Japanese mayor says that WWII 'comfort women' were necessary
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8ball
Decolonise colons!
Closer relations with the UK, America and Israel?
trabuquera
Modesty Bag
Bizarrely (I wanted to know more of his *ahem* "forthright views") he also thinks that local government is completely within its rights to sack anyone with a tattoo, even a hidden one. No really! Because they're representatives of the state and thus have no right to a private life or control of their own body.
And more bizarrely yet he is (allegedly) from a burakumin (deeply stigmatised social/ethnic/indigenous minority) background and his mum even changed their family name to try and reduce the victimisation they suffered as a result when he was a child.
all very strange indeed. still no excuse for rape-victim-baiting, either.
JimW
支那暗杀团
Won't that be also due to the association of tattooing with organised crime?
There are no war crimes according to the Japanese government. Why else would they still pay homage to a shrine that holds war criminals (some from the 731 unit).
JimW
支那暗杀团
That's why I think they wouldn't mention it. Must some three dimensional chess level sort of politics that make s a reference to something you otherwise do your best to ignore or deny.
Not sure what you mean by that, I doubt it was an accident, 731 can't just be an accidental number.
The government's of China, Korea and other Asian neigbours don't have the same ideas as you do, they must be mistaken?
JimW
支那暗杀团
I mean what advantage do you believe the Japanese government would be seeking by doing it on purpose? Having denied it so long, it wouldn't be immediately obvious to folks at home I would have thought, so no kudos there, and deniable gratuitous offence to regional neighbours/rivals - well, perhaps but again doesn't seem likely.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
So you reckon the jet itself has been intentionally numbered to piss people off?
Maybe the Japanese military see the number 731 as special? Or just a random number, as at the same time Japan is trying to increase their influence over their neighbours? And their Prime Minister is sitting in a plane with some random numbers.........
So, you just think it's an amazingly idiotic faux pas?
JimW
支那暗杀团
Yes. The logic behind visiting the Yasukuni Shrine is that it plays well domestically to a certain demographic even if it pisses off the neighbours - tough with regional adversaries, honouring our boys whatever the consequences etc. There's no logic in reminding people of your war crimes, ones you have made sure only those with an interest at home even know about at all.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
A quick google shows the aircraft to be part of the Japanese airforce aerobatic team Blue Impulse.
They've got 11 of them.
Guess what their numbers are?
They've got 11 of them.
Guess what their numbers are?
JimW
支那暗杀团
666 and 88?
JimW
支那暗杀团
There's a touching polar opposite type that gets a lot of play here, which is old soldiers who come to the scenes of their crimes in China to apologise and make amends as best they can. of course, these are usually the ordinary grunts who weren't particularly culpable in the first place, but they get a great reception.
likesfish
You can't park here sir
Tbf the japanese imperial army treated its own men with a shocking degree of brutalitly
Which explains some of the horrors the pows experianced normal behaviour for the japanese army.
Mind you senior japanese officers carried out assasinations against rivals so the whole society was deeply deeply fucked up.
Which explains some of the horrors the pows experianced normal behaviour for the japanese army.
Mind you senior japanese officers carried out assasinations against rivals so the whole society was deeply deeply fucked up.
trabuquera
Modesty Bag
probably, but iirc this guy has/had himself been accused of dodgy links to the yakuza - who like mafiosi everywhere skew more to the ultra-right / fierce conservatism side of things than cuddly liberalism. anyway....
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
The JASDF have about 200 Kawasaki T-4s serialled from 600 to 800+. 731 has been a Blue Impulse jet for years so this could not have been planned.
I think Dandred is Jazzz's brother.
I doubt that
It seems too much like a coincidence though, just like him wearing the baseball cap with 96 on it, maybe he was honoring the Hillsborough victims? http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/05/15/south-korean-media-blast-abes-numerical-provocations/
Here is a link to bit of a crazy blog
The reference to the infamous Unit 731 could hardly be clearer. That's the Harbin-based unit where the Japanese Imperial Army performed atrocious human experimentations during the 1930s and 40s. And who was the "Leader" of Unit 731? Shiro Ishii, a monster who escaped trial for war crimes by sharing his nasty secrets with the US, part of a revolting deal that not only amounted to one of the lowest moments in the history of the great American democracy, but also crippled Japan's nascent democracy, preventing the nation from facing its troubled past, and paving the way for revisionists such as Shinzo Abe. http://seoulvillage.blogspot.kr/2013/05/cant-top-that-shinzo-abe-posing-as.html#.UZWZXMq6euN Yesterday, as Shinzo Abe all but dressed up as Shiro Ishii, the US joined China in a most vehement condemnation. http://seoulvillage.blogspot.kr/2013/05/cant-top-that-shinzo-abe-posing-as.html#.UZWZXMq6euN In the eyes of the international community, Abe made his ultimate coming out as an all-out fascist supporting all the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese regime.
Somehow it seems too convent to label this as an unfortunate coincidence. But maybe it is.
The reference to the infamous Unit 731 could hardly be clearer. That's the Harbin-based unit where the Japanese Imperial Army performed atrocious human experimentations during the 1930s and 40s. And who was the "Leader" of Unit 731? Shiro Ishii, a monster who escaped trial for war crimes by sharing his nasty secrets with the US, part of a revolting deal that not only amounted to one of the lowest moments in the history of the great American democracy, but also crippled Japan's nascent democracy, preventing the nation from facing its troubled past, and paving the way for revisionists such as Shinzo Abe. http://seoulvillage.blogspot.kr/2013/05/cant-top-that-shinzo-abe-posing-as.html#.UZWZXMq6euN Yesterday, as Shinzo Abe all but dressed up as Shiro Ishii, the US joined China in a most vehement condemnation. http://seoulvillage.blogspot.kr/2013/05/cant-top-that-shinzo-abe-posing-as.html#.UZWZXMq6euN In the eyes of the international community, Abe made his ultimate coming out as an all-out fascist supporting all the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese regime.
Somehow it seems too convent to label this as an unfortunate coincidence. But maybe it is.
Here is a Korean article with a bit more about the Prime Minister's political views......
That fear is personified by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, regarded as far more right-wing than any of his predecessors, as the two-time leader continues to behave and talk controversially.
Japan’s first premier to be born after World War II practically denied its aggressive actions in Asia before and during the war, contending that the term “invasion” has not been “defined” internationally or academically.
That fear is personified by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, regarded as far more right-wing than any of his predecessors, as the two-time leader continues to behave and talk controversially.
Japan’s first premier to be born after World War II practically denied its aggressive actions in Asia before and during the war, contending that the term “invasion” has not been “defined” internationally or academically.
likesfish
You can't park here sir
Numorology is quite big in parts of asia so maybe be a cock up or the sort of military "sense of humour" that when the ANC were in NI saw a vcp manned by white south africans 
Interview without coffee for all concerned after that clever wheeze.
Probably somebody in the JSDF thinking it was funny.
Interview without coffee for all concerned after that clever wheeze.
Probably somebody in the JSDF thinking it was funny
.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
I think you're being too kind. From what little I've observed of Japanese politics, pols there seem to operate very much on multiple layers of meaning. The make the FCO look like 1st-year amateurs.
JimW
支那暗杀团
Don't think it's kind - incompetence at that level isn't a compliment, and still reckon they're in the business of war-crimes denial rather than even oblique references. Can't put my hand on heart and say for sure either way, but that's how it reads to me.
That story is nothing compered to this one...... http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/05/120_135776.html
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the cockpit of a T-4 training jet at an airbase in Miyagi gives a thumbs up, Tuesday. The number on the fuselage of the aircraft — 731— has triggered protests from Korea, China and imperial Japan’s other victims, who have taken offense because it coincides with that of Unit 731, which conducted biological and chemical warfare experiments using people from countries Japan occupied. / AFP-Yonhap
The Japanese Prime Minister decides to sit in a fighter plane with the "731" on the side, the number of the Japanese army's biological and chemical warfare until in the second world war!
Imagine Merkel wearing an SS uniform and giving out striped pajamas and you have an idea what this means to Japan's neighours.
Yeah, but its not the same, though.
What you suggest would be a very deliberate action, but this thing with a number on a plane is probably random.
I mean, all planes have numbers on the side, but no-one co-incidentally turns up in an SS uniform (except certain members of the British royal family, of course!).
For a REAL insensitive faux-pax, check out this "unit photo" of the US Marines "Scout Snipers" in Afghanistan:
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