[beaver fever]

"South Koreans hate Japanese"

Fifteen years ago a friend of mine showed me a map of Tokyo.

There were these huge green parts on the map that I assumed were parks.

I mentioned that Tokyo had a many large parks, pointing to the green areas.

She said those are the Korean neighborhoods. The Japanese do not acknowledge the existence or publish street names in the Korean areas of Tokyo. For all intents and purposes they don't exist.

Also children born of Korean parents or mixed Japanese/Korean ancestory are considered forigners and no foreigner can ever become a Japanese citizen.

If you ever want to get into an arguement with a Japanese just mention that it was ancient Koreans who originally colonized Japan.

[thecabal]

I hate to say it, but Asians can be some of the most racist people around. My father was born a "half-breed" during the Korean War. Half Korean and half Caucasian. His mother died and his remaining relatives treated him no better than a stray dog. He ended up on the streets at a very young age. Fortunately, he found his way into the Holt Orphanage and was adopted by my grandparents at the age of 11. Thank God he made it to the US.

[blam]

"If you ever want to get into an arguement with a Japanese just mention that it was ancient Koreans who originally colonized Japan. "

The Samurai And The Ainu

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'.)

[quantim]

The Japanese do not acknowledge the existence or publish street names in the Korean areas of Tokyo. For all intents and purposes they don't exist.

Kind of like the muzzie car burning zones in France?

[snowsislander]

Fifteen years ago a friend of mine showed me a map of Tokyo.

There were these huge green parts on the map that I assumed were parks.

I mentioned that Tokyo had a many large parks, pointing to the green areas.

She said those are the Korean neighborhoods. The Japanese do not acknowledge the existence or publish street names in the Korean areas of Tokyo. For all intents and purposes they don't exist.

I own a large number of maps of Tokyo. What your friend told you is not true. Green areas on most maps are indeed parks or at least open areas of some sort. I opened my favorite book of maps, Tokyo 7000, and there are two areas keyed as green in it: kouen ( , parks) and ryokuchi ( , green space).

Also for what it is worth, most streets in Tokyo do not have a name. The Japanese use an area system for naming, not a street system. For instance, the address for the publisher of the map that I am using is 3-1-2, which starts with the city, Tokyo, then the division of Tokyo called Chiyoda-ku, then to the area Misakichou San Choume within Chiyoda-ku, and then finally gives a smaller numbered area, and then the building number in that area (which turns out to appear on page 189 of their own map book.)

As to the completeness of the maps, I have walked a largish portion of Tokyo using maps such as Tokyo 7000 and I can assure you of their accuracy. Cab drivers use these highly detailed maps to find their way about the city (there is no true equivalent to London's "The Knowledge" for Tokyo cab drivers.)

(For the pictures of kanji in this posting, I used Jim Breen's excellent website.)

[RockinRight]

That's impossible...America's the only racist nation in the world!!

/DUmmie