Regarding Roger Pulvers' July 22 Counterpoint article, "Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto: 'What Japan needs now is dictatorship' ": On the contrary, what Japan needs is less of Toru Hashimoto. Was he alive during World War II, sponsored by a variety of dictators? I doubt it. I recall vividly many of the worst aspects of that war, as I lived through it.

If the likes of Hashimoto had existed then, it is more than likely that the word "dictator" would leave a nasty taste.

Dictators exist only to climb to the top of the rest of humanity. In doing so, they crush everything in their path. When a dictator bud appears on the human bush, that is the moment to prune it!