Archive for December, 2010

Chemical Weapons Factory Becomes Rabbit Paradise

Mainichi reports that the former site of the Imperial Japanese Army’s poison gas production facilities has been overrun with cute little rabbits:

Many visitors to Okunoshima Island, located some three kilometers off the Hiroshima Prefectural city of Takehara, are bringing their cameras to take photographs of the rabbits, next year’s zodiac animal, for their New Year’s greeting cards and personal blog sites. Today, there are some 300 rabbits living on the island.

The small island of about four kilometers in circumference used to be a base for the Imperial Army’s lethal gas production between 1929 and 1945. It was once erased from the map of Japan for security reasons.

The poison gas produced at the site took the lives of many people in China and other battlefronts, and former facility workers are continuing to suffer from health ailments caused by the gas.

Today, the island is uninhabited, but the remains of the facility buildings, including gas containers and a power plant, are still there.

It is believed that rabbits were first taken to the island in 1971, after an elementary school in Takehara found it difficult to keep the animals at school. According to the Kyukamura Okunoshima resort hotel, most of the visitors to the island consisted of students on school study trips and senior tourists.

There are lots of Okunoshima rabbit videos on YouTube. Here are a couple examples:

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Gree = Not Free

Japanese mobile phone game service Gree has stopped airing commercials that claim its games are “free” after consumer groups pointed out that most games end up costing money:

Most of the games offered online by the Tokyo-based firm can be played for free, excluding data charges, at the early stages, but users must purchase weapons or other items if they want to advance.

The Kansai Consumers Support Organization has requested GREE stop using the words “free of charge” in commercials because it violates the truth-in-advertising law. In response to the group’s request, GREE has only broadcast ads that do not use the phrase since mid-November.

Here’s one example of a commercial that ends with a “it’s free” (無料です) declaration:

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U.S. Avoided Mention of Senkakus in 1971 Agreement

The Asahi reports that some newly released diplomatic records show the United States was deliberately vague in the wording of the agreement it made in 1971 to return Okinawa prefecture to Japan, so as to avoid taking a strong position on the Senkaku Islands:

During a meeting in May 1971, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Armin Meyer told Foreign Minister Kiichi Aichi that while the United States would return the area under its administration, it would not get involved in the “adjudication” of historic or future territorial claims, according to a record of the meeting declassified by Japan on Wednesday.

Meyer said Washington wanted to avoid a situation where it could be dragged into the International Court of Justice to verify legal claims over territories such as the Senkaku Islands. The United States took a cautious stance because China and Taiwan began making new claims to the islands.

In response, Aichi told Meyer that Japan had taken the U.S. position into account and would not insist on a specific mention of the name of the Senkaku Islands.

Although the islands were not specifically mentioned in that agreement, it does not change the fact that the United States administered the islands from 1945 until the 1970′s and never handed over the islands to Taiwan or China (since neither claimed the islands until the 1970′s). During that same period, the Americans used the islands for military exercises and paid rent to the Japanese owner of the islands .

In September of this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Japanese government that the Senkaku islands were included in the scope of the U.S.-Japan security treaty.

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Cup Noodle + Bon Jovi

息子さんは中３で
受験勉強してた
夜食のカップヌードル
お母さんが忘れた
息子さんは
拗ねた

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Helicopter Santa Claus

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — Santa Claus doesn’t just slide down chimneys anymore … he rappels from helicopters as well.

Santa and one of his elves rappelled from a HH-60 helicopter just in time to join the 33rd and 31st Rescue Squadrons and 33rd Helicopter Maintenance Unit’s kid’s Christmas party, Dec. 17.

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Dancing Japanese Santa

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