Brawl in Parliament?

[GuyJean]

Did anyone see the fight? Did the Japanese media even cover it?

Japan MPs in scuffles over Iraq
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/07/25/japan.politics.ap/index.html

There were scuffles in the Japanese parliament as opposition parties tried to stall passage of legislation to send troops to Iraq.

Nice legs..

GJ

[Steve Bildermann]

[Gestalt]

GuyJean wrote:

Did anyone see the fight? Did the Japanese media even cover it?

Looks like they did.. and with a slightly more risque photo!

Yahoo Japan Article

[CAkOS]

ooops sorry

[CAkOS]

wide angle...yeah it is well covered..reporters are here

[Big Booger]

I wished they'd kill themselves... would make for a more interesting newsworthy article.

[GuyJean]

[quote="CAkOS"]yeah it is well covered..reporters are here ]
But I've seen NOTHING on TV.. I want video!

I love the headlock and leg-driving shots.. What a bunch of goofy old men.. and one woman in a skirt..

GJ

[Steve Bildermann]

I am so pissed.. any of you have the rule for how much I have to pay for 33KM over the limit? I mean this is out in the boondocks.. 4 lane highway, 2 going one way and 2 going the other with the part ...

bet they'll pin it on a Gaijin, because Japanese would never do such a thing.

I wished they'd hold a beat up the police contest.. I'd certainly join in

I wished they'd kill themselves... would make for a more interesting newsworthy article.

hmmmm I'm begining to see a pattern here. it's sort of all being going downhill since the speeding ticket right?

Any thoughts of going Yubin?

[CAkOS]

well...there were some photographers on the other side of the fight...I wonder why they did not show any pic from this "other" side...

bad point of view maybe? or people just prefer some voyeurism (sp?)

[Steve Bildermann]

well...there were some photographers on the other side of the fight...I wonder why they did not show any pic from this "other" side...

Here you go...

[Pizzicatoblue]

How pathetic...

[Naniwan Kid]

One more for the mix....

anyone know who this leggy lass is?

[Naniwan Kid]

Ooops, that was a repost, sorry. Here's another one, but slightly bigger...

[SovietSupreme]

I can help install new government for Japan.

[Shibuya Me]

Just a thought....

I saw this on television and thought to myself...
why are all those Americans being so...rude?

Then my good friend with perfect vision
said " Oh! Wait! They are Japanese?!"

Then we all said together with a great
big smile " Well, then it's okay...."

We also said " Never mind then..."
and went onto say..."It's cool......"

Then we hurried and turned that stupid
television off! There is not anything on
that television anyway! Just a bunch of
junk!

[Neo-Rio]

In the eternal quest to try and understand Japan, I concluded by saying to myslef "Japan must be a place run by children. That would explain everything!"

Now I have proof.

[kamome]

In the eternal quest to try and understand Japan, I concluded by saying to myslef "Japan must be a place run by children. That would explain everything!"

Now I have proof.

Well, I believe it was General McArthur who said, "Japan is a nation of 12-year olds".

[cstaylor]

I'll look that up tonight for you.

I'm pretty sure you're referring to a quote in "War Without Mercy", but I'm not sure if it was MacArthur who made that statement... might have been Ambassador Grew or Secretary of War Henry Stimson.

Now, there are some notable quotes about why MacArthur pushed for universal suffrage... along the lines that "no woman would vote for a warmonger".

[Armandeus]

The "leggy lass" is reportedly from Niigata. Oh, the shame.

[Neo-Rio]

Well, I believe it was General McArthur who said, "Japan is a nation of 12-year olds".

No kidding eh?

[cstaylor]

Check out "War Without Mercy" by Dover. There's a whole section devoted to so-called psychologists in the U.S. diagnosing the entire island of Japanese as a mass of people with arrested development. I didn't have time to look if it was MacArthur or not, sorry.

[jingai]

It absolutely was MacArthur who made the statement in front of Congress. What he was saying was that in terms of democracy, the Japanese were mere children, and needed guidance. Of course even that statement was horribly paternalistic, and once it got back to Japan, MacArthur's stature as a God began to weaken, and a planned statue of him in Tokyo bay was cancelled. I think Dower's Embracing Defeat tells this story, but it could have been War Without Mercy.

[cstaylor]

It absolutely was MacArthur who made the statement in front of Congress. What he was saying was that in terms of democracy, the Japanese were mere children, and needed guidance. Of course even that statement was horribly paternalistic, and once it got back to Japan, MacArthur's stature as a God began to weaken, and a planned statue of him in Tokyo bay was cancelled. I think Dower's Embracing Defeat tells this story, but it could have been War Without Mercy.

Well, like the Germans, they were mere pups when it came to democracy. Just look at the Meiji constitution (especially chapter 2). There's not one mention of rights specifically given to the people, just that they can "do these things, like some freedom of expression, as long as it stays within the boundaries defined by law". I don't see a single mention of "The Emperor is forbidden" or "The Diet is forbidden" to "pass any such law abridging the freedom of speech". All it did was outline the power of the Emperor... not much of a "democracy".

[lightman]

there should be definitively more women in the Japanese parliament.

[jingai]

No, the Germans had a (dis)functional democracy under Weimar. Meiji Japan was certainly not a democracy (who claimed that it was?), and neither was the so-called "Taisho Democracy", which was at best leaning towards liberalism. Japan soon leaned away, and we know what happened next.

So MacArthur had his words taken out of context, but the analogy he picked was condescending. He could have chosen partners in democracy, brothers/sisters, or other ways to imagine postwar Japan. His comments indicated a lack of respect for the Japanese, and they felt it.

Here's a great review of Embracing Defeat and a nice overview of the Occupation.
http://www.mail-archive.com/fukuzawa@ucsd.edu/msg09763.html

[cstaylor]

His comments indicated a lack of respect for the Japanese, and they felt it.

Of course the Japanese weren't the only ones... one of the best lines from Manchester's "American Caesar" is that MacArthur was his own worst enemy. He could outmaneuver his opponents on the battlefield, but he kept tripping over his own ego. ]www.activehistory.co.uk/worksheets/a2/lme/wilhelm_dom_pol.pdf+German+government+under+the+Kaiser&hl=en&ie=UTF-8]German[/url] government[/url].

The Taisho democracy? Now that's a laugh... the Diet passing laws because the Yoshihito was too nutso to deal with leadership issues.

[Taro Toporific]

Double post of Copy-Copycatfight in the next post below.

An additional picture of the fight here.

[Taro Toporific]

Come on then its first come first served. So who's it gonna be then...

"assaulted by a member from MDP's conservative old guard group"


South Korean lawmaker Lee Mee-kyong (bottom-L), from the ruling Millennium Democratic Party's (MDP) reform-driven group, is assaulted by a member from MDP's conservative old guard group at the party's headquarters in Seoul,September 4, 2003. REUTERS/Chosun Ilbo

[kamome]

It absolutely was MacArthur who made the statement in front of Congress. What he was saying was that in terms of democracy, the Japanese were mere children, and needed guidance.

I didn't realize MacArthur was talking about democracy when he made that statement. Because I think the Japanese as 12-year olds metaphor is particularly fitting at all levels. If you work in a J-company, it feels like kindergarten: the bell rings at lunchtime and at 5:30PM, the "official" end time for work. Tour groups are led by women holding flags and people marching dutifully along like a preschool class, etc.

[cstaylor]

Ouch... not the same experience I've had, but then again I work in a very small company.