This one probably doesn't come to US

[Arnobius]

Saw in the paper today, a recent report of what is popular in Japan. Personally I found it a bit troubling to see this mentality (the manga is a best seller).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/international/asia/19comics.html

[quote="NYT"]Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan

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By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Published: November 19, 2005

TOKYO, Nov. 14 - A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."

In another comic book, "Introduction to China," which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: "Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There's nothing attractive."
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Sharin Yamano/Shinyusha

In "Hating the Korean Wave," a young Japanese woman says, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!"
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The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.

In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan's fellow Asians and in the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, the books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan's worsening relations with the rest of Asia.

They also point to Japan's longstanding unease with the rest of Asia and its own sense of identity, which is akin to Britain's apartness from the Continent. Much of Japan's history in the last century and a half has been guided by the goal of becoming more like the West and less like Asia. Today, China and South Korea's rise to challenge Japan's position as Asia's economic, diplomatic and cultural leader is inspiring renewed xenophobia against them here.

Kanji Nishio, a scholar of German literature, is honorary chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, the nationalist organization that has pushed to have references to the country's wartime atrocities eliminated from junior high school textbooks.

Mr. Nishio is blunt about how Japan should deal with its neighbors, saying nothing has changed since 1885, when one of modern Japan's most influential intellectuals, Yukichi Fukuzawa, said Japan should emulate the advanced nations of the West and leave Asia by dissociating itself from its backward neighbors, especially China and Korea.

"I wonder why they haven't grown up at all," Mr. Nishio said. "They don't change. I wonder why China and Korea haven't learned anything."

Mr. Nishio, who wrote a chapter in the comic book about South Korea, said Japan should try to cut itself off from China and South Korea, as Fukuzawa advocated. "Currently we cannot ignore South Korea and China," Mr. Nishio said. "Economically, it's difficult. But in our hearts, psychologically, we should remain composed and keep that attitude."

The reality that South Korea had emerged as a rival hit many Japanese with full force in 2002, when the countries were co-hosts of soccer's World Cup and South Korea advanced further than Japan. At the same time, the so-called Korean Wave - television dramas, movies and music from South Korea - swept Japan and the rest of Asia, often displacing Japanese pop cultural exports.

The wave, though popular among Japanese women, gave rise to a countermovement, especially on the Internet. Sharin Yamano, the young cartoonist behind "Hating the Korean Wave," began his strip on his own Web site then.

"The 'Hate Korea' feelings have spread explosively since the World Cup," said Akihide Tange, an editor at Shinyusha, the publisher of the comic book. Still, the number of sales, 360,000 so far, surprised the book's editors, suggesting that the Hate Korea movement was far larger than they had believed.

"We weren't expecting there'd be so many," said Susumu Yamanaka, another editor at Shinyusha. "But when the lid was actually taken off, we found a tremendous number of people feeling this way."

So far the two books, each running about 300 pages and costing around $10, have drawn little criticism from public officials, intellectuals or the mainstream news media. For example, Japan's most conservative national daily, Sankei Shimbun, said the Korea book described issues between the countries "extremely rationally, without losing its balance."

As nationalists and revisionists have come to dominate the public debate in Japan, figures advocating an honest view of history are being silenced, said Yutaka Yoshida, a historian at Hitotsubashi University here. Mr. Yoshida said the growing movement to deny history, like the Rape of Nanjing, was a sort of "religion" for an increasingly insecure nation.

"Lacking confidence, they need a story of healing," Mr. Yoshida said. "Even if we say that story is different from facts, it doesn't mean anything to them."

The Korea book's cartoonist, who is working on a sequel, has turned down interview requests. The book centers on a Japanese teenager, Kaname, who attains a "correct" understanding of Korea. It begins with a chapter on how South Korea's soccer team supposedly cheated to advance in the 2002 Word Cup]

[Lochaber Axe]

Just a forewarning to the mods, this could easily turn in a debate about America's abuse of the Native Americans. I'll leave that topic with that.

While reading that something sparked my interest:

"Lacking confidence, they need a story of healing," Mr. Yoshida said. "Even if we say that story is different from facts, it doesn't mean anything to them."

I believe events are setting up... if Japan continues to culturally destablize...

Hmm...

[Arnobius]

Well the fact that it is a reaction to a popular culture trend (the "Korean Wave"), it is troublesome that people want to tear down what they did in this way. Question is: is this just a fad or the ripples of an underlying dangerous movement.

[Lochaber Axe]

Typically, history doesn't allow "fads" when it comes to resentment. At some time, a boiling pot will reach its limit and all it takes is a little more heat. We should watch this very closely because there is one factor that could easily cause an inevitable war...

Taiwan.

There is two possibilities if everything goes wrong, A. China will try to annex Taiwan through force, thus drawing Japan into a confrontation. If this happens, then we will have to respond as well per the treaty. B. North Korea will use this instability to further its own ambitions, and I don't need to say more on that.

An asiatic war is highly possible...

Note: This is a worst case scenario... many more factors must be sought before an actual hypothesis can be made.

[GhostontheNet]

In times like this, it is insufficient to sit on the sidelines and offer commentary - better to pray to our God, the EVER-LIVING, Lord of the Cosmos. For this reason, I offer a prayer here publicly in the hopes that others join me publicly or privately.....

Our Father in Heaven
Hallowed is your name
Let your kingdom come
Let your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
I come to you my Lord
To offer you my plea
I have now heard terrible things of Japan
How it is in danger
Of falling into hatred of it's fellow men
The peoples of Korea and China
The tragic denial of your very good creation
And also of your Son's precious blood shed
For Jew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Chinese
All the peoples of the world everywhere
I have heard also of the denial of true events
Of the rejection of the memory of innocent bloodshed
Because of the blindness of petty patriotisms and nationalisms
Caused by the need of a healing story
Oh Lord, if it is your will
Let the healing story be not lies and darkness
But the light of your cross and kingdom
Built on the foundation of self-giving love
In which your Son, Yeshua gave His all
And became the world's true Lord
If it is your will
Let at last your love for all mankind
Shine through the hate
Against that which has infected the land like leaven
The harvest is ripe but the laborers are few
Let more laborers come with sickles and mortar
Yours is the kingdom and the glory forever
In Yeshua Christ's name I pray
Amen

[Ingemar]

Fah. The Japanese and Koreans have hated each other since the year Dot.

[Shao Feng-Li]

The Japanese really don't like anyone outside their own country. Dot?

[Debitt]

I believe in saying "dot" Ingy's implying something before "0"...like a decimal or something. >_> Anyways, he's right...it's been for a long time. Though the Japanese do like foreigners who give them money, I'd wager.

I don't see the constructiveness in editorializing about and article/fad like this. Yes, it's sadly true, but posting this could very well lead to inflammatory remarks - and really, the best and probably the only thing we can do right now is pray.

[GhostontheNet]

Fah. The Japanese and Koreans have hated each other since the year Dot.

Just because hating each other has a long antiquity doesn't make it any better or less repungent in the present.

[Hoshika]

I was wondering if it would come to something like this. I got wind years ago about certain historical facts being sweep under the rug in Japanese schools. I can understand wanting relief from such guilt as a nation, but Japan nor anyone else can get relief by denying the truth; after all there is only so much dirt that can go under a rug before it forms a lump and gets tripped over. A-men Ghost we do need to pray and pray without ceasing as we are instructed to do not only for Japan, but for the rest of the world. If we're too busy watching for the thief to come in through the back window we'll be too distracted to see him walk right in the front door.

Thanks for posting Anime and making us aware.

[bigsleepj]

Just because hating each other has a long antiquity doesn't make it any better or less repungent in the present.

Good point. It is something that I hope other manga-artists can discourage instead of exploit.

So far the two books, each running about 300 pages and costing around $10, have drawn little criticism from public officials, intellectuals or the mainstream news media.

Not very encouraging. This kind silent intellectual endorsement is a wrong step for any society. In my oppinion this is not only wrong, but petty.

[Stephen]

A quote I have always loved.


"History is a fraud agreed upon"

[Ingemar]

Just because hating each other has a long antiquity doesn't make it any better or less repungent in the present.

Yes, but when hatred has been engendered for centuries between two nations, one wouldn't expect any better from the two.