Typhoon Man-Yi passes through Okinawa - it was a big one!
The hatches were well and truly battened down on Friday night, my shutters closed and food and water stocked up. Yep - I was ready for typhoon Man-Yi to hit Okinawa. Upgraded to a supertyphoon on Thursday night, we had winds of 130mph and gusts getting over 155mph on Friday morning. It was pretty crazy out here. While I was listening to the Wigan - Leeds rugby league game on online radio we had 2 small powercuts of about 5 minutes. Another occurred in the morning as the wind and horizontal rain took its toll. I woke up at 7am on Friday morning and instantly realised that there was no way school would be going ahead. And then at 8:30 the electricity went off again. So I waited… and waited… and waited. And it didn’t come back on. The storm raged outside and the apartment shook a couple of times under the rage of the typhoon.
Koda Kumi - corrupting the kids!
I remember seeing this TV slot when it was on last year, but I’ve just been sent it again and thought I would pass it on to see what you folks make of it.
I’m sure everyone out there who knows anything about Japanese
music knows Koda Kumi (see right) - along with Ayumi Hamasaki & Utada Hikaru, one of the most popular J-pop singers. Let’s not take into account the fact that she talks like a Kansai obaa-chan (grandmother) on about 50 a day, or that she was described as looking like a “pug-faced prostitute” (harsh but fair) by one of my friends here in Japan. Sex and sluttiness sells in Japan, and Kumi has it in abundance.
Anyway, in this clip they held a competition for kids aged between 2 and 10 to dress up in sexy costumes a-la Koda Kumi, put on make up (seemingly with a trowel) and dance their hearts out. What follows is one of the most disturbing pieces of TV I think I have ever witnessed!
Here is the first part of the show. See if you can stomach the whole thing!
Let me know if you want me to post the other clips. And we’ll finish with a pic that kind of sums up Koda Kumi nicely:
Could the Hiroshima bomb have been helped?
hat will be the question former defence minister, Fumio Kyuma (right), will be asking himself after he today 
resigned from his position under public pressure. Kyuma was rebuked by the Prime Minister yesterday for his comments (most probably because of public criticism rather than whether he agreed with Kyuma) but it appears that wasn’t enough. Already, A-bomb survivors are saying that he got what he deserved by losing his position.
The reason for this resignation was due to comments made by Kyuma about the A-bomb attack on Hiroshima and his own city of Nagasaki. He stated that these bombings were “something that couldn’t be helped”. He said that the US understood that the bombings would have caused suffering, but that they, “could prompt Japan’s surrender, thus preventing the Soviet Union from declaring war against Japan”.
This prompted outrage among the Japanese people, and especially the A-bomb survivors in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese rarely mention the A-bomb attacks for fear of upsetting relations with the USA. Even if you go to the Hiroshima A-bomb museum, there is very little about why the attack took place and the people and aircraft which did it. It’s almost as if they are saying, “an atomic bomb dropped out of the sky and killed many Japanese people in a highly sorrowful event”.
The thing is, his comments are more than likely true. If you read the excellent book, Tennozan (tough to get hold of, but I have a copy if you want to borrow it), it will give you a very good understanding of why the atomic bomb attacks took place. But to say this would be against the grain of promoting the Japanese as being merely victims of a vicious American attack.
Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this one.
History books to change in Japan
This is going to be the first of 2 posts about recent news articles concerning Japan that will hopefully interest a few of you and provoke some discussion.
This story concerns something I wrote about in my blog a few months ago: namely, the Japanese government pushing forward with plans to reshape the history of Japan and especially the events that occurred during the Battle of Okinawa in WWII. Textbooks for schools are going to be produced that state that civilians were not forced to commit suicide by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). As you can imagine, Okinawans are not too pleased at this - they know what went on and what the Japanese forced the Okinawans to go through in the latter stages of WWII. There have been protests in Okinawa about it from school teachers who recognise this important part of history and that it should be remembered. The idea seems to be that the Japanese government will, in one or two generations, make the Japanese people forget what happened, and that the Japanese people were merely victims of the imperialist American aggressors.
Today, the government has published a position paper on this topic in which is states, “War victims among residents in Okinawa included those who were recognized as combat participants. Some cases were regarded as victims under the military’s orders”. But it says, “Textbook screeners gave appropriate opinions on textbook expressions that might trigger misunderstandings over the Battle of Okinawa”. Apparently the ministry screeners wanted references that some civilian Okinawan suicides had been “forced by the Japanese military” deleted.
This also links in nicely with the topic I wrote about earlier on Japan starting to teach nationalism at schools. Is it only a matter of time until Japanese history lessons are being taught by the oyoku (right-wing nationalists, pictured left), telling them that they are a completely peaceful nature and have always been the victims of foreign aggression in the past?
Japanese schools to teach patriotism
This story is a little old (around one month) but it is going to tie in nicely with the posts I’m going to make this evening. This, from the BBC website:
Japan schools to teach patriotism
Japan’s lower house of parliament has approved a new law requiring schools to teach children to be patriotic. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition voted for the law, which cites “loving our country” as a goal of Japanese pupils’ compulsory education.
Opposition members of parliament protested against the bill, warning that it could spread nationalism. The new legislation will be sent to the upper house for further debate and is expected to become law next month.
Parliament changed the Basic Education Law in December, requiring teachers to encourage patriotism as part of Japanese children’s compulsory education for the first time since World War II.
New goal
But Wednesday’s revision stated that developing “the attitude of loving our country and hometown” and “the attitude of participating in society based on social norms and public spirit” would now be a required goal of compulsory education in Japan.
The bill will also reinforce the education minister’s power over local education boards, and introduce a requirement for teachers to renew their licences every 10 years.
The move to instill patriotism may also meet concern from South Korea and China, which remain suspicious of Japan because of its wartime aggressions.
On Monday, Japan’s upper house of parliament passed a bill setting out steps for holding a referendum on revising the country’s pacifist constitution, which has not been changed since 1947.
Drawn up by the US occupation authorities after WWII, it bans military force in settling international disputes and prohibits maintaining a military for warfare.
But the government wants Japan to be more assertive on the world stage, with a military able to take part in peacekeeping missions abroad.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6669061.stm
Now I’m all for the teaching licence one, but the teaching patriotism could be a little disturbing, and I know some of my teaching colleagues are not exactly overwhelmed with joy at the prospect. Admittedly, it could be transformed into any sort of class the school requires (i.e. it could be teaching patriotism, but is in fact just another Japanese lesson).
It does provide a little food for thought though, especially as it was announced last week that a board of education in Wakayama prefecture had been grading schools on how well they sing they national anthem. Note that this is not just a “do they sing it or not”, but how well it is done. Is the national flag shown and does everyone face it, is the song sung with enough gusto etc. Strange, as Wakayama is generally regarded as a relatively liberal prefecture. The question is, what would happen in that instance if teachers at a school are not making sure the anthem is sung “properly”? Will they be disciplined by the school by the Board of Education, possible even losing their jobs? From here, it’s not too far until students are being told to sing songs about the emperor daily again and that path would not be a good one for Japan to walk down IMO.
Incidentally, in Okinawa when the national anthem is played at school events, the reaction is mixed from the teachers and parents. Around half will stand, and half again will sing it. The other half will either sit down or some will even turn away, so strong is the feeling towards Japan and the Japanese government’s actions in the past towards Okinawa. The students will all stand but not sing - I don’t think any of them would dare sit down due to the peer pressure involved in doing that, and the Japanese insistence on not making a stand on things.
How does everyone else feel on this one?