DPJ in the Lower House Election relying on his popularity. However, many problems discovered during the Abe Administration are yet to be solved. Those problems seem to be a decisive factor in the coming election. Accordingly, the LDP seems to be taking a wrong course in pursuing their strategy.
Finally, the strategy of Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso looks wrong; probably he should study merits in underlying ideas of policies Mr. Junichiro Koizumi was committed to rather than aligning with Mr. Shinzo Abe's politics which however have been highly supported by Japanese loyalists.
(So, if you are a single woman, a woman without children, or a scandal-less woman, your victory in election is not necessarily promised nowadays in Japan...)
SECTION I: Modern History of the United States
America could not prevent the Great Depression in 1929.
America could not prevent the rise of Stalin in the U.S.S.R. in 1930's.
America could not prevent the rise of Hitler in Germany in 1930's.
America could not prevent the Pearl Harbor Attack in 1941.
America could not prevent the rise of the Chinese Communist Party after WWII.
America could not prevent the Korean War in 1950.
America could not prevent the Vietnam War in 1960's.
America could not prevent the Israel-Arab wars and the Oil Crisis in early 1970's.
America could not prevent massacres in Cambodia in early 1970's.
America could not continue to send astronauts to the moon since the middle of 1970's.
America could not prevent the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980's, while American politicians have boasted that they enticed Soviet troops into a messy war with Mujaheddin.
America could not prevent the Sadam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
America could not prevent AlQaeda's attacks in 1990's and 2000's, including the 2001 September 11 attacks.
American could not prevent the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.
However, Americans successfully elected Mr. Barack Obama as first African American President in 2008.
Indeed, modern American history began with the Civil War (1861-1865) sacrificing 620,000 lives.
Truly, today no Americans think that America is not the No.1 country in the world, since all the people except few in the world think so.
SECTION II:
(To be continued...)
(C'est un bon moment, ma princesse, qui vous s'il vous plaît. It is so since a great singer died in the summer of 1985 around Tokyo with other 520 or so passengers and crews. Indeed, 24 years is just like 24 hours as we have not seen any other signs of the era. I mean "Think of other unhappy people before you die."
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/70909-sutekinatiming.htm )
Mar 8:11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.
Mar 8:12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
"The Seed is the Word of God"
(Tokyo, the most engineered city in the world; click to enlarge.)
Islam Fallen, India Fallen, China Fallen, but Japan Standing
There is one interesting Islamic empire in history that existed from 1299 to 1922 to prevent Western powers from invading and colonizing the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire)
It is not only geopolitics implications but also religious implications what the fall of the Ottoman Islamic Empire in the early 20th century counts.
Or from the opposite direction, we have to see that new economy launched and deployed following the industrial revolution in Europe broke the barrier of religion that had been set up, intensified, and maintained since 1492 by holy grace:
---------
When Christopher Columbus first journeyed to the Bahamas in 1492, the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith, an economic power that extended over three continents. Modern Ottoman studies think that the change in relations between the Ottomans and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in the significance of the land routes to the East as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself...
Within the social and political system they were living in Ottoman administrators could not have comprehended or seen the desirability of the dynamics and principles of the capitalist and mercantile economies developing in Western Europe...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
---
Up until the nineteenth century, European feelings towards the world of Islam was always a complex mix of respect, awe and fear. In the middle ages Islam had even come so far as to threaten the very existence of Christianity in Europe. However, the technological advances of the Industrial revolution meant that European powers had long ceased to see the Middle Eastern countries as being any kind of threat. Instead, the Ottoman empire was seen as a very weak organisation, falling apart at the seams.
All the major European Imperialists saw opportunity in the demise of this ailing power. What is surprising is that the Ottomans lasted as long as they did in very unfavourable international waters. France, Russia and Britain were the principal beneficiaries of the gradual sheddings of territory forced upon the Ottomans over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
(Regions in Red Colonized by the U.K. before WWII)
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/mideast.htm
---------
At this point of history, Islam could not function effectively to cope with the modern economy developed in the European Christian Civilization based on the industrial revolution.
At this point of history, India could not function well.
At this point of history, China could not function well.
At this point of history, only the Empire of Japan could function well effectively to cope with the modern economy developed in the European Christian Civilization based on the industrial revolution, since the Empire could carry out its own industrial revolution leveraging its cultural and spiritual superiority to the West.
Accordingly, even today all the Muslims are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America.
Accordingly, even today all the Indians are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America.
Accordingly, even today all the Chinese are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America.
Hence, if even today all the Japanese are dreaming of going and living an economically rich life in Western Europe or America, it would be a perfect victory of the European Christian Civilization to the rest of the world, which America actually assumes as the new leader of the European Christian Civilization.
Yet, some Japanese have come to realize significance of Japan's existence, since New York had to suffer from the 2001 September's terror attacks and the 2008 September's financial crisis, both of which impacted on the Japanese people not only in a tangible and material manner but also in an intangible and spiritual way.
Mankind can be integrated but not under the sole hegemony of the U.S. and the European Christianity Civilization that have overwhelmed the Islamic Civilization, the Indian Civilization, and the Chinese Civilization in these centuries as symbolized by the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
It is so, since lessons of the Empire of Japan should help Japan in the 21st century play a new decisive role in history.
Indeed, the Islamic Empire in the way side, India on the infertile rock, and China among thorns could not stand against Western devils in the 20th century.
But, Japan on the good ground of its traditional culture and spiritualism could survive, while sacrificing the era of the Empire of Japan but further developing into democratic, hard-working, and peace-loving Japan of today, as Jesus Christ predicted 2000 years ago...
(To be continued...)
(Nice mélodie n'est pas nécessairement accompagnée par des mots doux, ma princesse. Oh, how dear can you do dance steps so well while so many stars are falling nowadays?
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/90105-kemekonouta.htm
Source: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/900-bgm/bgm.htm)
Luk 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luk 8:12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
Luk 8:13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
Luk 8:14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Luk 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
Monday, August 10, 2009
"That Which Waxeth Old is Ready to Vanish Away"
(Around the Diet Bldg. to Supreme Court and Old Socialist Party Bldg., Tokyo)
Homework for the Summer Vacation
There must be students in various countries who view, read, and study EEE Reporter.
Different from those viewers who have already built their careers in society, those young people have a great chance to have a right mind set and find a right direction so as to avoid future temptation to sins.
The choice is to pursue wealth with a mean disposition or to pursue truth in awe of God.
In other word, it is how to respond to a fact that one cannot be rich at all without doing something bad and sinful behind other's back. Indeed, you have to be also a bad guy to be liked and trusted by a bad and rich boss. But, it is so absurd for you to cry in your mind, "I will be as bad as necessary to be rich like my bad boss!"
However, before accepting this principle of education and discipline, you have to recognize the power of God so manifested in history through His interference with disappointing tribes, races, and civilizations.
Now some historical questions are as follows:
Q1. What were Sumerians?
Q2. What is the relationship between Hebrews and Sumerians, though the Mesopotamia Civilization could influence the Indus Civilization, the Persian Culture, the Arab Culture, and the Greek Civilization?
Q3. Why could not Egypt, with ability to build pyramids, occupy the whole Mediterranean regions and Rome and further Europe and Asia?
Q4. Why could only Greek civilization develop science in the ancient world?
Q5. Why did not Christianity prevail in the Middle East after the first century?
Q6. Why did not Christianity prevail in Asia and Africa after the first century?
Q7. Why have not Popes tried to go back to Jerusalem with his churches instead of simply sending Crusaders, though Islam occupied it, after the fall of the Roman Empire?
These questions might help you believe:
- God chose Sumerians but not Egyptians as ancestor of Hebrews, since the Egyptian religion did not please Him; on the other hand, Sumerians could not meet God's expectation to directly lead the world eventually.
- Hence, God allowed Greeks to develop their civilization based on the Mesopotamia Civilization, though Greeks could not meet God's expectation to directly lead the world eventually.
- Hence, God allowed Romans to succeed Greeks.
- Yet, God secured direct descendants of Sumerians in the form of Hebrews, so that He expected Israelis to unify the Egyptian culture and the Greek culture and then to cope with the Roman Empire and guide Roman citizens, Arabs (and Africans), and Persians (and Asians) into a right religion, which Israelis could not carry out.
- Accordingly, God allowed Christians to emerge from Israelis and prevail in the Roman Empire and thus guide at least Roman citizens into a right religion.
- God created Islam as the Vatican was no more holy enough to administer Jerusalem.
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Economics is important to understand how money is circulating in the society, being influenced by interest rates (I) and exchange rates (E).
But, economics must contribute to a decrease in unemployment (U) and a national budget deficit (N).
Free market may grow but break with various indicators (M), reflecting a sense of happiness or unhappiness of a majority of voters in a democratic society which can be translated into an approval rate of a president or a ruling party (A).
Now, you have to specify or describe A as functions of I, E, U, N, M, and Others (O):
A = F(I, E, U, N, M, O) + s
or you may assume there is a linear relationship:
A = xI + yE + zU + wN + vM + tO + s
or you may think of a possibility of occurrence of a revolutionary incident (R):
R = f(A, I, E, U, N, M, O, s) + s2
It will take at least a decade of study to define and confirm these formulae. But, you might be able to find what economists are saying about this kind of formulas even during your humble summer holidays.
Please note that s and s2 are super-sub-functions that can totally change the right-hand side of the equations or a whole paradigm of the equations depending on specific conditions.
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Yesterday, I saw a report on a symposium held this July in the main auditorium, which ancestors of Ms. Yoko Ono presented in 1925, of the The University of Tokyo through a cable TV channel.
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The University of Tokyo and the Yomiuri Shinbun collaborated for a special symposium on Global Leadership Studies on June 3, 2009 with H.E. Dr. Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Mrs. Sadako Ogata, President of JICA and Former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as the keynote speakers. The African Diplomatic Corps (ADC) in Japan was among the invitees who attended the seminar and the reception.
http://www.adc-japan.org/en/view.php?vid=49
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Mr. Kofi Annan told that the most difficult decision he had made in his assignment in the United Nations was what had been related to the Iraqi War then U.S. President Mr. George W. Bush had launched.
But, what made me focus on the session is Japanese students delivering questions in English to Mr. Kofi Annan and Ms. Sadako Ogata.
Their Englsih, though with some spread in fluency, was rather not the so called "Japan-glish" ordinary English-speaking Japanese have spoken with a Japanese tempo in these decades.
Rather, an attending professor of the University spoke English with a clear trace of old "Japan-glish."
So, I reckon most of those questioning students had some experiences of having learnt or lived in the United States. They must be able to think in English in their brains.
Yet, there is a very dangerous aspect in thinking in English for Japanese students, even if they are groundlessly extremely proud students of the University of Tokyo.
Thinking in English in your mind is sometimes very efficient, but it makes your mind poor and simple. English was born in a poor natural environment. Original English speaking tribe had no rich culture and traditions. Their community and domain were barren and monotonous.
So, too much thinking in English in your mind would make you psychologically poor or simple even if you were born in a far more blessed and rich environment like Japan.
Accordingly, this is what I like to advise on all the students worldwide learning global issues while English is not their mother tongue. Do not think too much in English!
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(To be continued...)
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
NO MORE HIROSHIMA, NO MORE NAGASAKI, and NO MORE ADOLF
(Japan's National Diet Bldg. since 1936 in Tokyo and a nearby subway station)
NO MORE HIROSHIMA, NO MORE NAGASAKI, and NO MORE ADOLF
The No.1 animation character after WWII in Japan is "Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy)" or "Iron-Armed Boy Called Atom."
This "Atom" is from the atomic bombs (nuclear bombs) used by the American military force to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki in air raids, in August 1945.
With a mega hit and popularity of this manga animation title, the hate for atomic-bombing America was however strangely diluted; the fear to the term "atom" was incredibly diluted; and trust in science was surely restored among the Japanese people in 1950's and 1960's.
It was so since the hero "Tetsuwan Atom" was a pure-hearted, courteous, but brave super-robot boy.
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Yesterday, an NHK TV channel presented a special program featuring Osamu Tezuka, Japan's legendary king of manga comics and animation.
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Dr. Osamu Tezuka (Tezuka Osamu, November 3, 1928 – February 9, 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Tezuka
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I usually do not watch this kind of superficial culture program of NHK TV; but as there was one interesting guest in the program, I decided to spend the night by watching this hours-long program.
Mr. Soichiro Tahara, a leading or No.1 veteran TV journalist in Japan, said that he respected Osamu Tezuka and read "To Adolf" intensively 25 years ago (since it was serialized in a magazine for grown-up citizens).
When the Second World War ended for Japan in August 1945, Osamu Tezuka was a (junior) high school student and Mr. Soichiro Tahara was an (5th-grade) elementary school pupil. The both have shared anti-military and anti-war ideals.
Mr. Soichiro Tahara, respected by so many politicians including ex-prime ministers, recommended a Tezuka's work of manga titled "To Adolf" which is actually a long novel expressed by a series of cartoons.
I am not a great reader of Tezuka's work. But, I have read some; yet I have not picked up "To Adolf," since the title did not sound good at all. Nobody should use "Adolf" in any work of art, if it actually or remotely means Hitler. So, I did not take up the series of comic books titled "To Adolf."
The NHK TV program last night characterized Osamu Tezuka as a kind of specializing in "war story comics." Tezuka's experiences of American air raids on Osaka in 1945 made him hate war, since he was almost killed in an armaments factory where he was mobilized to work, stopping his school life. A majority of his titles are said to be related to war and battles on their negative side against humanity.
But, my opinion is different.
He was one of the middle-class elite, though not of the upper-class elite in the Japanese society (who would surely benefit from any possible war like the American upper-class elite).
He was a professional manga artist with a background of a middle-class culture in Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe, the region most blessed with traditional and rich Japanese culture backed by a long history.
So, Osamu Tezuka smartly adopted the title "To Adolf" in his work in early 1980's (in the middle of the Cold War and the Israeli-Arab armed conflicts), based on a groundless theory that Adolf Hitler had a Judaist ancestor.
I did not like this title, so that I never tried to read it. But, as the TV program last night focused on this work, I checked its story for the first time on the Internet. Then I found it not a nice story at all, though prominent journalist Mr. Soichiro Tahara praised it. It was an entertainment story. It did not show respect for German people, Judaists, and Arabs as well as the Empire of Japan.
Even if Osamu Tezuka had been my senior friend of school, I would have surely advised that he should not have linked Japanese things during WWII to the tension between German Christians and German Judaists during WWII as well as between Israelis and Arabs after WWII.
If he had really wanted to do it, he must have stopped being a rich and successful manga artist. He had to sacrifice himself more. The title "To Adolf" is graver than he must have thought. He had to stop being a Japanese commercial manga artist so as to learn Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and anti-Christianity.
And, what I want to say to Mr. Soichiro Tahara and the like is that it is Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and anti-Christianity that the Empire of Japan should have learnt more (than Hitler and Stalin) before it launched war in the Chinese Continent and the Pacific Ocean against the Western powers.
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My favorite work among Osamu Tezuka's 700 works is "Mitsume-ga Toru (The Three-Eyed Boy Marching)."
It is so since the boy has supernatural power as he has the third eye on his forehead.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E4%B8%89%E3%81%A4%E7%9B%AE%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8A%E3%82%8B%EF%BC%881%EF%BC%89-%E8%AC%9B%E8%AB%87%E7%A4%BE%E6%BC%AB%E7%94%BB%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E6%89%8B%E5%A1%9A-%E6%B2%BB%E8%99%AB/dp/4062604868
Yet, in his last days in late 1980's, Osame Tezuka was super-busy in his humble workshop in Tokyo drawing endlessly cartoon manga on sheets of paper with a small TV set always turned on beside him, while he was casually flying from Narita to foreign cities, including Paris, for any professional occasion.
He was truly a successful and celebrated professional manga artist in Japan, living between the high society and ordinary or poor workers in the society.
Anyway, I myself often read manga magazines named "COM" and "GARO" when I was so young even before starting to live in Tokyo...
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This morning, Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso attended a yearly ceremony held in Nagasaki City to commemorate victims of the Nagaski Atomic Bomb Attack of August 1945.
Next Saturday, August 15, is one of the most important days for Japan as WWII ended on the day in 1945.
However, most of Japanese workers are expected to take their summer vacation next week, though the beginning of fall already came on August 7 in the lunar calendar.
Nonetheless, as a start of the general election is scheduled to be officially announced on August 18 and the voting day is scheduled on August 30, the heat of the summer will surely remain all through September, no matter if Prime Minister Mr. Taro Aso and his LDP should succeed in retaining power, or his rival Mr. Yukio Hatoyama and his DPJ should just walk away from their rivals to form a new Cabinet for the Japanese Government.
Anyway, it needed the September 15's Lehman Brothers Shock to pave the way for the first African-American President...
(The Sound of Silence really appealed to me in the world without PCs, the Internet, cellular phones, cheap air tickets to Los Angeles and New York, and easy ways of making big money...but with so many students around me...
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/104-soundofsilence.htm )