A view from Japan....Benjamin Fulford

[lucy]

[lucy]

So, what is this all about? Honestly, I don't know but I do know that Japan's economic position at the moment is dire.....

I found the ending remark about how the Japanese view Americans overall very interesting....they don't blame us perhaps because they know that most Japanese were not to blame for what happened during WWII...as I have experienced living there in the past/

[Michael]

It's probably not so much about pointing fingers as it is about downsizing.  It's kind of universal right now.

[Pepsi]

Japan's in no position to demand apologies for war crimes from anyone..

[lucy]

I think we could at least acknowledge our actions for beter or for worse. I had many Japanese actually apologise to me personally, even when they were not responsible directly for the war...strange, isn't it? But, a sense of responsibility was there, at least.

[Pepsi]

I should have said "I don't think Japan is in a good position".  I don't think individuals need to apologize for their countries actions, but their leadership should.   Has Japan every apologized to China for Nanking, or the US for treatment of POWs, or the Koreans for enslaving their women into prostitution?       Japan never went through a mea culpa process like Germany did after WW2.

[lucy]

I am not sure about lately re apologies. I do remember a newspaper article I read when living there as a student many years ago. The survivors of the River Kwai camp/bridge building on the Japanese side invited the group of survivors from England for an official "apology" ceremony. According to the paper at the time, the British response was either "F### you" or "F### off", although something may have been lost in translation. Nevertheless, can you blame them? Oh well....

Just for the record, tribunals were held throughout Asia and many Japanese officers were executed or committed suicide.

"The remains of Japan's war machine were destroyed, and war crime trials were held. Over 500 military officers committed suicide right after Japan surrendered, and many hundreds more were executed for committing war crimes. Emperor Showa was not declared a war criminal.

A new constitution went into effect in 1947: The emperor lost all political and military power, and was solely made the symbol of the state. Universal suffrage was introduced and human rights were guaranteed. Japan was also forbidden to ever lead a war again or to maintain an army. Furthermore, Shinto and the state were clearly separated. "

link  http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2124.html

I offer this site, but it's pretty much common knowledge.

I believe there were 23 official executions of German officers, perhaps a few more, but MANY executions or incidences of German civilian deaths across Germany and Europe after the war.

[lucy]

Fulford is now reporting that "bankers" are being arrested...I suppose we can wait for details...

link  http://benjaminfulford.typepad.com/benjaminfulford/

[ivanm]

So, what is this all about? Honestly, I don't know but I do know that Japan's economic position at the moment is dire.....

I found the ending remark about how the Japanese view Americans overall very interesting....they don't blame us perhaps because they know that most Japanese were not to blame for what happened during WWII...as I have experienced living there in the past/

We are naive?  Politically speaking but aside from that I take it to be a racist insult. We have shown them how the cow eats grass, twice.  In WW II we fire bombed and nuked, but we didn't start the damn mess, no we simply got tired of screwing around with those gifted superior people and finished it big time. Let me remind them that it wasn't a Jap that developed the A-bomb. 

The second time we kicked their asses was economically, and this took place back in the 70s if I remember correctly.  They were real hotshots and they were hyped by the MSM as
being so superior.  We proved that it takes more than book learning to prevail and we
somehw put them back in line.

I wasn't aware that we still had so much political influence over them and I wish that wasn't so.  After all, what can a bunch of "naive" Americans do for super stars?

The Japanese people were taken in by some unscrupulous tyrants during WW II but all too many were rabid supporters if them.  And they blame us for showing them how foolish they were? Haven't they learned, "you don't wake the sleeping giant." else you will get stomped?

I am damned proud to be a "naive American" and I don't care what those geeks think about me.  It pisses me off to go help someone in need like we did and then have them bite the hand that fed them.  Sure it was tough love, but we got the job done and no one else want in  line in front of us.  The Pacific efforts in WW II were very American and we hurt mightily but I guess that doesn't count in the day of PC.

[ivanm]

Japan's in no position to demand apologies for war crimes from anyone..

Amen Pepsi. Lucy needs to wake up.

[lucy]

No one is beyond blame in a war situation, imo. Some may be nicer to others than not, but there areoften unsung heroes in every situation...Had a former boss who was  POW and saved by his Japanese guard. Also, another true story of a Japanese officer who saved a young American POW was in part the basis of our first screenplay....

I am not saying the Japanese didn't do horrific things, but we did some pretty awful things ourselves...what happened to Germans after WWII, for example....

Anyway, for what it is worth, many Japanese NOW consider themselves our allies and friends, despite the horrific bombings they suffered the last year of the war, etc....they've paid their dues as far as I'm concerned.

How about burying the hatchet/

[ivanm]

No one is beyond blame in a war situation, imo. Some may be nicer to others than not, but there areoften unsung heroes in every situation...Had a former boss who was  POW and saved by his Japanese guard. Also, another true story of a Japanese officer who saved a young American POW was in part the basis of our first screenplay....

I am not saying the Japanese didn't do horrific things, but we did some pretty awful things ourselves...what happened to Germans after WWII, for example....

Anyway, for what it is worth, many Japanese NOW consider themselves our allies and friends, despite the horrific bombings they suffered the last year of the war, etc....they've paid their dues as far as I'm concerned.

How about burying the hatchet/
[/quote
Why did you  bring it up?  What did you expect. What in hell do we owe those people anyway?  I believe in putting America first.

[lucy]

The point is what is happening from an Asian perspective via Fulford, not to bring up the past....it is critical for us to get a sense of how China and Japan are involved in this current melee.

[ivanm]

I think we could at least acknowledge our actions for beter or for worse. I had many Japanese actually apologise to me personally, even when they were not responsible directly for the war...strange, isn't it? But, a sense of responsibility was there, at least.

I take it that Benjamin Fulfor is an American living in Japan or at least working from there.  How can he really speak for the Japanese people.  I think there are lots of foreign nationals that have a lot more respect and trust of the American people than these pihrannic writers do.The Japanese can do wonders economically speaking but seem to have little stayng power.  Maybe it is because they are too heavily dependent upon export income.  And we seem to have fallen into the same trap, depending on foriegners to buy our output.I guess if a company cannot export its surplus capacity then it cannot grow but darn, something is wrong about the scheme of things. We are overly dependent on consumption to keep us afloatl and it will not likely change but consider this.This would take some time, perhaps a generation.  Suppose we learned to live at less than full throttle, just as my father taught me to run his big tractor at one notch from wide open on the hand throttle.  That  way I didn't over ref the engine when the load was suddenly too light for that power setting and yet I still had some reserve to get thru the clay spots in the fields when plowing.  Clay is very sticky pulls so hard one must sometimes shift down to a lower gear to get thru it.Back off the farm now, suppose we had more one-wage-earner families like we used to.  It is not all bad as one of the parents gets to stay home and raise the kids rather than having a day care center do it.  And they could home school and tell the corrupt dysfunctional socialistic public school system to get lost.  Back on track, if extra income is needed then one parent could work part time rather than full time.  We can do quite well with a 300 dollalr TV rather than a 3,000 dollar home entertainment center, and we can get around quite well in a little Cobalt or Focus for 15k rather than a monster like my Caddy for 26k used price.  I realize I am off on a tangent but there is only so much Japanese bashing we can do and still have anything meaningful out of it.  We need to sweep our own doorstep before cleaning theirs. The economic interdependence tends to increase the tensions  where one might think it wouls bring folks together.   There are a few basic needs we must get under control if we want to live on less and still maintain a decent standard of living.  Let's start with Obamas three big items he is pushing right now, education, healthcare, and energy.  I say support higher education with Pells grants and focus on the critical skill fields, but aside from that let the system be handled and financed at state and school level.  This may be unfair and racist of me but let me lay it on the line.  He seems to be more interested in the slum dwellers and the inter city schools, some of which are real rat traps and are more like zoos than schools.  I am betting the suburbs and the small town schools like we have are in decent shape and the students are relatively well motivated.  I am not interested in supporting his social experiments with my tax dollars.  QED.  Black families with children who have the desire and the potential to learn need to move out of the slums like the whites did and into a better environ.  This healthcare thing to me is also a racist thing.  Yes, we all need care at times but what about the winners and the walking wounded?  We will pay the fiddler but will we get to dance?  Right now the job losses exacerbate the healthcare crisis but I am not convinced a universal program will contain the cost of healthcare.  I went to a volunteer meeting yesterday at the local hospital and asked the CEO how the hospital raises money, but issuing bonds or stock?  He said neither, as the company is not public in that sense.  Has some very ambitious expansion plans and I asked him where he will get the money.  He said, from profits.  Wow, one year the profits were 3 million and other years on the order of 1 milion.  I wish I could give you some perspective on this amount of profit but it is a little rural hospital that probably has an average fill rate of no more than a dozen bed patients and can do none of the exotic surgical procedures.  The outpatient clinic is limited too.  A high priced rest home and a senior living center is also part of the operation.  Given that, it is no wonder we pay thru the nose for healthcare as this little place is very ambitious and has limited talents when it comes to doctor specialists.  They usually visit on a weekly or less often basis.We need to get the costs of routine care down, way down.  My family doctor charges me about 95 dollars for a routine visit of about 30 to 45 minutes.  In most cases a nurse or a PA or a NP could interview me, gather my vitals, and look at the lab reports on the various things I have to monitor because of the drugs I take and because of two conditions.  If we had the records on line and could share them then it seems we could handle the vast majority of doctor visits with lower skilled people and it could be done at a senior center or a church, somewhere where the nurse and patient would have some privacy and basic comfort.   The VA system is trying something called satellite offices in our area and the intent is to give a modicum of health care to the veterans and still get by with limited skill resources.It appears that nurses visit these stations on a regular basis, which eliminates the need for the veterans to travel maybe 100 miles each way to get to the main VA center. The private doctors here in the sticks also travel to remote towns on given days of the week to see patients, so satellite care stations are not something new.  The trick is to get the costs down for the care givers because as I said the space for a satellite station can be borrowed or donated free of charge.  That is how things are done in the rural areas because the little burgs of 300 or less cannot even support a full time doctor let alone a nice clinic.Energy is a real problem and we seem to be hell bent on shoving it under the rug.  I am not in favor of the cap and trade system but I do support efficiency and conservation measures.  Like the curly fluorescents and mass transit, on demand water heaters and fuel pellet stoves, to name a few things that are technologically mature and work. I don't have an on demand water heater but sure could use two as three adults seem to suck it up.  These little gems heat the water on demand as it flows thru the device to the user.  RV trailers and small mountain cabins with electrical power might use such a device.  I think that pilotless stoves and furnaces could also conserve natural gas and money for the user.  Last summer I turned the pilots to the two furnaces off and saved 35 dollars per mont on my gas bill, just about halved it for summer time usage.  But oh my God, our highest gas bill was 640 dollars this year, and you can rest assured we will be taking steps to improve theenergy efficiency of this house, mainly new windows and doors.