Nowadays, the United States is designating all anti-American forces throughout the world as terrorists, and trying to annihilate them. It sees any country that doesn't obey it as an enemy. It's just like a tyrant. And Japan simply follows the U.S. lead. Is that really acceptable? It's the U.S. that is trying to wipe out and decimate anyone that stands in its way. To make things worse, Russia, Israel and China are taking advantage of this logic, to obliterate the forces opposing them. The lives and properties of innocent civilians are stolen, and cities are destroyed. Can we allow this violence to continue? Should Japan continue to blindly follow the U.S. lead? We have to reveal the real factors that lead to terrorism. In order to stop it, it seems to me that we must give love to those who are weak. It is not appropriate for peace to take the arrogant stance that justice is on the side of the strong.

February 11, 2002 (Monday)
Today is also a national holiday (National Foundation Day) and so we have a three-day weekend. We have more three-day weekends than we used to, but are both adults and children using them effectively? In order to become more enriched, they really should use their holidays in a meaningful way.

February 12, 2002 (Tuesday)
The three-day weekend ended, and I got to take a bath for the first time in five days. I am a person who really enjoys bathing, so I was looking forward to it.

February 14, 2002 (Thursday)
Today is St. Valentine's Day. In Japan, just like Christmas, it's just a commercial day. Japan must be the only country in the world that does this. Ah. . .
It appears that the number of people being held in detention houses or in prisons is increasing dramatically throughout the country. In the Osaka Detention Center, as well, the facilities are inadequate to deal with the increasing number of detainees. The number of things we could receive or buy from the outside have been cut back, along with the number of personal effects that can be kept in deposit (because the cells are small), goods that can be temporarily returned of the deposit, and the ability to pass things to family, on the outside. Doctors' visits have also been decreased. They're making it more and more inconvenient for detainees to keep contact with the outside. I think that the Ministry of Justice as a whole needs more budget and more staff. As an economic power and a country which calls itself a cultured state, Japan should, from a humanitarian perspective, give detainees at least a treatment worthy of international standards.

February 15, 2002 (Friday)
Unexpectedly at 1:20 p.m., while I was watching a video, Father M came to visit unannounced. I stopped the video and went to meet him in the interview room. Father M had been hospitalized with heart troubles in December of last year, and he just got out of the hospital a week ago. I was very honored that he took the time to come and meet me under such circumstances. He lost weight, but it was really nice to see that he had recovered despite the fact that at one point his condition was critical. I was very relieved. He said that he had to keep visiting the hospital regularly until the end of March. I was able to take Communion for the first time in three months, and he left after a half hour.