"What question ye with them?" - Japanese History and the Imperial Family

Tokyo Bay

Japanese History and the Imperial Family

The history of Japan is divided into the five stages:
I: From the Stone Age tens of thousands of years ago to the establishment of the imperial court around the 4th century.
II: From the establishment of the imperial court to the start of the first samurai regime in the early 12th century.
III: The period of samurai government from the early 12th century to the middle of the 19th century when the last samurai regime collapsed.
IV: From the Meiji Restoration of the imperial authority in 1868 to the end of WWII in 1945.
V: From the end of WWII to the present day.

The most important feature of the Japanese history is that Japan has not been occupied or colonized by foreign tribes or nations except the short period of occupation of Japan by the US and allied forces after WWII.  And, Japan has only one family that is recognized as royal family all thorough its history: the Japanese Imperial Family.

It is especially interesting that only one family, the Imperial Family, has occupied the position at the top of the Japanese society and Japanese races all through the Japanese history.  Though samurais (warriors with administrative power) took over power from the imperial court in the early 12th century, they did not abolish the imperial court.

Through the period of samurai regimes, samurais established their governments to govern and control all over Japan while emperors and the imperial court were left in Kyoto without any actual political power.  However, no samurai families openly tried to supersede or succeeded in superseding the imperial family, though samurai shguns, the top leader of the samurai class, put emperors and the imperial court under their control.

Till the middle of the 19th century, this political structure had worked well.  No foreign countries could invade and occupy Japan while the integrity of the Japanese society had been well maintained.

But, when Western nations, including the US and Russia, expanded their colonial activities to the Far East and tried to make Japan open the nation to them based on their military power, samurais understood that the traditional national system of Japan was ineffective.  From the early 17th century to the middle of the 19th century, the last samurai regime led by the Tokugawa clan closed the door to most of foreign countries.  Bur they found that the world was rapidly changing with Western countries, with advanced technology, expanding their power to Asia.   Japan could not be excluded from this trend.  Sooner or later, those Western nations with advanced weapons realized by their industrial revolution would soon colonize Japan by force.

Accordingly, Japanese came to abolish the samurai rule and established a modern government with the emperor set anew as the monarch.  Ex-samurais became bureaucrats, officials, military officers, and other elite members of a modernized government.  This is what is called the Meiji Restoration.

Put simply, to cope with the Western colonizing power and defend Japan and the Japanese race, Japan needed an authentic symbol at the core of its national system.  And, the Imperial Family was fit for this purpose.  All the Japanese were assembled around the Imperial Family to cope with Western powers.  They were requested to pay absolute respect for the Emperor, though some democratic systems were introduced into the Japanese politics and society before WWII.

After the Empire of Japan was defeated and WWII ended, Japan has been strongly influenced by the American culture and civilization.  The new Constitution, which  ensures full democracy, was adopted where the emperor is defined as a symbol of the Japanese people without real political power.  The Japanese people are positioned as supreme rulers of themselves.

So, the Imperial Family has survived to date.  It is truly a symbol of the Japanese history.  However, it is still unknown what role they should play in future.  But one important factor contributing to their 1500-year long survival is that the Imperial Family has been in the center of the traditional culture.  If it has lost political authority completely, the Imperial Family should hold a position with authority in the shinto religion and various fields of traditional culture.


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Mar 9:16 And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them?
Mar 9:17 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;

"and made them all sit down" - The Key is God

The Tokyo Suburbs

The Key is God

One of the important teaching of Jesus Christ is that human beings must first think about God and then think about their living.

It means that as long as men are following the teaching of God, God will help them survive and live well.  However, if you cannot think that God has actual power to save poor believers and He would really exercise His power for them, you cannot follow the teaching of Jesus Christ.

In this world, wealth and worldly power have decisive influences on people.  To be happy, one must have money.  To be safe, one must be protected by social or political power.  This is  commonsense.  But, Jesus Christ teaches that it is God that saves people who are not happy and safe.  Jesus Christ teaches it is not money and worldly power that saves people who are not happy and safe.

In other words, Satan teaches that only money and worldly power can make human beings happy, so Satan tells human beings to be as cool or cruel as possible to others in order to be happy.  But Jesus Christ teaches that human beings must first follow the teachings of God and then God will take care of them.

One of the keys to handling this issue is what God is for human beings.  From the beginning, can human beings believe in existence of God?  The teaching of Christ Jesus is based on the condition that people can admit existence of God as super existence with unlimited power.  And, He teaches people who admit existence of God that God must be first respected and then He would take care of people.

Today, most of people think they can be happy if they have money.  Some of them might think that God is existent, but they also think that God does not give them money and make them happy.  Others even deny existence of God, and they naturally think that God does not give them money and make them happy.

However, even the most advanced science cannot deny existence of God who created this material universe.  The most advanced science even suggest other material universes outside our material universe.  So, we cannot deny existence of the spiritual universe outside our material universe.  And God can exist materially and spiritually.

If human beings belong to the universe God created, it is logically correct that they first follow the teachings of God before trying to be happy based on money.

Every problem in this world is related to human desire to be happy.  But, if everyone first follows the teaching of God as he or she is supposed to do, there will be no problems and tragedies in the world.

The theme for human beings is God and how correctly they can understand God.


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Luk 9:15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
Luk 9:16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.

"when Jesus made the clay" - A Lecture by Great Author Soseki Natsume

Around a City in the North of Tokyo

A Lecture by Great Author Soseki Natsume

The most popular author in the modern history of Japan, Soseki Natsume (1867-1916), once made a speech to young people.

As the audience were mostly students of universities, colleges, or high-schools, who were expected to become elite members of the Japanese society before WWII, Soseki especially dealt with their future.  So, the highly-respected author, who once taught the English literature in the Imperial University of Tokyo, delivered a lecture.

"Most of you are elite students.  When you graduate from schools, you would be regarded as elite candidates of the society.  If you start to work in government offices or big enterprises, or engage in any professional work, you will be envied.  And, as time goes by, you will have some power and wealth.  Then commonplace people will have access to you for your power and wealth.  They will flatter you to gain your favor.  And you may corrupt and degenerate.  You have to be careful in handling your power and wealth."

Soseki Natsume himself did not have access to politicians and financial cliques, though he was sometimes invited to parties or banquets by leaders in politics and business.  Soseki kept some distance, in a deliberate way, to those elites of the Imperial Government and business leaders.

And, there were no other authors except Soseki who clearly gave a warning for negative effects of power and wealth on humanities in the history of the Japanese literature.  Every author wants to be rich, influential, and famous.  Ordinary authors cannot hold a warning for evil of money and social status, admonishing young people not to be influenced by a rotten climate of the society.

If you become very rich or obtain some political or social power with high status, you will have controlling power over some people.  And, it will be very difficult for you to be benevolent, fair, just, and kind to them.  One of the most important themes of literature must be this issue.




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Joh 9:14 And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.

"the golden altar which is before God" - Green Islam or Yellow Islam

Tokyo

Green Islam or Yellow Islam

According to the teaching of Islam, Muhammad actually met Christ Jesus.

The Isra and Mi'raj are the two parts of a Night Journey that, according to Islam, the prophet, Muhammad, took during a single night around the year 621. It has been described as both a physical and spiritual journey.

Hadith
From various hadith we learn much greater detail. The Isra is the part of the journey of Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem. It began when Muhammad was in the Masjid al-Haram, and the archangel Gabriel (Jibrīl or Jibrāʾīl) came to him, and brought Buraq, the traditional heavenly steed of the prophets. Buraq carried Muhammad to the Masjid Al Aqsa, the "Farthest Mosque", in Jerusalem. Muhammad alighted, tethered Buraq to the Temple Mount and performed prayer, where on God's command he was tested by Gabriel.[6][7] It was told by Anas ibn Malik that Muhammad said: "Jibra'il brought me a vessel of wine, a vessel of water and a vessel of milk, and I chose the milk. Jibra'il said: 'You have chosen the Fitrah (natural instinct).'" In the second part of the journey, the Mi'raj (an Arabic word that literally means "ladder"[8]), Buraq took him to the heavens, where he toured the seven stages of heaven, and spoke with the earlier prophets such as Abraham (ʾIbrāhīm), Moses (Musa), John the Baptist (Yaḥyā ibn Zakarīyā), and Jesus (Isa). Muhammad was then taken to Sidrat al-Muntaha – a holy tree in the seventh heaven that Gabriel was not allowed to pass. According to Islamic tradition, God instructed Muhammad that Muslims must pray fifty times per day; however, Moses told Muhammad that it was very difficult for the people and urged Muhammad to ask for a reduction, until finally it was reduced to five times per day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Mi%27raj

This story for Islamic teaching suggests that Islam is decisively linked with Judaism and Christianity, though it has its own unique part.

If Judaism is blue, Christianity is red, and Islam is green, their relationships can be expressed in analogy with  light's three primary colors as below:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_color

Maybe, the white part represents the true religion.  Then, we have to find the overlapped teachings of the three religions to be true believers of God.

However, if Judaism is blue, Christianity is red, and Islam is yellow, their relationships can be expressed in analogy with  light's three primary colors for color material as below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RYB_color_model

In this case, the common part of the three religions is not white but black that is not true religion but nothing.  Then, we should not have take together the three religions but should leave them separately as they are.

The point at issue is after identifying Judaism as blue and Christianity as red, what color should Islam take.  If it takes green, all the three religions together would eventually result in white, the true religion, but if it takes yellow,  all the three religions together would eventually result in nothing or nothingness.

In this context, the religious fate of the mankind depends on Islam.  And we cannot take an optimistic view on the outlook of it, since Islamic nations have been under tragic conditions since the start of the 21st century to date.

Or maybe there are two types of Islam: the green one and the yellow one.  Then should we conquer the yellow Islam as the above tentative theory suggests?


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Rev 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
Rev 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

"in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon" - Same Old Evil after 15 Years after the 9/11 Terror

Tokyo

Same Old Evil after 15 Years after the 9/11 Terror

The 9/11 Terror did not make especially poor men rich and rich men poor in the US and other Western nations.  But it triggered some serious changes in the world.

The most important result has been unstable conditions in Islamic nations.  As the US demolished the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, ISIS terrorists expanded its power of influence in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and other Islamic regions, which resulted in a large number of refugees to Europe.

Indirectly this situation that the US cannot fully occupy, control, and foster pro-American regimes in Islamic nations despite its long-term War on Terror has bee taken by Russia and China as showing a kind of weakness of the US power.  Accordingly, Russia has acted bellicosely in Ukraine and China has acted  militantly in the South and East China Seas.  Even North Korea continues its nuclear-weapon development plan.

The 9/11 Terror killed 3,000 Americans and other nationalities, but the following War on Terror and Islamic civil wars took on and victimized millions of lives of Muslims.

It tells that the then President W. Bush made a bad decision and led a wrong war.  His lack of  qualification as a US president was also revealed by the 2008 Financial Crisis.  So, American voters chose Barack Obama as the first African-American President.  This revolutionary choice somewhat contributed to stability of the American society and the global political mood, though Islamic nations under threat from ISIS have not been enjoying the benefit.

The lesson of the 9/11 Terror is to understand evil of wealth, because super-rich people in both the US and oil-producing Islamic nations became enemies of Muslims as they suppressed them.  As poor Muslims thought that they were abused by rich Muslims and Americans, some of them supported AlQaeda and now are supporting ISIS.

Rich Americans and rich Muslims, both must have found a chance in making more money after the 9/11 Terror.  Accordingly, none are serious in preventing tragedies in Islamic nations.  Indeed, Dubai and some other Islamic nations are prosperous, and the US economy is also expanding 15 years after the 9/11 Terror.

Unless those countries concerned give up their prosperity and use it as resources to realize justice and welfare among poor Islamic people, the aftermath of the 9.11  will not cease any time soon.

Put simply there is still the same old evil 15 years after the 9/11 Terror: the rich and super-rich in the US and Islamic nations.



The war on terror has resulted in loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and the 9/11 had a 0.28% share in the total loss. They justify the loss of lives as ‘collateral damage’ but explain that to a young orphan in Iraq or Afghanistan provided they managed to survive.
https://hemafro.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/10-reasons-as-to-why-the-war-on-terror-is-an-ignominy/

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Rev 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.