Massive 8.9 quake hits Japan, then Tsunami

[Gail]

Wow! That's amazing.

What is? Which part?

[Woody]

Originally Posted By: Shane

Wow! That's amazing.

What is? Which part?

I think he's amazed that the price of airline fares will decrease. lol

[phkrause]

The latest I heard is that the cost for air travel to Japan from the US should decrease because Japan is now 13 feet closer to North America.

LOL, I think about a penny or so. :)

[Woody]

Yes, and I hope they will pass on the savings to US !!!

[Dr. Shane]

I am amazed that the Japanese island moved 13 feet. That platetectonics in action.

[Woody]

Don't be to amazed Shane ... I heard it on Fox News.

[Gail]

Don't be to amazed Shane ... I heard it on Fox News.

[skyblue888]

Pretty nasty 007.

Sickening!!!

Unbelievable!

"Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness

the people." Isa.60:2.

[Bravus]

...horrible indeed. But if anyone is suggesting that God killed 10,000 humans because people killed dolphins, I reject that utterly. I also reject the idea that we should have no sympathy for the people of Japan on the basis of some of their actions.

After all, dolphins are cuter, but I'm sure God cares just as much about pigs and cows and chickens. Every country on earth should expect retribution and no sympathy if those are the rules.

So how about we leave off kicking the Japanese while they're down, huh?

[CoAspen]

AMEN!!

[Dr. Shane]

if anyone is suggesting that God killed 10,000 humans because people killed dolphins, I reject that utterly.

[TIC] What about whales? Aren't those the Japanese that in the Whale Wars episodes?

[aldona]

...horrible indeed. But if anyone is suggesting that God killed 10,000 humans because people killed dolphins, I reject that utterly. I also reject the idea that we should have no sympathy for the people of Japan on the basis of some of their actions.

After all, dolphins are cuter, but I'm sure God cares just as much about pigs and cows and chickens. Every country on earth should expect retribution and no sympathy if those are the rules.

So how about we leave off kicking the Japanese while they're down, huh?

Amen. I was wondering how long it would take for the religious fundamentalists and other assorted moralists and self-appointed prophets to come out of the woodwork and start listing the sins of the Japanese people which "caused" this disaster.

I'm about as "green" as they come, and I love dolphins (as well as other animals), but I also utterly reject any attempt to link the earthquake to the killing of dolphins or other wildlife.

Disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, and striking in many and varied places, for a multitude of reasons which are too complicated to be quickly attributed to one single factor. It is entirely possible that next week, or next month, there may be an earthquake or a flood in your area or mine.

Let's observe the Golden Rule, i.e. imagine you are reading the online posts after your own home town is wiped out by a natural disaster and many of your friends and family are gone. How would you feel upon reading these posts, and what would you like to see posted that would give you comfort and hope?

AJ

[Bravus]

One piece of good news (at least in relative terms) - the death toll has been revised downward from around 10,000 to around 6,000. Still utterly horrible, but 4,000 more people alive is good news in anyone's language.

[John317]

...horrible indeed. But if anyone is suggesting that God killed 10,000 humans because people killed dolphins, I reject that utterly. I also reject the idea that we should have no sympathy for the people of Japan on the basis of some of their actions.

I agree completely.

Originally Posted By: Bravus

....So how about we leave off kicking the Japanese while they're down, huh?

Replying with documentary evidence to false statements about the Japanese actions in WWII is not kicking the Japanese. It is being honest, and being honest with history is very important. I am not suggesting that what they did in World War II is a reason not to love them or not to help them in every way possible.

I am merely saying that it's essential to get our facts straight about what occurred in WW II. This is shown also in the number of people who are claiming that there was no Jewish holocaust. These things should not be.

During the 1990s, my sister had a Japanese high school student living with her as an exchange student, and this girl was shocked to learn that the Japanese lost the war. Her American history teacher assigned her to do some interviews of American soldiers who had fought against Japan in the Pacific during WW II. It was a good experience for her, but she didn't learn those important facts of history in the Japanese high school.

I do favor teaching all the truth about WWII, including the bombing of German cities by the British and American pilots. War is truly hell, just as General Sherman said, and we don't do any of the soliders or civilians on either side a favor by pulling punches.

At the end of American wars, enemies typically become good friends and allies. This is certainly the case of the Japanese as well as the Germans. We helped build them both up, and now it is time to help the Japanese some more.

[John317]

Terrible scenes. Ellen White says that people who have been cruel to the animals will be judged by God for those actions. I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of people who do those things or who are responsible for them.

However, I wouldn't connect those things with the earthquake or the other tragedies happeneing in Japan today. But even if it was proved that such a connection exists, the Bible shows that God would have us do all we can to relieve people's suffering, even when they are being punished by God.

[Bravus]

Time and a place, John317, time and a place. It's true that the truth about Japan's WWII actions should be told: but right now? There will be far better times to address that history listen.

[John317]

Japan was not the only one that did atrocities during that war, the allied carpet fire-bombed 100,000's of civilians, as Robert McNamara stated in his last video, "if the we did not win the war we would get charged with war crimes." or words similar to that, he was honest for forthright with so many things, I was really impressed.

Only the loosing side gets charged, after all, the good guys win.

No one who knows the history of WWII would claim that there were no atrocities on both sides. But it is like comparing the bad conditions of prisoners in American prisons with the condition of people in Nazi concentration camps.

In one battle, for instance, there is proof that some Canadian soldiers murdered some German prisoners of war. These Canadians were given orders by their officers to take no prisoners, and so they didn't. But does that mean the Canadian military was as evil as the SS?

Even a superficial comparison of what occcurred on the Japanese side of the war with what happened on the American or British side will prove that the war against Japan and the Nazis was just. Did Americans commit atrocities? Yes. But the difference is the scale on which they occurred. In the case of the Japanese military, the atrocities were due to the official policy of the military leaders and of the government. The same can be said of the military under Hitler and the Nazis.

On the other hand, when Americans or the British committed atrocities, they were not a part of the official policy but were in opposition to what the soldiers had been trained and ordered by their superiors to do.

It's true that Americans and British carpet bombed German cities, particularly Dresden, during WWII. I saw some of the effects of the bombings when I served in Germany in 1969, 1970. They were still rebuilding opra house near the train station in Frankfurt, Germany. It had been hit by accident when the Americans were bombing the train station. I understand that at the time it was bombed, many German civilians were killed watching an opera.

But there's a huge difference between the American & British bombing of German cities and the Nazi bombing of London. Hitler started the war and he planned to take over England. All the Americans and the British were doing was defending themselves and trying to stop the war as soon as possible. There was no way to stop the Nazi war machine without doing some very terrible things. You'll notice that after the war, the Americans and the British showed that they were not out to steal German land or punish the German people. In fact, we helped them-- both the Germans and the Japanese. You can be sure that if the Nazis and the Japanese had won the war, they would not have have been out to help those they had conquered.

On some of the Pacific islands which the Japanese took over, they sometimes buried young students alive if they refused to disavow their faith in Christ. In China, it is documented that the Japanese military killed and raped tens of thousands of women and decapitated thousands of men in competitions to see which Japanese soldier could chop off the most heads in a given amount of time. They did this to civilians who were unlucky enough to be seen by Japanese soldiers in the street. There are pictures of these atrocities. These things were done not by a few renegade soliders but with the approval and planning of the Japanese military establishment.

[John317]

Bravus, I would not have said a word about WWII except that others brought it up. I am only setting the record straight. It seems that the best place to do that is on the same discussion where the record was made somewhat crooked. We don't do a service to anyone by making WWII appear as it wasn't.

[LifeHiscost]

Bravus, I would not have said a word about WWII except that others brought it up. I am only setting the record straight. It seems that the best place to do that is on the same discussion where the record was made somewhat crooked. We don't do a service to anyone by making WWII appear as it wasn't.

My uncle was in a Japanese prison camp for over three years. He would never talk about the experience, even after years had gone by. There had to be some reason to wish to totally blot out the memory of three years of your life. How one treats their enemies reveals whether the Christian influence is better than non-Christian.

God blesses!

[John317]

How one treats their enemies reveals whether the Christian influence is better than non-Christian.

God blesses!

I like that statement. Certainly a true one.

[Guest truthseeker007]

I think some people misunderstand me. First of all, i feel very sorry for all the Japanese who are struck by this disaster. However, when we speak about nations as a whole, each nation has a certain character. What i was saying that, if I were God, I would allow this disaster to happen because they kill Gods beautiful creatures. In Genesis God told men to take care of the environment, not to exploit and murder it. Now if this becomes government policy in a democracy, the nation as a whole is responsible from my point of view. I am not saying Japan is punished by God, but i think it is possible. I also don t believe all animals are equal. Dolphins reflect the character of God way more than a pig, though i think all animal slaughter should be forbidden.

Now, concerning world war 2, John is absolutely right. I studies Japanese history of politics, and that why i know that in Asia the Japanese committed terrible war crimes. Again the nation as a whole become satanic, and the nuclear bombs were necessary to change the minds of the Japanese and to participate in a new way of living. I have the impression that a lot of Westerners are blind to the hard realities of this world. I prefer to tell the truth at all times, especially when it is uncomfortable.

[Woody]

TS ... I am so glad that you aren't God.

For sure ... I would reject you.

[Guest truthseeker007]

Woody that s okay we don t always have to agree. I think we each perceive the world differently. Since, i am an enemy of this world, i reject this world. If you love the world, then you are going to have a hard time when God will judge this world. Especially when the plagues fall. Will you then continue to worship God?

Anyways, i am not easily offended by people on this board, since a lot of them don t even know they worship; God or allah.

[SivartM]

Again the nation as a whole become satanic, and the nuclear bombs were necessary to change the minds of the Japanese and to participate in a new way of living.

The entire nation was satanic? Even the children? If someone decided that your entire country was "satanic" would you be okay with a nuclear attack?

[Guest truthseeker007]

i mean the nation in general. As i explained earlier, this does not mean every individual. But you probably don t know what i am talking about, since you haven t studied the history of Japan, like I and John have. In world war 2 it was Japanese government policy to use the other Asian countries to exploit, murder and rape on a massive scale.

Now if my country became satanic, did everything God had forbidden, i would resist my own government and i would flee my country. And then yes, a nuclear strike is okay. For doing nothing in a situation like that, would be the beginning of the destruction of the whole world. I am not saying that nuclear strikes are fun, i am saying that sometimes they are necessary. But if you have no knowledge of international relations, nor the great controversy between Christ and satan, nor Gods ways of dealing with this planet, then i understand that comments like yours are predictable.