Forum - View topicINTEREST: Pokémon's Creatures, Inc. in Hot Water Over Visit to Controversial Yasukuni Shrine
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3011 |
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100% agree, which is why I fully support greater teaching and understanding of the many, many, MANY war crimes and genocides the USA has committed. That doesn't change the fact that Japan unfortunately did also commit war crimes and there is an unfortunately desire among some folks to deny/minimize them, though. But yes, we very much need greater education on the atrocities the USA has done too. |
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Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
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Their mentions make it seem even more suspicious to be honest. https://twitter.com/search?vertical=default&q=%40Creatures_Inc&src=typd Most of the top Tweets are done by accounts with barely any Tweets or followers who are speaking in English with names like vo09GNN7SJV3, fdL1rVU3F7Q8vQG, and tnkjnk0079. Seems like bots to me. |
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1875 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Don't get me wrong, Mad, I'm perfectly aware that there are atrocities committed by some soldiers from each side of the conflict but to paint all soldiers who fought with the same brush as those who committed atrocities is astoundingly ignorant and politically polarizing! It's not unreasonable to ponder that not every German citizen wanted to be or respected the Nazi regime. Not every Japanese citizen wanted to be a part of the growing military influence. These people had wives and children of their own they wanted to raise and with the breakout of war, they were pressured or forced into the military lest they would risk being imprisoned or executed for "dereliction of duty". It's a fallacy to ignore this part of history otherwise. |
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Mad_Scientist
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 3011 |
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The thing is, my understanding of this shrine is it's just not a memorial to Japanese people who died in World War 2, which would include countless civilians and rank and file soldiers. It's a shrine that specifically includes the names of 1,068 CONVICTED WAR CRIMINALS. Let that sink in. It's a shrine honoring, among others, over a thousand convicted war criminals. And that's why people are so upset. It's not that they think every single Japanese soldier was a monster or war criminal. It's that these 1,068 people WERE war criminals. And according to someone in this thread (they didn't list a source so I'm not 100% sure if this is accurate) those war criminals weren't even on the shrine originally, their names were added later by ultranationalists. It seems this shrine has very much become a political thing, not just a war memorial, but one that advances a very specific viewpoint of war crime apologism. |
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capt_bunny
 Posts: 364 |
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I can't read the comments since I don't know Japanese. But I guessed it would be full of hatred..... Personally, I very much agree with all of what you said. It's most likely Japan won't say sorry until every single person from those times are dead... I hate saying that way. However, what I agree with you the most is the last sentence you said. It's why I cannot understand why most countries do not say sorry or know of their past yet expect their country to get better with their own people too. I understand if it's pride and/or not wanting to admit mistakes to look weak. But there is a difference with that and looking with compassion, human for all that has been wrong with each countries doing. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4891 |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2954 Location: Email for assistance only |
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Visiting this shrine is extremely political. So much so that previous prime ministers have promised and directed cabinet members to not visit it either out of genuine moral concern or to better relations with China and Korea. During his first term, Abe also didn't visit.
This angered a known ultra-right nationalist so much he sent part of his finger to the Diet. The shrine has essentially become a political symbol and visits there are interpreted as political statements, for better or worse, and will likely stay that way so long as families of victims of the war crimes continue to be aggrieved by Japan's lack of acknowledgement of it's crimes. As MadScientist said, the crimes aren't "I fought on the wrong side of the war" as KBaKabaFruit seems to be suggesting. The crimes include intentionally killing civilians and taking women as sex slaves ("comfort women") among others.
Yeah, people are definitely making burner accounts to harass them at this point with some genuinely upset people thrown in, but that wasn't the point you were making or the point I was making. Your post insinuated that the people reporting on this (i.e. me) were essentially fabricating news and made it seem like there was no actual reaction going on here when the company's account has been receiving a metric ton of tweets for three days. Last edited by ANN_Lynzee on Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:20 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1326 |
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I checked Wikipedia, but I also checked this page for additional clarity. https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a02404/ |
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Mad_Scientist
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 3011 |
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Thanks for the link! It was very informative. |
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鏡
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If you think imperialism is good and cool then knowing Japanese history doesn't preclude your being mad at people being mad at people visiting yasukuni. |
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Vadara
Posts: 61 |
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I love anime and weeb stuff and all that goodness and then I remember that Japan's stance on WW2 stuff is basically like if Germany not merely got to continue flying the swastika but also had straight-up Nazi war criminal memorials.
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steelmirror
 Posts: 342 |
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I always have really complicated reactions to these Yasakuni stories. My grandparents on one side of my family lived through the Japanese occupation (as children). I grew up being told the stories of Nanjing, the invasion, how my grandmother's parents dressed her as a boy so that she wouldn't catch the attention of the Japanese soldiers. She was 7 years old. On the other side of my family, my other grandfather shipped out from the US and fought in China in the closing days of the war, and he has pictures and told stories of his time there, seeing the horrible state of rural China as the Japanese withdrew. With all of that baggage hanging over me, it took a while when I was watching any anime with militaristic overtones for me not to feel a little creeped out by it (I sometimes still do).
It's a damn shame that Yasakuni commemorates actual war criminals, as well as apparently being a resting place for those who simply fought on the losing side for their country. I can, to some extent, understand what moves political figures to continue to attend services at the shrine. But understanding why is not the same thing as endorsing or believing it's in any way a good thing. Japan today is nothing like the country that tried to establish the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere, but rewriting the past is the express ticket to repeating its mistakes. |
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nargun
Posts: 926 |
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I mean, there's actually... I wouldn't go so far as to say "compelling argument", but certainly something worthy of further consideration, is the idea that to not include executed war criminals among the japanese war dead is basically to whitewash history. But Yasukuni isn't going to argue "we had to do it precisely because they did bad things; we didn't want to pretend that the people we're memorialising are blameless heroes". |
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gloverrandal
Posts: 406 Location: Oita |
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If not for history, there's also the moral obligation. I don't know of many civilized societies that desecrate the dead, even if it's their enemies. Even Hitler was given a proper burial by the Allies following World War II rather than just letting his body rot in a ditch. Everyone is a family member or friend to someone, event he most heinous people in history. To deny someone to honor their kin's spirit would be morally wrong. |
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Hellsoldier
 Posts: 765 Location: Porto,Portugal,Europe,Earth,Sol |
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I think Germany is an awesome country, with awesome music, great contributions to philosophy, science and literature, and... They face their history head on. There's probably no country in the world is a history education as blunt as Germany's.. And I believe pride in one's land does not equal worship of atrocity. Most Japanese, fortunately aren't nationalists. I think all, or at least most nations, could do with Germany's point blank way of learning history. I can't think of a country that doesn't have crimes in their past. |
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