highhope comments

Tatsuhito Iida, Los Angeles bureau chief of the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily newspaper, said some Japanese would agonize over losing to Korea because of historical rivalries.

"Many people feel they can't lose to Korea especially because historically [Koreans] don't have good feelings toward Japan and will try to beat us," he said. (From LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-japan-korea24-2009mar24,3,7678117.story)

The hate between Korea and Japan lies on the anger and fear. As Tatsu Iito said, Japan has fear that one day Korea will beat Japan (not only in baseball but also socio-economically as it has shown in many fields of industries and business). (And Korean by their nature will bot be nice to Japan). (Koreans also think Japan will hurt Korea again if opportunity allows). WBC was just reflection of the above underlying psychology. Untill those grudge of Korean people against Japan are resolved, fierce competition way over the normal sportmanship will continue.

Chinese and Korean people should not get confused about who are to be blamed. It is not the Japanese people, but the right wing nationalist politicians who deny obvious atrocity and try to whitewash history. Like German people, ordinary Japanese people get embarrased about those dark history. They were brain-washed to worship the emporor as god, and they were hornored to die for him. They were ordered to kill the innocents by their superiors just like German nazi soldiers were. If Chinese and Koreans want to obtain sincere apology from Japanese people as urged by UN and other countries (USA, Canada, EU, UK, Holland, etc), they must draw a clear line of responsibilty between those J-politicians and ordinary Japanese people. When those politicians are outstered, so are those distorted history. Then an era of bright future and common prosperity in far east Asia will begin.

Bad sportsmanship by half that Korean team. I wish a Japan player had stuck a Japan flag on that pitching mound!

Did not you see the Nakajima crushing the head (helmet) of the Korean runner? He was almost killed! totally not acceptable manner. He should put his leg/foot on the mound, not stepping on the runner.

Congrat. to Japanese team. After watching the whole game, I cound not see any significant difference between the Japanese and Korean teams. It was like a fight between the lion and the tiger. It was like a coin flipping game. I felt Japan had more luck over Korea. If another game will be held tomorrow, the Korean team may well win. In this kind of a strange tournament rule, final winner's medal should be given to the team that won 3 consecutive times to eliminate the probability of the luck. But the only difference was that in the 10th inning Ichiro was detemined to hit the ball for the pride of Japan, but the Korean pitcher was determined to strke out him for his personal ambition.

Nevertheless, it is also quite natural for a human tribe that had left their original home for any reason to return home at least spiritually if not physically. It is also ironical of human history to see the manchu people who actually conquered and ruled china for 400 years are struggling to keep their very essense of their culture, the manchu language.

In this article publushed in the International Herald Tribune, we can feel the true homogeneity in the eyes of the ethinic manchu people.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/16/news/manchu.php

Seiharinokaze http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/16/news/manchu. Manchu language has such a similar grammar and pronunciation as Japanese that one can naturally suspect some biological and genetic similarity between the two. In fact there are many genetic similarities between the Manchu and Japanese. However, who can say the Manchu are Japanese? As you mentioned correctly, homogeneity in the Japanese society has nothing to do with the biological or linguistic similarity between races. It can be said that the modern Japanese peoples are the Kuma (Bear)-like hairy tribe and the Hayato(white colored people flown over from distance) assimilated and intermixed with the Yamato (Yemaek tribes flown over from distance) people. They share the common philosophy and culture to be come a homogeneous Japanese people.

http://www.jref.com/culture/origins_japanese_people.shtml#

It is like the Britsh people living in America. Of course, in this comparison, Koreans are British, and the homogeneous Japaneses are Americans.

It is very ironical that Koreans are treated as ethnic minority in Japan. The genetic, linguistic and archeologic studies are all indicative that present majority of Japanese are in deed ancient Manchu (North China) and Koreans. Even the Japanese emperor himself announced that he has Korean blood. So-called homogeneous Japanese people can boast if they want, but not too loudly. Reference: The origins of Japanese people http://www.jref.com/culture/origins_japanese_people.shtml Genetic origins of Japanese http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/japanorigin.htm

I see this war from a different perspective. This is not a war to gain lands or security of Israel. It is probably a war conspired by Arab nations and Israel. Falling oil price is greatly straining the economy and politicians of oil producing arab nations. They tried everything to bolster and pump up the oil price, but failed. OPEC's agreement to cut the production did not work. Now the surplus of oil ia causing a problem of storing the oil. Because all oil reservoirs are full,the oil tanker ships can not leave the US ports. Dubai's economy is collapsing due to lack of fund to complete the massive public projects and not tourists are coming. They are suffocating, and were looking for a light to get out of the dark tunnel. It is expected to see the oil price rise as the war escaltes. On the other hand, the Israel politicians are facing another elections in 2009. As they have been portrayed as doves, they need to show public majority who are more rightists that moew hawkish images to gain the popularity. They think this is a chance to make up for the failed war in 2006. Once Obama takes the office,this war may not be endorsed by the US government as Obama will not hand over the blank check to Israel unlike GWB. What a tragedy! My heart aches for the poor palestine civilians who have no chance of peace.

Seiharinokaze It is quite a tragedy for Japan not to be able to take out those few rotten clams, and the soup kettle of Japan will never get rid of that foul odor. You place is not that far from ex-PM Abe and his extreme nationalists who have third class morality.

Seiharinokaze

I am saying that if you urge a country to acknowledge something, you should provide proof that verifies it. Is there any one case in which a Korean women was proved to have been kidnapped and forced to provide sex service by the Japanese military?

I am afraid that it is out of context to argue about the proof of existence of sex slaves here. But I am sure that the British MPs are aware of the extreme nationalists' view denying the existence of sex slaves. I have heard the same thing from ex-PM Shinzo Abe and his cronies last year. Among the countless evidences, I want you hear what old ex- Japanese soldiers were confessing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUST156410

If you still deny it, you are one of those few who will not believe the existence of conscience.

namuo

Yet,it seems to like Japan has not whitewashed and other countries are already whitewashed.

It is quite a tragedy to taint the glorious history of Japan because of a small portion of shameful incidents. It is like one rotten clam ruins the soup kettle. Instead of adding onions and garlics to cover the foul odor up, the rotten clam has to be taken out before cooking. I believe the shameful history of Nazi Germany was not whitewashed, but forgiven.

Seiharinokaze

I believe it dampens it if some heartfelt and overkind British parliamentarians urge us to acknowledge without any proof by repeating what North Korea says for a time that the Japanese military kidnapped and forced up to 200,000 women to work in military brothels.

You are saying that a rapist did nothing wrong because he was unfairly accused to rape 20 girls instead 10.

So he is now "moderate" instead of "partial and unethical and somewhat biased"? The real difference, it seems to me, is your own attitude.

You are over-stretching. I did not say that Mr. Hata is biased and unethical, but the paid testimony is. To be fair and balanced, mass media should call history experts from both right and left, instead of showing Mr. Hata's in disguised of balanced expertise. According to the Wiekipedia, he is by no means a fair historian.

Typo error

constructive relations with (Japan --> Korea)and China.

namuo,

As I said, I believe Mr. Murayama's apology is sincere. Korea and China should accept it and forgive old Japanese sins. However, the problem is political elites who inherited political power who deny and whitewash the old sins. They try to erase the sincere apology of Japanese government and hinder to establish constructive relations with Japan and China. It is very sad that young japanese people have to carry the burden of their ancestor's sin. Why those political establishments can acknowledge the wrong doings of their father and gradfather's sin? while the young generations have nothing to do with sex slaves, why do they have to deal with this issue now? Sooner or later, it must end once for all.

Seiharinokaze

Well it seems as if the aim of the comfort women issue is to alienate Japan from South Korea and dampen the image of Japan in the best interest of North Korea.

I do not believe that British MPs harrase Japan with the sex slave issue. I think it is a heart-felt sincere advice as a friend to Japan. After all, having good relations with South Korea is beneficial to Japan. Furthermore, I do not believe that Japanese image will dampen by acknowledging sex slaves' pain.

So you say that Mr. Hata's comment was partial and unethical because he got paid to appear on the media and criticized the former JAFD head's historical view?

I am sorry that I was not aware that Mr. Hata criticized the former JAFD head's historical view. The difference, it seems to me, between Mr. Hata and the former JAFD is that the former is a moderate and the latter an extreme of the same denomination of right wing nationalist.

Yes....it is shameful....

No, not at all. Which country in the history of the world is free of sins? Where is the perfectly clean man in the world? No country or no man you can find. But... Yes, it is truly shameful that Japan does not acknowledge the shameful history.

The United States bombed atomic bombs? Do government apologize? Why any countries doesn't blame the fact of WWII like Japan? Is it funny who still keep suffering by Atomic Bomb sue Japanese government not US government???

You are slightly confused in this case. Suppose a married man was sentenced life imprisonment because he raped a woman. Can his wife ask any compensation to the judge for the loss of income as the rapist used to earn money? And, where does the victim have to go for compensation? To the court judge or the rapist? The rapist wife has to pay the rape victim from the rapist possession.

As to Mr. Hata's appearance in Japanese media as a history expert, the point is why did those media pay him to say what he has to say?

As you review this article concerning Japanese media controlled by Japanese government, they often represent the ruling elites. It is like a lawyer hires an expert witness for a court trial. You can call and pay someone whom you expect that he will say something favorable for you. It is called 'paif testimony', and it is not only partial but unethical. http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~twatanab/watanabe/english/japan.html

Seiharinokaze

I wonder why nobody says that Japanese comfort women who occupied a large percentage of them were sex slaves too being kidnapped and forced to do sex service just like "many Korean women"

Oh, I meant that the topic of this thread is the British MPs' request to Japan to recognize and be sensitive to South Korea about the sex slave issue because good relations betwen Japan and South Korea will be beneficial in solving the North Korea's nuclear threats. It is sad that many japanese women had to suffer as much as others from neigboring countries. However, this issue can be discussed later if Japan Today provides the opportunity at other time.

As to Mr. Hata's appearance in Japanese media as a history expert, the point is why did those media pay him to say what he has to say? As you review this article concerning Japanese media controlled by Japanese government, they often represent the ruling elites. It is like a lawyer hires an expert witness for a court trial. You can call and pay someone whom you expect that he will say something favorable for you. It is called 'paif testimony', and it is not only partial but unethical. http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~twatanab/watanabe/english/japan.html

Seiharinokaze, I am sorry that it is not the point to know how many Japanese women were served as prostitutes or sex slaves. It is the Japan to which the British MPs urged to acknowledge and be sensitive to the sex slave issue with south Korea as many Korean girls were sex slave victims of the Japanese military government.

In response to your question regarding Mr Hata's apprearance in Japanese media as a history expert, I would say it is a paid testimony.

Seiharinokaze,

It is reasonable to say that Mr. Hata is not a historian who can see and perceive the history as it is. He is somewhat biased. I am afraid that I can not accept his side of story as a fact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikuhiko_Hata

Seiharinokaze

About 60 to 70 percent of comfort women were said to be Japanese.

Can you kindly show any documents supporting your statement?

I do not see how Japan prostrating itself for crimes that were committed by our ancestors is going to be helpful. Are we to be forever responsible for our ancestor’s deeds?

Of course not. You do not need to apologize for the crimes commited by your grandfather. Your grandfather, however, must apologize for you.

" This would be like Germany apologizing for the Holocaust but saying the Nazi government had nothing to do with it. Or, more to a sore point closer to home, imagine if Kim Jong Il apologized for the abduction of Japanese citizens but said the North Korean government was not responsible?

Exactly. Many Japanese and sizable number of politicians feel that the military and its government sponsored forced prostitution system is wrong. Former PM Murayama's apology was sincere indeed. The problem is those right wing nationalist politicians who directly and indirectly related to the war criminals who inherited political powers in the post-war Japan. In other words, it is like sons and daughters of Hitler are holding important posts in modern german cabinet or parliament. Gen.MacArthur and Sir Morrison's negligence and miscalculation resulted in the current situation. http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/is/IS425.pdf The foreign Minister, Sir Morrison did not even attend the important meeting in San Francisco treaty.

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/166/12/1311

The above article can explain the inverse relation between coffee drinking and risk of diabetes more than I can do. The article mentions about magnessium, antioxidants, etc.

Often ignored fact is that brain tissues consume tremedeous amount of blood sugar when our brain is working hard, such as during studying hard, reading very interesting mysterious novels, etc. You know most intelligent people are rather slim, not obese. Why many nerds who are using only brains not muscles are slim? Now you know why.

But, you are right, coffee may be harmful for diabetics with high blood pressure(BP). I meant people with normal BP can drink as many as 10 cups of coffee.

PrinceskaNo1, Before disxlosing good supplements for diabetes, there are 2 most important facts you should know.

Overweight/obesity causes our body resistant to Insulin, a chemical substance lowering blood sugar by pushing the blood sugar into the liver, fat, muscles or other body tissues by converting sugars to storage forms, such as fat.

Actively contracting muscle tissues actively reduce bllod sugar because those active muscle cells use blood sugar as their main source of energy(fuel).

Then it is clear which supplements can help lowering blood sugar. Any supplements to reduce body weights or to make muscle contract actively. For example, black coffee? Yes. bliack coffee has no sugar to increse body weight. It makes people alert, and helps to be more active. Now, you can figure out.

Highhope