JeffLee comments

There was hardly any resistance among the Japanese public, including Tokyo residents, to the Japanese military's launch of the most destructive war in history. Almost everyone in Japan cheered on the military's conquests in gaikoku before the US brought the war to Japan in the final few months of the war.

Even in Nazi Germany, there were 42 assasination attempts against Hitler involving thousands of people.

If these folks were engaged in some sort of resistance struggle, sure, they would deserve compensation. But they didn't, so they don't.

kipling

Which is it? Russia needs North Koreans to win ? Or North Koreans are useless?

Yes, and yes. Kinda pathetic when you've got to rely on the North Koreans to defend your own territory from a much smaller country, wouldn't you agree?

It's around 50,000 Russians and 10,000 Northerns allied against only 10,000 Ukrainins, who have been holding the territory over the past 8 months. Russia, not to mention Putin, is pathetic.

What is it with these creepy guys always asking for appreciation? 

Deep insecurity? narcissism? Aspergers? Take your pick. You need to be suffering from at least one to serve in the Trump cabinet.

Japanese firms are feeling the most acute shortage of full-time workers...

So offer them higher wages, as in higher than the competition and as in higher real wages, not nominal wages. They could also offer perks like longer paid holiday periods and time-and-a-half pay rates for overtime. You know, like what companies in other countries do.

Russia's special forces there can't be all that "special" if they need to rely on thousands of North Korean soldiers - North Koreans!!! - to defend their own territory against a force that is less than one-fifth their size. LOL.

Those of us with a healthy dose of cynicism predicted this would happen. Islamics tend to never change their spots.

This message is actually needed. I would add, "If your symptoms are severe, such as a fever and constant coughing, then please stay home."

Gurumick

The USA embarked on a racially driven extermination of the Japanese people...no other words for it.

If that's the case, then the USA did a pretty flimsy job of it. Around 36 million were killed in the war Japan started. Japanese soldiers accounted for around 2 million, about 5.5% percent of the total. Japanese civlians, 1 million, or 2.8 percent. This includes many not killed by Americans but in China. In a nation of 73 million, the total number is relatively small.

Gotta love the racial argument. The war's biggest victims were Soviets, who were largely blonded haired and blue-eyed white people. Quite a few were subjects of Japan's gruesome biological experiments, aimed ultimately at, you got it....extermination of those deemed as inferior!

Bloody shameful disproportionate response that killed innocents more than war making facilities.

No, in fact, the "response" and others like it did a really good job of destroying Japan's war making facilities, which had all become obliterated by the time of surrender.

Now, let's watch my facts get downvoted yet again. While emotional outbursts based on mythology get the upvotes. Every wonder why Japan can't move beyond its past?

The sad truth is that the victor writes the history of the war.

"Truth"? Ha, good one. The Vietnam War has come almost exclusively to us through the lens of the loser, and postwar Germans did much to chronicle the horrors of the Holocaust. There are other cases as well.

But hey, it's a cliche that sounds nice and assuring. Which is why the revisionists like it so much. Who cares if it isn't true.

There's no doubt the civilians were a deliberate target," he said.

That doesn't make sense. The USAAF dropped huge numbers of warning leaflets in Feburary on Tokyo warning civlilians of a destructive attacks, and explaing that they were NOT the targets, and for them to evacuate the cities. In fact, the USAAF dropped the leaflets throughout Japan during the war. No other country did. The Japanese police punished anyone caught reading the warnings.

"By burning them down, you would kill workers, de-house them. You would destroy small factories scattered around the domestic residential zones.  And that this would contribute in some way to undermining the Japanese war economy."

OK, now he's contradicting himself. The objective WAS to destory factories and Japan's industrial capacity. Like all modern revisionists, his argument is riddled with contradictions and falsehoods.

“Tokyo Pop” in 1988 was really good, although that’s listed as a US-Japan production, directed and starred by Americans. Scenes inside that Reggae bar in 2-chome we used to hang out in. “Black Rain” and “Lost in Translation” were good. Shot right on the streets of Osaka and Tokyo respectively. 

"bridges of toko-ri" has fantastic scenes of Japan, shot in 1954!

Biden sanctioned Russia which drove up inflation world wide, so there you are.

No, there you aren’t. Western sanctions against Russia began in 2014, after which inflation globally was very low. Russia’s full-scale invasion was in June 2022, after which inflation immediately took off, peaking at 9% in the US 4 months later, also pushed higher by the pandemic. It came down afterward, to under 3% during Biden’s presidency and with the full set of Russian sanctions in place.

The US defense industry, until now lucrative, will be seeing a big loss in business if the Trump policies are allowed to continue. Another article says Sweden's industry is going gang-busters thanks the very recent geopolitical shift. European and Japanese contractors can produce weapons systems that are usually better suited to a battlefield like Ukraine than their US contractors can.

Poor guy. I wonder how he delivers papers when the snow gets so deep.

I wonder how many of them who voted for Trump are regretting it now. 

A guy on CNN walked away from the camera midway during an interview. He just didn't want to or couldn't deal with the reality. Maybe no "regret." I guess he and others might goundlessly blame Biden...or Obama...or Jimmy Carter. LOL. Serves 'em right, anyway.

If tariffs are so wonderful, what's the point in delaying them? Maybe, hopefully, this is a sign he's softening.

Trump had solid support from the business community, from shopkeeper entrepreneurs all the way to multinational CEOs. This is what they want. How could it be otherwise? Trump said very clearly during his campaign that he was going to do exactly this.

It's an old, archaeic idea that gold is literally indestructible unless most other assets, and because it looks nice, it can be used in expensive jewelry. In today's world, that makes little sense. Gold is a metal with limited industrial uses but as a financial asset it pays no dividends or interest and costs quite a bit of money to store safely.

I don't know why that is necessary. The Narita Express and Skyliner trains and buses have dedicated luggage spaces. The Shinkansen DO need them, however. Nearly every suitcase has wheels that make them easy to move around.

Japan: rich corporations, poor workers.

Since the corporate sector is in no mood to give real wage increases despite record earnings year after year, it's clearly time for the govt to hike the corporate tax rate.

You can mend relations by apologizing, even if you think it is not your fault. 

Didn't Churchill say that? LOL.

 Ukraine is ready to sign a lucrative deal on rare-earth minerals and security with Washington.

The minerals deal could potentially be a great idea, as long as Ukraine gets a decent deal, based on the true amount of US aid of around 120 billion and not Trump's false 350 bil. The exploration, mining and logistics couldn't take place in a war zone, so the US would have to provide Ukraine with a solid security guarantee to keep the Russians out of the country.

Ukraine even with European aid cannot “do fine without him”

I always enjoy the countless videos showing UK-Swedish made NLAWs easily render Russian tanks, including the supposedly advanced T90, into an exploding, boiling mess.

Western Europe makes some of the most advanced weaponry on Earth. And they're willing to give lots of it to the Ukrainians, who don't need foreign soldiers, unlike Putin's North Korean comrades.

The Europeans have also got Leopard tanks, which are better suited to the European terrain than US Abrams. And they've got old F-16s they're still willing to give away. Remember that Hitler's and Imperial Japan's forces appeared clearly superior at the start of the war. A couple of years later, the Allies had turned the tables on technologies and strategy.

Is this the usual Japanese corporate strategy to bring in a foreigner to do the dirty but necessary work? And then once they've rescued the pathetic management, to throw him in jail?

I'd advise Mr. Dacus not to say or write anything about your future compensation.

the U.S. president responded angrily to,,,,, Zelenskyy as saying the end of the war is "very, very far away".

Is this the essense of "the art of the deal"? First you humiliate a main participant in public, Two days later, he flatly contradicts and undermines your position. "The art of the fiasco" more like it.

Speculators and black marketeers are the major reason, although the Japanese media isn't allowed to say that. They take advantage of Japan's tightly controlled market to drive up prices. But let's blame foreign tourists instead.

Sir Churchill LED Britain to VICTORY and not defeat.

Ukraine isn't defeated either, in case you haven't checked. How's life in the disinformation sphere?

Never thought I'd say this, but Starmer this weekend was reminincent of Churchill in 1940.

Support Ukraine. Japan's fledging defense industry is looking to find new customers, while US assistance may be terminated. Better that Japanse rifles, radar systems, etc go to Ukraine rather than to countries like Indonesia or places like Africa.

It's pointless trying to abolish it when so many Japanese people favor it. This is a democracy, after all.

This stat doesn't tell us much. How high are the prices rises? What products specifically will be more expensive? How about telling us stats that are useful.