So China is stirring up anti-Japanese sentiment over Japanese textbooks that apparantly whitewash Japan’s WWII involvement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,7369,1458082,00.html
WTF? China complaining about historical revisionism?
Pots and kettles, anyone?
Well said, Diablo. It is always interesting to watch popular demonstrations occurring in countries where the government decides which demonstrations may go forward and which may not. I have no doubt that the anger felt by many PRC citizens toward Japan is genuine, but it certainly takes something away from the spectacle when one considers that similar demonstrations against against the CCP result not in a few police standing around pretending to discourage the gathering, but rather with the cold-blooded murder of the demonstrators.
Ironic that they never held protests over Chairman Mao’s death squads and camps :raspberry: :raspberry: . Of course if it’s those fooking foreigners killing you then that makes it much worse 
. Better to be killed by your own. 
Nothing new…
For years the CCP has been trying to shift attention from itself to Japan’s history of imperialism, and I’d say with good success…
For Japan the past 50 years has been all about peace, while we can’t say the same about China’s aggression…
The thing I don’t get are the Koreans. They positively hate the Japanese, but somehow don’t have a bad thing to say about the Chinese. Yet China sent troops into their country in 1950, killed 2 million Koreans, and left their country permanently divided.
Yet speak to any young South Korean, and say that the Korean War was America’s and Japan’s fault. Go figure.
regards,
DB
What worries me is that with a nudge in a slightly different direction, mainland officials can easily get that anger directed toward the United States. I think the recent characterization by the Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa that China is “scary” is about right.
(Just for the record, Japan’s leaders have so far apologized to China on no fewer than 17 times since 1972: edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiap … index.html).
Go figure what? That the Koreans know Korean history better than you do?
It’s undoubtedly a completely political play. The CCP neither cares about history, its people’s memory of what happened years ago, or Japan as it stands now.
I agree with what you say about redirecting anger toward the US…my biased view is that, for the most part, both the Chinese and the Koreans (the general populus) are already suspicious of what America is trying to do in the Far East. Of course these views are, again, heavily influenced by whatever nonsense the respective governments decide to provide…
It’s definitely scary when you have so many people in China who have a unified voice. Even if that voice isn’t truly their own. I guess that’s a “drawback” to Taiwan’s young democracy. We have certain political figures bent on only improving their own political status and can’t give Ah-Bian (as President) some face… :loco:
If individuals can lead protests for certain pro-China events, they will gain experience in organizing protests. Also, while I can not say for certain that the protesters were financially rewarded for their participation in anti-Japanese rallies, Chinese police have in the past made economic concessions to protesters.
“Only a country that respects history, takes responsibility for past history and wins over the trust of the people in Asia and the world at large can take greater responsibility in the international community.”
—Wen Jiabao
This is, by far, my vote for the most hypocritical statement of the decade.
[quote=“Wen Jiabao”]Only a country that respects our version of history, takes responsibility for past history by kissing our ass and wins over the trust of the people in Asia and the world at large can take greater responsibility in the international community.[/quote]There ya go, fixed that for ya 
Go figure what? That the Koreans know Korean history better than you do?[/quote]
Debating history with Koreans is like having an argument with your wife and she never tells you what’s really bugging her. So you argue and argue and argue and get nowhere. Look, Korea would have been swallowed whole by Japan were it not for the United States (the 35 years’ of colonial rule was complete- the Taiwanese situation doesn’t compare). Saved by big, bad US of A. This pisses the younger generation of Koreans off big time. Another root issue is that Korea has been stomped on over and over again throughout history by neighbors (“why did we let ourselves get so weak?”). Koreans are taught starting from an early age that they are a supreme ethnic group. But then a little look at the facts just doesn’t mesh with this view. So the anger builds. Now once we are all willing to admit these things, then perhaps an honest analysis of what happened after WWII then in the years immediately prior to North Koreans invading the South in '50 (uh, I mean, before they were forced to invade because of the damn Yanks) might be possible.
Interesting comments, Shawerma.
I also found the [color=black]“Go figure what? That the Koreans know Korean history better than you do?”[/color] to be a curious question insofar as it seems to suggest that a person living in County X necessarily knows more about Country X’s history than someone not from Country X. While this may be a reasonable assumption on average, it is hardly relevant to the legitimacy of a particular viewpoint on a particular question.
Many of my experiences on these forums, and in conversations with well-informed people of many nations, certainly leads me to believe that there are many non-Americans who are far more well educated about U.S. history than the average American is. I have similarly found that there are a number of foreigners here in Taiwan, who (whether because they are here specifically to study Taiwan culture/history or simply because they have an interest in the subject) are more knowledgable about Taiwanese history than the average person on the street in Taiwan. One wonders whether we are meant to believe that there is something special about the Koreans that would make them any different?
I think what the Japanese should do is to scrap the textbooks (which are only used by a very, very small fraction of schools anyway), make slight revisions to the old one to show more about their militaristic past (you really can’t/shouldn’t gloss over the Nanking Massacre), but keep up the pressure with their claims on the gas/oil explorationg, and when it comes time for the U.N. meetings on permanent membership on the Security Council (and I fully support Japan for receiving a permanent seat), Japan should make a comprehensive list of the CCP’s historical revisioninsm in China and list them all out in open session, after making yet another apology for Japan’s past military aggression (which I believe they have done to China about 17 times over the years since re-establishing diplomatic ties in 1972). This would give the CCP what they deserve, a public moral dressing-down.
I would be hard pressed to name all the states given a map of the United States. But given a map of Asia, I think I could name all the countries. By the way, didn’t you have the Feynman avatar? Liked that one much better. Who cares if nobody else recognized him?!
Wow…someone who can name all of the …ystans, …istans, …zystans on sight? You have my admiration. The rest I can also name. The states are easy for me. Maybe because I had their location drilled into me.
I think it is certainly possible for a foreigner to know more about a country’s history than a local. It is even more possible to know more about certain details…especially in countries without a free press and textbooks that are carefully scrutinized to leave out the most embarrassing details…and where the gov’t would criticize a foreign country for approving a textbook that almost nobody will ever read. Who needs free speach?
Hmm…I wonder what country I am talking about…???
Great article on this topic in the Atimes:
China’s fury doesn’t wash, but why the froth?
By Marc Erikson
[i]SHENZHEN - Here in Shenzhen from Hong Kong last Sunday with a couple of friends for some weekend shopping, I had the misfortune of bumping into a several-thousand strong anti-Japanese demonstration at a shopping center - a day trip wasted. Demonstrations had also been held the previous Sunday in this special-economic-zone city across the mainland border with Hong Kong.
At that time, some Japanese (and for good measure, other) department store display windows were smashed, some items looted. This has been going on for the better part of the past two weeks, not just in Shenzhen, but in Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu and other places. Guangzhou seems to have joined in this past Sunday. Shanghai to date has been largely unaffected.
The never-ending controversy over Japanese textbooks once again allegedly touched off the anti-Japanese protests; other issues apparently include Japan’s effort to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, the true ownership of the Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands, and claims to oil-and-gas rich undersea territory in the East China Sea.
What struck me was the well-organized nature of the demonstration. A guy in a dark brown suit (no tie, though) diligently burned a Japanese flag; once aflame, it was quickly doused by another protester prudently equipped with a fire extinguisher. Then there was the designated hitter/screamer - a fellow wielding a broom stick (which, unbeknownst to me, may have some marshal arts significance) who - carried aloft by two stout men - delivered vicious blows with both ends of the stick to the head and body of a puppet of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi carried by a guy wearing a protective motor cycle helmet. And then there were the “riot police”, accompanying the protest march more like parade marshals at New York’s St Patrick’s Day parade up Fifth Avenue. [/i]
Read the rest of the article:
atimes.com/atimes/China/GD14Ad06.html
cheers,
DB
The Japanese are trying to save face and this is as much a Chinese as Japanese custom.
This face-saving would be called lying in the America or EU, but this is Asia.
Also, why do Taiwanese not care? No demonstrations here are there? I see TW sex slaves (now in their 70s) protest on TV but no one else seems to care. Why not? Perhaps there are many TW who fought for Japan, yes?
I hear older people singing Japanese songs which they obviously learned as children. Did the TW like Japanese colonial rule?
Japan’s claim of water rights extend far from mainland Japan almost to the edge of TW. Why does TW say nothing?
(Just for the record, Japan’s leaders have so far apologized to China on no fewer than 17 times since 1972: edition.CNN.com/2005/WORLD/asiap … index.html).
Japan eliminated the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor and, that accomplished, then embarked on a 6 month conquest that took them to the edge of Australia and as far west as Burma. Admiral Nakamura was off the coast of Australia, preparing an invasion of Australia when he was assassinated by FDR. This event ended the 6 month expansion. By this time US fought back and JP was occupied with defending.
An apology? Is that all?
taiwan fought for japan in the war.
wanna hold some anti-taiwanese riots now as well?