Lee Ok Seon: “I was forced to have sex with many men each day”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3143566/I-receive-50-Japanese-soldiers-day-kicked-beat-children-ashamed-WWII-comfort-woman-sex-slave-tells-barbarity-suffered-suing-Japan-16million.html

 

What Is More Important? The Apology or the Billion Yen?

Japan And South Korea Reach Settlement Over Wartime Sex Slaves

The deal includes an apology from the Japanese Prime Minister over the women, who were forced to work in military-run brothels in World War II.

A woman attends a rally demanding a full compensation and an apology from the Japanese government in Seoul, Dec. 28. Ahn Young-joon / AP

 

Japan and South Korea have agreed to refrain from criticizing each other on the issue in public, and South Korea will also look to remove a statue symbolizing the women who were forced to work in the brothels.  This statue was erected by activists outside the Japanese embassy in 2011. The issue of the sex slavery had long been a source of animosity between South Korea and Japan. The latter occupied the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

Other women forced to work in the brothels came from China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Read more:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35188135

Japan reveals record defence budget as tensions with China grow

Japan signs off biggest ever defence budget as Senkaku tensions rise

Tokyo approves 5.05tn yen on defense spending to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.

 

A Chinese coastguard ship near the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Justin McCurry in Osaka

Thursday 24 December 2015 03.47 EST

Japan has approved its biggest ever defense budget, as it attempts to counter an increasingly assertive China and push through an unpopular move to relocate a US military base on Okinawa.

The cabinet on Thursday approved plans to spend 5.05tn yen (£28bn) on defence for the year beginning next April, with a focus on protecting a string of remote islands in its southernmost reaches, including those claimed by Beijing.

Military spending will rise 1.5% from this year – the first time it has topped 5tn yen and the fourth annual increase under the conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who ended a decade of defence budget cuts after taking office in late 2012.

the guardian

Read more:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/24/japan-approves-defence-budget-china-senkaku

Justin McCurry in Tokyo

Wednesday 14 January 2015 01.03 EST

 

Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Kurama (R) leads destroyer Hyuga as a Japanese naval flag flutters during a naval fleet review at Salami Bay, south of Tokyo.  Photograph: Yuriko Nakao/Reuter/Reuters

 

Old news but worth repeating since India is seeking to spend $2 billion ….

also in response to China’s increasing military influence in its region.

Japan has announced its biggest ever defence budget in response to China’s increasing military influence in the region and Beijing’s claims to a group of disputed islands administered by Tokyo.

The 4.98 trillion yen (US$ 42bn) budget approved by the cabinet on Wednesday is up 2% from last year and marks the third straight increase after more than a decade of cuts.

The rise is in line with Japan’s more assertive defence policy under the conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, as he seeks to counter Chinese influence and remove the postwar legal shackles from his country’s military.

Read more:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/14/japan-reveals-record-defence-budget-as-tensions-with-china-grow

 

 

Japan, land of impunity for rapists.

The violators of the armed forces of the United States of America in Japan, are rarely convicted of any sexual crimes. Most receive a letter of reprimand, a slap in the hand and some a ticket to paradise. They are eventually sent home leaving their accusers empty handed and unsatisfied. This is an injustice for the women who are violated while serving their country. The U.S. Air Force has the worst conviction rate. Out of 124 cases none were found guilty and only letters of reprimand were given to 23 sexual predators. Where do these predators go when they leave the service? Most likely to fly the friendly skies of the United States of America.

Sent from my dumB iPad

Reuters.com – Man circles Mount Fuji like a bird

Wouldn’t you love to be able to fly? Reuters.com – Man circles Mount Fuji like a bird Nov. 6 – Strapped to wings and jet engines, Yves Rossy, known as Jetman, zips around the skies of Japan’s famed mountain. Jeanne Yurman reports. http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=274434928 You may also be interested in some other videos on reuters.com:

 

In this photo taken Friday, Nov. 1, 2013 and provided by Breitling, Yves Rossy, known as the Jetman, flies by Mount Fuji in Japan. The Swiss aviator jumped from a helicopter at an altitude of 3,600 meters (11,811 feet) and successfully flew the jet-powered carbon-Kevlar Jetwing around the 3,776-meter (12,388-foot)-tall mountain, Japan’s highest peak, which was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in June.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/jetman-yves-rossy-completes-flight-mount-fuji-gallery-1.1508399#ixzz2k4RiJIYb

 

This is not a world we should accept. President of the US of A. Barack Obama makes his case.

This is not a world we should accept. This is what’s at stake. And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike.

Path of Tsunami Debris Mapped out By Jonathan Amos

Image via Wikipedia

Almost a year after the Japanese Tohoku earthquake and mega-tsunami, the Pacific Ocean is still dealing with the consequences of the catastrophe.

A mass of debris was washed out to sea as floodwaters receded from the land, and some of that wreckage continues to float around the ocean.

Most of it headed eastwards, according to modelling work by the Hawaii-based International Pacific Research Center.