Death of Nishibe Susumu

On 21th of this month, Nishibe Susumu was found dead.  Apparently, he killed himself by drowning.

He influenced and inspired me indelibly when I was in my 20s to begin thinking about things a little complicated and abstract especially with his work, “The Revolt against the Masses,” which of course was his reply to “The Revolt of the Masses,” authored by Ortega Y Gasset (published in 1929).

I took a day off on December 31. Otherwise, it’s been only “work and me.” I think I’ve done a lot since last September. These long-terms projects will be over, and another period of worries will begin.

Shame on you, Lessie.

Japan Can Demand an Aplogy From Korea over "Sex Slavery"

Yesterday, the government of South Korea announced that it would keep the agreement former President Park had concluded with the Japanese government over the “comfort women.”

In the announcement, however, President Moon still seeks an “apology from the heart” from Japan.

Ha! Then, Japanese-Japanese former comfort women can demand an apology and compensation from Korea for having been subjugated to be "sex slaves" of soldiers of Korean origin.

韓国の皆さん、本当に知らないんでしょうか？気づかないんでしょうか？それとも知らないふりをしているんでしょうか？（当時は日本国籍だった）朝鮮半島出身の日本兵が日本本土出身の慰安婦の客となり、いくつかの慰安所は（当時は日本国籍だった）朝鮮人が運営していたことを。日本政府は韓国に対して、韓国人が日本人女性を「性奴隷にした」ので、謝罪と賠償を要求できるね。これまで、挺対協などに譲歩しすぎて、もうどう引っ込めていいのかわからないんだろう。そもそもは「吉田清治」が始めたことを朝日新聞が煽ったのが原因だけど。日本が何とも情けないのは、反論に「謝罪と賠償をしました」と言うこと。悪事を認めていることに他ならない。日本人、何で黙ってるのかな？

Where are you, Lessie? I'm looking for you. Shame on you. Are you in Hong Kong now? 

First Real Job This Year

I did absolutely no work on December 31, but resumed my work on the New Year’s Day. I thought about welcoming the new year at the neighborhood bar. But I just stayed home. 

Today (3rd), I had an interpretation job at the coffee shop at the MBS lobby. It was about a project to set up hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam, especially of ophthalmology. I met two from J&J Vision, SEA commercial director and APACJ marketing director, and an ophthalmologist visiting here from Japan. It was their first meeting for exploring what they would be able to do work together. I can say that the talk went smoothly.

The SEA director said the administrative division had recommended me as interpreter for this occasion and the surgeon seemed to be satisfied with my work because, as he understands and said to me at the end of the meeting, ophthalmological topics are not easy to deal with for interpreters.

I only accidentally started working with “ocular people” 8 or 9 years ago. But today, working for people I’d never met before and about topics I’d never worked on, my experience helped.

 

Where are you, Lessie? I'm looking for you. Shame on you.

My 2017

I haven’t written anything for many weeks. This is mostly because I’ve been rather overwhelmed by the volume of work I’ve had have to handle.

This past year, it’s been almost like “all work, nothing else.”

After science textbook translation work, I had a surprise phone call in early February from a client company that had been quiet for a few years. At this moment, this project of a new production line became my project too, and it’s still going on and expected to last at least a few more months.

In June, I had a meeting with a representative of a Japanese insurance company that was setting up its business in Singapore. And this project materialized in August with an agreement signed and, as I believe, I started working on the first file in the following month. For the first many weeks, I was dealing with Dr. Huebner, father of insurance education, and his works, mainly “Life Insurance” and “The Economics of Life Insurance.” I also encountered trouble about the 2000 speech by Csaba Sziklai, “The Power of Advocacy.” I eventually had to obtain the original speech CD, in which even the MC of the event couldn’t pronounce his name correctly. Huebner and Sziklai required me to do much research. About this project, I still have two files to finish.

And there were a few jobs to which I had to say “No” because of these commitments.

Overall, 2017 has been a year of work, allowing me to recover some money which I lost because of that idiot.

And this year made me realize how little people remember me as well as how little I remember them.

About books, the only new book I read was “The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam” by Chester L. Cooper. Others were those I had read once or many times before, like books authored by Kondo Koichi, Kaiko Takeshi, Fredrik Logevall (Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire) and David Halberstam (The Best and the Brightest), all about the 1st/2nd Vietnam (Indochina) Wars.

Now my wish is to visit Saigon again (and Hanoi) late January or early February because it will be the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive.

 
Where are you, Lessie? I'm looking for you. Shame on you.

"The Fall of An Empire" to "The Lost Cruside" and "The Best and the Brightest"

A no work day. I continued to read "The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam" by Chester Copper, published in 1970. Mentioned in "Embers of War: The Fall of An Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam" by Frederik Logeval, the book is another fountain of knowledge about the war. Now, LBJ announced his decision not to seek another term. Cooper tells me there were secret French (with Henry Kissinger as a principal actor)/Polish/Romanian channels for talks between the US and North Vietnam, all of which failed. Depending on the work volume I may have tomorrow, I should be able to finish this book and take up, after so many years, "The Best and the Brightest (1972)" by David Halberstam.
Where are you, Lessie? I'm looking for you. Shame on you.