Forum - View topicINTEREST: Evangelion Character Designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Attracts Criticism Over 'Dismissive' Twee
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3861 Location: Finland |
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As much as he has the right to speak, as much right have others to take issue with it. Besides, labeling known war crimes as mere propaganda is sure to draw anyone's ire, so yes, I side with the complainers... |
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Volxmas
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well im glad i never was a big eva fan.
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2983 |
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The reason it's being done is this: outright denial of comfort women happening is not that uncommon and has been echoed by many mainstream voices. Abe, the Prime Minister, basically had to be dragged kicking and screaming into even acknowledging it. It is one thing not to responsible for the actions of others, but to deny those actions ever happened is appalling. |
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encrypted12345
Posts: 759 |
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I know that Japan is generally considered a secular country, but how much do the citizens deify their emperor nowadays? I assume that despite the lack of political power, the emperor is still considered very important (since they did bother to name a new era based on the new emperor and all). That would explain his offense a great deal.
I personally think that as the movie has the right to criticize the emperor, the person has the right to express his criticisms about the art. The exhibit should not have been taken down, but Sadamoto shouldn't be shunned for having his opinion IMO. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Heck, Americans are some of the worst offenders of refusing to acknowledge atrocities that are committed nowadays. It's not even really our 'past' but rather ongoing present that has left behind a body count of hundreds of thousands if not millions dead due to our brutality in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. |
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TheRahi00
 Posts: 154 |
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That's not the point. The difference is that, Japan (and people like Sadamoto) constantly deny the existence of Comfort Women. This isn't about Korea "rubbing in their history" and telling people to feel guilty. It's about acknowledging the history, something that Japan doesn't do in many ways. Comfort Women isn't just a story from the past but matters a lot, even today. The denial of this, also portrays Japan's current society and their treatment of women. I can suggest you to look up some articles. It's really a big matter. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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He feels the art piece isn't making meaningful commentary and is of low craftsmanship.
Is he being criticized because people want him to support the piece regardless of its quality or message? Is there any artwork supporting the cause of the Comfort Women that is good and he'd support? Does he have to like them all? This isn't even denying the issue. With the Reiwa era starting Japan is getting a lot of pushback by its neighbors. Their neighbors aren't exactly being kind and the generations that had nothing to do with the offenses are noticing they are to take blame for their past and that it should weigh on their present. Were there not also calls for reparations somewhat recently? The insult here is that they aren't even making 'great' art to make the criticism. His complaint is someone slid in a crappy job to take a cheap shot. |
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timber
Posts: 148 |
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Japan's behaviour is indeed not unique, take Turkey, up to now they still refuse to consider the Armenian genocide as being anything of the sort. In my own country, Belgium, the atrocities in Congo under king Leopold 2's rule where not written in the history books when I was still at school (thought Belgium as presented its excuses years ago). In a recent TV news they mentioned that the situation is finally changing (we are largely 100 years after the events took place). |
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AkumaChef
Posts: 821 |
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The difference is that America acknowledges the dropping of atomic bombs, while many if not most Japanese pretend that the "comfort women" problem never happened at all. They try and hide it, sweep it under the rug, rather than owning up to it.
I'm criticizing him because he appears to not get the message of the art piece at all, which might be excusable for the average person, but is rather astonishing to hear from an artist. I'll give a different example that might get my point across better. Gordon Ramsay (I assume everyone knows who he is) once did a TV show episode in which he visited a high-end Chinese restaurant and tasted the "shark fin soup". He immediately berated it as being bland, and then started talking about the evils of shark fin harvesting. Now, you might ask: what's the problem with that? He's welcome to like or not like the flavor--that is, after all, his opinion. And as for the activism angle of shark fin--I happen to agree with him. But what stands out as a giant red flag for me was his lack of any mention of the texture of shark fin. The whole point of shark fin soup is the chewy, gelatinous texture of the fins, which is highly valued in Chinese cooking. It was mindboggling to see a person who bills himself as one of the world's best chefs completely miss the point of the dish by not even mentioning the texture at all. That means one of two things happened: -he didn't notice the texture at all, which is a huge embarrassment for a Chef of his level or -he did notice it, but as Gasero wrote earlier he "buried his head in the ground so that he wouldn't see it." I see the same thing happening in this case. Either Sadamoto completely missed the point of the artwork, or he did get it but he forced himself to ignore or avoid the point. Personally, I think a crudely crafted sculpture is a perfect medium for a comfort woman statue, as it helps to convey the situation those women were forced into. Sadamoto is free to not like the artwork, but his comments suggest more than that: they suggest he either didn't get the obvious point (which is rather unbelievable, just like Ramsay and the texture of shark fin), or he's willingly being obtuse about the whole situation. |
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Punch Drunk Marc
Posts: 1762 |
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And you lost me. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 7245 |
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While simultaneously taking a hard line approach to being unapologetic about it. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5309 |
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Some of the women subjected to these horrors are still alive, but even if another 50 years had passed, this would still be a disgustingly short-sighted opinion. Women (and men!) are still subject to sexual slavery around the world, and if we brush aside what happened in living memory, what's to stop us from closing our eyes to the atrocities still happening today? |
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harminia
 Posts: 2224 Location: australia |
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WWII ended 74 years ago. Many people who were alive during it are still alive now. Children of those in the war are still alive now. This isn't like some event that happened in the 1700s where people related have been dead for centuries. This is still relevant. It's still a pretty recent memory. The fact that Japan continuously DENIES what they did means it stays relevant. If Japan had accepted they did that and apologised, people could've moved on a little and healed. Instead, there are comfort women who are still alive to see their experiences being actively denied by Japan. Repeatedly. To see an art exhibition that aimed to shine a light on their experiences be dissed, threatened and shut down would not be a nice thing to witness. |
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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As far as America's policy goes in the Far East, it's assumed Japan and South Korea will set aside their differences if China or North Korea attacks one of them. Trump has reiterated this issue and wants to spend less on our military over there, which will actually make them more likely to cooperate. Also, the Japan-orea controversy has been going YEARS before Trump, specifically since South Korea democratized in the 1980s, and it was discovered when Japan voluntarily paid reparations in the 1960s, the South Korea military dictatorship used it on pet projects rather than the survivors themselves. When Korea asked specifically for reparations again and Japan agreed a few years back, they turned around and claimed it was hush money.
Not in the slightest at all. In countries like Turkey, Russia, and China, you're thrown in jail for talking about their war crimes for "insulting" the country. FYI, very few Japanese outright deny that comfort woman existed. The issue is over whether it was voluntary prostitution or sexual slavery, and how much each country is responsible. Realize many of the recruiters were Korean themselves and certainly mislead woman, while the psychological implications soldiers faced resulted in brutal sexual violence.
Well, if you ask most Japanese, it was a necessary evil to force Japan to surrender in an extremely unpopular war with a futile outcome everybody believed. What isn't talked about as much are the countless air raids on cities like Tokyo and Nagoya, which killed many more and destroyed priceless art, artifacts, and architecture, because it was over a period of days and thousands of bombs. |
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1781 |
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Those that were children during WWII cannot be held responsible for acts that they neither committed nor had any control over happening. I agree that those who were soldiers or involved in the workings of the war at the time, should be held accountable. While there are still some former WWII Japanese soldiers and "comfort women" that are still alive, the majority of those responsible for these crimes have long since passed away. At what point do we, as a society, acknowledge that these actions have occurred but also grant forgiveness to those that have committed these acts? In the US, we have politicians that are exploring the idea of reparations for slavery despite the fact that no one alive today was ever a plantation slave or slave owner/seller. Every country and group of people has, at some point in their history, committed some sort of heinous action towards another group of people (and sometimes their own). If we start holding one group of people who weren't alive when these actions occurred accountable for whatever their ancestors did, where does the blaming game stop? If I am expected to apologize for something my ancestors 200 years ago did, does that mean I can expect reparations from another group of people whose ancestors wronged mine? Can they also sue those that hurt their ancestors hundreds of years ago? Apart from the lawyers, who really benefits from suing those alive today for what their ancestors did? In this particular case, the Japanese Government needs to compensate those women who were abused. They also need to acknowledge that these events did occur. But I think the only people who should be expected to apologize are those that actually did the crimes, which means that the majority of Japanese citizens alive today should not be held responsible for things that they could not have prevented. |
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