JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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Ah_so
To claim that Japan was about to surrender unconditionally in August 1945 is laughable. After all, Japan could not even make its mind up after the first one was dropped.
Posted in: Do you think that ceremonies for victims of the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should include references to the victims of Japan's acts of aggression before and during World War II?
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Ah_so
Sawabi, I posted above substantial excerpts from Japanese telegrams, which quite clearly show that the Japanese had no intent on surrendering unconditionally. If Japan was offering conditions similar to what were being offered, it never made it clear to anyone.
However, if you have any reasonable argument why I should not take the view that the original sources lead me to, I would be happy to hear it.
Posted in: Do you think that ceremonies for victims of the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should include references to the victims of Japan's acts of aggression before and during World War II?
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Ah_so
sabiwabi - I remain unconvinced by your revisionist arguments. You state to arrestpaul that "the Emporer had accepted the terms of the surrender." My interpretation of the communications with the Russians is radically different to yours. With less than a week before the bomb, Japan was rejecting unconditional surrender.
I am posting below a few quotations from secret telegrams between Togo (Japan foreign minister) and Sato (ambassador to USSR):
July 12: His Majesty's heart's desire to see the swift termination of the war...however, as long as American and England insist on unconditional surrender, our country has no alternative but to see it through in an all-out effort for the sake of survival
Reply July 12: the possibility of getting the Soviet Union to join our side and go along with our reasoning is next to nothing.
Reply July 15: Although they understand the Imperial wish concerning the termination of the war, they lack clarification ...
From Togo, July 17: if the enemy insists on unconditional surrender to the very end, then our country and His Majesty would unanimously resolve to fight a war of resistance to the bitter end.
July 19: the Soviet Government has declined to accept such an envoy for the time being on the grounds that the mission is not specific.
Sato to Togo, July 20: Do you think that the Emperor's safety can be secured by the sacrifice of seventy million citizens? ...I believe that it is the duty of the statesmen to save the nation by coming quickly to a decision to lay down our arms. If we seek peace, of course, we know roughly what the terms will be by observing the example of Germany....For the future, we must clearly recognize our past mistakes and fundamentally reconstruct our foreign policy. I realize that it is a great crime to dare to make such statements, knowing that they are contrary to the views of the government
Togo to Sato july 21: Although it is apparent that there will be more casualties on both sides in case the war is prolonged, we will stand united as one nation against the enemy if the enemy forcibly demands our unconditional surrender.
From Sato, July 27: It is absolutely impossible to cause the Soviet Government to make a move with such a noncommittal attitude on our part.
From Sato, July 30: Therefore I believe that Stalin feels there is absolutely no necessity for making a voluntary agreement with Japan. On this point I see a serious discrepancy between your view and the actual state of affairs.
Sato to Molotov; July 31: Unconditional surrender is, after all, out of the question for the Japanese Government.
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/correspondence/togo-sato/corr_togo-sato.htm
Posted in: Do you think that ceremonies for victims of the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should include references to the victims of Japan's acts of aggression before and during World War II?
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Ah_so
But they probably do not have a supercilious attitude towards Japanese martial arts.
Posted in: What to look for in a martial arts instructor
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Ah_so
Perhaps I should have been a bit more careful before typing! I did deliberately gloss over the North African variety of sausage. There is also a clear division between the cured sausages of Mediterranean Europe and the Germanic style frankfurter/bratwurst style, as well as the English style. Having looked up the Canadian breakfast sausage on the net, and fearing that it might be some ghastly pink spam-type affair, I think it looks delicious and I would certainly put it in the English school of sausage.
Anyway, I am not sure anyone is particularly interest on my meandering views on sausages, but I have to say that with the 100s of varieties of sausage available, it seems a pity that in Japan it is hard to find anything beyond a rather limited selection of salty frankfurter types. So nice to look at, so disappointing to taste.
Posted in: Playing for high steaks
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Ah_so
A Japan with a plentiful supply of quality lamb and real sausages would be a much better place.
I think Feist is quite wrong on the sausage issue - it is not about the sausages mother cooked, but about the two basic kinds of sausage - the salty, spicy salami/frankfurterish "continental" kind, vs the British/Irish style.
Yes there are lots of different style, but there all two distinct sausage types. The latter is quite difficult to get hold of.
Posted in: Playing for high steaks
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Ah_so
This book sounds like it is aimed at children, computer game geeks and the sort of people who go into forums and start threads like, "who would win in a fight between a medieval knight and a samurai?"
Posted in: Ninja Attack ! True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws
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Ah_so
Japan has tried the borrow-and-spend method for 20 years and every year its debt grows larger and the economy continues to stagger forward. The only realistic option is to cut government spending and to allow the economy to restructure. It will be painful, but Japan has not faced up to the realities of the post-bubble era. Not taking action now will make the eventual pain worse.
Posted in: 10% consumption tax will destroy Japan, argue some
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Ah_so
Ironic turn of phrase!
Posted in: Guidebook of Tokyo restaurants where you’re allowed to smoke
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Ah_so
How can this possibly, in any way, be considered promoting "child porn"? I consider myself to be a man of the world and have a very good idea of the differences between women and children, being married to one and a father of another. 18 year-old girls biologically definitely fall into the adult category.
While I have nothing but hatred for those who touch children (by which I mean CHILDREN, not young adults), it is not on a par with premeditated murder. Equivalent punishments would provide an incentive to kill the only witness to the crime (i.e. the child), as the punishment would be the same.
Posted in: 18-yr-old girl arrested for online sale of photos of herself naked
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Ah_so
Could the game have gone differently from 2-2? Possibly, but unlikely. England did not play wide and stuck obsessively to a slow-paced short-ball game and seemed afraid to use pace or attack on the break. The Germans used pace to totally destroy the England defence.
Posted in: Germany, Argentina advance in games marred by refereeing errors
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Ah_so
If I am paying for it, why not!? Lolling around on a futon in a beautiful ryokan is one of the world's great pleasures; a holiday in itself. Being dragged out of bed excessively early, possibly with a hangover, to a buffet of a beer, natto and salted fish guts is not.
Posted in: Website provides info on ryokan
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Ah_so
Epidurals are pretty standard where I am from and have never heard that administering them them was a risk. Epidurals are just not the done thing over here and who will argue with a doctor?
Posted in: Local experts help foreign women take the pain out of labor
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Ah_so
Yes, and the rate could be even lower if they used child seats.
Posted in: 40% of child seats in cars remain unused: police survey
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Ah_so
While the details is too hard to read from afar, the 4 main mumerals are easy to read. If you go to the police and tell them those numbers and where it happened, it will not take long. Better than having 8 characters that take too long to read or memorize.
Posted in: License plate found at scene of fatal hit-and-run
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Ah_so
Take it from one who knows - Panasonic is one of the most old fashioned Japanese companies. I am amazed that a woman has got that far.
Who knows, next they may allow a foreigner to rise up the ranks.
Posted in: Beauty product maker offers women rare promotions
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Ah_so
Toy Story 3? Buzz is still looking pretty good after all these years.
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Ah_so
That is what a crowded metro looks like in almost any city anywhere in the morning rush hour. It does not look too bad to me, but I must be used to it!
Posted in: Rush hour
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Ah_so
There is nothing wrong with off-shore drilling - the whole of the North Sea oil industry in Europe is built on it, a huge number of rigs for decades. Knee-jerk reactions against it look juvenile.
Yes, there has been an accident, but every now and then an oil tanker sinks causing environmental damage, but no one proposes banning the transport of oil by ship.
It is all very well to want to promote renewable solutions, but you are never going to get a 747 in the air using wave power. Ethanol is an obvious near-substitute, but it requires huge amount of land and lost food production (try telling the hungry in Africa that they will starve so that you can run an environmentally friendly car).
Posted in: In light of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, do you support offshore drilling for oil anywhere in the world?
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Ah_so
It is fairly healthy from what I can see. My in-laws eat little meat, a lot of fish and vegetables. The Western diet has far more fat and meat in it, which cannot be good.
Posted in: How healthy is Japanese cuisine?