I heard a Korean guy on NPR last night say the most apalling thing

[Cali Coug]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Last night on NPR a Korean guy was ranting about how intolerable the 30,000 U.S. servicemen occupying Korea were. He made some points that seemed valid and for a while he had a sympathetic ear from me. There is such a thing as the ugly American. Then he said, "It's as bad as when the Japanese were here." About this I'm speechless. I don't know what to say about such collosal ignorance other than to say hearing things like this makes me think we should be like Norway and retreat into isolationism, learn to power our cars by burning manure, coal or whatever, and let the miserable world outside Western Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan fuck themselves. I don't really feel that way, but hearing things like that conjures up those kindds of dark thoughts in me.

I'm not entirely sure why we are still in South Korea. We can't do squat with 30,000 troops to stop an invasion from the North. In fact, a stupid mistake by a North Korean on the border there that kills an American could get us involved in something we don't really want to be involved in. According to Jane (the leading defense analysis group), North Korea would capture Seoul in less than 3 days if they wanted to take it. We would be powerless to stop the onslaught of the North Korean army with our 30,000 troops. Our thousands of missiles in the area would help slow them, but we don't need 30,000 people to operate those.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by FarrahWaters

One year, my MIL brought back a large packet of magazines from Japan for my dad to read. (My dad is not Japanese, but reads novels and historical books in the language). When I asked what they were about, he just laughed and said they were an ultra-right wing magazine that claimed the atrocities committed in Nanking never happened. I don't know how many people share this view (my MIL probably just saw the headlines on the cover and figured my dad would like it since he reads historical books), but I think even the Japanese govt. only recently acknowledged any such wrongdoing. eta: I could be wrong about that, and don't have time to look it up now.

First of all, why is the title of my book messed up? Should be "The R.a.p.e. of Nanking" minus the periods. The 'R.a.p.e." part is missing in my browser. Is that just me?

The Japanese have been in denial about their history ever since the end of WWII. Things have started to change in the last 10-15 years, but their distorted view of history is quite shocking. The textbooks used in Japanese schools have traditionally said very little about Japanese occupations and most omitted Pearl Harbor altogether. Each time a new Japanese textbook comes out, the Chinese go nuts with indignation over the whitewashed history. I was at the Peace Park in Hiroshima five years ago and there is a section on the events leading up to WWII. There was a very short statement on the occupation of China and it said something to the effect of "Some claim that as many as 300,000 civilians were killed but others put the number at 30,000". Iris Chang convincingly demonstrates that the 300,000 number is probably conservative. 30,000 is just outrageous. At a park that was so completely anti-war and dedicated to the ideal of "we must not repeat history", the irony of this distorted figure and the distorted history really struck me.

Another thing that is quite common in Japan is the firm belief that FDR was told well in advance of specific details (including the date) of the Pearl Harbor invasion and purposefully did nothing to stop it, in order to rally the American public behind the war on Japan. I used to hear this all the time, even from LDS members in Japan. It was as if this fact (purported fact, that is) would somehow mitigate the harsh reality that they started the war. Interesting to see some parallels between this conspiracy theory and the 9/11 conspiracy theory.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

Another thing that is quite common in Japan is the firm belief that FDR was told well in advance of specific details (including the date) of the Pearl Harbor invasion and purposefully did nothing to stop it, in order to rally the American public behind the war on Japan. I used to hear this all the time, even from LDS members in Japan. It was as if this fact (purported fact, that is) would somehow mitigate the harsh reality that they started the war. Interesting to see some parallels between this conspiracy theory and the 9/11 conspiracy theory.

The current conspiracy theory only highlights the absurdity of the old one. When I was a kid my mother told me that canard about FDR as though it was an established historical fact. I think the theory really was quite prevalent among LDS given their overall ultra conservatism, that FDR has always been persona non grata among most of them, and their taste fo fantastic revisionist history to fit their world view.