Swastikas, Nazis, Hitler and Taiwan

Hey Dan, you’re right. Wan4 comes up in NJStar:

It had a death-camp allusion for the sign to the bathrooms – which was quickly taken down, with apologies – after someone pointed out how beyond offensive this was.

I went there twice after the signs were taken down. True to its name, it had a jail theme. It wasn’t bad. My second experience at the Jail some two years ago, however, was a bad one and I never went back. But that had to do with amazingly rude service, not the decor.

I can’t believe so many people confused the Buddhist symbol found on so many temples with the Nazi symbol. Why would a temple have a swastika?

卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍 卍

Some people have mentioned that they don’t see the Nazi swastiska themed stuff as much as they used to, but having been in Taiwan for several years, I have to say that I see as much now as I have seen in the past. Just two days ago on the MRT there was a teenager with a red shirt with a white circle in the middle that had the black nazi swastika. basically he was a walking nazi flag.

A few months ago saw another person with a t-shirt that had a swastika flag, at least 10x12 in size, pinned to the back of his shirt. As others have mentioned, he must have thought he was making a pretty funky fashion statement.

i have also seen persons walkng around (in Hsimenting) wearing full, head to toe, SS uniforms. Not a grey Wehrmacht uniform, but black, head to toe, SS uniform complete with death’s head insignia on the officer’s hat.

I’d have to agree that it comes down to historical ignorance, though I would say that ignorance is combined with lack of sophistication. Just like when you tell people that you are from New York, and Taiwanese get this big dopey grin on their face and blurt out “World Trade Center” or “Osama Bin Laden.” They just don’t know what to say and/or are extremely ignorant and/or unsophisticated.

I seem to recall telling some people in Thailand that father had been there from 1942 to 1945 as a guest of the Japanese - It did not mean much to them.

Then again about 200,000 asian slaves were employed on the same project (Burma Railway).

I understand the death rates were much the same in percentages.

:frowning: Oh, no, it’s those swastikas again - The pride of Taiwan, hosted for free by HiNet.

http://netcity4.web.hinet.net/UserData/a6789089/

Click on the iron cross to enter the site, complete with Nazi marching music.

These people were hosting their bulletin board on Nefirms. I e-mailed Netfirms to complain about the site and they removed it immediately. Here is what they wrote to me:

[quote]Hello (Juba),

We have terminated this account. Netfirms aims to provide legitimate web hosting services and has a ZERO tolerance policy towards these sites. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.

Thanks,

Todd
E-Service Team Leader
Netfirms Abuse

-----Original Message-----
From: (Juba) (Juba’s e-mail address)
Date: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 08:40 AM
To: abuse@SPAMPREVENTERnetfirms.com)
Subject: volkmann.netfirms.com/cgi-bin/bb … omitai.cgi

Dear Sir/Madam:

With reference to your terms of service:

“User shall not include content, or internet links to content on the Site that contain, promote or involve any of the following:
v. hate propaganda;
vi. racist, threatening, or otherwise abusive content;”

I wish to draw your attention to the following web page:

volkmann.netfirms.com/cgi-bin/bb … omitai.cgi

Respectfully,
(Juba)[/quote]

Well done, Netfirms! Now,

“The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views… which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.”

:?: - Doctor Who

[quote=“Hobart”]I can’t believe so many people confused the Buddhist symbol found on so many temples with the Nazi symbol. Why would a temple have a swastika?

[/quote]

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what is and what isn’t a swastika. So…

Just to keep things straight:

The so-called Buddhist symbols on temples and restaurants in Taiwan are not Nazi symbols, but they are swastikas.

Actually, swastikas were Hindu symbols long before they were Buddhist symbols.

But whether Buddhist or Hindu, there are two main types of swastikas:
The first is the counter-clockwise, or destroverse, one (the most common one on Buddhist establishments in Taiwan);
the second is the clock-wise, or sinistroverse, one (the one co-opted and modified by the Nazis.)

In fact, both types of swastikas were commonly used as religious symbols for thousands of years. Christians, for example, called the swastika “the cross in disguise” or even “Brigit’s cross” – before the Nazis co-opted the motif and literally “turned” it into a symbol of evil.

So, Why would a temple have a swastika?

A) because the swastika has always been a Buddhist symbol B) because, for Taiwan Buddhists, it doesn’t have the same negative associations that it has for we foreigners

Still, that doesn’t explain why the Taiwan people would continue to defend their use of the symbol of Nazi evil for commerical or political purposes, or for the purpose of just looking cool.

Then again, I don’t understand why pizza ads have to feature a mafioso-looking guy in some farcical satire of Holy Communion saying (in a really bad Italian accent) "This isa my body…

End transmission

Addendum:

For more on the swastika and the Nazis, check here:

http://www.intelinet.org/swastika/swasti16.htm

or you can check out the whole web site here:

http://www.intelinet.org/swastika/swastika_intro.htm

Note: I am not necessarily endorsing this site, but it might help clear up some confusion about what is and what isn’t a swastika.

I remember being told in high school religion class that the swastika was an appropriate symbol for Buddhism because it resembled a turning wheel (signifying change), the four main spokes represented the 4 Noble Truths, and the total 8 lines represented the 8-Fold Path.

Ignorance.
Yeah.
It’s kind of like the ignorance of a college student who read a hippie translation of the Dao De Jing and, after much thought and consideration (and a few splifs) goes out to get a tattoo that says “The Way”

Do you mean stupid or ignorant?
I thought were were focusing on ignorace…


Also, Juba. I think that the Nazi site is informative. I really get a feel for what Nazi Germany is. I have my own filters and ideas in approaching it.
There was a disclaimer:

Yeah, I read the disclaimer, too, but I don’t buy it, especially when the site carries an invitation to join the Nazi party. For a convincingly non-Nazi web site about the history of Nazi Germany, click over to the Third Reich Factbook.

The URL of the Anti-Defamation League mentioned by Quirky is www.adl.org.

wow there is so many emoticons! :slight_smile:

Just want to supply a dictionary definition of genocide

Actually this issue and one on another thread about the banning of the term “Oriental” in the US are closely related. Surprising more people don’t see the connection. I remeber a young waitress here once with a tatoo of a swastika on her arm. When I asked her about it she simply said she thought Hitler was cool. Completely, absoultely oblivious. This is really the same at heart as people who use terms like orientals or chinks, without understanding the history behind the word/symbol. Well, guess it’s not surprising to see people don’t see anything wrong with using the term oriental or walking around with fashionable swastikas. It’s just sad.

What exactly is the “history” behind the word “oriental”? What exactly is “wrong” with using the word “oriental”.

How is use of the word “oriental” in any way similar with use of the Nazi swastika for fashion?

Check out the thread if interested. There’s a long history, which a few people on that thread explain well.

I seem to remember a popular t-shirt in the early eighties (UK) that was a spoof Adolf Hitler World Tour, starting in Poland (natch) and then the invasions of most of Europe after that as if they were gigs…
Some people might think that offensive, and the shirts were produced by a UK company AFAIK. Who said the Taiwanese had a monopoly on bad taste?

I plan to open a restaurant in direct competition to Jackie Wu’s concentration camp holocaust restaurant. It is going to be called the Nanjing Massacre restaurant and on the wall will be photos of Japanese soldiers spearing Chinese babies with their bayonettes. Yes, it will be a b.b.q. establishment. And when anyone complains be it local or hippy foreigner, I will give the same response that Jacky Wu did as he spoke for the Taiwanese people, “that part of history is fuzzy to us.” Leave it, don’t delete it, its the truth, live with it. Remember, they are only words.

When I hear the “5000 years of history” line, I always think about how little any of it matters to the types who revere Hitler and the Imperial Japanese Army. Germany’s “cool” and Japan’s “cool” so regardless of whatever was done by them in the last century everything Japanese or German is “cool”. Is it a lack of self-respect or indentity ? It’s like an Irishman getting a tattoo of Oliver Cromwell, or a black American getting KKK tattooed on his arm, because these people are “cool”. There is something fundamentally wrong with the psyche of a person who thinks genocide is “cool”. No amount of explanation can deny the assertion that anyone who idolises a person or group of people on the basis that they were “powerful” and “killed a lot of people” is a sociopath, or at least severely mentally retarded.

It’s “kamikaze.” I think you are getting confused with that cool French movie “Yamakazi,” or is it a cross between the “Kama Sutra” and that good old British word “khazi” meaning “latrine?”