Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
August 17, 2015
China blacklists 120 songs for obscene or violent lyrics
BEIJING (AP) — China has released a blacklist of songs that it says promote
obscenity or violence and ordered website administrators to remove them from
their sites. The official Xinhua News Agency said the order from the Ministry of
Culture accompanied the list of 120 songs that “trumpeted obscenity, violence,
crime, or harmed social morality.” It said any unit or individual that does not
take down the songs will face unspecified “severe punishment.” The list contains
Chinese-language songs, and some are by household names in China, including
Taiwanese pop singer Chang Csun Yuk and Taiwanese actor Stanley Huang.
Xinhua said the list will be updated regularly. China’s authoritarian govern-
ment regularly attempts to tighten control over content it says disturbs social
stability.
Five accused of being witches beaten to death in India
PATNA, India (AP) — Dozens of villagers in eastern India beat to death five
women, accusing them of practicing witchcraft and blaming them for a series of
misfortunes in the village, according to police. Residents of Kinjia village in
Jharkhand state dragged the women out of their homes and beat them with
sticks and iron rods, said Arun Kumar Singh, a deputy inspector-general of
police in Ranchi, Jharkhand’s capital. The attackers blamed the women for
several accidents and misfortunes suffered by villagers, including the death of
an infant in Kinjia, Singh said. Police have arrested about 50 people involved in
the attack, Singh said. A large number of police officers have been deployed in
the village to prevent any outbreak of violence. Superstitious beliefs persist in
many parts of India and have been behind similar attacks on women in
Jharkhand. From 2000 to 2012, about 2,100 people, mostly women, were killed
in India on suspicion of practicing witchcraft, according to the National Crime
Records Bureau. Kinjia is about 25 miles west of Ranchi.
Seoul reaches deal to salvage sunken Sewol ferry
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says it has reached an agreement
with a Chinese-led consortium on a 85.1 billion won ($73 million) deal to salvage
the ferry that sank in an accident that killed more than 300 people in April of last
year. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said the consortium led by China’s
state-run firm Shanghai Salvage Co. plans to raise the 6,800-ton Sewol by about
July next year. South Korea approved plans to salvage the Sewol in April,
accepting demands from the victims’ families who staged fierce protests in the
capital of Seoul for months. The relatives hope that raising the ship will reveal
details about the cause of the sinking and help find the bodies of nine passengers
still missing.
Disney apologizes for tweet on A-bomb anniversary
TOKYO (AP) — Walt Disney Japan has apologized after a tweet sent from its
corporate Twitter account wished readers “congratulations on a not special day”
on the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The company
offered “deep apologies,” saying it would take care to avoid such mistakes in the
future. In English, the tweet conveyed “A very merry unbirthday to you!” from a
song in the Disney film Alice in Wonderland. The Japanese translation
described the day as “not special,” prompting sharp criticism. Japan holds
solemn ceremonies each year to mourn the more than 74,000 people killed in the
bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, three days after the first atomic bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World
War II.
At least 50 dead after huge fiery blasts at Chinese port
TIANJIN, China (AP) — Huge, fiery blasts at a warehouse for hazardous
chemicals killed at least 114 people and turned nearby buildings into skeletal
shells in the Chinese port of Tianjin, raising questions about whether the
materials had been properly stored. Hundreds of people were injured in the
explosions, which sent out massive fireballs that turned the night sky into day
and shattered windows several miles away. At least 20 of the dead were among
the more than 1,000 firefighters sent to the mostly industrial zone to fight the
ensuing blaze. “I thought it was an earthquake, so I rushed downstairs without
my shoes on,” said Tianjin resident Zhang Siyu, whose home is several miles
from the blast site. “Only once I was outside did I realize it was an explosion.
There was the huge fireball in the sky with thick clouds. Everybody could see it.”
Zhang said she could see wounded people weeping. She said she did not see
anyone who had been killed, but “I could feel death.” The municipal government
in Tianjin said more than 700 people were injured. The port is the 10th largest in
the world and seventh largest in China. It has grown in importance as
companies wanting lower manufacturing costs have migrated to the north from
eastern and southern China’s manufacturing centers.
South Korea wins East Asian Cup
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea drew with North Korea 0-0 to win
the 2015 East Asian Cup, a third triumph in six editions of the biennial four-
nation soccer tournament. South Korea, without its European-based players,
dominated its northern neighbor, but was unable to score at Wuhan Sports
Center Stadium. China finished second with four points from three games, one
point behind South Korea, after being held by Japan 1-1. China took the lead
after 12 minutes through Wu Lei, but Japan equalized before the break thanks
to a goal by Yuki Muto. Japan, the only team not to win at the tournament,
finished last with just two points. North Korea was third with four points.
FINAL FLIGHTS. A visitor looks at photos of deceased pilots of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II at
Chiran Peace Museum in Chiran, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan. As young army pilots took off on suicide-attack missions
in the closing days of World War II, schoolgirls in the southwestern Japanese town waved handkerchiefs and branches of
pink blossoms. Chiran served as the takeoff spot for 439 pilots on suicide-attack missions, many of them also teenagers.
Japan surrendered four months later. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Japanese girl’s World War II job:
Waving goodbye to kamikaze pilots
By Yuri Kageyama and Miki Toda
The Associated Press
C
HIRAN, Japan — As young army
pilots took off on suicide-attack
missions in the closing days of World
War II, the schoolgirls in the southwestern
Japanese town of Chiran waved handkerchiefs
and branches of pink blossoms.
“Remembering that still makes me trem-
ble,” said Chino Kuwashiro, now a tiny 86-
year-old with a stooped back. “We waved and
waved until we couldn’t see them anymore.
Why did we have to endure such sorrow?”
She and the other girls were called
Nadeshiko, after the fragile pink flowers seen
as a symbol of femininity in Japan. They were
ordered to take care of the pilots at the army
base in Chiran. Their jobs included cleaning,
doing the laundry, sewing on buttons, and
saying goodbye.
The 100 or so girls had their jobs for barely a
month in the spring of 1945, but the farewell
ceremony, in which some were ordered to take
part, is etched painfully in their minds. Only
about a dozen Nadeshiko women are alive
today.
Chiran served as the takeoff spot for 439
pilots on suicide-attack missions, many of
them also teenagers. Japan surrendered four
months later.
Kuwashiro broke into tears as she pointed to
the green-tea groves and pumpkin patch
where the runway once stood. The planes
tipped their wings three times in a farewell
salute — a bomb hung from one wing, a fuel
tank from the other.
Japanese here say Chiran today highlights
the horrors and extremes of war, and want
their town of 10,000 to be designated as a
UNESCO World Heritage site. They have yet
to gain even the approval needed from the Jap-
anese government, but an exhibit thousands of
miles away suggests there are powerful
lessons in the lives lost here 70 years ago.
Photos, letters, and poems from the pilots of
Chiran are now on exhibit, for the first time
outside Japan, on the battleship USS
Missouri, berthed in Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.
The items are from the Chiran Peace Museum,
which is devoted to the suicide-mission army
pilots.
Though such Japanese pilots in World War
II are generally known as kamikaze, that
name applied specifically to navy pilots. Their
army counterparts, like those in Chiran, were
called tokko. Those who refused to fly to their
deaths were imprisoned.
“I have a big smile, mother, as I am about to
carry out my last, and first, act of filial love.
Don’t cry. Please think I did good,” wrote Fujio
Wakamatsu, 19, in one of the letters on
display.
Michael Carr, the president and chief
executive of the Battleship Missouri
Memorial, said that instead of recoiling at the
stories, visitors are moved by the Chiran
exhibit, which runs through November 11.
“It shows that we are all people who share
the same love for our family, love of country,
and obligation to duty,” he said. “We need to
continually highlight and remember history so
that people can learn from it and move forward
with a perspective of tolerance, dignity, and
peace.”
A corner of the Chiran museum is devoted to
Nadeshiko, and includes a video with inter-
Continued on page 3
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77.775
4102.6
6.3912
2.1434
7.7558
65.007
13787
29566
124.26
8174.5
4.0805
104.04
101.5
2.7739
46.175
64.858
3.7515
1.4037
1180.6
133.93
32.151
35.233
22103