Good post, Nekochan. Arguing about comaprative moral culpability is a futile and sick exercise, and i won’t play anymore.
quote:
Originally posted by goboy
However, no racial group in America claims to be a divine race descended from the sun goddess, Amaterasu.
From the London Telegraph:
TOKYO, MAY 17. Japan’s new Prime Minister, Mr. Yoshiro Mori, has provoked outrage by saying Japan is a ``divine country centred on the Emperor’’. His remarks were seen as reminiscent of the Shinto ideology that justified Japan’s aggression in the Second World War.
Yeah, I know he apologized, but that he said it at all means something. Mori’s not some LDP flunkey, he’s the Prime Minister.
You’re absolutely right. Blame MacArthur for that; he’s responsible for keeping the Showa Emperor on the throne.
Oyf, I forgot about that. Good point. But, he is of the older generation - this doesn’t excuse his behavior, of course, but you can be certain that the vast majority of the younger generation don’t feel this way. Hopefully, the silly divine nation idea will soon die out.
The Japanese have released some of the BEST
cast recordings on the planet. Jesus Christ
Superstar, Evita (complete with The Lady’s
Got Potential, which was deleted), CATS,
Phantom of the Opera (three complete recordings
as opposed to one in English), and the only
other recording of Aspects of Love. In addition,
they have released two great complilation CDS
(one with three songs from Chess on it), and
several English language ones, including the
Broadway Jesus Christ Superstar and a touring
company of Starlight Express. Some of these
recordings are the best and most valuable
in my collection!
They gave us The Kids in the Hall and Barenaked Ladies. I’m completely willing to overlook almost any offence.
Thank you.
I never said it was. I was going to touch on this in the Asian folks thread in IMHO but I didn’t want to go so OT. A heated debate would have sparked, no doubt. Hawaii is NOT a racial paradise. We like to yak about the “aloha spirit” but we’re no different from any other state. I’d go into this more, but right now it suffices to say that I certainly did not say this, did not intend to imply this, and it’s not true.
Again, I never said their actions should be overlooked. But as it’s been pointed out before, few countries have done no wrong, and it’s prettty much a waste of time to argue whose past is worse than whose.
Yeah, they’ve really helped us evolve into a society free of prejudice.:rolleyes:
I’m starting to agree with grem. This thread has ruined my good mood for two days straight now.
I’ve defended Japan here, but there are things about Japan that I find stupid, annoying, and (fill in the blank). I won’t go into them. I just wanted to state FTR that I’m not lauding Japan as the ideal, unblemished country.
Sherlock Larrigan, you’re an asset to these boards. I thought all these weird hard enters in his text were suspicious. Thanks for proving I still have my sanity
AudreyK: I’ve been thinking (which we all know is a sign of something bad), and correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Japanese a remarkably shitty language to swear in?
Okay, I’m sorry folks, but I just can’t let this pass by without going ballistic.
Myrr21 said:
For context- Myrr21 is arguing that the U.S. bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an immoral act.
Okay, Myrr21, let me ask you some questions.
1.) What is a civilian?
2.) Why is a civilian different from a drafted soldier? Does the fact that one is within the 20-25 age range and male innately make one’s life less valuable than anyone else’s?
3.) If a civilian’s life is more valuable than said drafted soldiers’, what is the ratio? Does the fact that 1.5 million casualties were expected with an invasion of Japan roughly equal the 50,000 dead from the atomic bombs?
4.) What if civilians were being trained to fight said drafted soldiers? If hundreds of thousands of Japanese non-soldiers (elderly and young men) were being handed bamboo pikes and taught how to rush the beaches to repel the invading American soldiers, are they still civilians and therefore we must mourn their deaths more than the deaths of soldiers? Or does this merely affect the “civilian life worth” vs. “soldier life worth” ratio?
5.) What if civilians were already being killed on that scale? The casualties of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are outnumbered by at least 3:1 by the prior convention bombing raids upon Japan in the previous two months. Does the fact that “atomic” weapons were used innately make the civilian deaths that much more outrageous than the twice as many who died in the conventional bombing of Dresden?
Please answer. And while you’re mourning the horrible, horrible tragedy that was Hiroshima and Nagasaki, maybe you should be goddamned thankful that thirty other people were spared- quite possibly including a grandfather or uncle of yours- for every one that died from the atomic bombs.
You want to say that America has done some awful things? I’ll agree. You want to say that using the atomic bomb on Japan was one of them? You’re full of shit and misinformation.
John C., your figures on saved lives sound like they were taken from Paul Fussel’s article “Thank God for the Atomic Bomb,” which I read years ago. As I recall, his figures could not be verified, even by him.
As for me, I seriously waiver back and forth on the bombing of Hiroshima and its necessity. I think I can say w/o a doubt that nagasaki was a big US fuck up and left us with eggo on our faces regarding any morality arguments.
