Ex-ASDF chief retires following dismissal; stands by views

Tuesday 04th November, 06:30 AM JST

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sabiwabi at 03:49 PM JST - 4th November

And what do those points have to do with his stance that Japan was not an aggressor?

As long as the Japanese people believe they were the aggressors, they will continue to accept the American occupation and depend on them for protection.
outofmydepth at 03:58 PM JST - 4th November

can you resign after being dismissed. gee, it sort of follows that you don`t have a job after you are dismissed.
notimpressed at 03:59 PM JST - 4th November

sabiwabi: That wasn't bashing, that was my honest appraisal and opinion which I am entitled to, as are you , and as is Gen.Tamogami. My point, is that he shouldn't have put it into a public essay competition, and most certainly shouldn't have won. I encourage you all to read it, but to keep in mind what makes an essay...that is: Back up your claims with reliable sources. The amount of off the wall statments in that piece of writing begs it to be filled to the brim with footnotes and should have a bibliography attached so that readers can look into the sources further. You can't just believe what you read, or expect others to believe what you write, without respected references. His points are not valid if he can't back them up, they are just wild claims/ boasts/ daydreams. Put that in your halucinatory conspiracy pipe and smoke it. I repeat: That 'piece of writing' does not deserve to be called an essay. Read it if you will, but there is nothing solid behind any of his so called points. Even the points I found interesting were not referenced, or backed up with evidence. If he wants to prove his point he needs to do a better job. He deserves to be fired for writing such inflamatory stuff without backing it up, just for sheer incompetence, and he definately didn't deserve prize money from an 'essay' contest. I guess here in Japan though, you can win anything if you make the senile fogey on the judge panel go 'Sou desuneee' a few times. Even if it is complete bollocks.
sabiwabi at 04:20 PM JST - 4th November

That wasn't bashing, that was my honest appraisal and opinion which I am entitled to, as are you , and as is Gen.Tamogami.

Indeed, you are entitled to your opinion, as is Tamogami. However, anyone that is so sure that Tamogami is wrong must certainly be able to easily demolish his essay, by specifically refuting some of his arguments, instead of resorting to the usual words used by bashers (laughable, ridiculous, ill-informed, biased, rant, garbage, anecdotal, fiction, right-wingnut, ludicrous) as well as the overall basher style.
notimpressed at 04:36 PM JST - 4th November

haha nice comeback. But you still missed the point. I have read alot of stuff similar to what he wrote, and they never have anything to back up thier claims. While those that write from a more based in reality standpoint, tend to cite the sources. I don't have to refute his arguments, because this is not an essay competition, and I am not a general in the SDF. I have read some real pearlers in your posts too mate, so don't try to pretend like I hurt your sensibilities. you could also try following your own advice too, rather than taking a list of adjectives from what I wrote, pasting them into a single bracket, and trying to create a new context from it. Did you miss the words surrounding those adjectives that tickled you so? By the way you missed bollocks :D
sabiwabi at 04:53 PM JST - 4th November

But you still missed the point. I have read alot of stuff similar to what you wrote, and they never have anything to back up thier claims. They only bash the messenger, without ever refuting their claims. And they all seem to follow the same bashing style.
GW at 07:24 PM JST - 4th November

tamogamis blurb as others correctly pointed out IS NOT an essay.

It is an opinion piece & one that is not worth the hard disk space it wud take up. If that was the best from this contest there must have been a lot of really really bad writing
OssanAmerica at 03:50 AM JST - 5th November

It was especially ludicrous of him to claim Japan as a country that >promoted racial equality...they can't even make that claim now!! omg, I >still find it hard to believe everytime I read such wishful thinking >posing as serious academia from the Right Wing of Japan.

http://www.zackvision.com/weblog/2003/10/league-of-nations.html

"The racial equality clause was born out of the discrimination and humiliation that the Japanese faced in the West. When the Japanese made their intentions known about introducing this clause, the most vehement opposition came form Australia, which was part of the British empire delegation. Here is the British Foregin Secretary Lord Balfour about the clause: The notion that all men were created equal was an interesting one, he found, but he did not believe it. You could scarcely say that a man in Central Africa was equal to a European."
CaptainUSA at 04:11 AM JST - 5th November

OssanULTRA/USA- Trying to stick up for this vile man in any way shows you in a bad light, it really does.

The man still isn't sorry for all this trouble he has caused and anger by Japans neighborsand some here share his sentiment, disgusting!!
taikan at 04:22 AM JST - 5th November

notimpressed -- An essay is a literary form, not a scholarly form of writing. One of the major differences between an essay and a scholarly article is that the former does not require citation to authorities while the latter does require such citation. Of course, citation to relevant authorities is likely to make an essay more persuasive, but that is not a requirement for a piece of writing to be deemed an "essay."
OssanAmerica at 04:36 AM JST - 5th November

CaptainUSA

This man is no more or less vile than anyone on this board. He has an opinion which he expressed. Granted he shouldn't have while still in uniform. Having just read this so-called "essay" it's nowhere near as bad as the articles about make it out to be or even what I expected. I don't particularly "share" his views completely but ultimately what he advocates is a "normalizing" of Japan's current military, a position which the United States has been advocating continously since 1951. And I support my country's position.
tako10 at 04:51 AM JST - 5th November

Even though the whole world is against him, the General has a right to free speech. The act of war was completely legitimate solution to solve the international dispute. The target was attacked because they were weak and defenseless. Superior people always prevail over inferior ones. This is called “SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”. “GREED” justifies everything as Imperial soldiers raped foreign women because they had fire in their pants. There was no need to regulate the acts of the soldiers because our acts were directed by the “INVISIBLE HAND OF GOD”. The tremendous disasters were all their faults, not US.
Should I have used MLA citation instead of all capital?
tclh at 05:08 AM JST - 5th November

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”... If one uses this crap to the maximum meaning ,no one will ever be safe:baby will be killed, your throat will be cut while sleeping, you will be shot,stabbed ,poisoned... anytime anywhere;no rule ,no law , pure madness.
Good_Jorb at 05:44 AM JST - 5th November

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”... If one uses this crap to the maximum meaning ,no one will ever be safe:baby will be killed, your throat will be cut while sleeping, you will be shot,stabbed ,poisoned... anytime anywhere;no rule ,no law , pure madness.

That is the true definition of war. There is only one true rule in war is kill or be killed. Babies are killed (Bombs, stray bullets, stravation), people/soldiers die in thier sleep (bombs, stray bullets, stabbed), stabbed (Bayonet?), poison(mustard gas, agent orange, and so on). As General William Tecumseh Sherman said correctly "War is hell"
notimpressed at 12:43 PM JST - 5th November

sabiwabi: You are a little too focused on me instead of the article. If you think its so great, talk about that, not about me. Taikan: fair point.