Those silly Asian people

Bruce

Philosopher
Bruce
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Messages
7,519
Anti-Japan protests in China

Demonstrations against Japan have spread in China since Tokyo approved a new history textbook that critics say glosses over atrocities by Japan's military in the first half of the 20th century, including forcing tens of thousands of Asian women into sex slavery.
Click to expand...

They shouted "Boycott Japanese goods!" and some threw plastic bottles of mineral water at the store.
Click to expand...

This means WAR!!
 
Bruce said:
Anti-Japan protests in China





This means WAR!!
Click to expand...

One of my coworkers mothers family was bound, shot in the back and kicked into a ditch in North eastern China by invading Japanese troops, her father was the only one who managed to flee.
All her great grandparents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins got to wait in turn on thier knees watching the others shot and kicked into the ditch in turn... This was done because some Chinese troops fired on the advancing Japanese from the village.

Do you have any Idea at all what happened there?
 
The Japanese invasion and occupation of China (and surrounding countries, including Korea) was particularly brutal.
On NPR this morning, they mentioned the Nanjing massacre, in which 200,000+ people were killed.

There are well-verified accounts of human slavery, germ warfare experimentation, mass killings, and numerous other atrocities.
 
China accused Japan of inaccurate textbooks. What do the Chinese textbooks say about the Cultural Revolution and Tianeman Square?

The Japanese textbooks should be accurate but China is not exactly the proper place for the attacks to be coming from.

CBL
 
People's feelings about the PRC aside, this is basically akin to Germany officially adopting textbooks downplaying the Holocaust or pretending it never happened.

I'd be pretty outraged, too.
 
It's the Chinese fault for not using the proper fung shei to ward of the Japanese invaders in the 1930s.
 
This whole thing mystifies me.

The events in Manchuria and in Nanjing (yes, two widely separate areas) are really quite awful.

I don't think that "reparations" of any sort would have any point at this time, but I think that all parties need to stop rewriting history to avoid mentioning this kind of stuff.

For the record, half of my father in law's family was in Nanjing. Never heard from again.
 
Quelle surprise! Didn't the Japanese also gloss over the fact they attacked the US when putting together text books for their youth.

Charlie (youth in asia) Monoxide
 
It's the United States fault. If they had mandated the truth (all sides) be told when they ran Japan, this wouldn't be happening. Stupid short sighted Americans!
 
jay gw said:
It's the United States fault. If they had mandated the truth (all sides) be told when they ran Japan, this wouldn't be happening. Stupid short sighted Americans!
Click to expand...

No, it's all Bill Clinton's fault. I'm not sure how, but I'm sure it is.


Wasn't there some fuss a couple months ago about those interminable Texas school textbooks? I remember hearing that one book for elementary school students made mention that "and Africans came over to help the white settlers with their plantations". When objections were made, some moron lost his head and explained "well, it was just a brief overview, not meant to get into the details"!
 
This rewriting of history is only a symptom of very strong Japanese nationalism.

This extreme nationalism has gotten them in a lot of trouble. Another symptom is that they don't want to give reparations or apologies.


This will come back to bite them in their rear.
 
If I'm not mistaken, there's another textbook that lays claim to a set of islands that apparently actually belong to Korea, or at least are part of a long standing arguement.

It doesn't seem like this is an isolated incident...
 
My wife's family fled from China to Viet Nam when the communists took over, then when the communists took over Viet Nam, they fled to Hong Kong. The boat carrying my wife, then four years old, her mother, brother, aunt, and cousin lost power to their engine and drifted along the shores in the dark. They were nearly caught by Chinese patrol boats, but eventually made it to Hong Kong, and then went on to the US. The boat carrying my wife's father and the rest of her family were not so lucky. They were never found. It was assumed that the North Vietnamese or Chinese captured and killed them.

Yes, I know much of the history of China and Japan through history lessons, stories of my in-laws, and stories of my former room-mates. Atrocities gallore.

What I find silly is protests over another country's history books. For all I know, the British history books might say that they voluntarily gave our country independance in 1776. I don't care. It's their country, and it's not as if our history books aren't white washed and politically biased as well.

What does throwing water bottles at stores selling Japanese goods accomplish?: Precisely dick. Trust me, folks here have tried boycotting Japanese cars and other foreign goods while chanting "Buy American". Didn't work.

If they don't like what Japan published in their history books, they can either drop bombs on them, or publish their own history books with "the TRUTH", and out-publish them. I'm sure Chinese history books will "prove" that Tibet was little more than a squabble and that whole Tiamamen square thing was just US political propaganda. The Chinese are honorable, dontcha know.
 
Bruce said:
My wife's family fled from China to Viet Nam when the communists took over, then when the communists took over Viet Nam, they fled to Hong Kong. The boat carrying my wife, then four years old, her mother, brother, aunt, and cousin lost power to their engine and drifted along the shores in the dark. They were nearly caught by Chinese patrol boats, but eventually made it to Hong Kong, and then went on to the US. The boat carrying my wife's father and the rest of her family were not so lucky. They were never found. It was assumed that the North Vietnamese or Chinese captured and killed them.

Yes, I know much of the history of China and Japan through history lessons, stories of my in-laws, and stories of my former room-mates. Atrocities gallore.

What I find silly is protests over another country's history books. For all I know, the British history books might say that they voluntarily gave our country independance in 1776. I don't care. It's their country, and it's not as if our history books aren't white washed and politically biased as well.

What does throwing water bottles at stores selling Japanese goods accomplish?: Precisely dick. Trust me, folks here have tried boycotting Japanese cars and other foreign goods while chanting "Buy American". Didn't work.

If they don't like what Japan published in their history books, they can either drop bombs on them, or publish their own history books with "the TRUTH", and out-publish them. I'm sure Chinese history books will "prove" that Tibet was little more than a squabble and that whole Tiamamen square thing was just US political propaganda. The Chinese are honorable, dontcha know.
Click to expand...

:clap: :clap:
 
Not that I hate the people of China, just their government.

Replacing the word "China" with any other country, including my own, would be every bit as valid. ;)
 
Bruce said:

If they don't like what Japan published in their history books, they can either drop bombs on them, or publish their own history books with "the TRUTH", and out-publish them. I'm sure Chinese history books will "prove" that Tibet was little more than a squabble and that whole Tiamamen square thing was just US political propaganda. The Chinese are honorable, dontcha know.
Click to expand...

Well, Bruce, I partially agree. It is, however, a symptom, I think, that various governments (note, I'm not pointing only at one here) can't admit what they've done.

I hope I don't have to point out that you end with the classic tu quoque fallacy, do I?

That aside, it doesn't help a great deal to keep opening wounds. One must then argue which is more important, admitting it and being over it, or just forgetting it altogether. (well, or some other option I'm not thinking of at the minute, many of which may exist)

I don't know the answer to "which is best".

But vandalizing a building with bottles of water isn't going to do anything but enforce someone else's prejudice that they are socially superior.
 
jj said:

But vandalizing a building with bottles of water isn't going to do anything but enforce someone else's prejudice that they are socially superior.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Protesting is fine and dandy until the behavior becomes, well, silly. Besides, it doesn't take long for water bottles to become rocks, then boards with really big nails, then nuclear weapons.

Oh wait, was that a slippery slope? Silly me. :p
 
Most protests in the Chinese capital are banned, but the government occasionally allows brief rallies by a few dozen people outside the Japanese Embassy on key war anniversaries.
Click to expand...

Things that make you go "hmmm".

Chinese communist government: "Ok, you can't protest our government, our economy, or anything to do with China at all for that matter, but you may protest against the Japanese. In fact, feel free to take out your agressions by throwing things at their embassies. We'll be looking the other way."
 
Bruce said:

What I find silly is protests over another country's history books. For all I know, the British history books might say that they voluntarily gave our country independance in 1776. I don't care. It's their country, and it's not as if our history books aren't white washed and politically biased as well.
Click to expand...

Oke what if, Germany used history books that said that the holocaust didn't happen.

Would you feel the same way about that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom