I Am a Propagandist for the State!

"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

In a very surprising turn of events, I have found myself in the position of being a propagandist for the state and Big Pharma. It's true. I am now reading and broadcasting the "news" (read: "propaganda") to millions of people living in Japan.

It disturbs me to have to read some of this stuff that comes on the newswire. I didn't expect, nor did I ask for, this news job. It fell into my lap. What am I going to do about it?

If I tell the truth, I will most likely get in a lot of trouble if not fired. If I follow the "party line" and report the propaganda as written, I will wind up hating myself and quitting... This has happened already twice. Unfortunately, it is pre-determined; these are my only two choices. It's just the way it is. I don't want to get fired, but it will happen if I tell the truth. If I do like everyone else and be a parrot of the lies, then I will keep my job.

I just cannot parrot the lies. I think the news has lost all credibility, and station ratings go down, because people know they are being fed propaganda. I think people are smart enough and mature enough that, if they are given the facts, they can make intelligent decisions for themselves.

Anyhow, let me briefly explain how I got into this curious position.

I was hired to be the producer/director of a prime time show on a major broadcasting station in Tokyo. Of course I have a staff of 5 people, including me. I was also told that I would have a professional news reader to come onto the show and read the news.

The day before the first show, at rehearsal, I was told that we didn't have a news person and that I was expected to read the news. This shocked me. Regular readers of my blog know that I am the kind of guy who likes to have fun and joke around, but I take my news and financial information dead serious. I think that if a station is going to do "The News" then they'd better damn well do a professional job, or there's no point in doing it. No one likes a half-assed job.

I was a professional news person and even hosted my own news and topics program for a few years on CNN Japan called, "News Wave" up until about 1993 or so. I have also been the news person on many programs over the years. The last time I was the news anchor was October of 2009. I thought that was going to be my last time.

I thought wrong. 

I was dumbfounded when I was told that I was expected to do the news. As a producer/director (engineer, script-writer, co-host and coffee boy) I pretty much had my hands full each and every show as it is a live broadcast and in live broadcasts, mistakes are verboten!

So I became the news anchor. Not by choice, but by, well... like I said, it just fell into my lap. 

Don't get me wrong; the news needs to be done. So since there was no one else qualified to do it, I was stuck.

Now, here's where the problem begins. I am a voracious reader. I know the news is written for people around the education level of an eighth-grader, so lots of facts are omitted, but sometimes the propaganda is just too blatant that I can't stand it. Also, from years of experience, I have come to have a very healthy skepticism of what passes for "news" these days.

Let me give you two examples of news stories that I had to read that just made me roll my eyes. But, before I do that, let me quote George Orwell once again. 

"Omission is the greatest form of lie" - George Orwell

Keep that in mind. The news stories are not written so that I must directly speak a falsehood. But they are filled with important omissions which turn some of them into blatant propaganda. 

Read this next bit of news - the kind of news ALL news reporters read verbatim - and tell me what's wrong with this picture?

G-8 slams N. Korea, vows additional steps if missile fired

LONDON, April 11, Kyodo

Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight countries on Thursday wrapped up their two-day meeting in London, condemning North Korea over its nuclear and missile development programs and warning the group will take additional steps if Pyongyang fires missiles.

In a chair's statement released after the gathering, the G-8 foreign ministers "condemned in the strongest possible terms" North Korea's active nuclear weapons development and ballistic missile program.

The statement also criticized North Korea's "current aggressive rhetoric," saying "this will only serve to further isolate the DPRK." 

Folks, like I said, this is blatant propaganda. I just couldn't bring myself to read this as is. If I did, I would be a tool of the propagandist. This sort of news is a lie of omission and can only serve to stoke public opinion into supporting a war against North Korea that will get a bunch of innocent people KILLED! That's right. This is a lie and this news is written to further a political agenda. I read the news the way it was written but added a critical fact to the very last paragraph that I think people need to know. I said;

"The statement also criticized North Korea's "current aggressive rhetoric," saying "this will only serve to further isolate the DPRK."  While conveniently ignoring the fact that US B2 Stealth Bombers, capable of dropping nuclear weapons, have been making threatening flights over South Korea just seconds away from North Korea."

Gee, isn't this little fact a bit relevant to the story? Not if you are a propagandist for the state. 

Saying this, though, is called telling the truth. How in the world can we expect the North Koreans to NOT be bellicose when US bombers are buzzing their territory? Hell, the USA carpet-bombed North Korea during the Korean War killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians! Of course they scream to high heaven when US bombers are flying around, within seconds of their country. Please refer to: Ubuntu Peace Education Project website:

In the Korean War, the U.S. demonstrated its willingness to attack Korean civilians in order to injure unidentified military partisans.  In doing so, it violated international humanitarian law and provisions of the Geneva Conventions.  Among illegal actions engaged in by U.S. soldiers and the U.S. command during the Korean War 1950-53 war were the destruction of clearly marked hospitals and destruction of irrigation dams at Kusongand Toksan that provided water for 75% of North Korea’s food production.  

The Air Force at the time reported that the “subsequent flash flood scooped clean 27 miles of valley below”, noted the flood waters wiped out supply routes as well as villages, and acknowledged that the loss of the rice crop will mean “starvation and slow death.”      

Napalm attacks more widespread than those ultimately banned in Viet Nam 16 and carpet bombing destroyed 75% of North Korea’s cities and villages....   

The American planes had bombed the entire city (Pyongyang) multiple times in the Korean War and obliterated virtually everything in it. Indeed U.S. reports cite a general ordering a stop to the bombing of Pyongyang since “nothing worthy of a name” was left standing. 

Why we are stoking the flames of war with the North Koreans - a country that can't even feed its own people - is just beyond comprehension to me. The people need to wake up and see that they are being manipulated.

The next story that I had to read also made me want to pull my hair out. It was about a 74-year-old man dying from Bird Flu in China. Horrors! I can't find the exact text, but it went like this:

China - In the last two weeks, eleven of the 43 people infected with bird flu in China have died, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The latest to succumb was a 74-year-old male patient from Shanghai.

Bird flu, again? You are kidding me right? And how in the hell does the death of a 74-year-old man in China make the news when average life-expectancy in China is 72! WTF?!

We go through this Bird Flu nonsense every 4 or 5 years. In fact, the last time this sort of sensationalism was going on, I wrote about it and predicted this story coming up. Big deal? Let me also make a wild prediction that I think there will be a war in the Middle East within the next year or so.

Eleven people die in China and that makes the news!? What a joke. How about a little reference here? 

First off there are over 1.34 billion people in China. Over 65,000 people die in traffic accidents in China per year (that's over 185 a day!) Chinese factories are very dangerous and every year there are hundreds of thousands of fatalities and injuries! I have read where about 300 people die everyday in China in factory or industrial accidents!

And these clowns want us to worry about eleven people dying of the flu? 

They call this "News"? I call it propaganda! 

I simply refuse to be a propagandist for the state. I wish more "news" reporters would wake up and realize that they are not helping the situation - and are actually harming people - by scaring them like this...

________________________________

In Japan Nuclear Disaster Update & Strong Criticism of Western Media Sensationalism I wrote:

Remember my Golden Rule about TV: "90% of everything you see on TV is bullshit; the other 10% are commercials."

Actually, it astounds me that people do accept what what the media says as gospel truth. Don't forget that this is the very same media that told us 3 years ago that Swine Flu was going to kill more than 50 million people worldwide. This was the same media that told us that the USA had to invade Iraq because of Saddam's nooklar weapons. This was the same media that told us that SARS also was a killer virus that was going to wipe out entire populations. This was the same media that told us that Bird Flu was going to do the same.

As of today, worldwide deaths from Swine Flu: 82. No nuclear weapons for Saddam (if he had any, do you really think we would have invaded Iraq?). Worldwide deaths from SARS: 100. Worldwide deaths from Bird Flu: 80. Don't even get me started on Man Made Global Warming!

UK Met Office: "Global Warming Stopped 16 Years Ago"

What did I tell you?

I've been saying this since 2006; "Don't believe the hype." You know that anytime the government tells you that there is some kind of problem and the cure to that problem is more taxes from the pocket of you, the taxpayer, then it's time to be extremely skeptical.

I've learned this over 30 years of being in the mass media.

I've heard it all before. Not being the sharpest tool in the shed, it took me almost 20 years of being in that mass media before I figured out that one cannot believe what they are told.

My favorite saying is: "Eighty percent of everything you see or hear on TV is bullshit. The other twenty percent are commercials."

We have heard it all before. Just in the last decade or so; Iraqi troops were killing babies in Kuwaiti incubators; SARS was going to kill 150 million people; the Avian Flu was going to kill another 100 million more; Swine flu? Ditto. Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons... The list went on and on... They were all lies...

Then, another huge lie; the Global Warming farce.

I was broadcasting my complete skepticism about this one day on my morning drive time FM radio show here in Tokyo when a listener - a hard core believer in Global Warming religion - called the station and threatened to burn it down. I invited him over to do so and told him we'd be waiting for him with the Fire Department and the police.

He never showed up, of course.

Consider the idiocy: The ice bergs are all going to melt and raise the seas levels by 30 meters? What? Ice bergs float on water. They displace the weight of the water. If they melt the water wouldn't rise by a millimeter. When your ice melts in your drinks, does your cup run over?

That's the simple mindedness of the argument of the Global Warmist Cult.

People were scaring other people about Global Warming merely to increase taxes and to line the pockets of their friends with government grants for bankrupt industries like the Solayndra scandal.

Doing his part to fight global warming!

Well, they are all running around with their tails between their legs now. Now, enjoy these two tidbits (that certainly will not get enough press in the mass media) from the former front running leader of the Global Warming scare: The UK Metrological Office:

Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released... and here is the chart to prove it:

• The figures reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012 there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures
• This means that the ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996

And....

British Press Acknowledges Antarctic Ice at Record Levels:

“Ice around the South Pole has expanded to cover a record area, scientists revealed yesterday – a month after saying that the North Pole had lost an unprecedented amount of its ice.”

They say the only two certain things in life are death and taxes. Yes. True. So, keeping that in mind, like I said, whenever there's a problem and someone shows up and says, 

"I'm from the government. And I'm here to help."

You should turn around and start running the other way.

Global Warming is going to kill us all? Ha! As my favorite financial blog Zerohedge says, "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone is zero."

Reasons Why I Don't Believe in it Anymore - Be Skeptical of Everything You Hear

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't believe anything I see or hear on TV or radio and read in magazines anymore. Thirty plus years in mass media will make anyone very jaded and skeptical of everything coming out of the mouths of newscasters, scientists and politicians.

You wouldn't know it to read what I write about these days, but when I was a university student, I was pretty much a hard-core socialist, perhaps even a communist. Many people today are that way too but they don't like to use those words. Many people have been confused from decades of government run schooling.

I used to think - and I was taught in school - that the government is benevolent and needs to provide for people because the people are too useless and stupid to provide for themselves. That the people are stupid and useless is a pretty solid argument. But as I grew older, I began to learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch and for the government to take care of someone means that they are taking money from someone else.

You cannot keep taking money from the productive part of society and keep giving it to the unproductive part of society. We've been doing this for decades and not that's how we've gotten ourselves into the financial mess we're currently in.

Yep. Learn to live with it... Or marry a rich guy or girl.

For example, the idea that the government should provide medical care, retirement care, or a so-called "free" education to everyone was some of the ideas that I believed were the duty of government. I believed those ideas because I went to government run public schooling. Of course, in government run schools, they will teach you that government run schooling is the best. That's what government's do. Is there a government in the world today that tells their public, "We are not the best government for you. Vote for another party!"

I clearly remember my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Demuth sitting us in class and saying, "The United States has the best and the freest government in the world. And the proof of that is that we have had the same government for 200 years." That, my friends, isn't true. We've had the same political system for 200 years, but not the same government for 200 years. If longest running means that it is the best (typical American exceptionalism type of twisted thinking and logic) then I don't think America even comes close. The longest running government in the history of the world is probably Mao's China. Can anyone verify that for me? Not that it matters.

Cooler than any US president. How many of them can say "Warhol did me"? 

I knew, even then, that what my teachers were telling me wasn't true. That's one reason why I don't carte blanche believe anything that teachers say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.

Then, in high school, I was president of the Science Class. We were told that the entire world was heading into a new Ice Age. Scientists were absolutely sure about that one too. There were even some scientists who said that we should put ash and salt on the polar ice caps to melt them so that would warm up the earth. That was 1975. I even wrote a 140 page thesis on it for my senior year. I was proud of that paper. But guess what? Even though the scare last a few more years, the Ice Age never happened. I became skeptical of science.

I became a devout disbeliever when, not trusting the media I worked in, I studied the subject. This from the Business and Media Institute of America:

"Many publications now claiming the world is on the brink of a global warming disaster said the same about an impending ice age – just 30 years ago. Several major ones, including The New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek, have reported on three or even four different climate shifts since 1895."

Yes. Big disasters sell advertising space and create revenues. Follow the money if you are ever wondering about the validity of anything you are told on the mass media.

I makes sense when you think about it; they can't even predict next week's weather with better than a 50% chance of accuracy, what kind of fool thinks they can predict the weather 50 years from now?

A few years later, I became old enough to vote. The very first time I had the chance to vote for president. I voted for Jimmy Carter because I didn't want war. Carter won the first time. I was happy. Then, during his tenure, inflation hit 22% and I was a university student. I realized that, at that rate, there would be no jobs even if I did graduate. Then when it seemed like he would lose re-election to Ronald Reagan, he committed a crime by sending the military into Iran to try to rescue hostages. The mission was called Operation Eagle Claw. It was a disaster. Two of the helicopters crashed into each other and eight US servicemen died. The mission was called off.


This was the guy I voted for!? I voted for him because I didn't want war yet he was sending our military in on military adventures in countries that we weren't at war with? I have never voted again, even once, since then.

Political hypocrites! That's one more reason why I don't believe anything that politicians say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.

After that I worked for a Republican congressman from California named Bob Largomarsino. I was his chief staff cameraman. Congressman Bob was a nice guy. I travelled around with him and took photos of him visiting old folk's homes and shaking hands with people or going to lunch with other people. In the two years I worked for him, I never once took any photos of him actually doing an work besides schmoozing people. Then Reagan invaded Grenada.

This photo was congressman Bob's favorite. Him sitting between Reagan and Bush I.

This photo hung in his office. I didn't take this one.

They said they were invading Grenada because US students were being held hostage. We'd find out later that this wasn't true at all and many nations, including our allies like Britain were angry and upset about the USA breaking international law.

"What's the land of the free doing invading tiny Caribbean nations?" I thought. That was one more reason why I don't believe anything that politicians say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.

The litany of being told one thing but later on finding out that the facts are different from what we were told is long. I could never name them all. Rick Gee had a good short list of government lies: 

• Woodrow Wilson: won reelection with the prevaricating slogan, "He kept us out of the war." (Well, at least he did until after the election. Typical politician).
• Bush I: "Read my lips: no new taxes." (Well, maybe just a few).
• Ronald Reagan: knew nothing of the Iran-Contra shenanigans. (The Teflon President, indeed).
• Bill Clinton: "I experimented with marijuana a time or two and I didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale and never tried it again." (Do you know anyone who tried it but didn’t like it?)
• Bill Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." ("Hey, I just sat there; she did all the relating herself.")
• Vince Foster committed suicide (how convenient).
• Richard Nixon: "I am not a crook." ("I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.")
• Marijuana has no medicinal benefits. (Tell Peter McWilliams’ survivors that).
• Children are being molested in a compound in Waco (to protect them, we must kill them).
• "Let’s Roll." Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania because heroic passengers thwarted the hijackers. (That the U.S. Air Force shot down Flight 93 seems far more likely).
• Bush II: We must take the war on terrorism to Afghanistan because the Taliban are harboring Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks (never mind that the U.S. government had already planned to invade Afghanistan long before 9/11).

There's all sorts of others too (for too many to name) but another short list: Flouride in the water is good for you; the IPCC (a government agency by the way) says there is a "consensus on Global Warming" but there isn't at all; Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons; the USA is spreading democracy; we are the "good guys;" the Japanese government saying that there was no problem at Fukushima; being the news director of a major Japanese broadcasting station and telling people that SARS, Bird flu and Swine flu were going to kill well over 250 million people worldwide (in total, until today, the three of them together have killed less than 300 people) the list goes on and on... 

These are all the million and one reasons why I am very skeptical about the pronouncements of teachers, scientists and politicians. 

Photoshop did wonders for the Man Made Global Warming movement...

That's why whenever I hear some politician say that they need to tax us to "help the children" or "save the environment" or "stop global climate change;" whenever I hear that we must go to war to stop some country from harming their people (as if bombing those same people is helpful) or that, in the worse case of an Orwellian nightmare, that "We must go to war in order to have peace" I am very skeptical.

I think, in this modern age, we need, we must to have a very strong and healthy skepticism about anything we hear, see or read on the mass media and that includes the Internet.

To do otherwise is to be foolish and completely ignore the historical record.

"Who are you to make such claims?" Complaints Bloggers (I) Receive

Sometimes in posts on this blog, I want to warn people with small children about dangerous diseases and illnesses that can be prevented easily. But sometimes people will write thing like, "Who are you to make such claims?" Or like in yesterday's post, a comment like this, "You seriously are comparing the worst nuclear disaster ever, to flu shots. (sic) You are a sick individual." 

I get lots of hate mail especially when I compare the risks of everyday occurrences with a media sensationalized story like Fukushima.

Challenges. Those are comments that I often get... Along with invective and personal insults. I try not to insult these people back. I like to think that the big electrode, God, Buddha, Zig Zag, what-have-you, in the sky put these people on the earth to teach me patience and how to be a better person.

Kindness to people works wonders!

My third daughter Wendy.  Some say she is handicapped. 
I say she is "just perfect!"

The most recent attacks I have received are because I have warned parents about serious problems, diseases and illnesses that can affect their children and I use Fukushima sensationalism as a comparison. People will grossly overreact to Fukushima, over a hundred miles away, but when serious causes of diseases (that get little media attention) are right under their noses, they are oblivious. 

To pat myself on the back (once again) as a mass media professional for over thirty years, I know what kind of BS goes on with news reporting and sensationalism as I have seen it from the inside. And, with four kids, I hope I know a bit about raising children. In fact, because of 4 kids, and one of them defeating a rare, deadly childhood disease - yet remaining handicapped for the rest of her life - I know more than most parents would ever want to know about raising kids and diseases like childhood cancer.

Many times I have pointed out that we cannot believe what we hear on the TV news and even so-called alternative media. The sensationalism sells advertising. That's the point and, in this day and age, it astounds me that most people today say they know that, but when it comes to something like Swine Flu or Fukushima, they seem to forget it. I am beginning to think that this selective response is due to some childhood phobias. Please refer to: Japan Nuclear Disaster Update & Strong Criticism of Western Media Sensationalism:

Actually, it astounds me that people do accept what what the media says as gospel truth. Don't forget that this is the very same media that told us 3 years ago that Swine Flu was going to kill more than 50 million people worldwide. This was the same media that told us that the USA had to invade Iraq because of Saddam's nooklar weapons. This was the same media that told us that SARS also was a killer virus that was going to wipe out entire populations. This was the same media that told us that Bird Flu was going to do the same.

As of today, worldwide  deaths from Swine Flu: 82. No nuclear weapons for Saddam (if he had any, do you really think we would have invaded Iraq?). Worldwide deaths from SARS: 100. Worldwide deaths from Bird Flu: 80. Don't even get me started on Man Made Global Warming!

Fact of the matter is that this is the same media who constantly exaggerates stories in order to sell advertising space to an extremely gullible public. When will people ever learn? If history is any example then the answer is: Never. They'll never learn.

Just wait a year or three for the next killer disease and we can start all over again.  

So, I write posts like the above pointing out problems with the media. Then I write articles alerting people to serious cancer and disease causing problems that, while not trendy, nor spectacularly newsworthy, are actually much more dangerous to our children than Fukushima will ever be. For one example of that, please refer to: 

Benzene in Cars! This Will Kill More People Than Fukushima Will 

Do not turn on A/C immediately as soon as you enter the car! Please open the windows after you enter your car and do not turn on the air-conditioning immediately.

According to research done, the car dashboard, sofa, air freshener emits Benzene, a cancer causing toxin (carcinogen - take note of the heated plastic smell in your car). In addition to causing cancer, it poisons your bones, causes anemia, and reduces white blood cells. Prolonged exposure will cause Leukemia, increasing the risk of cancer. may also cause miscarriage.

Acceptable Benzene levels indoors is 50 mg per sq. ft.. A car parked with windows closed will contain 400 - 800 mg of Benzene. If parked outdoors, under the sun, at temperature above 60 degrees F (15.5 C), the Benzene level goes up to 2000 - 4000 mg, 40 times the acceptable level... And the people inside the car will inevitably inhale an excess amount of the toxins.

It is recommended that you open the windows and doors to give time for the interior to air out before you enter. Benzene is a toxin that affects your kidney and liver, and it is very difficult for your body to expel this toxic stuff.

Or even my most recent post: 

Massive Cover-up! Worse Than Fukushima? Japan (and the World Over) Danger Levels at More Than 250 X Safe Limit!

Here are the facts: 300 death claims from flu vaccine. And Flu vaccines and neurological problems (caused Guillian Barre Syndrome in over 500 people). These two links show over 800 deaths and nerve damage vaccine related illnesses from, you guessed it, flu shots in one year alone! So far deaths or illness from Fukushima: Zero. 

Because of these posts, though, I will get attacked by people who ask me what right or authority I have to mention anything about diseases like this or children's cancer. Perhaps I am confused, but here is where I think my authority lies. My authority lies in my dearest third daughter whom I love deeply and will spend the rest of my life caring for and trying to help other parents (and their children) to prevent a similar struggle. 

So let me give my qualifications. First, my darling daughter, Wendy. One day, when she was age 1 1/2, she suddenly could not walk anymore. It was very strange. One day she was running around, the next day she couldn't stand. Soon after, she was diagnosed with 4th stage of a rare form of children's cancer called Rhabdomysarcoma. The doctors said it was incurable and her diagnosis was poor. She, like all children diagnosed with this horrible disease, was only expected to live for 2 ~ 6 months. 

As some may know, 4th stage cancer is the worst and final stages. The doctors at Setagaya Children's Hospital told me that she had virtually no chance. But I fought back. We fought back. 

I fired those doctors and hired the #1 expert in Japan (and top doctor in the world for this type of cancer - Dr. Mugishima at Nichidai hospital in Itabashi Tokyo) to handle my daughter. I fired the first group of doctors because they said, "Virtually zero chance." Dr. Mugishima gave us a 7% chance. Good enough. Better than zero. If your doctor doesn't think you have a chance, then that's not good. Fire them.

As part of the new doctor's regime, my then wife had to move into the hospital with my daughter 24/7 and that left me at home with two small girls to care for by myself and to try to hold down a job too! In spite of that, I took care of those two girls, and visited my daughter and wife in the hospital everyday religiously for nearly two years. 

The hospital cost me an impossible amount to pay. It was well over $5,000 a month every month for those 2 years (insurance doesn't pay for private hospitals and choices) and yet I paid it out of my pocket with no loans (Heck, I was a foreigner in Japan, my wife was in the hospital with my daughter, I had no assets, who's going to give me a loan? No one.) Yet, even with all this, I held down my job, paid for everything, cooked and cleaned and we came out victorious in a war with a deadly disease. 

When my daughters cancer was declared in full remission she was released from the hospital with one big caveat: Because of the treatment, her immune system was so damaged that she was not allowed to live with other children for six years because she would be catching all sorts of illness (from her sisters who played with other children at school who caught colds all the time). And those illnesses might kill her. 

After two years apart in the hospital and then another six years apart (at least) for the future, and me with a 11-year-old and a 9-year-old from a previous marriage, my wife and I decided it was best to get a divorce. In over 80% of all cases where a child in Japan gets cancer in Japan, the parents wind up in divorce. The pressure and stress are too great.

My daughter is now a high school student and looking forward to college. She is wheelchair bound for life but one of the happiest and most positive people you could ever hope to meet. I wish my other daughters were so happy!

Japan has a population of about 130 million people. Only about two or three children per year get this rare form of cancer. Nearly all of them do not survive. My daughter was only the second one in history of Japan, since it started cancer study with Germany and the USA in 1971, to do so.

These are my qualifications. I don't think they are so bad. 

UPDATE: People need to get their priorities straight. For example, did you know that: In the U.S., the odds of being killed by conventional medicine are almost 20 times (2,000%) greater than being killed in an automobile accident and almost 30 times (3,000%) greater than being killed by a gun. - From Confessions of a Drug Industry Insider.

*If any parents have such a challenge to deal with, please write to me and perhaps I can give some advice that may be helpful... I will try.