Have Dream for Peace

The legend of Normandy Landings in 1944 led to creation of various movies including “Private Ryan” (1998). However, Okinawa Landings in 1945 which are said to have surpassed the scale of US military mobilization for Normandy Landings have rarely become a subject of entertainment.

On March 26, 1945, 548,000 US troops with 1,500 US ships surrounding the Okinawa Islands began landing and invasion to seize the islands equally distanced to Taiwan, Shanghai, and the southern part of Mainland Japan. It took about two months for US military to finish the battle and establish occupation of the Okinawa Island with the longitudinal distance of 60 miles and located some 1000 miles south of Tokyo.

According to certain statistics, the Battle of Okinawa left 22,000 deaths and 26,000 neuropaths among US troops. The Empire of Japan lost about 100,000 soldiers and more than 150,000 Okinawa civilians.

About 2,000 kamikazes (suicide-attack fighter planes) in addition to fierce fighting on the ground put many US soldiers into mental disorder. In fact, US ships were well defended by more advanced weapon, kamikaze planes sank 26 US navy vessels and damaged 368 ships.

Today the U.S. holds many military bases in Okinawa, which are the largest in Asia-Pacific region. Without Okinawa bases, the US military capability would not sufficiently cover the Strait of Taiwan, Korean Peninsula, and channels between Japan and Russia.

Since 1945, there occurred Taiwan-China struggles, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the War on Afghanistan and Iraq. And unfortunately, the US bases in Okinawa with about 28,000 US troops have remained until today.

One of the reasons that the Empire of Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor in 1941 is that then Japanese government thought Japan would have died down sooner or later due to American embargo of oil. Then US government had stopped export of oil and other key products to the Empire of Japan for various reasons, while WWII had already begun in Europe.

After the Perl Harbor attack, the Imperial Forces of Japan advanced down to south and to oil fields in Indonesia colonized by the Netherlands through Malay Peninsula colonized by the U.K. It looks ironical that today new oil fields have been discovered and developed in the East China Sea, Sakhalin Island, Manchuria, and the offshore area of Vietnam.

Of course, if the Empire of Japan had not occupied Korean Peninsula and some part of mainland China, the Pacific War including the Battle of Okinawa could have been avoided.

In 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait over oil field disputes, though Iraq has plenty of oil reserves. It triggered the Gulf War, created situations where Al-Qaeda began to operate, and the US War on Terror.

It is not clear how much one would learn form experiences of a big war. In the Pacific theater of WWII, Richard Nixon, JFK, and George H.W. Bush all participated. Though they were each the supreme commander of US forces in the era of the Cuban Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War, it is interesting how what they learnt during WWII affected their decision in each situation.

In any wat, it is good to have a reluctant commander, no matter how excellent their ability to lead the army is, when a dispute could be resolved through appropriate negotiations over oil.

Yesterday, a ceremony was held in Okinawa to commemorate victims of the Battle of Okinawa. As usual in this kind of ceremony, no arguments over cause of the war were discussed, but people, including Prime Minister attending there, just showed and shared the extreme sorrow and expressed their determination not to make a war again forever.

One Japanese general who fought and died in the Battle of Okinawa sent his last report to the headquarters in Tokyo, asking for special care for residents in Okinawa who had suffered so much and become true victims of the war. He did not mention any tactic or strategic matters except his request that the government should, after the war, take special measures to repay Okinawa people for their extreme sacrifice.

It was still a long way to the end of the war after Okinawa. But, a daughter of the general, after the war, happened to marry an American. In a sense, a dream for peace was realized at least between those who had had such a dream.

Now, the most important thing about Iraq where some Arabs and Americans are fighting, for whatever reasons, seems to be whether there are some who have a dream for peace.


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


APPENDIX. Pictures of the Battle of Okinawa

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/jjtaro_maru/20100713/1278977215

http://okinawa-labrador.seesaa.net/category/1933036-1.html

(The amphibious landing operation on Okinawa Island is of the largest scale in the history as the one using large military ships only, different from the Normandy Landings, dispatched over the Ocean.  The US and the UK navies mobilized total 22 aircraft carriers for the Battle of Okinawa.)

“YES, LET THEM MAKE PEACE WITH ME.”

Another Warning Surfaced from Nagasaki in 1945

Greece is called Hellas; and the nation Japan is called Nippon or Nihon by its people.

Nippon means Sun’s Rising Place, the sound of which changed to “Jipang” in the era of Marco Polo (the 13th century) and finally to “Japan” mostly in the West. But, the old imperial court of Japan has been traditionally called the Yamato Regime, for capitals of ancient Japan were mainly located in the Yamato Area (currently Nara Prefecture south of Kyoto).

When Japan built the world’s largest and strongest battle ship, it was named Yamato. The ship weighed 64,000t and was equipped with the nine 46.0cm battery guns. There were no matching counterparts in the US Navy in 1941 (USS New Jersey 48,000t with nine 40.6cm battery guns) when the Yamato was put into operation.

However, eventually, the Yamato was downed in 1945 during a kind of Kamikaze mission for the battle of Okinawa.

It has been a legendary battle ship, because the Yamato was and will remain to be the world’s largest and strongest battleship forever and ever, since the age of large battleships was gone once and for all during WWII.

The Yamato has been featured many times in various works of Japanese popular art. This year, it is said, another movie featuring the battleship is going to be released.

So, it was not an easy game for the US Navy to sweep away the Imperial Japan’s Navy during WWII. Even when a crew of a US submarine needed an emergency operation for appendicitis, a captain should be well aware of tactical situation.

April 2005, a man who had actually performed this kind of operation under the South China Sea in 1942 died in the U.S. His story was not new, since George Weller on board of the submarine reported it and got awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his work.

However, recently George Weller surfaced again and was focused upon in a Japanese newspaper. It was not for his Prize-winning reporting on the submarine hero but for his long-hidden report on Nagasaki, an atomic-bombed city the writer visited just after the surrender of the Empire of Japan.

Nagasaki, a historic port city known for tradition of Catholicism in Japan since the 16th century, is one of major shipbuilding cities, and it was so during WWII. George Weller came to the city to discover the scale of catastrophes of an atomic bomb. He checked situations in hospitals and recorded symptoms of victims suffering from horrible effect of radioactivity.

His report was sent for permission of publication to the Headquarter of the Allied forces in Tokyo but forbidden to be released. The report was not returned to George Weller and seemed to be lost somewhere. Censorship seemed to be exercised.

After George Weller died in 2002, his son found a copy of the report in Rome where the writer had lived his last days.

It is effect of radioactivity that should be hidden from the public eye. If American people had been alerted on fatal side-effect of an atomic bomb, further development of atomic bombs might have been hindered due to wide public opposition.

If the report had been made public in 1940’s, today’s issue on depleted uranium might have been avoided; and many modern US soldiers might have been relieved from the terrible side-effect.

Recently a very old, former FBI deputy director has also surfaced in the U.S. as a key information source to heroic reporters who pursued the plot linked to then President Nixon. George Weller and the former FBI deputy director seem to belong to the same generation.

The former’s secret was intended to be hidden forever, but the latter’s secret has been revealed by the very person himself 30 years after the notorious incident involoving resignation of President Nixon.

The two secrets might be just one of aftermath effects of the Pearl Harbor attack and the JFK assassination, respectively, both of which made the moment when people had first heard the news unforgettable for them.

“I APPEARED TO THOSE WHO WERE NOT LOOKING FOR ME.”

(Source of Information: The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper)

Proud Mexico

Once, a half of the people of Mexico listened to anti-NAFTA activists, but nowadays, it seems only one-tenth.

People in Mexico seem to abandon their faith in anti-Americanism. Rather, they go to New York and come home with dollars with which they build a Californian-style house that stands out from surrounding poor old houses.

So, neighbors are also motivated to go and work in America. Even those who once supported leftist activities are crossing the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

A Japanese reporter who visited a town known for anti-Americanism in southern Mexico for collecting news data saw a couple of Western hippies happen to drop by there. Then one of members of an anti-Americanism group showed them around just like a guide.

Even an anti-American group sells agricultural products to some Western company at fair prices as a benefit of NAFTA, which has brought some benefit to the group. But a female leader of the group said that those who go to the U.S. for money are losing their human dignity.

Yes, a couple of Western hippies, Californian-style houses, and a leftist group making money thanks to NAFTA with a female leader trying to keep her human dignity really seem to symbolize a situation of being a neighbor of the superpower nation America.

A rich man should make his poor neighbors rich. A rich country should also make its poor neighbor countries rich. This is a basic rule.

Otherwise, from a viewpoint of human natures, a rich man would make his poor neighbors poorer, and a rich country would make its poor neighbor countries poor.

Europe never makes Africa rich. North America never makes Latin America rich.

But, Japan has made Korea rich, Taiwan rich, and coastal areas of China rich in addition to some ASEAN countries.

From a standpoint of the Empire of Japan which ceased to exist in 1945, if Europeans and Americans had succeeded in controlling East Asia and Southeast Asia based on classic colonialism all through the 20st century, people in those areas should have been faced with the same situation as that in contemporary Africa and Latin America.

It is true that there are some who, in fact, still hold the above view in Japan today. However, this view should be studied in a different level and context where Japan is requested to apologize to Asian people for a war fought 60 years ago mainly between the Empire of Japan and the U.S. on soils of other Asian countries.

The war between the Empire of Japan and two Chinese parties before 1945 was, in some ways, different and more complicated, but the underlying implication is the same when observed in a span of centuries.

Anyway, as a matter of fact, people of China and other Asian countries seem to well secure their human dignity. They are neither desperate leftists nor dreamers of becoming rich by going to New York.

If American wealth is useless for securing human dignity of Mexican people, it is not good at all. America had better think about it, for they are very important neighbors to US citizens in various senses including security.

“THEN THEY WILL FEAR THE LORD AND RECEIVE HIS GOOD GIFTS.”

(Source of Information: The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper)

Warnings to be Re-Examined for Prevention of Another 9/11

Can we really sense something very alarming?

It was very alarming that US Forces bombed Iraq to that extent in 1991. Yes, indeed, and besides, it was not along with the paradigm the world community had embraced in those days.

It was very alarming that two US embassies in East Africa were blasted in 1998. Yes, indeed, and besides, it was not along with the paradigm of any reasonable challenge against the U.S. even in terms of armed provocation.

It was also alarming that USS Cole was attacked in late 2000. Yes, indeed, and it was as if real daredevils had started a war against US Forces with just handful of explosive bombs, and it was not funny at all.

At this point, we should have recalled the 1993 World Trade Center blasting and 1995 Oklahoma City federal building blasting. Yes, we should have remembered those extraordinary and outrageous crimes on the soil of mainland U.S.

In 2001, we had bad news of assassination of Congo president Laurent Kabila and execution of Timothy McVeigh, which might hint that something horrible might be approaching, since two figures standing for hidden influence of a world of violence were wiped off from this world while true problems were left unsolved. Yes, we had sensed very heavy silence somewhere in the world or inside us. I do believe some did, but we seemed to be too busy minding our business.

The true warnings I believe that the God gave us prior to September 11, 2001 are as follows:
In May 2001, the Taliban blasted the statute of Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamiyan valley of Afghanistan.

Another sequence of warnings is as follows:
In February 2001, a fishing ship owned by a Japanese fisheries high school and operated for training collided with a US navy submarine near Hawaii.

In April 2001, an armed terrorist group occupied a hotel in Istanbul and some Japanese tourists were taken into hostage.

On September 1, 2001, a building containing bars and restaurants in an amusement area of Tokyo got fired, killing 44 people.

And, on September 10, 2001, a mad cow was for the first time found in Japan, which was not funny at all, for millions of cows had been slaughtered in England due to this disease.

What’s more, other bizarre warning was: in June 2001, King and Queen of Nepal were shot dead.

Among all, the demolition of the statute of Buddha looked very decisive. I remember that we watched high-ranking officers and journalists from Japan trying hard to persuade Taliban leaders to stop the blasting in vain. We saw Taliban’s foreign minister as well as the ambassador to Pakistan on TV. They were young and seemed to have no freedom of intelligence and power in their own personality. Then, who were behind them?

Later the Taliban released a video tape showing the moment of their blasting the statute of Buddha. It was very alarming. If they had been serious building up a nation, they should have observed the world more carefully. Religious practice supported by an action of violence would prove that practitioners are wrong if their religion is not wrong. So, logically, people with faith never use violence in such a context, otherwise they will risk their religion, too. But the Taliban didn’t mind it. Why? What strong influence were they under?

All the answers came on September 11, 2001.

Who could really foretell the incident? Did any fortune-teller come forward asserting that they had really got a vision of September 11 before the tragedy occurred?

Too many were dead; I don’t want anymore for whatsoever reasons including revenge.

“THEIR MINDS, INDEED, WERE CLOSED.”

A Moment in 1978

When Deng Xiaoping, late Chinese leader, visited Japan in 1978 and met Emperor Showa of Japan, he received apology from the Emperor.

At the very moment, it is said that then powerful leader of China got shocked as if he had been struck by a thunder.

Most probably, Mr. Deng did not expect at all Emperor Showa who had been in the throne even during WWII to rather offer apologies for allowing the war between Japan and China in 1930’s and 40’s.

Emperor Showa reportedly wished to visit China someday but passed away in 1989 without fulfilling his dream.

The event is very impressive even to Japanese well informed on this kind of issues. It is also said that Emperor Showa had never expressed such regret to leaders of other Asian countries including Korea in terms of tragedy of World War II. In this context, China was then treated in a very different manner by Emperor himself in 1978.

The point is that Chinese citizens seem to have neither been informed of this kind of events nor been told that Japan has provided 70 billion dollar worth economic support for China since 1972 when the two countries resumed diplomatic relations.

But, it is not China alone that has not supplied its citizens with adequate information about Japan’s contributions to peace and prosperity of the world.

Conversely, if Japan stopped such contribution, horrible things might more easily happen all over the world.

This is not a warning, for Japan has been determined to continue such contribution since the end of WWII, no matter how the world acts and reacts.

“THAT IS WHY THE LORD HAS MADE THEIR WEALTH REPULISVE TO THEM.”

(Source of Information: The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper)

A Judo Hero (or Kurosawa, Toyota, and an Auschwitz Guide)

It is well known that some successful American movie directors and producers, including Steven Spielberg, have been highly influenced by now-dead Kurosawa, a Japanese counterpart.

One of the earliest works of Mr. Kurosawa is “Sugata, Sanshiro.” Sanshiro is a judo hero who is faced with various challenges physically and spiritually, and gets into a decisive wrestling match in wilderness.

What is characteristic about Sanshiro Sugata is his humbleness. He tries hard to grow up and acquire personal integrity through sternness of judo practices and bouts. He is the remotest person from modern sports heroes who openly show off and display their joys of victory.

In a previous EE-report, I mentioned that Mr. Okuda, the powerful leader of Toyota Motor, is a long-time Judo practitioner, and his philosophy is based on a view on life and death, which has been fostered by his Judo practice.

Mr. Okuda especially mentioned a novel, titled “Sugata, Sanshiro,” the late Mr. Kurosawa had adopted to his first movie produced when this Japanese movie director was 33 years old in 1943 during WWII.

And Mr. Okuda refered to this hero when explaining his philosophy. San-shi-ro (which means a third-and-fourth-guy like Ichi-ro means a first-guy) conquered his fear, worry, and pain by resigning himself to higher enlightenment that what matters is death only and there is nothing to fear other than death.

There is a person in Poland who is working as a guide, an interpreter, or a translator for Japanese visiting Auschwitz. This Polish person, when he was young, was highly impressed with the film “Sugata, Sanshiro.”

Having completed his Japanese study in the Warsaw University, he came to Japan for further study and research. After graduation of a graduate school of a prominent Japanese university, he served various VIPs as an interpreter.

The Polish guide said to a Japanese newspaper reporter, “When Japanese students visiting Auschwitz said that they understood that they had not understood anything about the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, I felt I was paid off.”

What is a theme here? It is catholicity or universality.

Knowing a fact that even in a highly Catholic country still the Japanese virtue could be admired and comprehended, Japan might defend itself from false accusation that Japan helped Hitler and the Nazis denying the existence of Jews.

Japan had nothing to do with that atrocity. They had done it very secretly. Japan is at least as innocent as the Vatican City in this regard.

Another issue is the United Nations. If the U.N. is to embody universal value, it had better review its process of improving its Security Council. The fact that an Asian Security Council permanent member is attacking another Asian country well qualified to be a new Security Council permanent member tells why the U.N. doesn’t work.

If you neglect 60-year efforts for peace by Japan while blaming it for a war 60 years ago, you can do anything bad now relying on any remote reasons as justification.

A political party that reportedly killed or had people starving to death more than the Nazis had done, though through different means, should not lead the U.N. and occupy a seat of the Security Council.

Otherwise, citizens in the world had better come to Tokyo but New York for united peace activities.

(Information Source: The Mainichi Shimbun newsapaer)

“AND YOUR FATHER, WHO SEES WHAT YOU DO IN PRIVATE, WILL REWARD YOU.”

A Few but Not Little Things

I’ve got a report that a Japanese non-governmental organization working in Sudan was awarded an oil concession by the Sudanese government. It was also reported that it was the very NGO that the ex-diplomat of Japan having quit his job in order to help people in Sudan (who was focused on in a former EEreport ) was related to.

The NGO got funds from US and European investors. It is very rare that an NGO that is not a private corporation in the industry can have an oil-extraction contract with a government with crude oil resources.

It is of course good for Japan which has been forced to buy oil from the Middle East at prices which are deliberately set higher so as to allow the U.S. and European countries to purchase oil at lower prices. The Middle East oil producing countries have balanced their books by selling oil at a higher rate to Japan and a lower rate to the U.S. and Europe.

China must know this system very well. So, they are very aggressive to secure contracts with petroleum-producing countries, giving little thought of the conventional power balance over this energy source.

But there are profound reasons that Japan has been resigned to accepting this oil price scheme.

It may not be smart to simply present those reasons. Instead, I would present a case that tells what a country that would ignore those reasons would do.

Recently a Chinese diplomat stationed in Australia asked for asylum there. According to his information, China has abducted many Chinese people living in Australia who take an anti-government stance.

And there are thousands of Chinese secret agents in Australia, engaging in espionage and spying on fellow countrymen. Of course, there might be more in Japan, the U.S., and the Middle East.

As for abduction by a government, it is a big issue in Japan that North Korea abducted many Japanese citizens in 1970’s and 1980’s for espionage activities, and they still keep those victims while informing the Japanese government that they were dead.

If not for crude oil but for humanitarian reasons, we have to protest against the Chinese government and the North Korean government: “Do not abduct Chinese as well as Japanese for whatsoever reasons!”

“CHRISTS’S DEATH ON THE CROSS WAS NOT ROBBED OF ITS POWER.”

Nobel Prize Awards Ceremony as Secondary Matter

Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai has become somehow popular in Japan, for she adopted a Japanese expression “mottai-nai” to advertise and promote her work.

As she is an African lady, this EEreport might be for Africa-loving people.

Not English or French, but Japanese, especially with the expression “mottai-nai” she chose is an interesting fact. On the other hand, Japanese are unlikely to use any African language and its symbol to express a slogan for any cultural activity, so far, which is one sad thing for Japan. So, I am afraid that she must realize it and interpret it in some way when she visited Japan with full of English commercial signs.

The word “mottai-nai” is used with a sense of self-humility or recommendation of humility to one’s subordinates or juniors for an educational or disciplinary purpose. It is used to stress a view that you or I should not behave like a rich and arrogant human being who thinks he or she has so many abundant resources and so much money that she or he may be allowed to waste anything as he or she wishes.

However, the most important meaning is that you have to be thankful to the nature or a divine spirit that give you any little, valuable thing. Be humble to the great nature and divine spirits to which you are apparently inferior.

Literally or originally, “mottai-nai” is divided into “mottai” meaning sincerity, respect, or solemnity, and “nai” meaning non-existence of anything or anybody. It could be used when expressing adoration to a God or the God, in the manner that while I lack enough respect, what a blessing has been given to me by the holly one. It is just like what a friendship was given to a wretch, that is me, by Jesus.

The saddest thing about Africa is it has no tradition of a kind of science that has worked as a base of modern industry. Why Europe and not Africa developed basements of the modern industrial society might be still misunderstood. It is not because Africa lacked something but it had had enough. But, many Europeans thought they lacked ability; consequently Europeans didn’t respect Africans.

However if you live with presupposition that only Europeans have ability and are clever, so that they have a right to claim more, it simply proves that you have not and you are not.

It was not in a forest in ancient Europe that urban civilization began. It began in agricultural field in a region now called Iraq. Britain, France, and Germany were even not meaningful part of the Roman Empire. Their assumption was very biased to the degree that might be judged to be rather wrong.

Even a Chinese revolutionary leader said, in order to raise the morale of his comrades, that the four great inventions of the human history, that is, gun powder, paper, the compass, and printing, had been all invented by early or ancient Chinese.

But, there is also a sad thing about China. It has not developed a philosophy symbolized by the Japanese expression “mottai-nai.”

Descendants of old Europeans adventured into America and their descendants became main-stream Americans. They did so without a philosophy of “mottai-nai.”

From a Japan’s point of view, it is neither Europeans nor American mainstreams that have discovered the mentality represented by “mottai-nai.” But it is an African Lady Japanese would reasonably respect for this matter only.

Compared with her wisdom to choose a Japanese expression instead of any European one, the honor she received in a Nobel Prize awards ceremony is a secondary matter.

In 2001, a critical year in various ways, the U.S. accounted for roughly 26.1% of oil consumption of all the world, Asia except Japan and China accounted for 13.9%, Japan 7.2%, China 6.7%, The Middle East 5.7%, Germany 3.7%, Russia 3.3%, France 2.7%, Italy2.6%, the U.K. 2.2%, and the rest of the world 25.6% in certain statistics.

So, to whom did she direct her message with the choice of symbolic expression?

“ALL THINGS ARE DONE ACCORDING TO GOD’S PLAN AND DECISION.”

Powerful Players to Poland

Though Mr. Okuda spoke for Japanese readers, this E-report is for Polish people and hard-working factory workers.

Hiroshi Okuda, the chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. and the chairman of the Federation of Economic Organizations of Japan, was interviewed for a monthly journal article.

Recently GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner visited Japan to talk with corporate leaders of Toyota for joint development of fuel-cell cars. But it is unknown if Mr. Wagoner had read the article in the journal prior to the meeting.

In the article, Mr. Okuda talked about his recollections of the time when he had served a president of Toyota Jihan (specialized in sale of Toyota cars but integrated into the current Toyota Motor Corp. in 1982) as a kind of young executive assistant.

Young Okuda asked his boss in the president’s room why there were so many statutes of the Buddha in office of the company. His boss kindly explained: “When you grow up you will understand it, too. Leader of a company is lonely. He has to make a big decision in the sheer loneliness. I have nobody to rely on and ask help for but the Buddha. So, I make every important decision sitting in front of these statutes.”

Mr. Okuda told that he had understood that ultimately man had to rely on the God, the Buddha, or his own principle or philosophy on life and death. But, it is also unknown how many Buddhist sculptures are now in Mr. Okuda’s office today. He might base his integrity on philosophy on life and death he acquired through his practice of Judo since his youth.

This kind of story is often heard in the Japan’s business world. At least, in the 20st century, there were many old executive officers in Japanese companies who seemed to love to tell how he had been able to stand the test in business successfully with spiritual support from tenets of Buddhism. The tradition might still survive in the 21st century.

When Lech Walesa visited Japan in 1981, first he praised hard and good work of Japanese workers and products they produced. But as days went by in Japan, it is said, he stopped to speak highly of industrial success of Japan. He might come to see simply robot-like workers building robots. Or he might see influence of Buddhism on every worker, in which he found something mysterious. In the same year, John-Paul II also visited Japan.

The 24 years have passed. Poland-born John-Paul II passed away and Mr. Walesa attended the funeral rites. A Japanese reporter wrote in a certain article that he was asked by a taxi driver in Rome during the Pope’s funeral if Japan had become a socialist country since its prime minister had not come to Rome. In fact, Japan sent to the funeral an Assistant to the Prime Minister in charge of Foreign Affairs; she was a former foreign minister of Japan.

US President attended the funeral in Rome. It is reasonable for him to do so, because he had visited John-Paul II in the summer of 2004 when his reelection became very possible. He might understand Mr. Okuda very well. However, it is unknown how US President interpreted the absence of Japanese Prime Minister in Rome.

Now, Poland is a focus of some powerful players in the global market. US Motorola is beefing up its software R&D operation in Poland. US Intel is reportedly going to invest more in Poland. And Toyota has a plan to increase the number of employees in Poland from 1,100 to 1,800. Currently the number of Japanese-affiliated firms is about 130.

Pope of Rome won the Cold War. The U.S. won the Cold War. And Japan also won the Cold War. If any one of these powers had joined the Soviet Union, the result should have been unknown. Poland that caused disruption of the balance of power by having sent a Pope to Rome also contributed to the victory.

Anyway in the conventional meaning of the term religion, the U.S. is very religious, but Japan is also very religious in a very different manner, perhaps, with diagonally different views.

But if the next world war is not between atheists and believers, it would be very complicated. However, there are of course hopes. People in the Middle East does not seem to regard driving a Toyota or Nissan car as a sin or an inexcusable conduct, maybe, like people in Poland.

“I AM SENDING YOU LIKE LAMBS AMONG WOLVES.”

(Source of Information: Bungei Shunjyu)

The Signs of the Times

Let me begin with Hillary Rodham Clinton.

She wrote in her book: “… She told me about a woman who had been arrested for disturbing the peace by preaching the gospel on the streets of Bentonville…When I learned that she was from California, I persuaded the judge to buy her a bus ticket home instead of ordering her to be committed to the state hospital, and I convinced her that California needed her more than Arkansas.”

Without this intervention, the poor preacher from California should have been sent to a state mental hospital.

There are three levels of humanity in this context. At the lowest level, complete negligence or violence on a person concerned. At the second level, sending to a jail or a mental hospital a person concerned. At the third level, try to grasp a hidden massage or a hidden will of the God who sent a person concerned. But at the second-and-a-half level, a person concerned might be bought a bus ticket home.

In religious interpretation of Mrs. Clinton’s turbulent period, the God overlooking every event around her must take this episode into His account when He decided how her soul should be preserved.

I remember when Gorge W. Bush and Al Gore were debating, in the fall of 2000, in front of TV cameras and also being surrounded by some ordinary but chosen citizens. Mr. Gore was very harsh to Mr. Bush. Mr. Bush showed an apprehensive look.

On that moment, Mrs. Bush looked not only attentive but also alerted sharply. Anyway, after a long campaign, Mr. Bush was elected president.

Now, it might feel stupid and may be considered to be a negligible number of casualties if Japan protested to terrorists, pointing out that more than twenty Japanese were killed by their attacks on September 11, 2001, in or around the World Trade Center or on the crash of a hijacked plane near Pittsburgh.

If more than twenty nationals of a nation were killed on a single day by a group or an organization with a specific ideology or policy, its government should take a decisive measure to engage with them so as to avoid further casualties, even if it is to be done without military forces.

The best defense of any nation is to have the best ally. So, it is important to see who its best ally’s ally is and, if it is the first lady, what person she is. She might be a person who can somehow save herself or her husband. But there are well-known tragic cases.

The U.S. and China has one thing common, among many, especially I mind. That is a big honorary portrait of the winner of its Civil War: a big picture of Mao Tse-tung (or Mao Ze-dong) and a big sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in each capital.

However, their wives, each, are said to have very unhappy ending of their lives.

But, now I wonder if the heaven had issued an early warning to Japan prior to September 11, 2001, giving a chance to prevent the attacks and save many lives.

One thing I can remember is the movie “Pearl Harbor” released in the summer of 2001. It showed an excellent film-making technology. But, though it is just an entertainment movie and couldn’t be an authentic work to conduct verification of things in 1941, it is very unpleasant to see it, like other various Pearl Harbor movies. (It is even recently that Japanese scholars found that where Japanese ambassadors were before going to State Department for war declaration. They attended a funeral in a church.)

Another thing is the Ehime-Maru, a training fish boat owned by a Japanese fisheries high school, and a US submarine collision which occurred near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in the spring of 2001. The accident killed nine Japanese crews including high-school students. United State Navy expressed an apology with sincerity.

We had seen them and been given reports on them in the spring and the summer of 2001. Probably we missed a sign. Or we might not practice humanity enough. Besides, the incumbent Prime Minister of Japan presiding since 2001 has no wife over a long period, which even Russian President got worried about.

“AS HE WISHES, HE GIVES A DIFFERENT GIFT TO EACH PERSON.”

$702bn Scale of Defense and Proof

This is strictly for responsible US bureaucrats regardless of their religions and origins.

Ranking of overseas purchasers of US Treasury bonds as of February 2005: No.1 - Japan (US$702 billion), No.2 - China (US$196.5 billion), No.3 - the UK (US$171 billion).

In 2002 and 2003, Japanese government exercised dollar-buying operation in the scale of $300 billion. With these dollars, the government purchased $300 billion worth of US Treasury bonds. Consequently, US economy and stock markets were well bolstered. In addition, China got ripple effect. In return, it is said that major exporting companies in Japan secured earning stability as well as some growth.

This is data, information, knowledge, and understanding common to Japanese elites and ordinary people concerned in business and politics.

However, there is some doubt that some high-ranking bureaucrats in US government might not like to accept its meaning and implications. The root of their bias seems to be very deep, maybe tracking back to WWII.

Indeed, it is as if there were still some politically influential people in the US who hated Nazis so much that they found an enemy in Japan even today. The Nazis were gone but the Empire of Japan has survived in the form of contemporary Japan. They might think this way. Especially in terms of Jews rather than Koreans, Chinese, and other Asians. To judge this sort of thinking, it needs to study the existence value of the Empire of Japan. But, here, I’d like to focus on one issue religiously critical: Jews.

On the contrary to a conventional view, it is said that the government of the Empire of Japan, which existed till August 1945, had adopted a policy not to drive out Jews and recommended its diplomats to help Jews, despite its special treaty with Nazi Germany. The Empire of Japan in WWII had never conspired with, supported for, and taken an initiative over Nazis specifically for denying the existence of Jews.

Now, the ranking again: The amounts of US Treasury bonds purchased, as of February 2005, were $702 billion by Japan, $196.5 billion by China, $171 billion by the UK, etc.

Bonds were bought, but not by those such as Usama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, North Korea, or Iran. Basically America is safe. But, it is very dangerous that they try to make an enemy out of Japan for any personal reasons or by relying on an assumption that they can retain China and the UK as allies, like the ones during WWII.

And, this is for responsible US bureaucrats. Why? Because the US is at war now. And if they are outflanked by another enemy, say Japan or Cuba, too, it will be a big problem. So, highly-security-oriented US bureaucrats might fantasize about it. But, of course, you have to take it granted that Japan will not allow anybody that might try to make an enemy out of the US to take a position of leadership in its government.

Rather, Japan is afraid that over and over again, if the War on Terror is finished, some influential people with anti-Japanism might damage the national interest of Japan by mobilizing US bureaucrats. And no matter how absurd it sounds to think that such anti-Japanism might be generated from memory of past tragedy of Jews and some Europeans, it is worth considering.

The Cold War had been over, Japanese economy grew stagnant, China has been trying to be friendly to America, and the War on Terror will be won. But then what will come next?

I hope America will wipe out its anti-Japanism as well as anti-Cuban sentiments as soon as practically possible, at least in the sphere of US bureaucrats.

“IT IS DIFFICULT FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO BE SAVED; BUT THEN WHAT BECOMES OF GODLESS SINNERS?”

Under the Gaze of Who’s God

In the history of human beings, urban civilization began in Mesopotamia through development of agriculture but not based on practice of hunting. Pride you might feel when growing and harvesting plants might be very different from that you feel when killing game.

Yes, it began in the place now called Iraq, so this is for Iraqis and those who are humbly concerned with Iraq.

Now a spotlight is on a widow whose husband, a journalist well known by people concerned in Japan, was slain while driving back to Baghdad from Samawah after gathering information in the town and a base of humanitarian relief operations of Self-Defense Force of Japan. Both her husband and her nephew working together with his uncle were shot and killed. An Iraqi driver was spared with some injury.

They were two of five Japanese, so far reported officially, slain in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad. As the two journalists were not a big supporter of the Japanese government sending self-defense force to Iraq, the government didn’t show big sorrow for them though it might take some special care for the widow.

Her husband was a seasoned journalist whose career seems to have been characterized and destined since his assignment to Vietnam in 1972. In these last days, he was based in Bangkok.

He was such an old journalist that actually said that he was not a samurai when he was somehow poked fun at by Iraqis who shouted at him, “Aren’t you a samurai?”, while they were caught by, and staying down in the middle of, shooting between US soldiers and Iraqi fighters on a corner of Baghdad.

After the death of her husband on a road back to Baghdad, she invited an Iraqi boy to Japan. Her husband had planned to do so to cure the boy’s eye that had been hurt by some accident in the war. She might simply carry out the intention of her late husband, but it was well televised in Japan, and the boy was welcomed and successfully operated on his eye.

She became very famous since then. And, to my astonishment, she appeared as a reporter in a TV documentary where she was dispatched to the U.S. and interviewed a mother of a US soldier killed in the Iraq war as well as a veteran soldier who had lost his leg and sight in the war. She also visited a camp of the third infantry division in a certain state to interview soldiers. It was all broadcast in Japan.

At the last scene of the TV program, veterans who had served various wars marched in a small town of a certain state. She watched their marching and said, “Oh, America has been making war all the time.” Of course, she must know it as knowledge before visiting the US for the program. But, she said so explicitly to a TV cameraman or to audience at home in Japan.

It is said that her husband had planned to retire from his job as a free journalist traveling all over the world and collecting news materials at war fronts, and that fatal coverage tour to Samawah would have been the last one for him in a different way.

She might take consolation enough by helping an injured Iraqi boy and interviewing Americans involved in the Iraq war.

Now, if you are arrogant, you won’t think about the God and mind your neighbors. You only use your brain hard to get what you want. Not what the God wants and your neighbors want. That’s why arrogance is one of the significant sins.

However, to my astonishment, when I first observed the journalist working in Iraq on TV, I didn’t realize he was an experienced journalist. He looked like a very ordinary, old Japanese who by some chance came to Iraq while U.S. forces were advancing to Baghdad. It is partly because I didn’t know him by his outlook and he looked very plain without a trace of arrogance sometimes found in others in the same trade.

I also remembered a scene televised. As the old journalist was not admitted to the base of Japanese-Self-Defense Force in Samawah, he showed his book with his picture on to a Japanese guard to prove who he was without arrogance.

It is almost 4,000 years since Abram left a city of Mesopotamia according to the will of his God. He even changed his name to Abraham. Yes, even today, for man to leave those holy places might be reasonable expression of awe to Abraham’s God.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit

This is for philosophers. They may be able to grasp a complicated thing in their easy thinking.

A Japanese philosopher, the author of an article of a newspaper now focused on in this Report, graduated from Harvard University in 1942.

But unfortunately a war erupted between two countries facing each other over the Pacific Ocean. On an occasion of war-prisoner exchange, he decided to return to the Empire of Japan from the U.S. where he had been living and studying since he was 15. He decided so, because he thought he should live as a "stranger in Japan" rather than in America.

After WWII, he had worked mainly in universities in Japan until he terminated his career in Japan’s universities. His resignation was an expression of his will against management of a private university, of which he was then on faculty staff, having introduced police into its campus to suppress student political activities such as an anti-Vietnam War rally. But by the time, he had already become one of famous liberal philosophers in Japan.

Yes, he was against militarism of the Empire of Japan, Japan-U.S. Security Arrangements, and the Vietnam War. If any philosopher supports these national movements, it would be a surprise to people of sound judgment on a street. If you accept violence, there shall be no room for philosophy.

The old philosopher wrote that America has changed since September 11, 2001. America is changing in the similar way that Imperial Japan was turning into an authoritarian military regime during the Sino-Japanese Incident in 1930’s.

In my view, America changed drastically or profoundly third times in the history. The related keywords are the Civil War, Pearl Harbor, and JFK. On each related occasion, people’s good old ways were abandoned. But people never forgot where they had been when they heard a news heralding emergence of a new era or the coming of a great war.

As for September 11, 2001, it also seems that everybody will never forget where he or she first heard and grasped the news. And a smart philosopher might start to wait for America to begin changing. Then, he may find his intellect and instinct still working well. His finding might be that America has again changed abandoning whatever people’s good old ways left until the day.

The old philosopher is a son of a family, very rich and powerful in Japan before World War II. It is said when he first came to America in 1937 at age 15, he visited a famous historian A. Schlesinger at Harvard while staying at an official residence of Japanese ambassador to the U.S.

In the article of a newspaper, he never hid his despise to some professors of Japan’s reputable universities of today, saying that they lack true intellect even ordinary people could exercise. In this context, the philosopher praised one ordinary person who had once placed his hope in Marxism in the era of the Empire of Japan, accordingly had been in danger of attack from police authority, but had successfully avoided showdown relying on his wisdom and intellect of which merit had been thus proven.

Having considered the philosopher himself and his opinions, still I trust more such ordinary people, for example, as a Japanese woman who wanted to help the society by responding to the call for blood on a street but was rejected for her regularly taking prescribed drug, and subsequently wrote about her chagrin in a letter to the editor of a newspaper.

Or I would like to hear news such as the one about an American swimmer who has sold his Olympic Gold Medal in order to send money through UNICEF to Tsunami and flood victims in other countries including Japan, probably as water is a keyword both for those victims and for his sports career.

Would a philosopher make a blood donation or sell his Nobel Prize medal, in a spirit of saving the world no matter if it is based on an innocent sense of expectation?

Nonetheless, there is no denying significance of roles of their profession. And their role might be, as with the article in a newspaper, just telling the world that the U.S. is changing the way it once felt antipathy to.

(Source of Information: The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper and The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, etc.)

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

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

To Sudan, to Help Them

This is for Sudanese. Eligible or expected viewers are Sudanese living all over the world as well as those who are sincerely concerned with Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

According to a corner in a newspaper for introducing noteworthy people, a Japanese diplomat quit his lucrative job so as to work for poor Sudanese. This guy is also a medical doctor who graduated from the medical department of the same university that the famous Afghanistan-stationed humanitarian NGO’s doctor T. Nakamura had graduated from.

There is, of course, context which supposedly affected his decision. Two Japanese diplomats were killed on a road side north of Baghdad after American military took over the capital of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. They were two of five Japanese killed in Iraq, so far reported, since the Shock and Awe Operation had started. The two slain diplomats received honorable official funeral at home.

But it is not all. It is related to his internal quest. This ex-diplomat and medical doctor thought Africans still keep good nature modern Japanese people seem to have lost. He seems to believe that he will be able to find something valuable there in the difficult country of North Africa, such as good human conducts according to genuine humanity the nature or the God should implant in a human mind and soul.

He is asking his friends and private companies in Japan for help. Probably he could get support enough to provide some quality and quantity of help for poor people and refugees in Sudan.

It is well known that once Usama bin Laden took up residency and stationed his group in Sudan. Recently its oil resources were highly focused on with China successfully having concluded a contract with the Sudanese government for oil-production right.

This guy doesn’t seem to have any support from or linkage with the Japanese government or its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so far. But, as the Ministry was recently severely criticized by the public for its bureaucrats’ misconduct of illegally managing its budget, they might well have to give, at least, cheer for its former colleague’s adventure.

I hope that there will be no Japanese victims in Sudan no matter how the situation develops.

In addition, it is said Sudanese dancers were popular in ancient Egypt. Probably, they could dance better than ancient Egyptians. So, perhaps, no Japanese girls even today could match them in this art. But, this does not seem to be the guy’s motive. His wife is reportedly determined to support her husband’s adventure by earning money through teaching profession, which might be almost nil in comparison with profits the couple should get if her husband continued his former career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.


(Source of Information: The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper)

For Whom was It Written

This is a very difficult issue. But without art of writing, we could have neither the Torah, the Bible, the Koran, nor any sutras today.

A Japanese lady writer was invited to New York. Actually about 50 foreign writers were invited to a literature festival held in New York. Among them there were three Japanese writers. All of them happened to be ladies. Many American literature students, professors, writers, and business people concerned were involved on the host side.

I don’t know any other opinions on operation of the festival except the one of this particular lady writer who commented in a newspaper on her experience of joining the festival, but her cool judgment on the event reveals something enough.

Except an economy-class air ticket, she admitted that she was provided with very luxurious things and services. Even a party hall was gorgeous. But she found that Americans seldom read foreign works of literature, even if they were translated into American English. She met people who do not know anything about or are not interested in her Japanese expressions inside her novels.

A cynical opinion might be like this: “Money seems to be only scales for measuring value in this field, too. Every serious writer writes their novels for money. In addition, American readers are not interested in foreign stories that in most cases lack an abundant sense of American entertainment. They are regarded as something poor guys abroad are writing and telling that has done little to, or has no use for, being rich in or enjoying rich of America. So, American readers don’t buy foreign novels; and thus American publishers don’t issue foreign novels whether translated or not.”

She didn’t write this way. She simply wrote that Americans don’t read translated foreign literature, though many American novels were translated and sold in other countries. She felt emptiness when she talked to Americans about her work, while her listeners didn’t seem to read her novels in Japanese or any other languages.

If publishers think that writers who must love money above anything would be satisfied with and thankful for being provided with very luxurious things and services, it is tantamount to insult. Insult to whom? Of course, insult to the God who gives art of literature to human beings. When an artist offers something that transcends their ability by virtue of divine will, his/her work has real value.

Moreover, the world first female writers for real are Japanese. Murasaki-Shikibu and Sei-Syonagon created ever-popular works of literature around 1000 A.D. (It is almost when Cnut related to Denmark and Norway became King of England, but neither the Windsor nor the Hanover.) They both were celebrated court ladies and very talented poetesses of old imperial Japan. Even today, their works are being taught and studied in schools and institutions in Japan.

On the other hand, though the lady writer having flown from Japan to New York City for the Pen World Voices Festival of International Literature felt so much emptiness in the middle of the event and also in a limo, she still might have to master English and make an effort to sell her works to American readers, if she believes her works have universal value.

She doesn’t have to win a Nobel Prize to be respected somewhere, and she should know that where her treasure exists her mind and soul longs to stay. And especially where honorable tradition lives.

(Source of Information: The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper)

A Rising Star of India

I am interested in the article. However it may need an intuitive or religious mind to appreciate its value, for it is related to a country full of spirits.

Some cynical persons might simply say that this boy wants to be a politician or something someday. But, judgment of the God might be very different.

A young Indian software engineer working in Infosys with 3000 employees in Bangalore, India, proudly said, “I will soon make a business trip to the US. Here you can enjoy success if you have ability and skills. I don’t even know what caste I belong to.”

Most of Indians are not a Muslim. But Hindus. Buddhism was born from Hinduism, separated, but eventually absorbed again in India. However, China, Korea, and Japan were once all eager to learn Buddhism, and developed their intellect by mastering the religion. Indians might be well aware of that, and thus very proud.

Even the concept of the number zero was developed in India. Not in ancient Greek or Rome. Even Mesopotamians who developed various skills of calculation, including Pythagoras's theorem, 1000 years before Pythagoras was born could not reach the level to manipulate zero.

The article is accompanied by a few pictures, one of which shows two boys and a girl, of lower classes if they go to school at all, who live with their one-dollar-a-day-earning father in a blue-sheet tent shown behind them. Beyond many similar, half-broken, blue tents, a large modern building is under construction for an IT company.

Bangalore is a rising star of India that is the second largest software exporter in the world. Besides, the province where the city belongs has two official languages one of which is English. Perhaps during the 21st century, the same thing, that is, employing English as one of official languages, would not happen in China and Japan that have never been or not wholly been colonized by any English speaking country.

It is well known that there are many street children in India. Major difference between G7 and other countries might be this existence of street children. But India is one of the worst in this respect.


The young Indian software engineer spotlighted in the article is also a helper to these poor children. He reportedly successfully persuaded his company to support children in a state of destitution. He is also teaching how to read and write to them in person. Maybe such an employee that is so enthusiastic about saving street children is very rare or just one of its worldwide 36,000 employees of Infosys Technologies.

He may become a politician or something some day. Or he might simply continue to irritate unlucky Americans who think their jobs have been taken away by this kind of young IT workers overseas.

Indians seem not to respect Japan though they might be influenced profoundly. On the other hand, it seems that some Japanese cannot help but believe there must be something very valuable in India, such as zero, Buddhism, or maybe the Indian Ocean. Anyway, I have never heard them shouting “Death to Japan!”

(Source of Information: The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper)

A Farewell to Afghanistan

I suppose this is necessary at least for two reasons.

Medical doctor Tetsu Nakmuara once made unsworn testimony in the Japanese national assembly called Diet. He was also sometimes a focus of TV programs. However it was September 11 attacks by Al-Qaeda on the east coast of America that drew people’s attention onto him in Japan. He has been working to help Afghan people and Pakistani since 1984. Today, his organization called Peshawar-kai has a Web site to introduce his work.

The membership requires 3,000 yen (roughly $30) per year. The number of members of the group is almost 12,000. So, its budget might be around $360,000US. But there might be some large givers who, each alone, would donate hundreds of thousand dollars. Appearance on TV and in the Diet might also appeal to some rich people concerned.

In February 2002, another middle-aged doctor began to work in Peshawar. How and why he came to Pakistan and Afghanistan was, in a sense, easy to comprehend and believe. In 1999 he happened to see a TV program featuring Doctor Nakamura, and later he spotted often this suddenly-focused-on medical doctor on TV since start of air-raid by the U.S. on Talibans and Al-Qaeda in 2001. It was incidentally when he was searching for opportunity to work in some Asian country. At last, he made contact with the Peshawar-kai. Then he found the way to realize his dream he had long cherished since his first overseas trip made in his late 30’s to Asia.

Since then three years have passed. And at the end of his mission in the region, he wrote some on a brochure of the Peshawar-kai.

The medical doctor wrote Afghan medical doctors were very proud. They seemed to be respected far more than their professional brethren in Japan. Their knowledge level, as an expert, is very high. So, the Japanese medical doctor must try hard to let them understand merit of Japanese way and adopt it. For example, he observed 3000 cases of medical test of upper alimentary tract.

He wrote that he met many Japanese workers in Peshawar, most of whom were working in Afghanistan. And he was very thankful to the Peshawar-kai for providing him with a chance to work there.

Medical doctor Nakamura was well known for his anti-America views. Perhaps, the views are linked to his motivation to work in those regions, which started two decades ago when Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles, Ronald Reagan was re-elected, and FAO reported that 150 million people were starving in Africa.

The reasons I picked up this issue are not to turn a spotlight on that famous medical doctor Nakamura for any reasons. But, to show my satisfaction with good medical work done by a nameless medical doctor and to take heed on the very pride of Afghan medical doctors which surprised the humble, nameless Japanese doctor.

Tragedy just short of the moment

I've got some pieces of information, this morning.

Mrs. Thatcher of England would not make private the British railway. She wouldn’t and she didn’t. Several years after she left her office in Downing Street No.10, it was however eventually privatized. Japan was faster than England in this movement.

The issue is around deficit-ridden local lines and safety. Both meaningful mostly for quality of service and satisfaction of voters, tax payers, consumers, and ordinary people.

There were many shocking scenes televised while the world was alerted to the Tsunami disaster triggered by the earthquake under the sea off the Sumatra Island. Among them, trains overturned by the violent sea water in Sri Lanka were especially impressive to our eyes.

A few months prior to the Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean, which claimed some hundred of thousand lives and eventually a memorial visit by two former US Presidents to the site, a fairly large earthquake had hit an area north of Tokyo and near the Sea of Japan.

A super-express line called Shin-Kan-Sen links Tokyo to a major city in the area. This high-speed train line was also hit by the earthquake, and a Shin-Kan-Sen train happened to be running just on the very moment when the seismic tremor occurred.

The Shin-Kan-Sen train has been one of the pride of Japan, for its level of technology and record of safety. But, the day of the Chu-Etsu earthquake it seemed to be destined to face a tragedy with many passengers in it.

As a matter of fact, it derailed but neither fell from the overhead line nor collided with another train. Even no major damages to passengers. But, long rails on the concrete surface of the overhead line were curved upside in a half loop and got winding dynamically near the train automatically stopped. Large concrete substructure holding the overhead line were broken and severely damaged in some locations.

It was not by chance that no tragedy happened. There was good work behind the scene. When a great earthquake hit an area near the Japan’s second largest metropolitan area in 1995, the Shin-Kan-Sen trains were also spared disaster. The 1995 Han-Shin Earthquake occurred fairly early in the morning, though taking away some 6000 lives and toppling elevated highway roads. But, it was apparent that Shin-Kan-Sen lines should be reinforced and further shored up in some critical areas across Japan.

Then, strengthening work was planned and carried out. But, in the original plan, the work was intended to apply only to lines near metropolitan areas such as Tokyo.

Here a spotlight is on an old engineer of a privatized railroad company, who had long experiences in working from days of national management, and strongly recommended to reinforce some portions of lines from Tokyo to the Chu-Etsu area. His opinion was respected and the work was done. Maybe, it is because they found there was a fault running underground along or across the line, though it had been dormant for a few thousand years.

That reinforcement work actually stopped the tragedy just in front of the moment that might have immediately led to the full-scale tragedy.

So, it is really nice and necessary to respect an old and experienced engineer. But, I still believe there is something more to ponder in this whole information.

(Source of Information: The Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper, May 15, 2005 )

OPERATION TEST

... Now in Testing...