Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

Please read from Introduction through Chapter 3.

 

Kevin stayed away from computer desk and went back to the floor. The four Americans and three Iraqi men sat on the floor face to face. The three men held machine gun and hand guns with them. A leader of the Iraqi men, Kashim held the machine gun but suddenly placed it on the floor. He then spoke to other 2 guys to put the guns down on the floor.

“Hey, guys, you will be saved. We never want to kill any of you, especially a woman. That is against Koran teaching” said Kashim looking at Loretta.

“Is that so? I thought Islam despised women. Women have to wear scarves to cover her hairs and faces. Women are not allowed to disobey her husbands. That is what Koran says” Loretta said to Kashim. 

“This isn’t all true. In Koran, women’s independence is recognized. Islam prophet, Muhammad’s wife was a business woman. Koran clearly rules a wife can receive certain portion of the couple’s asset after the divorce. We do take care of the women’s rights. You, westerners misunderstand us. There are a lot of working women in Iraq and other Islam world” Kashim replied in confidence.

Then Kevin said to Kashim. “But you attacked us and some of your people attacked our people using their own bodies. That is what you call “Jihad”, isn’t it. Your religion defends violence and that drives Muslims to do terrorist attacks all over the world.”

“Jihad means restraining ourselves, not to attack others. Islam values peace. Islam literary means “Peace”” Kashim replied. “In your own interpretation, isn’t it. As far as I know, a lot of suicide bombers justified their crazy acts in the name of Jihad. I don’t believe your words” said Kevin.

Kashim said nothing to Kevin’s remark and the silence kept for a while.

“Our religion, Christianity does defend violence. That is why we are in a war, isn’t it” said John to break a silence.

“What do you mean? Does Christian bible have something like “jihad”?” asked Kevin.

“Yes, it does. Read Matthew Chapter 10, Verse 34 to 39, I come not to bring peace but to bring a sword. Evangelicals who support our president say this war is holly war. In fact, Iraq had no weapons of mass-destruction and no link with Al Queda. The government knew that but went into this stupid war and involved a poor guy like me in the turmoil.” John said with anger.

 

“Hey, we overthrew Saddam Hussein and freed Iraqi people. Hussein had oppressed Iraqi people” Kevin said to John and Kashim.

“Freed us? You are wrong. You just messed our land. Yes. Hussein was a brutal dictator but at least he provided us order. When Hussein was gone, we were happy at first because we could never spoke ill of Hussein. There was no freedom of speech. We felt free and even appreciated your military. But later we realized the things got worse. After Hussein’s regime, a lot of different clans started to fight one another. Your military never tried to restrain order. Only Hussein could maintain the order by his dictatorship. Now there is no order but only anarchism prevails. You invaded us because your country wanted the oil in our land. Not to provide us democracy” said Kashim with anger, glaring at Kevin.

 

 

“Who is this baby?” Loretta said holding a picture frame and looking at the photo in it. It was a photo of a crippled baby with a respirator on her face. She found it on the low table near her. She was shocked to see the photo.

“She was my daughter. She died a few months ago. She had only one arm and one lung. She couldn’t breathe well. She died a few months after she was born. After she died, my wife died because of the tumor. A lot of people suffered from cancers in this country. You know why? It is because of depleted uranium weapons your military dumped our land” Kashim said with tears.

“What is Depleted Uranium?” asked Loretta. She never heard of anything like that in her life.

“That is the weapon using highly concentrated nuclear wastes. That works. It can easily burn anything and anybody into charcoal in a second. Very deadly and cost effective weapon. That is what our military says. They never disclose side-effect of this weapon. After they were used, high level of radiation was scattered in the surrounding areas where the weapons were hit. When human bodies absorbed the radiation, it would cause cancers and leukemia. For pregnant women, defective babies can result. Our media never want to report anything about it. I, myself knew nothing like that until I came here. Well, I guess I am affected already” said John.

“You are already affected?” asked Kevin.

“Yeah, you may be as well. As long as you are here, you are in danger of DU exposure. Well, even if I could come back home, I wouldn’t be saved. I have no medical insurance. I cannot afford that. I can go to free military hospital but I will have to wait for months to see a doctor” said John.

“Speaking of a doctor, when my father was hit by a truck on the farm, he was never treated at the hospital. He was rejected by the hospital because he was illegal immigrant. He died on the road with no medicine. They just dumped him like trash” Fernando spoke with tears.

 

  “We are like disposal weapons for this corrupt war. War for the rich people like you, two” said John glaring at Kevin and Loretta.

“Why are you taking on us? We are all Americans” said Kevin.

“It seems there are two fronts in this war. A front in Iraq . The other one in the U.S. We are at the civil war. Your people start the stupid war and only the poor like us are just sent to the battle fields. Now we are together here. I am very lucky to die with you, two.” said John with fierce anger.   

 

Two Americans and the other two Americans started to look at each other like the two pairs fighting match on the ring. Kashim and his comrades were just surprised to see this strange phenomenon. Kashim learned Americans were the victims of the war, too.

“Hey, please calm down. You will be saved. Let’s stop fighting each other. I will release all of you after the thing will work” said Kashim.

Da, da, da, suddenly big sounds were heard to the house they were in. The house was shaken by the big sounds. It was sounds of propellers. The propellers of a helicopter.

 

“Yes, we will be saved. The thing worked” said Kevin smiling.

John, suddenly figured out what Kevin meant. John seized Kevin by his collar.

“You tricked them. You called military to come and get us.”

 

Go on to the Last Chapter. One more chapter than expected!

Actually, I do not eat beef at all, not even Australian beef.

But American beef is MUST NOT. It is poisoned by mad cow disease.On 23 of April Japanese famous beef rice bowl restaurant franchise, Yoshinoya discovered beef with back-bone imported from Californian beef factory. The backbones are classified as dangerous part that can contain mad cow disease.

American beef import has been restricted since mad cow disease case was reported in the U.S.

Even after the restriction was loosen, a lot of beef with backbones which might contain poisonous disease that can affect human brains were found in the custom checks. Every time that case was reported, the beef import was banned.

The U.S. government insensitively pressured Japanese government to import their poisonous beef whatsoever. Then Japanese government gave in. But the thing is Japanese customers are walking away. Restaurants in Japan advertise that they are not using dangerous American beef. Some supermarkets have stopped selling American beef.

Instead, Australian beef are getting popular because of safety. Australian farmers are not using meat and bone meal to raise their cows. They are using natural grass. Good! The restaurant I often go and eat advertise they use only safe Australian beef. Now they are doing Angus beef steak campaign.

Well, even America tries to threaten Japanese government, people are not that stupid. Not only beef but trust in other American goods is declining.

 

Remember, we can do boycott campaign of other American goods if we want as long as the U.S. government is insulting us. Just like Chinese are doing to French for Tibet issue. Actually I am doing that to protest America's "Third Atomic Bomb" to our land.

This is the campaign statement.  

Stupid America! How ignorant they are! They are not our friends any more.

 

By the way, I am actually not eating beef at all as previously mentioned. I am becoming vegetarian recently. Not because of religions or love for animals. It is due to health and ecology. Vegetables work fine in my stomach.

Cattle grazing is very harmful to the environment. Amazon forests are disappearing because of grazing. Deforestration and methane breath from cows are causing global warming.

There are estimated 1.5 billions cows on the earth. If the crops for feeding the cows are switched to feed humans, the world starvation problem would be resolved. We are wasting so much food and starving many people in other parts of the world just for the luxury of the good tasting.

It is time we change our lifestyle to save our planet. American lifestyle is most harmful to our planet. Just cut it off!

 

Answer to Pritcht,

China is not part of Japan, nor Japan is not part of China. Both are separate independent nations. Do more research on the world geographies.

 

The United State Ambassador to Japan, J. Thomas Schieffer
Embassy of the United States of America
1-10-5 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420

Member of "Boycott on American goods to protest USS "George Washinton" deployment on Yokosuka base" Association

Declaration of "Boycott on American goods to protest USS "George Washinton" deployment on Yokosuka base"


Dear Sir,

American-Japanese relations have already existed for more than 150 years. Along the way there was a war between the two countries, but in the post-war period I believe that good relations have been fairly consistently maintained. In recent days however, an incident has taken place which is shaking up this relationship; it is the deployment of the nuclear aircraft carrier the USS George Washington from August 2008 to the American military base in Yokosuka city, which is not that far away from the capital city, Tokyo. The deployment of this kind of aircraft carrier so as to make its home port within Japanese territory is unprecedented and a warship which is stacked with nuclear reactors is in a manner of speaking a nuclear power plant floating on the sea.

 

The American Navy has asserted that the nuclear aircraft carrier is safe, but a number of objective pieces of information have proved that its deployment in the national capital region presents a significant danger. For citizens living in the capital region and for the Japanese people, it is very difficult to allow this to happen. I believe it is well known that in Japan confidence in nuclear power itself is comparatively lower than in your country, and recently due to an earthquake the world’s largest nuclear power plant has continued to have operations suspended. Additionally, trust in the American troops stationed in Japan themselves has also fallen due to the deterioration of the environment as well as legal order in surrounding areas. No matter what justification is made by your country’s government, it will not be persuasive. Essentially the American troops stationed in Japan are in a position to protect the lives and property of the Japanese people, but I feel very angry by the fact that they have increased the danger to the lives of Japanese citizens.
 
Therefore, I appeal to the governments of the United States and Japan to stop the establishment of a home port for the nuclear aircraft carrier. Since an agreement has already been reached between both countries’ governments, obviously I realize that it cannot be easily overturned; the purpose of this correspondence is not only to pass on my protests however, but also to notify that until efforts to create a home port are canceled, I will expand the movement to reject the purchasing of American goods.
 
While these actions are those of an individual, in order for them to be not simply my own, everyone will make an appeal in order to have a larger number of people participate. Therefore an association called “BOYCOTT ON AMERICAN GOODS TO PROTEST USS "GEORGE WASHINGTON”deployoment on Yokosuka base" was established. Basically it will be a movement for individuals to not purchase American goods or goods which are involved with American capital from within their consumer spending capabilities. It is a call to not only stop buying American products, but also to withdraw funds from accounts at American capital banks, cancel insurance plans, and stop using restaurants and amusement parks. Action will also be taken to not watch American movies at the theatres or on DVD.

 

You may think that developing a movement to boycott goods in response to the problem surrounding a nuclear aircraft carrier is peculiar, but it is not any different from the boycott on Japanese goods in protest of Japanese whaling in the Antarctic Ocean. If the unreasonable treatment the government of the United States is giving to the Japanese people is considered, as a Japanese person I believe the desire to stop buying goods which have to do with America is a natural sentiment. Of course, this movement is not being carried out with the intention of slandering individual Americans who are living in Japan. The target of this protest is strictly the American government’s decision at this time to establish a home port for the nuclear aircraft carrier.

After the USS George Washington has arrived in Japan in August, I believe that the movement will not stop and naturally the boycott will be expanded. I am sure you are aware that while the carrier is anchored, even without an accident occurring higher levels of radioactivity than usual have been detected. No matter how much the navy denies its connection with the aircraft carrier, it has spread around Japan as a piece of dangerous news in the blink of an eye, and has without a doubt resulted in an increase in distrust against not only the American troops stationed in Japan but also against the American government and the country as a whole. The establishment of a home port for the nuclear aircraft carrier will result its long-term anchoring meaning that that mistrust will earnestly grow, and a warship which bears the name of one of your country’s founding fathers will be considered as a “third atomic bomb” to the Japanese people. This is the extent to which harm will be done to citizens’ sentiments.
This event is the biggest crisis which has faced bilateral relations since the end of the Second World War. It will greatly affect not only military exchanges, but also economic and cultural ones.

Please do not forget that citizens, in addition to political institutions, are important players in the diplomatic process today. This is like "Declaration of Independence" by Japanese citizens.

Sincerely,

 

Please also read this article to know more about the meaning of this movement.

The American aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which is scheduled to enter and set anchor in Yokosuka base near Tokyo this year in August, uses highly concentrated uranium fuel and is, in a manner of speaking, “a nuclear reactor floating on the sea”. A nuclear power plant generates electricity by creating steam which turns turbines, whereas a nuclear aircraft carrier uses this power to navigate.

While the aircraft carrier is anchored the nuclear reactor is not generating power; during that time however the nuclear reactor must be continuously cooled and if an accident or a disaster such as an earthquake were to render the cooling process impossible, a catastrophe caused by the core melting down is capable of occurring. In such a case, the damage caused would cover the entire national capital region. In addition to a large number of people losing their lives, the region would also likely be transformed into an area similar to Chernobyl , where people will not be able to live for centuries to come. For the people living in the capital region, this cannot be allowed.

 

The American Navy insists that the aircraft carrier is “safe”, in spite of the fact it won’t release information regarding the structure of the nuclear reactor due to military secrecy. This kind of talk makes complete fools of the Japanese people.

  

While I was thinking about this, I was casually watching an American movie one day when something occurred to me. The movie was a good one, but I couldn’t help getting irritated by the fact that the country where it was produced was trying to bring a “third atomic bomb” into our country’s capital city. Probably because of this, I stopped enjoying the movie and turned it off halfway through. In addition, I can’t help but detest all things that project the image of America . I once studied in the United States , but even so, when I think of the “American military superpower” insensitively bringing in a nuclear aircraft carrier for its own national interests, I just become disgusted. Of course, the Japanese government who “nobly” accepted this situation is also cowardly and irritating.

 

I thought about whether there was anything I could do. In Yokosuka signatures are being collected to hold a local referendum. In addition, a lawsuit has been filed requesting the suspension of the dredging work which is being done in the harbor in order for the aircraft carrier to anchor. However, these measures are surely not suitable to overcome what has already been decided between the two countries’ respective governments. However I think there is something that can be done at an individual level, and moreover, which involves a greater number of people: the act of not buying American goods.

  

Naturally our everyday lives are filled with American goods including computer softwares I am using, yet we must try as hard as we can to not buy them. I have immediately stopped watching American movies. I am going to withdraw my funds from an American capital bank (Shinsei bank owned by Ripplewood), cancel my insurance (Aflac), naturally I’m going to stop eating at fast food restaurants (McDonald’s) and family restaurants (Denny’s), stop going to amusement parks (Disney Land) and do as much as possible from what’s available.

 

There are some companies who simply borrow American copyrights while conducting their business through Japanese capital; however since they invoke the image of America , they must also become subjects of the boycott. By making this kind of proposal, there will likely be a lot of criticism stating that political and military affairs are being confused with commerce. However if citizens do not display their will through these kinds of means, then there is little chance that they will be able to alter this urgent situation. This is the same as the boycott movement that occurred on Japanese goods amongst Americans who were opposed to the Japanese invasion of China in the lead-up to the Second World War.

 

As is well known, individuals are free to decide which goods to buy and which goods not to buy. From America’s point of view, economic relations with Japan are more significant than military ones. You could even say that America is quite reliant on good economic relations with Japan . In addition, the Japanese government is paying expenses for the American troops stationed in Japan in what it designates an “omoiyari yosan (Simpathy budget)”, or which the U.S. calls “host nation support”.

 

I would also like to suggest the following. Since the anxiety caused by the upcoming permanent deployment of the nuclear aircraft carrier is going to lead to emotional distress and pain, citizens should sue the American navy and its affiliates. It’s not a matter of winning the lawsuit or not. This kind of action would be done to show that citizens are making a stand. If it is recognized that a large number of citizens approve of the boycott on American goods, then they will be forced to deal with the issue. A boycott circle should be symbolically created. If the government doesn’t work, individual citizens will likely be able to provide in its stead.

 

The Cold War is already over, and I do not believe the presence of American troops has the same significance on security that it once did. Recently, troops are only being used for the American militaristic strategy including invasion of Iraq . There is considerable room for negotiation. We individuals, as well as the government, must work on cooling off the “Simpathy budget”.

 

Nevertheless, many Japanese have remained uninterested even though the thought of their country’s capital city facing the threat of radioactivity should leave them restless. A military ally which is supposed to protect Japan could cause it massive destruction. It’s truly humiliating. In reality, it’s being said that the American government also fears the problem of the Japanese people’s sentiments towards the upcoming deployment of the nuclear aircraft carrier. It’s also being said that the names given to other aircraft carriers could bring back images of the atomic bomb, which is why the USS “George Washington” was chosen.

 

While I was studying in the United States however, I was told the following by a Afro-American: “Washington was a hypocrite who was advocating liberty while at the same time owning slaves”. This kind of view also exists. The USS George Washington, as well as the soon-to-be decommissioned standard warship USS Kitty Hawk have both borrowed the name of liberty while being used in a hypocritical aggressive war. Let’s stop lending our land out with such ease to the United States . Isn’t it time that we establish the trend of starting to take a greater responsibility for the defense of our own country? Before saying that the government is unreliable, it’s time that individuals think of how their actions are able to change the principles of politics and diplomacy.

The above is translation of this Japanese article posted on Japan's most famous independent citizen media.

The below is related post. Please also read this.

Do not bring third atomic bomb to our capital.

P.S. I urge American people to boycott Toshiba products because the company received orders to build several nuclear power plants on the U.S. soil.