Anti-Japanese sentiment in Asia

[ReturnOfElfman]

Just had a private English lesson with some local Chinese kids. The lesson was on countries and one of the countries I was teaching was Japan. During the lesson I heard quite a few anti-Japanese insults, I think all of them hit the Japanese flag (that I made out of paper and a straw) and one kid pretended he had a machine gun and was shooting Japanese people. They're only 8 years old and all had an intense dislike of Japan already, yet they couldn't even find the country on a map or understand barely any of the history involved; they just know that Japan is to be disliked. Some of the parents were in the room too and didn't seem to bothered by their actions tbh either.

I'm trying to think if there is any country that would provoke the same reaction from kids back home. Maybe might get a similar response from some kids now if I did it on Pakistan (if I was back around Bradford)? I dunno.

 

[Idris2002]

Just had a private English lesson with some local Chinese kids. The lesson was on countries and one of the countries I was teaching was Japan. During the lesson I heard quite a few anti-Japanese insults, I think all of them hit the Japanese flag (that I made out of paper and a straw) and one kid pretended he had a machine gun and was shooting Japanese people. They're only 8 years old and all had an intense dislike of Japan already, yet they couldn't even find the country on a map or understand barely any of the history involved; they just know that Japan is to be disliked. Some of the parents were in the room too and didn't seem to bothered by their actions tbh either.

I'm trying to think if there is any country that would provoke the same reaction from kids back home. Maybe might get a similar response from some kids now if I did it on Pakistan (if I was back around Bradford)? I dunno.

Depending on if you consider Belfast "back home" I'd say some loyalists would react that way to symbols of the Irish state.

 

[trabuquera]

Looking at it from the other side of the world and with 0 personal experience it seems to me that there are 2 things going on...

a) understandable hatred for things Japan did in China during the war (and some of that was well into Nazi/attempted genocide territory) but also

b) Chinese Communist Party heads using all the feelings in a) to deflect any Chinese people's grievances or questions and getting people to "rally together" in wartime spirit (never mind that China itself was riven with internal wars / fighting at the time and that left a lot of doors open for Imperial Japan). Kind of like a national myth which makes everyone feel better (cf "Blitz spirit" or "Dunkirk spirit" in the UK), although it doesn't necessarily really mean lasting hatred of every single human in the 'enemy' country.

Plus - It's always easier to rally a population against an outsider scapegoat, especially if they're getting a bit moany or doubtful about leadership within their own camp. The frightening and blindingly stupid anti-Japanese riots in China recently (over S China Sea islands I think) showed just how basic and illogical the feelings are ... I guess Chinese leadership is much more comfortable channelling the energies of the public into that, than worrying whether they're going to start riots over food quality / forced evictions / other stuff which Chinese Communist Party is supposed to be in charge of.

Question for those who know China much better than I do: is there Japanese economic investment in China? I'd understand if there weren't (it's completely ruled out by the government, for all I know) - but that presence or lack of those sort of trade links can also affect public sentiment about another country...

 

[ReturnOfElfman]

Question for those who know China much better than I do: is there Japanese economic investment in China? I'd understand if there weren't (it's completely ruled out by the government, for all I know) - but that presence or lack of those sort of trade links can also affect public sentiment about another country...

Yes, quite a lot. I live about 5 mins away from a big Honda factory and Nissan one but all car factories where I am, work with the Chinese DongFeng company (think just about all foreign car companies pair themselves up with a Chinese company).

 

[Jay Park]

Just had a private English lesson with some local Chinese kids. The lesson was on countries and one of the countries I was teaching was Japan. During the lesson I heard quite a few anti-Japanese insults, I think all of them hit the Japanese flag (that I made out of paper and a straw) and one kid pretended he had a machine gun and was shooting Japanese people. They're only 8 years old and all had an intense dislike of Japan already, yet they couldn't even find the country on a map or understand barely any of the history involved; they just know that Japan is to be disliked. Some of the parents were in the room too and didn't seem to bothered by their actions tbh either.

I'm trying to think if there is any country that would provoke the same reaction from kids back home. Maybe might get a similar response from some kids now if I did it on Pakistan (if I was back around Bradford)? I dunno.

Looking at it from the other side of the world and with 0 personal experience it seems to me that there are 2 things going on...

a) understandable hatred for things Japan did in China during the war (and some of that was well into Nazi/attempted genocide territory) but also

b) Chinese Communist Party heads using all the feelings in a) to deflect any Chinese people's grievances or questions and getting people to "rally together" in wartime spirit (never mind that China itself was riven with internal wars / fighting at the time and that left a lot of doors open for Imperial Japan). Kind of like a national myth which makes everyone feel better (cf "Blitz spirit" or "Dunkirk spirit" in the UK), although it doesn't necessarily really mean lasting hatred of every single human in the 'enemy' country.

Plus - It's always easier to rally a population against an outsider scapegoat, especially if they're getting a bit moany or doubtful about leadership within their own camp. The frightening and blindingly stupid anti-Japanese riots in China recently (over S China Sea islands I think) showed just how basic and illogical the feelings are ... I guess Chinese leadership is much more comfortable channelling the energies of the public into that, than worrying whether they're going to start riots over food quality / forced evictions / other stuff which Chinese Communist Party is supposed to be in charge of.

Question for those who know China much better than I do: is there Japanese economic investment in China? I'd understand if there weren't (it's completely ruled out by the government, for all I know) - but that presence or lack of those sort of trade links can also affect public sentiment about another country...

This is the point i'm getting at, it's irrational and I believe these feelings are invoked on purpose by the communist party, who themselves have a history of ignoring their own shameful past, and the mental economic reforms that Mao implemented which caused the death of 30-40 million people. One of the ways the communist party have managed to retain power so long is the control of information (and having the PLA directly answerable the them). They've been seeping all this filth back into the nations consciousness for 20 plus years as a means of uniting belief in the idea of the Chinese state, the victim of humiliating colonial advances made by the British empire, US imperialism and Japanese fascism, but now woken from her long slumber. Worth noting also that not many foreign nationals are allowed visa free entry into China, only a very small number in fact but the Japanese are.............

 

[Jay Park]

Question for those who know China much better than I do: is there Japanese economic investment in China? I'd understand if there weren't (it's completely ruled out by the government, for all I know) - but that presence or lack of those sort of trade links can also affect public sentiment about another country...[/QUOTE]

not many foreign nationals are allowed visa free entry into China, only a very small number in fact but the Japanese are. I think this is owing to Japanese investment and trade. Its a fucking ball ache getting a visa for China otherwise.

 

[Jay Park]

Yes, quite a lot. I live about 5 mins away from a big Honda factory and Nissan one but all car factories where I am, work with the Chinese DongFeng company (think just about all foreign car companies pair themselves up with a Chinese company).

not many foreign nationals are allowed visa free entry into China, only a very small number in fact but the Japanese are. I think this is owing to Japanese investment and trade. Its a fucking ball ache getting a visa for China otherwise

 

[likesfish]

Th japanese have apologised a lot but then

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

it would be spiffing if anyone could offer up any information regarding (what I presume to be) a concerted effort by the ruling class in China to bombard their media/education etc with stories of inhumanity caused during Japans expansion. Does it sound too far fetched for governments to create an external enemy in order to propagate nationalism among its civilians and within it's society mainly as a strengthening tool (of course not, look at the Jingoism that predated the first world war)

Doesn't sound farfetched that governments might make things up; but the atrocities at Nanking etc, did in fact happen.

 

[Jay Park]

Doesn't sound farfetched that governments might make things up; but the atrocities at Nanking etc, did in fact happen.

so what purpose does it serve to keep going over it. Indulging in it. Obsessing over it?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

It's human nature. The events of the Civil War in the US are still a factor in the attitudes of people in the South especially, and that happened 150 years ago. The Serbs still commemorate a battle fought in the 14th century.

Traumatic events create wounds that take a long time to heal, if they ever do. The events of mid 20th century aren't old at all, in terms of human memory.

 

[maomao]

My (Chinese) in-laws have a very odd attitude to the Japanese. On the one hand my father in law will rant about how evil the Japanese are and how China should go to war with them over the fishing islands. On the other hand anything made in Japan is considered of the highest quality. Whenever we're in China my wife always goes to a specific shop that sells imported Japanese goods. My father in law has lots of stuff tat he bought on various business trips to Japan when he was a bit younger. And they're very pleased that my wife's now working for a Japanese company because she'll be treated a lot better than she was by Chinese employers. But China should definitely bomb Japan. A couple of nukes would sort them out.

 

[likesfish]

Certain Japanese do regularly do something amazingly retarded to give people an excuse to drag everything up again.
You dont see merkal or any german paying homage at the grave of any nazi war criminal
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25517205

Th fact the war criminals souls were added by right wing nutters in the 70s really doesnt help the case the japanese royal family haven't visited since

 

[Jay Park]

It's human nature. The events of the Civil War in the US are still a factor in the attitudes of people in the South especially, and that happened 150 years ago. The Serbs still commemorate a battle fought in the 14th century.

Traumatic events create wounds that take a long time to heal, if they ever do. The events of mid 20th century aren't old at all, in terms of human memory.

I think commemorating something is possibly quite different. Using the memory of what happened as the basis for more prejudice and racism isn't going to help anyone or anything.

 

[Jay Park]

Certain Japanese do regularly do something amazingly retarded to give people an excuse to drag everything up again.
You dont see merkal or any german paying homage at the grave of any nazi war criminal
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25517205

Th fact the war criminals souls were added by right wing nutters in the 70s really doesnt help the case the japanese royal family haven't visited since

They need to exorcise that shrine, that would be a good move.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I think commemorating something is possibly quite different. Using the memory of what happened as the basis for more prejudice and racism isn't going to help anyone or anything.

You're assuming that without government promotion, the memory and the emotion wouldn't be present. I don't agree.

 

[Jay Park]

What Japanese history lessons leave out http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068 in much the same way that British history lessons never taught me about the bombing of Dresden

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Knowledge of the bombing of Dresden was never suppressed. You'll recall that Vonnegut wrote about it in Slaughterhouse Five, in the Seventies, and I knew about it as a schoolchild, even before that.

 

[Jay Park]

You're assuming that without government promotion, the memory and the emotion wouldn't be present. I don't agree.

I'm not assuming that. That would be nonsense. What i'm suggesting is that geo-political tension and propaganda has pushed the issue to the forefront of collective thought.

 

[Jay Park]

Knowledge of the bombing of Dresden was never suppressed. You'll recall that Vonnegut wrote about it in Slaughterhouse Five, in the Seventies, and I knew about it as a schoolchild, even before that.

we're you taught about it in school?

 

[hipipol]

I grew up Hong Kong in the sixties
Many of our Chinese neighbours had lived thru the war
They did not need any Communist Party to inspire them to hate the Japanese
One old lady told me her son had been beheaded in the street by a Japanese officer for some "disrespect"
- she did not know what this was supposed to be
Japanese PMs regularly turn up at shrines to war criminals
They have done very little to say sorry, what has been said has been dragged thru gritted teeth
The piddling sorries for the Korean "Comfort Women" have only arrived in the last few years
With little or no remorse from Japan, China is entirely correct in being hostile to them
TBF it was the Yanks protecting Japan after WW2 as a bulwark against the Commies mean that they did not go thru the same process of self examination as Germany for example

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I'm not assuming that. That would be nonsense. What i'm suggesting is that geo-political tension and propaganda has pushed the issue to the forefront of collective thought.

And I'm suggesting the opposite: that the collective thought in this case is fertile ground for political tension.

 

[Jay Park]

I grew up Hong Kong in the sixties
Many of our Chinese neighbours had lived thru the war
They did not need any Communist Party to inspire them to hate the Japanese
One old lady told me her son had been beheaded in the street by a Japanese officer for some "disrespect"
- she did not know what this was supposed to be
Japanese PMs regularly turn up at shrines to war criminals
They have done very little to say sorry, what has been said has been dragged thru gritted teeth
The piddling sorries for the Korean "Comfort Women" have only arrived in the last few years
With little or no remorse from Japan, China is entirely correct in being hostile to them
TBF it was the Yanks protecting Japan after WW2 as a bulwark against the Commies mean that they did not go thru the same process of self examination as Germany for example

I've mentioned HK in an earlier post. Do Japanese PMs 'regularly' visit that shrine (which isn't exclusively reserved for the souls of war criminals) in the same way that I 'regularly' exercise or masturbate?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

we're you taught about it in school?

I don't recall being taught much about WW2 at all, in grade school. It wasn't really necessary. There were many documentaries and other tv shows like World At War, on all the time, and all of our older relatives had lived through it as well as fought in it.

 

[likesfish]

Most japanese know less than zero about what happened and are usually appalled when they find out.
Abe and co are racist dicks who get away by claiming its nasty foreign types who hate japan

 

[Jay Park]

I don't recall being taught much about WW2 at all, in grade school. It wasn't really necessary. There were many documentaries and other tv shows like World At War, on all the time, and all of our older relatives had lived through it as well as fought in it.

did you clock on to the heroic slant that was put on the recent commemorations for the 100 year passing of the outbreak of WW1?

 

[Jay Park]

some cretin named Nobukatsu Fujioka seems to be at the forefront of denying the crimes of the Sino-Japanese war

 

[Jay Park]

Chinese atrocities in Tibet are suppressed in the PRC as is the nations role in slavery when many Chinese we're sold off to the US.......... A more accurate term for Japanese history books might be a systematic 'overlooking' of events.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

did you clock on to the heroic slant that was put on the recent commemorations for the 100 year passing of the outbreak of WW1?

No, I didn't follow that news much.

 

[hipipol]

I've mentioned HK in an earlier post. Do Japanese PMs 'regularly' visit that shrine (which isn't exclusively reserved for the souls of war criminals) in the same way that I 'regularly' exercise or masturbate?

I doubt it
You seem to me to be a man who is consists almost completely of cock
once per year at a min in the case of the Japanese PM
You will be more familiar with your own activities and should be able to work out the ratio
As for who was or was not a war criminal hard to tell in the huge wave of slaughter Japan unleashed

R. J. Rummel, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, estimates that between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese military murdered from nearly 3 to over 10 million people, most likely 6 million Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war. According to Rummel, "This democide [i.e., death by government] was due to a morally bankrupt political and military strategy, military expediency and custom, and national culture."[59] According to Rummel, in China alone, during 1937–45, approximately 3.9 million Chinese were killed, mostly civilians, as a direct result of the Japanese operations and 10.2 million in the course of the war.[60] The most infamous incident during this period was the Nanking Massacre of 1937–38, when, according to the findings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the Japanese Army massacred as many as 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war, although the accepted figure is somewhere in the hundreds of thousands.[61]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

Caption is :- Chinese prisoners being buried alive.

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