PM Abe Stands Up to Chinese Threats

In a recent interview Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan would be taking a stronger leadership position on security matters in East Asia as a result of the increasingly hostile behavior of China which looks to the threat of force and intimidation to settle matters rather than legal means. Mr. Abe stated that other countries in the region, also threatened by China, are looking for Japan to take leadership in standing up to the bandit government in Peking. Furthermore, in response to Chinese sending unmanned drones to spy on other countries, Mr. Abe warned that any Chinese drones that violate Japanese airspace will be liable to be shot down. The Red Chinese responded in typical fashion, with hysteria and astounding dishonesty. The bandit government stated that if any Chinese drones are shot down in Japanese air space the communist regime will consider it an act of war and respond with full military retaliation and, to be really absurd, that it would be Japan that would be held responsible for opening hostilities in this situation. Just think about that for a minute, the Red Chinese are actually saying that if they invade Japanese territory and the Japanese make any effort to defend themselves it will mean that Japan has started a war. It is almost too ridiculous to even comprehend such a mentality. The invader claiming to be the victim -how typical of the bandit regime.

Hopefully, this stupidity and saber-rattling by Red China will not intimidate Japan or dampen the rebirth of the 'samurai spirit'. It is perfectly clear who is being the aggressor in this situation. For example, there is no doubt that the Red Chinese are using fear and intimidation to victimize their neighbors such as in the recent seizure of an atoll from The Philippines. They grab disputed territory and then move massive military forces in so that no one would dare oppose them. In the case of the Senkaku Islands, they suddenly make a claim on Japanese territory and then violate that territory at will and if the Japanese respond they threaten violence and try to tell the world that they are only "defending themselves". They are like a thief who breaks into a house to steal something only to then claim that the owner is the aggressor when he tries to stop them from taking his property.

The Red Chinese have shown they have no desire to settle problems reasonably since they refuse to even meet with Prime Minister Abe. In every instance, following the sincere wishes for peace and goodwill of His Majesty the Emperor, Japan has tried to resolve difficulties through peaceful dialogue. However, the bandit government refuses to even speak with the leader of the Japanese government. This will prove to be a great mistake. The Red Chinese should remember what has happened when they have attacked Japan in the past. In 1894 when China fought Japan, everyone thought China was so big and powerful there was no way they could lose, yet Japan administered a total defeat on China and the Chinese were greatly humiliated to be beaten by this island country that they had for so long held to be totally inferior. The Chinese have extremely large military forces but especially in terms of their air and naval forces, those of Japan, though fewer in number, are much more advanced and of higher quality. China should also remember that if they try to make war on Japan it will not be Japan alone but the United States as well. However, that assumes that the Japanese air and naval forces have not totally defeated any aggressive Chinese force before America can even respond and any conflict would be ruinous for the Chinese economy and most likely provoke a rebellion by the poor and oppressed masses in China. In short, if the bandit government tries to get aggressive they will only be hurting themselves. That would certainly be no tragedy.

Christianity in Japan

すべての人をうやまい、兄弟たちを愛し、神をおそれ、王を尊びなさい。

Anglo-Japanese Friendship

HM the Emperor and Prince Philip inspect a guard of honor

TM the Emperor and Empress are greeted by

the Queen and Prince Philip

HM the Emperor and Queen Elizabeth II

HIH Crown Prince Hirohito in Edinburgh in 1921

HIH Crown Prince Hirohito with British Prime

Minister Lloyd George in 1921

HIH Crown Prince Hirohito with King George V

the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII)

in samurai clothes on a visit to Japan

HIH Crown Prince Hirohito and the Prince of Wales

Anglo-Japanese friendship souvenir

The Prince of Wales visits Japan

HIH Crown Prince Hirohito and

the Prince of Wales in Japan

Battle of Sekigahara

On this day in history, in the year 1600, was fought the Battle of Sekigahara. It was this battle which secured the dominance of Tokugawa Ieyasu and enabled him to eventually rise to become Shogun of Japan. This victory by the Tokugawa forces ushered in a new era of peace and stability as the unified Japan came firmly under the political leadership of the Tokugawa shogunate. That leadership would remain in the family for several centuries until the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, was displaced by the Meiji Restoration when political authority was returned to the Emperor.

The Rising Sun Flag Flap

As long-time readers will know, your resident madman is a vexillologist, which is a very fancy name for folks interested in flags. Flags, like even the most ceremonial of monarchs, are powerful symbols and have the ability to arouse very strong feelings in people. I have ranted before about the misuse of monarchist flags and those who want to scrap flags with monarchist overtones, however, something else that bothers me a great deal is when a flag is unjustly criticized, especially a flag associated with an ancient and honorable monarchy. The primary example of this that most often arouses my anger today is the unjust vitriol poured out on the flag of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, the same flag as was used by the predecessor to that organization, the much more appropriately named Imperial Japanese Navy. Many refer to it as the “Rising Sun flag”, which is certainly not an official title and could be used to describe any Japanese flag, but there are many misconceptions about this flag that should be cleared up. One of which is the idea some people have that this was the flag of the Empire of Japan, which is not true of course. The white flag with the red disc in the center is and has always been the only official national flag of Japan. It was the national flag of the Empire of Japan during and before World War II and it is the national flag of the State of Japan today.

Similarly, the Japanese naval flag has never changed. The flag used by the Maritime Self-Defense Force today is the only official naval flag Japan has ever had. Unfortunately, many people, almost exclusively in the People’s Republic of China and the two Korean republics, have decided that the Japanese naval flag has militaristic, nationalistic and imperialistic connotations. This is, to put it simply, completely absurd. There is no reason that anyone today should find the Japanese naval flag offensive. All of the sore feelings surrounding the flag usually involve World War II, especially for the Chinese, or for the Koreans the era when Korea was a kingdom that was part of the Empire of Japan. Concerning this, my first thought is that there may be some mistaken identity at work here on the part of those who look for things to be offended about. After all, how much contact could there have been between the Chinese or Koreans and the Imperial Japanese Navy considering that, in those days, neither country had much of a navy at all? I can only speculate that some of these people may be confusing the flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy with that of the Imperial Japanese Army. They are quite similar, the most noticeable difference being that the Imperial Japanese Army flag had the sun disc in the center of the flag while that of the navy was slightly off center, closer to the fly.

Are all of these people really offended by the Imperial Army flag and just do not know any better? I have wondered and any confusion is probably made worse by the fact that the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (successor of the Imperial Japanese Army) does not use the same flag as the old IJA but uses a similar but more simplified version. In any case, it is probably a waste of time trying to attach too much thought to this process anyway, it is most likely an emotional reaction and not a natural one at that but, I suspect, one that has been purposely stirred up by Chinese and Korean politicians to serve their own ends. The worst, and most ridiculous, comment that is often made about the Japanese naval flag is that it is no different than the flag of Nazi Germany. This absurd accusation really sets my blood to boiling. After all, it is such a tired tactic at this point; when you have nothing else, bring up the Nazis in order to smear someone or something. Fortunately, this is an easy accusation to refute, at least with anyone willing to use their brain because the Nazi flag was a purely political flag that really had nothing to do with Germany or the German people. It had never been a German flag or in anyway associated with Germany prior to the arrival of the Nazis. It was the flag of the Nazi Party which they made the national flag after taking power.

The Japanese naval flag, on the other hand, was not the flag of any political party or faction and long pre-dated those who set policy immediately prior to and during the Second World War. The Japanese ensign was first adopted on October 7, 1889 before which there was no official, standard Japanese naval flag. It was the first and only flag that Japan has ever used at sea in an official capacity. There is nothing about it that was unique to the period of Japanese rule over Korea or the second Japanese war with China. It is not and never has been the flag of any faction or political party like the flag of Nazi Germany. To put it another way, no one is upset today that the flag of the Italian Republic is exactly the same as the Fascist puppet state Hitler put Mussolini in charge of in northern Italy. Few people may be aware of that because they are likely more familiar with the military flag that had an eagle and fasces on it but the national flag was a plain, green-white-red tricolor just like the flag of the Italian Republic today. Yet, no one says it is a Fascist flag because some probably know the Fascist flag was just a black flag with the fasces on it and more likely just realize that green-white-red are the Italian national colors and always have been and all they symbolize is Italy as they did long before Mussolini was ever born. In the same way, Japan has always been known as “The Land of the Rising Sun” and the image of the rising sun has always been a symbol of Japan.

What worries me the most about these (rather childish) antics is that things could go much farther. The Japanese ensign represents nothing more than Japan or more specifically the Japanese navy and there is no more reason for the Chinese or Korean republics to hate that flag any more or less than the national flag of Japan, the Hinomaru. So, if the haters of today succeed in suppressing the version of the Japanese flag they dislike so much; what is to stop them from suppressing the national flag of Japan altogether? Already in Japan today there is so much concern about appearing too proud or too nationalistic or upsetting their extremely sensitive republican neighbors that the national flag is not widely displayed. Some leftists even objected to and opposed the law passed in 1999 to again officially designate the traditional flag as the legal national flag of Japan. Some schools object to displaying the flag just have some have said that the national anthem, a song honoring the Emperor, be abolished and replaced because they want to replace everything that existed in the days of the original Empire of Japan. It is a dangerous road to be on that, if accepted, can lead in only one direction which, make no mistake about it, would include the abolition of the monarchy itself -which would mean the end of Japan entirely, plain and simple.

All loyal Japanese should stand together in supporting all national symbols, be it the naval flag, the national flag, the army flag or the national anthem. Furthermore, all monarchists around the world should stand with the Japanese in defense of the “Rising Sun flag” just as we should all stand together anytime a symbol of monarchy is under threat, misused or attacked. Just because China and North Korea abandoned their traditional symbols (South Korea kept basically the same flag they have always had, they just need to restore the monarchy that created it) and just because self-hating leftists in Japan have personal issues, it is no reason to allow them to force a change on the majority of faithful and upright people.

The Rising Sun flag -long may it fly.

No Free Speech in Japan

Recently in Japan there was a court ruling against a Japanese group, forcing them to pay a fine, because of "hate speech" directed at a Korean school in Japan. No problem there? Pay attention to the details. This Japanese group was protesting the use of some nearby property by this Korean school which they had no right to. It should also be added that this school was teaching things with not just a pro-Korean slant but a pro-North Korean slant. North Korea, or the DPRK, is of course the country which has threatened to attack Japan, the United States and South Korea on numerous occasions and which is basically not even a country so much as one giant slave-labor camp for the Kim family. Anyway, this Korean school said they were being harassed and, I guess, their feelings were hurt by the things the Japanese protesters were saying outside their school so they took them to court and the Japanese group was prosecuted, not even for breaking a Japanese law, but for violating an international agreement or treaty or something against "hate speech". Personally, I do not think any international law should override the laws of a sovereign nation and I don't think any Japanese man, woman or child should be obliged to obey any law that was not passed by the Japanese government and signed by HM the Emperor -but that's just me.

All that this court ruling has done is to illustrate how the free speech of the Japanese people is being suppressed. Is that a surprise? Not really, since, as we have discussed before, according to the Chinese and Korean republics that are neighbors of Japan, the Japanese are not supposed to have any rights or freedoms at all. They don't think the Japanese have the right to their own flag (they protest against the Japanese flag, especially the naval flag for some unfathomable reason), they don't think the Japanese should have the right to their own national anthem (they protest against that too), they don't think the Japanese should have the right to teach their own children because these republics are always protesting about Japanese textbooks and they don't think the Japanese should have the freedom of religion because they protest every time anyone goes to pray at the Yasukuni Shrine. They don't even think the Japanese have a right to their own opinion or to even think for themselves because they are always claiming to know what the Japanese people are "really" thinking and what their words "really" mean. Take Takeshima island; the South Koreans are upset just because the Japanese think that island is Japanese. Japan does not dispute that South Korea has the island and controls it but just because some Japanese think this is unjust it drives the Koreans crazy.

You will also notice that these international law against hate speech applies only to the Japanese and not to the Koreans who hold protests and spew hate speech against the Japanese all the time. We recently talked about how they even teach their children to do this. They have displays in Korea with hate-filled people killing animals associated with Japan, ripping Japanese flags with their teeth and burning Japanese symbols. Yet, South Korea never fines these people for their hate speech. And one has to wonder that if the Koreans think the Japanese are so terrible; why are they living in Japan?! Why do they not just leave and go back to South Korea? I am sure no one in Japan would be upset if they did. I certainly wouldn't be.

The McCollum Memo

It was on this day in 1940 (you will notice this is more than a year before the Pearl Harbor battle) that the McCollum memo first appeared in the United States. The basic content of the memo was an 8-point plan on how the United States could provoke the Empire of Japan into committing an "overt act of war" that would give the American people a justification for entering World War II on the side of the Allies. It should also be kept in mind that this is a matter of historical record, not some bizarre conspiracy theory. It is also a simple matter of fact that the United States eventually adopted every point of the eight outlined in the memo in order to encourage Japan to strike the first blow against the United States. This was because, at the time, the American people were staunchly opposed to staying out of World War II. Even so far as America was concerned about the war, the focus was on Europe and not East Asia. The memo itself states that the American people would never support entering the war unless one of the Axis powers, in this case Japan, could be forced into striking the first blow. This would arouse the anger of the public and allow the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to take the country to war with the full support of the American people. The eight points were:

1. To gain British permission for the USA to use British bases in the Pacific and Asia, especially Singapore.
2. To gain Dutch permission for the USA to use Dutch bases and resources in Indonesia.
(one should remember at this point that at this same time the USA was protesting over Japan making use of French bases in Indochina -while the USA was planning to do the same thing)
3. To dramatically increase American support for the Chinese forces of Chiang Kai-shek.
4. To send a division of heavy cruisers to The Philippines or Singapore.
5. To send two divisions of submarine to East Asia.
6. To move the U.S. Pacific fleet to Hawaii.
7. To insist that the Dutch give no cooperation to Japan and not allow Japan to buy any oil from them.
8. To insist that the British join America in a total trade embargo of Japan to cut of all resources.

Obviously, by building up American military forces in East Asia, supporting the Republic of China and enlisting Britain and The Netherlands into an anti-Japanese front while cutting Japan off from all vital natural resources the overall strategy was to force Japan into striking the first blow against the United States when there would be (they thought) ample military forces in the region to attack Japan. Of course, what no one was expecting was that Japan would be able to wipe out most of the U.S. Pacific fleet in that initial attack. It also shows that FDR was being utterly dishonest when he feigned surprise and outrage at the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His administration had done everything possible to encourage just such an attack, additionally, as we have already covered, FDR had ordered a first bombing strike against Japan. The big difference was that when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor it was an attack on military forces and bases only whereas the American plan was for the fire-bombing of Japanese cities where there were high concentrations of civilians. Given all of this evidence, which is all part of the historical record and undisputed, it is absurd to attempt to portray the Empire of Japan as the aggressor in the war that followed.

FDR Planned First Strike on Japan

America's military buildup in The Philippines for "preemptive" war against Japan:

Christianity in Japan

すべての人をうやまい、兄弟たちを愛し、神をおそれ、王を尊びなさい。

Japan and U.S. Boost Defense

Recently, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel were in Tokyo meeting with their Japanese counterparts on the subject of security. Things have become more tense recently with the lunatic "1984" regime in the slave labor camp of North Korea re-starting an old nuclear plant that they start up every few years, whenever they want something, so they can shut it down again when we give in to them and send them some more food to feed their starving population. Some good, common sense developments seem to have come out of this trip (even though I am no fan of Chuck Hagel or John Kerry). It has been agreed that the U.S. and Japan will increase military surveillance in the area by next year with the United States deploying the latest surveillance drones and Japan deploying the new P-8 maritime patrol craft to keep an eye on the troublemakers in the neighborhood. The United States also applauded Japan for taking on a bigger role in national defense. I agree and would say that it is in the best interests of both Japan and America for Japan to be as strong as possible.

A second missile defense radar system will also be installed in Japan, an early warning system that will stand guard for both Japan and the United States against any threat from North Korea and (though it was not spoken) their communist overlords in China. This is all absolutely necessary because not only does North Korea declare war on the United States every other year or so but, for some twisted reason, the North Koreans said that if South Korea ever attacks them -they will retaliate by attacking Japan. Of course, that doesn't make any sense whatever but, consider the source -these people still think Marxism is the way to economic prosperity. Clearly their brains do not work correctly. It is also unfortunate that so many times the antics of North Korea are rewarded with concessions by the United States and others, which only encourages future bad behavior and each time they have to go to even greater lengths to prove that "this time" they are serious so, sooner or later, they are going to go too far.

What is also disturbing however, in this noble display of Japanese-American solidarity, is the absence of the other non-communist countries of the region such as the Republic of China (Taiwan) and especially South Korea. Before coming to Japan, Secretary Hagel was in South Korea and attended a military parade as they worry about aggression from North Korea. However, South Korea refuses to make a military pact with Japan while they do have a military pact with Red China which backs up the North Koreans who attack them regularly and are always threatening to destroy them. Obviously, the attitude of South Korea makes no sense at all either. It is also highly disturbing that, about last year, a survey of South Korean college students found that they considered their #1 enemy to be Japan! They considered North Korea only #2 even though the North attacks them constantly and has tried to destroy them and just as insane they put the United States at #3 even above Red China that sent over a million soldiers to destroy South Korea while the United States was fighting to defend them. Obviously, the United States should uphold the defense treaties to the letter and always stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Japan, a country that has displayed more goodwill and frankly forgiveness than anyone else in the region toward America. That being said, Japan should never depend too much on any outside assistance for national defense and should make military preparedness and national security a top priority in these dangerous times.