I LOVE JAPAN. Kazuhiro Arai

              I would like to tell a true story to those who are relaxing in this holiday season.               Japanese people are not good at distinguishing clearly ‘L’ from ‘R’ when pronouncing English. One reason is that the Japanese language does not have ‘L’ and both ‘L’ and ‘R’ in English sound almost the same to Japanese people. Another is that Japanese ‘R’ is different from English ‘R.’ Incidentally, ‘R’ seems to be a consonant which is pronounced quite differently among different languages. For instance, French ‘R’ is different from the above two.               Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s maternal grandfather is Nobusuke Kishi, who was also a prime minister of Japan. Kishi liked to play golf and enjoyed golfing with US President Dwight David Eisenhower (Ike), just as Abe did with Donald Trump.               One day Kishi said to Ike pronouncing unconsciously ‘R’ instead of ‘L,’ “When do you have an election?” Ike showed a very puzzled expression on his face. Commen

              Japan contributed tremendously to the liberation of Asian people from colonial rule. The map of Asia changed dramatically after the Second World War because Japan had virtually expelled the colonial rulers. Some Japanese soldiers continued to stay in Asian countries to help their independence. The independence of Asian countries prompted that of African countries.               During the war Japanese soldiers fought very hard in extremely severe conditions and many of them died. At Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo you can read letters they wrote to their family several days before their death. You cannot finish reading them without tears. It is these people mostly in their twenties that created today’s world without colonies.               Yasukuni Shrine commemorates those who died for Japan and for the liberation of colonies. They fought and died with the slogan “Let's meet again at Yasukuni Shrine.” It is noteworthy that it has statues of a warhorse, a military dog,

              From my experience I can teach you how to succeed in quitting smoking. I smoked more than twenty years, but I quit twenty years ago and have not smoked even one cigarette since then. I discovered that quitting smoking has something to do with number ‘3’. My method has no monetary cost. It is the following: (1)   Choose three consecutive holidays. (2)   Quit smoking three hours before the supper of the day just before the first holiday. (3)   Do not work but do what you like in the three holidays. When you feel painful (or uncomfortable) from withdrawal symptoms, lie in bed or sofa for a while, then the pain will disappear. If you do not smoke in these days, you are approximately 50% successful in quitting permanently. (4)   In the following three weeks you will experience strong pain about five times, although the degree of pain is less than in (3). Relax for a few minutes by taking a seat, having coffee or tea, walking, talking, etc. and try to forget smoking.

              The USA has long condemned Japan before the world for the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The USA insists that the attack is sneaky because it was carried out without a declaration. There are a few points we need to keep in mind regarding this matter.               First, the USA instigated Japan to start the war through several economic sanctions including the oil embargoes in 1940 and 1941, which could be considered a virtual war declaration on Japan at that time. Moreover, the USA was aware of the attack beforehand. Second, history has more wars started without a declaration than with a declaration. For example, the USA did not make a declaration when launching the Vietnam War.               Third, the USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and says the bombing was in retaliation for the Japanese surprise attack, but this attack did not aim to kill civilians. The US a-bombs killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in the two cities. The Tok

Japan is being criticized for not agreeing on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons even though she is the only one victim country of nuclear bombing. I do not think that the treaty will lead to elimination of nuclear weapons from the earth. To possess or not to possess nuclear weapons is a choice in the prisoners’ dilemma game, in which to possess them is a strictly dominating strategy. Therefore, those countries which have nuclear weapons or those which need to rely on them will not agree on the treaty. Even if most countries agreed that nuclear weapons should be prohibited, nuclear haves would not follow the decision, since there is not world government. My idea for eliminating nuclear weapons from the earth is to propose that all nuclear haves should conclude a treaty that forces each of them to dismantle nuclear weapons if all the other countries also do so. I do not think any country can openly reject such a proposal. Comments and questions are welcome. Kazu