[QUOTE=Tristan]
snip.
Note: I believe they were in the wrong, and their government knows they were in the wrong, but their society and culture cannot let them come right out, admit it, and make it all over with. Therefore, things will take more time than we are used to, and will be done a different way…
[/QUOTE]
This is typical of ‘a Japanese secret’ - everyone knows but nobody talks about it. I learned this the hard way!
[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
I do blame the majority of Americans, because they re-elected Bush. By doing so, they did show support for the secret prisons, and the torture, and the rapes, and the corruption, and all the other evils America has commited in Iraq and elsewhere. I consider them worse than the people who support the Japanese PM, because the Iraq war is happening right now, not decades ago.
[/QUOTE]
They did no such thing. A very slight majority (51%) of those voting in the 2004 election voted for Bush. That group was only 55% of the voting age population. So, technically, only 28% of the voting age population reelected him. My second cite shows the voting age population as 221 million. According to the US Census Estimates (Warning PDF), the total population of the US at that time was around 293 million, so only 75% of the total population was involved. That leaves Bush being reelected by only 21 or 22% of Americans.
[QUOTE=Zakalwe]
They did no such thing. A very slight majority (51%) of those voting in the 2004 election voted for Bush. That group was only 55% of the voting age population. So, technically, only 28% of the voting age population reelected him. My second cite shows the voting age population as 221 million. According to the US Census Estimates (Warning PDF), the total population of the US at that time was around 293 million, so only 75% of the total population was involved. That leaves Bush being reelected by only 21 or 22% of Americans.
[/QUOTE]
“You’re either with us or against us.”
I consider every eligible voter who didn’t vote against Little Boots to have played a role in voting for him. So add in the 100 million who sat on their asses on election day.
[QUOTE=JRDelirious]
I don’t think there is a “monarch” in the world as powerless as the post-war Japanese Emperor. If I understand correctly, any expressions of the Emperor and his family, that are to go out to the public, are tightly regulated and vetted by the Imperial Household Agency; public “personal” expressions are not part of the job, except for the most innocuous sort. He would almost have to wait to be in the middle of reading a speech for some ceremony where independent media were running the cameras and recorders, to go off his notes and say that. And that could cause quite some froofraw… why, it would mean the Emperor himself is exemplifying defiance of “the way things are done”, and we can’t have that, can we :dubious: ?
…
[/QUOTE]
Actually, unless he were outdoors where lots of individual spectators were taking their own videos (and I don’t think he does any speeches like that), I doubt any footage of a rogue Emperor would ever make it to the airwaves. The reporters would be given a choice of handing over the tapes or losing their press passes. And given the lack of spine they show toward lowly Diet members when faced with the loss of their precious passes, I don’t think a single one would stand up to the Imperial Household Agency.
[QUOTE=Sublight]
“You’re either with us or against us.”
I consider every eligible voter who didn’t vote against Little Boots to have played a role in voting for him. So add in the 100 million who sat on their asses on election day.
[/QUOTE]
You know, I honestly thought this kind of bullshit black & white thinking was one of things “we” hated about the Bushies.
We have met the enemy and he has turned us into him.
[QUOTE=saoirse]
I agree with you sentiments, but I thought I should nitpick and say that you meant “repeatedly.” “Repetitively” just seems really inappropriate.
[/QUOTE]
“Oh, not missionary again!”
[QUOTE=MelCthefirst]
In my experience from living in Japan, for those who are old enough to remember, many are deeply ashamed about what happened in the war. When I talked with older people about why younger Japanese aren’t taught what happened, they indicated that they don’t want to expose their young to those things they are most ashamed about. For those from non-face saving cultures, this kind of ‘don’t talk about it’ mentality is hard to understand.
There are ofcourse others who don’t believe it happened but they are products of their own culture’s propaganda - as we all are, whether you like to acknowledge it or not.
[/QUOTE]
That jibes with my experience. I used to look after tour groups of Japanese tourists mostly in their 60’s and 70’s whose package included a boat ride around Pearl Harbor. When that part of their itinerary came up, they usually looked embarassed.
That said, despite the loss of face involved, it would seem to me that honor requires an acknowledgement of the wrong done and an affirmation that things will be changed so that that sort of wrong never happens again.
[QUOTE=Siege]
snip…
That said, despite the loss of face involved, it would seem to me that honor requires an acknowledgement of the wrong done and an affirmation that things will be changed so that that sort of wrong never happens again.
[/QUOTE]
You would think! but only from a Western cultural perspective.
[QUOTE=Zakalwe]
You know, I honestly thought this kind of bullshit black & white thinking was one of things “we” hated about the Bushies.
We have met the enemy and he has turned us into him.
[/QUOTE]
:shrug: Not voting at all is as good as voting for the worst candidate. Either make your decision, or take the blame for whatever comes next. Sitting on the sidelines and then saying “it’s not my fault!” is bullshit.