THE WALL:

On February 5, 2020, U.S. President Donald J. Trump delivered his last State of the Union Address of this term before both houses of Congress. The State of the Union Address, delivered orally or in writing in the early part of the year, meets the requirement of the U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 3, Clause 1) that the President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
This year’s SOTU took place amid a highly divided Washington, D.C. Symbolic of this partisan division, President Trump snubbed a handshake by Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who issued the invitation on December 20, 2019, for the President to speak, ironically two days after he was impeached in the HoR. Furthermore, his address was delivered the day before the vote over his trial in the Senate was to come. (He was subsequently acquitted of the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.) Demonstrating the rancor between Democrats and Trump, Speaker Pelosi tore up the president’s speech on live television after he finished and before he stepped down from the podium.
In the 1 hr, 18 min address, Trump discussed the issue of immigration, crime committed by illegal aliens and healthcare, and border enforcement.

Over 130 legislators in this chamber have endorsed legislation that would bankrupt our nation by providing free taxpayer-funded healthcare to millions of illegal aliens, forcing taxpayers to subsidize free care for anyone in the world who unlawfully crosses our borders. These proposals would raid the Medicare benefits of our seniors and that our seniors depend on, while acting as a powerful lure for illegal immigration. That is what is happening in California and other states. Their systems are totally out of control, costing taxpayers vast and unaffordable amounts of money. If forcing American taxpayers to provide unlimited free healthcare to illegal aliens sounds fair to you, then stand with the radical left.  But if you believe that we should defend American patients and American seniors, then stand with me and pass legislation to prohibit free government healthcare for illegal aliens. (Applause.) This will be a tremendous boon to our already very strongly guarded southern border where, as we speak, a long, tall, and very powerful wall is being built. (Applause.) We have now completed over 100 miles and have over 500 miles fully completed in a very short period of time. Early next year, we will have substantially more than 500 miles completed. A better tomorrow for all Americans also requires us to keep America safe. That means supporting the men and women of law enforcement at every level, including our nation’s heroic ICE officers. (Applause.) Last year, our brave ICE officers arrested more than 120,000 criminal aliens charged with nearly 10,000 burglaries, 5,000 sexual assaults, 45,000 violent assaults, and 2,000 murders. Tragically, there are many cities in America where radical politicians have chosen to provide sanctuary for these criminal illegal aliens.
AUDIENCE: Booo —.
THE PRESIDENT: In sanctuary cities, local officials order police to release dangerous criminal aliens to prey upon the public, instead of handing them over to ICE to be safely removed. Just 29 days ago, a criminal alien freed by the sanctuary city of New York was charged with the brutal rape and murder of a 92-year-old woman. The killer had been previously arrested for assault, but under New York’s sanctuary policies, he was set free. If the city had honored ICE’s detainer request, his victim would still be alive today. The state of California passed an outrageous law declaring their whole state to be a sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants — a very terrible sanctuary — with catastrophic results. Here is just one tragic example. In December 2018, California police detained an illegal alien with five prior arrests, including convictions for robbery and assault. But as required by California’s Sanctuary Law, local authorities released him. Days later, the criminal alien went on a gruesome spree of deadly violence. He viciously shot one man going about his daily work. He approached a woman sitting in her car and shot her in the arm and in the chest. He walked into a convenience store and wildly fired his weapon. He hijacked a truck and smashed into vehicles, critically injuring innocent victims. One of the victims is — a terrible, terrible situation; died — 51-year-old American named Rocky Jones. Rocky was at a gas station when this vile criminal fired eight bullets at him from close range, murdering him in cold blood. Rocky left behind a devoted family, including his brothers, who loved him more than anything else in the world. One of his grieving brothers is here with us tonight. Jody, would you please stand? Jody, thank you. (Applause.) Jody our hearts weep for your loss, and we will not rest until you have justice. Senator Thom Tillis has introduced legislation to allow Americans like Jody to sue sanctuary cities and states when a loved one is hurt or killed as a result of these deadly practices. (Applause.) I ask Congress to pass the Justice for Victims of Sanctuary Cities Act immediately. The United States of America should be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not criminal aliens. (Applause.) In the last three years, ICE has arrested over 5,000 wicked human traffickers. And I have signed nine pieces of legislation to stamp out the menace of human trafficking, domestically and all around the globe. My administration has undertaken an unprecedented effort to secure the southern border of the United States. (Applause.) Before I came into office, if you showed up illegally on our southern border and were arrested, you were simply released and allowed into our country, never to be seen again. My administration has ended catch and release. (Applause.) If you come illegally, you will now be promptly removed from our country. (Applause.) Very importantly, we entered into historic cooperation agreements with the governments of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. As a result of our unprecedented efforts, illegal crossings are down 75 percent since May, dropping eight straight months in a row. (Applause.) And as the wall rapidly goes up, drug seizures rise, and the border crossings are down, and going down very rapidly. Last year, I traveled to the border in Texas and met Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz. Over the last 24 months, Agent Ortiz and his team have 

seized more than 200,000 pounds of poisonous narcotics, arrested more than 3,000 human smugglers, and rescued more than 2,000 migrants. Days ago, Agent Ortiz was promoted to Deputy Chief of Border Patrol, and he joins us tonight. Chief Ortiz, please stand. (Applause.) A grateful nation thanks you and all of the heroes of Border Patrol and ICE. Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.) To build on these historic gains, we are working on legislation to replace our outdated and randomized immigration system with one based on merit, welcoming those who follow the rules, contribute to our economy, support themselves financially, and uphold our values. (Applause.)

Chief Ortiz, who was a soldier in the U.S. Army before joining Border Patrol in 1991, was one of those whose bios was featured on the White House’s website (https://www.whitehouse.gov/sotu/) under the SOTU.
Trump’s 2nd SOTU, delivered in 2019, spent even more time—nearly 1/3rd of the entire speech—on the issue of illegal immigration, and in it, discusses the “caravan” issue (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-state-union-address-2/).
It is the United States, and the Western Hemisphere, as a whole that is the setting of the book you have before you by the prolific writer, Takashima Tetsuo. 
I first met the author in May 2007. He and I were speakers in a course taught at the Osaka University School of International Public Policy (Ōsaka Daigaku Kokusai Kōkyō Seisaku Kenkyūka), where I was a tenured associate professor. I had co-founded the course in the Fall of 2001 with a university colleague, Dr. Hoshino Toshiya, now Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, and representatives of the Ōsaka Provincial Liaison Office (Ōsaka Chihō Renraku Honbu) which represents the interests of all three services making up the Self-Defense Forces (Jieitai) in Ōsaka Prefecture. 
The class, called the Workshop on International Security (Kokusai Anzen Hōshō Waakushoppu), brought together leading experts, government officials, and military officers to discuss aspects of international or regional security issues. Beginning in 2005, following the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia and South and Southeast Asia, we began looking more and more at natural disasters. 
Takashima stimulated the students and faculty with his lecture that day, based on a number of works he had written to date, including Kyodai Jishin no Hi: Inochi o Mamoru Tame no Hontō no Koto (which I later translated as Megaquake) about how Japan would fare if a disaster similar to the Indian Ocean tsunami hit the country. It was five years after his book came out, and four years after our joint lecture, that I was in Sendai helping to respond to the Great East Japan Earthquake. When I returned from the mission, I asked Takashima if I could translate that book. He granted permission, and it came out in 2015 published by Potomac Books. As a result of the earthquake, our intellectual exchanges were renewed.
What I especially appreciate about Takashima is his approach to research and writing, namely his fieldwork—being on the ground to see things for himself. I saw him when he came to Okinawa for research on his books about the police there, for example, and was able to pay him back a little bit by showing him around and making introductions. Moreover, because I find his views and thinking so insightful, I arranged for him to give two talks in Okinawa during one of his trips to the operational forces of the U.S. Marine Corps at the headquarters of III Marine Expeditionary Forces and another one for the disaster planners of Okinawa’s 41 local municipalities. 
Takashima has had an interesting career. He was born in 1949 in Okayama Prefecture, between Kōbe and Hiroshima. He still lives not-too-far from Okayama, in Tarumi Ward, Kōbe, in the very western part of Japan’s fifth-largest city. After studying in the Engineering Department of Keiō University in Tōkyō, he began working as a researcher for the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (Nihon Genshiryoku Kenkyū Kaihatsu Kikō), created in 1956. Subsequently, he moved to the United States, where he conducted further studies at the University of California. Upon his return to Japan, he began writing while managing a private preparatory school. Fallout was his debut novel and won the 1994 Shōsetsu Gendai Mystery Newcomer Award. Other novels include the action thriller Intruder, which won the 1999 Suntory Mystery Award. Takashima has written more than thirty novels in the disaster, action, thriller, suspense, mystery, and juvenile fiction genres. 
Takashima is years ahead of everyone in thinking about natural and man-made disasters. We should listen to his advice, through his writings, speeches, blogs, and other activities.
This book, The Wall, is about a refugee crisis originating in a fictional country called Cordoba run by a dictator, which leads a “caravan” heading to the United States and a conflict at the border in which many of the refugees are killed. Although it is fiction, it is also real, and represents the daily struggle and fears of refugees around the world, and those who live in oppressive states or dysfunctional countries. 
Takashima began writing the book two years ago, as a result of international refugee crisis in Europe and the debate in the United States, which picked up speed after Trump was elected and proceeded to ban people from certain countries from entering the country and call on Mexico to pay for a wall to be built on the border. Trump’s policies, described by many as inhumane, have brought many new tragedies, but these inhumane policies and the situation that preceded them did not start when Trump entered office. They had existed before. An example of “man’s inhumanity to man.”
Through this book, therefore, Takashima is expressing the hope that a more humane immigration and refugee system exists worldwide, including in the United States, where he lived earlier in his life, not too far from the border with Mexico in southern California. But the appeal is not limited to just the United States—it is also a matter for Japan, which is still very reluctant to welcome refugees or even accept immigrants. “Japan must take a greater interest in refugees and immigrant matters,” Takashima told this writer recently, “as there is much Japan can do.” I hope that the reader finishes the book with that feeling as well.