On the 64th Anniversary of Nuking Japan

A haiku dedicated to the forced upon compulsory victims of all imperialist wars

Crimes against humnanity
flounce 
like timeless kamikaze

For the victims of serial wars, the world is as deadly a place now as it was 64 years ago.

More “war crimes” and crimes against humanity are being committed today by the security-military-industrial complex, through the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and NATO forces, than ever before…

Related Links:

• Nuking of Hiroshima: 63 Years On
• Japan Quake and The Duplicity of Baptist Church
• Canada, Racism, Genocide, and the Bomb
• Blame It On Tojo
•  A Mass Murderer Dies
• War Crimes, USA
• Top 10 Reasons Why Japanese Loathe Gaijin (Foreigners )

Nuking of Hiroshima: 63 Years On

Hiroshima marks A-bomb anniversary

IHT/Asahi: August 6,2008

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200808060285.html

HIROSHIMA–Hiroshima marked the 63rd anniversary of its atomic bombing Wednesday with Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba saying he hopes the new U.S. president will support the elimination of nuclear weapons.

“We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival,” said Akiba in his Peace Declaration.

“The only way to protect citizens from a nuclear attack is the total abolition of nuclear weapons,” he added.

Akiba delivered the declaration during a somber ceremony held in the Peace Memorial Park that was attended by about 45,000 people, including hibakusha atomic-bomb survivors, bereaved families and dignitaries.

This year for the first time, the average age of surviving victims topped the 75-year mark to reach 75.1 years. The number of hibakusha living in and out of Japan has declined to 243,692.

On Wednesday, the names of 5,302 hibakusha who died during the past year were added to those stored inside the park’s cenotaph honoring the A-bomb victims. The total number of the deceased now stands at 258,310.

Chased by the flame. A survivor painted the picture of memoir, thirty years after the bombing. (Source)

As the Peace Bell tolled at 8:15 a.m., the moment the U.S. atomic bomb dubbed “Little Boy” was dropped on the city on Aug. 6, 1945, participants at the Peace Memorial Park bowed their heads in one minute of silent prayer.

Representatives from a record 55 countries attended the ceremony, including those from China, which sent delegates for the first time.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, attending the event for the first time since he took office last September, said at the ceremony, “Today, here in Hiroshima, I swear that our country will continue to adhere to the three nonnuclear principles, and that we will stand at the forefront of the international community toward the realization of the abolition of nuclear weapons, as well as of permanent peace.”

In April, the government set new certification standards for recognizing sufferers of atomic-bomb diseases. Since then it has lost four court cases in which plaintiffs not covered by the new standards won recognition as sufferers of radiation-caused illnesses.

Flames won!

As a result, public distrust in the government’s certification system continues to simmer.

“We will continue our efforts, so that we can assist as many people who are suffering as possible,” said Fukuda.

In his Peace Declaration, Mayor Akiba also called on the government to show more sympathy in recognizing A-bomb patients.

“Because the effects of that atomic bomb, still eating away at the minds and bodies of the hibakusha, have for decades been so underestimated, a complete picture of the damage has yet to emerge,” he said.

Akiba made a rare reference to the politics of the world’s sole nuclear superpower, expressing his hopes that the next American president will back nuclear abolition.

“Even leaders previously central to creating and implementing U.S. nuclear policy are now repeatedly demanding a world without nuclear weapons,” he said.

The statement was in a reference to recent proposals on the elimination of nuclear weapons by former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other former U.S. political leaders. ( IHT/Asahi: August 6,2008 )

Related Video Links:

• US Bombing of HiROSHiMA, NAGASAKi
• WHY HIROSHIMA?

Recently publicized photos:

• Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives
  

Speaking of the U.S. Missionaries in Japan

What’s so divine about breeding 9 children like rabbits, and placing Colin Powell’s book on your Church[sic] altar?

We all commit follies and the author is by no means immune to lapses in good judgment. A while ago, while searching for English-speaking kids to befriend his then 3-year-old son, the author and his family inadvertently ended up in a missionary church on an otherwise uneventful Sunday, completely innocently.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Witnessing about 50 or so grown ups and their kids chanting biblical propaganda in Japanese, or in any other language, while pretending to do it out of “divine love,” never is!

But the worst was yet to come. First, Gacuette discovered in total horror that the resident missionary, an ex-military personnel, had 9 children. Nine children?

Nine Children!

How does a missionary manage to bring up nine children on what must surely be a puny salary? What extra-curricular activities must he undertake to earn enough money to support such unsustainable, un-ecological and “unholy” lifestyle?

Is the Pentagon Paying the Missionaries in Japan?

With the church selling the family silver to pay the victims of child rape, and settle all other abuse claims against their brothers and fathers, where do the missionaries get their money from? About 99 percent of the missionaries come from military backgrounds. Could it be that the US taxpayer is inadvertently footing the bill [missionaries’ salaries, expenses …] through the US Defense budget? Who is looking anyway?

Colin Powell on the Altar

Then, with another surge of horror, the author discovered a book by Colin Powell, which was prominently displayed on the bookshelf in the congregation area. Gacuette can’t quite recall the title: “How my little lie helped the military commit genocide in Iraq,” “How to kill a million plus ‘ragheads’ in three easy steps,” “How to decimate defenseless people with minimum canon fodder?” Or something along those lines.

Imagine having a Church of Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin or Ariel Sharon. Church of George Bush, anyone? What will the Japanese think of next!

Related Links:

• Japan Quake and The Duplicity of Baptist Church
• War Crimes, USA
• Missionaries: Top 10 Reasons Why Japanese Loathe Gaijin (Foreigners )

What is this blog about?

It’s about history, politics, current affairs, life … the resurgence of militarism and reemergence of xenophobia in Japan.

But mostly it is about everyday life in Japanifk!

The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers, Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables. The sewer is the conscience of the city … A sewer is a cynic. It tells everything. More than 90 percent of ‘honeytrucked’ Japanifik lacks a conscience.

Japanifik (n.)
The surreal place in Japan where “Gacuette” (blog author) and his family live, and where most people and things do not conform to the norms of civility, reality or logic.

Japanifik (adj.)
Narcissistic, thoughtless and selfish behavior (bordering on lawlessness) of [some of] the indigenous population in Japanifik area.

A Measure of Intelligence
It can be said that the intelligence of a people is inversely proportional to their smoking habits (nicotine and tar intake). Japanifik is the capital of lung cancer in the nicotine-n-tar-addicted Japan.

Another Measure of Intelligence
Traffic laws and speed limits are meant to protect the drivers and pedestrians. People who break those laws are unintelligent criminals. A large proportion of Japanifik drivers does NOT understand traffic signs, road markings and speed restrictions, or they deliberately disobey the laws “to cheat the master” [see blog content about enslaved races in Japan,] while the Japanifik police look the other way [“to avoid being branded a police state like England!”