Letters to The Peachy: My Morning Today, From An American Reader in Nagano, Japan
Dear Peachy,
I am so sick of North Korea! Seriously, why is that place even still a country? Someone should have dispatched its government years ago, yet here we are still having to deal with them!
I live in a rural, mountainous area of central Honshu in Japan. Been here for close to twenty years and it is my home now. I love it here. But I didn't like being awoken at 6 this morning by my iPhone alert going off. I roll over and pick it up thinking it's probably another landslide watch for my area (lots of rain here lately, and the alert messages are also used for natural disaster warnings).
Instead, the Japanese message reads, "Missile launch. Missile launch. A missile has been launched from North Korea. Please take shelter in a sturdy building or underground." I bet there are not many people in the First World who have ever had to wake up to that!
I groaned, put the phone down and turned on the TV to see what NHK was saying about it. I live way out in the woods, so there was no point in me gathering up the family and rushing to the nearest evacuation area. By the time we got there, the missile would have already come down. We stayed put, in the house. A steel frame house, so at least I can say I was taking shelter in "a sturdy building," as instructed.
A second alert popped up on the phone, saying it was all over, but that further launches were possible. But school wasn't cancelled, so I woke the kids to get them ready. School is never cancelled here. A blizzard? Go to school. A typhoon barreling in on your area? Go to school. A missile launch from some pathetic gnat of a country? Go to school.
So life went on, and I got the kids ready and out the door on schedule, but I was livid the whole time. Friends in the US were happy to hear we were alright, and remarked how they can't imagine what it must be like going through what we did this morning. Well, I'll explain what it was like.
It's like being a kid on the playground at school and there's this one bully chucking rocks at you. The other kids yell in protest, but otherwise take no action. Common sense tells you to punch the bully in the nose and take away his rocks, but your own self-imposed rules prohibit you from doing that. And those same rules likely are stopping you from even deflecting the rocks in your own defense. So what do you do? Get help from one of the other kids? They're all afraid that the bully will retaliate and hurt his brother, whom everyone loves. Do you run to the teacher? The teacher doesn't seem to want to do anything about it, and appears to be just as scared about what the bully might do in retaliation as everyone else. That is basically where we are right now.
At this point, I would welcome a significant change in response from the other kids on the proverbial playground. Or from the teacher, for that matter.
But wait! Wait! What about China? They'll jump to North Korea's defense and then it'll be WWIII! I don't think so anymore. I don't think China would risk losing even the iPhone gig, let alone all the other business dealings they have with the US, in order to defend North Freaking Korea! China used to say, "We will defend North Korea no matter what!" Now they say they'll defend it only if the US attacks first.
I think China is weary of its association with and defense of the actions of North Korea. The people in North Korea are living a literal hell on earth, wherein they are starving to death, are forced to worship the Kim family as gods, and are imprisoned merely for making an overseas phone call. I don't see China wanting to continue standing up for that. They deserve to have their bluff called.
And soon, too, because I have no doubt North Korea is going to launch more missiles, and inevitably one of them isn't going to land in the ocean.
That was my morning.
An American in Nagano, originally from Connecticut
P.S. Keep the Patriotic Peachy articles coming!
I live in a rural, mountainous area of central Honshu in Japan. Been here for close to twenty years and it is my home now. I love it here. But I didn't like being awoken at 6 this morning by my iPhone alert going off. I roll over and pick it up thinking it's probably another landslide watch for my area (lots of rain here lately, and the alert messages are also used for natural disaster warnings).
Instead, the Japanese message reads, "Missile launch. Missile launch. A missile has been launched from North Korea. Please take shelter in a sturdy building or underground." I bet there are not many people in the First World who have ever had to wake up to that!
I groaned, put the phone down and turned on the TV to see what NHK was saying about it. I live way out in the woods, so there was no point in me gathering up the family and rushing to the nearest evacuation area. By the time we got there, the missile would have already come down. We stayed put, in the house. A steel frame house, so at least I can say I was taking shelter in "a sturdy building," as instructed.
A second alert popped up on the phone, saying it was all over, but that further launches were possible. But school wasn't cancelled, so I woke the kids to get them ready. School is never cancelled here. A blizzard? Go to school. A typhoon barreling in on your area? Go to school. A missile launch from some pathetic gnat of a country? Go to school.
So life went on, and I got the kids ready and out the door on schedule, but I was livid the whole time. Friends in the US were happy to hear we were alright, and remarked how they can't imagine what it must be like going through what we did this morning. Well, I'll explain what it was like.
It's like being a kid on the playground at school and there's this one bully chucking rocks at you. The other kids yell in protest, but otherwise take no action. Common sense tells you to punch the bully in the nose and take away his rocks, but your own self-imposed rules prohibit you from doing that. And those same rules likely are stopping you from even deflecting the rocks in your own defense. So what do you do? Get help from one of the other kids? They're all afraid that the bully will retaliate and hurt his brother, whom everyone loves. Do you run to the teacher? The teacher doesn't seem to want to do anything about it, and appears to be just as scared about what the bully might do in retaliation as everyone else. That is basically where we are right now.
At this point, I would welcome a significant change in response from the other kids on the proverbial playground. Or from the teacher, for that matter.
But wait! Wait! What about China? They'll jump to North Korea's defense and then it'll be WWIII! I don't think so anymore. I don't think China would risk losing even the iPhone gig, let alone all the other business dealings they have with the US, in order to defend North Freaking Korea! China used to say, "We will defend North Korea no matter what!" Now they say they'll defend it only if the US attacks first.
I think China is weary of its association with and defense of the actions of North Korea. The people in North Korea are living a literal hell on earth, wherein they are starving to death, are forced to worship the Kim family as gods, and are imprisoned merely for making an overseas phone call. I don't see China wanting to continue standing up for that. They deserve to have their bluff called.
And soon, too, because I have no doubt North Korea is going to launch more missiles, and inevitably one of them isn't going to land in the ocean.
That was my morning.
An American in Nagano, originally from Connecticut
P.S. Keep the Patriotic Peachy articles coming!
