How Japan’s ‘BBC’ is rewriting its role in the Second World War

[jimmy olsen]

This article would have you believe Abe is beset with critics or that this issue has created more internal controversy than is actually the case.

Yeah. It's weird really, the way the Foreign press reports on japan. They make it out that because someone with stupid views on certain areas wins in life it was because of those views rather than in spite of them.
Most Japanese people couldn't care less about this sort of thing. Foreign policy ranks very low on voters issues in japan

The four governors in question were handpicked because of their right wing views, not in spite of them.

[grumbler]

There aren't really much in the way of consequences though. That's why most of the population just shrugs off the right wingers trying to gain the extremist vote. The kind of person who wouldn't vote for someone for saying this kind of thing is also the kind of person who is probably never going to vote for a right wing party anyway.
  China being a dick to Japan pre-dates the right's return to power and even the most right wing of politicians have no intention of actually seriously acting on any of the generic far right spleel.

I say it's weird because this kind of thing is a pretty normal part of Japanese politics, a right winger in Japan saying something ignorant about the imperial era is like a republican in the US declaring abortion bad, nothing particularly novel and newsworthy.

The argument that one should ignore weird pronouncements from the Japanese government because most Japanese don't think weird pronouncements are weird assumes that Japanese weirdness is the norm, and that Western normality is the weird (and, thus, Western reports about how weird Japan is are the weird thing, not the Japanese government's actions).

I challenge your assumption that ignoring historical facts in favor of historical fiction is fine, and that it is "weird" to report on governments which have such a policy.

[Admiral Yi]

There aren't really much in the way of consequences though. That's why most of the population just shrugs off the right wingers trying to gain the extremist vote. The kind of person who wouldn't vote for someone for saying this kind of thing is also the kind of person who is probably never going to vote for a right wing party anyway.
  China being a dick to Japan pre-dates the right's return to power and even the most right wing of politicians have no intention of actually seriously acting on any of the generic far right spleel.

I say it's weird because this kind of thing is a pretty normal part of Japanese politics, a right winger in Japan saying something ignorant about the imperial era is like a republican in the US declaring abortion bad, nothing particularly novel and newsworthy.

Awesome analogy. 

The thing you don't seem to get Squeeze, is that the rest of don't find either of those things acceptable, neither the right wing politicians saying things that are blatantly untrue, or the rest of the country being indifferent.

[Jacob]

Wow, Japan and China in a yet another monkey shitfight over whose interpretation of history is more accurate more emotionally appealing.

The article makes it sound like the debate is an internal Japanese one at this point.

[CountDeMoney]

Wow, Japan and China in a yet another monkey shitfight over whose interpretation of history is more accurate more emotionally appealing.

The article makes it sound like the debate is an internal Japanese one at this point.

Meh, maybe it's because I always get all my up-to-the-minute, live-local-latebreaking Japanese Atrocity Denial News from Xinhua and the PLA first.

http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/news-channels/today-headlines/2014-02/06/content_5760142.htm

Denial's not just a river in Hokkaido, pal!

[CountDeMoney]

ROFLnoodles.

U.S. official's unfounded criticism over China's ADIZ ignores real threat to the region
(Source: Xinhua)   2014-02-07
by Liu Chang

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. security official, in an interview with Kyodo News, has warned that the announcement of another air defense identification zone (ADIZ) by China would trigger an expansion of U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

However, the warning of Evan Medeiros, senior director for Asian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, is unfounded as he might have not realized that the real threat to the region comes from Japan, not China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his right-leaning government are the source of surging tensions and hostility in the region.

In his 2014 State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama said his country will continue to focus on the Asia-Pacific and support its allies in the region. But if the United States continues to spoil trouble-making Japan, more provocative actions are expected from Tokyo. As a result, the regional situation would turn messier to a point that regional security and economic interests of various countries would be jeopardized.

China's establishment of ADIZ in the East China Sea, as a defensive measure to safeguard national air security, is in line with international law and practice, and does not affect the freedom of civil aviation. No one is in a position to point a finger.

Nevertheless, the Japanese government is trying to fabricate "China threat" as an excuse to revise its pacifist constitution so that Japan can wage war.

Thus, it is high time for the Obama administration to see through Abe's political tricks and to cage the trigger-happy elements in Japan.

To pamper an ambitious ally that refuses to reflect on its own history of aggression and that is eager to challenge the post-war world order will wreck havoc in the region and the world as a whole.

[CountDeMoney]

Some whacking material for Timmay and Lettow.  Squee.

[PRC]

Here is an article from the Chinese side of things:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/opinion/murong-chinas-television-war-on-japan.html?_r=0

China's Television War on Japan

FEB. 9, 2014

Contributing Op-Ed Writer

By MURONG XUECUN

BEIJING — Iron Palm Du Dapeng's eyes are burning with rage. The Chinese martial arts expert strikes a Japanese soldier with his fist and then, using his supernatural powers, tears the soldier in half. Blood splatters, but not a drop lands on the kung fu master.

This is one of many violent scenes in the Chinese television series "The Anti-Japanese Knight," a recent action drama set during the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s. Like many Chinese television dramas, the "Anti-Japanese Knight" promotes patriotism and praises the Communist Party for defeating the Japanese, while conveniently leaving out mention of the decisive role played by the Chinese Nationalists in that war. The violence and anti-Japanese tone send a clear message that killing is acceptable — as long as the targets are "Japanese devils."

I have little doubt that many Chinese people take the "Anti-Japanese Knight" and its version of history as fact, just as I used to think that China won the second Sino-Japanese War by digging tunnels in villages and planting homemade land mines, thanks to "Tunnel Warfare" and "Landmine Warfare," two classic Chinese-made war movies from the 1960s.

Before television arrived in the countryside, film teams took projectors to villages to screen movies; they were often shown outdoors. As a child in the 1970s, I'd go to screenings as often as possible, blissfully unaware that most of what I was watching was Communist Party propaganda. I must have watched "Tunnel Warfare" and "Landmine Warfare" at least a dozen times.

When I turn on the television these days, I notice not much has changed. The second Sino-Japanese War may have ended in 1945, but the Chinese people are still haunted by it. Enemy Japanese soldiers run amok on Chinese screens. The state-approved films and TV dramas of today are more colorful and the actors are better-looking than in the films of 1960s and '70s, but the themes remain the same.

The state prohibits content that "incites ethnic hatred," yet according to Southern Weekly more than 70 anti-Japanese TV series were screened in China in 2012. And in March 2013 the newspaper reported that 48 anti-Japanese-themed TV series were being shot simultaneously in Hengdian World Studios, a film studio in Zhejiang Province, in eastern China.

The result of this stream of rancor is just what you'd expect. A July 2013 Pew research report found that 90 percent of Chinese people have an unfavorable view of Japan. And the hatred for Japan is intensifying. Pew said that "favorability" for Japan has fallen 17 percentage points since 2006.

The anti-Japan virulence drummed up by the media is in full display online. Websites popular among young Chinese nationalists, like Tiexue (Iron Blood) and April Media, are riddled with slogans such as "Destroy Japanese dogs!" or "Annihilate the Japanese people!"

The flow of hate comes while China is building up its military, leaving its neighbors on edge. Beijing will spend $148 billion on its military this year, up from $139 billion in 2013. It launched its first aircraft carrier in 2012, and is building a fleet of submarines that it hopes will outnumber the American fleet.

A hard-line, anti-Western documentary film produced by the Chinese military called "Silent Contest," circulated online in October 2013, revealed a troubling war-thirsty mind-set among the military. The video attempted to make the case that the United States is actively working to sabotage the Chinese government. Whoever leaked this video may not represent mainstream military thinking, but there is no doubt that pro-military voices are growing louder.

Meanwhile, Beijing repeatedly criticizes Tokyo's "militarism." But what are China's leaders thinking when they promote such hate of their neighbor? The world must be vigilant against "militarism" whenever it arises, but the Chinese government needs to review its own propaganda policies — and weigh the consequences of barraging citizens with such a negative view of Japan.

For now, a small chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea is the focal point of contention between the China and Japan. In 2012, tensions over the islands triggered anti-Japanese riots in Chinese cities. Cai Yang, a 21-year-old construction worker in Xi'an, smashed the skull of Li Jianli, the owner of a Japanese car, with a bicycle lock.

Mr. Cai's mother, explaining the source of her son's "patriotic" rage, couldn't have been more trenchant with her question: "When we turn on the TV, most of the dramas are about anti-Japanese war. How would it be possible to not to hate Japanese?"

Murong Xuecun is a novelist and blogger and the author of "Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu." This article was translated by The New York Times from the Chinese.

[CountDeMoney]

The result of this stream of rancor is just what you'd expect. A July 2013 Pew research report found that 90 percent of Chinese people have an unfavorable view of Japan. And the hatred for Japan is intensifying. Pew said that "favorability" for Japan has fallen 17 percentage points since 2006.

This makes Zombie 4-Story Tall Portrait of Chairman Mao very happy.

The video attempted to make the case that the United States is actively working to sabotage the Chinese government.

Pfft, if only.

but the Chinese government needs to review its own propaganda policies — and weigh the consequences of barraging citizens with such a negative view of Japan.

But that's not how the Chinese think.

[Monoriu]

Some whacking material for Timmay and Lettow.  Squee.

This (fan-made, I assume) pic is from the Strike Witches anime.  It *is* whacky.  The show took place around WWII time, except that the war didn't happen.  Instead, aliens invaded earth and all the nations (yes, including Japan and Germany) joined forces to fight them.  So there were scenes of Tigers and Shermans fighting on the same side.  But the focus is on the strike witches like these two.  They are each modelled on real life WWII fighter aces.  The whackiest part is that, in this world, all females walk around with no pants on, strike witches or not.   

[CountDeMoney]

The whackiest part is that, in this world, all females walk around with no pants on, strike witches or not.   

I don't find that whacky in the least.

[Admiral Yi]

Maybe they all just forgot to put them on.

[Tonitrus]

Aliens invade during WWII...all the major powers unite against them....women without pants. 

Sounds like they ripped off a Turtledove novel.

[Monoriu]

Maybe they all just forgot to put them on.

The strike witches fight with leggings that enable them to fly.  The instory explanation for not wearing pants is to allow them to put on the flying leggings with as short notice as possible.  That doesn't really explain why non-strike witches go to school showing their underwear though 

[CountDeMoney]

That doesn't really explain why non-strike witches go to school showing their underwear though 

Oh, I think we've got a bead on the explanation of that one when it comes to Japanese culture.