Here comes the "atmosphere"

Finally, the Era of War-holic has begun.

The world has come to a stage when a country possessing the most powerful military forces in the world is allowed to declare war against a nation because it "has felt threatened" so "liberate people in the foreign nation" even if nobody is asking for it. I have predicted at the start of the year that this year is going to stink, worse than last year, and sadly enough, my prediction has proven to have come true.

Could you possibly imagine a government of a foreign country demanding George W. Bush to "defect within 48 hours with your kids, or I will launch missiles at you"? However, Bush is shameless enough to say something like this.

This shows Bush's utter lack of imagination, but such an idiot has risen to power and thus changed the course of history. After going through two world wars with millions of people slain across the Globe, the world have come together, agreeing that:(1)war is not the solution to solve international dispute (2)it would be more complicated but the world should discuss the matter internationally." But Bush flushed this wisdom, learnt from precious sacrifice, down the toilet.

And here comes Japan. It believes that it has no alternative but quietly makes an announcement to support what Bush is doing. What a shame. But there is no point being ashamed of the Japanese government and its prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's poor judgment.

It doesn't really matter whether Koizumi has addressed the nation why Japan has chosen to support the United States.

Why? Because Koizumi has admitted that he has decided to support Bush because he said;"there was an atmosphere" to support. Now, this was an extremely candid remark, illustrating how this nation's power heavily relies on "atmosphere."

This means that Koizumi is a man made of air. So, you can't possibly expect intelligence, or spirit out of somebody like that. Expecting someone of qualities he or she does not possess is a mere harassing or bullying. We should be content to define him as "a man intelligently crippled." Looking back, all Japanese prime ministers since early 90s, starting from Morihiro Hosokawa, has always been "unbearable lightness of a being."

　

　

2003/3/20 Tokyo Simbun Column by MIYAZAKI Manabu Principles and Addiction Think of the term "alcoholism." You could also define this as alcohol addiction. I was watching George W. Bush addressing U.S. citizens that America has started war against Iraq, and could not help thinking when and how the country has turned its course back to "principle of war," or rather,"war addiction." The 20-year period starting 1975, when the U.S. suffered bitter defeat in Viet Nam War, American notions on war has changed dramatically. For example, Hollywood has produced a number of films on Viet Nam War. Oliver Stone's "Platoon," Frances Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," Robert Zemeckis' "Forrest Gump," and so on. Those films were apparently different from past films that had wars in their plots. These films, in their base, possessed strong sentiment of anti-war, and so they were very interesting for me. In these films, there was definitely a new culture flourishing, attempting to overcome American addiction on war. They managed to show a new American possibility. It is horrifying to see today's Americans. What has happened to all the remorse they must have felt after the Viet Nam War? Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld proudly announced that the America has created the largest conventional bomb, MOAB on March 11. This is an ominous indication that Americans have become sick, beyond the situation back in 1945, before they had made the decision to drop A bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bush's address was concluded as:"May God bless our country." Bush is murdering people under God's name, and attempting to rule under God's name. God is rather convenient being, don't you think?

　

The "Holy" War

It is rather strange that both sides of the conflict has "God" behind them. Both George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein are saying against each other stuff like:"I pray God," "God would not tolerate," and "God bless us." It sounds so classic. It sounds like Japan during the World War II, which used to claim itself as "a divine nation" and "divine state."

I believe it was back in 1911, there was a plot to assassinate then Crown Prince Hirohito. A socialist, Shusui Kotoku, received a capital punishment, charged with masterminding the assassination. Two days after he had received his sentence, Kotoku read a poem, saying that he has crossed the point of no return, but he still was not feeling like praying to God. Now such a statement shines really bright, even though it has been said almost a century ago. I am seriously afraid that the human being is degenerating instead of evolving. Kotoku's poem showed his pride as materialist, but every materialism born on the face of the earth have failed, and Gods have made comebacks. And look what's happening...

　

Now the next enemy:atmosphere

What we must fear next is this "atmosphere."

As I have pointed earlier this "atmosphere" is the 4th and true ruling power in Japan. It is widely discussed that after Iraq, the next "rogue nation" to confront America would likely be North Korea. But this is actually an American conspiracy, provocating North Koreans so they feel obliged to go on with their nuclear program. Then, here comes the cowboy, with guns in his hand, saying that he must act against North Korea to "free people in North Korea." There is already a plan to reinstate a North Korean defectee as a new North Korean leader after the present regime's collapse. He defected to South Korea a few years back, so first thing would be to let him defect to the United States for safety, and bring him back after getting rid of Kim Jong-Il. This is identical of what the Americans have been trying in Iraq, supporting a conference of people who are against Saddam Hussein.

Now what happens when this crisis comes to reality? Japan's "atmosphere" would likely to turn into a mass hysteria. Statements on "Acting firmly," and "Be Brave" seem to have been picking up popularity. You could read these stuff in major newspapers and people in literature. My take is all this is just full of crap. A desperate cry from people with weak minds who have relinquished to think how to get out of the mess.

These people neglect to face the simple fact that North Koreans have paced up their nuclear program after George W. Bush took command of the White House. Instead, their structure of thinking goes like this: What if a Taepodong missile armed with A bomb is launched at us? Of course we have to turn to Americans for help. Then, we must support the Americans fighting against Iraq to secure support on such a contingency. Now, this is terrifyingly immature way of thinking. And this indicates that an "atmosphere" is being created here in Japan, probably at the same speed the North Koreans are producing its A bomb. The speed is accelerated by the Bush Administration.

Japan and the United States have signed the "Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States." My understanding is that the U.S. military forces are supposed to protect Japan against any threat inflicted in the Far East" under the treaty. Then, Americans protecting Japanese is an obligation, not doing a favor. Isn't this why we have been paying billions of taxpayers' money every year for the past half century? Japan's ruling class, and conservative establishment have neglected to look for other options, and why are they in such a panic now? This is what they have promoted and this is the consequence. They should be proud of themselves, that they had been farsighted and be happy about this. Why the panic?

North Korea...We have no option to go to war

Now, I believe those people are not conservatives but merely opportunists. The greatest truth we have learned from the 20th century history is:

"Socialism could only collapse from inside, not by military forces."

Therefore, the policy against North Korea should be:(1)what measures should be taken to make North Korea collapse from inside (2)What should Japan do in order to accelerate it. The thinking could never go like:(1)strike the North Koreans before they attack us (2)We are too chickened out and also do not possess the proper weapon, so let's ask Uncle Sam for help. Nobody in the Japanese ruling establishment seem to have the brain to learn from history.

What these people do is to complain, such as the new administration in South Korea lacks determination. South Korea draws a sharp contrast with Japan, which enjoyed more than 50 years of care-free prosperity after the World War II even benefiting from Korean peninsula's bloodshed to recover economically. South Korea was forced to go through a bloody war, and they are aware that they have omitted the option to go to war against its counterpart in the north, which would bring further devastation. Then, they would wait patiently until the regime in the North would go sour. In order to do so, the South Koreans are willing to bribe billions of wons into the North, or the "Sunshine Policy." Basically, they have to keep the situation status quo and wait for the Kim Jong-Il's regime to collapse. This, we could say, is a desperate tactics taken by the South Koreans, because they are not allowed to make decisions by "atmosphere," a rather vague concept.

On this crisis concerning Iraq, France, Germany and Great Britain, although their final position differed, managed to make independent choices and drew separate conclusions. However, why is Japan so vague, becoming "the child of the atmosphere?"

In Japan, court rulings are decided on "atmosphere," newspaper editorials are written based on "atmosphere," the national government allocates budget on "atmosphere," and lawmakers on suspicion of bribery is arrested because "atmosphere" allowed it. Prefectural governors' popularity is based on "atmosphere." What is this? We have to correct this tendency or we are really heading for a wrong direction.

A new century has opened, whether we like it or not. This means that most of the common sense and logic are out of date. We cannot afford to decide something on "atmosphere", or vague general consensus. We could say that the days has ended as of March 20, the day George W. Bush changed the course of world history.

So what should we do? Don't worry. Wait for my next books--three of them in total--for possible solutions. I planned to review them today, but I did not have enough time to do so. Let me introduce just one of them. The book is about a former activist of the "General Association of Korean Residents in Japan," who had first predicted what the North Korea today would look like, and the first man to speak against the totalitarian regime. This was back, in 1962. Boy, I was attending school, with a baseball bat in my hand. What he had said was much too accurate to be appreciated at the time, so I decided to do a little excavation and re-publish the book. It will be on sale shortly. Members of the team must read this before starting to battle against this overwhelming "atmosphere" of Japan.

See you soon.

North Koria 1960

Coming soon

1800yen

ISBN４ー３０９ー２４２８４ー７