Archive for August, 2010

Americans Wear Sunglasses at Hiroshima Ceremony

Anyone who watched the N-H-K broadcast of this morning’s Hiroshima atomic bombing memorial ceremony may have noticed how much American Ambassador Roos’ entourage stood out in the crowd:

In front of and to the side of Roos were serious-looking men who were wearing sunglasses and ear pieces. Aside from a few individuals who look like they may have been part of the British and French delegations, the TV coverage did not show any other people wearing sunglasses. I did not see a single Japanese person wearing sunglasses.

I’m guessing that the men around Roos were bodyguards who were there to protect the Ambassador in case somebody in the crowd tried to get revenge for Hiroshima. Their sunglasses might help them scan the crowd for danger on a very sunny day, but it also made them stand out more than the Ambassador. The one guy standing in front partially blocked camera shots of Roos, and his sunglass-wearing face will surely be re-broadcast on every Japanese network news show tonight.

A few Japanese Twitter users made some comments about the guys in sunglasses:

Wearing sunglasses is considered bad manners at formal events in Japan, especially at funeral-like events. Apparently at least one of the men did not even take off his sunglasses for the moment of silence. A couple twitter users seem to have taken offense. One tweeted that the Americans seemed to have forgotten where they were. “This is Japan!”

(I haven’t seen anybody in the Japanese media comment on the sunglasses, so don’t consider this post to be a reflection of how most Japanese people are reacting to it.)

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Japanese “Spiderman-style” Baseball Catch

This blog rarely posts about sports, but I think just about anybody can appreciate the coolness of this catch by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp’s Masato Akamatsu:

This video clip has gone viral across the internet, and was featured on ESPN’s Big League Stew blog. The same blog post also shared this old but still cool clip of another Japanese baseball catch:

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

US Marine Faces Sexual Assault Charge

A US Marine has been arrested in Okinawa after he allegedly broke into an apartment and assaulted a woman:

The 28-year-old man attacked the woman, in her 20s, when she returned to her apartment at around 3.50am, reports said. He pushed her into a room, covered her mouth with his hand and fondled her body as she struggled to escape, media said.

A neighbour called the police and the man was arrested 15 minutes later as he tried to flee, reports said. The man had denied charges, reports said, adding that the suspect and victim had never met before the alleged attack.

Japanese police are recommending that the man be charged with sexual assault.

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Hiroshima Pilot’s Son Denounces Obama’s “Unsaid Apology”

The son of Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets is angry about President Obama’s decision to send an official representative to tomorrow morning’s Hiroshima a-bomb memorial ceremony, reports Fox News:

James Tibbets, son of Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., says Friday’s visit to Hiroshima by U.S. Ambassador John Roos is an act of contrition that his late father would never have approved.

“It’s an unsaid apology,” Tibbets, 66, told FoxNews.com from his home in Georgiana, Ala. “Why wouldn’t it be? Why would [Roos] go? It doesn’t make any sense.

“I know it’s the anniversary, but I don’t know what the hell they’re trying to do. It needs to be left alone. The war is over.”

Tibbets, whose father died in 2007 at the age of 92, said he receives dozens of calls from veterans every year around this time thanking him for his father’s service.

“‘If it wasn’t for your dad, I wouldn’t be here,’” Tibbets said many veterans tell him. “This has been going on since he dropped that bomb.”

Tibbets said he sees Roos’ impending visit — it will be the first time the U.S. has sent a delegation to the anniversary commemoration in Hiroshima — as an attempt to revise history.

“It’s making the Japanese look like they’re the poor people, like they didn’t do anything,” he said. “They hit Pearl Harbor, they struck us. We didn’t slaughter the Japanese — we stopped the war.”

The Fox News article notes that quite a few Japanese leaders, including Naoto Kan, have visited and paid respects to America’s war dead at Arlington Cemetery. It is speculated that Ambassador Roos’ visit to Hiroshima could be paving the way for a future visit by President Obama.

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

65 Years Since Hiroshima

Tomorrow morning will be the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Here is a news report about it from Al Jazeera English:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon visited the A-bomb memorial today, and he will attend the ceremonies tomorrow. Official representatives of the United States, Great Britain, and France will also be attending (for the first time ever).

Because President Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize for making a speech about how the world should get rid of nuclear weapons, a lot of people in Hiroshima have high hopes about achieving such a goal.

The above advertisement from ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons) has Hiroshima school children and an a-bomb survivor delivering a message in English about how the nuclear weapons should be abolished. According to the Mainichi, it is airing on TV in Australia.

Their goal is an impossible one. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki anniversaries should be commemorated so that no nation forgets the horrors that nuclear weapons can inflict on human beings, but it is wild fantasy to believe that nuclear weapons could be eliminated. Disarmament can reduce the number of weapons, but there will always be plenty of nukes around. Contrary to what people like Ban Ki-Moon say on TV, the end of the Cold War has not erased the deterrent capability of nuclear weapons, and the world isn’t about to become a happy place where everybody can get rid of their weapons and join their hands in harmony. It’s kind of sad to see so many people campaigning towards a goal that is absolutely impossible to achieve.

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

99-Year-Old Bowler

Amid all the media coverage of Tokyo’s oldest man being a mummy that had been collecting pension payments for 30 years and the subsequent checks that have found hundreds of missing elderly people, it’s easy to forget that there are still some pretty active old people in Japan.

Here’s a 99-year-old who is not a mummy and can bowl:

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)