East Asia News & Politics Thread: China, South Korea, Japan...

Well, yes and no. Whilst denial of Japanese war crimes has generally been confined to a Vocal Minority, the trouble is that that minority is very vocal and sadly influential. How do you think the Irish would react if one of the Controllers of The BBC said that Cromwell was only to be presented in a positive light and, moreover, that his conquest of Ireland never happened?

I won't deny that Japanese contrition is sometimes unacknowledged, and neither China nor South Korea have clean hands when it comes to political history (ironically, the Chinese Communists themselves didn't acknowledge Nanking for a long time because of the KMT's involvement as defenders!), but the denialist tilt of the Japanese right, especially the people Shinzo Abe surrounds himself with, is something that they are rightfully offended by. Abe himself has denied the comfort women as recently as 2007, and there is something Janus-faced about apologizing one day and then visiting the Yasukuni Shrine - with its honored war criminals and promotion of the apologist ABCD theory - the next.

edited 18th May '14 9:20:25 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

OK, but the question is whether or not we can trust the Japanese military if they take a somewhat more assertive stand on collective self-defense. They have done nothing to anyone in 60 years that would justify any degree of paranoia in that regard.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

This is true, but it's not really what you said, is it?

Schild und Schwert der Partei

I was speaking in context of a discussion regarding collective self-defense among several nations in SW Asia, and Best Of mentioned suspicions regarding the Japanese and military affairs. It is these suspicions that I regard as unfair. The behavior of the Japanese military, and the political rhetoric of some right wing populist blowhards, are two different things.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Consider the ideology that actually has informed Japan's desire to strengthen its military.

For example, literal open inspiration from the Nazi Party.

This is not from a bunch of fringe blowhards, this is from the ruling Japanese government, Shinzo Abe's aforementioned denialist pretence about Japan's comfort women is just another aspect of that.

Given that, I am neither surprised nor bothered by the fact that some Asian countries seem to believe Japan has not changed its outlook much since WWII.

I'm quoting from 2013.

edited 18th May '14 6:25:17 PM by editerguy

Ok, I think we are verging towards the past a little too much. Let's refrain a bit, shall we?

Would just like to point out that SW Asia means the "Middle East", so that's Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, etc.

And it's more than half a century already. Almost all Japanese politicians, and most (if not all) JSDF top brass were born after the war. They never experienced the Empire of Japan, perhaps even technically (i.e. they were 1 year old in 1945).

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

Just to answer some weight here, most of SE Asia have friendly relations with Japan, mostly due to ODA packages done as a form of compensation to get their economies moving up and about. Heck, a lot of Pinoys are very friendly to the point that some prominent Japanese who have Filipino origins (Hard to list them up) have their roots traced to the Philippines.

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Also, China is now evacuating Chinese nationals back to Beijing. Taiwan is doing the same thing. Protestors have targeted their anger towards Chinese, Taiwanese, Singaporean (since a majority of its population is ethnic Chinese) and strangely enough, towards South Korean businesses.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

@ editorguy: Oh wow. I never know that. While I understand that the East Asian countries are never directly affected by the Nazis (and in the Chinese point of view, might even be positive if their only experience of Nazism is via John Rabe) but to say that they are going to copy them... that goes a bit too far. Good that they've retracted that statement.

I do not think that is relevant though. The Holocaust is also almost half a century ago and even today we wouldn't lightly try to cast the Nazis in any form of positive light (eg: if I go around worshipping Hitler as a god I would probably be condemned by everyone, and rightly so). Question would be 1) did Japan (the government, not the people) do as bad as the Nazis? (IMO that's a bad question though: it's too much of "oppressive Olympics" and pretty much is asking who has suffered more) and most importantly 2) did Japan do enough to separate itself from its past? The situation with the Yasukuni Shrine does not help with 2) at all.

edited 19th May '14 1:00:43 AM by IraTheSquire

This post was thumped by the Eldritch Flyswatter of Horror

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Thailand is not part of East Asia.

Also, we had a Thailand thread. Edit your post, please.

edited 19th May '14 6:49:18 PM by Quag15

Are you questioning the right of the British to arbitrarily draw lines on a map and force locals into categories of our own devising?

I was just making a joke about British people and maps, I actually completely agree about using the other thread and thought my pot hole made that clear.

edited 20th May '14 4:17:05 AM by Silasw

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran

It's part of SE Asia, and since we were just discussing the maritime disputes.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Well, I had specified in the OP which countries people could post about. There's a reason it's called East, not Southeast.

I'd like to keep things distinct, if it's possible and not much of a problem...

edited 19th May '14 8:41:29 PM by Quag15

In Seoul, the South Korean government has announced plans to get rid of the Korean Coast Guard due to the ferry tragedy. Analysts suggests that some of the responsibilities (such as investigating maritime accidents) may be handled by the Korean National Police Agency.

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In Tokyo, the government is making plans to see whether their laws won't hamper any future scenarios like the incursion of North Korean spy ships such as armed men disguising themselves as legitimate fishermans or foreign submarines making an illegal incursion in Japanese waters.

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Beijing announced that they're evacuating most of their nationals from Vietnam. Taipei is doing the same thing. What bothers me is that South Korean business are caught in the attacks.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

First point: Wouldn't it be better to just suspend the Coast Guard, in order to make them learn and study their mistakes? Seems a little excessive, despite the tragedy.

Third point: It's bad that South Koreans are also being affected by this. I wonder if it's because of increasing economical ties between SK and China...

Is Ulaanbataar Running Out of Water?:

I don't know how the KCG is going to be affected, but I would assume that they're not liking the announcement.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

April last year aside, is it true Japan sometimes have their elections on Octobers?

Yes, By-Elections are scheduled to be run in April and October — in fact, there are elections every year because elections to each of the houses and local Governments aren't synchronised.

Keep Rolling On

But my actual question is this: Does it have to be April and October every year, or chose either month every year?

Depends on when the resignation is as to when the election falls, I guess. From The Other Wiki:

Keep Rolling On

Thanks, and can I send a PM to you, since my reasons for asking about when elections happen is off-topic?

Question. I really love Japanese culture and the like, and would like to travel there one day. The thing is, I was adopted from South Korea when I was just an infant, and I understand that the Japanese and Koreans don't exactly get along. Since I was adopted from that country, and have lived in the West all my life to the point that I don't know a lick of Korean (though I know a bit of Japanese), would I get looked down upon and such if I traveled to Japan?

edited 22nd May '14 10:54:14 AM by LDragon2

Car bomb attack in Urumqi leaves at least 31 dead.

Would it be fair to say that China has a serious terrorism problem now?

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Yes, and the fact that they don't seem to have ways to combat it beyond applying the stick continually and expecting a different result each time is prolly not helping.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman