Monday, August 29, 2005

ELECTION CAMPAIGN

▼ After the official announcement of the Lower House election on August 30, the general election will enter the main course. Candidates will begin to call their names repeatedly over the loudspeaker in the lingering heat. Just imagining the scene will make me hot and perspiring.

▼ Meanwhile, one of the political activities is totally suspended by tonight. To be accurate, after midnight on August 29, the public office election law orders not to operate the Internet for a political campaign. Candidates are forbidden to renew their websites. They are not allowed to deliver e-mail newsletters to report their activities. On the other hand, they can ask for voting limitlessly by telephone. It is a law to prevent money politics that hinders effective means of transferring vast information swiftly and inexpensively.

▼It is a matter of common sense in the United States to promote an election campaign on the Internet. “Blogger” caught people’s eyes in the presidential election last year. Bloggers are those who express their personal opinions on the “weblog.” They were invited to the Republican and Democrat conventions. Finding President Bush’s bulky back in the presidential debate, those people released “wireless suspicion” against him.

▼ South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun actually gained victory by organizing his fans on the Internet. On the Election Day, mail was busily exchanged among them. They asked each other if they had already finished voting, showing the latest percentage of voting each time the rate was announced.

▼In Japan, an election research group affiliated with the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications advised to remove partly the ban on the Internet three years ago. But the Diet has not revised the law yet. “Using the Internet is disadvantageous to a party with many elderly supporters.” “It might be used to speak ill of others.” So saying, mainly Liberal Democratic members are reluctant to lift the banning.

▼ It is intriguing to read the commentary on each party’s public commitments or candidates’ practical opinions on the Internet. Voters will search for a certain candidate’s web site, which will eventually have them involved in election positively. “One more push! This is the last appeal to you.” Even such a shouting will not be noisy if it is delivered by e-mail.

Monday, August 22, 2005

POSTAL PRIVATIZATION ISSUE

▼ “Postal privatization is my principle. I wouldn’t mind even if I were killed.” “Opposing to postal privatization is like demanding me to swim with my hands and feet bound.” During his move to dissolve the Lower House, Prime Minister Koizumi shouted those phrases defiantly.

▼ As a result of his drastic measures, people were excited and his supportive rate has risen. “Arrest him either alive or dead.” “Smoke them out.” Expressing himself like a cowboy in a western film, President Bush of the United States captured the heart of American people following the terror attacks on September 11.

▼ In today’s politics, people are attracted by short emotional expressions rather than persuasive reasoning. “People used to attend gatherings to listen to politicians’ speeches. Politicians took time to work on logics and rhetoric for them.” I was told such a story by Theodore Sorensen, the former special assistant to the late President John F. Kennedy.

▼ Politicians in the TV age are expected to volley exciting words before viewers turn off the switch. Prime Minister’s press conference held on the dissolution day attracted TV viewers more and more in course of broadcasting.

▼ Talking of masterly speeches, I am reminded of Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln, “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” He presented the brief discourse following the main speaker, who was ex-president of Harvard University and made a two-hour oration, at the dedication of the National Cemetery, honoring those who died in the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln’s speech was over only in three minutes before photographers were ready.

▼ And yet Lincoln’s speech remained ever after because of his noble idea, but more than anything else it may have remained because he averted the nation from splitting into two and liberated slaves. How will Prime Minister Koizumi’s speech be instilled in people in the days to come?

Monday, August 15, 2005

TERMINATION OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC WAR

▼ I was not personally involved with the day when Japan was defeated by the Allied Forces because I was born two years later, but August 15 in the 20th year of Showa (1945) seems to be lingering somewhere on my mind. Whenever I encounter something related to the end of the war or the days leading to the end of the war, I ponder over its significance.

▼ Many people wrote down their impressions of the day in their diaries. Each of them interests me, but on the occasion of “the 60th anniversary of the surrender,” I like to ruminate over a paragraph of the “Diary of the Defeated,” written by novelist Osanagi Jiro and published by Soshi-sha.

▼ “As they were instructed to concentrate themselves only on fulfilling their duties, …” It was a part of the diary, in which he wrote that he could not have a sound sleep worrying about soldiers who had to go through the disgrace of the surrender. But it was not merely the case with soldiers.

▼ In effect, “concentrating themselves wholeheartedly on the given jobs” was also applied to most of the Japanese. The war being declared, Japan had no other choice but to fight to the end. All the Japanese, soldiers, politicians, parents and children, entirely devoted themselves to accomplish what was expected to them. Most importantly, without knowing the destination of the country, they enclosed themselves in the limited world to which they were devoted.

▼ In a sense, I am immensely impressed with a straightforwardness of Japanese people, but an outburst of the stream with no barriers deprived of innumerable lives in neighboring countries as well as in Japan. As a journalist, I also condemn the media for being off the track.

▼ August 15 is not only the day to mourn for the dead but to reconsider whether we are engaged in given duties blindly or not. I wish the day would never come when this moment is called “prewar time.”