Japan
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- rasko40
Japanese people on a personal level respect eachother immensely, the whole culture is based upon respect, unfortunately, and much thanks to an insular imperialist history with a bit of a God complex thrown in the old values got terribly misconstrued into a rather obscene situation where heirarchy and social status are valued far too highly.
The Japanese put themselves under ridiculous amounts of stress in this way and yet in many other ways their society is really to be respected hugely I think. And I cant imagine the subject of this thread being the overwhelming viewpoint of the person on the street, the Japanese people largely didn;t want to go to Iraq in the first place, but you know, their economy is in a bit of a mess and the US well, it has these big contracts and import taxes and all....
- nLHb0
The Japanes are no more fucked up than any Western country.
America, Canada, Britain, Spain, Germany, etc they have all done things equally as strange and unjust.
I mean, how fucked up is it that America has killed houndreds maybe thousands of innocent Iraqies because of "weapons of mass destruction" (which they haven't found yet)
- kpl0
"yeh, can u spell distraction?"
Unlike you, I can hold more than one thought into my head at a single moment.
- JazX0
- arlo0
Japanese culture is amazing. Socially it's a lot different than other places, mostly from wanting to avoid unpleasant situations or giving off a bad or troubled appearance. Even in conversation they'll smile and nod and do the nervous laugh even if they're wanting to cry. I think that response is similar-- Japan got some attention that made them look vulnerable or able to be taken advantage of. In the US at least, individuals would blame a group for what happened and nobody specificially ends up responsible, but there the group blames the individuals and they become responsible irrationally. I wish there was a middle ground.
- umhello0
Just take into consideration that Japan is one of the smallest countries. They have little natural resources available. How much attention would you really want during a war, if majority of the countries in the wars were at least twice as big, and had alot of resources readily available. I am not saying that it excuses their behavior, but can any one country be able to point the fingure at this time in history.
- nLHb0
I fully agree umhello. Good point
- the_user0
I'm not sure umhello actually made any point at all, at least not a coherent one. It's a sociological issue, not a political one. I doubt very much that Mr. Tanaka thinks about that on the train every morning.
It's much more base and ingrained than that.
- nLHb0
I just wanted to say, i hate this thread :)
- umhello0
Im sorry if you missed the point user, here ill clairfy. Before you decide to judge someone elses actions, maybe you should look at yourself first and then second put yourself in their shoes.
I disagree that its a socilogical issue and not a political, considering those two isues tend to go hand in hand. I persoanlly see a bunch of cotradictions in the whole situation. One major contradiction being, if it was completely wrong for those three people to be where they were to be captured, why bother withdrawing the troops. The people knew the stakes of which they were acting, so escentually it was a risk they decided was enough to stray away from. I dont know too many people that willingly run into a gun fight and expect not to be noticed.
- the_user0
again, you're lumping governmental policy with public opnion. Even though they're much more difficult to differentiate in Japanese culture, I still argue that, generally, they are quite different.
- kpl0
considering:
- the hostages there were not warmongers but humanitarians: their presence did not support the occupation
- the hostages were better treated as hostages in Iraq than they were at home
- no one in Japan seems to have the courage to go against public opinion
- that their courage and their sacrificing of personal safety to better total strangers is being interpreted as selfishnessthat's fucked up. Their society needs major reforms and I'm starting to wonder if Japanese society will self-implode soon if it won't.
My opinion is derived from more than just that story. If I didn't know that country still is in denial about WWII, treats all foreigners as shit (even ethnic Japanese raised in other countries) except for white-skinned folks, and intolerant of diversity and individuality, then I'd wouldn't think Japanese society is fucked.
At least in China it's the gov't that oppresses the people. In Japan it's the society doing it.
- 19770
"the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist"
rasko4
(apr 23 04, 05:02)
-------------------Nah, his greatest trick was carver.
- the_user0
generalizations are great. aren't they kpl?
- 19770
generalizations are great. aren't they kpl?
the_user
(apr 23 04, 17:20)
-------------------Only after titties.
- kpl0
did I say everyone in japan is fucked up? nope. But there is one national society in Japan and I don't see why I can't comment on it.
- JEWUNIT0
when the hostages arrived they were bowing the whole damn time
the japanese didn't learn from past experiences as it seems
- the_user0
They were bowing!?
Those bastards!
- DutchBoy0
did someone just say Japan is a 'smaller' country?
dude, in the overall coalition that have presence in Iraq I'd say Japan is one of the bigger (not in presence but yes in size of country/population)... there's a very big amount of small and very very small countries that have soldiers there.. (some of them you might never have thought of..).