SURE TO BE HELPFUL

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) policy chief, Sanae Takaichi, has publicly called for her boss, Shinzo Abe, to modify if not repudiate decades of Japanese apologies to its Asian neighbors:

"Mr. Abe should issue a statement that backtracks on some of Japan's previous apologies for wartime actions and "protects the honor and pride" of the nation.

"I look forward, more than anything, to the creation of a new 'Abe statement' that would replace the Murayama statement," Ms. Takaichi said in an interview. She was referring to a 1995 statement by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II that apologized for the damage and suffering Japan inflicted through its colonial rule.

I think I understand some of the "apology fatigue" in Japan. The Murayama Statement, the Kono Statement, and dozens if not more of similar statements have apparently done little to reduce enmity between Japan and its former colonies. So, why keep apologizing?

But at the same time, it is hard to see how openly and directly repudiating past statements helps anything.

And in addition, there's this:

Ms. Takaichi also said Japan's leaders should pay annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors the country's war dead, including World War II leaders convicted as war criminals. Such visits in the past brought strong protests from China and South Korea.

2013 could be interesting.

ADVENTURES IN THE 21ST CENTURY INFO AGE

As of now, the DPRK apparently follows one and only one American on Twitter.

WHITE LOTUS, TAIPING, BOXER,

Falun gong, and now the latest in Chinese apocalyptic heterodoxy: Church of Almighty God.

These folks sound like an interesting amalgamation of traditional Chinese apocalyptic groups, Christian eschatology, and a healthy dose of Hollywood and contemporary urban legends (Mayan Calendar, etc.).

The reaction of the PRC state has been predictable (and fairly traditional).

EXPLODING WATERMELONS

in China.

Fields of watermelons exploded when he and other agricultural workers in eastern China mistakenly applied forchlorfenuron, a growth accelerator. The incident has become a focus of a Chinese media drive to expose the lax farming practices, shortcuts and excessive use of fertiliser behind a rash of food safety scandals.

It follows discoveries of the heavy metal cadmium in rice, toxic melamine in milk, arsenic in soy sauce, bleach in mushrooms, and the detergent borax in pork, added to make it resemble beef.

NEW SEC DEF?

Rosa Parks thinks it should be Michelle Flournoy. Having been quite impressed by Flournoy at her fairly recent visit to BYU, I think I would concur.

UNDER THE RADAR

is most of the work by NGOs like Global Resource Services.

GRS has worked all over North Korea, in cities and villages, in nine of its ten provinces. GRS professional staff and volunteers—all Americans—have carried out roughly 200 development projects in agriculture, health, and education and cultural exchange. That adds up to almost 1,100 individual visits by Americans to North Korea since 1997. And North Koreans have made about 200 individual return visits to the U.S.

Interesting.

BACK TO BLOGGING?

Perhaps. If so, what better place to start with than an interesting article on the well-known militarization of North Korean society? A few anecdotes from a DPRK comic book aimed at 5-year-olds:

" ... Young guerrilla girl Kumsuni delivers letters to comrades, and one day is caught by the police. When the policemen demand the girl disclose information about the guerillas, she spits into the faces of her interrogators. As the policemen drag Kumsuni to her execution, the heroic girl cries out 'Long Live General Kim Il Sung!'"

...Pre-teen boy Ri Kwang-ch'un is a member of a secret anti-Japanese children's organization. Along with others, he helps the "Red Guard uncles". However, one day policemen apprehend the boy. When the "bastards" torture the young patriot, Ri cuts off his own tongue in defiance. His last words are "Long Live the Korean Revolution!"

I am just beginning to read Steven Pinker's fascinating The Better Angels of our Nature. If Pinker's somewhat counter-intuitive argument about the general decline in violence and the glorification of violence is valid, then North Korea stands as a troubling, reactionary counter-example.

I suspect that the author of the article about the DPRK, Tatiana Gabroussenko, makes a bit too much of the supposed difference between the gentle, Confucian, pacifist South Koreans (who just elected the daughter of a brutal military dictator to the ROK Presidency) and the blood-thirty, martial North Koreans. However, her final question is worth considering:

My concern, however, is whether South Korean society can afford to bring up it's offspring in a similarly pacifist and cotton-wool way. After all, Korea is still technically at war, with all capable men to be enlisted at the time of conflict. There is no doubt that logistically and economically the South Korean military is strong enough to defend itself. However, wars are won not only with good equipment, but with appropriate spirit and psychological preparedness as well.

In combat with the North Korean army, the South Korea would face foes who have been taught since kindergarten not to be too squeamish about crushing the heads of the enemy with a club and to be prepared to cut off their own tongues in case of danger for their comrades.