＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Addition on 3/2/2025> Will President Trump in his second term win the long-sought Nobel Peace Prize for ending the war in Ukraine?
During his first term, President Trump held a summit meeting between the U.S. and North Korea and planned to win the Nobel Peace Prize for “achieving the denuclearization of North Korea,” but he failed miserably.
The “ending the war in Ukraine,” for which he is seeking the Nobel Peace Prize this time, is expected to be a difficult task, as Russia is in an overwhelmingly advantageous position.
<Added 10/12/2024> Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Victims Organizations wins 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Victims Organizations, which has been calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons from the perspective of atomic bomb survivors.
The award was given for its efforts to realize a world without nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.
This is the first time in 50 years that a Japanese person has won the Nobel Peace Prize since former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1974.
<Update: 9/12/2020> President Trump is once again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!
On September 10, 2020, the White House announced that President Trump had been nominated for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to mediate the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which have been in conflict for many years.
On September 11, 2020, the normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain was announced through the mediation of the United States, making it more likely that President Trump will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize next year.
1. The Nobel Peace Prize has long been awarded for political reasons
I previously wrote an article about Haruki Murakami declining to be nominated for an alternative award for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but this time I would like to write about the Nobel Peace Prize, which will soon be announced.
The Nobel Peace Prize has long been awarded for political reasons. When former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato won the prize in 1974, I couldn’t understand why he was awarded the prize. What contributions did he make to peace?
Various reasons have been given, such as “because he realised the return of Okinawa” or “because he advocated the three non-nuclear principles and nuclear non-proliferation.”
However, there are also suspicions or rumors that a large amount of money was paid to the US when Okinawa was returned. This came to light in 1972 in the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secret Leak Incident,” “Okinawa Secret Agreement Incident,” and the so-called “Nishiyama Incident.”
The “secret agreement on Okinawa” refers to the “secret agreement that the Japanese government would actually pay on behalf of the U.S. government the cost of restoring the land to its original condition, which was supposed to be paid by the U.S. government when Prime Minister Sato and President Nixon agreed on the ‘Okinawa Reversion Agreement,’ and the ”secret agreement that the U.S. military would be allowed to bring nuclear weapons into Okinawa in the event of an emergency.
Also, after Eisaku Sato passed away, “secret nuclear agreement documents” were found in his home, and many people now believe that the award was a mistake.
President Obama also received the award in 2009, despite having made no particular contributions to peace. He has only given two “nuclear abolition speeches,” and has no other achievements.
Can someone be awarded the award just for their “hope” for nuclear abolition?
The case of Chairman Arafat, who received the award in 1994, is also unclear.
He had long been a hardliner against Israel and led the armed struggle against it, but the reason he was awarded the award was because he concluded a historic peace agreement with Israel in 1993 and established the Palestinian Authority.
2. President Trump, President Moon Jae-in, and Chairman Kim Jong-un are not eligible to receive the award
If a Nobel Peace Prize can be awarded for ending a war that has been going on for so long, then it is not entirely unsurprising that South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un, and U.S. President Donald Trump are aiming for it.
However, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has held three summit meetings with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un and has praised them as “historic meetings,” but does he seriously believe that North Korea will abolish its nuclear weapons?
What is the political scheme for the unification of North and South Korea? Will it become a communist country to match North Korea? If it is unified as a capitalist country like Germany, how do they plan to deal with the negative legacy of North Korea?
Also, how do they intend to treat North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un? With the change of government in both North and South Korea, they have repeatedly adopted a conciliatory policy toward North Korea known as the “Sunshine Policy” and a hard-line policy toward North Korea known as the “North Wind Policy,” but they have never crossed the line.
However, it is hard to understand why President Park Geun-hye’s hard-line stance would change so drastically under President Moon Jae-in.
Since President Moon Jae-in is originally from a rural area of North Korea and was a close aide to President Roh Moo-hyun (who committed suicide after being questioned on suspicion of illegal donations after leaving office), who promoted the “Sunshine Policy,” it was expected that the policy would be more favorable to North Korea, but it is surprising that it has gone this far.
Even for President Trump, if North Korea no longer has “ICBMs capable of reaching the US mainland,” would he be okay with Japan being exposed to the threat of “intermediate-range ballistic missiles”?
Of course, the US may develop a principled argument that the US will always protect Japan under the Japan-US Security Treaty.
The idea that “Japan and South Korea should cover the costs of denuclearizing North Korea” is also a selfish and irresponsible argument that ignores Japan’s position in leaving the “abduction victims issue” behind, and I don’t think it is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Prime Minister Abe was happy to have built a close relationship with President Trump, but it seems that “America First” is the answer after all? It makes me realize that international politics is not so simple after all.
Even so, the following reasons are thought to be behind the sudden rapprochement between the U.S. and North Korean leaders, who until a year ago had been exchanging insults with each other and demonstrating a tough stance.
President Trump wants to score diplomatic points ahead of the midterm elections and state gubernatorial elections this fall.
Meanwhile, Chairman Kim Jong-un has wasted national funds on nuclear missile development, leaving many of his people starving and in a desperate situation, he is in dire need of foreign currency.
Until now, North Korea has been successful in deceiving other countries with sweet words such as “freezing missile and nuclear development” and “re-investigating the abduction victim issue,” and has successfully eased economic sanctions many times, and has managed to get by with “UN humanitarian aid,” but perhaps it has reached its limit?
Another reason may be that Chairman Kim Jong Un felt a sense of crisis that, amid the fierce exchange of accusations between the United States and North Korea, if things continued as they were, President Trump might seriously consider starting a war between the United States and North Korea.
He may have feared that he would be the first to be sacrificed in a “decapitation operation” by the United States.
3. The Nobel Peace Prize needs to be reconsidered
Former President Obama reportedly urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to aim for the Nobel Peace Prize, but I think this is just as irresponsible a statement as President Trump’s.
I believe that a country like Japan, which has maintained peace for 73 years since the end of the war, or a group of atomic bomb victims who have continued to appeal for the abolition of atomic and hydrogen bombs, are truly worthy of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize…
At this point, shouldn’t the Nobel Foundation also have a third-party committee to correct its management stance? However, in reality, this is not possible…