SecularBeast comments

@OzKen - all sweeping rhetoric, no facts. Just what we expect from Liberal Party members and their boosters in Oz. Negativity, fear, and mendacity are your stock in trade.

@Resurfaced - 'IF IT came to that', it'd be 1281 revisited: The PLA Navy would be handed its butt.

Kobuta, you've got all the Liberal Party talking points down pat. If you broadened your media horizons beyond the bubble of right-wing shock-jocks, the Murdoch Press, and Liberal Party propaganda, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the issues you raise, rather than the one-eyed view you currently take. If you can't do that, then you are either willfully ignorant or a Liberal Party member.

The GetUp ad is brilliant. Television networks in Australia are refusing to run it because the message is equally applicable to the low journalistic standards they themselves practice. Apart from the Guardian and a couple of independent online journals in Australia, the media in Australia has become little more than the propaganda arm of right-wing political parties and their corporate backers. Murdoch is simply the public face the systemic corruption of the media and journalism.

More vague and delusional catch-phrases from a Liberal Party stooge. The Australian economy remains strong and unemployment low under the Labor government. The Liberal leader Abbot is by his own admission compulsive liar who's been shielded from any scrutiny by the Murdoch Press and its smear campaign against Labor.

If Abbot gets in, the Australian economy will be in recession before the end of his parties first term of government, as he shifts more of the nations wealth from its average citizens to his corporate backers. Abbot is incapable of thinking on his feet, runs away from press conferences when the questions gets hard or avoids them altogether, and quite frankly isn't too bright. He has neither the character nor the ability to be the nations leader.

Cashed up knobs with nothing better to do ride motorbikes in Korea, and give succor and cash to a regime that's executing musicians because they upset Dear Leader's wife. Way to go! Absolute heroes! Let's celebrate their awesome accomplishment!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

@IRobin - 'Dignity of the nation' is a two way street. The CCPs actions over the Senkakus are hardly dignified, and it isn't treating Japan with dignity. Good grief, it was Japanese investment of trillions of Yen in China over decades that allowed it to build much of the infrastructure necessary to fuel it's economic boom. It's the CCP that obstructing bi-lateral discussions because they can't get their own way over the Senkakus, not Japan.

@smithinjapan - I never mentioned Dokdo, nor does it have anything to do with the article under discussion. Apples and oranges my friend.

No, no, no. Only the CCP is at loggerheads over the Senkakus and making it an issue. While Japan has recognized administrative control over the islands any friction being generated over them is all down to China.

Mr Li needs to look up 'provocative' in a dictionary, and maybe 'hypocrite' too. To the CCP, it seems you are being 'provocative' if you don't give into their bullying or buy into whatever bogus claims they are making.

@smithinjapan - It's been 68 years since the end of Imperial Japan. The main war criminals were executed or imprisoned, endless apologies issued, reparations paid, and trillions of Yen in development capital invested in China and the ROK.

If the ROK, DPRK, and China are still holding grudges after all that, then nothing Japan does will ever please them. Its a bit rich for them to harp on about the sanitized version of history the Japanese teach their children, when they sanitize their own recent histories beyond belief.

@smithinjapan - Onadera is just stating the bleeding obvious. No-one in the region including Japan was talking military build up or seeking reassurances of US protection prior to the CCP's bogus claims and land-grabs of their neighbour's territories, their provocative military acts, and verbal threats.

The events in Japan of 70+ years ago have no bearing whatsoever on the modern geo-political situation. It has nothing to do with 'forgetting the past', it's about living in the present - something which the CCP (and you) seem to be incapable of grasping.

@louis tan - I live in Australia and your 'white hegemony' talk is bunk. Your political thinking is still stuck in the 19th Century, and the last vestiges of colonialism in Asia disappeared 50 years ago. 12% of the Australian population is of Asian descent now.

You seem to be implying that the American presence has something to do with race, when its simply a matter of sovereign nations in Asia looking out for their own interests and aligning with the super-power that best serves them.

If the choice is between a country that's behaving like a neighbourhood thug and claiming your land and resources, and another country that's prepared to defend your interests militarily, its a no brainer.

These actions achieve nothing and prove nothing, apart from remind us what a bunch of childish plonkers the CCP are.

The Koreans need to "face history" over the millions of Koreans who were happy to work with the Japanese to modernize Korea before 1945. The Japan-hate in Korea borders on the insane at times - with even the children and grandchildren of 'collaborators' being persecuted.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/7890316/South-Korea-targets-Japanese-collaborators-descendants.html

You can do better than this President Park.

@sfjp330 - Much of China's current success was built on the back of massive Japanese investment over decades - the Chinese didn't pull all the finance needed to develop their infrastructure out of thin air. Of course the CCP never mentions this and hides it from its own population, being content to claim the laurels for themselves as a propaganda exercise - while whipping up hatred against the nation that funded their success.

@smithinjapan - Yeah you have to be careful when you say 'the Taiwanese are also upset' at the shrine visits. Taiwan is dominated by descendants of mainland Kuomintang Chinese refugees who seized the island from the 'real' Taiwanese during the White Terror in 1949 and imposed martial law for the following 37 years to crush all local political dissent. Of course the KMT mob are going to follow the same anti-Japanese line as the CCP as they both fought the Japanese.

@Burakumin - I'm Australian, so I know all about the Gallipoli memorials and ceremonies. In that case the respective nations have accepted apologies and 'buried the hatchet', with no lingering animosity.

The same goes for Japan in Australia where many families lost family members fighting the Japanese (including mine in Papua New Guinea and Borneo), but we don't expect the Japanese to eternally grovel and be remorseful for past wrongs or get overwrought at the Japanese honoring their war dead. Apologies have been made and accepted and that's the end of the matter. Imperial Japan is long gone.

The only nations pulling their hair out over Japanese visiting the shrine are China and Korea, for purely political motives. To an outsider like me it just comes across as the politically immature nurturing of a victim's mentality many decades after the source of the angst and the perpetrators have gone - and a smidge of envy over Japan's post-war economic success.

The Japanese have issued endless apologies and pumped trillions of yen into the Chinese and Korean economies - but it's never enough for them to be satisfied - and at some point Japan is going to have to say "enough is enough".

Great picture, JT.

@Burakumin - Name me the countries who apologize for their past acts of aggression (or are expected to show grovelling remorse) year after year many decades later for past wrongs that the living populations took no part in. Where are the monuments of which you speak? Only Japan and Germany are expected to endure this clap-trap ad infinitum.

@BurakuminDes - Yeah sure, like every other nation on earth apologizes for their past acts of aggression every year, much less 68 years after the event like the Japanese are expected to.

How much time do you (or anyone) devote to apologizing and feeling remorseful about people killed in wars by you own country (or members of your own family) many decades ago?

A child born when Japan invaded China in 1937 would be 76 years old now, and one born when the war ended in 1945 would be 68. Those who perpetrated the madness are gone and as dead as the ideology that fueled it. It has no relevance to the vibrant democratic nation Japan has become since 1945, much less anyone born in Japan after that time.

@Frungy - I agree with your summation of the PLA military tech, hence my crack at the CCP/PLA inferiority complex. For all the muscle flexing, naval incursions, annual 'hell marches', PR military exercises, martial bluster, and hollow posturing, the PLA knows it'd get its ass kicked if it got into an offshore fight with Japan or the US - hence the whining from Beijing. The PLA will have to continue winning military glory by invading uninhabited coral atolls for now - lol. Plonkers.

@Peace Please - No one in Asia except the PRC is being antagonistic and they are fueling a regional arms race through their ambit claims over their neighbor's territories. If the PRC was respecting it's (mostly democratic) neighbors, they wouldn't feel the need to arm themselves and shell out money for US armaments.

The CCP squealing over 1 new Japanese helo-carrier like frightened school-girls is hilarious, and of course completely hypocritical given they are continually expanding their already bloated PLA forces. Inferiority complex much?

Ground Forces: PRC - Standing Army 1,700,000; Reserves 800,000: JAPAN - Standing 148,000; Reserves 30,000. Naval Forces: PRC - 290,000 (2nd largest navy in the world): JAPAN - 46,000. Air Forces: PLA - 330,000: JAPAN - 45,000. Strategic Missile Forces: PLA 120,000: JAPAN - 0.

The DPRK leadership should first apologize for threatening to nuke everyone and honor past agreements before any more talks. This cycle of belligerence, talks, handouts, failure to abide by agreements, followed again by more belligerence to begin the cycle again has to be broken. If Kim and his cronies want to maintain the status quo in their broken society, let them do so in isolation.

Hopefully after the collective yawn of indifference at this latest CCP 'provocation', the idiots will begin to understand no-one but them cares about their bogus claims over the Senkakus. This type of petty behavior undermines any attempts they make to be taken seriously by the international community, other than as a provider of cheap labour to make consumer crap for the world market. CCP clowns.

"It is the latest episode in a fraught few months that has seen repeated stand-offs between official ships from both sides as they have jostled over ownership of strategically-important and resource-rich islands."

What is this, 'Jostling over ownership?' At present, 'ownership' of the islands is not in doubt; the Senkakus are legally recognized as being in Japanese hands. China (under the ham-fisted CCP) has no legal right to 'jostle' in this fashion. The CCP would be screaming blue-murder if Japan or any other nation ran ships into their territorial waters every other day.

The sooner China rids itself of its CCP cleptocrats the better.

@Yubaru - Investigate the origins of this fad - 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nobokov, a book about a man's obsession for a sexually precocious 12 year old girl - hence the insinuation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita

'Kawaii'? Try, 'creepy'.

PRC and ROK politicians are behaving like schmucks letting their national(ist) grievances with Japan get in the way of international relationships in the region. Abdicating their positions in this way allows Japan to forge closer ties with ASEAN nations unhindered (good), while they throw tantrums in isolation over things no-one else in the region cares about.

Understandable from the CCP who are having territorial disputes with about half of the members of ASEAN and whose idea of political engagement is having their neighbors kowtow to them and their demands - but an inane and immature move coming from the ROK who are making themselves look as balmy as the CCP.

@Redcliff - don't want to pop your bubble, but Japan was already #2 in the world economy by the early to mid 1970s. Since the late 1970s, Japan has pumped trillions of Yen into China in 'development aid' to help them develop a 'capitalist style' economy and infrastructure - and of course that's been good for Japanese businesses.

It didn't take long for the CCP to play the victim card - and throw in a couple of 'subtle' threats at the US for good measure. Rocks? Feet? lol.

The CCP need to heed the old addage, "It's better to not say anything and let people think you are a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt."

@Tony Ew - Apr. 28, 2013 - 11:54AM JST

Tipping point, schmipping point. Doesn't matter how good the tech China has, if the military people operating it are micro-managed by civilian PRC drones from head office.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/pilots-lose-as-china-flies-closer-to-sun-20130427-2ilb1.html

If it comes to an offshore navy/air force skirmish over the islands, China doesn't stand a chance of any success and the PRC knows it. The need for the constant sabre-rattling by the PRC is a mask for their impotence.

@Redcliff (Apr. 25, 2013 - 11:50AM JST). While what you say about the treatment of POWs during the Pacific War is true, Australians bear no ill-will to the Japanese these days over events that occurred 70 years ago. The Japanese went a long way to show their contrition and build friendly relations with Australia since 1945, and Australians have accepted it and habour no residual hatred towards the Japanese these days. If any Australian carried on like the Chinese and Koreans do, they'd be derided as racist bigots and told to grow up.