Bad TPP

Bad TPP

One of the biggest issues in the Japanese politics now is the so-called TPP.

The 2005 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPSEP or P4) is a free trade agreement among Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore. It aims to further liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. 

Since 2010, negotiations have been taking place for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposal for a significantly expanded version of TPSEP. The TPP is a proposed free trade agreement under negotiation by (as of December 2012) Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.[9] Japan has expressed its desire to become a negotiating partner,[10] but not yet joined negotiations as the TPP became a major issue in Japan's 2012 election. 

Anti-globalization advocates accuse the TPP of going far beyond the realm of tariff reduction and trade promotion, granting unprecedented power to corporations and infringing upon consumer, labor, and environmental interests. 

One widely republished article claims the TPP is "a wish list of the 1%" and that "of the 26 chapters under negotiation, only a few have to do directly with trade. The other chapters enshrine new rights and privileges for major corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership

So, it is another form of embodiment of Wall-Street greed.

Leaking from Non-Welded Tanks in Fukushima Daiichi

Leaking from Non-Welded Tanks in Fukushima Daiichi 

They use 350 of big barrel tanks to contain contaminated water in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

It has a diameter of 12 meters (37 feet) and a height of 11 meters.  But this metal tank consists of four cylindrical parts, each of which is connected to others through rubber packing and bolts but not by welding.

And recently it was found that one of them is clearly leaking radioactively contaminated water.  At a small water pool (6 meter wide x 0.5 meter length x 1 cm deep) by the tank, a dosage is so strong that a worker can stay there only for half an hour so as to avoid receiving doses more than an allowable level per year.  If he stays near the pool for 30 minutes, he would receive an amount of radiation to which he is legally allowed to be exposed during one-year work.   Specifically the level is 80 million becquerels per liter.

Report by Luis Frois on 17th Japan

Report by Luis Frois on 17th Japan

When William Shakespeare was rising to stardom in London, a genius from Portugal was writing a great report on and history of Japan as he had been sent to the then mysterious country Japan for a mission. 

Luís Fróis (1532 – 1597) was a Portuguese missionary. 

He was born in Lisbon and in 1548 joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). In 1563, he arrived in Japan to engage in missionary work, and in the following year arrived in Kyoto, meeting Ashikaga Yoshiteru who was then Shogun. In 1569, he befriended Oda Nobunaga and stayed in his personal residence in Gifu while writing books for a short while. 

His writings include the History of Japan. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_Fr%C3%B3is

However the original writings by Frois were not sent to Europe.  Only their copies were sent to the Portuguese court in the 18th century.  The original documents were stored in a Church in Macau.  But, in 1835 a fire broke out in the church to destroy the precious documents. 

It was in 1970s that a Japanese scholar found, by chance, missing copies of the History of Japan in a library in Lisbon.  This discovery made the History of Japan by Frois complete for the first time.

It was the first book ever written by a European to describe detailed states of Japan, including battles and behaviors of samurais and daily lives and practices of ordinary Japanese, though the Japanese society there introduced was that of the late 16th century. 

True History between Japan and Korea before WWII

True History between Japan and Korea before WWII

So, South Koreans living in the US must not try to harm friendly relationship between Japan and the US by telling Americans a lie about special types of Korean women who served Imperial troops of Japan while Korean men opted to get money in exchange rather than to protect and keep their women. 

In May 1910, the Minister of War of Japan, Terauchi Masatake, was given a mission to finalize Japanese control over Korea after the previous treaties (the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1904 and theJapan–Korea Treaty of 1907) had made Korea a protectorate of Japan and had established Japanese hegemony over Korean domestic politics. On 22 August 1910, Japan effectivelyannexed Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 signed by Lee Wan-yong, Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became the first Japanese Governor-General of Korea. 

The treaty became effective the same day and was published one week later. The treaty stipulated:

Article 1: His Majesty the Emperor of Korea concedes completely and definitely his entire sovereignty over the whole Korean territory to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan.

Article 2: His Majesty the Emperor of Japan accepts the concession stated in the previous article and consents to the annexation of Korea to the Empire of Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule#Japan.E2.80.93Korea_annexation_treaty.2C_1910

Anyway, it was an era when the US colonized the Philippines, the UK colonized Part of China, Malaysia, Burma, and India; France colonized Vietnam; and the Netherlands colonized Indonesia without expecting that.their rule in Asia would someday end, though it was ended with the Pearl Harbor Attack so successfully and bravely carried out by the Imperial Navy of Japan in 1941. 

Before M9.0 Earthquake of 2011 in Japan

Before M9.0 Earthquake of 2011 in Japan 

On March 11, 2011, an M9.0 earthquake was set off under the Pacific Ocean between Honsyu Island and the Japan trench.

Recently Japanese scientists found that this March 11 earthquake was an indirect product of another earthquake. 

On March 9, 2011, two days before March 11, an M7.3 earthquake occurred near the epicenter of the M9.0 earthquake.  It caused slow sliding of a great mass of undersea land toward the Japanese trench.

   http://www.ab.cyberhome.ne.jp/~catfish/event/2011tohokuoki.html 

In the above figure, the brown lines, including the Japanese trench along with the straight line A to B, are boundaries between continental plates.  Note that 2011/03/11 05:46 means March 11, 2011 at 2:46 p.m. (Japan Time).  M9.1 was later corrected to Magnitude 9.0.

So, if earthquake seismology had been more advanced on March 9, 2011, scientists should have been able to catch a sign that a huge but slow undersea land slip was triggered.  They must have been able to predict another big earthquake coming soon.  Then, many lives must have been saved and the nuclear accident might have been avoided. 

Battles around Shanghai and in Nanjing in 1937

Battles around Shanghai and in Nanjing in 1937

The Battle around Shanghai resulted in the Battle in Nanjing in 1937; thus Imperial Army entered the then Chinese capital Nanjing while Nanjing citizens were abandoned by Chinese leaders and generals who fled to Chongqing though they could have surrendered to the Imperial Army or let Nanjing citizens flee before them...The situation between Shanghai and Nanjing from the summer to the winter of 1937 should be reviewed more carefully.


Japanese Commander Entering Nanjing after Battles

Status 2 Weeks after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

Status 2 Weeks after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

The International Atomic Energy Agency has released today's report on the Japanese nuclear plant in trouble for two weeks.

IAEA

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident Update (26 March, 05:15 UTC)
Brief Update on State of Fukushima Daiichi Reactors

Japanese authorities today confirmed a number of developments at the nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi.

Unit 1

Workers have restored lighting in the control room and have recovered some instrumentation. As of 25 March, fresh water is now being pumped into the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) instead of seawater.

Unit 2

Seawater injection into the reactor pressure vessel continues, and RPV pressures remain stable.

Unit 3

Workers are now pumping fresh water into the RPV, while seawater is pumped into the spent fuel pool. In addition, firefighters sprayed water into the reactor building yesterday from the outside.

Unit 4

With no fuel in the RPV, concerns remain focused on the condition of the spent fuel pool, and workers continued to use a concrete pump truck to pour water into the pool from above while pumping seawater into the pool through the fuel pool cooling line.

Units 5 and 6

Both reactors have achieved safe, cold shutdown, and their fuel pool temperatures have stabilised at acceptable levels.

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

Fukushima Daiichi before the Accident

Status 10 Days after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

Status 10 Days after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

The number of locations on roads broken or damaged is 1,300 in the disaster-affected area of northeast Japan.

Iodine 131 was found in the ground 40 km north of the Fukushima Plant to be 400 times larger than a normal concentration value.

The number of evacuees from the disaster-affected area of northeast Japan is now 310,000.

A Thai Air force plane has carried Thai people out of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, to Thailand.

US C-17 air carriers conveyed 93 tons of supplies while a Japan's Air Force C-130s 20 tons of goods to Sendai Airport on Sunday.

Fukushima City (80 Km from the power plant) shows 156 times larger; Tokyo (250 Km) shows 3 times larger radiation than normal, most recently, according a TV news report at 0:35 p.m. 


Fukushima Daiichi before the Accident

Imperial Navy of Japan (1872 - 1945)

Imperial Navy of Japan (1872 - 1945)

Battleship Ise was built in 1916.  She was converted to a battle-ship/aircraft-carrier during WWII. (Navigating at 25.31 knots, the length 219.62 meters, 4 x 35.6cm guns, 22 planes )



Battle Ship Nagato, built in 1920 as the world first battleship equipped with 16.1-inch (41 centimeter) guns, navigating at max. 26.5 knots, the length 225 meters:




Battle Ship Yamato, built in 1941 as the world largest battleship equipped with the world largest 46 centimeter guns, navigating at max. 27.46 knots, the length 263 meters: