It has been hot here in Shikoku and I was a little heat-stricken.
How are you getting along?

The other day, a student of the near-by high school was drowned at the bathing beach. That day the waves are running high by the influence of the typhoon and was prohibited to bathe.
Old people here would say that we should not swim during Bon period because the souls of the ancestry will pull us into the water. This story means that the waves are getting high in August and that it being dangerous to swim, we should be careful, I think.

By the way, today is the day when the Pacific War(World War II) ended. So I'll read about the end of the Pacific War from "Japan - an illustrated Encyclopedia"(Kodansha).

By 1945 Japan's situation was desperate. Japan turned to the USSR in the hope of finding as intermediary that could help in negotiating some sort of compromise peace, but this hope was shattered by the firmly worded call for "unconditional surrender" enunciated by the United States, Great Britain, and China in the POTSDAM DECLARATION of July 1945. As Japan hesitated, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9), and the Soviet Union declared war on Japan (August 8). Still unable to decide whether to fight on or to accept the Potsdam Declaration, the deadlocked cabinet of Prime Minister SUZUKI KANTARO, in an unprecedented move, appealed to Emperor Showa for guidance. The emperor responded that Japan would have to "bear the unbearable" and accept its defeat. On 15 August 1945, WORLD WAR II came to an end.

More and more people who experienced the war were dead and people who were born after the war are increasing (including me), but we should think about war and peace on this day, I think.

Well, see you next month!

How are you?
It has got a little cooler but it rained very hard. According to TV news they had a record-breaking rain in Tokai District and many houses were flooded.
I express my hearty sympathy to the sufferers.

Sydney Olimpic Games begins at last today. I'm interested in the athletic sports and swimming because three athletes and a swimmer from Tokushima would participate in the Games. So today I'll read "Olympic Games" from the Encyclopedia Americana.

Olympic Games major athletic contest in ancient Greece and, in modern times, the world's foremost amateur sports competition. According to tradition, the games were first held in 776 BC at Olympia, Greece, and at four-year intervals thereafter. After the subjugation of Greece by Rome, the games declined and were finally abolished in AD 393 by the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius I. At first the program of the ancient Olympic Games was confined to one day and consisted only of a single event, a footrace the length of the stadium. Afterward, additional races, the discus throw, the javelin throw, the long (broad) jump, boxing, wrestling, the pentathlon, chariot racing, and other events were added; and the duration, including religious ceremonies, was extended to five days, although tis may have varied. In the late 19th century, through the efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France, the Olympic Games were revived.

Though I played tennis in my schooldays, I seldom take part in sports recently. Walking (on the hill) iis the only exercise I take now. But looking sports is very exciting. This Olympic Games will give us great impressions, I feel.

Then, see you next month!