Sunday, April 29, 2012

1st email to USA Osaka Consulate after initial phone call and visit

This is the first in a series of more than 20 emails that I've sent to the USA Consulate in Osaka since 2009, not to mention those I've sent to the DoJ's Criinal Division, to a Mr. Kevin Callahan. 

I will release portions of them in sequence, as I have time to provide a coherent narrative of the relevant portions. 

Mr. Shaefer-a man proud of his alma mater the Fletcher school-as I later came to understand, was in fact a CIA officer with diplomatic immunity, plying his trade of coordinating his subordinate officers in "the field" under the guise of a "Citizens' Services" representative. 

The list below exposes several American CIA officers and their local recruits (agents). For the time being, I have omitted a number of names from the list, but they may be revealed later. In the meantime, details on the names that are listed will be presented in the near future.


That's some service, Mr. Schaefer! I suppose you'll be expecting a medal.


Here's a little citizen's service of a different sort, in the name of civil society.


I hereby condemn you and everyone like you to the fruits of your labor.




Mr. Schaeffer,

Pardon me if I have happened to misspell your name, but I am assuming that my messages are reaching you.

I fail to see how non-responsiveness qualifies as fulfilling your duties to provide citizens’ services.

The matter at hand is of no light gravity and is something that I seek to resolve in the very near future.

Once again, I’m providing you with a partial list of people I allege to have been involved in systematic efforts to, shall we say, contain and isolate me socially and economically with the apparent objective of having me leave Kyoto; I expect you to confirm receipt of this message. Excuse the grandiose allusion to cold war policy, but as the individuals on the following list are by and large in the employ of the CIA and other national intelligence services, including a number of freemasons who have seemingly infiltrated law enforcement and perhaps other government agencies internationally, and are not above collaborating with international organized crime and engaging in criminal activities against citizens of the USA and hostile activities against allied countries, these allegations are serious.

Glenn Paquette
塚田芙貴子:       (090) 5572-0070 – Kyoto university student, entering Japanese Foreign Service
*****
Anthony Blackman
 *****
*****
*****
Craig Corm(?): Canadian, English teacher, in Kyoto @5 years ago
 *****
*****
Jamie Roughan
  
Regards,


Osaka-Kobe, AmConGen AOK@state.gov
              9/16/09
Dear Mr. *****,
I hereby confirm receipt of this e-mail and the e-mail you wrote on Monday.
I am sorry I was unable to respond sooner. Yesterday I was visiting an American in prison, and on Monday I was sorting through the personal effects of a young American who unexpectedly died of a heart attack and has no next-of-kin in this country.
Rest assured that I have taken your concerns on board and will pass them on through the appropriate channels.
I thank you again for the detailed information that you have provided.
Regards,
Gary Schaefer
Chief, American Citizen Services Unit

Thursday, April 26, 2012

A CIA/MI6 led pincer assault on civil society in Japan


Basically the strategy that the Western intelligence agencies are using to try and sow disorder in Japanese society entails the recruiting and training of people from discontented groups. It is by and large a 2-pronged strategy employing people descended from Korean immigrants and the former burakumin out-caste. 

Kansai is a focal point because it is used to be a manufacturing center that became gutted, and the economy never recovered, in part due to the fact that it is also were the nation’s largest organized crime groups are based. Those groups consist of many members from the former outcast group, the burakumin, and Koreans, a substantial number of whom have chosen not to integrate into Japanese society (e.g., refusing to adopt the Japanese reading of the Chinese character’s in their names).

Among the people I’ve discussed on this blog, John Dougill and Eric Johnston have made themselves targets by publishing ludicrously false fabrications of disinformation aimed at raising the profile of the Koreans, presumably to impart a notion that they are entitled to some sort of recognition and a more prominent role in Japanese society. This would seem to indirectly inculcate an empathetic disposition toward the yakuza crime groups among foreigners coming into contact with the fairly ubiquitous presence of people affiliated in one way or another with the vast networks they have established.

Preston Houser and Dan Douglass are individuals who apparently are working to further the status of the burakumin—and thus indirectly advance their own status in the "intelligence community" by means of successfully deploying such proxies.

Aside from the expose on the four individuals described above, the national CIA-operated online news/commentary site JapanToday has been actively attempting to boost the profile and promote the agenda of the current mayor of Osaka, Hashimoto, an individual of burakumin derivation known for his affiliation with yakuza, and promoting a pernicious brand of decentralization, along the line of the so-called Tea Party and pseudo Federalists in the United States of America.

Kyoto is heavily infested with MI6 officers, as they seem intent on cultivating an association between the UK presence and the notion of monarchical loyalism, perhaps—as seen in Dougill’s ludicrous article on Sakamoto Ryoma in the now defunct MI6 gray media publication, Kansai Timeout, coupled with a pseudo-Shaminist ploy reaching out to the Fujiwara--channeling Ryoma, as it were. 

I hate to harp on Mr. Dougill (again, a PhD from Oxford in Slavic Studies), but his disinformation on Japan has no business being in print. The inane writings of people like Dougill on Shinto point to an effort on the part of the Freemason priest caste (the British royals are all purported to be inductees into the Freemasons) to cultivate a connection with the former Shinto priest caste clan the Fujiwara (the Northern House), surviving members of which would seem to think that they have some hereditary right to rule Japan.

I have also had to report CIA Freemasons, and one has recently been retired from his post at a prominent institution.

Aside from the Freemasons, it would seem that maybe the UK has an Irish catholic contingent active in the MI6, as there are an inordinately large number of Irish and English pubs here in Kyoto, and they don’t seem to be very profitable, so it is hard to see what sustains them. Perhaps the incongruent preponderance of such establishments is related to an organized crime connection between Irish crime groups and the yakuza—as there are basically no other foreign bars to speak of—or they are subsidized by the MI6 in order to bolster the British presence in Kyoto.

In either case, the basically exclusive occupation of the foreigner operated drinking establish market in Kyoto by grubby British/Irish pubs is suspect, to say the least, and yakuza muscle coupled with UK hooligans—whether they are MI6 officers or not—is likely a component in that equation.

Ponderosa that, ranch hand: an unholy alliance between
Protestant/Jewish Freemasons and Irish Catholics; an alliance between organized crime groups in the UK and Japan; or all of the above! It’s cornucopia of sociopaths.

The fact that the individual running the blog promoting all of the above-described individuals and businesses is a smug Irishman named Michael Lambe would seem to support the interconnectedness asserted above, as he is basically another example of someone who also appears to have nothing marginally substantial in the way of achievement to show, unless you consider being a sociopathic PR man fronting for the MI6 an accomplishment. And the somewhat overproduced blog would seem to be a product of the Western intelligence agencies grey media machine conglomerate in Kyoto, which includes every publication promoted on that blog. 

Alas, it would appear that the MI6 is trying to portray Mr. Lambe as a social activist, much like the recent case of undercover officers used to infiltrate environmental activist groups in Britain.

It is a sham attempt to colonize civil society by crass bureaucrats in the so-called intelligence community seeking to better serve their corporatist masters.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Will I have to file a LAWSUIT against Oxford University Press America???

Why? Because they are allowing their prominent name as a publishing company associated with a prestigious institution of higher education to be used t disseminate bigoted propaganda by an MI6 officer and pseudo-intellectual frontman named John Dougill.


Here are a series of related emails I exchanged with the unwitting person in charge at UPO America at their NYC headquarters. I say unwitting because she was not aware of the operation I brought to light. These are emails from October 2010.


It is interesting to note that the MI6 seems to think it appropriate to continue to promote the book in question on their gray media blog DeepKyoto.

I don't have time to edit or comment at the moment, but this will be given some more contextual and background support when I do have the chance. For the time being, suffice it to say that since I never received a response from Mr. John Ferguson, it might be the case that he is another MI6 intelligence officer operating a front company from NYC, "Signal Books", as a disinformation publishing outlet which is apparently aimed at influencing the cultural and historical understanding of the cities and countries being visited by the more educated readers targeted by the series of so-called guide books called CityScapes, presented as a subsidiary of OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS. 

  Subject: Kyoto: A Cultural History, by John Dougill
------------------------
Dear Mr. Ferguson,

I am writing to inquire about the fact checking and editing process for the above-referenced book. Your address was acquired through OUP.

The reason for this inquiry is that the book includes a number of outright false information, as well as subtly imbued religious bias, and other specious content. in fact, in conjunction with other works I have red by this author, including articles for a local--no defunct--publication that was called the Kansai Time Out, it would seem that the author, who, as you may no, does not read Japanese and is not a legitimate scholar of Japanese history, culture and religion, would seem to be supporting members of exclusionary and antisocial elements of Japanese society. There is a religious angle as the city of Kyoto has served at points in Japanese history as a theocratic center for a corrupt priest caste. As I am an American residing here in Kyoto, this type of inflammatory writing has a direct impact on my life, in so far, that is, as it encourages such elements or supports their anti-foreigner exclusionary efforts, and the groups I am referring to possibly include people linked to criminal organizations. 

More specifically, he supports Shinto over Buddhism, and Koreans over Chinese in their contributions to the development of Japanese culture.  Koreans are widely regarded to make up the largest percentage of the Japanese mafia (the "yakuza") here in Kyoto, and accounted for %80 of the registered foreigners living in Kyoto at the time of the last census. For starters, here are the two most blatant examples where he incorrectly states that people are of Korean descent instead of Chinese, without providing a reference as to his source:

In regard to assertions made on p. 2
Another exists with respect to the Hata family he mentions, who were from China and emigrated to Japan during the Chin Dynasty, their name being read "Chin" in Chinese, as in "Chin Dynasty".

p. 141 

At any rate, I am a somewhat serious scholar of Japanese history, culture, and religion, and I work as a freelance translator while studying Japanese Zen music and chamber music. I intend to post some criticism of the book in question as well as a couple of the author's articles. I would appreciate it if you could provide some insight as to how such specious content made it through the fact checking process and to publication, as I would like to shield myself from recrimination under defamation laws, and do not want to unjustly malign Signal Books or OUP.
Sincerely,


Dear *****
I would imagine that you are busy and I apologize for having to contact you again so soon in regard to this matter, but I have received absolutely no response from Mr. Ferguson in response to the following inquiry.
Any advice you may have would be appreciated.
Sincerely,


Dear *****
I left you a voice mail a short while ago in regard to the referenced title, with respect to which I was informed you were in charge of the editing.

The book in question contains a number of specious assertions and simply incorrect assertions, and is imbued with a certain degree of religious bias toward (here, I meant to say AGAINST Buddhism and favorable to Shinto) Buddhism.

The author is an individual with whom I have spoken about his writings, as this is a field directly connected to my research, which relates to religion and politics with respect to modernity and identity. I am fairly well read in Japanese history, and study Japanese classical music--which has a lot of religious allusions, etc.--at a very high level, and have been doing so for approximately 9 years.   

At any rate, I have been preparing a blog entry regarding this individual, who has a PhD in Slavic Studies from Oxford, as I recall. The reason I am doing that is because in this book and in a couple of articles he has published in a local magazine are encouraging exclusionary Japanese nativist/nationalist on the one hand, and denigrating the role of Chinese actors in Japanese history in favor of nonexistent or over stated Koreans. I suspect that the reason for that is due to his association with Koreans here in Kyoto, who accounted for 80% of the 43,000 registered foreigners as of the last census. However, they also constitute a large percentage of the Japanese criminal organizations known as yakuza. 

This may start sounding a little bizarre, but I would simply point you to the book Tokyo Underworld, by Robert Whiting as an entry reference. The other aspect is a connection between secret societies, namely, the Freemasons, and collaboration with these types of organizations. In fact, there is a very strong possibility that Mr. Dougill is an officer in the British MI6 (equivalent of the CIA).

The relationship between Signal and Oxford strikes me as somewhat unusual, and I wonder if they bear responsibility for the content, and the fact checking thereof.

I want to protect myself from liable, etc, before posting the blog entries, so have decided to consult with you in advance.
Sincerely,
----------

Dear Mr. *****
 Thank you for your messages.  The Cityscapes series is one that OUP distributes in the US and Canada, while Signal Books acquires and edits the texts.  I would suggest being in touch with Signal’s editorial director, James Ferguson, at jamesferguson56@btconnect.com, regarding editorial questions.
 Sincerely,

___________________________
American and World History
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue  New York, NY  10016-4314

Subject: Kyoto: A Cultural History, by John Dougill
----------

Dear *****
Thank you very much for your prompt response. 

I figured it had to be an arrangement such as that, though you may want to review the arrangement of entrusting of editorial responsibility to that company after reading the analysis I eventually will post. The nature of the misleading content is such that it would not be caught by anyone other than an expert, basically, as the rhetorical sophistication of the writing is very high. The content, on the other hand, would be scoffed at by any legitimate scholar.   

The issues matter to me personally because I live in this city, and have been targeted by people associated with antisocial groups (which is what the Japanese call organized crime groups) on the one hand, who wish to exploit this city as a tourist trap cash cow, and people associated with a particular faction of a former Shinto priest class who still view this as their traditional theocratic center, and themselves as having some hereditary claim to authority. They are associated with an exclusionary, nativistic faction in Japanese history. 

The writer in question indirectly supports both of those groups, in his writing. Seeing as he is not an expert in the field, and not half as well read as I am, the fact that this text embodies and extremely high degree of rhetorical sophistication and an extremely low level with respect to content. For example, he cites a number of local foreigners as sources, and refers to them as "experts". Some of those people are also tied to the Freemasons, MI6, and the intelligence community, as I have reported them to the consulate here, as I have Mr. Dougill. And on the other hand, he name drops and then misquotes a famous historian in an attempt to both denigrate Buddhism, and assume an air as if he were actually a well informed scholar who had done his homework and read the required authors. In the case of that quote, he doesn't give a reference to the source. only someone like myself who actually has read that author would be struck by the misquoted text, as it is imbued with a sentimental caste out of character for that esteemed historian.  

The Freemason and MI6 connection further complicates matters, but relates to what I have come to see as a divide and conquer strategy employed against societies from within, using religion as a tool to inculcate incommensurable aspects of understanding the world, dividing people along the lines of religion, making it difficult for them to interrelate.

I have said quite a bit here, and will leave it at that, hoping that you have a chance to check the blog once I post. There is, however, the question as to whether or not this Signal Books company is a front for the intelligence community, acting as a tool to put out somewhat misleading information on the cultures of each country covered by their guidebooks, and using the name of Oxford University Press as a false stamp of approval validating the verity and legitimacy of the content. I hope you can appreciate that there would be serious detrimental effects from such an arrangement. As I am not an expert on the history and religions of other countries, and do not intend to examine other guidebooks in this series, that is something for someone else to evaluate. 

Sincerely,
----------

Dear Mr. *****
 Thank you for taking the time to spell out your concerns.  I am not sure where you obtained Lois Ilbery’s name but OUP-UK is not involved in this title at all. Signal Books publishes there and the rest of world, other than North America.


Subject: Re: Kyoto: A Cultural History, by John Dougill


Saturday, April 21, 2012

Meiji Oligarchy's attack on Buddhism seen in CIA meddling (Houser against Tokugawa vis-a-vis Fukeshu Rinzai Zen) in Japan's political process: Freemasons (in the CIA) and Burakumin (Hashimoto et.al) Putsch

It's going to take a little time to organize this, but a good number of the components are already laid out to some extent in earlier posts, such as the grey media censorship of my posts to commentary on articles in the buildup to the recent mayoral election in Osaka, which saw the CIA/Freemason-groomed candidate of burakumin decent with known yakuza ties elected.

After his election, he laid out an eight point pseudo-plan, attempting to draw a parallel between himself and Sakamoto Ryoma, whose 8-point plan on modernizing Japan's political system, etc. was very influential, even though it served to have a quasi-theocratic government installed that led to oppression and eventually a form of fascism, basically.  

So today's launching of this entry is going to take a brief look at a statement in an article posted online that was written by Mr. Preston Houser, PhD from prestigious a Ivy league school, the University of Pennsylvania, and purported teacher of a history class that, 
"...examines past and present aspects of Japanese demographics and explores the unique history and psychology of the Japanese people",
as per the description in yesterday's post.


Preston Houser's Stealth Attack on the Tokugawa in an attempt to co-opt Fukeshu and the Shakuhachi for descendents of the Meiji Oligarchy (Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso), which abolished the subsect of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in 1868 

http://www.shakuhachi.com/K-HouserMM%26M.html
In this somewhat wide-ranging essay, the following passage appears: 

"Meditational shakuhachi practice is referred to as suizen, or "blowing Zen." Monks who practice suizen (often portrayed as wearing baskets over their heads to insure anonymity) are referred to as komosô "straw mat monks," or komôsô "empty illusion monks," or komusô "monks of emptiness," of the fuke-shu Buddhist sect which began in T'ang Dynasty China. The history of the Fuke-shu sect in Japan is described in the Kyotaku Denki Jo, a document prepared in 1614; but since the Kyotaku Denki Jo was probably constructed in order for the fuke-shu to win social status as a bona fide religious sect, its authenticity is suspect. (The document was probably more of an exercise in political legitimization than historical accuracy.) In 1871, the Tokugawa clan officially banned the fuke-shu because it was suspected that too many ruffians and spies had infiltrated the sect...".

The statement, 
"In 1871, the Tokugawa clan officially banned the fuke-shu" 
is so historically inaccurate as to be suspect.

First of all, the Tokugawa Shogunate had fallen in 1868, being replaced by the Meiji government. 

The Meiji government was brought about by an uprising instigated by nativist fanatics reacting to the incursion of the American "black ships", seeking to restore the Emperor as sovereign of the sacred land of Japan, which had become desecrated and weakened by the illegitimate rule of the Shogun, is one way to frame the narrative.     

The Meiji government proceeded to institute what could be characterized as a pogrom aimed at purging Buddhism, which the nativists castigated as a foreign and corrupting influence. 

Moreover, the statement,
"officially banned the fuke-shu because it was suspected that too many ruffians and spies had infiltrated the sect...",
is further suspect, because the legitimate komuso included former samurai that had basically been decommissioned, and they were the only persons officially permitted to play the shakuhachi and wander the land freely. Some of them were used as reconnotoirs to learn of discontent among local populations and the like, as the Tokugawa were very oriented at prevented local strife, and had implemented specific mechanisms to that end, managing to maintain peace for approximately 250 years after bringing the Warring States Period to a close. 

Zen was the sect of the samurai, basically, and had been supported since its introduction into Japan by Minamoto no Yoritomo, who helped Eisai Zenji establish the first Zen temple in Kyoto, against the objections and outright hostilities of some other sects. The Tokugawa were fairly meticulous about promoting culture related to religion, and all religions flourished under their rule, eventually to the detriment of the Shogunate itself, as the nativists were able to mobilize popular support against them under the crisis caused by the incursion of the American black ships.

So there are conflations and outright misrepresentations in this passage, which reverse the roles of supporter and oppressor with respect to the Tokugawa and Buddhism versus the treatment Buddhism received under the Meiji regime, and fail to indicate that the Fuke sect was particularly targeted by the Meiji regime because of the deep connection to the Tokugawa and the samurai.

For a person with a PhD and who teaches history, such ludicrous mistakes are not likely. So, I consider this to be simply disinformation. It is not possible to be a student of Japanese history and not know that the Meiji Restoration occurred in 1868.

The logic is precisely in line with the writings of John Dougill in the Kansai Time Out piece he is credited with penning on Sakamoto Ryoma, and with the attempt to draw an association of himself with Sakamoto Ryoma by Hashimoto. 

In short, Mr. Dougill and Mr. Houser had been disseminating disinformation that promotes a biased and untrue slant on Japanese history that supports the sort of irrational nativism that some people in the western part of the country like to assert against the eastern part of the country. It is disinformation that is aimed at fueled divisiveness by inculcating incorrect views of history and religion.

to be continued...
















Thursday, April 19, 2012

Who Is Preston Houser?

Is he CIA, like my treacherous old loser neighbor, Dan Douglass? Yes, there's no question about it: Preston Houser is an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency.

John Dougill, in a conversation at a curry cafe one day in which the topic of the shakuhachi was mentioned, once told me that a friend of his, Preston Houser, who was a teacher of English and literature at a local college and had three daughters, if I recall that conversation correctly, also played shakuhachi, etc., and that he had attended a recital he gave. See more at the end of this post on Preston's disinformation propaganda related to the Zen Buddhist sub-sect of Fuke-shu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuke-sh%C5%AB 


Perhaps the most damning evidence exposing Houser as CIA is the following passage of disinformation on the history of the Fuke-shu subsect of Rinzai Zen Buddhism. Fuke-shu was not a formal organization until the Edo period, and even then, there were no Fuke-shu temples per se. Playing the shakuhachi was a form of religious training and a meditation practice, on the one hand, but it was also a mode of transmitting Zen Buddhism to the public through performance. After the first repertoire was formally brought into being by Kurosawa Kinko (thus, the Kinko-ryu), two Rinzai temples in Tokyo served as the centers where what is now considered a subsect of Rinzai developed, founded on the basis of the meditative practice of playing the shakuhachi, and transmitting Zen through public performance.

The Tokugawa had decommissioned a large number of samurai after winning the peace and bringing to a close the warring states period. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had left to large a standing army with nothing to do but clamor for more action, leading to the invasion of Korea, with China having been the ultimate goal. Not to repeat that mistake, the Tokugawa built on Toyotomi’s programs, and promoted culture, forcing samurai families to expend a substantial amount of their income maintaining a residence in Edo, transforming it into a cosmopolitan city.

Some of the decommissioned samurai had been practices sui-Zen shakuhachi, a form of Zen meditation and breathing exercise adopting the shakuhachi as a religious implement. The shakuhachi was made the exclusive purview of a number of decommissioned samurai who were licensed as “komuso” (“monks of emptiness”) and issued a type of domestic passport that permitted them to travel freely throughout the domains of the country. They were the only people with such permission, and they served as reconnoiters for the Tokugawa as well, who were very focused on maintaining the peace by preventing local strife.

The playing of the shakuhachi was a means to transmit Zen culture to the public as well, as the pieces themselves are compositions embodying teachings and meditative practice. Eventually, the Tokugawa liberalized their policy and lifted the restriction on the shakuhachi, enabling people other than the licensed komuso to play the shakuhachi, and permitting the komuso to settle in towns and establish schools, etc. A further liberalization occurred when the Tokugawa permitted the shakuhachi to be used to play music other than the original repertoire of meditation pieces (36 in the Kinko-ryu), enabling a genre called “sankyoku” (three-instrument pieces”) to flourish in the form of ensemble music played by the koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi (which replaced a bowed instrument).

That is enough background information to enable a deconstruction of the false statements in a disinformation piece published by Houser in the Kansai TimOut in 1998, versions of which are still available online. The first passage to be examined is:


In 1871, the Tokugawa clan officially banned the Fuke sect because it was thought that too many ruffians and spies had infiltrated the community, and had merely affected the appearance of shakuhachi-playing Zen monks for questionable motives. From that time on shakuhachi music was to be performed for secular purposes only and the Fuke sect in Japan was no longer—it if ever was—a “pure” organization of monks and musicians.



It also appears that Mr. Houser was doing some other teaching as well, on a totally unrelated topic, which is very complicated, and probably not very approachable by the vast majority of student at the undergraduate level. 

Moreover, how did Mr. Houser acquire such a deep interest in a rather obscure subject matter? Considering that he must be a busy man as a college professor with three daughters, and part time musician, too, it makes one wonder. 

Here are links to pages of two Japanese colleges he apparently teaches at:
http://manabiya.baika.ac.jp/series/Houser/houser03.html
http://www.otani.ac.jp/kyouin/nab3mq0000012pbu.html


From the website of the defunct "Friends World College/Global College Japan Center, here's a link to an archived page. 
http://web.archive.org/web/20080519065941/http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/globalcollege/east_asia/faculty.htm


A little promotion, video...
It's a low-resolution copy of the video, but in all likelihood, every one of the people you see are intelligence officers. 



Faculty/Staff

Barbara Stein, Administrative Coordinator
B.A., Hunter College, City University of New York
M.A., School for International Training
J.D., Brooklyn Law School
Barbara has worked at the Global College Japan Center for the past 16 years and has lived in Kyoto for over 30 years. She is well versed in Japanese culture. Barbara originally arrived in Japan after graduating from law school and worked for an Osaka law firm. She later transitioned into the field of education and earned a Master's degree in teaching. Barbara enjoys traveling in Southeast Asia, playing her African drum and working in the field of intercultural communication.

Aaron Campbell, Academic Coordinator
B.G.S., University of Michigan
M.Ed., University of Sheffield, UK
Aaron is our resident computer expert and educational technology specialist. He is currently active in curriculum design and implementation incorporating weblogs, wikis, social networking and aggregation tools both at Global College and within his EFL classes at a local Japanese university. In his free time Aaron enjoys spending time with his two daughters, listening to hip hop and pontificating about education and eastern philosophy.

Dan Douglass - Faculty Advisor
B.A., Friends World Program, L.I.U.
M.A., School for International Training
Dan is a graduate of Friends World who studied at the East Asian, South Asian and Latin American Centers in addition to spending a semester doing independent research on syncretic religions in Brazil.   He later went on to complete a master's degree in education with a specialty in Teaching English as a Second Language from the School for International Training in Vermont and has been teaching English in Japan for the past 8 years.  In his down time he is a Mac enthusiast and an amateur percussionist and throat singer.

Preston Houser
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
M.A., San Francisco State University
B.A., California State University, Sonoma
Preston teaches the course on Japanese minorities, “Behind the Mask” as well as our introductory course on classic Japanese cinema. While he holds a doctorate in English literature and criticism, he is by no means limited to this field of study and is truly a scholar of many disciplines.  Dr. Houser is also a talented musician, holding a shi-han(master’s license) in the shakuhachi, the traditional Japanese bamboo flute.

As the blurb says, plays shakuhachi music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1XguDd43gc

What has culminated in this post was the discovery of his teaching the following course on the burakumin and the Koreans, who are widely held to make up the majority of the yakuza crime groups, with whom CIA officers like Glenn Paquette (who probably has a new identity by now) and Dan Douglas, not to mention the current mayor of Kyoto have demonstrated a propensity to collaborate with in antisocial activities. I've already posted some thoughts on the cultivation of the victim mentality and then unleashing that against society...

Moreover, those activities have directly impacted my life, sometimes being directed at my by CIA officers such as Glenn Paquette (I will post more on this individual soon).

In addition to the connection to Dan Douglass, there is also the connection to Brian Schultz (aka Brian Uneme), whom also studies the shakuhachi under the same teacher, and has also tried to subvert my life here in Kyoto.

It would seem that the connections are sufficient to make Mr. Houser a prime suspect as an intelligence agent, and officer in the CIA.

In fact, along with Mr. Dougill and Mr. Johnston trying to deceptively and undeservedly boost the profile of Koreans here, Mr. Houser is probably engaged in doing the same for the burakumin, whom I have discussed with Mr. Douglass, after being a little shocked at hearing him voice support for a sort of entitlement mentality for them. Maybe his wife is of burakumin descent, I don't know. 

Since the school that was called Global College Japan Center was nothing more than a small 2-story house, belying the overproduction of the promotion video and affiliation with Long Island University, it was probably a school used as a cover to train young intelligence officers in Japanese language and culture and infiltrate them into society here in Kansai, with an emphasis on establishing ties with the burakumin and Koreans.

Finally, both Preston Houser, Dan Douglass and Barbara Stein are people whose name appears on the DeepKyoto grey media blog operated by the MI6. Apparently the UK has even weaker laws than the United States about such things, and it would appear that the older the intelligence officer, the less concerned they are about their cover being intact.

That begs the question, however, as to what do such individuals do to deserve to being paid their high salaries and benefits (special allowances, etc.) out of the public coffers when they are exposed to be individuals misrepresenting themselves in their host country.

Since the original link is now dead, here is a snapshot from the trusty Internet archiving site The WAYBACK machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20090206145616/http://www.brooklyn.liu.edu/globalcollege/east_asia/faculty.htm

http://www2.brooklyn.liu.edu/globalcollege/east_asia/course_descriptions.htm
Junior Seminar: Behind the Mask - Alternative Japan(3 credits, spring only)
This required junior seminar examines past and present aspects of Japanese demographics and explores the unique history and psychology of the Japanese people. On an island where more than 99% of residents are native Japanese, Japan’s homogeneity gives birth to much tension surrounding minority groups. Students study the situations of these groups, including the indigenous Ainu, Burakumin, Okinawan/Ryukyuan, South Americans of Japanese heritage (nikkeijin), as well as the resident Chinese and Korean population (zainichi). By studying the discrimination taking place in Japan, students are able to better grasp the dynamics of “in-groups” and “outgroups”, while experiencing firsthand the effects that this discrimination can have on the fabric of a society. Students choose specific aspects of modern Japanese culture to explore more deeply in an independent research project. They participate in an array of lectures, seminars, workshops, and demonstrations, and have the opportunity to make field excursions during which they can meet with leading scholars and activists in their respective fields.



Here is some backgrond on the institutional origins in the USA, so to speak.



The Friends World College is described as being founded in 1965 “by a group of committed Quakers”. Another religion connection?



The page goes on to indicate that in 2007 the name was changed from Friends World to Global College.

Apparently the Japan branch was closed a year or so ago. There are online job listings from the school for Japanese teachers as  late as 2009.



With respect to the difference in approach between the MI6 and the CIA in Japan, at least, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Dougill—the UK espionage officer—appears to aim at cultivating a link to monarchical loyalism; meanwhile, Houser—the CIA espionage officer—seems to aim to cast the Edo bakufu in a negative light as having abolished the Zen Buddhist sect, when in fact it was the quasi-theocratic Shintoist regime of the Meiji Oligarchy that abolished the sect, along with the desecration of many Buddhist temples, etc. Regarding the Meiji government and Fuke-shu, even Wikipedia has the basics right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuke-sh%C5%AB#Development_and_demise


Considering that Preston Houser has a master’s teaching license for the shakuhachi in the Kinko school, it is inconceivable that he was not aware of the historical circumstances when he wrote that. Here is an interview with him online about Zen Buddhism, the shakuhachi, etc. http://www.shakuhachi.com/K-Houser-Interview.html
 

Regarding the separation of Buddhism and Shinto from the syncretic religious system of Japan that had been established approximately 1,000 years earlier, see this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinbutsu_bunri and this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haibutsu_kishaku
With respect to the establishment of the syncretic system, see this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinbutsu-sh%C5%ABg%C5%8D 

This analysis is continued in the next post, drawing a little of the connection of symbolism being manipulated by Hashimoto et al. before introducing the most relevant quote from an article of Houser's that was published in the January 1998 edition of the magazine Kansai Time Out (#251).