Whoi knew a bunch of Japanese textbook could cause such trouble?

[Drake Tungsten]

Originally posted by MRT144
all i know is, asians are for the most part ultranationalistic loonies, so go figure

True enough. The crazy part is that the Japanese are the least nationalistic of the lot...

[Frankychan]

Bastid. I don't agree with the textbooks, BUT,,,those islands rightfully belonging to Japan should be returned to Japan.

Ultranationalistic? Let's visit N. Korea. Crazy azz biz-natches.

[Bosh]

I have more faith in South Korea's textbooks.

You really should see the National War Memorial building here in Seoul, the propaganda is really hot and heavy, the brave Korean resistance forces drove out the evil Japanese invaders with only incidental (and barely-mentioned) American help...

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten


True enough. The crazy part is that the Japanese are the least nationalistic of the lot...

indeed

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
There's no such thing. He had little support among the international community over weak claims that Iraq constituted a threat. What makes you think that esoteric claims to be spreading freedom at gun point would have flown any better?

It's a worthy cause which would have prevented a lot of the protests even if it did not gain us more allies to us in the fighting. Reducing the amount of protests is a good thing.

It's ironic to see a person who decries concepts such as right and wrong as being outdated would seek to advance an ideaology so deeply rooted in such concepts

.

What people believe the ideology to be is irrelevent. The fact is that democracies tend not to fight other democracies. It helps the US out by, in the long run, avoiding another large scale Arab-Israeli war.

How?

Look around. Iraq having moderates in positions of power who are willing to work with the US instead of trying to rile up the population against us. Lebanon kicking out Syrian influence. Palestinians electing a moderate voice after the death of Arafat. All of those things were a direct or indirect effect of the overthrowing of the Saddamite (hehe) regime and replacing it with a nascent democratic one. It allowed others in other countries to have to courage to see that it possibly could work.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Frankychan
I'm sorry, but once I read this the rest of the post was meaningless. I mean, I understand that the atrocities committed by the Japanese army was horrible, but to use these slurs are just as disrespectable.

Let's not forget America's internment of Japanese-Americans ILLEGALLY.

Bigotry----->

ZOMFG! It's as disrespectful to use a racial slur as it is to RAPE someone!

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Reducing the amount of protests is a good thing.

Reducing protests is irrelevent if it doesn't lead to an increase in the amount of concrete support the boondoggle would get and you've yet to lay out a plausible case for that happening under your scenario. He'll I'd argue that if would have made the initial support for the war in the US less than it was when Iraq was presented as a threat.

Look around.

I have and I see a greatly weakened US position in dealing with Iran and the DPRK. Military recruitment is down. Resources have been taken from Afghanistan and the hunt for al-Qaeda. Political and military capital has been needlessly squandered on an enterprise where the costs are extremely high and the benefits are far from certain.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Exactly. This isn't something inconsequential. Germany has come to terms with its sordid past during WW2 a while back. Japan has never done so and treats some of the people involved in the atrocities (most of whom are dead) as war heros.

It's always been like this, from Alexander the Great to Kissinger.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


This is not propaganda, because the Japanese government has been revising HS textbooks and refusing to apologise for their atocities. Japanese courts refuse to sentence Japanese companies that enslaved people from other counties as workers. The rightwinger in Diet still worships war criminals every year.

Says the man who thinks Taiwan is Chinese, approves of Tiananmen, etc.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Ah, idealistic idiots who want to talk about 'right' and 'wrong' even though their connection to reality is tenuous at best.

It's idealistic to expect govts to be accountable for their human rights violations instead of creating diversions? Wow! You are really something Imran.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
No, because there is a way to do neo-conservatism practically, even though it is an idealistic ethos. You target the proper states to get a domino effect. It seems Iraq was pretty good for that... only except that we lied about why we went there and then strung up Iraqis and took pictures, and then sent too few troops.

Practical neo-conservatism is possible. Bush, however, doesn't realize that.

Basically anything to help a state (no matter how ****ed up the state is) remain and increase it's power is thumbs up to you because that's practical. Eating babies is practical I guess since you can get the necessary calories you need. My God Imran, have you no shame or sense of decency at all?

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
This is not propaganda, because the Japanese government has been revising HS textbooks and refusing to apologise for their atocities. Japanese courts refuse to sentence Japanese companies that enslaved people from other counties as workers. The rightwinger in Diet still worships war criminals every year.

Why do people think that propaganda has to be false information? Whether or not something is propaganda has to do with the purposes of spreading the information, not whether it is true or false.

[Fake Boris]

Imran, I take it that you're one of those who think that the Arab dictators fear America more now that its budget has been bled dry and its forces overstretched?

[mindseye]

Sadly, racism seems to be becoming increasingly fashionable of late in China.

Today there was a large-scale anti-Japanese protest in Beijing which was broken up by riot police (no tanks, this time - it was a gov't-approved protest).

Several other cities (Chongqing, Shenzhen) have had violent protests recently which, like today's in Beijing, involved attacks on Japanese businesses.

There is an anti-Japanese on-line petition making the rounds in China, now boasting between twenty and thirty gajillion signatures urging the gov't to take sterner measures against Japan.

Even normal, middle-class white collars in Shanghai are now getting excited about boycotting Japanese goods.

This is a worrisome intersection of nationalism and racism. Few Chinese have ever met a Japanese, yet many (and increasingly more) will openly and unabashedly declare that they hate the Japanese. Not object to their history books, but HATE all Japanese people.

Beijing has in the past fanned the anti-Japanese hysteria, but is now showing some signs of concern over their Frankenstien's monster. A massive on-line petition and riots against Japan are one thing, but what happens the next time another "BMW Killer" story excites the Chinese SMS network?

It's ironic that when westerners bring up human rights/Tibet/Taiwan/etc, one of the most common Chinese arguments is: "that is an internal Chinese affair, foreigners should butt out!" Yet it seems this does not apply to internal Japanese decisions about textbooks.

[Az]

maybe they think that Japanese schoolbooks are also an internal Chinese affair.