Swedish Experiments

摘要

The beginning of the New Year was mild. Growing buds of Japanese red apricot are reflecting themselves on the window pane of my study. As I was trying to organize a heap of newspaper clips in the soft light of the first sun of the year, I found a piece of information sent by Mr. Mikio Ito from Stockholm. "The government of Sweden embarked on a large reduction in armament including cutting of more than 50% of garrisons based on a perception that the military threat of Russia largely diminished in these ten years after the end of the Cold War." (Yomiuri Shimbun, November 27, 1999).