Sunday, July 26, 2009

UN misunderstands Japan

A U.N. panel on gender equality criticized Japan on Thursday for failing to advance the rank of women in society or to fully address the wartime "comfort women" issue. Asahi Shimbun English

Two points:

1) Everyone knows that Japanese women are different so it can't be assumed that they want their rank in society advanced. Ask Fujiwara Masahiko about a woman's place. Or you might pick up a book similar in title to Fujiwara's by Mariko Bando: Dignity of a Woman. Or see excerpt below* from the classic Onna Daigaku to understand what has been lost in the modern era. Make a copy for the wife or girlfriend. She'll love it like mine did when I copied it and hung it on the wall just after we were married. (That woman has no sense of humor.)

2) Former US President Bush accepted ex-Prime Minister Abe's apology concerning the sex slave issue years ago. Abe, who had long fought any attempts to address the issue and who caused a big controversy when he claimed publicly as prime minister that there was no proof that the Japanese military at the time directly forced women to become sex slaves. He never took that back, but was still man enough to apologize to Boy George. Perhaps the UN is confused: How could Bush accept an apology for something which did not involve his sorry buttocks from a man who claimed that what he was apologizing for was not directed by the Japanese Imperial Army?

Onna Daigaku: Late 1600s/early 1700s:

*IV. The Wife’s Miscellaneous Duties

A woman has no particular lord. She must look to her husband as her lord, and must serve him with all worship and reverence, not despising or thinking lightly of him. The great lifelong duty of a woman is obedience. In her dealings with her husband, both the expression of her countenance and style of her address should be courteous, humble, and conciliatory, never peevish and intractable, never rude and arrogant . . . When the husband issues his instruction, the wife must never disobey them . . . Let her never even dream of jealousy. If her husband be dissolute, she must expostulate with him, but never either nurse nor vent her anger. If her jealousy be extreme, it will render her countenance frightful and her accent repulsive and can only result in completely alienating her husband from her, and making her intolerable to his eyes . . . In her capacity of wife, she must keep her husband’s household in proper order. If the wife be evil and profligate, the house is ruined. In everything she must avoid extravagance, and both with regard to food and raiment must act according to her station in life, and never give way to luxury and pride.

From Women in World History

Ahh, the good old days when women knew their place. We don't need no stinkin' UN making things worse than they have already become.