saidani comments

Since when does the USA think it has the right to say how Japanese banks do their business?

Don't you know? The US is the world's policeman which means they are the deciders. Don't play their game and you can't do business in America. And since oil is traded in USDs , history shows that any deviation from this system results in fines, sanctions, and invasion (sorry Libya, Iraq, Iran). The US calls this "soft power." "Extortion," "terrorism," and "hegemony" are terms others around the world use.

More unintended consequences from the government-run education system designed specifically to give Japan, Inc. generations of skilled, loyal, obedient, and, apparently, neurotic workers who never question authority. How's that working out in the era of off-shoring and economic decline?

Japanese need to get the chip off their shoulder and wake up to the reality.

Sadly, it is not a chip on their shoulder, but insecurity that needs to be overcome. It affects many things in Japan.

It's about justice

Well it wouldn't be so funny if the LDP weren't about to be re-elected again and start the "patriotic education"

Oh, I get it now. You have a political stake in the matter. US? DPJ? Because, again, no one would be so persistent without a reason. And your concern for justice is not likely to be that reason. You're too over the top and derisive, neither effective debating techniques, but great at taking over comment threads.

Ok so apparently getting Japan to admit its war atrocities is "hating Japan".

Why do you care? What difference does it matter to you?

Thomas Anderson Dec. 10, 2012 - 09:09AM JST

LOL. Now I understand why you can't get a Japanese to have a conversation with you. Why do you hate Japan so much? What good does it do you to find every way to condemn the nation and the people? Who are you to judge another person, much less an entire race of people? What do you gain by making these statements? Does it make you feel superior to the Japanese? Is your life and nation so perfect that your time might be better spent on introspection? Perhaps you are being paid to come here and say these things. It is doubtful that a person would choose to pick on a people with such ferocity and diligence without either a hidden agenda or just for the pleasure of bullying someone.

And so the right-wingers' comments show their true colors. They were not so sorry after all.

Actually, I am extremely anti-war. That said, the nationalism growing in Japan is partly the results on this constant foreign Japan-bashing. Most of us don't like that it is being aroused again. Which is why we would rather you foreigners shut up about it as it is more than likely you do more harm than good by it.

Did I excuse them?

Well....

Right, because that is on the exact same ballpark as high-ranking officials denying war atrocities.

...it looks like an attempt, feeble as it is, to make those comments seem irrelevant to discussion.

Schopenhauer Dec. 10, 2012 - 08:55AM JST

No...everyone in Asia (to include the US) would rather have Japan remain the whipping boy of the East.

Erm, the problem is that both the average and the officials deny war atrocities.

Right, then you can't excuse the comments from Americans about the A-bombs, can you?

Right, because that is on the exact same ballpark as high-ranking officials denying war atrocities.

And yet you condemn the average Japanese who doesn't want to discuss the issue with you? Which is it, high-ranking officials or the people?

Hayden Wellstone Dec. 10, 2012 - 08:40AM JST

Thank you. No nation is guilt-free. That said, war is made by politicians and fought by men and women indoctrinated in extreme nationalism. It makes no sense for a man to give up his life for his nation in imperialistic ventures and can only be accomplished by propaganda, something that all nations governments have done and continue to do. If you want to solve this, make politicians fight their own wars unless the barbarians are truly at the gate. Refuse to die for politicians and corporations.

MEXT also HAS to change school history curriculum with regards to all issues surround WWII, and do it while there are still people alive today from that era who will finally know peace in realizing their goal of a truly open and honest apology with meaning from Japan.

Every nation controls the content of its education system. There are many truths about the war that Americans do not know because it would shine a bad light on America's hero FDR. And while this is not good for anyone, it is not for foreigners to point this out about Japan without showing the context of their own nation. Show some balance if you want respect for your opinion about Japan.

Most Japanese people that I talk to are in denial. Maybe not in full denial, but it will make them uncomfortable and they won't talk much about it.

Why would any Japanese want to talk to you about it? Given your tone here, it is likely you would simply use the conversation to condemn them and the rest of the Japanese people.

You need to look at these issues from a common sense point of view

What is the common sense of badgering the great grandchildren of wartime Japanese about the sins of their forefathers? Should we demand that you apologize because of the acts of your great grandfather? Where does it stop?

That must be stopped, for even Japan's own good.

I dare say no one in Japan has asked your opinion about what is in "Japan's own good." What hubris.

Why don't you get that they are "bashing Japan" only because Japan is in denial?

Who do you represent? What has Japan done to you that requires you to constantly complain about the people? What do you get from it?

Ok. Now can the Japanese people stop denying war atrocities committed by Japan?

You just won't quit, will you. How many Japanese people being asked to apologize today had the slightest thing to do with anything 70 years ago, much less war atrocities? No nation, including the wonderful US or Britain, has a history that its people want to revisit. Japan's 6 decades of peaceful co-existence with other nations, in comparison to America's almost constant war, is proof enough that the Japanese have moved on from that past in a responsible manner. Furthermore, these constant complaints and attacks on the current generations of Japanese do nothing but cause resentment and a move toward nationalism for some.

The rest of the world is waiting.

No...the rest of the world is not waiting. Only those who want to use this issue to gain an advantage over Japan or simply for the pleasure of bashing Japan 70 years after the war. The rest of the world has their own problematic histories to worry about.

I'm sorry. Okay? Now, can we get on with our lives?

The claim that Japan attacked the United States without provocation was typical rhetoric. It worked because the public did not know that the administration had expected Japan to respond with war; to anti-Japanese measures it had taken in July 1941. Expecting to lose a war with the United States, and lose it disastrously, Japan's leaders had tried with growing desperation to negotiate. On this point, most historians had long agreed.

Meanwhile evidence has come out that Roosevelt and Hull persistently refused to negotiate. Japan offered compromises and concessions, which the United States countered with increasing demands. It was after learning of Japan's decision to go to war with the United States, if the talks "break down" that Roosevelt decided to break them off.

According to Attorney General, Francis Biddle, Roosevelt said he hoped for an incident in the Pacific to bring the United States into the European war."

As Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, testified after the war: "We needed the Japanese to commit the first overt act."

-George Victor The Pearl Harbor Myth http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1597971618?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1597971618&linkCode=xm2&tag=lewrockwell

This is a reflection of the failure of the Japanese government. People will only stand so much economic, social, and cultural decline before they have had enough. These groups provide an outlet for them. An entire generation of Japanese have been born and grown to adulthood seeing nothing but decline and facing a bleak future of fewer opportunities. It is the first generation since the war in which the children can not expect to have a better future than their parents. And, since the government owns the economy, it owns this growing problem.

Those poor soldiers. If they only knew that FDR sold them out to justify America's entrance into the war.

It's probably a stupid question, but why don't they buy oil in other currencies?

Not a stupid question at all. Gaddafi was planning on trading oil in a gold-backed currency. You see where that got him. Iran was planning to trade in a currency other than the USD and we see that it is now in the gun sights of the US. American foreign policy is based on the petro dollar and the US military. Challenge that at your own risk, although China is probably buying oil from Iran with the Yuan.

The US wants Japan to change Article 9 to help America fight wars all over the place. But it isn't so interested in Japan actually defending itself as that would mean there would be no reason for American troops to continue to camp out on Japanese soil in such large numbers (if at all).

As for the current situation, the US is only concerned that it will escalate to the point that the US has to act since its conflicts of interest with China would make any action by the US a lose-lose situation (doesn't want to piss off China by backing Japan but doesn't want to piss off the Japanese by doing nothing). The US depends on the threat of something happening to justify its presence in Asia. Anything that goes beyond the threat level is problematic for the Americans.

Why are people looking at Japanese action regarding this matter with such negativity?

Over the past two or three decades, what has the government accomplished that would give you any confidence that it can ensure your safety from dangers real or imagined? Because they have issued an order that should be a standing order against any missile on a course to strike Japan? Their adept diplomacy with China, South Korea and Taiwan over the Senkaku Islands? Their handling of Fukushima Dai-ichi both before and after the disaster? The revolving door of prime ministers? The miserable economy and its continued decline? Really...what gives you confidence in this systemically deficient government?

Ending the money pit known as the Iraq debacle for starters.

Yes, well, Obama has made up for that spending cut as the debt continues to soar. Of course, bombing Libya and supporting rebels (including al Qaeda) in Syria doesn't come cheap, either. But, perhaps you could enlighten us about Obama's spending cuts that he has yet to outline.

When Bush ran in 2000, he promised up and down that he would keep federal spending in line with Clinton's.

Yes, but Bush was a failure in many ways, especially concerning common sense fiscal issues. Must Americans (and the world, for that matter) suffer a continuance of those failures because of political posturing? Obama has done nothing to reverse the decline begun by Bush. If anything, he has taken them to a new level which will have ripples around the world. The destruction of the USD (which is the only way to get out from under all the debt save outright default) will have adverse affects everywhere. What's the end game?

Obama is a socialist with an agenda. What he learned from Japan's lost decades was not how to avoid them but how to recreate them for America. Given the situation in Europe and Japan, haven't Americans figured out that a welfare state is a recipe for economic decline?

The Japanese government on Friday issued an order to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it threatens the nation’s territory,

As opposed to allowing it to land on Japanese soil? This is not a standing order regardless of who fired the missile? The public should be more concerned that the Defense Minister has to announce the issuance of this order.

Sheeech....such drama meant solely for public consumption.