Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

The film describes how danger our planet is in. The carbon dioxide rate in the air is highest in last 650,000 years. The ice in North Pole will disappear in 40 years. Manhattan will be under water by rise of sealevel. There is greater threat than terrorism. That is "Global Climate Crisis."

The most of what Al Gore presented was what I have already known. I learned those things from Professor Glenn Fieldman's class at San Francisco State University. The title of the course was "World Eco Crisis." That was one of the courses of my major, International Relations.

 Professor Fieldman was a liberal type of scholar, which you can easily find in San Francisco. She was expert for environmental issues. Al Gore reminds me of her so well.

Al Gore not only talked about the critical situation we are in. He also noted that there is political factors that drove the situation worse. That is journalism and the political and economic entities behind. The environmental crisis issues have been reported for many years and in many media outlets but there are many that deny such facts. So people have to wonder if the environmental crisis really exists. That was what Ms. Fieldman emphasized. News media are sponsored by large corporations. They can't critisize their major ad clients and shareholders. NBC is owned by General Electronics, that is why they can't critisize Nuclear Power Plant management.

Al Gore says Bush administration is backed by oil business tycoons. That is why Bush withdrew from Kyoto Protocol. It seemed Al Gore really wants to strike down his opponent who unfairly took away his "President" title.

But there are very important things that are missing in the film which Ms. Fieldman most strongly emphasized. That is gap between the rich and poor countries. That may be a major causes for current global eco-crisis. The rich countries have exploited poor countries, and made them poorer. People in those countries have to exploit their natural resources to live on.

This is what Al Gore could not mention because he is a man who drives a Mercedes-Benz, very luxurous and high emission car, and who lives in a mansion that consumes so much electricity which is worth 30,000 US dollars every year. 20 times as much as average household in U.S.

After all, politicians are hypocrats.   

It has been a huge turmoil in Japanese politics. It was caused by Minister of Defense, Mr. Kyuma. In a speech he made at a University in Chiba Prefecture, he said "US dropping of atomic bombs helped Japan end the war and prevent the Soviet Union from entering in Japan, so we have to accept that."

After the criticism arose, he apologized and retracted the remark. But still the demand for his resignation is strong.

As one Japanese citizen, some point I agree with him, I do not want to blame the US for dropping atomic bombs for some reasons although these acts should never be justified. It was clearly attack on civilians. Huge number at one time.

In Hiroshima and Nagasaki in total, more than 200,000 people were killed. The Nuclear Era started by them.

But the war was in fact started by us, Japan, we started the war in China and then Japan had to face economic embargo by allied nations including the U.S. We've killed so many civilians in China and other Asian nations. After the economic sanctions was implemented, Japan attacked on Pearl Harbor.

We haven't done enough to compensate for the loss of the victims like "comfort women" who were forced to become sexual slaves for Japanese soldiers. This issue has been on debate in U.S. Congress lately. The resolution to demand Japanese government to apologize and ackknowlege this inhumane act.

Japan has not done enough to make up for the past aggression. In order to accuse U.S. for dropping atomic bombs, we, must have done what we have to do. We failed.

However, Mr. Kyuma, should have never made such remarks. That is the insult to the victims of the atomic bombs and considered justification of the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons should be all eliminated. No matter what cause the nation provoke the war, attacks on civilians should never be done.   

I bought a DVD of the film "The Guardian" starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. The story of rescue swimmers of US Coast Guard.

It has been rumored that the film was actually remake of Japanese Coast Guard film "Umizaru (Sea Monkeys)" released in 2004. It was a popular movie and sequel was released later year. Indeed there are some scenes overlapped. The first scene of light seen from the blue water. Loss of lives, severe school training, girl hunt and friendship among school boys.

But overall the stories are quite different. In fact, American version was much better, dramatic and dynamic. Keven Costner did great act. He played a role of an instructor for prospective swimmers. I was really moved by the character he played. I never realized such a crazily brave job exists in this world until I saw this movie. Oorah! The movie never let me go.

I wish the movie producers will make sequel for this film. This time, remake Japanese sequel "Umizaru 2."

The story is like this. Jake, played by Ashton was stationed in Florida base. His fiance, Emily was on board of the ship sailing to Miami. She was with her mother and mother's fiance who was the owner of the ship. But the ship got an accident and started to sink. Most of the passengers evacuated from the ship helped by USCG crews. Jake and his friend, Hodge were part of the team.

Emily, her mother and the owner were stuck in the bottom of the ship. Jake tried to rescue them but the ship was rapidly sinking and great amount of water poured into the room they were in. The owner was so shocked with the situation and said "I am bankrupt. My ship now became Poseidon." Jake tried to cheered them up to make it through to the deck. But Jake aparted from Emily and Hodge. Then he and Emily's mother and the owner got trapped in the deep water. They had no way to get out. They almost gave up but at that moment, the Guardian appeared and guide them to where they can breathe. The Guardian was a legendary man who looks like an actor in the movies like "Field of Dreams" and "Dances with Wolves."  

I have been living in Tokyo, Japan's capital, world's biggest urban area, for more than 7 years.

 I feel like I was born and grew up here.  Actually I was not born and did not grow up in Tokyo.

Where I was born and grew up was a devastated city, where no culture exists. I hate my hometown.

I used to live in some other cities. One of them is San Francisco. I went to the university there.

It was a pretty city but small and not so exciting.

Tokyo is much bigger. There are some advantages of living in Tokyo, which I like to mention.

 1. Very big, varous towns, beautiful places, facilities, and exciting events in one city. You never get bored. If you are alone and bored, you can easily find some places to go to have fun even if you don't have so much money. Just walking on the street is fun.

2. For me, English speaking person, there are a lot of opportunities. Tokyo always needs English speaking workers like me because it has many, many international firms.

3. Very, very sophisticated people, such as journalists, artists, and other intellectuals. I could come to a concert of big artist like Billy Joel. As you know, this is capital of Japan, you can meet influential politicians, too.

4. Many, many foreigners, every day, actually every hour I can easily pass by foreigners. I can encounter different cultures. As I recall, I've met or worked with Koreans, Chinese, Thais, Indians, Brazilians, Russians, Turkeys, Iraqi, Arabs, French, Canadians, Britons, and of course Americans. Some are good but some are not. But I like them.  

I love Tokyo. I've decided to live here for the rest of my life. I will die here.

 Come visit Tokyo! You can meet wonderful people and see beautiful places.