Tamogami’s History Lies

“We must take back the glorious history of Japan. A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline.”

By now most everyone knows that Japan’s air force chief, Toshio Tamogami, was sacked by Defense Minister Hamada .

Tamogami wrote an essay which described Japan as a victim of WWII. The essay won the competition.

He wrote that Japan’s occupation of China was to secure its rights it had obtained under previous treaties. Korea, he added, was more prosperous and safer under Japanese rule [The Law of Rename, put in force in 1940, under which Koreans had to change their names to Japanese, and speak Japanese was coincidental!]

“The history of past discrimination was concealed as top secret the war with China in 1894 -95 [The First Sino-Japanese War] was a must in order to gain independence from the historically subordinate relationship of Japan to China.  The annexation of Korea in 1910 was likewise necessary in order to destroy all evidence that might suggest the true origin of the imperial family and courts nobility.” Said Toshihiko Abe in Japan’s Hidden Face.

Worst still, he denied Japan was an aggressor in WWII, which is another fresh insult added to the Chinese, Koreans, Filipino… injury.

At least a third of a million Chinese were killed in the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Either Tamogami is an outright idiot, or a complete nutcase. What’s more worrying than the contents of his essay is the fact that this nutcase/idiot made it all the way to the top of the air force. Did the symptoms of his madness surface just before the essay competition for the first time?

Two aspects of this incident are more worrying than the state of mental health of Gen. Nutcase:

1. The people who promoted this “psycho” through the ranks in the last 30 or so years of his career. Didn’t they detect his mental disorder at any time?

2. The essay competition judges who awarded this maniac first prize. Who exactly were the competition judges? Do they keep their jobs? Do they NOT represent a significant proportion of Japan’s “elite?”

3. What is more worrying still is the fact that so many of these pathological “murderers” [as in 1and 2 above] thrive in Japan like bacteria in a perfect Petri dish.

Buddies? Philippine Air Force WELCOMES GEN TAMOGAMI – 28 May 2008 – MAJ GEN JOVITO GAMMAD, Chief of Air Staff, PAF engages GEN TOSHIO TAMOGAMI, Chief of Staff, Japan Air Self Defense Force, in a light discussion during the welcome ceremony at the dignitaries lounge of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) during the arrival of the Japanese dignitary today (Photo by A1C Abayari). Photo may be subject to copyright.

Firing Tamogami is NOT enough! He must be prosecuted for inciting genocide!

Time to remove the agar from Japan’s Petri dish of nationalism!

Related Links:

• Words of the Day: Stop Japan Aggression!
• What is 20 million + 3.1 million?
• The Specter of Fascism Looms!
• Do Not Speak English in Japan!
• Sad times are returning to Japan!
• Compulsory Teaching of Patriotism at Japanese Schools

Other links:

• Tamogami’s World: Japan’s Top Soldier Reignites Conflict Over the Past [link added Nov 11, 2008]

The Day Wattie Was Shot

An Infamous Day in New Zealand’s Otherwise Bloody History

Poor Wattie Was Always Unlucky!

Featherston (New Zealand) residents were “outraged” last week over the theft of the bronze plaque commemorating shooting of  Private Walter (Wattie) Pelvin, of Geraldine, the Wairarapa.

Wattie was the only New Zealand soldier killed on active service on home soil during World War II.

Wattie was  Born October 15, 1908. He was the only New Zealand soldier killed “on active service” on home soil during World War II. Poor Wattie’s fate seems to have been sealed  when he had a lung removed as a child, and was subsequently considered unfit for service overseas.

A carpenter by occupation, he was sent to Featherston to help finish construction of the POW camp before the prisoners arrived, and was later ordered  to stay on as a guard in 1941.  On that infamous day, February 25, 1943, Wattie was on guard duty at N0 2 Compound were 250 Japanese prisoners of war were kept.

It has been claimed that the prisoners refused work and staged a sit-in. The camp adjutant attempted to end the sit-in by firing his pistol and injuring a Japanese officer. When the intimidation failed to force the prisoners to move, the New Zealand prison guards opened fire on the Japanese prisoners.

The plaque at the Featherston memorial is part of a small memorial garden that marks the site of the massacre where New Zealand prison guards murdered 48 Japanese prisoners of war, wounded 61 others and accidentally shot Wattie on 25 February 1943.

A burst of fire which lasted less than 30 seconds mowed down 109 Japanese killing 48 and wounding  61 of them.

Wattie and 6 other prison guards were wounded by ricocheting bullets fired by their own comrades. He was taken to Greytown Hospital where he died three days later, aged 34.

Featherston Massacre plaque

Transcript of the haiku on the plaque:

Behold the summer grass
All that remains of the
Dreams of warriors.

Source: New Zealand History Online and others.

Tonguing the Explosives!

This is what happens when your kid’s IQ drops below three digits!

Trainees ill after licking explosives

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

SHIROSATO, Ibaraki Prefecture–Twenty-four Ground Self-Defense Force recruits were admitted to hospital here Friday after a supervisor urged them to lick plastic explosives during a blast drill.

Many soldiers fell sick with nausea immediately after licking the charges, an officer at the GSDF’s Koga Camp told local fire officials in an emergency call around 3:10 p.m. Friday.

The recruits aged 18 to 28–including one woman–were sent to hospital, with many remaining for further treatment. Four suffered severe spasms. (IHT/Asahi: September 1,2008)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200809010045.html

Related Links:

• Learning Japanese: Vasectomy of the Fertile Mind
• Do Not Speak English in Japan!

Words of the Day: Stop Japan Aggression!

Japanese plans for regional supremacy must be thwarted at ANY cost!

Once again, the inherent violence in Japanese culture poses a present and serious threat to the safety of its neighbors and rest of the world. The world community must NOT allow Japan to re-militarize.

Emperor Akihito prepares to greet the crowd on his birthday on Dec. 23, 2004. Photo by Philbert Ono. Originally uploaded by en:User:Photojpn.org

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo — by en:user:jpatokal

GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

Early Shōwa era [From Wikipedia]

Emperor Shōwa dressed as commander of the Imperial General Headquarters

During the first part of the Showa era, according to the Meiji Constitution, the Emperor had the “supreme command of the Army and the Navy” (Article 11). Hirohito was thus legally supreme commander of the Imperial General Headquarters, expanded in 1937 and by which the military decisions were made.

The primary sources such as the “Sugiyama memo”, and the diaries of Fumimaro Konoe and Koichi Kido, describe in detail the many informal meetings the Emperor had with his chiefs of staff and ministers. These documents show that he was kept informed of all military operations and frequently questioned his senior staff and asked for changes.

According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Hirohito authorized by specific orders, transmitted by the Chief of staff of the Army such as prince Kan’in or Hajime Sugiyama, the use of chemical weapons against Chinese civilians and soldiers. For example, he authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the invasion of Wuhan in 1938. [2] Such weapons were also authorized during the invasion of Changde[3].

According to historians Akira Fujiwara and Akira Yamada, Hirohito even made major interventions in some military operations. For example, he pressed Sugiyama four times, on January and February 1942, to increase troop strength and launch attack on Bataan. [4] On August 1943, he scolded Sugiyama who could not stop the American advance on the Solomon Islands and asked him to consider other places to attack. [5].

Soldiers parading before the Showa Emperor Hirohito on Shirayuki

Most of the imperial interventions were made by direct orders such as the crushing of the rebellion during the February 26 Incident. Only in rare moments of special importance, decisions were made in Imperial council. The Imperial government used this special institution to sanction the invasion of China, the Greater East Asia War and to end the war. In 1945, executing the decision approved in Imperial conference, Emperor Showa for the first and last time directly ordered via recorded radio broadcast to all of Japan, as his last role as commander-in-chief, the surrender to United States forces. (Quoted from Wikipedia.)

References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. – Japan

1. Peter Wetzler, Hirohito and War, University of Hawai’i press, 1998, p.3
2. Yoshimi and Matsuno, Dokugasusen Kankei Shiryo II, Kaisetsu, 1997, p.25-29, Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the making of modern Japan, 2001, p.361.
3. Daniel Barenblatt, A plague upon Humanity, HarperCollns, 2004, pp.220-221
4. Fujiwara, Shōwa tennō no ju-go nen senso, 1991, p.135-138, Yamada, Daigensui Shōwa tennō, 1994, p.180, 181, 185
5. Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the making of modern Japan, 2001, p.466,citing the Sugiyama memo, p.24
6. Norimitsu Onishi (October 20, 2007). “A Japanese royal known for talking up a storm“, International Herald Tribune.

Child, 7, Raped, Now Pregnant!

This is more than a heinous crime against a child!

A 7 year old child became pegnant after she was raped in the Japanifik area recently. It has been decided that the child should go through with the pregnancy. The child’s mother would look after the baby. It’s not known [wasn't revealed] who the rapist was.

This is a true story; it’s not a rumor. A reliable source who knew the child’s mother told us the sickening news.

It really leaves you speechless, doesn’t it?

Think about it for a moment: It’s a crime against all humanity!

Time for apology and reparation to Filipino women

Even when they’re all dead, they won’t go away!

Filipino women seek Japan’s apology for WWII rapes

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two dozen elderly Filipino women and their supporters protested outside the Japanese Embassy in Manila on Friday demanding a clear-cut apology and compensation from Tokyo for wartime sexual slavery.

Japan has acknowledged its troops forced women into front-line brothels across Asia during World War II, and its leaders have apologized.

But last year, many surviving “comfort women” were outraged when then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said there was no proof the women were coerced.

“The Japanese government should publicly apologize and put in history how the women were abducted and forced to serve in the comfort women system,” said Rechilda Extremadura, head of a group called Lila-Pilipina that has documented 174 cases of Filipino women who were forced into wartime brothels. About 100 women remain alive.

“This is a war crime,” Extremadura said. “But the Japanese government continues to be deaf.”

Former Filipino comfort woman Piedad Nobleza, 86, holds slogans during a demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in suburban Manila on Friday Aug. 15, 2008. Elderly Filipino women and their supporters demanded Tokyo's clear-cut apology and compensation for wartime sexual slavery by Japanese troops. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila). Source: Inquirer.net. Image may be subject to copyright.

Virginia Villarma, 79, said she was victimized between 1943 and 1944. “We can never forget what they did to us. Until now, it’s been a wound in our chest.”

The Japanese Embassy in Manila refused to immediately answer a request for comment and asked that questions be e-mailed.

Tokyo has generally refused to pay damages to individuals for the war, saying the issue was settled between governments in postwar treaties. Japanese courts have rejected a number of lawsuits brought by former sex slaves.

Related Links:

• 63 years after WWII, ‘comfort women’ await justice
• This Article

Since when breaking the law is a crime in Japan?

Democracy English Japanese Style!

NHK criticized for airing ‘government PR’

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) concealed the fact that its subsidiaries were paid to organize symposiums that were aired and withheld the identities of sponsors of many of the events, including government ministries.

About 10 such programs, worth up to 30 million yen per symposium, were aired on NHK channels- a public broadcaster.

Japan’s Broadcast Law requires NHK, which is financed from fees paid by viewers, to remain impartial and refrain from showing programs that represent the interests of a specific person or group—including the government. More…

But hey, when you can violate the traffic laws with impunity, why not the Broadcast Law?

Related Links:

• Violating the Speed Limit (visiting the 10-rule-90 principle, again!)
• Suckers Paradox
• With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemies?

Only when they don’t fear you!

8 Teens arrested over robberies

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN -

Eight teenagers have been arrested in Ome, western Tokyo, in connection with a string of robberies targeting “people who look weak,” including two mentally disabled people, police said Friday.

The suspects, including six third-year junior high school students, took a total of 93,000 yen in cash as well as cellphones in seven robberies during the six months through June. The six victims were between 13 and 20 years old.

Police quoted the two leaders of the gang as asking, “What is wrong with bullying those people?”(IHT/Asahi: August 23,2008 )

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200808230055.html

Nagasaki Bomb Radiation Deathtoll Reached 145,984

Japan marks 63rd anniversary of Nagasaki nuke

Japan remembered the 63rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki today with a call to the world powers for nuclear disarmament.

About 30,000 of Nagasaki’s population died instantly, and 70,000 more perished within months of the atomic bombing on August 9, 1945. The annually updated official death toll from radiation illness caused by the bomb, codenamed “Fat Man” after Winston Churchill, reached 145,984 this year.

“The United States and Russia must take the lead in striving to abolish nuclear weapons,” Nagasaki mayor said at the solemn ceremony.

“These two countries … should begin implementing broad reductions of nuclear weapons instead of deepening their conflict over, among others, the introduction of a missile-defence system in Europe.”

The mayor also asked China, Britain and France to reduce their nuclear arms, but did not mention Israel.

Would anyone trust Fukuda with their dead grandmother?

Unperturbed by the Chinese poisonous gyoza scandal, Japan PM Fukuda laid a wreath for the Nagasaki victims at the ceremony. He said: “I vow to lead the international community for permanent peace.” But would anyone trust Fukuda with their dead grandmother?

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda offers a wreath for the atomic bomb victims in Nagasaki, western Japan, during a ceremony commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the city’s atomic bomb blast, August 9, 2008. REUTERS/Kyodo. Image may be subject to copyright.

People Mean Nothing to Japanese Govt

In the previous post Houston, We Have a Problem! the author asked two simple questions:

• Is the Foreign Ministry in Japan a foreign interest entity?

• What about the welfare of Japanese people?

First Poisonous Gyoza, then Leaky Nuke Sub. What next?

Here’s the answer:

China behind ‘gyoza’ cover-up

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN – August 9, 2008

At Beijing’s request, the Fukuda administration withheld public disclosure of a poisoning outbreak in China involving frozen “gyoza” dumplings, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said.

“There’s nothing wrong with what we did,” Komura declared Thursday in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun and other media.

China’s Foreign Ministry informed the Japanese Embassy in Beijing in early July that several Chinese people fell ill in June after eating pesticide-tainted gyoza made by Tianyang Food, according to Komura.

The products had been recalled after Japanese consumers became sick from eating imported Tianyang Food gyoza products last December and in January.

Japanese media only learned this week about the incident in China.

According to Komura, Beijing asked Tokyo not to disclose the matter on grounds an investigation was under way and that revealing the information would hinder it. Chinese officials promised to provide more details as the investigation progressed.

In Japan, the information was shared only among officials at the prime minister’s office, the National Police Agency and the Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters Thursday that he was informed of the poisoning case in China around the time of the July 7-9 Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido.

Fukuda met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G-8 summit, and Komura held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Singapore in late July.

Komura said the officials discussed, with the new information in mind, speeding up collaborative police investigation efforts.

Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-general of the main opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), criticized the government’s handling of the problem.

“Shouldn’t the government have insisted on disclosing the fact, even if China asked it to cover it up?” he asked at a news conference Thursday.

“The government is so weak-kneed, and from the way it has handled the situation, we can’t call it a government that shares the mind-set of consumers.” (IHT/Asahi: August 9,2008 )

Related Links:

• Lack of ‘gyoza’ disclosure leaves bitter taste