I wonder why...
Posted on 02/20/2005 11:12:09 AM PST by snowsislander
BEIJING, China | Gao Hong, a Chinese scholar on Japan, said he was floored recently when confronted with a veritable outpouring of questions in an online forum about China's relations with its neighbor.
"Over 4,000 questions were posted for me in just two hours," he said.
Many of the questions in the December discussion were tendentious.
"One Internet user asked me why ... we don't just declare war on Japan," he said.
Open hostility among the Chinese, especially the young, toward Japan is apparent in barbed newspaper and TV coverage and conversations with citizens.
Some experts suggest that China's leaders permit the venting of nationalist anger at Japan to divert attention from problems at home, including a widening gap between rich and poor, environmental degradation and the repression of views critical of the Communist Party's 56-year monopoly on power.
Gao, however, said authorities are worried by outbursts against Japan. He blamed jingoistic coverage in the news media - in China and Japan - for drumming up nationalist sentiments.
"The strong anti-Japanese feelings among young people are a headache for the government," said Gao, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. China's leaders "are trying their best to let people scale down their anger."
More than a dozen small-scale protests have taken place outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing in the past two years. Anti-Japan activists report little resistance.
The rape of Nanking, China by the Japanese was as least as barbaric as Hitler's murder of the Jews in Germany.
From a historic web site regarding the rape of Nanking (with disturbing pictures):
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.
Six Million Jews (plus Catholics, homosexuals, communists and just plain folk)
396,366 Chinese.
So, on the surface, you're saying that each Chinese killed in Nanking was worth 15 Jews killed in the holocaust?
This is a grotesque comparison, not because of the relative scale, but because it attempts to equate one travesty with another for what appears to be political purposes. I think this is just artlessness on your part and does not reflect your intent.
Joseph Stalin said "One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic." There were six million individual tragedies in the concentration camps and 396,366 tragedies in Nanking. Each death was brutal and reflected the march of evil across the world at that time. Each one is to be equally mourned.
The thing that disturbs me is that the Chinese only care about those killed in Nanking, the Jews only care about those marched into the gas chambers. The "native Americans" only care about those that died at the hands of the hated white man. The blacks only care about those who died as slaves. And so on.
How about we all care about all of those who have died for whatever reason? How about we not try to blame those who weren't there for things that they had nothing to do with? If you find a living person of Japanese origin (or not) responsible for deaths at Nanking, let's try him. If you find a Nazi prison guard, try him. You find a slave holder or a member of Quantrill's Raiders, by all means, try them.
Let's condemn nationalistic hatred for what it is, the same anti-human impulse that drove the Nazi's to do what they did.
I'm afraid the Chinese have the same mental disorder that our liberal Democrats have. They don't seem to be able to distinguish between the people who commited those atrocities, and their descendants.
Modern white America is not responsible for 19th Century American slavery. Modern Japan is not responsible for the WWII atrocities.
Got that right--Stillers--the team we love to hate. Won the CHOKE award for last season. BTW, how do you manage to live in the vicinity of the pitts-pukers and even think of food?
I wonder why...
"It's a trick as old as history and every tyranny in history has used it."
This is true, however the Japanese have a lot to be humble about, and it wouldn't hurt them to be a little more conciliatory with their neighbors.
No Justice, No Peace?
This is nothing about racism. This is about Chinese victim culture. Chinese, culturally, must be the victim in order for them to exist as a nation. It is very deep part of the culture.
A perfect example of this was when the Chinese fighter jet rammed the American EP-3 off of Hainan island. Even when it was obvious they were at fault, they still demanded an appology from the US. They are simply not capable of admitting fault.
Again, Chinese must be the victim. This is reinforced not only in schools and from the government, but also in daily lives in how Chinese parents raise their children. The parents must be the victim of their childrens wants and desires. They will go out of their way to make the children feel guilty of anything done which is out of lines with the wishes of the parent.
This is nothing new and goes back ages. There are many examples of this from history. Another perfect example is the 'Opium War'. The simple fact is the war was started by the Chinese, but you will never get a Chinese person to admit this. If they did, they would no longer be able to be the poor victim of British Imperialism.
As for the 'Rape of Nanjing', where were the Nationalist soldiers who were supposed to be protecting the city? How many Nationalist soldiers were killed in the defense of the city? If they wouldn't have put their tails between their legs and fled, the outcome might have been different.
There would be forgiveness if Japan were the least bit sorry. But it isn't.
Japanese school textbooks teach that Japan selflessly fought to liberate Asia from Western imperialism. They insist that the Rape of Nanking never happenned. Comfort girls ? What are they ? It is as if German history textbooks were written by Holocaust deniers.
True, but China doesn't say anything of the millions that died under Mao - far more than died under the boot of imperial Japan. So any walk down that path by China is pure hypocrisy.
I remember back in the 60s when the Filipino nationalists were demanding we abandon our naval bases there. One retort always shut them up: "Do you REALLY want to see the Imperial Japanese navy steaming down Suriago Strait again?"
Here in the States, when the liberals do the "We are bad because we dropped the bomb." routine, one guy told them that when the "Should the U.S. have dropped the atom bomb on Japan" question was asked of those who suffered Japanese occupation, The answer was usually, "Why did you drop only two?"
While you're at it.........how can you forget the fact that the Russians lost 20 million + people in WWII at the hands of the Nazis?
Now, of course, what many fail to mention is that Uncle Joe Stalin is largely responsible for many millions of those deaths. He, like so many other tinpot dictators, fancied himself to be a great military leader.........who routinely sacrificed untold millions of troops in stupid, clumsy, careless, suicidal military actions against a tough, crack German army. Russian military leaders who dared oppose him found themselves at the wrong end of a firing squad. As a result, you ended up with Russian military leadership who followed Stalin's insane orders unquestioningly, sending millions of hapless (and very poorly equipped, poorly trained) Russians to untimely deaths.
Nonetheless, they lost more people in that war than most other nations combined. So keep this in mind as you jump the other poster for his "# of dead Chinese vs. # of dead Jews" posting (which clearly you took out of context anyway).
Well said.
It is when thgeir number one war criminal remained on the throne until his death.
Hirohito should have swung on the end of a rope with his pal Tojo.
He's dead now. If the Chinese had volunteered to invade Japan, then they could have had the honor of making that decision.
The Japanese detest Blacks, too. They still sell "Darkie" toothpaste in Japan, with a caracture of a Black man that would have even embarrassed Lester Maddox.
Where's Gen. LeMay and Col. Tibbetts when you need 'em?
They have no air force.
Japan is by law nuclear-free. They are only permitted a small army and a tiny navy with little boats, (They ain't big enough to call ships), for "defense".
That was written into their Douglas MacArthur-written postwar constitution.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
.....However, to argue that a grudge ought to be held against the Japanese of today by the Chinese of today is the equivalent of saying that blacks should still hate whites in the US for slavery.......
This thought is typically American by a person who has passed through the era of Future Shock and entered the present era of rapid change.
Most, infact very little of the world has made that transition. To hate enemies for decades or centuries is the way of history and of most of the world today.
The fact of the matter is that many American blacks apparently do hate whites and are still seeking reparations to this day. Others are enlightened and have passed through the Future Shock and accept a changed American world.
To assume an internet user in China is a modern person is to make a serious mistake.
Where's their carriers? Any cruisers?
Oh, I forgot, they're all on the BOTTOM of the Pacific.
The new Japanese navy needs glass-bottom boats.....so they can see the OLD Japanese navy.
Back up what you say, otherwise STFU.
I can back up my statements about how their armed forces and weaponry has been severely limited, and rightly so.
I see from your profile that in addition to being new here you're only 17 years old, so I'll ignore your rude comment calling for me to STFU.
I think the fact that I've been in the U.S. Navy for almost 23 years, with 14 of those years spent in Japan and operating on occasion with the JMSDF, gives my opinions on this matter just a little more heft than those of a punk like yourself.
Back up what I say? Educate yourself by doing a search on "JMSDF". You'll quickly find your original assertion that the Japanese have and only "...a tiny navy with little boats..." is that of an idiot.
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