Monday, December 31, 2012

A Monumental Work on the Arabs by a Japanese Scholar

He is a happy man who has come across an eye-opening book.  Nagasawa Eiji's 600-page "Jewish Egyptian Marxists and the Palestine Question"(in Japanese), published earlier in this year 2012, has been one such book to me.  It minutely and persistently follows, and analyzes, the lives of two Egyptians who are of Jewish origin, have embraced Marxism, and, in spite of all the persecution, been faithful to the 'ism' in their own way.
Ahmad Sadiq Sa'd(1919-88) is the younger of the two, but survived the elder one by ten years as he died a natural death.  He is more of a scholar of the two and has left at least two works which are worth remembering even today.  His father comes from a family who fled Spain at the time of the Reconquest to Turkey.  His mother was born at Odessa.
Henri Curiel(1914-78), the senior one, is more of a man of action, and a charming speaker.  His life, however, was cut short by a political assassination.  His parents are originally from Italy and Turkey, respectively, and we are bewildered at the cosmopolitan nature, the 'world citizenness', of those families.
They were both French-educated, but while Curiel's Arabic language remained poor till the end, Sa'd made an effort to improve his so that he could play a more active part in the mass movement.  Moreover he together with his wife got converted to Islam.
Curiel did not get converted, but forfeited his Italian citizenship for an Egyptian one.  Those actions on their part were motivated by the popular demand for indigenization (Egyptianization) of the leadership of the Communist movement.  They responded to the move positively, but the positive response itself resulted in pushing them to a corner.  Sa'd was dismissed from the party leadership, while Curiel was expelled from Egypt in 1950.
It is to be noted, however, that when the German tanks approached the Suez Canal zone during the Second World War, many fellow Jewish left the country in fear of persecution, but both of the two had determined to remain in the country.
Curiel also distinguished himself by single-handedly opposing the merger of Egypt and Sudan.
When the UN decided the partition of Palestine into the Arab and the Jewish parts in November 1947, with the Soviet support, ultimately leading to the war disastrous to the Arabs,  Curiel supported the decision while Sa'd opposed it.  As his friend told the author, after his death, Sa'd was of the view that there is no national home for the Jewish people, they should live in Egypt as Egyptians, in Britain as Britons and so on, a Zionist state cannot be allowed to be set up in East Arab as it belongs to the Arabs for thousands of years and Zionism is a form of racial discrimination.  In other words Anti-Semitism gave rise to Zionism in Europe, which in turn brings about anti-Jewish attitude in the Middle East.
The author's attention is closely drawn to Sa'd's work, "Palestine in Claws of Colonialism", 1947(in Arabic).  It is a study of the Palestinian economy under the Mandate.  It says that the Zionists regard upon the Arabs as backward and unfit for the democratic framework.  They bring both the capital and the labour from outside Palestine, the labour from Eastern Europe.  They do not employ the local labourors.  They also appropriate the Arabs' land.
In the second edition of the book, written in 1973 but remaining unpublished, Sa'd sees the possibility of the new Jewish nationalism to overcome Zionism in Israel.
The author was not lucky enough to meet either of the two.  In the last chapter, instead, he mainly talks of another activist, co-founder of a different Communist group, an author, a long-term political prisoner out in the desert, a very likable man fully one generation elder than him.  His contact with him continued on and off from the early 1980s to the mid-90s when his elder friend passed away.  The author says that it is because there is a person like him that he can continue to study this country(Egypt).                  

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Japan's Former Ambassador to China Speaks Up

Mr.Niwa Uichiro, Japan's former Ambassador to China, had a distinction in that he was not a professional diplomat.  He had a life's career behind him of serving a commercial company.  It is very rare in Japan that such a person should be appointed an ambassador, let alone to a leading country like China.  His term, however, was only for two years and four months, having been curtailed by his candid criticism of his own government.  He has given a long interview to a newspaper.  Here are summaries of its several portions.
His trouble started with the Tokyo Metropolitan Governor's announcement that his government would purchase the Senkaku Islands under dispute with China from their private owners.  Niwa thought that it would create grievous crisis between the two countries, and openly said so.  He thinks that the then Prime Minister should have reprimanded the Governor since it was the central government's job to deal with such a matter.  But the PM acted otherwise, and, contrary to Chairman Hu's strong advice which he gave face to face to him, decided to nationalize the islands in September last.  Then the protest demonstrations, even arson and looting in China.
Niwa thinks that Japan should admit that the islands are in dispute, and should talk to China on that assumption.  They can discuss the areas the two countries could possibly collaborate, such as rescue activities, fishing or resource development.
He has visited 27 of China's first-class administrative units(Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Special Cities) as the Ambassador.  On that basis he says that seeing is believing, there are two sides of a coin, and among those Chinese who dislike Japan there is also a feeling of jealousy with the Japanese and the Japanese merchandise, even of respect.
At a press conference he gave shortly before leaving Beijing, end of November, Niwa referred to an opinion in China to the effect that China can now dispense with the Japanese help, and called it "arrogant".  He was ready to argue more, but the opinion in the internet was largely in his  favour.
Niwa says that in the Chinese criticism of Japan recently the term "Fascism" is sometimes used.  He want to ask the Chinese if they know the meaning of the term.  If they say so loudly it may provoke the internet opinion.
South Korea, as this writer has written in the previous blog, is going to have a new 5-year administration.  China has already decided on her new 5-year team.  Japan's new cabinet is going to be set up in a few days.  None of them can afford to be short-sighted at this time.  If China, for example, continues to neglect the human rights, and to make a fuss about the territorial issue, it will surely disappoint the well-wishers like Mr.Niwa.     

Friday, December 21, 2012

South Korean Presidential Election 19 December 2012

It was around this time of the year in 1987 that I had a glimpse of the ongoing Presidential campaign in South Korea in the form of posters and processions.  It was the very first under the democratized political system there.  Twenty-five years have passed since then and five Presidents have come and gone(or going) in the meantime.
This time Ms Park has defeated Mr.Moon by a narrow margin of 3.5%.  I would like to congratulate the winner, not as the daughter of a former dictator President, who rushed industrialization and is responsible for the regional and other division in the country, but as a forward-looking woman who cares about this type of division, and the underprivileged classes of people, not the division in abstract and macro terms but the division with a human face.
It was customary to talk about the regional division, which is almost the East-West division in the Peninsula.  It is to a certain extent a legacy of the Japanese rule, owing to the way how and where the railroad was constructed, but the dictatorial governments in South Korea made use of the legacy and, under the leadership of the TK(Taegu-Kyongsang) Group, consolidated the advantageous position of the Eastern Provinces.  This division is still reflected in the Province-wise voting pattern this time.  Ms Park herself is from Taegu in the East.
I hope, however, that the division is on the gradual way out.  The process will surely be accelerated with the social policy she has promised to put into effect.
She also seems to have asked Japan to adjust her South Korean policy regarding the territorial issue and the comfort women.  She has done well to do so, and Japan should sincerely consider those points.  Regarding the former, South Korea should stand on the same level as Japan, without fortifying the islands or sending her President there again.  Concerning the latter, it is really a national shame for Japan that the surviving comfort women with their supporters are holding a weekly "Wednesday meeting" in front of the Japanese Embassy at Seoul.  Only 59 out of 234 Korean women who have come out are surviving.
Finally what about the DPRK(North Korea)?  South Korea should aim at concluding peace with the north in one year's time.  Not unconditionally.  The pending issues should be ascertained and prioritized within this one year.  The South must be cautious about the Visa and immigration.  Too imaginary?  May be.  But is there any other way?  The matter is so urgent.  But if realized it will create jobs in both Koreas for example.  The US could also be drawn in.  And Japan, too.
Japan?  Impossible!  This is really the most difficult part of it.  Wanting to strengthen the military alliance with the US more, yes, even more, and quite unnecessarily, and involving a lot of waste of money, our leadership will be totally unable to see what to do.  But that is what we have to face squarely, in order to live as a respected, or, if not immediately, at least a honest and trustworthy member of the region.
This is my humble hope for 2013.           

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Japan's General Elections, 16 December 2012

In the past two Elections to the Lower House of Japan, a strong wind was blowing in favour of one of the parties.  Thus, the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) won the overwhelming majority in 2005, and the Democratic Party(DP) in their turn got a majority in 2009.  On both occasions we the voters could feel the shape of the things to come on the election day and afterwards.
But not this time.  No wind was blowing, no boom was taking place in favour of some one.  And yet the LDP got 294 out of 480, 175 more than the last time, while the DP got a comparable 173 less, a colossal damage.
These 480 are divided into two categories in the election procedure.  There are 300 single-member constituencies, and 11 geographical blocks to elect certain number each totalling 180, on the proportional basis.  It is in the former category that the LDP has swept the scene.  It is the magic, undemocratic character, of the single-member constituencies.  They have got 237 out of 300 here, but only 57 of the 180, with 28% of the votes, in the other category.  Surprisingly they have lost more or less 2 million votes each in both the categories.
Hardly anybody is expecting them to do a lot of good for the people.  The morning paper today, 19 December, reports an opinion poll saying that 81% of the respondents think the LDP's victory is due to the disappointment with the DP Government while mere 7% say it is because of the support for the LDP's policies.  It is, therefore, not a "Yes" vote.  It is a strong "No" vote.  The voting ratio also dropped to an all-time low of 59%, a sign that the voters were perplexed.
Once in the saddle, however, the LDP will try to implement some of their policies.  In my previous blog I have discussed the Constitutional question today as I see it.  The LDP's new Prime Minister designate, Mr. Abe Shinzo, is already talking of revising, not Article 9 for now, but Article 96, which defines the process of a Constitutional amendment.  An amendment, in order to be placed before a referendum, it says, should be passed by a two-third majority of all the members in each House.
The LDP alone is short of it in the Lower House, but there is no dearth of parties willing to collaborate on this with them.  Among them is the newly formed "Restoration Party" which can be placed even to the right of the LDP, which is sufficiently rightist in itself, and will try to pull the LDP in that direction.  But those forces do not reach that majority in the Upper House.  In this sense the next Elections to the Upper House, electing half of its members, scheduled six months ahead, has got a very significant meaning.
But who knows what will happen in Japan's fluid political landscape in the meantime?  This time, besides the Restorationists, some other parties also have been formed, trying to take advantage of the weakening DP position.  Not all of them have a solid core policy.  In fact many of their members were deserters from the DP.  It can also be said that behind all this bubble of the parties there is a statutory system of the governmental expenditure to support the parties, and any group with five or more MPs is entitled to a substantial sum of money.
There is no viable opposition?  Under the circumstances of the political fluidity the Communist Party of Japan(CPJ) may be the only one worth the name of opposition, if not as yet quite viable.  They have got only eight seats, one less than before, obtaining 3.7 million votes(6%) in the proportional representation part.  None of them has been elected in the single-member constituency.  Interestingly they are the only one which has not shown interest in getting the money from the government, according to their political philosophy, and as such looks more solid and independent of the temptation of the money.                 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Defense and Constitution Issues in Japan's General Elections

The general elections for the more powerful Lower House of Japan are just round the corner.  Almost a dozen political parties are participating in the fray.  Our Asian neighbours may well be surprised to see that a few of them are calling for a constitutional amendment so that Japan may openly have its Defense forces and be able to fight shoulder to shoulder with the US forces.
Some of them who are spearheading in this direction are even telling us that for the pride of the Japanese the present Constitution should be replaced by one of our own making, as the present one was given by the US occupation forces.  You will see that here is already a contradiction in what they say.  On one hand they want to be a loyal ally of the US.  Any difference of policies, large or small, would upset them.  On the other they pay only scGant respect to the present Constitution although it was given by the US.  They want to make a new one under the name of an independent, national Constitution.
Let us see a couple of issues here.  Is it true that the present Constitution of Japan was just given to us, or enforced upon us, by the Americans?  And what is the main point these pro-amendment forces want to put into their Constitution?
Firstly, the American GHQ had studied a number of documents drafted by various Japanese groups before they completed theirs.  One of them particularly called their attention.  It was a draft Constitution written by a study group of seven liberal-minded professionals.  In fact some of the important articles may be said to have been transplanted from this draft.  It is therefore wrong to say that the Constitution is simply a translated version of the GHQ handout.
Secondly, those parties who talk of the amendment are particularly keen on revising or even deleting Article 9, which renounces war and prohibits to have armed forces.  They say that Japan already has powerful forces which pass as armed forces in the world but we have to call them Self-Defense Forces under the Constitutional constraint.  The name should be changed to suit the substance.  It is a hypocritical argument.  Why can we not change the substance to suit Article 9?  With this Article we in fact pledged that we will never fight a war again with our neighbours.
This is a difficult time for Japan, even apart from the Fukushima disaster.  If China or DPRK put a restraint on their military activities, it would greatly encourage the peace-loving people of Japan.          

Friday, November 30, 2012

Mongolian Warships Lost and Found

Long ago, when I visited the Austrian Military History Museum, Vienna, I was taken aback to find a Navy Department in it.  My surprise shows my ignorance of history.  Up to the First World War, Austria(or after 1867 Austria-Hungary) had a powerful navy based at Trieste on the Adriatic.  I decided then and there that I would go to Trieste one day.
It was a third of a century afterwards that I fulfilled my wish.  We travelled by land from Zagreb, Croatia, to Ljubljana, Slovenia, and entered Italy at Trieste in 2010.  Trieste looked very peaceful, apparently forgetting its own naval history.
In a similar way if one talks about Mongolian warships he would not be taken seriously.  But it is a fact.  There was a time when Mongolians had a powerful navy which tried to conquer Japan twice.
It was not Mongol in the narrow sense.  Chingis Khan(1162-1227) built a great empire over the continents.  His grandson, Khubilai(1215-94), now with his capital at Beijing, wanted to conquer Japan.
To digress a little bit, Yoshitsune(1159-89) was a brilliant Samurai commander and a most popular person in our history.  There is a legend, persistently believed, that after being chased by his elder brother he went over to the continent and became Chingis Khan.
Anyway Khubilai sent mighty fleets on two occasions to Japan with an interval of seven years.  Some of their troops landed in Kyushu, and surprised the Japanese counterparts with their novel gunpowder.  But on both occasions they were blown away by typhoons.  Khubilai planned a third invasion, but he was busy with a war of invasion against Vietnam, and the attempt was dropped.
These typhoons gradually came to be known as divine typhoons, and during the Pacific War we were led to believe that those winds were bound to come and blow away all the US fleet from near the Japanese waters.
Earlier in this month, the NHK broadcasting showed in its TV programme how the research is going on about those sunken Mongolian ships.  The research teams found keels and other parts of those ships.  They have also ascertained that the specific types of granite filling the anchors are available only in a certain region of South China and were making use of by the Muslim merchants at the time.  It is known that a large part of the ships on the second invasion came from the port of Nin-po, Central China.
These are very painstaking research, but will be of great use in shedding light on the history of East Asia.  Fortunately or unfortunately, Mongol is mainly known in Japan today not as a great invader in the past but a country which has sent a number of Sumo wrestlers.  At present both of the Grand Champions of Sumo are from Mongol.     

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A New Palestinian Conflict is Over

A new conflict erupted in the Middle East with the Israeli killing of a high-ranking military man of the Hamas organization on 14 November.  It goes to the credit of all the parties concerned that it was over with the signing of a ceasefire which took effect at 9 pm, 21 November.
The new Egyptian President, Mr.Md.Morsi, was instrumental in bringing it about quickly.  His role reminded us that what is popularly known as the Arab Spring, though by now considerably tarnished by the events in Syria, is still real.  His presence there itself, whatever the internal problems in his own country, instead of his pro-American, pro-Israeli predecessor, is a part of this Spring.  And it is this Spring which has prevented Israel from invading Gaza again with its land troops as it did in 2008-9.
The US-backed Israel still looks at Hamas as a terrorist organization.  But once these two countries recognize it as a force to reckon with, as a party to talk to, the shape of things will change greatly.  This is the only way to ensure that there is no more armed conflict in the region.  Hamas is the winner of the popular elections of January 2006 in Gaza.  To deny the legitimacy of Hamas is to deny the self-respect and the right of self-determination of the people of Gaza.
The post-election US has shown to the world, unfortunately, that it sticks to its old policy of backing Israel through thick and thin.  By doing so it has also shown that it is impossible to solve the Palestinian problem for years to come.  It has also strengthen the suspicion that the US needs the tensions in the region to be kept high for her own reasons.  Is it not the meaning of giving $ 3 billion of military aid to Israel, and half of it to Egypt, every year?  This is in spite of all the talk of her 'Financial Cliff'.
In the midst of the conflict, the re-elected Mr.Obama assured Israel its right of self-defense.  Was it not a green signal for Israel's land invasion of Gaza?  This is not fair.  This is a double-standard.  It would be far better if the US says the same thing to Hamas, and try to prevent both from the use of that right.  She will be hailed the world over as a peace-loving nation.
Her Secretary of State  would then no longer be asked by Chairman Abhas if she is a member of the Likud?      

Friday, November 16, 2012

Justice Pal and the Tokyo Tribunal

Dr.T.R.Sareen, my great historian friend from India, is a prolific writer.  Not so long ago I reviewed his eye-opening book on Jinnah and Linlithgow in these columns.  I have just got his new book, India and The Allied Occupation of Japan 1945-1952, Life Span Publishers, 2013(!).  Looking at the contents, the fifth chapter on Justice R.B.Pal at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East has immediately attracted my attention.  I will therefore discuss this chapter here.
As is well known by now, Pal was the only judge out of eleven who declared all the defendants not guilty at the Tokyo Tribunal.  In his thinking 'The victors have no right to change them(the rules of International Law) in order to punish the vanquished'(p.115).
It would have been certainly difficult to find evidence to show that all of Japan's wars from 1928 to 1945 had been executed according to a certain conspiracy, as was put forward by the prosecution.  In this sense Pal's reasoning was well-founded.
But if you go further and deny the existence of a war of aggression, or a war crime, for the reason that these concepts were not clarified in the existing Law, I am afraid it is a bit too conservative an attitude.
Alternatively you could make this Tribunal, together with the preceding one at Nuremberg, an opportunity to create new international norms concerning the aggression, war crime, and related concepts.  Already, as early as in the post-First World War years, there was an attempted indictment of Kaiser William of Germany as a war criminal.  These examples could well have been codified into the Law.  The UN Charter was also in place.  Otherwise the mankind would not have had today's International Criminal Court, and  would have been totally incompetent before a series of large-scale atrocities.
If Pal's judgement had been the majority opinion, what would have happened?  Pal himself was not blind to what Japan had done during the war years.  He pointed to the cruelties committed at Nanking, China, and on the POWs.  Still, if all the defendants had been not guilty, the conclusion would have been that the war was one of liberation of Asia, or at least of Japan's self-defense.  Pal himself used those terms(p.122).
Unfortunately nothing would be further from the truth.  When he said that if Japan would be convicted then the Allied powers 'must also be put under the scanner in the same way for their part'(p.126), or criticized the use of atomic weapons against Japan, he was perfectly right.  But it is a different matter than the nature of Japan's war.  When the Filipino judge thought that the judgement was 'too lenient'(p.124), he represented the mind of the Asians once under the Japanese conquest much better than Pal.
Why then?  Probably it was, as was suggested by the author, the influence of Subhas Chandra Bose, Pal's fellow Bengali, and his Indian National Army, who fought with the Japanese.  To judge Japan guilty was to judge Bose and his INA also guilty, which was impossible for Pal to do.  Already the Defense Counsel for the INA, a famous lawyer who belonged to the Indian National Congress, had declared before Pal's departure for Japan that Japan was a liberator of Asian nations(pp.108-9).  Was the freedom of India achieved on the strength of such a fiction?  What was Gandhi doing at the time, who had written 'To Every Japanese' in 1942 to make it clear that the Indian people would never welcome the Japanese on their territory.  Unless you regard Japan starkly as an aggressor, you cannot fight other imperialist powers.  This was the relevance of Pal's criticism of the atomic bombs.
More than a decade ago a cinema was released in Japan which was about Pal, Bose and Tojo(Army general, Prime Minister when Japan declared war on the US).  The story was that Tojo assisted Bose to bring independence to India, and Pal, as if in return, declared Tojo not guilty.  This shows how Pal's judgement has sometimes been made use of in a very harmful way, although it may not be his responsibility.
This one was a real conspiracy.  Six out of the seven who were hanged were Army generals.  They were made scapegoats to save others.
I thank Dr.Sareen for expanding my horizon.                          

Friday, November 9, 2012

Appoint New Peace-Loving Secretaries

The American elections are over.  Mr.Obama's 20-minute Victory Speech was terribly enthusiastic and hugely impressive.  I do not know exactly why I feel happy on his victory.  Probably the reasons are, (1) he may be deemed to be representing the large masses of underprivileged, in the US and may be beyond,  (2) he has at least talked of the non-nuclear world, and (3) he is less likely to go to war over Iran.  May be more.  All in all I feel more secure at his victory.  I would be deeply unhappy, and feel insecure, if the result was the other way round.
But all this is the one side of the coin.  Take Iran, for example.  If you talk about Iran's possible nuclear armament, why not talk about India's and Pakistan's nuclear weapons which are publicly owned by their governments.  Moreover, the US, and the West, may well be advised to recognize the position of Iran as the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, and make use of it as a means to have dialogue not only with Iran but a wider range of the third-world nations.  There is no harm in it at all.
Another factor in the Iranian question is the aggressive attitude of Israel because of which there is a danger of a fairly large-scale war in the Middle East.  In reporting the US elections the media had much to say about the Hispanic vote but very little about the Jewish vote, so far as I saw.
I personally would not be surprised if their vote was split between the two camps.  Partly it is because of insurance.  Also both camps were more or less equally expected by Israel to back them up in case of a war.
Similarly, there was not much difference in the stand of the two camps on, say, the Japan-US relations.  Both were keen on strengthening the military alliance, and in that sense Japan was taken for granted.  On the election day itself 10,000 American troops were engaged in joint military exercises with 37,000 Japanese Self-Defense forces.  Who knows it may not provoke China, whose Chairman Hu stressed in his report to the 18th Congress of the Communist Party two days afterwards, among other things, the importance of defending China's maritime interests.
Not only might China have been provoked.  Also on the same election day, the demonstrators in Okinawa, Japan, were carrying placards whose slogan was No Rape! No Osprey! No US Bases!
In short, we would like to feel more safe and secure here in East Asia.  For that purpose there can be a lot that not only Japan and China, but also the US can do("Yes, we can!").
One of such steps will be clearly the appointment of two peace-loving persons by Mr.Obama as the new Secretaries of State and Defense.             

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Ronald Dore on Japan and China

Af if to supplement my blog yesterday, the Asahi newspaper of today, 31 October, published a full--page interview of Prof.R.P.Dore, a veteran of the socio-economic change of modern Japan, mainly on the current Japan-China relations.  I remember the days when Dore made long visits to Japan and her villages, at least seven of them, and his studies of those villages were consolidated into his monumental Land Reform in Japan.  I had an opportunity of accompanying him to two of them, in different Prefectures, as a humble research assistant.  At one of them, in response to the locals' request he gave a talk on Britain in fluent Japanese.  It was in the mid-1950s, and the villages were still full of young men and women.  I recall that a learned, if not educated, middle-aged man asked him on the Fabian Society.
Back to the interview, it seems Prof.Dore this time came from China.  He had been invited by the Japanese Ambassador there, but it was on 18 September, the day when the Japanese army went into action in the Northeast of China in 1931, ultimately to build a puppet government there, and it was impossible to approach the Embassy because of the crowds of demonstrators.
Dore says that his Chinese friends, who are all knowledgeable on Japan, still feel betrayed by Japan on the Senkaku islands.  The Japanese government has refused to talk with China saying that there is no territorial issue between the two.
I agree the Japanese must admit that there is an issue, and talk about it with China, seriously and sincerely.  But I think Dore's friends are wrong if they feel betrayed.  China has not put a claim to those islands till recently, till they suddenly came to know that the area is resource-rich.  Such a huge country 11 times bigger in population and 27 times bigger in land-space than Japan!  Therefore I called her expansionist yesterday.
China, or for that matter South Korea on Takeshima also, says that the islands in question are mentioned in old literature/documents.  I do not think that is a valid claim.  If we have to go back centuries to determine who are today's legitimate owners, then who belongs to, for instance, the US?  They belong to the native "Indians".  All the borders of Europe should be redrawn in accordance with, say, the Treaty of Westphalia.  What about Russia, Africa, Middle East?
China also says the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 was the beginning of Japan's invasion of China.  It is perfectly true.  The War, which came after the 300 years of peace for Japan(practically no external war and no internal war in the period) was the start of the continuous wars till 1945.  But it is wrong to apply this to the Senkaku saying that they were also taken away by this war.
What is exciting is that Dore mentioned the Opium War and said that for the Chinese that was the beginning of the pressure by the white people, China's ultimate opponent in their view is not Japan but the US, and they are suspicious of the Japan-US military alliance from that angle.  I would like to add that if so China should withdraw from military conversations with the US and Japan, and for that matter with South Korea and Russia.  She should show that she is not threatening her neighbours, which is an act becoming to a UN permanent member.
In order to utilize the resources in the area in question, Prof.Dore says that something like East India Company should be established with monopolistic rights concerning the matter.  The Opium War, the East India Company, it is as if the Pax Britannica could still be useful in facing today's problems.  Or, is it their common understanding?
Prof.Dore's forthcoming book seems to focus on Japan's attaining independence of the US.  It is a very valid question.  I hope he would present the valid answer as well.    


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

What's Happening in Japan-China Economic Relations

This writer was making a three-week tour of India till a few days ago.  Hence this month-long interval.
Now, there was a time, not very long ago, when thousands of Chinese(including Taiwanese) tourists  were flooding the department stores and shops here in Japan.  I remember once watching a group of them shopping high-grade cosmetics with a calculator in hand at a department store in Tokyo.  I would not say that those days are gone by.  But the decline in the number of them, and for that matter Koreans also, visiting this country is noticeable.
Take a look at the trade sector.  The deficit in Japan's trade during the six month period of April to September, the first half of the present 2012 fiscal year, amounted to the highest so far, after the two previous six-month periods when Japan experienced an increasingly larger deficit.  And half of this deficit is with to China.
This is not to deny that the deficit is also due to several complex reasons.  After Fukushima, Japan had to import a large amount of additional LNG.  Moreover, the economic situation in Europe has also affected our economy, making the trade with the EU deficit for the first time as a six-month period during April to September.  This is because the division of labour, so to speak, among Japan, China and Europe in the way that China makes final products out of the intermediate goods imported from Japan etc. and exports them to Europe or the US, has not been working smoothly, with the result that both the import of China from Japan and the export of China to Europe has declined.  Japan's export to China in this September has declined by 14% compared to September 2011.
Let us look at the market for Japanese cars in China, which has probably been more affected by the recent twist in Japan-China political relations, and which has also felt the declining purchasing power of the Chinese public in recent times.
In this September, the domestic production of cars in Japan by all the 8 manufacturers combined was 740,000.  Against this they have produced 1250,000 abroad, including 220,000 in China, clearly indicating that the centre of their production has shifted abroad, if not only China.
Six of them are producing in China, and their production there has dropped by 28% in September compared to the same month last year.  Export of cars from Japan to China has declined by a staggering 45% in the same period.  Altogether the share of Japanese cars in the Chinese market in the current fiscal year(April to March) is estimated to come down to 22% from the original 25%.
We will further look at the case of Nissan, one of the six, which, though in the second place after Toyota in the domestic as well as the global markets, has the largest share in China among the Japanese manufactures and has sold one and a quarter million there in the fiscal 2011, and the share of the China market in its global sale is 25%, the highest among the eight.  Out of this 20,000 were exported from Japan, mostly high-class costly cars with high profit ratio.  Their production in China in September is down by 20%, if not so much as Toyota's 42%.  They have decided to stop export to China till the next January.
In Japan where unemployment and semi-unemployment has increased, competition for jobs has unbearably intensified, more people are being deprived of the means of livelihood, homelessness has increased, a large number of small-scale manufacturers who have been the steel-frame of Japan's economy so far are at a cross road of whether remaining here or moving out to some Asian country,  one may be justified to say that globalization has gone too far.  No, it has gone that far by the policies of the government.  The Euro crisis, and more recently, China's expansionist policy, have made the inherent danger more apparent.
Could we not aim at a recovery of the domestic market, so that the ordinary people may be assured of stable employment with a human sense of security.    
    
     

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Might is Right?

Japanese Coast Guard ships using water cannon on Taiwanese fishing boats.  The world was surprised by the scene, and is going to be more, as long as Taiwan claims the Senkaku islands as their own.
China and Taiwan, and Hong Kong, are united on this point.  These islands have been taken over from China illegally, by aggression.  Unfortunately they are not able to show any evidence.  They never put such a claim before the discovery of oil and gas in the area before the end of 1960s.  No matter what Japan might have done in taking away their territories in the past, these are not part of them.  China is not true to the facts.  Are they taking the same policy in the South China Sea?
China also says that Japan's decision to nationalize the islands was taken only two days after Chairman Hu, on 9 September, requested Prime Minister Noda to be cautious, and therefore China lost face.  This is not to be brushed away.  But it was in a 15-minute meeting standing in the corridor, if it can be called a meeting at all.  The two should by all means should have a full discussion based on facts and nothing else.
The anti-Japanese demonstrations in China, no matter how the loss of face may have instigated it, and popular dissatisfaction may have been reflected in them, once again showed the deep resentment against Japan based on the 15-year war, 1931-45.  Moreover the Japanese judiciary has not taken enough note of the past history whenever the legacies of the war come up before them in the form of legal issues.
So we have to face the backwardness of the Japanese politics, often encouraged by the US military consideration.  At the same time we are also watching, for instance, the coming deployment of the "Liaoning", the first carrier of the Chinese Navy, itself stimulating such ideas among our conservative leaders as the sending of the Marines to the Senkaku.
Might is right in East Asia?  China should ask herself, and again, if she is not violating 'the threat or use of force' stated in the UN Charter.  
      

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

What a US Naval Analyst Says on Japan and China

In view of the recurring anti-Japanese riots in Chinese cities, a US naval analyst wrote an essay on "The Sino-Japanese Naval War of 2012"(Foreign Policy, 20 August).
It says that 'China's navy is far superior in sheer weight of steel' if all its three fleets are put together.  But there may be other factors operating at the time of a decision.  The Senkaku islands in question are 'the hardest assets to defend from the Japanese standpoint', but 'a war would set back their(China's) sea-power project to construct a powerful oceangoing navy'.  He gives no conclusion, the analysis is 'in strictly military terms', and that makes it very sensible.  It is also good not to go into the nature of the Japan-US military alliance.
Without going into this alliance, the 'weight of steel' of the Japanese fleet, and the Constitutional question on the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, one wonders why China is so keen, as is often reported, in building 'a powerful oceangoing navy'.  Apparently there are, and can be, no hypothetical enemies.  China is building it for its own sake, and to the extent it is accomplished, it claims more of overseas territories and resources.  Such a huge country is now keen on wrestling a groups of small inhabitable islands from a small one.
What is surprising is that a few, still a few, military men are talking of a possibility of a military action on the Senkaku by China.  That has not happened in Japan, as yet, although the possibility is always there.  Most worrying for us is that some people, like our usual conservative ideologues, will easily be tempted to respond that 'Didn't we tell you?  Our present Constitution is not enough to defend the country.  It should be amended to make our right of collective self-defense usable'.  This is exactly what our people have been preventing to happen, especially by a network of thousands of Associations of Article 9, renouncing a war and the armed forces.  Do we have to see it eroded by the Chinese propaganda?
Propaganda?  But what other name?  The rioters are unaware that those islands have been not only once put on Chinese maps as Japanese territories, until the attention of the Chinese authorities was called to the existence of resources in the area around 1970.
Why not make use of the resources jointly then, in a friendly way?  Many Japanese will agree.  For that, however, the Chinese authorities must speak the truth, and make their own people well-informed, to suit a great people.
What about the Japanese factories and shops destroyed and looted in the broad view of the whole world?  Better come home, and create jobs there.         

Monday, September 17, 2012

How the Japanese are Viewing the Nuclear Energy

In the previous blog, I have introduced an invitation to a whole-day meeting to discuss the troubles the ongoing nuclear energy programme in India is bringing about at six or seven places in that country.  It is a meeting held about a month back, but it would hopefully interest some people.  I very much wish I could have been there.
What about Japan?  I have shown that our country went through a nuclear-free period, though very   short, which has awakened and encouraged us.
From July to August, 2012, the Government has conducted a survey to ascertain the public opinion to see how soon they would like to see the nuclear plants to cease operation, if any.    While so doing they put three choices as to the desirable proportion of the nuclear energy in 2030, 0%, 15%, and 20-25%.  In the fiscal 2010, the year before the Fukushima disaster, the proportion was 26%.
The survey was done in three different ways.  First, they invited 285 persons to discussion meetings.  They were the people who were interviewed by telephone, and expressed willingness to participate in the meetings also.  When interviewed by telephone, only 32.6% supported 0%.  After the discussion, however, it went up to 46.7%.
Second, about 89,000 people conveyed their view to the Government, following their announcement, either by internet or fax.  81% wanted immediate stop to the working of the nuclear plants, and the other 9% phased stopping.
Third, public hearing was held at 11 places.  Of the 1,447 persons who expressed their opinion, 68% supported 0%.
From the above the people's view is clear.  We hope the Government will sincerely listen to it.        

Sunday, September 16, 2012

A Call from India for a Joint Endeavour on Nuclear Energy



People's Hearing on Nuclear Energy
Date and Time:
August 22nd, 2012
11 am - 6pm

Venue:
Gandhi Peace Foundation,
221-223, Deendayal Upadhyay Marg
New Delhi-110002

A people’s hearing will be held on August 22nd in New Delhi on nuclear power in India to discuss grassroots concerns and people’s experiences, and to take note of violations of their human rights.
People from all the sites will make presentations with a special emphasis on Koodankulam and Gorakhpur. Also, experts will present their testimonies to a panel of judges consisting of eminent citizens, who will examine this evidence and give their verdict.

Background:
The Government of India is pushing through a massive expansion of nuclear energy in the most undemocratic manner, overlooking its dangerous impacts on the health, safety and livelihoods of local communities, the larger perspective of energy security for India, the economic and environmental costs of nuclear energy, and the global decline in the salience of nuclear energy after the Fukushima catastrophe.
There has been an upsurge of strong grassroots struggles against nuclear power projects and other installations in the recent past. At Koodankulam, for instance, a mass agitation involving tens of thousands of people has been sustained for a year since August 16, 2011. At Gorakhpur, in Haryana’s Fatehabad district, farmers have sat on a dharna every day for 2 years in protest against the planned nuclear power station. They are particularly agitated over a fraudulent public hearing which was held on 17th July without giving copies of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report to the people, as is mandatory.
Strong agitations have been launched in Jaitapur in Maharashtra, where the world’s biggest nuclear power park has been planned. Similar protests have broken out at other planned sites all over India.
The government has vilified these movements as “misguided” instigated by “outsiders”, has criminalized them and has filed hundreds of police cases against them. It has studiedly ignored their concerns about nuclear safety heightened after Fukushima and refused to part with basic documents such as Environmental Impact Assessment and  Safety Evaluation Reports (SERs) and the inter-governmental contracts etc.
The repression has led to blatant violations of basic rights at different sites – for instance, nearly 7000 people in Koodankulam who have led consistently peaceful protest face charges of sedition and war against the Indian state. Similar repression and undermining of democratic norms is under way at the other nuclear sites such as Jaitapur, Chutka in Madhya Pradesh, Mithi Virdi in Gujarat, Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh, Kota in Rajasthan, etc. More recently, a fresh protest broke out at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan where a nuclear fuel complex has been planned. The recent tritium leak in the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station exposing 38 casual workers to dangerous radiation has also put a question mark over the safety of existing nuclear facilities.
People’s testimonies: Koodankulam, Jaitapur, Gorakhpur, Chutka, Mithivirdi, Rawatbhata
Independent Experts: Praful Bidwai, Soumya Dutta, Surendra Gadekar, M G Devasahayam and others
Jury: Justice A P Shah, Admiral L. Ramdas, Aruna Roy, K S Subramanian
We cordially invite you to this public hearing. Please also circulate this invitation to your friends.
With best regards,

Sundaram (CNDP) – 9810556134, cndpindia@gmail.com
Bhargavi (Delhi Forum) – 9582452343, bhargavi@delhiforum.net



A.G.Noorani's Eye-Opening Book "Jinnah and Tilak"

It took me quite some time to finish reading the above-mentioned book, published by the Oxford University Press in 2010.  Quite some time, because it deals with Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and through him, Mahatma Gandhi also, in a very different way from many of the existing ones.
To be very short, its conclusion is that 'the last clear chance of averting the mishap', (p.220),meaning the partition of India and Pakistan and all the accompanying destruction, bloodshed, etc.,was not in the hand of Jinnah and the Muslim League, but that of Gandhi and the Congress.  Therefore 'the final responsibility for partition was not his'(pp.269-70).
Indeed very few works apart from the official records of the Muslim League have written in this clear mode.
One notable thing that the author has been persistently fair to Gandhi, or Jawaharlal Nehru, though they have been the target of severe criticism by the author many times in the book.
For instance Nehru has often been criticized of being cold to Jinnah, the Muslim League or the Muslims in general.  But once the country was divided, and he was put in the topmost administrative post, 'Nehru...fought manfully for secularism and for the Muslims' place in India till his dying day'.  Similarly on Gandhi the author writes that 'Gandhi bravely fought communal violence...He knew he was courting death.  Gandhi consciously chose the path and died a martyr's death'(both p.262).
The author's criticism of Nehru, and more so of Gandhi, most conspicuously concern their role in  breaking up the idea of the three-tier federal system, a way of keeping a united India without creating Pakistan, presented by the British Cabinet Mission in May 1946.  Gandhi's intellectual and physical energy as is shown in Chapter 5, entitled The Gandhi-Cripps Pact, and the author's persistence in reading a consistent motive on the part of Gandhi of wrecking the proposed Indo-Pakistani unity, is really startling.
What Gandhi thought at that time may not have been legally completely wrong.  But once he torpedoed the original Plan by his own interpretation, what could he have done to save the situation?  Did he have a different idea of keeping the unity of India?  Did he have something with which to make the Muslim population at ease?  No, nobody was able to see any other way of keeping peace then, Gandhi or no Gandhi.  Once the idea of unity was broken up there was only carnage and bloodshed.  This has been testified time and again until now, 2012.
My point of writing this piece, however, is not to attribute responsibility to Gandhi.  That has been done enough by the author.  I would like to say a little bit rather on Jinnah, as the author, though having been fair to him also, has not said enough about him.
First, even seeing the end of the Mission Plan, where was the reason of the direct action in Calcutta, and elsewhere by the Muslim League?  It was massacre and  arson and destruction on an un-heard of scale in modern Indian history.  It is this that decided that the coming partition would be full of bloodshed.
Second, the author writes that Gandhi 'was mentally prepared for partition' in his letter of 17 December 1946(p.218).  The letter in question must be a small note titled "Note on Constituent Assembly".  It was from Noakhali, where Gandhi was almost single-handedly facing the communal animosity, the hatred by the Muslim League, and said that one must understand what Pakistan is like from Noakhali.  He was not necessarily pre-determined.
Third, as Dr.T.R.Sareen's recent work has shown, the Muslim League's position was assured not just once by the British authorities, who had almost confirmed the Pakistan resolution of March 1940.  Jinnah was not on the same level as Gandhi.  He was in a much more privileged position.
Fourth, was there anything Jinnah thought of giving the Muslims by carving Pakistan, apart from the limited number of legislators, civil servants, and army officers posts?
Finally, fifth, the author rightly says that the Hindu-Muslim composite culture was damaged a great deal by the partition(p.268).  It is Gandhi, if at all, who showed feeling of deep sorrow on this point.  Jinnah did not care himself at all, as is shown in his Pakistan speech where he stressed the divisiveness of different cultures of the different nations in India.              

Monday, August 20, 2012

China Not a Peace-Loving Country?

A group of Hong Kong-based 'activists' has approached the Senkaku Islands by a boat.  They were not armed, but they threw lumps of concrete at the Japanese Coast Guard ships which tried to intercept them around the islands.  After landing with their national flags, all the all the fourteen were captured and sent back to Hong Kong, where they are now heroes.
I would ask the Chinese government several questions.
First, I ask if the Chinese authorities were not in a position to stop them on the sea.  Apparently they came with the full knowledge of the authorities, even perhaps with their hidden encouragement.  The Chinese government announced as soon as they were captured that they should be released unconditionally.  This shows that they watched their activities from the beginning.  The Coast Guard, though armed, did not use any of their weapons this time.  This shows that the Chinese government knowingly let the attackers face the firearms of the Coast Guard, a fact that the human lives are not valued in China at all.
Second, anti-Japanese demonstrations are reported not only from Hong Kong, where the attackers are publicly saying that they would try in October again, but in a number of cities in Mainland China.  Is it spontaneous?  Or is it the manipulation of the un-informed masses by the authorities, who want, as usual, to make a noise to the extent they see it fit, and then suppress it themselves.  The common people are mere tools.
Third, China is a huge, gigantic country.  It is trying to lay its hands one-sidedly just on any place where natural resources are present.
Fourth, China's outward expansion, backed by its military power, causes more and more anxiety in surrounding countries.  Some of them are trying to make use of it to enhance their own military power.  I hope Japan is not one of them.  It is true, however, that China's increasing militarizatiion has tended to strengthen the Japan-US military alliance to the greater despair of the people.  Unlike some decades ago, no one here is anymore in a position to depend on China to put a stop to the American imperialism together. The same applies to North Korea.  This is what worries the Japanese people most at present.
Finally, I will briefly state why an average intellectual like me is of opinion that the Senkaku belongs to Japan.  There are broadly two.  It was annexed into Okinawa Prefecture in January 1895.  For 75 years until 1970, until it was ascertained that the islands are located in resource-rich waters, China never put a claim to them or protested against the Japanese possession at all.  Also, contrary to what China is telling the world, the islands were not mentioned anywhere in the Treaty which transferred Taiwan and the nearby islands from China to Japan.
Will the Senkaku remain an explosive between Japan and China for some more years?  I for one do not think so.  There are easy ways to solve them.  The democratization of the Chinese regime is one of them, which is indispensable to all of us concerned.       

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

500th Anniversary of Reformation

A current rover in Europe, as this writer was last week, would notice that 2017, five years from now, is the 500th Year of the Reformation.  It seems, therefore, that lots of intellectual activities are planned, or already under way.
Reformation is of course connected with the name of Martin Luther.  This is not the place to discuss him, nor do I have the capacity to.  However, it is apparent that these 500 are based on the famous 95 Indulgence Theses that Luther put up against the papal behaviour in 1517.
The action led to the excommunication by the Pope, and his being summoned before the Imperial Diet at Worms four years later.
We saw at Worms, in Southwestern Germany, Luther's statue with the famous 'Hier Stehe Ich, Ich Kann Nicht Anders, Gott Helfe Mir! Amen!'(Here I stand.  I cannot do otherwise.  God help me, Amen), inscribed.  He was supposed to have said them before the Diet but they are actually a legend.
He also translated both the Testaments into plain German, and got them published in one volume at Wittenberg, the central place of his activities, in 1534.  By so doing, he showed his idea that there should not be an intermediary between the God and man.
May I add two more things.  One is that, when the German Peasants' War broke out under his former colleague Thomas Muentzer, he advised non-violence, but when it was ignored, supported the repression by the princes and landlords, although he originally held them responsible.  This reliance on the landed forces made some of his followers part with him.
Second, we not only saw at both the Luther House and the Bach House at Eisenach, in Central Germany, that Bach laboured very hard to edit Luther's works, but also got a feeling that some elements of the anti-Semitic prejudices traditional in Christianity had been retained in Luther's Reformation and through him in Protestantism.  I sincerely hope that this point will be discussed in the coming five years.
This much is a continuation of the previous blog.  My own interest, however, is if and when Reformation took place in the Asiatic religions.  Can't we think Mahatma Gandhi as one such  Reformer as far as India and Hinduism are concerned?  I am separating anti-Semitism in this case.  

Some Jewish Museums in Europe

During our recent European tour, we have visited several Jewish Museums.
The first was the "Resistance Museum", Amsterdam.  As the name suggests it was on the repression on, and resistance by, the Dutch people against the Germans during the Second World War, and, although under a different name, it was a de facto Jewish Museum by half.
It analysed the behaviour of the Dutch people under the occupation using the concepts-very useful and interesting-of adjust(or adapt), collaborate or resist.  The Unie(Union) movement may be called a way of adjusting.  It was started in July '40, shortly after the invasion, in order to prevent the Dutch Nazi Party from grasping the administration.  One photo showed a large number of men and women, mostly well-dressed, lining up in the streets to join it.  But the movement did not collaborate as much as the Germans had hoped, and was banned in December '42.
After one year of occupation the Jewish were given their own ID, with a large 'J' on it.  But their first uprising took place in February '41, and although it was suppressed it was  joined by a large number of Communists, transport and dock workers.  In March '43 they burnt the Registry Office.
The "Jewish Historical Museum", Amsterdam, is mainly on their history, and is also worth seeing.
The Jewish people started coming to this area around 1600.  They came from different directions where, like Eastern Europe, there was not much freedom.  Interestingly the development of the  Dutch overseas commercial empire also gave the Jews an opportunity to migrate to Brazil, Surinam, West Indies, or New Amsterdam(New York).  There were 60,000 Jews in the last-mentioned when the Second War broke out.
The number of Jews in the whole country at present is 43,000, of whom about half live in Amsterdam and nearby.  57% are not practicing their religion.  Could this be one reason why they
prefer to remain in the Netherlands than to migrate to Israel?
Finally, after leaving Amsterdam, we visited the "Jewish Museum" in Berlin.  It is a huge building intended to make you feel that you are in an underground room, made of concrete, cold, without windows, and prison-like, and are likely to lose your sense of equilibrium with the slopes and all that.
We have learned that of the 520,000 Jewish people who were in Germany at the time of the Nazi seizure, 260,000, just half, had escaped abroad.  But it was banned in October '38, which opened the way to the 'last solution'.
One more interesting figure was that after the unification in '91, there has been a steady flow of the former Soviet Jews according to a treaty, and most of the 100,000 Jewish people living at present in Germany have come by this way.
As the reader may know, there is another museum in Amsterdam without that name.  It is the famous Anne Frank's House.  Unfortunately we noticed a long queue of tourists there, and gave up the idea of a visit.
I would like you to kindly consult the next one.  There may be a short reference to the Jewish question there also.          

Monday, August 13, 2012

Enough is Enough, No More of Shooting Rampage

Within days of a shooting rampage in the US, when the single criminal had as many as four guns of various types to himself, and Mr.Obama said, rather feebly, 'such violence is senseless',  another struck, this time inside a Sikh temple, out of all places, in suburban Milwaukee, leaving four dead and several wounded.  It was on 5 August.
The Sikhs are originally from the Punjab in northwestern India.  They(the men) are well-built, wearing turban, and are easily recognizable.  They are also known to be good-natured, hard-working.  It may be said that they have become the victims because they are recognizable, as the suspect is reported to be a US Army veteran, who might, or might not, have a fighting experience abroad.  Although nothing is as yet known on his career, it is said that 'Everyone here is thinking this is a hate crime for sure.  People(local Americans) think we are Muslims'.
If I may exaggerate a little here, whether or not the suspect has gone to the Middle East to fight, the 9/11 and the ensuing prolonged wars by the US have ensured that the idea is ingrained in the American mind that the Muslims are an enemy.  It is a wrong idea.  It is a wrong idea still to say that the Sikhs are Muslims.  And the US could have taken a different course than what she actually did, wasting enormous lives and money.  My hearty condolences to the six Sikhs.
Every time this kind of thing happens in the US, we inevitably point our finger at the rules, or non-rules in the US. which defend the private possession of 200 million guns.  They have a powerful organizational and industrial back-up.
But this writer thinks that the freedom of having guns make the atmosphere in the US dangerous not only to the local Americans, but the foreigners as well, as the above case would show.  It is also helping to make the US. all the more war-like and fearful in the world.                 

What a Chinese Scientist Has to Say on China's Nuclear Policy

The Akahata, the Communist Party of Japan's daily, carried an interview with an 85 year-old Chinese nuclear physicist, on 27 July.  He was formerly a member of China's Political Consultative Conference, the CPC's united front with other political organizations in China.  His comments are full of his valuable experiences, and are worth listening to.  The interview was given at Beijing.
 
  He said that the Fukushima nuclear accident of March last year shock China.  The policy of the government was influenced by it.  Many Chinese, including himself, changed their thinking on the nuclear power generation.
  As for himself, he was a part of the study of atomic and hydrogen bombs in China, and thereafter was saying that the nuclear power generation should be developed.  At the Three Mile Island's and the Chernobyl's accidents, he thought that they were due to either technical defect or lack of experience.
  On hearing the Fukushima accident, however, he thought that the matter was no longer within these limits.  He began to think that the humanity is not in full command of the nuclear technology,  and therefore should feel more humility.  This is the greatest lesson he got from the accident.  Accordingly he greatly revised his thinking on the nuclear power development.  He is not against such development, but he has come to think that at least its speed should be slowed down.
  What China is planning to install is six reactors belonging to the third generation developed in the US.  They have not yet been put into practice even there.  China has a plan of installing six, and another one of having as many as 30 of them.  30 are too many.  It takes a long time to prove the safety of the new reactors by experiments.  Mere theoretical 'safety' is not enough.
  Another problem is that the government is developing nuclear power inland.  I am not in agreement with this either.
  China is a country where large-scale droughts often take place.  Around the reactors under construction along the Yangtze in Jiangxi(Kiangsi) Provence, there was a drought last year.  It takes a large amount of water for cooling the reactors.  If the water is not available it would lead to a grave accident.  Moreover if an accident occurs upstream, it might affect an enormous population down to Nanjing or Shanghai downstream.
  The Fukushima accident has shaken the Japanese government.  Naturally I support the non-nuclear power movement in Japan.
  I hope that, in China also, the government will listen to the opinions inside and outside the country before reaching its final policies.                
     

Friday, July 20, 2012

Vetoed for the Third Time

Yesterday, on 19 July, the Security Council failed to adopt for the third time a resolution for a greater restraint on the present regime in Syria, as it was vetoed by China and Russia.  Pakistan and South Africa abstained.
In case of Russia, I think the reason is clear.  It is the importance of Syria as a weapons market.  I wonder if those tanks, missiles and rocket launchers which are shown on the TV as the weapons of the government forces in Syria are not all Russian made.  Two decades ago, when the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Iraq had the largest number of tanks, 5,500, among the countries in the Middle East.  And the Middle East was the largest market for the weapons.  Most of them were said to have come from the then USSR.  They used those for a trench warfare, and were easily destroyed by the US forces trained to fight the Soviet tanks coming on the North European plains.
Syria had the second largest number of tanks then.  They must have been updated by now.
In the case of China, the reason is not that clear.  Mr.Ban Ki-mun was having a talk with President Hu Chin-tao the previous day, and one would be allowed to think that there must have been some understanding reached between the two by the time the resolution was submitted for a vote.
Perhaps one would also be allowed to imagine like this.  Mr.Hu was also having a meeting with a large Pan-African delegation on that day, and is said to have promised $ 20 billion to those countries in the next three years.  They were all heads of governments, or other high dignitaries, headed by South Africa's President Zuma.
Suppose some of those governments were not as democratic as others?  Suppose Mr.Hu's mission was to assure them their present incumbency?  Then it may be natural that China was against the resolution on the pretext that it would mean 'regime change' as well.       

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Raining Cats and Dogs in Western Japan

For the past nearly a week it has been raining quite heavily in some parts of Western Japan, particularly in the three Prefectures out of seven in Kyushu Island.  Many roads have been cut by the landslides caused  by the heavy rain.  Some river banks have been breached.  Thousands of people have been either ordered or advised to leave their homes to safer shelters, which are usually public buildings.
So far it is more or less a normal affair.  But this time, as the meteorological stations have announced, the quantity, and if I may add the duration as well, of the rain is unprecedented.
On the average, the annual precipitation in those three Prefectures in the Central-northern Kyushu is from 1,600 to 2,000 mm, of which about 40% falls in June and July.  So these two months is a rainy season, but not in the same sense that the word is understood in many other countries on earth.  The total rain is fairly well distributed throughout the year, and the two months' rain also covers the two months very well.  The rice cultivation needs a lot of rain in this time, as the transplantation is over and the crop is in the growing period.
But in the past week or so, we have often heard that it rained as much as 80mm/hour in many places, and at 110mm at least on one occasion.  You cannot see ahead, the umbrella will not hold, and what is worse, the water level in rivers will rise rapidly up to the danger point and more in no time.
Some eye-witnesses have talked of the standing trees moving toward them at a great speed.  They are not talking of "Macbeth".  They are telling us that the landslide no longer takes place in the barren land, unprotected by the plant, but it involves the land and the plant together.  Here we may have to look into the nature of the forest in this country to see whether the plant is of such a type as to get well-rooted.  But that apart, we can quickly come to the conclusion that our forest land has become very vulnerable.
Researchers are telling us that the basic cause of the series of these accidents is the increased water in the air because of global warming, which needs an outlet.  The warming is not simply a problem for the residents of small islands, but unmistakably ours also.              

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Narayan Desai's New Gandhi Volumes

Mr.Narayan Desai(1924-)is an eminent social worker of India.  He is also a biographer of Mahatma Gandhi to whom his father, Mr.Mahadev Desai, was the secretary.  His new four-volume biography of Gandhi(2009), 2,260 pages in all, is overwhelming.  Here I would venture to discuss one point from the third volume, not as a review of the book but rather to put my thinking in order.
It is on a political process of great significance under Gandhi's initiative that was unfolding in India exactly 70 years ago.  It came to be known as the "Quit-India"movement.
The movement was conceived by the resolution Gandhi himself submitted to the AICC(All India Congress Committee)toward the end of April 1942.  It requested the British to evacuate from India, declared that India would win independence by non-violence and defend it in a similar way, and if the Japanese would invade India, the Indian people would resist it by means of non-violent noncooperation.  Due to the difference of opinion in the AICC, that part of it saying that India would defend her independence (solely)with non-violence was dropped.  Gandhi himself did not go to the meeting and sent Mirabehn, an English woman, instead.
Anyway India said it wanted to be left alone by war, but if involved by the Japanese it would resist the invasion(Desai, p.449.  Why Gandhi's resolution was modified is not clear here).
Since when, by the way, did Gandhi think of independent India without arms?  At the public meeting at Paris on his way back home from the Second Round Table Conference at the end of 1931, one of the questions was if independent India would have its own army.  He replied that 'he was confident that if India were to win freedom through means of truth and non-violence, she would have no use for the army'(Desai, pp.57-8).  In my view this was the first time Gandhi categorically said so.
Then in Switzerland where he arrived from France, he said something very remarkable on what the Swiss would do to an invading army.  'I would have invited every citizen to refuse all supplies to invading armies...and build a living wall of women and children and invite the invading armies to walk over  their bodies...Non-violence is not and has never been the weapon of the weak'(Desai, p.68).
In my view also Gandhi never pointed out the strength of non-violence so forcefully.  This must have been what was in his mind when he talked of resisting the Japanese.
After the above AICC, Gandhi sent Mirabehn this time to Orissa to observe the situation there.  It is a coastal  province facing 'Malaya, Singapore, Burma'(Gandhi's words) already under the Japanese occupation.  Gandhi might have imagined Japanese landing army there would meet very little armed resistance, as Mirabehn reported that the British were keen to defend the inland steel town of Jamshedpur, and 'the dislike of the British Raj being so great, that anything anti-British will be welcomed with open arms(Desai, pp.450-1).
What Mirabehn told him must have made Gandhi's determination for the 'Quit-India' movement still firmer.  The British police, however, arrested Gandhi and almost all other leaders early in August, and the movement collapsed even before it got started.  But I do not think that we the people of Japan can easily forget it away, even after 70 years.    

Monday, July 9, 2012

The Parliamentary Committee Has Said It

On 5 July, exactly the day when Japan ceased to be a nuclear-free country, the Parliamentary Investigation Committee(appointed by the Parliament and not necessarily composed of MPs) on the Fukushima nuclear plant accident published a report of more than 600 pages.  Here are some of its salient features.
First and foremost, it says that the basic cause of the accident goes back before 11 March 2011, the day of the disaster.  The regulating authorities as well as the management of the Tokyo Electric Company actually in charge of the plant have, either through postponing the issues concerning security, inaction, or attempts to safeguard their own organizations, have not squarely faced the problems concerning the security till 11 March.
The Tokyo Electric Company, which should have been the object of regulating actions, has, through its monopoly of information, turned its position upside down and has been exerting strong pressure so that the carrying out of the necessary regulation would be postponed, or loosened.  In this connection its close relation with the Ministry of Economy and Industries worked as the source of such pressure. 
Thus a number of opportunities for improving the safety standard has been overlooked.  Seen in this light the accident was not a natural disaster.  It was a man-made one.
Secondly, it is yet to be clarified how the process of destruction of the plant has actually taken place.  According to the Company, the main cause was the tsunami, the magnitude of which exceeded all the expectations, and therefore it was a natural disaster.  But there are signs that the earthquake should also be taken into account as the main cause of the accident.
Thirdly, once the disaster took place, it was found that neither the PM' Office, the regulating bureaucracy, nor the Company, was prepared to cope with it.  They also lacked the necessary will to do so.  Also the boundaries between the parties concerned were not clear.  The PM's Office, by directly giving orders to the Company, has added to the confusion.  Moreover, the dissemination of e necessary information to the local bodies was not only delayed but flawed.
Fourthly, the local residents are still living in a condition of accident.  Radioactivity-induced health, maintaining family and community life, contamination of a large area-estimated to be 1,800 square km-are the major problems.  Thousands are forced to live in temporary housing without having an idea of for how long more.
The decision on reactivating the Ooi reactors, which has been discussed here recently, should  have waited until the publication of, and a minimum discussion on, this report.        

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Mutual Images of the Japanese and the Chinese

An NPO in Japan and an English newspaper in China recently conducted a joint opinion poll on the mutual images of the Japanese and the Chinese peoples.  The results were out on 20 June.
Here are some of their characteristics.
In the eyes of the Japanese, the most difficult problem on the Chinese side that is blocking the way toward better relations between the two is the territorial question.  True, China has got a territorial issue with other countries also.  But in the Sino-Japanese context it must be, in our pronunciation, the Senkaku islands, which China started claiming about 40 years ago.  This is really a thorn in our relations with China.
Moreover, it is not over a piece of territory alone.  Most of the people of Japan know that behind the claim by China is a vast natural resources at stake which is still untouched by either country.  It is therefore  a resource issue as well.
This would explain why an overwhelming majority of the Japanese, 84.3%,  have got a bad image of China, the highest ever, and more than half of them think that the Chinese are too self-centred on the resources and energy. Recently China, who exports 97% of the total world figure of "rare earth", has put a restriction on its export for reasons of resource conservation.  It may hit Japan sooner or later.  When the ordinary Japanese think of the resources and energy problem between the two they are bound to input this also into their consideration.  In my view, however, this 'resources and energy' is more closely connected with the above territorial issue.
What is the Chinese figure for the above 84.3?  It is 64.5, still quite high but considerably lower than the former.  It is remarkable for a country which is under an all-powerful dictatorial government.
Another related figure is that 21.3% on the Chinese side are of the opinion that the nationalism and anti-Japanese behaviour of the Chinese are a blockade toward better relations.
Would it be correct to say that those are an indication that a civil society is growing in China, and at least a considerable portion of the people are critically responding to the official jargon?                 If so it would mean a great deal to all the people concerned, not simply the Japanese.  Of course we have our own responsibility.

Sunday, June 24, 2012


I support Istanbul for the 2020 Olympic Games

Rio de Janeiro is scheduled to host the 2016 Olympics, after the next month's London Games for 2012.  It will be for the first time in Latin America and the Caribbean.  And after that?  For 2020?  At the moment three cities have passed the preliminary IOC (International Olympic Committee) standard.  They are Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid.
Being a Japanese I know Tokyo fairly well.  This is a city where the Prefectural Government has scarcely taken care of housing for the low-income groups.  After the so-called economic bubble exploded two decades ago, the socio-economic gaps are widening.  The less well-to-do are neglected not in housing alone.  In education, care of the aged/handicapped people, especially in terms of the nursing facilities to look after them, or protecting the working mothers, Tokyo is very much backward.
Is not the urban infrastructure well-laid?  The suburban trains are running on time, which may or may not be a great thing.  But the roads are not up to the standard.  They have buried many beautiful small waterways to turn them to tiny parks(in the absence of real ones) and parking places for cycles.  This has robbed us of the scenery, and also the channels for water when it rains hard.
The support to the proposed Olympics by the residents, the IOC says, is the lowest in Tokyo.  Compared to 73% in Istanbul and 78% in Madrid, it is only 47%.
The above-mentioned degrading living conditions are certainly not conducive to creating the atmosphere welcoming the Olympics.  What is more significant may be the fact that the number of parks and sports facilities per unit of population in Tokyo, or in Japan in general, is very small.  Therefore the sports activities of the residents are generally discouraged.
Both the national and the Prefectural governments have no positive policies for providing the general public with sports facilities, and enhancing their health standard.  Prevention is definitely better than cure.
Under the circumstances, it is difficult to find a spontaneous support coming up, to create an atmosphere to welcome it.  The above 47% is, if at all, exaggerated.  People may enjoy watching the games on the TV.  But they do not feel that they are respected as lovers of sports.  The initiative has come only from above.
It would be the height of folly to appeal to the IOC on one hand, but neglect sports and sports facilities domestically.  Tokyo is thus not qualified to host Olympics.  The earlier it withdraws the better.
That would leave Madrid and Istanbul.  I like them both.  There is a great apprehension about the Spanish currency right now, but if lots of tourists bring money with them, it will be a great help.  They have many great treasures such as Picasso's "Guernica", Museo Nacional Centro De Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid.
But if Istanbul hosts it, it would be the first Olympics in the Islamic country.  It would certainly help reestablish the principle of multi-culturalism.  I am heartily in support of Istanbul Olympics.           

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Idea of "Nuclear-free Japan" Attacked

On 7 May I wrote under the title "And Then There Was None",  to congratulate ourselves on the emerging possibility of having no nuclear reactors any more in the country.  This was, and is a hope that a great many of my countrymen and women do share.
The government, however, does not look at it in the same way.  On the contrary they have decided to reactivate two reactors, Nos.3 and 4 at the Ooi nuclear plant, Fukui Prefecture, which are under periodical checking at present.  The decision was taken on 16 June.
Anticipating this, as many as 11,000 people gathered at the Prime Minister's Office to protest in the previous evening.  They said that nothing has changed after Fukushima to make it possible to reactivate them, many people are still unable to come home there, no authentic report has been out to establish the cause of the disaster, and it is not at all clear how the residents at Ooi and nearby can escape once a similar earthquake with or without an accompanying tsunami assault the area.
A Buddhist monk was saying that, after 16,000 dead and 3,000 missing by the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear disaster last year,  we are still mourning, and it is too early to take any action of this sort.
Interestingly the local residents are not necessarily in sympathy with the protest.  At a poll 64% say they support the government decision.  This is apparently because they are in the pay of the power company running the reactors, or beneficiaries of the municipal revenue from the increased company tax.  But even then 52% of the 64% have expressed anxiety.
The government says that in our hot and humid summer, which is just round the corner, there will be a shortage of 15% as we have to depend heavily on the air-conditioning.  But they do not disclose how many hours a day on the average this maximum shortage continues.  Moreover the reactivation is for an indefinite period, not just for the summer.
And this is when a large number of us are trying to find ways and means of how to live with a limited supply of energy, and to find an alternative way for an industrial society to exist.  The government is apparently taking the side of the monopolistic power industry.
As most of the other reactors in the country, Fukushima included, the Ooi reactors are also facing the sea, not on the Pacific, but the other side.  We call it the Japan Sea, but the Koreans have named it the East Sea.  The photographs show the reactors standing quite defenselessly and right on the coast.
The German and the Swiss peoples have sufficiently learned from the Fukushima and have decided to close down all their nuclear plants in due course.  Are we not destined to do so?        

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Film Director Shindo Kaneto Passed Away

Mr.Shindo Kaneto, a great Japanese film director, passed away a few days ago.  He was born in 1912, and was just 100 years old.  Having been born in Hiroshima, and gone through military experiences, many of the films he has directed give us a strong anti-war message.
Here I would like to tell about his last film, named "A Postcard"(2011).  In his long working life, he has said on several occasions that this time it is going to be his last film.  It has gone wrong on every previous occasion.  But this time it has unfortunately come true.
I saw it only two days before his death.  Until then I had misunderstood the meaning of the title.  In Japan up to August 1945 there was military duty.  When an eligible person gets a call either from the Army or the Navy he has immediately to report at the stated place at the stated time.  The call usually came by a postcard in red colour, which was known as the red piece of paper.  I was under the impression that this was what the title meant.
It was not.  Shortly after the film begins, you will find yourselves watching a group of 100 soldiers.  They are mostly middle-aged, and are not considered fit for fighting.  Still 94 of them are sent to three different battle grounds, only to be killed, all of them.  Only six of them have survived, as Japan surrendered while they were waiting to be sent somewhere.
One evening while the original 100 were still together, an elderly one hands over a postcard to Keita, his younger comrade, with a request.  It was a postcard he had received on that day from his wife, saying that it is the night of the festivals but since you are away there is no joy, signed  Tomoko.  The request was that since he has no hope of coming back alive, he would like his comrade to visit her and and tell her that he has certainly got this card.
Surprisingly, the story thus far is based on Shindo's own experience, Keita being himself.  Shindo preserved this story for his very last film.  So he survived the war, one of the lucky six.  He has to find the widow to fulfill the promise.
When Keita met Tomoko at her house in a hilly village, he came to know that she had been going through one tragedy after another.  After the death of her husband, she married his younger brother according to the local customs.  He was also called, and though he told her that he would come home alive, as he had loved her by this time, Tomoko became a widow for the second time.  Her father-in-law died of a heart attack, and the mother-in-law hanged herself.  The family had sold out the only piece of rice field when Tomoko came to them, for the first time, and now had depended on a piece of rented field.
Keita by this time had decided to go over to Brazil to make a living, but the meeting with Tomoko and staying in her house for a day or two changed his mind.  Finally they two have started working together on that piece of field.  The solution was there itself.