Sunday, March 13, 2011

A Disaster of Enormous Magnitude

On Friday, 11 March, almost the whole of East Japan was attacked by a terrible quake, the greatest ever experienced here. It came three times, major ones alone, with innumerable minor ones in between and afterwards. The first was the severest shaking the houses for quite a long time. Very few buildings fell down as with each major quake a more strict standard for construction was being applied. In the Great Kobe Quake in 1995, the number of dead amounted to more than 6,000, mostly by the fallen buildings. Fires were also widely spread.
Talking of the Kobe Quake I still remember that a Korean reporter who visited the devastated area soon afterwards saying that no untoward thing was happening, implying that at the time of the historic Quake in 1923 in Tokyo, a wide area was put under the control of the army and with this as the background many Koreans who had come to Japan as workers were harrassed and even worse, together with many Japanese communists.
What was not to be seen at Kobe and is very much present this time is the repeated attacks of tsunami all along on the northeastern coast of Honshu(Japan's main island). Not only the magnitude of the quake, but also of this tsunami was something we have never imagined. We have for the first time realized that the tsunami's devastating capacity is very varied in the sense sometimes the first wave was more destructive than the following, but in other cases the second or third ones were taller and more far-reaching. The intervals between the waves were also different. The tsunami will account for much more of the casualties than the quake itself. At several places hundreds of people were swept away at a stroke.
Already more than fifty countries have offered to help, and we are grateful to them.
The Quake has left several problems to be seriously tackled. First, The whole transport network in the Metropolitan area came to a standstill. As the result millions of those who had come to Tokyo for a day's work had no means of going back. This is the end of the coldest season in Japan, and the outside temperature is still very low. Many able-bodied walked all the way home, and those who are fortunate were offered tea, or rest places by the local inhabitants along the way. My daughter was one of them who took 5 hours to cover 18.6km. She said she could do so as many others were also walking in the same way. She also saw a number of people purchasing cycles at a cycle shop, and walking shoes at a shoe shop. This may have been a good exercise on the eve of an weekend, but what about the weakness of the infrastructure?
Quite sereous is what happend to some of the nuclear power plants on the coast. It is too early to say anything definite on the point. All in all, this disaster has hit our economy very hard. But I hope this will be a time for the people to extend help to one another and rise together. Already we are watching those instances here and there.

Friday, March 11, 2011

A New Way of Agricultural Exports?

Recently a new form of agricultural relations are shaping themselves between Japan and some Asian countries. The NHK(Japan's public broadcasting)has had a half-hour special programme on the subject for two consecutive days.
A farmer from Japan visited Thailand, succeeded in improving some varieties of bananas there, and those improved ones are now in the sophisticated super-markets in that country. They are three times higher, but the camera shows the well-to-do customers preferring them saying they are more delicious. Another one has come from our grapes-growing area, has tasted the grapes on the Thai market, says that they are 'not sweet', and makes all the efforts to grow more sweet varieties.
These are instances of individual farmers, with their activities naturally limited. But there are some attempts on a larger scale. An agricultural corporation from Chiba Prefecture is growing vegetables on 100 farms in Thailand. The experiment consists of giving no inpesticide, no fertilizer except organic one and attending to every detail of the crop growing.
The above examples are all from Thailand, but there are others from different countries. Some are under progress in South India. With China an attempt is moving ahead with some difference.
As the readers may be aware most of the rice grown in the world is of Indica type, with Japonica, the other main type, grown mainly in Japan. The difference is between a long and dry type and a short and sticky one. Recently China has set an eye on the Japonica, and started investigating into its feasibility in the China market. Some soundings have shown that they are and Japan's Agriculture Minister says we are able to export 200,000 tons out of 8-9 million tons of annual output.
The prices will be necessarily higher, but the indications are that the new-rich there would not mind it at all. They have demanded applying some strict standards on the hygienic condition of rice, but they are easy for our rice to clear. So the rice trade will be on a track sooner rather than later.
Is it all going to satisfy the purchasing instinct of the rich? One may say that trade is such a thing. One would hope, however, that the kind of attempts would serve to strengthen the viability of the ordinary farmers in the countries concerned.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

A Bolt Out Of The Blue

This is not usually the time for thunders in this country. But the description of Okinawa by a US State Department official which has just surfaced has terribly confused our people, to say the least. Are the policy decisions in the hands of such ignorant and insincere persons? The feeling aroused here is irrespective of views and ideologies.
It originated in the memorandum prepared by some of the American University students of the briefing by Mr.Kevin Maher, Director of the Office of Japan Affairs, State Department, that 14 students of American University were given on 3 December 2010.
There seems to be neither a beginning nor an end. Maher for instance says soon after he began that 'One third of people believe the world would be more peaceful without a military. It is impossible to talk with such people.' This comes from a State Department official, not the Defence Department.
Then he talks of Wa, a term often used rightly or wrongly to refer to the Japanese group mentality, which, in his opinion, leads to consensus, and it proceeds to extortion of money. One loses sight of a logic here. But Okinawans are called the 'masters of manipulation and extortion of Tokyo', which seems to mean the Okinawans approach the central government to get money as moderately and with as little quarrel as possible. The author of auch a wonderfully unintelligible understanding was a former US Consul-General(he speaks fluent Japanese).
He further says that the people of Okinawa are lazy and not able to grow goya, though as a Canadian peace organization says Okinawa is the formost goya producing Prefecture, the people there are fond of strong liquor, conveniently forgetting the high incidence of crime by the US military personnel, the Japanese distinguishes 'honne' and 'tatemae' and seldom speaks the truth, 'night training' is necessary, ignoring that the US presence is disturbing the life of the people day and night, and finally 'We've got a very good deal in Japan', meaning that the US government is literally begging money from their Japanese counterpart in violation of the statutory provisions to maintain their presence at a low cost.
We know that many Americans would definitely dislike those words used by Maher. But they are educative as long as they show us an insight into the thinking of the US decision makers. They also show that there is something fundamentally unhealthy and anti-human in military alliances.
Some US officials are doing their best at this moment to extinguish the fire, saying that those words do not represent the government attitude. But did they not represent at least one man's views who spoke the truth, not distinguishing honne and tatemae? Also what would be the government's view, then? Apart from the productivity of goya and so on, are there any real differences?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Life and Times of Tanaka Shozo

Tanaka Shozo(1841-1913)was a village headman in his native place in Tochigi Prefecture(the present name), north of Tokyo. His was not a wealthy family. The house in which he was born still stands today, a humble-looking partially two-storeyed house, and is open to the visitors, with volunteers to guide you on certain days. When Japan had its Parliament under the Meiji Constitution in 1890, which was replaced by the present one after the Second World War, Tanaka was elected to the Lower House, and served there for 11 years.
He came to know that the rivers near his native place were contaminated by the copper mining when he saw dead fish in those rivers. Crops also could not be grown. He repeatedly took up the matter in the Parliament, even demanded the closure of the mines, and the long-drawn struggle against the mining capital became his most well-known public activity. The odds were heavy, as Japan was moving toward "the Rich Country, Strong Military", the human rights were suppressed, more often than not brutally, and pro-government ideologues like Fukuzawa Yukichi(1835-1901)were strongly against the closure of the mines saying that it would thwart the progress of civilization. Tanaka was considered to be anti-government, and put in prison five times in all. But he was trying to be non-violent throughout. He said, for example, that since man has got a language he should not resort to violoence. He also said that civilization does not destroy mountains, rivers, villages and man. His concept of civilization thus had a very different meaning from that of Fukuzawa's above. He fell fatally ill while surveying the rivers.
On 20 February 2011, about 200 activists, scholars, and villagers got together at his native place, now Sano city, to discuss how to commemorate Tanaka's birth centenary which will come after two years. Many aspects of his life were discussed, and among them was his view of Japan's wars with China and Russia. They all happened toward the end of his life. It was emphasized that Tanaka was against those wars, and called for abolishing the military completely. Here is the reason why some scholars trace the origin of the Article 9 of Japan's Constitution to him. Korean intellectuals drafted a Declaration of Independence on 1 March 1919, and this date has had a great significance in Korea until today. I am writing this on 1 March 2011 to remember that Tanaka expressed sympathies with Korea on several occasions, and paid high respect to the strict discipline of the Korean peasant army.