Comfort Women Memorial Draws Japanese Ire

[Gusington]

^They certainly are. But I've been without the real ones for a week! I am leading a monk like existence. Except for the beer.

And yeah I guess the fact that I have a Subaru is a little tragic in light of this thread topic. I really am shocked though at the nerve of the Japanese to send reps over here to ask for something like that.

In this instance it seems like their aggressive diplomacy and world outlook is being reborn.

[MIGMaster]

My Old Man always told me to never trust a Jap - even a dead one!

[Gusington]

My Grandpa called them 'Japs' and did not like them at all. And he fought in the Italians and Germans! And was quite thankful for that.

[OJsDad]

My grandmother hated them till the day she died.  Of course, her first fiance being murdered on the Bataan Death March may have influenced her a little.  I wonder what these Japanese officials would call that, a walk in the woods?

[son_of_montfort]

^They certainly are. But I've been without the real ones for a week! I am leading a monk like existence. Except for the beer.

Some of the best beer is brewed by monks! So the comparison stands as is!  ;)

Wow... A revisionist history attack on a memorial. Classy Japan, Classy. Perhaps we should, in turn, demand the removal of the Hiroshima memorial? You know, the Germans teach about WWII in school with a distinct tone of "we really were the bad guys and we must always carry that burden." Makes me wonder how the Japanese teach WWII?

[Gusington]

^That has to be a loaded question. Of everyone here I would think you know the most of how the Japanese educate their own on WWII. Basically, they portray Japan as the victim.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I taught in Japan for 9 years.  Basically, they don't cover WWII much at all in junior high or high school social studies.  They talk a bit about how Japan was isolated in the 1930s and cut off from oil and natural resources by the League of Nations and forced into war, then they skip ahead to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how sad it was.

The phenomenon is called Nihonjinron.  Literally, it's the study of the Japanese, but the form it usually takes is that of Japanese exceptionalism.  The Japanese love to compare themselves to other nations/cultures in order to prove their uniqueness.  It often takes on a sort of "woe is Japan" outlook as well in which the Japanese see Japan as misudnerstood and as a victim.  Victim of nature, victim of war, but mostly a victim of discrimination and selective memory/history.  It's not entirely without merit.  The Chinese and Koreans love to hate on Japan because of the war but willfully ignore their own less-than-stellar histories since WWII.

I have no animosity towards Japan.  The war was long before my time.  Of the various countries I've lived and worked in, Japan is one of my favourites.  It's civilized, has rule of law, and tends to be much more open and welcoming of foreigners than other Asian countries I have lived in or visited.

[Gusington]

^I am going to guess that while in Japan no one took you as a sex slave and told you it was because you had asked for it unknowingly.

Sure the war was before my time too. It doesn't mean that the Japanese, in this case, are not acting like arrogant bastards.

Japanese history, culture and religion have always fascinated me and it's such a jarring thing to see a culture capable of such beauty also capable of such horror.

[MIGMaster]

Atrocities were certainly part of the Japanese WWII story - here in Canada we apologize to everybody for anything we ever did it seems - so I guess that is why I find this development so repulsive. If they find this memorial so disturbing they may want to skip over some other little trival matters like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [/end rant]

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Well there was this one nurse I met in Tottori....

As for how some Japanese govt officials are acting now, I agree it's stupid but the whole "face" thing isn't limited to just Japan.  It's pretty much the norm in east Asia, it'll derive you nuts if you life there for any length of time, and it ain't gonna change.

As I said, it was all long before my time.  Im not going to start hating an entire nation based on passed history as they've all got skeletons in their closet and atrocities they won't admit to.

I understand that it's different for those who lived through it and I don't condemn those people for feeling the way they do.  My grandfather was in the RN in Asia during the war and harboured a deep hatred of the Japanese until he died.  He was involved in the repatriation of POWs after the war and the only group he disliked more than the Japanese were the Koreans as they were the ones who made up the bulk of the staff in the camps.

After the war, he was sent to Palistine and lost friends in attacks carried out by Jewish terrorists and, through those attacks and the unwillingness of the powers that be to prosecute the terrorists, developed a hatred of Israel. 

Growing up, I'd listen to his stories, could understand and empathize with his feelings, but never felt them myself.  Nearly all of my country's former enemies are now friends, I'm not going to get too upset by the stupidity of a few government officials over incidents that have already occurred and cannot be changed.  I save my ire for the crap they try to pull now.

[Keunert]

Tittori Nurse? and you have the balls not to tell the story and to post the pictures?
Tittori, what a fine name! what a great language to have such a sweet melody.
how about grown women in schoolgirl uniforms? is that something you see often?
or is it more of a movie cliché?

[Gusington]

^Don't forget Hello Kitty.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Sadly it is Tottori, not Tittori.  As for the schoolgirl uniforms, no, you won't see adult women wearing them unless you go to a brothel or a theme bar (or you ask your girl if she's still got her old school uni. You'll get called a perv and then 9 times out of 10, they'll happily run and put it on for you.)

It doesn't matter anyway because as winter rolls around, most of the women bust out the miniskirts and leather boots.