The planet Shokun! - where anything's possible

Scientists at the Tanegashima Space Center have detected a new series of strange signals from planet Shokun!.

Some of the weirder messages and their purported authors:

福田氏の〈対北政策〉に、国民は必ず「ＮＯ！」という
安倍総理は去った。しかし「戦後レジームからの脱却」という国民的テーマはこれからが正念場だ - 櫻井よしこ

The people will definitely say, "No!" to Fukuda's (policies as regards North Korea)

Prime Minister Abe has passed on. However, as for the populist theme of "Escaping from the postwar regime" - from here on out is the moment of truth!

- Sakurai Yoshiko

Any guesses why "policies as regards North Korea" is in parentheses? Is she paraphrasing someone? Herself?

I cannot help it. When I read Sakurai-san's work, all I can hear is the commander of the Purple Meanies mewling, "Once more into breech!" as the Beatles liberate Pepperland.

「安倍君、若過ぎたのう……」後藤田さんの声が聞こえる
佐々淳行
「男子の本懐」を遂げることなく辞任した総理には、権力への意思が決定的に欠けていた

"Oh dear Abe, he was too young..." I can hear the voice of Gotōda saying

A prime minister who resigned without accomplishing the ambitions of a man, he definitively lacked the will to authority

- Sassa Atsuyuki

I will never understand the hold Gotōda Masaharu has upon the imaginations of former bureaucrats in the 60- to 75- years of age bracket. He seems to have been their sun, their moon. Whenever I saw him on television (admittedly, this was when Gotōda was in his late 80s - early 90s) he seemed to have no grasp of the implications of the word minshushugi ("democracy").

If Sassa-san finds himself hearing Gotōda's voice, he might want to keep that little bit of news to himself.

Finally, Takasaki Economic University's Yagi Hidetsugu, the Pied Piper of the textbook revision movement, sends his wishes:

艱難辛苦の福田時代が、日本の保守を本物にする

護憲リベラルの大波に負けてはならない。捲土重来を期して、さあ、作戦の練り直しだ

Through the trials and tribulations of the Fukuda era, Japan's conservatism will be made ever more true!

We will not be defeated by the great wave of the liberal defenders of the constitution! Taking this reverse as an opportunity, we will attach ourselves more strongly to the plan of attack!

Defeat is a call to Victory! Our present losses only guarantee the brilliance of our future triumphs!

Oh, Yagi-san. If only you were in Baghdad.

-----------------------------------------------------

Later - Many thanks to the alert reader who caught the point where I dropped some text.