22nd Yokohama Opening Port Festival

[Taro Toporific]

It look rainy outside but this weekend is "The 22nd Yokohama Opening Port Festival" from Sat May 31 to Monday June 2. There's fireworks (Monday, June 20, performances, concerts, curry contests, etc.
More info at city.yokohama.jp
http://www.welcome.city.yokohama.jp/eng/tourism/times/index.html
Always mysterious to me is why they what to celebrate "Commodore" Perry: On June 2nd, fire works will decorate the festival's climax celebrating the 150th anniversary of Commodore Perry's visit to Japan."

[Taro Toporific]

[Taro Toporific]

It look rainy outside but this weekend is "The 22nd Yokohama Opening Port Festival" from Sat May 31 to Monday June 2. There's fireworks (Monday, June 20, performances, concerts, curry contests, etc.
More info at city.yokohama.jp
http://www.welcome.city.yokohama.jp/eng/tourism/times/index.html

More historical background info ....


Black Ships of 'shock and awe'
The Japan Times: June 1, 2003
...Perry returned to Japan via Okinawa after wintering along the China coast. His fleet had grown to seven, with the 2,415-ton Powhattan now his flagship. The squadron appeared off the Izu Peninsula on Feb. 8, 1854, and proceeded up Edo Bay, passing right by Uraga to finally drop anchor off Haneda. Surprised by the move, the shogunate provided the village of Yokohama near the post-town of Kanagawa as the venue for negotiations -- by which time two more warships had joined the fleet.

[cstaylor]

I'm confused... how does Fujimoto draw an accurate parallel between Perry and present day neo-conservatives? He's using a common debate technique of beating a strawman... unlike the oil in Iraq, those whales could be harvested without Japanese consent (as he states in the article, the Japanese didn't build ships-of-the-line), so the treaty wasn't for oil. I think the author was reaching for a similarity beyond his reach, and it shows.

[Taro Toporific]

I'm confused... how does Fujimoto draw an accurate parallel between Perry and present day neo-conservatives?.... I think the author was reaching for a similarity beyond his reach, and it shows.

He's "reaching" alright. In a Japanese essay/OpEd, just repeating a word image like "OIL" is sufficient to make a logical link from whale oil to Shock n' Awe. For the author, Masaru Fujimoto ('83 graduate alumni of Western's journalism program (WWU), it's a case of, Ya can take the guy out of Japan, but ya can't take the Japanese out the guy.