Miyazaki Hayao's "Kaze-Tachinu"

     Miyazaki Hayao, the world famous animation film director, has suddenly announced his early, or from our point of view premature, retirement.  But before doing so, he left one more to us and the world which, though centred around the life of a designer of a fighter plane, contains a strong appeal for peace.

     The designer, the hero of the story, is Horikoshi Jiro(1903-82).  He is a legendary figure who after years of painstaking effort succeeded in designing a fighter plane for the then Japanese navy, known as "Zero".  It excelled all the other main fighter planes in the world at the time, round about 1940.  In order to retain the maneuverability and speed while carrying a still inferior engine made in Japan, he and his team tried everything to curtail even one extra gram from the plane's weight.  In the movie Horikoshi was saying, 'Shall we then dismount the machine guns?'. Of course it was a joke, and they finally met all the requirements the navy had put to them, and even more.
   
     But Horikoshi is not described as a war-like man here.  He is not even a military man.  He is wholeheartedly interested in making a beautiful plane, a dream put into his head in his childhood by an Italian plane maniac in a real dream.

     One thing I would particularly appreciate is that there are no scenes of battle in the movie, let alone no scenes of 'Zero' fighters winning a victory over the enemies.  Most of the 2 hour 10 minute movie is devoted to how Horikoshi and his team worked, and some related and beautiful episodes such as his love and marriage.  Toward the end, when the team succeeded in producing a required prototype, the test pilot came to him and thanked him for giving them such a wonderful plane. The age for the 'Zero' plane had come, and the war-time Japan produced as many as 10,000 of them.  However, the war had been over by the next scene, where Horikoshi says, 'Not a single plane has come back'. 

Syria's Chemical Weapons

     This writer has long been under the impression that the chemical weapons in the hands of the Syrian government have been supplied from outside...from Russia, over the years.  Now the President of that country has told the world, at least to this writer's great surprise, that Syria herself has been manufacturing them, for a long time.  But has the declaration answered all the questions?

     Such as ; how is it that Syria got all the know-how to manufacture them; and to store them: what use, if any, has Syria put those dreadful weapons to: and above all what was Russia's role in arming Syria with them: suppose Syria could have manufactured 'the poor man's nuclear weapons' herself, what about the delivery systems:in other words are Syria's weapons fit only to be carried on the back of the soldiers? and suppose Russia helped Syria to have the necessary delivery systems, what was her purpose? it seems the Council Resolution included the destruction of the weapons and not the delivery systems:no such things existing in Syria?

     On the eve of an impending-so it seemed at one time-US attack on Syria, Russia seemed to score a diplomatic victory by producing the chemical weapons on the negotiating table.  But it was because they had known it, and by doing so they thought they could defend the government in Syria, or the person of the President.  A Cold War tactics.

     While there is nothing so far in the policies of the three Western powers encouraging to the cause of peace in the region, except the dramatic 'No' vote in the House of Commons, so were the Russian policies, too.  How about China's?

     The silver lining was the US-Iran dialogue held for the first time after the Iranian revolution. Its further progress would immensely enhance the cause of peace in the region.  It is hoped that Israel's blockade would be wisely bypassed.