Text & E mail Fwd: False alarms in Hawaii and Japan

* Below is the text and email from Kyle Kajihiro and Makiko Sato *

* Text Informed by Kyle Kajihiro on the e mail of April 7 *

'Here in Hawai'i we have been fed a steady diet of "threat", "danger", "fear", and misinformation. I think this is to pressure and isolate the Pyongyang government and generate public support for missile defense programs. Very hypocritical because the US has so many misiles, satellites, nuclear weapons.

I have a question for clarification. The western media reported that the third stage of the rocket failed and fell into the Pacific ocean. What is your understanding of the rocket launch?

Here is a funny story about how fearful the public was.

Kyle'

False alarms in Hawaii and Japan

North Korea's plan to launch a rocket on a trajectory over Japan and toward Hawai'i prompted a couple of false alarms.

The North carried out the launch today. The rocket flew over Japan and a stage of the rocket landed in the Pacific Ocean, Japanese broadcaster NHK said.

On Friday, guests at the Four Seasons Resort Lana'i at Manele Bay were warned to get off the beach and seek shelter.

Maui County spokeswoman Mahina Martin said state and county Civil Defense officials had been monitoring North Korea's preparations for a launch, and police had advised the hotel that if the launch occurred and debris seemed likely to fall near the Islands, beachgoers should go inside and avoid the western and southern shores.

Debris from the second stage of the rocket was expected to fall in the Pacific between Japan and Hawai'i.

"It was a good example of miscommunication," Martin said. "Out of that sharing of information, the Manele Bay hotel took what I would call good preparedness measures and started to initiate a nonmandatory evacuation of Manele Bay."

But the hotel's response was "unnecessary," she said.

"It was a good exercise in preparedness. We appreciate them wanting to be that cautious, but this was far beyond the information that was shared," she said.

Police soon stopped the evacuation, Martin said.

Yesterday, the Japanese government also raised a false alarm over the missile launch.

Japanese officials yesterday said that an object appeared to have been launched from North Korea, but five minutes later determined that no object had been confirmed by other monitoring systems.

According to the Defense Ministry, an FPS-5 radar warning and control system — nicknamed "Gamera" after the turtle monster of movie fame — at the ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute Iioka branch in Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, detected something over the Sea of Japan.

The information picked up by the advanced radar system was relayed to the government as a potential missile launch. The ministry said it is analyzing what was detected by the radar.

The Maui News and the Yomiuri Shimbun contributed to this report.


* E mail from Makiko Sato on April 8*

'This whole MD farce caused such a hysterical reaction here in Japan.
The official website of'No!to nukes and missile campain' run by
one of Koji's friend in Tokyo registered 6000 access just one night
before the launch, and my site, which is much sober, registered
more than 1000 in 5 days. They wanted information.
But what kind? The more information, the more you get afraid,
especially,when the information is fabrication of fear.

From the start, the SDF had no intention to shoot it down,
I guess. Simply they can't, because of the Article 9 in
our constitution. That is why most politician here want to
amend it. But practically, the SDF didn't need to,
as they already knew Japan would be safe and the US
would do nothing in response.

So the SDF just showed off their MD system.
Their real target is, I think, not the rocket but
the forthcoming general election. Now because of
this played-up crisis, and the SDF's aggressive preparedness,
our ruling party seems to have gained back some popularity
among the youth.

While in Japan, peace-loving people demand 'office-change,'
the chance are now half & half because of the NK rocket launch.
This is a pity and, to us, a step backward.
Why do many young man in Japan get agitated so easily?
I never understand.

Yours,
Makiko'


* Related blog *
http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/04/against-move-for-un-security-council.html
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Against the Move for the U.N. Security Council Sanction against the North Korea: Revealing Obama’s manipulation