--- "Jourdan M. Bickham" <jmbickham@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Um  red light.  First Japan doesn't have "Department
of...." is have
Ministries... ie "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs." 

@@I meant that as a general example of how to hide
things in layers of government only.

Next the Japanese don't
NEED a "Billl of Rights." 

@@I didn't say they needed one,(although it's evident
that they do) I only said they did not have a Bill of
Rights (which they don't)
 The 1947 Japanese

constitution contains
protection of more rights than the US constitution
then and now.  And so
they sure as hell do have freedom of press and
speech...rather its the
interpretation of the constitution and laws by the
courts and government
that limit people's freedom (not that anyone here is
really aware of any
different).  Additionally who the hell do you think
wrote the 1947
constitution??  It sure as hell wasn't the
Japanese....so try again.

@@Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution:
Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech,
press and all other forms of expression are
guaranteed. 2) No censorship shall be maintained, nor
shall the secrecy of any means of communication be
violated.

I'll try to clarify my original meaning. Despite the
"written" constitution, there is little of no freedom
of the press. Or any of the other types of freedoms
that are supposedly guaranted by the constitution.
All of which, IMO, make a difference in how "ninja"
would/could be used in a story.

Example:
1)Government censorship
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (1999)
revealed a plan to establish a 24-hour system to
monito radio, newspapers and TV for incorrect or
biased reports about the party.

2)Police brutality:
After arrest a suspect may be detained without bail 
for up to 28 days before a prosecutor
must bring him before a judge. Amnesty International
 calls Japan's police custody system a
 "flagrant violation of United Nations human 
rights principles."
Suspects' confession rate in Japan is 95%.
Suspects who stand trial have no right to a jury.
Japanese trial conviction rate is 99.91%.

Police routinely beat suspects, sometimes to
 death and often rob gaijin
suspects; deporting them before
 they come to trial. 

3)Japanese police routinely search citizens 
at will (no "Probable cause")and twice a year pay
"home visits" to
 citizens' residences. 

4)Government sponsored and sanctioned 
revisionist history texts in schools.


My major point was and is that:
1)Despite what the Japanese "written" constitution may
say,
actual life in Japan does not match the written word. 
2)Given the massive amounts of government corruption
and influence by "Big Business) (also corrupt) coupled
with
a very top-down social system there seem to be several
interesting
ways in which ninja could survive/flourish in modern
Japan. 

3) For an interesting Japan Culture Primer (I
especially like
the section that compares the Japanese to "Borg"
http://www.geocities.com/japanfaq/FAQ-Primer.html

 A "few" of literally hundreds of URL's offer more
detail.
As with any information on the web, it must be
approached with
a certain scepticism. However there are a multitude of
books and
journal articles that may be found in any university
library that
offer corroboration. There are, as well, sources that
offer rebuttal.
Whatever your v



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-03/03/113l-030300-idx.html

http://www.newstimes.com/archive2000/jan07/woc.htm

http://library.amnesty.it/aidoc_everything.nsf/Index/ASA220171998

http://www.miyazaki-mic.ac.jp/faculty/kisbell/well/safety.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/0104/05/world/world6.html

http://www.iwanami.co.jp/jpworld/text/textbook01.html

http://www.freedomhouse.org/pfs99/reports.html

http://asia.internet.com/asia-news/article/0,,161_675431,00.html

http://www.eal.or.jp/CW/FORUM/FORU19990128.shtml

http://www.issho.org/writings/js4.html

http://www.ufj.gol.com/newsletter/immigration_p1.html


<SNIP>

That idea about how the ninja still exist today
isn't bad.  You just need to
work out the occupation (1945-1951) period.  The
Japanese government was
answering directly to SCAP (Supreme Commander of the
Alllied Powers) which
was Douglass MacArthur, however it is used to refer
to his whole
administration.    Thus  it is possible that they
were kept secret under
their nose, I think it'd have been a bit hard,
making things border on
improbable.  <SNIP>

@@As far as that goes, IMO look at the way Japanese
war criminals were treated (or rather not treated)
especially those involved in the 731 Unit (germ/gas
warfare) If the US thought the ninja were
anti-communist they would have funded them, just as
they pardoned and funded Japanese officers who cut
open living POW's and injected salt water into their
veins, clamped off their aorta's to see how long it
took them to die, tied them to posts  to calculate the
most effective bursting range of grenades and bombs or
infected them with anthrax (among others) to determine
the most effective strains. A few harmless ninja
assassins would go almost unnoticed. 


As a final possibility for ninja, they could be hiding
out in island jungles or chinese mountains, unaware
the war is over. Perhaps small clans of them, living,
growing crops, having children in some isolated place,
waiting for orders that never come because the only
officials who knew of them were killed in the bombing
of Tokyo.

[Hiroo Onada was the longest holdout I know of]
Lubang Island.
Surrender of the last of Lubang's defenders,
Intelligence Officer 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onada. 
29 years after Japan's formal surrender, and 15 years
after being declared legally dead in Japan.

SO . . . a small clan of ninja, perhaps on one of the
islands now in dispute . . .burrowing deep into the
volcanic rock. Using thermal heat for power. Equiped
with the most modern (1945) weapons . . .perhaps with
an I-400 submarine aircraft carrier . . .waiting for
orders to attack the Pamama canal or perhaps to
assassinate Roosovelt. Fifty years later, they're
still there, living hundreds of feet underground,
living, dying, training . . .waiting for orders from
the Emperor. And then a file clerk finds the
operational orders with the codes to activate them. An
entire clan of fanatical ninja who will obey any
command he gives them. 

Everyone feel free to use this idea, btw.


=====
"When I get a little money, I buy books;
 And, if any is left, I buy food and clothes."-Erasmus

"A man is a small thing, and the night is large 
and full of wonders." -Lord Dunsany

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