Ugly and Evil Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan

[ECH1969]

TOKYO, Nov. 14 - A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of."

In another comic book, "Introduction to China," which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: "Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There's nothing attractive."

The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months.

In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan's fellow Asians and in the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, the books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan's worsening relations with the rest of Asia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/international/asia/19comics.html?pagewanted=print

[henslee]

1. That sure is an ugly side of Japan.

[ECH1969]

2. Japan has had this ugly side for some time

The aftermath of WW2 buried it, but as people forget it is coming back.

[bpilgrim]

18. every society has an 'ugly side'

fyi

peace

[pavellinde]

9. If you think the French and English hate each other...

...you should see what Asia is like.

When I was kid in Vancouver, Canada, my elementary school was about 90% of Asian extraction. Mostly Chinese, about 10% Japanese and a smaller percentage of Korean. Most of my friends were Chinese- or Japanese-Canadians. Mostly everyone got along well together, but sometimes, especially with recent arrivals from Asia, there were troubles. A kid from Korea "I can't sit next to this person! He's Japanese! My parents told me what scum these guys are!" A friend of mine from Hong Kong. "Those Japanese are bastards. And they stole chopsticks and Chinese characters from us!"

I'm sure there are plenty of people in Japan who are racist, regarding China and Korea, but in my experience (I live in Japan)
and from reading the blogs of fellow expats who live in Asia, the Koreans and Chinese attack Japan (verbally, that is) much more than Japan attacks Korea or China. Of course, there are historical reasons for this hostility, but in the case of China, hate against Japan often seems to be a kind of release for pent-up hostility towards their own government. Easier to bash Japan than end up in prison for attacking your own country.

It's possible that these comic books are a reaction to the recent
rock, egg and whatever throwing at Japanese embassies in China and Korea. This kind of mutual tit for tat bashing is unfortunate.

To paraphrase Rodney King, "Wouldn't it be nice, if we could all just get along?"

On the bright side, possibly due to the internet, there is a growing Pan-Asia pop culture growing up, and the lines between the countries in some ways are starting to fade.

[newyawker99]

15. Hi pavellinde!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Art_from_Ark]

13. Every country has people like this

Since Japan has freedom of speech, one has to expect that nutcases would be able write their opinions along with sane average citizens.

[lvx35]

3. This from the country in which Issei Sagawa is a celebrity

blaming the chinese for cannibalism? come one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issei_Sagawa

[JVS]

10. Thanks for helping me learn something new today!

[Art_from_Ark]

11. Oh, for crying out loud

Issei Sagawa is a celebrity in Japan in the same way that Jeffery Dahmer was a celebrity in the US. His act was so revolting that it was bound to attract media curiosity, but this in no way whatsoever means that the average Japanese condones what he did.

[jim3775]

4. Sadly, Japan is a very racist, un-multicultural and xenophobic country

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4671687.stm

About 1% of Japan's population is registered as foreign, it is probably the most racially "pure" country on earth.

Japan racism 'deep and profound'
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Tokyo

An independent investigator for the UN says racism in Japan is deep and profound, and the government does not recognise the depth of the problem.

Doudou Diene, a UN special rapporteur on racism and xenophobia, was speaking at the end of a nine-day tour of the country.

He said Japan should introduce new legislation to combat discrimination.

Mr Diene travelled to several Japanese cities during his visit, meeting minority groups and touring slums.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Sadly, just about every country in the world is racist and

xenophobic.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Prejudice against other Asians is nothing new in Japan

I saw it nearly thirty years ago, when I went to Immigration to renew my student visa. Ahead of me in line were a Pakistani and a Taiwanese, both of whom got the third degree from the immigration officer. I started to sweat, because my English teaching jobs were not strictly legal at the time, but when I came to the head of the line, the immigration officer merely asked my name, the name of my school, the name of my faculty advisor, and the length of time I wanted the visa extended. I paid the fee (1200 yen) and left.

When I told the other foreign students at my school (all but one of whom were Asian), they nodded and said that the immigration officials always went easy on Caucasians.

The appearance of racist media NOW is puzzling, though. In recent years, there's been kind of a Korea boom in Japan, with Korean movies and TV programs given wide circulation and Korean movie stars being met by screaming fans at the airport. Korea is also a major tourist destination for Japanese, not just for businessmen on sex tours, as before, but for all types of people.

I hope the racist publications are the last gasp of a dying breed.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. There have always been nuts like this in Japan

Just think of those black loudspeaker trucks blaring their war songs on weekends and holidays-- that's been going on for decades. And Japan has always had books like this. That's the messy part of freedom of speech.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Yes, and New York Times reporters, who are rotated in and out

every couple of years, mostly without any knowledge of the Japanese language, have a way of "discovering" things about Japan that every Old Japan Hand has known for years.

Why, Nicholas Kristoff "discovered" that no one knew about the Nanjing Massacre by talking to a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, but as some of my translator friends pointed out, the controversy about the Nanjing Massacre was a front page story in news magazines at the time.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. "Introduction to China"

Is it really a "runaway best seller", at 180,000 copies sold in a country of 125 million? And with an innocuous title like that, anyone could buy it without having the least suspicion that it was a racist publication.

[Bluebear]

7. Also available, "Korean Comfort Women" comics.

Collect the whole set! :eyes:

[robpopulace]

8. This stuff goes both ways.

Check out this anti-Japan children's art display.

Here
And Here

[Poll_Blind]

16. In preparation for the rise of Neo-Nihon-Nationalism. You don't have...

...to have a sensitive nose to smell this. They are culturally very xenophobic but this has been supressed somewhat and transmuted into a heady curiosity of foreigners. In fact there are alot of unpleasent things about Japanese culture which have been supressed to their benefit. But if those old ways ever become fashionable again...

This country is still in heavy denial about the Nanjing Massacre (Rape of Nanking). Check into it, they equally brutal (if not more so) than anything the Nazis did. It'll make you very sick to view some of the evidence, though, so be warned.

PB

[Terran]

17. It's ironic that Japan looks down on Korea and China

When Japan was a primitive pre-feudal society, China and its client state Korea were both highly advanced cultures. China would only send Korean diplomats to Japan because they were too barbaric to be dealt with directly.