Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

The U.S economy has been known as largest in the world.

But just recently it collapsed dramatically. Well, the time has come.

Most of the U.S. GDP, which is largest in the world comes from consumption, not production.

They buy many things from abroad. How come that is possible for people who don't produce so much buy goods from abroad? 

It is because foreign countries lend them money buying U.S. treasury bonds. The biggest owner today is China.

They just print dollar bills if they have to pay the debts back because the U.S. dollar has been the world's key currency. Every country in the world uses that.

But the dollar value is just depreciating. And then this subprime loan crisis hit the economy. No one can rely on the U.S. economy.

Now the world is reconsidering how to deal with the U.S.

The U.S. is no longer supepower of the world. No country can be like that any more.

The U.S. is softlanding to be one of big countries in the world. President Obama would be the symbol of non-superpower America.

Maybe that is normalization of the world.    

That may be the beginning of interesting era of human history.

After all the criticism and protests, the ship came, most dangerous ship in the world, CVN73 George Washington arrived in Yokosuka port on 25 of September, 2008. Yokosuka is 20 miles away from Japan's capital, Tokyo.

They've got a fire incident during the navigation on the sea near South America and the deployment was delayed for more than a month for the repairment. It contains nuclear reactor and is navigated by nuclear power.

Citiznes in Tokyo capital region including me have to live with fear of nuclear accident like Chernobyl from now on.

Why is it deployed in Japan? To counter the threat of Chinese navy.

What? Isn't China No.1 owner of U.S. Treasury bonds? They buy Boeing airplanes, Motorolla cellphones and other U.S. goods. They buy more than Japan does.

The U.S. navy commander said the navy is ready to help China build new aircraft carrier.

Are we protected from China by the country which is financially supported by China, deals big business with China and sell weapons to China?

This is just stupid. Well, after all, this is Japanese government's fault. Only if they could oppose the deployment, the U.S. wouldn't want to do that. They use bases in Japan as cheaper facilities because we are providing aid to them. Once Japanese government stops funding them, they would not want to use the bases.

Well, what we have to do is continue protesting and letting the ship go back home as soon as possible. Even mayor of Yokosuka said "I welcome the crews but not the ship."   

Last Friday, on the day U.S. Navy announced the entry of Nuclear aircraft carrier in Yokosuka city, George Washington to be 25 of September. The kind of granade weapon were fired from mountain near the U.S. Navy Base in Yokosuka. The shots could not reach the base, but it was appearent they were aimed towards the base. Yokosuka is located near Japan's capital Tokyo. The most dense region in the world with the population of 30 million.

Citizens have been protesting the deployment because of the danger of nuclear reactor inside the ship. The ship itself caught the fire on the sea and the deployment was delayed for more than a month. It was supposed to be deployed on 19 of August. The fear grew by the fire accident. Not only that it was found U.S. navy submarine, Houston leaked radioaction into the sea for 2 years.

Such incident was easily predicted. Americans might call it "Terror Attack." For us, it is not. It is a resistance attack like what happened in Occupied France by Nazi-Germany, Vietnam in 1960's to 70's and Baghdad currently.

It is illegal, and the violent act should not be encouraged but those who do not welcome the ship and the U.S. military presence at all, are reluctant to condemn such act.

However, I am doing another type of resistance. Boycotting American goods (except things necessary for my life and movies, music, books and art works.) That way is more peaceful. I also demand Japanese goverment not to provide aid to the U.S. military bases and eventually get rid of them from Japan. I am no longer American friend. The below is what I posted You Tube for the PR of protest. This was before the arrival schedule change was announced. So the scheduled arrival date indicated in the clip is August 19, which was delayed to September 25. I am planning to make new version of it with music and more details after the dangerous ship arrived in our capital region.

Today marked 7th anniversary of 911 attack on WTC and Pentagon.

The U.S. army attacked Afghan and Iraq without mercy to civilians. The purpose was to find Bin-laden.

 But where is he now? In Guantanamo?

Things are getting worse since 911. The photo was taken in July, 1993 just after first terrorist attack took place in WTC. As you see, I was wearing United Nations T shirt. I don' t have that shirt any more.

I think 911 opened the door to awful 21st century.

That is the title of a book written by Mika Tsutsumi, who wrote this book, which I wrote the review of.

She has lived in New York as college student and office worker but since she experienced 911 turmoil, she started to learn what went wrong in the U.S.

In this book, she paid attention to poverty issue. Some of the things mentioned overlap in her previous book.

The book became best-selling non-fiction book in Japan. It was sold at the price of 700 yen (US$7).

At first she talked about subprime loan crisis. The real estate business took mean advantage of poor people who have dreams of having their own houses, which they could never afford by their cheap salaries. They ended up losing  houses and dreams and then being poorer than before.

50 million people don't have medical insurance. 60 million live by the wage under $7 per day. 35 million people are in hunger. That was a result of free economy. The poor gets poorer, the rich gets richer.

Although so many are in hunger, but at the same time so many of them are suffering from obesity. The poverty and the obesity are linked. Poor people cannot afford healthy food. They had to buy cheap junk food which is filled with oil and contain less nutrition. They get fat but lack nutrition that result in sickness but they have no medical insurance to cure. The medical insurance issue she mentioned is similar to Micheal Moore's "Sicko."

Americans favour free competition, smaller government, and privatization. Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophie caused by privatization. FEMA was privatized and disaster prevention budget was cut-off.

In the last chapter, she described working poor became new type of military drafting system. A truck driver was offered high-paying job in Iraq by a military contractor. After months of labor in Iraq, he got leukemia because he drunk highly radioactive water. He had no insurance coverage to take care of his illness. Even though he got a big money for that job, he had to use all of it to cure the illness and ended up being poorer and getting heavy illness.

The poor people had no choice but to work for the military which offers only very hard and dangerous tasks.

That is the true figure of America, now. The popularity of Obama seems to be supported by those who experience such hard situations.

Today the U.S. marked very historical moment, Afro-American was nominated for presidential candidate of major political party. Some might hope because he is Black, he should know how the oppressed feel.

Can Ob(s)ama-Bi(nla)den change things better for the U.S. rather than fighting against terrorists outside their country? No more war and poverty, please! 

On 2nd of August, I went to U.S. Navy Base in Yokosuka city, 30 kilometers from Tokyo.

On that day, "Navy Friendship Day" festival was held there. "Friendship?" Huh? Are they our friends?

The navy is bringing very dangerous ship to the sea near our capital. That is CVN 73, George Washington.

They were providing comic books that describe life of the crews, how much they are excited to live in Japan, how much they love Japan. Such a cliche just irritated me.

In fact the story were all fiction including the scene of the fire in laundry room. A crew extinguished the fire from a dryer immediately and prevented it from spreading. 

In May the CVN 73 caught a big fire on the sea near South America. The fire spread out to 80 compartments in the ship. It took 12 hours to extinguish the fire. The cause of the fire was announced 2 months later and it was from cigarette in non-smoking area. The fire was flashed off flammable fuels near it. The fuels were placed in prohibited area.

The morale of the crews was proved to be terrible. We can never rely on such crews for controlling the dangerous nuclear ship. I've already written a post about danger of nuclear aircraft carrier on this blog several times. I also posted You Tube video clip for this issue.

At night I saw fireworks lighting over the sea. It was very beautiful scene. I really enjoyed especially because I could see it lying on the football field inside the base.

The cost of maintaining the base facilities came from our tax. If they are protecting our land, I wouldn't care. But they just use that for their purposes and threaten our lives. We don't want them around us any more.

America should change their policy. They have to care about their own people rather than people outside their country. Abondon foreign bases and go back to traditional isolationism.

Last month I saw the documentary film featuring the U.S. soldiers and their miserable lives. The title was "AMERICA BANZAI, crazy as usual." The film featured Iraq war veterans who ended up being homeless after they came back home. Young soldier who refused to go to Iraq and dishonorably discharged. I hope this would be shown in the U.S. The director of the film is Japanese.

Living as American seems so hard except being Paris Hilton.

Breaking News came up!

Nuclear aircraft carrier, CVN "George Washington" has caught a fire on the sea near South America. US Navy told the press it took hours to distinguish the fire. No damage on the nuclear reactor was reported. No affect on navigation. The navy will transport the ship to the Yokosuka city as scheduled.

FUC K US NAVY!

Taking hours to distinguish the fire, this is very abnormal situation for the navy ship. We don't want such fragile and abnormal ship near us. Actually there is no need for that stupid ship in our country's security. As I mentioned in this article, the only reason US military stays in our country is cheaper cost by our tax.

The carrier will be deployed in Yokosuka, middle August and if an accident happens again! They will destroy our land. The ship will be the Third Atomic Bomb!

This is the end of US-Japan relationship.  

"George Washington" should not come! The ship will meet unwelcome atmosphere by Yokosuka citizens. This will expand anti-US sentiment all over Japan. The U.S. Navy will make most stupid choice in its history.

"Yankees, go home! Do not pollute our land and kill us in the name of "Defense.""

Answer to Pritcht,

The information you get all comes from the military.  Please see this video clip on You Tube.

The photo below is the gathering of Yokosuka citizens who protest deployment of Nuclear aircraft carrier USS "George Washington" which is scheduled to dock in Yokosuka port in August. Yokosuka is just 20 miles away from Tokyo. 

I call that ship "Third Atomic Bomb." The citizen group collected more than 52,000 signatures to call for referendum to object the deployment. But the city council voted down the referendum plan. Maybe because the council members were afraid that the Japanese government would stop paying subsidies to the city if they approve the plan.

I've already written why I call it that way. Please read this post for the detail.

The photo below is the campaign I started with the protestors.

This post is the statement I made to the U.S. government.

The problem is not just nuclear carrier, the bigger issue that includes this dangerous ship deployment is US bases in Japan.

The US bases have been placed in Japan since the defeat of Japanese imperial army in 1945. The purpose was to occupy the defeated enemy and counter the communist nations such as Soviet Union.

But the Pacific war and the Cold War are all over, then why are they still in Japan?

The answer is simple. Japan is paying the expense for the bases such as salaries for civilian personnels, utilities, construction of the buildings and housing inside the bases. The amount is almost 6 billion US $.

For a long time, Japanese have been too generous to believe the U.S. troops are defending us while we only have very small and weak military troops. Since the cold war is over, there is no particular threat to us. Soviet Union collapsed. China has been thought to be next threat. But that is nonesense. China is biggest trade partner for Japan and the biggest buyer of the U.S. government bonds. The U.S. wouldn't help Japan even if China attacks us.

Actually, the U.S. troops never defended Japan even before. During the cold war era, the target was Russia, they just wanted to use Japan as defense line for the non-communist world. Japanese troops were used to protect U.S. troops in the bases. After the cold war, they use it as free transit points for their military strategies. They don't necessarily use Japanese bases unless Japanese government pays the expense. As Colin Powell said, Japan is cheap location for the U.S. military. Just that.

There is actually no American troops that defend our nation. American troops stationed in Japan are mostly supply staff. Not combat ones. The defense for Japanese military has been done by Japanese troops. That is their primary responsibility in the guideline agreed on between the both countries.

We have been fooled by the U.S. telling Japan should pay the expense for the bases in exchange for the security of the country. The money we've paid for were never used for our defense but used just to save the expense for the U.S. military. Not only that they never protected our country, but also they polluted our land and rape and kill civilians and bringing deadly weapon, Nuclear carrier that can nuke the whole capital region.

One more outrageous thing is the U.S. bases financially supported by Japanese tax payers may have been used for covert missions by CIA and NSA. What is their target? Russia or China? No. Japan. To steal technologies from Japan.

Wow! They are Trojan Horses. Just stop paying that money to them.

The two countries are at war in Japan land. What we have to do is get them out of our land. They have become very dangerous neighbors. I can't trust America and Americans any more.

"Yankees, go home!"   

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.