Posted on 11/20/2005 7:55:12 PM PST by neverdem
TOKYO, Nov. 14 - A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."
In another comic book, "Introduction to China," which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: "Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There's nothing attractive."
The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.
In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan's fellow Asians and in the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, the books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan's worsening relations with the rest of Asia.
They also point to Japan's longstanding unease with the rest of Asia and its own sense of identity, which is akin to Britain's apartness from the Continent. Much of Japan's history in the last century and a half has been guided by the goal of becoming more like the West and less like Asia. Today, China and South Korea's rise to challenge Japan's position as Asia's economic, diplomatic and cultural leader is inspiring renewed xenophobia against them here.
Kanji Nishio, a scholar of German literature, is honorary chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, the nationalist organization that has pushed to have references to the country's wartime atrocities eliminated from junior high school textbooks.
Mr. Nishio is blunt about how Japan should deal with its neighbors, saying nothing has changed since 1885, when one of modern Japan's most influential intellectuals, Yukichi Fukuzawa, said Japan...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The irony is that the Korean movie "Oldboy," was based on a Japanese manga book.
Ah, so very inscrutable.
Thanks for the links.
Actually as a Chinese I would say the Chinese in private hold Koreans in comtempt - "they produce mediocre cars and they cheat in sports", and in fact deep in heart Koreans never like us - thinking that the Communists has squandered Chinese cultural heritage (i.e. "we have a China today and its people are Chinese, but they don't possess Chinese culture").
Mark my words: when/if Korea becomes reunified whether it be the free South Korea or Communist North under the lunatic Kim Jong-il (the North unifying being less likely option) you will see endless rounds of conflicts marring Sino-Korean relations, even if China itself democratizes. There is just far too much economic competitions and not to forget the Korean minority in China's Jilin province and a whole range of territories such as the Changbai Mountains have been delcared by Korea (North and South) as historically Korean.
But the younger generation, much to the dismay of the older/wayyy racist but always "respectful" generation, doesn't seem to look at things in that way.
But I think China is this century's sleeping dragon. I believe Japan will probably be in the direct path of that dragon when it wakes up.
Picken on Korea, that I don't get. DNA studies show that most of the Japanese are Korean, save the Ainu and it's not like the Koreans are any threat. They can't even save their people in the major hell hole up north.
Do I perceive an underlying strategy to put at odds two crucial American allies?
Is the propaganda-comic's pen mightier than the sword?
Hmmmmm.
THE Findings by American anthropologist C. Loring Brace, University of Michigan, will surely be controversial in race conscious Japan. The eye of the predicted storm will be the Ainu, a "racially different" group of some 18,000 people now living on the northern island of Hokkaido. Pure-blooded Ainu are easy to spot: they have lighter skin, more body hair, and higher-bridged noses than most Japanese. Most Japanese tend to look down on the Ainu.
Brace has studied the skeletons of about 1,100 Japanese, Ainu, and other Asian ethnic groups and has concluded that the revered samurai of Japan are actually descendants of the Ainu, not of the Yayoi from whom most modern Japanese are descended. In fact, Brace threw more fuel on the fire with:
"Dr. Brace said this interpretation also explains why the facial features of the Japanese ruling class are so often unlike those of typical modern Japanese. The Ainu-related samurai achieved such power and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with royality and nobility, passing on Jomon-Ainu blood in the upper classes, while other Japanese were primarily descended from the Yoyoi." The reactions of Japanese scientists have been muted so. One Japanese anthropologist did say to Brace," I hope you are wrong."
The Ainu and their origin have always been rather mysterious, with some people claiming that the Ainu are really Caucasian or proto-Caucasian - in other words, "white." At present, Brace's study denies this interpretation.
(Some anthropologists say that the Japanese practice of 'white-face' is an ancient emulation of the 'royals'.)
Wrong. Chinese generally like Koreans; Koreans generally fear and/or despise Chinese.
Yet the politically correct leftist press expects us Americas to love them all and hate ourselves.
Beside which, manga and anime have a wide range of genres. Anything from sugary kiddy series that are so sweet that they would make Barney the Purple Dinosaur sick to his stomach, too porn that's so hardcore that you couldn't pay people enough money to make a live-action versions of such series.
Personally I like sci-fi and fantasy and to be honest, anime and manga offers some of the best selections in quality for such genres. For example, I enjoyed watching Ghost in the Shell 2nd Gig (season) anime on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) last not. It was violent, but good sci-fi.
last not = last night
Every region of the world has its 'pecking order'. If you're a thumb-sucking liberal you can ignore this reality, but its just human nature and you can't change it. Its not necessarily based on race (not going there) but it is definitely based on culture. To the extent that certain cultures become associated with certain "races" or "ethnicities" you have stereotypes arising. (Clue to brain dead liberals - stereotypes generally exist because there is more than a kernel of truth at their core. I think its just a way for the less intelligent masses to explain or acknowledge cultural differences. The success of America shows that members of all "races" can achieve success if melded into the superior civilized culture. Hence race does not connote superiority/inferiority by itself. Put another way, its not race, but the culture, stupid).
Japan became Asia's 'top dog' after westernizing. China was top dog a thousand years ago, and is slowly making its move back towards that status.
The Japanese are caught in a bind - they really should become a well-armed military/nuclear power to maintain their status, but that seems unlikely in the short term.
As far as the Japanese comics and their Caucasian-like features (present as well in the anime cartoon genre), well, Hitler made them "honorary Aryans, didn't he? Must have had a reason, right?
He did. But again, it WASN'T race. It was CULTURE.
Q: Why was it natural for the Germans and the Japanese to become allies in WWII?
A: Because both nations have a language that is not spoken, but BARKED!!
(*LOL*) That's an original joke, BTW. You may feel free to use it.
As far as Japan's manly culture goes, my sentiment is simply put thus: "BANZAI!!"
That's a very sad story with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing. You're right neither the Japanese nor the Koreans have clean hands regarding racism.
"A funny fact about the Korean population of Japan is that 3/4th of them are actually supporters of North Korea. They send back a good amount of money every year. I don't know why that is, but the DPRK even has some of its propaganda servers located in Japan."
Probably many are family members of DPRK citizens who cannot go back to their homes in Korea, and hope to return some day under a new regime, or they may simply hope their relatives will receive better treatment as a result of their collaboration (with the new boss in Korea, after their family may have collaborated with the old-boss Japanese). North Korea has a sick relationship with outside Koreans, where the North treats its citizens like crap in the hopes that the Koreans in the free(er) world will send money and food to keep their family members alive. The pitch is probably similar in Japan, paeans to family loyalty and whatnot being very important throughout Korean culture.
The adage: "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", is appropriate. Stories and theories that are flamboyant and startling get attention. Extremes of bigotry here get as much play in the US as they do when they come from Japan.
There is plenty of racism on both sides in my experience. Quote from a friend travelling from China to Korea to work for the summer, whose classmates urged against the trip. "They will work you to death, treat you like a black," they said.
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