yuhki comments

The term “comfort women” is a euphemism for girls and women, from South Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere

Why do they always exclude Japanse women? There were so many Japanese women there as well.

I bet the cat is just sleepy :-)

I am for whale hunting as far as it is aboriginal right. But the Japan's problem is that most of Japanese people do not like whale meat very much. It is reported that three fourth of them remained unsold in 2012 in an auction. And we know our taxes including $23 million reconstruction budget (why !?) are poured into the whale hunting organization where retired Fisheries Agency officers parachute.

I am not sure if this is accurate info, but according to other medias, an evacuee has got 23 million yen on average so far and they have been fully compensated for their income before the disaster. If it is a family of four, the family has got 92 million yen so far on average. This is just "on average" but we can easily imagine how much amout of money they've got. Adding to that, they do not need to pay for their inhabitant tax and get free medical care.

So,it seems many pepole have become more rich than before the disaster even though they do not work (in fact, it would be hard to find a new job)

Once they start working and earn their livings themselves, compensations will be cut and they would have to pay taxes and lose their other benefits. So, they are hanging around all day drikining, doing pacinko and a few evacuees use their money to buy Mercedes Benz, BMW and Lexus cars. (I think most of the evacuees are modest, but a few are not)

And it seems that these people, who are hanging around all day without working, cause some deteriorating condition of public safety in Iwaki city.

So, I think this is not "People don't like outsiders" issue.

I think U.N. people do not know there were many Japanese comfort women at that time.

When I was child , I heard they had to chose the job due to poverty, and some of them were sold by their parents to the brothel because of money. I remember seeing some newspapers ads to solicit applications for the job at a high salary( but no one sure if the salary was actually paid)

The things are more complicated because many Korean men were part of Japanese army at that time. Logically, it is possible that some Japanese right wing guys find Japanese comfort women then sue Korean government and erect a statue in the United States. That is definitely what I do not want to see.

Mokutou can be used only for the dead. And it can never be used for living people.

In the photo at the top of this article, Mokuto is prayed for Hisai-sha which means victims. But usually, Hisai-sha is used to mean living victims in the context like "interview with Hisai-sha in the Tohoku region". And if all of the victims are dead. We do not use the word Hisai-sha to mean them. We use Gisei-sha or dead people.

So many Japanese felt very wired when seeing the photo in which "Mokuto" is prayed for Hisai-sha (living victims). And that makes us feel as if they were praying for the death of living victims. It is a very bad expression mistake.

I think that is the main reason for the photo in the article being retweeted many times in critical contexts.

Up to 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere were forced into brothels

Hum... Every time I see these kinds of news, they were written as if there were no Japanese women sold to the brothel, trying to make a simple impression this was done forcibly only against the colonial women.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-07/06/content_911759.htm

I feel many people just handle this tragedy as a political tool, not thinking why this happened and feel a pain on the tragedy.

The flag is not a "Japanese war time flag". That is traditionally used to wish for good luck or celebrating something in Japan as you still can see the flags in national holidays or on fisher-boats wishing for large catch.

In 1870, Meiji period, the design was picked up for Japanese army probably wishing for victory in battles. The SDF is still using this flag.

Anyway, I think most of Japanese recognize this flag as something generally wishing for good luck and may even know Korean say this is a "war time flag". I think Korean right wing people need a symbol easy to understand and something to burn and tear down.

At first , I simply thought they were cute. But after I read the links cwhite had posted, I understood this should be considered kind of animal abuse. Thanks for letting us know the background of this picture.

No they were not mostly Japanese, not at all. It is not clear because there is no comprehensive data.

Data shows 16%-40% were Japanese women. The data changes depending on when, where and how the data was taken. The 16%-25% data came from sexual diseases examination in 1940. The 40% is based on an official record of immigration purpose at that time.

I think probably more than 20% would be Japanese.

This proves Japanese government can not manage nuclear power plants and facilities properly even after the 3.11. And this is the reason why I am against nuclear power generation in Japan.

The lyrics of "Kimigayo" was written more than 1,000 years ago. The lyrics is not basically related to the militarism in 1900's in Japan. Even Japanese can not understand the meaning of the song unless asking it on Yahoo Chiebukuro(Yahoo Answers in Japan) or checking the page of Wikipedia. And the meaning of the song is very peaceful even though it is a song for an unknown emperor 1,000 years ago.

I feel it is cared too much to sing this song.

Anyway I do not like the song is used with this kind of political intention.

Un..comfort women consisted of not only Chinese and Korean but also many Japanese and women from other countries. After the world war II, some women who had no way to live continued working for u.s. troops. Everytime I heard Korean comfort women news, I feel uneasy if the women from other nations including Japan and the history after ww II might have been forgotten.

I read the original NHK news in Japanese. In the article, a broker had contacted the shrine and offered to buy the weakened trees. The shrine did not notice that the trees were injected with tree poison. Of course, the broker denied the relation to the case. It is unclear how the broker could know there were weakened massive trees which need to be cut down shortly exist deep in the mountains. Now that the news spread, I think the same case would not happen for the time being.