NYtoday comments

＠ifd66

SS proudly declares it is "fun" to bully people in Taiji and they constantly harass townies with cameras and verbal abuse. Countless films are uploaded on YouTube by both side of parties so you can watch how your "super heros" behaive in the small town of Taiji.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VpdgVQ4fJU0

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=su4C1V2uZvw

@MrBum

It is quite remarkable that Japan allows The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan to hold such an event while they have been funding North Korea who's missiles are aiming at Japan.

I am surprised that regardless of all that discrimination and abuse those Koreans have been bearing with as they often speak out, they choose to stay in Japan for as long as 60 years instead of their Paradise Lost they praise so much.

Pachinko money, anyone?

Where are our regular posters' who are always concerned of Japan being nationalistic, having no freedom of speech, discriminating against minorities and whatnot whatnot...?

As absurd as this event looks (let's not forget NK has been threating Japan with their missiles,) Japan respects free speech and human rights.

@Thunderbird2

Funny thing is that they are rather quiet over China's military actions.

(NYToday enjoys your Hit-and-run negative votes, Mr. & Ms. 50 cents warriors)

@thepersoniamnow

I don't understand those who fear China, dislike America, love Japan, and yet want the bases off of Okinawa and Japan to disarm.

I don't know such a person but I know a lot of people in Japan who belong to/worship China, hate/demonize America, care less about Japan, and of course the bases off of Okinawa and Japan to disarm. You see many of such people currently protesting in Okinawa.

Too bad, while those people in the article "taking a stand" in Tokyo, China has already taken Okinawa politics into their hand—Google Image "中国共産党 翁長 (Chinese Communist Party Onaga)" and you will see.

Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii

Always worried that Japan is going to war. Why? Something to do with his fellow CCP?

QUICK! Where the heck is our Article 9 shield?!?!

Massachusetts???

@Luce-A

For me it was the anonymity of it, and that the originator first leaked it to the Korean Yonhap Press Agency, that led me to doubt his intentions.

That's not the way academia is done.

Completely agree. The first thing I wanted to find out was the list of 450 names. Even Alexis Dudden in the interview, she mostly mentions "our colleagues," "fellow scholars," "friends and family (that I forgot if she really said it, hahaha!)"

Well, she knows media strategies very well and how majority of people still lack media literacy—historians and scholars included, of course.

@Alex80

When globalization kills the culture of healthy and delicious food, isn't that "nice".

Good point. Some may argue that consumers let that happen by choosing coporate giants. It's a sad fact in America, we do "eat local, shop local" and other crunch granola stuff (I do, too. I don't go to Starbucks) but it's a luxury to get to do so nowadays.

But wait, I thought Alexis Dudden was warning Japan's expansionism and imperialism led by Abe??!! (eye roll (@Д＠;)

While Abe let over 200 illegal China ships to violate Japan's territorial waters in Ogasawara to steal billion-dollar worth of precious red corals (clearly Abe isn't good enough to be called "Nazi" or "Nationalist"), Indonesian government bombed those criminal boats that came in their water and made a strong, bold statement of "Don't you mess with us."

Japan haters, please. We appreciate your concern over Japan's possible rise of militarism (like trying to bring her territorial disputes with her neighbors to ICJ and verbally warning China not to let their thugs destroy Japan's marine biology...yup, those are the signs!) but please go out there and look what is happening...NOW.

Yet Alexis Dudden is too Busy Demonizng Japan... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/opinion/the-shape-of-japan-to-come.html

American "espresso beverages" with tons of sugar, fat, and addtives (what you wanna call Seattle style, LOL) is far from the original source of inspiration, though, I kinda admire Howard Shultz (the founder of Starbucks) for what he has done to the coffee culture all over the world.

Starbucks doesn't taste like coffee but a nice blend of capitalism and globalization.

@WatchingStuff

"open discussion"

"free from government manipulation"

"censorship"

"and private intimidation"

That's funny. If the world was asked which country do those buzz words remind them of, the majority would probably answer "China" or "North Korea" with strong dictatorship. Just sayin'.

By the way, has anyone heard of Confucius Institutes? I couldn't find names of 450 academic peeps by Googling but wonder how many of them out of 450 has been affiliated with, benefiting from, funded, and influenced by the existence of Confucius Institutes. Just sayin'.

Is This American Academe's Most Shameful Moment?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/08/31/is-this-american-academes-most-shameful-moment/

In so doing they accept Beijing’s money. They also cede control of their curriculums >and allow Beijing not only to appoint most of the teachers but impose a regimen of >self-censorship in discussing “sensitive” issues such as the Tienanmen massacre.

Confucius Institutes

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute

Criticisms of Confucius Institutes

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_Confucius_Institutes

＠NathalieB

Throughout my volunteer work to help people with hoarding problems back in school, I learned that many of them are suffering from some kind of mental illness or on medication.

One lady was an animal hoarder, a brilliant, successful woman in retail business who had 20 plus cats and rabbits all around the house. Despite her career success, she never had a romantic relationship and was always lonely. After long day of work, taking care of more than 20 animals became a burden. The house eventually got messier and more unsanitary with food decays, animal feces, hair, and unfortunately, carcasses. Her entire two-family home turned into a giant animal cage that had never been cleaned and filthy air was giving her a severe asthma.

Another lady was suffering from ADHD and desipite her continuous effort and medication, she cannot remember things she had already shopped, where she placed them, or if she had already used/discard them. So she would buy multiple things multiple times making a mass of things in the house, where she would lose things in the sea of random objects. I would find 12 sets of salt and pepper shakers buried in the kitchen mess and she would say, "I couldn't find them! I was about to buy more today." She had tried memo pads to write down things to remember only to quickly lose the memo pad in 10 minutes in a pile of mess. She bought oriental acupuncture kit to enhance her memory and couldn't find the tool that came with it.

Perhaps this guy in the article had gone through depression after the loss of his parents whose house he has taken over?

@toshiko and @bam_boo

I would much rather be humble and say I am still gathering information for my extensive multi-perspective research on this subject than pretend know-it-all like you people. As I stated in my previous comments, there are different opinions among Okinawans on how Okinawa should thrive with or without the US bases. This matter isn't as simple as your mind. . By the way, who are you to represent the whole Okinawa? And how arrogant are you to ignore some real Okinawa people's voices that differ from your ideal Okinawans' opinions? Stop using them to express your ideology. What needs to be heard isn't your opinion but theirs.

Google "fence clean project okinawa" and see how local Okinawans and the US soldiers and the base officers hand in hand clean up the sticky, ugly mess anti-base protesters have left. They have been doing this every Sundays, rain or shine.

Stars and Stripes OKINAWA: the Fence Clean Project (English)

http://okinawa.stripes.com/base-info/volunteering-and-fence-clean-project

Local Okinawans volunteered to clean the mess left by protesters

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tu8y2IKkOg

Within few hours after the cleaning, another vandalism done by "anti-base" activists

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b-wQWc1l8TE

All I am saying is there are many voices in Okinawa, and many are from outside of Okinawa, with different political agenda, and against local Okinawans will. You cannot deny those videos, which capture all the action the locals have taken to voice their true opinion.

And bam_boo, if you cannot logically rationalize members of CCP protesting against the US base in Okinawa, please refrain from commenting further. Please Google for images and videos of them and their Chinese flags before you ask me for source as well. There are too many to hide.

@Alex80

Stop this embarrassing propaganda about a "China threat" for Japan. China isn't a threat, it's an opportunity for everyone. In Europe also ordinary people like me are understanding it, I think, for this I'm happy Italy joined AIIB. Okinawa people are right.

The more I learn about Okinawa's truth, the more I find out that ordinary Okinawans do 1. find peace and friendship with the existance of the U.S. bases (of course, not all Okinawa residents feel that way, I know), 2. feel more threatened by Chinese ships appreance 24/7 everyday illegally poaching, fishing, and crossing boarders, and, 3. find it extremely bothersome that are protesters from mainland, China, and Korea gathered to speak their opinion as "ALL OKINAWA'S" opinion.

I am still learning about Okinawa/U.S. base issue but there are many articles and documentaries published by journalists and independent media. You will see among protesters are flags of Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction,) Revolutionary Communist League National Committee, Japan Teachers' Union, other radical socialists/communists groups of Japan, China's Communist Party, Korean political organizations. Why Chinese and Koreans care? (Besides, it is illegal for foreigners to join a political demonstration or protest in Japan.) Some are paid $20 to $300 to join the protest daily.

Many protesters voiced their "anti-Ospray" "anti-U.S." opinion on media interviews as "Okinawa's Voice," but with no Okinawan accent. Japanese can tell the slight nuance even when people with dialect try to speak the Tokyo (standard) way. There are many videos on YouTube where you can find some Okinawans' true voice.

You and I don't live in Okinawa, and of course, each Okinawa people have different opinions over this issue. That's why, I find it extremely important to pick up as many voice as possible instead of swallowing a big picture with someone's hidden political agenda. Again, many journalists and media have posted many documentaries and interviews online. It is unfortunate that many posters here don't read and write in Japanese but many videos are available for all of us to watch.

Local Residents v.s Anti-Base Activists (from Mainland)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=98V1LBgbdqI

Interview with Henoko Fisherman

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=omcciwCiUfo

Chinese and Korean Activists in Futenma

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6EBM2umPUpQ

@Tsutomu Nakasone

They're people out the Okinawa prefecture to participate. Therefore this assembly can't be called an opinion of Okinawa-ken people. There are people of left wing radical for a participant group. In other words, it's the purpose to make democracy collapse. A participant is announcing at 35000 people, but this isn't right. We're about 16500 of about half actually.

投稿ありがとうございます。 沖縄反米デモに関しては私もまだまだ勉強中なのですが、こと極端な反日反米リベラル色の強いJTにて、本土ないし中国韓国北朝鮮からの活動家が米軍撤退、果ては沖縄の独立をけしかけているという事実を指摘して下さったのは心強いです。 JTに常駐している投稿者の殆どは日本語の読み書きが不自由で、APやロイターなどによってリサイクルされた情報を全てと思っているきらいがありますが、どうでしょうか。 もう少しバイリンガルの日本人投稿者が増えてくれると嬉しいですね。

If any posters here read and write in Japanese, Google "沖縄 デモ 実態" to find out what the Okinawa protests are really about.

Join Anti-U.S. Base Protest and Get Paid Up To $300 + Lunch https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsv0mimJ9O4

Boston is overwhelmingly anti-death penalty (heck, Massachusetts is not a death penalty state), but this was a federal (not a state) criminal trial and local jurors still gave Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the death sentence (just goes to show how bad it has to be in order for Bostonians to do that).

Having lived many years in Boston, I know my loving Bostonians more than many posters here. While the comment above might be true, I think it is also a sign of how fashion liberals quickly bend their policy as soon as an issue becomes their own leaving a discussion table.

I was in NY when 9/11 took place and I will never forget the atmosphere of sudden, intense patriotism steaming anger and hate. I am not opposed to it, I understand it. But I hope they are not the same "anti-war," "anti-Abe" Article 9 believers who are here on JT saying "they are concerned Japan's rising nationalism."

I saw many commenters on other English news sites and the mother (Dr. Donna Beegle—an advocate for poverty)'s Facebook page defending the mother use the term 'Angel' to describe the children with ASD. Just like many parents call their children with Down Symdrome 'Angel-chan (天使ちゃん)' in Japan. I just don't get it.

Kids are all equally precious angels that can turn into lil' demons at times...the airline company tried what they could do to accomodate the family's needs in order to maintain the peace for everyone on board, however, the mother's choice of words—"Wait until she meltdown and start scratching"—was an issue.

It is not up to us to judge wether landing was neccessary—it is strictly up to the pilot who is responsible all the lives on the plane.

If the mother was simply filing a complain, people would be more sympathetic to the families with Autism and possibly willing to learn more about the desease, but sueing the airline company...the mother play it wrong. Now most people will find this case as "an entitled parent using reverse discrimination to get first-class meal."

＠Hansaram

Also, in high school, lots of the teachers are leftist

That is a fact. I say so from my own experience through elementary school to high school. Many of my teachers (especially female ones) were typical far-left nikkyoso (日教組.) They would instruct us to read WW2-related books during summer break, make us watch graphic war films including Nanking, and some sick teachers made us cover up the Kimigayo page in every music textbook with a blank piece of paper so we could not sing it.

Some high school teacher have been taking their students to Korea and making them down on their knees in front of comfort women and the war museum and do dogeza for forgiveness over 30 years.

http://wkorea.exblog.jp/1170276

Can you share with us what does Japanese history text book says about Rape of Nanking?

Here's a detailed research:

http://www.shindo.gr.jp/教科書比較（歴史）.pdf

@Christopher Glen

As the article itself and the entire thread discussion suggests, now it is time for academic honesty and professional approach. The world used to be sympathetic about big death numbers, testimonies with tears, graphic images, and dramatic survivers tales. But after 70 years, they are bit tired of same old comments with no 'solid evidence.' Why are you here all day all night repeating same thing over and over while avoiding constructive criticism and ignoring all the requests for academic level primary/secondary source from other posters? Copying and pasting someone else's "Many scholars argue..." and "It is said that..." does not work anymore. It is time for us to drop our personal agenda and sincerely face all the pieces on the discussion table, re-examine every single one of them, and put them all together. That's a respect for academic level history study as well as humanity.

@hachikou

Thanks for the Sankei link regarding the letter of Mr. Jason Morgan. Many were looking for the original letter but it seems it has not yet published on American History Association's page. Michael Yon just posted a link to a page that quotes the entire letter from Mr. Jason Morgan.

http://ykdckomori.blog.jp

---Quote---

Friday, May 1st, 2015

Dear AHA Editor,

I noted with much sadness the letter signed by nineteen American historians of Japan published in March. I have profited from many of these historians’ work, but in this case their hasty coalition reveals the powerful orthodoxies that constrain historical writing in general, thus warranting an outsiders’ response. I also hope here to repair some of the damage done by their attack on the Japanese government.

Missing from the letter’s papal bull-like dogmatics is a nuanced consideration of fact. To correct this lacuna, I humbly recommend Prof. Hata Ikuhiko’s Ianfu to senjō no sei, which eschews presentist politics in favor of documentary evidence. (Even the American historians’ own referee, Yoshimi Yoshiaki, has said publicly that he could find no evidence of the forced recruitment of women in Korea, putting Yoshimi in agreement with Hata.)

Furthermore, the Americans fail to note that in 2014 the Asahi Shimbun formally apologized for years of untenable ianfu reporting by Uemura Takashi, whose mother-in-law is the main comfort-woman activist in Korea. The Asahi falsehoods, in turn, mirrored the sordid confabulations of novelist Yoshida Seiji, who conjured up wild scenes of sexual enslavement on Jeju Island. When Prof. Hata investigated and found Yoshida’s claims baseless, Yoshida admitted he had made it all up. It took some twenty years, but eventually even the Asahi followed suit.

The American scholars, though, vow never to retract. Such vows are easier when one can cavalierly dismiss all contrary opinion as “conservative” or “rightwing.” One does not expect much rigorous debate from the same academy that brought us “micro-aggressions” and “trigger warnings,” and this is no exception. Indeed, “conservative” and “rightwing” are clear signals, like the old Graecum est, non legitur in the margins of vellum manuscripts, that something is a priori out of bounds and not to be taken seriously. Hazel Motes founded the Church Without Christ; likewise, on the comfort women issue, the American academy now proudly specializes in History Without Facts.

The obverse of this manufactured consensus is the inevitable charge of “revisionism.” In a sealed episteme, though, revisionism is all we’ve got. Either you are working within the anthill, or you are an invader from the outside. It is a dizzying tautology: the academy laboriously weeds out all opposition, and then compares the skeptical to Holocaust deniers. This shock-and-awe ringisho style of enforced consensus building is certainly good at getting everyone either to agree on something or else find another job, but the conclusions thus reached are hardly convincing to those who want something more than mere argument from authority (or from democratic majority, which amounts to the same thing). Not everyone works this way, of course; I personally know many historians who are models of dispassionate scholarship, but outing the objective-minded seems tantamount to escorting Moses to the edge of the Sinai. In any event, the enforced silence within the American academy, in comparison with the buzzing and jousting in Japan, is telling one way or another. Perhaps we can just chalk it up to blinding nationalism, but that cuts both ways, too.

Many of the letter writers themselves have probably experienced the lively Japanese academy under the sponsorship of the same Japanese government that they now accuse of practicing Turkey- and Russia-like intimidation. The Americans’ outrage over two moth-eaten paragraphs thus sounds more than a little out of tune. After several silent decades of enduring the Ienaga Saburō-school of historical sanctimony, the Japanese government meekly requested a meeting with the publisher of a fictionalized textbook. Why cry “censorship” over such a harmless—and long-overdue—request? Doesn’t anyone besides the nineteen self-appointed ephors and those in their anthill get to have any historical say?

The irony lies in how well this is all playing in Beijing and Seoul—both strongholds of actual censorship. The Chinese communist dictatorship needs no introduction on this score, and South Korea, for its part, recently released Katō Tatsuya, a journalist whose crime was repeating an unflattering rumor about President Park Geun-hye’s personal life. It is unthinkable, by contrast, that Uemura Takashi should face detention in Japan for his reporting. May we really equate a lone request for a meeting with what the PRC and the ROK do as a matter of quotidian policy?

We shall see if a quixotic graduate student can find a job in the “all things considered” American academy after a letter like this one. Perhaps. But even the great Prof. Hata was subjected to shameful persiflage when he delivered a scholarly talk at Princeton University, so the Japanese academy, it seems to me, is the far better place in which to work.

We shall also see if, someday, a Japanese historian looks back and congratulates the American academy for seeing the IMTFE narrative in its death throes and magnanimously embracing defeat. In any event, in 2015, it is the Japanese academy that ought to be giving the lecture on historical inquiry.

Sincerely,

Jason Morgan

---End Quote---

And I agree with Alexis Dudden. She does get criticism on NYT and other publication occassionally but she seldom responds. Her name has been quite well-known in Japan now. According to her, Japan's territorial disputes with South Korea, China and Russia is the very sign of Japan's militarism and the world needs to be fearful of Japan's 'expansion'—yeah, really.

@Mr. Noidall

Question: why are so many of you posters here who are apart of the gaijin community so dogmatic when it comes to Japan apologizing? I mean, if you're not Chinese or Korean what gives? If you're American, English, or Australian, stick to the Christian script you were most likely brought up with: let he who is without sin cast the first stone!

White supremacy/ethnocentrism—Let's face it, it does exist. Ask any non-white people.

50-cent party a.k.a paid trolls and keyboard warriors—They do, too, exist. You see some posters on other news sites. You see their names on Disqus and Facebook and same old comments. They are on it for 24/7.

Comments section is much more neutral on JT Facebook. You'd see much less posters with some political agenda and more people who simply express love and friendship towards Japan and other countries. Why? Because FB holds less anonymity. No silent downvoters, either.

＠Stuart hayward

Having duel citizenship in the UK & US, I have no problem apologizing for my countries extreme mistakes, even though I wasn't responsible for their actions.

At least in Japan, I don't see anyone asking for an apology—especially from someone who has nothing to do with WW2 or any other historical events/civil crimes (WW2 shouldn't be singled out, right?)

Some highschool in Japan had taken their students to Korea and made children dogeza to apologize for Japan's wartime crimes for over 30 years. I guess you would be a proud parent if your child was one of those children who was forced to kneel down in front of total strangers over something he/she didn't do. And all that has done what? Nothing.

Here's a copy and links to Japanese/Korean news articles about Hiroshima highschool dogeza trip to Korea:

http://wkorea.exblog.jp/1170276

@Furan

100% agree with you. Double standard at its finest. With their "let's not forget what Japan did 70 years ago" theory, 9/11 would be justified, Palestine would be just another karma, pretty much any conflicts and wars in the world would be "well, take this, remember what you did XXX years ago?"

What's worse, those are the very people who repeatedly say, "I am so sick of Japan's 'this country committed this war crime, too,' 'that country had camp followers, too'—we are strictly talking about Japan's war crime!"

(But then, they never fail to compare Imperial Japan with Nazi as well as how Germany has apologized and how Japan hasn't—so their double standard didn't happen today.)

@WilliB

You are right that it is very unlikely to see an orthdox Jewish person would jump in a crowd of "antisemitic cartoon event" and start shooting. But then, it is also very, very unlikely to see a holocaust cartoon festival being held in public to begin with.

How much of "freedom of speech" is being excersised when it comes to holocaust and other Jewish related subjects? Marco Polo magazine that had to shut down due to its "no gas chamber" article in Japan? A Charlie Hebdo editor who got fired for his Judaism cartoon?

"The Holocaust Industry" by Norman Finkelstein, anyone?

http://anonhq.com/charlie-hebdo-fired-anti-semitic-cartoonist-ridiculing-judaism-2009/

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/31/world/tokyo-magazine-to-close-after-article-denying-holocaust.htmlff

@SamuraiBlue

Aw, I thought of the exact same link but I wasn't gonna put it up here.

Okay, everyone. Party is over. We'll be back when she gets her story straight.

(This thread is now closed.)

@Christopher Glen

Again, this guy has a blog where he tells the world what he's done. With pictures of that very drone. It's a shame that major media is always way behind some bored netizens (often times 2ch residents.) His blog has been viral quite a while now. So, yes, he probably made a right move.

http://guerilla47.blog.fc2.com

If what she and other Korean comfort women have been saying is 100% truth (beating, rape, electric shock, etc), it is unbearably awful.

If not, it is also unbearably awful.

@sensei258

His personal blog showing his detailed "radiation drone" plan has already gone viral over the Internet if you want to dig deeper.

Yet another own goal by extreme Abe-haters. If only they were rational and calm, people would be more eager to listen to what they have to say. Bad, bad, bad, strategy. Always.