Two Murders and a Funeral - The Abe Legacy

Today, private funerals will be held for Shinzo Abe, whose assassination shocked Japan and the whole world. 

In Zojo-ji.

So the man who so heavily promoted the restoration of State Shinto will be honored in a Buddhist temple. The man who campaigned so hard for the return of Imperial Japan's militarism was murdered by a former member of the navy. And the man whom Korea loved to hate for his negation of war crimes died because that madman believed the former PM's family supported Reverend Moon's cult.

Ultimate paradox? This tragedy may help Abe fulfill his lifelong dream of destroying Japan's peaceful postwar constitution: his LDP won in the landslide he always needed but never quite achieved. 

Now the murder of peaceful, postwar Japan shall be quietly performed by lawmakers following his brainchild Nippon Kaigi. Let's see if Fumio Kishida will forever taint his name by pulling the trigger.

20220708 thread @theSeoulVillage:

"1) Fmr Japan PM in cardiac arrest, suspect arrested. Shinzo Abe was shot during speech (Reuters). Lunatic? Political? His Yakuza pals? As much as I hate his Nippon Kaigi AbeIGNomics, I wish him well.
2) Shinzo Abe died. Killer a former member of the SDF.
3) This is clearly a tragedy, but Shinzo Abe was neither a Muhammad Anwar el Sadat nor a Yitzhak Rabin. #AbeIGNomics"

=> My 2019 fake interview of Abe Shinzo: "Make Imperial Japan Great Again - an exclusive (fake) tell-all interview with Shinzo ABE"

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Ramseyer vs Japan

J. Mark Ramseyer probably thought he'd get more praise from his sponsors after publishing yet another revisionist piece. All he managed to do is to bring all spotlight precisely where Japanese extreme-right and Nippon Kaigi don't want them: on their own lies and imposture. 

Make no mistake about what this is all about: 

• an insult to the victims of Imperial Japan's sexual slavery system (a.k.a. 'Comfort Women').
  
• an insult to academic standards, and a disgrace for a Harvard Law School professor
  
• a threat for Japan democracy, helping revisionism permeate society

THE IRLE - RAMSEYER SCANDAL TIMELINE

In case you missed the latest Ramseyer controversies:

• Dec. 1, 2020: International Review of Law and Economics (in IRLE Volume 65) publishes online 'Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War', a controversial paper where J. Mark Ramseyer claims that there was no case of sexual slavery for the Imperial military, only consensual, contractual prostitution.
  NB: a Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, Ramseyer is listed under the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, but mercifully doesn't appear in RIJS' Constitutional Revision Research Project (he probably would neither pass the academic cut, nor last a minute in front of Alexis Dudden, an advisor to the project).
  
  
• Jan. 12, 2021: "Recovering the Truth about the Comfort Women", a Ramseyer op-ed rolling out the same fallacies, is published by Japan Forward, a English arm of the ultraconservative Sankei Shimbun and a mouthpiece for ultranationalist and revisionist propaganda*.
  
  
• International outrage ensues, particularly from actual scholars and experts. Among others:
• "An article containing this level of academic misconduct should not have passed peer review, or have been published in an academic journal" ("Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War”: The Case for Retraction on Grounds of Academic Misconduct" - Amy Stanley, Hannah Shepherd, Sayaka Chatani, David Ambaras and Chelsea Szendi Schieder in The Asia Pacific Journal, 20210218). 
• "For those who read Professor Ramseyer’s article at face value, unseen are assertions that advocate a current Japanese political ideology. This worldview is racially essentialist, revanchist, and history-denying. (...) One of the primary reasons for studying any state-sponsored atrocity in the past is to learn how it happened in order to try to prevent ongoing occurrences of similar violence and not to abuse history by weaponizing it for present purposes. Academic freedom is a core tenet of constitutional democracies, yet academic lies are not." ("The Abuse of History: A Brief Response to J. Mark Ramseyer’s 'Contracting for Sex'" - Alexis Dudden in The Asia Pacific Journal 202102)
• "Any scholar who understands the falsity of its claims would condemn the article and call for its retraction" ("Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics")
  
• "I don’t have any Korean contracts" (a candid confession by Ramseyer himself, who built his case on them, to Jeannie Suk Gersen, who saves Harvard's honor in this excellent and damning piece: "Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women" - The New Yorker 20210226) 
• 
  
• see also 4 letters on APJIF: apjjf.org/2021/5/ToC2.html **
  
• see also Michael Chwe's list of resources on the Ramseyer IRLE controversy: chwe.net/irle/   
• sign the "Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics" : chwe.net/irle/letter/
  
  
• Jan. 14, 2021: IRLE postpones the publication of the printed version of its Volume 65 (March issue), but still plans to include Ramseyer's piece, along with comments and replies ("Journal Delays Print Publication of Harvard Law Professor’s Controversial ‘Comfort Women’ Article Amid Outcry" - The Harvard Crimson 20210214)
  
  
• Jan. 20, 2021: Alon Harel, co-editor, confirmed that Ramseyer will 'revise significantly' another controversial paper ("Privatizing Police: Japanese Police, The Korean Massacre, And Private Security Firms" - The Cambridge Handbook of Privatization, June 2019) in which, 'citing rumors, (Ramseyer) depicted Koreans at the time of the post-earthquake chaos around Tokyo in 1923 as "gangs" that "torched buildings, planted bombs, poisoned water supplies" and murdered and raped people' ("Harvard professor Ramseyer to revise paper on 1923 massacre of Koreans in Japan: Cambridge handbook editor" - YNA 20210220) 
  

 

EXPOSING REVISIONISTS TO HELP THE VICTIMS OF IMPERIAL JAPAN, BUT ALSO TO SAVE  JAPAN'S POSTWAR DEMOCRACY
 

Exposing Ramseyer's lies helped the powerful voice of our dear LEE Yong-soo Halmoni resonate even more powerfully. Let's hope that next time the World hears her voice, will be when she represents the victims of Imperial Japan's sex slavery system at the ICJ (sad to see her make the headlines only when thugs attack the victims - see "Eternal Shame").

Needless to say, IRLE should withdraw the paper, and Harvard Law School demand a retraction and official apologies from Ramseyer.

Now internationally disgraced as a liar and a mouthpiece for debunked, extremist theories, Ramseyer poses as the victim of a 'witch hunt'. Sounds familiar? If the international community reacted so quickly and unanimously, that's also because the World is witnessing revisionism at work on a much more recent event: the US insurrection and the Capital Riot that happened just days before Ramseyer published his op-ed in Japan Forward. 

Because Ramseyer's papers fit and feed perfectly the Nippon Kaigi propaganda and agenda, they contribute to undermine the postwar democracy that lobby has officially pledged to destroy. 

Again, this is not about Japan vs Korea, but about Imperial Japan vs Justice (and justice for Comfort Women), and about Imperial Japan vs postwar, democratic Japan. 

Of course, the weaponization of history mentioned by Dudden didn't start in 2021, and Japan is certainly not the only perpetrator in the region, but there cannot be reconciliation without truth, and democracies can't survive if they let these attacks go unpunished.

Because there should be zero tolerance against revisionism, the academic community is on the front line. And I was truly moved to see it react so quickly and accurately against Ramseyer's piece, with precisely a focus on truth and reconciliation, denying any opportunity for nationalists and hatemongers to exploit or to play ping pong with their counterparts.

Nippon Kaigi and Japanese revisionists are an easy target because they are brazenly stupid. They don't have to be smart because they're not facing any resistance at home, where they control the government and the media; most Japanese never heard of the lobby or their program. The most efficient way to deal with them is to simply expose them and their agenda (which they're stupid enough to proudly disclose) as they are.

The war on revisionism is tougher with more subtle perpetrators, and this episode reminded me of the academic struggle against the Discovery Institute and its Intelligent Design imposture in the US. There as well, far-right fundamentalists with a political agenda promoted falsehoods through propaganda campaigns that mimicked science but totally negated it. The aim was also to undermine democracy and its constitutional fundamentals, to pervert education, and to rewrite text books, but I.D. was more subtle in its approach. Their leaked, internal 'Wedge Document' explained how the public was to be fooled by a confusing blend of a caricature of science and a caricature of faith. To help spread the movement in Europe, mediocre or failed scholars were sponsored to publish pseudo-academic papers that fed the confusion. 

I'm not saying that Japanese extremists pay Ramseyer to publish his debunked junk, but I'm not sure that otherwise this excuse for a scholar could have gotten prestigious sponsors, let alone been awarded the Order of the... Rising Sun.

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* including this one, from the tinfoil hat category: "Some Uncomfortable Truths About Comfort Women for the International Mob" (Archie Miyamoto 20210222)

 

"After #JMarkRamseyer, #JapanForward added yet another abject revisionist piece to its collection, this time from a #ArchieMiyamoto (https://japan-forward.com/some-uncomfortable-truths-about-comfort-women-for-the-international-mob/). Using the fact that #ImperialJapan crushed #Korea #resistance as a proof of the non existence of #sexslavery?! Really?!" (@theseoulvillage - 20210226)

** Including this brilliant toolkit to help you make up your own mind: "The ‘Comfort Women’ Issue, Freedom of Speech, and Academic Integrity: A Study Aid" (Tessa Morris-Suzuki - The Asia Pacific Journal 202102)

With Yoshihide Suga, Nippon Kaigi remains in charge of Japan politics

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Shinzo ABE is replaced by a man six years older, and even more conservative. The cabinet remains basically unchanged, with Taro ASO as number two, and as expected, a majority (14/20) of members affiliated with the neo-fascist lobby Nippon Kaigi, including of course #1 and #2, but also 7 of the 10 new members:

• Nobuo Kishi (Defense), like his brother Shinzo Abe a war crime denier, and a grandson of untried war criminal and former PM Nobusuke Kishi. Sadly, in today's Japan, Nippon Kaigi has a monopoly on the Ministry of Defense, because the lobby is all about restoring Imperial Japan militarism and destroying postwar pacifism, starting with the Constitution (particularly Article 9). Former Defense Minister Taro Kono is now in charge of administrative and regulatory reforms, which probably cover the revision of the constitution that Shinzo Abe failed to deliver)
  
• Ryota Takeda (Minister of General Affairs)
• Kotaro Nogami (Agriculture and Fisheries)
  
• Norihisa Tamura (Health, Labor and Welfare)
  
• Katsuei Hirasawa (Minister of Reconstruction)
• Shinji Inoue (Consumer Administration, Osaka 2025)
• Tetsushi Sakamoto (Regional revitalisation etc)

 Yoshihide Suga's cabinet (2 women*):

. Yoshihide Suga (71) Prime Minister
. Taro Aso (79) Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister (idem)
. Ryota Takeda (52) Internal Affairs and Communications Minister
. Yoko Kamikawa* (67) Justice Minister
. Toshimitsu Motegi (64) Foreign Minister (idem)
. Koichi Hagiuda (57) Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister (idem)
. Norihisa Tamura (55) Health, Labor and Welfare Minister
. Kotaro Nogami (53) Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister
. Hiroshi Kajiyama (64) Economy, Trade and Industry Minister (idem)
. Kazuyoshi Akaba (62) Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister (idem)
. Shinjiro Koizumi (39) Environment Minister (idem)
. Nobuo Kishi (61) Defense Minister
. Katsunobu Kato (64) Chief Cabinet Secretary, Minister in charge of the abduction issue
. Katsuei Hirasawa (75) Reconstruction Minister
. Hachiro Okonogi (55) Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, Minister in charge of disaster management
. Tetsushi Sakamoto (69) Minister for promoting dynamic engagement of all citizens, Minister in charge of regional revitalization, Minister in charge of measures for declining birthrate
. Yasutoshi Nishimura (57) Minister in charge of economic revitalization, Minister in charge of measures for the novel coronavirus pandemic (idem)
. Taro Kono (57) Minister in charge of administrative reform, Minister in charge of regulatory reform
. Seiko Hashimoto* (55) Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Minister in charge of women's empowerment, Minister in charge of gender equality (idem)
. Shinji Inoue (50) Minister for the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, Minister in charge of consumer administration
. Takuya Hirai (62) Minister in charge of digital reform, Minister in charge of social security and tax number system

Health minister Katsunobu Kato was chosen to succeed Suga as chief Cabinet secretary

Health minister Katsunobu Kato was chosen to succeed Suga as chief Cabinet secretary

Health minister Katsunobu Kato was chosen to succeed Suga as chief Cabinet secretary

Health minister Katsunobu Kato was chosen to succeed Suga as chief Cabinet secretary

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Make Imperial Japan Great Again - an exclusive (fake) tell-all interview with Shinzo ABE

(NB - this interview is part of our Agence Fausse Presse series which already featured, among other extremists, KIM Jong-un* and Donald Trump**)

Seoul Village - "Prime Minister ABE, thank you for accepting this interview. To start with, do you prefer Westerners to call you Shinzo ABE, or ABE Shinzo?"

Shinzo ABE: "I don't care, as long as you don't confuse me with Kan ABE: I'm so ashamed by my paternal grandfather, who ruined the reputation of my family. This man was a dangerous peacemonger who dared oppose Hideki TOJO and Imperial Japan militarism. All my life is about clearing my name, the reputation of that side of my family. When you think that his eldest son, my father, had to become a kamikaze to prove to everybody that he was on the (extreme) right side of Japan's history."

SV - 'Your maternal grandfather, on the other hand..."

SA - "Needless to say, Nobusuke KISHI was my hero: a genuine war criminal I could be proud of, and relate to. My visits to Yasukuni, or my congratulations to war criminal memorials pale in comparison to the headstone he dedicated to TOJO and the other fallen war criminals***... what an inspiration for us."

War criminal Kishi would be proud of his Rising GrandSon

SV - "By 'us', you mean Nippon Kaigi."

SA - "Of course. I'm very proud of my brainchild Nippon Kaigi. Nobody thought that a maze of exotic extremist groupuscules could be merged into Japan's dominant political lobby, reuniting hardcore neofascists with Shinto fundamentalists. But in order to achieve that incredible feat, I needed Korea's help."

SV - "Pardon me....?"

SA - "We love it when Korean nationalists hijack history issues. As fellow extremists, we need each other to play a naughty ping pong game and make moderates inaudible. And these guys are very successful at fueling anger from the Korean people, and not anger at us, but anger at Japan in general, which makes it easier for us to say 'look, these people are radicals, they can't see reason, we are the victims in this story. Korean nationalists helped us revive our ailing fascist movements, but at the beginning in 1992, we felt really scared: for the first time, Korean Comfort Women spoke up about what they came through under Imperial Japan rule, for the first time in decades, the less pretty side of our history was exposed to the Western world, and back then, nationalism was kept at bay in Korea so the victims could be heard without any distortion. We really feared that our grip on Japanese society could be loosened. We had to react in order to defend the memory of our beloved war criminals."

SV - "Well you still controlled the political system. The only embryos of apologies were issued by lame duck officials, in personal statements that were not really binding for the nation."

SA - "Yeah. We keep deleting records, and rewriting history in textbooks, but even with our propaganda machine and our control of the local media, it's hard to get rid of the 1993-1994 statements of Yohei Kono and Tomiichi Murayama. At least, we've successfully destroyed press freedom at home, and even made it almost impossible for foreign journalists to expose my ABEIGNomics, or even to mention Nippon Kaigi, but this takes a lot of time and money."

SV - "Money?"

SA - "Do you know how much money we spend every year in advertising and advertorials on CNN and Co? Almost as much as we invest in soft power in South East Asian countries. But these foreign media never cover stories about us, and these countries have yet to seek apologies or reparations for their Comfort Women."

SV - "Well Western audiences certainly know a lot more about judo and Japanese food than about your Moritomo Gakuen scandal, corruption around Tokyo 2020, or the role of yakuzas in the olympics and in the highly controversial Fukushima cleanup..."

SA - "... you can stop here: I get your point, and I don't want foreign or for that matter Japanese audiences to be enlightened about our ABEIGNomics."

SV - "You don't risk much. It's not like in Korea when everybody's on the street as soon as a new scandal pops up."

SA - "Of course, otherwise we would have been kicked out of power decades ago. We're very lucky that Japanese people are not interested in politics, in defending their democracy and their constitution. We're also very lucky that the US didn't purge our political dynasties at the end of WWII, because they needed people like my 'good' granddad Kishi to secure Japan's support during the Cold War."

SV - "Unlike Germany with Nazism, Japan has never been liberated from Imperial Japan".

SA - "Yes, and we want that situation to continue forever. As you well know, Nippon Kaigi's official goal is to restore Imperial Japan as a whole, including militarism and State Shinto, to repel peace treaties and human rights laws, to recenter education around nationalism, to deny war crimes and to reject postwar pacifism by changing the constitution. This can only happen if the Japanese people, who is overwhelmingly pacifist, is kept unaware of the past, and of our agenda for the future."

SV - "Undoing your democracy should be even easier with a man like Donald Trump in the White House."

SA - "Definitely, and not just because Putin is also very pleased if Japan joins his collection of failed democracies. The difference is that we don't need any meddling in our elections."

SV - "Still, Trump is much more powerful than you."

SA - "Don't misread my losing rounds of golf against Donald. If I spend 200% of my time with him flattering his ego, that's way cheaper than spending millions in foreign media. Plus I receive preferred treatments compared to other traditional US allies."


SV - "That's right. Trump asked you only 4 times more money to pay for the US military umbrella, compared to 5 for South Korea."

"#Trump asked #Japan to multiply by 4 its financial contribution to US defense. #ShinzoAbe's (losing) rounds of #golf with #POTUS paid off (#Korea was asked x 5)." (20191116 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1195566482677059584)

SA - "Well Donald learned business from his mobster friends, so I expected this kind of racketing from him. Besides, MOON Jae-in is too weak. He's out of sync in the region because has nothing to do with strongmen like Vladimir, Narendra, Rodrigo, Jong-un, Jinping or me. Still, I see some hope: lately, MOON seems to have learned more than a few tricks from Donald, judging by the way he's handling justice****..."

SV - "Anyway, there is at least one strong Korean leader these days. Will you meet KIM Jong-un?"

SA - "Maybe. I really want to thank him, to tell him to keep up the good job, to keep shooting missiles over our heads. I badly need enemies at the gate, a boogeyman to justify our return to militarism and our destruction of Japan's postwar pacifism. To make fascism relevant in Japan, to Make Imperial Japan Great Again."


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* see "Exclusive interview with KIM Jong-un - Season III" (2018), "EXCLUSIVE-Second interview with KIM Jong-un" (2017), "Exclusive interview with KIM Jong-un" (2013)
** see "Trump: The Art of the Dealapidation (Exclusive Interview)" (2018)
*** see "The Elusive Independence Day - When will Japan officially proclaim its Independence from Imperial Japan?"
**** see "Moon Landing - The Cheong Wa Dae Curse"

How Naruhito exposed Trump's ego trip, and Abe's agenda

Donald Trump will probably remember his State Visit to Japan as a triumphant ego trip: we saw him play golf with his favorite losing partner Abe Shinzo, lift the first ever President Cup (designed for him: YUGE, sumo-sized), become the first Foreign head of state to meet the new Emperor... but what I will remember forever is The Naruhito Statement.

Not a word, but a silent, immobile stand, that should resonate much louder than it has so far.

For six long minutes, a significant section of his first encounter with Trump, Naruhito left his guest alone. Everything was carefully timed and planned, as the intricate red carpet patterns, and an official's intervention confirm.

So what happened? Donald, Melania, Naruhito and Masako arrive together on a wide podium, where they pause to listen to the national anthems. Then Trump moves ahead, and the other three stop where the official instructs them to, only a few meters after leaving the podium, just to symbolically lead him out. The POTUS joins another, smaller podium, where he listens to a military march, then moves to salute troops, then walks along another red line at the end of which he reconnects with the Emperor to meet civilians.

During these six surreal minutes, Trump is either alone, or accompanied by military staff. The only music playing is military. As if a military parade had been especially prepared for him alone. 

DJT is a Commander in Chief, and the Emperor of Japan should remain apolitical, but the whole process turns the moment into a ridicule, onanic one for the former, and a strong political statement for the latter: what better way to express Naruhito's strong support of Japan's peaceful constitution, against Abe and Nippon Kaigi, who want to destroy it?

In the same immobile move, Naruhito managed to make his guest look like an egotistic dictator, and Abe like a dangerous fool. Simply brilliant.

'Barf bag, anyone? Alt-Right meet Nippon Kaigi

- Donald Trump Abe Shinzo / Shinzo Abe' (20190526 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132660710452867078)

'Trump to Abe Shinzo: US-Japan alliance is 'ironclad'. At the personal level, make that 'gold-plated, 7-iron-clad' (20190528 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1133175410756210688)

As if to nail it even deeper, DJT made the most of Memorial Day by praising a dictator: KIM Jong-un is right to criticize Joe Biden, I'm not bothered by his cute missile launches, and what a fantastic real estate potential you have, Dear Chairman!

'Say, Donald Trump, are North Korea's Concentration Camps the kind of 'prime real estate' you're looking for to lock up migrant kids at the US borders?

Your dictator friend could sure help you find Stephen Miller-friendly solutions to Make Amerika Great Again.' (20190528 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1133208200797253633)

John BOLTON and his fellow hawks have not conceded yet. And America's recent moves around Sasebo, theoretically meant to control the North Korea - Iran connection, could also facilitate a preemptive strike. The bloody nose scenario remains a tweet away.


One thing is sure: MOON Jae-in is out of the loop, and neither KIM nor TRUMP seem to trust him anymore.


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PS - from our twitterline (@theseoulvillage):

On the non-march of the Emperor:

'I wish Naruhito could brief Trump about actual East Asia History, not the one he learned from Shinzo Abe / Abe Shinzo & Xi Jinping' (20190526 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132804997761064960)

'Surreal military march played for Trump alone on a podium. Ego trip (20190527 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132806859591565312)

'Pacifist, apolitical Emperor Naruhito stays away from military while Trump salutes them' (20190527 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132807172847333376)

'Kudos to Naruhito for keeping his distances from militarism, turning the parade Abe Shinzo / Shinzo Abe prepared for Trump into  ridiculous ode to a dictator' (20190527 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132811289032441856)

'Even weirder on this video, the almost 6 mns Trump was left alone with military march & review (starting around 2:30). Naruhito only rejoined him to meet civilians. A clear message for Japan's Article 9, against ABEIGNomicS / Nippon Kaigi militarism?
https://youtu.be/TQaiRq6jnws ' (20190527 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132924066317254656)

On the return of bloody nose:

'Bloody nose returns? US getting ready for preemptive strike against North Korea, including bunker buster capacity

(Kim Ki-ho:
http://news.donga.com/home/3/all/20190525/95691723/1  Sasebo)' (20190526 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132409982039646208)

'FYI this bunker buster is meant to bust Kim Jong-un, not to rescue Abe Shinzo / Shinzo Abe when he plays golf with Trump:' (20190526 - https://twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1132439023559950336)

This time it's different

You know the bad cop - bad cop routine with North Korea: provocations, sanctions, provocations, sanctions, war threats, journos flocking to the peninsula, and leaving a couple of weeks later with stories about how apathetic South Koreans can be, or with 'rare glimpses' into rural DPRK caught from the windows of their buses to remote museums honoring past leaders...

Of course, we all know that the gimchi will eventually hit the fan, that this regime won't last forever, that someday something will happen, and that whatever the scenario, it will be messy. 

But we also take for granted that if something really really stupid happens, it won't come from the US.

This time it's different*.

To start with, somebody really really stupid sits in the Oval Office. A narcissic, delusional, short-fused bully with the attention span of a goldfish, desperate to score awesome wins bigly, and surrounded by dangerous and incompetent advisors eager to strike as soon as possible, but without any clue about what's at stake. Certain days, it seems that the only sane person in 1600 Penn Ave is a Mad Dog (James Mattis).

This time, it's different. 46% of GOP voters are okay with a strike against NK, much more than the usual 33+% base of hardcore trumpolatres who would follow their leader beyond the gates of Hell. And well beyond party lines, in many American minds, the leader of North Korea has logically grown from than a distant, weirdly combed clown-meme, to a clear and immediate danger able to launch nukes all the way to their front yard. Among them, how many are aware that tens of thousands of US citizens have already been living for decades South of the DMZ, knowing that they could be wiped out in minutes even without nukes being involved?

This time, it's different. In South Korea, apathy gave way to genuine concern. Particularly since MOON Jae-in seems inaudible on the international scene, and completely out of the loop, and not just because Trump is not much into diplomacy (BTW still no new Ambo to Korea). In 1994, the US did listen to KIM Young-sam, and canceled their strike. During the Sunshine years, they lost key entry points in the North, and last year, they saw the most confidential allied plans hacked by Pyongyang. Now Donald TRUMP only trusts fellow radical Shinzo ABE, who played him from day one, and confirmed that KIM Jong-un could prove very useful to revive a political career, and to score big legislative wins in spite of awful popularity ratings.**

This time, it's different. On his upcoming trip to East-Asia, the POTUS may skip the classic DMZ tour, and instead visit the Pyeongtaek base. Not to better understand the realities on the frontline, but as usual to elude reality; to avoid facing directly the North, and to remain in his comfort zone - his aides will probably set up yet another one of his self-morale-boosting campaign-style rallies. Chances are his tweeting bird brain will interpret cheerleaders applauding his warmongering rethorics as the ultimate 'GO FOR IT'.

This time, it's different. Storytellers are already assuring us that this is not the next Iraq, but no one dares bulls...t us about surgical strikes, because there are too many targets (and elusive at that), too many unknown unknowns. And you can't clean the mess afterwards, even with such an 'ace' cleaner as the Winston in Pulp Fiction***.

This time, it's different. Of course, no one should defend the DPRK regime - everybody knows about their human rights violations, WMDs, nukes, chemical weapons, you name it. Of course, the UNSC remains unanimous behind tougher sanctions, but how far will the world let Trump play KJU's risky escalation game? 
- Where is the international community? Where are the moderates?
- Where are FoPo doves? (certainly not non-expert Ted Cruz delivering his angry two cents in the NYT) Where is Obama? (strategic silence - so happy that the gimchi didn't hit the fan during his mandate) Where is Jimmy Carter? (oh he's still there, but for how long, and why would Trump let him go to Pyongyang)
- Where's China? (well the priority for XI Jinping was to secure his grip at home, and KJU was smart enough to spare him more embarrassment during the CPC's 19th National Congress)
- Where's Putin? (watching DJT make China and Russia great again, and gaining clout in North Korea, but with which guarantees?)
- What is Trump's red line? is the Congress aware of it - heck, is the Donald himself even aware of it?

When Elusivarus Rex Tillerson said diplomacy was still on until the first bomb drops, he didn't specify who would drop the first bomb.

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* from "This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly" to "This Time Is Different: Seven Decades of Political Folly"?
** According to Asahi Shimbun, 80% of the new assembly favor a revision of the constitution, even if less than half of the population does so - already a victory for Nippon Kaigi considering how pacifism used to dominate. The neofascist lobby rules more than ever Japan politics: Nippon Kaigi claims main ABE rivals Yuriko KOIKE (who founded a new party), and Seiji MAEHARA (who claimed the DPJ, forcing a split in the main opposition party, Yukio EDANO leading the new Constitutional Democratic Party created to defend democracy).
*** modeled after Victor in Besson's original Nikita movie

One last gold medal for Korea (the usual one)

Korean broadcasters perfectly wrapped up their coverage of the Rio Olympics by masking the parade of world athletes with the portraits of national competitors they already aired 99% of the time during the whole competition - I actually switched from MBC to SBS because there, that patriotic display filled less than half the screen:

Even when other nations are on screen at Rio 2016, Korea broadcasters manage to show national athletes (20160822 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/767507917016698881)

So once again, Korea claimed the gold medal for national chauvinism on TV, a domain where the country faces much tougher and diverse competition than in archery.

In case you missed the Rio games and the previous editions, here's how it works: 

• all major broadcasters sharing the same rights for the games, the competition among them is all about populism and fueling national fervor
• if a national champion is competing, major broadcasters must also air them live on their dedicated sports channel (and when it's PARK In-bee, throw in that dedicated golf channel for good measure) - when that's a second rate athlete, use the sport channel to rerun the exploits of top tier stars.
• on the last day, when there's 0% chance of medal, start one hour later and replay past medal bouts
• otherwise, may be aired live only universal legends in the very exclusive Usain BOLT - Michael PHELPS league (two more games required for Simone BILES, and Team USA B stood no chance with none of that 1992-dream-team material) - these legends are part of the comfort zone, their presence providing both the 'international' label, and the 'sport domination' alibi
• success basically always relies on the same sports - difficult to grow new vocations without 'training' the audience with a decent pedagogy of Olympic diversity...

Baseball returns to the Olympics for Tokyo 2020, and you don't know what may happen if Korea faces Japan in the finals.

Aaah, Tokyo 2020! Different flavor of ultranationalism there. Today, the Olympic flag was handed to Nippon Kaigi darlings Yuriko Koike (the newly elected governor), and Shinzo Abe, who popped up dressed as Super Mario:

Inspired by Queen Elizabeth II's cameo appearance for London 2012, Shinzo Abe showed up as Super Mario. A weird solo performance (lacking the humor and Bond sidekick), particularly from an elected politician less iconic than British royalty... Imagine Erdogan doing the same for Istanbul 2020. If Abe's less into personal ego than into the revival of the fascist regime, he never misses an opportunity to show his face on an international stage (e.g. featured at the end of each ad of the Japan government's ongoing PR campaign on CNN)

Super Tojo ready for Tojo 2020 - let the Nippon Kaigi games begin!

BREAKING - Shinzo Abe unveils new logo for Tokyo 2020 (Hideki Tojo 2020) (20150911 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/642228805260570624)

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"A shared responsibility to look directly in the eye of history", and a shared evasiveness

History will remember the first time a POTUS and a Japanese PM stood together in Hiroshima more than their empty words.

Hiroshima mon amour

As expected, Shinzo Abe delivered one of his trademark, crocodile-tearful, "History is harsh" speeches*, sparing us his usual fake excuses, because this time, he was not required to provide any. Today, Barack Obama chimed in by using similar smoke screens. And of course, without apologizing.

Yes, 'we have a shared responsibility to look directly in the eye of history', but don't count on us for saying that nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki was wrong, or that Imperial Japan committed war crimes that also need to be remembered.

The choice of a G7 host city is a fantastic opportunity to push a political agenda, and Hiroshima was a finalist for Shinzo Abe, who wants everybody to remember Japan as a pure victim, and to forget that it committed atrocities under the fascist regime he has, along with fellow members of Nippon Kaigi, pledged to restore**. Sorry, Mr Abe, but "No, you can't honor A-Bomb victims in Hiroshima AND War Criminals in Yasukuni".

In his wildest dreams, this incurable provocateur would have selected Yasukuni, but the international community would have condemned him vehemently. He settled for another controversial Shinto shrine he loves to visit as frequently as possible: Ise Grand Shrine doesn't honor war criminals, but it is also led by a eminent member of Nippon Kaigi. And a Japanese government is supposed to respect the separation of State and religion...

Don't forget that as far as extremist lobbies go, Abe follows Shinto Seiji Renmei as well as Nippon Kaigi, and that as a fundamentalist, he wants the restoration of State Shinto, and of the Emperor as the supreme religious and political leader. 

A few Japanese voices raised objections regarding the choice of Ise, but who's listening to the dwindling resistance of the local democracy?

• NB: initially published on blogules as "Cenotaphs, shrines, and an obituary of Japan democracy"

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* for last year's two masterpieces, see ""History is harsh" and other sick jokes" and "Decoding the Abe Statement: "why apologize for crimes Japan never committed?""
** see "Imperial Japan v. Japan" on blogules, or previous posts on Shinzo Abe, and most recently regarding the US-Japan conondrum: "Tokyo Trials on trial: after Japan, Abe forces the US to chose between Imperial Japan and postwar Japan"