Why the Buffalo Roam?

Below is my comment on the article of "Why the Buffalo Roam", TIME dated on March 26, 2007.

Mother Nature unexpectedly warns us that the excessive behavior of human beings could give life or death to any species on earth. One positive example of such behaviors is given by your article that the recovery of the Buffalo in number has been closely linked to the human appetite for meat. Paradoxically enough, only natural and wild environments can foster leaner bison than cattle to satisfy the greed for healthier meat without locking them in the confinement feedlots filled with tons of pesticide

and fertilizer. The more eco-friendly wild environment is preserved all across the U.S., the more bison could eat natural grass for their leaner and healthier body.

Therefore, I strongly feel that Bison gave us a precious lesson that someday human beings would perish by such terrible diseases as mad cow disease if we continue to breed cattle in confinement with lots of pesticide and fertilizer.

Haunted By History - The Truth of Nanjing Massacre

Below is my comment on the article of "Haunted By History", TIME dated on March 12, 2007.

Having read your article on some new films about the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Army, I wondered why this historical event has drawn so much attention for such a long time. Is that because of an estimated number of Chinese people massacred? Or is that because of the best seller book entitled “The Rape of Nanking” once sensationally picked up by famous western media? Or is that because of tremendous number of harsh photographs as hard fact of the Japanese army’s cruelty?

I assume that Nanjin is, in a sense, the symbol of the still uneasy feelings in the minds of both Chinese and Japanese irritated by sensationalism. I am not the exception. But what we should not forget as the citizens of both nations as well as those of other countries is that the war tends to make human beings crazy and be cruel even though they are ordinary citizens before it starts. To remember this precious lesson, we should seek for the truth of Nanjing without being overly emotional.

CAN SHINZO ABE FIND HIS WAY?

Below is my comment on the article of "Can Shinzo Abe Find His Way?", TIME dated on Feb. 26, 2007.

As you illustrated in your article that Shinzo Abe is lost in a big-circled maze with his puzzled look on his face, many Japanese people are also perplexed and discouraged by his poor performance and fighting posture for tough reforms against the rigid bureaucracies and the old regime of the LDP for the last several months. In other words, he seems not to focus on the disparity between the rich and poor, job security, aging population and mounting national debt that people are most concerned, but still excessively on a return to traditional Japanese values and constitutional revisions that they are not.

What is worse is the recent surrounding noise by some of his cabinet members’ slip of the tongue with little respect to their young and inexperienced Prime Minister. The only way for him to reverse this difficult situation and get credit from people is to stand firm by himself, not leaning on the big and old bosses of the LDP circles.　If he begins to hear the voices “Poor Abe!” from the people on and off, that might be the end of the story.