Doshisha Days

There has been a month lull between posts which was not my intention. In fact, the past month has passed without much fanfare and I as much as I would prefer to blame someone else (I am looking at you, You Tube) my conscience will not allow me to.

The Fall term is three weeks old and I am preparing for my entrance exam in fits and starts. In fact, I probably should be writing this in Japanese, but I don't want to alienate anyone who either doesn't know Japanese or annoy anyone who is better versed in Japanese than me.

Anyway, I don't want to post another post about my lack of posts. Still, I was wondering what the hell I should write about. A polemic? An educational post about Kyoto or Japan? How about both?

The new Prime Minister of Japan, Abe Shinzo, is a somewhat of a cypher at the moment. On one hand, he is more of a hard liner than Koizumi, the previous P.M, according to most analysts. On the other hand, he does have a chance to mend the currently deteriorating relations with Beijing and Seoul, which he did by paying visits to both nations before the usual trip to Washington. North Korea happened to be testing a nuclear bomb while he was in Seoul, although it is far too early to tell how this will affect relations between the East Asian nations.

Still, there is still reason to be pessimistic. First off, Abe is a staunch nationalist who wants to revive Japan's Constitution to allow it to have a fully operational military. This would not be a serious problem if it were not for the fact that he is also an annual visitor to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo which houses - among the hundreds of thousands of fallen soldiers who have died since the Meiji Restoration - 15 Class A War Criminals. Abe's grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, was also held as a war criminal for overseeing the forced labor (i.e. basically slave labor) camps during the war. Kishi was not sentenced and ended up becoming Prime Minsiter of Japan in the 1950s. It is doubtful that these things will not be an issue when it comes to Seoul or Beijng.

Japan's actions during World War II in Asia still resonate throughout Asia. On one hand Japan apologies have been undermined constantly by the actions of politicians that have been at best insensitve and at worst revisionist and outright distortionist. On the other hand, in doing so, Japan has allowed these issues to be co-opted and used a wedge and a rallying cry by nationalist and oppurtunist groups in both China and Korea. In order to move on from such issues, they need to be confronted, not ignored. It remains to be seen if Abe is the one to do so, but if I were a gambling man, I would not bet on it.

Next, I'll talk about how You Tube ruined my life...