Responsibility as a pertpetrator to neighbor countries in WWII

 The 80th anniversary of defeat in WWII is coming soon. There will be a lot of papers or broadcasting programs against war publicated in mass media. Most of them are based on the experiences of Japanese people as sufferers or victims in WWII. It is worth leaving their words on record for the future generation. It is, however, only one aspect of the war.

Having invaded and perpetrated to the neighbor countries, especially, China, is the other aspect of the war for us. Of course, it has done by the people one or two generations prior to us. In the continuity of history, however, we won't be free from the crime and sin our ancestors have committed in that invading war. That invasion to the neighbor countries were plotted and executed by the military leaders fanaticized in imperialistic autocracy. It is ascribed to the Showa emperor. Still, the people could never be free from the responsibility for the war. There were ten millions of people killed in China by invading Japanese military. That memory won't be vanished among people in China. 

I recently learned some Chinese captives had been vivisectioned by Japanese military for training of the newly deployed military doctors as "a normal routine". I knew of the history of horrible human experiments done in China by the Japanese 731st troop, which had been elucidated by several researchers and are well known. I was, however, shocked to know such vivisection executed as "a normal training" in the Japanese military.

When the war was finished as defeat of our country in 1945, hundreds Japanese soldiers including those involved in that war crime have been arrested and accomodated in the camps in China. Several people have testified the communist government treated them like real guests in order to have them become aware of their war crime by themselves. While the communist government has done harsh punishment/treatment to those working for Japanese military betraying Chinese people, they have treated the Japanese prisoners with compassion. Of course, the communist government intended to propagandize their idea to the prisoners as well as to Japanese people in homeland. Japanese prisoners have been released from the camps once the camp personnel acknowledged of their reflection on war crimes. Those captured in China have never sentenced to death or life imprisonment while tens or hundreds were sentenced to death in the other countries.

We should remember what our military has done in WWII and pursue the war crime responsibility in the leaders. Without that, we won't reach the real reflection on the perpetration and war crimes to the other countries during the war. It seems we have not gone through thorough pursue of the responsibility for the war. 

This is another aspect of war crime responsibility we should not forget. Without that, there would be ultra right political movements which aim at restoring regime of the imperialistic autocracy. 

Visiting the med school hospital we served residency

 Subacute thyroiditis, mostly a disease of grown ups, has been a famous entity since our med student days. Appropriately diagnosed with it by our friend doctor, my wife has undergone a typical course. They say it is caused by respiratory viral infection. In the acute phase, the patient could develop symptoms of hyperthyroidism with excessive thyroid hormone released from the damaged thyroid gland. My wife has experienced tachycardia and premature beat for the symptom ascribed to it. She may experience transient hypothyroidism later soon in the recovery phase. I am almost touched to see a typical course, rather serious one, as we used to learn in the student days, has been observed in her, of course, while I am worried about it. This entity is quite rare in pediatrics and I could not remember any case of this famous disease in my medical doctor days. I remembered that I had learned a lot from various patients regarding different illnesses when I was a resident. I recalled how I had learned as a new doctor.

Just in case of any complication etc, she was referred to the med school where we have served residency even though she feels great at present. She is waiting for the lab exam data at the hospital now. Driving with her to the hospital this morning, we have talked a lot our days of residency. It's almost half a century ago. The hospital buildings have been modified at many places. The resident house where we have spent honey moon days seems to have been demolished for now. Everything has been replaced to new buildings. Almost half a century ago since our resident days. Not dreamed we would attend this hospital as a patient.

It is in a terrible heat wave here. In half an hour, I would head to the hospital to bring her back home. May it be some interal before either of us go there as a patient again. Even if not in half a century from now!

PS; She will be on steroid medication for 3 months. The endocrinologist said her it could recur and medication should be continued and tapered off gradually. It was beyond my expectation. 

My wife's illness

It has kept me so busy for the last week that I had to care for my wife with fever and do house chores in addition to whole garden/farm work.

She has been sick with mild fever and sore throat with tender soft tisssue mass in the front of the neck. A friend doctor, Cho, another ham 7N2JZK, has given her the correct diagnosis of subacute thyroiditis a few days ago. With drip infusion of steroid, she got dramatically better today. We could not be thankful more to him than ever. 

She has had arrthythmia which turned out to be supraventricular premature contraction which is confirmed with ECG. The thyroid function was compatible with subacute thyroiditis. The acute phase reactant, CRP, was pretty high over 10.

She has been a stout lady without health issue. With her getting sick, I found how much I debted to her in daily routine. Although I have cooked dinner once a couple of days, she has done it as well and always washed dishes etc every day. Washing clothes is another chore she always has done. Most importantly, it was a big worry and stress for me she could have fallen seriously ill. I have never experienced that for almost half a century in our marriage.

Both of us are getting older. We should cherish every day being together. It is not guaranteed at all this uneventful day will go on tomorrow.

Reminiscence of Jun JA7SSB

In some ham radio clubs abroad, there seems to be a tradition to memorize old timers in the club who have passed away. Of course, those past hams are destined to be forgotten in some time. However, the recollection of them must help new comers to understand how ham radio has evolved even if they don't know those old timers in person. I believe keeping records of those old hams having passed is worth not only as reminiscence but also a history of this hobby.  In our counry, such recording is not very popular so far as I surfed around ham club sites in our country.

There must be only few who know of Jun JA7SSB for now. He was one of the pioneers in ham radio in our country in the post WWII era. He has been active on the air, especially on CW. With extensive experience and knowledge in radio communication, he has often published reviews on new radio equipment in magazines. As the obituary written by me shown below, I knew him through CW communication and FOC membership. Our friendship was never close or long lasting. He is still an unforgettable friend in ham radio. He should be remembered in ham radio. 

He has visited me at this place maybe in 1990s. He must be in late 70s of his age then. He has driven the long way from Fukushima by himself. At another occasion, when I was shocked and depressed having had a bad lightning strike to the tower and most equipments were destroyed around the same time in 1990s, he, kindly telling me the probability of direct lightning attack is pretty low, kicked me back into ham radio again. Without his encouragement, I could have gone QRT at that time.

The following is the obituary for him which I was asked to write by FOC in 2008;

 Jun was born in China in 1931. When the WWII was over, he came back to Kyoto in Japan with his family, where he was first licensed as JA3CKI in 1955. I used to hear he had been active as a SWL some years before that. He was a real pioneer in the resurrection of ham radio in Japan after WWII. His new own business has brought him up to Fukushima. He got a new call JA7SSB there.

He has been quite active in various aspects of amateur ham radio. He has published a number of articles on reviews of new equipments or on technical issues in various journals here. DXing and contesting were also his interests. He has been translating DX news from overseas into Japanese and has published them on a web site. Later, he has enjoyed leisurely chats on CW with friends all over the world. I should add his contribution to the new comers. He said he had been keeping a net for CW practice for 12 years. It has been held twice a week on VHF for the new comers in the area. He might have shed good seeds who would be good CW operators in the future.

Personally, I have become acquainted with him around 1990 a few years after I had entered the club. He was so experienced in radio communication technology and had ample knowledge of radio equipment. He won’t, however, show off them to me at all but behaved like a real old friend. I am sure he has been doing the same way to the new comers or his friends there. A few years later, he was approved to be a member of the club. Some of you might have heard him on CW with not necessarily fast but steady keying in morning or in evening.

His death came all of sudden due to a heart attack on Dec 2 2008. He has written and published a column in the local club web site on the very same day. In its last part, he said, despite of the confusion in the world, he won’t despair. Enduring the present situation, he would make effort to live better reflecting own mind and would look for a new world.

We are saddened to know we won’t hear his signal again. This great experienced ham who has always run ahead of us in various fields of ham radio will be missed by all of us.

Another performance of Brahms clarinet trio

After sunny and cruelly hot days for the past week or two, it rained this afternoon. It has spared me the routine work of sprinkling the vegetables with water. It was, however, like a sudden rain accompanied with thunder. Anyway, it must have been a blessing to the plants. Of course, the weeds I have been doing with for the days are growing even faster than the vegetables. Whack-a-mole like work with the weeds will go on until the end of Sept. or even later for me. 

By the way, I have ran across with this performance of Brahms clarinet trio. This has been one of my beloving music since young days as I wrote about in the other posts in this blog. I have listened to various renditions of thie piece by different ensembles. I still have several sources of CD for this music. This ensemble is one of the best ones for me.

It is beginning with an unforgettable impressive melody by cello. It has struck me a lot. I have never heard such a cellist weaving that melody in this way. Most exquisitely expressivo. The cellist seems to have been playing in a famous string quartet. He seems not young any longer. Together with the other two players, he must be an experienced person not only as a musician but also a human. This excellent performance might be owing to his capability almost innate but could be enriched with his life in the past. Yearning for something beautiful, or regretting or reconciling something gone away. Such experience might leave him a kind of aesthetic sense. And he would try to play cello after that. If it is right, it might be another meaning of getting old. 

 

 

Musical instrument practice will keep us young

It is getting into the muggiest season in a year here. Disliking the artificial coolness by air conditioner, I try to sleep without it and often result in unwanted wake up at midnight or ery early in the morning. And I should turn on the air conditioner then. 

A lot of unpleasant and unhappy news are continuously coming in. Tramp tariff won't only devastate the economy and people's lives in the US but also do wrong to the other countries like Japan. The government debt of the US has risen astronomically high and the US government has almost given up redeeming the government bond. USD is losing its value against the other major currencies around the world. The tariff rise won't cover the deficit at all. The tariff is the tax which the US corporations/people should pay. It is a domestic problem in the US. But if USD loses its key currency status in the world and the US government bond should not be creditted, it would give rise to formiddable confusion in the world economy.

  

Okay, enough about unpleasant topics of politics...

A recent good news to me is that practising musical instruments will keep us young.

A research group in Kyoto University has followed up elderly groups, one starting practising musical instruments and the other not practising for 4 years. The practising group has shown no decrease of the grey matter in right Putamen while the non pratising has shown decrease of the grey matter in the same region. The bilateral cerebellar function respnsible for linguistic working memory is better preserved in the practising group while it is reduced in the non practising group.     

Music instrument training in elderly seems to work at least some of our brain function against aging. There are a lot of anti aging procedures. Music activity is involved in a lot of aspects in brain function, sensory, motor and memory/cognition. Practising musicl instruments is surely expected to keep us young as this scientific report says.

It has made me wonder if I should restart cello all after 3 years of absence. If tendonitis of both arms is settled down, I may do it again. 

Even though there is no scientific evidence that pounding brass is comparable to music, sending beautiful CW may keep us young as well. Too much extention of thoughts?

Stay cooled, everyone!