War Memorial Day (Jour Commémoratif De Guerre)
It was at noon of August 15, so that everybody who joined the Imperial memorial service being held in Tokyo for three million Japanese victims of WWII was offering a silent prayer .
Yet, I was in a station on a line toward Mt. Fuji.
Accordingly, holy Mt. Fuji was just covered by clouds. Hence, I could not see Mt. Fuji so close today. I will come around again soon or later.
Anyway, check the world division by powers as of 1938.
(Click to enlarge.)http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:Colonisation2.gif
And immediately after WWII, the influence of Marxism and the Soviet Union covered Mongolia, China, and North Korea.
The Soviet Union even demanded shamelessly Hokkaido, the second largest island of the nation.
Unless the U.S. had swiftly deployed its troops in mainland Japan and South Korea, while ex-troops of the Imperial Army were bravely engaged in exchanging deadly fires with Soviet troops in some northern territories even after August 15, it was apparent that South Korea had been occupied by the Soviet Union like North Korea was.
So, North Korea accuses Japan as responsible for the divided peninsula.
But, South Koreans also often accuse Japan as responsible for the divided peninsula, indicating how biased and foolish education they have received.
Even before WWI, South Korea could have been colonized by the Russian Empire, which was prevented by the Empire of Japan but not by the Qing dynasty of China.
There were only two options for Korea in the early 20th century: colonization by Russians or protection by the Empire of Japan.
This is a main-stream understanding of the history in the world. Professors and scholars in the U.S. and Russia who support this view must account for 95%, in my feeling, since there are some influences of China in both the countries.
(Details are of course controversial, such as assassinations of Empress Myeongseong [1851 – 1895] of the Kingdom of Korea and ex-prime minister of the Empire of Japan Hirobumi Ito [1841 - 1901].)
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I cannot believe that President Mr. Barack Obama swam with his daughter in the Gulf of Mexico to confirm its soundness for human health and tourism.
Yet, I also went to a certain beach today after going around foggy fields and hills at the foot of Mt. Fuji by train.
When I was sitting on concrete stairways to the beach, I saw two sisters, around seven years and five years. The elder one made a hard effort to carry a pillow-size stone to her family, driven by unknown passion. After several trials, she succeeded in picking up and carrying a big round stone to her family, on which her uncle or such sat. Then, her younger sister picked up one with the size of her head to bring it to her father, who took it, pretending as if hitting the head of her daughter with the stone, though she was laughing with some satisfaction. Then, he threw it away onto the back beach.
In the meantime, several Brazilians came to the beach and occupied other stairways by themselves, though they were in a forbidden ground for some repair work of an expressway running overhead along the beach.
Others on the beach were also families with small children, some as if from the Stone Age, anglers, and old bossy locals of various grades or some such, walking with a cigarette in the hand or sitting on a plastic chair along with his wife at the best location.
So, I took only less than 200 pictures today with my slow camera, since I was mostly thinking that it was the War Memorial Day for Japan, today, though I am not a VIP at all, despite my jacket and shoes, on the very tranquil beach except sporadic crazy sounds made by bike freaks coming from the expressway.
And, I returned home to see TV news and some such, around Tokyo.