"If I may touch but his clothes" - Spirit of a Man with a Red Cap on

 The Tokyo Station

Spirit of a Man with a Red Cap on

When an essayist in Japan felt psychologically uncomfortable, he went to a hospital to be checked by a psychiatrist, though it was not the first time to consult the medical doctor.

The psychiatrist said to his patient, "Your condition might be related to the incident that your mother died early in this year."

The essayist had once told the psychiatrist about the death of his mother.  So, he said, "In the early morning of the day when my mother died, I had a dream that my mother died without knowing that she would die in the day.  Do you believe such spiritual epiphany?"  The doctor replied:"I don't know."  But the patient saw a face of a friend in the face of the psychiatrist.

When the essayist was leaving the hospital, he saw a man with a red cap on coming at the entrance.   As the hospital was operated in an open ward system, he suspected that the man might be a hospital inpatient.  Then to his surprise, the man with a red cap on suddenly extended his hand to him, saying, "Yeah!" in a high-spirited manner  So, in a natural manner, the essayist extended his arm to shake hands with him, saying himself, "Yeah!"

Later, his daughter living and working in New York happened to come back to Tokyo.  Then, she faced a trouble in returning to the US, since some immigration rule of America was changed.  She had to spend several months in Tokyo, arranging her reentry and filling out necessary applications.

Finally, her application was accepted.  Now she could fly back to New York.  But her father, the essayist, could not see her off to an international airport.  He had to make a business trip to some local place in Japan.  So, when he started to go out leaving in the house her daughter who would soon fly away during his trip, he wanted to say farewell to her.  He extended his hand to her, saying, "Yeah!" in a high-spirited manner.   She looked puzzled for a moment.  But she also extended her hand to hold the hand of her father, saying, "Yeah!"

So, a young Japanese woman came back to New York with spirit refreshed, though she never knew that the spirit she had been handed to by her father came from a hospital inpatient with a red cap on in a certain mental hospital.

Indeed there is nothing useless in this world that was created by God.

 



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Mar 5:27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
Mar 5:28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
Mar 5:29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

"he said unto him, Follow me" - US President in Hiroshima

The Tokyo Station

US President in Hiroshima

US President Barack Obama visited today (May 27, 2016 in Japan Time) Hiroshima to show his concern about nuclear crises and nuclear threats.

(Due to the air bombardment with just one atomic bomb by the US military on Hirohima on August 6, 1945, 140,000 citizens, soldiers, and prisoners of war who happened to be in the west Japan city died immediately or gradually due to radioactive influences till December 1945.)

The reason why nuclear weapons pose so great challenges to humanity is that as its demolition power is so huge that its use means a kind of annihilation of not only enemy troops but also enemy civilians.

But before the use of atomic bombs onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, belligerent nations in WWII had adopted a kind of annihilation tactics: a large-scale blanket or carpet bombings.

The bombing of Dresden was a British/American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, that took place during the Second World War in the European Theatre. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city.[1] The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed over 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) of the city centre.[2] An estimated 22,700[3] to 25,000[4] people were killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

The Bombing of Tokyo, often referred to as a series of firebombing raids, was conducted as part of the air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II...
On the night of 9–10 March ("Operation Meetinghouse"),[12] 334 B-29s took off to raid with 279 of them dropping 1,665 tons of bombs on Tokyo. The bombs were mostly the 500-pound (230 kg) E-46 cluster bomb which released 38 napalm-carrying M-69 incendiary bomblets at an altitude of 2,000–2,500 ft (610–760 m). The M-69s punched through thin roofing material or landed on the ground; in either case they ignited 3–5 seconds later, throwing out a jet of flaming napalm globs. A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries was also dropped: the M-47 was a 100-pound (45 kg) jelled-gasoline and white phosphorus bomb which ignited upon impact. In the first two hours of the raid, 226 of the attacking aircraft unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the city's fire defenses.[13] The first B-29s to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyo's densely populated working class district near the docks in both Koto and Chuo city wards on the water; later aircraft simply aimed near this flaming X. The individual fires caused by the bombs joined to create a general conflagration, which would have been classified as a firestorm but for prevailing winds gusting at 17 to 28 mph (27 to 45 km/h).[14] Approximately 15.8 square miles (4,090 ha) of the city was destroyed and some 100,000 people are estimated to have died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo

No matter if conventional bombs are used, the aerial bombardment on a city is actually targeting citizens.  So, there is no difference between an attack on a city using one atomic bomb and an attack on a city using thousands of conventional bombs.

However, an air raid using hundreds or thousands of conventional bombs in on a city was an extension of an air raid to military installations.  The paradigm was not annihilation of citizens but destruction of buildings, facilities and functions of a city and military installations around the city.  It was not assumed that carpet bombing could kill all the residents in a city, since bombing could not be so dense and concentrated, though the Bombing of Tokyo triggered large-scale fires in down towns of Tokyo that killed so many human lives in addition to burning hundreds of thousands of houses and buildings.

But an air bombardment using one nuclear bomb is a different paradigm.  As it is apparent that the huge blast of the bomb could surely kill tens of thousands of people, a nuclear bomb attack means annihilation of residents in a city rather than demolition of city functions and military facilities or making enemy citizens lose the will to fight.

The modern warfare is all-out war.  Warring nations mobilize all the industrial power they have.  Therefore they target industrial bases of enemy countries including cities.  And they would finally target citizens of enemy countries, since human resources are also resources of their industry.  Against this background, the atomic bombs were developed and used by the US military onto the two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of the Imperial Japan at the last stage of WWII.

Now any big city, such as New York, can be destroyed with hundreds of thousands of deaths by a few nuclear missiles, each of which is 100 times more powerful than the Hiroshima-type atomic bomb.  Therefore, the US and all the other nations in the world should stop keeping nuclear weapons and intimidating other nations with nuclear weapons.  The use of weapons imply not only the will to win a war but also an intention of killing children, women, old men, and all the noncombatants of cities and everywhere of an enemy country. 

And, it is absurd and evil for mankind to try to develop weapons more powerful than nuclear weapons.



Hiroshima after the atomic bomb attack in August 1945
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/setsuko-thurlow/70-years-after-hiroshima_b_7941322.html

Hiroshima before the atomic bomb attack
http://tsubaki352.at.webry.info/200808/article_1.html
Hiroshima before the atomic bomb attack
http://www.tooa.jp/hari-story.html
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Luk 5:26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.
Luk 5:27 And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me.
Luk 5:28 And he left all, rose up, and followed him.

"the Father hath life in himself" - Aim in Life, Spiritual or Material

The Tokyo Station

Aim in Life, Spiritual or Material

People don't mind much how the world has been built through past decades, centuries, or tens of thousands of years.

It is as if one were thrown into a river and tried just to swim better without thinking about where the river came from and flowed to.  The person who has found that he is just in a river would just try to swim better so as not to die by drowning.  So, it is natural for men to try to tackle challenges posed to them in their daily life, which means for them to follow the norm and custom of the society where they were born in any era of history.

But of course people should think about why and how the world has developed to the present state without getting devoted to living better and earning money.

It means that people should learn history and traditions like even Christ Jesus sometimes referred to The Old Testament.  By learning the past history, men can judge a current situation meaningfully.

However, if one gets great knowledge about past things and a series of events along time, he may abuse it.  But to cope with such evil guys, people should learn history more.

Of course, without knowledge of history, one can avoid evil things and one may try to live as righteous as possible.  Conversely, with knowledge of history, evil one is still evil.  However, with right knowledge of history, most people can judge a present situation more correctly so as not to be misled by evil guys.

In this context, we have to know the origin of today's civilization, epoch-making events in the past, and specific historic incidents.

About 4600 years ago, great pyramids were built in Egypt, which might be regarded as the start point of the material civilization of the modern mankind.  About 4000 years ago, Abraham left the ancient city Ur in Mesopotamia, which might be regarded as the start of the spiritual culture of the modern mankind.  About 2500 years ago, Judaism, Buddhism, and Confucianism were established, which might be regarded as the start of religious conditions of the modern mankind.  About 2000 years ago, Christianity started to prevail.  About 1300 years ago, Islam started to emerge.  Today's world has been shaped in line with this history.

But the most decisive incident for the mankind in the past is that God sent His Son to the world who was called Christ Jesus 2000 years ago.

As God is almighty, the world today was conditioned by this unbelievable incident 2000 years ago.  Since the appearance of Christ Jesus means direct interference by God with the human world.  It cannot be neglected.

And, all these past great incidents tell us that men should not live simply pursuing wealth, happiness, and satisfaction of human desire.  Rather, these incidents suggest that we should be oriented more to spiritual matters rather than material matters.

Accordingly, an end of life of each man should not be realization of rich, safe, and happy life.

Rather, the aim in life for each man should be to understand why God gave life to him or her.  And, to realize the understanding, we have to be more spiritual with support from knowledge of our history. .




http://www.slideshare.net/jmseymour/world-history-characteristics-of-civilization-module-1


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Joh 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

"The hour is coming" - Poetry Composing Tradition of Japan

The Tokyo Station

Poetry Composing Tradition of Japan

From the middle of the seventh century to the middle of the eighth century, a project to compile poetry books was carried out in Japan, collecting poets created by people in various classes such as farmers to imperial house members.  This series of poetry books, called the Manyoshu, consists of 20 volumes including total 4500 poets.　

The Man'yōshū (literally "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves", but see Name below) is the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, compiled sometime after 759 AD during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although numerous other theories have been proposed. 

The collection is divided into twenty parts or books; this number was followed in most later collections. The collection contains 265 chōka (long poems), 4,207 tanka (short poems), one tan-renga (short connecting poem), one bussokusekika (poems on the Buddha's footprints at Yakushi-ji in Nara), four kanshi (Chinese poems), and 22 Chinese prose passages. Unlike later collections, such as the Kokin Wakashū, there is no preface.

In addition to its artistic merits the Man'yōshū is important for using one of the earliest Japanese writing systems, the cumbersome man'yōgana. Though it was not the first use of this writing system, which was also used in the earlier Kojiki (712), it was influential enough to give the writing system its name: "the kana of the Man'yōshū". This system uses Chinese characters in a variety of functions: their usual logographic sense; to represent Japanese syllables phonetically; and sometimes in a combination of these functions. The use of Chinese characters to represent Japanese syllables was in fact the genesis of the modern syllabic kana writing systems, being simplified forms (hiragana) or fragments (katakana) of the man'yōgana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB

The Manyoshu is the oldest and largest collection of poetry in the world.  It is unique in that it includes poetry created not only by emperors and noble people but also by local farmers.  It shows a higher cultural standard in Japan before the eighth century.  It also tells that people were regarded as equal in the art of poetry in Japan in the eighth century.

One of the best poems in the Manyoshu is:
Tago-no-ura-yu uchidete-mireba mashiro-nizo,
fuji-no-takane-ni yuki-wa-furikeru

Stepping out to the Tago beach,
I can see the white high summit of Mt. Fuji,
with on the top snow just falling.

This was composed by Yamabeno Akahito who was an official travelling through a Pacific Ocean coast around Mt. Fuji in the eighth century.

Though letters used to write each poem in the Manyoshu were not Japanese unique kana letters but kanji characters imported from China, it is very rare in the world that not only noble men but also local farmers enjoyed composing poems for 1200 years.  This is one of unique aspects of the Japanese culture.

This tradition of composing poems developed to the art of poetry creation, call kado (the way of poet), that was established around 10th century.  Since then, composing poetry has been one of main arts in the Japanese society.  Even today, at the beginning of each year, the Emperor hosted a poetry party in the imperial palace in Tokyo.

Especially, the precedent emperor, called Showa Emperor, created 10,000 Japanese poems in his 88-year-long life.

There is one poem Showa Emperor (Hirohito) delivered on August 15, 1945, when the Imperial Japan surrendered to the US, which put an end to WWII.


Mi-wa-ikani narutomo-ikusa todomekeri,
tada-tafureyuku tami-o-omoite

No matter what I might become,
I have stopped this long war
Only for falling people I sorrow for.


No matter what role Showa Emperor played for the Pearl Harbor Attack in December 1941, he made his full efforts to stop the war against the US after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Therefore, Hirohito had been emperor of Japan from 1926 to 1989 (in the era of Showa in Japan) through the Second World War, while delivering 10,000 Japanese short poems, though only 900 of his poems have been made public so far as now.



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Joh 5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

"all men should honour the Son" - Church Goers vs Non-Goers in Presidential Election

A Pacific Coast Beach, West of Tokyo

Church Goers vs Non-Goers in Presidential Election

When you meet a stranger, you will surely try to see how evil the man is.

When you are young, you cannot easily judge how evil a stranger is.  But with experiences in society, you will have ability to judge how much you can trust or you should not trust a specific stranger.  This ability is essential for men to live in society.  Otherwise, they may become friends of criminals who are disguising themselves as honest men.  And, this condition is universal in any countries and any communities.

But Christ Jesus said not to judge a person by his appearance.  But you must pay attentions to how much righteous or evil he is.

However, people tend to respect rich men, successful men, and men with status who are dressed up or wearing expensive clothes.  It is completely wrong and against the teaching of God.  To trust someone by his appearance is Satan's teaching.  Especially those who wear expensive clothes other envy are against the teaching of God, since making others envy something is a sin.

That is why essentially priests, clergymen, bishops, cardinals, and the Pope have to wear humble clothes none would envy.

In the 2012 presidential election, voters who go to church more than once per week voted for Romney (63%) rather than Obama (36%).

You cannot tell how pious a voter is only by observing his/her appearance, even though frequency of going to church cannot fully tell how pious he or she is.  But if Romney had been elected as US President in 2012 as more pious voters wanted, Donald Trump must have no chances to prevail in 2016 as we see today.

2012 Presidential Election, Vote by Groups
Obama Romney
RELIGION
Protestants 45 55
Catholics                    56 44
Attend weekly 40 60
Attend monthly 53 47
Seldom/Never attend 63 37
http://www.gallup.com/poll/139880/election-polls-presidential-vote-groups.aspx

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Joh 5:23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

"whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause" - 65% of 70% Non-Hispanic White Voters

The Pacific Ocean West of Tokyo

65% of 70% Non-Hispanic White Voters

Liberalism, like that pursued by the American Democratic Party, is sometimes dangerous because it can be anti-Christ.

Wealth is an enemy of God as Christ Jesus said, but anti-ethics liberalism is also against the teaching of God.  Leftist liberalism regards sometimes traditional customs as something wrong.  However, there are many important traditions for human beings to keep a necessary moral standard.

Evil caused by wealth can be easily understood.  Poverty is a major source of social problems and crimes.  But, liberalism that denies traditional value systems is also damaging humanity and human soundness.

In this context, the American Republican Party supported by wealthy Americans cannot improve society, but the American Democratic party supported by liberal and anti-Christ minorities cannot make people righteous before God.

Donald Trump is a very wealthy man contaminated by capitalism and commercialism.  But his evil characteristics are easy to comprehend.  On the other hand, Hillary Clinton is supported by African Americans and non-elite white Americans.  She might look like more Christian as she supports poor African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities, but she also supports Americans who are too liberal and progressive to be regarded as Christians or believers of God.  Besides, the Clintons are making big money, leveraging their social status, which makes them enemies of poor Americans.

Now, the key to the 2016 presidential election is how non-Hispanic whites vote.  They account for 70% of all the voters.  If Trump is supported by 70% of them, he can secure 49% of all the votes without counting minority's votes.  Then Trump will win, since he can probably get 5%.of 30% minority's votes, which adds necessary 1% to 49%.

But if Trump is supported by only 60% of non-Hispanic whites, he can secure only 42% without counting minority's votes, which make his victory in the general election impossible.

If Trump is supported by 65% of non-Hispanic whites, he can secure 45.5% without counting minority's votes.  Then if he gets 15% plus of 30% minority votes, Trump can get totally more than 50% of all the votes.  But if he can get only 10% of 35%, Trump cannot win.

So, the point at issue is whether 65% or more non-Hispanic whites vote for Trump in the general election.  Probably 50% of them would vote for Trump because he is a white rich man.  And, to be against anti-Christ liberal Democratic movement, 15% of them might vote for Trump.

In conclusion, it will be non-Hispanic Christian Americans that should decide the case.


(In the 2012 presidential election, 59% of non-Hispanic whites voted for Romney while 39% of then voted for Obama.  So, it is unlikely that Trump will get 70% of them.  But 65% might be possible.)



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Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Mat 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Mat 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.