The Roleplaying Paradise

Please read my dispatch about the buried history of Torturia for info about my rp

Asahi Shimbun (English edition)
AFROJ peacekeepers innovate new demining strategies

Historically, removing landmines in war-torn regions has been a daunting task. Engineers had to trudge across mine-ridden swaths of land with nothing more than a metal stick to prod the ground for mines, or a metal detector if they were lucky. Such business was always risky as they risked injury or death if they accidentally triggered a mine. The modern way to remove minefields is to either use a mine-clearing line charge—a long explosive cable that can clear a path up to 8 meters wide by 100 meters long carried by hand or farther by a rocket—or to use a spinning flail attached to a tank to strike a mine and detonate it a safe distance away. However, such devices are not always practical.

In the former case, MCLCs like the Type 92 Minefield Breaching Rocket System are only efficient when the mines are placed close together, and in the latter case, the flail can reduce the carrier tank's combat effectiveness. This is especially problematic in overseas deployments like in the Levant, where ROJA engineers have estimated that they have used up more than 75 percent of their in-theater stock of Type 92 MBRS rockets. While combat is no longer a major concern, the lack of tanks to mount Type 92 flails on (and a lack of Type 92 flails in general) makes flail-based demining operations more of a problem. Since the start of the AFROJ's peacekeeping mission in August, 5 soldiers have been killed clearing mines and 12 injured. However, one unit of ROJA peacekeepers is trying to change that.

The 2nd Infantry Company of the 40th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division has been in the Levant since the latter half of August. They have been assigned to protect Japanese and Levantine mine clearers in the Irbid District, but the small numbers of mine clearers in the area means that they sometimes have to go look for mines themselves. In September, they created a new method to find mines more efficiently: drones with thermal imaging. Company commander Captain Hayato Tsuchiya says that some of his soldiers came up with the idea after one of them suffered a minor burn defusing a landmine in the evening hours. They took out a thermal imager later that night and found that the metal landmines remained warmer than the surrounding terrain. At first, the 2nd Company used their rifles' thermal optics to locate mines, but then they came up with the idea of using a quadcopter drone fitted with a thermal imaging camera to survey a larger area.

On their first night using the new system, soldiers of the 2nd Company cleared more mines than they did in the previous week combined. Since then, they've found and cleared more than 1,000 mines, including 600 antipersonnel mines. Other Japanese demining units have slowly adopted the process, and where quadcopter-mounted thermal cameras are unavailable, thermal imaging cameras mounted on OH-1 scout helicopters and UH-60 utility helicopters are used instead. The current procedure is for an aerial thermal imaging controller to scan the ground for hot targets and direct mine clearers to objects of interest.

"However, we should not expect this to replace the standard mine clearance methods," Captain Tsuchiya said. "The airborne thermal imaging method should only be used when area mine clearing with explosives or mine rollers is not practical."

The Japan Times
Earthquakes strike northwest coast on New Year's Day; tsunami warnings in effect

A powerful earthquake measuring a 7 on the Japanese scale—the strongest on the scale—has rocked central Japan on New Year's Day, prompting a tsunami warning for a broad swath of the country's western coast.

Officials are urging evacuations of coastal areas in the Ishikawa, Niigata, Toyama and Yamagata prefectures, with over 1.2 meter waves reaching the Noto Peninsula's Wajima Port in Ishikawa—where a rare major tsunami warning is in effect—around 16:21, NHK reports.

Warnings of 3-meter tsunamis have been issued across the northwest coast all the way from Hokkaido to Nagasaki.

Those warnings were punctuated by several aftershocks following the initial quake, which registered an estimated magnitude of 7.4,​​ struck the Noto Peninsula, with waves as high as 5 meters predicted to hit the area. The Noto area experienced 7 earthquakes, while 11 had been registered across all of Japan as of 17:00.

Waves of 80 centimeters reached Toyama Prefecture around 16:35 and waves of 40 meters also reached Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, at 16:36. It also reached Niigata's Sado Island at 16:10.

The tsunami is expected to hit the Yamagata and Hyogo prefectures.

The major tsunami warning issued for the Noto Peninsula area is the highest alert out of 3 warnings and is equal to one issued after the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake.

Nuclear plant operator Tepco is checking whether there is any impact of the earthquake on its facilities in the region, according to a post by the company on its official account on Chirper. As of 16:30, no irregularities have been reported at the nuclear power plant in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, according to NHK.

Damage assessments are not available at the moment.

^{This is a breaking story. Updates to come.}

The Japan Times
Kyoto Animation killer arsonist sentenced to death

Shinji Aoba was handed the death penalty on Thursday for setting a Kyoto Animation studio on fire in 2019 and killing 36 people, in one of Japan’s deadliest mass murders.
The Kyoto District Court found the 45-year-old man guilty of setting the three-story building on fire because of a grudge he had against Kyoto Animation. He claimed the studio had stolen his ideas after it rejected his novels in an annual contest the company hosts. There is no evidence the company plagiarized any of his work. Aoba also sustained heavy burns over most of his body in the attack.

On Thursday morning, 409 people lined up for a chance to secure one of the 23 seats available to listen to the court's ruling. Some members of the bereaved families were present as well. The focus of the trial was on whether he was mentally competent enough to be held criminally liable; presiding judge Keisuke Masuda said Aoba was not mentally incompetent nor in a diminished state at the time of the crime, judging that he is criminally liable for what he did.

The ruling said that Aoba headed to Kyoto from his home in Saitama and set the studio on fire to stop "Number 2," a figure from his delusions, from following him.

"But the impact of the delusions on the crime is not large," Masuda said. "The liability of taking the lives of 36 people is extremely grave, so there is no reason for the death penalty to be avoided."

Prosecutors had said he was competent enough and had argued that the death penalty was the only option given the gravity of Aoba’s crime. The defense team, meanwhile, had argued that he should be acquitted or receive a reduced sentence due to his diminished mental capability. Two psychiatrists who testified in court were also divided over his mental state.

On July 18, 2019, Aoba bought 40 liters of gasoline, after which he entered the Kyoto Animation studio, splashed gasoline on six workers while shouting "Go to hell!" and set the building on fire with a lighter. The fire engulfed the building, killing 36 people and leaving another 32 injured. A survivor who had testified in court said she escaped from a window after she was splashed with gasoline. She sustained burns over 94% of her body and had to undergo surgery 49 times.

"I feel despair whenever I look in the mirror. It's grueling to live with this body," she said.

In a December session, he apologized to the victims and their families and said that he should atone for what he did through the death penalty. He also said in September that he did not think so many people would die.

Prosecutors also revealed during the 22-session trial that, a month before the 2019 incident, Aoba had plotted a mass stabbing spree at the Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture, but that he decided against it at the last minute.

Before the ruling was handed down, Judge Masuda asked Aoba, who was in a wheelchair and wearing a blue tracksuit, if he had anything to say, to which he replied, "No, I don't."

Kyoto Animation President Hideaki Hatta said in a statement afterward that although he thought the ruling was appropriate, his feelings of frustration remain strong. Nevertheless, Hatta said he hopes to continue making anime at Kyoto Animation so that the works of the victims will be passed on into the future.