Posted on 02/02/2006 6:15:42 PM PST by blam
MP's warning over 'blue-eyed foreigner' on Japanese throne
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo
(Filed: 03/02/2006)
A senior Japanese politician has attacked plans to allow a reigning empress in case the child of "a blue-eyed foreigner" succeeds to the ancient Chrysanthemum Throne.
The remark by an MP and former trade minister, Takeo Hiranuma, highlighted the way conservatives see the emperor as head of the Japanese race and equate national vigour with racial purity.
The government wants to change the law to allow Princess Aiko, the four-year-old granddaughter of Emperor Akihito, to become second in line to the throne.
Polls show overwhelming support for the plan. But determined opposition has emerged, centred on Prince Tomohito, the emperor's cousin and diehard conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
"If Aiko becomes the reigning empress, and gets involved with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child may be the emperor. We should never let that happen," Mr Hiranuma said in Tokyo.
Conservatives are particularly hostile to proposals to allow matrilineal succession, which they view as a breach of a 2,000-year-old tradition.
Though Japan has had eight reigning empresses, they were widows or unmarried and served as regents until the throne could revert to a son born through the male line.
Traditionalists believe that holy blood, transmitted from son to son over 125 generations of emperors, is central to the well-being of Japan.
However, all nine children born into the imperial family for 40 years have been girls. Even Japanese in favour of reform are aware that finding a suitable spouse for a future Empress Aiko will be tricky.
Japan has no titled aristocracy and the neutrality of the imperial family means it may be difficult for her to marry the son of a political or business family.
You are WRONG.
The Great Wall was built to keep out Chuck Norris.
It failed miserably. :P
Lots of stuff going on in the intervening 3,000 years of course.
Here's a thought for you if you follow this sort of thing, a number of minor-dark ages occurred since the last glaciers melted off. Many of them correlate well with what we call a "mini-ice age". That's where the temperature drops a bit, things dry out, and the temperate zone moves South.
Agricultural populations find themselves S.O.L. unless their existing crops will also grow under the new conditions.
When it comes to migratory tribes herding reindeer (or just following them, adjusting their path with elaborate gate systems), their range expands tremendously.
The Chuchi, Sa'ami and many other Polar Peoples MOVE SOUTH bringing with them new genes (e.g. the package we call Scandinavian Porphyria is worth looking up), new gods and goddesses, and new drugs (maybe even "little red man").
The first migration of the Hakka most likely began at the beginning of a colder period. Interesting that the Hakka have "round heads", "round" even according to the Chinese, who hardly have "square" heads~! Most of the Polar People also have very "round" heads. (Try buying a hat, eh?).
Given everybody's practice of trading daughters to adjacent tribes, I'd suspect the Hakka quickly acquired a totally new gene pack before they, themselves moved South toward the Han.
This sort of thing can cause a lot of confusion when you do studies of aleles.
Yup. Professor Mike Baillie (an expert in dendrochronology) in his book Exodus To Arthur has used tree-rings worldwide to document some of these periods. Below are the dates he says shows worldwide effecting events: (serious Dark Ages)
* 3195BC
* 2354BC
* 1628BC
* 1159BC
* 540AD
And two smaller events at 207BC and 44BC.
Victor Mair, in his book, The Tarim Mummies, (The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy), says that the people in the Tarim Basin and on into Gansu Province, China were Caucasian and it was only about 100-200BC that Mongoloid skeletons( presumably the Han) started showing up in the grave yards... and, then later mixed race skeletons. I've often wondered if the Hakka were the result of this mixing. A cold dry spell set upon the region and people migrated from there in all directions. We know about the Hakka from Chinese records, we don't know about the others. Might some of the people also be the Picts?
That's a gross generalization - that "Hakka still don't look all that much like the Han."
In fact, "Han" people don't look like each other. "Han" Chinese is made up of many different ethnic groups essentially. Han Chinese in Sichuan will look vastly different than Han Chinese in Shandong. And Hakka, who has migrated south, look more like Han Chinese in the south (which are again, influenced by Viet, Hmong, etc.)
The skin tones of Han is also quite different. The facial features are also quite different amongst itself.
My dad, for example, came from Jiangsu province. He has incredibly dark skin and high bridge nose. My mom, from Taiwan, has much lighter skin and flat nose. My wife, from Shandong province, is probably whiter than most caucasians (though there is a debate amongst their family of whether she has 1/32 Germanic blood) and features that are drastically different than other places -- She's 5'8", not really short for a woman in China. Her hair is not dark "black", but actually much closer to dark red. Her facial features is very much "Shandong"-like, the perfect example would be the actress Gong Li from Shandong province (very light skinned, tall bridge nose, etc.)
I'd have to say that "Han" chinese is more about a culture than ethnicity. Northern Han Chinese is vastly different than Southern Chinese, ethnically speaking. And sometimes those rules don't apply -- my dad has skin colors that will resemble someone from Guandong province or Vietnam (i.e. darker skinned) but he has facial features from northern Chinese.
In reality, Han Chinese is probably one of the biggest melting pots there is, ethnically speaking. Culturally it's fairly unison with regional/local differences.
As far as Hakka goes, i have met Hakkas that are dark skinned and Hakkas that are light skins and look more like Japanese (flat facial features). They do speak and proud of their own spoken laguage, but that's about it, ethnically speaking they're not much different than the Hans.
"As far as Hakka goes, i have met Hakkas that are dark skinned and Hakkas that are light skins and look more like Japanese (flat facial features). They do speak and proud of their own spoken laguage, but that's about it, ethnically speaking they're not much different than the Hans."
I've read that the Hakka are very accurate record keepers. And, also are famous for their poem writing.
I always thought that there was a connection between the Ainu and the Inuit. I noticed some similarities in their artwork long ago.
Under the Mongols additional ethnic varieties were brought to China for a variety of purposes ~ but until then the Chinese had about as much variation as modern Korean-speaking people.
They used to be.
The Smithsonian a couple of years back had some Ainu/Jomon pottery on display ~ several pieces had been made to look like people ~ remarkably like people I know. A recent National Geographic featured some native people in Greenland who also looked like that pottery.
There are other Polar People who arise out of various other groups, but they all share a similar culture ~ and technology (until modern times). The art gene is strong in all of them.
They used to be.
Well, at least they don't believe that they have to kill off the lesser races. I guess that makes them the "second most racist people on Earth." LOL
Not any more.
"Regarding the Han, after the period of warring states, everybody left alive pretty much looked like the winners ~ the losers having been mostly killed off ~ men, women and children!
Under the Mongols additional ethnic varieties were brought to China for a variety of purposes ~ but until then the Chinese had about as much variation as modern Korean-speaking people."
Again, wrong. "Pretty much look like the winners", you're still operating under the assumptions that there is asingle race called "Han", when all of the anthropologists and history experts will disagree with you. "Han" chinese isa mixture of a ton of different races. Heck, even tody in China there are agbout a thousand different SPOKEN languages (they're called DIALECTS, but really, differen't languges) within the "Han" majority.
What happens after the warring state is Qin Shi Huang decided to unite the language (the written language), because at that time there were several different written languages as well as give a single unified currency, etc. Though the combats were often brutal and cruel, he didn't wipe out the other states, he simply forced them to use the same written language. The same written CHinese today has its roots from his era. Spoken languages still prevailed, though tehre is a common tongue most people in China in various regions still know the local dialect - and believe me, without Putonghua, someone from Sichuan will not be able to communicate withs someone from Hong Kong(Cantonese). So to say that the Han Chinese is a single ethnicity is just ignorant.
And your claim about the Mongols shows you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about -- You probaly didn't realize that in Tang Dynasty there were 300,000 Persians living in China, and Chang-An(Xian toda), the capital, was a true international city consists of Persians/Arabs, Turks, Chinese (Han and others), etc.
It's pretty clear you've never seen one of those tables that detailed the level of carnage during the Period of Warring States. For the most part, all the tribes, ethnicities, nations and communities that did not live in Chin were destroyed.
The people of Chin repopulated the territory. Under the Mongols, in a very, very large empire ~ largest ever in history, many other types of people were brought to or came to China. That's about 1600+ years AFTER the Period of Warring States.
)(Personal note: I take it you're Chinese or of Chinese ancestry and are of the impression that Chinese people don't all look alike ~ it's difficult to convince Occidentals of that.)
Hey, just a technical question... since I've got dark brown eyes, could I be emperor? ;')
Look more like American indians.
Sure, we'll over look the brown-eyes if you'll bring us some of the Blood Sweating Horses of the barbarians from the northeast.
Blood Sweating Horses sounds like a mixed drink, and Heavenly Horses sounds like some kind of dessert. Maybe I could just take along some mousse and the bartender's handbook.
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