真相箱 真相はこうだ "Now it can be told" (Truth Box): Voice of Japan via Tweeting
mainly focuses on the Japanese tweets which non-Japanese individuals may find interesting.
Twitter becomes a wonderfully effective tool only if you understand what’s tweeted.
As this food poisoning incidence is a developing story, "Voice of Japan via Tweeting" will update it whenever necessary.
The following is a tentative translation of what TV reports on incidences of food-poisoning at Korean restaurants in Japan, killing two boys aged 6 and 10 respectively after they ate Korean Yukhoe( 肉膾、육회) and Korean barbecue. It is reported that more than 60 people have been hospitalized.
Translation:
There is another case of food-poisoning at Korean restaurant chain in Japan, in which one woman has been in a serious condition. Two boys earlier died of food-poisoning by eating Korean Yukhoe( 肉膾、육회) and barbecue served at the Korean restaurant of the same chain in Toyama Prefecture, Japan.
Japan has a very strict food safety and hygiene standard on raw meats applicable when consumed raw. President of the Korean restaurant chain angrily accepted the fact that no shipment and/or distribution of beef being edible raw out of slaughter houses situated in Japan has ever been made here in Japan at all.
In regards to two death cases in which two boys died after consuming Korean Yukhoe( 肉膾、육회) and barbecue served at the Korean restaurant, president expresses his anger by saying "Japan should ban serving Korean Yukhoe( 肉膾、육회) at the restaurants by laws", forgetting his own failure to oberve Japan's strict food safety and hygiene standard on raw meats. (逆切れ)
President says "In case that someone violates the laws prohibiting raw beef other than approved beef being edible raw from serving at restaurants, he or she should be immediately arrested over violation of laws."
This restaurant chain has been known for reasonably priced Korean Yukhoe( 肉膾、육회) and Korean barbecue. One of the boys, aged 6 who died of Hemolytic-uremic syndrome on April 21 (abbreviated HUS-see Hemolytic-uremic syndrome ), ate Korean Yukhoe( 肉膾、육회) at Korean restaurant in Tonami city, Toyoama Prefecture , which has been found contaminated with 0111. And the other boy aged 10 who died of HUS on April 27, ate the same food at Korean restaurant of the same restaurant chain in Fukui city, Fukui Prefecture.
When the incidences of food-poisoning became known to the people last Friday, president bowed with apology at the press conference. However, he has a little changed his attitude when interviewed today. He expresses his anger by saying "My company has received a countless number of e-mails blaming us for what happened and calling us Killers. There may be some faults of not observing food safety and hygiene standard and may be some negligence to fully recognize its importance. But I will have to say why there is no distribution of beef being edible raw in Japan." (逆切れ)
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, hygiene standard on meats being edible raw is as follows:
1. Coliform presence must be negative. 2. Tools and utensils must be prepared and used only for processing and cooking meats. 3. The meats that satisfy the above requirements must be identified with a tag "being edible raw". 4. The meats that don't satisfy the requirements must be consumed only after they are sufficiently heated.
Regarding the fact that there is no distribution of raw meats except horse meat and liver in Japan, president angrily admits that we have used the same meats as other Korean barbecue restaurants have throughout Japan and that we have caused this incidence due to some faults we and/or distributors we are dealing with are somehow responsible for. (逆切れ)
Mr. Kazuo Ijiri, a columnist focuses on the following three points with emphasis on a violation of Hague Land War Convention by the occupation forces led by MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP).
A Summary of the Above Video Footage 1. National Diet (Japan's national legislature) members federation established on February 25 2. April 28 should be designated as Sovereignty Restoration Day 3. April 28 is the most important day in the post war history
A newspaper clipping (Sankei) dated February 26 shown in the video says: National Diet Members Federation (members of the Liberal Democratic Party) headed by Mr. Takeshi Noda, a member of the House of Representatives has been established on February 25 for promoting "Designation of April 28 as Sovereignty Restoration Day". The purpose of designating April 28 as Sovereignty Restoration Day is to remind the Japanese nationals of portraying themselves what independence of Japan should mean. Although they are not particular about designating April 28 as a national holiday, they demand that the Government of Japan should hold some memorial event on the day.
We have had an annual meeting named "National Gathering for Sovereignty Restoration Day" in Tokyo on April 28 for the last 15 years, in which we celebrate "Sovereignty Restoration" and discuss its significance. This means that Japan was placed under the military administration of the Allied Forces for about 6 years and 8 months from September 2, 1945 when Japan signed an instrument of surrender aboard Battleship Missouri anchored in the Bay of Tokyo to April 28, 1952 when Japan restored its independence.
Moreover, we should never forget the historical fact that during the period of military occupation the present constitution and the fundamental law of education were established, thereby constituting a crime in view of the Hague Land War Convention since the Convention prohibits the occupation forces from establishing the laws being permanent in nature in the occupied areas. The occupation forces may give orders being temporary in nature to those occupied as observed in the cases of agricultural land reform order, Zaibatsu dissolution order, etc. The spirit of the Hague Land War Convention is found in the area where the occupations forces may exercise their very strong authority to control the occupied areas by giving orders but not establishing the laws binding them permanently.
MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) committed a crime of establishing the constitution and the fundamental law of education being permanent in nature with some Japanese politicians in such a manner as to violate the Hague Land War Convention. They fall into a category of co-principals in committing a crime, whose responsibilities shall be defined as being equal, under Japan's Criminal Law.
Regardless of political inclinations, all the political parties neglected the significance of remembering and celebrating April 28 as "Sovereignty Restoration Day". The Liberal Democratic Party now as a major opposition party has finally acted in direction of promoting "Designation of April 28 as Sovereignty Restoration Day", so as to remind us that April 28 is the most important day for the Japanese nationals in the post war history as it gives us an opportunity to review the post war history of Japan.
Dr. Shoichi Watanabe, Professor Emeritus, Sophia University ( http://bit.ly/eJPYQn ) discusses "Who's stirring up anti-Japan sentiments in Japan" in the article I posted on February 10, 2011 and "Confute Fabrication of Comfort Women!" on February 25, 2011.
Now he discusses "Invalidity of the Post-War Constitution of Japan" with Mrs. Tomomi Inada, a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in Japan's National Diet. See her profile http://bit.ly/dUtt2y (As this English version is not fully translated, see the Japanese version for better understanding of what she stands for.)
The video footage of "Invalidity of the Post-War Constitution of Japan (9 min. 53 sec.)
A Summary of Discourse
The constitution of Japan enacted on May 3, 1947 as the postwar constitution has been found invalid based on the following reasons:
1. All the existing and available documents indicate that the constitution which many politicians, political circles, etc. have recently had heated discussions of whether to revise it or not was in fact imposed by Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), a title held by General Douglas MacArthur when Japan had no sovereignty at all over the administration of Japan and when Japanese nationals were not allowed to discuss anything related to their constitution. All the Japanese nationals were deprived of freedom of speech during the period when SCAP dictated in Japan as it issued a number of orders, decrees, etc. SCAP practiced "purge of those who discussed anything in favor of the Imperial Japan" while encouraging the Korean leftists to speak up to oppress the Japanese nationals.
2. Japan should not revise the present constitution at all for the reason that any partial revision will tacitly suggest legitimacy of the constitution imposed by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers.
3. The following Imperial Edict (or Imperial Decree) is an order given by the Emperor Hirohito found to be a product fabricated by Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), in which the Emperor Hirohito stated as follows:
We (Royal We), having been deeply pleased with the cornerstone so determined based upon consensus of all the nationals, so as to construct new Japan, hereby promulgate it with Our approval of revision made to the Constitution of Imperial Japan upon an advice made by Privy Council and upon decision made in the Imperial Diet in accordance with Article 73 of the Constitution of Imperial Japan.
Imperial Signature and Seal
November 3, 1947
However, no consensus was nurtured among the entire population of Japan before promulgation of the constitution. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers forced His Majesty The Emperor Hirohito to state as it was prepared.
Note: The above is a translation of the Imperial Decree tentatively done by Ted Yokohama since I did not find any authorized translation at all.
4. Those supporting a move to revise the current constitution should not attempt to revise it in such a way as to follow the legal procedures based upon the current constitution, thereby avoiding Japan's approval of the legitimacy of the current constitution. Japan should nullify it for convenience while reviewing it and deciding on which articles to keep or to abolish.
5. It is said that those Americans involved with drafting the current constitution wondered why Japan still had kept it as it was drafted and imposed upon decades ago. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers gave a wrong impression to the whole world that no democracy existed in the prewar Japan and that democracy was introduced to Japan by the United States of America.
6. General MacArthur stated in his testimony given in the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees of the United States Senate, 82nd Congress, Thursday May 3, 1951 "They feared that if those supplies were cut off, there would be 10 to 12 million people unoccupied in Japan. Their purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security." His statement proves that Japan executed war for self-defense.
Related posts made by Ted Yokohama:
Who's stirring up anti-Japan sentiments in Japan? posted on February 10, 2011 See http://bit.ly/hWNKL0 and Confute Fabrication of Comfort Women! posted on February 25, 2011 See http://bit.ly/h61vpj
Note: Please remember that I am still in a process of completing the translation of the above video footage.
Mr. Kazuo Ijiri, a columnist focuses on the following three aspects observed in the last one month after occurrence of a triple disaster under the title of "A Triple Disaster and Post-War Regime".
1. Speechless Democratic Party of Japan 2. Japan now in a major transition 3. End of post war regime
Since March 11 when a triple disaster hit Japan, I have paid my full attention to every statement made by Prime Minister Kan and his cabinet members in newspapers, on TV, etc. , trying to identify and specify messages and visions they were conveying to the Japanese nationals.
However, I would have to regretfully say that none of them have ever expressed any words which I think would have encouraged the Japanese nationals to deal with the national crisis. This simply means that Democratic Party of Japan has been suffering "aphasia". In other words, the Japanese nationals have not heard any political language they all desire to hear from the current cabinet.
To be more specific, I should say that a process we are going through now is a major transition into new regime as the post-war regime that has lasted more than 64 years is collapsing or ending at this moment. Then, one would wonder what has been characterized as "Post-War Regime" in Japan. It woudl be defined as post-war individualism, demands to and protests against the Government as seen in the civil activities within various frameworks such as Japan-U.S. Security Pact, Cold War, etc. in which a majority of the Japanese nationals have in a sense enjoyed so-called democracy after the Pacific War. This political orientation peculiar to those more or less inclining toward what Democratic Party of Japan represents has lost its luster and attractiveness, thereby having the members of the Ruling Party "Democratic Party of Japan" become speechless when faced with the unprecedented disaster.
Carefully reading facial expressions and speeches of PM Kan and his cabinet members, I really believe that Japan's post-war regime has been collapsing, sounding like a loud explosion. However, we have not yet seen any sense of a new 國體Kokutai, literally national body/structure or national polity or a new regime that defines the character of Japan. We are now in transition to discover a new political language but somehow stranded on the way to its discovery.
It is a time for us to review 64 years long post-war regime and to define 國體Kokutai that should serve as a basis for building a new nation, out of which a new political language will be born. From this perspective, I am now deepening my thoughts of politicians and their languages, and of politicians and their visions.
"All to lose and nothing to gain" is not true at all to North and South Korea when it comes to pachinko business fully owned and operated by citizens of both North and South Korea ( 96% of pachinko parlors owned and operated by two Koreas and the rest by Republic of China.). Two Koreas have greatly benefited from and have thrived on pachinko business in the last decades while fabricating a number of stories such as "comfort women", "Takeshima", "36 years annexation of the Korean peninsula by Japan", etc.
Japan now faces its unprecedented crisis resulting from a triple disaster (a massive quake, tsunami, and a crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima) and Japan must mobilize all its resources to speed up its recovery efforts now pouring into the devastated areas.
A Summary of His Comment on Pachinko and Vending Machines ( from 1 min. 10 sec to 3 min. 6 sec.)
Mr. Ishihara said: Electricity use in Japan should be characterized by abnormalities as seen in present usage patterns. As far as I know, pachinko parlors consume 4.5 million kW and vending machines 4.5 million kW. Close to 10 million kW of electricity is consumed when two sectors are combined. I don't think we can find any country in the whole world wasting this much energy on sectors we really don't require in carrying out our daily life. Why don't you all use your own refrigerators at home? I don't have much knowledge of what pachinko machines look like nowadays because I don't play it at all. I remember when I was a college student, pachinko machines were all manual, not requiring electricity at all. Pachinko machines used today require much electricity with lots of lights flickering all over, making loud noises. No nation in the world will accept this kind of practice at all since they all consume too much electricity all night long. The amount of electricity of two sectors consume is just the same as Fukushima Daiichi used to generate. We all have to review this practice, considering the current crisis. The Government of Japan must issue an energy-saving decree as done during the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka when Japan experienced oil crises in 1970s. In those days, we didn't have vending machines as many as we do now. Although Minister in charge of electricity conservation promotion Ms. Renho came to meet me and said "Please cooperate with us in conserving energy!", the situation we are in now is not that simple at all. I believe that every Japanese national is well aware of it. We all can live without pachinko parlors and vending machines at all. What do we need them for?
A new suspicion has emerged over the currently enforced planned rolling blackouts in the region covered by Tokyo Electric Power Company. Mr. Kiyoharu Matsumoto, ex-private secretary of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has distributed flyers saying that my request made to Musashino branch of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to exclude Musashimo area from the planned rolling blackouts has been realized. Musashimo area is part of constituency for Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Access http://bit.ly/feXLpW
While you listen to Gina T-Tokyo by Night (before current energy-saving efforts) and watch a video of how Tokyo is now, video-recorded on March 15 after a massive quake that hit northeastern part of Japan, read my blog.
Gina T-Tokyo by Night (Tokyo before a massive quake and Tsunami hit northeastern Japan)
Tokyo responding to energy-saving request by the Government of Japan (Tokyo after a massive quake and Tsunami hit northeastern Japan)
Governor of Tokyo Ishihara strongly urging Minister in charge of electricity conservation promotion Renho to issue a Energy Saving Decree that regulates the energy consumption
Ms. Renho said: Since Tokyo alone consumes 30% of the total electricity required for the entire region Tokyo Electric Power Company supplies electricity, cooperation in energy-saving is further requested.
Mr. Ishihara said: I will do my best to save energy in Tokyo. The Government of Japan must issue an energy saving decree that regulates use of neon signs, operation of convenience stores, automatic vending machines, etc.after 10 PM. You must show your strong intention to enforce energy-saving to the general public. To fully enforce energy-saving, the Government of Japan must issue an energy saving decree at the time of national crisis. Exercise your authority as the Government of Japan now.
Minister in charge of electricity conservation promotion Ms. Renho requesting Central League of Professional Baseball to save energy while neglecting to request Pachinko industry to save energy.
(It is truly a great regret that a video footage has been suddenly deleted for the unknown reason)
Ms. Renho said: I understand that Central League of Professional Baseball would like to start its season as scheduled, to cheer up people or to revitalize Japan with bright news. However, I hope that they will conserve as much energy as possible.
-the end of the above video-
A growing number of the people here in Japan has questioned the planned rolling blackouts being enforced by the Government of Japan due to the following reason.
Data on how much energy convenience stores in Japan consume per day and on how much energy Pachinko parlors in Japan consume per day:
1. Convenience Stores
How much energy is required to operate a convenience store depends upon its size, hours of operation, etc. Therefore, we just take a case of a store "A" for a sake of discussion. See 1. below
A store "A" whose floor area is 120 square meters and requires 511 kWh/day. 511 kWh/day is multiplied by 43,393 (a number of convenience stores in Japan as of January, 2011) and then we get 22,173,823 kWh/day.
2. Pachinko Parlors
Pachinko Parlors, on the other hand, require 8,112,047,826 kWh per year while 22,247,885.643 kWh is consumed daily. See 2. below
Major differences between convenience stores and Pachinko Parlors:
Pachinko parlors operate 10 hours a day while convenience stores open 24 hours.
Almost every person finds convenience stores useful and necessary in carrying out normal daily life while only limited number of people frequent Pachinko Parlors.
Looking at the annual consumption of electricity by Pachinko parlors in the region covered by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), you will get another surprise. It is 1,515,507,729 kWh /year. You get 4,152,075.9686 kWh/day when divided by 365 (days). See 2. below
The region covered by TEPCO, has experienced a number of rolling blackouts soon after a massive quake and Tsunami hit northeastern Japan.
March 23
Estimated Total Demand 38,000,000 kW (18:00 - 19:00)
Maximum Supply Capacity 37,500,000 kW
Shortage 500,000 kW
March 24
TEPCO has already announced this morning that No. 1 group (the region covered by TEPCO is divided into 5 groups) will experience rolling blackout for a maximum of three hours from 18:20 - 22:00.
Therefore, it seems so unreasonable that Minister in charge of electricity conservation promotion Ms. Renho has never said a word about requesting Pachinko Parlors to conserve energy to avoid any rolling blackouts while requesting Japan's Professional Baseball Leagues (Central League and Pacific League) to conserve energy. Many sports events have been either cancelled or postponed.
As shown in the graph below, electricity consumption in Japan has rapidly increased in the last decades while daily electricity demand curve remains unchanged. The daily usage of electricity is the lowest at 4:00 am to 5:00 am. in the morning and gets to be the highest at 15:00 pm and it goes down quickly after 20:00 pm at night.
Daily usage of electricity
Once electricity is generated, it can not be stored at all. It has to be consumed or wasted. The shortage of electricity occurs from 6:00 am in the morning to 10:00 pm at night. Pachinko Parlors generally operate from 10:00 am in the morning to 11:00 pm at night, thereby necessitating further efforts to save energy at Pachinko Parlors by shortening operations hours. Or else, the Government of Japan should ban Pachinko Parlors in Japan as in South Korea in 2008.See No.4
A big question is why Japan and her people have to sacrifice themselves for the Koreans operating Pachinko Parlors, sucking up an enormous amount of money for the benefit of the Korean peninsula while Japanese have to endure rolling blackouts.
Notes:
1. http://bit.ly/gpfJc8 コンビニの電力消費とその改善策について (Improved measures for saving energy at convenience stores) http://bit.ly/fMvjHx JFA コンビニエンスストア統計調査月報 (Monthly Statistics on Convenience
Stores issuned on January 2011)
2. http://bit.ly/eLytOM 「２００９年度 ホールにおける電気使用量等調査」結果（概要）(Survey Report on Electricity Consumption at Pachinko Parlors in 2009)
3. http://www.tepco.co.jp/index-j.html
○3月23日の需給予測
需要想定 ３，８００万ｋＷ（18時～19時）
供給力 ３，７５０万ｋＷ
○3月24日の需給予測
需要想定 ３，７００万ｋＷ（18時～19時）
供給力 ３，８５０万ｋＷ
4. Almost all Pachinko parlors are owned and operated by North and South Koreans in Japan, generating JPY 25 Trillion to JPY 30 Trillion, some of which have been used to develop and produce nuclear bombs and their delivery system in North Korea.
5. South Korea banned Pachinko in 2008 for the reason that a growing number of the people had shown Pachinko addiction (Pachinko dependency syndrome) that caused a number of social problems.
"Umi Yukaba 海行かば"(composed by Kiyoshi Nobutoki in 1937), literally meaning "If you go to the sea--" , however, it is deeply rooted in the Japanese culture, dating back to AD 700s when the Emperor Shoumu decided to erect Great Buddha Statue in Nara in 743. "Umi Yukaba 海行かば" is originated from The Zoku Nihon Shoki 続日本書紀, a history book dealing with the period of 95 years from AD 697 to AD 791, a sequel to The Nihon Shoki 日本書紀, often translated as The Chronicles of Japan completed in 720.
The music was originally composed by Mr. Sueyoshi Tougi in 1880 with the words ( written by Nobleman and Poet Ootomo no Yakamochi in 740s) originated from The Zoku Nihon Shoki 続日本書紀. It was often played and aired on radio whenever the resuslts of the battles were reported in the past. It was once considered as the secondary national anthem to "Kimi ga yo".
Umi yukaba is considered as a vow to the Emperor Shoumu written by Nobleman and Poet Ootomo no Yakamochi in 740s to express the feelings of loyal subjects to do whatever required to erect Great Buddha Statue in Nara in 740s. The building of Great Buddha Statue is said to have required a total of 2.6 million workers and $5.7 billion at the current value.
I will go wherever required to go whether I have to go to the sea or to the mountain. I will not look back with any regrets at all regardless of how I die as long as I die for the Emperor.
The above is an translation of Umi yukaba to give you what it really means.
by Ted Yokohama
The below is a translation of Umi yukaba as a lyrics found in Wikipedia.
海行かば
Umi yukaba
If I go away to the sea,
水漬く屍
Mizutsuku kabane
I shall be a corpse washed up.
山行かば
Yama yukaba
If I go away to the mountain,
草生す屍
Kusa musu kabane
I shall be a corpse in the grass,
大君の 辺にこそ死なめ
Okimi no he ni koso shiname
But if I die for the Emperor,
かへり見は せじ
Kaerimi wa seji
It will not be a regret.
Original Umiyukaba
海軍五省
一、至誠（しせい）に悖（もと）る勿（な）かりしか
真心に反する点はなかったか
一、言行に恥づる勿かりしか
言行不一致な点はなかったか
一、気力に缺（か）くる勿かりしか
精神力は十分であったか
一、努力に憾（うら）み勿かりしか
十分に努力したか
一、不精に亘（わた）る勿かりしか
最後まで十分に取り組んだか
Five Reflections
These reflections were originally devised by Vice Admiral Hajime Matsushita who was the Chief of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Every evening cadets are expected to meditate on these inter-related questions.[1]
Hast thou not gone against sincerity
Hast thou not felt ashamed of thy words and deeds
Hast thou not lacked vigor
Hast thou exerted all possible efforts
Hast thou not become slothful
The Japan Martime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) encourages the use of the Gosei as a self-reflective exercise during the course of daily living.
The crux of this contemplative practice has been translated into English and has been discussed at the United States Naval Academy. -Wikipedia
Urgent Proposal to the Government made by Policy Chief of LDP Mr. Shigeru Ishiba at Press Conference held at The Liberal Democratic Party Headquarters on March 15
(Video Footage 27 min. 40 sec.)
A Brief Summary of Urgent Proposal:
At the time of the unprecedented crisis, we are well aware that we must cooperate with the Ruling Party regardless of the political barriers and constraints existing between two parties. We sincerely wish that the Government could fully utilize our knowledge and experience accumulated during our administrations in the past decades, for working out the effective measures to deal with our national disaster.
We would like to emphasize that both parties must recognize importance of the following two points:
1. Information-sharing
2. Establishment of effective framework in which the ruling party and our party can cooperate with each other, so as to reduce administrative burdens.
In addition, our past experience with emergency management strongly suggests that we must secure effective and strong leadership for achieving a common task.
List of Measures Urgently Required to Deal with Emergency Situation
To improve functions of the Prime Minister's Official Residence
1. Appointment of Minister for Disaster Management
2. To avoid any conflicting information, the Prime Minister's Official Residence should establish two separate chains of command, one of which should assume responsibilities for "Quake and Tsunami" and the other for "Troubled Nuclear Power Plant", thereby defining division of responsibilities among the officials engaged in rescue and recovery works.
To deliver clear messages to the disaster-stricken areas
1. To secure technical experts who assist Chief Cabinet Secretary during press briefings.
2. To consider acceptance of the aged people, the physically challenged people, the sick people, children, and women at large hotels, housing facilities for the Parliamentarians, and other accommodations with possible financial support to be extended by the Government.
3. To deliver such a clear message as "Food supply system has been secured." to the disaster-stricken areas.
4. To deliver such a clear message as "To execute whatever measures they consider necessary to cope with the disasters without any regard to the budgets required." to the local governments.
Relief goods and their transport
1. To secure distribution networks of water, foods, fuels (gasoline, light oil, kerosene, heavy oil, etc.) in particular and pharmaceuticals, blood, reagents, disinfectants, long life milk, fruit juices, green tea bags, breads, powdered milk for babies, portable toilets, etc.
2. To secure logistics as soon as possible by achieving restoration of roads, highways, harbors, etc. Removal of any rubbles sitting on access roads from harbors to the disaster-stricken areas is urgently requested. And commence shipments of goods immediately after the removal of rubbles is achieved.
3. To provide those in the disaster-stricken areas with medical services, bathing facilities, toilets, etc. with the use of Self-Defense Forces capacity.
4. To fully utilize emergency supplies stored by both the Government and the private sector.
5. To formulate a plan for removing rubbles from the entire disaster-stricken areas and to implement it.
6. Emergency vehicle identification tag (pass) is now issued at the police stations in the areas where vehicles originate from. Vehicles with the emergency vehicle identification tag are exempted from highway toll payments in the entire Japan. Trucks transporting heavy construction equipment should be regarded as emergency vehicles.
7. From April 1, a new highway toll system will be introduced. However, amid the current crisis, this plan should be abolished.
Measures related to nuclear power plants and scheduled blackouts
Measures related to nuclear power plants
1. To establish radioactivity monitoring stations surrounding Fukushima Nuclear Plant at the distance of 10 km, 20 km and 30 km. To officially announce data on the amount of radioactivity measured at different locations in a timely and appropriate manner, so as to avoid any conflicting information and to clearly indicate if levels of radioactivity measured at different locations are harmful to health or not. To publicize data upon which we can easily judge if reactor containment has not been destroyed or not.
2. To establish close coordination between the Prime Minister's Official Residence and those working in Fukushima as the Prime Minister's Official Residence and TEPCO have now been integrated into one. Avoid any separate press conferences by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, TEPCO, etc.
3. To issue evacuation order to those living between 20 km radius and 30 km radius of the plant to remain indoors and at the same time consider possible transport of evacuees to the neighboring prefectures.
4. To urgently establish supply system of gasoline to those trying to leave the evacuation zone where practically no gasoline for vehicles is available.
5. To ensure that cooling of spent nuclear fuel rods will be maintained while keeping reactors cool and safe.
Scheduled blackouts
1. To produce the blackout schedule as soon as possible in consideration of what industries, offices, schools, households, etc. require. To produce schedules for implementing blackouts in advance, giving time enough for the factories to schedule their productions.
2. To sufficiently consider needs of railways, hospitals, patients receiving home care, etc.
3. To formulate countermeasures to deal with cases in which school-going children may face when traffic lights are off, when no public transportation is available, and when no preparation of lunch meals is possible.
4. To immediately restore the functions of thermal power plants around Tokyo bay.
Measures related to relief to the people in the disaster-stricken areas
Employment measures
1. Operational measures of subsidies for employment adjustment are to be considered to expand their beneficiaries and to extend the payment period of subsidies, thereby securing employment and reducing burdens on employers.
Taxation measures
Deadline for submission of tax return forms should be extended along with the extension of deadline for the tax payment.
Financing measures
1. In preparation for sudden increase in demand for cash, banking systems including ATM must be restored as soon as possible.
2. Support to the local financial institutions must be secured, therefore supporting SMEs.
3. Support to the areas not affected by the massive quake and Tsunami by means of policy-based financing, thereby securing smooth financial flow.
4. To consider how to help those who lost bank books, documents, etc. thus helping them withdraw money from financial institutions
5. To consider how to help those in need for living expenses. ex. loans under social welfare financing system.
6. To consider exempting insurers from paying hospital bills to reduce their financial burdens.
7. To secure the appropriate post-mortem for those killed in this disaster and their burials with dignity while securing materials necessary for their burials.
8. To consider how to rescue pets in the disaster-stricken areas.
Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and Foreign residents
Diplomacy and JSDF
1. To consider replacement plan for JSDF soldiers now deployed at disaster-stricken areas in anticipation of long-term relief and recovery work.
2. To carry out immediate investigation into damaged fighter jets at Matsushima Air Self-Defense Force base and repair them if necessary by securing budget appropriations.
3. To secure budgets required for the deployment of 100,000 soldiers at disaster-stricken areas.
4. To establish a framework of cooperation with U.S Forces.
5. To establish a channel through which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can accept donations at the Japanese Embassies and Consulate Generals.
6. To establish a system by which we can confirm whereabouts of foreign trainees, workers, etc.
7. To establish a system by which we can extend our support to foreign students, etc. for returning back to their countries.
8. To support foreign rescue teams with precise and appropriate information and data on troubled nuclear facilities.
9. Press conferences, etc. have already been provided with sign language interpreters in response to our request made to the Government. However, foreign nationals should be provided with information in their languages through simultaneous interpretation, etc.
Administrative support to local governments
1. Appropriation and disbursement of JPY755.1 billion to all local governments scheduled for this March must be executed without any delay.
2. To legislate a system of extending administrative services to the municipal governments who lost functions, thereby making the prefectual governments possible to extend administrative services on behalf of the municipal governments. Services may include those related to national health insurance, care insurance, social welfare, pensions, and board of education.
3. To consider how to organize cross-sectional ministerial support in terms of manpower for backing up administration of municipal governments.
4. In budgeting process of supplementary budget for the fiscal year 2011, consider a large-scale appropriations of budgets to the local governments in the disaster-stricken areas.
5. To strengthen linkage with organizations concerned with the disasters for information-gathering.
Measures related to rebuild Japan with enhanced earthquake resistance capacity
1. To declare that disaster relief projects must be fully covered by the Government along with reconstruction projects for improvement. The projects at prefectural and municipal levels should be fully supported from when local governments begin their surveying, planning, etc.
2. The period of increased subsidies for enhancing the earthquake resistance capacity of school facilities will expire on March 31. The scheme that we think should include removal of rubbles must be extended for another five years.
3. To secure supplementary budge so as to speed up the implementation of projects for enhancing the earthquake resistance capacity of school facilities.
Important! Disclaimer:
1. The above translation is not a translation officially approved by the Liberal Democratic Party in any way. I have personally decided to translate the proposal made by the party at my discretion. Therefore, the translation will remain tentative. In case that viewers of my blog have any questions regarding the above, I personally suggest that you will contact Headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party at 081-3-3581-6211.
2. I was trying to complete the above translation sooner but my work has been often disrupted by blackouts in Yokohama.
3. The above translation is subject to change whenever I feel necessary to change any part of the translation.
Amid sorrow for New Zealand earthquake bereaved, I have observed many rescuers working hard around the clock, demonstrating their determination and faith in rescuing lives from the wrecked and still burning buildings. Please accept my deep sympathy to the families and friends of those who have lost lives.-Ted Yokohama
Regarding the importance of human life, I have discovered Dr. Shmuel Vaknin as stating in Global Politician (see http://bit.ly/gRpGFm ) ; The preservation of human life is the ultimate value, a pillar of ethics and the foundation of all morality. This held true in most cultures and societies throughout history. On first impression, the last sentence sounds patently wrong. We all know about human collectives that regarded human lives as dispensable, that murdered and tortured, that cleansed and annihilated whole populations in recurrent genocides. Surely, these defy the aforementioned statement? Liberal philosophies claim that human life was treated as a prime value throughout the ages. Authoritarian regimes do not contest the over-riding importance of this value. Life is sacred, valuable, to be cherished and preserved. But, in totalitarian societies, it can be deferred, subsumed, subjected to higher goals, quantized, and, therefore, applied with differential rigor----------.
Regardless of nationalities, we all remember "9/11" and "Pearl Harbor Attack" but many other than Japanese nationals tend to forget "Tokyo Massacre" on March 10, 1945, an unprecedented massacre in the history of mankind which the United States of America has long ignored or has pretended to be ignoring while highlighting fabricated stories of atrocities such as Nanking (now called Nanjing ) Massacre, etc. the Imperial Japanese Forces never committed. 1
Some Japaneses strongly suggest that one interpretation of this fabrication effort is in line with the American intelligence work either to cancel out or to obscure what U.S. has done against Japan before, during, and after the Great East Asia War. Therefore, some suspect that U.S. still practices its usual propaganda now often in collaboration with other major powers.
While preparing for this presentation, I have come across the stories, often fabricated, ego-boosting, and aggrandized, in which a comparison of Pearl Harbor Attack with 9/11 has been repeatedly made for almost one decade. I still remember a story of Japan'sPearl Harbor Attack deliberately compared with 9/11 with a photo of The Emperor of Japan Hirohito next to the photo of Saddam Hussein on a major weekly news magazine perhaps in 2002 or in 2003 which a majority of the Japanese people most probably would have found odd and unconvinced if they all were exposed to it.1
Although it no longer exists in cyberspace, I found a piece of evidence in "An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11" http://bit.ly/1Z1hcw indicating that my memory is correct. It is an excerpt from The Washington Post, 1/27/02 as reporting that before going sleep around 11:30., Bush wrote in his diary, "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today....., we think it's Osama bin Laden. There is one more story titled "Iraq is no Japan" http://bit.ly/9mD083 (see Related Stories below) still accessible that should be defined as a mere manifestation of the American egoism.
Since I would like to shed light on Tokyo Massacre, however, it is often called as "The Great Tokyo Air Raid" by U.S.,-many often wonder what's great about the air raid that massacred more than 100, 000 innocent civilians in less than three hours.-I would like to stop describing an issue like the comparison of Japan's Pearl Harbor Attack with 9/11 which I consider less relevant. However, I may discuss it in the future.
I believe that a true story of Tokyo Massacre should begin with how modern and beautiful Tokyo was, as seen in the video footage (4 min. 49 sec.) of silent films in color taken in 1935, 10 years before Tokyo Massacre was executed by the United States of America.
This is the city the U.S.A. ruthlessly and relentlessly destroyed by using incendiary bombs and napalms, knowing that millions of innocent people lived in there, and knowing that they lived in the houses mostly built with woods, and knowing that U.S. would violate the Hague Land War Convention by massacring the innocent civilians as many scholars, pundits, activists, etc. have persistently and justifiably pointed out. 3
Tokyo in 1935 (4 min. 49 sec.)
Now, I would like to remind my viewers of the following statement made by Dr. Shoichi Watanabe, Professor Emeritus, Sophia University in "Confute Fabrication of Comfort Women! published on February 25, 2011; I consider it as a grave violation of a very basic understanding behind "Peace Treaty" that U.S. has brought up an issue of "comfort women" once again. U.S. Congress should be blamed for the act of bringing up "comfort women". I understand their feelings in a sense that what U.S. did to Japan could be worse than what Adolf Hitler did to the Jews. Say, for example, a great number of people was murdered at Auschwitz. However, we should remember that by Tokyo air raid, more than 100,000 innocent civilians were burned to death just in one night. How many months do you think it took the Nazi Germany to burn more than 100,000 Jews at Auschwitz? I would say it took about a year. But U.S. burned that many people just in one night. Not only Tokyo but also more than 60 cities, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki where nuclear bombs were dropped.
March 10, 1945-a date of Tokyo Massacre that should be remembered by every man with some degree of decency as a historic moment when more than 100,000 innocent civilians, including unborn babies, babies, children, women, aged people were baked to death by dropping not only 1,700 tons of incendiary bombs but also some napalm bombs to maximize the effect of air raid.
No matter how precisely I describe the atrocity of exterminating more than 100,000 innocent noncombatants less than three hours based on testimonies made by some survivors, a majority of Americans will probably laugh it off.
Tokyo was like a gas chamber and at the same time an incinerator-the largest ever created-too large to compare with one devised to exterminate the Jews at Auschwitz. Extermination of race which we must strongly condemn is the highest degree of prejudice among five degrees of prejudice; dislike, apathy, discrimination, physical attack, and extermination.
Furthermore, some people still say that the United States of America committed a pre-meditated war crime against humanity here in Tokyo 66 years ago regardless of what some Americans have so far written on Bombing of Tokyo at Wikipedia site ( http://bit.ly/5k2cwy ) and at any other sites on Internet. Regardless of their efforts to glorify and to justify their past deeds, those who committed a war crime must be brought to justice as war crime suspects. If they are still alive or not, their crimes must be identified for the necessary judgements.
Tokyo Massacre Part 1 (1 min. 55 sec.)
Children are screaming for help!
Tokyo Massacre Part 2 (4 min. 23 sec.)
The innocent people were being burnt to death while they were still alive. Smell of burning human flesh was drifting in air. A man who reproduced images of Tokyo Massacre on canvas recalls that he was so devastated to see a child lying on the ground and a mother just motionlessly standing like a ghost. Another man recalls that thousands of people who rushed to Kototoi Bridge (23 meters in width and 239 meters in length) from both sides of Sumida River had been instantly engulfed in fire. They were all screaming while being suffocated and being incinerated on the bridge.
Strong wind was blowing at 00:08 AM on March 10, 1945 when the first incendiary bombs were dropped. In a matter of ten or twenty minutes, fire had spread to engulf the wide area. An elementary school (reinforced concrete building) designated as an evacuation site was packed with hundreds of people. They were soon baked to death as they were trapped inside the building. They couldn't get the steel doors opened because those doors were deformed due to the intense heat. The building itself was transformed into a gas chamber and at the same time into an incinerator.
Tokyo Massacre Part 3 (4 min. 12 sec.)
Only one B-29 flying high above Tokyo at the altitude of 10,000 meters because it was ordered by Major General Curtis Emerson LeMay to sketch how well Tokyo was burning while all other B-29s were flying at low altitudes (1,524 meters or 1,828.8 meters) to maximize the effect of bombing.
Tokyo Massacre Part 4 (2 min. 9 sec.)
Mr. Koyo Ishikawa was ordered directly by Superintendent General of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to photograph Tokyo Massacre immediately after it was executed by B-29s as ordered by LeMay. He produced 33 photographs depicting how inhumane Tokyo Massacre was. He later stated that it was most painful to hold his camera with focus on the still burning bodies because he strongly felt being scolded at by those perished brutally in air raid. He almost died in fire while he was photographing Tokyo Massacre.
After the war ended, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) soon found out that Mr. Koyo Ishikawa photographed Tokyo Massacre. It strongly demanded that negative films of those 33 photographs be submitted to General Headquarters headed by General Douglas MacArthur. However, he stubbornly resisted its demand forcing him to submit those negative films but he finally decided to produce 33 photographs to General Headquarters. The negative films were kept buried in the backyard of his residence.
Tokyo Massacre Part 5 (1 min. 10 sec.)
Tokyo Massacre Part 6 (1 min. 44 sec.)
Hundreds of thousands of lives were suddenly and deliberately ended by evil, despicable acts of atrocity. B-29 bombers flying at very low altitude above Tokyo, dropping incendiary bombs and napalms on the innocent civilians. Exploding -- not only burning a huge -- a huge number of houses but also suffocating and incinerating a huge -- a huge number of humans have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and unyielding anger. It was just a huge -- a huge gas chamber and a huge incinerator --the largest ever created in the history of mankind. It was just intended to demonstrate their superiority over the Asian races. But they failed. Many Asian nations gained independence from the white ruled nations after the war.-Ted Yokohama.
"Who executed Tokyo Massacre?" in this video footage
Mr. Koyo Ishikawa, as ordered directly by Superintendent General of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to photograph Tokyo Massacre, rushed to Yuraku cho where Mr. Ishikawa confirmed that U.S. no doubt carried out indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians which U.S. had long condemned to be wrong. " 4
LeMay was transferred from China to relieve Brig. Gen. Haywood S. Hansell as commander of the XXI Bomber Command in the Marianas. He soon changed his tactics and techniques from high-altitude precision bombing to low-altitude night-time incendiary bombing.
Tactical Mission Report kept at U.S. National Archive shows two major characteristics of Tokyo Air Raid; one is altitude of attack and the other its target. To maximize its effect of bombing, B-29s flew at the one fifth of the normal altitude without having any specific targets in the target area.
65th Memorial Service of Tokyo Massacre (0 min. 45 sec.)
Newscaster reports 65th Memorial Service of Tokyo Massacre as saying that 65 years ago today more than 100,000 civilians lost their lives for whom 65th Memorial Service was held and participated by their bereaved families and Governor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Mr. Shintatro Ishihara.
Tokyo Massacre and Atomic Bombing (4 min. 38 sec)
I have decide to produce only a summary of the above video footage in English as follows;
-the Beginning of Tokyo Massacre and Atomic Bombing (4 min. 38 sec.)-
Mr. Kazuo Ijiri, a columnist focuses on massacre of innocent civilians, Tokyo Air Raid, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and violation of Hague land war convention.
I experienced air raids while I was evacuated to Kofu city in Yamanashi Prefecture from Yokohama city. When the war ended, I was first grader at National School.
Although Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been much discussed, I would like the people to heed their attention to Tokyo Air Raid by which 100,000 innocent civilians were murdered. "Innocent civilians" should be defined as those who have nothing to do with fighting. Tokyo Air Raid is a massacre executed in the largest scale in the history of mankind.
There are still many Americans believing in a story that one million American military personnel would have lost their lives if A-bombs were not dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This figure shown by the U.S. seems so unreliable and baseless, considering the remaining military capability in Japan as of August 1945.
Regardless of whether Japan had the military capability to carry out any tactical missions to kill one million American soldiers or not, nuclear attacks carried out by the United States of America must be interpreted as a clear violation of Hague land war convention.
Almost every Prefectural capital was indiscriminately bombed. No media in the U.S.A. have ever discussed those massacres as a clear violation of Hague land war convention at all. Here I express my anger over it.
-the End of Tokyo Massacre and Atomic Bombing (4 min. 38 sec.)-
Mr. Toshio Tamogami states in "The genesis No.2 (Part Two)-A Question over the Japanese Leftists' Concept of Peace" dated February 16, 2011: The Pacific War ended on August 15, 1945. U.S. occupation troops that advanced into Japan in September, soon forcibly executed in a very subtle manner its occupation program named "War Guilt Information Program" solely designed to weaken Japan and its people. Therefore, the people would be eventually brainwashed to believe that Japan has been given democracy by U.S. and that the pre-war Japan was an evil state where the people lived in darkness. It is a huge lie made by U.S., designed to make the people believe that the Japanese nationals should feel satisfied over the defeat of their own Imperial Japan.
Therefore, another way to look at Tokyo Massacre and Massacres executed in other cities including Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that U.S. wanted to completely destroy Japan including every trace of democracy Japan had nurtured in its own way, so as to make the Japanese believe that Japan has been given democracy by U.S. and thatthe pre-war Japan was an evil state where the people lived in darkness.
Related Stories
1-27-2003
Iraq Is Not Japan
By Chalmers Johnson
Mr. Johnson is author of Revolutionary Change (Stanford University Press) and Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (Holt "Owl" Books).
According to press reports, the White House is developing a plan, modeled on the postwar occupation of Japan, to install an American-led military government in Iraq. Administration officials said Iraq would be governed by a senior American military officer, who would assume the role that Gen. Douglas MacArthur played in Japan after its surrender. The plan calls for war-crimes trials of Iraqi leaders and a transition to an elected civilian government after a few years of American occupation.
After the story broke in October, the White House tried to back away from it. However, some unnamed senior officials stood by it.
Our politics become more surreal every day. This plan won't work for the simple reason that Iraq is not Japan. The Bush White House and the Rumsfeld Pentagon seem to know next to nothing about Japan.
The Potsdam Declaration ending World War II ordered MacArthur to "democratize" Japan. MacArthur himself thought that this order held great dangers. If not done carefully, his efforts would have only the legitimacy of the conqueror behind them and might well provide a target for later Japanese nationalists seeking to overturn foreign reforms.
MacArthur made some strategic decisions. He retained Hirohito on the throne and had all occupation reform directives come from the emperor. The general conducted an indirect occupation. He did not replace the wartime Japanese government but kept it intact, only now taking orders from him.
The new Japanese constitution, land reform, trade unions and the attempt to open up the economy all came in the form of laws enacted by the Japanese government. If the U.S. intends to follow the Japanese model in Iraq, it will have to keep Saddam Hussein in place and work through him.
The idea of conducting war-crimes trials is crackpot. In Japan, they were intended to educate the public about the war, but they backfired. Gen. Hideki Tojo, who was prime minister at the time of Pearl Harbor, embarrassed everyone by asking from the dock, "Why isn't the emperor here?" No one dared answer that MacArthur had rewritten history to keep the emperor in power. By the time the U.S. got around to hanging a few wartime leaders, most Japanese saw the war-crimes trials as miscarriages of justice.
Most Americans do not understand that the Japanese people do not credit MacArthur with bringing democracy to Japan, although they do honor his memory as a postwar shogun. Democracy already existed in Japan, based on the parliamentary politics of the 1920s, before the militarists took over.
Another reason the Japanese don't credit the U.S. is that halfway through the occupation the Americans changed their minds and began turning Japan into a docile American satellite for fighting the Cold War.
The so-called "reverse course" of 1947 meant welcoming back to power many of the prewar and wartime leaders whom the Americans had purged. Seeing this, the Japanese worked to take advantage of the new conditions created by the Cold War. In return for letting the U.S. keep its military bases on Japanese soil, the Japanese demanded unrestricted access to the U.S. market and American tolerance of their protectionism. The results of this policy can be seen today in any U.S. parking lot. It also produced the largest trade imbalances (in favor of Japan) in economic history.
During the early days of the Allied occupation, the Americans did not have any economic interests in Japan. But the oil lobby led by Vice President Dick Cheney is drooling to get its hands on Iraq's oil. As late as 1999, Cheney's former company, Halliburton, supplied Hussein with $23.8 million worth of oil field equipment.
Perhaps most obviously, MacArthur did not have a serious religion problem in Japan. He forced the emperor to renounce his status as a Shinto god, but religious impulses have always lain lightly on the Japanese psyche. Iraq, by contrast, is ruled by a minority government of Sunni Muslims that has fought bloody wars with the country's Shiite and Kurdish majorities.
I am doubtful that a group of heavily armed American infidels can bring "democracy" to Iraq, but I know for certain that what happened 50 years ago in Japan is no model.
Firebombs Over Tokyo
By Jonathan Rauch
The Atlantic Monthly | July/August 2002
In 1990, when I was traveling in Japan, my friend Masayuki introduced me to his mother, Mrs. Tadokoro. One night, as the three of us sat together after dinner in her apartment in Osaka, she told me of the firebombing of Tokyo. She was nineteen when the American bombers came, just after midnight on March 10, 1945. Hearing the air-raid sirens, she ran to Kinshi Park. As she ran, she saw an electrical pole glow hot in the flames and then crash down. In the park many people, most with suitcases, waited through the night as sixteen square miles of the city burned. Nothing remained of her house the next morning but some stones. Still, she was lucky. The dead from that one night's bombing numbered 80,000 to 100,000—more than later died in Nagasaki (70,000 to 80,000), and more than half the number who died in Hiroshima (120,000 to 150,000).
August brings the fifty-seventh anniversary of the two famous atomic bombings, justification for which is still a matter of debate. The conventional wisdom that the Hiroshima bomb saved 500,000 or a million American lives is wrong; according to the historian Gar Alperovitz, modern scholarship and also government estimates at the time put likely U.S. casualties from an invasion of Japan, had one been necessary, in the range of 20,000 to 50,000—which is, of course, still a lot. Nor is it the case that Hiroshima was targeted for its military installations; it had some modest military value but was targeted mainly for psychological effect. Yet the bombing clearly did hasten Japan's surrender, and thus saved many American lives (and possibly, on balance, Japanese lives). The much harder question is why the United States rushed—and it did rush—to bomb Nagasaki only three days later. Neither President Harry Truman nor anyone since has provided a compelling answer. In his 1988 history of the nuclear age, McGeorge Bundy, who served as National Security Advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, wrote, "Hiroshima alone was enough to bring the Russians in; these two events together brought the crucial imperial decision for surrender, just before the second bomb was dropped."
Alongside the two atomic bombings, the firebombing of Tokyo remains obscure. Few Americans have even heard of it, and few Japanese like to dwell on it. When I listened to Mrs. Tadokoro's account, I was struck by her matter-of-fact, detached manner. What happened happened, and war is always bad, and 1945 is ancient history: that was her practical, forward-looking attitude, and I admired her for it. Yet the Tokyo attack deserves the most introspection of all, even as it receives the least.
In the 1930s, as today, Americans set great store by the principle that civilian populations should not be targeted for bombing. "Inhuman barbarism," President Roosevelt called civilian bombing in 1939. Indeed, that was one reason to fight the Japanese: they targeted civilians, we didn't. By 1945, however, the precision bombing of Japan had proved frustrating. "This outfit has been getting a lot of publicity without having really accomplished a hell of a lot in bombing results," Major General Curtis LeMay groused on March 6. So he loaded more than 300 B-29 Superfortress bombers with napalm incendiaries and, on the evening of March 9, ordered them emptied over central Tokyo. LeMay made no attempt to focus on military targets, nor could he have done so with napalm, whose effect that windy night was to burn wooden Japanese dwellings with spectacular efficiency. The victims were "scorched and boiled and baked to death," LeMay later said. Over the next few months the United States dealt with more than sixty smaller Japanese cities in like fashion.
The rationale was that Japan's industrial capability needed to be destroyed and the country's will broken. In fact, however, the Japanese maintained the ability to fight, although they probably lost the capacity to mount any large offensive. In any case, even supposing that the Tokyo firebombing was a success on its own terms, did that justify the targeting of tens of thousands of civilians, with weapons designed to melt them in their homes? If so, what sort of action would not have been justified on grounds of helping to end the war (that is, winning)? In June of 1945, as the historian John W. Dower notes, a military aide to General Douglas MacArthur described the American firebombing campaign as "one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings of non-combatants in all history." It is hard to disagree.
I believe the firebombing of Tokyo should be considered a war crime, a terror bombing, if those terms are to have any meaning at all. It is true that the United States in 1945, in marked and important contrast with, say, al Qaeda in 2001, viewed the targeting of civilians as a last rather than a first resort; and it is true that throughout history even the virtuous have wound up fighting dirty if fighting clean failed; and it is true that sometimes the good must do terrible things to destroy a great evil. But it is also true that if the good find themselves driven to barbarism, they own up afterward and search their souls.
America is better at reforming than at repenting, which is probably just as well. Perhaps America's quiet way of paying its debt to the dead of Tokyo has been to take unprecedented pains, far beyond anything done by any other great power, to design and deploy weapons and tactics that spare civilian lives. A lot of innocent people in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan are alive today as a result. Still, the erasure of the Tokyo firebombing from Americans' collective memory is not a noble thing.
In March, on the fifty-seventh otherwise unmarked anniversary of the attack on Tokyo, a handful of survivors opened a small museum there to memorialize the firebombing. They used private contributions totaling $800,000, which is less than one percent of what Mount Vernon plans to spend on its new museum and visitors' center. Well, it was a start. The next step should be an official museum or memorial—not in Tokyo but in Washington.
Monday, Sept. 30, 2002
THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Great Tokyo Air Raid was a war crime
By Hirosaki Sato
On Dec. 7, 1964, the Japanese government conferred the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun upon Gen. Curtis LeMay -- yes, the same general who, less than 20 years earlier, had incinerated "well over half a million Japanese civilians, perhaps nearly a million."
In May 1964, the general, now the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, had declaimed: "Tell the Vietnamese they've got to draw in their horns or we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age."
I was reminded of the Japanese government's bizarre act when I read the responses of several readers of The Atlantic Monthly to the news that a museum had finally been created in Tokyo to memorialize the Great Tokyo Air Raid. In the wee hours of March 10, 1945, 300 B-29s dropped 2,000 tons of incendiaries on one section of Tokyo -- a space seven-tenths the size of Manhattan -- and in 2 1/2 hours "scorched and boiled and baked to death" 100,000 people. The quoted words are LeMay's.
No, "news" is not the right word. For his July-August column in the monthly, Jonathan Rauch mentioned the opening of a "small museum" and spoke of what lay behind it: an "obscure" air raid. "Few Americans have even heard of it," he wrote, "and few Japanese like to dwell on it."
Rauch met a survivor of the firebombing, a Japanese friend's mother, back in 1990. He admired her for her "matter-of-fact, detached manner." Her attitude was: "What happened happened, and war is always bad, and 1945 is ancient history." Still, "the Tokyo attack deserves the most introspection of all," Rauch decided, "even as it receives the least."
In sheer magnitude, the calamity brought by the firebombing surpassed both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at least according to the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey conducted shortly after the war. But the devastation of Tokyo, along with that of Hamburg and Dresden, was laid aside the moment an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, then on Nagasaki. With the advent of a weapon capable of snuffing out a large city in a flash, the sense suddenly took root that "the continuity of life was, for the first time, put into question," as Mary McCarthy put it.
In fact, one Japanese writer reported, in 1968, that "in the 22 years since the war the Asahi Shimbun has written only four times about March 10," while taking up Hiroshima 100 times more often. At about that time, Katsumoto Saotome, who survived the firestorm as a 12-year-old boy, resolved to do something about it. It took him over three decades to create his modest archival center.
Was the raid justified? Rauch asked in his column. As with the dropping of the second atomic bomb, the question is legitimate.
First, before and during World War II there were people who thought indiscriminate slaughter of civilians had to be avoided. Tacticians in the U.S. Army Air Forces themselves were split between those who believed in "precision-bombing" and those who were "area bombers."
Brigadier Gen. Haywood Hansell, who was assigned to execute the first serious bombings against Japan, was of the former group. But he was duly relieved of his duty as ineffectual and replaced by LeMay. And LeMay, switching from high explosives to incendiaries, went on to carry out what Gen. Douglas MacArthur's aide, Brigadier Gen. Bonner Fellers, called "one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings of noncombatants in all history."
Equally important, the victors of World War II did not just expand the definition of "war crimes," but introduced the new concepts of "crimes against peace" and "crimes against humanity." And these ideas have gained support in recent years. Probably with the latter development in mind, Rauch wrote: "I believe the firebombing of Tokyo should be considered a war crime."
Some readers did not like this. And the five responses The Atlantic has chosen to print in its October issue are yet another reminder: When it comes to Japan and World War II, some Americans are incapable of accommodating different viewpoints.
Blaine Browne, in Lighthouse Point, Fla., begins by taking Rauch to task for following "a convoluted path toward his goal of elevating the March 1945 U.S. firebomb raid on Tokyo to the historical prominence he feels it deserves," so you can guess the tenor of his letter. But in his determination to dismiss the importance of "an event that, as Rauch complains, has gone largely unremarked since its occurrence," Browne makes one point he may not have intended.
"By early 1945 the American public's willingness to support operations that might produce any significant casualties was increasingly strained," he tells us, and concludes: "The Truman administration's decision to use the atomic bomb must be considered in this context."
I know Stanford historian Barton Bernstein has taken a somewhat different tack and argued President Harry Truman used atomic bombs because American taxpayers would have revolted if they learned their government had expended $ 2 billion on the Manhattan Project but had not used what it produced. The amount was sizable at the time; the creation and maintenance of the large fleet of B-29s cost $ 3 billion.
But I don't know if Bernstein would go as far as to suggest what Browne does. By Browne's logic, Japan's invasion of China, for example, must be considered all right -- in the context of the public's support.
Michael Franzblau, in San Rafael, Calif., writes: "Concern that Curtis LeMay's Army Air Corps committed war crimes in the firebombing of Tokyo has to be balanced by awareness of the despicable activities of the Imperial Japanese Army in China."
In other words, you murdered relatives of someone I know, so I murdered some of yours. This argument may have worked in the age of gunfighters in the American west. But it evidently wouldn't have worked in the military tribunals convened after the war. In any event, the countries that sat to judge Germany and Japan were careful to exclude their own deeds from consideration.
The shortest letter cited in The Atlantic comes from Devin Croft, in Littleton, Col. It reads in its entirety: "If the United States owed any debt to the dead of Tokyo, it was long since repaid through the reconstruction of Japan in the postwar years."
That is one conclusion some Japanese may accept, however ambivalently. But Croft, too, evades Rauch's point. Any deliberate mass slaughter of civilians is a war crime. And what happened in the early hours of March 10, 1945, was the greatest slaughter a single air raid produced in world history.
Hiroaki Sato is a translator and essayist who lives in New York. The Japan Times
Footnotes:
1.Access http://bit.ly/i0GUj6 for information on fabrication of "Nanking Massacre".
2. I hope that anyone who has the particular issue of a weekly magazine (either Time or Newsweek) carrying an article dealing with a comparison of 9/11 with Japan's Pearl Harbor attack with a photo of The Emperor of Japan next to a photo of Saddam Hussein will either send a digitalized copy of the magazine to me or upload it on Internet and inform me of its location in cyberspace.
3. Laws of War :
Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907
The Convention Annex to the Convention Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land Section I on Belligerents
Section II Hostilities Chapter I Means of Injuring the Enemy, Seieges, and bombardments
In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden -
To employ poison or poisoned weapons;
To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;
To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion;
To declare that no quarter will be given;
To employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;
To make improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy, as well as the distinctive badges of the Geneva Convention;
To destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war;
To declare abolished, suspended, or inadmissible in a court of law the rights and actions of the nationals of the hostile party. A belligerent is likewise forbidden to compel the nationals of the hostile party to take part in the operations of war directed against their own country, even if they were in the belligerent's service before the commencement of the war.
The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited.
4. "Indiscriminate bombing" or "Indiscriminate attack" has been clearly defined as a war crime at "Crimes of War Project" established in 1999 whose address is Crimes of War Project, 1325 G Street NW, Suite 730, Washington, DC 20005 ( office@crimesofwar.org ). However, this project is only focused on the war crimes committed after the end of WWII. Access http://www.crimesofwar.org/index.html
肉膾、육회) and barbecue served at the Korean restaurant of the same chain in Toyama Prefecture, Japan.
