2017/10/27
As mentioned, I have stopped watching TV Asahi's News Station and TBS's News 23 altogether.
I have stopped watching TV Asahi's News Station and TBS's News 23.
The reason is apparent.
So I watch NHK's watch9, and Kuwako and Arima are still really bad.
They are the Asahi Shimbun itself.
When they said that Japan's voice in the UN was declining, I wondered what they were talking about.
Then, I saw that they criticized Japan concerning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Arima and Kuwako say without hesitation that Japan should pursue nuclear disarmament as if it were the opinion of a grade school student.
I dare use the word "flatly" because on the day President Trump officially announced his withdrawal from UNESCO, they loudly denounced it by saying...flatly.
What kind of nuclear disarmament can Japan, a country that has no power over North Korea's nuclear program and can do nothing when North Korea continuously launches missiles over Japan, talk about, and which nuclear powers will listen?
It is a series of academic performances by pseudo-moralists.
In other words, today, they absolutize the Nobel Peace Prize and the Japanese government, like the Asahi Shimbun.
What, then, is the Nobel Peace Prize?
Coincidentally, in yesterday's monthly magazine "Will," Professor Yoichi Shimada wrote a brilliant and eye-opening article that reads as follows.
The Great Way of Tianxia
The Depths of the Nobel Peace Prize
There is, in fact, no such thing as a Nobel Prize in Economics.
It was established by the will and legacy of Alfred Nobel, a Swede, in the five categories of physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature, and peace.
However, since "The Swedish Central Bank Prize" did not make the news anywhere, it was presumed to be the Nobel Prize in Economics, and, as intended, it has become a world-class authority.
By the way, do the five original Nobel Prizes have any reality worthy of their authority?
I want to look at only the Peace Prize, which I can also judge.
Nobel has given the authority to select Norway only for the Peace Prize, not to the relevant academic organization in Sweden.
Specifically, it was decided that five members appointed by the Norwegian Parliament would be responsible for the selection.
Why Norway?
Although Nobel did not specify the reason, it is said that Sweden and Norway were forming a federation at the time, and it was hoped that Norway, which was relatively weaker, would have more wisdom in non-military means.
In any case, the Peace Prize is selected by the liberal-dominated Parliament of Norway, a small Nordic country with a population of just over 5 million people and nothing more and nothing less.
This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
In its reasons for awarding the prize, the selection committee noted that "there is a real threat, as evidenced by North Korea, that many countries are engaged in nuclear development," but the idea that a military option is necessary to deal with a criminal group as inhumane as the North never entered the thought process of the committee members.
The award was given to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in 2000 for his Sunshine Policy, which increased the "real threat" to the North by providing it with large amounts of money and goods.
In the future, if the Trump administration were to topple the North's dictatorship by military force and eliminate the threat, it would not even be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Incidentally, four U.S. presidents have received the prize in the past.
Three of them, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama, belonged to the Democratic Party, which is an easy choice for liberal intellectuals.
In awarding Carter the prize, the chairman of the selection committee stated that the award "should be interpreted as a criticism of the current U.S. administration's course" and was intended as a check on President George W. Bush's Republican Party, which is pushing for a "war against Terrorism.
The power of the letter, which urged that the U.S. government should seek a negotiated settlement with any dictator rather than a military solution, was not only a symbol of anti-Bush and anti-Reagan sentiment but also of the selection committee's stance on the issue.
The unique award was to President Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) in 1906.
Roosevelt was famous for his bravery and courage in leading the assault forces during the Spanish-American War, and he never ceased to preach the martial spirit throughout his life.
The selection committee cited his achievement in mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War as the reason for the award, but in reality, Norway, which had just decided to become independent from Sweden in a referendum and was in an unstable situation, sought to strengthen its ties with the emerging power on the other side of the Atlantic by awarding the award.
The chairman of the selection committee at the time was also the Norwegian government's foreign minister.
In other words, the Peace Prize is not unrelated to Norway's national interests.
Therefore, it is said that anti-whaling groups are unlikely to receive the prize.
Norway is a country that has not complied with the decision of the International Whaling Commission and continues commercial whaling.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Nobel Peace Prize is meaningful only when it is awarded to human rights and democratic activists who fight against dictatorial powers.
Examples include the Soviet Union's Sakharov (1975), Poland's Walesa (1983), Tibet's Dalai Lama (1989), and China's Liu Xiaobo (2010).
All were admirable decisions.
In the future, the Japanese government should make diplomatic efforts to limit the award to human rights activists as much as possible.
Incidentally, Cordell Hull received the award in 1945.
He was the U.S. Secretary of State known in Japan for his harsh Hull Note.
It is said that President Franklin Roosevelt's efforts before his death were successful.
What we should be wary of in the future is the development that China and South Korea will promote Radhika Coomaraswamy (a Sri Lankan lawmaker) and others who are famous (and infamous) for their UN report on comfort women.
The Nobel Prize is also awarded for "fraternity" among nations.
The word "fraternity" is synonymous with former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, and it is conceivable that China and South Korea will try to win the Nobel Prize for fraternity.
The government must avoid optimism and take more severe measures against the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yoichi Shimada
He was born in Osaka in 1957.
He is a Professor of international politics at Fukui Prefectural University. He is also a member of the planning committee of the National Institute for Basic National Problems and vice president of the National Council of "Save the Kidnapped Victims."
May 29, 2024, in Osaka
