Wednesday February 15, 2012

amerijap's past comments

  • 1

    amerijap

    I vividly remember this tragic accident. NHK and other local domestic media reported each and every single moment of incident updates for a couple of weeks and covered the news for over a month. They disclosed the names of passengers and flight attendants who were on board. I saw a 13-year-old girl and one flight attendant miraculously survived from a fatal plane crash.

    Posted in: 26th anniversary of JAL crash marked in Gunma

  • 0

    amerijap

    Heh, Obama has a 60% unfavorable rating.

    On what specific category? He has a low approval rating in economy (less than 40%), but his overall approval rating has never slipped below 40% since he took the office. Sure, Americans held Obama responsible for credit downgrading, but, ironically, it was the Republican Congress who received more blame than the president and Democrats. Ditto to debt ceiling debate.

    Regarding Wisconsin recall, Republican may win in the end, but that will quite unlikely let Scott Walker walk free. Too bad, he made a wrong choice--and the people witnessed that. The badger state is a swing state. I'm pretty sure he will see the day that the public makes him pay.

    Posted in: Republicans hold off Wisconsin Democrats

  • 2

    amerijap

    Ditto to the Environment Ministry. It is one of those ministry branches that turn out to be an inept, irresponsible government agent. They don't have a legal power to crack down on the cover-ups or falsifications of report because they are not an independent legal/audit agent. It's questionable they can intervene into the interests between nuclear industry and the Ministry of Economy for mandatory inspection and quality control.

    Posted in: New nuclear safety agency to be set up under Environment Ministry

  • 2

    amerijap

    The government should start setting up the criminal investigation right away.

    Posted in: TEPCO says it has lost contact with 143 nuclear plant workers

  • 1

    amerijap

    "Day of turmoil for GOP - and that's before debate"

    And the turmoil turns into nightmare for Americans. A nefarious Texas governor Rick Perry announced that he is running for the president candidate today. Things will be getting very ugly.

    Posted in: Republicans hit hard at each other in debate

  • 1

    amerijap

    Since the crisis started on March 11, authorities have raised the exposure limit for children to that used for atomic plant workers in many countries but have sought to reassure families their children are safe.

    This summarizes the authorities' argument that all Fukushima residents have to share some risk of health hazards at the time of nuclear crisis because they receive financial and material benefits (i.e., electricity) produced by a nuclear power plant. No wonder they can't make a choice to bury or destroy the reactors because they put economic interests above the health and safety of residents. Is this the reason why don't see any key agents--the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the MEXT, the Environment Ministry, etc.--other than the METI/NISA behind the scene?

    Posted in: Parents live with radiation fear in shadow of Fukushima nuclear plant

  • 1

    amerijap

    Progress report does not mean "positive report"...

    I couldn't agree with you more. The title of the article is misleading. The reports from the Japanese government and the TEPCO do not reflect the ongoing impacts of radiation substances on the soil and the infrastructures at all. The fact that the substances are released for 5 months—even after heavy rain in Tohoku last week—explains its little progress in general.

    Posted in: TEPCO struggling to stabilize plant despite progress reports

  • 0

    amerijap

    The authorities had no choice to release the Chinese crew possibly

    Whoops. I meant, ''no choice but to release."

    Posted in: Chinese media report Japan's release of 2 Chinese trawlers, crew

  • 0

    amerijap

    Kentaro75: I know most japanese wanted these chinese activists jailed for a long time as punishment for illegally entering japan and troublemaking.

    How many of these so called anti-J activists can get into a Japanese soil as illegal immigrants regarding that Japan’s airport and coast guard security is much more reliable and tougher than most developed countries? You need evidence to back up your argument.

    The illegal activity was detected off-shore—not on the Japanese soil. The authorities had no choice to release the Chinese crew possibly due to insubstantial evidence for serious damages or threat to national interests and/or citizens. They can’t extend the detention period unless there’s enough room for the authorities to prove that suspicious acts could lead to such consequence.

    Posted in: Chinese media report Japan's release of 2 Chinese trawlers, crew

  • 1

    amerijap

    Helpless and devastating. I can imagine that the NRA and pro-gun advocates always make a lame argument to defend their position by downplaying the consequence of shooting as gun owner's fault. Too bad they just don't care who owns the guns and how the guns are taken and used by wrong hands.

    Posted in: 8 shot to death in Ohio, including child

  • 1

    amerijap

    If you examine the massive killings of civilians through any means--shooting, bombing, burning, burying, torturing, etc.,--from the standpoint of human rights, any incident that leads to such consequence should be considered as (war) crime regardless of its timeline. The tricky thing is that many inhumane/brutal conducts occurred in wartime are framed/re-framed in a different context from contemporary period. This means that moral conduct in war event was evaluated--from victor's frame of mind--that's how we encountered the key terms like victor's justice, the Nuremberg or the Nanjing Trials, etc.

    As far as the issue is concerned, I think it's the matter of how you define war crime and how you look at the dropping of a-bomb in humanitarian and political/military contexts. (i.e., a political choice for Truman and its ramification on the interests of the Imperial Headquarter, the Japanese soldiers, civilians, and the Soviet Union.) In my view, the consequence of dropping a-bomb brought a sacrificial lamb to the two cities--Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively,-- for the pursuit of victory for the allies and justice upon the evil.

    Having said that, I think it's right time to turn our attention to the rhetorical choice that precedes military triumph over humanity due to the political ramification on wartime. Should compromising humanity of local people (and your friends/allies as well) for the pursuit of military justice in wartime be always considered legitimate today? My answer is no.

    Posted in: Do you consider the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be war crimes?

  • 3

    amerijap

    “I will reduce Japan’s reliance on nuclear power, aiming at creating a society that will not rely on atomic power generation,”

    What can specifically do for the people at this moment? Preaching the rhetoric of doom? Nuclear freeze campaign!? And, this is the reason he still remains in the PM office to take the opportunity for the peace ceremony?

    Posted in: Kan vows nuclear-free future for Japan on 66th anniv of Hiroshima atomic bombing

  • 1

    amerijap

    Residents forced to leave their homes (but not those who left of their own accord)

    Here's the problem with government's guideline. What forces residents to leave homes and what's not (a.k.a. voluntary departure) is not clear. Also, they fail to mention those who live nearby the hotspots and the areas where a high density of cesium are detected from soil and water.

    Moreover, the guideline which is aimed in seeking damage compensation from a private company is incredulous because it apparently serves as a safeguard against supervising agents (i.e., the NISA, the METI) over their neglected responsibility to direct and maintain the safety of nuclear reactors. To me, the guideline deliberately shifts all responsibility for damage compensations from the government ministries to a private company.

    Posted in: Gov't releases guidelines on eligibility for TEPCO damages

  • 1

    amerijap

    Consequence is unavoidable regarding that the global market is on the downhill. The US should be lucky for keeping its head above the waters. Let's hope this country is still wise enough to avoid the worse case scenario made by a country who incurred a huge bad debt by hoarding billions of hosouing morgage bonds in the economic bubble era(1986-91).

    Posted in: U.S. credit rating cut for first time ever

  • 0

    amerijap

    Like many players, Albert is dealing with the ups and downs this season, which is quite unusual to him. As of Thursday Aug. 4, he hits .280 and walks 38 times--an indication of his struggle in OBP (.347). He also leads the league in GIDP while nursing a left wrist sprained in late June. Still, he provides a decent and productive offense (25 HRs, 66RBIs) to the team who is trailing Milwaukee by 3 games in the NL Central. Hope he will finish it strong this season. Go birds!

    Posted in: Pujols powers Cardinals over Marlins

  • 0

    amerijap

    They should also rally to Kasumigaseki to protest to METI and the Health & Welfare Ministry for the consequence of cesium contamination on farming products.

    Posted in: Farmers protest outside TEPCO's Tokyo headquarters

  • 0

    amerijap

    Social inequality is created by the way things are organized in Japan. Japan's explanations for behavioral differences toward Korean victims of A-bomb are troubling. Koreans that lives in Japan are use to inequality and exploitation, and Japanese see it as natural and unchangeable, and it gives the Japanese the opportunity to say, “Well, it’s too bad that some people are much better off than others, but that’s just the way it is. There’s really nothing we can do about it.”

    Please explain who represents those who take such apathetic attitude toward culture of others today. It’s more troubling to assume that Japanese citizens—especially those in post-war generations—concur in local/ central government’s understandings of history and memory.

    Posted in: Remembering

  • -1

    amerijap

    If the issue of "politics of memorializing" is the procedure and the red tape involving separating the victims based on race and ethnicity, you're still not answering the central question which is "why do the Koreans needing a separate ceremony?"

    I'm not sure if the city intentionally did so out of racial/ethnic reasons. It's more plausible to assume that the official politics often conflict with communitarian interests--regardless of race, ethnicity, and nationality.

    Posted in: Remembering

  • -1

    amerijap

    Prior to relocation, the Korean memorial stood at the northwest end of the Peace Park. It looked like their memorial stood just outside the official territory, despite the city’s effort to integrate all cemeteries across the peripheries within the park. While the east and south peripheries were closely interconnected with the center of the park, the northwest area was more secluded from the main commemorative sites. The location of their site gave visitors to the memorials and some--but not all-- resident Koreans the perception that Koreans were being alienated from Japanese society even after the war. This is what makes the matter complicated to them because it pretty much deals with ethnicity, colonization, and cultural amnesia until today.

    Hiroshima city was not planning to make further construction of memorials within the Peace Memorial Park when they issued the regulation in 1967. They argued that 1) the memorial, regardless of its (re-) location, should be ‘universal’ to all victims of atomic bomb; 2) the park should be a sacred place to pray for the peace of humanity without bringing any political issue; and 3) the central cenotaph in the Peace Park enshrines all souls lost to the bomb without regard to nationality or race. The city, however, shifted its position in spring 1990 when they announced that they welcomed the relocation of Korean memorials on condition that both North and South Koreans could agree on a unified memorial for them.

    Source: Lisa Yoneyama. “Memory Matters: Hiroshima’s Korean Atom Bomb Memorial and the Politics of Ethnicity.” Public Culture 1(1995): 499-527.

    Posted in: Remembering

  • -1

    amerijap

    You're not answering his/her question. "No offense but why do the Koreans NEED a separate ceremony?"

    Yes, I did. They were not happy with the city over the politics of memorializing. Period.

    Posted in: Remembering

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