Sharin Yamano/Shinyusha
In "Hating the Korean Wave," a young Japanese woman says, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!"
Posted on 11/20/2005 7:55:12 PM PST by neverdem
TOKYO, Nov. 14 - A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."
In another comic book, "Introduction to China," which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: "Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There's nothing attractive."
The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.
In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan's fellow Asians and in the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, the books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan's worsening relations with the rest of Asia.
They also point to Japan's longstanding unease with the rest of Asia and its own sense of identity, which is akin to Britain's apartness from the Continent. Much of Japan's history in the last century and a half has been guided by the goal of becoming more like the West and less like Asia. Today, China and South Korea's rise to challenge Japan's position as Asia's economic, diplomatic and cultural leader is inspiring renewed xenophobia against them here.
Kanji Nishio, a scholar of German literature, is honorary chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, the nationalist organization that has pushed to have references to the country's wartime atrocities eliminated from junior high school textbooks.
Mr. Nishio is blunt about how Japan should deal with its neighbors, saying nothing has changed since 1885, when one of modern Japan's most influential intellectuals, Yukichi Fukuzawa, said Japan...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
Ah... the dark underbelly of manga. Somehow this nauseates me more than any number of tentacle-rape scenes. Those, after all, are still only fantasy.
Finally, Japan is becoming itself again.
Nishio-san is leading his country off a cliff...assuming that the Japanese are for the most part stupid enough to follow him. I don't think they are.
Although the Japanese had excelled in horror (Ringu (Ring), Ju-on (Grudge)) they have resorted to endlessly copying the long dark haired female ghost to the point where it's not even scary anymore-i.e. Dark Waters.
The sole exception being Miike's sick, twisted, gut wrenching "Audition"-it's like Fatal Attraction on steroids. Now that movie was great.
Puh-LEEZE.
Japan never changed.
Why do you think some of us here dislike the idea others have of arming China as an 'equal partner' in the region? One more racist, armed state we don't need in a region already full of `em.
Japanese don't like Chinese or South Koreans, South Koreans hate Japanese, Chinese hate South Koreans, Vietnamese, Vietnamese don't like Chinese. Everyone hates the Japanese.
Overall, it isn't a region full of mutual love.
An exception: Koreans generally like the Chinese.
<< Finally, Japan is becoming itself again. >>
Just how thin IS the Xerox copy of Judeo-Christian/American/Western/Human Civilization pulled over themselves like a dust cover by such states as Japan and South East Asia's "tigers?"
And, least we forget, for a time, by Germany and Britain and much of the rest of Old Europe.
And Canada.
Although never in the collection of other peoples lands and states and nations and sovereign territories brutally colonized, occupied and enslaved by the wannabe-warlord Peking pack of predatory gangster bastards that so grandiosely calls itself, "china."
And yet, of them all, only Japan and, one prays, Taiwan, have the strength of character to survive in any recognizable form of their present selves. And likely, especially Japan, as our loyal friends and allies.
"They're riot-ing in A-fri-ca"...
It's as though someone presented the 'Stormfront' website as a accurate portrayal of America.
"South Koreans hate Japanese"
Fifteen years ago a friend of mine showed me a map of Tokyo.
There were these huge green parts on the map that I assumed were parks.
I mentioned that Tokyo had a many large parks, pointing to the green areas.
She said those are the Korean neighborhoods. The Japanese do not acknowledge the existence or publish street names in the Korean areas of Tokyo. For all intents and purposes they don't exist.
Also children born of Korean parents or mixed Japanese/Korean ancestory are considered forigners and no foreigner can ever become a Japanese citizen.
If you ever want to get into an arguement with a Japanese just mention that it was ancient Koreans who originally colonized Japan.
The Japanese culture views non-Japanese with a venom they do not always take pains to conceal.
You can find a wide spectrum of political views among Japanese mangas - from the nutty uber-Chomskyite Left to palro-Tojoite militarist Right. To be honest, the fads come and go in Japan and I would doubt whether most run of the mills Japanese, whether they are leftists or conservatives, will take such mangas seriously.
The article raises an important point about Japan vis-a-vis the rest of East Asia: Japan has always enjoyed a recent cultural link with the wider Anglosphere but it also occupies a place in the Chinese cultural sphere (Sinosphere) when considering its heritage. The conflicts between Japan going into the Anglosphere's orbits (as manifested by Yukichi Fukuzawa's Datsu-A Ron, or "Leaving Asia" theory), and uniting with the rest of the Chinese cultural sphere (as put forth in the ideology of pan-Asianism, or "Asian united front" theory) is particularly intense. It may be an interesting battle ahead.
For a view favouring Japan aligning with the Anglosphere, see this Jim Bennett, a US conservative and Anglosphere adovate, article:
http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=18012002-055550-1094r
For a view adovating Japan to embrace pan-Asianism, see this article by Chen Kwang-hsing, a Taiwanese Marxist/Third World nationalist leftist (in Chinese):
http://hss.nthu.edu.tw/~apcs/kh/04.htm
Apparently the Japanese in these pictures have nice round eyes.
A funny fact about the Korean population of Japan is that 3/4th of them are actually supporters of North Korea. They send back a good amount of money every year.
I don't know why that is, but the DPRK even has some of its propaganda servers located in Japan.
I hate to say it, but Asians can be some of the most racist people around. My father was born a "half-breed" during the Korean War. Half Korean and half Caucasian. His mother died and his remaining relatives treated him no better than a stray dog. He ended up on the streets at a very young age. Fortunately, he found his way into the Holt Orphanage and was adopted by my grandparents at the age of 11. Thank God he made it to the US.
The irony is that the Korean movie "Oldboy," was based on a Japanese manga book.
Ah, so very inscrutable.
Thanks for the links.
Actually as a Chinese I would say the Chinese in private hold Koreans in comtempt - "they produce mediocre cars and they cheat in sports", and in fact deep in heart Koreans never like us - thinking that the Communists has squandered Chinese cultural heritage (i.e. "we have a China today and its people are Chinese, but they don't possess Chinese culture").
Mark my words: when/if Korea becomes reunified whether it be the free South Korea or Communist North under the lunatic Kim Jong-il (the North unifying being less likely option) you will see endless rounds of conflicts marring Sino-Korean relations, even if China itself democratizes. There is just far too much economic competitions and not to forget the Korean minority in China's Jilin province and a whole range of territories such as the Changbai Mountains have been delcared by Korea (North and South) as historically Korean.
But the younger generation, much to the dismay of the older/wayyy racist but always "respectful" generation, doesn't seem to look at things in that way.
But I think China is this century's sleeping dragon. I believe Japan will probably be in the direct path of that dragon when it wakes up.
Picken on Korea, that I don't get. DNA studies show that most of the Japanese are Korean, save the Ainu and it's not like the Koreans are any threat. They can't even save their people in the major hell hole up north.
Do I perceive an underlying strategy to put at odds two crucial American allies?
Is the propaganda-comic's pen mightier than the sword?
Hmmmmm.
THE Findings by American anthropologist C. Loring Brace, University of Michigan, will surely be controversial in race conscious Japan. The eye of the predicted storm will be the Ainu, a "racially different" group of some 18,000 people now living on the northern island of Hokkaido. Pure-blooded Ainu are easy to spot: they have lighter skin, more body hair, and higher-bridged noses than most Japanese. Most Japanese tend to look down on the Ainu.
Brace has studied the skeletons of about 1,100 Japanese, Ainu, and other Asian ethnic groups and has concluded that the revered samurai of Japan are actually descendants of the Ainu, not of the Yayoi from whom most modern Japanese are descended. In fact, Brace threw more fuel on the fire with:
"Dr. Brace said this interpretation also explains why the facial features of the Japanese ruling class are so often unlike those of typical modern Japanese. The Ainu-related samurai achieved such power and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with royality and nobility, passing on Jomon-Ainu blood in the upper classes, while other Japanese were primarily descended from the Yoyoi." The reactions of Japanese scientists have been muted so. One Japanese anthropologist did say to Brace," I hope you are wrong."
The Ainu and their origin have always been rather mysterious, with some people claiming that the Ainu are really Caucasian or proto-Caucasian - in other words, "white." At present, Brace's study denies this interpretation.
(Some anthropologists say that the Japanese practice of 'white-face' is an ancient emulation of the 'royals'.)
Wrong. Chinese generally like Koreans; Koreans generally fear and/or despise Chinese.
Yet the politically correct leftist press expects us Americas to love them all and hate ourselves.
Beside which, manga and anime have a wide range of genres. Anything from sugary kiddy series that are so sweet that they would make Barney the Purple Dinosaur sick to his stomach, too porn that's so hardcore that you couldn't pay people enough money to make a live-action versions of such series.
Personally I like sci-fi and fantasy and to be honest, anime and manga offers some of the best selections in quality for such genres. For example, I enjoyed watching Ghost in the Shell 2nd Gig (season) anime on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) last not. It was violent, but good sci-fi.
last not = last night
Every region of the world has its 'pecking order'. If you're a thumb-sucking liberal you can ignore this reality, but its just human nature and you can't change it. Its not necessarily based on race (not going there) but it is definitely based on culture. To the extent that certain cultures become associated with certain "races" or "ethnicities" you have stereotypes arising. (Clue to brain dead liberals - stereotypes generally exist because there is more than a kernel of truth at their core. I think its just a way for the less intelligent masses to explain or acknowledge cultural differences. The success of America shows that members of all "races" can achieve success if melded into the superior civilized culture. Hence race does not connote superiority/inferiority by itself. Put another way, its not race, but the culture, stupid).
Japan became Asia's 'top dog' after westernizing. China was top dog a thousand years ago, and is slowly making its move back towards that status.
The Japanese are caught in a bind - they really should become a well-armed military/nuclear power to maintain their status, but that seems unlikely in the short term.
As far as the Japanese comics and their Caucasian-like features (present as well in the anime cartoon genre), well, Hitler made them "honorary Aryans, didn't he? Must have had a reason, right?
He did. But again, it WASN'T race. It was CULTURE.
Q: Why was it natural for the Germans and the Japanese to become allies in WWII?
A: Because both nations have a language that is not spoken, but BARKED!!
(*LOL*) That's an original joke, BTW. You may feel free to use it.
As far as Japan's manly culture goes, my sentiment is simply put thus: "BANZAI!!"
That's a very sad story with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing. You're right neither the Japanese nor the Koreans have clean hands regarding racism.
"A funny fact about the Korean population of Japan is that 3/4th of them are actually supporters of North Korea. They send back a good amount of money every year. I don't know why that is, but the DPRK even has some of its propaganda servers located in Japan."
Probably many are family members of DPRK citizens who cannot go back to their homes in Korea, and hope to return some day under a new regime, or they may simply hope their relatives will receive better treatment as a result of their collaboration (with the new boss in Korea, after their family may have collaborated with the old-boss Japanese). North Korea has a sick relationship with outside Koreans, where the North treats its citizens like crap in the hopes that the Koreans in the free(er) world will send money and food to keep their family members alive. The pitch is probably similar in Japan, paeans to family loyalty and whatnot being very important throughout Korean culture.
The adage: "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", is appropriate. Stories and theories that are flamboyant and startling get attention. Extremes of bigotry here get as much play in the US as they do when they come from Japan.
There is plenty of racism on both sides in my experience. Quote from a friend travelling from China to Korea to work for the summer, whose classmates urged against the trip. "They will work you to death, treat you like a black," they said.
The difference is that far more often than not, the Japan bigotry is institutional and found in places that would not be an old shame, but are newly erected edifices. See the Japanese Museum next to the Yasukuni Shrine's discussion of the Rape of Nanking, which says that the Japanese were essentially keeping the streets safe. Naw, they weren't slaughtering half the population and raping the other half, they were just stopping muggers, I guess...
And this, as well as the textbooks that minimize Japan's WWII crimes, have been put up in the last ten years. It ain't just some random comment in a manga.
I think it's Japan's proper role to limit its neighbors' adventurism, so I support arming Japan to the hilt, xenophobia or no. Between the US, China, and Russia, any renewed Japanese ambitions of empire are similarly constrained.
I would have thought that modern Japanese were not as nationalistic or fascist as their warlord forefathers of 50+ years ago.
Thanks for the ping!
Ipersonally like Anime. Ghost in a SHell,Vampire Hunter D, Cowboy Bebop, Princess Mononoke just to name a few.
I could never understand how during WWII, tiny Japan kicked China's behind, and used them as lab rats. Unbelievable.
Superior tactics and weaponry will always trump sheer numbers.
A lot of Chinese and Koreans are depraved. They're called communists...
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