def comments

The so called birth certificate has been proven to be a forgery by the Washington Post Newspaper and denounced as such. It is a constructed fake and was posted on the White House web site. After being downloaded and exposed as a fake a different fake was later posted. The man was born in Kenya, not the USA...

Really? Were you in Hawaii when he was born? Were you in Kenya? Do you have a Kenyan birth certificate?

Amazing how a person, with no knowledge of the truth, can state these things as absolute facts. At the same time, it's hard to imagine one of these folks working overtime to prove a white person wasn't born in the States. Sad stuff.

The lengths that people go to to pretend they aren't racist is pretty nauseating. He'd shown a birth certificate two years ago. Anyone harping on it since is simply a racist. Even Bill O'Reilly wanted nothing to do with the birthers.

Public education is socialist. The fire department is socialist. So is the post office.

There are many successful, stable countries much more socialist than America (Canada, Sweden, Germany, etc etc).

This writer grossly misrepresents the issues.

I wonder if Asian immigrants to the West bicker with each other as much as expats in Asia do.

A Wii is a replacement for outdoor activity? No, just in the mind of writers who like to stir up paranoia. I took a two hour stroll in the sweltering heat of Okinawa today. And when I got home to my air-conditioned apartment, I enjoyed playing on my Wii for a bit. What did I not do? Sit and watch TV. TV is a thousand times worse than any video game, and games shouldn't be considered a replacement for the real world, but an improvement on the time spent in front of the idiot box vapidly watching stuff.

Articles like this piss me off to no end, since they promote ignorance, particularly among people who don't get games. Good job :P

However, Japan's wrong doing can nevet justify massacres of non militant residents conducted by American military. And Americans still do it repeatedly even in this century. Go figure.

Wow, nothing to do with Nanking. I suppose the Nanking massacre was a good thing since Americans used nuclear bombs. No? What's your point?

Apologists and (lame) excuse-makers tire me out like nothing else.

The quake woke me up, it lasted a fairly long time (a minute?) It broke some glass in the kitchen, and I couldn't get back to sleep. It'll be a long day at work for me today, but at least it wasn't too serious.

I was amazed by the Open Air museum there, it's the best museum I've been to in Japan. Though there are Japanese artists, it is an international museum, and I was deleted to see Henry Moore sculptures with an exquisite natural backdrop.

A lot of people don't "get" Picasso; they have my sympathy.

There's a clash between the modern world and the medieval worlds, but not Islamic and Western worlds. Extremist Muslims are just another type of fundamentalist, and not at all a representative of the Islamic world.

What does this show? A lot of Americans use this site...

:D Too true.

I'm not American, but I think the Japanese government should continue with the agreement, or negotiate. The new government is bound to uphold past agreements... to a point. Why can't the United States be an ally of Japan without having bases in the country? Most allied countries don't require bases in each other's countries to have a military agreement. The cold war is over...

in the past decades, we have seen from the west: waterboarding torture-interrogation and new forms of CIA-developed tortures, guantanamo bay (dog collars and religion-based humiliation), depleted uranium munitions, white phosphorus incendiary weapons, landmines, anthrax/mustard gas and all other chemical/biological weapons, etc etc etc.. what, you think that because it's more technologically advanced it can't be cruel?

Same old excuse: The West did bad stuff, so people should ignore Japan doing bad stuff. Either it's okay, or it's not. Most of humanity is against landmines, anthrax, etc etc, and it's vilified. Likewise, Japan's actions in Nanking will be vilified forever in history.

Nemoflow was right on; the behavior there was medieval.

There is no comparing the fire-bombing of Japan to the mass rape and murder games of Nanking. One was warfare and one sadism. Unbelievable that people feel compelled to make excuses for it.

Shintoshin, Naha has some great restaurants too, though a little less intimate. Loads of yakiniku.

I've never been turned down in a bar, club, or izakaya anywhere in Okinawa for being a foreigner, but I never travel in big gangs of foreigners, who might be 'not invited'.

Naha is an okay city, but you need to rent a car and get out of the city. And stay out of Chatan unless you want to go to "American Village", the Japanese attempt to recreate Florida, a really ugly place. Some great food though.

Kumoji, Naha has loads of great restaurants too though.

YES! Japan! You didn't lose!

President Obama: Open your market to American rice and gas guzzlers or face trade sanctions!" President McCain: No need to thank us for liberating North Korea and resolving the abductions of your people - our pleasure. The choice is clear!

Obama threatens trade sanctions? Since when. McCain will liberate North Korea? Sci-fi.

Neither will have much impact on Japan, but since Obama comprehends diplomacy, his presidency will facilitate trade around the world, thereby helping Japan.

Pelosi can be both wrong and right at the same time. Bush is a total failure. And in the future, it will be said, "he was a total failure." Doesn't mean she'll be given credit for a job well done. Of course, anyone working in American politics today are doing an uphill battle, against a system inclined not to work.

So America didn't have to invade Okinawa? America didn't have to fight Japan? Japan didn't have to fight the American invasion? Wise words... :p

Yeah, Voxmans opinion struck me as a little insane too. The notion that an American who doesn't promote the flag is anti-American is pretty fascistic. As long as people obsess over flags, peace will be a distant fantasy.

My experience in Japan is that people here are 98% peaceful, but unfortunately my my experience here with Americans hasn't been the same.

Here's hoping the young soldiers start buying less propaganda.

Thanks. Perhaps it's easier to cultivate that opinion living here since I'm not American or Japanese. Some people just prefer to be human.

I was there today. Some of these comments are ignorant/offensive. The place is called "peace park", and the names of Okinawan, Japanese and Americans are all written there. It's not about any type of nationalism/patriotism.

Japan doesn't talk about the suicide, because it has been working hard to write it out of history, and not as "More propaganda against the US". Japan fought tooth and nail as their enemy entered their homeland. That is nothing most Americans wouldn't promise to do, no? Regardless of who struck first, that was the patriotic action of the time.

And karate started long before Japan was involved with Ryukyu... The Ryukyu nobility outlawed weapons in the 13-1400s. Nothing to do with Japan.

I really liked the peace park, and appreciated its purpose. Okinawans know what it's like to suffer at the hands of two world powers, who couldn't care less about the casualties, and built the park in hopes that it never happens again. This photo has nothing to do with American or Japanese nationalism. Just the opposite it seems.

Jake Lloyd? It would be terrifying to see him 10 years later.

Thanks Rainrain for your comedy.

Yeah, Japan shouldn't have occupied China. In the same way, China shouldn't have occupied Tibet. Why does China act like an abused child, doing what was done to it? Nationalism is a plague on civilizaton. Grow up.

scoday "Actually to that end, most of the tourism books here say ALWAYS CARRY YOUR PASSPORT because the JP officials can ask for it at any time."

from your rights in Japan http://www.debito.org/instantcheckpointsbrief.html (bookmark it)

"IF THE POLICE ASK FOR YOUR I.D.:

ask why. Because, under Police Execution of Duties Law (Keisatsukan Shokumu Shikkou Hou), Section 2:

==================================== "A police officer is able to ask for a person's ID, but only if based on a reasonable judgment of a situation where the policeman sees some strange conduct and some crime is being committed, or else he has enough reason to suspect (utagau ni tariru soutou na riyuu) that a person will commit or has committed a crime, or else it has been acknowledged that a particular person knows a crime will be committed. In these cases a police officer may stop a person for questioning." 警察官職務執行法　第二条　警察官は、異常な挙動その他周囲の事情から合理 的に判 断して何らかの犯罪を犯し、若しくは犯そうとしていると疑うに足り る相当な理由の ある者又は既に行われた犯罪について、若しくは犯罪が行わ れようとしていることについて知っていると認められる者を停止させて質問 することができる。

Meaning that there must be a specific crime or suspicion of a crime before questioning can occur. Just being a foreigner is insufficient probable cause, and without a good reason a policeman's arbitrary questions to a stranger are against the law."

I think people should co-operate with the police, but giving up your freedoms just makes you a sucker and invites further abuse.