The LDP shows who and what it (still) represents

...On the recent decision of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and all of his Cabinet members not to visit the shrine out of consideration for Asian victims of Japan's past militarism, Tanigaki said, "Each party has its own view." Japan Times

LDP chief Tanigaki will, of course, visit.

PM Kan's recent apology to South Korea for its colonial rule of the country further inflamed some of the right wing of the LDP:

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the LDP criticized the government's decision, describing Kan and Sengoku as "foolish" and "ignorant" about dealing with historical issues. Japan Times

One may disagree with ol' I-quit-'cause-I-gotta-sh*t Abe, the fellow with a long history of denying that the Japanese Imperial Army recruited women to serve as sex slaves during the war and who got into hot water for boldly stating same as PM, but one can not question his expertise on being "foolish and ignorant about dealing with historical issues."

Since Abe's attempt to lead Japan toward a Fujiwara Masahiko influenced Beautiful Country got nowhere, the LDP will now boldly try the same thing over and over. This is a brilliant strategy as sooner or later people will quite worrying about the 2010 economy and their future and focus on reliving the 1900s.

Edited to add: The DPJ could be accused of coming up with this because they seem to have little in the way of (visible) success for improving the economy and the future, but we will look at this as a positive for the party and not a cynical political move as the DPJ is concerned about improving Japan's relations in the region. Unlike the party of Tanigaki/Abe/Mori retrogrouches. Now, about the future...

Let's pray for the poor rightists

who were arrested in Yokohama today when they tried to break into a theater showing the dangerous, one-sided, "anti-Japanese" film, The Cove. The rightists hate one-sided movies, news programs, and so on. I pray that none were injured in the attempt to hide something that they haven't the courage to allow people to see.

Michael Moore is damned lucky he ain't making his type of movie about Japan, although he does not know that.

(Cannot find a link yet, the information is from TV news.)

9:16PM: AFP story here, but no information on arrests. Seems that folks want to see it for themselves before making up their minds, something the nutters apparently dread.

July 4, 830pm. I have found no reports on the arrests to link to in either Japanese or English. Makes me wonder if I misunderstood NHK. I listened to the English subchannel, not the Japanese so I hope I can at least still understand English.

Let a hundred flowers bloom

I always enjoy it when someone from the right-wing (I do not mean merely conservative as it is often used in the US*) expresses their views and thoughts in a public forum. I especially love it when they do so in English for it is important for people to know these thoughts and opinions. It is especially valuable for those people in the US as we need to know who our friends are.

Recently, I was fortunate have had an opportunity to read the comments of an anonymous commenter here, who if not a member of the far (?) right is certainly a convincing actor able to explain exactly why Japan cannot build a relationship with China, and who even had something nice to say about the people of the US. Now I get it.

*Not that we don't have a right wing there.

Edited to add: Oh, good grief. Should I explain the post heading? I use it in the sense of allowing folks to come out and freely express their opinion so that we know may who our friends are. And aren't.

The rightwingers may have failed in their attempt to censor what people can see. Imagine how much nuttier this will drive that small, but noisy minority:

The cancellations [of the movie, The Cove in theaters around Japan] prompted a group of Japanese journalists, academics and film directors to sign a letter urging the theaters not to back down, saying the issue "underlines the weakness of freedom of speech in Japan."AP

Thank goodness that not all journalists think like Takeharu Watai. And thank goodness that folks who signed that letter (and those who support them) showed what a fool I was to write: Perhaps foreigners are less easily deterred by the threats of thugs.

Freelance journalist Takeharu Watai has a problem

Ironically, on the day that Japan was awarded the number 3 spot on the Global Peace Index (previous post) based partly on "High levels of freedom of information," the controversy raised by the cancellation of the showing of The Cove made the Japan Times again.

In the report, it appears that at least one rightist wanted the movie to be shown. His opinion was countered by a defender of freedom, a man in a profession in which one would assume would demand "high levels of freedom of information," freelance journalist (meaning under/unemployed?) Takeharu Watai said:

freedom of expression should be observed in monitoring the government and other authorities, but he has a problem with inflicting freedom of expression on Taiji's fishermen, indirectly criticizing the movie crew's filming methods. Japan Times

One cannot properly respond to that without inflicting some rather vulgar freedom of expression on Watai's opinion.

Blinky the bigot

cannot trust himself, for folks of foreign roots owe allegiance to their foreign ancestors. Where did the Japanese---whomever "the Japanese" are---come from? Is Blinky-the-bigot Ainu by any chance?

Well, although Blinky was elected and has been re-elected governor of Tokyo by the citizens of this fine prefecture, we can't assume that just because he is a racist that everyone else is.

However, as Debito Arudou writes in The Japan Times: Last Gasps of Japan's Dying Demagogues, some are:

[Citing research from M. G. Sheftall of Shizuoka University---good god, A furriner! Who can believe him?] Ishihara's "Showa Hitoketa generation" (1926-1935) was "completely immersed, from birth until late adolescence/early adulthood, in prewar Japanese ideology at its most militantly militaristic, chauvinistic and xenophobic. It is unsurprising many never quite recovered from the trauma they suffered when their ideology was suddenly and catastrophically delegitimized in August 1945."

Arudou points out that the argument of the folks who opposed the partial foreign suffrage proposed by the DPJ that bakagaijin should naturalize if they want to vote is purely fatuous (he does not use those words) as folks of Blinky's ilk will never accept naturalized citizens as Japanese when they won't even accept people who have been here for generations as Japanese.

We can only hope Debito is correct when he calls these types a dying breed. I ain't so sure, at best I think that they are a diminishing breed as there will always be others to pick up the flag.

I have nothing against that old extremist that the citizens of Tokyo decided to have represent them. The fact that he is a well-known racist, misogynist/misanthrope, and all-around kook was not important enough to give them pause. I wish him no bad luck, but if he were to be hit by a freight train, I would not spend the night crying. (What a mean thing to say!)

Google spell check does not recognize delegitimized as a word.

Edited 1010pm

Weekend shot all to hell

The first Saturday in months that I have been able to relax without the help of shochu and I am dumb enough to turn on the TV and watch the news. What do I see?

I see documentary evidence that Neanderthals are still among us, for the new Tachiagare Nippon (Stand Up Japan!) Party was launched today (link in Japanese. Mistakenly [or not. See update at the bottom.] referred to as the Sunrise Party of Japan in English here). And there at the press conference among the other old, old, men---not necessarily in age, but in beliefs and ideas (?)---was Ol' Blinky Shintaro Ishihara himself. The fact that the fossilized bigot Ishihara is a part of the "new" party is all anyone needs to know about it. I understand that he may have even come up with the ingenuous name for the retrogrouches. Perhaps he came up with the idea because it reflects his infamous salute (he stood up and saluted like a Nazi) on top* of a SDF APC---or perhaps a tank---a number of years ago when he held a disaster exercise, part of which was to prepare Tokyo to defend against crazed, rioting foreigners.

This was a real news show, not a spoof, and these geezers apparently take themselves seriously. As I watched, I wondered who among my friends and acquaintances would support such a silly looking (and thinking) bunch. Then again, those who would snuggle up to these OGsans would not be friends with me.

Gonna need the shochu after all.

*Have not located an image yet. It was widely circulated at the time.

**Handsome likeness of Ol' Blinky from here. I hope that any female readers will be able to control themselves after seeing such a studly fellow.

Of course, I am not implying that the old goof is a Nazi.

Update: Kyodo/Japan Times is also calling the new party the Sunrise Party of Japan. According to that article this will be the official name in English. As usual, we make something sweet and innocent sounding for the foreigners and keep the real meaning for internal use.

Fox' Mike Huckabee to interview Toshio Tamogami

It is way, way too late at night to be up reading this sort of nonsense, so the whole thing could possibly be just a weird dream.

We remember Huckabee as one of the Republican candidates of the last primary season and Tamogami as the fellow who was fired as Japan's Air Force chief of staff for saying what many others---including some of those who had him fired, one suspects---believe: that Japan was not an aggressor during WW2 and that FDR tricked* the apparently naive Japanese government and military of the time into attacking Pearl Harbor.

Tamogami, who will be in New York for a lecture tour, is reportedly going to be interviewed by Huckabee on his TV show at Fox:

Are you just sitting around waiting for the opportunity to hear a lecture and take a booze cruise with a disgraced Japanese general who is notorious for defending Japan's WWII atrocities? Mike Huckabee apparently is...

...The Tamogami scandal and his lecture tour has been extensively covered by the blog Armchair Asia, which points out that while Tamogami's "strident, revisionist views were brushed aside as an aberration in Japan's armed forces ... he remains vocal and a hero to many." From Foreign Policy's The Cable.

Has he written a manga yet? It'd sure help in the US. Bet if ya check some overseas Japan-forums, you'll find some likely candidates for fanhood.

*The FDR trick belief is something not only held by a number of people in Japan. Some in the US hold it too, and there have been a few books written that support that claim. Tamogomi won't have to sell that part to some. Err, I meant Tamogami.

What you say?!!

Published in the NYT and it is not some sort of idiotic fantasy-world pap like some of the recent stuff has been. I'll have to read and reread this to make sure that I am not dreaming as it seems to make some sense. Not that it will make any difference...

...in view of the deepening quagmire in Japan’s domestic politics, U.S. policymakers may need to scale down their ambitions for the role they wish to assign Japan. More than 60 years after World War II, Japan is still generally isolated in the Asian region. It remains heavily dependent on the United States for its defense and the health of the U.S. economy for its growth — not a positive state of affairs for U.S. policymakers trying to cope with rising regional powers and economic difficulties of their own...

...mounting voter frustration in Japan with an unresponsive political system leaves the door ajar for nationalist politicians and policies...A must read at NYT

The authors go on to state that the 60-year old contingency scenario for Korea is no longer adequate and that perhaps the security relationship with Japan should be "multilaterized." Someone shut these guys up before they influence US policy to move past the 1950s. Fortunately though, US foreign policy does not change until change is forced.

Maybe I am just a bit too sensitive to the rants of the nationalists, but methinks the door is a little more than ajar already.

(Speaking of NYT nonsense, I have never been to Norway and know nothing about it, but I'll just bet that this is oversimplified goofiness.)

I'm guessing that this would be a mistake

Beijing would welcome direct US-North Korean talks, the Chinese foreign minister suggested in an interview published on Friday, amid international efforts to get Pyongyang to end its nuclear programme. AFP

We've been down that road before (before Japan decided that it had interests there too) and did not it turn out well. The other players, the ROK and Japan in particular would be unlikely to accept any agreement coming out of those talks. Japan might, but then the fine folk on the extreme right would be rattling on about another back-stabbing by their true enemy, the US.

Stop the insanity! Done. Next Item?

The world has changed a lot since the days of the Bush administration when it seemed like international diplomacy was run by a group of loony-tunes.

A few weeks ago, Dear Father* Kim Jung Il of North Korea, feeling lonely and neglected, decided to ring a bell by launching a missile---err satellite---while President Obama was in Europe making a speech about (yawn) eliminating nuclear weapons. Like Pavlov puppies , the US and its erstwhile ally Japan immediately began slobbering.

Resisting the urges of the calmer, more rational folks who suggested some military action against North Korea as long as they themselves didn't get their asses shot off, President Obama sprang into action.

Obama rejected the old Bush wimp-out by refusing to merely call Kim and North Korea bad names such as Axis of Evil. No, Obama decided to hit North Korea where it hurts; to do that one thing that all sends the fear of god through the souls of all dictators and tyrants. Obama, with Japan at his side (the Japan that suddenly remembered that the Six Party Talks about North Korean nukes were about more than just hostages/abductees) went to the UN!

Things did not go as planned at the UN, however, for Russia and China stunned the planet by refusing to play along. No problem, says Barack, we'll talk it over. No more pushy USA, we'll get results by drawing upon the natural love and admiration that the international community always had for the US before Bush.

After much deliberation and singing of Kumbaya, the UN issued a fierce statement saying something along the lines that North Korea had done wrong when it committed the heretofore unheard of act of violating a UN sanction or something like that.

Kim Jung Il, upon receiving the UN nasty-gram, immediately went into a panic and began running around in circles screaming "Oh my god, what shall I do now!" After his generals calmed him down, the unpredictable Kim decided to do that which nobody could have predicted: They decided to withdraw from the Six Party Talks and restart the nuclear facility. (clang! clang!)

Meanwhile, back in Japan, the fearless rightwing was shocked and saddened to learn that the US-Japan alliance had failed. That girlie-man Obama had ruled out shooting down the North Korean missile before it reached the Land of the Rising Sun. This was the evidence they needed to do something that they had never done before and start whimpering that the US was an untrustworthy ally. Many had already reluctantly come to the conclusion that had Japan not had Article 9 which prohibits it from having military unless they are called self-defense forces, it would have been able to have defended itself and shot the missile down at launch. It would have been able to have done this even though it was off just a little---about a day---in its detection of the launch.

Had the Japan rightwing had its way, by god, and attacked North Korea it would have ended the problem in a heartbeat. Japan would have been back on track to regaining its rightful position as the much-loved and respected leader of Asia. China would have shown admiration for Japan's new military assertiveness. South Korea, after seeing an attack on its fellow Koreans by their beloved ally Japan, would have been waving the hinomaru and shouting "Go Nippon!"

It's such a relief to have returned to saner times.

*More commonly called Dear Leader nowadays.

Over and over and over

Japanese liberal teachers and historians voiced concern Friday over the approval of a history text written by a group of nationalistic scholars, saying it would whitewash the country's wartime past. AFP

Same old story. One hopes that the country can stop fighting WW2 sometime this century.

A Crisis of the Mind

Masaru Tamamoto of The World Policy Institute has written an Op-Ed for the NYT: Japan's Crisis of the Mind:

Recent events mark Japan’s return to the world’s stage, or at least so it seems...this suggests that Washington sees Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, as a powerful nation. If only we saw ourselves the same way.The truth is, Japan is a mess.

Some will disagree that Washington really sees Japan as a powerful nation, but nobody in his/her right mind would disagree with idea that Japan is a mess.

Conservative pundits here like to speak of this equality and sameness as being cornerstones of “Japanese” tradition. Nonsense. Throughout much of its history, Japan has had social stratification and great inequality of wealth and privilege. The “egalitarian” Japan was a creature of the 1970s, with its progressive taxation, redistribution of wealth, subsidies and the dampening of competition through regulation.

This is a key point, I think. Much of what is supposedly due to some unique Japanese tradition or culture barely predates WW2. The so-called lifetime employment, and the submissive unions would be but two examples.

Tamamoto argues that the crisis is not political, but psychological and that Japan's ability to imitate other systems has been mistaken for progress. He argues than in order for Japan to change it must take risks, and although in the last 60 some years after the end of the war the bureaucratic government (and much of society) have done everything possible to avoid risk, that risk avoidance is not a part of Japanese culture.

I'm afraid that I agree too much with what he wrote, which means it must be wrong somewhere. (He did not mention that Japan must stay safe by discriminating against others, which may rile certain Japan Times ranters from Australia. In fact, he says that Japan must get over its fear of immigration. Little hope there, I'm afraid.)

It's well worth reading if only to see what Japan could do, but likely won't.

Aso does an Abe

"No facts have been confirmed," the prime minister told the Upper House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense when asked whether Aso Mining used Allied POWs as forced labor during the war....

...Although Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Yukihisa Fujita stressed that records at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration show that forced labor did take place, Aso repeatedly told the Diet that no factual details have been confirmed. Japan Times.

I knew MangaMan Aso was a rightist/revisionist, but up until now, I had thought he was a sharper politician than "I-quit-'cause-I-gotta-s*@t" Abe. Oops. Wrong again.

As I said, I love it when these fossils let us know exactly what they believe and where they stand. Let's hope the rest of the world is watching and listening.

Keep talkin'

I love it when the loony-birds of the right speak openly and unapologetically of their true beliefs. This will insure that the rest of the world gets the message that some of the kooks who have never accepted that Japan did anything wrong in World War 2 are still around, still in power, and still accepted by many.

Pugnaciously defending his version of Japan's role in a war that killed millions across Asia, Toshio Tamogami, 60, told parliament Tuesday that he does not see "anything wrong with what I wrote." Washington Post.

At least he has the guts to continue to defend what he truly believes, unlike Abe who expressed what he believes then claimed he didn't really say what he meant, or mean what he said, or that what he said didn't mean what it meant. Or whatever he mumbled before he retired because of bowel trouble.

Of course Tamogomi is able to stay in the news and publicize his beliefs and perhaps gain a few new believers or put some doubt about WW2 in the minds of others. Others may have a less kind reaction and take it out on Aso.

General Tamogomi continued

Herbert Bix, the author of Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (among other things) has posted an article at Japan F0cus concerning the essay that got Tamogomi relieved:

...essay contest sponsored by a large scandal-marred construction and real estate conglomerate, the APA Group, which required contestants to write on “The True Outlook for Modern and Contemporary History.” APA's President is Motoya Toshio, the author of historical works and a key figure in political organizations supporting the Komatsu Air Base in Ishikawa Prefecture (fronting the Sea of Japan). He has strong ties to former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and other rightist politicians, including Tamogami. [2] As far as is known, superiors in the Defense Ministry's chain of command did not carefully scrutinize Tamogami’s essay. A notorious Nanjing atrocity denier, Professor Watanabe Shoichi, headed the panel of judges that awarded the prize. And the essays were apparently “solicited for the purpose of ‘steering Japan toward a correct understanding of history as an independent nation.’”

Bix then analyzes Tamogami's essay and rightist beliefs (as did Tobias Harris earlier at Observing Japan here here, and here). Bix discusses some of the Western Allies' hypocrisy during the Tokyo Tribunal which gives the right-wing some of their rational for dismissing the war crimes convictions as victor's justice. He also discusses US/Japan alliance and why it may not be so good for Japan's future by its pressuring Japan to rearm (thus playing into the right-wing's hands.):

...But the real problem with the US-Japan security relationship is that it is a poison injected into the arteries of Japan’s political system, continually weakening Japan’s commitment to its constitutional ideals.

A link is provided tin Bix's article for the text of Tamogami's essay in both English and Japanese.

See Japan Focus for the full article.

There are times that I miss being in the US---in the autumn when the seasons change, in the winter when I miss a real winter, during some holidays---but I really feel like I am missing out on something big after the election yesterday. I rarely listen to post election victory speeches, but Obama's was worth hearing yesterday.

Like Mark Shields said on the Jim Lehrer Newshour this afternoon on BS NHK, I feel hope more than expectations, but still I wish I were there to get a full sense of what is happening. (It always amazes me that people who have never been to the US for more than a quick are able to confidently feel that they know so much about the country from reading the NYT or watching Michael Moore/Oliver Stone movies.*)

There are many reasons that Obama's election should be good for the US, but one of my favorites is that the right-wing in Japan apparently did not like Obama. Although this was not the main reason I voted for him, it gave me a special sense of pleasure knowing that in some small way I could piss them. In some small way other than being a non-Japanese living in Japan who does not fall for the pure, Innocent Japan nonsense that many of the more extreme espouse.

*Love that fact that some of these folks, Japanese and not, who explained to me such things as the US would "never elect a black man" have been proven, yet again, wrong. Hmmm. Perhaps things aren't as simple as one could be led to believe on a diet of newspaper editorials & opinion pieces. D'ya think, J? Well, try this one:

There is another paradox about the world’s view of the election of Mr. Obama: many who are quick to condemn the United States for its racist past and now congratulate it for a milestone fail to acknowledge the same problem in their own societies, and so do not see how this election could offer them any lessons about themselves.

(Of course the quote above would not in any way apply to Japan.)

MangaMan' curious reading habits

Although Aso is well-known for his overly publicized comic book reading habits, it appears he reads other books too. This is somewhat reassuring for a man who is leading the current second largest economy in the world.

Unfortunately, his other choices of reading material might be a bit controversial. It seems that he may like to read books by folks with similar beliefs to the SDF general who he just fired for writing an essay on those beliefs. Tobias Harris has some observations about MangaMan's more serious reading at Observing Japan.

Beautiful country continued

Fired Japan Air Force Chief Gen. Toshio Tamogami (sorry, I meant Air Self-Defense Force. Air Force sounds like a military branch) defended his and his fellow traveler's interesting beliefs:

In his first public appearance since being sacked over the essay Friday, Tamogami reiterated that Japan was not an aggressor nation and that the people have been misled by erroneous education...

"It is necessary to revise the view that Japan did wrong during the war, if it wishes to prosper as a nation in the 21st century" ...

Tamogami also touched on the 1995 war apology issued by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, saying the statement, now the government's official line on Japan's wartime responsibility, "needs verification." (means withdrawn?) Full article at Japan Times.

The same old thing over and over.

We were victims I tell ya, innocent victims!

“Even now, there are many people who think that our country’s aggression caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War,” he wrote, using the term favored by Japan’s right to refer to World War II. “But we need to realize that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.” Comments courtesy of now fired Japan Air Force (which is, of course, not to be mistaken for a military branch) Chief of Staff Gen. Toshio Tamogami and the NYT.

...in recent years, nationalist politicians belonging to the right wing of the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party have waged a campaign to revise Japan’s wartime history... Full article at the New York Times.

Our rightwinger claimed that innocent Japan was tricked into entering attacking the US at Pearl Harbor and denied that Japan had invaded China and Korea and that Roosevelt, in addition to victimizing Japan was a Comintern puppet. I always knew that lefty Roosevelt was a Commie! (Guardian UK)

Although the above essay already won him $30,000 from a contest sponsored by the real estate developer Apa Group, General Tamogami also deserves the Shinzo Abe Foot-in-the Mouth Award for fearless public denial of history and furthering the cause of WW2 revisionists and apologists. He has stated that he will explain his views to the public next week. Can't wait.

Also articles here and here in case the NYT/Guardian links die suddenly.