"Make them sit down by fifties" - Finite University

Mt. Fuji 100 km Far from the Tokyo Suburbs

Finite University

Science teaches us that this whole universe was created about 1.4 billion years ago.

In addition, this universe has been expanding for these 1.4 billion years from a very tiny volume to this size of about 47 billion light years.

The point is that this universe is finite.

In this sense it is like a goldfish bowl.  Then what is outside the bowl?  This is the gravest question any living things in this universe can ask.

One thing sure is our way of thinking is restricted and effective only within this goldfish bowl.  Outside, everything may be different.  Even the fact or concept of death and life may be different as well as existence.  Nonetheless our universe is part of the greater world including our space and the world outside this universe.  We may be allowed to take a hint.

However it is somewhat horrible to think that there is something beyond our universe, since our universe is finite.  The modern physics tells that something without dimensions and energy was created and disintegrated in the sheer vacuum.  But at one point, it got through a barrier to exist with energy and the allowable smallest dimensions (10^-35 meters).  Since then, this energy unfold itself generating time and space.  The frame of our universe was built in which time started to flow while the energy transformed itself to material.  With expansion of the space, many stars were generated to form galaxies and eventually this solar system.  But we don't know what exists outside our universe in addition to what the original vacuum was.

In other word, our universe full of stars is akin to a goldfish bowl full of goldfish.  So, as a man is outside a goldfish bowl, the God must be outside this universe.  What exists outside the outside of our universe.  So, it might be reasonable to think that meaning of existence is different in the goldfish bowl and outside the bowl.  If man resembles the God in any degree, the God outside our university must be beyond our imagination.

We don't think that our minds and souls have been made only with material.  This material universe cannot generate our minds and souls.  It can only create molecules and atoms which can build living things, a mass of a huge number of molecules and atoms.  But we don't think work of our minds and mysteries of our souls are all different forms and movements of molecules and atoms.  Our internal space must be linked to the outside of the universe.

Anyway, this universe is built so well.  From only several types of elementary particles which constitute an atom, this whole world on the earth is built. Rocks, water, plants, animals, and human beings are all based on elementary particles.  It is the holy design by the God.

Some energy that could escape the vacuum finally made human beings who have worked to manufacture all these products around us, including roads, houses, cars, TV sets, computers, and cellular phones.

But of course what we have invented in the goldfish bowl must be useless outside the bowl.  We are so powerless and helpless before the God.

The fact that this universe is finite is a terrible thing.  We cannot help but have the fear of the God.

Bubble Universes. The fact that the visible universe came out of a small patch of the entire universe means that we live in one of the many existing universes. We can think of the original universe as a collection of bubbles and we live in one of the bubbles. Because each bubble at the beginning was not in causal relation wit the others, we will never be able to know about the other universes (because in order to send a light signal from one universe to the other it would require light signals to travel for a time longer than the age of the universe).

http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/CCD_NEW/seti/topics/cosmology/cosmology2/beyond_Big_Bang.html

http://park11.wakwak.com/~kozu5/hiroba-12/12.05.08noguchi.html

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


Luk 9:14 For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.
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.
Luk 9:17 And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.

"the golden altar which is before God" - An Aspect of Japanese Deflation

Mt. Fuji and Tokyo Bay

An Aspect of Japanese Deflation

To cope with a trend of the Japanese yen getting stronger or specifically as high as around 80 yen per dollar, Japanese businesses have taken various measures, including cost reduction, relocation of manufacturing facilities to overseas, and mergers or  acquisition of foreign makers, though presently the exchange rate between the yen and the US dollar has been weakened around 99 yen per dollar.

For example, in 1990, one US dollar was exchanged for 140 yen; the ratio of Japanese businesses having manufacturing plants in foreign countries was 40%; and the ratio of production values recorded in foreign plants of Japanese businesses over total production values of Japanese makers was only 4%.


         Yen / $   Companies Manufacturing Abroad   Foreign Production Values  
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1990          140                         40%                                             4%

1996          105                         55%                                             8%

2002          125                         60%                                            13%

2008          100                         65%                                            16%

2012           80                          68%                                            16%

2013           99                          -                                                -
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Compared with the situation in 1990, the yen/dollar exchange rate rose by 70%, the ratio of Japanese makers manufacturing abroad increased by 70%, and the ratio of values of production in foreign countries by Japanese makers rose by 300% in 2012.

In 2012, the number of cases of M and A of foreign countries by Japanese makers was 515, the largest since 1985.

So, Japanese makers have made great efforts to survive while the US has been enjoying the ever weakening dollar against the Japanese yen.

Especially after 2208 or since the fall of US sub-prime loan transactions and the Lehman shock, the US or FRB has increased the amount of dollars circulated in the market three times more.　　But the Bank of Japan expanded the monetary base only by 45%.  This imbalance caused the higher yen, since the exchange rate between two countries follows the difference of quantity of money between the two if other conditions are not so different.

Let's check the trend of the GDP deflators of major countries, which can be calculated by dividing the nominal GDP by the real GDP and then multiplying the result by 100.

http://ecodb.net/exec/trans_weo.php?type=WEO&d=NGDP_D&c1=US&c2=JP&c3=GB&c4=GR&c5=KR&c6=FR&c7=DE

The above figure shows that deflation has occurred only in Japan in these 20 years as the value of the GDP deflator of Japan has been below 100%.

However since the regime change in Japan in December 2012, the Bank of Japan has provided more drastically money for the market, resulting in rapid weakening of the Japanese yen and a swift upswing of a Tokyo Stock Exchange index.

http://www.77bank.co.jp/kawase/usd_chart.html

Put simply the yen/dollar rate was recovered from 77 yen per dollar to 103 yen/dollar and the Nikkei Index was boosted from 8,000 yen to about 16,000 yen at their peaks in these months.  This is what is called the Abenomics.

However the key issue is the deflation in Japan, since it has decreased the salary level of Japanese workers and thus reduced the revenue of the Japanese Government from tax.

Nonetheless the real financial condition of the Japanese Government is not so bad compared with other countries in terms of Government interest payments against its net debts.  But as an amount of the nominal debts of the Japanese Government over GDP is 200%, this financial balance sheet is still a big problem.

Finally the number of wealthy class households in Japan has not been changed since 1997 despite this 15-year-long deflation.  This deflation has not made rich families in Japan poor but allowed them to keep their position.  That must be one of major reasons for a deflation-oriented policy of the Bank of Japan and the Japanese Ministry of Finance.


Incidentally Japan is the second largest country in the world in terms of the number of wealthy people following the US.  There are 11,020,000 wealthy people in the US while there are 3,580,000 in Japan as of 2012.




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


Rev 9:12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
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.
Rev 9:15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
Rev 9:16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
Rev 9:17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

"And God said, This is the token of the covenant" - Horyu-ji and Tokyo Skytree

Mt. Fuji Viewed from Tokaido Shinkansen Train

Horyu-ji and Tokyo Skytree

In 1985 the Japanese Patent Office celebrated the 100th anniversary of the industrial property system in Japan.

On this occasion, they selected the 10 greatest inventions by Japanese.

The ten inventors are: 

Sakichi Toyoda 

  Patent Number 1195, Wooden Weaving Machine Driven by Human Power 

Kokichi Mikimoto 

  Patent Number 2670, Cultured pearl 

Jokichi Takamine 

  Patent Number 4785, Adrenaline 

Kikunae Ikeda 

  Patent Number 14805, Sodium Glutamate 

Umetaro Suzuki 

  Patent Number 20785, Vitamin B1 

Kyota Sugimoto 

  Patent Number 27877, Japanese typewriter 

Kotaro Honda 

  Patent Number 32234, KS Steel 

Hidetsugu Yagi 

  Patent Number 69115, Yagi Antenna 

Yasujiro Niwa 

  Patent Number 84722, Phototelegraphic Method 

Tokushichi Mishima 

  Patent Number 96371, MKM steel

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

But the greatest invention in Japan is undoubtedly Horyu-ji Temple, the world oldest existent wooden structure.  This Buddhist temple、31.5 meters tall, is thought to have been built in 607, though there were no reliable records about its foundation.  However, it is truly phenomenal that a wooden five-story pagoda survived 1400 years in Japan which has suffered an uncountable number of earthquakes and typhoons in these 1400 years.  So, many Japanese engineers and scientists have studied secrets of structure of Horyu-ji.

http://pedpa.co.jp/library/tower.html

There are several unique features in the structure of Horyu-ji Temple.  But the most outstanding element is a huge vertical wooden pillar which is connected at the top layer of the pagoda to support the pinnacle but suspended without being fixed to other layers; it is placed only on a big stone in the ground.  This pillar runs through the center of the structure from the top roof to the underground about 6 meters below the ground surface.   However, today its underground part is rotten and lost, so that this pillar is actually dangling from the roof.

http://pedpa.co.jp/library/tower.html

http://subal-m45.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2012/05/post-92eb.html

This pillar method is today applied to the Tokyo Skytree tower completed in 2012 as the world tallest self-standing tower (634 meters high).  This structure element fortifies the anti-earthquake property of Tokyo Skytree.  When the M9.0 earthquake occurred under the Pacific 400 km northeast of Tokyo in March 2011, the tower was almost completed and could well withstand the mighty earthquake.  No damage was found in Tokyo Skytree after big vibrations of the ground.

It is because the character frequency of the central pillar is different from natural frequencies of other structural elements around the pillar, movements of the pillar and other elements caused by an earthquake cancel each other out.   So, the tower can stand stable while receiving big energy of an earthquake.  

http://subal-m45.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2012/05/post-92eb.html

The original structure of Horyu-ji had been first developed in China and Korea.  But both the countries have no such old wooden temples today.  The Horyu-ji type of wooden pagodas in other countries were all burnt or demolished through long history in those countries.  But only Japan could preserve it to date for 1400 years, partly because the capital of Japan was moved from Nara, where Horyu-ji was built, to Kyoto in 794.  Since then, Nara or Yamato Area, 500 km west of Tokyo, became less important politically.  Civil wars were not fought in Nara in later centuries.  It could at least avoid human-generated calamities.

Anyway, it will be difficult for any new inventions today to survive 1400 years.

So, the best thing in Japan is not necessarily in Tokyo.




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



Gen 9:11 And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
Gen 9:12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
Gen 9:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
Gen 9:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
Gen 9:15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
Gen 9:16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
Gen 9:17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

"your Master with publicans and sinners?" - From 1962 To 2001

A Notable Buddhist Temple in Shibamata, Tokyo

From 1962 To 2001

Marilyn Monroe died mysteriously in 1962.

Somebody killed President Kennedy in 1963.

Somebody killed M.L.King in 1968.

Somebody killed presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968.

Princess Diana died mysteriously in Paris in 1997.

JFK Jr. died mysteriously while flying in 1999.

And finally so many innocent people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001 around DC and New York.

In other word, if CAI, the Secret Service, FBI and the police had protected those victims so perfectly, they should not have been killed so tragically.

All I can say is: Believe in the Lord God Almighty, because He sets your fate.....

Incidentally Osama bin Laden was killed by US special troops in 2011.



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


Mat 9:10 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
Mat 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
Mat 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

"to him said the Lord in a vision" - 1964 & 1968 Olympics Marathons

Tokyo Sky-Tree Tower (634 meters high) since 2012

Tokyo Tower (333 meters high) since 1958

1964 & 1968 Olympics Marathons

In 1964, the 18th Summer Olympic Games was held in Tokyo.  However it killed a young Japanese marathon man eventually.

Kokichi Tsuburaya (1940 – 1968) was a Japanese athlete who competed mainly in the Marathon. 

He competed for Japan in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, where he won the bronze medal when he was overtaken within the final 100 meters by Basil Heatley of the UK. 

Shortly after the Tokyo Olympics, Kokichi suffered from an ongoing back problem, known as lumbago. On January 9, 1968, he committed suicide by slashing his wrist in his dormitory room where he had stayed during his training period for the Mexico City Olympics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dkichi_Tsuburaya 

Before the marathon race in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the father of Kokichi Tsuburaya told his son not to look behind to check who was running behind and how much he was leading while running a race.  In other word, his father told Tsuburaya to act like a man in competition.  As Kokichi Tsuburaya so honestly followed this advice in the Olympics marathon race, he could not realize that the British runner was approaching so quickly.  So, Tsuburaya was taken by a surprise when he was caught up with Heatley in the Olympics Stadium, so that he could not cope with the desperate situation.  Tsuburaya ended the race in the third.  But he felt so much ashamed as he lost the lead to the foreign runner while being watched by all the Japanese through TV broadcasting.

This sense of shame must have worked deeply and badly in the mind of Tsuburaya despite his honor of earning a bronze medal, leading to his death so tragically.

There were of course other Japanese Marathon runners in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.  Especially Kenji Kimihara finished the race at the eighth, though he was the most hopeful marathon runner for Japan in 1964.

After various incidents, Kimihara was qualified again as one of Japanese marathon runners for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.  But amazingly in the marathon race in Mexico City, Kimihara faced a similar situation to the one Tsuburaya had experienced in Tokyo.

He was the second when he came back to the stadium where the finish line was set.  But a New Zealand runner was chasing Kimihara swiftly.  However Kimihara looked behind to confirm if he was safely taking lead.  Kimihara saw the third runner Mike Ryan trying to get ahead of him at a higher pace.  Kimihara sped up keeping the distance between him and Ryan till the finish.  Kimihara won a silver medal.

Later Kimihara said that he felt in the final section in the stadium as if his old friend Tsuburaya had been telling him to just turn around and check if a competitor had been on the neck of him.  So, the Japanese marathon team could maintain its honor.  They didn't repeat the same mistake, owing the spirit of Tsuburuya.

With the silver medal Kimihara won, Tsuburuya must have been raised to life in the minds of the Japanese people.

Kimihara in 1968 Mexico City Olympics
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/wag18470/e/761b01a21cceb6b8fc263f8c5eb5aa80




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


Act 9:10 And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
Act 9:11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
Act 9:12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

"till the Son of man were risen" - Christianity and Japan

Yokohama City on Tokyo Bay

Christianity and Japan

In 1549 Francis Xavier arrived at southern Kyusyu Island, Japan, in order to convert Japanese to Christianity.

Since then for about a century, Christian missionaries were frequently sent to Japan from Spain and Portugal, acquiring hundreds of thousands of believers among not only farmers and townsmen but also samurai feudal lords.  But samurai leaders finally decided to put an end to Christian movements in Japan, since Japanese Christians called Kirishitan started to show less respect for samurai authorities than the Vatican.  The Tokugawa-shogun led samurai regime eventually cut off the diplomatic/trading relations with western countries, except the Netherlands, so as to prevent religious influences from overseas in 1639.

But termination of Christianity in Japan required a great amount of blood.

Christianity in Japan

The shogunate and imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of the Buddhist monks, and help trade with Spain and Portugal. However, the Shogunate was also wary of colonialism, seeing that in the Philippines the Spanish had taken power after converting the population. The government increasingly saw Roman Catholicism as a threat, and started persecuting Christians. Christianity was banned and those Japanese who refused to abandon their faith were killed.

On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians—six European Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen including three young boys—were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki. These individuals were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears.

Persecution continued sporadically, breaking out again in 1613 and 1630. On September 10, 1632, 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. At this time Roman Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the nineteenth century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_of_Japan#Petrus_Kibe_Kasui_and_187_Companion_Martyrs_of_Japan

Put simply the sword was stronger than a version of Christianity those missionaries around 1600 brought into Japan.  If a majority of the Japanese people at the time, including high-ranking samurais, had converted to Christianity, Buddhist samurai leaders might have been defeated in a civil war.  But as a matter of fact, in the middle of the 17th century, almost all the Christians were wiped away from the surface of the Japanese society, though some Christians kept their faith under the disguise of ordinary Buddhists in a very unique manner, till the samurai regime fell and Japan opened the nation to start westernization in the late 19th century.  

But this record of martyrdom is really grave.  In the period of persecution of Japanese Christians by samurais, it is estimated that more than 40,000 believers were killed by samurai.  At least concrete records of death penalty are left for about 3,500 believers.  This number of martyrs is said to be the largest next to that of Christian victims (about 100,000) executed by the Roman Empire.

So, Japan is the very unique country in terms of propagation of the Christian faith.




(As for the 2020 Olympics, Catholic Madrid and Islamic Istanbul fought without making concession to each other, resulting in Tokyo's winning in a race to be qualified as the host of the Olympics.  Spain cannot support Islamic Turkey but can accept mostly Buddhist and slightly Christian Japan even in voting for choosing an Olympics host country.)



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




Mar 9:8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.
Mar 9:9 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.
Mar 9:10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.

"one of the old prophets was risen again" - M9 Earthquake Again

Tokyo, Capital of Japan 

M9 Earthquake Again

What actually happened around March 11, 2011 when the fatal M9.0 earthquake occurred under the Pacific at a point 375　km （230 miles） northeast of Tokyo?

The following earthquakes occurred in the belt on the Pacific 100 km to 300 km off Honsyu Island, which was about 600 km long and 200 km wide.

2011
March 9 - M7.3

March 10 -  M6.8

March 11
14:46 - M9.0

15:08 - M7.4

15:15 - M7.6

15:25 - M7.5

April 7 - M7.2

April 11 - M7.0

July 10 - M7.3

2012
December 7 - M7.4

http://www.city.natori.miyagi.jp/soshiki/soumu/311kiroku/index/jisin-jyokyo

So, on the fatal day of March 11, 2011, there set off were four earthquakes each of which had a scale of more than 7.0.

They eventually triggered more a 15-meter-high tsunami that attacked the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and other nuclear power plants facing the Pacific Ocean. The first wave of the huge tsunami arrived at Fukushima Daiichi at 15:27, 41 minutes after the M9.0 earthquake.

So, it was not a simple single earthquake that caused the huge tsunamis which rushed to coast lines stretching 800 km from Hokkaido down to the south around Tokyo Bay.  It was power strong enough to generate four earthquakes of a scale of more than M7.0.

These earthquakes occurｒed northeast of Tokyo on the North America continental plate and the Pacific continental plate.  But similar phenomena could happen at any time southwest of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean.

http://www.city.sakaide.lg.jp/site/bousai/jisin1.html

Japanese scientists estimate that a gigantic earthquake can occur southwest of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean on the Philippine plate at a probability of 70 to 80% in 30 years.  It means by 2020 when the Tokyo Olympics is held, a big earthquake of an M9 class can occur at 20% or so of probability.  So, for Japan to hold the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is very dangerous.

http://www.osk.janis.or.jp/~mtl-muse/subindex04-51nankaitrough.htm

The above figure shows strength of tremors each region of Japan will receive.  Red indicates seismic intensity of 7; Orange means strength 6+, yellow strength 6-, green 5+, blue 5-, and light blue 4-.  The figure shows the Tokyo area is to experience intensity 5+ or 5- where some furniture fall and people cannot walk normally.  In this condition no Olympic games can be practiced in Tokyo.

We had better rethink the plan for Tokyo to host 2020 Olympics.




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


Luk 9:8 And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again.

"the eyes of the blind man with the clay" - Basic Uniqueness of Japan

Tokyo Haneda Airport

Basic Uniqueness of Japan

Ratios of foreign-born residents in OECD countries as of 2011 or so:

    Country         Percentage
==============================
1  Luxembourg     42.1

2  Switzerland     27.3

3  Australia        26.7

4  Israel             23.9

5  New Zealand   23.6

6  Canada          20.1

7  Ireland         16.8

8  Austria         16.0

9  Estonia        15.7

10  Sweden        15.1

11 Belgium       14.9

12 Spain          14.6

13 Germany       13.1

14 US               13.0

15 Norway        12.4

16 UK              12.0

17 France         11.6

18 Netherlands    11.4

19 Slovenia      11.2

20 Iceland       10.9

21 Italy            9.0

22 Portugal       8.3

23 Denmark        7.9

24 Russia         7.9

25 Greece         6.6

26 Czech          6.4

27 Finland        4.9

28 Hungary        4.7

29 Slovakia       3.9

30 Chile            2.2

31 Turkey          2.0

32 Poland          1.8

33 JAPAN          1.1

34 Mexico         0.9

(http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/1170a.html)
=====================================

Major countries such as the US, Germany, France, and the UK have foreign-born residents in ratios roughly between 11 to 13%.

Japan has 10 times less foreign-born people internally than those major countries.  In this context, social systems and economic systems that have worked well in those major countries might not necessarily work in Japan.

Incidentally, foreign-born residents in Japan usually mean Koreans and Chinese.  They look like Japanese in most cases, so that Japanese citizens don't feel strange or pressure when they see Koreans and Chinese in streets of Japanese cities.

(In  South Korea, among its 50 million population 600,000 foreigners live at least for three months, meaning 1.2% of the foreign-born visitors/residents ratio.)

Though today various G20 countries, including China and India, are engaged in international adjustment and harmonization efforts claiming their uniqueness, in the 20th century Japan was the only non-European/non-Christian nation involved in world order led by western powers.  It was not easy for Japan to advance to one of major industrial powers in the world in the 20th century, since Japan started its version of the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century.

So, some international trade treaty such as Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) now being strongly promoted by the US cannot easily fit social and economic conditions of Japan, if it does not take into account this kind of uniqueness of Japan.
What can smoothly apply to a country where 10% of the population are foreign born cannot often easily apply to a nation where only 1% of residents are not genuine.





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


Joh 9:6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
Joh 9:7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

"I am Jesus whom thou persecutest" - Missionary Luis Frois

Tokyo Bay

Missionary Luis Frois

When William Shakespeare was rising to stardom in London, a genius from Portugal was writing a great report on and history of Japan as he had been sent to the then mysterious country Japan for a mission.

Luís Fróis (1532 – 1597) was a Portuguese missionary. 

He was born in Lisbon and in 1548 joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). In 1563, he arrived in Japan to engage in missionary work, and in the following year arrived in Kyoto, meeting Ashikaga Yoshiteru who was then Shogun. In 1569, he befriended Oda Nobunaga and stayed in his personal residence in Gifu while writing books for a short while. 

His writings include the History of Japan. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_Fr%C3%B3is

However the original writings by Frois were not sent to Europe.  Only their copies were sent to the Portuguese court in the 18th century.  The original documents were stored in a Church in Macau.  But, in 1835 a fire broke out in the church to destroy the precious documents.

It was in 1970s that a Japanese scholar found, by chance, missing copies of the History of Japan in a library in Lisbon.  This discovery made the History of Japan by Frois complete for the first time.

It was the first book ever written by a European to describe detailed states of Japan, including battles and behaviors of samurais and daily lives and practices of ordinary Japanese, though the Japanese society there introduced was that of the late 16th century.

Even Japanese of today can understand, by reading the History of Japan Frois wrote with incredible skills and talent, how Japanese people lived and thought in the last years of the age of provincial wars of Japan, namely in the late 16th century.  Things very common to Japanese were not written down by Japanese themselves, but they looked very strange to Frois, so that he always made quick notes of such things, thus leaving concrete records of people's lives in those years.

Without the work by Frois, knowledge of the Japanese people on their own history must be more incomplete today.

As Frois was allowed to directly communicate with the greatest samurai hero Oda Nobunaga, whom Frois met with 18 times, and his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan after the civil war period, his remarks and opinions about Nobunaga and Hideyoshi always have caught the eye of Japanese readers.  Even Japanese authors who write novels about Nobunaga or Hideyoshi today would refer to passages in Frois' History of Japan where each of the historic figures is vividly and realistically described.

But Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa samurai regime which continued till 1868, put an end to the history of missionary work by Catholic priests and missionaries in the early 17th century when Ieyasu took over, through a civil war, as the samurai king of Japan from Hideyoshi's son.  Ieyasu ultimately forbade Christianity in the Japanese society.

Frois died in Nagaski, Japan, in 1592 during the reign of Hideyoshi.  At the time, Luis Frois had just wrote a record about 26 Japanese Christian martyrs who were executed by Hideyoshi.  Virtual king of Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi was then also busy invading the Korean Peninsula to fight the Chinese Ming dynasty.

Marco Polo's book presented Japan to Europe in the end of the Middle Ages, but works by Frois introduce Japan which existed 400 years ago to modern Japanese.

http://tabinaga.jp/walk/001.php



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


Act 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

"Jesus knowing their thoughts" - Oswald and Ruby

Rainbow in the Tokyo Suburbs, Yesterday

Oswald and Ruby

It is said that Lee Harvey Oswald received $200 periodically from FBI, as CIA introduced him to FBI.  Oswald, a low-level secret agent of CIA, worked as an informant for FBI before the JFK Assassination.

On the other hand Jack Ruby was a Mafia guy who had been sent to Dallas from Chicago by a Mafia group for its business expansion.

The fact that Ruby killed Oswald in the Dallas Police Department building indicated that there was a connection between CIA, FBI and the Mafia around the JFK assassination.

And President Johnson never tried for real to find truth of the JFK assassination.  President Nixon was intimidated by ex-CIA Hunt concerning the JFK assassination during the Watergate crisis.

So, it looks more reasonable to assume that Johnson and Nixon were involved in the JFK assassination than to believe that the JFK assassination was carried out by Oswald and Ruby alone.

Anyway the dangerous connection between CIA, FBI and the Mafia in 1960's seems to be gone nowadays, since Mr. Obama was elected as President after Mr. W. Bush.




###

[General Story]

Kennedy assassination investigation

As New Orleans D.A., Garrison began an investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy in late 1966, after receiving several tips from Jack Martin that a man named David Ferrie may have been involved in the assassination.[9][10] The end result of Garrison's investigation was the arrest and trial of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw in 1969, with Shaw being unanimously acquitted less than one hour after the case went to the jury.[11][12][13]

Garrison was able to subpoena the Zapruder film from Life magazine and show it to the public for the first time. Until the trial, the film had rarely been seen, and bootleg copies made by assassination investigators working with Garrison led to the film's wider distribution.[14]

Garrison's key witness against Clay Shaw was Perry Russo, a 25-year-old insurance salesman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At the trial, Russo testified that he had attended a party at anti-Castro activist David Ferrie's apartment. At the party, Russo said that Lee Harvey Oswald (who Russo said was introduced to him as "Leon Oswald"), David Ferrie, and "Clem Bertrand" (who Russo identified in the courtroom as Clay Shaw) had discussed killing President Kennedy.[15] The conversation included plans for the "triangulation of crossfire" and alibis for the participants.[15]

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

###

[Oswald and Ferrie]

In December 1966, Garrison interviewed Jack Martin. Martin claimed that during the summer of 1963, David Ferrie, Guy Banister, Lee Harvey Oswald, and a group of anti-Castro Cuban exiles were involved in operations against Castro's Cuba that included gun running activities and burglarizing armories.[31] Garrison would later write: "The Banister apparatus ... was part of a supply line that ran along the Dallas—New Orleans—Miami corridor. These supplies consisted of arms and explosives for use against Castro's Cuba."[31]

According to testimony by Banister's personal secretary, Delphine Roberts, Ferrie and Oswald were frequent visitors to Banister's office in 1963

David Ferrie (second from left) and a teenaged Lee Harvey Oswald (far right) in a group photo of the New Orleans Civil Air Patrol in 1955 (click to enlarge)

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



###


[Banister and Oswald]

On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Banister and one of his investigators, Jack Martin, were drinking together at the Katzenjammer Bar, located next door to 544 Camp Street, New Orleans. On their return to Banister's office, the two men got into a dispute. Banister believed that Martin had stolen some files and drew his .357 magnum revolver, striking Martin with it several times. During the altercation Martin yelled: "What are you going to do — kill me like you all did Kennedy?" Martin was badly injured and treated at Charity Hospital.[19]

Over the next few days, Martin told authorities and reporters that anti-Castro activist David Ferrie had been involved in the assassination. He claimed that Ferrie knew Oswald from their days in the New Orleans Civil Air Patrol, and that Ferrie might have taught Oswald how to use a rifle with a telescopic sight.[20] Martin also claimed that Ferrie drove to Texas on the day of Kennedy's assassination, to serve as a getaway pilot for the assassins.[21]

Witnesses interviewed by the House Select Committee on Assassinations "... indicate Banister was aware of Oswald and his Fair Play for Cuba Committee before the assassination."[22] Banister's secretary, Delphine Roberts, told author Anthony Summers that Oswald "...seemed to be on familiar terms with Banister and with [Banister's] office." Roberts said, "As I understood it, he had the use of an office on the second floor, above the main office where we worked.... Then, several times, Mr. Banister brought me upstairs, and in the office above I saw various writings stuck up on the wall pertaining to Cuba. There were various leaflets up there pertaining to Fair Play for Cuba.'"[23] The House Select Committee on Assassinations investigated Roberts' claims and said that "...the reliability of her statements could not be determined."[24]



###


[Shaw, Ferrie, and Oswald]

On January 29, 1969, Clay Shaw was brought to trial on these charges. At the trial, witnesses testified that they saw Oswald with Clay Shaw and David Ferrie, in Clinton, Louisiana, just two months before the JFK assassination. Vernon Bundy testified that he saw Lee Oswald and Clay Shaw together on the seawall along Lake Pontchartrain, in New Orleans during July of 1963. He said Shaw spoke with Oswald and gave him some money. Also, Perry Russo testified that  Oswald, David Ferrie, and Clay Shaw were present at a party at Ferrie's New Orleans apartment, in Sept. of 1963, at which they discussed the JFK assassination, including the use of a crossfire and having an alibi for that day. Shaw had been good friends with David Ferrie. 

Some of the news media falsely labeled Perry Russo as being a drug addict in order to discredit his testimony. 

Despite all this, on March 1, 1969, Clay Shaw was acquitted. The jurors felt there was a conspiracy to assassinate JFK, but they didn't think there was enough proof presented by Jim Garrison to convict him.


http://goochinfo.homestead.com/shaw.html


###

[Oswald and Rubby]


Did Jack Ruby Know Lee Harvey Oswald?

Feb 1, 2009 (rev. March 27, 2009)

There's no hard evidence that he did, but numerous people say they saw Oswald at Ruby's club, The Carousel, weeks before the JFK assassination.

by Don Fulsom

Jack Ruby (born Jacob Rubenstein) was a vulgar, violent, lowlife. But a proud one. He had risen from the Mob-dominated slums of Chicago—where, growing up, he'd run errands for Al Capone. Now, in 1963, Ruby ran his own striptease club in Dallas—seedy to some, but to Jack "a f----ing classy joint."

The Carousel was a run-down walkup on Commerce Street where Jack (or "Sparky," as the easily ignitable owner was known) oversaw a master of ceremonies, four strippers and a five-piece bump-and-grind band. On Commerce, flashing neon signs and scores of eight-by-ten glossy stock photos of near-nude gals beckoned horny guys to ascend the stairs and enjoy "Dallas's only nonstop burlesque."

Soon after Ruby murdered JFK assassination suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, Carousel emcee Bill Demar (Bill Crowe in real life) publicly identified Oswald as a recent patron. The magician-ventriloquist said he distinctly recalled Oswald because, as an audience member, Oswald had actually taken part in Demar's "memory act."


http://www.crimemagazine.com/did-jack-ruby-know-lee-harvey-oswald


###



[Ruby and Ferrie]

How did this call connect Ruby to Ferrie? It's complicated. At the time, Ferrie was working for Gill, with Gill saying that Ferrie made long-distance calls from Gill's office at times. One of the residents of the Chicago apartment block was a young woman named Jean Aase. A few days before the assassination, Aase had gone to Dallas with a Chicago salesman named Larry Meyers, a married man about twice her age, who described her as a "dumb but accommodating broad", a "party girl", and a "semi-professional hooker". Meyers had dropped into Ruby's Carousel Club once on a visit to Dallas, and learning that Ruby was also from Chicago, struck up a friendship with him. Meyers liked to drop into the club when business brought him to Dallas, and on 20 November he brought Aase along and introduced her to Ruby. There was nothing more to it than that. Conspiracists find Meyers suspicious, but nobody ever found credible evidence that he was anything but what he seemed to be, a salesman.

OK, so that's the connection, such as it was, between Aase and Ruby. What about the connection between Aase and Ferrie? There wasn't much of one. Did Ferrie actually make the call? Gill was asked about the matter in 1967, but to no surprise, all he could reply was, essentially: "Who knows?" That ambiguity did not disturb Garrison, nor the did the fact that the Chicago apartment block had over a hundred apartments, and the call record said nothing about who the caller was trying to get in touch with. Garrison took great stock in "propinquity" -- that is, if two or more people crossed paths in any way, that implied an association between them. It wasn't that important to him to actually validate such an association; propinquity was good enough.

http://www.vectorsite.net/twjfk_23.html


###


[Ruby, Oswald, CIA, and the Mafia]

Ruby's gun running was at least partly done with former CIA agent Thomas Eli Davis. (Henry Hurt, Reasonable Doubt, pgs 401-405) And Davis' connections reportedly went all the way up to the CIA assassin famously code named QJ/WIN. Davis had a slight resemblance to Oswald and he used the name Oswald at times in his work. (ibid, p. 402) In fact, Ruby was so close to Davis that, after he shot Oswald, Ruby actually volunteered Davis' name to his attorneys. Incredibly, Ruby said that if he beat the Oswald rap he wanted to go back into the gun running business with Davis. 
...

The man who Ruby was closest to in Havana was the mob associated gambler, Lewis McWillie. Elaine Mynier, a girlfriend of McWillie, described the two men. She said McWillie was "...a big time gambler, who has always been in the big money and operated top gambling establishments in the United States and Cuba. He always had a torpedo (a bodyguard) living with him for protection." She went on to say that Ruby was "a small time character who would do anything for McWillie ... (Marrs, p. 393, italics added) The Commission had to have known that McWillie was a gambler and killer who Ruby idolized. (WC Vol. V, p. 201, Vol. XXIII, p. 166) While managing the Tropicana in Havana, McWillie became associated with some of the Mob's top leaders like Santo Trafficante and Meyer Lansky, who were part owners. (FBI Memo of 3/26/64)
...
In fact, this aspect of Ruby's life – his relations to CIA-Mafia activities in Cuba – was obvious to even Commission staffers. Warren Commission attorneys Leon Hubert and Burt Griffin, who ran the Ruby investigation, wrote a memo to Chief Counsel J. Lee Rankin in March of 1964. They wrote that, "The most promising links between Jack Ruby and the assassination of President Kennedy are established through underworld figures and anti-Castro Cubans and extreme right-wing Americans." (John Armstrong, Harvey and Lee, p. 948) Two months later, they wrote another memo: "We believe that a reasonable possibility exists that Ruby has maintained a close interest in Cuban affairs to the extent necessary to participate in gun sales and smuggling ... Neither Oswald's Cuban interests in Dallas nor Ruby's Cuban activities have been adequately explored 

...
Because clearly those three areas of evidence would suggest the following:

1. Ruby and Oswald shared connections to the CIA and the Mafia

2. Ruby and Oswald knew each other through their experience in the Cuban crisis as extended into the USA

3. Ruby used his police contacts to enter the basement of City Hall and kill Oswald.


If this were all made clear to the viewer, one implication would be this. The CIA contacted one of the mobsters that they used in the plots to kill Castro: they needed some help again. From there the word was then sent down through intermediaries to Ruby. Ruby then used his extensive network of police contacts to silence Oswald before he could talk. All one needs to do to make this credible is recall the words of McWillie's girlfriend Elaine Mynier. She said that Ruby would do anything for McWillie. McWillie knew Trafficante since he had worked for him in Cuba. McWillie was also in contact with Ruby the month before the Kennedy assassination. Finally, Trafficante was one of the two main Cosa Nostra chieftains the CIA used in their (unsuccessful) plots to kill Fidel Castro. This time, it looks like they pulled it off.

http://www.ctka.net/2009/ruby_mack.html

###


[Ex-CIA E.H. Hunt]

JFK Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National Radio

Former CIA agent, Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt names the men who killed Kennedy

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, April 30, 2007

The "deathbed confession" audio tape in which former CIA agent and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt admits he was approached to be part of a CIA assassination team to kill JFK was aired this weekend - an astounding development that has gone completely ignored by the establishment media.

Saint John Hunt, son of E. Howard Hunt, appeared on the nationally syndicated Coast to Coast Live radio show on Saturday night to discuss the revelations contained in the tape.

Hunt said that his father had mailed cassette the tape to him alone in January 2004 and asked that it be released after his death. The tape was originally 20 minutes long but was edited down to four and a half minutes for the Coast to Coast broadcast. Hunt promises that the whole tape will be uploaded soon at his website.

Click here to listen to a clip of the tape.
(http://prisonplanet.com/audio/300407jfktape.mp3)

E. Howard Hunt names numerous individuals with both direct and indirect CIA connections as having played a role in the assassination of Kennedy, while describing himself as a "bench warmer" in the plot. Saint John Hunt agreed that the use of this term indicates that Hunt was willing to play a larger role in the murder conspiracy had he been required.

Hunt alleges on the tape that then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in the planning of the assassination and in the cover-up, stating that LBJ, "Had an almost maniacal urge to become president, he regarded JFK as an obstacle to achieving that."


http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/300407deathbedconfession.htm


###


[Gangster Brading]

Eugene Hale Brading (also known as James Lee and Jim Braden) developed a long criminal record while living in California. Arrested 35 times he had convictions for burglary, illegal bookmaking and embezzlement.

On 21st November, 1963, Brading arrived in Dallas with a man named Morgan Brown. They stayed in Suite 301 of the Cabana Motel. Later that day Brading visited the offices of Texas oil billionaire Haroldson L. Hunt. It is believed that Jack Ruby was in the offices at the same time as Brading.

After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Brading was arrested and taken in for interrogation because he had been "acting suspiciously" in the Dal-Tex Building, overlooking Dealey Plaza. Brading told the police he was in Dallas on oil business and had gone into the building to make a phone call. Brading was released without charge.

Brading returned to his room at the Cabana Motel. It was later established that Jack Ruby visited the motel around midnight.


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbrading.htm


##


[Financier Hunt]


Oil Baron H. L. Hunt

Conspiracy theorists are generally suspicious of the late Texas oil billionaire H. L. Hunt. Hunt was a rabid right-wing extremist with intelligence connections. According to one of Hunt's special assistants, Hunt's top aides often heard him say that America would be "much better off without Kennedy" (5:277). On one occasion Hunt reportedly expressed his desire to see JFK shot (21:215).

The day before the assassination, Eugene Hale Brading, a Mafia man with a long arrest record, visited Hunt's office building in Dallas. Brading was arrested in Dealey Plaza on the day of the shooting when he was found to have taken an elevator to the ground floor of the Dal-Tex Building shortly after the shots were fired. Brading was released, however, because he gave the police an alias. While in Dallas, Brading stayed at the Cabana Hotel.

Jack Ruby visited that hotel, and Hunt's office building, on November 21. Moreover, according to Hunt's former chief aide, John Curington, Marina Oswald met with Hunt two days before the shooting.

On November 23, Hunt asked his chief aide to see what kind of security the police had for Oswald. The aide reported that Oswald had very little protection and that security was very lax at police headquarters where Oswald was being kept. Hunt flew to Washington, D.C., shortly after receiving this report. Oswald was killed on November 24.

Dick Russell's book THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH contains an important examination of H. L. Hunt's troubling activities before and after the assassination, as does Livingstone's KILLING THE TRUTH (see also 5:276-278 and 10:568, 573-574).


http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/the_critics/griffith/suspects.html



###


[Ruby, Meyers, Army Security Agency, and Pepsi Cola]


Ed Meyers and his companion Jean Aase moved to the Cabana from the Love Field Ramada because, Meyers later said, of the noise at the airport. 

Meyers would later recall that he had previously stayed at the Cabana on other occasions he was in Dallas, including the grand opening gala, which was said to be quite an affair since Doris Day was one of the owners and the Cabana would become known for its high powered Hollywood entertainment. 

Lawrence Meyers’ brother Ed was staying at the classically refined Adolphis Hotel, across the street from the seedy Carousel Club, but Ed and his wife Thelma came over to the Cabana for a special party. Ed and Thelma owned a number of Pepsi Cola franchises in Brooklyn, New York, and had just returned from Mexico City where they met with Larry’s son Ralph, who was also said to be registered at the Cabana that night. Ralph had served in the Army Security Agency, was trained in Russian and the Monterey Language Institute and served at a top-secret base in Turkey before being sheep-dipped as a Chicago bus driver. He was then working as a journalist in Mexico City. 

Larry Meyers and his girlfriend Jean, Ed Meyers and Ed’s wife and maybe Ralph, would later be joined at the Meyers’ table by Jack Ruby. They would all eat dinner, have a few drinks and share a toast and a few laughs on a typical Thursday night in Dallas. None of them were aware of the catastrophic events that would overtake them the next day. Or were they? 

The circumstances of that evening would never be adequately explained, the official chronology of events, whether by contrivance or mistake, can be shown to be wrong, significant lines of inquiry would be left dangling as loose ends that would never be completely resolved. 

In reconstructing the events around the assassination of President Kennedy, the official government investigators put together a chronology of Jack Ruby’s activities, beginning with the morning of the assassination, Friday, November 22, 1963. According to the Warren Report: “Scrutiny of Ruby’s activities during the several days preceding the President’s arrival in Dallas has revealed no indication of any unusual activity.” 


http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.jp/2009/12/larry-ronco-and-beverly-oliver.html


###


[Army Intelligence Special Agent]

Spec-5 James W. Powell, Army 
Intelligence Special Agent, 
Member of the 112th MIG 

Present in Dealey Plaza, took 
photograph of TSBD, 
and participated in search of 
the railroad yards and TSBD. Powell's 
statements to the FBI and USSS 
suggest that he wrote a report on 
his activities for his Army 
Intelligence C.O. and also turned
his film into the Army. 


http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.jp/2011/10/defense-department-dod-related-to.html


###


[Hoover]


The following is the text of a memo written by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to his associate, Clyde Tolson concerning his control of the Warren Commission investigation and the treatment of Lee Harvey Oswald as the "lone assassin."


...Mr. Rankin of the difficulty about the Department's desire to issue certain conclusions; that they wanted to issue a statement before the report went to the Commission with the conclusion Oswald was the assassin, no foreign or subversive elements involved, and Rubenstein and Oswald had no connection; that I flatly disagreed; they took

it up with the White House and the President agreed with me that we should reach no conclusion; nevertheless the report does reach two conclusions in substance.

I said I personally believe Oswald was the assassin; that the second aspect as to whether he was the only man gives me great concern; that we have several letters, not in the report because we were not able to prove it, written to him from Cuba referring to the job he was going to do, his good marksmanship, and stating when it was all over he would be brought back to Cuba and presented to the chief; but we do not know if the chief was Castro and cannot make an investigation because we have no intelligence operation in Cuba; that I did not put this into the report because we did not have proof of it and didn't want to put speculation in the report; that this was the reason I urged strongly that we not reach conclusion Oswald was the only man.

...


In connection with stories indicating that Oswald could not have done this alone, I stated he was a marksman and it wasn't anything he
could not do; that we have tested it on our rifle range and were able to get shots off even faster than he did; that there is no question in my mind about it; that we also found the fingerprints and the bullets so conclusively fired from the gun; that we have all this and we have all the photographs.



http://www.jfklancer.com/Hoover.html

###


[Hoover and Kennedys]

What Happened Between John F. Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover?

...While the relationship between Hoover and JFK was mostly one of gossip and childish pranks, Hoover and Bobby Kennedy were involved in much more political skirmishes.



http://blogs.dickinson.edu/hist-fbi/2012/05/01/what-happened-between-john-f-kennedy-and-j-edgar-hoover/


###


[Onassis]


When the Suez Canal closed in 1956, Onassis made millions because he was the only independent ship owner with enough available tankers to transport oil around Africa's Cape of Good Hope. It was around that time that Onassis first met Jackie Kennedy when she and John F. Kennedy went for drinks aboard Onassis's yacht, Christina.

Onassis and Athina had two children — Alexander, born in 1948, and Christina, born in 1950 — but the marriage was far from perfect. Onassis was a serial adulterer, and his wife could not ignore the infidelities. She became addicted to alcohol and painkillers. The marriage unraveled for good when Onassis began a very public affair with opera singer Maria Callas, and the couple divorced in 1960. By that time, Onassis was one of the richest men in the world.

FACT
Onassis invited the young senator and his wife on board the yacht to meet Sir Winston Churchill, one of John F. Kennedy's idols. While the meeting between Churchill and Kennedy was anticlimactic, Onassis was immediately taken with Jackie.

http://www.netplaces.com/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis/the-greek-tycon/aristotle-onassis.htm


###



Finally we can get the following figures:

Before the JFK Assassination

For the JFK Assassination

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


Mat 9:3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.
Mat 9:4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
Mat 9:5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

"his raiment became shining" - Samurai's Hearing about Europe

From a Night Train, Tokyo Area

Samurai's Hearing about Europe

Giovanni Battista Sidotti (1668–1714), an Italian Jesuit priest who sneaked into Japan as a one-man Christian mission but was arrested by samurai authorities, started to undergo a trial by elite samurai bureaucrat/scholar Arai Hakuseki in 1709.

At the time, almost for a century the door to Japan had been closed by the samurai government led by the shogun from the Tokugawa clan.  It was because samurai leaders found that Christian missions from Spain, Portugal, or the Vatican were dangerous for their reign.  Those western missionaries turned Japanese farmers, townsmen, and even samurais to a Japanese-version of Christians, called Kirishitans, who sometimes came to deny the samurai authority.  Kirishitans did not pay respect for traditional religion Buddhism.  They were suspected to think they belonged to the Pope but not the shogun.  And the samurai government assumed that Spain or Portugal were actually trying to cause an uprising or a revolution in Japan using those Kirishitans and then finally invade Japan.

 So in 1612 the Tokugawa shogun issued a decree to forbid Christianity. It is estimated that at the time there were 750,000 Kirishitans.   Indeed those Christian missionaries were very successful since Francisco de Xavier visited Japan 1549 as the first Christian missionary to Japan.

After imposing the ban on Christianity, the samurai government succeeded in terminating Christian movement in Japan and forcing Kirishitans to abandon their faith by imposing heavy penalties, including death penalty.  Western missionaries were forbidden even to enter Japan.  Diplomatic relations between Japan and Spain/Portugal were cut off.  Only the Netherlands (having no intention to propagate Christianity in Japan) and China (the Qing dynasty) were allowed to continue trade with Japan in restricted ports.

But finally Kirishitans in west Japan launched a desperate war against the government in Edo (currently Tokyo) in 1637, though their motive was not 100% religious, since these rebellious Kirishitans were actually poor farmers and samurais not hired by samurai seigniors.  In this Shimabara Rebellion, a Kirishitan ad-hoc legion more than 30,000 strong stood firmly against about 130,000 samurai-government troops.  Battles continued for four months in the Shimabara peninsula in Kyusyu, 1000 km west of Tokyo.  Finally the Tokugawa regime killed almost all these insurgents, but it gave a great shock to elite samurais in Edo as 8,000 or so samurais were killed in this civil war.  Christianity gave great fighting spirit to those poor farmers and failed samurais who called themselves Kirishitans.  Accordingly the samurai government all the more strictly prohibited Christianity.  And as time went by, no western missions even tried to land on Japan.  Finally no Christians or Kirishitans came to exist on the surface of the Japanese society governed by the elite samurai.

But 70 years after the Shimabara Rebellion, a strange missionary priest sailed from the Philippines to Japan on board a ship tailored for him.   Italian Giovanni Sidotti landed on an island in southern Kyusyu in 1708.  Though he disguised himself as a Japanese samurai, he was caught out and sent to Edo for trial.

High-ranking samurai politicians in Edo put Sidotti in custody in some premises, but they could not easily decide what to do with him eventually.  So, notable samurai Arai Hakuseki, a politician and a Confucian scholar trusted by the shogun, took charge of conducting an investigation into the Sidotti case.   Hakuseki asked Sidotti about the essence of his religion.

Sidotti explained, "The universe was created by the God."  But Hakuseki gave Sidotti argument, saying, "Then who created the God.  If the God had spontaneously emerged, there is no wonder if the universe spontaneously emerged, too.  The universe could be created without the God."

Arai Hakuseki further told his opinion, "You said that the God felt pity for mankind, so that He sent His Son to the world to have Him atone for the wrong mankind did.  But it sounds so childish."

Finally Hakuseki recommended the samurai government not to execute Sidotti but retain him in custody in the premises without sending him back to overseas.  Samurai bureaucrats followed this advise but forbade Sidotti to try to convert any Japanese to Christians.

So, a wife and husband whose deceased parents had been Kirishitans were assigned to a job of taking care of Sidotti in the premises.  But they were secretly taught Christian creeds by Sidotti.  And seven moths or so later, as they came to be suspected, the Japanese servants confessed their sin, namely becoming Christians, to supervisors.  Then the three, Sidotti, the husband, and the wife, were separately put in jails.   A few weeks later they all died of illness, probably because conditions of the jails were so bad.

Arai Hakuseki then wrote some books about situations in Europe based on information he got through the trial and conversations with Giovanni Sidotti.  These books became a great help for samurais in the late 19th century when they were forced to open the nation as the global situation changed so much due to the Opium War and so on.

Seiyo-Kibun (Hearing about Europe) by Arai Hakuseki
http://twinning.nagaokaut.ac.jp/ud/?p=481

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


Mar 9:3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
Mar 9:4 And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.