At the funeral of Elder Hiroshi Aki

At the funeral of Elder Hiroshi Aki, originally uploaded by njflickrspace.

Another senior passed away 18 March, 2012.

Some Haikus in English Translation

Here are some of the best ‘haikus’ I received last Autumn in the Japanese Course of Chinese Faculty at Star College in Harbin, China. Enjoy the world-shortest verses which express the writers’ mind and the changing environment in which he or she lives.

Spring is here: almost everyone is out taking a walk.
--- Jia Haonan

Ever cherished but short-lived is our youthfulness.
--- Guo Tian-yi

Among friends the principles of trust should abound.
--- Chu Yuhang

Reflected up-side-down upon the surface of the lake is your face.
--- Ning Yue

Right at this moment, I long to be with you, my beloved!
--- Wang Yuting

Translation is done to transfer the meaning, rather than the form (number of syllables).　 (Translation is by Jiro Numano, the teacher)

Preparatory note of apology for 731st force operations

A Japanese language teacher in Harbin, I am planning to visit “The Site of the Japanese Army’s 731st Force” in March. The site is notorious for its operations of developing, experimenting and producing chemical weaponry during the last years of World War II. The force experimented various poison gases with civil living humans. The number amounted to 3,000 according to Chinese sources. I prepared a statement of apology in Chinese. The following is an English translation.

“As a Japanese, I feel very sorry for the fact that Japanese army developed such grievous weaponry, and that victimized countless citizens in its process. I should like to apologize those victims and their families from the bottom of my heart. I know that there is no room for any excuse. I am really sorry. I suppose the wound the Chinese people suffered and the grudge as well as unpleasant feelings you have toward Japan would not disappear easily. Though I was not involved in the damaging operations directly, I wish I could make up for the harm in the range of my capacity. And as one of the pro-China Japanese, I would like to cherish the close affinity I feel toward Chinese people and try to advance harmonious and cooperative relationships between the two nations.”

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

A Feeling on the Result of US Presidential Election

Lines that came to my mind on 5 November:

A sigh of relief I breathed
at the long-awaited change of the chief of state.
With the people of the whole world over
I yelled with delight.

At long last, the leader of America is going to be replaced
after the long four years. Even though the head of state there
be changed, what the current super power will do, insist, and
require would not change in essence. However, I would like to
have hope that it would at least shift its political postures
and would not make the same kind of mistakes the predecessor
(or the incumbent) has made.

lds in Asia

I am interested in contacting lds members in Asia. So I started to collect URLs of blogs or home pages Asian lds members keep. (If there are persons who would not like to have their URLs listed here, please notify me. I will immediately delete theirs.)

1 Almost Faye-mous 2.3 URL http://fayemin.com/blog Beijing, China

2 jacky chin's journal URL http://jackychin.blogspot.com Ipn Perak, Malaysia

3 Curbside Puppet URL http://www.blogger.com/profile/00173985274383203868
Philippine

To be added. (If viewers would like to add the list, please assist me. Thanks.)

A poem read before BYU students

The Passage of Time

I am not here by accident.
Born in Shanghai, China, a few days before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,
I was taken back to Japan by my mother in 1945.
The packed train we rode in passed Hiroshima to Nishinomiya, a suburban town near Osaka. I was three.
A few months later an A-bomb was dropped in Hiroshima.

As an elementary school pupil, I saw two documentary movies on Hiroshima's tragedy.
The films were very vivid and powerful for a small boy.
Horrible afterimages stayed in my mind.

I began to find special meaning in the message Hiroshima has been sending out to the world.
Whenever I see the atomic dome, somehow I feel a solemn atmosphere which is to be held dear.

Now, I notice the Japanese, particulary survivors of the tragedy, are beginning to say "it was against humanity and wrong for the US to have used the weapon."
What I desire of you is that you become aware of different perspectives shared by other nations.

Although I am not a native of Hiroshima, nor a survivor of the bomb, I think it is not by accident that I meet you here as one of the representatives of this city of peace.

(Read on 29 July, 2007 at an exchange meeting held at Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University. Eighteen students of Brigham Young University and 10 Japanese met.)