Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

There have been some rape cases reported in Okinawa island, Japan's southernmost island and prefecutre this month. Actually rape incidents have occurred many times in Okinawa. In 1995 3 marine soldiers raped 12 year-old girl. The Okinawa islanders gathered in the park to protest the U.S. bases. This time they will do that, too. They have done the same things many times in the past.

There are more than 100 of U.S. base facilities in Japan. The biggest ones are in Okinawa. 3 quarters of total of U.S. military facility square footage in Japan is located in Okinawa island. Okinawa is a strategic point for the U.S. so they want to stay as long as they want. Great point for the U.S. invasion of other parts of the world such as Iraq.

The below is the photo I took from the plane over the island. Two big spots are Okinawa's U.S. bases. A runway on the left side is Futenma for marines, and the other one just under the clouds is Kadena for the air force.

Futenma's marine base is planned to be moved to the other place in Okinawa, Nago-shi, the famous place for Dugong's habitat. San Francisco court ordered the U.S. military not to review the development of that area because Dugongs are endangered species.  

Okinawa had been U.S. territory between 1945 and 1972. Japanese government pays half of the military expense for the U.S. military resided in Japan. Because Okinawa has tens of thousands of marines who are kind of uneducated type of people and Okinawa had been occupied place for a long time after Japan was defeated by the U.S. Okinawas, especially women have become easy target for the American criminals.  

Why does Japan need such bases? Simple. Japan is not allowed to have full-fledged military by its constitution. 

The U.S. military is just wasting so much of our tax. They do not defend us, rather they are hurting our people, which they should protect. We have to know we should defend our nation by ourselves. We actually have our own military already. So we should amend the constitution to have a full-fledged military force so we do not have to rely on such violent and dangerous soldiers.

Of course, the U.S would continue to be our greatest ally but we have to make our foreign policy including militaristic strategy by ourselves. We should not help the U.S. invade the world and kill innocent people.

For Okinawa, not having military bases make this island safer and more attractive to tourists. Tourism is a major industry for Okinawa. See this photo. It is called Moon Beach. You can't find a beach as beautiful as this even in Hawaii or Florida.

President Bush was assacinated in Chicago. Who killed him?

Of course, this is the fiction. Janre of mockdocumentary, but it looked very real.

After the assacination, the U.S. government used this fear to justify amendment of Patriot Act, tightening the freedom of citizens. Muslim man was arrested but there was not enough supporting evidence to convict him but he was convicted by the jurors.  

Why? This is the same old fashioned rhetoric. Once awful thing happened, no one can have objective view.

It was well-made documentary although it was a fiction.

But I wasn't very impressed. I am kind of tired of such anti-Bush propaganda films such as Micheal Moore's "Fahrenheit 911."

Yes, Bush was wrong. He did the wrong things. So did other politicians in the world. It is just easy to criticize the politicians but what are behind the actions they make? Think about it.

Even Gore was elected as President of the U.S., he might have dispatched troops to Iraq. Accusing just one politician for all the wrong things in the world doesn't actually change the world better.  

The Austraian government made an official apology to the Aboriginal people. The Prime Minister said "sorry" to the Stolen generation who were taken away from their families to concentration camps to be assimilated to white values.

I've seen the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence." Three Aboriginal girls forced to live in the camp apart from their parents escaped from the camp to go back their home by tracking down the rabbit proof fence. That was based on a true story. What a terrible thing whites did to them. This Aborigines' sad history was mentioned in the You Tube Video about whaling issue. Some scenes of the video showed Aborinial people and subtitles "Australians treated Aborigines inhumanely." The video was viewed by the Australia's foreign minister. It is now removed. But it was very interesting. The theme was Australians' anti-whaling is racist sentiment against Japanese.

Now we feel like Aborigines who were taken away their identity and culture. What is wrong with hunting whales and eating the meat? You are not only protesting whaling because of the extinction issue. You think whales are special animal that even there were plenty of it in the ocean, anyone should not hunt even one of them.

Your government showed the photos of captured whales being transported to the fleet from the ocean by the anchor. Cruel? Haven't you ever seen the photos of the meat factories? See this video.   

Are you extracting meat from cows, pigs and kangaroos without killing them? Are you living in the Disney fantazy? Learn the history of your people, there were Australian whaler ships in the past.

I shall stop eating Australian beef because cows are cute and intelligent. That is how you think.

I do not think your country is civilized nation. You might poison the beef like what Chinese did to us.

It is just fair to decide not to eat the meat imported from the people who criticize what we eat.  

The photo of whalemeat sashimi served in a restaurant in Tokyo.

McCain for Republican, Hillary and Obama still dead heat for Democrats.

I think this is going to be very interesting election.

I don't think Republican candidate would win because of the war in Iraq. In fact, Mr. McCain is too old, I think. He is over 70. Can he do 2 terms?

So the point is who is going to be Democrats candidate?

The first woman president or first Black president?

I am afraid to say Hillary is not fitted to a new president. Not because she is a woman because she seemed to be too much influenced by her husband, the former president of the U.S.

Yes, she is smart and independent and worked as a senator. But because she was a first lady, she does not seem to be a self-made politician. She also seem to be hysteria and too strict. Cannot find the open-minded motherhood.

Obama is a great candidate. I don't know if he is really qualified for the presidential candidate.

But if he is elected, this is going to be a great revolution for the U.S. It can change the image of the U.S. No one calls your country "white-dominated racist society" which I did. It can drastically improve deteriorated image of the U.S. caused by the war in Iraq.  

As far as I've seen the recent Hollywood films, Americans wish to have a Black candidate like the one in "Deep Impact" and FOX's real-time drama series "24."

But I just don't care, it is up to you to decide.

My country is not presidential system. The parliament members choose the leader of the nation. The head of the ruling party becomes the prime minister. I think it is good system. It is like Nancy Pelosi becomes the president of the U.S. You don't have to spend too much time, money and energey to choose the leader. In fact even if you choose a quality leader, unless the parliament members get along with him or her, politics don't work out.