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monde dane

~ My passport is American, my wife is Japanese and my thoughts are undocumented. If you read between the blog lines, who knows what you might learn.

monde dane

Category Archives: ALL THINGS JAPANESE

THE LAST BLUE SKY OF 2016

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, HOLIDAYS, Uncategorized

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161231-rizind750-004wThe usual clear blue Kanto winter sky was lacking its usual bitter breeze this year when we arrived at Saitama Super Arena to celebrate Oshogatsu as guests of RIZIN MMA ring announcer Lenne Hardt – a.k.a. my little sister.

161231-rizind750-002wAfter a 45-minute drive on an unusually clear expressway, we had a nice walk with Louis and Maggie in the people park next to the car park. They would be enjoying a nice long nap in their favorite sleeping nook – Kayoko’s Suzuki micro-mini van.

161231-rizind750-014wThe arena is part of an ultra-modern complex arising like a grove of steel and concrete bamboo shoots in the middle of the Saitama suburbs.

161231-rizind750-015wLenne’s ayatollah Malcolm met us with our complimentary tickets in front of Royal Host. 161231-rizind750-016wAnrei came with us and Naoto Sasaki and friends were the first to rendezvous with us.161231-rizind750-017w

Celestial Couple Makes Successful Space Rendezvous

09 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, HOLIDAYS, Uncategorized

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Tanabata

tanabata-hoshinavi comThe Eternal Times  — July 8, 2016

A supernatural avian structure bridging the Milky Way was reportedly observed at around midnight last night according to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency officials. The report has led authorities to believe that the reuniting of the celestial couple, Ori Weaver and Hiko Star, was successfully completed.

If confirmed, this will be the 20th successful coupling in as many years. The annual in-space docking mission can only be completed on the 7th day of July and only under clear atmospheric weather conditions with zero precipitation. The Japan Meteorological Agency reported relatively heavy cloud coverage but no precipitation in the Kanto region during the night.

The occurrence of rain or dense fog can create storm conditions that could prevent the flocks of magpies from making the journey to the Milky Way. The birds are the only means by which a bridge can be provided for the enamored couple to cross over the torrential Heavenly River.

Tentei, God of the Universe ordered the separation of Weaver and Star a millennium ago as punishment for having neglected their official duties.

The couple has repeatedly appealed the royal decree claiming that it is excessive and inhumane and therefore should be ruled unconstitutional. Public opinion has always supported the couple’s claim, but until now Tentei has refused to grant clemency.

A spokesman for the supreme ruler said that the annual one-night pardon is a sufficiently generous concession. He added that any further pardon would present a poor example for other celestial workers.

Conservatives have long maintained that a pardon of any sort would be tantamount to a condoning of such immoral indulgence and thereby present a direct threat to both traditional marriage and the traditional work ethic.

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – SEOYEON

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, EZ OBAMA, HOLIDAYS, MUSIC, Uncategorized

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Hiroshima, MUSIC, Obama, view from Japan, WAR

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

President Obama’s speech in Hiroshima was very meaningful for two reasons. Firstly, he showed the feeling of mourning for the victims who were killed by atomic bombs during World War Two. Secondly, he talked about the contradiction in mankind that makes people destroy each other and how morality has not advanced along with technological advancement. He gave the three examples of religions, nations and science.

He told us that “Every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness,” but then he says that some people use their religion as a reason to fight wars. He gave the example of how, “Nations are telling a story that binds people together…,” but people go to war for national pride. And, finally he explained how “Science allows us to communicate across the seas and fly above the clouds,” but technology is also used to make weapons of war.

But while people were developing these things they only thought about standing at the top of the world, and they forgot their moral mind and because of this, so many people have been killed. I wish a moral revolution had occurred side by side with the scientific revolution. People should not be tempted by immediate fortunes or profits and we should not be selfish and we shouldn’t lose our moral mind.

SEOYEON L. (15) – Adachi Ward, Tokyo

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – CHIKA

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, EZ OBAMA, HOLIDAYS, MUSIC, Uncategorized

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Hiroshima, Independence Day, Obama, view from Japan, WAR

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima became a big topic in Japan. I think it was an important sign of the mutual understanding between America and Japan. I can tell you the reasons for my opinion of his speech.

The biggest point was that it was the first time an American president visited either of the two cities that were destroyed by atom bombs. Also, in the very first part of his speech he expressed his condolence to the people who died there. He didn’t actually say any apologies about the nuclear attack, but I felt his sympathy.

He also spoke of specific examples of hibakusha (atomic bomb victims). I think he tried to show us his thoughtfulness and create a close feeling with those people. I guess it must be difficult for an American president to interact with Japanese hibakusha, I was impressed by his amicable gesture.

President Obama came to Hiroshima and he prayed for peace all over the world. We mustn’t forget this meaningful occurrence. I want to always keep his words in my heart.

CHIKA M. (14) – Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo

 

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – KAKINE

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, EZ OBAMA, HOLIDAYS, MUSIC, Uncategorized

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Diane Reeves, Hiroshima, MUSIC, Obama, WAR

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

When I first heard this speech, I remembered the words my great-grandmother once told me; “War is the worst thing to ever happen between humans.” She survived WWII, and I was surprised that President Obama said about the same thing even though he has never experienced war. So, I was reminded how important peace is.

I used to live in Norway and I had a chance to go to the Nobel Peace Prize Museum in Oslo. There were a lot of exhibits of peace prize winners, talking about peace, but each in different way; one wanted peace for children’s education, another for women’s rights, and others for different reasons. There was a display of President Obama there, saying nuclear weapons are a great threat to peace. Nevertheless, even though so many people talk about peace, war does not end. Actually, weapons even worse than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima have been invented.

I think what we must do is to keep on saying what my great grand-mother said to me and what President Obama said to the world. It may seem common, but I’m sure that it is a key step for keeping peace in the world.

KAKINE H. (14) – Taito Ward, Tokyo

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – ANJU

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, EZ OBAMA, HOLIDAYS, MUSIC, Uncategorized

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Hiroshima, Obama, WAR

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

I was so surprised to hear the news that President Obama visited Hiroshima.

For 71 years, successive American presidents avoided coming to Hiroshima during their term. Maybe they wanted to come but they were not able to because many Americans think it was a natural choice to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So, I thought President Obama had courage to decide to be the first.

Actually I didn’t expect this event. He won the Nobel prize for peace in 2009 for the speech he made in Prague about reducing nuclear weapons. When I heard that speech I thought he was only speaking ‘formally’ and did not really mean what he said. When I heard his Hiroshima speech, I realized my thinking was actually wrong, he really does care about ending nuclear weapons.

I hope President Obama will come to Hiroshima or Nagasaki again and tell future generations of Americans what a horrible thing happened to those two poor cities.

ANJU S. (14) – Ryogoku, Tokyo

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – KAHO

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, EZ OBAMA, HOLIDAYS, MUSIC, Uncategorized

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Hakuo, Hiroshima, MUSIC, Obama, WAR

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

 

 

I don’t know why President Obama came to Hiroshima. Some people said it is a wonderful thing, but I don’t think so. He came now, 71 years after the end of World War Two. His visit will not change anything.

One high school student said, “He is just kidding us.” He made some folded paper cranes for symbols of peace, but they are just origami and they can’t do anything. The dead of the war can never come back. Their families’ sadness can never end.

I don’t want President Obama to say I’m sorry because it’s useless and it’s too late. I want a real plan to make the world peaceful. No war any more! I thought that, of course, he had a plan, but I never heard that kind of thing. (Is it just my problem?) I think this is very regrettable.

I don’t know how the war was. Even a lot of adults don’t know about war. If Donald Trump becomes the next American president, maybe there will be another world war. No one I know wants war; we want to live safely and peacefully.

I think we all must learn more about war from many different angles and we must stop any new wars from happening. That is what we should do now and what I want President Obama to do. Nothing will change by just visiting Hiroshima, so I hope that President Obama will do more to show us the right path. One thing his visit taught me is that we have to learn more about war if we want to have peace in the future.

KAHO I. (15) Toshima Ward, Tokyo

 

Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Critiqued by Japanese 9th Graders – REIKA

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, EZ OBAMA, HOLIDAYS, Uncategorized

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Atomic bomb, Hakuo, Hiroshima, Obama

This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there.  I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend.  This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.  

JAPAN-US-DIPLOMACY-WWII-HIROSHIMA

US President Barack Obama hugs Shigeaki Mori (front), a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, during a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 27, 2016. Obama on May 27 paid moving tribute to victims of the world’s first nuclear attack. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON  CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR THE ACCOMPANYING MUSIC, ERIC CLAPTON’S “TEARS IN HEAVEN”

President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima was welcomed by Japanese very much. His desire to get rid of nuclear weapons has been known in Japan, so we had been expecting his visit.

His speech was widely broadcast and many Japanese felt it will definitely go down in history. I think it was a much bigger event for us than foreigners might think.

His visit made me realize how much Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims have been suffering from the effects of the nuclear bombs. Actually, young Japanese like me don’t know much about World War II. I felt so bad about my lack of knowledge when I saw the man cry as he was being embraced by President Obama. He was one of the bombing victims. He said that he had longed for this day and that he was moved strongly by President Obama’s enthusiasm. I thought the victims had nearly given up everything about the atomic bomb, but I was totally wrong; President Obama’s visit was partially a result of the victims efforts to spread the story about the misery of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I am sure that President Obama’s action will make people realize how badly Hiroshima and Nagasaki were damaged. To spread this fact is most the most important thing and the Japanese mission is to do so, not to request an apology. So, I want foreign people to know how those cities suffered and to reconsider having or using nuclear weapons.

REIKA (15) – Katsushika Ward

Obama in Hiroshima – Phrase-by-phrase

09 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE, EZ OBAMA, Uncategorized

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Hiroshima, Obama

President Obama’s speech
at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial,
May 27th, 2016 (1,449 words)

Seventy one years ago,
on a bright, cloudless morning,
death fell from the sky
and the world was changed.

The flash of light
and a wall of fire
destroyed a city
and demonstrated that mankind
possessed the means to destroy itself.

Why do we come to this place,
to Hiroshima?
We come to ponder a terrible force
unleashed in a not-so-distant past.
We come to mourn the dead,
including over 100,000 Japanese
men, women and children,
thousands of Koreans,
a dozen Americans held prisoner.

Their souls speak to us.
They ask us to look inward,
to take stock of who we are
and what we might become.

It is not the fact of war
that sets Hiroshima apart.
Artifacts tell us that violent conflict
appeared with the very first man.
Our early ancestors,
having learned to make blades from flint
and spears from wood,
used these tools not just for hunting
but against their own kind.

On every continent,
the history of civilization
is filled with war,
whether driven by
scarcity of grain
or hunger for gold,
compelled by
nationalist fervor
or religious zeal.
Empires have risen and fallen.
Peoples have been subjugated and liberated,
and at each juncture,
innocents have suffered —
a countless toll,
their names forgotten by time.

The world war that reached its brutal end
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
was fought
among the wealthiest
and most powerful of nations.
Their civilizations
had given the world
great cities
and magnificent art.
Their thinkers
had advanced ideas of justice
and harmony
and truth.

And yet,
the war grew out of
the same base instinct
for domination or conquest
that had caused conflicts
among the simplest tribes.
An old pattern
amplified by new capabilities
and without new constraints.

In the span of a few years,
some 60 million people would die.
Men, women, children —
no different than us —
shot, beaten, marched, bombed,
jailed, starved, gassed to death.
There are many sites around the world
that chronicle this war,
memorials that tell stories
of courage and heroism,
graves and empty camps,
that echo of unspeakable depravity.

Yet in the image of a mushroom cloud
that rose into these skies,
we are most starkly reminded
of humanity’s core contradiction:
how the very spark that marks us a species —
our thoughts,
our imagination,
our language,
our tool-making,
our ability to set ourselves apart from nature
and bend it to our will —
those very things also give us
the capacity for unmatched destruction.

How often does material advancement
or social innovation
blind us to this truth?
How easily we learn to justify violence
in the name of some higher cost.

Every great religion promises a pathway
to love and peace and righteousness.
And yet no religion
has been spared from believers
who have claimed their faith
as a license to kill.

Nations arise telling a story
that binds people together
in sacrifice and cooperation,
allowing for remarkable feats.
But those same stories
have so often been used
to oppress and dehumanize
those who are different.

Science allows us
to communicate across the seas
and fly above the clouds,
to cure disease
and understand the cosmos.
But those same discoveries
can be turned into
ever more efficient killing machines.

The wars of the modern age
teach us this truth.
Hiroshima
teaches this truth.
Technological progress
without an equivalent progress
in human institutions
can doom us.
The scientific revolution
that led to the splitting of an atom
requires a moral revolution as well.

That is why we come to this place.

We stand here
in the middle of this city
and force ourselves to imagine
the moment the bomb fell.
We force ourselves
to feel the dread
of children confused by what they see.
We listen to a silent cry.
We remember all the innocents
killed across the arc of that terrible war,
and the wars that came before,
and the wars that would follow.

Mere words
cannot give voice
to such suffering,
but we have a shared responsibility
to look directly into the eye of history
and ask what we must do differently
to curb such suffering again.

Someday the voices of the hibakusha
will no longer be with us
to bear witness.
But the memory of the morning of Aug. 6, 1945,
must never fade.
That memory allows us to fight complacency.
It fuels our moral imagination.
It allows us to change.
And since that fateful day,
we have made choices
that give us hope.
The United States and Japan
forged not only an alliance
but a friendship
that has won far more for our people
than we could ever claim through war.

The nations of Europe built a union
that replaced battlefields
with bonds of commerce and democracy.
Oppressed peoples and nations
won liberation.
An international community
established institutions and treaties
that worked to avoid war
and aspired to restrict
and roll back
and ultimately eliminate
the existence of nuclear weapons.

Still,
every act of aggression between nations,
every act of terror and corruption
and cruelty and oppression
that we see around the world,
shows our work is never done.
We may not be able to eliminate
man’s capacity to do evil.

So nations
and the alliances that we form
must possess the means to defend ourselves.
But among those nations
like my own
that hold nuclear stockpiles,
we must have the courage
to escape the logic of fear
and pursue a world without them.

We may not realize this goal
in my lifetime,
but persistent effort
can roll back
the possibility of catastrophe.
We can chart a course
that leads to the destruction
of these stockpiles.
We can stop the spread to new nations
and secure deadly material from fanatics.

And yet, that is not enough.
For we see around the world today
how even the crudest rifles and barrel bombs
can serve up violence on a terrible scale.

We must change our mindset
about war itself
to prevent conflict
through diplomacy
and strive to end conflicts
after they’ve begun.
To see our growing interdependence
as a cause for peaceful cooperation
and not violent competition.
To define our nations
not by our capacity to destroy,
but by what we build.
And perhaps above all,
we must reimagine
our connection to one another
as members of one human race.

For this, too,
is what makes our species unique.
We are not bound by genetic code
to repeat the mistakes of the past.
We can learn.
We can choose.
We can tell our children a different story —
one that describes a common humanity,
one that makes war less likely
and cruelty less easily accepted.

We see these stories in the hibakusha:
the woman who forgave a pilot
who flew the plane
that dropped the atomic bomb
because she recognized
that what she really hated
was war itself.
The man who sought out families
of Americans killed here
because he believed their loss
was equal to his own.

My own nation’s story
began with simple words.
All men are created equal
and endowed by our creator
with certain unalienable rights,
including life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
Realizing that ideal
has never been easy,
even within our own borders,
even among our own citizens.

But staying true to that story
is worth the effort.
It is an ideal to be strived for,
an ideal that extends across continents
and across oceans.
The irreducible worth of every person.
The insistence that every life is precious.
The radical and necessary notion
that we are part of a single human family.

That is the story that we all must tell.
That is why we come to Hiroshima:
so that we might think of people we love.
The first smile from our children
in the morning.
The gentle touch from a spouse
over the kitchen table.
The comforting embrace of a parent.
We can think of those things
and know that those same precious moments
took place here 71 years ago.

Those who died,
they are like us.
Ordinary people understand this,I think.
They do not want more war.
They would rather that
the wonders of science
be focused on improving life
and not eliminating it.
When the choices made by nations —
when the choices made by leaders —
reflect this simple wisdom,
then the lesson of Hiroshima is done.

The world was forever changed here.
But today, the children of this city
will go through their day in peace.
What a precious thing that is.
It is worth protecting,
and then extending to every child.

That is a future we can choose:
a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki
are known not as
the dawn of atomic warfare,
but as the start
of our own moral awakening.

NAGASAKI APOCALYPSE

09 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by danedegenhardt in ALL THINGS JAPANESE

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NAGASAKI, NUCLEAR, WAR

img235-LA statue at Nagasaki’s Urakami Cathedral scarred by the atomic blast of 9 August, 1945. (Photo: dd – May, 2006)

1 Samuel 15:3 “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

And thusly did the Americans attack the Japanese of Nagasaki with a vengeance worthy of the Old Testament.

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