Thoughts at the end of the weekbeginning:
A guy as poor as I am shouldn’t have taxes this complicated.
OK, if I understand correctly, it’s always wrong to identify a terrorist group as a part of a larger group, because that might unfairly stigmatize the larger group and make them feel bad. Does that mean all inquiries into white racist groups are out of order from now on, because most white people aren’t violent?
By way of Joe Carter’s weekly 33 Things post at First Thoughts: 21 Scathingly witty insults by famous people. C.S. Lewis is included, though I think the insult actually refers to a fictional character in The Screwtape Letters. Also I’m quite confident that the picture of Groucho Marx is not actually Groucho, but a later Groucho impersonator.
I’d like to say something profound about Japan, but I haven’t got anything. Prayers are in order, of course. Did you know that when we dropped the Bomb on Nagasaki, we wiped out the center of Christianity in Japan?
I have a Sons of Norway meeting tonight, and one of my fellow Vikings wants me to go with him to a historical reenactment event in New Ulm tomorrow (as visitors, not participants). You know you’re truly Avoidant when your inclination is to stay home and do your taxes, rather than go out and rub shoulders with people who have similar interests.
Have a good weekend!
Why did we choose Nagasaki and Hiroshima to bomb?
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen because they both had large military assets and or industry “lodged” within their environs. Also, they weren’t the emperor’s capital city, (where he could be harmed if we had bombed it with nuclear weapons),
as we could not damage the “people’s god”. And they were not significant religious centers as we know of it. Lars this is the first time I’ve heard of Nagasaki being the center of Christianity.
Kyoto wasn’t chosen because it was a huge religious city and one of the historical and original capital cities. Also, it was a huge Christian and Shinto and Buddhist historical city; a shrine or temple replaced every Christian church that had been built there. So now, if you count the shrines and temples, you will know how strong Christianity was before the Meji restoration. (can’t swear to the spelling there.)
My source for Nagasaki being the center of Christianity in Japan is Paul Johnson’s book, _Modern Times_. I also read it somewhere else–I forget where–but that author suggested that Roosevelt’s secretary of state might have personally chosen Nagasaki (which was the alternate site that day) because he was a leftist and hated Christianity.
After living in Japan, reading huge amount of books, interviewing many Christians; Japanese and white and living with my Japanese wife…I must include that Nagasaki has an island a very short distance from itself. This is where the Japanese allowed the Franciscan brothers etc… to first land and eventually spread the Catholic gospel. It is the same island that the Japanese forced the Dutch and other later traders to live and do their trading businesses. (It also had many brothels there…)
Indeed, many Catholics sneaked off this island to spread the Catholic word…so eventually about 1 to 1 1/2 million Japanese were converted… nation-wide…(many for political reasons…)
Then some time in the 16 or 1700s , a new Shogun came along and decided Christians wanted to take over the country, rebell and/or take him from power. So, he had most of the Christians tortured,(like hanging up-side-down in a pit of urine and feces before drowning….and of course be-heading was quite popular….)
So, if no Christians…no need for churches.
As mentioned before… from my study, Kyoto had many more churches and Christians than Nagasaki.
So, tag, you’re it…..
PS… would love to know the source of your Roosevelt, (Teddy or Frank?), info so I can learn more for myself….
I meant FDR (since Teddy never bombed Japan), but I should have said Truman. But the Sec. of State, Stinson, served under both.
I feel that, at least regarding the believers who are in Japan today, Psalms 44 says everything I could say better than I could.
17 All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24 Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
26 Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!
Those poor Japanese. And now we have to listen to the usual experts in this country telling us the usual thing: “This could not possibly happen again, because….”