Musings of a Drunken Monk: Individual Entry Archive

Alas, nationalism is a hard to control beast. But the article gets it right when it says:

But the government also seems to have taken steps to control - some say manipulate - a nascent protest movement ***to prevent a grass-roots challenge to the governing Communist Party.***

Indeed. The governing communist party in China actually very much encourages this kind of thing, not only as a form of social control but also to keep minds off of just how crappy the Chinese government is.

It is rather well known that the Chinese educational system is rabidly anti-Japanese, which brings to mind the thought "isn't it a tad hypocritical to criticize Japanese education when your own education is so skewed?" Talk about the kettle calling the pot black.

What gets me fired up is that these idiots protesting are largely college students ... supposedly educated people. Yet if they did just a bit of research outside their obviously very narrow confines, they might realize it's not as red (ha) as they thought.

I think it's valid for China to complain about Japan's WWII behavior, because the government hasn't owned up to this behavior. Yes, the aid money is good and will end soon, but Japan hasn't taken steps to be honest with its own past. This includes omitted history in govt-authorized textbooks.

In America, we have similar problems perhaps with the Native Americans and slavery and the japanese
internment. Also, evolution/creationism. But overall, I think we know and educated people know. In Japan educated people know about Nanjing too. But if it's not published in school texts and if authority figures (Ishihara) get away with bashing a country that Japan once rampaged through, then the other party has every right to complain.

Japan didn't go through the thorough treatment that Germany did. Not only do textbooks in Japan gloss over Japanese war crimes (unlike German texts) but even the Nazi flag is illegal and banned in Germany. There is a full monty, a full cathartic and explicit apology, public museums, etc. In Japan? None of it!

Why? For politically expedient reasons maybe, with the US needing stability in Japan to launch the Korean war. (ie keep the bureaucracy in place, don't encourage too much real/messy democracy, so we can build toyota trucks for the korean war faster, cold war, etc) Not sure why Germany was different, maybe because of the scale..

Sure, right wing politicians can be found in any country, but the world cries out if a Nazi sympathizer wins an audience in Germany/Austria etc. In Japan, not so. The governor of Tokyo is publicly xenophobic. So, some people in Japan can take on a snide pride and attitude because the elites do it too.

Just last week, a parade of trucks/vans drove through my new town with the imperial rising sun flag, filled with camo-wearing j-guys who are wistful for the "good old days." Sure, we have the kkk and other groups, but i'm still against them. I'm not thrilled with working under a gaijin-hating school principal either. It's like working under Ishihara almost. He baits me on purpose.

I do think it's valid for the PM to visit Yasukuni since it does honor war dead. But, because of the lack of accountability and a full, honest (not two faced and ignoring) apology for past behavior, those visits are clouded over. Moreover...

China's central government is merely using nationalism to keep the country in check. Inexcusable sure, but I find it valid to remind the Japanese government and people that they should not try to ignore and forget the past. Same goes for slavery in America, and so on. Perhaps forgive but don't forget. In any case, the grassroots have run with it and it's out of beijing's hands now. possibly a good thing.

Another thing, I was on the train this summer and was across from two chinese women chatting to each other on the train. This short old grubby man in a suit on the train walked up to them, closer and closer, because they were chatting and i guess in Japan it's illegal to talk on the train or some shit! So he was intimidating them because they were chinese, and japanese people are so superior or some shit. I should have talked some shit to the asshole but I wasn't sure about what I saw. But I was sure of it later. People stare here, someone should tell them that yes, non-Japanese people do exist, and don't stare! They have to learn somewhere??

(/harping)

ken.

What I find the most disturbing is the intense hypocrisy evidenced by the Chinese government and people. One of the big (if not biggest?) complaints currently coming out of China is the one about Japanese textbooks glossing over the truth. Yet, in China, we see the same exact thing. In any society we see some sort of "softening" of history. Why aren't the Chinese complaining about their own awful, tyrranical government instead of someone else's? The sad truth is that they don't because they are dreadfully ignorant of the truths in their own country. Government sponsored anti-Japan propoganda works, apparently, remarkably well. Instead of being angry at their own crappy government, so-called "educated" Chinese citizens get angry at Japan. The truth is, they are alarmingly ignorant. So much for higher learning.

What we also see is mob mentality. What the hell do 19 year old kids have to be angry about? Japan gives billions in direct aid to China, hooks them up with cool gadgetry that they love (can you honestly tell me with a straight face that Chinese technology is better than Japanese?), and did make official apologies for the past. Does the Chiense government make any apologies to the people it house-arrests or who suddenly just stop talking because they were blogging a little too much or organizing not an anti-Japan protest but an anti-China protest? Hardly. The current crop of protesters just comes off as a bunch of whiners to me. They shriek and cry about problems that don't really affect them at all. You will notice that the older generation of Chinese (current parents, I guess you could say) isn't so whiningly vocal, and they have far more reason to bitch, I feel, than the current protesters. They are angry, I gather, but much more moderated about it. They look at the situation with a more mature eye.

Perhaps the current crop should try a nice combination of self-education (not propoganda) and maturity.