Forum - View topicNEWS: Barefoot Gen Manga Pulled from Izumisano City's School Library Shelves
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TheAncientOne
 Posts: 1871 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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Hopefully they are just going to slap a sticker somewhere near the front of the book with text advising the reader to keep in mind the time period when it was written, and the period it was written about and what that entails, and then return the copies.
I remember when I read the sci-fi novel "Earth Abides" when I was younger, I was rather surprised by the section when the main character encounters an African-American family that has survived. I was clued in as to why when the novel later made a reference to a single lane bridge across the river to Memphis. At that point I checked the copyright date: 1949. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6258 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Yeah I'm worried about the latter, I'm wondering what's going on in Japan, it looks like Japan is doing some revision on their history or what.
Yeah I noticed this too, I'm a little worried about what's going on in Japan. There's been cases of anti-Korean sentiment/xenophobia in Japan done by the Zaitokukai recently which US State Department has noted on it's human right report about Japan. Also the current Abe administration reviewing the 1993 Kono Statement kinda spook and scare Japan's neighbor that include the US because of possible denial and covering up the Comfort women controversy. Turns out that Japan is not going to revise or denied the statement, but seeing this today kinda scare me. At least there are people in Japan that know the truth. But I'm worried what historical view Japan is expressing after Abe took office for the 2nd time. |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7338 Location: Maine |
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Kinda, but not quite. By the sounds of it they aren't censoring the books, just holding them until they can figure out how to educate students about them better and then returning them. It's probably a political move done to get favor from some group, but it's hardly as extreme as destroying the books and replacing them with censored versions. What I find hilarious is that they will be making a list of all the bad words and distributing it to the students. I'm sure the parents will be very happy to find their kids with a list of derogatory terms from the school. 
Emerje |
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unready
 Posts: 400 Location: Illinois, USA |
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(Emphasis added.) It doesn't seem like censorship if they're going to provide students with a list of objectionable terms. Perhaps an analogy would be like if US publishers didn't remove "[slur]" from the printed text of Huck Finn, but instead added an statement at the front of the book saying "Editorial Note: We want you to know that this is a bad word." I cannot comment on whether this resolution is the kind the mayor wanted to achieve, but the education board seems to be using the opportunity to provide some actual education. |
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1871 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Yes, and that reason is Nationalism. |
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doomydoomdoom
 Posts: 278 Location: Michigan, USA |
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Without getting into the whole WWII revisionism thing, it seems the school---as usual---is just being too politically correct, rather than any ulterior motive.
Poor Barefoot Gen has a rough time of it in Japanese schools, it seems. Then again, I really don't think I'd let my kid read something like that until they were teenagers. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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This is what I see in the article:
The mayor of one city had the books removed from the elementary and middle schools in that city. The books are being returned because the principals of the schools protested. The schools will provide educational material that tells the students what parts of the book were considered to be problematic. Previous attempts to remove the book from other schools had failed because the schools did not want them to be removed. The Japanese government was not involved at all. There was no censorship or attempt at censorship. Nobody tried to revise any history.
It was not the school. The mayor of the city had the books removed from the schools. The books are being returned because the schools want them back. EDIT:
That might be what that mayor was thinking. He did not have the books removed from the high schools, only the elementary and middle schools. |
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Veniamin
 Posts: 215 Location: Miami |
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What would be the point of remembering the past, if all we do is repeat the same crap each decade? |
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revolutionotaku
Posts: 888 |
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The ban has finally been lifted!
http://cbldf.org/2014/03/barefoot-gen-reportedly-returned-to-izumisano-school-libraries/ |
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mdo7
Posts: 6258 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Thanks for the info, revolutionotaku!!! |
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