Actually, it used to happen a lot more (WAYYYY back in the 60's and 70's) but it's just it's more publiciszed these days. The Okinawans are always protesting at the in front of the fences of the bases. It's kind of funny about the protests, it's not like the usual protesters. These protesters are paid to protest. You have this one guy with a mega-phone and make a very articulated speech, and every now and then there would be a pause for a big cheer, and then he continues. After some times, they all disband in a very orderly fashion.

In reality, the reason that okinawa want the U.S. to go is b/c the us bases take up A LOT of land, almost 65% of the island is for U.S. use. Okinawans want that land to develop, of course, for housing and commercial. As part of the surrender treaty after WWII, the U.S. wanted "X" amount of square miles to be used for mlitary bases in Japan. So JPN just basically said OK, but you can just use about 1/8th of that in mainland. The rest shall be in okinawa. Mind you that okinwa at that time was only part of the JPN empire for not too long, they were in fact their own country with their own gov't, rule, language, culture, etc. So you can see that at times, they are more angry at tokyo than the westerners.

But getting to the topic at hand, I remeber just 4 or 5 yrs ago, there was these 3 drunk military sailors who crept into this 6 yr old's room and proceed to rape the little girl. To bad those 3 bastards only got 5 yrs each for that. I guess their lawyers heard about the JPN jail. It's not as nice as the american jails.

3.5 yrs for rape? shockingly little. Guess a bit of diplomacy is unavoidable ... Dun tink japanese laws are that lax, though they are not friendly to sexual crimes... In singapore, u wld be lucky to get off with 10 yrs n 6 strokes of the cane ...

Yeah, I'd have to say that 3.5 yr is to small. That okinawans think so too, but they also think it is a bit better than the old days when thay got off without any punishment.

niko2x wrote:

Yeah, I'd have to say that 3.5 yr is to small. That okinawans think so too, but they also think it is a bit better than the old days when thay got off without any punishment.

3-1/2 years is piddly. Another black eye for the U.S.

I think justice was not served the guy got off too easy. Speaking as a man who have sister and as a man who want to have daughter in the future. I feel that the fitting punishment should be cutting off of...... or castration. I sometime wonder with the u.s. military being stretch so thin why do we still have troop stationed in countries where the peoples don't want us there.

Ren, aLthough most countries do not want U.S. presence up front, at the same time, they also welcome U.S.$ coming into the community. I'll have to admit that JPN is a good staging area for military build up if N. Korea tries to do anything hasty. JPN however, should ease the bases in Okinawa and move them to mainland. But thats not gonna happen, with the astronomical real estate prices of JPN. That my friends, is a stalemate.

Hey niko you think its a good idea to allow japan to have it own military? Why haven't they done so? I'm sure it would save us a lot of money and manpower.

Ren wrote:

Hey niko you think its a good idea to allow japan to have it own military? Why haven't they done so? I'm sure it would save us a lot of money and manpower.

Actually, they do have their own force, although a very small one, called the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces. Since we dropped the 2 big ones on them and drew up their current constitution. We also said in their laws that they are NEVER to have a military, so thats why they are only allocated to have such a small force. If anything should "hit the fan", our american ego has told them to call on us. Meanwhile, while we spend so much $ into the U.S. military machine, JPN can spend their yen on "non-essential things" like r&d, microengineering, etc.

Thanks for the clarification niko , man you are like a fountain of knowledge.

Ren wrote:

Thanks for the clarification niko , man you are like a fountain of knowledge.

Thanx, dude but ���₶�A(oyaji's) are suppose to know it all, even when they don't!

[quote="Ren"] I feel that the fitting punishment should be cutting off of...... or castration. quote] i second that.....only beacuse in my himan sexuality class were learning about the chemistry in a guys brain..... hence cut off the 'penis' then u cut off the man's treat/and sex drive...

which is a good thing loveles-kun because he wouldnt be able to make use of his sex drive anyway......

Um, since we're talking about biology, it's not the penis that gives a guy his sex drive, it's the testicles. That's where the testosterone is generated and stored...

This conversation is getting weird. I didn't realized that there are so many biology major around here. I say cut everything. Cut the tree branch and its root.

bmwracer wrote:

Um, since we're talking about biology, it's not the penis that gives a guy his sex drive, it's the testicles. That's where the testosterone is generated and stored...

well what the heck is he gonna do to ya with no "unit"!!!??? poke ya with his pelvis? or hips???

Ouch .

I for one don't believe that the Japanese should be allowed to have a military. In no way am I speaking from a conservative point of view, but with Japan's huge financial base, it'll only put one more potential nuclear power into the world mix.

I don't think letting Japan have a military will save the US any time and money. It's true that we're holding a huge sphere of influence in Asia by holding Okinawa (which is inherently wrong to begin with), but if anything, a Japanese military presence would only heighten security on the west coast and lead to more defense spending.

A Japanese diplomat came to my school a few days ago to see how it could revise the constitution to remove the ban on having a military, and frankly, it worries me a lot. Having a military is heavily tied to issues of nationalism and patriotism - a Japanese military could potentially start off another imperial wave (like the Japanese colonization of Asia before WW2).

Why can't we just end all the violence?

lovelessemotion wrote:

bmwracer wrote: Um, since we're talking about biology, it's not the penis that gives a guy his sex drive, it's the testicles. That's where the testosterone is generated and stored... well what the heck is he gonna do to ya with no "unit"!!!??? poke ya with his pelvis? or hips???

Well, it would make it tough to take a leak... There's also "chemical castration" where the person has to take some drug that stops testosterone production...

Yeech, Ren is right: The conversation is gettin' weird... I'll shut up...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/09/25/japan.earthquake/index.html

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030925/ap_on_re_as/japan_earthquake_14

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=273728

yeah..i just read the news just now.. it stated that the earthquake extend as far as hawaii.. is there anybody from hokkaido? what's the story..

nurgee wrote:

yeah..i just read the news just now.. it stated that the earthquake extend as far as hawaii.. is there anybody from hokkaido? what's the story..

The earthquake itself didn't actually reach Hawaii. What usually happens when earthquakes occur in Japan is that it sends a rippling effect in the Pacific Ocean to the Northeast, creating a tsunami heading towards Hawaii and parts of Alaska. More specifically, the southern parts of Hawaii were placed on a tsunami "watch". When I learned about the earthquake, I was working at Pearl Harbor about 150 feet from the ocean, so as a precaution I left work early and went home further up in the mountains. At 5:01pm today (just about 15 minutes ago), nothing happened! Maybe an inch or two higher than usual at Keahi Lagoon in Honolulu, but that was about it!

To put things into perspective... In the early 1940's, a similar occurance in Japan caused a major disaster in Hilo on the island of Hawaii, a tsunami completely destroying everything for up to one mile inland. So we take these things quite seriously!

--- groink