Posts Tagged ‘hate’

Anti-Japanese hatred grows after “The Cove” is shown in Australia

The Australian media is reporting that there has been an surge of hate directed at Japanese people in Broome Shire, a town that had a sister city agreement with the Taiji, a town in Wakayama prefecture. Anger at Japan forced the town to dissolve its sister city agreement and now graveyards are being targeted:

Councillors of Japanese heritage and others have been verbally attacked in the Western Australian town of Broome, over a dolphin cull which occurs each year in Taiji.

The dolphin slaughter, which is documented in a new movie, “The Cove,” has also led to an attack on an historic Japanese cemetery.

ABC News Australia reported that opponents of the cull hung pictures of dolphins in the cemetery.

The head of the local government has declared that the debate has degenerated into racism and that the people responsible for the graveyard attack were “absolute morons.” Hatred of Japan has also led Broome Shire to cancel part of its annual Japan-themed pearl festival.

It was recently announced that the Tokyo International Film Festival will not screen “The Cove.” The creators of the documentary have claimed it is because the film is critical of Japan. There has been no official announcement of the exact reason for the rejection. I wouldn’t be shocked if the film makers intentionally sabotaged their own submission: news about Japanese rejecting their movie is great PR for their film.

My views on “The Cove” have not changed much since I wrote about it back in 2008. I haven’t been able to attend a screening of the film, but every clip I’ve seen and every article I’ve read confirm what I previously thought: this film isn’t going to win Japanese hearts and minds. It might even make matters worse by deepening the sense that Japan is under siege by cultural imperialists who feel they have the right to dictate the morality of eating certain types of animals.

After hearing about the anti-Japanese hate going in Australia, I searched twitter for comments about the Taiji dolphin hunt. There is a huge volume of “STOP JAPAN FROM KILLING DOLPHINS” comments, and it didn’t take long to find a few that were ridiculous and/or racist:

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Were Chinese National Flags Rejected For Entry To Japan By Japanese Customs Officials?

No. China’s state-controlled media has issued a report to squash a preposterous rumor that has been going around nationalist websites:

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) — Reports that China’s national flags had been rejected for entry to Japan by Japanese Customs officials were unfounded, China said on Saturday.

The reports, carried on some websites, were untrue, said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

Soccer: Japan Beats China

Those of you who follow the news links posted on Japan Probe’s front page may have read the article we linked to focusing on expectations of anti-Japanese hostility leading up to a China-Japan soccer match. Well, the match took place last night, and judging from the news photos showing up on Yahoo! Japan, fans of nasty unsportsman-like behavior weren’t let down.

The most painful-looking event in the match was a kick delivered to a Japanese player by the Chinese goalkeeper during the second half of the game (the photo at the top of this post shows the kick from a different angle):

A video of the “dangerous kung fu kick” is currently the most-viewed video on YouTube Japan:

Other photos and videos (all of which were popular on Yahoo and YouTube’s Japanese sites) show other scenes of “dirty football:”

Japan ended up winning the game, though:

“I knew it would be a tough game but my players fought calmly,” said Japan coach Takeshi Okada, whose squad missed Celtic star Shunsuke Nakamura and three key strikers including former Frankfurt player Naohiro Takahara because of poor form or injury.

“They fought patiently and produced a result,” Okada added.

China’s under-pressure Serbian coach Vladimir Petrovic praised his whole squad, including six under-23 players, for “performing aggressively.”

The AFP article linked states that Chinese fans “remained unexpectedly quiet during Japan’s national anthem and cut out the loud booing that marred their win over North Korea.” Japanese language articles, however, report that Chinese fans were quite hostile, booing loudly and even burning a Japanese flag. Jiji Press also released a photo showing Chinese guards restraining a fan whose anti-Japanese cheering got out of hand:

FTV news ran a short segment on Chinese fan reactions to the match, mentioning the flag-burning incident. However, the report noted that there was less anti-Japanese protesting that usual after the match, with Chinese fans instead focusing their anger on their own team:

[Update] More on this from the AFP:

“We deplore yesterday’s performances very much. As the delegation, we are considering making some representations to the EAFF (East Asian Football Federation),” Kuniya Daini told reporters.

“Dangerous acts could threaten players’ careers.”

Daini also hit out at North Korean referee Song O-Tae, who handed out four yellow cards to the hosts but did not send anyone off.

He said he would consult with Japanese men’s coach Takeshi Okada later Thursday and may take action on Friday.

“We may seek appropriate steps to be taken with regard to both rough plays and refereeing,” Daini said.

Okada had already complained he was “very much dissatisfied” with the officiating and other matters.

“I told my players to act calmly but it was myself who was more excited,” he said after the match.

Chinese Government: No Anti-Japanese Hate During Olympics

According to the Washington Times (via Foreign Policy), the Chinese government is taking measures to ensure that locals attending next year’s summer Olympics will not embarrass their country. Shouting obscenities, booing during opposing countries’ national anthems, and banners with insults on them, all of which have been pretty common at smaller scale international matches held in China prior to the 2008 Olympics, are being discouraged in favor of official government sanctioned cheering styles:

At a field hockey test event this summer between Argentina and Australia, hundreds of middle-age women were bused in to add atmosphere ・the kind of instant numbers only China can muster. The women tried to imitate cheers in Spanish but got it wrong.

“Ba mao si fen han de di le,” they chanted, which in Chinese could roughly mean: “Eighty-four cents, you’ve offered a price too low.” Nobody could figure out what this had to do with field hockey.

If there’s trouble, it could come in soccer ・or any team event in which Japan participates. Chaos erupted in Beijing in 2004 after Japan defeated China to win Asia’s national soccer title. Japan’s women’s soccer team was peppered with insults three months ago at the women’s World Cup in China, and fans jeered Japan’s national anthem.

Shouting obscenities at opposing players is common in Chinese soccer. Beijing’s top club, Guo’an, plays at the Feng Tai stadium, which is draped with signs urging good behavior. Dozens of closed-circuit cameras have been added in the past few years, and the police presence has increased severalfold.

“Be civilized when you watch the match. Don’t get angry about the results,” one banner reads.

Cameras also will dot each Olympic venue, many looking down on the crowd from the ceiling. Organizers say they may dress police and soldiers in volunteer uniforms to ensure order.

“We are not going to shout profanities in front of foreigners because the Olympics is a show for foreigners,” said Lui Wei, a spectator at a recent Guo’an game.

“The government has told us it’s not polite,” the 21-year-old said. “The government wants to show a good image of the country.”

The rude and hateful reactions of Chinese spectators have offended Japanese sports fans for years now, but the Chinese government is only taking action now because millions of spectators in non-Japanese countries will be watching China/Japan matches on their televisions. Hopefully their new policies will make things cleaner and will last beyond the Olympics.

For a few examples of Chinese crowd treatment of Japan, I googled my way to the Japanese soccer blog soccerundergound.com and found these pictures:

This woman is carrying a sword with an anti-Japanese slogan on it, and she yells death threats at the camera:

A team China supporter shouts that he will kill the Japanese:

The crowd that guy was in starts chanting insults directed at the Japanese:

China blog EastSouthWestNorth has also blogged about the anti-Japanese cheers of Chinese fans during the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup, mentioning an extraordinary reaction from the Japanese:

When the Japanese women’s soccer team unfurled a banner of gratitude at the Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium, it belied what had happened for 90 minutes before. Japan, trying desperately to get into the knockout phase of the women’s World Cup, had to endure not only the onslaught by reigning champions Germany on the pitch, but also a chorus of abuse from the almost 40,000 spectators, who had come not so much to cheer the Europeans but to jeer their Asian neighbours.

In this group A finale in the coastal city of Hangzhou 13 days ago, heckling and booing threatened to bring down the roof whenever the Japanese gained possession. A huge German flag was passed around the stands by a mostly Chinese, 39,817-strong crowd. The overwhelming partisan support for the Germans – who won 2-0 – coupled with obscenities directed at the Japanese, certainly raised a lot of eyebrows. “People paid a proper standing tribute to the German national anthem but once the strains of the Japanese anthem set in, most of them sat down and booed,” said a German journalist. “To be honest, it was really impolite.” Yet the Japanese women were undaunted. They returned to the pitch after the final whistle, held up a banner reading “Thank you China” and bowed to the stands in all directions.

[...]

“There is no doubt that Japanese athletes will have to live with the hostility [at the Beijing Olympics],” said Tong Zeng, a leading activist in the campaign to defend China’s sovereignty over the Diaoyu islands. “The resentment is justified and a natural response towards a sports team representing a former invader that denies its tainted past.” Asked whether the goodwill banner by the Japanese women conjured any sympathy, Tong replied: “It’s a heart-warming display of kindness, but again I don’t think it will do much to put an end to the heckling.”

It’ll be very interesting to see how the 2008 Olympics turn out.