Harmony or war

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / January 8, 2014 / Daily Tribune

First, a story about the good that a genuine global "community" can do which the NYT described as "…displaying unusual international harmony…": the Russian research ship Akademik Shokalskiy carrying multi-national scientists (ironically, "global warming" researchers), and tourists and journalists got trapped in 13-feet thick Antarctic ice last Dec. 27. First the Chinese icebreaker ship "snow Dragon" and then an Australian icebreaker ship rushed to the rescue and both were also trapped in the massive engulfing freeze up, but the Chinese ship had on board a helicopter which ferried the Shokalskiy's 52 passengers to safety. An US icebreaker ship is now also on its way to join the aid effort.

The story highlights a few important points: first, China's presence of the global stage is playing a positive role and this can only add to the international community's capabilities to enhance global harmony; secondly, no single nation can save mankind from the many gigantic universal challenges it faces from the overpowering natural forces of disruption and only combined human and technological resource can ensure adequate responses to them. If the spirit of the Shokalskiy rescue effort dominated the World's mind today then we can be assured of a peaceful and harmonious future for our children and generations to open the way for uninterrupted economic and human progress for all.

On the other side of the globe another event highlights the opposite track that humanity today can march on to. At exactly the time of the Shokalskiy drama was unfolding in the Antarctic the Prime Minster of Japan, Shinzo Abe, paid the first visit of any post-World War II Japanese premier to the Japanese war memorial called the Yasukuni Shrine commemorating several "Class A" war criminals including general and war time prime minister Hideki Tojo. This infuriated Japanese war victims China, South Korea, Taiwan and it elicited criticism even from the US. It should also infuriate Filipinos and their national leaders but it could not even ape its US master in this regard.

Prime Minister Abe's visit to Yasukuni Shrine aggravates the fact that the Japanese have never officially apologized for the invasion and cruelties they inflicted on their Asian neighbors, a fact that the US war factions have tolerated while it demanded the apology from Germany. The US has been tolerant of the Japanese militarist faction, to which Abe's family belongs, is that the US has always placed in reserve this militarist faction to serve as potential buffer to the rise of China and Russia. While the US has spread knowledge of German atrocities like the "Holocaust," the clear and incontrovertible atrocities by the Japanese such as the Nanjing Massacre has never been fully addressed.

The World has focused its attention on the response of China, one of the reactions highlighted by the international media is Chinese ambassador to London Liu Xiaoming's statement: "In the Harry Potter story, the dark wizard Voldemort dies hard because the seven horcruxes, which contain parts of his soul, have been destroyed. If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's (Japan's) soul." In Asia Times Senan Fox, Professor at Kanazawa University in Japan, writes: "Respected Asia scholar professor Jeff Kingston… in an interview with the BBC, that Abe's actions were a deliberate provocation of China aimed at goading Beijing... heighten the Japanese public's sense of threat, and consequently enhance support for the nationalistic leader's plans to revise his country's constitution."

Indeed, the provocations from the Japanese war faction and its sponsors in the US have been mounting — starting with the government purchase of the Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands effectively nationalizing them, drawing in and provoking China's government. Adding to the provocations are propaganda and disinformation from China's detractors, such as the recent controversy of China's Air Defense Zone Plan (ADIZ). We have discovered through John Hofilena of Global Research that "China Informed Japan of ADIZ 2010" with official documents: " — minutes of the informal meeting between the PLA officers and Japanese government officials at the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies in Beijing on May 14 to 15, 2010 — show that China had already established its ADIZ... presented to the Japanese officials…" That's why China described Japan's recent objections as "hypocritical."

Remember too how the hundreds of "concrete blocks" supposedly set up by China in the Scarborough turned out to be anchors for US floating targets for their shooting exercises. "All wars start in the mind" as the Unesco preamble states, hence there are those who want to instill that war mentality now, and Shinzo Abe is one of them. China believes there may be war and Shinzo Abe is giving the reasons to affirm this; that's why China has to secure its front facing the sea.

(Watch "Japan militarizing?" with Chito Sta. Romana and Richard Javad Heydarian, GNN Destiny Cable Channel 8, Skycable Channel 213, www.gnntv-asia.com Sat., 8 p.m. and replay Sun., 8 a.m.; tune to 1098AM, Tues. to Fri. 5pm; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com; and text reactions to 0923-4095739)