The last figure of conscience, Emperor Hirohito

When discussing Emperors in Japan, it's enough to just remember the representative one, Emperor Hirohito, the most hatred and beloved Emperor holding throne throughout WWII. This article today will not discuss whether he was guilty or not of being defeatd in WWII. Such a dualism doesn't make the discussion profound. This time I'd like to focus on his personalility, and try to get the lowdown on the mystery: why did he survive?

I came across the reason, when I saw a videoclip from 1947 in Hiroshima, just two years after the atomic bomb. A small man with a hat gets out of a black car, being surrounded by refugees and neighbors who gathered up to see him. He may as well being killed there because people experienced such a devastating defeat just because of believing him. It was natural at least to see a scenery of people throwing debris at him as he was the symbol of Japanese unification.



The reaction people showed, however, was completely incomprehensive, sobbing all around with him. He took off his hat, bowing lightly, and speaking to orphants. When he went to Tokyo (1946) for consolation after air bombardment and surrender, people raised their both hands and shouted "Bansai (means viva!)" to him with no one forced them to do it. They pushed away GHQ (US soldiers) and ran toward him.



To tell the truth, people had never seen real Emperor Hirohito standing on ground because of "deification campaign" by government before the end of WWII. A picture of Emperor Hirohito on a white horse was the only him people could glimpse at. But note that the typical depiction that he was the god may convey a little misunderstanding. In European world where monotheism is the standard decipline, "the god" sounds the absolute entity. Here in Japan, we use that word indeed frequently; gods are everywhere. Dead people can even become gods after death.

Since his decision of surrender and proclamation as a human, it was the most radiative period for him until the government and massmedia made him a taboo again a decade and put him behind the curtain later. (He didn't have effective power on the cabinet because even he couldn't stop the cabinet from going to the war. It was a democratic country Japan was!)



I once thought that he would be guilty if other ministries were. But the more I get to know him, the more I want to let him be alone. Just hearing his numerous episodes, Japanese never be able to logically think about him or look him as one the the rest of ministers.

He had survived 1411 places of his consolation visits until his death. He regretted that he lost chance to visit the last place, Okinawa, where the fircest combats were taken place; he wasn't allowed to conduct this plan because of cancer.

An episode reminds me of "samurai" spirit in him: when greeting MacArthur for the first time, Hirohito begged him to save as many Japanese civilains as possible using his personal assets. MacArthur was strongly moved by his attitude. (The details are only written MacArthur's reminiscences since Hirohito never wrote about his biography. MacArthur is known to decorate his reminiscences. I am doubtful if the greeting was that beautiful. Let me know if you happened to know anything.)

People may have seen the real self-sacrificing and frugal "samurai" spirit in him, overlapping the old leaders, "samurai" who were downfallen just because they were thinking of helping poor people.

During Emperor Hirohito studied abroad in his youth, he took part in a dance party in London. Looking at Duke of Atholl dancing pleasantly with a wife of a cattleman, he mumbled, "this is the way people should be!" His character and "samurai" spirit may have been developed with such an obedient learning style from developed societies in Western Europe.

Literally, he was the last conscience for starving people.

Raid again! I'm full already.

Hey, Raid again! Following the raid last month, the police in Hyogo prefecture (near Osaka) arrested Ha Yung-Chul(36) December 5th for unlicensed tax accounting. His office, an affiliation with North Korean organization (朝鮮総連), was subjected to a search as shown in the photo below. The prosecutors that this office may have been committing tax shelters and illegal cash remittances.

Just because we have been frequently seeing raids by the police these days doesn't mean North Korea has been recently conducting considerable destructions of Japanese society. Probably this regime led by Prime Minister, Abe, is just earnest and aggressive on North Korea. Investigating whether this raid can be justified doesn't make sense. Now that the guard of those organizations has been declining because of cry for surveillance, the police has finally started to work with further crimes in their mind.

Yet I want you to find North Korean's unnaturalness with these following vidcaps. First all, they often are pretty prepared for the raid, which is readily understood by placards or banners. Also they are very organized when protesting. Are they well traind? The protestors look like normal Japanese, and men, they are young (see below)! They are demanding return of confiscated goods with their fists up. I can't just believe the fact that those people, who are very familiar with doing protest, still live in Japan.



Looks like they are hanging a picture of Kim Jong-Il up the wall (see pic below).


Ehh, I'm so tired of uploading those Korean photos.

日本語メッセージ１

こんにちは。「英語で発信する右翼の会」で会長をつとめております、yellowpeepです。会員は他には誰も居ません（笑）。実は本当は笑えないところで、「日本のナショナリストたちが、危険な行動に出るんじゃないか」という恐れは常に外国の人にはつきまとうものです。それを分かってもらうには、大きな口を開けて叫ばなければいけないのです。黙っていたら、「何か良からぬ事を考えている」と思われる。それが世界の厳しいところなのです。

このブログの大きなコンセプトは、親米保守です。アメリカのやり方が気に入らない人は居るでしょう。私もそう思います。本当に腹が立つときもあります。しかし、日本の人口はこれから減る一方。アメリカは３億人以上います。大東亜戦争のときよりパワーバランスは悪化しています。たぶんこれから200年間はこのままでしょうし、復讐して原爆を落としてやろうという日本人になってもいけません。もっと崇高な理念を掲げることに脳を働かせましょう。じゃあ自力の核保有をしないかというとそれは話が別ですがね。自立は賛成です。

アジアに目を向けますと、復讐に燃える特定アジアの面々が居ますね。彼らの草の根は実は発信力がそれほど高くありません。外国人に一番読まれるのは、海外在住の特定アジアの人々が発信する文章です。よく把握されてないかもしれませんが、私の住んでいるアメリカでは、中国語やハングルの現地新聞が発行されており、コミュニティは発達しています。特亜向け英語新聞もあります。東海岸は、Epoch timesが強く、中国共産党を攻撃しているので日本に対する風当たりは弱いのですが、西海岸は最悪です。 バンクーバー、ロサンゼルス、サンタクララなどなど。
　英語しか話さない中国人も、いまだに「一つの中国」を叫び、日本の戦争責任を追及するのです。海外に住む華僑は、現地の人と混ざらないのは今も昔も一緒です。インドネシア、マレーシア、タイ、どれも華僑が政治力を握ってませんか？それがこれからアメリカで起こるのです。

だから社会から疎外され、特亜人に対する嫌悪感になるんですが。そうすると、彼らの卑屈感、連帯感を生む、悪い連鎖が始まります。現地に溶け込み、経済レベルの高い日本人に対して、「自分たちは日本より文化的に優越しているはずなのに」という劣等感の裏返しが、この強烈な日本叩きを生んでいます。彼らはこれによって彼らの相対的地位を上げたいのです。彼らの社会的地位が日本に比べて圧倒的に高くなるまで続く、恐ろしい現実があります。

　では、現地の日本人はなにをやってるんでしょうね。私たちはすぐに拡散しますから、あまり結合力がないのはご存知でしょう。Front Lineという日本人向けの有名な現地新聞が幅を利かせていて、日本食料品店などでタダで配っているのでよく貰って帰るのですが、これはバリバリの憲法九条＋侵略史観なんです。そうやって全体を眺めて見ると、アメリカは、もう完全に取り込まれてしまっています。

だからこそ、奮起して作ったブログなのです。



このブログの内容の特徴：
１）私の記事の中には変な投稿がいくつかあります。日本で問題になっていることなどをわざわざ知らせるようなことがあります。しかし、長い目で見れば国益につながることだと思っています。彼らは得体の知れない存在を不気味がりますから。問題を抱えていても、前向きに解決しようという意思を知らせれば、それは対日不信感の払拭につながるんです。

２）特亜叩きはほどほどにしています。やりすぎは嫌悪感を生むようです。コリアンが日本叩きをしていますが、あまりに酷いので、アメリカ人が日本を弁護する、という面白い現象が起きることがあります。日本人は「言論の自由を守って両方の意見を聞きながら議論をしています」といえば勝負がついたりすることもあります。

３）突っ込んだ詳しい内容のブログをこころがけています。これは、アメリカ人の大衆に人気が無くともよい、ということです。しかし、たまに日本のことに非常に詳しい人が議論を求めてやってきます。そういう人々は、日本を研究する立場であることがあります。ターゲットは、そういうオピニオンリーダーなのです。トップの行政や学会、記者などを啓蒙するという点で効果がある、と信じています。

最近良い傾向があります。アジアのニュースや歴史を扱う英文での議論のブログがいくつかあるのですが、始めは軒並み日本に対する露骨な敵意の書き込みが多いのですが、特にこの数年、少しではありますが、日本に対する理解と同意が増えているようです。私の貢献は低いのですが、他の日本人で頑張ってらっしゃる人も居ることを忘れてはならないと思いました。

この情報戦は、今の特亜の若い世代が老いるまで何十年も続きます。覚悟しないといけません。


(Caption: A bronze statue of the late historian Iris Chang, who wrote the first English account of the "Rape of Nanking", was unveiled at the Hoover Institute of the Stanford University on Feb 1, 2007. Mother Ying Ying Chang (張盈盈) kindly touched her daughter's statue. CNS Photo)米国のスタンフォード大学に銅像をこしらえる中国勢に対し、黙って良いことをやっていれば分かってくれる、という日本勢。ほんの何十年か前に同じ事をやられたのに、また同じ歴史を繰り返す民族はもうおしまいだぽ。


またたまに日本語ページを書きたいと思います。
日本語のコメントも受け付けておりますので、どうぞ気兼ねなく。

個人的親交連帯ブログ：小林少年の「フィオリーナの以心伝心」もよろしく。

Fed up with multicultural society

Japan is not ethnically homogeneous anymore. Foreigners who are registered as they are in Japan exceeded 2 millions as of 2005, accounting for 1.6% of Japan's total population.

This tendency has been accelerated under the open-door policies by Koizumi, the former Japan's Prime Minister. It is inevitable for us to accept more foreigners to cover up lack of workers because of aging society.

The article today presents the difficulty of this "easy solution" to the lack of workers. There is no doubt about Chinese and Korean are the most largest groups coming into Japan although their government totally hates Japan.

I'll focus my attention on China this time. European or American people tend to think "Asian people share a lot, so they easily merge. Let alone China and Japan since they are from East Asia both." No way! We are currently having such a problem caused by Chinese due to their incomprehensive habits.

The picture above was taken in a street in Osaka, the second largest city in Japan. No matter how you know Japan is a crowded country, this street is insane. Plus it's in the morning. The reason is, Chinese people are opening their shops in the street. They say it's a Chinese habit to shop and eat at street restaurants on Sunday morning, and probably they are just doing what they used to do in China. Needless to say, customers are mostly Chinese. They can obtain special groceries or fresh vegitables that are hardly found in normal Japanese supermarkets.

The pic shown left is a scene where a couple of Chinese are selling meat under sky. Not keeping meat in a refrigerator may not sanitary, but it's not my business. But they are doing it on the street, chopping pig heads or chicken legs (Eww...) into pieces. People need to walk through the street, and there's a family living behind the shops. If I had such a situation every Sunday morning, I'd freak out. Of course the households who have been suffering from the shops keep demanding that they leave, but the Chinese have no ears to them. "The morning market has been since 10 years ago, and it's getting bigger and bigger," one of the neighbors is crying over this headache.

The base descipline of Japanese is the "spirit of give-and-take". Yielding is greatly respected in our culture, and sometimes people give in very much until their tolerance is acknowledged. Since Japan used to be a very closed society, outlaws were just repelled by the society. That has been heavy shackles for those who were tempted for crimes from long time ago. On the other hand, this rule doesn't seem to apply to Chinese people. Once you yield to them, they take one step further. Outlaw-ridden society is thus formed due to massive power. Residents should have more courage. It's a crucial flaw of Japanese people; they are too docile until they snap. Japanese tend to avoid argument and keep silence, hoping some day Chinese regret their fault. Keeping silence is a sign of OK to Chinese, ironically.


Selling vegitables or meats is not only their merchandise. One of their special skills is selling pirate products with a lot of nerves. CDs, DVDs, or liquors. In Japan you need a license to sell liquors in the first place. Pirate CDs or DVDs are of course prohibited. There's no license for pirates :-).

All the details of such behaviors were aired only once through a TV program very recently, making us realize it although 10 years already passed until broadcast. But I put credit on this program because it took courage against the taboo that bans anything would give rise to Japanese nationalism. They even secretly filmed a scene, with mosaic, of a Chinese peeing in back street. Now I know why Chinatown in New York smells pretty bad. It smells by all means if you pee in the street.

There's a section, between shops, demanding freedom from dictation by communism (see picture below). Falun-gong members are freely demanding their rights here in Osaka. It is totally understandable that those people had to take refuge into Japan, abandoning their beloved hometown. I concluded that they are such a people who don't have room in their heart thinking about what they have to obey when living in a foreign country because their mind is just occupied with their desire to live and nothing more.

As far as my tiny web-based network, similar invasions of Chinese immigrants can be seen in Greece, Solomon islands, Russia, and Italy. In Italy's case, a town known for textile industry rivived thanks to cheap labor supplied by Chinese immigrants. However, their technology has been stolen at the same time. After Chinese rushing into this town, they retreat as soon as they acquire skills, setting up a new business the way Italian don't welcome. The new Chinese company is of course run by all Chinese with cheap labor, so it's threat to traditional italian industry. This town ended up with raising their rival.

Open agitation against Chinise is not my intention, but the idea of cheap labor popping into companies' head must be accused of. They won't take any responsibility for this conflict any way. As an evidence, I have never seen companies tackling of this issue as their own challenge.

Some of Japanese like me are already fed up with multicultural society due to the said reasons. How about your country? I've heard Netherland is finally got tired of it. But may be it's too late.

A blogger ZERO kindly took up my article here. He is alerted by the threat of Chinese, too. However, he also says that his town is getting along with many Chinese. Well, I agree. In my hometown, which is very small, my friend plays in a soccer team in which several Chinese take part. The entire team is bonded with a very close friendship, regardless of their nationality, due to their effort to learn Japanese and its culture. Just remember most Chinese are pretty good while a little others disgrace the others. Ironically, the minor latter Chinese play a decisive role in determining the reputation of Chinese.

Links: Arudou Debito's homepage. He is living in Japan seeking "foreigners' rights". You'll see the opposite point of view from American. Very interesting.