Archive for March, 2010

Haunted house too scary for reporter

A reporter visits Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise to check out their new haunted house, which offers customers two options – “scary” and “not scary.” Both are too scary for her:

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Photos foreign tourists like to take in Japan

“Mezamashi TV” interviews foreign tourists to see what they take photos of while sightseeing in Tokyo:

Some of the results were:

• People reading magazines from the rack at convenience stores
• High-tech multilevel car parking
• magic floating chopsticks! (and advertisements in general)
• the mass of people crossing the street in front of Shibuya station

In the one hour they were observing Shibuya Crossing, they counted 76 foreign tourists taking photographs of the scene. [They did not reveal how they determined the foreignness of each photographer - perhaps they assumed that Japanese people wouldn't bother taking pictures?]

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French chef in a Japanese commercial

Chef Philippe Batton of Le Petit Tonneau is starring in a commercial for Asahi’s newest fruit chu hai drink:

I doubt I’ll try the chu hai, but his restaurant (which I’d never heard of before this commercial) looks pretty nice.
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Libya backed up Japan

The Yomiuri reports on how Japan used “developing countries’ frustrations against decision-making led by the United States and European countries” to defeat the proposed ban on the trade of bluefin tuna:

The beginning of the end for the proposal led by Monaco and the European Union was triggered by an outburst from the Libyan delegate at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.

At a committee meeting Thursday in the Qatari capital, the Libyan delegate shouted his objection to the U.S.-backed proposal, saying it was “part of a conspiracy of developed countries.” His comment was a direct appeal to anti-West sentiment among developing countries.

The Libyan representative then called for the discussion to be wound up and an immediate vote held. The proposal to ban bluefin trade was then rejected.

However, Japan can take some credit for nudging Libya along on this matter.

Masanori Miyahara, chief counselor of the Fisheries Agency, secretly visited Libya to solicit the North African country’s support in opposing the bluefin tuna export ban at the CITES conference.

Though Libya initially had little more than a passing interest in the issue, Japan managed to persuade it to support Japan’s stance.

Credit also goes to Canada, South Korea, and China. Iceland is also given a special mention because it was able to get the proposal put to a secret ballot.

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Chinese dust once again pollutes Japanese skies

The skies around Osaka castle after another dust storm from China – Yomiuri
Clouds of yellow sand from China are back again, polluting the skies over Japan and causing general unpleasantness.

A severe sandstorm has struck north-west China over the past few weeks, reaching Beijing on Saturday morning. The sandstorm, which covered homes, streets, and cars in dust, has left the sky a murky yellow. The air quality was rated as level five. Beijing’s Weather Bureau issued a warning for the sandstorm, and advised citizens to stay in their homes until it passes. As much as 1500 micrograms per cubic meter of dust were reported to be airborne.

Beijing has experienced unusually cold weather this year, with temperatures below freezing at night, even after the start of spring. The sandstorm is affecting more than 50 million people, and forecasters do not see signs of it stopping soon. The desertification of the western China and the Mongolian steppes has made the annual spring sandstorm become worse in the recent years, reaching countries such as South Korea and Japan.

Here are a few YouTube videos showing the situation as it appeared in Japan over the last 24 hours:

Japan and South Korea, both of which fall victim to the the winds from China, have been trying for years to assist in stopping the growth of dusty deserts in that country. As you can see, not much progress has been made.

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Tom Hanks’ remarks about racism in the Pacific War anger American nationalists

I didn’t want to make a post about this story, but the fact that I keep seeing news headlines about it makes me feel it is something worth posting for discussion here:

Tom Hanks, executive producer of HBO’s new miniseries about American Marines in the Pacific War, is being attacked for the following remark he made in a recent interview:

“Back in World War II,” he says, “we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?” – Tom Hanks

Those who have read a bit of academic history books about the Pacific War probably won’t see anything particularly terrible or inaccurate about Hank’s view on racism in the war. It is, after all, just a simple version of the argument John Dower (MIT professor and advisor to the miniseries) made in his famous book, War Without Mercy. Historian Niall Ferguson had a similar message in The War of the World (viewable as a documentary here). To say that the brutality of 20th century warfare has been fueled by racism is hardly controversial.

However, conservatives in America have exploded with anger of Hanks’ statements. Blog posts, editorials, and TV appearances on Fox News have taken Hanks’ remarks and twisted them into ridiculous exaggerations like “TOM HANKS SAYS RACISM WAS THE ONLY REASON FOR THE WAR” , “TOM HANKS THINKS AMERICA IS RACIST” , and of course – “LIBERAL HOLLYWOOD HATES AMERICA.”

Here are a couple examples in video form:

From the perspective of certain nationalistic conservatives, it would seem that pointing out that racism against the Japanese existed in the war is the equivalent of saying that the entire war only occurred because Americans were racist.

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To close this post, here’s a photo from a 1943 issue of Life Magazine [featured in Dower's War Without Mercy]:

It shows the skull of a Japanese soldier that an American marine fighting in the Pacific sent back to his girlfriend as a souvenir. In his book, Dower notes the practice of collecting bones or body parts of dead Japanese soldiers – something that did not happen in the war against Germany – as an example of how Americans viewed their Japanese foes as less than human. The practice was so widespread that it became routine for customs checkpoints to ask Americans returning from the Pacific if they were carrying any human bones in their luggage.

Edit: Further reading on the collecting of “Jap skulls” can be found here. [Hat tip to Ponta]

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