Why is Osaka called Osaka (big slope) with even no slope?

An American man who lived near Osaka asked me: "Why is Osaka called Osaka (big slope) even though there is no big slope?" This question is difficult for me, even though I've lived near Osaka for over 50 years.

Osaka is a big slope

Look at this picture.
This is a current topographical map of Osaka. Red means high elevation (114 metres from the sea), yellow is moderately high, blue means sea level.
A ; Umeda area, which is the most densely populated area in Osaka
B ; Osaka Castle

From this picture, you can see that Osaka is a big slope, which is from Umeda or the seaside area to Osaka Castle. However, this big slope is so large and is beneath many tall buildings, therefore people have trouble to perceive that this area is a big slope.

quote from Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, addtional captions by Yoshiteru

FYI: The Osaka City official website explains the origin of the name of Osaka is not clear, however the oldest paper in which "Osaka" appeared was the letter written by the high buddhist priest "Ren-Nyo" in the 15th century. (He was also the establisher of the temple Ihiyama-honganji which was located in the same spot of Osaka castle)

Geography teaches us about history

Osaka castle (B)

Osaka castle was the most important spot in Osaka among the leaders in the Age of Civil Wars (around the 16th century). You can realise the reason why by looking at the picture above. The location of the castle is easy for both offence and defence during a conflict.

Daisen-kofun (C)

Daisen-kofun is the largest tomb in Japan (the length is 840 metres). The era the tomb was constructed was the 5th century. That means the pale blue area of the above picture was the sea at the time. It shows the reason for the location of the tomb. The leaders at that time had intended to show this big tomb as the power of Japan to people on the ships who were from Korea or China.

High elevation spots (D and E)

D and E are the unique points in the picture. What are they?Both spots are manmade mountains.

D is Tsurumi-ryokuchi park. Now it is a popular green park, also the site of the International Garden and Greenery Exposition in 1990. Before that, however, the spot was a large accumulation of the rubbish. The park is 39 metres from sea level, the highest spot in the entire Osaka city area, constructed by old rubbish.

E is chishima park, also the manmade mountains. It was constructed with the soil from subway construction in 1970.



Geographical features teach us both the origin of the name of the city and the history, even though native people don't know.

The traditional Asian manner of counting one's age called 'kazoedoshi'（数え年）

What’s kazoedoshi（数え年）?

Photo by Jisun Han on Unsplash

Age counting method

When you’re born, you are 1 year old

When the new year comes, you turn 2 years old

ex. You’re born on the 31st of December in 2020, you will be two years old on the 1st of January in 2021.

History

Old custom from China

In 1902, the Japanese government made a law that set the rule "a man gets one year older at the last moment of the previous day of his/her birthday" ("man-nenrei"（満年齢） system)

However, Japanese people continued to use kazoedoshi

In 1950, the new law, which said "obey the 1903 law system, not kazoedoshi" took effect

Why?

Kazoedoshi includes the period of development in the womb

Some people say "the first number is one, not zero". For instance, the 1st day, the 1st grade, the 1st century, and so on.

Getting one year older on new year’s day for the viewpoint "elderly is respectable" in Buddhism and Confucianism

Some people say the reason why is the lunar-solar calendar which Japanese society used till 1872. The calendar has a "leap month" due to a complex calculation method (7 times in 19 years). Therefore kazoedoshi system is easy to count age. Source: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(in Japananese)　

Still used in modern Japanese society

"nenki"（年忌）; the anniversary of the death of family in Japanese Buddhism. The third anniversary is held in two-year-after of the family member death, the seventh anniversary is held in six-year-after of the death. All Japanese people hold nenki under kazoedoshi count.

"Shichigosan"（七五三） (Seven, five, three);　festival in November for 3-year-old boys and girls, 5-year-old boys and 7-year-old girls at a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple. Some people count their child’s age in kazoedoshi, others in man-nenrei

Embed from Getty Images

In the world

In the past it was popular in other east Asian countries; China, Korean peninsula, Vietnam

South Korea is the only country that usually uses kazoedoshi system now

How Japan started the war with the US

This article is based on Kazutoshi Hanto's "Showashi (The History of Showa) " for organizing a part of Japanese history with a certain viewpoint. I don't think that this is the one and only truth.

1928

Kwantung army (Japanese troops in northeast China) assasinated Zhang Zuolin, the warlord of Manchuria.（Japan had supported him, however he began to get out of Japan's control, therefore the Kwantung army murdered him secretly without permission. After that, many people were suspicous about the Kwantung army imvolvement.）



The Zhang Zuolin assasinated place (All pictures in this article are public domain from Wikipedia Commons, unless otherwise described)

1929

(1) The emperor ordered the prime minister Tanaka to survey the Zhang Zuolin incident. However, Tanaka couldn't complete his mission because of the army's interruption against Tanaka's survey, therefore the emperor reprimanded him. After that, Tanaka resigned as prime minister and died three months later. (At that time, Japanese people were taught that the emperor was God. Tanaka was heavily shocked from emperor's reprimand.)

PM Tanaka

(2) The emperor blamed himself for Tanaka's death and he made up his mind to accept the cabinet's consensus on proposals or reports if he was against them.　→ The emperor became "speechless"

Emperor Hirohito（1932）（Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-12923 / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE）

1930

(1) The delegation for the London Disarmament Conference got the agreement which Japan would be able to construct 69.75% of the support vessels compaerd to the US numbers, for the original target of 70%. Therefore they sent telegraph instructions for the navy's directions for the acceptance.

(2) At first, the Navy agreed with the delegation's instructions.

(3) The emperor approoved the delegation's instructions.

(4) After the Emperor's approoval, the Navy went against the instructions.

(5) The emperor was surprised at the Navy's change.

(6) For the London Disarmament Conference, the nongovernmental parties declared the theory "Never interrupting the Emperor's right to control the armies" → the parliament accepted the rule "Even though the PM never be against the army about war affairs"

(7) The government ratified the treaty of disarmament.

(8) Their opinion was normal as mass media: "The nongovernmental parties theory was merely a campaign to topple the government."

(9) The navy were separated to supporters and opponents of the Disarmament Conferece result. The supporters left the Navy and the opponents joined of key posts of the Navy.

1931 to 1932

(1) Yosuke Matsuoka (The vice president of Manchuria Railways) declared "Manchuria and Mongolia are the lifeline of Japan." → this was spread among the masses.

Mastuoka（1932）

(2) The tone of mass media was "the problem about Manchuria and Mongolia shouldn't be solved by the military power."

(3) The emperor ordered the minister of the Army, "The military discipline looks loose, therefore you should dicipline the Army to observe the military discipline."

(4) The Plannning Director of the Army Takekawa, who was ordered by the Minister of the Army to dicipline the Kwantung army, went to the office of the Kwantung army by train, not by airplane, because he was worried about persuading the Kwantung army.
The Kwauntung army got him drunk and he didn't persuade the army. After that, the Kwantung Army broke up the invasion to Manchuria (The Ryujoko Incident)

The Ryujoko Incident place

Tatekawa

(5) Suddenly the newspapers began to support the Kwantung army. Asahi and Mainichi (Japanese big quality papers) released many ads of them with a large budget and increased their number of sales.

(6) Prime Minister Wakatsuki said, "Did the Kwantung Army enter Manchuria? So we can't stop it anymore." (The approval of the Ryujoko Incident)

PM Wakatsuki

And the emperor ordered Prime Minister Wakatsuki, "As for the problem about Manchuria and Mongolia, you should maintain the strengthening of Japan-China relations."

(7) The US noted that Japan's invasion of China is a violation of the non-belligerence pact. (Before that, it was relatively conciliatory to Japan.)

(8) The emperor declared "The Kwauntung army did a good job" * *The author of this book said, "This is the biggest mistake of the Emperor.

(9) Manchuria (virtually Japan's puppet state) was established.

Inauguration Ceremony of Chief Executive of Manchukuo

(10) Commander Honjo and Staff Officer Ishihara, the main manipulators of the Ryujoko Incident, who should have gotten the death penalty according to the militaly rules, got a promotion instead. *The author of this book said, "This is the moment of the Showa era collapses."


Honjo (1933)

Staff Officer Ishihara (1934)

(11) China had difficulty confronting The Japanese Army because it was in the middle of the civil war (Chinese Nationalist Party vs Chinese Communist Party)

1932

Prime Minister Inukai was assasinated by young navy officers The Navy Genereral Saito became the PM (The end of party Government)

Osaka Asahi Shinbun

1933

(1) When the emperor heard the cabinet's plan to leave the League of Nations, he said "I think that Japan doesn't have to leave the LN and should stay in the LN."

(2) Japan left the League of Nations → It became difficult for Japan to get overseas information for proper political judgements.

Tokyo Asahi Shinbun on the following date of left the League of Nations

(3) "Go-Stop Incident" (The Osaka Police confronted the Army for their ignoring of red lights during their training then they were compromized.) (It was the last confrontation among the Army and civilians. After that, all the people in Japan never went against the Army)

1935

From 1910s to this year, the citizens, the government and emperor Hirohito supported the "emperor-organ" theory, which means that the owner of the sovereignty of Japan is the citizens, not the emperor, and the emperor is one of the organs of the nation.
That year, Prime Minister Okada declared that Japan is a nation whose ruler is the emperor. After that, the government began to strictly control theories which were against the declaration including the "emperor-organ" theory."


PM Okada（1936)

1936

(1) The February 26 Incident broke out. (The incident was the abortive coup d'etat by young officers of the Japanese Army. They thought that they killed the old ministers and the emperor ruled directly then that Japan's social problems such as political corruptions or poverty in rural area were solved. They killed some ministers and occupied some mass media buildings. After that, the emperor quickly commanded they eliminated. The leaders of the incident were then executed.)
After this incident, the army began to controled the government and took advantage of fear of terrorism like this incident.

Officers at the February 26 Incident

(2) From the beginning, he commanded the army and police to deal with the incident.

(3) The cabinet (PM Hirota) implemented a rule which let only an active service military officer be assigned to minister of the army or of the navy. This rule gave the army strong power to control the cabinet.

PM Hirota

1937

(1) The regimental commander of a area of China, Mutaaguchi, commanded his soldiers to resist The Chinese army, which fired two bullets at them during training at night. However, his boss, the brigade commander Kawabe, admitted it without speaking. Then, the second Sino-Japanese War began.


Mutaguchi

Chinese army against Japanese army

(2) The German Ambassador to China, Oskar Trautmann, attempted to make a peace between the Japanese Army and Chiang Kai-shek of the Chinese Kuomintang Government. (Trautmann Mediation) .

1938

The Japanese prime minister Konoe refused the Trautmann Mediation. He declared, "We have decided not to negotiate with the the Chinese Kuomintang government anymore."

PM Konoe

1939

(1) The National Spiritual Mobilization Law takes effect. (The government began to control its citizens' lives and thoughts to save resources and to use them for the military. They refrained from a luxury lifestyle. For example, perms for hair were prohibited. Propaganda phrases like: "Luxury is our Enemy" "We never want anything till we win [wars]" "Kill our selfish minds and let our nation prosper")

"Luxury is our Enemy!"

(2) German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact concluded.

(3) The General staff office of the Japanese army was shocked at German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact (They were lacking the ability to research and analyze the movement of world affairs.)

(4) The Emperor commanded the government to cooperate with the UK and the US.

(5) World War II broke out (Germany invaded Poland.) "

1940

(1) Representative Takao Saito criticised the Army that it didn't end the Japan-China war, and was expelled from the diet by the Army. (This was the last critical comment from the Diet to the army.)

Rep. Saito（1929)

(2) The US declared the abolition of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and the USA and prohibited the export of steel from the US to Japan.

(3) The Japanese army entered the northern area of French Indochina (Vietnam)

1941

(1) Japan signed the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany and Italy.

(2) The US proposed an improvement plan for US-Japan relations from two Americans, Bishop Walsh and Father Drought, to a Japanese banker, Ikawa.

(3) Both the Cabinet and the Japanese Army accepted the improvement plan. However, Prime Minister Konoe decided to wait for the opinion of Matsuoka, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had been abroad. After his arrival in Japan, he ended up refusing the plan.

(4) Hull, the Secretary of State told the US policies to Nomura, the ambassador to the US that Japan had to "withdraw from the Tripartite Pact, China and Northern area of French Indochina", and "give the US the opportunity for getting involved in Manchuria concessions."

(5) On the 2nd of July, the second supreme conference in the presence of the emperor decided the direction of "We won’t hesitate to enter into a war against the US"

(6) The Japanese army made an entered the southern area of French Indochina.

Japanese army in Saigon

(7) The US froze Japanese assets in the US and prohibited the export of oil to Japan.

(8) Seeing the agenda of the supreme conference in the presence of the emperor, the emperor asked Sugiyama, the Army Chief of Staff.
Emperor: You wrote "First: preparing for war. Second: diplomatic negotiation". Is it a reverse sequence, isn't it?
Chief: We (army) are able to solve the problem in Southeast Asia within three months after the beginning of war against the US.
Emperor: When the Japan-China incident (war) began, you said you would end the war in China within one month. However, now four years have passed, you didn’t end the war in China.
Chief: China is vast therefore the plan hasn’t progressed as planned.
Emperor: The pacific is larger than China, isn't it?
Chief couldn't reply to the emperor.

Sugiyama（1944)

(9) Prime Minister Konoe proposed a summit conference with President Roosevelt.

(10) President Roosevelt refused a summit with Japan.

(11) PM Konoe resigned as Prime Minister. Just two days after, Tojo (war plan supporter) constructed his cabinet.

PM Tojo

(12) Every newspaper supported the start of Tojo cabinet. For instance, Tokyo Nichinichi (daily) News wrote "The beginning of all one-hundred-million-Japanese people army progression"

(13) The Japanese government asked the US to "Export oil to Japan, in exchange for withdrawal from French Indochina"

(14) The US refused Japan's request and told them that "Japan must resume Asia as the condition in 1931"

Hull, Nomura and Kurusu on 7 December 1941

(15) On the 1st of December, Japan decided to declare war against the US at the fourth supreme conference in the presence of the emperor.

Franklin Roosevelt signing declaration of war against Japan

The chart of "How Japan started the war with the US"

"(1) " and (2) "… in the box mean the order of incidents in the same year. -Red ink means the reasons that began the war, green ink means the important incidents that changed Japanese society or conditions.

Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century

(Interviewing them and writing this article in May 2001, adding pictures in 2016)

Introduction

My grandparents on the day of their town's traditional festival

My grandparents will be 90 years old soon, three times my age. I wanted to know how the world they have seen has changed, so I interviewed them. (cooperating in creating questions by a friend of mine Mr.Kinami)

Profile of my grandparents

Grandfather

Born in 1911. He worked for Japanese National Railways, and was in charge of the planning office of the Osaka Administrative Bureau of Railways, etc.
He enjoys playing music. He plays the violin, trombone, and shamisen (Japanese guitar). He also likes collecting coins and stamps, and gardening. He is a heavy smoker, and a coffee-drinker. But amazingly, he is very healthy, he even smokes the strongest nicotine cigarettes.

My grandfather practicing the violin in their junior high school days in the 1920s

Grandmother

Born in 1912. After graduating elementary school, she was put to work. After getting married, she brought up one girl and four boys. She likes reading novels and gardening.

Interview Part 1: About the public at large

Q: In your opinion, which was the best era in Japan? : Before the war*, soon after the war, "high growth of the Japanese economy" era**, "bubble" era***, and the present.

* World War II
** circa 1955-1970
*** circa 1986-1990. Boom economy made stocks and real estimates incredibly high. This unsubstantial prosperity left some huge problems in the Japanese economic market, afterwards.

A: (Grandfather) I like the present days because we have lived without restraint.
(Grandmother) I like the present days because we live in an affluent society.
And I also think "before the war" era was good. People didn’t covet material belongings.

Q: Do you feel that there has been a moral degeneration in Japanese society? They say there is a marked decline in public morality, On the other hand, some other people say that we have embraced the process of reducing discrimination, etc.

A:(Grandfather) I think it is getting better. I feel that we are in the process of reducing some discrimination.
(Grandmother) On a superficial level, I think the present society is the best. There are many problems in society, but I don’t think that juvenile delinquency has increase as they say on the news.

Q: What has changed the most in the world?

A:(Grandfather) Cars have changed the world very much. But I think that motorization is the subject of discussion. First, it isn't effective that people use a car when they don’t really need to. People don’t realize problems (traffic jam, traffic accident, etc.) of using car. People should use public transportation. Second, They have caused a lot of environmental pollution. At least, diesel cars must be banned.
(Grandmother) When water pipes were laid, I felt it was very convenient. And I will never forget the way I felt when we bought a TV set and a washing machine.

Interview Part 2: About the war and Hirohito, the emperor

Q: What did you think when the Pacific War started?

A: (Grandfather) I thought that it was a very serious thing, but I wasn’t surprised, because the Manchuria Incident, etc. had already broken out and had escalated into the Pacific War. Therefore I didn’t feel that the Pacific War broke out suddenly.

Q: How did you feel when the war was over?

A: (Grandfather) I only felt that I had escaped death.
(Grandmother) I gave a sigh of relief.

Q: In your opinion, did you think Japan could win the war?

A: (Grandfather) I thought Japan couldn’t win against the U.S. After many air raids, when I saw Kobe city from the second floor of a building in Osaka* I felt it was the end of the battle.
* It is 30km (20miles) from Osaka to Kobe. Osaka has many tall buildings, so normally you cannot see Kobe even from the tenth floor of a building.

Osaka station after the 1945 air raid (quote from Wikipedia Commons)

(Grandmother) I thought Japan couldn’t win, too. During the war, when I said to a neighbor “Can we trust news releases from the Imperial Headquarters*?" she reproved me for the carelessness in saying so because it was unsafe to criticize the Imperial Headquarters.

*The top of Japanese Army. It released untrue news of Japan’s victories in the war despite their continual defeats during the second half of the war. Even now, Japanese use the word “the Imperial Headquarters’ releases" when companies, or the government releases untrue public announcements.

Q: When people were called into the army, was it really an honor for them?

A: (Both of grandfather and grandmother) In our opinion, nobody was happy to be called up, instead this usually meant their call to death yet it was honorable. However, men who couldn’t pass the standard and were not called up because of their physique were ashamed.
*People in Japan had a wartime custom in which they celebrated the man who was called into the army.

Q: Why did people accept the U.S. Occupation Army without rebelling soon after the war, even though the Japanese government had said, “The U.S. and the U.K. are the evil ogre and the beast" during the war?

A: (Grandfather) My co-workers and I discussed how Japanese National Railways welcomed the Occupation Army at a conference when they landed at the port of Wakayama (next to Southern Osaka). One of the reception members said, “I will attempt to wreck the train the Army members ride!" Of course his proposal was rejected, but he remained a member of the reception. Surprisingly, he later said, “The U.S. Army is great. They are gentlemen." when he was back from the reception.
I hadn’t heard what had happened in detail at the reception, but, in my opinion, the first members of the Occupation Army were picked based on their previous knowledge of Japanese people and culture. I didn’t hear any bad news about them during the occupation era. And I think that it was brilliant that the Army was very plentiful when the Japanese has no material things. It made it easy for the Japanese to open their hearts to the Army.
But, on the other hand, I think that the Japanese people surely feared the Army. When I went to a station to welcome the Army, there were no Japanese people near the station. Maybe they stayed in their homes all day long. However, three days after the arrival of the Army, I saw almost all the GIs accompanied by Japanese women in a train.
(Grandmother) They say, “When the Army comes, women never go out" very often.

Q: Did you think the Showa Emperor (Hirohito) was a God*?

A: (Grandfather and Grandmother) We didn’t think that the emperor was a transcendent human or the descendant of God. But we thought the Showa Emperor was an excellent man, so, we thought most Japanese people respected him at that time. Or else riot would break out.
*The Japanese government stated and educated pupils that the emperor was the descendant of God. But soon after the war (in 1946), the Emperor himself declared that he was a mere human.

Q: After the war, did you think that the Occupation Army would execute the Emperor?

A: (Grandfather and Grandmother) We didn’t think so. We thought the American Government didn’t tend to go to extremes, so they would not be so severe.

Q: Were you shocked by the picture of the small and neatly dressed Emperor posed next to the big and relaxed posture of General MacArthur?

MacArthur and Showa Emperor

A: (Grandfather) I felt that the emperor had no choice but to take the picture posed this way. And I found that the picture showed the Emperor’s determination to save Japan.

Interview Part 3: about life

Q: What is the most important aspect of life?

A: (Grandfather) First, it is health. Next, you must have a good partner. A woman is the power source of a man, I think. A man’s life is based on a woman. And it is key to be loved by people. Friends are very important.
Enjoy your life. I think it is meaningless if you don’t enjoy your own life.
(Grandmother) Health. I always take care of my husband’s health.

Q: What was the happiest event in your life?

A: (Grandfather) It was the time when I passed a promotion exam and became a proper government employee. And, it was when the war ended.
(Grandmother) It was the time when a spinning mill that I worked for gave me “allowance for filial piety" when I was a teenager.
My salary at the mill was one yen per day, so I earned 30yen per month. (I took only one day off per month) But I paid 18yen per month for medicine that my father needed.
One day, an employer called me suddenly and asked me how much I paid for my father’s illness. "I receive enough salary", I said, but he raised my pay to 50yen per month as "allowance for filial piety" starting the next month.

Q: What is the sad or sorry events of your life?

A: (Grandfather) When I was transferred to a rural station because of my boss felt me as insolent at my newcomer age.
(Grandmother) I cannot remember any sad events.

Q: What are events that you were surprised especially?

A: (Grandfather) I had no events that I can remember soon.
(Grandmother) I was anxious about my husband’s surgical operation (It succeeded)

Q: In your opinion, what is the key that you can maintain happy married life?

A: (Grandfather) I think it is love, even it is a conventional comments. I believe that a secret key is generally conventional.
(Grandmother) I think it is thankful mind. And, I thank that parents in law were very kind.

Q: What do you think you should have done?

A: (Grandfather) I am satisfied with my own life. Especially I feel lucky because I spend my business period that was substantial.
(Grandmother) I should have taken practice to write sentences formally.



My grandmother died in Dec 2003, my grandfather died in Dec 2011. Both of them passed away suddenly - without pain.



Osaka station in 2016

The Great Tokyo Air Raid - More Victims than the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb

The Great Tokyo Air Raid on March 10, 1945 from Wikipedia Commons public domains


On the day following my business trip to Tokyo, I visited The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage. I learned the following.

The scale of the Great Tokyo Air Raid

According to the contents of The Center, the US carried out its bombing raids on 120 of Japanese cities. The death tolls were 410,000 including atomic bombs / 200,000 excluding atomic bombs / 100,000 in one night of the Great Tokyo Air Raid, on March 10, 1945. That means the amount of the victims of the Great Tokyo Air Raid accounted for a half of all victims of normal bomb air raids in Japan.

cf. TIME - A Forgotten Horror: The Great Tokyo Air Raid

The contents of the Center

Many photos are displayed in the Center. The most shocking ones were as follows; (from Wikipedia Commons public domains)

-burned bodies
-burned bodies of a mother and her baby. Mother's back wasn't burned because of having carried her baby.


The Center has a good collection of data, chart and maps. I appreciate that the collection includes not only Tokyo but also ther places in Japan, as well as victims of non-Japanese.
- The records of air raids all over Japan
- The records of air raids in other countries, for instance, Dresden, Berlin, Hong Kong and Guernica.
- The records of air raids that Japan did (Chongqing, China)
- The records of Korean victims in Japan

Other Exhibits

- goods for air defence among regidents
- burned cap of a baby
- melted dishes sticking a roof tile
- a miniature of a room of standard home at that time
- leaflets of the US airborne propaganda (The Japanese government prohibited to pick such leaflets out, however, some of them remain. The contents of them were interesting. They were well-informed about Japan and Japanese history but too logical for Japanese people, I think. I think that Japanese people have tendencies to feel strongly logical explanations as offensive pursuits.) ( To be clear, personally I love logical explanations.)
- Things related children education, for example textbooks, magazines and posters. You can see a big change at the end of the war.
- many others

Curtis Emerson LeMay

At a small video booth, I watched the TV program about the Air Raids, which was broadcast by NHK (Japan's public station) in 1978/

The TV crew visited the mansion of Curtis Emerson LeMay, who was the planner and the commander of the Great Tokyo Air Raids. When I saw the scene, I remember the movie "13 days" describing the 1962 Cuban Crisis. In the movie, LeMay (of course an actor played as him) appeared as the top of the US Air Force. I presumed that one of the reasons why he got to the top was the success of the Tokyo Raids. (By the way, LeMay insisted on the air raids to Cuba at the Cuban Crisis. If President Kennedy accepted LeMay's argument, WWIII would have broke out, I think.)

LeMay said to TV crew of NHK, "I have nothing to say for Japanese reporters","No interviews" and "You may film my medals."A glass cabinet appeared. It is the showcase of his many medals. One of them is the one from the Japanese government in 1964. Why did the government give the medal to the man who commanded the massacre its citizens? The reason why was his cooperation to build Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

After watching the program, I checked this award out. When the government decided on the award, many diet members and citizens, including victims of the Air Raid, were against that. The Prime Minister Eisaku Sato (Liberal Democratic Party) gave an account to them, "Now, Japan has a friendly relationship with the US. If a US person earned an achievement, it is natural to reward for that, in spite of the past." I think that this incident is one of the symbols of the LDP's policy of "subservience to the US".

cf. Related Post; Why is the US military in Japan?

Meanwhile, the Showa Emperor didn't give the medal to LeMay directly, despite in the ordinary course of decoration events the Emperor gave medals directly to receivers.

The couse of the damage spreading

After learning above in the Center, I looked over the fire protection policy at the time of WWII as follows;

-In 1937, the Japanese government released the Guideline of Air Defense. It contained the principle "In the event of an air raid, never evacuate except for old people, children and sick people.
-In 1941, The Air Defense Law released, including "prohibit to evacuate" and "duty to fire extinguishing" This law was never changed till the end of the war.
-After the Great Tokyo Air Raid, newspapers said, "Never Run, Guard", "Protect Our Homeland"

Why did the government release such a policy? Was it better a policy of evacuation in order to keep soldier power and labor power than the "non-evacuation" policy? The committee of The Air Defense Law answered on Nov. 20, 1941, "The damage won't be massive. We have to be more afraid of confusion among citizen and corruption of people's will to accomplish the war than the real damage."

My opinion

The leader of the Great Tokyo Air Raid was the US Air Force. Therefore, the US Air Force at that time had direct responsibility for the Air Raid. However, the Japanese Government also had a big responsibility because of its decision to provoke war with the US and its policy not to protect its citizens' lives. I, as a Japanese citizen, must bear watching the current Japanese Government intending to do some of the same actions.

Related posts

-How do Japanese think about the Pacific War?
-How do Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?
-Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
-What do Japanese people think of Korea and China? And unlike Korean and Chinese people, Taiwanese people tend to be fond of Japan,Why?
-Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century

The Day for National Foundation, not the National Foundation Day of Japan

The 11th of February is a holiday in Japan. Many Japanese people recognize it as The National Foundation Day. However, if you see any calendars in Japan, the precise name of the day is indicated as "The Day for National Foundation." This slight difference has a story as follows:

History around The National Foundation Day

Japan's first official history book "Nihon Shoki" which was written in 720 said that February 11th was the day that Jinmu the first Emperor of Japan ascended the throne in 660BC.

"Emperor Jimmu" Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)

However, it wasn't true history. Almost all of modern studiers of Japanese history think that the oldest existing emperor was in the 3rd century. However, from the 1870s to 1945, the Japanese government had told citizens that it was true history, because the dignity of the old Emperor system was needed to rule Japan smoothly. In 1872, the 11th of February was set as "the National Foundation Day." The government enhanced the dignity of the Emperor by, for instance, educating citizens that the Emperor was the descendant of gods. Using this entitlement, the government began to say that Japan, the nation of the gods, should rule Asia.

Abolition and revival

After WWII, the US occupation army banned the political usage of the Emperor. In 1946, the Emperor Hirohito (the period of his reign: 1925-1989) declared as follows: The tie between citizen of Japan and the Emperor doesn't depend on unreal thoughts, such as, "The emperor is the living god" and "The Japanese race is more excellent than other races, therefore the Japanese race should rule the world."
In 1948, The National Foundation Day was abolished.

As time passed, some diet members of the administration party (the Liberal Democratic Party which it is conservative, and does not live up to the name) submitted the bill of the National Foundation Day. The members of left sided parties were strongly against them. In 1963, when a member of the LDP tried a forcible passage of the bill, opponents tackled him and this LDP man was carried to a hospital.

After that, the LDP members proposed an alternative plan to opponents. "How about we change the name of the February 11th holiday from The National Foundation Day, to The Day for the National Foundation," they said. "This name doesn't mean that the national foundation occurred on the 11th of February. People can think that this day is for thinking of and respecting the nation." In 1966, opponents compromised to this idea. Since 1967, the 11th of February in Japan has been made a the holiday again.

The communist party reacted with slight resistance. The party didn't admit the day as a holiday, therefore members and staff of the party worked on the 11th of February. Some people felt it was a proud act. but some other people didn't like it. For example, children of the staff hated the system because they weren't able to go on vacation on the day like other non-communist families. In 2004, the party began to treat some "controversial" days as holidays -- the 11th of February, the 29th of April (Showa Emperor's birthday, in 2004, it was called "Greenery Day", but now has reverted back to "Showa Day") and the 23rd of December (the reigning Emperor's birthday)

My Opinion

I also don't think the 11th of February as the real national foundation day. On the other hand, I think that the existence of the Day for National Foundation is good. Another date is better, however I can't conceive of a more proper date. The 3rd of May, the day the present Constitution came into effect in 1947 may be the best, but the day is already established as the Constitution Memorial Day, a national holiday.
The 11th of February is the Day for National Foundation - it is not proper, but I reluctantly admit it.

What do Japanese people think of Korea and China? And unlike Korean and Chinese people, Taiwanese people tend to be fond of Japan,Why?

What do Japanese people think of Korea and China? What do you think of these countries? It is FAQ for me. I want to make the answer delicately, so I write it down before I talk about it.

# This article was written before the Takeshima / Dokdo island and Senkaku / Diaoyu islands dispute which occurred in summer, 2012. After this incident, feelings among Japanese, Korean and Chinese people become worse again.

Japanese perspective of Korea

Japanese people who say or write negative comments about Korea and Korean people are easy to find. When I was a child, I heard some adults swear about Korean people. Nowadays, I see many negative words about Korea and China on many electronic bulletin boards (except the North Korean government – I have never seen positive words about the country. About Korea and China, I also see many neutral words.) However, the contents of these negative messages are different between those days and these days.

From the beginning of the Japanese modernization (circa 1870) to the 1980s, many Japanese people looked down on Korea as a country behind. Japan ruled Korea as a colony from 1910 to 1945. In order to justify the occupation, the Japanese government made propaganda that said "Korea is behind, so Japan has to control her." Actually, Korea was behind Japan in modernization, so many Japanese people recognized the propaganda as truth.

In addition, many Korean people who lived in Japan (not only coming to Japan voluntarily but also perhaps being brought forcibly for hard mining labor) lived in poverty under discriminations. After the end of the rule by Japan, some Koreans in Japan ran non-conventional business, for example gambling, so many Japanese people thought of Koreans as dirty people.

However, from the 1990s, the situation had changed. In 1987, the Korean government became democratic. The former government was a military administration which had been controlled by the US to guard and bring up Japan as an Asian base of anti-communism. So the Korean military government oppressed their citizens who spoke out against the Japanese occupation. Japan paid compensation to Korea but the Korean government used it for the social infrastructure, not citizens. After their democratization, Korean people began to publicly criticize Japan's ruling. They developed their economy.

Meanwhile, from the 1990s, Japan was and still stuck in a bad economic situation. Some Japanese patriots lost their pride for the nation which used to have a strong economy. The Korean economy was developing more, requested more compensation (informally), and set policemen on Takeshima / Dokdo, which is the territorial disputed island of Japan and Korea. Some of the Japanese people began to think that Koreans are greedy. Japanese nationalists began to recognize Korean people in Japan not as poor dirty people, but as people with special privileges (they began to think that Koreans in Japan have many more privileged rights than other foreigners in Japan) and started to criticize them. The name of their group is "Citizens against Special Privilege of Zainichi (Koreans in Japan)"

In 2004, other big change had occurred. A Korean TV drama suddenly became a big hit in Japan. Before that, Korean culture in Japan was only for a few admirers. After that, Korean drama and pop music became popular genres in Japan. This tide is not temporary. The number of Korean language learners and visitors to Korea is increasing. NHK (Japan's public broadcasting station) published Korean language class textbooks, the number in 2001 was 80,000, while in 2005 it was 320,000. I don't know the reason why, but some people said Korean drama lovers in Japan found a conservative and tidy atmosphere (rather than an extraordinary story and direction) in the dramas.

As above, now in Japan, there are both people who hate Korea (I think it is absurd notion) and people who love Korean culture.

# This article was written before the Takeshima / Dokdo island dispute which occurred in August, 2012. The president of Korea first visited Takeshima / Dokdo. In addition, he said, if the emperor of Japan would like to visit Korea, he has to apologize for the people who fought for the independence of Korea and were killed under Japanese oppression of Korea. After this incident, feelings between Japanese people and Korean people become worse again.


Takeshima / Dokdo from Wikipedia Commons (Rachouette, teacher in Seoul, SOUTH KOREA)

From the perspective of Korean people to Japan

Korean people seem to hold onto their anger against Japan. The reasons why are the oppression by the old Japanese government and no-reflection on Japan's past.

During the Japanese occupation era, the Japanese government forced the Korean people to admire the Emperor of Japan and to learn the Japanese language. The government also forced the people of Korea to change their names to Japanese. These things were a big humiliation for them because they had their own customs of worshipping their ancestors. Some or (many) Japanese people seemed to use violence against Korean people. This story of oppression was passed down from generation to generation of Koreans. (On the other hand, some Japanese people insist that the Japanese rule developed the Korean infrastructure and hygiene improved.).

*Why did the old Japanese government force the worship of the Emperor and the adoption of the Japanese language? One Japanese historian said that the reason why is that only those two things were originally from Japan and not from western society. The logic of the government to rule Korea was that Japan had developed more than Korea. However, this "development" also meant westernization. So if Japan didn't have its original power, it could not have ruled Korea reasonably. There was the contradiction of Japan potentially ruling Korea in a western style as opposed to a traditional Japanese style. These two things – the Emperor and the language were the key supporting reasons for Japan's rule. I agree with this explanation.

After WWII, an explaination of the Japanese occupation of Korea was written in Japanese government approved history textbooks, in a few lines. Koreans got angry about them, so the Independent Hall in South Korea in 1987 was established by Korean citizens' donations. It features Korean history, in particular, during the Japanese occupation. I visited it in 1994. The exhibition includes life-size mannequins depicting, for example the torture of a bloody half-naked Korean lady by Japanese policeman. An Jung-geun, who assassinated Hirofumi Ito, the first prime minister of Japan and the governor-general of Korea, was considered a citizen's hero. A picture book for kids admired An as a respected man. This hall is a popular place of Korean elementary school excursions.

Koreans' anger hasn't calmed down even now. In the past the Korean law prohibited the sale, performance, and broadcasting of Japanese pop culture (songs, movies, manga and so on) – while bootleg copies of these things seem popular in Korea. The law was abolished in 1998 in several stages, but Even in 2012 Japanese TV dramas are still banned on non-satellite Korean TV stations.

My opinion

I think of the country of Korea and the Korean people as follows:

Ancient Korea strongly influenced Japan. Many parts of Japanese culture, including script, religious beliefs and many traditional industrial techniques are based on Chinese ways via Korea. I think of many aspects of Korean culture, such as their writing system, Korean movies, and foods as great. In addition, Japanese politicians and business people can learn a lot from modern Korean politics to strategically prioritize policies regarding intellectual properties and internationalization of business. Therefore, there are some things I respect about Korea and the Korean people.

As for the way Japan ruled Korea, I think that most of it was not done in a proper way, because it lacked concern for the culture and people of Korea. On the other hand, I don't think that the Japanese occupation was completely a mistake. In those days, Japan expanded its own colonialism in order to survive among dominant western powers. I think that we cannot properly argue about the rights and wrongs of colonialism in the past from the perspective of today's values (but we can and have to learn a lot from it.)

I understand that Korean people feel angry about the Japanese occupation. However, perpetuating hate and anger at a neighboring country doesn't have any value. The era of development based on such policy has passed, and now co-operation is more important.

From the perspective of China people to Japan

The feeling between Japan and China has been changing. When I was a young teenager, in the 70s and the 80s, I heard several times, adults around me say "Korean people have severe feelings for us, but Chinese people do not. Even though both countries were under the control of Japan, Koreans are still in anger, Chinese are not. Chinese are more tolerant."

One of the reasons why they said so was "proper name problem" happened. The problem is: English speakers pronounce "paris" for the city Paris, even though French speakers pronounce it "Pari". English speakers pronounce "bock" for the German composer Bach, even though German speakers pronounce it "ba-h". In the same way, Japanese speakers pronounce foreign place names and person's names in Japanese pronunciation.

In the 80s, a Korean Japanese criticized it and requested Japanese mass-media to pronounce Korean place and person names in Korean way. He insisted that pronouncing Korean names in a Japanese way was against Korean human right, so NHK must provide monetary compensation. In 1988, the Japanese Supreme Court rejected his argument but admitted to abusing his human rights. After that, NHK and other mass-media changed to pronounce Korean names properly.

Meanwhile, Chinese Japanese didn't insist on such an issue. The Chinese government also didn't speak out about the Japanese occupation responsibility till the 80s. However, after the 90s, the condition changed. The Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin(1989-2002), established his policy to promote anti-Japan education and propaganda. It was one of the ways to strengthen the orthodoxy of their rule after the Tiananmen Square incident. In my opinion, nowadays the feeling between Japanese people and Chinese people is worse than the one between Japanese and Korean people. The relationship between Japan and China depends not only on the Chinese policies mentioned above but also on Chinese economic growth and Japanese economic decline.

# Again: This article was written before the Takeshima / Dokdo island dispute which occurred in August, 2012. After this incident, feelings between Japanese people and Korean people become worse again.

The strange tendency of Taiwan

All of my friends who have been to Taiwan have said, "Taiwanese people are kind to Japanese people." Their favor towards Japan is well known among Japanese people. As for objective data, here is the statistics of the amount of donations for given the east Japan big earthquake in 2011 from the Red Cross all over the world (the name of country, amount, and population)
Korea, $30m, 49m people
Taiwan, $25m, 23m people
FYI: China, $9m, 1.3b people (As you know, this country's economic base isn't suitable to compare with the other two countries)

#I don't like to compare the amount of donations because all the donations are symbols of people's kindness. The aim of the above list is to merely show you the reality of Taiwanese favor in comparison to Japan's objectivity.

Most Taiwanese are from the Chinese mainland. Both folks of majority are the same. As with Korea and China, Taiwan was under the control of the Japanese government and also experienced same oppression. For instance, at the beginning of the occupation, the Japanese Government executed 50,000 Taiwanese people after the occupation battles.

However, unlike Chinese and Koreans, the Taiwanese tend to be fond of Japan. Why?
I think that it in order to understand this strange tendency, it is important to know Okinawan history.

The history of Okinawa

The Okinawa islands weren't a part of Japan untill 1879. After that, some Okinawan people struggled to adapt to Japanese society and customs, other Okinawan people wanted to be independent from Japanese rule.

Since the end of the Pacific war, the US military began to control Okinawa. The government limited Okinawan people human rights. It was lower priority than the policy of the US military government. The government claimed a lot of land in Okinawa only providing small compensation.

Therefore, Okinawan people made a move to rejoin Japan even though they had a history of struggling under the rule of Japan. For example, in the 60s, Okinawan elementary school pupils to wave a Japanese flag in their schools. Finally, in 1972, the US gave away Okinawa to Japan.

After rejoining, the mind set of Okinawan people had changed. In my opinion, Okinawa is the most anti–central government area in Japan. They recall and experience the unfair treatment by the Japanese government. People don't change, but the situation have changed.

My opinion

We can learn from the history of Okinawa. People's feelings between countries depend not on their national character and their history but on the situation of their countries. Therefore, I think that it is nonsense to appreciate or deny a country depending on the countries citizens'feelings about my country.

Related posts

-How do Japanese think about the Pacific War?
-How do Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?
-Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
-The Great Tokyo Air Raid - More Victims than the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
-Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century

A week has passed since Japan's 2011 quake occurred

My experience, far from the earthquake center

The massive earthquake came at 14:46 on Friday, March 11th in Northeast Japan. The quake center was about 1000km(600miles) away from my residence in west Japan.

At that time, I was on my business trip to a city which is located at more western area from my living place. So I couldn't feel the shock of the quake. When I heard that a member of telephone conference starting at 15:00 talked about the news, I realized what had happened.

I am a salesperson and a controller for my company's twelve call centers which are in charge of my client, so I exited the conference and contacted my client and stop operations of the call centers because they are sales promotion centers, not customer support ones. My clients' products are not living necessaries. Therefore my clients decided that sales promotion in confusing situation made the company's image bad. It was a busy work, but not serious. All offices and centers of my company are located in west Japan, far from the quake center (My company used to be one company but Japanese government divided it into east and west.).

However, I was shocked by my twitter timeline, not by the TV or newspaper websites. Broadcasters and newspapers told us only "a big earthquake occurred". On the other hand, my friends in Tokyo, only 200km (125miles) away from the quake center, tweeted their conditions via Twitter. They were frightened and confused. Many waves of quake shaking were coming. Most public transportation stopped. At last, some of them went home on foot even though it took three to six hours*, the others stayed at their offices. Tokyo people could tweet, but northeast people (near the center) couldn't tweet. My boss "predicted" that all victims would be counted over 100 at the same evening. My boss and I realized it was serious, but didn't realized its true condition.
*Those who use Twitter could exchange transportation information, but other people couldn't (mobile voice network broke in Tokyo at that time.). The next day, many friends of mine who didn't use Twitter began to use it.

From midnight to next morning, the news reported the devastation of northeast area. They said victims and missing persons would be over a thousand (a few days after, the counts was over ten thousand, and now over 20,000). In addition, nuclear plants near the center were broken. I finally realized that this earthquake is the worst and the most serious natural disaster in Japan, in these hundreds years even though my everyday life never changed. The only encouraging news were messages from nations all over the world. Formal messages of nation's leaders, articles of mass media like that, in particular world's ordinary people's tweets with the tag "#prayforjapan" encourage us.


What I can do

I think over what I can do. Of course, donation was off the top of my head. To know the amount the sufferers need, I researched the amount of the emergency budget for 1995 earthquake in west Japan (victims over 6,000), divided it by Japanese population and multiplied it by three (my family members' number). I donated the amount to the Red Cross as the result of the calculation.

Only that? The government restricts amateur volunteers for a while because they will be obstruction of professional rescue in infrastructure-broken area.

Tokyo people are under a hard condition – the lack of electricity because of many power station including nuclear plants are broken. Tokyo Electric Co. controls "planned blackouts", the company deliberately stops electricity some areas in rotation to stop all area blackout. It makes Tokyo people's life, business and other all activities confused. You might think that west power plants should provide electricity to Tokyo and northeast. But it is impossible. The reason why is the difference of the frequency of AC (alternating electric current) between east and west Japan. Why different? 120 years ago, in the beginning of Japanese industrialization, east Japan electric company purchased a 50Hz generator from Germany, west Japan company purchased a 60Hz one from the US. Around that time, Japan had no technology information. So now, people in west Japan can't support people in east Japan in a serious lack of electricity.

About the problem of nuclear plants, maybe I can only pray for the staff who devote all their energies to settle down the plants.

In my opinion, as for people who are far from northeast Japan, all you can do for the sufferers at present is to activate the economy by your jobs and everyday life, except donations. Do the best at your work, buy things your family and I need or want.

Furthermore, the most important point is imagination. I keep collecting information and imagining the pain, sorrow and inconvenience of sufferers and survivors.

In addition, it is also important and meaningful to expand my concern about not only this quake, but also other world's issues. I make this expansion my pray for victims.

A trip to meet two heroes for Japanese (2)

My family and I parted in the meantime. I went to Kouchi city to see a exhibition and museum of Ryoma Sakamoto, who is a hero among many Japanese.

He was a swordmaster, an entrepreneur, and a peacemaker in the last part of the Samurai era (1860s). Japanese think that he is one of the most important people of Japanese modernization.




What did he do? The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum said as follows:
In short, Ryoma was a man who triggered the collapse of Shogun's feudal government. In the 1860s, the government had no power to refuse western nations' requests (for example, trading on unequal treaty) and lost power to control regional feudal lords. Some people thought that the government couldn't defend Japan from western nations, and therefore supported the overthrow the government and establishment of a new unified nation under the Emperor. He was one of those man.

Ryoma succeeded to make partnership between two powerful feudal groups even though they were opposing. Both groups thought to overthrow the government by force, but Ryoma thought to avoid civil war. So he proposed to a lord a plan in which the government returned political power to the Emperor. The lord proposed the plan and the government accepted it. In addition, Ryoma wrote the way of new government: establishing the parliament, new law system and modern navy, trading other nations on equal treaty (the old government shut down trade with any nations except China, Korea and the Netherlands for over 200 years.), etc.

His action and plans affected new Japanese modern government strongly. He was assassinated by an unknown person in December of 1867. The new government was established in 1868.

He is very popular among Japanese of all ages, especially this year. Because one of the most popular TV drama series this year picks up Ryoma as a main character. So there is a temporary exhibition displayed in front of Kouchi station.



Right: Ryoma. Left: Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi. Iwasaki was a friend of Ryoma. Both of two were born in this prefecture, lower-class samurai. In particular, Iwasaki was very poor.



The Sakamoto Ryoma Memorial Museum. It exhibits Ryoma's career, background and his letters.

My opinion about Ryoma is simple: If he didn't exist, there is a possibility that Japan would have failed to modernize peacefully, otherwise terrorism could have happened. Like many other Japanese, I also think he was great.

A trip to meet two heroes for Japanese (1)

My wife, three-year-old son, and I took a trip to meet a hero. Who was he? He was Anpanman, the most popular hero among Japanese pre-kindergarten kids.

Anpanman is a justice friend wearing a cape and flying in the sky like Superman. His item to help people is his face – it is made of bread! When he finds a starving person, he cuts off a part of his own face and gives it to him/her.. "Anpan" means bread with "an" which is Japanese bean jam.

The history of national star of Anpanman is very long. He was born as a picture book character in 1973. At first, it was popular among a group of kids. In 1988, this character was animated for a TV program, then he became a popular nationwide hero for kids. On the TV program, the original story was changed. It didn't include starving people but many characters based on meals. For example, a banana, pizza and a donut... Guinness book of world records admitted this program for the world's highest character count animation – 1,738. Of course now Anpanman is broadcasted all over Japan every Sunday morning.

Like other kids, my son likes him (his first word was "Anpanman") so my wife planned a trip to Anpanman sanctuary. It is the birthplace of the author of Anpanman where the Anpanman Museum was built.

We reserved the "Anpanman-train". Its walls, ceiling and seats are printed with Anpanman characters.






It took two and half hours by this train and 30 minutes by Ampanman bus to go to the Museum (the author's birthplace is rural).






The museum (left) and a hotel.



This hotel is fully furnished in Anpanman!



A settlement near the Museum also features Anpanman characters.

(Taking pictures of the Museum is allowed but posting them on blogs is prohibited.)
My son seemed very excited and satisfied by this hotel and museum. It was what my wife and I wanted.

(to be continued: the next entry will be about a hero of most Japanese adults.)

Rwanda's Genocide and their population pressure from Jared Diamond "Collapse"

I read this book again. (My former memo: "Twilight at Easter", "One island, two peoples, two histories" and "Martha's Vineyard Island") And I would like to write down another part of the book; Chapter 10 "Malthus in Africa: Rwanda's Genocide" The author Jared Diamond says his theory as follows in this chapter:

Rwanda (and neighboring Brundi)'s 1994 genocide is the second biggest massacre, per population since 1950s, next to Cambodia. There are many presume statistics but many people say the death rate was 10% of the entire population of Rwanda.

Why did many people kill neighborhoods suddenly? Generally speaking, the main factor was the hatred between Hutu and Tutsi (and the ex-host country Belgium's policy to make it). However, we can't attribute all topics to this factor. In the northwest area of Rwanda, Hutu people killed Hutu people. And in other areas, with decreasing Tutsi population, Hutu killed Hutu people. Why?

Admitting this hatred factor and many other factors, additionally, Diamonds mentions Rwanda's population explosion and the destruction of environment as a result of this explosion. In short, high population growth made an agricultural land quite smaller per person. My question was "Is it true killing neighborhoods because of such a reason?"

In Rwanda, after their independence, the government continued their conventional agriculture method and didn't try an innovation to enhance productivity. They also didn't go ahead with family planning. The author's friend found this proceeded environmental destruction in 1984. He saw the lack of basic and important agricultural methods: the whole country land was like banana orchids, not in terraced fields but ordinary fields along the steep land (it was a danger for the fields to be flushed away by heavy rain), not aerating the soil by covering it with grass (which is bad for soil).

As a result, the population density of Rwanda and Brundi is the world's highest, the worst of Africa, ten times that of neighboring Tanzania. Other highly populated countries, such as Holland and Belgium use highly efficient agriculture and have other industries. Bangladesh is transferring from a conventional agricultural method to the new "Green Revolution" method. But Rwanda didn't change their method.


Rwanda's agricultural land per person was 0.09 acres (360 square meters) in 1988 and 0.07 acres (280 square meters) in 1993. In the state of Montana in the USA, one family needs over 40 acres of land. So, you can understand the seriousness regarding the lack of Rwanda's land.

I say it again, the author doesn't say that the population explosion is the only reason for Rwanda's genocide. If this is true, genocide would occur in Holland and Belgium (in Bangladesh, genocide occurred - smaller than Rwanda), but it hasn't. In less densely populated countries - the Third Reich of German and Cambodia - people experienced genocide. However, along with other factors, population explosion can be a big factor of genocide. It is the author's conclusion.

In my opinion, the author's theory gave me some convincing explanation to my question "Why did such a tragedy happen?" after seeing the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and reading "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch. But this tragedy is still beyond my imagination. I want to understand it, I need to, but I don't understand.

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

A Question from anonymous
"So why did they attack? I've heard it suggested that they didn't want Hawaii interfering with plans for the Pacific, but the US and Japan were still negotiating at the time, so why the preemptive strike? I do remember reading about the US opening the Japanese ports in 1850, but that was a long time before WWII." (quoted from comments of this blog on Dec. 8 2007)

Why did Japan decide to fight the US?
Before replying to the above question, I will divide it into two questions. One is "Why did Japan decide to fight the US?" The other is "Why did Japan attack without a declaration?"

About the former question, I introduce a radio lecture that aired in December 1941, about reasonings behind the start of the Pacific War by Dr. Shumei Ohkawa who was asked by the Japanese government. According to the lecture, he said the reason why was "The US got in the way of Japan's Asian management." In detail: Opening Japan ports in 1853 by the US was fortune, she kept polite and opened Japan with negotiations, not plundered. After Spanish-American War in 1898 (the US got the Philippines), she realized that the Asia-Pacific interests were important. The US persuaded Japan to sell the half interests of Manchuria (northeast China) Railway (the US failed), planned to construct a rival railway company to the Manchuria Railways with the UK (they failed), and so on. After that, the Washington Conference was held from 1921 to 1922. During that conference, participant nations set Japan's navy battleships weight as 60% of the US. In 1941, the US froze Japanese capital in the US and stopped exporting oil to Japan. Japan considered the above actions as obstacles of Japanese Asian management.

The US and other nations regarded "Japan's Asian management" as an invasion. So did the Asian nations invaded by Japan. It is the reason why the US 'got in the way of" Japan. Japanese people in those days, however, seemed to think that Japan's Asian management was relief to Asian nations from white people's plundering. When I read the radio lecture, I was surprised that Dr. Ohkawa's logic lacked a pang of conscience for Japan's ruling other Asian nations. In my opinion, generally, colonialism had many problems for colony nations, for instance plundering, discriminations and so on. Of course, Japanese colonialism included. Ruling "primitive" Asian nations, however, seemed "common sense" for Japanese people in those days.

I think that the reason that Japan started to fight the US was a collision of imperialism between Japan and the US. At the time, imperialism for Japan was justice and important to develop Japan. For the US, Japan's invasion was an obstacle of getting interests from Asia.

I have a second question "Why did Japan decided to fight the US even there was the vast gap between Japan's nation power and the US's?" In 1941, the GNP of the US was as many as 11.83 times larger than the one of Japan.
According to the book "Asia Pacific War"(Yutaka Yoshida, 2007), 1941 Japan had the largest budget for preparing for the war. It was 56 times larger than the war budget in 1931(the beginning year of China invasion). The Japanese Navy was a little bigger than the US Navy in the Pacific Sea in 1941. Depending that, some Japanese Army leaders mistakenly thought that Japan could win the US if the Japanese Army could end the war in a short time.

Why did Japan attack without a declaration?
The Pearl Harbor Attack is recognized as a surprise attack. The US people think it was an unlawful and dirty act. Why did Japan start the war in such away?

Do Japanese people think that the surprise attack was not a dirty act? I feel that most Japanese feel a little pang of conscience about the Pearl Harbor Attack, in spite of them knowing about it. The reason why is they believe in some explanations that justify the Attack (in detail: see my blog "How do the Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?") Generally, they recognize that a surprise attack is evil. So why did Japan attack without a declaration?

I have no idea. I checked some books about the Pearl Harbor Attack whose authors approve the Pearl Harbor Attack, but even they couldn't show the validity of the surprise attack. The Attack was one of the big mistakes that the leaders of the Japanese Army decided, I think. The Attack not only was against the rule but also provoked the US people's wrath and union to fight Japan.

My opinion
I think that the surprise attack was the biggest mistake and the Japanese can't justify it. It was an unlawful and dirty act, in addition to, uniting the US people to beat Japan.
What about Japanese decision to fight the US? I also think that the war was a mistake. Even with pressure by the US, the Japanese government should have sought an alternative way because the war left a vast number of victims and destructions. In the first place, fighting against an enemy twelve times larger (GNP) enemy was unrealistic.
What should Japan have done? I have no idea, maybe she should have reconsidered her colonial plan of Asia. Japan can learn many things from this Attack and the War.

I think the US also can learn many things from this Attack and the War. One of them is that the strong pressure as to act "the world police" sometimes possibly provokes the unlawful and unrealistic counterattack.

Related posts

-How do Japanese think about the Pacific War?
-How do Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?
-The Great Tokyo Air Raid - More Victims than the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
-Which was the best era in Japan? An interview with my grandparents who were born in the early 20th century

How do Japanese think about the Pearl Harbor attack?

"Do you know what day the 8th of December is?" If you ask Japanese people, some music lovers will reply "It is the day of John Lennon was shot." But most of them will reply "It is the day (Japan Time) of the Pearl Harbor attack / the beginning day of the Pacific War." All Japanese know of the Pearl Harbor attack, most of them have a different understanding from the one U.S. people have.


The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941 (from Wikipedia Commons, this image is in the public domain.)

Actually, most Japanese feel a little pang of conscience about the Pearl Harbor attack, in spite of them knowing that it was a perfidious attack. Of course, a perfidious attack is understood as an evil act among Japanese. Why do Japanese think that the Pearl Harbor attack was "a normal act?"

First, quite a few Japanese believe in the opinion that "the U.S. knew of the attack beforehand." The opinion is as follows: The U.S. caught and decoded the Japanese army's coded command of the attack, therefore the U.S. army prepared for the attack: let all main aircraft carriers go, only old battleships were left in the harbor. The opinion also says that a rare vivid color film which captured the attack exists. It is the evidence of the opinion, they said. In addition to, some go to the length of saying that it was a trap by the U.S. Of course, all the information above is a false rumor. But in Japan, many people know and believe the rumor.

Second, some Japanese say that the Japanese government prepared the declaration of war, but it couldn't be sent to the U.S. government before the attack. The night before the attack, all members of the Japanese Embassy in the U.S. attended a farewell party for a member and the ambassador attended a funeral, therefore nobody could receive the declaration. The ministry of foreign affairs of Japan admitted this mistake at last in 1994.

This mistake was a big misfortune for Japan: the attack became a perfidious attack from a mere sudden attack. However, at any rate, it was Japan's mistake - not the U.S.'s. In addition to, the Japanese government thought that the declaration of war would be sent at least 30 minutes before the attack. If Japan sent the declaration as they thought, the attack would be a perfidious one.

Third, in my opinion, this is the strongest reason for the Japanese thinking about the attack, nobody says that the Pearl Harbor attack was out of spite. Most Japanese think the following: Was the attack a surprise attack? Yes. Do you think the U.S. got angry? Yes, of course. That's all. People never ask the next question: Was the attack out of spite?

It is absurd thinking, I admit. However, in my opinion, many Japanese think so. Actually, I did. Through writing this article, I have learned that the rumor that the U.S knew of the attack beforehand was false, learned over 2,400 U.S. people were killed at the attack (many Japanese think the attack broke many battleships but didn't take people's lives.) I have also learned the following fact: think about what we did.　

EDIT: the related post - Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?

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