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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Japan's Impact on the Asian Image
t has long been seen as the fountainhead of consumer electronics technology. Its cars are consistently among the world's most admired. Its corporations own two major Hollywood studios. Its kiddie culture has all but killed off Mickey Mouse and Barbie. Its $4 trillion GDP is number two behind the U.S. and its workers earn 25% more per head than Americans.
Bravo Castrati!
That's how many Asian Americans see Japan. A nation that should command the stature of a powerhouse -- and elevate the image of all Asians in the process -- possesses the geopolitical profile of, say, Switzerland, a nation a thirtieth its size. Japan's leaders are seen as mere hand puppets in a sad half-century charade of democracy. Its homes are cramped. Its men function as soulless drones whose women fly into the arms of western males. Even its vaunted economy has been on the ropes for ten years and looks ready to go down for the count. What little testosterone it possessed seems to have left with Ichiro.
A nation that should champion the Asian image has only reinforced every insulting stereotype. To many Asian Americans, Japan has done less than its smaller, poorer neightbors. Little Hong Kong exports asskicking action stars. South Corea exports people who take hooey from no one. Taiwan exports tech entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley. Impoverished China, Vietnam and even nutcase North Corea showed balls in standing up to the west. But mighty Japan? Spiritually it seems never to have recovered from its defeat in World War II.
Is Japan carrying its weight or slacking in the Asian image department?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:00:32 PM)
It's funny that unlike all other country specific forums, practically only people in this Japan forum is non-Japanese. Not one to venture a personal opnion. Very Japanese like.
Their silence is deafening.
nyhomeoy
Sunday, October 20, 2002 at 18:57:01 (PDT)
[24.90.59.127]
Alexandria:
Thanks for your letter, it`s very truly about this issue!!!
However, We just don`t know how to save face anymore!!! I`ve been apologizing for my husband I think my whole life since I`m married...All my Chinese, korean and other Asian friends look down on him for what he is....They would come to visit me and talk to me, but not to him, I think they just don't approve of him....he didn`t anything!! He's very different form those ones in the past!!!
I`m so afraid that I`m pregnant with his first son, how will life be for my kid in the future?? first for being "happa"... for being half Japanese half Latino....how's it gonna be?
I wonder why this world is so cruel!!! thers is no forgiveness, and I`m still apologizing for something for something I didn`t do.....I`m only 21 years and my husband 23....we were not in WW2....
yet still, people judge us!!! just becuz I married a Japanese!!!!!!!
Mrs. Franchesca Kaneko
hong_ling_tw@yahoo.com
Sunday, October 20, 2002 at 17:07:47 (PDT)
[66.50.25.26]
I would agree that Japan is not athletic or enticing enough for the west. This is by no means a bad thing, however, and I would argue that the image problems that Japan have a lot to do with press.
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Why must Japan maintain an image for Asian Americans? Does it actually owe them anything? It is best to let it live in the way it pleases. Moreover, it is best that Japan not be preoccupied with impressing the west.
I fail to understand the comment about cramped housing. I would argue, for example, that the western, and especially American, style of living represents decadence and waste. I think that it is more virtuous to live within small means.
Without a doubt, the image of Japan that Americans see is entirely influenced by the American press and entertainment media that habitually take a condescending attitude with Japan. I have a perhaps strange theory of why this is. The first of the causes are the misunderstandings resulting from behavioral and cultural differences. The second cause is the natural human tendency to look down on shorter people. Finally, since Japanese anything is just not interesting or sexy enough by our standards to appear on mainstream American media, it is not shown. While I see nothing wrong with not being seen as athletic or or agressive, there is nothing worse for the "image" of a country if most of what happens there is unknown.
Stevo
Saturday, October 19, 2002 at 20:24:00 (PDT)
[209.244.104.5]
Mrs. Kaneko,
from the way you cursed and at the same time spoke abt japan changing their attitude,i'm still doubting if others will be convinced with what u are trying to imply. For now,there are elderly asians who still remember and ponder over the atrocities of the japanese in World War Two, and there is nothing you can do to change that.Their descendants may be taught to resent the Japanese, but all you can do is to be patient and hope things will change for the better in the future.Only time can heal the pain.Japan's invasion of Asia happened less than a century ago. Hard feelings don't subside as fast as you think it might.Maybe after another century or two, the japanese may finally get rid of the hatred towards them.
Mrs Kaneko, you or ur hubby will never be able to fully emphatise with the feelings of the Coreans, Chinese and other countries who fell victims to Japanese brutality.Japan had never been invaded by any other Asian country and had one third of its population murdered! (50 million or more Chinese died during the War and millions of Koreans died too).However, I don't hate Japan, i dont hate its people.There is no reason for me to keep hating Japanese when I see tremendous change of Japanese attitude have taken place. Japanese today are so much different from the ones in the past.The ones I can't tolerate are those Japanese extremists who still believe in the revival of Japan's war mongering past.Of course,I'm sure u dont belong to this group. But,anyway,Japan still has to do more to convince others that it is willing to be a good neighbour.How abt a sincere formal apology which might prove a very effective way to heal the wound?
Alexandria Kim
Saturday, October 19, 2002 at 08:06:40 (PDT)
[210.187.156.167]
One problem: Japan does not see itself as "Asian." Japan looks down on Asia.
Red
Saturday, October 19, 2002 at 00:04:58 (PDT)
[203.216.48.150]
Most Japanese - I write as a former university teacher in Japan and a Briton married to a Japanese - feel no need to engage in ritual self-flagellation about the period of Imperial agression.
[If we exclude the Formosan Expedition soon after the Meiji Restoration, this perid lasted a mere 51 years, from 1894 to 1945.]
In this the Japanese differ greatly from the post-1945 Germans; ritual breast-beating is something the Germans rather enjoy in a masochistic sort of way. A Dutchman called Ian Buruma has written a whole book discussing the German-Japanese contrast at exhaustive length.
In Japan, the whole subject of Imperial aggression has quite simply dropped down an oubliette of infinite depth.
The unpalatable, and seldom-admitted, fact is that many Japanese still see themselves as the Master Race of Asia, even if this presumed superiority is no longer militarist in nature.
Now, foreigners can - and do - make a fuss about this but the fact remains that most Japanese treat the issue with a shrug of total indifference.
Now, we can pause and ask a simple question here; should ALL countries - not just Japan - engage in ritual apologies and self-flagellation about hideous episodes in their past? When will the United States make restitution for the Trail of Tears or the Han Chinese pull their colonial settlements out of Tibet and East Turkestan? Which Corean administration, whether in Seoul or Pyongyang, will ever state clearly that the Coreans have inflicted far more death and destruction on their own nation than any foreigners ever have?
Actually, the same could be asked about the Chinese; the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution caused more deaths than all foreigners ever have.
There is too much in this discussion thread to discuss here, but readers may find an Asian contrast interesting; the Coreans love to make a fuss about their period as unwilling subjects of the Japanese Empire. The Taiwanese do not. Not at all.
William Corr
sonoekurimoto@yahoo.com
Friday, October 18, 2002 at 11:52:13 (PDT)
[195.73.19.201]
Counter Muncher,
oh look, Mrs. Kaneko is giving you some candy. isn't that sweet, and you're my hero too. hahahah. But unlike YOU, I'm honorable enough to abide by the ed's wishes. soooo...
I think japan's image is largely influenced by the US presence there, for gawd sake's, what the hell kinda image are they allowed to have? They have US troops stationed there and in Corea who commit crimes with impunity, The US dictating what they can or cannot have militarily, and as far as I know the US "helping" Corea and Japan not only to recover economically, but also "helping" them to depend on America. My only wish is for asian autonomy and sovereignty, but you probably want Corea and Japan to be the 51st and 52nd states or something, eh, you america worshipping lapdog.
It is those like you who continue to hold japan at fault for it's past, prolly because mom and dad taught you so. Yet you fail to see that Japan has not made post-WWII reparations largely because of the United States, which prohibited Japan from holding responsibility for it's "war crimes" or whatever against corea, china, etc.. You also fail to see that it was NOT the japanese occupation that left Corea decimated, it was the Corean War, idiot. If I'm not mistaken, the japanese had also built up quite a bit there: schools, factories, etc.. Not to say they didn't commit atrocities as well. You'll eventually learn the error of your kungdenghi kissing ways.
Don't worry, japan's image has long been a lost cause... For even Mrs. Kaneko rewards japan haters like you. This is sad. oh yeah, and one more thing... quit "screamin'" at me like some hysterical woman.
ether d'evil
Wednesday, October 16, 2002 at 22:15:35 (PDT)
[205.188.208.105]
Kimchi devil=(kitanai mankooo):
I`m a very happy married Lady with a Japanese and I have plenty of University Education and 2 beautiful children but man that does it!!!!!! Kutabareeeeee!!!!!! Omae aho yade!!! Bakaaa yarooo!!!!! I`m tired of you, and this is for all those motherless hypocrites asian traitors and bastards who dare to insult my beloved husband`s country!!!
huu76:
Thank you for being so understanding, my friend, doumo arigatou gozaimasu!!
You just got a new friend here!!
Counter Puncher:
You are more than a hero to me, kokoro kara! Hajime mashite, watashi wa Yukiko desu...I hope you live long enough to see the whole world is changing as we do....but step by step..
All we have left...is wait..!!
I really adore the way you think, my husband think you are very brave and courageful for stand still against this savagery of discrimination and hate crimes!! Japan is so Beautiful and different today....we all know, right?
Anyways Gambatte!!! Matta neee and email me soon!!! Yane!
Mrs. Kaneko , Tokyo Japan
yukiko_ma2002@yahoo.com
Wednesday, October 16, 2002 at 15:23:30 (PDT)
[66.50.3.137]
Mrs. Kaneko,
I'm sure you have learned about Japan's aggression against it's neighbors, but it is not so simple to forgive and forget. I hope you learned well because the Japanese public did not. Japan's version of history is very contrary to the rest of Asia. First of all, Japan still needs to ask for forgiveness. Second, Japan still needs to acknowledge their wrongdoings (eg comfort women, Unit 731, and on and on). Third, continued racism, prejudice and insensitivity (visiting Yasukuni Shrine by the PM) from Japan against their neighbors needs to stop. How can Japan's neighbors truly trust them if they can't even do the above? I doubt that you've learned enough in detail about Japan's atrocities and current attitudes if you think it is incumbent upon Japan's neighbors to forgive, forget and move on.
Imperial Japan was to Asia what Nazi Germany was to the Jews. At least the Germans have done what it takes to bring closure. For some strange cultural reason, Japan will not even bring these matters up so that closure can become a reality. Maybe in about another 100 years, Japan may face its history squarely and not live in denial like they do today.
On a different note, I'm glad you're husband is a wonderful person. If only the majority of the Japanese government were so sincere, all these negative issues could be a thing of the past.
On a more different note, I've noticed Japanese do not like to discuss controversial issues. Very different than Koreans. Issues such as schoolgirl prostitution are swept under the rug which makes the problems even worse. Even the issue of sex education is swept away because the adults belive their children are not promiscuous ones.
Lastly, I find it ironic that such a huge fuss is made about the 13 kidnapped Japanese by North Korea. There has been rampant harrassment of both the pro-south and pro-north Korean residents in Japan. I know it is terrible that the families of the abducted have had to experience so much pain. The irony is that Japan abducted tens of thousands of Koreans, Chinese and other Asians and that is again swept away under the rug and is not discussed. I guess Japan doesn't believe the families of those abductees are human and cannot feel human emotions like the families of the 13 abductees. Such hypocrisy. Such hypocrites. Nothing I can't stand more.
socalasian
Wednesday, October 16, 2002 at 15:03:39 (PDT)
[63.206.24.50]
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