Reflections on the Far East

I have just returned from a month's long cruise that took me from Los Angeles to Shanghai with stops in Alaska, Japan and South Korea before arriving in China.

The trip included five days at seas crossing the North Pacific between Kodiak, Alaska and Yokohama, Japan in which we were battling high seas and sustained winds of 50-60 knots for several days. One night we were battered by 75 knot winds which is equivalent to 90 mph with seas at 20-25 feet.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean in those conditions you gain a unique perspective of just how insignificant many things are in the greater scheme of your life.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean in gale conditions

A few photos and observations from the trip.

Theres are still large glaciers in Alaska. Most are receding but they have been doing that since the end of the Ice Age when the earth began warming. Let it be said that was well before there were any man made effects that could have caused it.

This is a picture from Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. To provide some perspective, that ship next to the glacier is around 16 stories tall and 1,000 feet long. That is a lot of ice!

Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Those of us in the United States have little perspective on just how many people there are in Asia. This is a graph that I published previously which is worth looking at again that shows the world's population by longitude. If looked at this way the Western Hemisphere looks like the rural outpost of the world.

We docked in Yokohama, Japan which is about an hour from Tokyo. However, since Mrs. BeeLine and I has previously been to Tokyo we decided to spend our time in Yokohama which we were pleased to find was a marvelous city.

When in Japan it is difficult to fathom that we were in mortal combat with these people a couple of generations ago. It should be a lesson that all divisions can be healed.

It is hard not to respect the Japanese culture where you walk clean streets, you see no graffiti, you feel completely safe and they are offended if you try to tip them for their service. That being said, the Japanese have become very Westernized since World War II. You see it foremost in the clothes, music and brands. T-shirts almost exclusively have English words. You hear many American songs playing in the stores.

Oktoberfest in Yokohama, Japan

You gain further perspective on how far things have come in Japan when visiting Hiroshima. Traveling the city I could not help thinking that every tree, every blade of glass and almost every building did not exist 73 years ago.

Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb
Credit: Shigeo Hayashi

This is what the area around what has become known as Peace Memorial  Park looks like today.

A-Bomb Dome
The building closest to the hypocenter of the atomic bomb

I was interested to hear what our Japanese guide (who was in her late 60's) would say about the reasons behind the decision for the Americans to use the atomic bomb. She was surprisingly candid in stating that the Americans used it to save lives. She understood that an invasion of Japan would have resulted in many more deaths. She openly admitted that the Japanese had made a mistake in going to war with the United States and the people were brainwashed by the government into believing they could win. It was an interesting admission. Of course, she was also speaking to a group that was largely made up of Americans.

I have written before that there is no better evidence of why capitalism is superior to communism than looking at South and North Korea. We saw it first hand on a trip to the DMZ. On the South Korea side there is prosperity. In fact, there was an amusement park that was adjacent to the DMZ in South Korea. Barely a mile or so away to the north you see a barren land where most of the trees are gone because the people have been taking the bark off the trees to make soup and using the wood to stay warm in the winter.

I asked our guide (who was also in her 60's) if she thought we would see unification of North and South Korea in her lifetime. She said she doubted it because the Chinese do not want to see a free Korea bordering their country. Interestingly, she referred to Kim Jung Un as "Rocket Boy" when she spoke of him. Donald Trump's influence knows no boundaries.

For those who are not familiar with the geography of the Korean Peninsula, this is what she is talking about.

This is a view looking into North Korea across the DMZ.

The flag is at the center of what is called "Propaganda Village" by the South Koreans. Why?  It is really a fake city. The LA Times explained in this story earlier this year.

From their hilltop checkpoint, the soldiers who guard South Korea's border can see for miles across the Demilitarized Zone, to a small city in the distance on the north side.

This tidy collection of high-rises and low-slung buildings is surrounded by agricultural fields. North Koreans call the place Kijong-dong, or Peace Village.

The multinational troops on the South Korean side have a different name for it.
Propaganda Village.

South Korea has long contended that Kijong-dong is a façade manned by the North Korean military.

Some of the buildings have their windows painted on, said Cmdr. Robert Watt of the combined Southern forces. Other tall structures appear to be shells; when night falls, light shines brightly in upper windows but is dim closer to the ground, suggesting there are no floors or walls inside.

Music blares from loudspeakers, drifting eerily across the winter-browned countryside. A towering flagpole rises high above.

North Korea created all this, Watt said, in hopes of persuading South Koreans to defect, as in: What a nice city. I'd like to live there.

Our final stop was in China. The highlights were a visit to The Great Wall and to Shanghai.

The Great Wall of China

A few things I observed in China.

Enormous spending on infrastructure. Massive boulevards and roads with few cars outside major cities. Hundreds of high rise apartments being built. You rarely see any parent that has more than one child in tow (the one child policy). Masses of workers in Shanghai cleaning and fixing sidewalks, landscaping and providing a security presence. A large police presence. CCTV cameras are very prevalent. You definitely sense that the Chinese are aware that someone is watching and conscious of their "social credit" score. 

It requires a lot of workers to make something like this look so good.
Note the flowers up the boulevard as well.

Shanghai is almost indescribable. The downtown area is a combination of Las Vegas, New York City and Beverly Hills. You see a lot of Mercedes on the street in addition of Range Rovers with some Bentleys and Rolls Royces. The only American car brand you generally see is Buick. A lot of high end retail.

Inside a mall in Shanghai

You know it is a communist country but capitalism has been very, very good to China.

Shanghai at night

The building on the right is the Shanghai Tower. It is currently the second tallest skyscraper in the world at 2,073 feet in height. That is about 300 feet taller than the new One World Trade Center in New York City.

It was nice to see all of this but it was even better to return to the United States of America. Nothing else compares and I am thankful ever day that I can call it home.

Of course, even 7,500 miles away from home it is hard to escape this man. The Chinese might understand his true colors even better than half of my fellow Americans. He is the man who famously told an audience of youths in Argentina that "there's little difference between capitalism and communism."

Tell that to the people of North Korea or Venezuela.

Oba Mao
For sale in a shop selling Communist themed apparel and other merchandise in Shanghai