A note from the Kumamoto International International Terrorism Desk (merged with the Too Much Free Time on my Hands Desk for obvious reasons): As the Shirakawa banks were reconstructed, I was darkly amused by signs every few hundred meters announcing 「テロ対策中」- “Anti-terror measures underway” - as if someone would attack a stone wall (the real world is not Monty Python).
But citizens: feel at ease! In the run-up to the Olympics, some 50 people from the Yatsushiro Police and Coast Guard have collaborated to counter a terrorist dressed entirely in black wielding a knife trying to disembark a cruise ship at Yatsushiro Harbor while two of his cohorts who jumped overboard and fled on a motorboat were stopped by warning fire (new kanji for me: 「威嚇射撃」- “ikaku shageki”. If they’d used live fire, I suppose the number of participants would have been 48.) From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and jump to Tokyo.
Still, it’s nice to feel involved in the celebratory atmosphere, even way down here in Kumamoto. (Photo: Typical terrorist.) - William
