German guy gets arrested in Japan.

[unozero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVZS7mwpnpA
watch the video you post.

quick summary:German guy gets arrested for pointing out prasing the deeds of the Japanese army during WW2 would get you arrested in Germany.upon hearing this the Japanese people freak out

Not sure if the event was Government sponsored or simply a meeting if Nippon Nationalists.If the speech was actually held by someone from the Japanese Government...well that would be pretty pathetic on their part I just lost alot of respect for Japan.

 

[Bad^Hat]

watch the video you post.

What the **** did you call me.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I think he called you a mother****ing post. What a ****ing twat.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

I have never heard a Japanese man freakout in real life before

 

[ríomhaire]

Jesus that was a mega freakout.

 

[GreatEmperor]

Was the German guy trying to draw attention to some bullshit in his constitution or was he calling out the Japanese guy for mentioning the WW2 soldiers in a positive light. Looks like the latter but that little guy got too shrill to really tell

 

[StarBob]

So now I know to not ask questions during an interview in Japan or you will be arrested.

 

[Laivasse]

The white guy in the vid is actually french Canadian. He's pointing out that the kind of revisionism these right wingers are pushing would be illegal in Germany (along the lines of holocaust denial). This all revolves around the Yasukuni Shrine controversy. Yasukuni commemorates Japan's war dead, but included among those who are enshrined are 1000-ish convicted WW2 war criminals. It also houses a museum which presents a slightly airbrushed idea of Japan's role in WW2. Japan has a lot of right-wing nationalists, some violent, who like to deny wrongdoing on the part of their nation in WW2; the speaker in the beginning is Toshio Tamogami, who has once said "it is a false accusation to say (Japan) was an aggressor nation" in WW2. Also there's the guy in the vid asking 'What crimes?' as if Nanking never happened.

Interestingly, all this Japanese revisionism arguably boils down to Japan's treatment post-war when, in the hopes of keeping Japan stable, friendly, and anti-communist, the Allies encouraged the country to think of itself as the dupe of a limited militaristic cabal. The emperor, part of the establishment, and the populace were not implicated. Compare to the Nuremberg trials, where Germany's politics were condemned as unequivocally evil and Germany was left with a keen sense of national guilt.

Anyway, apparently the guy was interrogated for 2 hours and made to sign an apology to the shrine, the speaker and 'Channel Sakura' who I guess were staging it. He was also made to promise he wouldn't show up there again, since apparently he's been doing it 4 years in a row. The vid is naturally kind of infuriating but it leaves some mixed feelings too. His Japanese doesn't seem strong enough for him to be able to make more than a couple of points and he backs off, frightened when they start shouting him down - which begs the question, why do this at all if you can't argue your case or stand your ground?

I don't think the police handled it all that badly. When a guy in a suit is shouting 'Arrest him!' at a foreigner who just stands there looking redfaced and says 'OK I'm going home', then what are they supposed to think? I don't hear them state that the guy's under arrest at any point. Instead they look more concerned that he'll start a brawl or get overrun by angry right wingers. They only chase after him when he starts to randomly run away, after having failed to explain himself very well. One of the cops even shouts angrily at a nationalist hothead at one point for inflaming the situation. Of course, being forced to apologise is pretty bad, but when the guy acted as flaky as he did, who knows how he acted in the interview.

 

[StarBob]

I thought the Nazis and Russians were bad until I read the Rape of Nanking. It really makes the whole firebombing of Tokyo and the a-bombs not seem so bad. The sad part is that Japan tried to gloss it all over, even teaching warped history to kids.

 

[Mogi67]

The sad part is people still believe that one nation is more barbaric then other nations. The truth is human nature hasn't changed, everyone's the same, civilization is just a veneer that's easily wiped away.

 

[15357]

Turn safesearch off and google for "japanese atrocities".

You get the idea. Heck, I think I've posted several threads about this kind of thing in this forum too. I won't say much, because you all know what I'm going to say.

The sad part is people still believe that one nation is more barbaric then other nations. The truth is human nature hasn't changed, everyone's the same, civilization is just a veneer that's easily wiped away.

Actually, some people do not hold to the same standards of human dignity and civility that the average human being at this point in time holds himself to. Of course, you're right that nationality has nothing to do with whether you're a sick **** or not.

 

[GreatEmperor]

The sad part is people still believe that one nation is more barbaric then other nations. The truth is human nature hasn't changed, everyone's the same, civilization is just a veneer that's easily wiped away.

Compare yourself to a feudal serf, or how about a crusader? Culture and education have a VERY large impact on how you behave, some cultures have primitive and violent teachings/ideas that exacerbate events

 

[Krynn72]

Was he actually arrested? It looked like they just pulled him away from the pissed off crowd and questioned him. Not sure what was happening at the very end, but it didnt look like he was in cuffs or anything.


Also, some of the southern states in the US call the Civil War "The War of Northern Aggression" and think that the war happened solely because the North wanted to oppress the South. Thus, it comes as no surprise to me that people in Japan can be equally delusional.

 

[Eejit]

I thought the Nazis and Russians were bad until I read the Rape of Nanking. It really makes the whole firebombing of Tokyo and the a-bombs not seem so bad.

None of those events make any of the others less deplorable.

 

[StarBob]

None of those events make any of the others less deplorable.

Did I say that?

 

[Schweppe]

Yes you did :shh:

 

[Kadayi]

The white guy in the vid is actually french Canadian. He's pointing out that the kind of revisionism these right wingers are pushing would be illegal in Germany (along the lines of holocaust denial). This all revolves around the Yasukuni Shrine controversy. Yasukuni commemorates Japan's war dead, but included among those who are enshrined are 1000-ish convicted WW2 war criminals. It also houses a museum which presents a slightly airbrushed idea of Japan's role in WW2. Japan has a lot of right-wing nationalists, some violent, who like to deny wrongdoing on the part of their nation in WW2; the speaker in the beginning is Toshio Tamogami, who has once said "it is a false accusation to say (Japan) was an aggressor nation" in WW2. Also there's the guy in the vid asking 'What crimes?' as if Nanking never happened.

Interestingly, all this Japanese revisionism arguably boils down to Japan's treatment post-war when, in the hopes of keeping Japan stable, friendly, and anti-communist, the Allies encouraged the country to think of itself as the dupe of a limited militaristic cabal. The emperor, part of the establishment, and the populace were not implicated. Compare to the Nuremberg trials, where Germany's politics were condemned as unequivocally evil and Germany was left with a keen sense of national guilt.

Anyway, apparently the guy was interrogated for 2 hours and made to sign an apology to the shrine, the speaker and 'Channel Sakura' who I guess were staging it. He was also made to promise he wouldn't show up there again, since apparently he's been doing it 4 years in a row. The vid is naturally kind of infuriating but it leaves some mixed feelings too. His Japanese doesn't seem strong enough for him to be able to make more than a couple of points and he backs off, frightened when they start shouting him down - which begs the question, why do this at all if you can't argue your case or stand your ground?

I don't think the police handled it all that badly. When a guy in a suit is shouting 'Arrest him!' at a foreigner who just stands there looking redfaced and says 'OK I'm going home', then what are they supposed to think? I don't hear them state that the guy's under arrest at any point. Instead they look more concerned that he'll start a brawl or get overrun by angry right wingers. They only chase after him when he starts to randomly run away, after having failed to explain himself very well. One of the cops even shouts angrily at a nationalist hothead at one point for inflaming the situation. Of course, being forced to apologise is pretty bad, but when the guy acted as flaky as he did, who knows how he acted in the interview.

Yeah, good summary actually. I was waiting for him to be arrested, but it never actually happens (false advertising). Like you say it's all very well going there with the intention of putting the right wing guys on the spot, but the guy was half cocked and really didn't have the kahunas to handle himself verbally when things went tits up and confrontational.

Also Japan is one messed up country.