65th Anniversary Of Hiroshima Atom Bombing

At 8:12 AM on August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber called the 'Enola Gay' piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets dropped an atomic bomb codenamed 'Little Boy' over the city of Hiroshima, Japan and made a sharp high speed banking turn away from the city.

The bomb detonated 1900 feet (545 meters) over the city at 8:15 AM local time killing 140,000 people instantly or died later due to the radiation sickness. Three days later a second bomb codenamed 'Fat Man' was dropped over the city of Nagasaki killing another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered August 15, ending World War II.

Ever since then, Japan has commemorated the atomic bombings in a ceremony at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. For the first time ever a current UN secretary general and a US ambassador to Japan attended the event which occurred yesterday our time.

Along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Ambassador to Japan John Roos was there to as the State Department noted in a statement 'to express regret for all of the victims of World War II.'

Roos' attendance was mildly controversial in some US circles who assert the atomic bombings paradoxically saved lives on both sides because the scheduled November 1945 invasion of Japan never happened.

The US has never formally apologized for it, but at the same time it points out Japan jumped off the Pacific War as they call it with a surprise December 7, 1941 air attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On this anniversary, let's hope and pray it's the last time nuclear weapons are used in any conflict and that progress is made to eliminate them from the planet.

2009 Miss International Queen Asks For Tolerance In Japan

Japanese TV personality Ai Haruna held a press conference in Tokyo December 3 in which she stated the desire for Japan to be more tolerant toward transpeople and others of diverse sexual orientations.

The 37 year old beauty was already a household name in Japan before she was crowned Miss International Queen 2009 last month in Pattaya, Thailand.

"I was surprised to see many transgender people work at hotels and restaurants with no problem in Thailand," she said.

"Japan can learn many things from other Asian nations like Thailand and the Philippines."

In Japan, people can legally change their gender on official documents but transgender people still face spoken and silent discrimination, Haruna said.

She recalled condominium owners had declined to let her rent apartments because neighbors may object.

"I was rejected five straight times," she said.

"I think Japan is behind."

Haruna said she had lived with difficulties since when she was a child.

"I was born with a very masculine sounding boy's name. But I always wanted to be a girl, always dreamed of becoming a pretty idol seen on TV."

"But for a long time life was very difficult for me," she said in a quivering voice.

"Even after I had a sex change operation at the age of 19 and had my first boyfriend, I encountered many, many obstacles that constantly made me realize I wasn't a woman."

Haruna said that she wanted to work internationally to raise awareness for sexual minorities. "I want to work for those who are troubled like me."

"I want to work in the world. And of course, I want to be married some day."

And may you be successful not only in raising awareness about transgender issues during your reign, but in your homeland as well.

Historic Change Has Come To Japan

For fifty years the conservative Liberal Democratic Party has ruled post war Japan.

But the impact of the worldwide recession on Japan combined with various LDP scandals and its almost unbroken control of Japanese political life got the voters in 'throw the LDP rascals out' mode.

On August 30 the center-left Democratic Party of Japan rolled to a convincing and historic electoral beatdown of the LDP.

The ten year old DPJ captured 308 seats in the 408 seat Diet lower house elections and put the son of a respected Japanese political family in the position as leader of the Democratic Party of Japan to be its next prime minister.

On September 16 a new era in Japanese politics began as Stanford University educated Yukio Hatoyama formally took power as prime minister. The DPJ is also riding a huge wave of popularity according to a poll conducted by the Nikkei newspaper and TV Tokyo Corp.


It is starting its new administration with the second highest approval rating ever recorded for that poll. It has the support of 75 percent of the poll rspondents.

Only Junichiro Koizumi’s government after it took power in April 2001 had a higher approval rating at 80 percent.

But now comes the fun part, governing Japan.

The DPJ now has to make good on the promises it made during the campaign. It printed and distributed five million copies of its "Change in Power" campaign manifesto and program which lists in black and white what the new government is committed to achieving.

The DPJ also faces the challenge of reviving the sluggish Japanese economy.

Prime Minister Hatoyama and the other DPJ leaders are keenly aware that if they don't, their current sky-high poll numbers could plunge and they could suffer the fate of the conservative LDP government they just ousted.

So it will be interesting to see just what form change takes in the Land of The Rising Sun and how fast they achieve it.

How Close Are We To Building Cylons?

TransGriot Note: My latest piece for Global Comment


I am an unabashed sci-fi fan.

I loved Star Trek and even tried to get into Enterprise. I have watched all six Star Wars movies and Blade Runner in the theaters during their first weekend of release. I loved Battlestar Galactica, old and reimagined series.

As a science fiction aficionado I am well aware of the axiom that today's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact.

We have seen that happen numerous times in terms of Jules Verne's classic vision of a moon landing becoming our reality 40 years ago on July 20. Scientists are even reporting that warp drive is theoretically possible as well.

One of the interesting backstories that emerged from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series is that the Cylons, the cybernetic tormentors of humans in the series, were originally created by humans.

They fought humanity wars, and did humanity's work in the Twelve Colonies before they rebelled and nearly wiped their creators out. Unfortunately Dr. Daniel Greystone, the creator of the Cylons, hadn't heard of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws Of Robotics.

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Now I've recently begun to wonder how close are we to actually producing our own Cylons?

If we eventually create Cylon-like robots, they'll probably speak Japanese and have a 'made in Japan' label. While robotic technology development is ongoing in several nations, Japan has really pushed the robot development envelope.

One-fifth of the Japanese population is 65 or older, so the country is investing heavily in research and development efforts designed to produce robots that will replenish the work force and care for the elderly.

Over the last ten years they have been creating advanced humanoid looking robots that can talk, mimic a limited range of human emotions, move effortlessly and interact with humans as well.

Robots have long been part of Japanese factories and culture. They can serve as receptionists, vacuum office corridors, spoon feed the elderly and plant rice.

It's also interesting to note that thanks to the 2003 completion of the Human Genome Project, discoveries are being made almost every day in terms of what section of the DNA strand controls what aspect of human development.

We are also learning that deficiencies in certain parts of the DNA strand trigger certain diseases and are creating gene based medicines to target those diseases. This knowledge should also aid us in creating robots that more closely resemble us.

Read the rest of the post at Global Comment.

Japan's Transgender Community

Japan is a giant in terms of its economic, technological, industrial, and medical prowess, but when it comes to treating transgender people lagged behind the rest of the world. The first sex reassignment surgery in Japan (for an F to M) didn't take place until 1998 and was followed up by the first M to F surgery a year later.

If you're an anime fan there are numerous titles that have transgender characters such as my fave series You're Under Arrest which features transgender Tokyo police officer Aoi Futaba. But unfortunately real life transgender people in Japan have been reluctantly hiding in the shadows in a culture that prizes conformity.

Things are changing in Japan as it make moves to grant more personal freedom to its citizens, and the Japanese transgender community is a beneficiary of this openness.

It's estimated that there are 7,000 to 10,000 transgender people in Japan, and while it seems that the ascension of Japanese transpeople has been meteoric, much of what has happened was the result of years of behind the scenes work.

In 2003 Aya Kamikawa became the first (and so far only) transgender person elected to public office in Japan when she won a place on the local assembly for Setagaya, one of Tokyo's biggest local government areas. She has played a key role in lobbying for changes at both the national and local levels, including the 2004 gender change law. Kamikawa has also successfully lobbied to eliminate unnecessary mentions of gender in public documents and was reelected in 2008 to serve a second four year term.

Following on the heels of Kamikawa's historic political victory were groundbreaking legal reforms in 2004 that allowed some transsexuals to change their officially registered sex. Unfortunately the law only allows unmarried, childless applicants to change their official gender. In addition, applicants also must have had SRS and been diagnosed by two doctors as having gender identity disorder.

That has resulted in only 151 people officially changing their gender codes between July 2004, when the law took effect, and the end of March 2005, according to Japan's Justice Ministry.

Despite the victories, there's still some stigma attached to being transgender in Japan, although that is slowly being overcome. "As long as we keep silent, nothing is going to change," said Kamikawa. "We need the courage to make a society which respects diversity."