Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1791, the year he died.
Ave verum corpus, natum
de Maria Virgine
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine
cuius latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine
It's not that there isn't any more news about the Fukushima I NPP accident or about the Japanese politics or about anything I want to write about. There are plenty.
But since this summer I have had to take care of my health problems (nothing major but nonetheless needing attention) while at the same time doing whatever I can to make ends meet, and I simply have not had a decent enough chunk of time to research and write a post. I'm a slow writer and it often takes several hours to write a single post.
A quick thank-you to people who have kindly donated to this blog since late last year and whom I have failed to thank in person. I'm not doing this for money, but it helps me keep going. Thank you.
Y.K. from Ithaca, New York
S.L. from Vienna, Austria
E.P. from Diemen, Netherlands
S.L. from Joseph, Oregon
J.F.K. from Victoria, Australia
M.L. from Levie, France
B.K. from Japan/Germany
A.T. from Severna Park, Maryland
J.K. from Chassell, Michigan
Special thanks to S.L. in Vienna, Austria, who has regularly donated a generous amount for over three and a half years now, from the very beginning of the Fukushima nuclear accident.
And thank you everyone who come to my blog to read my posts. I'll be back soon.
-------------------------
For those who do Twitter, I manage to tweet (as it is short) articles, comments. But those are not limited to the nuclear accident, and most of them are in Japanese (I'm trying to tweet in both Japanese and English). My English-speaking followers must be very frustrated. You could follow me @exskf.
The one who started it (who also happens to be one of the Nobel Peace Prize winners) didn't even have a courtesy to inform us first, but now, according to Reuters columnist Jack Shafer, it is "our war" now.
I happened on this column as translated into Japanese at Reuters' Japanese site, and looked for the English original at Reuters. I have no idea whether the column has been read widely or how many retweets it has gotten. My guess is not widely read and few retweets, as it is a depressing read (except for those with ties to the defense industry, I suppose).
From Reuters (9/24/2014; emphasis is mine):
War without end: The U.S. may still be fighting in Syria in 2024, 2034, 2044 . . .
This must be what perpetual war looks like.
In a Pentagon briefing yesterday, Army Lieutenant General Bill Mayville called the cruise missiles and bombs flung at targets in Syria “the beginning of a credible and sustainable persistent campaign.” How long will the campaign last? “I would think of it in terms of years,” Mayville responded.
Although the bombs exploded on Syrian soil, they didn’t target Bashar al-Assad’s battered, murderous regime. The bombs were addressed to Syria’s enemy, the Islamic State, a nascent nation that has pledged to topple both Iraq and Syria, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, and parts of southern Turkey, and erect a caliphate on the parcel.
But in attacking Syria’s enemy, the United States wasn’t looking to make friends with Syria. President Barack Obama called for Assad to step down in 2011, and it was only last year that the United States was prepared to bomb Syria for having crossed the chemical-weapons “red line” to kill its own citizens. Not that the United States is remarkably choosey about which nations it counts among its allies. Among the Middle East nations joining with the United States to strike Syria is Qatar, which has allowed one of its sheikhs to raise funds for an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. As you know, the United States is at war with Al Qaeda in all of its flavors, including the Syria-based Khorasan Group, upon which U.S. bombs fell this week. The Khorasan Group is said to be plotting attacks on the United States and Europe.
Our perpetual war is complicated, however, by the fact that the Islamic State is the sworn enemy of Al Qaeda, from which it split earlier this year because it couldn’t play nice with Al Qaeda’s other affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, which is also fighting the Assad regime. Or, to look at it another way, the enemies of America’s enemies are not automatically America’s friends; and even America’s friends, which can be permissive about the flow of money to Al Qaeda, aren’t necessarily America’s friends either.
America has allies in Syria’s civil war, of course, including Harakat Hazm, part of the Free Syrian Army. Harakat Hazm is fighting Assad, but it has also fought alongside America’s enemy Jabhat al-Nusra, which has not disqualified it from receiving U.S. weapons and training. Harakat Hazm took exception to the American-led bombing of Syria in a statement, calling it an “external intervention” and “an attack on the revolution,” according to a Los Angeles Times report. So Harakat Hazm, America’s friend, which fought with America’s enemy against Syria—which is neither friend nor enemy—objects to the fact that America bombed Syria in pursuit of the Islamic State, which is also Harakat Hazm’s enemy. Meanwhile, the militant Shiite group Hezbollah is drone-bombing Jabat al-Nusrat along the Lebanon-Syria border at the same time Israel is downing Syrian jets.
Confused yet? You’ll have plenty of time to catch up. As Mayville promised, this conflict will likely go on for years.
It’s a wild card war in which allies and enemies seem arbitrary and ever-shifting. Will the American attacks strengthen the Assad regime by weakening the Islamic State, as some speculate? Or will it drive Jabhat al-Nusra closer to the Islamic State, at least in the interim? Or will the American-funded “moderates” shake off their masters and place Assad in their gun sights instead of the Islamic State? National security reporter Thomas E. Ricks, a man not subject to confusion, can’t decide whether to call the latest hostilities a new installment of a new Thirty Years’ War (1991-2021?) or another chapter in the War of the End of the Ottoman Empire (1914-2040?).
A war with a conclusion that its participants can’t see or can’t imagine is a war without end. None of the dig-in parties in Syria and Iraq look like pushovers, but neither do any of them look like sure bets. Without American intervention, the current war will likely rage on. With regard to American intervention, not even the Pentagon dares to predict an end.
For Americans, at least so far, this war is rumbling on like background noise. The usual markers of military victory—body-counts tabulated, territories seized and banked, no-fly zones established, governments-in-waiting imposed, and elections supervised—don’t apply to the Syria war. The borders, combatants, allegiances, and military objectives in the Syrian war are too fluid to conform to our usual expectations. Nor do the usual markers of peace seem to exist. There are no peace talks taking shape, no shuttle diplomacy, no evidence of a dominant power about to exert its might to create a lasting peace by flattening everybody.
In hypothesizing a 30-year-long war, I fear that Tom Ricks was off by a factor of two or three. In bombing Syria, President Obama, who inherited this war, has made this war his war, the next president’s war, and our war. Today, tomorrow, and for as far as the eye can see. Perpetual war for perpetual peace.
Combine this perpetual war for perpetual peace with Ebola scare (the disease is supposedly now out of control, thanks to oh-so-competent (not) WHO and UN), and we have FEAR hanging over us perpetually.
Enter Hermann Goering, who supposedly said the following in Nuremberg:
"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY."
It happened within the last hour on June 29, 2014 (Japan time). So far it is only on Twitter and Instagram.
A man set himself on fire after making a speech to the passers-by as he sat atop a pedestrian bridge over a busy street in Shinjuku, Tokyo. According to the eyewitness accounts on Twitter, he looked like a regular office worker in suits, and he was expressing his disapproval of the Abe administration and the administration's plan to allow collective self-defense without formally modifying the Constitution by national referendum.
新宿の焼身自殺のやつ
ガソリンで燃やしたのか|ω・｀) pic.twitter.com/9UtzpbrtoC
— ともしぃ♡/ともぴー(▼⊿▼) (@tmoshi0730) June 29, 2014【速報】新宿で焼身自殺発生 pic.twitter.com/mtFKLnVVDt
— バカッターbot (@bakatter__bot) June 29, 2014新宿焼身自殺騒動 pic.twitter.com/wjQN0DHSC6
— @メルタソ （元メル£） (@kanasiminoM) June 29, 2014なんかやばいぞ pic.twitter.com/8lGWpO4YsL
— ♨皇帝るべら♨ (@RVE_L) June 29, 2014I was very surprised that self-immolation like this happened in Japan (of all places) now (of all times) as a political protest (of all things).
But I was more surprised to see some tweets (like this, and this, and this) accusing this man of carrying out an act of "terrorism" - setting himself on fire and thus endangering others on a busy street, when freedom of speech and universal suffrage are guaranteed [by the Constitution].
Never mind that the Abe administration's ultimate goal is to gut that Constitution with such niceties. My tweet wondering about those people and their perception of "terrorism" is getting retweeted by people who then spit out "Of course this man is such a nuisance!"
People on the street apparently wasted no time in capturing the images with their smartphones.
Parents and their two young children hid in a truck that ended up at AREVA's fuel reprocessing plant, 100-200 meters from the nuclear zone. The plant security is being questioned.
From Le Monde (6/13/2014):
Des clandestins découverts sur le site radioactif de la Hague
La famille albanaise espérait rejoindre l'Angleterre à bord d'un ferry. Elle s'est finalement retrouvée à son insu sur le site le plus radioactif d'Europe. Vendredi 13 juin au matin, quatre clandestins ont été découverts cachés dans la remorque d'un camion lors de son déchargement à l'usine Areva de Beaumont-Hague (Manche).
Le couple et ses deux enfants de moins de 10 ans, découverts dans une « zone non nucléaire », « se trouvai(en)t à 100 à 200 mètres de la clôture de la zone nucléaire », a indiqué la directrice de la communication du site, Catherine Argant, dans un communiqué. Le camion, qui venait du port d'Ouistreham (Calvados), livrait du matériel non nucléaire.
Selon une source judiciaire, la famille s'est vu délivrer par l'Etat une obligation de quitter le territoire d'ici un à deux mois.
SÉCURITÉ EN QUESTION
Selon Yannick Rousselet, chargé des questions nucléaires à Greenpeace France, cette intrusion est « une première » sur le site. « C'est catastrophique. Le magasin est situé à l'autre bout de la porte principale, sur une zone classée “installation nucléaire de base”, à une centaine de mètres environ du bâtiment BST1 où est stocké une partie du plutonium de La Hague », a déclaré à l'AFP le militant antinucléaire. Selon Greenpeace, l'intrusion d'une famille de clandestins sur un site nucléaire s'est déjà produit à une ou deux reprises dans des centrales françaises.
Philippe Launay, syndicaliste FO du site, a lui aussi fait part de sa surprise. « C'est incroyable. Là, c'est une famille d'Albanais avec deux enfants. Manifestement, c'est une situation [qui n'est] pas dangereuse. Mais il y a quand même eu quatre personnes qui ont pu entrer sur le site », a-t-il dit.
L'union départementale de FO a réagi dans un communiqué « soulagée que ces intrus ne soient qu'une paisible famille étrangère cherchant refuge. Car cela aurait pu être quelque bande d'énergumènes antinucléaires en mal de sensationnel. Ou pire : des individus décidés à commettre un acte malveillant ».
L'usine Areva de Beaumont-Hague est une usine de retraitement de combustibles nucléaires irradiés pour la plupart dans les centrales nucléaires françaises. C'est le site qui concentre le plus de matière radioactive en Europe.
FIFA World Cup has started, and many sports fans in Japan seem to be losing sleep trying to catch the games.
Japan's all-star team lost today (6/14/2014) to Ivory Coast 1 to 2, in a match that had little to write home about.
But what floored me was not the Japanese team but the Japanese referee who presided over the opening game on June 12, 2014 between the host country Brazil and Croatia.
In that game, Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura
- yellow-carded Brazilian player for elbowing a Croatian player in the face, instead of red-carded - a collective sigh of relief from the stadium;
- allowed a penalty kick on what looks to be a blatant dive (aka "simulation") by a Brazilian player;
- disallowed a legitimate goal by Croatia
In doing all these, Mr. Nishimura was aided by two sub-referees, who were also Japanese.
From UK's Daily Mail (6/12/2014; part):
Neymar escapes red card in World Cup 2014 opener as referee Yuichi Nishimura hands Brazil soft penalty after Fred appeared to dive
Brazil's poster boy clashed with Luka Modric in Sao Paulo opener
The Barcelona player appeared to elbow the Real Madrid man in first-half
Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura brandished yellow to relief of host nation
Fred earned Brazil a soft penalty which Neymar scored to give Brazil lead
Nishimura ruled out a late Croatia goal for a foul on Julio Cesar by Ivica Olic
Croatia manager Niko Kovac blasted referee Yuichi Nishimura for his poor performance during the opening match of the 2014 World Cup.
The Japanese official had a night to forget, allowing Neymar to stay on the pitch following a cynical elbow on Luka Modric in the first-half, before awarding the tournament hosts a soft penalty and disallowing what looked like a legitimate equaliser by Croatia.
Kovac said Nishimura was out of his depth and that someone else should have been appointed to officiate if he wasn't up to the job.
Kovac said: 'I must say the referee was completely out of his depth.
'If someone's not up to scratch to referee the first game then find someone else. Two and a half billion people saw this wasn't a penalty.'
Yup. I saw it. But clearly not Japanese soccer fans in Japan, vast majority of whom tweeted how they supported the Japanese referee's decisions in the match and how proud they were of him for setting the standard for refereeing in this World Cup. At least in the world of Twitter, dissenting from that position doesn't seem to be allowed.
According to Yomiuri Shinbun's report, a major Brazilian newspaper (Folha de S. Paulo) is thanking the referee Nishimura for being part of the team.
AP reports that Croatian players claim Nishimura was speaking Japanese to them.
Uh... Janjira? In Japan? Not India? The word doesn't mean a thing in Japanese. (Not to mention most Japanese cannot even pronounce "r"...)
That aside, my attention was drawn to minor details, as usual, in the trailers for the summer-blockbuster-in-the-making "Godzilla", which opened this weekend in the US grossing over $93 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
From Godzilla Official Movie Site, screen shots from "Extended Look" trailer:
"Janjira Nuclear Power Plant" in a town at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The town is supposed to be near Tokyo, even if it is this close to Mt. Fuji. A stereotypical nuclear power plant you see often in the US (but none in Japan) with vigorous steam rising from the cooling towers, like the one you see in "The Simpsons" or Three Mile Island NPP.
The plant seems to sit right in the middle of town. Why a nuclear power plant needs so many smoke stacks of different heights is a mystery to me. But take a look at the house in the foreground. Very interesting roof line, with fin-like structures like in a Buddhist temple in Thailand. The sky is blue, with "The Simpsons"-like puffy clouds, but there are two people walking by with umbrellas. The concrete walkway looks wet.
The plant crumbling like the World Trade Center building after an earthquake (which was in fact caused by a monster):
A closer shot:
But it was only a 6.3 earthquake (from Asia Trailer):
Godzilla's foe this time is a huge ancient creature who feeds on radiation, a "MUTO (or Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism)", according to the wiki entry of the movie.
Nice, sarcastic touch, intended or not. Muto is the surname of the vice president of TEPCO when the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident started on March 11, 2011. Mr. Muto gave daily and nightly press briefings in a small room at TEPCO's headquarters in Tokyo in the first week of the accident.
The impression I got from these trailers is that the movie is way too serious for the loose details. But who cares about details (except me)?
My favorite Godzilla movie remains "Mothra vs Godzilla" (Godzilla was a bad guy). Wonderful loose details galore.
Saw the picture on a tweet just now...
Mokugyo (木魚) is a wooden percussion instrument used in Buddhist rituals.
WTF??
A state minister in Mr. Shinzo Abe's cabinet, Mr. Keiji Furuya, visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine is at least explainable. But the president of the United States visiting the shrine that enshrines Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken as god and goddess?
What's the point?
To honor the current emperor by paying respect to his great-grandfather, I suppose.
Emperor Meiji is the great-grandfather of the current emperor of Japan, although his great-grandmother is a concubine of Emperor Meiji. (The Empress was childless.) Meiji Jingu shrine was built in 1920.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel went to Chidorigafuchi Cemetery to honor the war dead when they visited Japan in October 2013. There I thought it was the beginning of a new tradition that would help de-emphasize Yasukuni. I was wrong.
Visiting Meiji Jingu shrine seems devoid of meaning, which fits Mr. Obama's presidency rather well.
From The Japan News by Yomiuri (4/20/2014):
Obama will visit Meiji Jingu, museum during tour
WASHINGTON—The White House said Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Meiji Jingu shrine during his stay in Japan, as part of his tour to four Asian countries in late April.
Detailed schedules of Obama’s trip have also been released.
Obama will have a private dinner meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday, and on Thursday they will hold a summit meeting to demonstrate unity between Japan and the United States toward the international community.
Obama will be the first U.S. president to visit Japan as a state guest in 18 years, since a visit by then U.S. President Bill Clinton. Obama will stay in Japan from Wednesday to Friday.
After leaving Japan on Friday he will then visit South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The private dinner will be held soon after Obama’s arrival in Japan, on Wednesday evening.
According to sources knowledgeable on Japan-U.S. relations, they will dine outside the prime minister’s official residence with the intention of deepening their relationship in a relaxed atmosphere.
On Thursday morning Obama will attend a welcome ceremony in the Imperial Palace, followed by the summit meeting and a joint press conference.
In the afternoon, the U.S. leader will visit the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation and Meiji Jingu shrine, before meeting with Japanese business leaders.
In the evening, Obama will attend a banquet at the Imperial Palace.
At a press conference Friday, National Security Advisor Susan Rice commented on Obama’s forthcoming tour of Asian countries, saying that it will be an important opportunity to clearly express the United States’ continuing focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Despite being a "state guest", the status of which will cost the host country extra few million and require Japan's Emperor and Empress to host a lavish banquet for the guest, Mr. Obama won't be accompanied by his wife, leaving many Japanese puzzled.
It looks like an old sign, way before the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. Smaller letters are fading.
Someone snapped the photo, and added the message back to TEPCO in yellow and posted on Facebook, which was then tweeted. (Ah, the age of social media.)
TEPCO: Please do not litter (or literally, please do not throw out garbage). Pristine environment starts with your kind consideration.
Anonymous message in yellow letters: For you to say!
From the tweet by "galeria de muerte":
I'm impressed with the cat, being able to calmly walk past the dogs.
From "Fascinating Pictures" on Twitter:
(Sorry I haven't been posting much. Too many things needing my attention closer at home, but some bizarre things have been happening in faraway Fukushima I NPP which I do want to write about. Stay tuned.)
The left poster with Prime Minister Abe says: "Japan Has Started to Move. Retake Japan. That's the responsibility of Tokyo. Liberal Democratic Party."
The poster to the right of the LDP poster is by a landowner who probably owns a lot where the poster is displayed: "Dead End that way (with a blue arrow pointing in the direction of the LDP poster)."
(H/T @aoshizu on Twitter)
(Just because I'm playing this music in the orchestra version, you get to hear it, if you like.)
Astor Piazzolla: La Muerte Del Angel (1985 in Utrecht, Netherlands)
From photos posted on Twitter in Japan on February 8, 2014:
Yokohama, Kanagawa (by @Tomynyo)
Akihabara, Tokyo, gubernatorial candidate Toshio Tamogami:
Shibuya, Tokyo, gubernatorial candidate Kazuma Ieiri (left, with a young man from Niigata, says Ieiri):
Ginza, Tokyo, gubernatorial candidate Morihiro Hosokawa and former PM Junichiro Koizumi (one in green down jacket):
Somewhere in Japan, S/M "Snowman" (by @kakikukekocham)
I have been in bed for the entire week because of it. Still recovering. Hope to get back writing about things nuclear and Japanese in a few days.
They are made by an enterprising confectionary in Tokyo, I hear.
I also hear on Twitter that someone's friend whose grandfather is enshrined at Yasukuni was saddened and angered by the frivolous wrappings.
From one of many tweets with this photo:
Upper left: Nihon wo tori modosu (Take back Japan) sweet buns, from Japan the land of the rising sun. "Tori" in Japanese is phonetically the same as the word for "bird". The sweet bun is made into a shape of a bird, the wrapping says. Cartoon Abe says, "To a new Japan."
Upper right: Nejire kaisho (No more split Diet) mochi, strong Japan one more time. Cartoon Abe says, "We will never allow split again."
Lower right: Atarashii Shin-chan (New Shinzo Abe) sweet buns, or Abenomics sweet buns, 2% volume up. Cartoon Abe says, "I will be at the helm."
Traditional goods to commemorate the visit to the shrine are in the lower left.
I wonder how brisk the sales are.
A tall bassist in full dress waits, with his bow to the string. A girl drops some coins in the top hat on the pavement, and the bassist starts drawing the bow.
"Ode to Joy", a la flashmob style, in Spain:
Happy New Year.
It's even wilder than the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, I think.
Coloproctology is a branch of medicine dealing with pathology of the colon, rectum, and anus and colorectal surgery.
The poster of the 68th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Coloproctology:
People sure find strange things and post them on Twitter...
Some call it degrading to women, others call it a male fantasy. Either way, it is creepy. Mechanically, it makes absolutely zero sense.
Who is this entity that came up with this?
It is the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, putting a new front cover for its academic journal:
The best-selling cleaning robot in Japan is a round disk from a US company that is not tethered and which doesn't carry a bloom (or a book):
Rumba's colleagues, albeit in a very different form, are still working hard at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, sometimes alone, sometimes assisting other robots.
Most recently, a Packbot is assisting the decontamination robot "Raccoon" in decontaminating the floor surface of Reactor 2.
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