Comments

Posts

Protests Hit Nagano Relay

The Japan leg of the Olympic torch relay is underway, and there are reports of minor disturbances:

Not long after the 8:30AM start of the relay, a Japanese protester threw something at the torch runner. Police blocked it and arrested the man.
Around 9:00AM, a protester dashed into the road and was tackled by the police.

Update: Here’s a slightly better video of the few disruptions that took place during the relay and some news links.

The man being carried away by police while screaming “free Tibet” was a Taiwanese citizen. The four other protesters arrested were Japanese. There were also incidents in which Chinese students were injured in attempted attacks on pro-Tibet protesters:

At least four people were injured in the scuffles in the mountain resort of Nagano, where more than 85,000 people packed the streets including Chinese students who turned the town into a sea of red national flags.

After relative calm elsewhere in Asia, the torch met at least hundreds of protesters here ranging from Buddhist monks and pro-Tibet demonstrators to nationalists, who provocatively waved Japan’s old imperial flag.

Protesters threw trash, an egg, a tomato and flares as the torch was paraded through the streets despite more than 3,000 police guarding the route, who had raised security to a level usually accorded to Emperor Akihito.

[...]

China is killing Tibetans, who are a very peaceful people, so I hate the Chinese government,” said Hisakazu Hattori, a 21-year-old student.

Another protester, Mitsuru Ishikawa, said he feared China’s rise.

“China wants to conquer the world. I’m afraid that China will conquer Japan in the near future,” Ishikawa said.

Furious Chinese supporters in turn surrounded demonstrators waving Tibetan flags. In one brawl the Chinese charged with flagpoles and were kicked by anti-Beijing demonstrators until police intervened, witnesses said.

At least four Chinese were injured, none of them seriously, said the fire department of Nagano, the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics some 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Tokyo.

——–

Mainstream international media coverage of the relay

If NTV’s report is to be trusted, the Chinese media’s coverage of the Nagano relay was 100% positive. A heavily edited video of portions of the relay that did not have any Tibetan flags in the background was shown and there was absolutely no mention of protests.

——–

Irene has kindly brought to our attention a YouTube video and 2-channel archives that give a firsthand account of the relay from the perspective of Japanese protesters:

——–

It wasn’t the total chaos that some had predicted, but protesters seemed to have made a bigger impact in Japan than in the other countries the torch passed through in the last week. The torch travels to South Korea tomorrow, where North Korean defectors have vowed to interrupt the relay in protest of China’s repatriation of refugees to the North where they often face execution.

40 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - April 26, 2008 at 10:46 am

Categories: General Japan Tags: Beijing, ccp, china, human rights, japan, nagano, relay, tibet, torch

http://neilduckett.com Neil Duckett

Reasonably uneventful compared to some other places so far …. guess it’s early days yet though.
Rick

I’m kinda disappointed no one has tried the fire extinguisher again since London.
Underthinker

I’m disappointed in the effort of Japanese protesters. Well time to go make some popcorn and see if they pull something better off after the intermission.

http://www.hormel.com VonSkippy

Must be all the hard-core protesters are still busy vandalizing tulips.

Irene

It’s not because there were no protesters but it’s because the police separated the Japanese with Tibetan flags away from the road where the relay took place.

Here’s a youtube video with some photos, where you can see a lot of people with Tibetan flags (heard it’s about 200)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOrzBoJUDj4

Also from the following 2ch archive, it seems that the police allowed the Chinese with Chinese flags around the relay and not the Japanese with Tibetan flags not because they wanted to limit the freedom of speech of those protesters, but that they wanted to prevent the Chinese with flags from rioting by asking them to leave as opposed to the Japanese protesters.
http://2books.blog110.fc2.com/blog-entry-157.html

Btw, it seems from the comments on http://nicovideo.com that many of the private videos of the Nagano torch relay have been deleted.. supposedly because they infringed the copyright, where the uploader is actually holding the copyright. Strange.. I supposed the Chinese government is doing this, just another example of media censorship that they do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China

Irene

oops I meant http://www.nicovideo.jp
anyway there are some videos there of the torch relay, but you have to have an account (free) to watch them.
David

“Japanese with Tibetan flags”: doesn’t that sound nice and full of good intentions? Well, has everyone seen this video off the BBC taken at the Nagano torch relay?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7368307.stm

Notice the “free Tibet supporter” and his racist placard reading: “Zainichi shina-jin dete ike!” Not only is he saying he wants all Chinese out of Japan, but he also uses the derogatory pre-1945 expression “shina-jin”, seemingly oblivious to the contradiction between this colonialist wartime language and his support for some sort of idea of separation, distinctiveness, self-determination or independence for Tibet. Perhaps he would like to see a independent xenophobic Tibet which forcibly expels its Chinese “immigrant” population!

doinkies

Just because one doink holds up a sign like that doesn’t mean the rest of the protesters agree with his views.

Lei

its too bad that china’s most awaited time to shine in the world was overshadowed by the tibet issue. I’m very dissapointed since im also chinese and i believed the olympics was the perfect opportunity for china to be recognized as a powerful industrial country in the world
http://edition.cnn.com PC

Well, i will be totally suprised if the Japanese did not seize this opportunity to showcase their “humanitarian” nature !.But, they will probably be a more complete human race if they can face up & own up to the heinous & barbaric genoicide committed by their prided military during WWI & WWII, especially on the Chinese Civilian. Their action here is actually a portrait of the very dark side of the japanese culture that is being camouflaged by all the bright beautiful faces that they are trying( successfully indeed) to project to the World. …sigh…pity and feel sad for all the other japanese with conscience !

ダビ

Today Japan is a positive force in the world – China is not.
Edison

the number of chinese killed in china after the communist took over 1n 1949 is greater than the number made in WW2, and even up until now, china has been covering-up the truth on her killings of her own people, does that make chinese a barbaric race?

ps: i’m not japanese.
dood

“Their action here is actually a portrait of the very dark side of the japanese culture that is being camouflaged by all the bright beautiful faces…”

Linking mere protesting with a “very dark side of … culture” is probably stretching things a bit too much… I suggest that you get to know more people my friend. People (at least those I know) aren’t this bad.
the overthinker

“if they can face up & own up to the heinous & barbaric genoicide”

They have, frequently. To claim they haven’t suggests you are under the influence of Chinese propaganda.
http://pontasmemorandum.blogspot.com/ ponta

China, just like Japan, should face and own up to the heinous and barbaric genocide committed by the imperial Japan, nationalist party and communist China, especially on Chinese people.
Japan has apologized to China several times and Japan has send enormous amount of ODA.
China can apologize to Tibet and send ODA to Tibet.
Give them freedom;ultimately that will do good for the Chinese people too.

Anti-Terror Performance

The disaster Olympics for China continue. China is a fascist totallitarian state. This Olympics does more harm than good.
Anti-Terror Performance

I can´t understand why people would bother to run with the Olympic torch. Taiwan should invade China together with Japan and USA. Come with massive anti China propaganda stage a false flag operation then invade just like with Iraq.
Madhyam

Is it just me or is the whole “Free Tibet” craze in Japan becoming not about freeing Tibet, but becoming more like anti-Chinese racism craze instead?

LOD

It’s not just in Japan, but same anywhere else in the world. They are caring more about hating Han Chinese than helping Tibetans, so the anger by Han Chinese are, to some extent, justified.
One thing to remember, however, is that they are still not anti-Chinese “racists”, but anti-PRC. There is a big difference between these two.

BTW, the protestor on the first picture who shouted “free Tibet” was indeed a Taiwanese, but of Tibetan ethnicity.
http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/sports/140850/

David

‘One thing to remember, however, is that they are still not anti-Chinese “racists”, but anti-PRC. There is a big difference between these two.’

If I’m not wrong the anti-Chinese racism of the 1894-1945 period already distinguished between the mainland Chinese and the successfully-colonised population of Taiwan. I suspect there is more continuity here than meets the eye.

David

Exactly. I don’t know about Japan, but much of the “Free Tibet” chatter in Europe consists of criticism of the “high level” of Chinese “immigration” into Tibet, “diluting” or “drowning out” the “distinctive Tibetan culture”. Sound familiar? Yet few, I think, of the same European “Free Tibet” protesters would consider themselves to be aligned with the anti-immigrant xenophobic right wing in their countries. (Again, I’m not sure if this observation applies to Japan! — see my last post)

jjjtango

The more this goes on, the more I get the feeling that this whole protest thing consists of people who want to jump on the international free-tibet bandwagon.
Level3

The reason for weak protests is simple.
The location is in the middle of nowhere,
not in a capitol city like London or Paris.
Add in that Japanese people in general just
don’t give a shit about politics.

A strong Chinese presence is no surprise.
The Chinese fascist government funds Chinese
groups to go support the torch run and try to
drown out opposition by sheer numbers.

It’s easy for them because Japan is a free country.
But when a group of Japanese go to China to see a soccer
game, they are herded like sheep by the fascist Chinese government.
Sweetwater

To my knowledge, some Chinese are offended by the usage of Chinese characters in “支那 (Shina),” because the first character has a meaning of branch. However, there is no reason for them to be offended by “シナ (Shina),” since both China and Shina have the same root 秦, the first united Chinese empire!

Yet, some Chinese might feel offended by “Shina” partly because people like David and ダビ spread false information that “Shina-Jin” is a derogatory term equivalent with “nigger” and that it is a colonist wartime language; and partly because they are Sinocentrist and look down other Asian barbarians surrounding their “Central Kingdom.”

By the way, 地中海 is a straight translation of Mediterranean Sea, which means sea “enclosed or nearly enclosed with land (The Merriam-Webster).” The name “地中海” has nothing to do with Romanocentrism.

Irene

Yeah, but it’s now consided a racist word toward the Chinese in Japan also. So even if it doesn’t originally mean a racist intention, it is considered so when ppl use it nowadays. It’s like saying ‘j*p’ to the Japanese (I don’t mean the origin).

David

Sweetwater,

I think the guy holding up the “zainichi shina-jin deteike!” placard knows he’s trying to convey the most offensive connotations possible. And I would claim that “shina” is mostly used in such derogatory contexts. There are good historical reasons to consider “shina” to be offensive. It’s use in Japan coincides with the the era of Japanese colonial expansion into China, and was most common in the period 1937-1945. The Japanese authorities are well aware of these negative associations, and strongly discouraged the use of “shina” from 1946 onwards.

I think one would have to be quite deliberately obtuse not to notice the derogatory connotations of the word “shina”. And Japan, far from being “barbarian”, is surely one of the more civilised cultures around.

http://aki-akiaki.blogspot.com Aki

Your description on the history of the usage of “Shina” in Japan is not based on fact. The term “Shina” started to be commonly used in Japan in the early 19th century as a translation of “China” found in books imported from European countries. Since Yogaku (Western learning) was in fashion at the time, not only scholars but also commoners began to use the term to express China. Before that period, Morokoshi (唐土), Kara (唐) or Toh (唐) had been used for “China”. But, in the late Edo period, these terms were already so old-fashioned that decent people did not use them.

If usage of “Shina” was connected with Japanese colonialism as you mentioned, what other term did Japanese used for “China” before that period? The fact is that “Shina” had been the only term to express “China”.

Now Japanese usually use “Chugoku (中国)” to express “China”. But before 1945, “Chugoku (中国)” was exclusively used as a geographical name of the area between Kinki (Kyoto-Osaka area) and Kyushu. The area name “Chugoku” was first decided by the document, engishiki (延喜式), issued in 967AD. However, since the government of the Republic of China requested the Japanese government not to use the term “Shina” in public documents, Japanese government decided not to use the term. At the same time, Japanese had to change the Japanese traditional area name “Chugoku” that had been used from the 10th century to “Chugoku-chiho”, in order to distinguish it from the name of China. Before that, Japanese used only “Shina” to express “China”, and “Chugoku” was one of the Japanese area names.

David

I am aware that “Shina” is a term imported from Europe (and itself entered the European vocabulary from Sanskrit), and one which became common in Japan in the Meiji era (much more so than in the early part of the 19th century that you claim). This was also the period when Japanese colonialism began. Along with Yougaku came also European attitudes of cultural superiority which quickly became colonialsm and racism towards the population of the Asian mainland, and the beginnings of the first Sino-Japanese War in 1894.

So the historical facts do not rule out the drawing of a connection between “Shina” and colonialism. A case can be made that rise of the word “Shina” coincided with the rise of European-style colonialist attitudes in Japan.

As for your last point, yes, of course “Chuugoku” is a long-established area name in Japan. But you then contradict your earlier-stated facts by claiming this is circumstantial evidence for Japanese having always used the term “Shina” to refer to China. Surely in the period circa 1000AD the words would have been “Kara” or “Tou”, would it not?

Although the Japanese government did, in 1932, after more than a decade of protest by the Republic of China, agree not to use “Shina” in official documents, the official name of the Republic of China is “中華民国”, and not the informal “中国” so it appears to a slight exaggeration to say that the Japanese government “had” to change the name of “Chuugoku” to “Chuugoku-chiho”. In any case why is this remarkable? One often hears, for example, phrases like “Kanto-chiho” to refer to the Kanto area.

More revealing is the subsequent fact that soon after the escalation of the aggression against China after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, the Japanese goverment reverted to the use of “Shina” even in official documents, and continued to do throughout the rest of the Sino-Japanese War, its most notorious and bloody phase. This to me is what more than anything else associates inextricably “Shina” with the despicable history of colonialism and racism.

Sorry for the long post. I’m no historian and would rather not have to quibble over fine historical points. Whether or not we disagree over the intrinsic offensiveness of the word “Shina”, what surprises me is that you mostly don’t seem very concerned at all about the (surely offensive and dangerous!) views of the protester with the xenophobic placard. I wonder why you instead choose to deflect this observation by, say, debating the relative unpleasantness of the kanji and kana representations of “Shina”, instead of asking yourselves if the current wave of Olympics-related protests is partly rooted in perfidious anti-Chinese hysteria.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

So, we should all be calling Japan “和” out of respect, since 日本 was a name given to the country by a Chinese emperor who regarded the land as nothing more than a satellite region of the Chinese empire.
http://pontasmemorandum.blogspot.com/ ponta

You might be t confused with Korea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_%28Japan%29
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC
It seems Nihon and Nippon is the name that Japan used for herself.

As for Shina, in my opinion, shina is not necessarily used in a pejorative sense.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%94%AF%E9%82%A3
For instance, 東シナ海/ 南シナ海/支那そば are not used in a pejorative sense.

But the placard the guy is holding IS really a shame. It is a disgrace.
http://aki-akiaki.blogspot.com Aki

David,
As for the placard guy, I second ponta. Yet I responded to your comment since I thought your argument on the history of the usage of “Shina” was exaggerated.

As I mentioned, “Shina” was the only term that Japanese used in place of “China” in English. Pre-modern terms such as Morokoshi were vague terms used to indicate Eastern part of the Eurasian Continent that often included the Korean peninsula, which makes these terms inappropriate to use in place of “China” in modern context. Thus they were extinguished in modern Japanese language. As you probably know, the name of India was changed from “Tenjiku (天竺)” to “Indo (印度)”, when “Morokoshi (唐土)” was replaced by “Shina (支那)”. Indo was not derogatory as Shina was not derogatory. Anyway, if “Morokoshi” had been used in place of “China”, you would have said that “Morokoshi” was a derogatory term. I wholeheartedly hope that the present term “Chugoku” would not follow the same fate as “Shina”.

As for the name of the Republic of China, Japanese government literally translated the Republic of China as 支那共和国, but she decided not to use the translation in official documents in 1930 responding to the request from the Republic of China. This is the document of the decision issued on Oct. 31 of 1930. However, the Japanese government’s decision was that she would not use 支那共和国 as the name of the country, the Republic of China. Even after that decision, the word “Shina” itself was continuously used in official documents. This page on the website of the National Diet Library has links to the official documents. You can find “Shina” in the documents issued on 1930 (昭和5年).11.18, 1931.9.18, 1931.11.11, 1932.3.12, 1932.7.12, 1932.7.16, 1932.8.27, 1933.1.4, 1934.3.31, 1936.12.26, and so on. This contradicts your statement, “More revealing is the subsequent fact that soon after the escalation of the aggression against China after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, the Japanese goverment reverted to the use of “Shina” even in official documents,”

Notice that “Shina” was the term correspnding to “China” in English. “Shina” was the name of the area on the Eurasian Continent where Chinese empires historically controlled. “Shina-jin” was the people living there, corresponding to “Chinese” in English.

…so it appears to a slight exaggeration to say that the Japanese government “had” to change the name of “Chuugoku” to “Chuugoku-chiho”.

I did not write “the Japanese government had to…”. I wrote “Japanese had to…”. The reason I mentioned “Chugoku” was just to show that it was not necessary in the early 20th century to use the confusing term “Chugoku” in place of “China” when there was another term “Shina”.

Ponta,
Thanks for the links. I was almost falling into this situation.

Joe

If it’s that bad while passing the torch, image what’s gonna be like at Olympics…………hopefully Olympics won’t turn into a deathmatch between nations
Karina

I heard on the news that the Chinese people with Chinese flags were paid or hired or recruited by the Chinese embassy in Japan to be there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BblZw9st5w Irene

Yes, I heard that too.. oh yeah from this youtube video (please click on the link)

ダビ

That’s like saying nigger is not a bad word because originally it just meant “black person”. If you really want you could come with a different name for China that doesn’t have 「中」. Better rename 地中海 as well – you don’t want to be romanocentric.
Sweetwater

Why do we have to change the name of 地中海? I don’t understand your logic. If you force Japanese people not to use “Shina-jin,” you should stop calling them “Chinese.”
dood

I’m guessing that Shina jin = Sina jin = China jin? Not sure though. If that’s the case then I guess it’s as neutral as Amerika-jin or Doitsu-jin. Simply means “China person”, “America person”, and “German person”. Not sure why they used “Shina” and not “Chugoku” though.
ダビ

>> Sweatwater

Because 地中海 like the English word Mediterranean implies that that ocean is the centre of the world – duh.

>> Sweatwater, dood

Words become offensive not because of their inherit meaning because of the way they are used.

Btw the work Shina/支那 apparently comes from Chinese – it was used to transcribe the Indian name for China when they translated buddhist texts into Chinese. Before the war it think it was neutral in both China and Japan but now, because only idiots like the guy in the video use it, it has become a racial slur.
LOD

語源がどうなのかは問題ではありません。現在、相手がどう受け取るかが問題で、多くの中国人が「『シナ人』は差別語だ」と感じたら、それでも『シナ人』を使うという人が少なくとも無神経なのは明白でしょう。『中国人』がどうしても嫌だってんなら（その時点でどうかと思うけど）、せめて『チャイニーズ』とかに汁。
『Jap』が本来は『Japanese』を省略しただけだったとして（実際の語源は知りませんが、例えばの話）、今、外国人が『Jap』と言ったら多くの日本人は怒るでしょ。それと同じこと。繰り返すけど、差別語か否かは現在相手がどう受け取るかであって、語源は関係ありません。

Having said all of it, however it sounds hypocritic, however it sounds “racist” or 内政干渉, we still have a right to protest over the currently ongoing genocide, I believe. (But without using stupid racial slurs, hopefully.)
dood

“So,white house rounded up all his lackeys to do the dirty works smearing,slandering China & Chinese people.”

My friend, you make it sound as if there’s an anti-China conspiracy in the world which is being led by the U.S. Chillax a bit my friend, no one is conspiring against China.

“Always remember, japan is a positive force now ,only because the master, white house allows it to be, otherwise it will be “ugly Japanese” not “beautiful japan”….wake up ! man”

A bit unfair here. It’s as if you believe that Japanese are inherently evil creatures who are just pretending to be nice because of orders from the white house. Not exactly a nice thing to say.

Protests Hit Nagano Relay

Recent Comments

Further Reading

South Korean Government Demands That International Hydrographic Organization Use “East Sea”

Japanese Documentary About Sea Shepherd’s Protest Activities in Taiji (English Subtitles)

Babies Born on March 11th Receive Special Present

Washington Times Freelancer Slams Former Employer, Fails to Ethically Disclose Relationship?

Christopher Johnson Attempts to Silence Criticism of His “Gaijin Gulag” Article (Legal Threats!!!)

Tabloid Reports About Yu Darvish’s Love Life: Kirara Asuka & Miho Koga?

Does K-Pop Group KARA Have Ties to North Korea?

Tokyo Gate Bridge

Sara Errani Admits She Avoided Tennis Tournament in Tokyo: Feared Radiation

Chinese Workers Who Survived March 11th Tsunami Return to Tohoku

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Japan Blogs

Korea Blogs

Linkroll

Other Asia Blogs