Hammerhead comments

@Toasted Heretic

What is "compassionate" about leaving the innocent members of society - including the families and communities of the victims of their crimes - to pay for their incarceration?

What is "compassionate" about leaving a rape victim or victim of child abuse with the thought that in a couple of years the individual is going to walk free and they might bump into them again?

What is even "compassionate" about leaving someone in a regimented Japanese prison for the rest of their life?

That is absurd. It a double punishment for the victims and a burden on society, increasingly pushed by those profiting out of the system.

Well, if you look at the statistics for the nations with the most murders, you'll notice those traditional countries, or communities, tend to right down the bottom along with Japan (excluding those sold AK47s), while "civilized" nations - with vastly expensive legal and penitentiary systems like the US where justice is outsourced to large, profit orientated corporations to exploit - are right up the top.

The Buddha also said, "indiscriminate charity (or compassion) is a apuñña (demerit)".

I would argue, from within a Buddhist framework, that the express of your undiscerning values unlimited is demeritorious action that brings bad and disagreeable results. And those "bad and disagreeable results" don't even have to be looked for in some cosmic karmical realm but in societies where individuals carry out crimes with relative impunity ... where you can kill someone easily, and get out of jail free.

It's not about any nationalistic element.

I'd say it's pretty unusual for a 48 year old to marry and get a 21 year old pregnant. I'd like to know about them, e.g. if she's ex-hooker or bar girl who he's brought back or she's "escape". It's more about where she's come from socially, rather than nationally.

I'm wondering if she's "damaged" rather chemically imbalanced, herself a victim of past abuse. Or whether she just lost it because she wanted out but did not want to sign up for the whole baby thing, inherent to which would be not really loving the old guy.

I mean, seriously, a 21 year old Japanese girl is a) relatively immature, and b) has a lot of life left in her to live.

Is one really going to hook up with an oji-san and give it all up for a life of nappies and serving him beer?

99.99 times out of a hundred, I know what the only kind of young girls I see walking out with old guys are.

(And that not prejudice against prostitution, I'm taking about social baggage and other problems).

That's funny, I am sure I asked a question about the name "Serina" and highlighted the age differences 22 years old to 48 years old.

It does not sound like a Japanese name to me. Where was she from?

Short footnote:

Personality Disorder is a mental illness (see **DSM-V, **Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

Moral or spiritual values can only, ultimately, be assessed within the framework of real costs.

On one hand, if society cannot afford what might be the most "moral" or "spiritual" pathway, what does it do then?

On the other, societies can only afford what they might believe to be the most "moral" or "spiritual" because they can pay for it.

It becomes an indulgence of wealth, characterized by the typically upper middle classes who champion such compassion.

Back in the real world, where the majority of humanity still lives, if someone kills your or even a grandmother within your community, you and your closest friends just go and give them a terrible death.

Cost, a few beers.

It's bizarre as he does not even appear to have expressed anger or resentment. I there is an argument to suggest that all the combined elements of "modern live" and immersion in virtual realities lead to such eventualities.

Very often they start on domestic animals first, e.g. torturing cats or dogs is typical, and that is the time to catch them (... and hit them really hard, at least metaphorically!).

Japan needs to encourage more people to seek psychotherapeutic help and talk more.

Appreciated.

That explains why it has been so difficult to find out what it is this bit of wonder PR actually relates to.

I can only foresee a huge crisis in agriculture and wonder if the State has already decided to outsource food production, e.g. take the average age of farmers and add 15 years to it ... and you have almost no farmers left. I read some of the big companies are already leasing swathes of China just to grow food. I presume they are looking at elsewhere, where there are farming communities and more economic land.

Asia land managed by Japanese producing food to Japanese standards seems logical enough. Far moreso than, say, encouraging the immigration of vast numbers of foreign landworkers to Japan.

That, in my opinion, would be a disaster.

In all fairness, Mediterranean tuna fisheries are driven by the Japanese demand, and demand for so called Japanese sushi overseas.

Mitsubishi owns about 40% of the world market in bluefin tuna, one of the world's most endangered fish, and is engaging in a "futures market" of it, freezing, storing and selling as and when the prices fluctuate.

If the Chinese market continues to grow at its current rate, it will lead to extinction.

@Toasted Heretic

"We" - I can't speak for "we" but I can applaud those countries which do not operate a barbaric system of vengeance and retribution.

I think of it more as an exceptionally rational determination of the use, or saving, of resources (with the advantage of removing bad genes from out of society).

However many pairs of shoes are they likely to make in prison will never make enough to pay for their keep.

So why should I or the rest of society?

This is the question I keep asking and no one answers? The cost of murder is perhaps worth somewhere around $2 million dollars, on the top of that, there are the annual costs of around $26,000, say another $650,000 over a lifetime. On top of which, add the loss of whatever the victim would have contributed.*

Equate for me the "spiritual" benefit, if that is what it is, in shelling all that out, versus quickly eliminating them.

Seems like a huge waste of time, money and resources for me.

I would have no problem with it than putting down a sick animal. Which, in essence, it is.

* (In the US, the total average cost of a murder was calculated by the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology to be around $17 million ... 16,000 murders per year ... equals $272,000,000,000, In the worst case of 9 murders, it was as high as $160 million.

Now what better could you do with that? )

My humanity is doing just fine.

I am more concerned about the future of humanity, how we are shaping society and the costs of supporting not just non-productive elements of it but also damaging ones.

Could it be post-natal depression? Possibly. Could it be other psychological issues? Surely.

But to stomp on a sleeping infant ... what mentality does that take?

One has to wait until cause of death is established.

Many of these cases, and there are many, are cause because the families cannot afford the full costs of a funeral. Not just the cremation but all the other social ones. They go into a sort of cultural paralysis and denial not dealing with it.

It's an area in which society could make the demands on remaining family easier.

But, yes, there have been other cases where it was just done to continue collecting welfare payments.

Cue reference to capital punishment discussion yet again.

@LightL

my first reaction was 'wow nice house with kayabuki-roof', but then 'oh crap' as I read the title. RIP

You make a more relevant comment that you might have realised.

That is not just a nice roof/house ... that is a very expensive roof/house that leads me to assume that the family was also well off giving the perpetrator even less of an excuse for his actions.

Anyone on the fence and wavering about supporting the death sentance yet ... or are we all just about giving love and compassion to the "sacred life" of perpetrator?

You see, societies makes rules in consideration of circumstances and tendencies that they know best.

I hope this guy swings. I'm in two minds as whether to get over and done quickly, or make him suffer death row for years first. On balance, I don't want to have to pay to keep him in comfort.

In the old days, he'd be given a death that suited the gravity of the crime.

The agreement is regarding the sustainable protection of food resources.

Japan depends on marine resources while the other nations have far greater land based resources with which to feed themselves.

Largely, it's also just about who profits by selling the fish to Japan, because much of what is caught by other nations is sold back to Japan.

They want to sell the fish to Japan because they can make more doing so, they don't need them to eat.

It is true that due to its economic success, and the nature of "The Market" (global capitalism that allows anyone to kill anything if there's a dollar in it) Japan has come to consume far more marine produce that it actually needs to, the tuna being a pefect example.

It was not like this even back in the 1970s but we are clearly racing towards very serious environmental crises born out of greed, idiocy and selfishness.

China is late to the party and wants to cash in as much as possible. Russia has not had the greatest of records at sticking to international agreements.

In this case, I would trust Japan far above both of them to make and stick to international agreement.

Taiwan was recently sanctioned by the EU for illegal fishing.

It exports more than half of its US$3.38 billion fisheries production, with more than 90% of tuna going to the US and Japan.

So it's not about fish nor even national rights, it's about profit and greed. Taiwan has the biggest tuna fleet in the Pacific, its fishery is out of control.

All of the major Asian nations have far too many boats and too little control.

In one sense, the root of going right back not even to US or Japanese consumers, but the banks giving too many easy loans, to too many companies and individuals, to buy too many boats, that now need paid off.

It's another out of control banking racket heading to hit the fan.

@itsonlyrocknroll

Is there a necessitate for this LDP ruling government to help farmers impacted by EU trade pact?

Although there are valid criticism to be made of political interests on the conservatives side, there is a bigger picture involving

a) food security, and

b) maintaining the rural environment

The first is obvious. Every nation has to support the structure for a degree of 'food security'. It's a similar argument to supporting a military.

Japanese farmers also do more than farm, they maintain the rural environment. No farmers, no rural environment, which involved roads, bridges, rivers, drainage and so on.

As the rural areas depopulate this becomes more of a problem.

Therefore there is a less cler and more complex relationship of payments/funding and essential support for rural communities.

Lastly, as with any industry, it needs to support at a certain level in order for the skills and structures to survive.

Neither "The Market", nor enslaving Japan to overseas food producing nations, cannot fix this alone.

As with the military, you don't need one when you don't need one but when you do need one, you cannot just invent one at the snap of your fingers. Same to with agriculature.

@LandofExcuses

Fact is that Japanese agricultural products are of a 3rd world quality

This is clearly not true.

Either you have never been to Japan, or you have never been to a 3rd world country.

The quality of food is about the one area where Japan is universally recognized to shine.

You're probably just buy cheap imported vegetables at local supermarkets.

@GW

In case you don't know a LOT of the feed for J-cattle is actually imported from abroad!! Talk about an absurd situation ... it makes little sense to raise beef in the first place

Yes, I know that and I agree with you. Worse still they are kept in cooled barns and stalls all year long.

it's completely inappropriate from a cultural and environment point of view, and I mean "inappropriate" in the correct use the word, not some politically correct way.

Sadly, historically, it is another one of those idiocies forced upon it first by the Americans, in this case dating back to 1868 and the first ambassador Townsend Harris demanding that Japan supply him with beef and milk.

Right from the beginning, it was not just cultural arrogance but serving US capitalist interests.

Beef and milk are just not Japanese and not environmentally suitable.

The U.S. also used the Occupation to enculturate the Japanese into eating American diet and dietary produce that its own industry was better established to supply. This is often, erroneously presented as "supply protein" but, scientifically, that was and remains BS. Read up on the influence of the American meat industry upon American politics and American dietary recommendations.

This discussion needs to have any nationalistic element removed from it.

Look at the figures for Maoris in the NZ mental health care system. It's similar to but not as exaggerate as Blacks in the US and the total number of deaths is around 1500 per year. Causes point to the similar "misuse of antipsychotic medications, having adverse metabolic and cardiac effects". A recent international review finding that "monitoring of the side effects of psychiatric drugs tends to be inadequate".

Using comparable statistics for the number of deaths in psychiatric hospitals Japan and NZ, adjusted proporationally for population, it would equate to 25,000 deaths per year in Japan, versus 38,000 deaths per year in NZ.

Therefore, statistically, he had better chances in Japan.

Except that it has not been proven to be inhuman nor even that the restraints or deep vein thrombosis (DVT) to be the cause yet ... can we go along with the "innocent until proven guilty" line?

People here seem to imagine he was being choked to death.

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) sometimes occurs for no apparent reason. Primarily, it's the inactivity that causes it, not the restraints.

Kelly had previously been hospitalised in New Zealand. In April he had "begun acting paranoid, lashing out and behaving in increasingly bizarre and concerning ways". His brother organised for Kelly to go into medical care. Cardiological medical records have been released.

As balance, from April of this year, the report paints shocking picture of ‘medieval’ NZ restraint practices

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/04/26/20697/report-paints-shocking-picture-of-restraint-practices

@Toasted Heretic

Nobody has the right to take another life. Be they individuals or the state. Any state.

Who gets to define what is "right" and how?

Fine, but can we at least have the other right, to refuse to pay for vicious murders' lifetime incarceration if it is against our conscience then?

The adult world consists of two groups, those who are able to take difficult decision and those who abrogate their responsibility for making them onto the first group.

Frustratingly, the second group always seem to expect other people pay for their "rights"?

See discussion on another article regarding capital punishment.

Why should have to pay to keep her alive and risk her breeding again?

I imagine a rather immature women who, in her mind, was showing her anger and punishing her husband too.

The production of beef is hugely damaging to the environment, on top of which, then shipping it 1,000s of miles in refrigerated ships does even more damage.

Anything that can resist and obstruct that industry is a good thing.

Even moreso, where there's a public health issue, outsourcing your food production for a non-essential 5,000 miles away - or other services - is insane.

I have not yet the final breakdown. What was it?

It seems there might "free trade" is there any element of "free movement" for labor, or it is all to benefit big businesses?

Thankfully at least the customer service telephone lines in Japan cannot be outsourced to India or the Philippines there are not enough people out there who speak Japanese!

@zichi

140 countries no longer have a death penalty.

... And 114 countries have a higher murder rate statistic than Japan.

Looking at the list below Japan, many of them are still involved in extrajudicial murders and far worse. They are in a tribal state where no statistics are kept, with traditions of honor killings and so on. I suspect Japan's is still lower again.

(In general, the Americas have a 6 times higher rate than Asia, so who can teach who how to run a society?).

What you did is called an 'argumentum ad populum' or an appeal to the majority. In short, "if many believe so, it is so."

It is a fallacious, therefore false, logic.

So what, most people are deluded, plain wrong, irrational, over-sentimental, corruptly self-interested and so on.

... And that is what Buddhism also says.

I told you above, I am not a Buddhist. In the discussion about "politically correct dictators", of which this is an extension, I used the example of Buddhists, Jains and Hindus thinking swastikas were a positive thing where others make a living out of telling people not to use them. Indeed, there is/was pressure on Japan not to do so, even for the Olympics, in case it might "offend" someone?

Perhaps those someone's need a thicker skin and a broader mind.

The problem is ... the likes of Amnesty International and prison reform arose in and for countries where there were problems. Forensic evidence and DNA had not been developed. Dictatorship was common place. Innocent individuals died.

As someone else wrote about, forensic evidence and DNA has caught up and overtaken the moral problem, therefore we have to review 19th Century Christian based ideologies.

Might I also suggest that many Western countries has much to learn from the Japanese prison system.

@loggediin

Hangings are terribly messy, which is why they don't have carpet in the room below. Everything comes out. You don't want me to go into details.

You could easily make a push button, hi-tech, self-washing guillotine even build one into a cremator.

If you saw how Japan deals with destroy stray dogs, you would understand how it can approach such problems.

I am against destroy stray dogs but fine with the idea of destroying murders (without good reason), rapists and child sex abusers.

You, presumably, want to pay to support them for life, and think that all they need is some love?

I think we can be pretty sure losing your head does not stop you going to heaven because what happens then to those who lose them in a car or industrial accident? Religion is 98% pre-rational, countra-scientific nonsense, Buddhism included. They are all just popular control mechanism.

A false or hypocritical "Liberalism" has replaced Christianity in the West and is being imposed by outfits like Amnesty International on the rest of the world;

"Accept our values or we will bomb you or damage your economy until you do".

FYI,

In the old days, they used banishment as a punishment - as recommended by Buddhist scriptures and tradition - which, to be frank, was pretty much capital punishing as it would certainly lead to death sooner or later. The only difference being, no human had to do it with their own hands which was obviously better for them.

However, it became problematic because, a) they did not just all die quickly and turned into murderous criminal bands in order to survive, and b) we have run out of areas (like Australia) to banish people to.

So, the issue really comes down to a question of the management of available resources, i.e. costs.

What is sacred (sanctity) about a murder's life? What makes a human mammal's life "sacred" but a non-human mammal's life not sacred? Whether it is tasty or not?

I met a Catholic once. They asked me, "Which is worse, suicide of murder?". I answered, of course, "murder" because it was killing someone else. Generally "an innocent". If you want to kill yourself, then that is your business, just take care not to hurt anyone else if you do.

They told me, "no, suicide is worse because at least a murderer can repent and be saved for eternity by Jesus".

I thought that was demented but if it is a foundation belief of Christianity, went a long way to explain the genocide of Asians and Native Americans they carried out. ("Genocide is OK, especially if you do it for the Church. Just repent and be saved afterwards!" How convenient).

@Zichi (and Toasted)

Look, I know you are just out to discredit me personally because I challenged your habitual anti-Japan stance but I am not a Buddhist. I made an example regarding the use of swastikas in the discussion of the Western moral dictatorship of Japan and Asia.

You are also wrong about capital punishment and Buddhism. There is no unified policy on capital punishment within Buddhism. And you'd have to start such a discussion with which school of Buddhism and at what level of Buddhism

Traditionally there are two forms of capital punishment described in Buddhism;

quick (suddhavadha) which usually meant beheading as traditionally practised in Japan, and

painful (klesadaõóa) that included torture before death.

Actually, for 350 years it was abolished in Japan during the reign of the Emperor Shomu, a devote Buddhist (724-49) and again 810 - longer than the entire history of the USA (and let's forget the Judeo-Christian god's attitude towards murder and genocide) - but changing conditions, as understood within Buddhist (decline of dharma), led it to be found unsuccessful.

As with many difficult issues, the Buddha avoided explicitly speaking about capital punishment. He was not in favor of hard and fast rules as in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Amazing ... Horie built a company from scratch to an $8bn market capitalisation.

He can afford more than one t-shirt.

I am grateful to read from the NZ article that the family are not taking the Korean or US approach of "sue them for millions" but I don't like how they respresent what happened as "tying him to the bed". I suspect they did not use ropes and he was not being choked by them. Putting no compression stockings is the right thing to do.

However, I reject the framing of the article with the "dying in this kind of outrageous circumstances that would never happen in New Zealand should be an embarrassment to Japan."

I note that the victim was "admitted to Yamato Hospital under a compulsory order", that generally means his behavior had gotten so bad that the emergency services had to be involved and he was taken against his will, hence the use of restraints.

In the old days they might of used padded cells and straightjackets but the politically correct got rid of them too.

Putting aside all the cases you see on the street, I've known 3 or 4 people with such serious mental illnesses, all otherwise intelligent, attractive individuals (I guess that's just how I like my women; intelligent, attractive, crazy ...). The frightening thing is how quickly and easily they would flip in and out of rationality, and how tireless or physical they would become when flipped out. How well they could mask their symptoms, and the extent of paranoid delusions, such as the Satan story above.

The brother said, ""He [did] need to be in a hospital - I was glad he was in a hospital - but he didn't need to be restrained to the bed in my opinion."

In the old days they might of used padded cells and straightjackets but the politically correct got rid of them too.

I'm not medical but "Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy" seems to be drug related, e.g. over prescribed drugs, which is also common in Japan health service ("megadose culture in psychiatric care”)

Why?

Straight up questions for those who oppose it, who should pay for life incarcerations and why?

If the opposition is based on, "but what about the innocent person who might die?"

Well, what about the 5,000 (approx) innocent people who die by car accidents? (US 37,000).

Or, an interesting reflection on Japanese soceity, the 14,000 who die in a bathtub.

As a society we make decisions about the acceptability of activities involving far greater levels of fatality risks based on their benefits to the lucky who do not get caught, from what we stick in our mouths, to what "fun" we have or sports we play.

If it is about "saving innocent lives", then start with cars, cigarettes, junk food ... and bathtubs.

What is the name of the "Japanese man", e.g. is he actually a Zainichi Korean? Was the gold ultimately heading to North Korea?

NK is under heavy economic sanctions and operates vast systems of illegal enterprises and smuggling in Japan and around the world. For example, there was another case not so long ago of a North Korean diplomat with $1.4 Million in gold stopped in Bangladesh. Elsewhere it was reported as a "Hong Kong ring" but whose ring?

More colorful were reports of 51 male and female South Koreans are arrested for smuggling 2 tonnes of gold nuggets worth £77million in their rectums and vaginas

And, no, I don't make this stuff up.

There's a 15% tax on gold in ROK that makes it worthwhile to try smuggling in golden butt plugs and dildos.

Funny to think it might end up as a wedding ring afterwards though.

Death sentance or no death sentance?

It's called a primary source. They are widely acceptable in academia, and useful for counter prejudicial biases based on personal projection and wishfulfilment.

Here's a reliable secondary source tht supports their view, from The Economist:

Current and former Amnesty insiders worry that an increasingly grandstanding and unfocused approach makes it ineffective.

"Grandstanding" means, to seek to attract applause or favorable attention from spectators or the media.

I would argue that the case of Japan's extremely minimal capital punishment is just that. Profiting out of a moral outrage based on Japan Hate.

Or do you prefer the imaginary PR version of Amnesty International?

Their other criticism was an extension of that, that campaigns were chosen (and rejected) on the basis of how much money they would bring in.

Again, from The Economist;

Amnesty has to compete for attention and funds with other human-rights organisations ... its expert researchers and analysts still continue in their work, but sometimes feel let down by what the leadership chooses to showcase.

So there you go, primary source backed up by secondary source. What more do you need?

Let's do a cost-benefit analysis on this case. How much does it cost, how much do they make of it, how much of an effect will it have, what are the pros and cons of it.

Are you and Amnesty International offering to pay for life imprisonment or take them overseas?

If no, why should Japanese people support them?

What benefit for anyone is there is keeping a multiple murder in a nice, warm hotel and fed for life?

This is interesting and adds some more insights.

A Secret Theater: Inside Japan's Capital Punishment System by Charles Lane

United States-Japan Foundation Media Fellows Program

http://www.japansociety.org/a_secret_theater

If you ask someone who has been there to describe the death chamber in Japan, he might well say it is a surprisingly attractive place. A former prosecutor told me the room in the Nagoya Detention Center where convicted murderers are hanged is a spare, tastefully lighted space with a polished floor of Japanese cypress. "Like a noh theater," he said. During executions, a sound system pipes in the calming tones of a Buddhist sutra. An ex-member of the Diet who visited the Tokyo Detention Center's gallows told me he was struck by the reddish-purple floor covering--"like the carpet you see in the function rooms of a hotel," as he put it. A fellow visitor murmured to him: "It's nicer than I thought."

It would seem the photo above is from the room below.

@Toasted Heretic

Allow me to suggest this.

I am a Buddhist. I endorse wearing the swastika, and decorating one's belongings and buildings with it.

My friend the Hindu, my friend the Jain, my friend the native American and my friend the Celt all agree with you.

But there are other people who want to claim authority over us and tell us what we cannot wear or do ... because they are "offended".

Who gets to tell who to do what? Who own the politics to do so? We've all being doing so for far longer than they've been practising "being offended". They weren't "offended" before, why can't they just be "offended" at something else? Who determins the politics of offence?

Now, this case.

A gentleman chooses an article of clothing because he wants to make an anti-war statement. Someone or someones claims to be "offended" by it. Who gets to tell who to do what?

To dictate expression.

Who gentleman chooses an article of clothing with a dictator (and "no") on it.

Now who is being the dictator?

The person dictating who can wear what when (why?) or the person choosing to express themselves?

The dictators don't have to look, they don't have to endorse the statement by buying, what is their concern about?

It is all about determining power and dictating how society is. Yesterday military dictators, today moral dictators.

Challenge the dictators and they will destroy you, and if they can re-make you, your life, your society to benefit themselves.

Now we ask the question, so who complained about it and why? If there was just one complaint, I doubt it would have made a newstory. Were there many complaints?

Were those complaints spontaneous, or contrived?

The story does not tell us.

Now, logically, why would any Japanese person be "offended" by an anti-war t-shirt featuring Hitler? And how many could even recognize it was Hitler from the bad representation? I think you'll find it was a very, very small proportion, cut even smaller by the minor interest of the individual wearing it and the show it was on.

I also don't think it was shown in Israel nor that there are sufficient Israelis who speak Japanese and are interested in Horie. So who could it be?

In lieu of real reporting, let's work our way down through the potential options.

I will tell you 3. There might be others.

Firstly, without any doubt, it is part of the Chinese and Korean 'scripts' to reinforce any association between Japan and Nazidom and the Far Right internationally. There are 2. Many of whom are in Japan, monitoring the media and spreading stories.

To be quite frank, very few of the international correspondences in Japan can speak and read Japan well enough to follow the media.

The third is not so much a coordinated effort, like the Chinese and Korean troll armies, but rather it is an expression of part of the American collective consciousness (in order to cover for and excuse its own ongoing brutality) and to a lesser extent the British-Commonwealth consciousness, especially amongst the elder generations (in order to ameliorate the effect of the loss of their own national/imperial defeats). For both, and especially their correspondents, "making Japan look bad" (silly or bizarre) is sort of chauvinistic indoctrinated national past-time.

Now, I flagged up collusion and influence between the Chinese and Koreans and Zionist networks in the USA. I stand by that comment. Unfortunately, it is probably too 'off topic' to go into it here but if allowed by the moderators, I would.

So when you read something like this story, ask yourself who might be behind it and why? What is their interest or intention? How are you supposed to be being guided to think?

Of course, on the other hand, it might just be something like a naive Left Winger type who has spent time in the US among "liberal" communities; the wife, say, of a Jewish-America who has been led to believe they are doing the right thing; or some foreign language student? Who?

A professor from Temple University? A journalist from AFP? Who brew it up, why?

I don't know. But let's identify them and correct their understanding, and keep Japan free of dictators.

May be I'll make a Dalai Lama t-shirt with, "More Buddhist, Less dictators" on it and offend the Chinese. Or a picture of Douglas MacArthur and "Mass Murder, Chief of Genocide". In America I could.

Oh, that was a terrible amateur dramatic version, try;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPXHRX8Q2hs

Hysterical, and very Jewish.

@Black Sabbath

Such evil is still active in the world today.

After WWII, it expanded it's across Asia; hitting Korea, then Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It got here via Hawaii, the Philippines and Guam. Then it took a detour down through Central America. And it is currently stomping all over the Middle East, from Palestine to Afghanistan.

Everyone is someone else's "Nazi" at some point or another but, largely, I suppose we're talking about the military-industrial complex.

It's just that the present day Nazis like to point at yesterday's Nazis, and blame them as a distraction instead. We all sense there's a stink in the room and they're pointing at the past to something that's long dead and gone.

@Toasted Heretic

Firstly, before I respond to you, Toasted, please allow me to say that given our political differences in the past, I appreciate you have every interest in discrediting anything I write in any tone therefore, I won't take your distortion or misrepresentation very serious.

people who are hurt or offended have to be mad. Or overweight. How did I miss that?

There appear to be armies of thin skinned, over-sensitive people wandering around "finding that so offensive" and finding things "totally unacceptable".

Therefore, can I just say, I find your posts "so offensive" and "totally unacceptable"?

Except that I don't think those people really are, I think it's just a sort of political manipulation of society by one or other set of values, sometimes an immature one, sometimes a dishonest one, sometimes because their just a little nuts.

I don't think the evolution of society, the media, the arts, history and politics should be ruled by them other. Otherwise we would end up with a very humorless, and sexless, world.

I was thinking of a recent "complaint campaign" targeted at a poster campaign of a healthy, slim, young women wearing a bikini.

I had to wonder who on earth could be offended by that?

Because Japanese people have no comprehension of history outside their own country?

Funny, everyone around here always accuses them - largely unfairly - of having no comprehension of Japan's own history.

Are you suggesting that Jewish people have some sort of complex because of that little thing called the holocaust? Or that is simply has to be someone of Jewish heritage who complained, nobody else is concerned?

No, I was specifically referring to the Holocaust Industry, those making a financial fortune out of exploiting the Holocaust, and those creating political real estate out of it, the Zionists. The two closely entwined with each other.

I asked the question, I'd like to know the answer ... who complained.

Funny, they have similarity with the Korean and Chinese anti-Japan campaigns and the Korean and Chinese anti-Japan campaigns have studied the effectiveness of the Zionist and Holocaust Industries. China, especially replicating it. There is a degree of symbiosis between them.

Mel Brooks, on the other hand, I find far more honest, sincere and funny.

And he made a fortune out of "Spring Time for Hitler and Germany"

I wonder if the "professionally offended" political correct police went after him ... I could what his response would be like. In fact, he probably did respond, I'd look it up for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2hS_LhslTw