2014年3月31日 星期一

U.N. Court Orders Japan to Halt Whaling Off Antarctica


U.N. Court Orders Japan to Halt Whaling Off Antarctica
Photo
A January 2013 image from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society shows three minke whales on the deck of a Japanese boat in the Southern Ocean. Credit Tim Watters/Sea Shepherd Australia, via European Pressphoto Agency

TOKYO — The decision to ban Japan’s annual whaling drive off Antarctica, handed down by the United Nations’ highest court on Monday, was a hard-won victory for conservationists who long argued that Tokyo’s whaling research was a cover for commercial whaling.
The ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague halts a Japanese program that has captured more than 10,000 minke and other whales in the Southern Ocean each year since 1988 in the name of biological research.
Japan may not be ready to lay down its harpoons entirely. Though the ruling is final, it allows the Japanese to continue to hunt whales under a redesigned program, said Nanami Kurasawa, who heads a marine conservation group in Tokyo.
And the court’s decision does not affect smaller hunts that Japan carries out in the northern Pacific, or coastal whaling carried out on a smaller scale by local fishermen.
“It’s an important decision, but it also leaves the Japanese government a lot of leeway,” Ms. Kurasawa said. “The Japanese government could start research whaling again but under a different name, and it would be out of the ruling’s purview.”
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U.N. Court Orders Japan to Halt Whaling

Koji Tsuruoka, an official from Japan’s Foreign Ministry, and Geert Vons, a representative of Sea Shepherd, responded to the International Court of Justice’s order for Japan to halt whaling practices.
In a 12-to-4 judgment, the court found that Japan was in breach of its international obligations by catching and killing minke whales and issuing permits for hunting humpback and fin whales within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, established by the International Whaling Commission.
Reading a summary of the judgment, the presiding judge, Peter Tomka of Slovakia, said that the latest Japanese program, which was expanded in 2005, had involved the killing of thousands of minke whales and a number of fin whales, but that its “scientific output to date appears limited.” The ruling suggested that Japan’s whaling hunt was based on politics and logistics, rather than science. 
Lawyers attending the proceedings said there was a gasp among the audience when Judge Tomka ordered Japan to immediately “revoke all whaling permits” and not issue any new ones under the existing program.
“I rarely heard such an unequivocal, strong ruling at this court,” said a lawyer with long experience at the court who asked not to be named because he is working on a case in progress.
A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman, Noriyuki Shikata, was quoted in news reports as telling reporters in The Hague that the country “regrets and is deeply disappointed” by the decision.
But he also was quoted as saying that Japan respected the rule of law and would abide by the decision.
The ruling drew praise from environmental groups, including the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has sent ships to the remote and icy waters to block and harass Japan’s whaling fleet.
“We are very happy with the backing of the International Court,” Geert Vons, a representative of Sea Shepherd, said after leaving the courtroom. “We had never expected such a strong ruling.”
Australia, a former whaling country, brought the suit against Japan in 2010, accusing the country of using a loophole to get around a 1986 worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling.

Despite the moratorium, Japan has captured and killed more than 10,000 whales in what Tokyo describes as efforts to collect data to monitor the impact of whales on Japan’s fishing industry and to study the health and habitat of the whale population.

To pay for the government program, the meat from the culled whales is sold and makes its way to supermarkets, restaurants and schools.
Still, Japan’s whaling program has struggled financially in recent years, as more Japanese consumers turn up their noses at whale meat and as environmental activists chasing whaling boats make the hunts more difficult. Hunts in recent years have relied on public subsidies, including money drawn from funds earmarked for Japan’s post-tsunami reconstruction.
Some critics said that Monday’s decision presented Japan with an opportunity to bow out of a practice that has become a drain on its finances, as well as a blow to its image abroad.
“This might be a good time to quit,” said Toshio Kasuya, an early collaborator on Japan’s research program who has since become one of its harshest critics. From early on, it became clear to researchers that the program did not prioritize scientific discovery, he said.
“The system is bankrupt,” Mr. Kasuya said.
Whaling is defended by some Japanese, however, who feel unfairly singled out by international criticism and who argue that the hunts are a Japanese tradition. These supporters make little pretense that whaling is carried out for science.
“Some people eat beef, others eat whale. We should respect all cultures,” said Komei Wani, who leads the Group to Preserve Whale Dietary Culture, based in the whaling town of Shimonoseki. “As long as there are enough whales to go around, why can’t we hunt a few?”

2014年3月16日 星期日

Masamu Yanase 柳瀬 正夢 1900-45


Masamu Yanase
柳瀬 正夢(やなせ まさむ、1900年1月12日 - 1945年5月25日) は、美術家画家デザイナー、舞台美術家。本名は正六、別名は夏川八朗

来歴・人物

愛媛県松山市で生まれる[1]。3歳で母と死別し、家計を助けながら画家を志した。1915年、15歳の若さで油彩「河と降る光と」が院展に入選し、早熟の天才画家として有名になった[2]。その後上京し絵画を学び、1920年には読売新聞に入り、時事漫画を描いていた。
折しも米騒動ロシア革命に刺激を受け、大正デモクラシーが高まりを見せた頃で、文芸界でも民衆芸術論が盛んに議論された。柳瀬もそのような芸術運動に傾倒してゆき、普門暁未来派美術協会に入ったり、村山知義尾形亀之助大浦周蔵門脇晋郎とともにMAVOを結成したりして、前衛美術に進んだ。1924年には、三科造形美術協会を結成している。
一方でプロレタリア美術にも傾倒し、1921年種蒔く人未来派美術協会に参加。1923年日本漫画会発起人となる。そして1925年日本プロレタリア文芸同盟の結成に参加、同年創刊の無産者新聞に参加し、多くの挿絵を執筆した。
1931年10月、日本共産党入党。しかし翌1932年治安維持法違反で検挙され、拷問を受ける。こうした逆境にもめげずに、プロレタリア美術への運動を続け、無産階級の画家として知られたゲオルグ・グロッスを日本に紹介した。他にもカリカチュア、絵画に始まり、デザイン(ポスター)、コラージュ、舞台美術など、戦前~戦中にかけて幅広く活躍した。
1945年5月25日山の手空襲により新宿駅西口で戦災死。享年45。諏訪に疎開していた娘を見舞うため、22時発の中央本線の夜行列車[2]に乗ろうとした所、空襲の被害に遭ったと言われている。遺族によって柳瀬の遺体が発見されたのは、死後4日経った5月29日だった[3]東京都東村山市の「圓龍寺」の柳瀬家の墓に眠っている。[4]

脚注

主要文献

  • ねじ釘の如く―画家・柳瀬正夢の軌跡/井出孫六/岩波書店/1996年
  • ポスターの社会史 大原社研コレクション/法政大学大原社会問題研究所 梅田俊英/ひつじ書房/2001年(無産者新聞のポスターの写真あり)
  • 下記展覧会の展覧会カタログ

主要な展覧会

  • 村山知義と柳瀬正夢の世界 : グラフィックの時代(板橋区立美術館・1990年)
  • ねじ釘の画家 : 没後四十五年柳瀬正夢展(武蔵野美術大学美術資料図書館・1990年)
  • 柳瀬正夢 : 疾走するグラフィズム(武蔵野美術大学美術資料図書館・1995年)
  • 柳瀬正夢展 : 画布からあふれ出した筆跡 : 没後50年記念((久万)町立久万美術館・1995年).
  • 柳瀬正夢展 : 生誕100年記念(愛媛県美術館・2000年).
  • 槿の画家:柳瀬正夢展 (武蔵野美術大学美術資料図書館・2008年).
  • 柳瀬正夢 1900-1945 大正、昭和を駆けぬける (北九州市立美術館・2013年).

The many reinventions of Masamu Yanase

by Jeff Michael Hammond
Special To The Japan Times
If ever an artist was in a constant state of reinvention, it was Masamu Yanase (1900-1945), now the subject of a full-scale exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama. “Yanase Masamu: A Retrospective 1900-1945″ brings together more than 500 of the artist’s works, large and small, for a comprehensive overview of his career.
His first reincarnation came as a teenager when, disliking his given name of Shoroku, he changed it to Masamu, incorporating the kanji character for “dream” into his new name. Leaving his parents in Kyushu, he arrived in Tokyo at age 14, but had to flit between there and home for lack of funds. He had no art-school training, but his precocious talent secured him patrons, enabling him to continue painting.
In a number of his landscapes in oils, painted when he was just 15 years old, he builds up both the sky and greenery with overlaid short, vertical brush strokes that harmonize the entire picture plane. A view of a coastal village seems to echo the smooth color planes and dramatically high viewpoint of a Japanese woodblock print, showing a range of interests indicative of an inquisitive mind. Even at this age, his talent was recognized and one of his paintings was included in an exhibition where it was singled out for praise by a leading art critic.
He also had a pair of busy hands: The following year he not only painted his parents working in the fields but also his own masterful self-portrait. The next year he produced a series of mountain scenes recalling, but not beholden to, Cezanne’s renditions of Mont Sainte Victoire.
It was not long before Yanase was swept up in Japan’s burgeoning Futurist movement. In one energetic work from the early 1920s you can just make out a bridge, but in another, any solid forms dissolve into an abstract flurry of swirling color. Having become politicized quite early, Yanase engaged with Constructivism, although often still with a Futurist tinge, as part of the Mavo group. His “A Morning in May and Me Before Breakfast” (1923) is a vertigo-inducing riot of movement and skyscraper-like shapes, although it could also be read as a totally abstract work. Nothing else from this period quite encapsulates the chaos of the modern city.
Yanase’s next rebirth was after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Arrested during the crackdown on radicals in the aftermath of the quake, his work became even more political. Turning his back on painting — which he now considered a bourgeois pursuit — he concentrated on forms of mass communication such as posters and graphics. Much of this proletarian art is vivid and striking, and often utilizes the strong graphic potential of kanji characters. He also worked as a cartoonist, providing the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper with comical commentary on people and society.
In a bitter irony for an anarchist in favor of abolishing the nation state entirely, Yanase was pressed into fighting for Japan during World War II, a “duty” that ended up costing him his life.
“Yanase Masamu: A Retrospective 1900-1945″ at The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama runs till March 23; open 9.30 a.m.-5 p.m. ¥1,000. Closed Mon. www.moma.pref.kanagawa.jp

2014年3月12日 星期三

日經 社評:日本3·11災後3年復興路2014/3·11讓我們懂得 2012

社評:日本3·11災後3年復興路

2014/03/11
 
      造成1萬8000多人死亡和失蹤的東日本大地震轉眼已過去3年。如今仍有26萬受災群眾在臨時住宅等場所生活。經過這場大災難日本會發生改變嗎?

      在草莓産地宮城縣亙理町,200個住宅區即將建成。遭遇海嘯災害,位於「災害危險區域」的人們將集體向新住宅區轉移,不過預計將空出約10個住宅區。

   政府機構應對死板

       這是因為越來越多的受災者搬到了其他地區、放棄重建住宅。亙理町也在召集危險區域以外的受災百姓,不過日本國土交通省認為這是將住宅用於「目的以外的用途」,要求返還這部分的土地使用費用。

       因為災區居民區建設項目由國家全額出資,所以不允許經費被濫用。但是,隨著時間的推移,受災者的想法會發生變化。國家的態度是不是太過僵硬了?

      即便如此,開始重建住宅的亙理町已經算是很不錯了。在受災地,確保的住宅用地和建成的國有住宅僅僅佔一小部分。因為想要確保轉移用地,卻因所有者不明以及用地未登記而難以推進。

       岩手縣提議國會設立一項新制度,規定只要自治體向第三機構支付購買費用,即使不經過所有者同意也可以著手動工建設。但是,由於此舉「可能侵害私有産權」,國會並未予以認可。

        東日本大地震已過去3年,中央政府機構僵硬的應對措施越來越明顯。不應根據制度來應對,而是應該根據受災地的情況靈活應對。這難道不是災後復興的出發點嗎?

       如果住宅重建進度放緩,在臨時住宅的生活將進一步走向長期化。很多老年受災者都患有高血壓和心臟病等疾病,但是醫療和看護的人才卻嚴重不足。

       從阪神大地震來看,正式開始重建住宅時,被留在臨時住宅裏的老人很容易出現「孤獨死」。因此需要更多撫慰老人心靈的人。

      另外,災區的産業再生也尚未實現。在宮城縣石卷市的水産加工區,60%的企業已經重新投産,石卷漁港的漁獲量也恢復至接近70%。但是,實際情況並未恢復到數字所顯示的那樣。

        最大的煩惱就是人手不足。震災前居住在加工區附近的居民會作為兼職人員等來上班。但是,沿海地區遭到了海嘯的襲擊,現在很多人都分散居住在內陸地區。

       石卷魚市場的社長鬚能邦雄説:「由於離加工區較遠,有人不願意回來工作」。如果受災者遲遲不就業,工廠將無法正式投産。

       和宮城和岩手縣相比,福島縣的復興相對滯後。福島第1核電站不斷洩漏污水,在事故中溶解的核燃料的狀況也尚不清晰。首先必須盡全力治理污水,逐漸推進廢爐作業。

       清除放射污染方面也遲遲不見進展。政府將清污的目標調整為「將長期輻射物質攝取量降低至每年1毫西弗(mSv)」,改為基於居民輻射物質攝取量數據來靈活判斷達成狀況。

       圍繞1毫西弗的目標,不少聲音批評「目標過高」,應當進行調整。國家和自治體應該遵照新指針加快清污工作的步伐。

   有必要集中住宅等設施

        日本政府計劃4月1日在田村市的部分地區解除避難指示。不過,居民對於避難解除1年後才支付損害賠償以及返回田村市的居民和不返回居民的賠償額不同感到強烈擔憂和不滿。

       在大熊町和雙葉町,越來越多的居民覺得避難生活將走向長期化,「除污作業結束後也不打算回去」。考慮到放棄返回故鄉的居民,希望國家能夠在確保固定住所、就業以及上學方面加大援助力度。

       很多受災區都出現過疏化趨勢。因此在災後復興時有必要以公共設施為中心儘量將住宅集中到一起。防災視點方面應該考慮到避難建築等,而不是一味依賴防潮堤。

       另外農業和漁業設施的規模也有必要擴大。僅僅回到過去的水平在今後的産地間競爭中將無法取勝。

       如果受災地無法真正實現復興,便不會誕生全新的日本。因此,國家和自治體有必要靈活運用制度、結合地區實際情況來出台再生政策。

****

社評:3·11讓我們懂得

2012/03/12
 
     日本在世界上不可能單獨生存。在3・11日本大地震之時和之後的經濟混亂中,日本與世界之間「絆」(紐帶、聯絡)的重要性表現得淋漓盡致。日本必須吸取教訓,走上新的經濟增長之路。

     在此次災區的日本東北地區有很多工廠遭遇災害,零件供應鏈出現了中斷。其影響不僅限於日本國內,美國和歐洲等主要企業的生産也蒙受了打擊。

      在人命救助和災區重建過程中,世界各國都熱情地伸出了援手。不僅是美國和歐洲的已開發國家。亞洲和非洲的發展中國家也都提供了支援。

      日本在經濟和心理層面與世界的「絆」超過了我們日本人的想像。在經濟萎靡不振的「失去的20年」中,日本國內瀰漫著內孤立封閉的情緒,而此次的地震讓日本懂得了很多。

     我們懂得了一處零部件工廠遭遇災害會導致整體生産活動停止,這樣的製造業的流程是日本經濟的「弱點」。今後有必要打破長期重視效率和短期成本而建立起來的關聯企業交易的束縛,進而建立更加開放的採購網。

     我們懂得了在福島第一核電站事故中,圍繞事故發生後的應對舉措,電力行業等相互勾結的「原子能村」的封閉性。希望日本的核電相關企業和團體認真反省引發重大事故的現實。不要試圖僅僅依靠國內企業來實施廢堆和去污作業,還應大力學習美、法和俄羅斯等國的經驗。

     我們還懂得了日本欠缺向世界發佈信息和進行對話的能力。世界各國不斷抱怨無法了解有關日本核電站事故的實情和政府內部的決策過程。如果不具備將自身信息傳達給對方的能力,就難以實現相互理解和協調。

     另一方面,我們還懂得了日本的「優勢」。這就是在悲慘的境地中,維護社會秩序的能力、工作在一線的人們的堅韌不拔、凝聚力和互助精神等。作為日本競爭力核心的技術能力正是植根于這樣高度發達的工作一線文化。

     作為技術和産品的供給基地,日本的影響力得到了再次確認。美國蘋果公司「iPhone」的約35%零部件由日本生産。沒有日本就無法生産出産品的企業在海外為數眾多。    克服從地震中了解的「弱點」,發揮「長處」,就可以找到引導日本走向復興的道路。現在正是日本轉向新增長模式的機會,不要在少子老齡化過程中抑制供給以實現均衡,而是與需求不斷增長的亞洲新興市場國家等經濟體實現共存共榮。

      日本的貿易收支(國際收支數據)在去年時隔48年後再次轉為赤字。將目光瞄準美、歐已開發國家市場,在汽車、家電、鋼鐵和機械這4個領域鼓勵出口的過去的成功經驗已經風光不再。

      如果將海內外的勞動成本按照美元進行比較,橫濱的工資是韓國首爾市的2.5倍,是中國廣州市的10倍,越南胡志明市的30倍。福島核電站事故的影響必然會長期化,在現階段,與美歐和韓國已經達到約2倍的産業電費差距也不可能輕易解決。

     今後,日本應轉換「日本製造能力」的核心。如果在日本國內生産同等技術水平的産品,在價格上就很難戰勝亞洲其他國家的競爭對手。

      在海外盈利,然後返回日本的全球化經營模式是企業成長的有力手段。另一方面,在日本地震後,節能、醫療和信息通信等領域的需求不斷高漲,相關技術開發和經驗累積迅速加快。日本企業應該明白,這是將經營重心轉向高附加值的産品和服務的歷史性良機。

      而政策決策和企業經營所需要的是進軍世界的勇氣。例如將泛太平洋經濟合作協議(TPP)看作是美國在農業等領域敲開日本市場的工具是非常錯誤的。

     不要迫於外部壓力而實施防禦,而應該在海外積極構建日本的人才、技術和投資資金活躍的舞臺,使之成為提高日本國內生産效率的「TPP」。不斷減少的日本政府開發援助(ODA)援助發展中國家也不是唯一目的,在世界上廣交朋友就是日本對未來進行投資。

    要從國內走向海外。要將地震當做轉機,轉變發展思路,讓日本與世界實現共同增長。

2014年3月10日 星期一

Unit 731 : Takeo Tamiya,



維基百科,自由的百科全書
731部隊舊日本軍關東軍防疫給水部本部的別名。該單位由石井四郎所領導,因此也稱之為「石井部隊」。731部隊也是在抗日戰爭(1937年-1945年)和第二次世界大戰期間,日本帝國陸軍日本以外領土從事生物戰細菌戰研究和人體試驗相關研究的秘密軍事醫療部隊的代稱,也是日本帝國陸軍在佔領滿洲期間(從1931年到第二次世界大戰結束的1945年)所做的研究之一。
731部隊的正式編號是關東軍第659部隊(防疫給水部)下之第731防疫飲水淨化部隊,研究內容主要以研究防治疾病與飲水淨化為主,但其實該部隊使用活體中國人進行生物武器化學武器的效果實驗。731部隊把基地建在中國東北哈爾濱平房區,這一區域當時是滿洲國的一部分。一些研究者認為三千名中國人、朝鮮人和聯軍戰俘在731部隊的試驗中死亡。[1][2]

Imperial Japan's Abominable Dr. Death, And The Most Disgraceful War Crime "Amnesia" In History

In this space last week, I mentioned the strange story of Takeo Tamiya, who, in becoming president of the Japan Medical Association, rose to the highest pinnacle of the Japanese medical profession in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
To say the least this was an undeserved triumph.  With the possible exception of Nazi Germany’s diabolical Dr. Josef Mengele, Tamiya must rank as the most notorious medical doctor in history. The fact is he had played a particularly significant role in Japan’s war effort as chief recruiter for Unit 731, the Japanese imperial army’s notorious biological warfare research organization. All the evidence is that he was highly effective in persuading the brightest young medical graduates to join the satanic effort.
As documented by, among other authors, Sheldon Harris (Factories of Death), and Peter Williams and David Wallace (Unit 731: The Japanese Army’s Secret of Secrets), Unit 731 committed some of the most abominable war crimes in history. In a shocking breach of one of the oldest and most universally observed rules in medicine, Unit 731 used human beings as guinea pigs in countless grotesquely cruel experiments.
The victims, most of them Chinese, may have numbered as many as 12,000, according to Harris. Some were injected with horse blood. Others died an agonizing death suspended upside down. One unfortunate was placed in a centrifugal separator to extract the blood from his body. Then there were the vivisection experiments — conducted without an anesthetic As the war ended in August 1945, those human guinea pigs who were still alive were summarily executed to keep Unit 731’s activities secret.
 
English: Josef Mengele (1911-1979), German SS ...
Police photograph of Dr. Josef Mengele: his Japanese counterpart was luckier.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How come Tamiya went on to such a prestigious postwar career?
As the reaction to last week’s commentary has demonstrated, apologists continue to this day to suggest that postwar Japan somehow did not know who Tamiya was. For anyone familiar with Japan this is simply not credible.
As the late Sheldon Harris, a historian at California State University, has documented, the true significance of Unit 731’s “water purification plant” in Manchuria, where the most notorious experiments were conducted, was widely understood in the higher reaches of Japanese society even during the war. Over a fifteen-year period – from 1930 to 1945 – Unit 731’s military chiefs often spoke to large audiences at army medical colleges, civilian universities, and scientific conferences, and made little secret of the fact that humans were used. On occasion, they used motion pictures of human experiments and even showed preserved human parts to make their point.
Writing in 1994, Harris explained: “Knowledge of BW [biological warfare], including human experimentation, was shared by many Japanese who belonged to a certain stratum of society. The military, the scientific community, key elements within the Diet, and members of the extended royal family were privy to the secret…Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of army medical doctors, veterinarians, biologists, chemists, microbiologists, technical staff, and the like were rotated regularly to Manchuria and to occupied China. Many of these people were employed in the human experiment stations, and either participated directly in the experiments or were told about them by others who did work with humans. At the least, they heard rumors concerning offensive BW work with humans conducted in their workplace.”
Almost as soon as the war ended, Unit 731 leaders moved to do a deal with the U.S. Army, and in  return for sharing their knowledge they received immunity from prosecution for war crimes. In a classic illustration of how Americans allow themselves to be out-negotiated in Japan, the deal was entered into by Colonel Murray Sanders, a young medical officer, before he discovered that human guinea pigs had been used.
Soon the truth began to leak out.  In January 1946, the Japanese press carried allegations by Japanese Communist Party leaders that members of the Japanese army medical corps had infected Chinese and American prisoners of war with bubonic plague. These were also reported by the U.S. Army newspaper Pacific Stars and Stripes and the New York Times.
Then in a war crimes trial in the Soviet Union in 1949, many of the most appalling details of Unit 731 emerged for the first time, when twelve captured Japanese army officers were put on trial. Although the trial was dismissed by the Japanese establishment as a show trial, the Soviets subsequently demonstrated the validity of their charges beyond a reasonable doubt by making a massive dossier available in several languages including Japanese and English.
All this notwithstanding, Tamiya was appointed president of the Japan Medical Association in 1950. Although his tenure was cut short by officers of the American occupation, who forced him to stand down, as soon as the occupation ended in 1952, he was reinstated. He therefore ranked as the only person in the association’s history to serve two separate spells as president.
Although Tamiya is far beyond justice — he died in 1963 — this does not mean the case is closed. In a war in which particularly shocking things were done on all sides, the Japanese medical profession’s role in Unit 731 was uniquely shocking. If Americans have it within them to atone for Hiroshima (Jimmy Carter and Nancy Pelosi have visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and U.S. Ambassador John Roos attended commemoration ceremonies in 2010 and 2012), it is past time the Japanese establishment got over its “amnesia” about Unit 731.

In this space last week, I mentioned the strange story of Takeo Tamiya, who, in becoming president of the Japan Medical Association, rose to the highest pinnacle of the Japanese medical profession in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
To say the least this was an undeserved triumph.  With the possible exception of Nazi Germany’s diabolical Dr. Josef Mengele, Tamiya must rank as the most notorious medical doctor in history. The fact is he had played a particularly significant role in Japan’s war effort as chief recruiter for Unit 731, the Japanese imperial army’s notorious biological warfare research organization. All the evidence is that he was highly effective in persuading the brightest young medical graduates to join the satanic effort.
As documented by, among other authors, Sheldon Harris (Factories of Death), and Peter Williams and David Wallace (Unit 731: The Japanese Army’s Secret of Secrets), Unit 731 committed some of the most abominable war crimes in history. In a shocking breach of one of the oldest and most universally observed rules in medicine, Unit 731 used human beings as guinea pigs in countless grotesquely cruel experiments.
The victims, most of them Chinese, may have numbered as many as 12,000, according to Harris. Some were injected with horse blood. Others died an agonizing death suspended upside down. One unfortunate was placed in a centrifugal separator to extract the blood from his body. Then there were the vivisection experiments — conducted without an anesthetic As the war ended in August 1945, those human guinea pigs who were still alive were summarily executed to keep Unit 731’s activities secret.
 
English: Josef Mengele (1911-1979), German SS ...
Police photograph of Dr. Josef Mengele: his Japanese counterpart was luckier.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How come Tamiya went on to such a prestigious postwar career?
As the reaction to last week’s commentary has demonstrated, apologists continue to this day to suggest that postwar Japan somehow did not know who Tamiya was. For anyone familiar with Japan this is simply not credible.
As the late Sheldon Harris, a historian at California State University, has documented, the true significance of Unit 731’s “water purification plant” in Manchuria, where the most notorious experiments were conducted, was widely understood in the higher reaches of Japanese society even during the war. Over a fifteen-year period – from 1930 to 1945 – Unit 731’s military chiefs often spoke to large audiences at army medical colleges, civilian universities, and scientific conferences, and made little secret of the fact that humans were used. On occasion, they used motion pictures of human experiments and even showed preserved human parts to make their point.
Writing in 1994, Harris explained: “Knowledge of BW [biological warfare], including human experimentation, was shared by many Japanese who belonged to a certain stratum of society. The military, the scientific community, key elements within the Diet, and members of the extended royal family were privy to the secret…Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of army medical doctors, veterinarians, biologists, chemists, microbiologists, technical staff, and the like were rotated regularly to Manchuria and to occupied China. Many of these people were employed in the human experiment stations, and either participated directly in the experiments or were told about them by others who did work with humans. At the least, they heard rumors concerning offensive BW work with humans conducted in their workplace.”
Almost as soon as the war ended, Unit 731 leaders moved to do a deal with the U.S. Army, and in  return for sharing their knowledge they received immunity from prosecution for war crimes. In a classic illustration of how Americans allow themselves to be out-negotiated in Japan, the deal was entered into by Colonel Murray Sanders, a young medical officer, before he discovered that human guinea pigs had been used.
Soon the truth began to leak out.  In January 1946, the Japanese press carried allegations by Japanese Communist Party leaders that members of the Japanese army medical corps had infected Chinese and American prisoners of war with bubonic plague. These were also reported by the U.S. Army newspaper Pacific Stars and Stripes and the New York Times.
Then in a war crimes trial in the Soviet Union in 1949, many of the most appalling details of Unit 731 emerged for the first time, when twelve captured Japanese army officers were put on trial. Although the trial was dismissed by the Japanese establishment as a show trial, the Soviets subsequently demonstrated the validity of their charges beyond a reasonable doubt by making a massive dossier available in several languages including Japanese and English.
All this notwithstanding, Tamiya was appointed president of the Japan Medical Association in 1950. Although his tenure was cut short by officers of the American occupation, who forced him to stand down, as soon as the occupation ended in 1952, he was reinstated. He therefore ranked as the only person in the association’s history to serve two separate spells as president.
Although Tamiya is far beyond justice — he died in 1963 — this does not mean the case is closed. In a war in which particularly shocking things were done on all sides, the Japanese medical profession’s role in Unit 731 was uniquely shocking. If Americans have it within them to atone for Hiroshima (Jimmy Carter and Nancy Pelosi have visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and U.S. Ambassador John Roos attended commemoration ceremonies in 2010 and 2012), it is past time the Japanese establishment got over its “amnesia” about Unit 731.


2014年3月4日 星期二

日本販賣機飲料各家紛紛調漲


日本販賣機飲料競爭很激烈,價格戰採恐怖平衡定價......現在各家紛紛調漲,不知是否有"壟斷/公平交易"問題


サントリーなど飲料大手が10円値上げ
 清涼飲料大手のサントリー食品インターナショナルは3日、消費税増税に伴い4月1日から自動販売機向け商品の大半を10円値上げすると発表した。 500ミリリットルペットボトルの茶飲料「伊右衛門」などは150円から160円に、缶コーヒー「ボス」(185グラム)などは120円から130円にそ れぞれ値上げする。
 既に値上げを発表した最大手の日本コカ・コーラグループと足並みをそろえた。ダイドードリンコも3日に値上げ方針を表明。他の大手も追随するとみられ、大半の清涼飲料は4月に一斉に値上げされる方向となった。
 サントリーは、一部商品の価格は抑えて売り上げを確保する。ミネラルウオーター「サントリー天然水」は110円で据え置き、茶飲料「サントリー ウーロン茶」などは容量を減らした435ミリリットル入りペットボトルを導入して140円で販売する。
 一方、ダイドーの高松富也副社長は3日、決算発表の記者会見で、自販機向け缶コーヒーは「基本的に10円値上げする方向で検討している」と述べた。値上げの詳細は未定としており、一部商品は価格据え置きや容量変更で対応するという。(共同)
 [2014年3月3日19時32分]