History Repeating Itself?

[Yokohammer]

This is kind of interesting. I don't put much stock in such ideas personally, but the sequence is eerily similar.

Someone posted this on FB:

10487486_694413957318879_6564490001612597107_n.jpg

And a quick translation ...

1923: Great Kanto Earthquake
1925: Public Security Preservation Law (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Preservation_Law)
1940: Tokyo Olympics
1941: Pacific War


2011: Great East Japan Earthquake
2013: State Secrets Protection Law
2020: Tokyo Olympics

and ... ?

[cue Twilight Zone theme ...]

[Russell]

2014: Takeshima war?

[Yokohammer]

2014: Takeshima war?

I think, to really make the most of this nugget of pulp prophecy, the really bad thing that happens will have to happen after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

[legion]

just so long as we ignore the thousands of other events that happened within those two time frames

[Yokohammer]

just so long as we ignore the thousands of other events that happened within those two time frames

Of course. Why would we want to throw a monkey wrench into this carefully pruned piece of prognostication?

[Russell]

2014: Takeshima war?

I think, to really make the most of this nugget of pulp prophecy, the really bad thing that happens will have to happen after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

OK, let's ask China to postpone their invasion of the Senkakus to 2021 for the cause of making history correct...

[Yokohammer]

2014: Takeshima war?

I think, to really make the most of this nugget of pulp prophecy, the really bad thing that happens will have to happen after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

OK, let's ask China to postpone their invasion of the Senkakus to 2021 for the cause of making history correct...

Excellent idea! I'll leave that little diplomatic mission in your capable hands.

Although, it's not the Senkaku invasion that I'd be worried about. It'd be what comes after that.

[kurogane]

This is kind of interesting. I don't put much stock in such ideas personally, but the sequence is eerily similar.

Someone posted this on FB:

10487486_694413957318879_6564490001612597107_n.jpg

And a quick translation ...

1923: Great Kanto Earthquake
1925: Public Security Preservation Law (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Preservation_Law)
1940: Tokyo Olympics
1941: Pacific War

2011: Great East Japan Earthquake
2013: State Secrets Protection Law
2020: Tokyo Olympics

and ... ?

[cue Twilight Zone theme ...]

I get the attraction, but I would cue up the theme from Ripley's Believe It or Not! Eeery, perhaps, but the arithmetic simply doesn't bear out: for one thing, 1941-1940-1925-1923=- 3847, whereas 2020-2013-2011= - 2004 so surely the incongruity there should be enough to ease any worried minds and dispel any notions of plausibility and the numerology aside and discounting the negative numbers resulting, the simple fact is that 3847 is a calendar year not yet reached in history, whereas 2004 was a calendar year, and more portently, the year that came exactly 81 years after the first year given in that list so i assume now the bells of clarity are starting to ring because as we all know, 81 years is exactly the amount of time resulting from 9 9 year cycles and the result of dividing 3847 by 9 is 427.4444444444444444.

But the numbers themselves are fascinating and sometimes if I look at numbers long enough I see patterns.

[Coligny]

Try clouds... Good stuff too... Sometimes there's even dragons and butterflies hiding...

[Yokohammer]

Try clouds... Good stuff too... Sometimes there's even dragons and butterflies hiding...

Elvis!

The King lives!

[kurogane]

I saw his birthday in the clouds in my coffee the other day. It's great to find some like minds, btw. Keep up the good work.

[Samurai_Jerk]

2014: Takeshima war?

I think, to really make the most of this nugget of pulp prophecy, the really bad thing that happens will have to happen after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

You're forgetting your history (and in your case probably your youth ). If the Senkaku's cause a war between Tokyo and China which leads to the cancellation of the 2020 Olympics, history will truly be repeating itself.

[Yokohammer]

You're forgetting your history (and in your case probably your youth ). If the Senkaku's cause a war between Tokyo and China which leads to the cancellation of the 2020 Olympics, history will truly be repeating itself.

Hey! You're right!

That got me wondering how many games have been cancelled due to some kind of war/conflict. As far as I can tell the answer is "five":

* Three summer Olympics: 1916, 1940, and 1944
* Two winter Olympics: 1940, 1944

The 1940 summer and winter Olympics were both scheduled to be held in Japan (I didn't even know they were held in the same year back then).

I guess I wasn't paying attention at the time ...

All hail SJ The Prophet!

[Mike Oxlong]

What about a good old fashioned boycott? Can't Sea Shepard and the anti-nuke activists work something out so President Billary can withdrawal the participation of the athletes of a coalition of the willing. Wait, isn't that what Slick Willy used to call his babes?

[wagyl]

You're forgetting your history (and in your case probably your youth ). If the Senkaku's cause a war between Tokyo and China which leads to the cancellation of the 2020 Olympics, history will truly be repeating itself.

Hey! You're right!

That got me wondering how many games have been cancelled due to some kind of war/conflict. As far as I can tell the answer is "five":

* Three summer Olympics: 1916, 1940, and 1944
* Two winter Olympics: 1940, 1944

The 1940 summer and winter Olympics were both scheduled to be held in Japan (I didn't even know they were held in the same year back then).

I guess I wasn't paying attention at the time ...

All hail SJ The Prophet!

It really is a little more tricky than that: in 1940, there was war in Europe, and the Japanese involvement in China had been festering on for a number of years. However, it was the war in the European theatre which lead to the cancellation of the Olympics, and Japan turned its attention to Pearl Harbour and South East Asia after the scheduled date of the Olympics.

So you could say that it is war elsewhere (Middle East??) which interferes with the Olympics, then drags/encourages Japan to participate afterwards.

Also, the summer and winter Olympics were held in the same year until 1992, in Barcelona and Albertville. They started staggering them two years later in Lillehammer. Now I see that there is such a thing as the Youth Olympic Games, with the winter games held on grown up summer games years, and the summer games held on years that the Winter Olympics are held. And so the franchise grows. What with the tie ups with official "restaurants" and such, it won't be long before we see the prequel series Games, the animated side story Games, and the Mattel Games action figures with operating light sabre, batteries not included.

[Samurai_Jerk]

It really is a little more tricky than that: in 1940, there was war in Europe, and the Japanese involvement in China had been festering on for a number of years. However, it was the war in the European theatre which lead to the cancellation of the Olympics

Come on, Ukraine. We're counting on you.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

...in 1940, there was war in Europe, and the Japanese involvement in China had been festering on for a number of years. However, it was the war in the European theatre which lead to the cancellation of the Olympics, and Japan turned its attention to Pearl Harbour and South East Asia after the scheduled date of the Olympics.

Europe had nothing to do with Japan rescinding the right to host the 1940 Olympic Games. The Japanese government informed the IOC in 1938 that it would be unable to fulfill its responsibilities to host the Games in Sapporo (winter) and Tokyo (summer) due to the drain on resources being caused by its Holy War with China. The summer Games were then awarded to Helsinki, which subsequently canceled due to the outbreak of war in Europe. I can't remember who got the winter Olympics (Innsbruck?).

[wagyl]

I endorse this correction of my flawed understanding by SDH: he is correct that war in Europe lead to the cancellation of the 1940 Olympics, but that Tokyo had already withdrawn before then in favour of Helsinki.

It looks like the 1940 winter Olympics were a real hot potato: Sapporo, then St Moritz, but then the Swiss got into some sort of dispute with the IOC and it was scheduled to be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, site of the 1936 winter games. Adventures in Poland and the Sudetenland put an end to those plans.

[Wage Slave]

The Japanese government informed the IOC in 1938 that it would be unable to fulfill its responsibilities to host the Games in Sapporo (winter) and Tokyo (summer) due to the drain on resources being caused by its Holy War with China.

Trying to establish and run an empire is a great way to bankrupt a country unless you are pretty clever and pretty amoral about how you do it. Relying on brute force and control freakery will not do the trick.

[kurogane]

Trying to establish and run an empire is a great way to bankrupt a country unless you are pretty clever and pretty amoral about how you do it. .

Exactly. I believe Groucho had something similar to say in his light-hearted satire The 18th Brown Mare of Louis Boneredherparts: something like "history everywhere repeats itself, first as tragedy, next as farts."

[Russell]

Marvelous long-read article...

Could Trump’s blundering lead to war between China and Japan?

[Grumpy Gramps]

China is in growing competition with Japan to be the dominant indigenous power in Asia

Woot? Sounds like a heap of BS to me TBH.

ETA:

Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan, the US and the Struggle for Global Power by Richard McGregor will be published by Allen Lane on 5 September.

Aha

[Russell]

China is in growing competition with Japan to be the dominant indigenous power in Asia

Woot? Sounds like a heap of BS to me TBH.

Please, explain.

[Grumpy Gramps]

Sorry, we crossed each other. Explanation in my ETA of previous post. The whole thing is just a commercial.

[Russell]

Sorry, we crossed each other. Explanation in my ETA of previous post. The whole thing is just a commercial.

I would call it an excerpt of a book on exactly that topic. Should be perfectly fine in itself.