Friday, August 09, 2013

"how excellent is thy name" - Nagasaki and Downburst




National Diet (Parliament) Bldg., Tokyo


Nagasaki and Downburst

Two minutes past 11 o'clock on August 9, 1945 a nuclear bomb was blasted over Nagasaki City, Japan, as it was released down from a B29 bomber of the US Air Force.

Then on August 15 the Empire of Japan surrendered to the US and other allied nations.  The Second World War ended for Japan.

Tow weeks after the end of WWII, a university in Fukuoka Prefecture, northeast of Nagasaki, sent an investigation team to Nagasaki.  They studied how the atomic bomb destroyed the port city in a scientific manner.  Among the scientists of the team was assistant professor Tetsuya Fujita (1920-1998), a resident of Kokura Area, Fukuoka.  Fujita took pictures of the devastated state of the City, though taking pictures was forbidden by the Imperial authority.

Recently those pictures young scientist Fujita secretly took in Nagasaki were rediscovered in a house of a Fujita's relative who lives in Fukuoka.  There were 33 pictures vividly showing vastly damaged streets and buildings of Nagasaki City.  Some of them were apparently focused on trees, power poles and facilities to provide electricity for tram cars.  Trees at the ground zero however stood strangely while other trees around and far from the center of explosion were all knocked down.  Iron poles and structures for a municipal electric railway were violently twisted in some pattern.  They told how  bomb blasts attacked those objects on the ground while the nuclear bomb blew up 500 meters (1500 feet) above the ground.

In 1953 Tetsuya Fujita took a doctorate in the University of Tokyo and was subsequently invited to the University of Chicago.  Living in the US, he later contributed greatly to science in his study in meteorology, especially, specializing in tornadoes.

In 1975 Fujita joined an investigation team of an air accident at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York.  Then he became the first scientist that discovered a special air phenomenon which he named "downburst."

Today, parties concerned used the index called the Fujita scale to express the strength of a tornado.

Nonetheless if weather conditions over Kokura Area had been suitable for bombing on August 9, 1945, the B29 should have attacked Kokura with the nuclear bomb instead of Nagasaki according to priority order, since both Kokura and Nagasaki are on Kyusyu Island.  Then Tetsuya Fujita must have been killed so unfortunately.

Fujita is recognized as the discoverer of downbursts and microbursts and also developed the Fujita scale, which differentiates tornado intensity and links tornado damage with wind speed. 
Residing in Kokura, the primary target of the Fat Man bomb, during the war he was spared by cloudy weather forcing the bombers to move on to the secondary target at Nagasaki. Studying the damage caused by the nuclear blasts led to his understanding of downbursts and microbursts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Fujita




Nagasaki after the Atomic Bomb Attack by US Army
http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/mhvmhv/NagasakiAtomicBombDisaster.html



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Psa 8:9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Thursday, August 08, 2013

"All the words of my mouth are in righteousness" - Different Stories for Different Peoples


Seashore on the Pacific Ocean around Tokyo (where an M7.9 earthquake occurred in 1923 taking on 100,000 lives)


Different Stories for Different Peoples


Japanese readers love The Tragedy of Y (1932) the most among various works by Ellery Queen.  But Americans love Calamity Town (1942) the most.

Ellery Queen said when he visited Japan in 1977 that he could not see why Japanese fans liked The Tragedy of Y so much.  But I can explain why.

First of all Japanese are very sensible of sadness of handicapped people and innocence of children.  They are also very interested in the internal affairs of very rich families, especially of very rich American families.  And the Japanese are also keen in ethical issues partly due to an influence of Buddhism.  They will be surprised to read that murdering a child can be justified in a very special case.  The Tragedy of Y includes all these elements.

But Calamity Town is a very romantic or passionate novel, though so fraught with danger of losing human integrity.   Strength of love is a hidden main theme in this story whose stage was set in a very American local town.  And personalities of focal sisters, which are very American, are also the highlight of Calamity Town.

Accordingly Japanese readers love The Tragedy of Y more than Calamity Town while Americans love Calamity Town above all the works by Ellery Queen.


Of course I intensely read The Tragedy of Y but carefully Calamity Town, since I am Japanese.




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Pro 8:7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
Pro 8:8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
Pro 8:9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

"and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt" - Solving the Apocalypse


A Tokyo Subway Line

Solving the Apocalypse

How was this modern era of history prophesied in the Bible, specifically in the Apocalypse?

Let's check the most significant passages.
Rev 8:7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Rev 8:8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
Rev 8:9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
Rev 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
Rev 8:11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
Rev 8:12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
The first angel must be concerned with Europe in the First World One.  The second angel must be related to the Pacific Theater of WWII; the third to the Cold War and the Chernobyl nuclear accident; and the fourth to social or economic crises in Japan, the Arabic world, the EU, China and the US.

Rev 8:7 depicts the tragedy of WWI in Europe where modern weapons were first used in a large scale after the Industrial Revolution.

Rev 8:8 and 8.9 explain how the most advanced nation in Asia the Empire of Japan symbolized by great and sacred Mt. Fuji collapsed through battles in WWII against the US having been fought in wider areas in and around the Pacific Ocean.

Rev 8:10 and 8.11 tell how the Soviet Union collapsed through the Cold War and finally lost its might and dignity along with the occurrence of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Rev 8:12 outlines how the sun (Japan), the moon (the Islamic world), the stars (the EU), the day (the US, the most Christian country), and the night (China, the most non-Christian country) would face social and economic hardship of their own.

Accordingly we had better check the Bible more carefully, since it includes other chapters and sections of the Apocalypse.

And finally some of us might end our mission with the fate so predicted in this mysterious part of the Bible.


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Exo 8:5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the LORD, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the LORD.
Exo 8:9 And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?
Exo 8:10 And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.
Exo 8:11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only.
Exo 8:12 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the LORD because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.
Exo 8:13 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

"the seven angels which had the seven trumpets" - Chinese Bubble Ending


Views from the Tokyo Tower


Chinese Bubble Ending

According to a Japanese newspaper account, China is now losing human resources and money.

The Sankei Newspaper released today posted a comment by its correspondent in Beijing: "A real estate bubble is about to burst in China.  The central government looks like being incapable of managing and controlling the situation.  No one can say what will happen in China, since local governments, banks, businesses and all other stake holders have been engaged in building up this bubble for so long."

A Chinese researcher the Japanese reporter met after 10 years said that though Japan is a country ruled by law and thus Japan suffered no social turmoils when its bubble collapsed in the early 1990s, China is different.  He added that he let his wife and children immigrate to Canada.

The four major Chinese national banks have lost about $170 billion in the last three weeks.  Chinese students today learning in the US and other advanced nations seem to have no intention to come back to China and help development of domestic economy, though such students came back to China after graduation from foreign universities to help Chinese economy grow in a higher rate 20 or 30 years ago.

So, parties concerned in Japan as well as in China are really worried about possible collapse of the Chinese bubble.

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In my view, Chinese economic bubble may burst but its state will be different from other past examples in the world.

China is large in terms of population.  So, some part of China is going down into recession with a burst of the bubble but other parts must continue to expand their economy.  It must look like a kind of chaos.  Even today China is experiencing hundreds of riots in various local towns and villages.  More grave incidents must be happening underground.  But most of Chinese businesses will continue their operation, since China has a vast scale of market.

The years-long deflation in Japan is the very rare case for the human history, but this complicated crisis of the Chinese economy and its state structure will be also a very singular case in the history.

We have to carefully watch the on-going situation in China.



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Rev 8:5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
Rev 8:6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
Rev 8:7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Rev 8:8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
Rev 8:9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
Rev 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
Rev 8:11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
Rev 8:12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Rev 8:13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Monday, August 05, 2013

"such should be stoned" - Significance of Okinawa



Tokyo Views


Significance of Okinawa 

Once it was often said that there was strong social discrimination in Japan.  Some types of Japanese or residents in Japan had been regarded as second-class citizens.

For example, before the end of WWII, the Japanese main stream citizens consisted of the imperial family, imperial branch families, noble class families, ex-samurai class families, authorized Buddhist monks and shinto priests, and descendants of ordinary families, townsman/craftsman families of the samurai era.

But Japanese people who did not belong to the above stated mainstream classes were socially discriminated.  In addition, Korean residents in Japan were also socially discriminated.  Furthermore Okinawa people who lived in Okinawa Prefecture, the most southern islands area of Japan, were also sometimes unjustly regarded as second-class citizens of Japan as with the Ainu people who lived in the most northern major island of Japan.

This sort of discrimination was really strong till introduction of the new constitution after the end of WWII.  Today such social discrimination is not so strong at all as before or it is almost conquered with expansion of awareness of human rights in the society.  There is an influence of the realization of the first African American President in the US, too.

In this context memory of the Battle of Okinawa (1 April – 22 June 1945) in WWII still makes Okinawa people suffer with a sense that they were used as a kind of sacrifice to defend the mainland Japan against the US military forces.  (In this Battle more than 90,000 Okinawa citizens were killed.)

But as the Senkaku Islands have been part of the Okinawa (Ryukyu) Kingdom for 1000 years or they have been within a range of sailing and fishing of Okinawa people since the Japanese race started to live in the Okinawa islands thousands of years ago, the central government of Japan is determined to protect the Senkakus from Chinese invasion.

If the Japanese Government should fail in this defense mission on the Senkaku Islands, Okinawa people might all the more hold a grudge against the mainstream Japanese, including the imperial family and politicians living in Tokyo.



(For truth of the Senkaku Islands, refer to http://eereporter.blogspot.jp/2010/10/yesterday-two-miracles-however-you.html)



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Joh 8:4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Joh 8:5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
Joh 8:6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
Joh 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.