Japan Welcomes Hostages

Grammatron

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From the article:
Two days before her daughter was freed Thursday night by her captors in Iraq, 65-year-old Kyoko Takato was apologizing to the public, using words more befitting of the parent of a criminal.

A sticker covers part of a poster advertising the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho on a Sapporo subway train to hide the titles of articles about three Japanese hostages recently released in Iraq.
....
Immediately after it was learned that the trio had been taken hostage, politicians, top bureaucrats and the media openly accused them of risking not only their own lives but also of jeopardizing the government's activities in Iraq by entering the strife-torn country despite repeated orders by the Foreign Ministry to keep out.

Some members of the public were equally unsympathetic; the hostages' relatives received countless harassing telephone calls and were bashed on Internet bulletin boards, including the well-known Channel 2.
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That's a rather harsh treatment, is this cultural thing?
 
I don't get what the japanese public is so infuriated about. It just seems totally absurd to me. They should be happy that the hostages was released. I can imagine it must be some cultural thing.
 
It's an extension of the societal virtue of blind adherance to rules, regardless of feelings. --The government had warned private citizens to stay out of Iraq, and they went against the grain.
"The nail that sticks out gets hammered in."

Also in a sense the government is saying "Look, we sent our troops because we want Uncle America to still like us. But why on Earth would you want to go there to help if you didn't have to! Serves you right!"

However, while the government has stated it's position, public opinion on the matter is divided. A lot of folks I've talked to are embarrassed by this reaction by the government and expect it will be harmful to future volunteer activities in general.

That'll learn 'em.

edited to add:

I believe a lot of the harassment stemmed from the fact that certain members of the hostages' families began vocally crusading for the withdrawl of the Japanese troops, as a solution to the problem.
 
Re: Re: Japan Welcomes Hostages

Mycroft said:


I haven't really followed the story, but I believe there has been speculation that the Japanese hostages may have been lefty anti-war types who had a hand in their own kidnappings.

http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=3500
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yes but I'm sure your tinfoil helmet will protect you....

you believe there has been speculation....Lol, well I'm sure there has been plenty of speculation like this in "American thinker" you really need to aim up a bit Mycroft...Memri, now this joke rag... They still believe WMD exist "right under the feet of the coalition forces" Thats if they can fit it in amongst the commies under the bed articles and the Zionist propaganda. ........ When I first read this site I thought it was a joke, like the onion or the landover baptists.....


well, you've bought up the topic...what is this speculation that these people where complicit in thier abduction. Any names of who is speculating this?...or did you just throw it in for propaganda purposes?
 
Fool, I've been meaning to ask you something for quite a few months now:

Just how did you lose half your IQ?
 
I think the speculations arose when it got known that a couple of the hostages was against the war. The speculation has been in the japanese public and media, and not as you assume The Fool merely in rightist american media. I believe the speculations are only based on the fact that a couple of them was against the war, so it seems quite unfair and unbased.
 
plindboe said:
I think the speculations arose when it got known that a couple of the hostages was against the war. The speculation has been in the japanese public and media, and not as you assume The Fool merely in rightist american media. I believe the speculations are only based on the fact that a couple of them was against the war, so it seems quite unfair and unbased.
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Very True plindboe. I've no doubt is was merely picked up and passed on by the wacko website that Mycroft picked it up from in order to pass on to this board.

Unfortunately, for a skeptic board this place is populated with a high proportion of people who feel that reposting propaganda is thier duty to "the cause".

This sort of mindless speculation is righ up there with the "americans complicit in 911" stuff.... But anyway...If Mycroft wants to challenge Richard G and Zenith-Nadir for the title of Jrefs principal pap reposter thats his business.
 
Originally posted by The Fool
This sort of mindless speculation is righ up there with the "americans complicit in 911" stuff.... But anyway...If Mycroft wants to challenge Richard G and Zenith-Nadir for the title of Jrefs principal pap reposter thats his business.
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Okay, if I had known it would hurt your feelings, I wouldn't have made the pap comment. I'm sorry.:rub:
 
All five of the hostages have been referred to in various Western media sources here and there as "aid workers", "humanitarian workers", or "peace activists", which are generic terms that could mean anything, either "leftist" or not.
 
Goshawk said:
All five of the hostages have been referred to in various Western media sources here and there as "aid workers", "humanitarian workers", or "peace activists", which are generic terms that could mean anything, either "leftist" or not.
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What you have to realize about Mycroft is that He repeats this sort of speculation on this board out of some sence of duty to a cause. He doesn't particularly care about its accuracy... In his mind any sort of connection to Aid word must equal "lefty" and "lefty" equals saddam supporter.... so leaping to the conclusion that they staged the whole thing is natural for the sites Mycroft inhabits.... so he reposts it here. On a skeptics board! then wonders why he gets laughed at.
 
Originally posted by The Fool
What you have to realize about Mycroft is that He repeats this sort of speculation on this board out of some sence of duty to a cause. He doesn't particularly care about its accuracy... In his mind any sort of connection to Aid word must equal "lefty" and "lefty" equals saddam supporter.... so leaping to the conclusion that they staged the whole thing is natural for the sites Mycroft inhabits.... so he reposts it here. On a skeptics board! then wonders why he gets laughed at.
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Oh get real. I repeated the speculation not because I thought it was true, but because it was a possible explanation of why these people got the cold shoulder when they got home. Further, I said it was speculation precisely because that’s all it was, something said with little or no backing. The link I provided was not where I first came across such speculation, but simply the first thing google provided that showed that there was such speculation.

Also, I’m afraid you’re guilty of making up my opinions for me, precisely the behavior you abhor in others. Everything from my supposed sense of duty, equating aid with lefty, equating lefty with Saddam supporter to the types of sites I inhabit.

Hypocrite.
 
Recent article:
3 Japanese hostages billed $30,000 for travel expenses home from Iraq

Harumi Arima, a political analyst, said the public backlash against the victims stemmed from how their relatives tearfully- and at times angrily - demanded the government withdraw its troops from Iraq to save the lives of their loved ones.
"It's the families and the way they demanded a pullout," ...
...Arima said TV images of some of the victims' siblings yelling at government officials helped fuel the criticism.
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As with most of the public, I felt sympathy for the families and the victims themselves. But the drama queen posturing of Takato's brother and sister only served to shoot themselves in the foot by souring public feeling on the matter. (Sounds cold but if you saw it you know what I mean)

When they finally realized that they weren't heroes campaigning in the name of the Japanese people,---that in fact most of Japan was not on their side on the issue of troop withdrawl, they clammed up.

(ps I don't agree that the government should bill the hostages.)

Edited to clarify: I'm just stating facts--Of course I find the harassment of the hostages and their families deplorable, as do most Japanese.
 
The Fool said:


What you have to realize about Mycroft is that He repeats this sort of speculation on this board out of some sence of duty to a cause. He doesn't particularly care about its accuracy... In his mind any sort of connection to Aid word must equal "lefty" and "lefty" equals saddam supporter.... so leaping to the conclusion that they staged the whole thing is natural for the sites Mycroft inhabits.... so he reposts it here. On a skeptics board! then wonders why he gets laughed at.
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Yeah well Voob posted a link and in case you're still stubborn here is another

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=296512
 
Mycroft said:



Also, I’m afraid you’re guilty of making up my opinions for me, precisely the behavior you abhor in others. Everything from my supposed sense of duty, equating aid with lefty, equating lefty with Saddam supporter to the types of sites I inhabit.

Hypocrite.
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My apologies if what you post is not your opinion.
Have you considered a disclaimer in your sig line?

And if you don't want to be associated with certain sites, stop linking to them.....
 
Yeah well Voob posted a link and in case you're still stubborn here is another
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Mind you, my link had nothing to do with the preposterous notion that the hostages staged their own abductions.
I don't know what the families' stance was on the troop situation before the abductions, as the self-defence forces are there in the role of aid workers themselves...
 
Originally posted by The Fool My apologies if what you post is not your opinion.
Have you considered a disclaimer in your sig line?

And if you don't want to be associated with certain sites, stop linking to them.....
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I’ll tell you what, why don’t you just document anything I’ve said that indicates the following:

1) That I feel any sense of duty on the issue of the Japanese hostages.

2) That I equate aid with lefty.

3) That I equate Leftist with Saddam supporter.

4) Show where I have ever linked with that site before, or have any association with it other than having found it on a google search of the subject.

Normally I wouldn’t care about any of this. With anyone else I’d respond to a misrepresentation of my views with a simple correction and clarification and then move on.

But from you it’s very blatant hypocrisy. You whined for weeks about how supposedly Skeptic was making up quotes for you, even going so far as to start a thread bringing it to the attention of the administration and still makes sure that everyone knows you have him on ignore for doing it, when in truth all he did was this very thing, to extrapolate opinions from statements you’ve made. Add that to how you constantly drop comments like No need for me to state my opinion, X has already made up my mind for me. and this become even more absurd.
 
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