Kurashi - News From Japan

Earth Day in Nasu is now an annual event for many small organizations that have hosted large symposiums on how to care for our planet over the years. They do wonderful market events and workshops as well as art shows. Earth Day in Nasu , Tochigi prefecture has all kinds of projects prepared for May, 2014. Which got me to explore another rural Tochigi initiative, that has been around for over 40 years: The Asian Rural Institute (ARI) is a training center for Rural Leaders. Founded in 1973 by Rev. Dr. Toshihiro Takami the aim of the program is to invite and train local grassroots leaders to more effectively serve in their communities as they work for the poor, the hungry, and the marginalized. Each year from April to December we bring together about 30 leaders from countries primarily in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific to take part in our Rural Leaders Training Program . The training focuses on sustainable agriculture through integrated organic farming techniques , com...

...or as it is officially known as, the Nuclear Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) is being held this weekend in Hiroshima, Japan. I feel a little bit like Tom Hanks or rather that character he played, Forrest Gump, who happened to turn up at all kinds of important events in history, because for other reasons I happen to be in Hiroshima right now while this is going on. NGOs including ICAN , Ploughshares and Pax are paying attention, but will mainstream media? Flags and banners here and there, important-looking delegates in black suits, and some cool people hanging out at Otis! tonight. Hope something good will come out of this. April 11, 2014 To call for world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Jumpei Fujimura, Staff Writer A “Hiroshima Declaration” will be prepared by the 12 non-nuclear nations of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative, including Japan and Australia, at their ministerial meeting to be held in Hiroshima on Ap...

From Democracy Now : AMY GOODMAN : Can we end with "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" for the children? PETE SEEGER : No. You sing it. AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to end on a lovely note. PETE SEEGER : No. I’ve sung lots of songs. And the other day, a group of Japanese Americans remembered Hiroshima, and I sang four short verses. [singing] We come and stand at every door But none can hear my silent tread I knock and yet remain unseen For I am dead, for I am dead. I’m only seven, although I died In Hiroshima long ago. I’m seven now, as I was then. When children die, they do not grow. My hair was scorched by swirling flame; My eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind. Death came and turned my bones to dust, And that was scattered by the wind. I need no fruit, I need no rice. I need no sweets, not even bread; I ask for nothing for myself, For I am dead, for I am dead. All that I ask is that for peace You fight today, you fight today. So that the children ...

This could get interesting. In an event that celebrates the 120th anniversary of the establishment of the Ryukyu Shimpo, the newspaper will invite two-time Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick, professor of History at American University to Okinawa. The event will feature a lecture by Stone with a panel discussion. Stone will also get to observe the U.S. military bases in Okinawa for the first time. With Satoko Norimatsu from the Peace Philosophy Centre as interpreter, the discussion will cover the excessive burden on Okinawa of hosting bases and U.S. military strategy. Some of the works of Stone and some digest footage of his visit to the prefecture will also be shown. Venue: Theater building of the Okinawa Convention Center in Ginowan On August 6 Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick will take part in a symposium in Hiroshima, and on August 8 they will visit Nagasaki. Their documentary The Untold History of the United States is currently...

Strange to observe what is happening in the world. Italy has no nuclear reactors, having abandoned the idea from the start. Germany quickly responded to the call of the general public in the spring of 2011, and decided to stop investing in new nuclear plants, thus basically and fundamentally changing its energy future. Japan - after the Fukushima disaster with three meltdowns and massive hydrogen explosions. Remember at Three Mile Island in Harrisburg, US, they thought it might happen, but it didn't... Imagine if it had? Well, Japan went through three such explosions, all shown live here on television, back in March 2011, just two years ago. Then, in 2012, for two months, all of Japan's 50 or so remaining nuclear reactors went offline. Then, the Oi reactors north of Osaka were restarted, and there were amazing demonstrations and protests, unlike anything you had ever seen in this country. Now, it turns out that possibly no reactors will be restarted in Japan during...

I stumbled upon some interesting video footage of a large anti-nuclear protest outside the UK Embassy in Tokyo, held in 1957. While I knew about the early actions by groups of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and their supporters, this was news to me. In light of the massive anti-nuclear demonstrations recently in 2012 (see here and here, for example), it is worth noting that 55 years ago, people in this country were already expressing their dissent at mass demonstrations. In fact, seems to me that Japanese activists deserve credit for basically inventing the anti-nuclear protests! The UK first tested a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean in late 1956. The footage found on Critical Past is in response to the second testing in May, 1957. Unfortunately, the film cannot be embedded, so please watch it on their site: Critical Past: Protests at British Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, following Britain's second H Bomb test in South Pacific Description: Large crowd assem...

We tend to focus on Chernobyl and now more recently Fukushima, when talking about places that have massive amounts of nuclear radiation, with (possibly) all kinds of harmful effects on living beings. How about firmly adding the U.S. nuclear sites from back in the 1940s to that list? Make sure the Manhattan Project sites are on your map: Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Dayton, Ohio; and Hanford, Washington... All these locations in the United States are as radioactive as ever, and currently clean-up efforts are being studied by experts from Japan. Kyodo reporter Ben Dooley writes: A group of Japanese scientists, government officials and company representatives visited the sleepy town of Richland, Washington, in February to seek advice on cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear crisis. They hoped to find answers at the Hanford Site, a complex of decommissioned nuclear reactors and processing facilities that once turned out plutonium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal....

I have recently been fascinated by the period of time in 1936 and 1937, before Japan's war in China broke out. It was an era of disaster waiting to happen, yet also beauty and cultural achievements, not to mention all the technological breakthroughs (such as the April, 1937 flight from Tokyo to Paris and London by "Japan's Lindbergh," pilot Masaaki Iinuma from Nagano). We have films and music from that era that help us understand, to some degree, the emotions and hopes of the individuals whose fate would be determined by the war, rather than peace. Oh well, it is all 75 years ago, who cares? Well, watch this clip from The New Earth (Japanese title 新しき土, Atarashiki Tsuchi, German title Die Tochter Des Samurai), and you will probably be moved. It starts in Hiroshima on Miyajima, at Itsukushima Shrine. Still a wonderful location. Amazing to see it the way it looked back then, complete with sacred deer and with no tourists... The actress is Setsuko Hara, born 1920. The f...

My brother was visiting briefly this week before a conference in Hong Kong. What to do on a very hot day in mid August? Tom, frequent commenter and old friend from London, suggested - baseball! I would rather have gone sailing with Pandabonium, but as I checked out the game, it all made sense. 45,000 fans at Tokyo Dome, for a fun event (I watched the Carps beat the Giants in Hiroshima in May) so I got the tickets. What a good call that turned out to be. Baseball fans in Japan are the best, with brass bands, drums, and good manners. When the home team is batting, only the home team fans will cheer. Then, when the away team bats, their fans get to lift the roof. Johan, an avid Malmö FF football fan, noted that there was no hatred, no firecrackers, no violence. Check one for team sports, Made in Japan. We have a lot to learn in Europe. He also liked how they serve beers and while not cheap (800 Yen) it is the Real Deal, no imitations. A big cheer for the young ladies running u...

Japan has its Three Non-Nuclear Principles . I have always wondered why Germany allows US missiles on its territory. Finally, Germany has moved a step closer to ridding its soil of the last remaining American atomic weapons: The federal government plans to end the deal by 2013 and perhaps earlier, when it decommissions its ageing Tornado fighter jets, which are equipped to drop the nuclear bombs, the Rheinische Post reported. At present, the Tornado fighters, stationed at the Bundeswehr base at Büchel in the Mosel region, are ready to drop the estimated 22 American-owned nuclear bombs stored on German soil. Those bombs are housed at the the Büchel base, guarded by US soldiers. But the Tornado jets are due to be decommissioned and the Rheinische Post reported that Germany would not continue the so-called NATO “nuclear sharing” agreement. While the change is being driven primarily by budget cuts, it also takes Germany a step closer to getting rid of the remaining nuclear weapons on its s...

Here are quotes and links to some very interesting articles that have appeared over the past few weeks, related to peace, Article 9, and the debates about the abolition of nuclear weapons. Terashima Jitsuro , "The US-Japan Alliance Must Evolve: The Futenma Flip-Flop, the Hatoyama Failure and the Future" (Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, August 20, 2010) The Futenma flip-flop exposed the reality that Japan does not confront problems by considering their essential character. It confirmed, first of all, that there is no place in Japan outside of Okinawa that will agree to host an American base. At the end of May, Hatoyama requested the members of the National Governors Association to host a replacement base for Futenma, but not a single prefecture volunteered. The fact is that a base is a problem that no one wants nearby. At the same time, the pretense that the bases ensure the security of Japan and Asia goes unquestioned, and many Japanese are swayed by the argument tha...

Wishing to talk a little more about incense, I wanted to share a few quotes from books, by authors you may be familiar with. It could hopefully be an introduction for others who have yet to read a novel or work of fiction by an author from Japan. Any additional suggestions are most welcome, as we are now in the Obon season, when a lot of incense is being lit, and there is time to read. First, from The Tale of Genji, as the shining prince partakes in a peculiar Heian-kyo competition, the ancient art of knowing one's fragrances: The time had come to review the perfumes. "It should be on a rainy evening," said Genji. "And you shall judge them. Who if not you?" He had censers brought in. A most marvelous display was ranged before the prince, for the ladies were determined that their manufactures be presented to the very best advantage. "I am hardly the one who knows," said the prince. He went over them very carefully, finding this and that delicate flaw, f...

Incense is a fragrant stick or powder, lit and let burn or rather glow to give your room a special atmosphere. It is often used at temples, and has since ancient times played an important role in Buddhism, for example at Mt Koya in Japan, in the Kii Mountain Range in Wakayama prefecture south of Osaka and Kyoto. Here I found a most wonderful shop, called Koyasan Daisido , selling many kinds of incense for different types of ceremonies. They also display fragrant wood from various countries in Asia, including Vietnam, which are increasingly rare and difficult to find. I was surprised to discover actual twigs or cuts from branches of 伽羅　 kyara or agarwood : The odour of agarwood is complex and pleasing, with few or no similar natural analogues. As a result, agarwood and its essential oil gained great cultural and religious significance in ancient civilizations around the world, being mentioned throughout one of the world's oldest oral texts - the Sanskrit Vedas from India. You can ...

Nuclear Posture Review . This is our chance to urge President Obama to set a new, safer direction for nuclear weapons policy. Do your google, it is all there. April 12-13, 2010 there will be an official Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC. I'm happy to see that Union of Concerned Scientists and the Ploughshares Fund will attend. There are many others, but it is difficult to assess their real agenda. I think this event should also have the Hiroshima and Nagasaki perspective. It seems to be lacking. Peace groups may be strong in Japan but they have difficulties to make their voice heard abroad. I do hope participants in Washington DC will not forget to mention the 1945 bombings of civilians in Japan, with the US atomic bombs, of both the uranium (Hiroshima) and plutonium (Nagasaki) types. Do invite people who survived the atomic bombing in 1945 to speak at the April 12-13 event in the US. Those who survived, and are still alive, are very vocal and clear about the urgent task ...

Okinawa, Japan is the hottest story as the Hatoyama government won the election last year promising to change the way the US military bases in the southern prefecture are handled. No more business-as-usual, heavy-handed rule from distant Pentagon, on the south shore of the Potomac river, Washington DC. Far away Tokyo would have some say, but most of all, the new government promised during the election campaign in the summer of 2009 to listen to the people of - Okinawa. It seems like it took a while for all of this to sink in. It matters a lot to East Asia in general and to the people living next door to Marine helicopter raids and jungle warfare excercises in particular. It matters a lot to the Okinawan activists who don't want the Americans to turn Henoko into an airfield - not just because of the dugong and the pristine beaches and the blue sea. But because, after 65 years since the end of World War II, these people, living so far from Washington DC or Tokyo have had a glimpse of...