Summary
Steve Lee Hayes, a 65-year-old American tourist, was arrested in Tokyo for allegedly carving family members’ names into a wooden Torii gate at the Meiji Shrine.
Surveillance footage led police to his hotel, where he was detained.
Hayes admitted to the act, which could result in up to three years in prison or a fine of 300,000 yen ($1,900).
The Meiji Shrine, a significant Shinto site, was built in 1920 to honor Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. The incident occurs amid a surge in international tourism to Japan this year.
Would Japan have been better had the shogunate continued?
I’ll let you know when my window into parallel universes has been completed, but I promised someone else to look into whether or not the Aztecs would have been worse for Mexico if the Spanish hadn’t invaded first.
Damn, I was asking myself this very question about the Aztecs about a week ago. Also how would the indigenous people in america progress if the colonizers didn’t discover America. I believe they are nomads?
One of the reasons the Spanish were able to contact the Aztecs is that their neighbors were really tired of being conquered and forced to pay tribute. So I’m guessing the Aztec empire in Mesoamerica would have gotten and the already massive Inca empire would have become far more massive. Not sure about any of the cultures other than those.
Does that account for lives lost due to disease from mere contact with foreigners at the time?