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

[Lancer]

Believe it or not I'm not racist against any asians or anyone else. (married one) I consider 'Japs' to be short for Japanese and easier to type.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Dracon II
Its kind of sad really... 16 years ago the Chinese were demonstrating for something meaningful... political reform. But I guess the only kind of demonstration that the Government approves of is the kind we've been seeing; nationalist rallies of youths venting their (understandable) anger on Japan.

It's not meaningless - I won't say attempts to make the Japanese government to see the error of its ways and to correct them is meaningless.

Nanjing Massacre deniers are just as bad as Holocaust deniers.

Germany is deeply aware of its atrocities during WWII, and is committed not to repeat the same mistakes. Japan is not; in fact, a series of action on its part indicate that it is moving away from a course similar to the one Germany took.

[Dracon II]

Wasn't saying it was meaningless. I know full well about the Nanjing massacre, the chemical warfare tests in Manchuguo and the fact that China and Korea were the first victims of WWII. The textbook fiasco is something the Chinese should rightly be angry about. I am simply lamenting the fact that matters of immediate import to China aren't dealt with in the same spirit.... but I guess the cloud of the "June 4 Incident" (as the CCP coldly represents it) still hangs heavy over the Chinese people.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Kidicious
I wouldn't be suprised to find out that history books in China and SK are similarly biased pieces of crap.

So true. Pot meet kettle.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
It's not meaningless - I won't say attempts to make the Japanese government to see the error of its ways and to correct them is meaningless.

If 17 official apologies aren't enough I doubt the 18th will make detractors happy. Also how old are the kids who are supposed to be reading these text books? If they're for kids younger then high school then there really is no need to go into graphic detail.

[Dinner]

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

It has to do with a deep seated inferiority complex many Asians have visa vie the west. A couple of centuries of getting kicked around, colonized, and shown up would probably make any group uber nationalistic and want to laud their successes when they came.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


It's not meaningless - I won't say attempts to make the Japanese government to see the error of its ways and to correct them is meaningless.

Nanjing Massacre deniers are just as bad as Holocaust deniers.

I think that shouting "I hate all Japanese!" is pointless and counterproductive, especially from a culture where shouting and becoming red-faced is a general sign of weakness and foolishness.

The problem is that the racism that is brewing is not directed at those Japanese responsible but the entire population and anything connected to them for something that happened over 50 years ago. A bit extreme. Do you punish the son for the sins of the father? Even if the children of Japan are ignorant of their history, should they be treated with scorn for being mislead by their authority? If so, is it ok to treat Chinese with scorn, if they prove to be ignorant in controversial topics?

The other problem is that shouting, "I hate you!" is unlikely to get the response you want. In fact, China's very vidictive attitude toward Japan with only push Japan toward nationalism, much like the treatment of Germany after World War I hepled lead to the rise of the Nazi party. China is creating it's own monster, and the more violent they become the less they will look like the victims and the more like the aggressors (it's not difficult to find information on recent assaults on Japanese citizens by Chinese citizens).

As Dracon points out, the method of protests here is entirely different. The Tiannanmen protests were a plead for change. These current protests only show hate. If the Chinese are truly interested in seeing a change in Japan perhaps their slogans should change from "We hate all Japanese!" to "Hey Japan! You're wrong! Fix it stupid ****ers!" Thus, getting the point across that China is still unhappy with the situation but is welcoming improvement.

Then again, that would be the rational approach. And mobs never behave that way, except that one time but that won't be tolerated again.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Az
maybe they think that Japanese schoolbooks are also an internal Chinese affair.

Why not, Tibetan religion is.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by JimmyCracksCorn

And as far as I know, every allied country interned minorities during ww2. I know Canada did at least.

Isn't it high time Canada let it's internees go?

[KrazyHorse]

****. I knew we forgot to do something.

Stop producing tanks, check
Stop censoring mail, check
Release interned Japanese, oops

[KrazyHorse]

Oh well. It's not like they're people.

[mindseye]

Originally posted by DanS

BMW killer?

Last year a farmer on a tractor scraped a woman's BMW SUV's side mirror. During the ensuing argument, the SUV suddenly lunged forward, killing the farmer's wife. The driver claimed it was an accident. The woman was a minor official's wife, and got off fairly easily (in my opinion, it probably really was an accident).

However, the incident escalated into an arrogant-rich-folks-exploit-poor-workers conflict that was the talk of the nation for a number of weeks. The facts weren't important, it was dry tinder for wealth-gap frustration.

There have beena growing number of such incidents, I believe DaShi posted the amazing story of how one (in Chongqing, IIR) started with an arrogant minor official threatening to have a hapless worker killed because he accidentally brushed up against his wife, soiling her clothing. Before it was over, city officials and police were huddling inside a gov't building while thousands of citizens pounded it with organized volleys of concrete rocks.

With this kind of tension brewing, it's easy to see why the Party might see anti-Japanese racism as a convenient outlet.

[MRT144]

i think china needs a purging!

[mindseye]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

That probably just meant "No Asians." Whites are fine.

Actually, they do mean whites, at least in the city which one of my (white American) friends just left. He moved from Shanghai to Hokkaido, but just returned, in part because of Japanese racism. He confronted a few local businesses over their "no foreigner" signs, they explained that the problem was mainly rowdy Russian sailors. Solving this by banning all "foreigners" seems a bit overkill, though.

(BTW, "pinay" = female Philippino)

[MRT144]

ive heard that story before mindseye.

p.s. lets hear it for the lovely pinays!