After Heider in Austria and Le Pen in France...

[cstaylor]

...I guess the world is entering another surge to the right. It's a pity, but hey, that's why countries have armies, right?

[cstaylor]

...that's the entire reason the right-wingers enshrined the Class-A war criminals there in the first place. If they built a shrine for "those guys responsible for the war", it'd run out of money in a heartbeat,
and any politician reported to give donations to it would be labeled as an ultra-nationalist.

The way it is now, moderate conservatives like Koizumi can gain the right-wing votes without completely alienating the majority of Japanese that disagree with their viewpoint.

[cstaylor]

...through their implicit acceptance of the right-wing, the Japanese will eventually be lead by them again. Except this time the Chinese have nukes.

Not to sound like a hick, but that's one of the nice things about the American 2nd amendment: sure they can come for me, but I'm taking a few of them with me when they do.

[cstaylor]

When the mayor of Nagasaki suggested that the Emperor bore some responsibility for the war, he was shot and partially paralyzed.

You know, all the guy was saying is that the Emperor bore "some" responsibility, not all, just as every Japanese person of adult age during that time bore "some" responsibility. Each and every person that did nothing (or stood by quietly as those that did speak out were quashed by goon squads enforcing the peace preservation laws put into effect after the attempted assasination of a young Hirohito) bore "some" responsibility.

What I really find laughable is that guns are illegal in Japan, yet these nut cases still seem to find working relics or black market guns to enforce their views on others through violence. Why are the cops more interested in busting football fans than routing out the source of these illegal weapons?

At least an independent won the mayoral race in Yokohama...