Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Australia / Japan Apologies

Something really amazing has been announced this past week that really surprised me. I truly thought that it was something that just wasn't going to happen: Australia will apologise for the Stolen Generation!

This is something I think the majority of Australians had been wanting to happen for a while with a lot of us wondering why it hadn't been done already. One major theory was that if the government admitted fault for the Stolen Generation they would be liable to lawsuits and expectations of funds for compensation.

Now, finally I can have conversations about apologies concerning Japan without feeling like a hypocrite, though to be fair, while Australia just refused to apologise, Japan has a history of simply refusing that events took place and even editing school text books content.

Such massive yet little known incidents include;

The Kanto Massacre which happened in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Quake in 1923 in which the Japanese military spread rumours concerning poisoning of water, rape and murder being committed by non-Japanese (mostly Koreans) and then assisted in the rounding up and murdering of 6000 (of the 30,000 Koreans in Japan at the time) Koreans, 700 Chinese as well as numerous Okinawans and Japanese people from other regions who spoke other dialects who were thought to be Koreans pretending to be Japanese.

Note: Interestingly enough the Kanto Massacre is the reason a lot of Japanese businesses including my current place of occupation include small radios in their earthquake evacuation emergency kits to prevent spreading of rumours and rely on fact reported by the media.

WWII Mass Suicides in Okinawa where the Japanese military stole food and supplies, executed those who hid theirs, used Okinawan civilians as body shields and finally spreading anti-American propaganda that compelled 10,000 Okinawans to kill themselves and their families so as to avoid capture from the Americans who they were told would rape, beat, murder and mutilate them.

The Rape of Nanking. Horrific events committed by the Japanese military and government during WWI in which they raped, mutilated, and committed unthinkable things to the citizens of the Chinese city, Nanking / Nanjing. Roughly 350,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed in the eight week period.

Thoughts?

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Labels: Australia, japan, Japanese Social Issues, Rape of Nanking

Thursday, 25 January 2007

The Rape of Nanking. Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You.

(Apparently saying "Coming Attractions" sounds wierd. I thought the phrase was pretty common place but it came up the other day and everyone laughed. I say "Trailers" too, but a little "Coming Attractions" every now and then is good for the soul.)

Anyway, from CBC:

China plans to depict one of the most infamous events of the Second World War, with a film version of U.S. author Iris Chang's historical account The Rape of Nanking.

Chinese moviemakers will team up with U.S. and British filmmakers to describe the brutal massacre of Chinese civilians and burning of the former capital city by Japanese troops in December 1937.

The movie deal was announced Monday, a day before the anniversary of Japan's Second World War surrender.

China has objected to plans by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honours Japanese leaders convicted of war crimes as well as Japan's 2.5 million war dead.

Backers of the $25 million US project hope to woo Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh for the cast, according to a report from the Chinese news service Xinhua.

erald Green, the American producer of the movie, said the film would be a war classic like Schindler's List, the Oscar-winning 1993 film by Steven Spielberg about a businessman who attempts to save the lives of Jews in Poland.

"We hope we can make the film a classic on a massacre in the Second World War, just like Schindler's Listabout the miserable experience of Jewish people during the war," he said in an interview with Xinhua.

Chang, an American-Chinese writer who died in 2004 at age 36, wrote the 1997 English-language history, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.

The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for several months and became a New York Times notable book. It helped bring the massacre, little known in the West, to wider attention.

China claims 300,000 Chinese men, women and children were slaughtered by invading Japanese troops in the war-time capital Nanjing, formerly known as Nanking. A 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 people.

Japanese war crimes are a sensitive issue in China, which says Japan has not taken full responsibility for its wartime occupation of China.

Viridian, a Hollywood entertainment firm, is working with British investors and China's Jiangsu Cultural Industry Group on the project.

Shooting is to begin soon, with the movie scheduled for completion by Sept. 1, 2007, ahead of the 70-year anniversary of the Nanjing massacre.

I for one think this is great news. It definitely is something that everyone should be aware of. The things the Japanese army and government did during their occupation of China is indescribable. Mutilations, rape, forcing boys to have sex with their grandmothers and then kill them both, rip babies from mother's stomachs. The list goes on and it gets worse. (seriously)

What's infuriating is that Japan has yet to appologise for this. A lot of people think the Chinese are even making this up despite all the evidence from International and Japanese researchers. Don't even get me started on the history textbook censorship of which Japan, who has been bitching about it happening in China is itself doing the same thing.

As a movie, the story of the people involved in the real life Rape are very interesting historical characters and should make for a very gripping story on film.

I do wonder how edited this film will be when released in Japan, if at all.

Labels: movies, Rape of Nanking

Saturday, 20 January 2007

Who Am I?

I just remembered that my archives (bottom of the page)were broken so I went and fixed them all. Now you can go back and explore my whole time in Japan and the countdown to me coming here!

I can't believe how fast these last few years have gone. Seriously. Come March, I'll be starting my fourth year in Japan! Gah!

It's interesting how much I've changed. I was talking to Lisa yesterday at work and we were saying how even though we were open minded back in Australia, being in Japan has made us so much more aware of certain issues such as racism, sexual equality and education.

A good example is how the general population in Australia thinks it's acceptable to put down American and America as if it's our God given right. Hell, I think most Australians (including myself a few years back) used to enjoy the odd American joke.

Part of this is due to several factors but the main one being that not that many Americans make their way to Australia. Some for holidays but definitly not to live.

But after being in Japan and working and even become friends with some kick arse guys and gals from the states I realised what a racist prick I had been and can seriously see myself now back in Sydney and defending Americans next time one of those jokes is thrown around at a party.

Having said that though, George Bush is still a tool.

I've also become more proactive in social issues, having seen first hand a society were only 2% seem to stand up for themselves and refuse to discuss important issues like safe sex, STDs, rape, national politics and religion out of "politeness".

Before coming to Japan I would be the last person to watch the news, let alone international news but after being exposed to the Japanese government's utter stupidity when dealing with the Yasakuni Shrine and their complete denial of the Rape on Nanking I find myself actually bringing several issues up and even starting conversations about these issues whether anyone is interested or not.

Who am I now? I guess I'm still growing.

I know it's a cliché, but it's true what they say. You don't stop growing when you grow up.

Labels: blog, japan, Japanese, Japanese Social Issues, Rape of Nanking, Yasakuni Shrine