Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Last Wednesday, President Bush made a speech to the veterans in Kansas, Missouri.

His speech has been criticized by Japanese media because of his lack of knowledge about our history.

He talked about the doubts regarding democratization of Middle East nations.

His remarks about how our country developed to today's democratic society were, in fact not accurate.

Quote:

"In the aftermath of Japan 's surrender, many thought it naive to help the Japanese transform themselves into a democracy. Then as now, the critics argued that some people were simply not fit for freedom.

Some said Japanese culture was inherently incompatible with democracy. Joseph Grew, a former United States ambassador to Japan who served as Harry Truman's Under Secretary of State, told the President flatly that -- and I quote -- "democracy in Japan would never work." He wasn't alone in that belief. A lot of Americans believed that -- and so did the Japanese -- a lot of Japanese believed the same thing: democracy simply wouldn't work. "

 Well, even in pre-war era, we had the democracy movement so called "Taisho Democracy." Taisho is the era between 1911 and 1925. That was the most active era for deomocracy movement. In 1925, the parliament passed universal suffrage law that gives all men of 25 and older rights to vote regardless of their income level. It was done by Japanese democracy activists.

As for Japanese women, Bush said.

"For example, Japan 's Vice Prime Minister asserted that allowing Japanese women to vote would "retard the progress of Japanese politics."

It's interesting what General MacArthur wrote in his memoirs. He wrote, "There was much criticism of my support for the enfranchisement of women. Many Americans, as well as many other so-called experts, expressed the view that Japanese women were too steeped in the tradition of subservience to their husbands to act with any degree of political independence." That's what General MacArthur observed. In the end, Japanese women were given the vote; 39 women won parliamentary seats in Japan 's first free election. Today, Japan's minister of defense is a woman, and just last month, a record number of women were elected to Japan 's Upper House. Other critics argued that democracy -- (applause.) "

 In pre-war era, there were women's suffragist activists in our country. They fought against the nation's male chauvinistic tradition. One of them, most famous one of all was Ms. Raicho Hiratsuka. She published women's liberation magazine "Seito (literary meaning is Bluestocking)" In the first issue of the magazine, she claimed "In the beginning women were suns that can shine themselves. Now we are like moons that shine only by others' lights. Let's get back our hidden suns."

In fact they made some achievement in pre-war era, they amended the law that barred women from attending political meetings in 1922. Then in 1930 they had lower parliament to pass the law that gives women's local voting rights but rejected by upper house which was dominated by peer members like House of Lords in England. Next year war in China started. The nation leaned towards militaristic mood.

Women's suffrage was approved after the WW 2, but such movement existed strongly even before. So that is why women's liberation became so successful in postwar era. Not just by the U.S. occupation.

Bush tried to compare Japan's democratization and cases in the Middle East. But two nations were foundamentally different. Our nation was pretty much homogeneous whereas Middle East is muti-national. Our country's democratization was easier because national unity was strong. In the places where the unity was so weak, "free" means disassociation, no base for authoritative entity. No trust in government. The government cannot manage economics and security. Just anarchism preveils. Anarchism is different from liberation or democratization. Just chaos, worse than tyranny.

Mr. Bush and Americans, please study more about history and the politics.

The film was shot in late 1940's Japan which was occcupied by U.S. led allied forces.

Humphrey Bogart was starred in this film as Joe, who came back to Japan after the war. Before the war Joe managed a club in Ginza, which is Tokyo's most famous shopping and entertainment district like 5th Avenue in NY.

The story was like post-war version of "Casablanca." The plot is very similar. Joe re-encountered his past lover in Tokyo, but she was already married to another man. First he was jealous of her but later he tried to help her out.

I was really surprised. "Casablanca" was war propaganda movie against enemies like Germans. But this movie was kind of friendship movie with Japan which was also the enemy during the war. It seems to reflect post-war diplomatic policy of U.S.

The description of Japan was not very strange even though it was filmed in such old days. Very precise, in fact. The streets, black markets, airport. Japanese characters portrayed in the film were very real. The film producers showed respect to our people. Bogart spoke some Japanese, not good accents but very accurate words.

In the last part, Joe said to his Japanese friend, "We are not enemies any more. Now we're helping you to stand up against old system."

Yes, indeed, we became democratic nation with the help of the U.S. and two countries became greatest friends.

Bogart was a great prophet. Thank you, Americans.

A few years ago, there was a shocking TV show broadcasted in Japan. It was translated version of "Did we land on the moon?" It was a hoax theory of Apollo lunar landing that took place in 1960's and 70's. It was broadcasted in U.S. already on FOX channel that gave a shock to American viewers.

After Japan's hoax theory boom, a few books about this topic were published and I bought 2 of them.  

The following are the famous reasons that the lunar landing was fake.

 1. The flag was waving in the vacuum moon surface.

2. The same mountain shape of the photos that should have been taken in different places.

3.  Humans could never pass Van Allen radiation belt, which covers the earth because of enormous amount of radiation passing through the rocket.

The answers from NASA are the below.

1. It did not wave because of the air, it waved because the astronaut was rolling the pole to stick it on the ground.

2. The two photos were shot a few miles apart, but the background mountain was miles away from the both shooting points.

3. Van Allen radiation belt was safe as long as the rocket stayed there less than an hour.  

Well, I just believe what NASA says. But what if NASA lied?

The books I bought suggested some interesting points of the theory.

Van Allen belt is flexible one, it can stretch to longer than NASA claimed. In fact, not so much was known about this radiation belt in 1960's. The belt was discovered in late 1950's. Russians were reluctant to manned mission to the moon because of this heavy radiation belt.

What is important is Apollo mission was the mission the U.S. government never wanted to fail. They did not care about the astronauts' lives but they cared about national pride. It was amid Cold War and Vietnam war. Failing the project means losing the war to the communists and trust from the voters.

They neither fail nor cancel the mission. Apollo mission was assassinated JFK's promise. It has to be acomplished by the end of 1960's.

Think about it, did they want to air failing mission on live worldwide? At that time, there was a great possiblity of the mission failing as well as succeeding.You never know what would happen in the outer space. Even the rocket got in a trouble, no one could come and support.   

It was much cheaper to set up the studio that looked like moon surface than to really send men to the moon without sufficient technology. 

If it was hoax, what about moon rocks that was said to be taken from the moon and reflection mirror placed by the astronauts?

These things can be done by unmanned mission, in fact Russians did. As for moon rocks, you can find ones in Antarctica which became meteorites.

The reason I kind of believe the hoax theory is not because of anti-America sentiment. I am American lover.

One is I do not trust media and information from the authority. As Goebbels said, people tend to believe big lies rather than small lies. No one could deny such big project really existed once it was reported worldwide.

 The other is there should be a limitation on our technology, especially things related to space programs. We were born on the earth and will be dead on the earth, no other places to go. I do not like to live in space. Try not go so far, stay on this planet, that is our destiny.

These days, ecology crisis has been a biggest issue in this world, so I would say "Rather than spending so much money on space project to make dreams come true or to escape from the earth, we should concentrate on fixing this damaged environment of our precious planet. That would be good for our descendants."   

I recently heard very, very surprising news that the U.S. navy has decided to station nuclear aircraft carrier, George Washington in Yokosuka city, which is 2 hour train ride from the capital of Japan, Tokyo. In fact it was agreed more than 3 years ago between the U.S. and Japanese governments.

Outrageous and stupid! Japanese government allowed that happen. How ignorant they are!

We are paying so much money to the U.S. military. The government have to let them not to do what we hate.

 Nuclear aircraft carrier is so dangerous. They've made some radioactive leaking accidents in the past.

The carrier will be stationed there permanently, we will have to live with the danger for half a year long every year.

If the worst thing happens in the Yokosuka, people living in the capital area would be required to evacuate, 30 million people have to leave! No way!  Impossible! Millons of people would die after the accicent by cancers. It is like 3rd atomic bomb after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Local residents near Yokosuka navy base are suing the government not to construct pier to station the carrier. Since the carrier is US navy's property and its operation information is highly classified, we would never know how actually the inner nuclear reactor is operated nor intervene their operation. Even an accident happens, the U.S. government would not take any responsibility nor compensate for the damage because US-Japan Status of Force Agreement stated so.   

It is time Japan rethinks the militaristic relationship with the U.S. We cannot get along with the U.S. navy's policy.

They made us help invade innocent Iraq.

We, ourselves have to realize the only military that can protect our country is ours. We have to amend the constitution so that we can have full-fledged military force so that we do not have to rely on the U.S. military any more.

Please read this article NUCLEAR CARRIER UNWELCOME on Japan Times. Yokusuka base is only 20 miles away from Japan's capital, Tokyo. This is just outrageous!  U.S. government has to know this would just threaten relationship between the two countries. I became very anti-US person after I hear this news. A lot of us would be.

God damn America! Yankees, GO HOME!