The Stars & Stripes has this sad story of a sailor trying to find this daughter who disappeared with her mother in Japan 40 years ago:
James Walker with his Japanese girlfriend, Tomie, and daughter, Kim at their apartment near Atsugi in 1969. Walker lost touch with his Japanese family after being sent to Vietnam. Nearly four decades later, he is still searching for them. Courtesy James Walker
It’s been 45 years since James Walker went to war in Vietnam, leaving behind his daughter and her mother in Japan.
The young sailor thought they’d be reunited once he got back from deployment on the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. When the letters he wrote to his young family were returned marked “wrong address” Walker realized something was wrong. Almost four decades later, he’s still searching for them. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but hopefully Mr. Walker is able to find his lost daughter.
I guess just the fact that all three foreign ministers are meeting is progress, but I don’t expect anything to become of it:
Ships assigned to Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Indian navy, and U.S. Navy steam alongside Ticonderoga-class guided-missile destroyer USS Shiloh in the East China Sea on July 27, 2014. Abby Rader/U.S. Navy
For the first time in nearly three years, the foreign ministers of China, South Korea and Japan will meet Saturday for trilateral talks that could pave the way for a new era of cooperation – or prolong festering animosities rooted in the World War II era.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will host his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Wang Yi and Fumio Kishida, in Seoul for the discussions, which were last held in 2012.
The meeting is seen as a possible prelude to a three-way summit between leaders of the countries later this year. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met briefly on the sidelines of the APEC world leaders’ gathering in Beijing in November, but have never had a bilateral summit since they both came to power in 2012. Nor has Abe had a summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Park and Xi, however, have met repeatedly, and warmly.
The 70th anniversary of the war’s end will be marked this summer in Asia with a variety of high-profile events, including a military parade in Beijing. Seven decades since Tokyo’s surrender, Japan, South Korea and China have strong economic ties, but deep strains remain, inhibiting collaboration on a range of matters including maritime issues and North Korea.
Frostiness between South Korea and Japan – both U.S. allies – and closer relations between South Korea and China have complicated Washington’s diplomacy in the region amid China’s continuing rise. [LA TImes]
Here is why it is not in the interest of China or South Korea to resolve these issues with Japan:
At the same time, leaders in China and South Korea often see an advantage to stirring up nationalist, anti-Japan sentiments at home as a way of shoring up political support. Blatant anti-Japanese propaganda appears regularly in state-run media in China, for instance. And conflicting claims to uninhabited islands have also marred relations between Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul.
Whether the three nations now have the will to break their cycle of recriminations and defensiveness remains to be seen. World leaders from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have been urging all three countries in recent weeks to forge a new path.
To be fair members of the Japanese government also use the historical issues to push their own domestic agendas as well. Just visit the Yushukan Museum next to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and see the absurd historical revisionism going on there that many on the Japanese far political right support. If the Japanese government was serious about resolving these historical issues this is what I recommend they should do.
It will be interesting to see what the South Korean reaction will be if the Japanese decide to expand their naval operations into the South China Sea:
Japan is interested in the South China Sea disputes gripping Southeast Asia for two main reasons. First, any tension in these waters could disrupt the free flow of traffic through critical sea lines, which are vital for resource-poor Japan’s economy and survival. Second, Japanese officials are closely monitoring how China handles these island disputes to try to discern how China might try to deal with Japan in their ongoing dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
The interconnectedness of these two issues is evident in the rife speculation that China might unilaterally declare an Air Defense Identification Zone in the South China Sea after it did so in the East China Sea in November 2013 (speculation which China has consistently denied). Such interconnectedness also leads to concerns that a negative outcome – a resolution of a dispute through the use or threat of the use of force – could set a precedent that affects other disputes. By supporting front-line states in the South China Sea, Japan sees itself as defending its own interests by upholding the norm of peaceful resolution, ironically, through military deterrence.
The U.S. would endorse a move in Japan’s security posture toward greater assertiveness and collaboration with Southeast Asian partners. Admiral Robert Thomas, commander of the Seventh Fleet, said in an interview to Reuters, “I think allies, partners and friends in the region will look to the Japanese more and more as a stabilizing function.” [The Diplomat]
You can read more at the link, but the Japanese are seriously considering expanding air and naval operations into the South China Sea. It seems to me this will just increase the chances of an incident between China and Japan happening. The most likely incident would be the Chinese provoking Japanese patrols with their fishing boat fleet to create an incident. I hope before the Japanese move forward with this that they really think through how they would respond to Chinese provocations against their forces.
I never realized Japan even had such large brown bears much less one that killed 7 people until I read this article:
The scene of one of Japan’s worst bear attacks has been turned into a rather unique — and horrifying — roadside attraction.
In 1915 (Taisho 4) a Japanese brown bear (higuma, or Ursus arctos lasiotus) attacked a small hamlet of Rokusensawa in Sankebetsu, which is now incorporated into the municipality of Tomamae, about 100 kilometers northwest of Sapporo, the largest city on the island of Hokkaido.
The bear killed seven people in what came to be known as the Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident. The township of Tomamae has attempted to capitalize on this gruesome part of its past by creating a “bear road” and a detailed reconstruction of the bear attack itself. [Global Voices]
You can read the rest at the link, but this has got to be one of the deadliest bear attacks ever.
Well at least Prime Minister Abe is showing remorse for World War II instead of expanding regional anger with his administrations’ past historical revisionist statements:
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, and his cabinet ministers, escorted by a Shinto priest, arrive at the Grand Shrine of Ise, in central Japan, for a new year’s prayer Monday, Jan. 5, 2015. Kyodo News/AP
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that his government would express remorse for World War II on the 70th anniversary of its end in August.
Abe is known for his nationalist views, and many analysts have speculated that he may downplay Japan’s responsibility for the war. At a year-opening news conference Monday, he sought to reassure the world that he wouldn’t veer from past official statements on Japan’s wartime responsibility.
“The Abe Cabinet will uphold the general stance on history of successive prime ministers, including the Murayama statement,” he said, referring to the 1995 apology made by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on the 50th anniversary of the war’s end.
He said the government would draft a new statement “that includes Japan’s remorse for the war,” though he stopped short of saying it would apologize. [Stars & Stripes]
This is a start at least to these two countries learning to play nice with each other:
Some Civic group members oppose military info-sharing among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo on Friday. (Yonhap)
South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will sign a trilateral information-sharing arrangement on Monday to better handle the evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Friday.
The arrangement is expected to strengthen the three-way security cooperation that has been lackluster due to historical and territorial feuds between Seoul and Tokyo, and Seoul’s push for a deepened strategic partnership with Beijing.
South Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Japan’s Vice Defense Minister Masanori Nishi will sign the arrangement separately in their respective countries on Monday.
Under the deal, South Korea and Japan will not directly share their military information, but they will share it via the U.S. upon their consent, Seoul officials explained. Such an indirect method has been devised apparently in consideration of the public sentiment in the South against any military collaboration with its onetime colonizer.
“If South Korea offers information to the U.S., the U.S. would provide it to Japan upon South Korea’s consent. On the other hand, if Japan offers information to the U.S., the U.S. would give it to the South upon Japan’s consent,” a senior official at the Defense Ministry told reporters, declining to be named.
“The sharing will be limited to information about North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. The country that has produced a particular piece of information will determine to what extent it will share its information.” [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but an example of how this would work is if the Japanese received intelligence of an imminent nuclear test they would give that intelligence to the US to give to South Korea instead of directly. The whole setup seems juvenile, but President Park remembers what happened to President Lee Myung-bak when he tried to pass this deal a few years ago and it caused a public outcry and he had to cancel the deal. It was so bad he had to fly to Dokdo to prove he was not a Japanese traitor. Park is being smarter about this intelligence sharing deal with this indirect approach and noticed when she is having the deal signed; right in the middle of the holidays when few people are paying attention.
