THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR BEGAN ONE HUNDRED TEN YEARS AGO; TODAY PUTIN AND ABE MET TO TALK ABOUT TALKING ABOUT SOME OF THE SAME OLD ISSUES

THE RUSSO-JAPANESE 

WAR BROKE OUT 

February 8, 1904 

THE SEA OF OKHOTSK 

off the Southeastern Shore 
of Sakhalin Island 

South Sakhalin ("Karafuto") was won by the Japanese as a result 
of  their victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 

Captured by the USSR in World War II; the entire island is part of Russia 

Still in contention: 

Four islands and groups of islets known as the Kurils (Kuriles) by the Russians, and as the Northern Territories by the Japanese;

under Soviet and then Russian control since World War II 

Some background, here 

Today on the sidelines of the Sochi Winter Olympics Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met and agreed to talk about the sticky island dispute, which has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty winding up World War II, at their next meeting, scheduled to take place again in Sochi, at the upcoming G8 summit in June of this year. 

President Putin will then visit Japan in the fall. 

POST #1000: BACK TO THE BEGINNING

THE THOUSANDTH POST 

SASEBO, JAPAN 

JUVENILIA 

very juvenil-ia 

KODAK BROWNIE 

picturing politics very early on 

EZRA VOGEL HAS A BIRTHDAY

EZRA F. VOGEL 

b. July 11 

Author of the biography of 
DENG XIAOPING 
and other seminal works 
on China and Japan 

More on Ezra Vogel here and here; 
on Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, here and here; 
on China, here; 
on Japan, here 

SPEAKING OF "SHIRTSLEEVES SUMMITS" ... HERE'S ONE "WITHOUT NECKTIES": YELTSIN AND HASHIMOTO

A SUMMIT 

"WITHOUT NECKTIES" 

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT 

BORIS YELTSIN AND 

JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER 

RYUTARO HASHIMOTO 

Krasnoyarsk, Russia 

November 1997 

To be continued 

in 
RUSSIA REDUX  

WE HAVE HEARD THIS SONG BEFORE: TARO ASO SINGS THE OLD PEOPLE HAVE GOT TO GET A MOVE ON BLUES

BLAME IT ON THE OLD II 

TARO ASO 

Current Finance Minister & Deputy Prime Minister 

and former Prime Minister of Japan 

Photographed at age sixty-eight (2008) when he was quoted as saying, 

"I see people aged 67 or 68 at class reunions who 

dodder around and are constantly going to the doctor."  

And "Why should I have to pay for people who just 

eat and drink and make no effort?" 

Aso did not last long as Prime Minister.  Now back in the government,  

at age seventy-two, he has let it be known that the rising proportion of 

 the elderly in the Japanese population is a problem that 

"won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die." 

As I said, we have heard this song before:  see here. 

YASUHIRO NAKASONE, Oldest of Japan's Surviving Ex-Prime Ministers, Is Ninety-Four

YASUHIRO NAKASONE

b. May 27, 1918

PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN

November 27, 1982-November 6, 1987

From a vocal critic of the American postwar occupation of Japan to a strong advocate of the importance of the Japanese-American relationship, from an early proponent of atomic energy in the atomic-bombed Japan to last year's turning away to embrace solar energy after Fukushima, with a six-decade-long political career not without its touches of scandal, Yasuhiro Nakasone has become an admired elder statesman. Some articles about the former prime minister's more recent activities and history and can be found here (with a contemporary photograph) and here and here.

BLAME IT ON THE OLD: IN JAPAN, AND IN THE U.S.?

"AS JAPAN STRAINS TO

CARE FOR ELDERLY,

SACRIFICES BEGIN"

-- Washington POST

ON THE GINZA, TOKYO, 1981

KIMONO-CLAD

ON THE GINZA 1981

CLOSE-UP

Forgive me for feeling a little jaundiced, but I have heard this before, the American version, when I sat or kneeled through the Washington, D.C., hearings on Social Security, which just had to be fixed. It was. This was back in the eighties.

(Photographers, or at least tall ones, had to sit or kneel on the floor to keep out of the line of sight of the hearings' participants.)

Since the Washington POST chose to illustrate its current story with an AP photograph of an elderly lady making her way down a street in Tokyo (see here), I thought I would head this posting with a photograph of someone who might have been that lady, three decades earlier (see above). Back in the eighties.

As I was reading the sad story in the POST, a variation on a Kris Kristofferson song, "Blame It on the [Rolling] Stones," played itself in my head. With a tip of the hat to Kristofferson, a fellow service brat -- you can listen to his version here, and hum the melody -- I give you BLAME IT ON THE OLD.

Blame it on the [Old]; blame it on the [Old]

You'll feel so much better, knowing you don't stand alone

Join the accusation; save the bleeding nation

Get it off your shoulders; blame it on the [Old]

And then get to work again.

KOIZUMI HITS SEVENTY

JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI

b. January 8, 1941

JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER

JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI

PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE G-8

SUMMIT IN ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

July 2006

Shortly before Koizumi resigned as the third-longest-serving

postwar Prime Minister (five years, five months, 2001-2006)

Since then there have been six new prime ministers in five years. Some details and discussion of why this is and whether it is bad for Japan or not, can be found here.

THE USSR ENTERS THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN, August 8, 1945

THE 

SOVIET UNION 

DECLARES 

WAR ON JAPAN 

August 8, 1945 

"WELCOME TO SAKHALIN" 

with a map indicating Moscow 

on the upper left 

and Yuzhnosakhalinsk (the capital of Sakhalin) 

on the lower right 

When Moscow finally declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945, two days after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it claimed  that it was acting strictly according to its treaty obligations. 

Tokyo surrendered a week later, five days after Nagasaki was also atom-bombed. 

But Moscow and Tokyo have yet to sign a peace treaty -- a World War II peace treaty.  For its efforts, the USSR got (and Russia afterwards) the southern half of Sakhalin Island (it already occupied the north) and the Kuril Islands, or, as the Japanese prefer, the/their Northern Territories. 

Tokyo does not still claim southern Sakhalin (their former Karafuto), but it is adamant about the Kurils/Northern Territories. 

For same recent developments, see here and here. 

For background and a lot more on Sakhalin, see here. 

COLD WAR BRATS II: FRANKFURT AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL I

COLD WAR BRATS 

II 

FRANKFURT AMERICAN 

HIGH SCHOOL 

I 

"As a kid, as a child of the Cold War, I had been 'stationed' abroad, in Guam and Japan and Germany." 

(Continued in HERE BE GIANTS) 

More 

Cold War Brats 

here & 

here & 

here 

RUSSIA THEN & NOW: SAKHALIN & AN OLD JAPANESE CONNECTION

SAKHALIN, RUSSIA,

&

AN OLD

JAPANESE CONNECTION

PAPER MILL, KHOLMSK (RUSSIA)

ISLAND OF SAKHALIN, USSR, 1984

This plant was built by Japan when it held the southern half of Sakhalin (Karafuto), and "renovated," so I had read, by the Soviets in the fifties. It looked like a scene out of a movie about the evils of old capitalist exploitation, and gave forth a stench that sent my local guide fleeing from the plant floor to get some air.

-- from RUSSIA REDUX

BEIJING & TRANSPARENCY, TAKE TWO

BEIJING

CALLS FOR

TRANSPARENCY

TAKE TWO

Take One, Beijing calls for transparency -- in Tokyo --

can be found here.

BEIJING CALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY. IN TOKYO. Tales of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Crisis

BEIJING

CALLS FOR

TRANSPARENCY

IN TOKYO

The People's Republic of China has suddenly become the champion of transparency -- in Japan -- as the news of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant crisis has spread to the Chinese populace. "We hope that Japan reports details to the world in a timely and accurate manner," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Jiang Yu, is recorded as having said.

CHINA OVERTAKES JAPAN AS THE NUMBER TWO ECONOMY. OFFICIALLY.

CHINA 

OVERTAKES JAPAN 

AS 

NUMBER TWO 

ECONOMY. 

OFFICIALLY. 

THE FRONT GATE 

("NEW CHINA GATE") 

TO ZHONGNANHAI 

SEAT OF THE CHINESE AUTHORITIES 

BEIJING, CHINA 

Behind these traditional trappings, in what is essentially a continuation of the "Forbidden City," lies the command center for the thirty-plus years of "reform" and "opening up" which have led to the People's Republic of China overtaking its World War II enemy (which started in China as the Sino-Japanese War). The photograph was taken about halfway through this period; a view close up and head-on of the Zhongnanhai "New China Gate" can be seen here.