Jordan Tate: So who are you? Are you, you, like, some special forces guy or something?
Casey Ryback: Nah. I'm just a cook.
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.
Egotistical shit holes are always hateful towards those whom they feel are inferior, but have it better.
The Germans knew they were beaten. The Emperor never used the word surrender, so the Japanese felt that they hadn't really lost the war. Be that as it may, Japan is an important ally of the US today, and it's good to see their PM standing with the people of Taiwan.
True, they are good allies. However, they SHOULD apologize for what their country did during the war. It's basic decency.
"well, the civil war's been over for around 150 years...."
It ain't over 'til the last one surrenders!
:)
Well, actually, the Japanese Coast Guard did manage to get a little live fire practice a few years ago:
Japan sinks 'North Korea spying ship'
By Marcus Warren in Moscow
(Filed: 24/12/2001)
JAPAN's armed forces sank their first ship since the Second World War at the weekend, opening fire on a mystery vessel believed to be a North Korean spy ship.
The Japanese Coast Guard yesterday recovered three bodies from the East China Sea, apparently crew members from the vessel with Korean letters on their lifejackets.
A dozen patrol boats and 13 planes from the Coast Guard and two Navy destroyers chased the ship, first seen in Japan's waters on Friday. It stopped only after sustaining a direct hit to its hull on Saturday.
After putting out a fire, its sailors set sail again. Even when finally cornered, they opened fire on their pursuers, wounding two Japanese coastguards, before their vessel sank.
Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, described the ship's behaviour as "bizarre" and called for heightened vigilance against intrusions by North Korean spy ships.
"It is regrettable to see such armed unidentified ships prowling," Mr Koizumi said. "We need to consider what can be done."
The weekend's battle, north-west of the Japanese island of Amami Oshima, was the first occasion in 48 years that Japanese coastguards have attacked foreign ships operating illegally in their national waters.
Japan's postwar constitution bans its military from taking part in combat abroad unless Japan itself is under direct threat or attack.
However, relations between the economic giant and the communist pariah state have been tense for years. Japanese planes and ships opened fire on a suspected North Korean spy ship in 1999.
Officials said the ship sunk at the weekend was similar to that vessel, which was rigged as a fishing boat but able to move at high speed, and the crew members - reportedly numbering 15 - appeared well trained in gunnery on the high seas.
The 1999 engagement was the first involving Japan's navy since Second World War. The previous year North Korea fired a rocket it said was carrying a satellite over Japanese territory, provoking anxiety about the scale of its missile programme.
Home to the largest US military presence in Asia, Japan has been in a state of high alert ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11.
He may not have been the architect, but don't tell me he didn't OK it.
Had he said "NO!, This is wrong."
Then Tojo and his cronies would have been emasculated.
You are correct about filipinos.
I happen to be Black.
I DO apologize for the STFU comment. Also for getting my information wrong. But my attitude is justified in my own mind.
Their sneak attack killed a relative of mine I never got to meet and would have liked to, who at the time wasn't even authorized by the Navy he was a member of to use a weapon. He was a cook on a battleship. What was he supposed to fight back with? Pots and pans?
They day they apologize for Pearl Harbor is the day my attitude there might change.
I'm not terribly crazy about Arabs either after 9/11. Do you blame me?
My understand from living in Taiwan, is that blacks are looked down on for a number of reasons. One of the biggest is the Asian view that the darker your skin, the lower your social standing. People with dark skin are viewed as farmers and very low down on the food chain. This type of racism (?) is also part of why Chinese/Taiwanese will view those from Thailand, Philipeans, and other Southern Asians with contempt.
Another large part of it is the impact that Hollywood has had. For people how have little to no contact with blacks, Hollywood movies and television shows have a dramatic effect.
Finally, I would have to ask some Taiwanese friends about this, but some of the stigma about black skin comes from the statues in Buddhist temples. The statues are usually black because of all the smoke from the burning incense and candles. If this was the only time you saw 'black people', you would think they are quite strange also. This was explained to me before by a friend, but I have forgotten all the details.
There is a book written by an African guy, I believe he was from Ghana, who lived in Taiwan. He wrote on his experiences there. Amazon has it listed, Black in Taiwan. It has been a while since I read it but it is pretty good. Mostly it is anecdotes about his, and his friends, daily experiences.
P.S. I have heard Japanese girls have a really big fetish for black guys but not being black or in Japan, I don't have any first hand experience with that.
Jordan Tate: So who are you? Are you, you, like, some special forces guy or something?
Casey Ryback: Nah. I'm just a cook.
TRue, enough. HAD he said it. However, he was a prisoner of the palace. Secondly, you state that his crime, in your feelings was that of silence, not active participation. Hence, he cannot then be called the "chief architect"
LOL!
Apology accepted. Not to say I've never said "STFU" to someone here before, just that I was sure I was right before I said it.
Regarding your great uncle, it sucks that our sailors were killed during a sneak attack. But we got our revenge 60 years ago. Things have changed since then.
Some of my wife's (Japanese) family were also killed during the war, both civilian and military. If she held that against Americans, I wouldn't have the wonderful marriage we've had for the last 13 years and our two beautiful kids. At what point do you say the hate stops? I wish that you could to come to Japan and meet my in-laws. I'm sure that your opinion would change.
>>>You can insult the education of mainland China and it is deserved but the hate for Japan by the Chineese is real and ingrained as it is with the Koreans towards the Japaneese.
What education? But I kid the mainland China. The problem there is that both the Taiwanese and Koreans are warming up to Japan. What do you think the 2002 World cup was, a fluke?
The Chinese will never become powerful. But they can lie to their own people about being powerful. Once that 9% growth starts to slip though, get ready for China to become its own hellhole.
>>>Some of my wife's (Japanese) family were also killed during the war, both civilian and military. If she held that against Americans, I wouldn't have the wonderful marriage we've had for the last 13 years and our two beautiful kids. At what point do you say the hate stops? I wish that you could to come to Japan and meet my in-laws. I'm sure that your opinion would change.
You and me both. In fact, I personally am persuing a claim against Italians for raping and pillaging my Celtic brethern 2000 years ago!
When you have billions and billions of folks it makes you a super economic power simply by purchasing power they collectively have.
You should see the old genghis kahn movie where they say you don't have to over power your opponnt, just in time have your culture overpower the invader/
Yeah, but sadly enough, many of our neighbours and elsewhere still use this apology as a reason for continuing attacks against the after-war generations based on our history. It´s too easy to use this verbal weapon.
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