The History of Hating Japanese.
October 28th 2006 21:53
Kob's Crap
For the last hundred years Asia has hated the Japanese and for at least half of that time, so has the West. Certainly as a race, the public utterances of their leaders and representatives has been very hard to understand. Nor is it at all clear that, like the Germans, they have been sufficiently penitential. The Germans have a culture both during the last world war and in the half century after, of intellectuals, Brecht, Werner Hertzog, Fatzbinder, Gunter Grass and others of calling their nation to account for what happened. The Japanese have this in a limited form but these writers and intellectuals are virtually unknown within their own country and known only to the literati in the West.
The building of the Holocaust museum which has been part of the German spiritual reparations, is inconceivable in Tokyo. Textbooks which either gloss over what appalling things were done in Asia or portray the Japanese military as heroes would never have been permitted in Germany nor would a shrine to Hitler (leaving aside Angela Merkel’s shocking visit to a Waffen- SS shrine) , as there is one to Tojo, Japanese general and wartime Prime Minister at the Yasakuni Shrine. The inscription there reads, “Japan was forced into the conflict to maintain independence and peace of the nation and to increase the prosperity of all Asia.” It is easy to understand why this upsets the Chinese so much. The Japanese killed 10 million of them. They went about this in a way that gives reality to all of the bizarre propaganda posters nations create during conflict. In Nanking where they were led by a cousin of the Emperor, they butchered 200,000 including raping women to death and impaling infants on rifle bayonets. It was almost as if the soldiers foretold the Western posters which would portray them as barbarian monsters.
Under the command of General Ichi (who was never prosecuted for his crimes) the Japanese “experimented” on Chinese including using their bodies to test the impact of high caliber weapons and seeding the population with plaque carrying fleas which they dropped from planes like crop dusting insecticides. Kobayashi Yoshinori, the Japanese cartoonist believes that Japanese text books should be more patriotic and the Chinese have made up the stories of atrocities. His cartoon, On War sold 600,00 copies. His work is vile, kitsch and sentimental. It is an appalling atrocity in itself.
Elvis Fan
We have already been presented with the ridiculous figure of the Japanese Prime Minister, Koizumi, crooning Liza Marie Presley at Graceland with “Love me Tender” Bush presented him with a jukebox full of Elvis hits to celebrate their, “close friendship”. Instead of going to Yasakuni Shrine to lay wreathes he should be bowing and begging forgiveness for what was done in the name of Japanese Imperialism. If the English can dig up their dictators and chuck them in a sewer there is no reason the Japanese cannot do the same.
If the Japanese are concerned about their image in the West then perhaps they had better start behaving themselves and start telling the truth in their history.
| 80 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Big Cat
Chatterpillar
My dealings in business and personally with Japanese people have been enjoyable. I'd like to see the cloud of the past cleared from above their heads, instead of staying black - like a Sword of Damacales.
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by spain01
Juan Carlos
spain again
While your'e about it
Viva l'difference
Fire News Blog
Cities dying of thirst.
Comment by Big Cat
Chatterpillar
Question on the same angle - prime ministerial look-alike celebrities:
Who would you say is John Howard's?
Comment by spain01
Juan Carlos
spain again
While your'e about it
Viva l'difference
Fire News Blog
Cities dying of thirst.
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Daily Inspirations
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
I hope one day Japan takes a more pro-active stance on rewriting their history, though.
Comment by spain01
Juan Carlos
spain again
While your'e about it
Viva l'difference
Fire News Blog
Cities dying of thirst.
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Daily Inspirations
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Comment by spain01
Juan Carlos
spain again
While your'e about it
Viva l'difference
Fire News Blog
Cities dying of thirst.