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TOKYO POSTCARD

History Repeats

by Kenzaburo Oe

MARCH 28, 2011

By chance, the day before the earthquake, I wrote an article, which was published a few days later, in the morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun. The article was about a fisherman of my generation who had been exposed to radiation in 1954, during the hydrogen-bomb testing at Bikini Atoll. I first heard about him when I was nineteen. Later, he devoted his life to denouncing the myth of nuclear deterrence and the arrogance of those who advocated it. Was it a kind of sombre foreboding that led me to evoke that fisherman on the eve of the catastrophe? He has also fought against nuclear power plants and the risk that they pose. I have long contemplated the idea of looking at recent Japanese history through the prism of three groups of people: those who died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, those who were exposed to the Bikini tests, and the victims of accidents at nuclear facilities. If you consider Japanese history through these stories, the tragedy is self-evident. Today, we can confirm that the risk of nuclear reactors has become a reality. However this unfolding disaster ends―and with all the respect I feel for the human effort deployed to contain it―its significance is not the least bit ambiguous: Japanese history has entered a new phase, and once again we must look at things through the eyes of the victims of nuclear power, of the men and the women who have proved their courage through suffering. The lesson that we learn from the current disaster will depend on whether those who survive it resolve not to repeat their mistakes. [Read More!]

Hedge fund star calls for Microsoft CEO to go

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Bill Rigby
NEW YORK/SEATTLE | Thu May 26, 2011 1:51am EDT

(Reuters) - Influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn has called for Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to step down, saying the world's largest software company's leader is stuck in the past. [Read More!]

Pakistan threatens U.S. on cooperation if more raids

By Augustine Anthony and Michelle Nichols
ABBOTTABAD/NEW YORK | Thu May 5, 2011 10:08pm EDT

(Reuters) - Pakistan's army threatened on Thursday to reconsider its anti-terrorism cooperation with the United States if Washington carried out another unilateral attack like the killing of Osama bin Laden. [Read More!]

U.S. says bin Laden unarmed when killed

(Reuters) - Osama bin Laden was unarmed when U.S. special forces shot him dead, the White House said, as it vowed to "get to the bottom" of whether Pakistan helped the al Qaeda leader elude a 10-year manhunt. [Read More!]