Two-Faced Editorials of J-Newspapers

[Taro Toporific]

[cstaylor]

[Andocrates]

I think that a lot of WWII propaganda lingered at least till the 1970's when many of us were exposed to it. Such things as throwing babies up and catching them on bayonets - it's a lingering war propaganda land mine

At the start of WW2 no one considered America a great power, it was WW2 that "made us." It would be a lot like having a World War today and worrying about Mexico interfering.

When America, in her great moment, rose to the occasion it was only after dehumananizing the Germans and Japanese and tapping into the most powerful human emotion, hate.

It has been noted that Kanji was a big problem for the rank and file soldier (which is why they had a kanji reform after the war) Also, the Japanese leadership treated it's soldiers cruelly and if you treat an animal cruelly long enough the animal will turn cruel.

However, none of that explains the Japanese media bias today - other then honne. Group think does not lead to cutting edge editorials, you can see the same thing in personality cult businesses and churches in America. When a leader exerts an inordinate amount of control everyone turns into a sheep - which in turn destroys the organization from within.

Group think is only slightly above the cult of the personality. Because more groups mean more differing opinions.

[maraboutslim]

Off topic, but I've always wondered how you handwrite "friday" in 9 strokes. Doesn't each change of direction count as a stroke? Do you dot the "i" and use a capital "F"? Care to post an illustration?

[Taro Toporific]

Off topic, but I've always wondered how you handwrite "friday" in 9 strokes. Doesn't each change of direction count as a stroke? Do you dot the "i" and use a capital "F"? Care to post an illustration?

Via the thread Who's Killing the Chinese

O.K. The whole friday 9 strokes, kinyoobi 30 strokes, that's a joke see! To signify English is easier then Japanese.

"F" 2 stokes
"r" one stroke
"i" it doesn't need a dot because the context makes it obvious (snort)
"d 1 stroke in lower case
"a" 1 stroke
"y" 2 stokes

But on my palm pilot it's only 5 strokes

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On the other hand Japanese can shorten Kanji till it's unreadable. I know a girl who always draws circles where a box should go, she can write "jikan" in 3 strokes.

[maraboutslim]

a ha. in reality when they teach kids in school the proper method of writing the letters of the alphabet they do so with diagrams much like the ones that show stroke order for kanji. And of course by the official methods, Friday would be 13 strokes.

Excuse the intrusion. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

[Andocrates]

Dang Taro, did you remember that old post! That's an impressive memory.

[Taro Toporific]

Dang Taro, did you remember that old post! That's an impressive memory.

Yep, is an an impressive tool. For the life of me, I can't remember the wrong kanji radical for Kinyoobi that TinaTeoh pointed out.

[jingai]

[cstaylor]

So it sounds like you're in perfect agreement with the Nikkei that the Officers are the ones who screwed up tactically and strategically.

Officers are the only ones who can "screw up strategically". As for tactics, unless the troops fall into massive retreat (as the South Korean army did in the opening days of the Korean conflict), again only officers (and to a limited extent, sergeants) can "screw up tactically".

Raging cannibals? 1930s Japan was a civilized, modern, industrial country.

Ah, but the troops weren't at home, were they? And you're wrong about that as well... Japan ceased to be a civilized country when the Peace Preservation Laws were passed in 1925.

[Taro Toporific]

Hey, I'm the one who pointed out the mistake. I think I asked the same question about the strokes, and still think it's unfairly slandering quick and easy-to-write kanji

Hey, sorry about not giving you the props (I guess I heard about the kanji flub via PM--so much for my memory). As a practical point that Gomi Girl and others have mentioned before, iMode and other keitai based browsing in Japanese works much better because the compact nature of Japanese. Just one look at CNN-J and CNN-E on a keitai. Japanese wins, NO CONTEST.

[Big Booger]

Nanking was a real show of how civilized Japan was in that era:

Between December 1937 and March 1938 at least 369,366 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were slaughtered by the invading troops. An estimated 80,000 women and girls were raped; many of them were then mutilated or murdered.


Sounds about as civilized as any nation could be.

Japan did well in the 30's because it raped all the surrounding countries of money, labor, just about any and all wealth they could scrape together:

Despite the great depression, the Japanese economy recovered during the 1930's. Japan did this partly throughout rearmament and through the exploitation of captive East Asian markets.

I wonder how advanced they would have been had they not had the exploitive havoc they brought down on their East Asian neighbors..

[jingai]

I wouldn't judge the level of a country's civility by the conduct of a colonial army. If you do so, Victorian Britain (considered the epitome of refinement, isn't it?), early 1900s America (remember the Phillipines?), France in Algieria, etc would not be remembered as civilized. All massacred civillians in the name of spreading the torch of civilization to those less fortunate, and had grand unfulfilled ambitions to teach the natives to rule themselves. To suggest that Japan, a masterful student of imperialism, was inherently any more savage than any of these countries is the worst sort of hypocracy.

Which is not to excuse the actions of Japan's colonial police in Taiwan or Korea, or the actions of its army in China, the Phillipines, Burma, or anywhere else they devestated. Only to say that these actions don't reflect on the nature of the Japanese society (a warlike, bloodthirsty bunch of fanatic Emperor-worshippers? Only in American propaganda.)

Taylor, the point you were attempting to make was that the Japanese were not "excellent soliders," but you used criterea which only made sense for millitary leaders (poor planning). From what I could tell, the Japanese fought well even when unsupplied and grossly outnumbered, and were certainly devoted to the cause! I take it you didn't pay your respects at Yasukuni. :P

Japan ceased to be a civilized country when the Peace Preservation Laws were passed in 1925.

Fine, but in the same way Germany ceased to be civilized after 1933, and both magically reverted to civilized in 1945.

Despite the great depression, the Japanese economy recovered during the 1930's. Japan did this partly throughout rearmament and through the exploitation of captive East Asian markets.

I would be interested to see more evidence that the colonies were anything but an economic loss, given the massive amount of money that was needed to sustain the military and keep the locals appropriately oppressed. Japan seemed grossly overextended.

[Andocrates]

The thing is war reduces people to animals. You sneer at the Japanese like they are the only ones to commit war crimes. I think what America did with the a-bombs and fire bombs - things designed to kill civilians - was a low point in human history. Esp. since there was no need.

The military believed Japan was beaten and Japan was searching for a way to surrender with some honor. But the American politicians just HAD to use their new toy to satasfy their own morbid curiosity.

The bottom line in your threads though, is that you have an underlying prejudice against Japanese. It's very hard to not be prejudice, esp as a gaijin in Japan. I am from the American south and I have to work very hard to not be prejudice against southern blacks. With a little work you can get a glimpse inside of black culture and eventually you find out they are just like you. They have happy people, mean people, greedy people, generous people, etc. But it's much easier to see the glaring negitive traits of people.

[cstaylor]

Japan seemed grossly overextended.

Yes, that they were. China was for the Japanese as Russia was for the Germans.

[cstaylor]

From what I could tell, the Japanese fought well even when unsupplied and grossly outnumbered, and were certainly devoted to the cause!

You would too if your commander said, "The Americans will eat you like we ate them"... plus the Austrialian Diggers and American Marines had an unwritten rule of "take no prisoners", so unless you surrender en masse, there's really no choice in the matter.

Fine, but in the same way Germany ceased to be civilized after 1933, and both magically reverted to civilized in 1945.

I agree. The Germans and Japanese majorities had similar character traits (absolute respect for authority, military governments, delusions of grandeur).

I would be interested to see more evidence that the colonies were anything but an economic loss, given the massive amount of money that was needed to sustain the military and keep the locals appropriately oppressed. Japan seemed grossly overextended.

Well, if the Japanese had stayed in Manchuria (renamed Machukuo by the Japanese), they wouldn't have overextended themselves. Japanese intelligence units failed to grasp the significance of the religious ties between China and the United States, so the further invasion of the mainland solidified their position as aggressor to the Americans.

[Big Booger]

I wouldn't judge the level of a country's civility by the conduct of a colonial army. If you do so, Victorian Britain (considered the epitome of refinement, isn't it?), early 1900s America (remember the Phillipines?), France in Algieria, etc would not be remembered as civilized. All massacred civillians in the name of spreading the torch of civilization to those less fortunate, and had grand unfulfilled ambitions to teach the natives to rule themselves. To suggest that Japan, a masterful student of imperialism, was inherently any more savage than any of these countries is the worst sort of hypocracy.
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I never said America, or Britain was civilized.. just pointing out facts.. they did rape, plunder, and murder women, children, old people, etc... I am not denying the autrocities committed by other countries of a similar era, and I was not the one claiming that America, Britain et al were civilized at the time.
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Taylor, the point you were attempting to make was that the Japanese were not "excellent soliders," but you used criterea which only made sense for millitary leaders (poor planning). From what I could tell, the Japanese fought well even when unsupplied and grossly outnumbered, and were certainly devoted to the cause! I take it you didn't pay your respects at Yasukuni. :P
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Japanese fought well because it was either fight or die.. not a difficult choice to choose.
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Despite the great depression, the Japanese economy recovered during the 1930's. Japan did this partly throughout rearmament and through the exploitation of captive East Asian markets.

I would be interested to see more evidence that the colonies were anything but an economic loss, given the massive amount of money that was needed to sustain the military and keep the locals appropriately oppressed. Japan seemed grossly overextended.

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You make it sound like they just went in and occupied the country without taking anything back to the motherland... this wasn't the slash and burn tactic of Germany after they knew the shit had hit the fan. This was fat rats in a land of cheese. They sucked anything and everything of value out of these countries while they occupied. They sent back labour to work in slave-like conditions. Surely you recognize that. Of course it would cost them to do so, but why occupy a land if you were not benefiting from it? While they may have been overextended, that much I will give you, they raped and pillaged like pirates. YOu can guarantee, that even today, the spoils of that era are still in Japan. ANd if I am not mistaken this is one of the reasons Koreans are still peeved, because Japan will not return relics that they stole during their occupation.

I may be mistaken, but from my reading (however limited it has been) this is how I understand it.[/i]