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I think you have to start with geography.The piece of land in question has been called a lot of things; we'll use "the Southern Levant," since that's probably the least contentious nomenclature.Since the Bronze age (3500-5000 years ago), the Southern Levant has been a crossroads between major world powers. First it was Mesopotamia and Egypt on either side, then the Greeks, Hittites, and Elamites joined the party. By the beginning of the Iron Age (2500-3500 years ago), the Levant had great strategic and economic value to the empires around it. Unfortunately, while it was nice enough to be worth conquering, it was not fertile or productive enough to give rise to its own empire. The region was basically destined to be fought over like a juicy bone among jackals, and more's the pity for the poor saps that lived there.Om nom nom, delicious Canaan.One somewhat successful attempt at a native kingdom in antiquity was Israel/Judah. Yahweh-worshipping Canaanites pulled together a couple of nice little states for themselves and bullied their next-door neighbors for a few centuries. Eventually, of course, the big guys down the block rolled in and took their lunch money. Assyria smashed and depopulated Israel, turning Judah into a vassal state; when Assyria collapsed, Egypt and Babylon set to fighting over the Judean leftovers. The end result was "population transfer" -- Babylon captured prominent citizens and took them home, and other refugees ended up in Egypt. This marks the birth of the Jewish diaspora.And you really do have to go that far back to understand Jews' relationship to the Southern Levant. Their religion said that their deity led them to that piece of land and promised that they'd always rule it. It was also really important that they observe religious rituals at the temple in Jerusalem. Then, oopsie, they aren't ruling it anymore and their temple is a smoking heap (not for the last time). Some went back to the Southern Levant after Persia conquered Babylon and said the Jews could go home, but many stayed in their new cities -- all the while retaining their identity as a levantine people, a people whose native home would be ruled by foreigners for thousands of years.The diaspora only increased in the following centuries. Where Alexander and Hellenism went, Judaism went. Same thing in the Roman Empire. There were Jews in Rome and Jews in India 2000 years ago.Oh yeah, something else happened about 2000 years ago. Christianity had an unpleasant impact on the Levant: It brought new world powers into the jackal-fight. Now, this little strip of land was not only economically and strategically valuable -- it was spiritually valuable. To more people with armies. You see where this is going. And then, things got EVEN BETTER when Islam emerged, and decided they ALSO thought Jerusalem was kind of a big deal. By the time Europe re-civilized itself, it decided it would be a great idea to go head-to-head with the Muslims over the Holy Land. This was not a super brilliant plan since the Fatimids and Seljuks had a home field advantage and cross-continental supply lines were somewhat lacking.Guess who's coming to dinner?But hey, the Europeans had so much fun slaughtering Jews in the Levant that they decided to bring this new pastime home. European antisemitism really kicked into high gear in the Middle Ages, kept going strong during the Renaissance, and had a certain retro allure by the 19th century. European Jews were hanging in there, strengthening ties with each other while trying to avoid attracting the ire of nearby Christians, but life could really suck. Jews were actually doing better in Muslim lands for most of this period.Of course, Muslim lands were shrinking as the Ottoman Empire "slowly collapsed like a flan in a cupboard" (hat-tip to Eddie Izzard). Geopolitics had gotten quite complicated by this point. If you thought the growing secularity of the 18th and 19th centuries would lessen interest in the Levant, boy, were you wrong! England, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria were terribly interested in strategic waterway access -- um, I mean, the fate of the poor Christians living under Muslim rule. Sure. That sounds good. Every time the European powers got into a tiff, somebody would suggest a nice friendly plan to divvy up the Ottoman Empire amongst themselves. Then they'd turn around and pledge to protect the Ottoman Empire's territorial integrity.The Ottoman Empire was pretty badass, actually.Aside from schizophrenic obsession with Ottoman lands, the other growing trend in the region was nationalism. Nations had changed, and so had ideas about nations. People were no longer primarily loyal to their regions and cities; nor were they content to be ruled by a far-off empire. They liked the idea of organizing into ethnically and linguistically homogenous countries. The Greeks wanted independence from the Ottomans, the Czechs wanted independence from Austria, Bismarck unified the Germans, Italy came together, and Arabs began to discuss "throwing off the yoke of the Turks."Jews also got nationalism fever, but there was a problem: They weren't concentrated in one region that could announce its independence and organize itself into a Jewish state. They were scattered inside other ethnic groups' nations -- and those nations made it pretty clear that the Jews were interfering with their shiny happy patriotic ethnic unity. Antisemitic violence kicked into high gear in Europe. So when Jewish thinkers started talking about moving back en masse to the Southern Levant (which had been called Palestine for centuries), Europeans were ready to throw a festive going-away pogrom.We look favorably upon you getting the hell out.This is the beginning of modern Zionism ("Zion" being an old Hebrew name for Jerusalem). The return of the Jews to Palesine was enthusiastically supported by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who -- in a surprise twist that will shock you silly -- imagined that Britain would provide "guidance" to the new nation. Which obviously had nothing to do with Britain's strategic interest in strengthening its influence in the Middle East and checking Russian designs on Afghanistan. Totally altruistic. With help from donors, a steady trickle of European Jews began to immigrate to the Southern Levant.Now, so far I've been talking about Jews but not Palestinians. That's because, according to most scholars, Palestinian national identity didn't really exist until the 19th century. People had been living in the Southern Levant all those centuries -- some Jews, but more Arab Muslims and Christians -- but they didn't see themselves as Palestinians per se until they, too, got swept up in nationalism and rebelled against the Ottomans. Unsurprisingly, their Palestinian identity solidified even further as a bunch of European Jews suddenly started moving into town. Locals vs. Interlopers is the oldest one in the book. Folks got along well enough at the turn of the century, but tensions were simmering. By the eve of World War I, Arab Palestinians were complaining about the Ottomans' unwillingness to check the foreign immigration and expressing concern about the social changes that would come from land sales to foreigners.But hey, don't worry about the Ottomans, guys! World War I finally dealt the killing blow to the "sick man of Europe," and the Great Powers finally got the partition they'd been salivating over for a hundred years. This is where the map of the Middle East starts to look like the one we know today.Totally reasonable borders that the locals just loved.See, the newly created League of Nations said all the world's peoples had the right to self-government ... and then carved out a bunch of colonies euphemistically called "mandates," wrapped them up in bows, and exchanged them as Christmas presents. You got me Syria? How did you know! The Southern Levant ended up as the British Mandate of Palestine. Zionists were happy about this turn of events. After all, Britain had issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which clearly and unequivocally said that the Zionists had the green light and Britain had their back.Here's another shocking twist: It said nothing of the sort. One of the most impressively vague documents in history, the Balfour Declaration does not promise to support the creation of a Jewish nation in the Southern Levant. It is simply "in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." What, you don't know what a "national home" is? Good! That's the idea! Because at the same time, Britain was making other vague promises to the Sharif of Mecca, things that kinda sounded like "You guys can have Palestine" but included a good deal of wiggle room. In other words, they were saying anything and everything to secure the support of whoever seemed important at the time -- good, solid European diplomacy. When Sharif Hussein learned of the Balfour Declaration at the end of the war, he thought little of it. So some Jews want to move back into Palestine. Sure. No prob. There's not too many of them, right? The locals still get to run things? Great.It became clear pretty quickly that that would not be the case. By 1920, Jews comprised about 10 percent of the population of Palestine and the numbers were growing. Their influence over the British administration was considerable. Local Arabs believed that the British were favoring the Jewish newcomers over the existing Arab population and the end result would be Jewish political and economic domination of the area. Which was, in fact, the goal of the Zionist leadership: "There can only be one National Home in Palestine, and that a Jewish one, and no equality in the partnership between Jews and Arabs, but a Jewish preponderance as soon as the numbers of the race are sufficiently increased." Many Palestinians decided they were being conquered yet again. Groups of Arabs rioted in 1920 and 1921, prompting the British to arm the Jewish settlers. They began to worry about what exactly they'd gotten themselves into.During the 1930s, shit got real. An Arab nationalist militant group called the Black Hand began attacking Jewish settlers and destroying property. Meanwhile, believing that the best defense is a good offense, hard-liners broke off from the Jewish defensive militia, the Haganah, to form the more aggressive Irgun. Their logo was a fist holding a rifle with the slogan "Only Thus." Friendly guys. Worsening economic conditions for the Palestinian lower class made them more ready for general rebellion. The revolt started in 1936 and continued right up to the beginning of World War II. It's in this period that the familiar patterns of modern asymmetrical levantine warfare emerge: bus and train attacks, pipeline sabotage, civilian murders, collective punishment, torture, curfews, checkpoints, and the wholesale destruction of villages suspected of harboring combatants. All participants -- the British, the Arab rebels, and the Haganah and Irgun forces -- behaved barbarically. In the end, the revolt hurt the Arabs more than the Jews, and pushed the two sections of the population further apart. The prospects for coexistence did not look good.During the revolt, Britain had for the first time proposed a "two-state solution" to the conflict. Nobody liked that. Britain backed off from that in 1939, instead suggesting one nation that could be home to Jews and Arabs. This did not satisfy the Zionists, but Britain had decided it didn't care about pissing off the Zionists because Arab support would be more important during World War II. Once again, Europe was playing strategic games with the Levant to protect its own military interests.Cut along the dotted line: Instant partition.Britain also limited Jewish immigration into Palestine in 1939. Bad timing. Only 15,000 Jews were allowed into Palestine per year, but hundreds of thousands of Jews were trying to flee the Nazis -- and it may surprise you to learn that the other nations of the world were not exactly eager to accept these refugees! If any Zionists were still unsure about the necessity of establishing their own nation that they controlled, the Holocaust fixed that. Jews clearly could not count on other nations. Toward the end of the war, the Irgun and other Jewish militants announced an open revolt against the British mandate. Britain just wanted out. After the war, they handed the problem over to the newly formed United Nations. We made a mess, guys. Clean it up. You have until May of 1948, when we're packing up and leaving.Once again, partition was proposed. The Palestinian Arabs and the member nations of the Arab League hated the idea. Most of the Jews in Palestine were fine with it, though Irgun was not. The UN approved the recommendation, and the Arab League began preparing for war. In the months leading up to the British withdrawal, a civil war broke out between Jews and Arabs, and the writing was on the wall: The partition plan would not be peacefully adopted. Truman tried to stall for time, suggesting that the UN establish a "trusteeship" over Palestine, essentially taking over the mandate and delaying the creation of any independent states in the region. But in May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the state of Israel. The Arab League announced that this was illegal and invalid because it did not have the support of the local Arab majority, and thousands of troops from the surrounding Arab nations invaded "to restore law and order."As wars go, the 1948 Arab-Israeli war didn't last long -- about 9 months. Israel won a resounding military victory. It signed treaties with its neighbors to establish its borders, which were better than the original UN partition plan. There were around 20,000 deaths.The real impact, however, was demographic: Over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes. Whenever anyone is trying to be neutral about this, they will say "fled or were expelled." Because that disagreement -- whether the Palestinians left voluntarily or were driven out -- is right at the heart of the problem today. Palestinians today call this event "al Nakba," the catastrophe. This created a horrifying refugee crisis. Most of Israel's Arab neighbors didn't welcome the refugees with open arms and offer them citizenship, ostensibly to help them retain their Palestinian identity. They also didn't help them establish a Palestinian state. That was never their priority. And Israel wouldn't let the refugees come back, ostensibly because it feared that the returning population would include would-be insurgents who would plot a civil war. Meanwhile, over the next few decades, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel from the surrounding Arab nations -- again, "fled or were expelled." Overall, I suppose you could call this "population exchange," which was all the rage in the 20th century. Greece and Turkey, Italy and Austria, all over Central Europe -- jump on the bandwagon, Middle East! Force people to go live with their own kind and reap the rewards of ethnic unity! Now we call this sort of thing "ethnic cleansing" and frown vigorously in its general direction.During the 1950s, the Palestinian fedayeen emerged -- freedom fighters to some, terrorists to others -- killing and wounding hundreds of Israelis between 1951 and 1956. The Israeli Defense Forces retaliated with extreme prejudice, massacring civilians in some cases and hoping to "prove that the price for Jewish blood is high." A Cold War pissing contest turned into the Suez Crisis, with Israeli, French, and British forces invading the Sinai peninsula. It almost blew up into a full-scale confrontation between NATO and the Soviet Union, since the world powers were once again playing the region like a chessboard. Anti-Western and anti-Israel sentiment in the Arab world only increased.In the 1960s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) formed, its stated goal the dissolution of the state of Israel and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The Six-Day War was another decisive military victory for Israel in 1967, expanding its borders to include all of mandatory Palestine, the Sinai peninsula, and the Golan Heights, which had been Syria's. Anticipating international pressure to give these occupied territories back, Israel promptly began settling Jewish families there. The international community considers these settlements to be in violation of the Geneva Convention, but does nothing to back that up aside from vigorous frowning.They got a lot done in six days.The 1970s marked the beginnings of what we now call "the peace process." Mighty slow process, ain't it. Various proposals have come and gone, with different suggested borders for Israel and disagreements about whether or not an independent Palestinian state should exist. Should Israel give back the land it annexed in 1967? Maybe just some of it? If one wants to negotiate with the Palestinians, with whom does one negotiate? For years, the Israeli right wing said it would never negotiate with the PLO because of its guerrila/terrorist tactics, and the PLO stalwartly refused to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. Israel and the PLO finally sat down together in the early 90s and set a timetable for forging a solution, but in 2000, it became clear that the differences between them were too great. Both sides said they wanted peace, but each had a very different idea of an acceptable peace.Peace for our time! Or not.Over the last decade, the prevailing vision for the peace process has been the "Road Map to Peace." Phase I, which called for an end to Palestinian violence, Palestinian political reform, and Israeli withdrawal and settlement freeze, was initially projected for 2003 or 2004. It's 2012 and it hasn't happened. Israel keeps building settlements, the Palestinian political parties Fatah and Hamas fought a civil war, and there's been plenty of violence back and forth. Interest in a one-state solution has reemerged, but very few Israelis support that. They know full well that if the refugees' descendents get full citizenship and full voting rights, Jews will no longer control Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert predicted that the outcome would resemble South Africa. Possibly not the most flattering comparison for you, Ehud, but okay. And that's basically where we are today: Completely stalled.

Preface note: I’ve been a registered Republican my entire lifeLet’s face it, the current Republican party platform is dead in the water. I capitulated on them in the second Bush administration for a variety of reasons. In 2012, my 85 year old father threw in the towel. He is an old white, traditional male- their core constituency. If he is giving up, you know the mantras are dead and need revision.So what would a platform for a new Republicanism look like? I believe it would contain the basic themes of fiscal conservatism, and social libertarianism. Let’s take a look at these elements and what they would mean policy-wise. This is just a start and will evolve as I introduce new ideas:Fiscal conservatism:-Stop favoring tax breaks that reduce revenue to unsustainable levels while at the same time supporting expansion of entitlements (I’m looking at you Prescription Drug Benefit for Seniors.) The party seems to have grasped that entitlements need to shrink, but they seem to be resisting tax increases. It’s simple economic reality – when you’re in debt you don’t cut your income. The old canard that higher taxes leads to lower economic growth is defeated by facts. Remember those? If you doubt it, look it up.-Focus on smart defense. Spend more on State, USAID, USIP, DoD security cooperation, empowering regional defense organizations, intelligence collection and analysis and anything else that helps prevent wars and keeps us from having to fight them. If you have to use those guns and tanks, your defense policy is failing. We need to be smart.-Lose our attachment to high price fancy weapons platforms (like the current, massive nuclear powered carrier battle groups,) which present juicy, vulnerable targets and reduce the number of vessels we can deploy. Integrate swarming methodologies into defense planning. Instead of a single carrier battle group, build multiple pocket carrier groups that allow force protection over a larger area and reduce the damage caused by the destruction of any one group. Swarming networks beat hierarchal systems every time.-Where the private sector can do it, let them. Nowhere is this more apparent than Congress’ insistance that NASA pour billions into the Space Launch System when there are private companies providing more innovative technologies at lower cost. This has the added benefit of developing our private sector space launch capability.-Doggedly focus on entitlement reform. Trade tax increases for medicare, medicaid and social security reform that will ensure these programs are viable and sustainable. When you’ve fixed them so they aren’t going to bankrupt us, then have the discussion about whether they are in our best interests.-Embrace immigration. Legal immigration has been the country’s heart and soul since its founding. The US is the best partly because the trials and tribulations involved in getting here will only be overcome by the most persistent and hardest workers who will do unimaginable things just to clean toilets because they want a better life. We're also a beacon for the educated and entrepreneurial across the globe. Encourage the best and brightest from around the world to come to the US. We can encourage innovation and entrepreneurship by making it as easy as possible for foreigners to immigrate if they possesses advanced degrees, can start businesses or can otherwise make positive contributions to society and our economy.-Embrace technology and be unswerving advocates for disruptive innovation. New technologies are going to radically reshape the way we think about the world, interact, communicate and relate to each other. Rather than holding on to a 1950′s idyllic worldview, recognize that the only constant in life is change, and move to shape those changes before they happen. (PS a little tip: the 50′s were only great if you were a white male. Women and black folks probably have markedly different opinions.)-Drop irrational moral objections to free markets for human organs and tissues. This is a route out of poverty for millions worldwide. Thousands of people die each year for lack of donor organs when there are millions who would gladly sell them. Otherwise you are generating the 21st century version of the illegal drug trade. This market should be highly regulated to ensure proper donor information and consent, and well tracked to ensure donors don’t have long term negative health outcomes. (I bet this one will generate the most emails.)-Promote free trade agreements and market access everywhere, but acknowledge these agreements disrupt US industries and need to be balanced by programs to assist people in effect industries in transitioning to new jobs. Embrace creative destruction.-Become the party of entrepreneurs, not just big business. Recognize that big businesses make money through the status quo. Vibrant entrepreneurism threatens established businesses. By aligning with big business, we embrace policies that stifle innovation. We need to balance both.-Embrace science and technology research as the cornerstone of our future weath. Uniformly reject and ostracize the ignorant fundamentalists who reject science and reason as the cornerstones of human progress and US prosperity. Space is the future of mankind, commit ourselves to space exploration and research. Space in the next two hundres years is analogous to the oceans over the past thousand years. Whomever masters it masters human civilization.-Embrace and dedicate ourselves to supporting a public education system that evolves to reflect the changing needs of the 21st Century. Quality education for all is an obligation of a free state that is in everyones enlightened self-interest. A well educated citizenry is the best way to ensure full employment, innovation, good health, respect for law and order, civic participation, family values, responsibility and all the other virtues important to classical Republicanism.-Give up the ignorant opposition to climate change and fight the scientifically defensible battle. Denying that the climate is changing is the new religious fundamentalism. It’s belief with no connection to reality. The climate is changing – it always does. The only argument is over to what extent humans are contributing to climate change and what, if anything we should do about it. Focus on prudent research that will develop accurate models of human impact, rather than radically reshaping the energy economy to account for possibilities. Focus on innovating our way out of our problems. Wildly promote and support alternative energy entrepreneurs which will develop new industries and preserve US competitiveness in energy markets.-Immediately cease support for the death penalty. There is no evidence that it provides any disincentive for murder, and it’s much costlier to try a death penalty case than to just lock a murderer up for life. Lock em up and save the money. If you believe, God will sort them out.Social libertarianism:-Stop the opposition to gay marriage, now. If two free people want to marry, let them. Don’t use the State to impinge on people’s freedom. Recognize that the concept of ‘family’ takes many many forms beyond the nuclear family. In a custom world, people need relationships that work for them. The important thing is: do the people in the relationship love each other and their children, and are they committed to each other? Those are the values we should promote, regardless of form.-Transform the war on drugs from one focused on prosecution and interdiction to one focused on prevention and treatment. If people want to use drugs, that’s their right so long as they do it in a way that doesn’t impact others. Reduce the focus on interdiction which doesn’t work and channels huge amounts of money towards narcotrafficants, who threaten state stability.-Diversity is our strength. Acknowledge, respect and embrace the idea that the United States is not a fixed vision, but evolves and changes based on the changing makeup of its citizens. The US looks like the world, but unlike the world where identity is frequently based on tribal, ethnic or regional affiliations, our identity is based on the shared acceptance of an idea: that we all want a better life and if we work hard and long, we can have one.-Accept all faiths that preach positive virtues like tolerance, love, compassion and understanding. Focus on confronting those preaching hate and fear within ones own faith rather than allow them to spread their venomous messages. Stop the irrational fear-mongering about Islam and recognize how all religions which preach love can also have subsets that twist the doctrine to hate.-Religion and faith are important cornerstones of American life, but not everyone agrees on one Truth. Keep your faith, but keep religion out of politics. This is consistent with the ideal that you can believe in whatever you want, so long as it doesn’t impinge on my life.-Recognize that people have different views on abortion. Some feel a fetus is a living being at conception, others believe it’s just a mass of undifferentiated cells. Ultimately, if you believe, then God will judge whether it’s right or wrong. Support research that will allow fetuses to survive outside the womb. If a mother chooses to terminate her pregnancy, the fetus would be transfered to an artificial womb for ‘gestation’. This allows the mother to terminate the pregnancy and keep the fetus alive. But if you oppose abortion, you’d better be adopting these kids or supporting organizations that care for them.-Possession of guns are a Constitutional right, but this right is not absolute. If you think it is absolute, then you should support the local Wal Mart stocking recoilless rifles and RPGs. Obviously this is lunacy and contrary to Supreme Court rulings. The right is not absolute and rather than blindly rejecting any legislation that would restrict gun sales, inject some rationality into the conversation. Recognize that while guns don’t kill people, people kill people and guns do make it a lot easier to kill people. We need methods of ensuring that lunatics who want to commit mass shootings have difficulty obtaining weapons. Law enforcement needs to be empowered to find these people and prevent such incidents.-Support mandatory public service for two years in exchange for free college. While this may seem contrary to libertarianism, public service is good for creating a civil society and is important for building a strong, responsible citizenry. And education, science and technology are the key to our future economic, social and military power.-Lose the Tea Party. They are a bunch of ignorant, fundamentalist, anti-business, anti-entrepreneurship, anti-scientist, anti-muslim, anti-gay, anti-immigration, anti-everything, nuevo-anarchist wackos who have no idea how much the government does that's positive and have little clue how the world outside their car dealership actually works. They're the party of no. They exist to vote no and haven't come up with one good idea that's worth a damn. I agree with much of their fiscal platform but their 'pray the gay away' and 'Muslims are infiltrating our white, Christian America' type social attitudes are just nuts and turn off 85% of the public. Boot them and let em start their own party, which will wither and die.

Since independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Japan has been consistently participating in the development process of Bangladesh. Both Japan as a country and its people have a strong affinity towards Bangladesh despite of all changes in Bangladeshi domestic politics and diplomatic stance. Japan was first among industrialised nations to recognise Bangladesh on February 10, 1972. Though Bangladesh's bilateral relations with other countries and regions changed dramatically depending on international politics and fluctuating economic relations, Japan has consistently maintained very significant, effective and stable relations characterised by mutual trust and cordial friendship and actively committed to the Bangladesh's efforts in development.The epitome of existing mutual understanding and cordial relations between the people of Bangladesh and Japan has a historical backdrop. According to Professor Tsuyoshi Nara, one of the earliest evidence of close contacts between the two peoples goes back to around four hundred years when Japanese fine artists carried back a widely used colour from Bengal to Japan, still known as Bengaru (Bengal) colour. The foundation of this bondage between the two nations is euphorically established on four commonalities -- food habit as they are fond of rice and fish, religious reminiscences as Buddhism migrated to Japan from this land, anthropological affinity as they look alike in physical appearance and natural harmony as both land have mountains and sea, rivers and greenery. Close contacts between these two nations go back to the early years of the twentieth century, when Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1942), who visited Japan six times and Tenshin Okakura (1862-1913), a distinguished Japanese fine arts scholar, and Taikan Yokoyama, a Japanese master of painting, profoundly affected and influenced each other's work through their friendship. During the hundred years of twentieth century only Bengali and Japanese writers got Nobel prize in literature in Asia --one is a Bangalee Rabindranath Tagore in 1913 and two others are Japanese Yansunary Kawabata (1899 -1972) in 1968 and Kenjaburey Oe (1935-)| in 1994.Close political relations between the two countries cemented in the perspectives of anti-British Revolutionary Movement, particularly through Rash Behari Bose, a Bengali revolutionary leader. Japan became the main centre of the Bengali revolutionaries in exile. On 16th February 1942, General Tojo, the then Prime Minister of Japan, made a declaration supporting the cause of Indian independence. Japan gave active support in the matter of creation of "Azad Hind Fouj" by Rash Behari Bose and with the taking over the post of Commander in Chief of AHF by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose(1897-1945). An event of the World War II attracted the attention of the Japanese people very respectfully towards the Bengali. Dr Radha Binode Paul (1886-1967), a Judge of the International Military Court (Tokyo 1946-48), did not consider Japan guilty of war crimes. Dr Justice Paul, born in Salimpur of Kushtia district in present Bangladesh. He was the Justice of the Calcutta High Court (1941-43) and then the Vice-chancellor of Calcutta University (1943-44). He was appointed one of the Judges of the Military Court. This historical verdict of Justice Paul aroused a sense of relief, courage and strength in the minds of the Japanese people.As Tagore, Bose and Paul all were Bengalees, the Japanese people have had special regards, respects and fellow feeling for the people of Bengal comparing than to people of other regions in India. After the recovery from Second World War Japanese economic assistance and investment first came to the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) before any other part of India. In 1971 the Japanese people and the government became very much sympathetic and helpful in the matter of freedom struggle of Bangladesh, though at that time Japan was an ardent ally of USA. Immediately after the recognition Japan dispatched an economic mission under leadership of Takeshi Hayakawa (1917-1982) to Bangladesh to stand by her in rebuilding and rehabilitating war ravaged economy.Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between Bangladesh and Japan, Japan has been extending its aid assistance to Bangladesh. Japanese overseas development assistance (ODA) for Bangladesh has been focused less conditional, favourable to the development and realization of her aim for self-reliance and poverty alleviation and development of infrastructure. When we look at the Aid commitment and disbursement position of Japan's ODA to Bangladesh, it reveals a vivid picture of Japan's leading trend of Japanese participation in the development process of Bangladesh. At the reconstruction and rehabilitation stage the participation was providing ODA to Bangladesh, initially more in the form of Food Aid, Commodity Aid and Project Aid. Among the 20 major international donors providing economic assistance to Bangladesh, Japan stands just after IDA (International Development Association) but bilaterally, the largest development partner of Bangladesh. Japan, the second largest economy and technologically the most advanced nation in the world, has been able to project its positive image as the leading development partner of Bangladesh. Over the years, the relationship and economic cooperation between these two Asian countries have been growing stronger and stronger. Since 1985 Bangladesh has ranked first as the recipient of Japan's Grant Aid (roughly 10 per cent of Japan's total grant aid) with a moderate rate of increase annually.The Foreign Aid Flow chart reflects that over the period of 1971/72 to June 2009, Bangladesh received a total grant of US$ 3287.820 million and total amount of loans of US$ 3671.632 was disbursed from Japan which stands the highest among the 20 major donors. Out of this amount total Project Aid disbursement stands at US$ 2905.289 million bilaterally from Japan and which is the highest among all the development partners. Till 1976, Japanese ODA was dominated by the Food and Commodity Aid, and there after the Project Assistance started increasing gradually. Up to 1980, the volume of Food and Commodity Aid was greater than Project Aid. The table reveals the fact that Food Aid stands the lowest in comparison to Commodity and to Project Aid, and it is only of 7.62 per cent of the total Grant Aid amount and Food loan is of 4.75 per cent of total loan disbursed over the said period. Again over the period, Japan has the second leading position in terms of Food Aid disbursement to Bangladesh, after the USA. In the initial years (1971-1976), Bangladesh had to have Food Aid largely in the form of grant because of its food shortage due to war and post-war situations, but gradually she attained her food sufficiency through some special internal policy programs like income growth/self-reliance movement/Green Revolution being supported heavily by the high fertility rate of her lands and adoption of Multi-crop Diversified Agricultural and Irrigation system, the declining birth rate achieved through successful Family Planning Programs over the decades.The Aid Flow chart also shows that out of whole of Japanese ODA (US$ 6959.452 Million) disbursed to Bangladesh over the period of 1971-June 2009, the amount of loan was US$ 3671.632 million (51.64 per cent ) . It also reveals an increasing rate of commodity loan. This type of loan has been used to assist the balance of payments and fiscal revenue and to purchase/import raw materials and intermediary goods, machineries in order to provide support to the productive sectors and some priority projects. As macro economic management, commodity loans have been found contributing and supporting to the generation of foreign exchange by selling imported goods and to meet up the local cost of some projects. It is a fact that Japan as donor and Bangladesh as the recipient country thrusts their importance on the effective appraisal, planning and formulation procedures and implementation and utilisation of commodity loans and supply of necessary goods in the aid package with realistic commitment and feasible conditionality. In terms of development process, Bangladesh has been benefited by the Japanese Debt Relief Grant Assistance (DRGA) arrangements and through this type of mechanism, Bangladesh gets back the amount she pays to Japan in the form of debt servicing in accordance with the decision undertaken in the Board of Trade and Development of UNCTAD in its session of 12 March 1978. The Government of Japan adopted Debt Relief Measures in the form of Japan Debt Cancellation Fund (JDCF) which replaced the earlier DRGA. A Note of Exchange was signed between Bangladesh and Japan on March 21, 2004 in this regard. Under this JDCF, Bangladesh will be getting the benefit of Debt Cancellation of about US$ 160 million each year up to the year of 2018.Japanese Technical Assistance and Cooperation to Bangladesh is also appreciable. JICA has extended its technical cooperation through funding and implementing Technical Cooperation Projects in Bangladesh in the prime sectors of Education, Health, Environment, Disaster Management, Agriculture and Rural Development, Power, Transport and also in private sector over the last two decades. The Government of Japan sent around 800 survey teams, more than 300 Experts Dispatched , trained about 1800 Bangladeshi participants, dispatched 267 JOCVs, a total of 21794 persons over the period of 2000-2009 for which spent around 14 billion Yen including some equipment of around 700 million Yen. Agreement on technical cooperation between Japan and Bangladesh was signed in 2002 for promotion of bilateral technical cooperation. There remain huge scope of strengthening technical cooperation between both the countries including transfer of advanced and appropriate technology to Bangladesh and utilization of Bangladeshi human resource in Small and Medium Enterprises as well as in ICT in Japan.Bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and Japan has also been enhanced in other areas, especially in trade and investment. Japan has been one of major destinations for Bangladeshi goods. In recent years, shoes, prawns, garments and leather goods are major export products to Japan. Bangladesh is trying to diversify export and develop more export oriented industries. These very constructive measures will improve the existing situation and open up a new window of opportunities for trade and investment between two friendly countries.Japan strongly supports that Bangladesh, in her development process, should make further headway in poverty reduction with a view to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for that purpose, Bangladesh must (1) expand and stabilise its basis of growth driven by the private sector, (2) expand social development, and (3) improve governance. In particular, Japan upholds that, it is necessary to provide cooperation bearing in mind the perspective of human security while promoting social development.Standing on the above-mentioned basic stance, Japan considers the bilateral relations with Bangladesh always to be of vital importance in view of the changes in the international community at the end of the Cold War, globalisation, promotion of economic partnerships and growing interest in development issues against the background of socioeconomic changes taking place in Bangladesh and Japan.