Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

I just recently happen to know Ms. Mika Tsutsumi and read the book written by her.

The title was "Houdo ga oshiete kurenai America, Jakusha-kakumei (Revolution of The Weak behind The News, Why America still has Hope)."

The author graduated from the university in New York. Her major was the same as mine, International Relations.

After she graduated, she worked for Nomura Securities near the WTC and witnessed 911 attack. She got shocked to see what happened there and how Americans reacted to this incident. Then she became journalist and wrote the book. The book won the hornorable Journalist Award in Japan.

The book described how severe living in America is if you are poor. The most common bankruptcy case is inability to pay medical expense. If you are born in poor family, you cannot go to college because the tuition is too expensive for you. Military recruiters take advantage of high school children of the poor families. The military has all the lists of children left behind. High schools are obligated to provide students' personal information to the military by law. They call you and tell you that if you join the army, the army provides you the college tuition, and free medical treatment.

But such things never happen even after you join the army. You have to pay advance fee to get scholarship for the college, it is too high amount to pay by your cheap military salary. The military hospitals cannot provide adequate services because there are too many waiting in line. Why recruiters lied to you? He was afraid to go to the front line in case he could not meet the target line for recruitment.    

People in general are mindless and ignorant about the current situation. That is why they are easily manipulated by Big Powers. They don't know how Bush cheated the elections.

America was not free country as many believed. But she claims there are still many who want to change this harsh situation and some of the things they tried succeeded.

Well, I hope this book would be published in English, in USA.

There are things you don't know as long as you live in your country.

I learned some new things about my country when I was in U.S. Let's know about both of us each other.

If you want to contact her, I recommend you to visit her blog site. It is in Japanese. But you can easily find her email address on that site.

I am writing a novel using the facts introduced in her book. The title is 4 American Hostages in Baghdad.

I was very surprised to see an woman with red-painted hands approaching Secretary of State, Ms. Rice and screaming "War Criminal." The woman and her people in the congressional hearing last week belong to the peace group named "CODE PINK women for peace."

As soon as she did that, she and other members were kicked out from the room. But they were never put into the jail. They were criticized by White House. They keep doing what they think should do.

Since 911, I always thought America has become Nazis. But that was not true. America is still open-minded. They prove that. America is a country, where you can speak up whatever you want to say and take actions.

The group worried about the war with Iran. According to the poll, more than half of Americans say OK to fight with Iran.

But, please don't. This is going to make things worse. Just think of alternatives, why don't you listen to the people like "CODE PINK"?

6 years ago, September 11, 2001, I was watching evening news on TV. Breaking news came up, I saw the scene that one of World Trade Center towers was burning. First, I thought it was a terrible accident. I thought the building would survive. Actually, I hoped so, because I've been there. The other tower was hit, and I realized it was never an accident.

After an hour, both buildings collapesed and then another news came, Pentagon was hit.

I could not believe what happened. After this incident, that week's news reports were all about the terror incident.

After that, the U.S.A attacked Afghan, and then Iraq. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians were killed and Binladen was never captured. Hussein was hanged to death but he had no link with Al Quaida. No weapons of mass-destruction was found.  

Some say "911 happened because it should have happened."

One recent Dutch movie "Black Book" that depicted Nazis occupied Holland had an interesting scene. One German officer made a speech and said "Let's strike down terror resistance and get back free Europe." This scene overlaps the speeches made by the U.S. officials.

Who are the real terrorists?

What caused terrorism? What kind of situation are we in now?

Since 911, I began to think about what to do to change things better. That is why I became so interested in history. 

I think 911 made documentary films like Micheal Moore's become so popular. There are a lot of problems on earth. Reality is much more thrilling and cruel than fictions. We all have to think about that and seek the solutions for those problems.

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:

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.

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.