The Long Wait Continues...

[IkimashoZ]

Dont worry, to them WW2 never happened.

I understand that this was posted in jest, but I really don't think it's funny. I was grading papers yesterday for the English portion of a high school entrance exam where the answer was 'Many people from many countries were killed during World War 2'. I've read (what I can) of their history textbooks for jr. high and secondary history education here makes what I learned in grades 7 through 9 in the states look laughable in comparison. These kids have to know leaders and events that have taken place all over the world in many different countries. They spend whole months on Africa, Europe, the Middle East and all of the Americas. It makes our system look extraordinarily anglocentric, and I think it is.

I personally think that China is exaggerating the extent of the "missing information" in Japanese textbooks because they have a vested interest in embarassing the Japanese and thus elbowing them out of the Asian market. Obviously I'm not fluent, so I can't read these texts in depth, but I personally feel that the Japanese in general are very aware of their history, they just don't talk about it much because of different cultural customs. In my personal opinion, I think that the situation is very similar to the way American textbooks tend to gloss over the fact that America had Japanese concentration camps (granted we weren't killing anyone, but that doesn't make it right). I think the reality is that these things are well known and they do come up in class, and people on the whole are just as much aware of their history as Americans are of theirs.

 

[Leuf]

You do realize when you talk on the phone to someone at a company you aren't exactly talking to the president of the company who can just do whatever they want? They have zero license to make decisions. Taking it out on the person at the other end of the phone really doesn't get you anywhere, and just makes someone with a bad job have a bad day.

Now if she had said "Look sir, I'd love to help you out, but that would involve a lot of paperwork for me, and Napolean just invaded me and I've got to fight him off, meanwhile Ghandi is almost finished with his spaceship. I've got real problems to deal with here, so you're just going to have to wait." .. then you'd have a point. But it'd also be hard to argue with her too.

 

[IkimashoZ]

You do realize when you talk on the phone to someone at a company you aren't exactly talking to the president of the company who can just do whatever they want? They have zero license to make decisions. Taking it out on the person at the other end of the phone really doesn't get you anywhere, and just makes someone with a bad job have a bad day.

Now if she had said "Look sir, I'd love to help you out, but that would involve a lot of paperwork for me, and Napolean just invaded me and I've got to fight him off, meanwhile Ghandi is almost finished with his spaceship. I've got real problems to deal with here, so you're just going to have to wait." .. then you'd have a point. But it'd also be hard to argue with her too.

Okay, so if I'm understanding you correctly, it's okay for her to be a giant, racist five-letter-word-that-begins-with-'b' to me as long as she's not goofing off at work? I'm confused.

 

[ThERat]

ok, this is not supposed to be an 'off-topic' discussion, but you made it one. Now, I think Japanese brainwashing has been hitting you. I have been living in Japan for a while, so I do know something about the mindset there. To put it mildly, it isn't exactly nice.

I personally think that China is exaggerating the extent of the "missing information" in Japanese textbooks because they have a vested interest in embarassing the Japanese and thus elbowing them out of the Asian market.

So, you do tell us that Japanese are offended by the fact that we can use atomic weapons in the game, but you sort of belittle the Chinese bitter feelings. May I remind you who started the aggresion in Asia. Who was responsible for Nanjing and all the other atrocities in East and South-East Asia. And who, unlike Germany has never ever stood up for their own crimes and admitted the wrong doings? Instead teaching their own kids that the real victim of WW2 are the poor Japanese souls due to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sorry, but please give us a break.

 

[IkimashoZ]

You want to talk about cultural brainwashing? How about the fact that the christian right has managed to convince a number of Americans that gay people are evil, or that god should replace science in the classroom? How about the fact that racism and poverty in the US are worse than they've been in years thanks to fundamentalist leaders feeding off of peoples fears?

In my opinion you can basically divide the Americans who come to Japan in half. The first kind are here to immerse themselves in a different culture and share of thier own with the Japanese without making judgment calls about right and wrong, except with regard to how they are treated personally. The second group busies itself with creating an 'American bubble' for itself in Japan, and, either consciously or unconsciously judges Japanese culture without actually knowing or caring to try to know any real facts about it.

Every culture 'brainwashes' its members to some degree. To say that the Japanese as a whole are ignorant of World War 2 completely is like saying that all white Americans own guns and commit hate crimes against minorities on a daily basis. In both cases, these elements exist, but they by no means speak for the entire society and anyone who tries to convince themselves of this didn't bother to take a good look at either society in the first place.

So, you do tell us that Japanese are offended by the fact that we can use atomic weapons in the game, but you sort of belittle the Chinese bitter feelings.

Just for the record, I don't ever recall saying that the Japanese people I know care one way or the other what American game designers put in American video games. I believe I did say repeatedly that I can't see the game being at all popular in the part of Japan in which I am living at the moment. As for my comments about Chinese economic and political policy, if you think that China has nothing to gain by embarassing Japanese businesses in east Asia, then I feel sorry for you. Come back and talk to me when you've acquired some facts.