Japan Archives - Page 7 of 23

25Mar

By SHOAHNo Comments

Japan, USA

As US Military Flies Overhead, Okinawa Residents Live Under a Cloud of Fear

NOVANEWS By Jon Letman, Truthout A spate of US military aircraft accidents, incidents and emergency landings have many in Okinawa fearing for their safety. The Japanese southern islands comprise less than 1 percent of Japan's territory but host roughly 70 percent of US military bases. (Photo: Jon Letman). Last December 7, Eriko Miyagi was at the Midorigaoka nursery school in Ginowan, Okinawa where she's a teacher's assistant. Just after 10 a.m., as the children were preparing to go outside to play, they were startled by a loud bang on the roof. The sound came right after a US military helicopter flew overhead. Like many Okinawans, Miyagi knows military aircraft well. "It was a CH-53E," Miyagi says, recalling the morning. Midorigaoka nursery school is just 300 yards from Marine Corps A...

21Mar

By SHOAHNo Comments

Japan

When I Came to the U.S. from Japan The Eyes of “Others” for Us All

NOVAMNEWS By Hiroyuki Hamada Global Research For every immigrant, speaking about his or her home country can be somewhat emotional and personal. For us immigrants, the experiences of leaving former identities framed in memories of the land, people, smells, tastes, smiles, laughter, tears and other feelings wrapped in the native tongues and rebuilding our own personhoods in foreign words, foreign-scapes, foreign frameworks held together with the values, beliefs and norms of others gives us a special opportunity to see our world dimensionally. Some of us recognize the mechanisms carefully hidden by the very machination of the social structure. The revelation, at the same time, reveals our essential beings hidden in our former-selves. When I came to the States as an 18 year old yo...

14Mar

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Japan

Fukushima Radiation Risks to Last Into Next Century: Greenpeace Investigation

NOVANEWS By Greenpeace International Greenpeace International Featured image: Iitate, Fukushima prefecture. Greenpeace radiation specialist Jan Vande Putte from Belgium doing road scanning in Iitate region, Fukushima prefecture. (Source: Christian Åslund / Greenpeace) The area, northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, was heavily exposed to radioactive fallout in March 2011. The Government lifted evacuation orders for a part of Iitate in March 2017 despite radiation readings that mean it is not safe for people to return to Iitate. As of December 2017, the population of Iitate was 505, 7.7% of the population in March 2011. Greenpeace has been conducting radiation surveys in Iitate since March 2011, when it was the first to warn of the high levels of radiation and the ur...

14Mar

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Japan

Fukushima Radiation Levels 100 Times Higher Than Normal, Greenpeace Warns

NOVANEWS By Jonathan Wilson E&T Magazine Seven years after a 9.1-magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami triggered the catastrophic disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the people, towns and villages in the surrounding area are still being exposed to excessive levels of radiation, according to a Greenpeace report. In its report, published today, Greenpeace warns that all areas surveyed, including those where people have been allowed to return, had levels of radiation similar to an active nuclear facility “requiring strict controls”, despite years of decontamination efforts. “This is public land. Citizens, including children and pregnant women returning to their contaminated homes, are at risk of receiving radiation doses equivalent to one chest X-ra...

12Mar

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Japan

The Constitution, Human Rights and Pluralism in Japan: Alternative Visions of Constitutions Past and Future

NOVANEWS By Prof. Tessa Morris-Suzuki Asia-Pacific Research Recent moves by the Abe administration to change the Japanese constitution may result in the most fundamental change to Japanese political life since the 1940s. Although there has been widespread debate on the possible revision of Article 9 – the constitution’s Peace Clause – other profound implications of the push for constitutional change have received scant attention. This special issue aims to take a broad view of constitutional debates in Japan today by posing two key questions: “What is the purpose of the constitution?” and “What does the constitution mean for a culturally plural and diverse society?” A New Constitution for Japan? Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanes...

10Dec

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Japan, USA

The Real Reason America Used Nuclear Weapons Against Japan. It Was Not To End the War Or Save Lives

NOVANEWS By: Washington's Blog and Global Research 12 October 2012 This article was first published on GR in October 2012 Atomic Weapons Were Not Needed to End the War or Save Lives Like all Americans, I was taught that the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to end WWII and save both American and Japanese lives. But most of the top American military officials at the time said otherwise. The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey group, assigned by President Truman to study the air attacks on Japan, produced a report in July of 1946 that concluded (52-56): Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in...

30Oct

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Japan, USA

Japan’s Vote for Abe Could Worsen Prospects for Peace With North Korea, China

NOVANEWS By Nicole L. Freiner, The Conversation Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gambled by calling a snap election -- and he has won big. Voters handed Abe's Liberal Democratic Party a sweeping victory in the Oct. 22 balloting for Japan's House of Representatives. The call for the election came in late September after North Korea had just fired another test missile, with its longest delivery system yet. Over the past months, North Korea has tested six missiles, with each test either falling into the Japan Sea or passing over Japan to land in the Pacific. This latest missile flew over Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido before falling into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea's leader, Kim Jung Un, used strong threats after this missile test, saying that he hoped to see Japan sin...

25Oct

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Japan, USA

Remember Hiroshima: No Danger of Nuclear War? The Pentagon’s Plan to Blow up the Planet

NOVANEWS By Prof Michel Chossudovsky Global Research This article was first published by GR in January 2016 More than 2000 nuclear explosions have occurred since 1945 as part of nuclear weapons’ testing. Officially only two nuclear bombs (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 6 and 9, August 1945) have been used in an act of war. The media consensus is that a nuclear holocaust is an impossibility. Should we be concerned? Publicly available military documents confirm that nuclear war is still on the drawing board of the Pentagon. It is also part of the US presidential election campaign. Compared to the 1950s, however, today’s nuclear weapons are far more advanced. The delivery system is more precise. In addition to China and Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea are targets for a firs...

14Sep

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Japan

NGOs Demand Olympic Authorities End Rainforest Destruction and Human Rights Abuses

NOVANEWS NGOs Demand Olympic Authorities End Rainforest Destruction and Human Rights Abuses Connected to Tokyo 2020 Olympics Construction By Hana Heineken Rainforest Action Network TOKYO/LIMA – Today, 47 civil society organizations delivered an open letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Tokyo 2020 Olympic authorities, at the start of the IOC Executive Board Meeting in Lima, Peru. The letter reiterated grave and mounting concerns about the legitimacy and accountability of IOC sustainability commitments and the reputation and credibility of the iconic Olympic games. The letter criticizes the Olympics for knowingly exploiting tropical forests and potentially fueling human rights abuses in the construction and implementation of the games. The groups are calling...

11Aug

By SHOAHNo Comments

Japan, USA

Resistance at Tule Lake (trailer)

NOVANEWS Resistance at Tule Lake (trailer) from Konrad Aderer on Vimeo. RESISTANCE AT TULE LAKE tells the long-suppressed story of 12,000 Japanese Americans who dared to resist the U.S. government’s program of mass incarceration during World War II. Branded as “disloyals” and re-imprisoned at Tule Lake Segregation Center, they continued to protest in the face of militarized violence, and thousands renounced their U.S. citizenship. The documentary premiered in February 2017, is continuing to screen at film festivals and other venues, and will be presented for national public television broadcast in May 2018. For more information, visit resistanceattulelake.com