from the Washington Post.
It is really no wonder that Americans in the US in general don't know much about Japan. As we all know, international news coverage there is usually poor to horrible, but just as often non-existent. I wonder how we are supposed to believe their coverage on Iraq or other places when it is so poor in Japan where they have access and which has a stable government and is not in a war zone?
The Post occasionally will have a decent article, but today's is just trivial, shallow nonsense. The article covers fringe candidates in today's election, but in no depth. If one were reading it without much or any knowledge of Japan, it would only serve to make Japan seem to be a weird inscrutable alien country. This article was not published to inform people, but to entertain them. And they wonder why newspaper readership had decreased (not that TV news would do better. It would be even worse) and Americans have a distrust of the media. Full article is here.
Note that the Post recently got into a bit of a scandal after it published another deeply insightful, intelligent article on Hillary Clinton's cleavage which the Post insists was news. No surprise on the stubborn insistence that they are right and everyone else is wrong---and more or less stupid. Have they ever admitted error other than for a misspelling of a name, or an incorrect address? (Of course this little controversy benefits Hillary, so the whole thing is more or less a joke.)
Showing posts with label tojo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tojo. Show all posts
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Although the nutjobs of Japan's elite
may be leaning (or plummeting) towards the extreme nationalist right, I don't think that at present the average Japanese has much sympathy for such ideas. I have to be cautious and mention that I have not taken a poll, and most Japanese whom I know speak English to some degree and are comfortable around non-Japanese, and as such are not representative of the Japanese people as a whole. My wife is Japanese and she has much harsher words and thoughts about Abe, Ishihara, Aso, Tojo than I do---if that is possible. And her comments on Fujiwara's writing were along the lines of "What kind of idiot is going to read that?" when I asked her to read his comic book last year. Apparently, a large number of folks don't share her views since his masterpiece of idiocy was a best seller here.
One would have to have the utmost faith in the human race, or else believe the nihonjinron nonsense that the Japanese are somehow different as human beings than the rest of the world (and have blind, stupid faith in believing that every belief that the Japanese had pre-WW2 suddenly did a 180 at the war's end) in order to assume that the increasingly incessant nationalistic, far right rhetoric in so many areas of public life will have no influence on the future course of Japan. Most of us would find it hard to believe that Japan would ever repeat the errors of WW2. But then again, Japan's elite rightists increasingly deny that there were errors.
I find it hard to believe that the US repeated some of the errors of Vietnam too. We went into a war on flimsy, exaggerated evidence in the 1960s, and we've done it again. We knew we should not trust the government very far. But we did. And now we want to pretend it wasn't our fault, it was all George Bush's. And the US has a incomparably freer, more aggressive media, and a long tradition of debate, democracy, citizen involvement, and distrust of government. Why would Japan or any other country be necessarily exempt from this type of tragic misjudgment? Moral/cultural superiority or uniqueness? Exceptionalism? Hmmm. Heard something like 'bout the US before. Turned out to be wrong.
Amazingly, as the USA has become more isolated in the world and has taken a more aggressive, go-it-alone, militaristic stance, its relationship with Japan has become closer than at any time in recent history. The US may have hit the wall and seems to be altering course now, but Japan appears to have missed some parts of that lesson. But then again, Fujiwara's elite(?) also seem to have missed the lessons of World War Two.
By the way, Tojo's granddaughter has started her campaign for parliament. She won't win, but she will get a nice platform for her extreme rightwing nutjob views. Folks to the left may have a tougher time.
One would have to have the utmost faith in the human race, or else believe the nihonjinron nonsense that the Japanese are somehow different as human beings than the rest of the world (and have blind, stupid faith in believing that every belief that the Japanese had pre-WW2 suddenly did a 180 at the war's end) in order to assume that the increasingly incessant nationalistic, far right rhetoric in so many areas of public life will have no influence on the future course of Japan. Most of us would find it hard to believe that Japan would ever repeat the errors of WW2. But then again, Japan's elite rightists increasingly deny that there were errors.
I find it hard to believe that the US repeated some of the errors of Vietnam too. We went into a war on flimsy, exaggerated evidence in the 1960s, and we've done it again. We knew we should not trust the government very far. But we did. And now we want to pretend it wasn't our fault, it was all George Bush's. And the US has a incomparably freer, more aggressive media, and a long tradition of debate, democracy, citizen involvement, and distrust of government. Why would Japan or any other country be necessarily exempt from this type of tragic misjudgment? Moral/cultural superiority or uniqueness? Exceptionalism? Hmmm. Heard something like 'bout the US before. Turned out to be wrong.
Amazingly, as the USA has become more isolated in the world and has taken a more aggressive, go-it-alone, militaristic stance, its relationship with Japan has become closer than at any time in recent history. The US may have hit the wall and seems to be altering course now, but Japan appears to have missed some parts of that lesson. But then again, Fujiwara's elite(?) also seem to have missed the lessons of World War Two.
By the way, Tojo's granddaughter has started her campaign for parliament. She won't win, but she will get a nice platform for her extreme rightwing nutjob views. Folks to the left may have a tougher time.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tojo running
Hideki Tojo's granddaughter is running for a diet seat. She has little support among the voters and even Abe is distancing himself from her. However, she apparently has decided that now is her time and the time for her political philosophy:
Her views are part of a resurgent right-wing fringe in Japan that espouses a hard line in territorial disputes with the country's neighbors and a rose-tinted view of its past militarism.
"Japan did not fight a war of aggression. It fought in self- defense," she said. "Our children have been wrongly taught that their ancestors did evil things, that their country is evil. We need to give these children back their pride and confidence."
Article at boston.com
The same "....give back...their pride and confidence..." by denying any wrongdoing in the past that the right is pursuing. Apparently, the recognition of errors and mistakes which, according to the right-wing nutjobs, is too prevalent in Japan and is unpatriotic and shows a lack of pride and confidence. She is even more extreme. Few supporters but a trend is clear. Who knows how long it will last or how successful it will be. I haven't taken a poll, but from the limited number of people I know and have talked to about some of these views, there is little sympathy for the extremes. Even those (again, a select few not representative of anything except my acquaintances) who are "conservative" don't believe nor support much of the Abe/Fujiwara et. al. rhetoric.
(Just to note that after reading most of Masahiko Fujiwara's book, I'd say one should not assign him too much importance. He is simply the author of a poorly reasoned, self-contradictory nihonjinron book which is so silly that the only question is, why was it so popular here? How deep is the desire to return to an imagined fantasy-world past? Lot's of Japanese think he's a goofball. The first I ever heard of him and his book was last year when a Japanese guy mentioned it to me to seemingly make fun of one of Masahiko's bizarre assertions.)
Her views are part of a resurgent right-wing fringe in Japan that espouses a hard line in territorial disputes with the country's neighbors and a rose-tinted view of its past militarism.
"Japan did not fight a war of aggression. It fought in self- defense," she said. "Our children have been wrongly taught that their ancestors did evil things, that their country is evil. We need to give these children back their pride and confidence."
Article at boston.com
The same "....give back...their pride and confidence..." by denying any wrongdoing in the past that the right is pursuing. Apparently, the recognition of errors and mistakes which, according to the right-wing nutjobs, is too prevalent in Japan and is unpatriotic and shows a lack of pride and confidence. She is even more extreme. Few supporters but a trend is clear. Who knows how long it will last or how successful it will be. I haven't taken a poll, but from the limited number of people I know and have talked to about some of these views, there is little sympathy for the extremes. Even those (again, a select few not representative of anything except my acquaintances) who are "conservative" don't believe nor support much of the Abe/Fujiwara et. al. rhetoric.
(Just to note that after reading most of Masahiko Fujiwara's book, I'd say one should not assign him too much importance. He is simply the author of a poorly reasoned, self-contradictory nihonjinron book which is so silly that the only question is, why was it so popular here? How deep is the desire to return to an imagined fantasy-world past? Lot's of Japanese think he's a goofball. The first I ever heard of him and his book was last year when a Japanese guy mentioned it to me to seemingly make fun of one of Masahiko's bizarre assertions.)
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