SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Joseph Silent who wrote (104541)2/22/2014 10:47:19 AM
From: Metacomet  Respond to of 218304
 
Could someone want a significant part of the world to be pissed off at Japan, on the cheap?

Hard to imagine anything doing more to accomplish that, than them allowing their utility companies to threaten civilization rather than do what is necessary to stop this unfolding atrocity...


enenews.com



To: Joseph Silent who wrote (104541)2/22/2014 5:27:03 PM
From: TobagoJack1 Recommendation

Recommended By
Maurice Winn

  Respond to of 218304
 
<<Could someone want a significant part of the world to be pissed off at Japan, on the cheap?>>

seems to work quite well judging by the almost instant reactions across media in some nations - search under "anne frank japan" by evil google

it seems that the act has gone nation-wide in the land of the rising sun "At least 265 books have been vandalised at 31 municipal libraries in Japan's capital since the end of January.

Read more: dailymail.co.uk "

… yes, and abe-san is doing an excellent job of such, first angering the near neighbors, and soon enough, peeving far neighbors, and he must not be interrupted.

simply put, as and when one wishes to deny sordid history, one must deny it all

am guessing that the fiction of russian-japan @ peace shall result in not very many islands handed over by russia to japan (like -0-), or japanese money for siberia (~ -0-), because putin does not seem the type to hand over stuff, and japan money for siberia would merely result in less expensive raw material for china

am figuring koreas would ante up the wagers as the koreans typically do. god bless them both

am counting on japan to say no to usa as they always wished for. go on, just say it

am reckoning the europeans to stay out so as to watch what happens to the troop counts on their frontier and hoping for their best

am doubtful the 50+% japanese electorates do the needful task because that is not how the system works

china? preparing for the near-inevitable is inevitable, just build more and more defensive rockets, bigger, faster and more accurate, so that what happened once shall never again, as ~50% of active ingredient japan is just tokyo; and then just wait, for earthquakes, tsunamis, radiation plumes, and the gentle process of ever inexorable aging. history shall not repeat exactly because there be no distracting civil war this time around. the gentle passage of time is a wonderful thing.

but first, who can know, maybe olympic boycott?

for the cia-enabled yakuza-powered japanese political elite w/ deep legacy is just carrying on the work they were once interrupted, is all



To: Joseph Silent who wrote (104541)2/24/2014 1:09:53 AM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 218304
 
am guessing the folks who tore up anne frank books are the same ones who wish to enshrine the last letters by the kamikaze flyers (a/k/a suicide bombers) and soon to celebrate the fuhrer's birthday. some know-nothing journalists may term such groups 'nut jobs' whereas the truth of the matter is the japanese politicians and educators and national broadcast chief and and and all subscribe, and they more than likely sniff used panties of underage girls from vending machines built for the purpose.

<<the southern Japanese city of Minami Kyushu asked the U.N. World Heritage organization to enshrine farewell letters written by World War II kamikaze suicide pilots alongside documents like Frank's diaries and the Magna Carta ... one extremist group is organizing a 125th birthday party for the Fuhrer so fans can "converse, listening to Wagner's music and enjoying wine together")>>

bloomberg.com

Is Abe Encouraging Japan's Nut Jobs?There's a reason the nuns in Queens had me and my classmates read Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" several times -- the same reason that's made the book required reading around the globe. The 15-year-old's account of hiding from the Nazis is impervious to nut jobs who argue the Holocaust is fiction.

Shockingly, in recent days at least 282 copies of Frank's memoirs have been vandalized at 36 libraries across Tokyo -- their pages torn or defaced. No one knows who did it, or why. But it requires an acrobatic feat of compartmentalization not to see the connection to Japan's own recent efforts to deface history.

Earlier this month, the southern Japanese city of Minami Kyushu asked the U.N. World Heritage organization to enshrine farewell letters written by World War II kamikaze suicide pilots alongside documents like Frank's diaries and the Magna Carta. The request drew an immediate rebuke from China and stirred up Japan's right wing. What many see as evidence of Japan's wartime fanaticism, nationalists view as testaments to manly duty and devotion to the Emperor.

I have no evidence that Japan's right-wingers are behind this clearly coordinated campaign to desecrate Frank's work. Anti-Semitism isn't particularly pervasive among Japanese (although one extremist group is organizing a 125th birthday party for the Fuhrer so fans can "converse, listening to Wagner's music and enjoying wine together"). But it would be a coincidence of astounding proportions if this shameful vandalism weren't related to the kamikaze letters controversy.

One has to ask to what extent the return of nationalistic leader Shinzo Abe has encouraged such behavior. Though most attention has focused on Abe's efforts to revive the economy, right-wingers have delighted in the prime minister's other initiatives -- to whitewash textbooks, beautify Japan's wartime aggression, load the governing board of national broadcaster NHK with like-minded conservatives, and embolden the nation's military.

No, I'm not suggesting Abe bears responsibility for the Frank diary attacks. But his 14 months in office have created an atmosphere that's encouraging fringe activists, who may believe Abe secretly supports them. Intentionally or not, the Prime Minister has fed this impression by visiting Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 World War II Class A war criminals, and hinting that he wants to revisit a past apology for the military's sex-slave program. Among Abe's picks for the NHK board is a man who claims the Nanjing Massacre of the 1930s never happened.

When Abe and his ilk explain why Japan should be able to honor its dead soldiers and rewrite its pacifist constitution, they highlight how their nation has been a model global citizen. The argument is not without merit. For 68 years now, Japan has been a peaceful, generous, and reasonably cooperative power.

Yet Abe's rightward turn could squander much of the "soft power" Japan amassed since then. Japanese don't tend to track events in Richmond, Virginia and Glendale, California very closely. But it’s in these two American cities that officials in Tokyo can get a glimpse of their nation's future. It's not pretty.

On Feb. 6, the Virginia legislature passed a bill to change textbooks to say the Sea of Japan is also known as the East Sea. It may not seem like a big deal, but the move outraged Japan. The change came at the behest of fast-rising contingent of Korean-American voters who are wielding that power to right what they view as historical wrongs by Japan 7,000 miles away. Tokyo has also taken great umbrage at a "comfort women" statue in the Los Angeles area erected by Asian Americans, and protests from Japanese diplomats and an online petition to President Barack Obama have gone unheeded. More and more, Chinese-Americans are showing up at Japanese consulates with protest placards, including in December when Abe visited Yasukuni.

As Abe preaches the glory of patriotism more than capitalism, expect Korea and China to intensify efforts around the world to shame Tokyo. Take Xi Jinping's trip to Germany next month. According to Reuters, the Chinese president plans to highlight Germany's atonement for the sins of World War II, in order to embarrass Japan. It's a reminder that statements from Japanese politicians have repeatedly undercut the country's many apologies for its wartime behavior.

Abe's mandate from voters is the economy, not prettifying some ugly moments in the nation's history. He should get back to that job. But first he must unequivocally condemn the Frank attacks in clear and strong terms. Few issues are more cut-and-dry than the need to denounce anti-Semitism in all forms. This isn't an issue to be left to Abe's cabinet chief, Yoshihide Suga, whose name isn't widely known outside Japan. It's a task for the nation's leader, and Abe's silence is, like much of his other signaling thus far, damaging the nation's interests.

(William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist. Follow him on Twitter at @williampesek.)