[00:19:45]In this Earthmate talk, Dan and Ruriko discuss the 59th anniversary of the end of World War 2 and the birth of the Japanese constitution.
[00:27:33]I feel so guilty...
[00:29:35]What'd you do, Ruriko? Did you pig out again last night?
[00:32:34]No, of course not! This year I once again forgot to offer a silent prayer for those that died in World War 2.
[00:39:69]How inconsiderate of me!
[00:41:31]Oh, you are talking about Shusen Kinenbi, right? It must have really impacted you because that was a while ago and you're still thinking about it.
[00:49:78]Yeah. Nearly 2.5 million Japanese died during World War II, including executed war criminals.
[00:57:15]The United States lost about 300,000 people.
[01:00:41]In total about fifty million people died during the war.
[01:05:01]I know it's really sad.
[01:07:03]The Japanese war dead... they're worshipped at Yasukuni Shrine, right? Don't the Japanese think of them as deities?
[01:14:09]They do. Some Asian peoples like the Chinese and the Koreans think it's bad because some of the war criminals are in the Shrine as well.
[01:23:04]It always leads to trouble in the region when the Prime Minister goes to the shrine.
[01:28:40]Interesting, isn't it.
[01:29:97]Yeah. Hey, you know that the Americans created the current Japanese constitution, right?
[01:35:72]Did you know that they only spent two weeks writing it! Can you believe that?
[01:40:15]Yeah. That's unbelievable. They were really crunched for time.
[01:44:32]I think that they wanted to write it before other countries could get involved in the process.
[01:48:93]Do you think the Japanese people have bitter feelings about it?
[01:51:90]I think many Japanese people have hard feelings toward the constitution and Americans because they don't know the real facts.
[01:59:10]There are two facts that I want to share today.
[02:01:99]The first one is that the Japanese government leaders at the time actually had the legal freedom to reject the constitution that the Americans wrote.
[02:10:89]Under international law, any country, even an occupied one, has the freedom to create its own constitution.
[02:17:58]I guess Japanese leaders at the time were afraid to share their real feelings because they thought that might have made the situation worse.
[02:24:73]You're saying that occupied Japan had the right to reject the constitution that was written by the Americans?
[02:30:20]Yes! Germany for example faced the same conditions that Japan was facing.
[02:35:03]After Hitler killed himself and some of his aides fled the country, the new German government leaders stood up to the Allied Power Commanders to protect their rights under international law.
[02:46:12]As a result, they got their own constitution.
[02:49:58]That's interesting. And what is the second fact?
[02:52:51]Is it about that young American woman who gave Japanese women equal rights in the constitution?
[02:57:85]That's right. She was the only female in the committee of 24 American experts that drafted the constitution.
[03:04:84]Her name was Beate Sirota Gordon.
[03:08:28]She was only 22 at the time and that was in February 1946.
[03:13:41]She worked 24/7 and searched through many Japanese libraries for sample constitutions from other countries that she thought could help her create the very best legal rights system for Japanese women.
[03:25:48]Ruriko, why did she want to improve Japanese women's lives so much? Do you know?
[03:30:25]I think there are two reasons.
[03:32:21]First, she grew up in Japan. So, Japan was home to her.
[03:36:52]Actually her dad was a famous pianist who worked at a university in Tokyo.
[03:41:33]Second, she was young and idealistic.
[03:44:76]Thanks to her efforts, the Japanese constitution guarantees more rights for women than the US constitution.
[03:52:11]I know! I know! It's amazing.
[03:53:94]I wonder if Japanese women know about this fact??
[03:56:53]I don't think so. The average Japanese woman doesn't know much about the constitution. It's sad.
[04:02:63]Well, you can tell them about it in another Earth Mate talk.
[04:05:84]Frankly, I'm tired of recording this crap.
[04:08:50]Crap? This isn't crap!? You only think it's crap cuz you didn't write this.
[04:12:14]Whatever! See you later everyone! Bye!
[04:14:62]Bye! Damn it Dan...

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