Hiroshima marks Atomic bomb anniversary with hope for US change

The mayor of Hiroshima on Wednesday urged the next US president to work to abolish atomic weapons as the city marked the 63rd anniversary of the world's first nuclear attack.

Some 45,000 people, including Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, gathered at a memorial to the dead within sight of the A-bomb dome, a former exhibition hall burned to a skeleton by the bomb's incinerating heat.

They stood up and offered silent prayers at 8:15 am, the exact moment in 1945 when a single US bomb instantly killed more than 140,000 people and fatally injured tens of thousands of others with radiation or horrific burns.

Delivering a speech at the memorial, Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba noted the United States was one of only three countries which oppose a UN resolution submitted by Japan calling for the abolition of nuclear arms.

"We can only hope that the president of the United States elected this November will listen conscientiously to the majority, for whom the top priority is human survival," he said.
Akiba said the effects of the atomic bombing on the minds of survivors had been underestimated for decades, adding that "the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell" had never left the hearts of survivors.

With the average age of survivors now over 75, he said the city would launch a two-year scientific study of the psychological impact of the experience.

"This study should teach us the grave import of the truth, born of tragedy and suffering, that the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished," the mayor told the service.

On the eve of the anniversary, children gathered in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome for a lantern march. Survivors burned incense before dawn broke.

An altar at the Peace Memorial Park quickly filled up with a mountain of flowers. A group of South Koreans performed a traditional dance to honour the dead, who included a number of Koreans.

"Children who evacuated buildings or went to work at factories on that day have not returned 63 years on... the atomic bomb deprived them of normal life," 11-year-old school girl Honoka Imai told the service.

A Chinese representative, a diplomat, attended the annual ceremony for the first time in a move welcomed by the city, which each year invites representatives of the world's eight declared nuclear powers to the event.

Previously India, Pakistan and Russia were the only nuclear powers that had sent representatives to the ceremony. The other declared nuclear states -- Britain, France, North Korea and the United States -- have never come.

Three days after the Hiroshima bombing, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, which killed another 70,000 people in the southern port city.

Japan surrendered in World War II on August 15. The nation has since been officially pacifist and turned into one of the closest US allies, hosting more than 40,000 US troops.

Dozens of atomic survivors and activists protested in Nagasaki this week as a US nuclear-powered submarine arrived in Japan, just days after it emerged another sub may have suffered a small radiation leak earlier this year.

( News in AFP by Toru Yamanaka )

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Social Security, Health Care, and Public Hygiene in Japan

For the last two months, except on Sundays I have been attending a physiotherapy course for the lumbar disc prolapse at my L5/S. The treatment is an automated physiotherapy machine, where my body will be stretched and bring back to normal position repeatedly for 10 minutes. My evenings are booked by my back!

One of the major problem as a foreigner I faced was the language to communicate my condition. I knew only one word in Japan that ‘Itai desu’ meaning I have pain. My exact condition on the first weeks of June was the numbness in left leg. From Tabe-san I learned the equivalent word for numbness in the leg as ‘shibireru’. That helped me to a good extent to effectively convey the exact condition and pain I was suffering. The sciatic pain which happens due to disc pro-lapse was severe in my case too.

I have always been communicating through this blog about the helping mentality of Japanese people. From the day one of my landing in Japan, starting from my boss (I could not ask his permission to mention his name here), I have been experiencing that helping mentality. When I told to my friend at office that I have this sciatic pain and want to consult doctor, my friend Aoki-san came with me all the way to Toyo-cho to communicate for me. My surprise ! This is the real altruism ! She could convey to doctor exactly in what situation I was. This reinforced my feeling that Japanese people have a kind of empathetic feeling. It is not sympathy or simply helping somebody for charity. They feel that the person is in real need of help and before we ask, they guess and offer their help. Remarkable character of Japanese people.

Doctors are called as ‘sensei’ in Japanese, means ‘master’ with great respect. Japanese people have strong faith and respect in doctors and teachers and both are called as ‘sensei’ The hospital I am going is SUGIMOTO ORTHOPAEDICS in Toyo-cho. It is near to a public park. I like this park which is with full of flowers and children playing on the ground and is on the road side.

Japan has a national health insurance system to ensure that anyone can receive necessary medical treatment. Under this system, every citizen belongs to a public medical insurance system, such as an employees' health insurance or a national health insurance. I have also received one such insurance card and am effectively using it for my daily physiotherapy treatement.

This medical care system is highly regarded internationally because, along with improvements in the living environment and better nutrition, it has contributed to Japan achieving the highest life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the world, as well as a high standard of healthcare. Currently, reform of the whole system is being undertaken in order to sustain this medical insurance system in the future.

My orthopedic doctor is also mastered in Accupuncture as the certificate displayed at the entrance of the clinic. Traditional Chinese medicine was introduced to Japan with other elements of Chinese culture during the 5th to 9th century. Since around 1900, Chinese-style herbalists have been required to be licensed medical doctors. professionalized and, except for East Asian healers, was based on a biomedical model of disease.

Japan has near to 10,000 general hospitals. Health is taken extremely serious in Japan, as the high status of doctors in society would hint it. Most often, even minor ailments like colds are treated with care.
Statistics Bureau, Director General for Policy Planning & Statistical Research and Training institue

Japan - Socialism and status of Communist parties

Personally, I have great interest in knowing more about Japanese communism. I was wondering the state of communist parties in Japan as Japan is a blind follower of United states. The influence of US on Japan and its political structure must have wiped out the possibility of flourishing the prsopects of communism in Japan.

Being from a person from communist ruled state in India, Kerala, I was interested in Japan and its activities in a capitalist economy. My grandfather was a communist, but my father was against communism as he told us that communism ends up all individual achievements and competition in the world. As he told, in a communist ruled country, people will not put their effort to achieve the goals. Everything will be decided by the state. I have read Communist manifesto when I was doing my graduation. I was in favor of communism infact and was a great fan of Carl Marx. More than communism, Marxism attracted me for its practical approach, eventhough finding differences between both are quite difficult.

The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) advocates the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a society based on socialism, democracy and peace, and opposition to militarism. JPC proposes to achieve these objectives by working within the framework of capitalism in order to achieve its goals, while still struggling against what it describes as imperialism and its subordinate ally, monopoly capital.

Although it is a Leninist party, the JCP does not advocate socialist revolution, it proposes a democratic revolution to achieve democratic change in politics and the economy, and the complete restoration of Japan's national sovereignty, which it sees as infringed by Japan's security alliance with the United States.

The JCP is one of the largest non-ruling communist parties in the world, with about 400,000 members belonging to 25,000 branches. The JCP has maintained its position partly because of the collapse of the old Japan Socialist Party, once the country's main opposition party but reduced to 5.5% of the vote.

Although the socialist and other left wing movements had very little practical success in the period before world war II ,they constitute an important subject of study. This study will help us to understand the origins of the left wing in Japan today. Socialistic movements have exerted a powerful influence on Japanese writers, artists, and intellectuals in general.

One reason for the poor performance of socialist movement in the prewar period was the frequent governmental suppression to which they were subjected. It is the history in Japan that the first Socialist Part, founded in 1901 was banned on the same day it declared its birth !

Such treatments by authorities soon led to some socialist leaders to despair of ever achieving their goals by parliamentary means and to embrace more radical ideologies, such as syndicalism and anarchism. While in many other parts of the world, these suppression by the establishment gave more strength and vigor to socialistic movements, Japan's socialist movements did not get into the mainstream.

Communism and socialistic movements in many parts of the world suffered severe set backs. But including my own state Kerala and the eastern states of India, West Bengal and Tripura to some extent still embrace communism and beholds memories of a good tomorrow where rich and poor will not be there in the earth.

Red salute to the comrades !

Address of Japanese Communist Party:
The Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party
4-26-7 Sendagaya,Shibuya-ku,Tokyo 151-8586