Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Democrat Congressman J. Murtha, who is Vietnam veteran and voted for invasion of Iraq spoke out on PBS and said the US troops should withdraw from Iraq in 6 months. He claimed the war was wrong.

He looked so desperate and passionate about this issue.

One Japanese video journalist named Jimbo Tetsuo, who got Master's degree of Journalism at Columbia University said that America always has the power to swing back even when things go wrong too far. Mr. Murtha proved that.

In contrary, our society is less powerful to swing back because we don't have so many people who have courage to do the right thing no matter how opposition is strong. Unlike America, Japanese are group oriented and do not respect other's individualism.

Please swing back, America. You can do that.

More than half of Japanese citizens disagree with amendment of article 9 of the constitution, which prohibites State's possesion of arms. Even among youngsters who never exprienced or know the stories about the war there exists strong opposition.

Even after 60 years, people's opinion about the Pacifist constitution is not greatly changed. No one wants the war. But some politicians want to change it.

Well, my opinion is since I am realist I agree with constitutional amendment.  But not now, in the future. One of the reason many people oppose the amendment is they fear that if the constitution is amended, our troops would be easily sent to anywhere by stupid politics. Recently Japan sent troops to Iraq to follow the order of Bush. Our country lacks civilian control functions in the politics. That means our country's democracy is not functioning well.

We have yet to review the mistakes we made in the past. Older generations never reflected how they were wrong in the past. We've been suffering the traumas of the past and have yet overcome it. One example is denying of Masscre of Nanking. We always regret the consequences of the war, not the cause of the war we provoked. We rarely talk about Manchuria and Pearl Harbor.

We have to study the cause of the past mistakes.

That is what we have to do to get ready for the amendment.

Some oppose it simply because they are passionate pacifist. They say they want to make their country completely non military state like CostaRica. But that is totally impossible taking current situation Japan is in into account.

We have the troops so called "Self-Defense Force" and foreign mercenaries mainly stationed in Okinawa island already. That means we need military force to protect our national interests. Also it is not good for our country to heavily rely on US military presence. US is our most reliable ally but the foreign troops who always prioritize their own national interest ahead of others after all.   

Prime Minister Koizumi is idiot.

He is just making our country worse. He visited the controversial shrine which honours war criminals responsible for Japan's invasion of China. The shrine insists the war was just and liberated Asians from western imperialism. That is not true. The Japanese army killed many, many Asian civilians there.

Asian victims and their familes never forget that.

Half of Japanese citizens including me oppose his visit to the shrine. business people, too.

Prime Minister says it was private visit. Private? He went there with press. Since he is a PM, he can never be a private person.

For Americans, it should be great news, as Japan's relationship with China got worse, US government can get more dealing cards when it comes to negotiate with Japan or China. For China and Japan, it is just a bad card.   

The top picture is the sanctury of the shrine.

The shrine has the museum that shows how bravely Japanese army fought in the war. The war Japan failed.

The below is picture of famous zero-sen air-fighter.

Japan's ruling party of last half century won the election. It was a surprising victory. They now occupied more than 60% of the total seats. 

It was really stupid choice by voters. They haven't done great things. They've increased the tax and sent troops to Iraq. They worsened the relationship between China and Japan. Why the voters chose them? The opposition party and the people were just foolish.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about it. This country is getting worse and worse, the people's mind and standard of living is lowering.  

Say good bye to Japan. There is no democracy here.