In Search Of History

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By Newsweek Editors

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Thank you for your article "The Ties That Bind" (Asia, March 18), which noted the admission of the Japanese emperor that one of his ancestors was actually half Korean. Although this historical fact has been known since long ago, the Japanese media, catering to the groundless wishes of the public that the genealogy of their imperial family should be of pure Japanese blood, are reluctant to write anything about it. Unless we Japanese accept our history honestly and scientifically, and unless the Japanese media do the right thing, we shall never be accepted by the rest of the world as a reliable nation.
Yasuhiro Asakino
Sakura, Japan

In the colonial age of Japan, the Koreans were regarded as having the same origin as the Japanese, so they were given full citizenship. The idea that the Koreans and Japanese were the same race was used to annex Korea, but the hypothesis was abandoned after the second world war due to the fact that the Japanese are genetically more mixed than the Koreans. If the Japanese are rejecting that they are part Korean, I suggest it is simply a reactionary response to the failure of one race, not prejudice. Bear in mind that it is the Koreans and the Chinese who looked down on the Japanese for hundreds of years, and did not cooperate when the Japanese called on Asians to unite against the invading white man. We Japanese are tired of seeing ourselves portrayed as the villain. History is not that simple.
Keiichiro Sakoyama
Tokyo, Japan

Iraq's Secret Decisions

Iraqi Officers Movement for the Salvation of Iraq

Sex and Scandal at Enron

I was happy to read in your article on Enron that "the miracle of the marketplace is supposed to be that competition is healthy... [but] sometimes the game goes out of control." As a longtime reader of your magazine, I have been waiting for that sentence to appear for 20 years. I think that many problems in the United States' way of life have their origin in two common ideas: that competition is always good, no matter how hard or how it's done, and that what's good for companies is good for society. The American politicians who champion perfect concurrence have been in fact fostering the emergence of the most incredible monopolies the world has ever seen. As recent years have amply demonstrated, too much competition in the marketplace can lead to a few companies' killing all their rivals. Furthermore, some companies do not seem to care about the common good; all they want is to survive and expand. Oil companies proved as much when they essentially forced the United States to refuse to sign the Kyoto agreement. Now at last we see the power grab in the open but, alas, it is probably too late to react.
Patrick Driessen
Brussels, Belgium

Your article on former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and former executive Rebecca Mark read like a cheap tabloid. I am surprised that your staff would spend six pages dwelling on office gossip. Do you really think the readers of NEWSWEEK are interested in this sort of dither?
Kendra Mortureux
Pessac, France

A New Europe

Michael Meyer's "Founding Fathers" is a work worth treasuring. Very rarely does one have the chance to read that which is witty, relevant and free of spin. Touching in particular was Meyer's reference to Charles Thomson and the creation of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia, which, in its thinly veiled allusion to American politics, rings resoundingly true today. I applaud Michael Meyer--he is "the man."
Samuel Snyder
Augusta, Georgia

Andrew Moravcsik's pollyanna image of the "democratic" European Commission is grotesque to anyone with any knowledge of Europe and of how the EC actually functions ("If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It!" Europe, March 4). The EC is a bureaucratic tyranny whose own members have spoken of a "democratic gap" and whose arbitrary diktats have destroyed the British fishing industry and crippled thousands of small businesses in the United Kingdom, ruined the Atlantic fish stocks they were supposed to preserve and created wine lakes, beef mountains and other idiotic unintended consequences--all by fiat and without electoral consent. The EC regulations are flouted with impunity on the Continent, where Italian and French farmers shrug them off--even the supposedly law-abiding Germans wink at violations. The EC is riddled with corruption. Whatever qualities it may be assigned, democracy is not one of them.
Herb Greer
Salisbury, England

Destroying the Olympic Spirit

The Death of Daniel Pearl

It's hard to find the appropriate words to condemn the horrendous murder of Daniel Pearl. I would like to assure Pearl's family that the overwhelming majority of Muslims--Pakistanis in particular--genuinely share their grief. Apart from a very few lunatics among us, we are all deeply saddened and mortified by this tragedy and want to extend our most sincere sympathies. The self-appointed "guardians of Pakistan's sovereignty," as Pearl's captors claim to be, are in reality simply replicating the typical modus operandi of the Pakistani Army: holding the country hostage to their interpretation of patriotism by virtue of the gun. President Musharraf, who is widely feted everywhere these days, himself represents and heads an institution that has always run its own agenda without bothering with legal constraints. He bears the ultimate responsiblity for nurturing a political culture where jingoism has become one of the dominating and menacing social and political factors.
Hozeifa Akbar
Stockholm, Sweden

Having made international news and residing in our homeland, Daniel Pearl became a family name to many Pakistanis, even featuring occasionally in our daily dinner-table conversation. There was something decidedly endearing about his face; he seemed the kind of person others would instinctively like to know. It really hurt to hear about his death. Everyone's initial thoughts turned to his bereaved wife, pregnant with another life. On an international but perhaps impersonal level, however, his slaughter will have far-reaching effects on Pakistan, regardless of where the murderers came from. Imagine people becoming wary of you the instant you flash your passport because your nation's reputation precedes you.
Ayesha Khan
Karachi, Pakistan

The Global Threat of Terrorism

Why are you so one-sided about Somalia in your article on terror hot spots? Don't you know that most of the Somalian people are starving and diseased? Please do something to highlight the problems of this war-ravaged people. Meanwhile, thank you for your global news coverage. I love NEWSWEEK!
I. B. Careys
via Internet

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