Capsule Inn in Ahkihabara Closed

I got an email tonight from the Capsule Inn I visited in the Ahkihabara district of Tokyo today. Sadly, they told me the inn would be closed April 21, 2009. They'll reopen on December of 2009 in Kyoto.

My blog entry on my stay at the Capsule Inn.

This is the email I received from troilus[at]troiluscorp.com:
Dear　Mr. **********

Along with the real estate redevelopment project of the vicinity region,
Capsule Inn AKihabara has decided to cease operations as of Tuesday,April 21, 2009.

Thank you for your patronage for twenty years since 1989.

At Kyoto in December 2009,
Capsule Inn Akihabara is completely reborn to the hotel of the novel style.

Let's meet by all means in Kyoto next time.

「9h」nine hours
http://www.capsuleinn.com
http://www.9hours.me

Nanjing

Nanking (aka Nanjing) literally means south capital. It has been used as the Capital of China during several Dynasties including the capital of the Republic of China. It's also the city my mother was born in.

No history write up from me this time, you can get it at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing

As a city with so much rich history in China you would think that's what I came for. Nope, I came to Nanjing because I wanted to see the city that the Japanese Raped in World War 2 for myself. Today you will not find those relics of the past. Nanjing is a regular Chinese city again. However if you head to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial (free) you can find information of the attack and the actual skeletal remains of some of the many victims.

The Chinese (mainly youth, old people just want to forget and move on) still feel victimized from World War 2, mostly because Japan refuses to apologize and refuses to acknowledge their horrible actions from World War 2. To make matters worse they are trying to erase this embarrassing part of their history from their history text books (example: japanese general rewrites history). I met some Japanese people while traveling. I was told many Japanese youth do not know that Japan tried to colonize most of Asia during World War 2. However even more do not know about the brutal acts the Japanese carried out during World War 2, peaking with their actions at Nanjing. It is no wonder Japanese youth have no idea why Japan is so hated in Asia and why Chinese youth has so much resentment. Reconciliation will be difficult as the older generation die and the youth only know what they've been taught.

(kind of a tangent with Japan rewriting history... interesting history about japan entering in world war 2 by MIT professor Norm Chomsky: http://www.chomsky.info/books/dissent03.htm
So while Japan may have entered ww2 for very complicated issues, saying Japan never waged a war of aggression is like saying George W. Bush didn't mislead Americans into Iraq. It's Bogus.)

So what exactly happened in Nanjing that has fostered so much anger? Japan had a chance to be a hero in much of Asia by driving out the white man, but instead leadership allowed and even encouraged some of the most brutal acts in history. It is how Japan acted during World War 2, calling Chinese less than human and wanting to teach them a lesson (this seems so stupid to me considering how much of Japan's culture comes from China. For example Kanji is just Chinese, Karate is from China, and Chinese influence on city architecture and layout is obvious) that created these bitter feelings.

In Nanjing Japanese soldiers raped so many women, including young prepubescent girls and even the elderly. Pregnant women were raped, had their belly cut open as soldiers ripped out the unborn fetus. Boys and men were used as target and bayonet practice. So many dead bodies were dumped in the river that it became red. Mass graves are still being uncovered today showing the brutal treatment of these civilians by Japanese soldiers.

The Chinese believe the actions at Nanjing were the Holocaust of the east. Worse, the Chinese believe the rest of the world, particularly the west has forgotten what happened in Nanjing. They see that Japan has recovered from their WW2 perception and is respected by other nations. Then they think, hey you forgot about us! As China grows in power and influence this issue between the nations has come to surface again. Japan has reacted with more delicate honoring of their WW2 dead (war criminals to the rest of the world). My personal belief is that while you will never find a perfectly good government, one innocent of any wrong doing (I mean come on China, Tiananmen Square, allowing HIV to spread amongst poor villagers that were donating blood by sharing needles, and poisoning toys and milk), without truly confronting the past in an honest fashion these countries, especially China and Korea, will continue old pointless feelings of hostility. No good will come of this.

Outside the Memorial
I've tried to put the English text on the statues below their respective pictures.

Family Ruined
Never returns the son killed
Never returns the husband buried alive
Sorrow drowns the wife raped
Heavens...

December 13th, 1937
Began the inhuman massacre!
Bare-handed civilians,
Flee,
The only hope to survive

The Helpless Struggle of a Dying Intellectual
My dear poor wife!
They devil raped you, killed you...
I'm right after you!

The devils have sent the bombers again...
The poor orphans,
Frightened by the vicious laugh of brutal devils,
Terrified by the corpses piling up in the alley,
Have lapsed into numbness...

Run!
The devils are coming...

A thirteen-year-old-carrying his
grandmother who has died in a bomb,
Flee-flee-flee

My dear mother in the eighties,
Hurry up! Run away from the bloody hands!

Never will a holy soul bear the
humiliation of the devils!
Only to die!
Only to die!
Only death can wash the filth away!

Frigidity and horror have frozen this crying baby!
Poor thing
Not knowing mum has been killed
Blood, milk and tears
Have frozen, never melting

They rob and rape,
They set fire and bury people alive...
They even kill my three month old little grandson.

Inside the Memorial:
There is a museum there as well, however pictures are not allowed to be taken. I'm not sure why considering you can find most of the pictures in Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking.

300,000 civilians killed in Nanjing

Bronze statue of Chinese American Iris Chang. She wrote the book The Rape of Nanking (same as Nanjing). Her research and book is the main reason the brutal acts at Nanjing have received attention again. I believe much of the Memorial's information and material came from her book research. Everything there can be found in her book. Sadly Iris Chang committed suicide in 2004.

One of the discovered mass graves.

Mass grave

Mass Grave

Mass Grave

Mass Grave

6 year old who was beheaded

This woman was choked to death

60 year old woman with a bullet in her skull

19 year old woman that had nails put in her head and a bayonet to the hip

Info on the iron nails below.

Iron nails used to cruelly kill Chinese civilians. They were put into the victims heads.

Paper cranes

Video of some Chinese youth honoring the victims of the Nanjing Massacre.


If you want to learn more about the Rape of Nanking read this book by the late Iris Chang. Everything in the museum is in this book, everything. I have read this book years ago, it was an informative read, it's very graphic. I recommend it, but know that the subject is cruel so it's not one of those books you curl up with for a fun read.


Interestingly I mentioned previously that many Chinese feel the Massacre and Rape of Nanjing was the Holocaust of the east, but there's more to it than the assault on the city. Every heard of Unit 731? I never heard of it until it was mentioned to me by a friend. Unit 731 was Japan's equivalent of the horrible human experiments the Nazis did to the Jews in WW2. Civilian and captured Chinese, Russians, and Americans were subjected to horrible experiments such as: being human targets for grenade testing, flame thrower tests, germ warfare experiments, injections of syphilis, gonorrhea, horse urine, being put in pressure chambers until their intestines shot out of their rear resulting in death, and so much more. These are revolting, but I think what disappoints me the most is that several of the scientists that conducted these experiments were given amnesty by my own country, the USA, in exchange for the data. That being said, I'm not exactly shocked (um, Iraq, Bay of Pigs, etc) as my own own country is no saint, but then again neither is any.

More info on Unit 731
Film on Unit 731: Hei Tai Yang 731
Update 3/2/2008 - Good Nazi of Nanjing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

Japan Closing

I had a great time in Japan. It's a wonderful country full of character and history. The people are very polite and the country is pretty clean. It's not sparkling like I had imagined, but it's very clean. Pretty much everyone in the cities speaks English so it's not difficult to get around. The trains and subways make travel so easy. While I was there the weather in Japan was very nice, no humidity!

I have never seen a people so concerned with their own identity. Everything must be Japanese. Even an ice cream sundae is turned into a Japanese style sunday. Their preoccupation with making sure everything is Japanese is probably a by product of their Japanese superiority mentality from the World War 2 era (just my guess). While Japanese people were very polite, I cannot say they were in general nice. I met nice Japanese people, but also some not so nice people. Generally speaking the young Japanese people were all very nice when they found out I was not Japanese. A few older people however became somewhat rude, or disinterested in helping me -- even going out of their way to help someone Japanese and ignoring me. This probably has to do with the gross racism in Japan's past, which is still relevant today. If you watch any Japanese TV watch how they portray black people. It's quite disturbing. Still, like I said, no country is perfect and Japan was quite fun.

The Best guide book you can get for Japan:The Rough Guide to Japan Fourth Edition (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
It's award winning, and covers everything from practicalities to history to food and where to sleep.

Free online guide: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/japan/



Get a Japan Rail Pass, also known as a JR Pass. This will allow you to travel across Japan on their high speed trains and local JR metros for an unlimited amount. You can only purchase this outside of Japan so make sure you take care of it before you go. It will save you TONS of money as traveling in Japan can add up fast.

Some Random Pictures:

Don't swing your umbrella like a golf club in the subway station.

No sitting on the floor in the subway car.

You know, Japan did not seem to have very much engrish. This was one of the few I found.

The ladies only car on the subway.

I just did a google search for "princess osaka castle favorite granddaughter" and my blog comes up as the first search result!

Himeji / Kobe

I only dropped by Kobe because the ship I was taking to Shanghai leaves from Kobe. Kobe seems like a nice city, but since I didn't really spend anytime in it I don't have much to say about it.

Kobe

Instead of spending time in Kobe I decided to head off to Himeiji Jo, probably Japan's most impressive castle. It's the castle used in one of the James Bond Movie: You Only Live Twice and briefly used as the Castle in the distance of The Last Samurai. If you visit only one castle in Japan make sure it's this one. Himeji-jo is really that good!

http://himeji-castle.gr.jp
9AM - 4PM everyday
600 Yen
720 Yen with a combined ticket to the gardens near by (I missed this because my tour went longer than i expected, but great tour)


I took a free english tour as recommended to me by my book The Rough Guide to Japan. It was actually very good. The volunteer spoke English very well and was quite knowledgeable about the castle and its history. Ask for a guide at the main entrance to the castle.

The view of the castle from the JR station.

Getting closer...

Map of Himeji-jo

Inside the entrance

a hook used for camouflage nets during World War 2

Himeji Castle was built in the 1600s by Tokugawa Ieyasu's son in law in the 1600s. By that time the Shogun had united Japan so the country was peaceful so the castle itself was never used in any combat, but there were still many defensive capabilities built into it. During world war 2 nets were placed over the castle to attempt to camouflage it from Allied bombers. One bomb did fall in the castle but it did not detonate; a few brave men removed the bomb from the castle.

stone throwing holes

Air vent for gun smoke to escape

a gun port, it also tells you how tall, or in this case short, japanese men were in this era; hey the guide said it - not me.

recreation of a Princess Senhime playing a game with shells

Remember Princess Senhime from Osaka Castle? Well she remairried and ended up here in Himeji Castle.

Some of these rocks have words carved into them from the village they were brought from

This area was used in one of the James Bond movies

A defensive door way. This would force attackers into a narrow line making it easier for the defenders to fight them.

It's rumored that there's a secret switch some where in here.

Harakiri-maru - this courtyard was made for seppuku: samurai ritual suicide. My guide said it was never used for seppuku.

This area in the courtyard is where the court would sit and decide the fate of the samurai.

This well was to be used to wash the beheaded head.

This stone would be used to behead the samurai during seppuku.

Okiku-ido (well)

Okiku-ido is home to the castle's famous ghost story. Okiku was a servant girl who had been falsely accused of theft. She was dumped in this well after being tortured to death. It is said that her ghost can be heard wailing from inside the well. I believe there is a shrine dedicated to her in the city.