NJ's Window

Some Haikus in English Translation

2010-06-21T11:55:00.004+09:00

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

2010-02-04T22:23:00.003+09:00

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

2010-01-22T00:35:00.001+09:00

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

A Feeling on the Result of US Presidential Election

2008-11-22T23:41:00.002+09:00

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

2007-11-09T23:41:00.002+09:00

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

2007-11-02T01:05:00.000+09:00

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.)

A farewell verse to a colleague

2006-03-31T21:32:00.000+09:00

A poem sent to an English teacher:

A dear colleague of ours,
You have endured a hard time
To prove to be the bright pivot.

A better future
Let us wish you and us.

To a teacher who moves to
another institution. March 2006

Rough-&-Ready Baptism Period in Japan

2006-03-28T00:52:00.000+09:00

Abstract from 8/9/2002 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium

Title: The Rough And Ready Baptism Period In Japan

From 1979 to 1981, requirements for Japanese convert baptisms were loosened and area administrator pressured mission presidents to increase the number of baptisms. The result was a large number of converts who mostly left the Church. Are there still scars from this policy? How do converts from this period feel? How about the members called to visit them? How has this period affected Japanese perceptions of the Church?

Presenter: Jiro Numano

The presenter plans to publish a paper on this issue in future.

Hiroshima: a small dialogue

2005-08-11T18:42:00.000+09:00

The following is an exchange of comments between Wilfried Decoo and myself in an LDS blog called "Times and Seasons."

Wilfried, I appreciate very much your posting this topic in an appropriate stance:

> this is not the day to analyze the chain of events that led to it nor to weigh reasons and responsibilities. Still I feel I must try to comprehend something essential, something that goes way beyond the facts and ties in with the Gospel and eternity.

> this is a day to ponder about the white doves flying over the Atomic Bomb Dome, the suffering on all sides, burned skin hanging from bodies, radiation, children, peace for tomorrow. But the scare of a future, similar to Hiroshima’s fate, is still with us, today more than yesterday.

I feel relieved to find most of the 20 comments tried to face this difficult theme sincerely.

– A Japanese member of the Church in Hiroshima.

Comment by NJWindow — 8/9/2005 : 7:04 am

It certainly was a surprise to receive this comment from a Church member in Hiroshima. Thank you so much. Also thank you for your generosity and kindness, because some of the previous comments were perhaps somewhat hurtful and unnecessary in this thread. But, indeed, the overall tone of the participants is one of sober commemoration and of gratitude for the Spirit that binds us all, whatever our nationality and whatever the past of our countries. We greet you, Hiroshima. And, appropriately, we add Nagasaki today in our thoughts.

Comment by Wilfried — 8/9/2005 : 11:40 am

100 Years of Japan Mission

2005-03-11T00:13:00.000+09:00

Events Highlight
100 Years
of Japan Mission
by Jiro Numano (Mormon History Association Newsletter, Oct. 2001)

A symposium was recently held in Japan to commemorate the centennial of the Japan Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tokyo on
September 8, 2001. A small but interested group of people attended the meeting held at Shinagawa Hoken Center under the sponsorship of Jiro Numano, a faculty member of Sociology at Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University and a member of MHA.
Numano spoke about "The Reception and Indigenization of Christianity in Japan," and showed that LDS Church did not lose much time in following the first group of Christians who came to Japan in 1859 and others thereafter. Then, in view of the very low percentage of Christians in current Japan, he presented types of reception and indigenization of Christianity: one, sinking down under the Japanese mental framework and lifestyle; two, isolation from Japanese society by sticking to Western service modes and religious lifestyle, discarding Japanese way of thinking; three, confrontation against old Japanese values that contradict Christian teachings and; four, grafting Christianity onto positive Japanese values. Numano suggested that LDS Church now seems to turn to the last type as revealed in some reports issued by the Church.
Yutaka Inaba of the Church Education System next presented a summary on "The Growth, Establishment and Recent State of the Church in Japan." After reviewing statistical data, he noted the remarkable role of the baby-boomer generation born in the late 1940s who converted to the Church and constituted the important core of the membership here. "We may be close to the stage of maturity," he said, "but we should anticipate somewhat difficult future ahead as Japanese population will stop increasing in the 21st century."
Kazuo Takemura of Rissho University in Tokyo reported from his Ph.D. dissertation, "A Geographical Study on the Proselytizing and Reception of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japanese Provincial Cities." He demonstrated the remarkable difference of motives of conversion and retention ratios according to the geographical regions which have different Buddhist backgrounds. His introduction of "life history" interviews with those converts interested audience. As Mr. Takemura was an invited speaker from outside the Church, he attracted attention and was asked many questions from those who attended the symposium.

October 13: “A Centennial Celebration: The History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Japan, 1901-2001,” a day-long academic conference focusing on the history of the Church in Japan and the largest Japanese mission reunion ever will be held this Saturday at Brigham Young University. See http://japanconference.byu.edu on the Internet or contact chair Reid L. Neilson at rlneilson@msn.com

Passing of Hugh Nibley

2005-02-27T00:56:00.000+09:00

The name Hugh Nibley has been and will always be very familiar to me as I attended his religion classes at Brigham Young University in 1970's. It is a good old memory that I was given an A grade when I submitted a paper imitating his dialogue form. I think I greatly owe what I am today to his influence.

Jiro Numano
Professor of English as a Foreign Language
Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University
Hiroshima, Japan

A voice against DU shells

2005-01-01T22:57:00.001+09:00

I saw a documentary film “Investigation of DU shell victims” by a German doctor Gunter on TV on 4th of January. It prompted me to post this entry. I have been deeply concerned about the issue since an Iraqi boy was brought to Nagoya, Japan, to be treated his leukemia. Later his doctor in Iraq came to Hiroshima University to learn the latest medical treatment of cancer.

The use of weaponry made of Depleted Uranium is strongly suspected to be THE cause of gravely tragic cases of radioactivity-related diseases and births of malformed children. Many reports by doctors and studies by scientists substantiate the cause-effect relations. We can say a serious inhuman crime is being committed. I join many sincere voices in condemning the evil deeds.

Jiro Numano who was in the human letters “NO WAR NO DU!” in Hiroshima in March, 2003

Returned Time's "Man of the Year" issue

2005-01-01T22:57:00.000+09:00

Last month, I returned the Time's "Man of the Year" issue to the sender because it featured George W. Bush as the person. The subscriber was so displeased at the selection that he couldn't but send it back. Actually, he is thinking of replacing the magazine by a British publication.

The year of the blog

2004-12-29T14:53:00.000+09:00

A quote from Japan Times:

Merriam-Webster, the U.S.dictionary, recently declared the "blog" the most looked-up term on its Internet site this year. Blog, now happily free of quotation marks, denotes "a Web site that contains an online personal journal."
According to a blog-watching dot-com named Technorati, the number of blogs in existence is 5 million. The wonder is how lively, informative and influential many of those blogs are. ... A tool that gives so many private people a public voice is not likely to disappear soon.
(Cited from 27 Dec. 04 issue of Int'l Herald Tribune.)

Testimony of a "comfort woman" (Ianfu)

2004-12-07T17:15:00.000+09:00

On the 4th of December, I attended a meeting to listen to testimonial remarks by a Korean old lady who was once a "comfort woman" or forced prostitute. The meeting was held at Hiroshima University. It was a very heart-rending occasion. Should we hold the view that humans are inherently evil? I hope not.

A Poem (translation)

2004-12-02T00:32:00.000+09:00

My poems are my tears,
as my eyes are moistened at once
in joy and in sorrow.

Toshiko Yanagida
A 2nd generation Christian
woman in Japan

Translator: Jiro Numano

A Sign of Disappointment

2004-11-30T23:26:00.000+09:00

I stopped going to meetings of LDS Church since G.W.Bush was reelected as I felt strong disappointment. Why? Because the Church is closely tied to America and particularly
seems to endorse the Republican Party. In addition, the statement by the Church President regarding the Iraqi War is far less than that of Pope.