Learning to hate

OhmyNews reporter Tony Andriotis has recently posted his second article on Japanese-Korean relations, entitled “Learning to Hate: Revisited“. It is a really excellent article about the ridiculous anti-Japanese hatred that seems to be common among Koreans these days.

Recently, I have been teaching a conversation class for high school aged recent immigrants to the United States. Over the past few months I have become accustomed to many a conversation dealing with the evils of Apolo Ohno and Ichiro Suzuki. I have heard almost every “the world (and specifically, America) is out to get us” conspiracy theory being dished out in the Korean blogosphere. (By the way, this is another thing I have found that Korea and Greece have in common. Many a Greek seems to think that President Bush wakes up every morning plotting the best ways to challenge Greece and its proud population of 10 million souls). I actually welcome those conversations. Honestly, they are fun.

However, several of my students recently asked me about how much damage could be inflicted on Japan, if North Korea were to “nuke” it. Rather shocked, I responded, “Lots.” To that I heard, “Yeah, but how many people would die.” I then told them that the problem with a nuclear bomb is that people can die from it even 50 or 60 years later. I specifically pointed out that there are people dying in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today as a result of the bombing half a century ago. To this, one student responded, “Good.”

The very next week, another student again asked about the nightmare scenario of “Japan getting nuked by North Korea.” I put my arms up and I said, “What is your problem with Japan? What have they done to you in the last 60 years?” He smiled and said, “Dokdo.” And to that, all I can honestly do is pray that with age comes wisdom, and with wisdom comes peace.

Read Tony Adriotis’ articles:
Learning to Hate, Teaching to Forget
Learning to Hate: Revisited

19 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - May 28, 2006 at 3:39 am

Categories: Anti-Japan, Discrimination, General Japan, Politics Tags:

melonbarmonster

To be fair Andriotis doesn’t really portray Koreans’ anti-Japanese sentiments as being ridiculous. Among my personal close friends I have a friend whose grandfather was beheaded in front of his family, a friend whose grandfather was arrested and never heard from again, another friend whose grandmother grew up in Manchuria because the entire family fled Korea during the colonization and the great-grandfather had publicly opposed Japanese occupation. THere’s a lot of knee-jerk hatred against Japanese but that’s not to say that there aren’t substantively valid reasons for grief against Japan especially given recent Japanese attitudes toward history and politics.
melonbarmonster

To be fair Andriotis doesn’t really portray Koreans’ anti-Japanese sentiments as being ridiculous. Among my personal close friends I have a friend whose grandfather was beheaded in front of his family, a friend whose grandfather was arrested and never heard from again, another friend whose grandmother grew up in Manchuria because the entire family fled Korea during the colonization and the great-grandfather had publicly opposed Japanese occupation. THere’s a lot of knee-jerk hatred against Japanese but that’s not to say that there aren’t substantively valid reasons for grief against Japan especially given recent Japanese attitudes toward history and politics.
Kevin

This is true. Also, if you read about the Nanjing Rape (Good God, how I need to learn how spell the damn word) OR heard of it, people would also know why many Chinese dislike Japan greatly. With all due respect, while the Korean tourists article showed how rude they were, that does mean it should implied they’re all like that. Korea, China and many other Asian countries have their fair share Anti-Japanese sentiments.

I really do not like how it’s awful how people view the Japanese, but there’s no say for the opposing side. Basically, how ”awful” the Japanese were to Koreans, Chinese and other foregin countries. It goes both ways…
Kevin

This is true. Also, if you read about the Nanjing Rape (Good God, how I need to learn how spell the damn word) OR heard of it, people would also know why many Chinese dislike Japan greatly. With all due respect, while the Korean tourists article showed how rude they were, that does mean it should implied they’re all like that. Korea, China and many other Asian countries have their fair share Anti-Japanese sentiments.

I really do not like how it’s awful how people view the Japanese, but there’s no say for the opposing side. Basically, how ”awful” the Japanese were to Koreans, Chinese and other foregin countries. It goes both ways…
James

Kevin: certainly the stupidity goes both ways, but when you ask a Japanese kid about Korea, they usually don’t have any strong beliefs about it. In fact, I’d wager that most Japanese adults really don’t have much of an opinion on Koreans, aside from the fact that they enjoy Korean food/dramas and think North Korea is scary.

The bottom line is that, while the Japanese did horrible things in China and Korea over 60 years ago, they are not teaching ultranationalism and hatred to their children. Japan has spent the last 60 years as a pacifist nation; Japanese people today are far less willing to fight wars than they were 60 to 80 years ago. While the issue of war apologies leaves something to be desired, it should be clear to any observer that Japan is unlikely to threaten the peace of asia.

On the other hand, South Korea is actively teaching ultranationalist ideologies in its schools. Small children are taught about horrible things Japan did from a very young age, engraining hatred of Japan into them before they are old enough to think things through rationally. The product is the absurd level of hatred that the author of “Learning to Hate” writes about. Passing such views to younger generations can do nothing but prevent international cooperation and reconciliation between the two nations.

Melonbarmonster: So your friend’s grandfather got beheaded by the Japanese? I guess that makes wishing for deadly earthquakes or nuclear detonations to occur in Japan ok? Any rational person can clearly see that the author of that article views such statements as ridiculous and unjustified.
James

Kevin: certainly the stupidity goes both ways, but when you ask a Japanese kid about Korea, they usually don’t have any strong beliefs about it. In fact, I’d wager that most Japanese adults really don’t have much of an opinion on Koreans, aside from the fact that they enjoy Korean food/dramas and think North Korea is scary.

The bottom line is that, while the Japanese did horrible things in China and Korea over 60 years ago, they are not teaching ultranationalism and hatred to their children. Japan has spent the last 60 years as a pacifist nation; Japanese people today are far less willing to fight wars than they were 60 to 80 years ago. While the issue of war apologies leaves something to be desired, it should be clear to any observer that Japan is unlikely to threaten the peace of asia.

On the other hand, South Korea is actively teaching ultranationalist ideologies in its schools. Small children are taught about horrible things Japan did from a very young age, engraining hatred of Japan into them before they are old enough to think things through rationally. The product is the absurd level of hatred that the author of “Learning to Hate” writes about. Passing such views to younger generations can do nothing but prevent international cooperation and reconciliation between the two nations.

Melonbarmonster: So your friend’s grandfather got beheaded by the Japanese? I guess that makes wishing for deadly earthquakes or nuclear detonations to occur in Japan ok? Any rational person can clearly see that the author of that article views such statements as ridiculous and unjustified.
melonbarmonster

The existence of such knee-jerk hate reactions is reasonable and understandable. Those things tend to happen when a perpetrating nation commits war atrocities.

Not that I think such hate reaction are ok. What I did state was that there are a lot of knee-jerk hatred against Japanese but that’s not to say that there aren’t substantively valid reasons for grievances especially given recent Japanese attitudes toward history and politics.
melonbarmonster

The existence of such knee-jerk hate reactions is reasonable and understandable. Those things tend to happen when a perpetrating nation commits war atrocities.

Not that I think such hate reaction are ok. What I did state was that there are a lot of knee-jerk hatred against Japanese but that�s not to say that there aren�t substantively valid reasons for grievances especially given recent Japanese attitudes toward history and politics.
ponta

“What I did state was that there are a lot of knee-jerk hatred against Japanese but that’s not to say that there aren’t substantively valid reasons for grievances especially given recent Japanese attitudes toward history and politics.”
Could you be more specific?
ponta

“What I did state was that there are a lot of knee-jerk hatred against Japanese but that�s not to say that there aren�t substantively valid reasons for grievances especially given recent Japanese attitudes toward history and politics.”
Could you be more specific?
Sonagi

I agree with James and I would add that South Koreans are strangely silent on the horrific human rights abuses currently taking place in North Korea. Entire families are gassed to death while medical researchers watch and take notes. Tens of thousands of individuals and whole families toil in concentration camps. Desperately hungry refugees caught in China are tortured, then executed publically as a warning to others. North Korean comfort women are sold into sexual slavery to Chinese men. People in the countryside suffer from chronic famine because the government would rather starve its citizens than accept supervised aid from the outside world.

South Koreans teach their kids to hate the Japanese for what happened more than a half a century ago; meanwhile, the lovefest with the world’s most brutal regime continues. The contradiction makes me ill.

One thing I applaud the Japanese for is their willingness to stand up to Pyongyang and their persistence in rescuing Japanese kidnap victims. American defector Robert Jenkins, who went to NK of his own free will, owes his freedom to the Japanese government.

Among the South Koreans held prisoner in North Korea is a missionary who was helping NK escapees in northern China. He is believed to have been kidnapped and taken to North Korea. One shudders to imagine the interrogation techniques this man has been subjected to. The South Korean government has ignored his family’s pleas for help in bringing their father home. Why let some old man spoil the warmth of the Sunshine Policy?

Hate Japan for what it did sixty to eighty years ago; love North Korea, in spite of what it has done for the last fifty-seven years and continues to do today to Korean people. Twisted.
Sonagi

I agree with James and I would add that South Koreans are strangely silent on the horrific human rights abuses currently taking place in North Korea. Entire families are gassed to death while medical researchers watch and take notes. Tens of thousands of individuals and whole families toil in concentration camps. Desperately hungry refugees caught in China are tortured, then executed publically as a warning to others. North Korean comfort women are sold into sexual slavery to Chinese men. People in the countryside suffer from chronic famine because the government would rather starve its citizens than accept supervised aid from the outside world.

South Koreans teach their kids to hate the Japanese for what happened more than a half a century ago; meanwhile, the lovefest with the world’s most brutal regime continues. The contradiction makes me ill.

One thing I applaud the Japanese for is their willingness to stand up to Pyongyang and their persistence in rescuing Japanese kidnap victims. American defector Robert Jenkins, who went to NK of his own free will, owes his freedom to the Japanese government.

Among the South Koreans held prisoner in North Korea is a missionary who was helping NK escapees in northern China. He is believed to have been kidnapped and taken to North Korea. One shudders to imagine the interrogation techniques this man has been subjected to. The South Korean government has ignored his family’s pleas for help in bringing their father home. Why let some old man spoil the warmth of the Sunshine Policy?

Hate Japan for what it did sixty to eighty years ago; love North Korea, in spite of what it has done for the last fifty-seven years and continues to do today to Korean people. Twisted.
ponta

“Hate Japan for what it did sixty to eighty years ago; love North Korea, in spite of what it has done for the last fifty-seven years and continues to do today to Korean people”
I wholeheartedly agree. and I am glad we agreed.(^_-)
ponta

“Hate Japan for what it did sixty to eighty years ago; love North Korea, in spite of what it has done for the last fifty-seven years and continues to do today to Korean people”
I wholeheartedly agree. and I am glad we agreed.(^_-)
melonbarmonster

“South Koreans are strangely silent on the horrific human rights abuses currently taking place in North Korea.”

The only people who are doing anything to help NK refugees and the human rights tragedy of NK are South Koreans and Korean-American NGO’s. Good grief.

UN and all the venerable NGO’s of the world haven’t done anything even as 3-4 million North Koreans died of starvation.
melonbarmonster

“South Koreans are strangely silent on the horrific human rights abuses currently taking place in North Korea.”

The only people who are doing anything to help NK refugees and the human rights tragedy of NK are South Koreans and Korean-American NGO’s. Good grief.

UN and all the venerable NGO’s of the world haven’t done anything even as 3-4 million North Koreans died of starvation.
Sonagi

Melonbarmonster,

There are Americans not of Korean ancestry who work to help publicize the plight of North Koreans and raise money to help them. Have you ever heard of Rev. Tim Peters? http://www.familycare.org/network/p01_article12.htm
Sonagi

Melonbarmonster,

There are Americans not of Korean ancestry who work to help publicize the plight of North Koreans and raise money to help them. Have you ever heard of Rev. Tim Peters? http://www.familycare.org/network/p01_article12.htm
Sonagi
Sonagi
Sonagi

Melonbarmonster wrote:

“UN and all the venerable NGO’s of the world haven’t done anything even as 3-4 million North Koreans died of starvation. “

In the mid 90s, the US gave food aid worth millions of dollars, and China continues to feed North Korea today. I myself have witnessed trucks of produce crossing the bridge between Dandong, China, and Shinuiju, North Korea in the dead of winter. The World Food Program finally withdrew from North Korea because the North Koreans refused to accept any monitoring of who is actually getting all this free food donated by the international community. One reason why so many North Koreans are believed to have starved to death is that large areas of the country have been put off limits to international organizations and thus cut off from foreign food aid. Blame those deaths squarely on the evil regime, not the UN, the US, or NGOs.
Sonagi

Melonbarmonster wrote:

“UN and all the venerable NGO�s of the world haven�t done anything even as 3-4 million North Koreans died of starvation. “

In the mid 90s, the US gave food aid worth millions of dollars, and China continues to feed North Korea today. I myself have witnessed trucks of produce crossing the bridge between Dandong, China, and Shinuiju, North Korea in the dead of winter. The World Food Program finally withdrew from North Korea because the North Koreans refused to accept any monitoring of who is actually getting all this free food donated by the international community. One reason why so many North Koreans are believed to have starved to death is that large areas of the country have been put off limits to international organizations and thus cut off from foreign food aid. Blame those deaths squarely on the evil regime, not the UN, the US, or NGOs.
melonbarmonster

NGO by definition precludes government actions. The VAST majority of humanitarian action comes from Koreans in US and Korea.

China, SK, US(via UN) aid to NK isn’t humanitarian. China especially has a vested interest in keeping the communist NK afloat.

In any case, your original complaint that SK is silent on NK plight is ridiculous and false.
melonbarmonster

NGO by definition precludes government actions. The VAST majority of humanitarian action comes from Koreans in US and Korea.

China, SK, US(via UN) aid to NK isn’t humanitarian. China especially has a vested interest in keeping the communist NK afloat.

In any case, your original complaint that SK is silent on NK plight is ridiculous and false.
melonbarmonster

All the venerable NGO’S in the world have done squat for NK refugees in China. Only underground churches in China along with Koreans from SK and US are doing anything.
melonbarmonster

All the venerable NGO’S in the world have done squat for NK refugees in China. Only underground churches in China along with Koreans from SK and US are doing anything.
melonbarmonster

Peters works very closely with South Koreans. -_-
melonbarmonster

Peters works very closely with South Koreans. -_-
Random Korean

“The biggest lie ever told in the world. Anyways, go ahead and believe what your Korean mind thinks. The rest of the civilized world knows for a fact that Koreans are by far the worst in exploding and screaming whnever someone does as little as criticize Korea’s faults such as racism. But of course, to Koreans, they believe they invented Chinese characters, that Chan Ho Park won the Cy Young Award, that plastic surgery is not prevalent in Korea, that bribery is not a way of life in Korea, that Caucasian women think Bae Yong Joon is more attractive than Brad Pitt, and that Korea invented everything from the internet to the air we breathe.”

And since when has a Korean person ever said any of those? Im not talking about those 1-3 internet trolls on some Korean message board. Considering that Japan has its own fair share of internet trolls. And considering the fact that you are a troll yourself(either that or an incredibly insecure 13 year old) I mean seriously you act and type like a 10 year old. Koreans are angry and racist? Uhh hello. Look in the mirror to see whos racist and temper mental. You have a lot of anger in your post and yet you accuse Koreans of of anger.

“Translation: Here is my excuse for Korea’s bad behavior. After all, you know that you will never get a Korean to admit that his country can possibly be capable of wrongdoing. after all, they are Koreans..and Koreans are perfect and excused from having to abide by rules of decorum and maturity.”

I can speak Korean, you cant. They made a a joke, and mentioned that it was a joke. They also mentioned that its something you dont do in real life.
If something like this makes you throw a temper tantrum and accuse Koreans of racism then you have some serious growing up to do. Grow up you immature insecure cry baby.

“Yep. About 90% of the comments in Youtube are littered with such stuff as:”f-ck jap!” “jap mother suc (sic)”, “oh, i hate jap b/c they killed 3 billion koreans 40 years ago!!!” “jap”this, “jap” that…”jap, jap, jap, jap, jap!!!!!””

Quite the contrary. It actually works the other way around. If you havent noticed right now most of those racist comments comes from the Japanese.
I noticed that the Japanese youtubers from 2ch are absolutely fascinated with Koreans. They make dozens of videos and visit just about every Korea related video on youtube. Its as if theyre stalking us Koreans.

“Right, like the murder of Major David Berry, a US army sergeant by some stupid, 50 year old loser racist fool in Seoul…oh, wait…damnit! That was a Korean. Hold on…oh, like the threat to bomb the Swiss embassy after the world cup loss. Oh, wait! That was Korea again too! Damnit! This is really pissing me off…all the death threat examples I can think of are from Korea. As a matter of fact, I can’t even think of a documented case in which Japanese have reacted to any criticism of their country by acting like a bunch of immature children sending spam mail bombs on the internet to other countries; severs or threatening another country with violence everytime they get made fun of or lose a soccer match. Wait…now I think of it, only Koreans do that! Waaah! Why is this always the case? But since I am Korean, I can never let this be known so I will try my best to keep it hidden from the world and instead try to project all of the ugly parts of Korea and Koreans by saying that Japanese are like that!”

Ok, so 1 american was killed by someone from Korea. I guess that means Korea is the most dangerous and racist country in the world? What about the Koreans raped, murdered and run over by US GIs? And for the love of god quit generalizing. That swiss embassy bombing was done by an internet troll. A single internet troll said it. If it was the Korean government who said it then yes there is something wrong, but it wasnt.

Im well aware that its pissing you off. Cry babies tend to be enraged about everything. They shove their snotty noses everywhere and assume the world is out to get them. Simple jokes piss them off while they have no qualms with gross racist generalizations. You fail in the logic department and constantly accuse Koreans of what youre doing right now.Anyways If you reply to this, I wont bother reading it.Youre just not worth my time.You fail to display any intelligence and you also show your tendency to generalize and label millions of people in a negative light over a single person.

Random Korean

oops wrong topic, I was replying to Korean TV show: If you do something bad while traveling abroad, pretend you’re Japanese! (Video)
March 8th, 2007

Random Korean

“The biggest lie ever told in the world. Anyways, go ahead and believe what your Korean mind thinks. The rest of the civilized world knows for a fact that Koreans are by far the worst in exploding and screaming whnever someone does as little as criticize Korea�s faults such as racism. But of course, to Koreans, they believe they invented Chinese characters, that Chan Ho Park won the Cy Young Award, that plastic surgery is not prevalent in Korea, that bribery is not a way of life in Korea, that Caucasian women think Bae Yong Joon is more attractive than Brad Pitt, and that Korea invented everything from the internet to the air we breathe.”

And since when has a Korean person ever said any of those? Im not talking about those 1-3 internet trolls on some Korean message board. Considering that Japan has its own fair share of internet trolls. And considering the fact that you are a troll yourself(either that or an incredibly insecure 13 year old) I mean seriously you act and type like a 10 year old. Koreans are angry and racist? Uhh hello. Look in the mirror to see whos racist and temper mental. You have a lot of anger in your post and yet you accuse Koreans of of anger.

“Translation: Here is my excuse for Korea�s bad behavior. After all, you know that you will never get a Korean to admit that his country can possibly be capable of wrongdoing. after all, they are Koreans..and Koreans are perfect and excused from having to abide by rules of decorum and maturity.”

I can speak Korean, you cant. They made a a joke, and mentioned that it was a joke. They also mentioned that its something you dont do in real life.
If something like this makes you throw a temper tantrum and accuse Koreans of racism then you have some serious growing up to do. Grow up you immature insecure cry baby.

“Yep. About 90% of the comments in Youtube are littered with such stuff as:�f-ck jap!� �jap mother suc (sic)�, �oh, i hate jap b/c they killed 3 billion koreans 40 years ago!!!� �jap�this, �jap� that��jap, jap, jap, jap, jap!!!!!�”

Quite the contrary. It actually works the other way around. If you havent noticed right now most of those racist comments comes from the Japanese.
I noticed that the Japanese youtubers from 2ch are absolutely fascinated with Koreans. They make dozens of videos and visit just about every Korea related video on youtube. Its as if theyre stalking us Koreans.

“Right, like the murder of Major David Berry, a US army sergeant by some stupid, 50 year old loser racist fool in Seoul�oh, wait�damnit! That was a Korean. Hold on�oh, like the threat to bomb the Swiss embassy after the world cup loss. Oh, wait! That was Korea again too! Damnit! This is really pissing me off�all the death threat examples I can think of are from Korea. As a matter of fact, I can�t even think of a documented case in which Japanese have reacted to any criticism of their country by acting like a bunch of immature children sending spam mail bombs on the internet to other countries; severs or threatening another country with violence everytime they get made fun of or lose a soccer match. Wait�now I think of it, only Koreans do that! Waaah! Why is this always the case? But since I am Korean, I can never let this be known so I will try my best to keep it hidden from the world and instead try to project all of the ugly parts of Korea and Koreans by saying that Japanese are like that!”

Ok, so 1 american was killed by someone from Korea. I guess that means Korea is the most dangerous and racist country in the world? What about the Koreans raped, murdered and run over by US GIs? And for the love of god quit generalizing. That swiss embassy bombing was done by an internet troll. A single internet troll said it. If it was the Korean government who said it then yes there is something wrong, but it wasnt.

Im well aware that its pissing you off. Cry babies tend to be enraged about everything. They shove their snotty noses everywhere and assume the world is out to get them. Simple jokes piss them off while they have no qualms with gross racist generalizations. You fail in the logic department and constantly accuse Koreans of what youre doing right now.Anyways If you reply to this, I wont bother reading it.Youre just not worth my time.You fail to display any intelligence and you also show your tendency to generalize and label millions of people in a negative light over a single person.

Random Korean

oops wrong topic, I was replying to Korean TV show: If you do something bad while traveling abroad, pretend you�re Japanese! (Video)
March 8th, 2007

Random Person

It’s really funny how Koreans project their own ugly behavior to others. Please….the number of Koreans who post deragatory messages laden with nothing but filthy profanity about Japan outnumbers any Japanese posts doing the same to Koreans by about a million to one. Just look at how many sick and twisted Korean websites, books, and pretty much every news article in the papers are devoted to comparing themselves to Japan. Meanwhile, Japanese hardly ever care about Korea. It’s basically the same as if some small shit third world shit nation rants 24/7 about America…America wouldn’t really care. I mean, it would be stupid to have an argument with a rabid monkey. In the same way, Japanese think it is stupid to get upset over Koreans.

It’s obvious from the swarm of Koreans who flood any post about Japan with typical racist filth that they obsess about Japan 24/7 from the minute they wake up in the morning until they sleep. Basically, the most important goal in life for a Korean is to try to show off Korea and force foreigners to think that Korea is better than Japan. Seriously, Korea is really like some sick, mentally deranged jealous stalker who is stalking an ex-gf who probably told him he was butt ugly.
Random Person

It’s really funny how Koreans project their own ugly behavior to others. Please….the number of Koreans who post deragatory messages laden with nothing but filthy profanity about Japan outnumbers any Japanese posts doing the same to Koreans by about a million to one. Just look at how many sick and twisted Korean websites, books, and pretty much every news article in the papers are devoted to comparing themselves to Japan. Meanwhile, Japanese hardly ever care about Korea. It’s basically the same as if some small shit third world shit nation rants 24/7 about America…America wouldn’t really care. I mean, it would be stupid to have an argument with a rabid monkey. In the same way, Japanese think it is stupid to get upset over Koreans.

It’s obvious from the swarm of Koreans who flood any post about Japan with typical racist filth that they obsess about Japan 24/7 from the minute they wake up in the morning until they sleep. Basically, the most important goal in life for a Korean is to try to show off Korea and force foreigners to think that Korea is better than Japan. Seriously, Korea is really like some sick, mentally deranged jealous stalker who is stalking an ex-gf who probably told him he was butt ugly.
Denshichiro

Speaking as a Black American man with Pan-Asian inlaws, and extended family. I think what works best is that you: “Give respect, get respect”.

What I have my own opinions about how Japan is doing in the “War on Hate” (HAH!! Will we ever live to see THAT day??), but I offer some examples of how they are doing:

1) I used to appear on TV here in Japan because of my language ability. when I refused to degrade my race by “aping” Bobby Ologun, I was replaced with a Japanese actor in blackface and afrowig.

2) Video shops/Video games: filled with media glorifying Japanese military of old, as well as NAZI military. Indeed SWASTIKAS (no, not the Buddhist symbol!) are not at all hard to find!

3) A recent office conversation (with a guy that loves to talk about movies) went sideways as he started to spin into anti Korean rhetoric. When he cited his sources: (Japanese schoolbooks, Japanese television) I called him on the quality of information. Work interrupted us, and we have yet to pick that conversation back up.

What struck me so hilarious about the 3rd example, was that the guy (who I previous thought was a great guy) said to me: “Hey, Im no racist!”… Maybe he thinks befriending a Black guy allows him to say that?

In DEFENSE of Japanese people, some of my Japanese college friends and I got into a bar brawl with other Japanese guys over treatment of Koreans. IMO righteousness knows no color lines. You never know who can be a friend to you. If you limit yourself to certain skin colors… you disservice everyone.
Denshichiro

Speaking as a Black American man with Pan-Asian inlaws, and extended family. I think what works best is that you: “Give respect, get respect”.

What I have my own opinions about how Japan is doing in the “War on Hate” (HAH!! Will we ever live to see THAT day??), but I offer some examples of how they are doing:

1) I used to appear on TV here in Japan because of my language ability. when I refused to degrade my race by “aping” Bobby Ologun, I was replaced with a Japanese actor in blackface and afrowig.

2) Video shops/Video games: filled with media glorifying Japanese military of old, as well as NAZI military. Indeed SWASTIKAS (no, not the Buddhist symbol!) are not at all hard to find!

3) A recent office conversation (with a guy that loves to talk about movies) went sideways as he started to spin into anti Korean rhetoric. When he cited his sources: (Japanese schoolbooks, Japanese television) I called him on the quality of information. Work interrupted us, and we have yet to pick that conversation back up.

What struck me so hilarious about the 3rd example, was that the guy (who I previous thought was a great guy) said to me: “Hey, Im no racist!”… Maybe he thinks befriending a Black guy allows him to say that?

In DEFENSE of Japanese people, some of my Japanese college friends and I got into a bar brawl with other Japanese guys over treatment of Koreans. IMO righteousness knows no color lines. You never know who can be a friend to you. If you limit yourself to certain skin colors… you disservice everyone.
Nicholas

In DEFENSE of Korean people, some of my Korean friends when I went there for teaching told me good things about Japan and that they liked the average japanese person but not their government or politicians
Nicholas

In DEFENSE of Korean people, some of my Korean friends when I went there for teaching told me good things about Japan and that they liked the average japanese person but not their government or politicians

Learning to hate

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