Shinzo Abe Shot

[Legbiter]

Except for the the gunman who has rebelliously left his nose exposed. 

[The Larch]

Odd to see everyone masked.

AFAIK people keep masking relentlessly
in Japan despite it not being mandatory anymore.

[Sheilbh]

Didn't people in Japan fairly regularly mask up before covid?

[The Larch]

Didn't people in Japan fairly regularly mask up before covid?

Yup. According to some westerners that live there that I follow the levels of societal pressure to keep masking are enormous. The whole country is still quite paranoid about Covid even at this point.

[Jacob]

And in Japan you generally mask up if you have the sniffles as a matter of course. So it's probably not seen as some sort of massive social imposition to wear a mask during a pandemic.

[DGuller]

That looks like a peaceful situation, all things considered.  "Sir, sir, yes you, wait up,  I think you just shot someone over there!"

[Valmy]

So the assassin killed Abe because he hated some organization he thought Abe was a member of? Is this some kind of anti-Masonic Qanon type paranoid shit?

[Jacob]

So the assassin killed Abe because he hated some organization he thought Abe was a member of? Is this some kind of anti-Masonic Qanon type paranoid shit?

Which organization?

[Sheilbh]

The Japanese police didn't specify - so possibly not a super helpful briefing.

[Zoupa]

I don't think there'll be many mourners in Korea or China.

[Jacob]

I don't think there'll be many mourners in Korea or China.

Chinese social media was full of gloating the moment the news broke.

That said, my opinion on Japan and China and WWII has done close to a full 180 in the last years.

[Zoupa]

What do you mean?

[Jacob]

What do you mean?

My primary lense used to be "those jerk Japanese are taking insufficient responsibility for the atrocities they committed during WWII (and before), failing to be sincere in their apologies, and that is very concerning."

But by now I've seen enough of how the Chinese government stokes anti-Japanese fervour to stoke the fires of chauvenist nationalism in the Han population to be convinced that no amount of Japanese contrition would change a single thing. Anger at Japan is simply too convenient a tool for the CCP regime at this point and has been for decades independently of the line coming out of Japan.

As an aside, it also chafes a bit how the CCP takes all the credit for the sacrifices and battles from the Nationalists who did the bulk of the actual fighting as they build their mythology.

At the same time, China is a totalitarian imperialist power ruling over conquered territories and trying to ethnically assimilate them gradually (Tibet, Mongolia) or via what's essentially genocide (Xinjiang) right now, in the present day.

Then, of course, there's the fact that China is actively bullying all its neighbours using its military and economic power to assert frankly ridiculous claims.

Additionally it seems likely to me that China will start a major war in the next decade to conquer and destroy a Democratic country based on what is purely imperialist ethnic nationalist rhetoric.

There's also the bit that between various CCP bullshit the party is probably in striking range of Imperial Japan for the murder of and atrocities committed against Chinese people.

So given all of that I'm keen on seeing Japan solidly in the camp of Democracies standing up to China and drawing a line. And bad things that happened one hundred to eighty years ago terrible though they might be - and the layers of mythology and propaganda built on top of that - matters significantly less today in my eyes.

[Habbaku]

 

[HVC]

We can still think Japan is being a dick to Korea and the other non Chinese countries in the Region though, right?