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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Japan's Impact on the Asian Image
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:00:30 PM)
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.]
kimchi devil: actually the Japanese had the same policy in Taiwan as they did in Corea. My grandparents had Japanese names and spoke the Language. Apparently, the Japanese government had the same policy in Taiwan as in Corea: to turn everyone Japanese. heheheh... that'd be really funny. Japan annexed Taiwan at about the same time as Corea which may explain the the identical policy. Also they looked down on Koreans as you mentioned, PRECISELY because they were NOT Japanese. Therefore they attempted to make them as well as the Taiwanese into Japanese. Actually that is a brilliant way of subjugating another people. Make them into your own people. They failed, but China always succeeded in making her conqerors or her conquered even more Chinese than themselves. The Japanese are a great people who represent the Asian race well. However the future will inevitably belong to China with her huge population of exceedingly economically driven people with the advent of the free market there. All it will take is time and then we will see the Asian millenium take form with Chinese characteristics. Their economy will far surpass anything known. Scary to contemplate that this may be happening in a country rooted in ultra-nationalism and harsh political obedience. Nazi Germany was rich and powerful with key political features similar to China when she went on to WWII. Also another Asian nation to watch is perhaps Corea if she finally unifies into a coherent capitalistic state. A huge Asian market is possible and finally a true Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere will come about but with independent nations making up its club. Japan had her turn on the stage. The future is China's.
AB Taiwanese
Sunday, November 17, 2002 at 21:41:10 (PST)
[65.184.91.9]
William Corr,
You wrote, "Compare the number of Coreans killed (or enslaved) by the Japanese between 1894 and 1945 (include the 1592-1598 invasion for good measure, if you so choose, js) and the far vaster number who died in the course of Kim Il-sung's insanely ill-advised attempt to reunify Corea by force of arms."
I am not making an excuse for Kim Il-Sung. But you are using what he did to diminish what the Japanese did, which is completely unjustified. What the Japanese did was wrong, plain and simple. You need to accept that.
"The Coreans enjoy exhibiting their old scars and are under the incomprehensible misapprehension that everyone else relishes hearing all about their misfortunes. Nobody cares about these old hurts, other than Coreans!"
Koreans have a right to speak out about the injustices done to them. If someone owes you money or does something wrong to you, are you gonna let it go until they make amends? I don't think so. The Japanese should care because they need to take responsibility for what they did. The reason the textbooks are distorted is because Japanese politicians were afraid that telling the truth to their people would create guilt and a loss of pride for the Japanese. If you read CNN and other mainstream papers, you will discover this.
"The fact that women from Taiwan and locations all over the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere were conscripted as 'comfort women' is virtually unknown, and certainly unacknowledged, in present-day Corea."
It is acknowledged. You're just ignorant. I know there were Philipino, Dutch and Chinese women, but the majority were Korean. Not to dismiss the others. Those are just the facts.
"Incidentally, the non-Japanese 'comfort women' supplemented a large number of Japanese prostitutes dragooned into service, mainly (but not exclusively) from Kyushu."
The "comfort women" were not supplements. Instead, the Japanese prostitutes were supplements. Anyways, the Japanese were paid substantially more and were there voluntarily. But the Japanese soldiers preferred Korean girls because they were seen as "tighter" than the Japanese prostitutes. The Japanese military believed that sex would help their soldiers fight in battle.
Japanese kidnapped or tricked Korean women by telling them that they were gonna get factory jobs or work for the national service. There were a lot of 14 year old girls there.
"No Japanese has ever mentioned Dok-to / Takeshima to me and the only people who care about the south Kuriles (the 'Northern Territories') are the appalling Rightists who try to make everyone's lives miserable with their sound trucks."
The Japanese government certainly has tried to claim Dokdo as their own.
"Agreed, Coreans in Japan are in an unenviable situation, but few seem in a tearing hurry to move to Corea, unlike the Coreans in Sakhalin."
Again with the comparisons. You really need to use evidence to support your arguments instead of using comparisons. "Well it can't be that bad because there are much worse things out there." Please.
"Although Coreans in Japan are poorer than most of their ethnic-Japanese, they are still richer than most Coreans in the R.O.K.... A few Corean residents of Japan, the pachinko billionaires, are very rich indeed."
There are more rich Koreans in Korea. You can't use the exception of a few billionaires to represent the mass of Koreans in Japan. That's like saying Bill Gates represents the average American.
"His visit to the Yasakuni Shrine had more to do with internal L.D.P. strains and stresses than any real belief that war criminals should be revered."
Enough with the excuses. Your basically saying that it's OK to put one's political career above one's obligation as a leader. As a leader, Koizumi represents the Japanese government to the world. He bears responsibility in maintaining good international relations.
"As for the textbook issue, I am wholly in agreement with js; however, the reassuring fact is that very few Japanese of the younger generation care a **** about their history, good, bad or indifferent."
Whether or not they care is not important. They still learn about history from those textbooks. It's still something that is gonna influence their thinking. If they are not aware of their past, they may repeat it. How dare you say that history is unimportant?
"Only people like the Irish, Serbs and - unhappily - the Coreans enjoy making a fuss about historical rights and wrongs."
Of course, people have a right to be concerned. And no, they are not the only groups that care about history. If the Japanese don't care, then why do they distort textbooks despite the protest of other countries? That just shows how attached they are to history.
Why did some American textbooks deny what happened to the Native Americans? The Native Americans were taken from their families and forced to live with white families. They were not allowed to learn about their culture or language. Thank god, there have been some corrections.
You are so ignorant of the world if you think that people don't care about history. Tell that to the Palestinians or the Israelis or the rest of the world.
If you really want to learn about something, you need to be open minded. Your objectivity is obviously hindered by your pro Japanese bias. Don't speak about something when you haven't done the research. You don't know the facts, so don't claim that you have the authority to speak on them. Your careless attitude is really superficial and offensive. You think you can just say whatever you want. You need to learn respect for the truth. Your attitude is really unfair and narrow minded.
js
Sunday, November 17, 2002 at 13:42:16 (PST)
[63.199.247.89]
"The average Japanese person do look down on other non-asians here. When I ask for directions with my foreign-accent Japanese, I get really rude responses. Once even, the guy looked at me in disgust."
True Taiwanese, are you there? What do you have to say about this? Didn't you say the Japanese are the most "socially aware, refined" people?
Hoklo Taiwanese
Thursday, November 14, 2002 at 22:57:09 (PST)
[66.185.85.81]
I think this article is pretty correct regarding Japan. I am an Asian-American that have been here about 1 year now living in Tokyo. I came here thinking, quality of life would be similar or better than California, but gotta tell you its worse.
The average Japanese person do look down on other non-asians here. When I ask for directions with my foreign-accent Japanese, I get really rude responses. Once even, the guy looked at me in disgust. Should have kicked his ass if I was back in Cali, anyways.... However, when I do ask for directions in English I get totally different response.
Also yes the Japanese do make a higher average than rest of the world, but the living cost is too high. Even making around $40k a year (which I think is the Japanese average income now), the average Japanese cannot save. Rent, food (one time i saw water melon going for $50), etc is like 30% higher than what we pay in America.
Yes on the outside Japan is nice, but on the inside living here is totally different situation.
And the working hours are ridiculous, usually 9:30am~10pm are what an average salaryman are working. Sometimes I feel so sorry for some of the salarymen sleeping in the trains....
living in japan
Thursday, November 14, 2002 at 01:06:48 (PST)
[43.232.36.210]
22yr old guy,
Your description sounds very similar to how one might describe the human race.
Wanderer,
But isn't true power in Japan corporate and not political? It seems Japanese Industry and America call the shots with the Japanese politicians stuck in the middle.
huu76
Wednesday, November 13, 2002 at 16:26:00 (PST)
[64.231.107.188]
The architects of post-1945 Japanese prosperity were primarily Stalin, Mao, Kim and Ho; this is known as 'the law of unintended consequences'.
From the late 1940s onwards, Japan became THE vital anti-communist bulwark during the Cold War and, indirectly, benefitted enormously from the Korean and Indochinese wars.
The essential problem for Japan is the same as it was a century ago: Japan is resource-poor, remote, unpopular and desperately vulnerable. In practice, the only resources the Japanese have are their brains. It's a tribute to the smartness of the Japanese that the descendents of poor farming families in Kyushu have done so marvelously well across the Pacific.
Bill Corr
sonoekurimoto@yahoo.com
Monday, November 11, 2002 at 00:58:07 (PST)
[195.73.19.225]
run:
I'd like to add something...I don't think Japan should be compared to Germany in this case. Japan made a fortune selling their guns to the Koreas during the Korean War, which, is actually similar to how the USA revived from depression pre-WWII by selling guns to 3alliance and 3entente.
As the most advanced asian country (and among the world), they made a respectable impact on the asian image while other asian countries were still rebuilding from ruin. However, why should Japan be criticized for not being superstars? They should be respected enough as it is for keeping a decent standard of living while the economy is constantly declining. If image is all that is wanted though, the masses still think highly of Japan anyways, since their culture is still spreading fast in the media (as opposed to their leaders being seen as 'mere hand puppets in a sad half-century charade of democracy').
wanderer
Saturday, November 09, 2002 at 20:44:37 (PST)
[66.185.84.81]
There are reasons why east Asia doesn't trust Japan. Japan says nice things abt making amends and moving on with its neighbours, but everybody knows its not a sincere effort. Yes, Japanese are a polite people, they can bow their heads politely and greet you with nice words but at the same time, harbor deep ill-feelings towards non-japanese Asians underneath all that politeness and good manners. It's just hypocrisy.
22 year old guy
Saturday, November 09, 2002 at 20:08:22 (PST)
[210.187.156.158]
At the end of the day, Japan has been good for the asian image. i apologise for the stereotypes but the first things that come to my mind is that it is an industrious country, developed, technologically advanced, populated by diminutive but clean people.
Compared to much of asia which is still developing, congested, squalid.
oz asian
Wednesday, November 06, 2002 at 16:42:26 (PST)
[203.29.131.3]
In the business setting, Japan has forever left a giant imprint and will never go away, with more than a third of the derivatives market now backed by japanese banks. They conquered the US after WW2, in their own new war in Business, I think Sony's famous founder wrote about that in his co-authored book. After winning the war, they unfortunately got lost in the property bubble...
Undoubtedly they are a model of a nation poor in resources but high in pride that clawed its way from devastation, much like germany after WW1, and although I was brought up with stories to despise them, in the end we're sorta like brothers in a white world.
run
Monday, November 04, 2002 at 20:50:11 (PST)
[209.26.6.19]
Amazing. With all the comments about what atrocities the Japanese conferred in WWII, you seem to forget that Americans of Japanese descent suffered great racism at the hands of white America. This affects my life now more than the perception of the other Asian countries of Japan. This affected my parent's perception of their native land (USA--they were born in the USA) and never quite recovered from the experience--they never took the angry stance that they could have. Do all those Asian Americans (Chinese, Corean, Thai) who were born in the US have the perception that the Japanese Americans should be hated for the acts of 20th century Japan, specifically WWII? THis is the same mentality that my parents faced from whites when I was growing up. I hope not.
Amazed
Tuesday, October 29, 2002 at 20:37:45 (PST)
[65.235.53.210]
[We'll allow this, but from here on out we will only allow posts pertaining to the topic of Japan's impact on the AA image. --Ed]
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