Over the New Years holidays, Yasukuni Shrine holds an archery ritual known as San-San-Ku Tebasami Shiki. Two teams of archers shoot at targets whose measurements relate to the principle of ying yang. The ritual is held at the beginning of the year and it in olden times, it was the first archery event of the new year.
After the ritual, yabusame was performed. Yabusame is mounted archery where an archer rides a horse and shoots at the three targets. Yasukuni, however, doesn’t have the ground for such an event so they improvised using a fake horse and turning in around in a circle.
Bernanke re-confirmed as Federal Reserve Chairman in a 70 to 30 vote. Will the “30″ bit undermine his authority at The Fed? I doubt it, but history will tell.
Speaking of History, we are frequently reminded that: history never repeats, but it often rhymes. I love these old market sayings, like: “so goes January, so goes the year”. Of course I never pay any attention to them (ahem). We were hearing that phrase a lot mid January, not so much now… hmmm… weird.
Speaking of rhyming, I just wanted to show this piece from Galland’s interview with Andy Miller on the potential for the commercial property market in the US – this is quite shocking and not for the faint-hearted.
US Commercial Real Estate Train Wreck
Could it be just coincidental that the government removed caps on Fannie and Freddie on a day when they hoped nobody would notice – Christmas Eve? In fact, on January 7th I wrote:
In that vein, you will have noticed the little trinket that was snuck in the tax-payers Christmas stocking by US government on Christmas Eve – which effectively gives Fannie and Freddie an open cheque-book on mortgage underwriting. A nice pass-the-buck from Fed-to-Fred continuation of mortgage obligations, if you will – who says that the Fed is politically independent? To quote the Wall Street Journal:
“The timing of this executive order giving Fannie and Freddie a blank check is no coincidence,” said Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the House Financial Services Committee. He said the Christmas Eve announcement was designed “to prevent the general public from taking note.”
Notice, Miller sees the problems in commercial real estate being played out in exactly the same manner as they were with residential property. Well, “history never repeats…”.
Notice, he anticipates things being relatively benign in the Real Estate market until the second half of the 2010 – then things come home to roost in the latter part of the year. A bit like the January we’ve had, smooth and benign for the first part then suddenly (as if out of nowhere) a bout of volatility and the gains were lost. Well, “so goes January…”.
Incidentally, Miller may be an expert but he’s not the only man to use “commercial real estate” and “train wreck” the same sentence: US Commercial Real Estate Train Wreck – Dimon.
As its Friday I like to end with something a little less abrasive. Here is a nice visual of the countries which have owned America’s debt since 2002. Given the short time frame it’s quite incredible to see China’s rise to power (yes, owning the largest part of an indebted superpower’s debt is power – that’s the whole point).
Macro Data to Watch:
Japanese Industrial Production came out worse than expected.
Japanese Inflation Figures came out in line with expectations at -1.7% (correct, that’s a minus sign in front of the 1.7%)
BoJ says Deflation will continue – you don’t say?
Singaporean Jobs Numbers
South Korean Industrial Production
Spanish Jobs Numbers – currently at 17.93% unemployment.
Canadian Industrial Production
Canadian GDP – expected at +0.3%
US GDP – expected at +4.7% annualized.
Markets
Not so pretty, but at least we saw a degree of orderliness in the market. Tech’s seemed to dominate, Nokia hit the cover off the ball and stock jumped 10%, Qualcomm, on the other hand, didn’t even step up to the plate and stock crashed 14% – see chart. Apple had a chunk bitten out of it too – yeah, I’m not yet a buyer of this “Tablet” thingy either.
Source: Bloomberg
Obama’s speech was fairly well received by the market, I thought – although I felt it was much more divisive than the media made out. There are many things I love Obama for, including the diplomacy and eloquence of his speech-making but this was not a bi-partisan speech, in fact, claiming it was, only makes it feel more partisan.
On the same topic: Commercial Real Estate Train Wreck. No comment would be complete without talking about China. Who thinks the best way to play China is to do everything in your power to short-sell it. But, with respect to commercial real estate, even the hardened China bulls admit, Chanos may have a point, as the Daily Reckoning quote:
The renowned short-seller, Jim Chanos, has been highlighting the credit excesses in China for months…and worrying publicly that these excesses will end badly. Chanos calls the credit-fuelled real estate bubble in China “unprecedented.” And in a recent CNBC interview, he remarked, “One fun fact I’d like to mention: Right now, for commercial real estate, there’s 30 billion square feet under construction. Not all of that will probably get finished…but to put 30 billion square feet in context, that would be a 5 foot-by-5 foot office cubicle for every man, woman and child in China.”
Hmmm… 5-foot-by-5-foot… and that’s just the commercial real estate currently under construction… hmmmm… Hey, but who knows where Chanos gets his figures from – perhaps some of it will be used for indoor bowling alleys, anyway. In any case, you make your mind up.
Chanos is right?
Chanos is wrong?
Global Stocks to Watch:
Techs are in the headlines
Consumer cyclicals on this pending GDP number
Alternative Financials – the listed Hedge Fund Man Group still getting whacked.
Autos – Toyota news on recalls is still running.
Earnings:
Consumer: Mattel
Tech: Samsung, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ricoh, Toshiba, Fujitsu,
Press Release: Apple Maintains Brand Loyalty and Nears PC Primacy in 2 of 16 Countries, according to forthcoming MetaFacts Apple Profile Report
ENCINITAS, CA (January 26, 2010) – Business Wire
Apple has maintained its strong Home PC repurchase brand loyalty – outpacing non-Apple PCs across 16 countries. Two market segments stood out – Younger PC Newbies and Older PC Veterans – according to the forthcoming Apple Profile Report from MetaFacts, Inc.
“It’s a testament to Apple’s marketing prowess that it can earn the loyalty of the youngest and newest to personal computers. Maintaining loyalty among the most seasoned users is a demonstration of Apple fulfilling its promises,” said Dan Ness, Principal Analyst at MetaFacts. “Close to two-thirds – 63% of Apple users aged 18 to 34 and who have used a PC less than 25% of their life – intend for their next Home PC to be an Apple. This is nearly identical to the 62% of those aged 35 and older and who have used a PC more than 25% of their life.”
The study also reveals that Apple is making inroads predominantly as the user’s second or third PC.
“Apple is slowly gaining the trust of many, primarily as an alternate,” said Dan Ness, Principal Analyst at MetaFacts. “Of the 16 countries we surveyed, only in France and among India’s Upper Urbanites did we find Apple’s share of the primary PC to be close to its share of their other PCs. Apple’s PC primacy is weakest in Australia and Germany.”
Other questions answered in the forthcoming MetaFacts Apple Profile Report include:
How Apple PCs are used differently from Windows PCs, and where they are not used differently
How Apple iPhones are used differently than other smartphones and basic mobile phones
The creative and activity levels of Apple computer users
Apple’s direct rivals which vary across countries
The unique demographic profile of Apple PC and iPhone customers
The digital homes of Apple customers, with their progressively unique collections of consumer electronics products and services.
The MetaFacts Apple Profile Report is based on results from the MetaFacts Technology User Profile Global Insights Edition – surveys of over 46,700 representative adults in 16 countries by telephone and online. The 200+ page report, scheduled for release in 1st quarter 2010 is available for pre-ordering through the online store at the MetaFacts website – MetaFacts.com.
About MetaFacts
MetaFacts, Inc. is a national market research firm focusing exclusively on the technology industries. MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile survey is the longest-running, large-scale comprehensive study of its kind, conducted continuously since 1983, the year before Apple released the Apple Macintosh. The detailed results are a long-time primary marketing resource for Fortune 1000 companies providing consumer-oriented technology products and services, such as PCs, printers, peripherals, mobile computing, and related services and products. For more information, contact MetaFacts at 1-760-635-4300, sales@metafacts.com, or www.metafacts.com
You are here: Home / Car News / Mazda6 facelift unveiled in JapanMazda6 facelift unveiled in Japan
January 26, 2010 by George Skentzos
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While the new generation Mazda6 is still by no means outdated, Mazda has unveiled a facelifted version which adopts the new Mazda family face with a five-point front grille.
Available in three body styles – Sedan, Sport Hatch and Sport Wagon – the refreshed Mazda6 includes improvements to its environmental and safety attributes, driving performance, interior and exterior design, and quality levels.
In Japan, 2.0-litre models have been updated with Mazda’s direct injection MZR 2.0L DISI engine with both front and all-wheel-drive models qualifying as Super-Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles (SU-LEV).
Updated power steering and suspension settings have been integrated, resulting in better handling and straight-line stability at high speeds, as well as delivering a more premium quality ride and enhanced comfort.
Both the 17-inch and 18-inch aluminium wheels have new designs, and the range of eight exterior body colours has been augmented with two new colours – Clear Water Blue Metallic and Midnight Bronze Mica.
Inside, the centre panel stack has a smooth, glossy, piano-black finish while chrome plating adorns the climate control and audio dials, and other parts.
Can you see Fuji-san in the distance!? Apparently it is very rare and therefore very lucky to see it...
Yesterday (Saturday) Tomoko (my mom’s first cousin) treated me, my mom and Kay to a day tour of Tokyo. For all the times we’ve been and all the time my mom lived here, neither of us had really seen many of the sites in Tokyo, or at least not in a way that we had any clue as to what we were looking at. Excited but daunted by the eight our schedule that took us from one side of the city to the other and everywhere in between, we arrived at the designated train station and boarded the bus promptly at 9 a.m. It was immediately apparent that our guide’s English was less than stellar, but after learning (after much ear straining and guessing here and there) that he taught himself English using the English Japanese Public Radio shows, I just gave up and got out of it what I could for the remainder of the day.
Our first stop was Tokyo Tower which is shaped somewhat like the Eiffel Tower. We were ushered straight off the bus and into an elevator where we were whisked up to some very high place to enjoy the view. It was a beautiful day and to our surprise we could see Mt. Fuji (which the Japanese all lovingly call Fuji-san, like it’s their first born child or something) way off in the distance. For being almost 100 kilometers away from where we were, our photos aren’t half bad either. It was rather interesting to walk around and check everything out, especially because they had screens set up all around the observation deck where you could see what was where in any number of languages. We were able to find Aoyama cemetary where we had been, the U.S. Embassy where Kay used to work etc. which was fun.
Our next stop was a beautiful Japanese garden where we attended a traditional (although very casual
I would love to witness a real, very thorough tea ceremony one day...It was a little hard to really enjoy and appreciate this one with 20 other people crammed in the room.
according to Tomoko) tea ceremony and had a chance to stroll the garden grounds. There were several weddings going on that day and all of the couples were beautifully dressed in their kimono. The guests were flooding in as we went to leave dressed to impress in everything from opulent cocktail dresses and fur coats to traditional kimono…so much fun to watch! While there we came across a particularly funny parking sign adorned with some rather interesting Japanese-English translations.
Third on the agenda was lunch at a Japanese BBQ restaurant located at the Four Seasons hotel in Tokyo. We walked through a beautiful garden from the hotel’s lobby to get there, and sat around tempenyaki grills with fellow members of our group to enjoy a delicious lunch. The restaurant itself was in a very traditional style building and surrounded by the most beautiful grounds, making for a lovely lunch atmosphere. Talk about a small world, the two women sitting with us were from the American Consulate in D.C. and struck up quite the conversation with Kay about mutual friends they had through work. When we had sat down we were talking with Tomoko about weddings and a bit later when we first struck up conversation withthe two ladies at our table, one began by saying to me “so you mentioned you were getting married,” and when I shook my head in surprise she said “hmm well I see
We saw several brides that day, but this one was the most beautiful of them all. Her hair was particularly gorgeous with the flowers, not to mention her gorgeous kimono. Makes you wonder why Japanese girls opt for a western style wedding/dress instead.
you getting married before the end of the year…sometimes I see into the future and usually when I make a blunder like that and just blurt something out I am pretty right on about it.” Shocked to say the least, I told my mom later I was attending a few weddings this year and had every intention of leaving it at that. Yeah, don’t worry Daddy, no wedding to pay for in 2010 I promise!
After lunch we drove for about 35 minutes before we reached the very center of Tokyo where the Emperor and Empress live. On the way there I learned a few things: 1) There are about 127 million people living in Japan of which 30 million live in Tokyo which is so small that there are something like
Me, Mom & Tomoko in front of one of the main entrances to the Imperial compound. Apparently this is a very famous spot that they call "two bridges"
14,000 people to each square kilometer in the city. 2) The Emperor and Empress live on some 200+ acres with a moat and everything which no one is ever allowed to go in save for two days out of the year. 3) Despite having all of this pomp and circumstance, the Emperor doesn’t actually have any political power but instead is merely a symbol of Japan, thought to be the descendent of the gods and in his day to day life, an ambassador of his country. 4) Daily, over 1,000 people enter into the royal compound to service just those two people living there. A beautiful area, it was a bit crazy to think of the juxtaposition of the whole thing. Our guide seemed peeved by the fact that HIS tax dollars paid for such lavish living and noted more than once that “they (the Emperor and Empress) don’t even ever come out to say thank you.” Talking with Tomoko about it later she said that this irritation was not shared by the majority of the people of Japan who think that it is completely normal and wonderful that they live the way they do. So there. Personally I think living in the middle of such an amazing city with only one other person and no where to go would get real boring real fast. To each his own I guess.
Our next activity was a river cruise under some 17 bridges or so, ending at Asakusa temple. As we were getting off the boat Kay was scolding me
The ceilings on this boat were sooo low that save for Kay (who we are convinced is shrinking by the moment), we all had to duck just to get in and out!
(playfully of course) for wandering off (which I really wasn’t doing, but can easily seem like the case when there are millions of people standing right where you are and she says to me “if you get lost what are you going to do? You know what? We should just leave you somewhere and see what happens, see where you end up!” after which she laughed heartily and whacked me a good one on the butt. Do you see what I put up with?!?
Kay, Me, Tomoko and the madness of Asakusa temple
It’s a good thing both my mom and I had been to Asakusa temple before seeing as though we only briefly saw it this time around (as we were rushing to get to the bus in time) due to the excessive eating and shopping we were instead taking part in. SO crowded but such a good place for omiyage buying we went to town and by the time we hit the bus we were all dead tired. A short drive and very uplifting talk (or not) about the suicide rate in Japan by our tour guide later, we were finally on our way home. Stuffed from lunch we opted out of a sit-down dinner with Kay and instead raided the convenience store next to our hotel for soba, salad, fruit, last minute omiyage and of course dessert. What a day I tell you. We both slept in until 8 a.m. this morning which, if you know my mom who wakes up habitually at 5 a.m. every
This is as close to the temple as we actually got lol
day, was quite a feat and a direct correlation to our complete and total exhaustion.
After packing our bags (all of which weigh about 8 tons each) we walked around Chinatown for a bit before meeting about 12 members of our family for a very lavish Chinese lunch. It was so fun to see everyone, especially the little ones that we had never met before (I swear when kids are little everything they do is adorable!). Afterward we sent my mom off to the airport with Koichi and I headed home with Tomoko where I will be staying until I leave to go home Thursday. On the agenda for the next few days is the following: shopping, eating, shopping, overnight at an onsen somewhere in the countryside, lunch with Kay at some fancy European place she loves and I’m sure more eating and shopping.
Goodnight for now! xoxo, erin
Mom, Kay and me beneath Tokyo Tower
Ocha!
One of the wedding parties at the garden....traditional I guess, she looks like she's being inducted into the KKK to me...
Much better in my opinion All of the weddings going on made for a very happy atmosphere.
All of the trees in the background are cherry trees...can you even imagine how beautiful this place must be in the spring when they bloom???
Red plum blossoms...the first of the season
What to buy, what to buy...I'm going to start cruising around in a kimono I think...they all look so elegant in theirs
On the street in Chinatown - These are the largest manapua I've ever seen in my entire life...soo yum I bet!
Lunch with the fam in Chinatown...the restaurant was like 4 stories high and very, very beautiful
Koichi's son Hiro is two and was very excited about the trucks my mom brought him...so excited in fact that he opened and played with all 12 of them at once!
Eriko and her daughter Sayaka
MY cars is what I imagine he was saying to his brother as he horded them all on his side of the table...
Mmmm shumai
Keeping little Hiro busy with books between courses...such cute kids
Mmmm and some mango jelatin thing for dessert, which lasted for about .5 seconds on my plate before being in my belly
Here is another memoir, this time in the form of a sermon on forgiveness, from my 85-year-old father. He’s a former missionary to Japan and now an oft retired country preacher, so everything he writes ends up sounding like a sermon, just as anything I write ends up sounding like an academic essay.
On December 7, 1941, I was a senior at Franklin High School in Southampton County, Virginia. I remember that the principal assembled us in the school auditorium to hear President Roosevelt speak to the American people by radio. He announced the infamous attack by Japanese planes on Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. He also declared war on Japan. I finished high school in June 1942 and entered Richmond College that fall.
I only spent 11 years in high school, so I entered college when I was 17. My military draft board granted me a ministerial deferment, which required me to attend college all 12 months of the year, so finished when I was 20 years old. In all those years, I had never met a Japanese person and, to say the least, they were not depicted in a flattering manner in the news reels I saw during the war.
On August 15, 1945, I was pastor of the Lawrenceville Baptist Church in Brunswick County, Virginia. That day we heard that World War II had ended, and that night we had a prayer meeting at the church, during which I felt my first real tug to be a missionary to Japan. I remember one deacon prayed, “Lord, we have sent soldiers to Japan to defeat them in war; now let us send missionaries to lead them to Christ. That for me was a sort of call to go as a missionary, since I had not been called to go as a soldier.
I eventually arrived in Japan as a Southern Baptist missionary in August 1950. After two years of language study in Tokyo I was assigned to be chaplain of Seinan Jo Gakuin in Kokura (now part of the city of Kitakyushu), a Southern Baptist school for Japanese girls that ran from junior high school through junior college. Sunday attendance at church was required and we held frequent chapel services, at which different faculty members spoke. As pastor of Mt. Zion Church on campus, I was quite often asked to speak. Sometimes we had an outside speaker.
On one such occasion, I shared the platform with a speaker of the day who was famous in Japan as Captain Mitsuo Fuchida. It was he who led the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The reason he was speaking at a Christian school was that he had become a Christian and was by then well known in Japan as one who called the Japanese people to renew faith in themselves and in Christ. I remember well his message that day and on another occasion when I heard him give an expanded version of that same message. He was not a powerful speaker but his message was one of power. I shall attempt to give a brief version of the message he gave in Japanese, which lasted an hour and a half.
When the War in the Pacific, as the Japanese called it, ended in defeat for Japan, this came as a great shock to the Japanese people who had been told by their leaders, “We are winning the war on all fronts.” Mitsuo Fuchida was the only pilot still living who took part in that attack on Pearl Harbor. They had continued to fight an increasingly less victorious war, and one by one they had been killed in battle. Fuchida told of several very close calls he himself had experienced and said that he believed he had been spared to share the Gospel with Japan. He considered it to be their best, if not only, hope.
Mitsuo Fuchida had believed, as the Japanese people had been led to believe since childhood, that Japan had been especially chosen by the gods. Nihon or Nippon “Land of the Rising Sun”—as depicted on their national flag. They were taught to believe that one day Isanagi and Isanami (Mr. and Mrs. God) stood on the Bridge of Heaven and Isanagi dipped his sword into the ocean. When he withdrew it, the drops of water from it that fell back into the ocean coagulated and formed the Japanese Islands. Then, Mr. and Mrs. God went down to live on these islands and their children became the Japanese people. Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun Goddess, was the mother of the Japanese Imperial Family, the ancestor of Emperor Hirohito. All Japanese schools taught this as history until the end of the war. Since the meaning of kami in Japanese does not completely match that of the English word God, it is difficult to compare religious meanings, but even after the Emperor declared that he was not kami, there continued to be a sense that he remained the father of the Japanese family and the chief religious personage.
After the war ended, Fuchida returned to Japan a defeated and very depressed man. He loved Japan and wanted desperately to see her rise from the ashes of defeat and be a great nation again. One day he heard of some prisoners of war returning from America and he went to see and hear them. Of their many experiences, the one that impressed him most was the one they emphasized the most. It was their relating the story of a young American teenage girl who came to their prisoner-of-war camp every day to minister to them. She brought them small personal items they needed, and each time asked “Is there anything else I do?”
The prisoners did not trust her and believed that she was a plant sent to spy on them. But when she persisted, they did begin to ask her for toothpaste, soap, and so on, and she answered their requests faithfully. This went on for quite a while until the end of the war and they were released to come back to Japan. Out of curiosity, they asked her why she had been so kind to them, her enemies. She told them that her parents had been missionaries to Japan at the beginning of the war and had fled to the Philippines when their lives were endangered. When the Japanese conquered the Philippines, the missionaries hid in caves. When Japanese soldiers eventually found them, and discovered they spoke Japanese, they were accused of being spies and told that they would be killed. They answered, “We are prepared to die, but give us half an hour before we are killed.” They were granted this request and knelt to pray until the Japanese soldiers beheaded them with their swords.
When their daughter in the U.S. got news of this, she hated the Japanese. She said, “They went to Japan to share the love of God and were killed as spies.” Her hate began to consume her until finally she sought spiritual counsel and was led to remember the teachings and example of her parents. She read the Bible and came upon the verse in Luke 23:34 where Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” When she remembered the spirit of her parents, she was sure they repeated that prayer before they died at the hands of the Japanese soldiers.
So, she prayed and found the strength to forgive the ones who killed her parents and believed that if they had known the Christ her parents believed in, they would never had done such a thing so she began to prepare herself to go to Japan as a missionary to carry on the work her parents had done in Japan. However, she was in high school and knew that missionaries have to complete college, and usually further training, before being appointed as missionaries. She didn’t want to wait that long and asked how she could be a missionary until then. Well, there were Japanese prisoners of war very near her and she began to minister to them. The soldiers were so impressed by her story that they stressed it when they related their experiences to Fuchida and others. Fuchida thought they had made up this story, that it could not possibly be true, but he could not forget it.
Later, Fuchida was summoned to Tokyo to testify in the war crimes trials. He led the attack on Pearl Harbor so he would know the exact time of the attack. This was important to establish whether or not Japan’s representatives at the time lied in their assertions to the United States at the time that the attacks were planned and underway. As Fuchida came out of Shibuya train station in Tokyo, he passed a young American man who was handing out Christian tracts. He took one and read on the front this title, “I was a prisoner of the Japanese.” This made him remember the story of the Japanese prisoners in America.
The man described in the tract was named Jacob DeShazer, a gunner on one of the planes that took part in one of the first air raids on Tokyo under the command of General Doolittle. DeShazer’s plane was shot down and he and the rest of the crew were captured by the Japanese. They were brought to Tokyo and paraded through the streets, experiencing the hate and derision of its citizens. They were kept in a small dark prison cell, about 6 feet square, with one small window near the top. They were kept in total isolation, having interpersonal contact only with the Japanese guards, who were especially chosen for their hateful treatment of prisoners. Day after day Jacob lived in this darkness and isolation until he was about to lose his mind. In desperation he tried to think of anything from his past that could help him, and he remembered going to Sunday School as a child and hearing stories from the Bible. He asked the guards for a Bible and, after many requests, they finally brought him one, telling him he could keep it for three weeks.
Jacob awoke each morning as the light came in through the small window of his cell and he read the Bible as long as daylight allowed, and he committed to memory many verses. One impressed him especially. It was the verse telling of Jesus’ prayer asking that those who conducted his crucifixion be forgiven, Luke 23:34. So, Jacob DeShazer prayed for help and found peace and comfort there in this prison cell as he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. He learned from the Bible that to become a Christian one has to change, especially to change in his relationship with other people. The only persons Jacob had contact with were the hated prison guards, so he realized that he had to change in his attitude toward them. He began to respond to their hate with kindness, and they began to respond by treating him less hatefully. Jacob decided that the reason these guards treated him so hatefully was that they did not know the Christ he had come to know and that had wrought such change in his life. So, he prayed, “Lord, if you will help me to survive this I will come back to Japan as a missionary to tell the Japanese about Christ.”
Jacob lived in these conditions until the end of the war. I remember news reel scenes of the starving POWs who were released to come home to the United States. Jacob came back to America and, after he recovered his health, he went back to finish high school, attending with much younger kids who must have wondered about him. He was there to prepare for college so he could go back to Japan as a missionary. When he finished college, he still did not speak Japanese, so he wrote out his testimony under the title “I was a prisoner of the Japanese,” then had it translated into Japanese so he could take it to Japan to share with people who had once hated him and held him a prisoner. By divine providence, Jacob DeShazer was standing outside Shibuya Station handing out copies of his tract when Mitsuo Fuchida came by and took one.
Fuchida read again of the Book and of the verse in it, Luke 23:34, that he had heard made such a difference in both the young girl in America who ministered to Japanese POWs and in the life of this young man who had been a POW of the Japanese. He still found it hard to believe, but he was desperate to find a message of hope for the land that he loved. If this message were true it was just what Japan needed. So he bought a small New Testament and began reading it. He sought spiritual guidance and found Christ as his personal Savior.
At that time Eleanor Roosevelt was visiting Japan, and Fuchida heard the chant, “Americans may forgive Pearl Harbor but we will never forgive Hiroshima.” So Fuchida began to tell of his journey from being a leader in one of the most hate-filled wars in history, to being a leader in Christian love, building up a cycle of love instead of hate. In his words, “We hate, and are hated in return, and then we hate more, and we have all seen where that can lead.” But, he says, “We love, and we are likely to be loved in return, which begins the cycle of love.” He said in a message I heard him deliver one night in Okayama, Japan, “I have participated in the cycle of hate for much of my life. For the rest of my life I want to begin the cycle of love as often as I can in as many places as I can.”
During the first part of his 90-minute message, he told of how he was trained as a pilot and chosen to lead in the attack on Japan. His demeanor showed the arrogance he had felt during that part of his life. Then, he paused, leaned forward and said, “Then one day I met Jesus Christ. I learned for the first time in my life that I, Mitsuo Fuchida, am a sinner and I must repent.” He said he learned that repentance of sin means turning 180 degrees and walking in the opposite direction. He told how he had done that and it was one of the best definitions of repentance and best examples of its application I have ever experienced.
Fuchida came to America and spoke at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He spoke in many places and always told of the testimony of a young American girl whose faith has been the first evidence he had heard of the power of the Christian faith. I don’t remember the name of the girl but her parents were American Baptist missionaries at the beginning of the War. She later appeared on the platform with Fuchida when he gave his testimony in the U.S. In Japan, Mitsuo Fuchida and Jacob DeShazer met and shared their testimony and their life together in Christian witnessing. I had the joy of meeting DeShazer at Lake Nojiri in Japan, where missionaries come to vacation in the summer. I heard Fuchida on three occasions and he visited my home for a meal in Kokura while he was at Seinan Jo Gakuin.
Because there are still a lot of blank spaces in my countries category, here are three records from Japan this week.
Judy Ongg is an actress, singer, author and woodblock-print artist from Taiwan. Born in Taipei in 1950, she graduated from university in Tokyo and after that, changed her nationality into Japanese. Her career has spanned more than four decades.
Judy Ongg is not doing Rock´n´Roll or Beat music on this record but it´s not too soft either. There is some nice guitar work on these tracks that sounds a bit like this song in this video:
Judy Onggs filmography lists a film called Cyborg 009 from 1967. I don´t know if this animation film of the same name has anything to do with her but I still liked it enough to share it here:
The jacket, though printed on very thin paper, has a lot of inserts: dance instructions, lyrics and a nice inner sleeve. High production values used quite economically. I don´t know what dance the dance instructions are for but I it might be the Shake, the Surf or the Jerk.
Third on the agenda was lunch at a Japanese BBQ restaurant located at the Four Seasons hotel in Tokyo. We walked through a beautiful garden from the hotel’s lobby to get there, and sat around tempenyaki grills with fellow members of our group to enjoy a delicious lunch. The restaurant itself was in a very traditional style building and surrounded by the most beautiful grounds, making for a lovely lunch atmosphere. Talk about a small world, the two women sitting with us were from the American Consulate in D.C. and struck up quite the conversation with Kay about mutual friends they had through work. When we had sat down we were talking with Tomoko about weddings and a bit later when we first struck up conversation withthe two ladies at our table, one began by saying to me “so you mentioned you were getting married,” and when I shook my head in surprise she said “hmm well I see
All of the weddings going on made for a very happy atmosphere.
Because there are still a lot of blank spaces in my countries category, here are three records from Japan this week.
JUDY ONGG, Futari No Kisetsu, 1968