New News and Old News (nouvelles nouvelles et les anciennes nouvelles)
There are 15 nuclear reactors in four nuclear power generation plants on the coast line of the northeast part of Honshu Island of Japan facing the North Pacific Ocean.
Or there are 15 nuclear power plants northeast of Tokyo on the Pacific Coast areas in the main island of Japan. But, only four nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi plant failed. Especially three reactors of the Onagawa plant situated closer to the epicenter of the M9.0 earthquake, which occurred on March 11, in the Pacific Ocean could stand even a 15-meter high tsunami. Four reactors of the Fukushima Daini plant situated near Fukushima Daiichi could survive the earthquake and the tsunami, too.
In general, Japanese nuclear reactors are robust to natural disasters. Specifically, Japanese-designed nuclear reactors are robust even against the greatest natural disaster that could happen once in 1000 years. Only unlucky four reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi plant (some of which were designed by U.S. GE) lost emergency power generators due to a 15-meter high tsunami for some errors and omissions of the power company and a government regulation body.
By the way, Toshiba, one of major makers in the Japanese nuclear industry, is reportedly said to increase its share in U.S. Westinghouse, a nuclear power engineering company, from 67% to 87%. It might reflect some truth and reality of the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
SECTION I: News of Today in Japan
1) Japan has now foreign currency reserves of $1.2 trillion. Some Nobel-Prize-class American economists a few moths ago proudly said, "You know China has now $1 trillion cash!" though. Indeed, till 2010 or so Japan was the largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds for decades. As long as Nobel-Prize-class American economists continue to praise China, the American unemployment rate will stay around 9%.
2) Former Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Naoto Kan started his campaign to justify himself in terms of his handling of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Mr. Kan told newspapers that he was right but the Tokyo Electric Power Company was wrong. Bureaucrats did not transfer instructions and collect information on the situation in an efficient manner. He blamed others and would not admit his responsibility.
3) According to a recent survey conducted by AP and GfK, Japanese respondents who like America account for 49%, Germany 48%, and South Korea 31%, while those who dislike North Korea 94%, China 76%, and Israel 44% and Russia 44%. In addition, Japanese respondents who regard China as a threat to the world peace account for 73% and North Korea 80%. Finally those who support Japanese commercial whaling account for 52%, but those who want to eat whale meat for themselves account for just 33% of all the respondents.
SECTION II: An Article in Today's Japanese Newspaper
A certain newspaper reported today that thousands of Pakistanis have been arrested, detained, and probably sent to U.S. facilities, such as those in Guantanamo, or executed after the 9/11 Terror.
The U.S. Government forced the Pakistani Government to take the side of America or that of AlQaeda or the Taliban in the wake of the 9/11 Terror. So, the Pakistani Government joined the U.S. in the War on Terror. Then, the Pakistani police and officers started to arrest many innocent Pakistani citizens to hand them over to American agents or authorities in return for some money.
Today, even after Osama bin Laden was taken on by American commandos, the situation of families of missing Pakistanis in the above context has not been improved. In other word, a happy and peaceful life of every American citizen is made possible with this sacrifice of pious Muslims in Pakistan.
Incidentally, due to hard work of a certain body of those families and the supreme court of Pakistan, some 400 Pakistani citizens were allowed to return to their families from prisons in these five years. But, it is said that most of them are suffering the aftereffects of physical and psychological abuse they experienced in prisons.
Allah will, I am afraid, turn a judging eye to some Americans and Pakistanis.
The Greater East Asia Conference, an international summit hosted by the Empire of Japan, was held in Tokyo in November 1943.
The Conference was intended by the Imperial Government of Japan to get support from other Asian nations and thus justify its military presence in East Asia after the Pearl Harbor attack. However, the main reason for Japanese occupation of European colonies in East Asia was to get crude oil and other natural resources the Empire could not import any longer from the U.S. Anyway, the Conference was held with participants from Manchukuo, part of China, Burma, Free India, the Philippines, and Thailand.
So, one significant historical question is who gave courage to Asian peoples who started to fight for their independence from the U.K., France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. after WWII. The Empire of Japan or the U.S.?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Bdi_rTSig&feature=related)
Mar 9:7 And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.