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Hitler on Japanese TV

When Hello Project meets Hitler:

Update: Thanks to doinkies to pointing out that TV Tokyo had to apologize for airing this after receiving a lot of complaints from viewers.

Update 2: Asahi has posted an English language report on the Hitler-ojisan skit.

The slip was made in a segment of the program “Yorosen,” in which young “idol” group members act as school teachers and lecture about history. The program was aired early Friday.

Referring to the Nazi dictator as “Hitler ojisan” (Uncle Hitler), the woman lauded Hitler’s speeches as having a “soothing effect.”

“The program’s content was based on a mistaken interpretation of history and was inappropriate,” the broadcaster said.

[hat tip to Claytonian]

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51 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - December 10, 2008 at 7:23 am

Categories: Japanese TV Tags:

weirdo

日本オワタ
Grinz

as a history buff, it makes me rage that they don’t know who hitler is…but they’re so cute that I can’t stay mad at them.

The Overthinker

I’m not so much angry as amazed that anyone can not know – or, this being seriously crappy TV-land, pretend to not know.

doinkies

Considering that previous Yorosen episodes I’ve seen were pretty obviously scripted, I think this episode is also scripted.

doinkies

I think you should mention that that particular episode received many complaints from fans over the handling of Hitler, and that TV Tokyo and the production company, SSM, apologized for it yesterday, saying it was “inappropriate content based on a wrong understanding of history”: http://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/flash/KFullFlash20081208097.html

They had this same apology on yesterday’s episode of Yorosen, in fact.

The Overthinker

I think “誤った歴史認識” (wrong understanding of history) is going to be one of the phrases of the year, after the Tamogami Incident and now this. I actually find this concept disturbing: it’s like thought control in a way, to unilaterally declare one view to be simply wrong. Of course some things in history are wrong – you can’t say the Chinese attacked Pearl Harbour. But views like this and Tamogami should be an opportunity for education about why these are, to say the least, minority views. So much of historical judgement is based on guesses, really, about both what happened and how much it influenced the principals, which is why views like the idea that Japan was forced into fighting, for example, actually can have currency. Hitler was also great, in the sense that “great” does not mean “good” (though the Japanese “idai” is more nuanced towards “good,” I admit). But we confuse the two now, like when Time wanted to make Osama bin Laden its 2001 Man of the Year. Instead of being, as it was originally, about the person with the greatest contribution to world events for that year, it ended up about being an honour.

Darien Shields

I think what the show should be accused of more than “inaccurate interpretation” is cultural insensitivity, and a rather narrow range of facts. Is this clip the entirety of the segment? Did the girl really never mention that he, you know, invaded Poland, conquered large sections of France, etc? Those seem like, I dunno, you’d want to mention them. And… in addition to having a complex about his height, he was… err… an anti-semite. Y’know. Seems worth noting.

It’s sad, we talk about World War II, but I don’t think the east and west really understand about how it was for each other at all. In the East they don’t seem to see what the big deal is about Hitler, and in the West most people have never heard of the Nanking Massacre. In fact when I was in School I was under the impression that Japan hadn’t been attacking anyone before the Pearl Harbour bombings, which just goes to show how great my education on the subject was.

The Overthinker

I do however think that a key part of this was to avoid the Big Ticket items that would be more of a hint. Though the name Hitler tends to stick out….
doinkies

From the other episodes they had that week, which had other “great” historical figures, it seems that the approach was not to teach the “big ticket items” most people know (as The Overthinker said), but to tell some lesser-known weird/interesting facts about them. For instance, at the beginning of this episode, they had a drawing of Napoleon, and the fact taught about him was that he supposedly put buttons on the French Army’s sleeves to stop the soldiers from wiping their noses on them (whether this is a fact or urban legend, I am not sure).

Yorosen! was never really intended to be a serious educational tool. It’s an idol comedy show that airs very late at night and gets dismal ratings (it’s often 1%) because only the diehard H!P otaku watch it. Even so, the staff should have either not brought up Hitler in the script or should have been more careful when dealing with the subject.

http://notesfromthenog.blogspot.com/ Ted

Tune in next week when our subject is…Harry Truman!

edwardhasnewgoggles

HA, nice. I’d love to hear that one

Kitty

Japanese TV is the best!
leitmotiv

Wow…..Can anyone clarify if this (insipid) TV clip correlates at all with conventional teaching in Japanese schools on this topic? Or is the clip completely at odds and laughable with what Japanese school kids are taught on the topic – and its a complete mystery how the clip was approved for television? Just curious.

James

Japanese school kids, like kids all over the world, learn about how horrible Hitler was. A lot of schools here even read Anne Frank’s diary.

Whether those kids choose to pay attention and remember what is taught in class, however, is another matter.

http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

I think I never read Anne Frank’s diary in school and I’m German.
But we had many history lessons about that time, which is good.

I can laugh about some Hitler jokes, but I think this TV segment was offending to a lot of people. Man people had to suffer or die during Hitler’s reign of terror and the war, the could have at least mention something like that in the conclusion. Better yet, keep such thing out of cutey-cutey TV segments like this. It just doesn’t fit and is in no way appropriate.

LB

Agreed with what James said, the basic facts about Hitler and the Nazis are taught in Japanese schools. Basically everyone knows he was not a nice guy and killed a whole lot of people, as well as dragged all of Europe into a horrendous war (but then again, if it hadn’t been him it probably would have been Stalin….)

Still, there is somewhat of an “cultural awareness gap”, for lack of a better word. Hitler was a Very Bad Man, but on the other side of the planet. Sure he killed 6 million Jews, but there isn’t a very large Jewish population in Japan, nor has there ever been, and the whole concept of anti-semitism is pretty foreign. It is like discussing Genghis Khan in the West – everyone knows who he is, but in general he’s just some historical figure usually shown in a negative light. There is no real connection to him or the events surrounding him.

But try talking to Chinese or Koreans about the Mongols and watch the reaction…
leitmotiv

Fair enough….am now chalking this 100% up to “stupid TV production” which is a fairly universal phenomenon (i.e., certainly not specifically Japanese) and more or less pointless to criticize. Analogy of western POV of Khan and Moguls is apt and clarifies issue nicely – thnx LB.

Jack Elliot

さすが日本
http://twitter.com/Kelliente Kelliente

I give comment points to LB.
Dakk

They shouldn’t have issued an apology, Political Correctness is the cancer killing open mindedness.

LB

I dunno – I don’t think it is wrong to talk about Hitler, nor necessarily wrong to refer to him as “great” (as the Overthinker pointed out above), but the “Hitler Ojisan” was off-putting. Perhaps it is just me, but that was a bit “cutesy” and there are some people to whom cute labels just should not be applied – Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot…

For that, an apology is probably not out of place. Somehow I doubt the show would have done a piece on Tojo Ojisan, and objectively speaking he wasn’t nearly as bad.

doinkies

I agree with LB. Although some of the other historical figures that were talked about on the show that week were also referred to in that way (for instance, Marie Antoinette was referred to as “Marie-neesan”), bringing up Hitler in a goofy/cutesy atmosphere was a bit squicky (and it squicked out the complainers as well). Likewise, it is true that Hitler was a gifted public speaker and his speeches probably did have a “healing effect” for many Germans at that time, but his manipulation of the people through those speeches ultimately led to a lot of suffering.
Like LB, I don’t think it is necessarily wrong to bring up Hitler, but in this particular context (a very short, late-night idol comedy show) the staff should have at least been more careful.

LB

I think the “healing effect” they were mewing about can best be seen in action here:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ubSTSICa7y8
jmadsen

“soothing effect.”…damn, you beat me to it!

DIESCHMECKE KLOPFFSKULRER JUDENSCHEISE *SPIT, SPIT* KLOCKPOCKERFLUCKERSCHNACKFLEN *SPIT, SPIT* ….

…soothing me to sleep…
http://aki-akiaki.blogspot.com/ Aki

Although it has nothing to do with the topic, as a fan of Queen, I can’t help but link to this video.

“I want to break free” by Hitler
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=6ax4jvLM9WI
LB

Aki, Aki, Aki….

You had to go there, didn’t you?

OK, Hitler sings the Jeffersons!
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=7VCW5z2gRqE&feature=related
doinkies

@Aki, LB: wwwwwwwww

Dakk

‘Perhaps it is just me, but that was a bit “cutesy” and there are some people to whom cute labels just should not be applied’

That’s because you’ve been conditioned to demonize them. They were merely men… nothing more, nothing less.

LB

Yes, merely men… who slaughtered millions of their countrymen in the name of ideology, or racial purity, or whatever. They were mere mortals, true, who convinced large numbers of others to do their bidding (as far as I know Hitler never killed anyone personally). Making them out to be “demons incarnate” or something is wrong and simplistic, but so is cutesifying them.
Dakk

“Cutesifying’ them does not ‘cutesify’ their actions.

evening musuko

I wonder if they’ll go on a field trip to the Hitler building?

Oh wait I forgot, the Neptune men blew it up.

pat f.

A+ for you.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Did you see the one about “Alfie the Atom Bomb” and how he became famous because of his cool rebellious personality? Probably not because I just made it up. We have Bill on Capitol Hill, and that’s about the extent to which Americans are willing to go to make education on serious topics cute.
DDD

I thought it was funny nothing she said was a lie.It was twisted into sort of a positive light. Just point out you can make anything sound any way you want.Depends how its presented. Thats the joke…
WavyDavey

It was a very weird choice. Someone somewhere knew that Hitler is a detested figure around most of the world, so they should have chosen someone else with less Jew-annihilating baggage, so to speak. Even choosing Joseph Stalin would have been smarter, since he just isn’t viewed in the same abhorrent light as Hitler, even though he probably deserves to be. Just a red hot button figure they should have known to keep well away from. Very mysterious, really. The girls aren’t to blame since it’s clear they were utterly in the dark, which makes it an even sadder incident.
WavyDavey

When I first read a description of this video it said they ended it by imitating Hitler and I seriously thought they were going to be jumping to their feet, screaming “Sieg heil!!” and doing the straight arm salute, so I was relieved to see it wasn’t quite that catastrophic.

I then checked out a video of Hitler speaking and he does in fact do an arm gesture much like what they did at the end.
WavyDavey

I’ve also found out that neo-Naziism seems to be alive and well on YouTube.
Andy

In the description for this, it says they say his speeches had a “soothing” effect. But in the actual video it’s translated as “cleansing” effect. Ethnic “cleansing” maybe?
http://nonplayercharacter.blogspot.com/ NPC

hahahaha
That’s all I have to say.
Pingback: Stupid fucking teens, media bring “Uncle Hitler” to TV « John Turningpin’s Mad Tokyo. You’re here, so you might as well read some of this.
delrey28

I’m with NPC on this one. I find this to be intensely hilarious. Just consider the setting: we have a group of cute girls learning about historical figures and they are so daft in regard to Hitler’s historical relevance that they refer to him as “Uncle Hitler” and do cute monomane of his height complex.

HAHAHAHAHA

Man, American TV blows.
The Overthinker

Tell you what, though – I did learn something. I did not know that Hitler was that short. So brainless bimbos can teach me something after all….
El desalmado

BONUS!
+100!
http://sweetness-ina-jar.blogspot.com/ Con

Why did she make it look like hitler was going through a herpies outbreak?

And, I do not see how… that is possible. I mean, that war… it was not exactly a “little” thing. Lol
Thinker

The girls are adorable !!!!!!!!!!!

That aside, I am surprised no one bother analyzing why this actually happened. Japan is not a western culture, it is not affected by the actions of Hitler as much as others (in fact, they were allies…). Not to mention the show was supposed to be FUNNY. There are many events that are sensitive and tragic to other people that your typical North American (with exception of Canadians and Mexicans, lol) would not understand. To blindly judge things objectively without analyzing the matter from the subject’s point of view (subjective in relation to the party involved) is ignorant. Japan is a culture where people are intelligent and polite, so I don’t see why they would knowingly offend people with a program like this. So the only possible conclusion is that they simply do not view the matter in the same light as North Americans (or more precisely, anyone who’s affected by Hitler’s terror).

Lastly, did I mention that the girls are ADORABLE !!??
Bruno

freaking japaneses alway trying to get away with everything

btw, IT’S NOT CUTE ANYMORE

GROW THE F UP PEOPLE
DOOR

How can you compare genghis khan with Hitler? That does not have accuracy. It can be compared with Hitler, Mussolini, Hiroito, because they were genocidal leaders of that era, besides Nazism lives even through the ideology and fanaticism. I could see such demonstrations as “worship the butcher” in Japanese politics, in Japanese television, japanese comics, and so on.; Is not the first time found this type of material. They see this as a metaphor of the past of their homeland, and as they can not evoke the genocide by its empire (U.S. control), they express their ideas in this way. In Japan there are a lot of Nazi ideology especially in the spheres of power. Fortunately, the Japanese public opinion always reacts to condemn this because they know actually referred to this.
http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com Brian

Happens all over Asia, I guess. Hitler and Nazis are popular in Korea. A Korean company used a model in a Nazi uniform to sell cosmetics last year:
http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-coreana-nazi-video-pretty-much-same.html

http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/04/coreana-wants-ads-removed-from-youtube.html

In August a popular left-wing magazine juxtaposed Hitler and President Lee Myung-bak. Apparently there are some concentration camps in Seoul we haven’t heard about: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/08/quite-arresting-magazine-cover-youve.html

And in downtown Gyeongju there’s a big Nazi mural on the side of a building:

http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/02/nazi-mural-in-gyeongju.html

That’s in addition to the few Hitler and Nazi-themed bars and restaurants you’ll find around the country.
ryan

That was just stupid and not entertaining but i didnt find it offensive.
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Hitler on Japanese TV

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