Tag: Japan

I wonder which US military installation we will see closed first, Futenma in Japan or Yongsan Garrison in Seoul?

Japan will make every effort to achieve the “earliest possible” relocation of the Futenma base to the proposed site further north on the island of Okinawa, new Defense Minister Akinori Eto said Monday.

“We have to avoid keeping the (U.S. Marine Corps) Air Station Futenma in the center of Ginowan, which is densely packed with houses and schools,” Eto, 58, said in a group interview at the Defense Ministry. “Though we are fully aware of the various opinions among the local public, the only solution to avoid continuous use of the Futenma air station is its relocation to (the shores of) Camp Schwab” in the city of Nago.

Eto stressed that the ministry will be tenacious in explaining the significance and benefits of the relocation to Okinawa’s residents.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of a Dokdo idiot:

A 55-year-old man reportedly consumed poison Friday in an apparent suicide attempt with a note urging the need to “stand up against” Japan’s claim to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo, police said.

The man, only identified by his surname Choi, was rushed to a nearby hospital after he was found lying unconscious in front of the National Cemetery in southern Seoul around noon after reportedly consuming a bottle of weed killer to take his own life, according to police officials.

A suicide note was found in a notebook inside Choi’s car that was parked in front of the cemetery, which reads, “The Japanese government, which had once colonized this country, is now trying to take away the Dokdo islets from us as well. We must not succumb to their claims but must stand up against them.”

Choi had written several letters in the notebook containing similar contents that were addressed to the president of Korea and members of the National Assembly, and he was also found to have been carrying a flag with the slogan “Dokdo belongs to us (South Korea),” police said.

Family members said Choi was an ordinary citizen who has never joined any activist groups or taken part in such protests, but added that he began telling friends that he was “so angered by Japan” through text messages since last month.  [Korea Times]

UPDATE #2: Japan Probe has news and pictures that the Sea Shepherd eco-loons attacked the Japanese whalers with an acid attack. That may explain why the whalers are so pissed off and holding the two eco-loons.

________________________________

UPDATE #1: The Japanese reversed their decision and are not going to release the two eco-loons now:

Sea Shepherd founder and Steve Irwin captain Paul Watson said today he had received an email from the Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) which said a halt to protests by the ship was a condition of returning his crew.

“They are saying that we have to agree to not take any action against their whaling activities, not to video or photo their whaling activities and want us to send a boat – a small zodiac – 10 miles over the horizon to pick up my crew, which I am not going to do,” Mr Watson said.

“It endangers the life of the crew, to put them out in these waters in a small boat, 10 miles out of view. So I am not going to meet these demands.

“When you hold hostages and make demands, that is the definition of a terrorist organisation, and that is the way they are acting.” [News.com]

Paul Watson would know a thing or two about being a terrorist organization considering his own bombing campaigns and arrest warrants for him in multiple countries. This could turn into a very interesting diplomatic battle if the Japanese take the detained intruders back to Japan. I doubt it would get that far but who knows if these Sea Sheppard loons keep causing trouble.

______________________________________________

Things are heating up in the high seas of the southern ocean as the eco-terrorists from the Sea Shepherd Society are claiming the Japanese have taken two of their members hostage:

TWO anti-whaling activists from a protest ship, an Australian and a Briton, are being held hostage aboard a Japanese whaling vessel in an escalation of the whaling wars in the Southern Ocean.

Benjamin Potts, 28, of Sydney, and Giles Lane, 35, from Britain, crew members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Steve Irwin, boarded the Japanese whaling vessel Yushin Maru No 2 about 5pm (AEDT) yesterday to deliver a plea to stop killing whales.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society international director Jonny Vasic said the two men were tied to a radar mast in freezing conditions for up to three hours after their capture, a claim denied by Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which is running the whale hunt. [AFP]

These eco-terrorists must have read the handbook of fellow terrorist group Al Qaeda and claim torture when you are captured because the media will echo it enough that people will eventually believe it. The Japanese had every right to restrain them and lock them in an office because remember these are the same people who rammed their ship and threw acid at the Japanese whalers last year and lied about it. Plus the boarding of the ship is can be construed as piracy especially when the ship they are on flies a pirate flag.

It is interesting that Sea Shepherd even found the Japanese whalers because they were having a little inter-anti-whaling war with the Greenpeace that would not help them with the location of the Japanese fleet. Fortunately a whale decided to show them the way:

Greenpeace declined to comment on Esperanza’s position, but the western location confirmed Sea Shepherd president Paul Watson’s belief that the whalers were likely to be working north of Prydz Bay, in the Co-operation Sea, where he was headed.

He also said a whale showed him the way. Yesterday a large humpback whale surfaced beside the Steve Irwin and seven times raised his long flipper into the air, and seven times brought it down pointing in a direction due west, as if to say go this way.” [The Age]

Folks, I can’t make this stuff up. So the next time you see a whale raise his flipper in the air you know he must be pointing at a Japanese whaler somewhere. The Sea Shepherd crew isn’t the only ones providing high seas eco-loon comedy:

The only smell that turns me on is the smell of diesel. This is why, especially at night, I used to go down to the Engine Room, stroke my engines, then dip my hands into the diesel. Unfortunately, I was caught in action one night, so I had to think of other ways to make it look more natural. This is why every now and again, I start breaking engines into pieces, only to reassemble them again. Not that there is anything wrong with our propulsion system on board, or because of lack of maintenance, but this is the only way for me to get my hands dirty in diesel oil.

This is a personal blog entry from a member of the crew of the Greenpeace ship named Bent. If his picture isn’t the definition of a eco-loon I don’t know what is:

Australian blogger Tim Blair says, maybe the whale was really trying to warn the Sea Shepherd crew to stay away from Greenpeace’s Bent. That might be a good idea. Anyway the two Sea Shepherd members detained by the Japanese are going to be released. After a call from the Australian Foreign Minister to Japan the Japanese have agreed to release the two and hopefully not to Bent.

Some more interesting information coming out of Australia is that they passed a law banning Japanese whaling in the Australian Antarctic Territory. There is only one problem next to no one recognizes the Australian Antarctic Territory. Australia claims 42% of Antarctic territory, yes I said 42% they are claiming! Only Britain, New Zealand, Norway, and France recognizes Australia’s claim because they have big claims themselves:

Is it any wonder why the vast majority of the world does not take their claim seriously? It is also why the Australian government will not send the Royal Australian Navy to arrest the whalers because they know that in an international court they will lose. So the court decision by the Australian court is nothing more then empty rhetoric.

Some more empty rhetoric from the Australian government is the customs ship they were going to send to monitor Japanese whaling and make a case at an international court against the Japanese. Like I said before they won’t take a case to international court because they would lose and that might explain why the custom ship has not even arrived yet in Antarctic waters and the Japanese are about ready to head back home. Like I said empty rhetoric, but the press and the public continue to buy it.

Another blow to the eco-loons is that the leading environmentalist and Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has come out and said Japanese whaling is not a environmental conservation issue and that the hunted whale populations are sustainable:

ENVIRONMENTALIST and 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery has declared his support for the hugely unpopular Japanese whaling program.

As Australia prepares to monitor the whaling fleet in Antarctica amid rising diplomatic tensions with Japan, Professor Flannery says there is nothing unsustainable about its annual cull of up to 1000 whales – particularly the common minke whale.

“In terms of sustainability, you can’t be sure that the Japanese whaling is entirely unsustainable,” Professor Flannery told The Daily Telegraph. “It’s hard to imagine that the whaling would lead to a new decline in population.” [The Daily Telegraph]

The next time anyone brings up whaling as an environmental conservation issue I will direct them to this quote from Flannery even though I have repeatedly linked to whale populations compared to the numbers hunted as evidence. So since it is not a territorial issue and it is not an environmental conservation issue than what is the remaining reason for attacking Japanese whaling?

The only reason left is that the whales are smart and cute which is what the anti-whaling people believe. They literally think whales are the people of the sea and it is cannabalism to eat them. However, such reasoning does not motivate the public at large to come out and support the anti-whaling campaign. The anti-whaling groups know this and thus have to rely on spreading disinformation that the Japanese are hunting the last whales into extinction and violating Australian territorial rights.

I have long said that negotiations with the Japanese that would allow them to catch a quota of whales every year commercially at numbers probably lower than what they are whaling now through the IWC could be reached. However, when one side is against whaling period and sends ships to attack the Japanese it has caused the Japanese to make this issue one of nationalism that they will not back down from which is making any agreement impossible. This is an issue in need of statesmanship but when your statesman is someone like Bent expect only more comedy and idiocy to continue.

In what would become the final days of World War II, the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were destroyed by atomic bombs dropped by the US Air Force, first on August 6, 1945 and then again on August 9, killing at least 120,000 people initially, and around twice as many over time due to radiation poisoning.

The primary reasons given for dropping the two bombs was that it would force Japan to unconditionally surrender. Japan did ultimately surrender on August 15, 1945. The other reason was that it would save American and Japanese lives overall due to the US military not needing to invade the Japanese main land.

With this week’s anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there has been a run up of articles in the media and elsewhere chronicling the anniversary of this event.

First of all the main question many people ask is if the atomic bombings of Japan were necessary?

Setting up surrender talks sanctioned by both the U.S. and the Japanese governments would likely have been difficult. But there is no easy way of ending a war. The primary question is not what is the easier path, but what path will bring a lasting peace while sparing the most Allied lives and, secondarily, “enemy” civilian lives.

While it cannot be proven, had officially sanctioned communication been made by the Allies or the U.S. to Japan thru Konoye, the various peace feelers, or other credible diplomatic channel stating that Japan’s time had completely run out due to the impending threats of nuclear destruction and Soviet invasion, and that immediate surrender would mean the opportunity to retain their throne, there is a good chance the Japanese doves would have enlisted the Emperor to bring Japan to surrender in late July or early August of 1945.

I disagree that setting up surrender talks would of led to the unconditional surrender of Japan. The Japanese at the time practiced the samurai code of Bushido where they would not surrender. Any deal made in peace talks would likely not be called a surrender but a cease fire to save face for the Japanese militarists in charge of the country. Plus I believe the militarists would never of allowed a complete American occupation of Japan because then that would be a symbol of defeat.

With a cease fire in a place and no occupation how different would Japan be today? The militarists would of still been in power after the war and deeply bitter about their failure to win the war. This scenario sounds very familiar to World War I when the Germans were not forced to unconditionally surrender due to the allied armies, particularly the French and English, being worn down with heavy casualties and looking to end the war any way possible, thus the Armistice Agreement was reached. The Armistice directly led to Hitler’s popularity and rise because the Germans never felt defeated after World War I.

The attitude in Japan would of been much the same way if the militarists stayed in power. Why do I think this you ask?  It is pretty clear that the mentality in Japan would never accept a complete surrender through negotiations. It took the fire bombing of Tokyo, the bloody fights on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Russian entry into the war, plus not one but two atomic bombs before they finally surrendered nearly a week after the second atomic bomb on August 15th. The Japanese did not initially feel compelled to surrender when they believed they could win a bloody fight on their home islands which could of caused the US to eventually seek a ceasefire instead of conquering all of Japan.

So yes, I agree surrender talks may have potentially worked and saved the lives lost from the atomic bombings, but without the unconditional surrender of Japan would it have led to another war years later? Who knows, but this is the thought that General MacArthur and many other people of this generation that fought in World War I had in the back of their minds. They did not want to repeat the mistakes of World War I, thus MacArthur’s famous saying, “There is no substitute for victory.”

In addition there was great thought put into determining the amount of American casualties that the US would potentially lose in an invasion of the Japanese mainland. Operation Olympic was the code name for the US military operational plan to invade the southern Japanese mainland island of Kyushu. The casualty estimate of the invasion of this island range anywhere from 63,000 – 100,000 US lives. Keep in mind these are just the estimates of the one southern Japanese island.

The Japanese were preparing for the all out defense of their homeland called Operation Ketsu-go. Read the link for an in depth look at the defensive plan to protect the Japanese main land. It is obvious that this would have been a bloody fight which was backed up by the American losses of 10,000 Americans dead and missing in the Marianas, 5,500 dead at Leyte, 9,000 dead during the Luzon campaign, 6,800 at Iwo Jima, 12,600 at Okinawa, and 2,000 killed at Peleliu that weighed heavily on the minds of America’s leaders.

The vicious fighting on Okinawa saw the US versus Japanese casualties approaching a 2-1 ratio. Just imagine if someone invaded the United States how hard would Americans fight to protect their homeland? I can guarantee that just about every able body person with a gun besides the citizens of San Francisco and Berkley would take up arms against the invaders. Plus the amount of civilians killed on Okinawa due to the fighting was heavy, not to mention villagers that killed themselves by jumping off of cliffs with their children instead of surrendering to the Americans. Would the Japanese mainland be any different.

Operation Olympic, the proposed invasion plan of the Japanese main land during World War II. Notice no plans were ever made to occupy Korea initially.

An additional factor weighing on the minds of US leaders was the fact this would be primarily a lone US invasion. The fall of Germany was helped by the combined allied armies in the western front and the Russian offensive in the east. In fact, the Russian Army during their 23 day invasion of East Germany lost 78,291 dead. Just an incredible number. Should the US leaders have expected anything different in Japan?

Then the final factor is the, Revenge Factor. Any politician that would of allowed the Japanese to end the war without unconditional surrender would have committed political suicide. The American public wanted revenge and complete victory after what happened at Pearl Harbor. Allowing the Japanese regime that initiated the attack on Pearl Harbor to stay in place would not be acceptable to the American public.

As you can see there are many factors that went into the nuclear bombings. This was not a rash decision made to kill as many people as possible. It was a shrewd calculated strategic decision made at the highest echelons of the US leadership to end the war quickly with the least amount of lives lost. I know many people would also dispute bombing civilians but World War II was fought by the rules of “total war” where civilians were considered legitimate targets in order to break national will power. Look what the Japanese did in China and other areas in Asia. Look what the Germans did in their bombing of Britian. The US military and other allied nations responded in kind in both theaters with the carpet bombings of Germany most notably Dresden and the fire bombings of Japan. In fact the fire bombing of Tokyo cost more lives than dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. “Total War” may not seem like a humanitarian concept, but when the survival of the nation is at stake countries will do whatever is necessary to save their nation. Does anyone doubt if the Germans or the Japanese developed the bomb before the Americans that they would of use it on American or allied targets?

I really do not see another alternative that would of worked that would of caused the unconditional surrender of Japan and the occupation of Japan that followed other than dropping the atomic bomb.

Now one thing I do dispute was the need to drop the second atomic bomb. I can understand Hiroshima, but Truman may have been to quick to bomb Nagasaki. The city must not have been a big military target since it had not received heavy bombing prior to the dropping of the nuclear bomb. So for stategic purposes it was not necessary to bomb for any other reason to break national will power.

A factor I think Truman probably took into account was the fact that the Soviet military entered the war on August 8, 1945 one day before the bombing of Nagasaki. The Soviet invasion had both pros and cons for Truman. The pro was that the invasion would put more pressure on the Japanese to surrender. The negative was that the Soviets were gobbling up territory before the US military could claim territory which I think Truman took into account. If the war dragged on any longer the Soviets could of very welled occupied all of Korea and the northern Japanese main land island of Hokkaido since they had already occupied the Kuril islands.

Maybe a few more days should have been alloted for the Japanese leadership to judge the effects of the Russian entry into the war. Maybe the threat of Soviet occupation would of finally made the Japanese surrender and allow the Americans to occupy them. If this didn’t work then the nuclear option was available.

I feel Truman didn’t take this option into account because he ordered the bombing of Nagasaki only one day after the Soviet entry into the war. I think the fear of the Soviets gobbling up large chunks of territory in Japan is what forced Truman’s hand to bomb Nagasaki. The American leadership felt that the occupation of Japan was critical in the soon to be developed containment policy of the Soviet Union. If the United States did not control all of Japan or ended up with a split Japan then the Soviets would have the advantage in controlling all of northeast Asia. This was definitely geo-politics at its most cunning level.

In a history class I took in college a Japanese student explained in class that he believed the US should have dropped the first atomic bomb out in the ocean in order to show the ruling militarist the might of the atomic bomb without targeting civilians. I countered his point that if dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima did not force the militarists to surrender than how was dropping a bomb in the ocean going to make them surrender? In fact it took two atomic bombings of Japanese cities and the entry of the Russians into the war in order to get the Japanese to finally surrender.

The other argument the Japanese student brought up was why the US did not drop a nuclear bomb on Berlin. That is because the US did not have a nuclear capability by the time Germany surrendered and even if it did the casualty ratio of an invasion of Germany is much lower compared to Japan. First of all it was a land battle where US tanks were able to roll right into Germany from France, secondly Germany was beat and actually was fighting harder to stop the Russian advance in order to be occupied by the Americans. With Japan the US forces would have had to do an amphibious landing followed by a vicious fight against fanatical defenders, which would have made casualties on both sides extremely high. There are clear differences between nuking Japan and Germany.

With 50 years of hindsight it is easy to sharpshoot Truman’s decision, but ultimately he did what he felt was in the best interest of the United States; not the best interest of Japan. This is important to keep in mind because I’m sure he felt the cost of Japanese civilian lives were secondary to protecting the lives of US serviceman and the geo-politics of protecting US national security by implementing the containment strategy of the Soviet Union. I still think that the bombing of Nagasaki may have been to quick, but today you really can’t argue with the results because the Soviet Union is history and Japan is one of the world’s wealthiest countries with the world’s second largest economy. However, I do fully agree with the Hiroshima Peace Park’s motto of never letting this tragedy happen again.

Previous Posting: Remembering Nagasaki

The atomic bombing of Nagasaki

The city of Nagasaki during World War II was one of the largest sea ports on the southern island of Kyushu. Along with the seaports the city was also home to many important industrial companies. During the course of the war for whatever reason the city had escaped the B-29 bombings that were ravaging other areas of Japan. However, on August 9, 1945 the bombing the city received would more than make up for the prior lack of bombing.

On August 9, 1945, the crew of the American B-29 Superfortress “Bockscar,” flown by Major Charles W. Sweeney and carrying the nuclear bomb nicknamed “Fat Man,” found their primary target, Kokura, and it was obscured by heavy clouds. After three runs over the city and running low on fuel Major Sweeney decided to head for the secondary target, Nagasaki.

The aftermath of the Nagasaki bombing.

At 11:02, a break in the clouds over Nagasaki allowed the bombardier, to visually sight the target. The weapon, containing a core of 8 kg of plutonium-239, was dropped over the city’s industrial sector. It exploded 1,540 feet above the ground between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, in the south, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works (Torpedo Works), in the north, the two main targets in the city.

Some 75,000 of Nagasaki’s 240,000 residents were killed, followed by the death of at least as many from resulting sickness and injury.

Nagasaki before and after the bombing

I haven’t had a chance to travel to Nagasaki, but I would really like to in the future. The city actually has a very colorful history despite the nuclear bombing. The city was the first port to be visited by and opened up to European traders in the late 1500’s.

Nagasaki today

A very interesting book about this period of time and the city of Nagasaki is the book Samurai William, by Giles Milton. Judging by the above picture the city appears to have remarkably recovered since the atomic bombing. The big question is if the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary? That is something we will look at tomorrow.

Next Posting: The Decision to Drop the Bomb

Previous Posting: From the Trinity Site to Hiroshima 

Today is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. There is much controversy centering around whether the US should of dropped the atomic bomb on Japan to end World War II. In this series of postings I will discuss this issue along with providing the historical context that went into the decision to use nuclear weapons.

From the Trinity Site to Hiroshima

The first nuclear weapon was tested at the Trinity Site on White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain Time on July 16, 1945. The 19 kiloton bomb was put on a 100 foot steel tower and exploded, causing what witnesses said, the sun to rise twice that day.

I have actually visited the Trinity Site on the White Sands Missile Range which is open to the public only twice a year. One girder of the original tower remains, the rest was evaporated, and the sand below the explosion was turned into a emerald green colored glass called Trinitite. Visitors are told not to pick it up because the glass is still radioactive.

Trinitite lying in the sand.

This is the memorial at the center of the Trinity Site.

The MacDonald Ranch house is where the nuclear bomb was assembled and also served as home to the scientists during the assembly phase of the nuclear bomb. When it came time to test the bomb the house was vacated, but some how the house survived the nuclear explosion:

The MacDonald farmhouse about 3 kilometers from the Trinity Site.

What makes the house’s survival more amazing is that structures around the farmhouse were leveled by the bomb:

But even more amazing then the house surviving is that this windmill some how survived:

This same phenomenon of singular structures remaining while others were completely obliterated by the bomb would happen again the next month in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Hiroshima after the bombing in 1945

Hiroshima was a city of military importance. The city contained the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the 2nd General Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. The city was also a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for the Japanese military. There was military justification for the attack to go along with the perceived need of the US leadership to break the will of the Japanese people by destroying an entire city. The weather was good, and the crew and equipment of the Enola Gay B-29 aircraft piloted and commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbets, took off to bomb their primary target of Hiroshima. The Enola Gay dropped the nuclear bomb called “Little Boy” over the central part of the city. It exploded about 600 meters (2,000 feet) above the city, killing initially an estimated 80,000 civilians. The radiation poisoning would claim twice as many lives as the initial bombing.

Today Hiroshima is a thriving city that has a deep memory of the tragedy of August 6, 1945. The city has erected a museum and memorial to mourn the victims of the atomic bombing. It is almost hard to believe today that Hiroshima was the site of an atomic bombing:

Hiroshima today is a thriving city.

Next Posting: Remembering Nagasaki

China has been vigorously expanding their space program which includes such successes as recently launching astronauts into orbit.  Korea has also recently begun expanding their space program including the announcement of the construction of a state of the art launch pad on the Korean island of Goheung.  Now Japan is officially announced a significant expansion of their space program as well:

Japan is building upon its past successes in space to forge a range of initiatives, from disaster warning systems, probes to Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, as well as conduct an aggressive lunar exploration campaign.

Read the whole article, but the Japanese space agenda is definitely ambitious.  All in all I’m glad to see this Northeast Asian space race because hopefully this increased competition will further push our own US space program and industries which have become increasingly stagnant in recent years.  If it takes the Chinese landing on the moon to get the US space program moving again than I’m all for it.

The Chosun Ilbo today has an editorial about a phone call placed between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President George Bush. Here is what the reportedly discussed:

According to Japanese media reports, Abe said in the 20-minute phone call that he had apologized to women forced into sexual slavery during World War II and his remarks on the issue hadn’t been accurately conveyed.

(more…)