Two sets of recently released Japanese documents should remove any doubts that people may still have on the veracity of the massive and inhumane atrocities committed by the Japanese military in Asia during WWII. One is the “Exhibition of the 27th General Assembly of the Japan Medical Congress: WAR & Medicine” that was held in Osaka in 2007. The other is a massive collection of 89 documents written by Japanese officers and soldiers discovered underground in 1953 and recently released by the Jiling Provincial Archives in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province in China’s northeast.
Two Recently Revealed Japanese Documents on Japanese WWII Atrocities
June 2014
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Can Taiji Reshape the Brain?
March 2014
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It is well known that practicing Taiji [1] has many health benefits, including lowering of blood pressure, increase in immunity to shingles, relief to osteoarthritis, lowering stress and pain reduction, improvement in the control of Type 2 diabetes, reducing probability of Alzheimer Disease, and general improvement to overall health [2]. Practicing Taiji also can help the elderly with depression [3], help people with Parkinson Disease [4], and provide psychological benefits [5]. These studies show that practicing Taiji can result in health and behavior changes at a macroscopic physical and emotional level of the Taiji practitioners. Until recently, there has not been any study investigating the brain structural (neural) changes underlying the health and behavior changes associated with practicing Taiji. This article reports the results of a recent research study that shows that practicing Taiji results in increased cortical thicknesses of the brain.
Living Through the UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement of 1964
March 2014
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As difficult as it may be believed, a lot of freedom of speech activities that we now take for granted were actually not allowed in many college campuses in the U.S. about 50 years ago. Activities, such as advocacy for civil rights causes, recruitment of people to support off-campus activities like voter registration drives or religious missionary work, or solicitation of donations to combat hunger, are taken for granted by today’s college students everywhere in the U.S. However, in the fall of 1964 they were all forbidden activities at the University of California (UC) at Berkeley and many other college campuses in the U.S. At that time students on campus could discuss these activities intellectually, but they were forbidden to advocate actions to support causes no matter how noble those causes were.
That was the reason why students at UC Berkeley in the fall of 1964 started the Free Speech Movement (FSM) and triggered a new generation of student activism across the campuses of America. It is important to note that the initial protest had support from students across the political spectrum, not just the radical left, but also young democrats, young republicans, and religious organizations, as you can see from the dress attires of the protesters in the photo below. It is true that when the FSM took on more civil disobedience actions such as sit-ins, many of these students, but not all, from the more conservative organizations no longer joined in those particular actions although they may still be supportive of the basic goal of the FSM.
U.S. Must Abandon Its “Forgotten Holocaust” Foreign Policy
Analogy: Suppose a robber with many armed men came to your house and stole your baby sister while you were a small child and your parents were old, frail, and powerless to fight against the robber.. Then many years later you grew up to become a strong young man and you go to confront the robber to get back your sister who rightfully belongs to you and your family. Sensing that he may no longer be able to defeat you, the robber then enlists a powerful partner to try to keep the stolen girl. Furthermore, the robber and his partner would cry wolf to the world making accusations that you are trying to steal their daughter. I am sure that you will say that this is totally unjust. Shame to the robber. Shame to his powerful partner because he should know better than to intervene. And shame to the mass media who portrays you as the villain, and portrays the robber and his partner as upright citizens.
This article explains why the above example is a good analogy to the controversy over the Diaoyu Islands (called Senkaku Islands by Japan). In this analogy, China in the late 19th century is the defenseless family with old and frail parents, the Diaoyu Islands is the baby sister, Japan is the armed robber, the U.S. is the powerful partner of Japan, and modern China is the strong young man.
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