"Fishers of Men"

"Fishers of Men"



When a jet plane swims in a big river of a large city like a fish, you may observe a miracle in air or on the ground.

So, my TV got malfunction this Monday as an herald, didn’t it?



SECTION I: Administrative Best-Practice Model

From the beginning, money, tax, or a budget is not the most important element for a nation.

Money, tax, or a budget is not the most fundamental condition for establishing and running a nation, though it is not bad at all to sincerely discuss the matter.

---------------------------------
Firm Tax Policy Rather than Bailouts Will Restore Economy
(Rep. Neugebauer)
January 16th, 2009

I believe we can better stimulate the economy through tax relief, which is why I introduced the Economic Growth Through Tax Stimulus Act. This legislation will make the 2001 and 2003 tax relief permanent, reduce marginal individual income tax rates by 5 percentage points for the next five years and reduce the top business and individual income tax rate to 25 percent for the next 5 years. This type of stimulus policy will translate into half a million more jobs in 2009, add an additional $130 billion in GDP and increase the economic growth rate.

Bailouts reward unsuccessful companies; reducing taxes helps successful employers, both small and large, retain more capital so they can be more productive, hire more workers and improve wages. Across-the-board tax relief means the government is not picking winners and losers. As a former business owner, I know that reducing business taxes will lead to job growth and reduce the annual tax burden on every household.

The American taxpayers deserve a better plan from the federal government than more spending on top of a deficit already projected to be more than $1 trillion this year. Congress must focus on solutions that empower individuals and businesses to succeed in the economy rather than solutions that make them more dependent on the federal government. We owe it to them to stop writing blank checks, borrowing and spending without limits and mortgaging their children’s future.

Permalink | Comment on this post (0)

By Texas GOP Rep. Randy Neugebauer

http://blog.thehill.com/2009/01/16/firm-tax-policy-rather-than-bailouts-will-restore-economy-rep-neugebauer/#more-8459
---------------------------------

However my idea is that a government should unconditionally pay salary to the people; I mean all the people of a nation.

People might be living as a farmer, a merchant, a corporate employee, or a public servant. Yet they must all receive salary every month even if they are unemployed or refuse to work in any business.

People are however requested to use the salary fully within a month or a year, as a case may be. They are requested to bring and show receipts to prove their spending to a designated public agency. Without presenting this proof, they will not be allowed to receive the salary in the next month. When they have proved that all the salary they received from the government has been fully used, they can get the next one.

Of course, a tax system will be preserved and operated as it is today.

But, official duties of a citizen of a nation must include a duty to spend fully the official salary the government provides for each member of the nation on the sole ground that he or she has a right to be financially loved by the nation in exchange of his or her contribution to the national economy through exercising his or her purchasing power.

A government provides money unconditionally to all the people in a form of the national salary.

The people pay tax to the government in addition to fully spending the national salary within a specified period.

This looks like a reasonable money flow, since people may also work in a private sector or a public sector to receive a conventional salary or consideration as they have been doing in exchange of their labor or service.

For your information, Japan is going to partially test this idea by furnishing a specific amount of money (12,000 yen or 130 dollars) to each household this spring, for free or unconditionally, believe it or not.

The value assurance of the yen is of course the future glory of Japan as expected from its past.



SECTION II: JAPANESE OBAMAS

It feels like a change of seasons in the Japanese political community, often referred to Nagata-chou (the Nagata street).

Especially rising and hopeful politicians might be busy nowadays in Tokyo or in their constituencies, though not for any conventional or old-fashioned paradigm of revolution.

Mr. MINORU MORITA
Mr. Morita is not a politician but a very veteran political analyst since he was a member of the Japanese Communist Party in early 1950’s when he was a student of the University of Tokyo.

He has his own Internet site to present his political view. His recent upload includes maxims of past heroes:
- Friendship must be observed as a holy practice (Prince Shoutoku-Taishi, Japan)

- One who sheds light on a small corner of the society is a national treasure (Holy Monk Saichou, Japan)

- Politics is not science but technique (Bismarck, Germany)

Once a young and arrogant TV-program director insulted him by refusing his participation in some program, since a political tide in Japan drastically changed along with Former Prime Minister Mr. Jyunichiro Kizumi’s overwhelming victory in a general election. But, the tide may be changing again in favor of Mr. Morita who has a variety of friends not only in the Japanese political community but also among an overseas Chinese community.

(http://www.pluto.dti.ne.jp/~mor97512/C04954.HTML )


Mr. Motoshige Ito
Mr. Ito is an incumbent professor of the University of Tokyo, specializing in economics.

http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_e.html

He often appears in a midnight business-news program broadcast from a TV station in Tokyo.

Last night, he said that he is busy in a tie up with Stanford University and Singapore University. He also added that when he delivers his lecture in English, students (mostly Japanese) seem to understand more. He also emphasized importance for Japanese students to study in a graduate school not only for a position in an academic community but also for success in business.

When Mr. Ito was a student, he went to America for his study or research sometime. He happened to visit a park where he bought an ice cream from a peddler. Decades later he also made a research trip to America and happened to visit the park and find the same ice-cream man.

Mr. Ito must have gravely felt that there could be such a happy life as a life-time ice-cream peddler in the United States.

But, there is also such a life that has gravely never experienced an ice-cream peddler in the United States, since the actual contribution to the global economy is not so different between a Tokyo University professor in economics and a cheerful life-time ice-cream scooper in the U.S.

Anyway, I turned a TV channel to another midnight news program last night, since my TV is now very stable to present a more amusing figure than a professor of the University of Tokyo.

********************************************

That is all for today.

Everybody knows that Monday comes after Sunday; Sunday comes after Saturday; and thus Friday is very important. So, don’t despise an old man who cannot tell what day it is today.

Indeed, Jesus Christ never minded Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. But, I will respect Saturday more in case, Honey.



(It is what is more than revolution that I like to consider. Eventually, money will lose meaning in this new world getting closer to the kingdom of God, since tax is salary and salary is tax therein. Forgive a stingy employer.

http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~har-snow/Etude_op10-12.mid

Source: http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~har-snow/music.htm)



Mar 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

"Grace for Grace"

(Tokyo, once called Edo or Yedo)


"Grace for Grace"



Do not let me be misunderstood in this context.

I am not a man who likes to keep a dog of whatever color.

A man is more important than a dog, so that so long as there is one man on the earth starving, I do not come to feel like feeding any dog by myself, Dear.



SECTION I: Millard Fillmore (In office: July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853)

Most of the Japanese people know nothing about U.S. President Millard Fillmore who sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open Japan to Western trade, though Perry did not reach Japan until Franklin Pierce had replaced Fillmore as president.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore

Nonetheless, this humble decision in the White House not only to occupy Hawaii permanently but also to proceed to Japan, while putting military dominance on a diplomatic show, so as to secure future market of Japan for American businesses drastically changed the fate of Japan and the historic course of East Asia as well as the world even in the 21st century all through the 20th century.

So, in July 1953, Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived at the Tokyo Bay leading two steam-propelled battleships and two sailing battleships with the sovereign's message signed by President Millard Fillmore. However, the mood of diplomatic negotiation was not necessarily friendly as the Perry’s squadron had total 100 cannons and the Japanese samurai regime wanted to expel Perry and his sailors by force if possible at all.

Since the Shogun (king) of the Tokugawa samurai regime was then ill, Perry was persuaded to leave the President Millard Fillmore’s message and come back later to receive an answer from the Shogun.

This official but well-armed visit of the U.S. envoy totally changed a state of the State of Japan, entering the great era of political turmoil over diplomacy and sovereignty and then a civil war between two major sumurai camps; toppling the Tokugawa samurai regime; and finally introducing the imperial system supported by anti-Tokugawa samurais who started to put on Western clothes without carrying swords.

Now back to President Millard Fillmore, he owed his success to his wife who had taught her husband, born in a very poor farming family, how to read and write and then become a lawyer in New York.



SECTION II: U.S. Presidential Message to Emperor of Japan

The following copied text looks like including some mistyping errors, though not many copies of the original histroical message delivered before the Civil War can be found nowadays on the Internet:

----------------------------------------
MILLAED FILLMORE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TO HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, THE EＭPEROR OF JAAPAN.

Great and Good Friend; I send you this public letter be Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and officer of the highest rank in the navy of the United States, and commander of the squadron now visiting your imperial majesty’s dominions.

I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your imperial majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings toward your majesty’s person and government, and that I have no other object in sending him to Japan but to propose to your imperial majesty that the United States and Japan should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other.

The Constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or concerns of other nations. I have particularly charged Commodore Perry to abstain from every act which could possibly disturb the tranquility of your imperial majesty’s dominions.

The United States of America reach from ocean to ocean, and our Territory of Oregon and State of California lie directly opposite to the dominions of your imperial majesty. Our steamship can go from California to Japan in eighteen days.

Our great state of California produce about sixty millions of dollars in gold every year, beside silver, quicksilver, precious stones, and many other valuable articles. Japan is also a rich and fertile country, and produces many very valuable articles. Your imperial majesty’s subjects are skilled in many of the arts. I am desirous that our two countries are should trade with each other, for the benefit both of Japan and the United States.

We know that the ancient laws of your imperial majesty’s government do not allow of foreign trade, except with the Chinese and the Dutch; but as the state of the world changes and new governments are formed, it seems to be wise, from time to time, the make new laws. There was a time when ancient laws of your imperial majesty’s government were first made.

About the same time America, which is sometimes called the New World, was first discovered and settled by the Europeans. For a long time there were but a few people, and they were poor. They have now become quite numerous; their commerce is very extensive; and they think that if your imperial majesty were so far to change the ancient laws as to allow a free trade between the two countries it would be extremely beneficial to both.

If your imperial majesty is not satisfied that it would be safe altogether to abrogate the ancient laws which forbid foreign trade, they might be suspended for five or ten years, as to try the experiment. If it does not prove as beneficial as was hoped, the ancient laws can restore. The United States often limit treaties with foreign States to a few years and then renew them or not, as they please.

I have directed Commodore Perry to mention another thing to your imperial majesty. Many of our ships pass every year from California to China; and great numbers of our people pursue the whale fishery near the shores of Japan. It sometimes happens, in stormy whether, that one of our ships is wrecked on your imperial majesty’s shores. In all such case we ask, and expect, that our unfortunate people should be treated with kindness, and that their property should be protected, till we can send a vessel and bring them away. We are very much is earnest is this.

Commodore Perry is also directed by me to represent to your imperial majesty that we understand there is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the Empire of Japan. Our steamships, in crossing the great ocean, burn a great deal of coal and it is not convenient to bring it all the way from America. We wish that our steamships and other vessels should be allowed to stop in Japan and supply themselves with coal, provisions, and water. They will pay for them in money, or anything else your imperial majesty’s subjects may prefer; and we request your imperial majesty to appoint a convenient port, in the southern part of the Empire, where our vessels may stop for this purpose. We are very desirous of this.

There are the only object for which I have sent Commodore Perry, with a powerful squadron, to pay a visit to your imperial majesty’s renowned city of Yedo; friendship, commerce, a supply of coal and provisions, and protection for our shipwrecked people.

We have directed Commodore Perry to your imperial majesty’s acceptance of a few present. They are of no great value in themselves; but some of them may serve as specimens of the articles manufactured in the United States, and they are intended as tokens of our sincere and respectful friendship.

May the Almighty have your imperial majesty in His great and holy keeping!

In witness whereof, I have caused the great seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and have subscribed the same with my name, at the city of Washington, is America, the seat of my government, on the thirteenth day of the month of November, in the year of one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.

[Seal attached] Yours good friend
MILLARD FILLMOR
By the president: EDWARD EVERETT
Secretary of States
-----------------------------------------------
http://www.hh.em-net.ne.jp/~harry/FillmoreLetter.html

But, please note that the "Emperor" here described is believed to refer to the Shogun, the head of all the samurai clans and also the chief of the samurai regime, who held all the national power except religious legitimacy and a traditional authoritative, nominal system associated with the Emperor who lived in Kyoto then.

Anyway, this is the most important historical text for Japan in terms of its development since 1853, since 1945 is just within a hundred-year range from the arrival of President Fillmor’s message to Japan.

*********************************************

That is all for today, since a jet plane safely landed on the Hudson, New York, as a farewell to President Mr. George W. Bush with no human lives lost, according to a news report brodcast this morning in Japan.



(So, please say to First Lady Mrs. Bush, if you should interview her in the future, that that black dog turned to be an omen or rather decided the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election at least psychologically…..

http://www.menziesera.com/midi/holdhand.mid

Source: http://www.menziesera.com/media/music_jukebox.htm)



Joh 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

Joh 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

"Great is Thy Faith"

"Great is Thy Faith"

It is now crystal-clear that Mrs. Clinton will be in charge of the American diplomacy in the coming Obama Administration.

She has performed something that is in itself moving, since it is as if she were trying to be the ever-First Lady in the United States.

So, let me use some blank maps to check the world while most of the Japanese are too humble to deliver a presentation to discuss the global value system with anybody like the U.S. Secretary of State.


SECTION I: OUR WORLD EAST OF THE EUPHRATES

(Click to enlarge.)

Tentatively, I like to call the regions from the Euphrates river to Japan generically “Our World.”

Essentially it does not include Israel, but it can include Turkey.

This “Our World” mainly consists of four regions: the (Israel-) Islam-India War Zone, the India-Pacific Hot Spots; the Sino-Peripherals Warning Area; and Japan & Democratic East Asia.

Due to huge aid, support, and influences of Japan, the India-Pacific Hot Spots and the Sino-Peripherals Warning Area, in addition to Democratic East Asia, have developed well economically and politically in these decades.

But, with military operations by Israel, the U.S., and even NATO countries, the Israel- Islam-India War Zone has been so dangerous actually and potentially in these years and decades.

Yet, this Zone must be the focus for mankind to secure its peace and prosperity in the 21st century, since it is characterized by the existence of the nation Israel, the location of Mecca, the world-largest crude oil reserves, and ever-ongoing wars, civil wars, and terror between different religious, racial, and political forces and camps.


SECTION II: Religious Division of the World

(Click to enlarge.)

The Christendom surrounds the above “Our World” and North Africa.

However, please note that some part of the U.S., for example around New York, can be regarded as part of the Judaist domain.

The state of China is officially based on certain European philosophy. However, ordinary people and especially farmers seem to perform a kind of Taoism. Yet, there is underlying respect for Buddhism, so that China is here included in the Asian-Continental Buddhist world as with Tibet and Mongolia.

Money has universal power over any person of any religion. Modern industries can apply to any religious world. Economic globalization looks like never minding any religion.

However, you cannot declare that the U.S. dollar never admits any religion. You cannot declare that the U.S. Government, the sole issuer of the U.S. dollar bills, never respects any religion, since the U.S. dollar itself is a religion.

If so, religion is above the U.S. dollar. And, anything above the U.S. dollar in a no-nonsense value system must be fairly respected.

************************************************

That is all for today, since it is almost 6 p.m. of Thursday around Tokyo.



(When I was young, I happened to see a movie of Napoleon and Waterloo at a movie theater. I was highly moved for some reasons. But, WWII veterans might not like any such war movie.

http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/1555/waterloo.mid

Source: http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/1555/mainmidi.html)



Mat 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mat 15:25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

Mat 15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

Mat 15:27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

Mat 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

(In Preparation...)

(In Preparation...)

"Be Great in the Sight of the Lord"

(A Tokyo Miracle)


"Be Great in the Sight of the Lord"


Mr. George H. W. Bush, a WWII veteran, graduated from Yale University; Mr. Bill Clinton attended Yale Law School; Mr. George W. Bush also finished Yale University; and Mr. Barack Obama entered Harvard Law School.

Yet, in Japan, since Kiichi Miyazawa in office of the Japanese premier between 1991 and 1993, no elite graduates from the Faculty of Law, the University of Tokyo, have assumed the premiership.

Maybe this might be regarded as one of the big revolutionary results from the decade-long economic slump in 1990’s of Japan, in my humble view (though ex-Prime Minister Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone, a WWII veteran from the Tokyo Imperial University, is still active in the Japanese political community).

Yet, in the United States, it is said that 11 Presidents were from one family line.


SECTION I： Franklin D. Roosevelt (in office: March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945)

On October 31, 1936, every audience hailed at the height of excitement to their new leader.

Since it was not in Berlin but at the Madison Square Garden, New York, that the electrifying speech was delivered, it was African Americans who drastically changed their political affiliation from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party:

--------------------------
For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.

For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace, business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred...

http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/text/us/fdr1936.html
--------------------------

However, Roosevelt was tested by the God, in my humble view, since he had been so blessed materially and mentally. It is as if a deal had been done on a trade off between a fatal disease and the position of the U.S. President.

--------------------------
In August 1921, while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Roosevelt contracted an illness, at the time believed to be polio, which resulted in Roosevelt's total and permanent paralysis from the waist down. For the rest of his life, Roosevelt refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed. He tried a wide range of therapies, including hydro…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
--------------------------

Yet, it might have been the death of his strong rival that allowed for Roosevelt’s successful turn to the left or liberalism. 　

-------------------------
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. (August 30, 1893 – September 10, 1935),.. created the Share Our Wealth program in 1934, with the motto "Every Man a King," ...the colorful and flamboyant Long was shot on September 8, 1935, at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge; he died two days later at the age of 42. His last words were reportedly, "God, don't let me die. I have so much left to do."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long#Assassination
-------------------------

In addition, what influence Roosevelt had on John Maynard Keynes might be of your concern, if you are of such a class of pundits, bureaucrats, or politicians whether or not struggling or playing around in the U.S. or Japan.



SECTION II: The Great Depression and Japan

Many American elite experts and professors must have tried to study and understand the history of Japan in terms of the Great Depression so as to gain an insight into other aspect of economy or economics that can be effectively applied to the U.S. economy and history.

Yet, no useful results have been ever heard, since Japan has been so unique even in comparison with authentic Judaists.

------------------------------------------------
With the Great Depression, Japan, like some other countries, turned to what has debatably been termed Fascism. It was a unique political form (see detailed discussion at Japanese nationalism), though with some European parallels. Unlike the regimes of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, however, Japan had two economic goals in developing an empire.

First, as with its European counterparts, a tightly-controlled domestic military industry seems to have jump started the nation's economy in the midst of the depression. Also, due to the lack of natural resources on Japan's home islands, in order to maintain a strong industrial sector with strong growth, raw materials such as iron, oil, and coal largely had to be imported. Most of these materials came from the United States. So, for the sake of the military-industrial development scheme, and industrial growth on the whole, mercantilist theories prevailed, and the Japanese felt that resource-rich colonies were needed to compete with European powers. Korea (1910) and Formosa (Taiwan, 1895) had earlier been annexed as primarily agricultural colonies. Manchuria's iron and coal, Indochina's rubber, and China's vast resources were prime targets for industry.

http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Empire_of_Japan
------------------------------------------------

The threat of the global economic crisis seems to always come from a scramble for natural resources, including iron, crude oil, and foods. What the Aso administration of Japan and the coming Obama Administration must share as the common view is that war in a period of recession is more dangerous than voters going for voting amid tremendous enthusiasm for a star politician.

***********************************

That is all for today.



(I am strongly against the President-elect Mr. Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, since U.S. soldiers there are even unable to confirm damages they have given to the Taliban, as a midnight TV news program suggested for audience around Tokyo last night.

http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/midi/Wtcii24a.mid

Source: http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/midi.html)



Luk 1:14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

Luk 1:15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.

Luk 1:16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.

"In the Wilderness..."

(My humble TV as an evidence)


"In the Wilderness..."


Yesterday around 11:30 p.m., a miracle happened on my TV.

A few years ago when North Korea had blasted its humble nuclear bomb, my TV also malfunctioned on the very day or the very hour, believe it or not, though I continued to use it by hitting and punching the TV set for almost three months. Then, I purchased a flat TV, replacing the old CRT TV, almost two years ago.

But, this time, the TV set itself was OK and only images were lost on the screen as I could hear voices of newscasters. And, this morning the problem was well fixed, so that I can fully view and hear TV programs now.

However, the fact is that the God stopped me watching TV after 11:30 p.m. last night.

Now, I am seriously thinking about why.


SECTION I: Herbert C. Hoover (in office: 1929 - 1933)

I simply respect President Herbert C. Hoover, since he looks like having been very American.

When he was 16 years old, he started to California from Oregon by bicycle with only two suits of clothes in a bag and 160 dollars in his pocket.

------------------------------------------------
Hoover was born in on August 10, 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. He was the first President to be born west of the Mississippi River. His father, Jesse, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, of German (Pfautz, Wehmeyer) and German-Swiss (Huber, Burkhart) descent. His mother, Hulda (Minthorn) Hoover, was of English and Irish (probably Scots-Irish) descent. Both were Quakers. His father died in 1880, and his mother in 1884, leaving Hoover an orphan at the age of 9. After a brief stay with one of his grandmothers in Kingsley, Iowa, Herbert lived for the next 18 months with his uncle Allen Hoover in West Branch. In November 1885, he went to live in Newberg, Oregon with his uncle John Minthorn, whose own son had died the year before. For two and a half years, Herbert attended Friends Pacific Academy (now George Fox University), then subsequently worked as office boy in his uncle's real estate office in Salem. Though he did not attend high school, the young Hoover attended night school and learned bookkeeping, typing, and math.

Hoover entered Stanford University in 1891, the first year of the new California college. None of the first students were required to pay tuition….

Hoover married his Stanford sweetheart, Lou Henry, in 1899. Next they went to China, where Hoover worked for a private corporation as China's leading engineer. Hoover and his wife picked up Mandarin Chinese while he worked in China and used it during his tenure at the White House when they didn't want to be overheard.[7] The Boxer Rebellion trapped the Hoovers in Tianjin in June 1900. For almost a month the settlement was under heavy fire….

Hoover died at the age of 90 in New York City at 11:35 a.m. on October 20, 1964, 31 years and seven months after leaving office. He had outlived by 20 years his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, who had died in 1944…

Hoover was honored with a state funeral, the last of three in a span of 12 months, coming as it did just after the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and General Douglas MacArthur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover
------------------------------------------------

After WWII, ex-President Hoover visited Japan and urged the U.S. Government to offer more aid and support to improve food situations of Japan, then a war-ravaged poor country.

Anyway, it is a big surprise that ex-President Hoover was still alive when JFK was assassinated, looking back from today.



SECTION II: The Depression Era

The Gross National Product of the U.S. dropped by 44%.

The unemployment rate reached 25%, all due to the Great Depression that started in 1929.

It was just after WWII that the U.S. fully recovered and put an end to the Depression Era. It is because the Second World War needed full industrial capacity and operation of the U.S.

Conversely, the Great Depression was caused by imbalance of the level between industrial productive capacity and consumer demands. It is an excess of productive power in relation to purchasing power.

Domestically, farmers could not buy any more; factory workers could not buy any more; and rich people would not like to buy more, since they lost huge financial assets.

Internationally, Latin America and East Asia were yet to grow up as a big market for the powerful American industry.

Consequently, business, namely buying and selling goods and commodities, got into a slump. No one could change or improve the situation.

The era looks like as if having been waiting for a big purchase order from the Federal Government inclining to making a great war with Nazi Germany as well as the Empire of Japan without knowing Japan's military capability of producing 10,000 Zero fighter planes and the world mightiest war ships.

Conversely, without the Great Depression, the U.S. Government might not have been so eager to proceed so determinedly to the war.
*****************************************

That is all for today.


(But, why wouldn't a certain Tokyo TV station distribute the same news program to its terrestrial link, a broadcasting satellite channel, and a communication satellite data broadcasting channel while they have three or four such broadcasting methods to consumers around Tokyo?

Anyway, watch your step when a strong wind is blowing.

http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/gs/kazeganaiteiru.html )



Mar 1:13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

The Evening and The Morning

(Tokyo Metropolitan City Hall)


The Evening and The Morning


It was almost 9 p.m. yesterday that I reached a postbox in front of a postal office, since I had been out to Tokyo.

At a supermarket, however, they were selling foods at reduced prices for customers who would rather come at this hour of a Sunday night or any night.

I got one at half a regular price and went back home in the coldness of the winter.


SECTION I: A French Movie

In the last Saturday night, I happened to see a French movie on a cable TV channel, though it was not a genre of works applicable to the commercial Golden Globe Awards.

A French movie director, enjoying a success in Paris, bought a big mansion in a local province. When he first visited the place with his crew, he found that it happened to be the one that had once impressed him so badly.

One day when the French film director was a child, namely before the First World War, his family was walking a long way to home trying to cut a corner by passing through woods which belonged to the mansion. But, they were caught by an ill-natured guard, with a big black dog, who especially intimidated his mother who actually fell into a faint immediately after the on-site tentative interrogation. Since then, she had a fear even seeing the big mansion from a distance, though friends of the boy’s family taught the guard a lesson later, for the boy’s father was a respectable teacher.

As the auteur recalled what had happened in those days, especially that his mother had died several years after the horrible incident around the mansion, he ran straight to an old door on a wall at the edge of the big garden through which his family had once trodden in misery passing the big yard of the mansion to their home.

In a burst of passion, the Parisian picked up a big stone to smash and destroy the rotten, wooden door. Then, beyond the broken door, the grown-up son saw his mother at a distance standing and smiling, still young but feeble as if decades ago.

Indeed, the French countryside looks rather brighter than forests in the north of the Rhine.


SECTION II: Patois

It is said that before the French Revolution, those who spoke or could speak the French Language accounted only 33% or one in three of all the French population.

(http://sng.edhs.ynu.ac.jp/lab/hasegawa/ynu/region.pdf )

This kind of language aspects of France might give a clue to an answer to one important issue: how the Roman troops influenced development of ancient France.

------------------------------
In France and other Francophone countries, patois has been used to describe non-Parisian French and so-called regional languages such as Breton, Occitan, and Franco-Provençal, since 1643. The word assumes the view of such languages as being backward, countrified, and unlettered, thus is considered by speakers of those languages as offensive when used by outsiders. Jean Jaurès said "one names patois the language of a defeated nation"[3]. Speakers may use the term in a non-derogatory sense to refer familiarly to their own language (See also: Languages of France.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patois
------------------------------

The fact that French people today use a Romance language but not a Germanic language means that there must have been a huge influx of people and an influence from the Roman Empire to the region now called France.

As some European descendants today living in South America rather preserve original European languages as they were common when their ancestors were living in Europe, the fall of the Roman Empire might be possibly further studied and elucidated with a focus on French languages including those patois.

********************************

That is simply all for today.



(Anyway, day and night, people had better pray, say, in Paris, Washington D.C., or Tokyo, since the God does not sound like pleased at all, very recently. You do not have to shout "Go GM!" or apply for a job in the Obama Administration, but just pray.)



Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Gen 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Gen 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

(In preparation...)

(Waiting for the band to come...)

"Even to Them that Believe on His Name"

(Tokyo, Japan)



"Even to Them that Believe on His Name"


It snowed a little in Tokyo yesterday, though it was a little rain in my place, as I wish Tokyo people to eat more leeks, since the vegetable prevents the primates from taking a cold.



SECTION I: Abraham Lincoln (in office: March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865)

Abraham Lincoln is all-time No.1 rated president in any public research in the United States. But, what would he have achieved unless he had been born to meet the era of the Civil War?

-------------------------------------
There were few people who strongly or directly influenced Lincoln’s moral and intellectual development and perspectives. There was no teacher, mentor, church leader, community leader, or peer that Lincoln would credit in later years as a strong influence on his intellectual development. Lacking a formal education, Lincoln’s personal philosophy was shaped by "an amazingly retentive memory and a passion for reading and learning." It was Lincoln’s reading, rather than his relationships, that were most influential in shaping his personal beliefs...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln#Major_presidential_acts
-------------------------------------

Such a self-made politician has a common demerit usually: international issues.

The Civil War was fought on the issue of a split of the United States of America for whatever reasons.

There just happened to be an issue of slavery, if allowed to state so from a certain cynical point of view.

But Abraham Lincoln was a genius like Karl Marx who leveraged his talent in economics to challenge the Christian European-Civilization.

President Abraham Lincoln succeeded in foreclosing the U.K. and other European powers from interfering in the Civil War. For this purpose, President Lincoln leveraged Christian morals against slavery. Lincoln excellently stressed the justice and righteousness on his side trying to give freedom to the 19th century’s American slaves in bondage of sinful people imitating lives of rich Europeans.

President Abraham Lincoln did not request Negro States to be free states but consistently claimed that no more Negro States must be admitted in the United States.

His largest meritorious deed is the prevention of the split of the United States rather than realization of emancipation, since the split might have happened due to international interference.

It is ordinary, free American citizens who found their sin in the 19th century’s American slavery system that actually promoted the emancipation since the system was very anti-Christ, thus leading to a state of religious war to whatever extent.

Indeed, when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896), "it is claimed that he said, ‘So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe

As President Abraham Lincoln seems not to have been well prepared for the Civil War, he in fact failed to secure many lives who otherwise might have enjoyed the Gilded Age, since the death toll was 620,000.

Conversely, the concept of the Civil War must have been what was originally beyond his paradigm, though it might have been closer to the one of Harriet Beecher Stowe; God only knows.

I really want to know what Mr. Powell and Ms. Rice think about it. If they praise and respect Abraham Lincoln more than any American heroes, I will also praise and respect Abraham Lincoln more than any American heroes.



SECTION II: Global Business Model

Last year, in the Davos Forum, Mr. George Solos presented an idea that a sheriff or a global financial supervisor of authority should be appointed to monitor doubtful transactions that would gravely damage the world financial system and hence deliver early warnings to governments and financial sectors.

His idea was flatly rejected by participants in that session of the Forum. Instead, they were almost shouting, "Money! Money! Big Money! China!" in their mind, while some were anxiously discussing the emerging subprime loan crisis.

My proposal is to set up a global financial supervising committee consisting of representatives of the six major religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Japanese Spiritualism.

Only religion can in theory deal with any scale of huge money so coolly.

One from the American Judaist community, one from the Vatican, one from Mecca, one from India, one from Tibet, and one from Japan should form a committee to provide any religiously mandatory advice to peoples of good faith all over the world if such a crisis as the subprime loan debacle is coming closer.

************************************

That is all for today.


(Next Monday is a Japanese national holiday: the Coming-of-Age Day. If mankind starts to live on the moon, I suppose mankind can live a longer life due to smaller gravity. What do you think about it as an indirect observer? Anyway, the earth has the only one natural satellite - the moon, which is however very unusual in the whole universe.

http://www.menziesera.com/midi/onlyyou.mid

Source: http://www.menziesera.com/singalong/only_you.htm)



Joh 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

"Thy Prayer is Heard"

"Thy Prayer is Heard"


I am afraid that there is some misunderstanding among Americans and Europeans on Shintoism, while tens of millions of Japanese visit and worship at shrines on the New Year’s Day, the holy three days, and the holy first week of the year.

It is true that some emperors of ancient days are enshrined in many Shintoism shrines, but they are not the only gods for the Shinto religion.

There are almost 110,000 shinto shrines all over Japan. Most of them enshrine gods or heroes of Japanese mythology, since the era of gods preceded the era of emperors in Japan.


SECTION I: IMPERIAL FAMILY OF JAPAN

I am afraid that there is some misunderstanding among Americans and Europeans on the Imperial Family of Japan.

Though I don’t claim that the Princess Diana case is symbolic of European royal families, it is impossible in Japan.

In this context, non-Christian Japanese Imperial Family is more Christian than European Royal families, though the former has their own religion but the latter are virtually subject to the Vatican, directly, indirectly, or remotely, thus being simply secular.

In other word, the Japanese Imperial Family is holy; but European royal families are not essentially.

It is said that there are four or five major categories of Shintoism. The Imperial Family represents one of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto

Yet, it is true once, namely 1300 years ago or so, the Imperial Family adopted Buddhism as the de-facto national religion. The prominent Todaiji Great Temple was built in the early 8th century by Emperor Shomu so as to house the great statue of Buddha.

-------------------------------------
According to records kept by Tōdai-ji, more than 2,600,000 people in total helped construct the Great Buddha and its Hall. The 16 m (52 ft) high statue was built through eight castings over three years, the head and neck being cast together as a separate element…. and the Buddha was finally completed in 751. A year later, in 752, the eye-opening ceremony was held with an attendance of 10,000 people to celebrate the completion of the Buddha. The Indian priest Bodhisena performed the eye-opening for Emperor Shōmu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Ddai-ji
-------------------------------------

So, the Imperial Family of Japan established its authority through religion rather than military or political power in the long Japanese history.

However, when descendants of samurais put the emperor at the head of the state in the political term in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Japan had to face severe challenges in the history, resulting in the collapse of the Empire of Japan in 1945.

Now, Japan does neither call itself an empire or a kingdom, nor style its state a republic. It calls itself simply Japan with the Emperor as the symbol of the nation.


SECTION II: CROWN PRINCESS OF JAPAN

The Crown Prince of Japan is called His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Naruhito, the eldest son of His Majesty The Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

But when searching articles with the keyword "Naruhito-shinnou (Prince Naruhito)" using the Japanese Yahoo search engine, the number of retrieved sites or pages would be 98,100. Yet with the keyword "Masako-hi (Princess Masako)," the number would be 728,000.

(In comparison, the keyword "Obama" in Japanese would return 36,200,000 pages in the Japanese Internet domain.

Yet, the keyword "Ten-nou [emperor]" would return 49,100,000 pages.)

As there are no noble classes in Japan, Crown Princess Masako, an ex-elite bureaucrat of the Foreign Ministry, is of course from the no-privileged class, though her father has been an elite diplomat and intellectual person.

As she seems to have been used to live and work in environments associated with the European/American Civilization, namely the Christian Civilization, I think it would not have been easy for her to perform shintoism in a manner that satisfies tradition-loving people in the highest society of Japan.

Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako have only one child: Aiko, Princess Toshi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masako,_Crown_Princess_of_Japan


SECTION III: Kiko, Princess Akishino

The Crown Prince of Japan has a younger brother: His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino, the second son of His Majesty The Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

Prince Akishino married a daughter of a professor of a university when she was just a student of a graduate school.

Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko have two daughters and one son.

It is expected, by law, that their son, Prince Hisahito of Akishino, to be Emperor of Japan someday.

In older days, namely 1400 years ago or so, there were female emperors who held real power in the imperial court. In that case, each of those female emperors was also a mother of an emperor or an ex-empress. They tried to secure the Chrysanthemum Throne for their very young sons or grandsons.

Yet it would be a difficult situation for any Japanese lady to be a mother of a future emperor just like the case of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Michiko who is also not from a noble class, since noble classes were abolished in Japan after the Second World War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Akishino

**************************************************

That is respectfully all for today.

Just 1600 years ago, a Chinese authentic history book reported that a king of Japan sent an envoy to the imperial court of China to receive a gold seal in A.D. 57, which is the first for Japan with anybody to represent it regardless of the effective area of his dominion to be recorded in history, matching the establishment of the Gospels for Ever-Holy Jesus Christ.

Nonetheless, the king is yet to be identified by Japanese scholars and professors to date, though the gold seal (believed to be genuine) was discovered 200 years ago in a small island annexed to Kyusyu, one of four main islands of Japan situated near the Korean Peninsula.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakoku


(Of course, God only knows whether or not one of your descendants will be a king or a queen if not an emperor somewhere, say, in Jerusalem.

http://www.hpmix.com/home/kitano/images/sc4_22_1.mid

Source: http://www.hpmix.com/home/kitano/C4_2.htm)



Luk 1:7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

Luk 1:8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,

Luk 1:9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

Luk 1:10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.

Luk 1:11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

Luk 1:12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

Luk 1:13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

"In Whom I am Well Pleased"

"In Whom I am Well Pleased"


Last year, namely in 2008, many prominent people died all over the world:
Edmund Hillary, George Habash, Suharto, Arthur C. Clarke, Dith Pran, Charlton Heston, Irena Sendler, Sydney Pollack, Alxander Solzhenitsyn, Hua Guofeng, V.P. Singh, Alexy II, and Paul Newman in addition to much more respectable persons.

( http://www.afpbb.com/article/life-culture/life/2550233/3615788 )

Yet, very symbolic might be the demise of Alxander Solzhenitsyn, a notable Russian author who refused to sell his soul to both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.



SECTION I: Alxander Solzhenitsyn

When I was young, I read a few novels (of the Japanese-translated version) Alxander Solzhenitsyn had authored in his hardship under the communist regime of the Soviet Union.

In those days, a certain Japanese manga artist presented his work in which a main character said that it was better to be a shoe-shiner in Florida than a revolutionary hero in Siberia.

Indeed, there were many Japanese youths in those days who loved the Russian literature. I also read some humble works of Dostoyevskii. That may be a reason why I did not wish the all-out thermonuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. at all.

(It was also last year that I got more accurate insight into the fate of Alxander Solzhenitsyn as I happened to see a TV program of Hitsory Channel which reminded me of a long forgotten old hero in my mind. I could then read some of the riddles about him. Alxander Solzhenitsyn had a brave wife he later however divorced.)


SECTION II: Shuichi Kato

The notable Japanese critic died in 2008.

------------------------------
Shūichi Katō (19 September 1919 – 5 December 2008) was a Japanese critic and author. He is best known for his works in the field of literature and culture.

Born in Tokyo, Katō served as lecturer at Tokyo University (Dept. of Literature) and Yale University, professor at the Free University of Berlin and the University of British Columbia, guest professor at Ritsumeikan University (Dept. of International Relations), and curator of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace.

Katō had a degree as a Doctor of Medicine, specialising in haematology.

A convinced pacifist, Kato worked for the abolishing of nuclear arms. He formed a group with philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi and novelist Kenzaburo Oe to defend the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan. For almost 30 years, from 1980 until his death, he wrote a widely read column in the evening culture pages of the Asahi Shimbun in which he discussed society, culture, and international relations from a literate and resolutely leftist perspective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%ABichi_Kat%C5%8D_(critic)
------------------------------

Shuichi Kato was truly an intellectual person who lived as such earning money for life as such.

His writing can be a good material for foreigners to learn and understand how intellectual Japanese think and feel inside.

But, no ordinary Japanese businessmen must not know anything about him nowadays.

If they belong to the upper echelon of a corporate hierarchy in a major company, such as Toyota, Sony, Panasonic, or Nomura or Mitsubishi UFJ, no ordinary Japanese businessmen must not have ever read or been impressed by any of works of Shuichi Kato.

Ordinary Japanese businessmen are "usually" not intellectual persons. Conversely, an intellectual student in Japan "usually" avoids working in an ordinary company, good or bad. Yet it is not truly Christian at all, in my view.


SECTION III: Mr. Kenzaburo Oe

Authour Mr. Kenzaburo Oe is still active as I watched him in an NHK TV program a few days ago.

------------------------------------------
Kenzaburō Ōe (Ōe Kenzaburō?, born January 31, 1935) is a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His works, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, engage with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, social non-conformism and existentialism.

Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenzabur%C5%8D_%C5%8Ce
------------------------------------------

When Mr. Kenzaburo Oe won Nobel Prize, he frequently made TV appearances. Then I for the first time noticed that he tends to show a certain, too sensible reactive behavior sometimes, though not ill-like, that looks like having a deep root in his mental and physical composition.

That may be a reason why he has never thought of working like ordinary people among ordinary people. Probably he must have been able to only become a writer; and he actually became so, in my humble observation.

I learnt some from his words, nonetheless.

He said once, though on TV, that what one has learnt through his own profession would help him cope with even the most serious crisis he must encounter someday in his life.

I did not read his novels much. His line did not even look like aligning with a mainstream atmosphere of Japan as the world No.2 economic power, though Japanese Gross National Product was first evaluated as No.2 in the world (excluding the U.S.S.R.) in 1968.

**********************************************

That is all for today.

I did not think ever I could be an author.

But, nowadays, I think I may be someday.


(How do you like the idea, my dear?

http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/j-folk2/soranihoshigaaruyouni.html )



Mar 1:8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

Mar 1:9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

Mar 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

Mar 1:11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Walk in the Light

(The Three Major Scenes: The Imperial Palace Park, The Asakusa Temple Area, and the Tokyo Tower Backdrop)


Walk in the Light


It might have been very hot in the New Year party room, since hotels and facilities providing such a party hall must be very busy nowadays in Tokyo.

Nonetheless, in the New Year Holiday a miracle occurred in Tokyo.

There were hundreds of hard-working people who had been fired in previous weeks by many first-rate Japanese companies that had hired them as irregular employment. It was all due to the global financial crisis. Yet, hundreds of poor Japanese workers were forced to face the New Year as the homeless in cold nights of Tokyo from the year end to early January.

But, here came supporters and NGOs of good will to provide them with tents, blankets, and other equipment.

Even the usually cold-blooded bureaucrats of the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry allowed those temporary homeless people to use their facilities in the Ministry building as a temporary shelter for several days over the New Year’s day.

But, business aristocracies and leaders of Japan may need to take more compassion for those poor workers.

Those rich people held a New Year party all together yesterday or so. Some said the business climate is now minus 20 degrees below the freezing point. Other said that it is really cold but will not cause death from cold. A majority indicated that they are feeling some heat enough to energize their business for the future.

Japanese business leaders are no more fools than American business leaders are.

Yet, America is full of different races, tribes, and strangers in its national members. In contrast, Japan has the only one major race: the Japanese.

European American leaders would probably not feel any grave pains from their bottom of heart even if they see very poor citizens suffering so badly, when they find that ancestors of such poor people belonged to Africa, the Middle East, Asia, or the Incan/Mayan worlds before the era of Columbus.

But, Japanese leaders must feel grave pains from their bottom of heart when they see very poor Japanese citizens suffering so badly, since all are of the same Japanese race.

Japanese leaders must feel grave pains from their bottom of heart when they see very poor East Asian citizens suffering so badly, since ancestors of all were of the same or overlapped East Asian race and tribes.

Japanese leaders must feel grave pains from their bottom of heart when they see very poor Hindu or Buddhist citizens suffering so badly, since ancestors of all shared the same or overlapped roots of religion.

Japanese leaders must feel grave pains from their bottom of heart when they see very poor Islamic citizens suffering so badly, since ancestors of all shared the same or overlapped non-Roman Empire and non-colonialism traditions.

I also feel grave pains to see descendants of European Judaists who had survived the total massacre by Nazis during WWII still being engaged in a war for their survival in the next 2000 years without knowing the mind of the God or Allah.


(So, the party must have been very hot, mustn’t it? Indeed party goers might be as innocent as church goers, since the Obama party is yet to come.　But, dear, it can be quite quiet, for it is still within the Holy First Week of the New Year in Japan.

http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~tomita/midi/Wtcii17b.mid )




1Jo 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Charity out of a Pure Heart

(North and South Extensions of Transportation through the Tokyo Station)


Charity out of a Pure Heart


The year 2008 was very exceptional in terms of science for Japan. If no financial crisis had hit so hard the nation, the Japanese society would be more engaged in a heated discussion about the intellectual power of the nation. It is because three Japanese citizens and one naturalized American from a Japanese national, namely four of the Japanese race, won Nobel Prize in 2008.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/2008.html

First of all, Japanese scientists are very different from any others of Asia and Africa.

Japanese scientists are not educated in foreign language all through primary school to university. They are educated in the Japanese language all through domestic primary school to domestic university. They may go to Harvard or Cambridge, however, only as grown-up scientists. It is because Japan has never had colonial masters from Europe or America.

In this context, work of Japanese scientists is a fruit of Japanese unique traditions, culture, and history.

Indeed, Japan is a nation of 2000 year history, importing, absorbing, and applying physical and spiritual work of ancient China and India, including Buddhism and Confucianism.

Though Egypt, Arab countries, Aryan nations, India, and China could not sustain consistent development and deployment of their past or ancient glory and civilization, only Japan has been able to achieve it.

The quality and the quantity, or the depth and fullness of Japanese Civilization allowed the nation to be the world No.4 country militarily before WWII and the world No.2 country economically after WWII.

But, a more significant implication is that Japan closed its door to the world from 1639 to 1853, though, importing some cultural goods through restricted channels from Holland, China, and Korea.

In this period of national isolation under the samurai regime, Japan also developed a unique economic system based on a feudal system. It was also supported by a higher educational standard of the Tokugawa samurai period. About half of Japanese farmers and most of craftsmen and merchants at least in the 18th century could read, write, and calculate on the abacus, though samurai bureaucrats were all requested to read and write even Chinese classics in addition to mastering the art of war.

Therefore, the concept of economy for the Japanese people is a little different, yet significantly no matter how subtle it may be conceived, from that for Europeans, Judaists, Muslims, Hindus, and even Chinese.

However without respecting these historic backgrounds, some American high-ranking officials, including a Secretary of the Treasury, tend to request certain changes in the Japanese economic, political, and social systems in their favor, which sometimes annoys or causes offence to some or many Japanese.

And, finally a showdown came in the last fall as all the major investment banks on Wall Street disappeared through bankruptcy, transformation to commercial banks, or M&A.

Then, there came an announcement that three Japanese citizens and one naturalized American from a Japanese national, namely four of the Japanese race, won Nobel Prize in 2008.

Last night, the NHK TV station in Tokyo broadcast a program featuring the four Japanese-race scientists.

Especially, they introduced an interesting story on Mr. Yoichiro Nambu, now an American citizen.

When Mr. Nanbu retired from the service for the Imperial Military in 1945, he had no professors to help him resume his study in physics in the University of Tokyo. He established his talent and success in the field almost all by himself so as to be invited to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, in 1952.

Though he could frankly talk with Albert Einstein, Mr. Nanbu had to compete with so many talented American scientists, which made him experience a professional crisis he had never suffered in Japan.

Yet, Mr. Nanbu moved to the University of Chicago to pull himself together, delivering many epoch-making theories and achievements.

Finally, Mr. Yoichiro Nambu sent a good word for Japanese youths in the NHK studio. It is from ancient Chinese philosophy.

It reads: Learning without thought is barren; Thinking without learning is parlous.



(When I was very young, I thought if I had become a Nobel-Prize-class scientist like Hideki Yukawa I would have had to fly over the Pacific Ocean to see somebody like Einstein in a jet plane which must have been providing some sentimental background music. So, what did you hear even if not flying from Paris?

http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/oldies/mrlonely.html )




1Ti 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

1Ti 1:6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;

1Ti 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

In All Utterance, and In All Knowledge

(Mt. Fuji and Venus in the evening on January 3, 2009)



In All Utterance, and In All Knowledge


Around 5 P.M. of January 3, I observed the moon and Venus in the cold winter sky being aligned on a straight line that diagonally fell onto Mt. Fuji.

The holiest three days of Japan ended, and people have started to work for the new year this Monday.

But the mood is very different from a year ago when Toyota was enjoying its maximum success of surpassing GM in terms of car sales, and Wall Street was still shining glamorously on a white hill over which Mr. Obama looked like still fighting an uphill battle.

But, I gave a warning a year ago as Benazir Bhutto was killed so ominously, which must have serious effects on the world.

Indeed, Mrs. Clinton lost a chance to become the President of the U.S. Wall Street collapsed following the fiasco in crude-oil price hikes Islamic oil-producing nations supported. Terror outraged in India. China suffered the great natural disaster and financial shock waves. And, finally, Israel launched a new large-scale military operation on Hamas in Gaza.

Truly, at the beginning of 2008, I had strong concerns about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the planned Beijing Olympic Games, the U.S. Presidential Election campaigns with Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton as major candidates, and the ever-increasing danger of the possible subprime-loan catastrophe.

However, every incident in 2008 was beyond my expectation, to be honest, including the resignation of Japan’s Prime Minister Mr. Yasuo Fukuda in the last fall with the intention of securing the victory of the LDP in the expected snap election under the new leader of Mr. Taro Aso who was then more popular among voters.

Now at the beginning of 2009, I can say that it would be the start of a new sub-era, since an old one was ended with Mr. Barack Obama having been elected as U.S. President in 2008.

In this context, the current Israel’s attack on Hamas would be a significant factor of this new sub-era. It might really trigger a new and large-scale reaction from the entire Islamic world like never before. Egypt should open the border and accept Gaza people, though 1.5 million new refugees would require large-scale international aid.

Yet, the amount of money globally invested in businesses and M&As last year was $3.3 trillion, though it shows a declining trend from previous years. The huge money globally manipulated by rich and super-rich players in the financial market continues to be a factor impossible to overlook.

But, of course, the issue is a crisis on mankind of a historical scale.

For example, if we had another Hitler and Nazis today, the world would face such a crisis.

In this context, the whole sequence of the history must be reviewed, including the 9/11 Terror, which rich and super-rich people are not interested in at all, since they are still busy living with big money.

So, it is nice for you sometimes to clean out your brain and mind. If you can do that, you can even avoid life-threatening mistakes.

While being blown by a cold wind under the dark blue vault of heaven, the New Year Holiday in Japan was over with the sunset on January 3.




1Co 1:1 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

1Co 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's:

1Co 1:3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

1Co 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

1Co 1:5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

1Co 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

1Co 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

1Co 1:8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.