The best way to ensure peace is through strong self-defence. This week, we officially inaugurated #Taiwan’s submarine manufacturing factory, taking a big step forward towards stronger self-defence capabilities.
＿＿＿＿
AFN 360 improves AFN quality where you get mobile data or internet. Using the best in audio encoding technology, we're able to deliver near-CD quality programming while using minimal bandwidth. Once you've heard it, you'll agree AFN radio never sounded better over any other medium! https://www.afnpacific.net/AFN-360/
仏教の入門書を日本語で読むと、やたらと「輪廻」とか「涅槃」とか「諸行無常」とか独特の術語を有難そうに解説してあるのを、胡散臭く思っていた。そこで英語で仏教入門書を読もうと決意。はじめ Penguin Books の Buddhismって本を読もうと思ったが、本書の方が小さくて出版が新しいのでこっちにした。通勤電車の中だけで、約一ヶ月で読了。全く基礎知識の無い英米人向けに書かれているのが良い。ただ術語にパーリ語の原語がいちいち添えてあるのが、やや鬱陶しい。上座部と大乗を平等に扱っている点も好感が持てた。特に最終章 Buddhism in the West では日本の入門書ではあまり扱われていない西洋での仏教の受容について最近の状況まで述べられていて貴重。このシリーズはパラグラフの切り方が独特（インデント無しで一行空ける）で慣れないとやや戸惑う。句読法のミスプリも若干あった。
Achieving equality with the West was one of the primary goals of the Meiji leaders. Treaty reform, designed to end the foreigners’ judicial and economic privileges provided by extraterritoriality and fixed customs duties was sought as early as 1871 when the Iwakura mission went to the United States and Europe. The Western powers insisted, however, that they could not revise the treaties until Japanese legal institutions were reformed along European and American lines. Efforts to reach a compromise settlement in the 1880s were rejected by the press and opposition groups in Japan. It was not until 1894, therefore, that treaty provisions for extraterritoriality were formally changed.
During the first half of the Meiji period, Asian relations were seen as less important than domestic development. In 1874 a punitive expedition was launched against Formosa (Taiwan) to chastise the aborigines for murdering Ryukyuan fishermen. This lent support to Japanese claims to the Ryukyu Islands, which had been under Satsuma influence in Tokugawa times. Despite Chinese protests, the Ryukyus were incorporated into Japan in 1879. Meanwhile, calls for an aggressive foreign policy in Korea, aired by Japanese nationalists and some liberals, were steadily rejected by the Meiji leaders. At the same time, China became increasingly concerned about expanding Japanese influence in Korea, which China still viewed as a tributary state. Incidents on the peninsula in 1882 and 1884 that might have involved China and Japan in war were settled by compromise, and in 1885 China and Japan agreed that neither would send troops to Korea without first informing the other.
By the early 1890s Chinese influence in Korea had increased. In 1894 Korea requested Chinese assistance in putting down a local rebellion. When the Chinese notified Tokyo of this, Japan quickly rushed troops to Korea. With the rebellion crushed, neither side withdrew. The Sino-Japanese War formally erupted in July 1894. Japanese forces proved to be superior on both land and sea, and, with the loss of its northern fleet, China sued for peace. The peace treaty negotiated at Shimonoseki was formally signed on April 17, 1895; both sides recognized the independence of Korea, and China ceded to Japan Formosa, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaotung Peninsula, granted Japan all rights enjoyed by European powers, and made significant economic concessions, including the opening of new treaty ports and a large indemnity in gold. A commercial treaty giving Japan special tax exemptions and other trade and manufacturing privileges was signed in 1896. Japan thus marked its own emancipation from the unequal treaties by imposing even harsher terms on its neighbour. Meanwhile, France, Russia, and Germany were not willing to endorse Japanese gains and forced the return of the Liaotung Peninsula to China. Insult was added to injury when Russia leased the same territory with its important naval base, Port Arthur (now Lü-shun), from China in 1898. The war thus demonstrated that the Japanese could not maintain Asian military victories without Western sufferance. At the same time, it proved a tremendous source of prestige for Japan and brought the government much internal support; it also strengthened the hand of the military in national affairs.
