The Fukushima crisis is eroding years of Japanese efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, as power plants running on oil and natural gas fill the electricity gap left by now-shuttered nuclear reactors.

Before last year’s devastating tsunami triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, Japan had planned to meet its carbon emissions reduction targets on the assumption that it would rely onnuclear power, long considered a steady, low-emissions source of energy.

But now it’s unclear to what extent nuclear energy will even be part of the electricity mix.

Japan will be free of atomic power for the first time since 1966 on Saturday, when the last of its 50 usable reactors is switched off for regular inspections. The central government would like to restart them at some point, but it is running into strong opposition from local citizens and governments.

With the loss of nuclear energy, the Ministry of Environment projects that Japan will produce about 15 percent more greenhouse gas emissions this fiscal year than it did in 1990, the baseline year for measuring progress in reducing emissions. In fiscal 2010, Japan’s actual emissions were close to 1990 levels. It also raises doubts about whether it will be able to meet a pledge made in Copenhagen in 2009 to slash emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.  [AP]

You can read the rest at the link but the Japanese have decided to expand the use of fossil fuels to meet baseline demand because unlike Germany which has also ended nuclear power, they don’t have the advantage of being able to buy energy from a neighboring country like the Germans do with France.

There was a time when the Liberal Party and its stooges indulged in extortion to insure the election of a mentally infirm old man to the presidency and a known cripple as his successor.  Day in and day out, newspapers were reporting police brutality and oppression in the countryside.

Not to discount the veracity of what he said, but, this early paragraph boldly announces this is more an editorial than an academic piece…

He goes on to briefly highlight the fall of the Rhee presidency and state that since the change in government, people have been abusing their new, hard-fought for freedoms.

But:

Therefore, it is appropriate that “freedom” is being reappraised by the present administration and others concerned.  Consequently, one school of thought found in the learned segment of the population has come to prevail in the discussion of freedom and democracy.

This thinking maintains that democracy and freedom are luxuries which only advanced countries can afford.  In a lesser developed country like Korea, the first priority should be feeding the population.  Furthermore, the people do not care one way or another as long as their stomachs are full.

Park Chung-Hee took power in 1961 and this article was written in 1962.

The writer believes such thought is not only fallacious but dangerous since it inhibits freedom as a way of life.

While granting that the economic problem of Korea is indeed grave, it is hardly conceivable that freedom and economic order are not compatible.  As we all know, economic planning in democratic countries is devoted solely to enlarging the scope of human activities while freeing man from the perpetual threat of hunger.  The increase in human activity broadens the scope of freedom in which man, with non-economic incentives and initiative, can attain the goal of living in peace and brotherhood.

Hmm…

Later on:

Restrictions have been placed on the communists in this country and some other free nations of the world.  It is elementary that communists preaching violent overthrow of the existing social order cannot enjoy the privileges of freedom which they are pledged to destroy.

Short article, but some interesting insights about the nature of society and government in general and a window into Korea in the early 1960s…

I chose the period of President Rhee’s fall and subsequent rise of Park Chung Hee.  Like with previous efforts on the Russo-Japanese War (1905) and the March 1st Movement (1919), I’ll look month-to-month at what the press was reporting as events were unfolding.

Since I do not have much respect for the objectivity and accuracy of today’s media, I am not offering these excerpts as definitive evidence. 

I simply like history, and these old articles are a window into it…

Unlike previous events covered here – you will not be able to access the full article without paying in the NY Times Archives.  I’ll post links anyway…

1 Mar 1960

President Eisenhower said today that allegations that the United States supported dictatorships were ridiculous. 

This is datelined in Chile but includes notes on Korea.

2 Mar 1960

Pres. Syngman Rhee declared today that Japan had given no sign that it sincerely wanted to live with Korea in peace and friendship.

Dr. Rhee made the remarks in an official statement on the 41st anniversary of the 1919 Korean Independence movement against the Japanese.

During the next two months as things heat up against Rhee, there are many articles about Korea’s effort to forge better relations with Japan.

Dr. Rhee asserted that if Japan had honored South Korea’s property claims she “would have reduced Korean hostility and suspicion and established a basis for friendly relations.”

5 Mar 1960

The opposition Democratic party made public here last night what it alleged were secret instructions to the police to falsify returns in the Presidential election March 15.

The purported police instructions outlined methods for tallying 85 percent of votes for Dr. Rhee and Mr. Lee.  In case plans for the casting of the requisite votes should fail, special ballot boxes with ready-made ballots would be provided.

5 Mar 1960

The morale of US servicemen in Korea could be “a lot higher than it is,” Louis G. Feldman, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said today.

“Korea, whether justly or unjustly, is a penitential duty station so far as some of the men are concerned,” Mr. Feldman said.  “Men come out to Korea with a sour attitude and remain sour.”

He attributed the servicemen’s adverse reaction to Korea in part to the average serviceman’s lack of understanding of why he has to be there.  “He does not understand there’s a war on,” Mr. Feldman said.

6 Mar

Korean Students Held

An opposition legislator and about twenty high school students were seized for questioning tonight after 200 demonstrating students had clashed here with policemen.

…The presidential election, in which Pres. Rhee is unopposed, takes place March 15.

11 Mar    Korean Violence Rising

A mob killed an opposition political leader last night at Yosu in southwestern Korea in the most serious in a series of attacks on candidates opposing Pres. Rhee.

The police said a crowd beat to death Kim Yungho, chief of the financial section of the opposition Democratic party.  Another party member, the chief of propaganda in Yosu, was serious injured.

The police reported 800 students in Taejon and 200 in Suwon demonstrated today against the administration.

Pre. Rhee, 84 years old, is unopposed in his bid for a fourth term.  But voters can cast invalid votes to show their preference for another election.

13 Mar

South Korean voters are preparing to elect a president and vice president next Tuesday in an atmosphere one of the candidates described as “terrorized.”

The president, who will be 85 years old March 26, also instructed authorities to halt “practice voting with imitation ballots” conducted by local chapters of his Liberal party.

Numerous students and others are reported to have been beaten at anti-government rallies.  The beatings were administered, it is said, either by policemen or by hoodlums while policemen present “looked the other way.”

Dr. Rhee’s election to his fourth consecutive term as president was assured when his opponent, Dr. Chough Pyong Ok, died las month in the US after undergoing surgery at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington.

15 Mar    US Deplores Violence

The State Department called on Pres. Rhee to foster the “free expression of the popular will” in Korean elections.  The department said it “deplores any action contrary thereto.”

15 Mar     Tense Korea Set to Ballot Today

16 Mar     Bloodshed Mars Election of Rhee

At least 10 persons were reported killed in anti-government demonstrations in three cities last night.

The opposing Democrat party announced a court injunction would be sought within thirty days to invalidate the election, which they charged was won by intimidation and fraud.

Korean news agencies carried early accounts of rioting in Masan, a southern port city.  Less violent outbreaks were reported from Kwangju and Pohang.  Isolated assaults, including one stabbing, were said to have taken place in other localities.

Seoul was quiet except for small demonstrations by supporters of the opposition.  The streets were heavily patrolled by the police.

Home Minister Choi In Kyu said two members of the Opposition Democrat party had been killed and fifteen injured in Masan as a result of “warning shots” fired by the police.

The Hapdong news agency reported from Masan ten persons had been killed and forty injured as several thousand anti-government demonstrators surrounded and stoned city hall, where votes in yesterday’s election were being counted.  The crowd burned down a police substation and damaged another.

The voters were guided into booths in groups of three, a procedure the Democrats alleged had been devised by the Liberals so that marking ballots could be overseen by a government party worker in each group.  However, it was impossible for an outsider to see what went on inside the curtained booth.

17 Mar     Rhee’s Burdened Aide:  Lee Ki Poong

Of the Koreans to whom Pres. Rhee is the voice, soul and supreme authority, none stands closer to the aged patriot than Lee Ki Poong – the quiet little man who has been elected Vice President.  Since the days of the liberation of Korea from Japan in 1945, Mr. Lee has stood by Dr. Rhee’s side, often taking the buffetings intended for the older man and quietly slipping out of the limelight on occasions of triumph for the President.

“I look to the day when I can lay down these burdens,” he told a Western friend not long ago.  “I am weary, but as long as the President needs me I will stay.”

The article goes on to tell how he came to the US in poverty, earned a college degree, but still struggled in NY before returning home to find his parents dying.

He remained in Korea during the Japanese occupation.  He met Rhee – who he had met while in NY – at the airport when Rhee returned in 1945, and he remained in his service until the writing of the article…

Rhee had adopted Lee’s own son due to the fact Rhee and his Austrian wife were childless…  (Next month, we will see how things turned out for this man…)

17 Mar     Landslide Korean Vote Attests to Rhee’s Durable Popularity

After fighting against the ancient Korean monarchy and the Japanese rulers who followed, Dr. Rhee became one of the world’s most outspoken foes of communism. 

Since he became the republic’s first president in 1948, Dr. Rhee has often been condemned at home and abroad as despotic and over-aged for his job.  But yesterday he received endorsement by ballot for the fourth four year term from nearly half of his country’s entire population.

18 Mar     Seoul Opposition Acts

Opposition members of the National Assembly walked out in a body today in protest against alleged corruption in Tuesday’s national election.

19 Mar     US Said to Block Rhee Attack Bid

Pres. Eisenhower was reported today to have refused to acquiesce in a proposal by Pres. Rhee for a South Korean military attack on Communist-held North Korea.

Mr. Lee said Dr. Rhee told the group he had written to Pres. Eisenhower suggesting that if the US “does not intend to help” in expelling the Communist regime from NK, Washington should “keep silent or sit by” while Rhee’s forces attacked. 

26 Mar     Korea to Try Police

Hong Chin Ki, newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs, said today that criminal charges would be filed against policemen who had fired on thousands of demonstrators in Masan during the night of the Presidential election, March 15.

Mr. Hong said four or five policemen were involved in the gunfire that killed at least ten persons.  He told newsmen the policemen went too far. 

Hundreds of high school students in Pusan demonstrated today for the second consecutive day…

27 Mar     Rhee Marks Birthday

Pres. Rhee observed his 85th birthday today without much fanfare.  All public functions, including a rally and a military parade, were canceled in accordance with his wishes.

An outspoken Marine critical of President Barack Obama says he was notified Wednesday that the Marine Corps has charged him with using contemptuous words against the commander in chief and violating the Defense Department’s guidelines barring troops from engaging in political activities, The Associated Press reported.

Sgt. Gary Stein created a Facebook page calledArmed Forces Tea Party on which he declared that he wouldn’t follow orders from the president. He later softened the statement to say he wouldn’t follow “unlawful orders,” but legal experts said he might have violated rules prohibiting political statements by those in uniform and guidelines on what troops can and cannot say on social media.

Stein told AP the notification he received Wednesday stated that the Corps was beginning the process to have him discharged.  [Stars & Stripes]

I can actually understand why this guy is being discharged because if you are in the military you shouldn’t tie your military service to politics.  However, I do find it interesting that when the Amnesty International and other leftist plants in the military were bashing former military leaders and President George Bush they weren’t discharged, but instead treated as heroes.  The double standard is pretty obvious and the media appears to care less about reporting this.

 Robert Egan has a pretty good feel for how desperate the CIA is for scraps of information about North Korea.

Egan has served barbecue to North Korean diplomats at his restaurant in Hackensack, N.J., for 15 years, and he has visited Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, several times. He also has fed details about his customers to U.S. authorities, even plucking stray hairs off their suits so American officials could trace the DNA. Not surprisingly, he has found FBI surveillance equipment hidden in his office.

U.S. intelligence is “using a guy who flips burgers for a living” to understand North Korea, said Egan, a 53-year-old high school dropout whose odd role as a citizen ambassador has been optioned as an HBO movie.

U.S. officials downplay their interest in Egan, but they don’t deny that they are hungry for insight on a nuclear armed nation that is possibly the world’s toughest to spy on, a virtual black hole for most intelligence agencies.

The latest evidence: U.S. officials apparently were unaware for 51 hours that longtime leader Kim Jong Il had died Dec. 17, hearing the news only when it was announced on North Korean TV. They now are scrambling for the skinny on his youngest son and appointed successor, Kim Jong Un, a chubby 27-year-old known to enjoy playing video games.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link about US intelligence failures in regards to North Korea such as the 2007 nuclear reactor the North Koreans were building in Syria that the US did not detect.  This event find more surprising then not knowing Kim Jong-il was dead for two days.

Steve House visits the U.S. military facility Camp Carroll in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where he and two other U.S. veterans claimed they secretly buried hundreds of drums of Agent Orange in 1978. House came to South Korea to testify about the Agent Orange burial. The toxic defoliant, widely used during the Vietnam War, can cause serious health problems, including cancer, genetic damage and birth defects. (Yonhap)

Via Yonhap News.

Congratulations to the Japanese women’s World Cup soccer team.  Definitely a great win for their team and hopefully it will be something to further inspire their country as they continue to deal with the massive cleanup of this years earthquake and tsunami.

It is the national game, and is played only during the first fifteen days of the year.

A level place is selected at the foot of a hill, or, better still, between two hills, so that the spectators can occupy the hillsides and be near enough to see without endangering their lives from the flying stones.

The game usually takes place between two villages or two different communities…The two companies of men and boys take their places, being well supplied with stones of the proper size, and, facing each other at a distance of fifty yards, the contest begins.

Two or three of the braver ones come out from one side and slowly advance toward the opposing party till they come within easy range, when they are attacked and the stones are let fly with all possible force from both sides.

…This is the great national game, and must be played to the finish even if a few slight accidents follow as the result of the same.  To be honest, it is nearly as brutal as the American football, though I believe that fewer people are killed or crippled for life in stone fights each season than in the football games of Christian American.

 

Japanese people from Osaka take part in the 970th weekly Wednesday protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul calling on Tokyo to resolve the issue of Korean sexual slaves who served the wartime Japanese Army. (Yonhap News)

Via KBS Global.

South Korean pitcher Park Chan-ho, who signed a one-year contract with the Osaka-based Orix Buffaloes after playing in Major League Baseball for 17 seasons, meets the press on the first day of his career with the Japanese club in Miyakojima, Okinawa, on Feb. 1. (Yonhap)