Interview in the dark

Interview with

Benjamin Joinau, "L'Atelier des Cahiers"

This short video interview (in French) with the publisher of 'Impressions papier hanji' was recorded in the middle of the summer and in the heart of Seoul (Seochon, Jongno-gu, my favorite neighborhood and Benjamin's new lair). I'm at my Bela Lugosi best, but this is about 'de Vermis Seoulis', haunting places, and the dark side of Seoul. 




Ce bref entretien vidéo avec l'éditeur d'"Impressions papier hanji" a été enregistré au coeur de l'été séoulite, et au coeur de la capitale (à Seochon, Jongno-gu - mon quartier préféré et le nouveau repaire de Benjamin). Ambiance sombre, mais il est question 'de Vermis Seoulis', de hantise, de fantastique, et du côté obscur de la ville.


See also / Voir aussi:

• "Impressions papier hanji" release (2011)
• "Impressions Papier Hanji" / Kindle" on Kindle, paperback (2012)
• L'Atelier des Cahiers

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LEE Seok-ki's Arirang Spring

Last week, North Korean propaganda confirmed that the nation was ready to invade the South in case of a pro-DPRK popular uprising.

This week, South Korean National Intelligence Services revealed a conspiration aiming at a pro-DPRK insurrection. The usual suspect? LEE Seok-ki, the member of the Unified Progressive Party (UPP) with the most documented history of norkphilia. He was rumored to have fled, but showed up at the National Assembly this morning (see "Lee Seok-ki Appears!" - The Marmot's Hole 20130829).

Of course, the best defense is a good offense, and both KIM Jong-un's regime and the NIS were feeling the heat: the former as the world braces for intervention against fellow WMD-lover Bashar al Assad, the second as the critics mount on the 2012 election scandal. The NIS is accused of manipulating public opinion ahead of the vote, and already detonated the "ROH Moo-hyun-NLL" scandal a couple of months ago as a Weapon of Mass Diversion.

BREAKING - according to NIS, #NorthKorea gas masks for #Syria were Gwangju surpluses smuggled through NLL (Agence Fausse Presse) ~,~ - @theseoulvillage 20130829theseoulvillage/status/372884583446228992

Note that UPP firebrands are convenient diversion tools for the conservatives: even if LEE Jung-hee eventually withdrew from the presidential ballot, she had time to torpedo the first two debates ("Time is up"), and her figure was used in the final hours of the vote as the ideal "devil" to mobilize the base behind their own lackluster candidate.

Trying to picture #LeeSeokki's #ArirangSpring: a dozen pro-NK gunmen parading among tourists on Gwanghwamun Square? Ask a Korean Dud - @theseoulvillage 20130829twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/372907761425588224

Are there crypto-kimilsungists in South Korea dreaming of a reunification under the Juche banner? Of course, just like you'll always find a few crypto-fascists dreaming of the return of dictatorship. Right now, the more visible minority of right and left wing radicals that keep polluting national politics, rewriting history, and preventing sound debates from emerging are more dangerous for the nation.


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Hashima, Yawata Steel: enshrining slave labor in UNESCO World Heritage List?

This year again, Japanese revisionists are pushing the candidacies of highly controversial industrial sites to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list: the island of Hashima (Nagasaki-ken) and Yahata Steel Works (aka Yawata Steel Works, Fukuoka-ken) are both intimately associated to forced labor under Imperial Japan rule.

'Nagasaki shipyard among old industrial sites named for World Heritage list' (The Japan Times 20130827)

This year, the provocation looks even more outrageous: the Prime Minister (Shinzo Abe) is the grandson of the war criminal in charge of forced labor in Hideki Tojo's cabinet (Nobosuke Kishi), and the Deputy Prime Minister (Taro Aso) and his family still have links to his father's company, Aso Mining company, then a massive 'consumer' of slaves.

My position hasn't changed since last October, when I mentioned the Hashima case under similar circumstances (see "Dokdo, Senkaku, Ieodo, Kuril,... Hashima?"): sites like Hashima cannot be listed, except as symbols of forced labor, for the world to remember past war crimes.

Again, that's not what people like Shinzo Abe or Taro Aso have in mind: they want to discreetly enshrine war crimes in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list, the way their predecessors discreetly enshrined war criminals in Yasukuni Shrine or Mount Sangane Cemetery**.

I can't help but feel nauseous when I read the submission in the tentative list ("The Modern Industrial Heritage Sites in Kyûshû and Yamaguchi" - whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5399): no, I don't consider forced labor to be the best model for "indigenous modernization" or "proactive importation of technology". And I don't think the UNESCO had in mind forced labor when it chose its first two criteria for selection: "1. to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; 2. to exhibit an important interchange of human values".

Yet I do believe in a "Justification of Outstanding Universal Value" for Hashima, and I could even accept to see it listed among UNESCO World Heritage Sites... but only to to denounce forced labor and honor the slaves who suffered and died there.

Yes, Hashima could join sites like Auschwitz-Birkenau or the Island of Goree on the list.

But no, Hashima shouldn't be remembered as a "Modern Industrial Heritage Site". We've already read these "Arbeit Macht Frei" signs.


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** the latter by none other than Abe's grandfather: "The Elusive Independence Day - When will Japan officially proclaim its Independence from Imperial Japan?"

--- UPDATE 20130828 ---
Tentative list
Tweets about "#abeignomics"

 

KIM Han-sol - Episode IV, Striking Back At The Empire?

KIM Han-sol will study political sciences in Sciences Po Le Havre  (see "Un petit-fils de Kim Jong-il à Sciences po" (20130827 - L'Express).

The first time KIM Jong-nam's son (KIM Jong-un's nephew, KIM Jong-il's grandson, KIM Il-sung's great-grandson - NB: nothing to do with KIM Yu-na) made the world headlines was when he distanced himself from the North Korean dictatorship as Elisabeth REHN interviewed him for Yle, Finland's public broadcasting company (see videos below):







The teenager was then studying at the Mostar campus of United World College because Hong-Kong authorities didn't grant him a student visa, and BIH was a friendlier destination. Han-sol had less trouble living in another SAR, Macau, where his dad majored in Gambling magna cum laude, with an exchange student experience at Tokyo Disneyland University, and a Master's Degree in Fashion Disasters.

KIM Han-sol will not study at the main Sciences Po, the prestigious IEP Paris, Rue Saint-Guillaume. But Le Havre campus does makes sense: that's the one devoted to Europe-Asia, all courses are delivered in English, and there's even a Korean language program.

The main news, of course, is that a fourth generation KIM is venturing into politics, and for the first time, with notions of actual democracy reaching beyond the experience of life in a Western democracy.

And if you don't like KIM Han-sol's ear piercing, that's another positive leap forward from the previous generation:

KIM Jong-nam majored in Gambling magna cum laude at Macau International School of Jokers, was an exchange student experience at Tokyo Disneyland University, and got a Master's Degree in Fashion Disasters

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Germany and Japan: different ways of remembering war crimes and playing politics

No comment:

Germany and Japan: different ways of remembering war crimes and playing politics

• Angela MERKEL: the first German Chancelor to visit Dachau. Expresses "deep sadness and shame".The controversy: in Germany, a nation that faces its past and where honoring war criminals, Nazism, or the swastika flag is a crime, that's normal. But you don't do that during a political campaign: that's playing politics.

• Shinzo ABE: Japan's most shameless, unrepentent revisionist Prime Minister since his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, a war criminal who dedicated Mt Sangane to Hideki Tojo and Co. Regularly honors war criminals in Yasukuni.
  
  No controversy: in Japan, a nation that never recognized any war crime and where revisionists control the political system, honoring war criminals, Imperial Japan, or the Rising Sun Flag, that's normal. And you must do that to survive politically: that's playing politics as usual.

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Seoul, Our Movie

Amateur filmmakers, behold: Seoul city invite you to contribute to "Seoul, Our Movie", a project directed by PARK Chan-wook, with the help of his "PARKing CHANce" partner - and brother* - PARK Chan-kyong.

Documentaries, fiction films, even films created from still photos may apply, but your work shouldn't last more than 5 mn, or be a parody. Submit your video - with "Seoul" in the title - until November 9 on YouTube (youtube.com/seoulourmovie), and get all submission directions on seoulourmovie.com:

seoulourmovie.com

The man who delivered the vengence trilogy seems to be aiming at a movie with "some sort of extreme qualities":





I don't think blood is required. Not for a city like Seoul, full of extreme qualities.

Let me know if you posted something, I'm curious to see the result.

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* see "Brothers share passion, talent for Seoul film project" (The Korea Times - 20130821 - UPDATE)

France claims the British Isles at the United Nations

"France on Thursday made a presentation on its Partial Submission Concerning the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ( UNCLOS).

France said the natural prolongation of the continental shelf of France extends to the British Islands and beyond 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea of Britanny is measured.

According to the UNCLOS and its relevant provisions, if the continental shelf of a coastal state extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the width of the territorial sea is measured, information on the limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles shall be submitted by the coastal state to the CLCS under the UNCLOS."

Okay. Replace "France" with "China" and "British Isles" with "Okinawa Trough" and you get the core of the message released by Xinhua yesterday (see "China makes presentation on outer limits of continental shelf in East China Sea to UN" - Global Times - 20130816).

Here's the Okinawa Trough:

NB: the closest piece of land are Japan and Taiwan. And note that you can even find a few Koreans who also claim Okinawa.

And here's the continental shelf supporting the British Isles (obviously we frogs have a much easier case than the stretched Chinese one):

NB: I could also have made Denmark claim the British Isles (a perfectly rotten joke for the Bard), but my country has had a legitimate right to do so ever since Guillaume le Conquerant took over England, back in 1066 (yup, 900 years before England stole the Holy Grail from German barbarians - at one stage, a giant called Geoff supposedly did a dirty trick involving a hat).


PS: to my many British friends, please keep your shelf control, and remember that you invented humor. And yes, the ball crossed the line in 1966 (anyway according to recent news, that West Germany team was probably loaded).

Stephane

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The Elusive Independence Day - When will Japan officially proclaim its Independence from Imperial Japan?

Today, 68 years ago, Imperial Japan surrendered.

Today, Shinzo Abe didn't visit the infamous Yasukuni Shrine, but he did send an aide to pay tribute to Imperial Japan war criminals. And today, the Korea JoongAng Daily reveals* that Abe's grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, then the Prime Minister, was the one who dedicated the headstone in Aichi-ken's Mount Sangane cemetery to his former boss Hideki Tojo and fellow war criminals, honoring them as "seven patriots who died for their country".

"Far from Yasukuni, cemetery honors criminals" - Korea JoongAng Daily 20130815

Unlike war criminal Kishi (see "To better bridge the gap between Japan, Korea, and China, let's measure the gap within Japan"), these monsters were tried, officially found guilty of war crimes, executed, and cremated. Their ashes have been dispersed at sea, but their lawyer managed to smuggle away some, allowing this infamy.

So let's add 1960 to an already disturbing timeline:

• 1945: end of War War II. Imperial Japan is officially defeated, and Japan officially ceases to be an Empire, but the Emperor himself is spared to avoid a total political collapse. Hirohito undoubtedly was a war criminal: he was the man in charge, and he issued himself key orders for proven war crimes (e.g. Unit 731, WMDs..). Politically castrated and painted as a naive royal abused by mean military leaders, he became that popular figure now referred to as Emperor Showa, a double entendre name ("enlighted" / "radiant") that sums up his 1926-1989 reign started with imperialism and fascism (until 1945), and ended with peace (after 1945).

• 1948: a few Imperial Japan war criminals are tried and executed, including Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister from 1941 to 1944. The US decide to spare key figures willing to collaborate to ensure pro-US conservatism in Japan in times of Cold War. Among them, "Showa Era Monster" Nobusuke Kishi (see "To better bridge the gap between Japan, Korea, and China, let's measure the gap within Japan"). It worked, but to this day Japan's democracy continues to pay the price: every day we see how this great nation's political system remains totally controlled and undermined by a dangerous clique of fascists, revisionists, and descendants of Imperial Japan leaders.

• 1954: "Self-Defense Forces" are established, with "new" military flags almost copying the infamous Rising Sun flag. They have 8 beams instead of 16, but I'd rather call these beams "fasces", like the beams around the axis that gave their name to fascism. That meaning didn't exist when the original Rising Sun flag was created (1870), but chosing this design is a very clear statement in 1954 Japan. Particularly under a Prime Minister like Shingeru Yoshida: he served as embassador to Italy during the 1930s, and was among the bad guys arrested in 1945 but released later... Frankly, the 1948 deal was not US Diplomacy's finest moment, but letting this infamy happen six years later, that's almost as shocking. The least the US could do now is to change that embarrassing US Fleet Activity Sasebo insign...

• 1960: Nobusuke Kishi, now the Prime Minister, dedicates the Mount Sangane cemetery headstone honoring the worst monsters in Japan history

• 1978: 14 convicted Class A war criminals - including Tojo and co. - are enshrined in Yasukuni, after a failed attempt in 1966, when Yakusuni Chief Priest Fujimaro Tsukuba refused to put all the names listed by government officials. The decision to go ahead with the enshrinement and to keep it discreet was taken in 1969 in a secret meeting between officials from Yasukuni and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (the Minister was ten Noboru Saito, and the Prime Minister was still Eisaku Sato). Clearly, the plotters had to wait for a friendlier Chief Priest, and they wasted no time after Tsukuba's death. The candidacy of former Self-Defense Force official Nagayoshi Matsudaira was pushed by Chief Justice Kazuto Ishida, an ultra-conservative who tilted his own institution towards far-right territories. In "East Asia's Haunted Present. Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism", Tsuyoshi Hasegawa and Kazuhiko Togo report how Matsudaira answered to Ishida's proposition for the job: "Overturning the verdicts of the Tokyo Tribunal is essential to achieve Japan's spiritual renaissance. Therefore, it is necessary to enshrine those who are called Class-A war criminals". Tsukuba died in March 1978, Matsudarai was appointed in June, and the enshrinement happened in October. Hirohito knew about the enshrinement before the media, who first mentioned it in 1979. In a 1988 memo disclosed in 2006, Hirohito explained why he stopped visiting Yasukuni in 1978, regretting Matsudaira didn't have his father's "strong wish for peace".

• ...

• 2013?: Shinzo Abe modifies the constitution of Japan, starting with article 96 which makes modifications very difficult and subject to referenda. Japan abandons its commitment to peace (art.9), reclaiming Imperial Japan's potential as an aggressive military power, as well as it abandons all obligations regarding international laws and treaties (art. 98-2)... As Matsudaira put it, the enemies of democracy can now "achieve Japan's spiritual renaissance".

I spared you all the events that deserve to be listed on this timeline, but I guess you get the idea: these guys know perfectly what they're doing, and where they want to go. And Taro Aso? They don't need your advice**: they already know how to stay below radar surface the way the Nazis did during the thirties. 

Ever since 1945, revisionists have seized every opportunity to pledge allegiance to Imperial Japan, to contaminate post-war Japan with its noxious heritage, and to pave the way for its "spiritual renaissance". A day will come when all Japanese lawmakers will be asked to officially pledge allegiance to democracy and to denounce Imperial Japan war crimes before taking office. A day will come when the Japanese constitution will be strong enough to prevent people like Shinzo Abe from reaching power. But what will happen until then?

Imperial Japan abominations didn't stop in 1945: they continue to this day, and they will not be resolved until Japan officially proclaims its independence from Imperial Japan.


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* see "Far from Yasukuni, cemetery honors criminals" (Korea JoongAng Daily, 20130815)
** see "Taro Aso, Japan's Constitution, and Godwin's Law"

First International Memorial Day for "Comfort Women"

Sunday, LEE Yong-nyo passed away. She was one of the last "halmoni" who survived Imperial Japan's military sexual slavery system. Her funeral was held yesterday, and today at noon, like every Wednesday*, survivors and supporters demonstrated in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to demand official apologies and redress for the war crime.

One generation, "One Thousand Wednesdays"*

It's not a matter of if but of when Japan will answer the call. Of course, Shinzo Abe and his friends have a radically different agenda, and keep pursuing their outrageous and suicidal program**. Of course, mainstream Japanese media keep maintaining a lid on the issue, or at best the illusion of a doubt or a debate on war crimes that have long been proven and documented. Of course, history textbooks keep telling to the Japanese youth the stories fabricated by right-wing revisionists. Of course, the deniers and revisionists are bold enough to publish this kind of trash in US media to answer last year's "do you remember?" campaign in NYC (see "Dokdo, Senkaku, Ieodo, Kuril,... Hashima?"):

"Yes, we remember the facts". Japanese politicians and scholars signed a vile pack of lies crowned by the abject clip "sex, lies, and comfort women". The public outcry in reaction to this junk forced Abe to have a Japanese official issue a formal statement, if not to deny the denial, at least to confuse the issue and reinflate the smokescreen

But.

International pressure keeps mounting (again, praise for NJ and the US! I hope France will join the cause soon). The courage of Korean Halmoni, now recognized as agents of change and hope, inspired victims to come out in other countries such as China, where the media mentioned the Wednesday demonstrations and their impact - Chinese sholars actually started working on the issue in 1992. Their example also inspires women's associations in Africa (e.g. Neema Namadamu presented the case of rape victims during the Congolese civil war).

National pressure will inevitably follow and hopefully, more Japanese citizens will take a moral stand to denounce the intolerable prolongation of an abomination. Already, a few local authorities have officially demanded the government to act - most notably Kyoto Prefecture Assembly, last March***.

And yesterday, for the International Symposium on the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Issue organized by Korean Council at The Asan Institute, it felt good to see Japanese lawyers and activists fight for the victims as well as for the honor of their own country, repeatedly disgraced by its own leaders over the past decades, but never since the end of WWII as shamelessly as under Abe's government.

Japan can be very proud of these model citizens who stand up for truth. Again, share this website with your Japanese friends to contribute to the much needed pedagogy of a nation that cannot afford eluding History any longer:



FightForJustice.info (portal in Japanese): pedagogy by Japanese experts for a Japanese audience than can't get the truth from mainstream media or from revisionist textbooks



For this first International Memorial Day for "Comfort Women", we received very precious insights and updates about the situation in Japan and in China, from such legal experts such as Rumiko Nishino, Aitani Kunio, Yang Jing-ja, or Kang Jian. We also heard testimonies from two surviving "halmoni" (HA Sang-suk, KIM Bok-dong), and from Nobuyuki Tanakai, the son of an Imperial Japan soldier who after years of denial decided to clear his conscience and to share his memories, as well as war diaries that are now exhibited in the War and Women's Human Rights Museum in Seongsan-dong, Mapo-gu. Precisely, the multiplication of concurrent testimonies from victims and perpetrators across Asia contributed to proving undisputably the existence of a sexual slavery system institutionalized at the state level.

Justice shall eventually prevail, but will the last surviving victims live to see that day? Encouraged by the recent ruling against Mitsubishi Heavy for forced labor, twelve halmoni decided to bring their case to a Seoul court****. They will probably win, but can Japan justice - or what passes for it - follow?

Individuals can give it a shot, but nine lawsuits have already been dismissed, and it would help if special laws were passed to ensure non-prescription for war crimes. Fat chance under a government that not only denies any war crime, but also intends to revise the constitution in the diametrically opposed direction!

By the way, among the articles Shinzo Abe wants to modify, Article 98-2 ("Treaties concluded by Japan and established laws of nations shall be faithfully observed") sounds a very likely target, since he deliberately violated it by refusing to follow UN recommendations to redress the "Comfort Women" issue.

And one last time: "Comfort Women" is the euphemism pushed by Japanese revisionists to avoid refering to the ugly truth of sexual slavery. Most victims were not even women. Among the 700 survivors interviewed in China, the youngest was 12 and the oldest 23, and most were under 18 (HA Sang-suk Halmoni was 16 when forced into sexual slavery). Where revisionists talk about "willing prostitutes", the hard facts of History tell the true stories of minors forcefully abducted, deported, raped, tortured, turned into sexual slaves for up to 200 soldiers each****... Where revisionists talk about individual rogue soldiers acting badly like it happens in every conflict, the hard facts of History tell the true story of an institutionalized system reaching across the continent, a close monitoring at all levels, and even posters to advertise new "comfort stations" in the neighborhood.

Yes, you'll remember the facts, Mr Abe. And future generations of Japanese citizens will remember how you and your friends tried to get their nation's very soul once more raped.

*

Addendum 20130815

*

More citizens Japan can be proud of: "Japanese activists pushing their government for formal admission of guilt on comfort women" (The Hankyoreh - 20130815):

Mina Watanabe (Women's Active Museum on War and Peace): "We may not be strong, but we won’t give up. We’re going to keep speaking out"

Demonstrations were held across Asia and even in Germany for this first international memorial day, and hopefully, August 14th shall be officially recognized by the UN as the day to universally denounce sexual slavery. That day in 1991, KIM Hak-sun Halmoni personally came out as a victim and officially demanded the Japanese government to act responsibly.

*

Among other links:

• Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan:
• On the web: womenandwar.net
• On Facebook: facebook.com/womenandwar
• On Twitter: twitter.com/war_women
• War and Women's Human Rights Museum: Worldcupbuk-ro 11-gil 20 (39-13 Seongsan-dong, Mapo-gu) - Tel 02.392.5252
• House of Sharing: nanum.org
• Fight for Justice (in Japanese): fightforjustice.info
• Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, Tokyo: wam-peace.org/en
• Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation: twrf.org.tw/eng/index.asp

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* see "One Thousand Wednesdays" (20131214)

** see previous episodes, and most recently "A Radioactive Government", "No, you can't honor A-Bomb victims in Hiroshima AND War Criminals in Yasukuni"...

** "Growing support inside Japan for justice for the survivors of Japan's military sexual slavery system" (Amnesty International 20130329):

"Amnesty International welcomes the Kyoto Prefecture Assembly’s statement calling for justice for the survivors of Japan’s military sexual slavery system. On 26 March, Kyoto Prefecture Assembly became the first prefecture in Japan to pass a statement calling on the central government to provide redress to the survivors of Japan’s military sexual slavery system including compensation aimed at restoring the honour and dignity of the survivors. Already in Japan, 39 local city and town councils have passed similar statements since 2008 calling on the central government to address the situation urgently as support continues to grow inside the country to provide justice for the survivors of Japan’s military sexual slavery system. The statement passed by the Kyoto Prefecture Assembly was passed in the same month that the Japanese government rejected recommendations made by state parties during Japan’s second Universal Periodic Review to accept responsibility, including legal responsibility for Japan’s military sexual slavery system, and to take appropriate measures to restore the dignity of the survivors, including by providing adequate compensation. Amnesty International is particularly concerned by recent comments by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he wants to “revise” previous apologies extended to the survivors. This is a worrying sign that Japan will continue to deny justice to the survivors, as is the statement by the Japanese government in their response to the Universal Periodic Review recommendations that the issue “should not be politicized or turned into a diplomatic issue”. The Japanese Imperial Army sexually enslaved women and girls from across the Asia Pacific region who, because of age, poverty, class, family status, education, nationality or ethnicity, were susceptible to being deceived and trapped into the sexual slavery system. The Japanese Imperial Army used violence and deception to enslave the women and girls, and survivors have suffered from physical and mental ill-health, isolation, shame and often extreme poverty as a result of their enslavement Amnesty International has previously raised concerns that the denial of justice by the Japanese government only compounds the human rights violations committed against the women. Amnesty International calls on the government of Japan to: accept full responsibility, including legal responsibility, in a way that publicly acknowledges the harm these women have suffered and is acceptable to the majority of the survivors; apologize fully and unequivocally for the crimes committed against the women; provide adequate and effective reparations to survivors directly from the government in line with international standards and including the participation of survivors to establish what constitutes adequate and effective reparations; include an accurate account of the sexual slavery system in Japanese educational textbooks on the Second World War."

**** see "Taro Aso, Japan's Constitution, and Godwin's Law" (20130730) for the former, "12 Former Sex Slaves to Seek Damages in Korean Court" (Chosun Ilbo, 20130813) for the later

***** Kang Jian, who has also been working on hundreds of testimonies from Imperial Japan soldiers and officials, as well as on documents often partially destroyed in pyres meant to get rid of all archives, mentioned statistics from the Japanese authorities where the soldier to slave ratio reached up to 200 to 1.

A Radioactive Government

There is no debate whatsover about the Nazi flag in Germany: glorifying this symbol of abomination is a crime, as the "use of symbols of unconstitutional organisations".

Imperial Japan's Rising Sun flag is as infamous as the Nazi swastika, and yet there is no law to prevent its use. Worse: part of Japan's "Self-Defense Forces" - you know, the ones supposed to remain 'defensive' whatever happens - have been using a variant as their official flag for decades. Even worse: Imperial Japan's war crimes were never recognized by any Japanese institution and nowadays, praising Imperial Japan or denying its war crimes is not only tolerated, but the only way to succeed as a politician in Japan.

Of course, you cannot expect the fascist clique that controls this peaceful nation and tries very hard to reverse the constitution back to Imperial Japan's bellicose mode, the government that just unveiled a "destroyer" flying the dreaded colors, to ban this Rising Sun flag.

The parade followed a controversial South Korea - Japan soccer game where Japanese nationalists waved the Rising Sun and Korean nationalists the portrait of a resistant to Imperial Japan, and a banner stating in Korean "The nation that forgets history has no future", a direct reference to the incredible revisionist tsunami washing over the archipelago*. Infuriated, the Japanese extreme right confirmed its full support to the flag**.

So what the international community must do is to expose the abomination, and to ask the peaceful people of Japan to rise against the true enemies of their nation, to refuse Shinzo Abe's agenda (see "The main threat against Japan? Its own leader"), and to demand a ban of the Rising Sun flag.

The Rising Sun flag and the Nazi Swastika - These flags brought shame upon Japan and Germany, destruction across the World - Ban them

What could be worse than Shinzo Abe taking care of Japan? Shinzo Abe taking care of Japan AND Fukushima, maybe.



twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/365371757760245760




The Prime Minister decided to step in and help TEPCO deal with the mess because he had no choice: the risks are too high for his government to lose support for his key constitutional reform, he must appear as a strong leader, with a strategic vision.

And you cannot at the same time push as hard as you can in favor of militarism against dubious threats from overseas, and do nothing against massive radioactive leaks at home.

How much time does Shinzo Abe have before the mud hits the fan at the economic or at the environmental level? Hard to tell. Both Abenomics and the handling of the nuclear incidents in Daiichi are more and more criticized as further disasters in the making.

#ShinzoAbe takes a leak (#Fukushima's).
Boy, this man is truly radioactive. #abeignomics
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/365355493465669632

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Also on blogules: "The Rising Sun Flag Brought Shame Upon Japan - Ban It "

* see previous episodes, particularly those featuring Shinzo Abe
** "世界に嘘つきまくる韓国の“奇妙”、横断幕事件でも稚拙な嘘、嘘…身のほどわきまえない“欲深さ”が理由" (Sankei Shimbun 20130808)