It was a year ago when, at about this time, I was sitting on a bench in Tokyo watching the ducks circling in a pond. Tokyo, a hectic city with seemingly more people per block than the combined population of New Zealand and its West Island, Australia, maintained a sort of quiet order through it all. For all that was going around, the city was clean and the people unbelievably polite/pleasant. Once, at a train station WC with a long queue, a man told me to follow him… He lead me to a loo without a queue saying that, while designed for the disabled, could be used by anyone. Most Japanese would not use it even if they were dancing the bladder jig. It was in Japan where I would stay up all night and sing karaoke before heading to a ramen shop for a 4 AM bowl of soup. All the way through the Japanese were impeccable in every way. Even the customer service at convenience stores exceeded that found in high-end German and US stores. Japan now is in a bad way. Today I spoke with two old friends who are now back home in Japan. Both are carrying on stoically, eager to get back to their regular lives. It is hard for me to discuss it, perhaps because I am also so thoroughly disgusted with the media and how they handle this. Over a million have no access to fresh water yet when packages of bottled water are brought, no one takes more than they absolutely need. The people are not looting, the people are not rioting. Even in this hell, the people are doing their best to carry on as well as possible.
Boadicea's Chariot 
CNN reported just this morning on how orderly the population were responding to this tragedy, one example that sticks in my mind – we were told that 200 cars were queuing for petrol, only one pump was operable, at 2 minutes per car that’s 400 minutes or almost 7 hours!
Good luck and my best wishes to all of them.
Christopher
I could not agree with you more. I found Japan to be the most ordered society I have ever visited and the people are charming, helpful and polite. A friend of mine told me to stand on any corner in Tokyo and look puzzled and within a minute someone would ask if they could help. I was looking for Shinjuku station, small place, only deals with 2.5 million passengers a day and was expecting some mighty edifice but could see nowt. As I was turning my map this way and that a man approached and asked if I needed assistance, he then went on to explain that the station was underground but there were many access points and took me to the nearest one. And they help each other, not just foreigners, I was up very early one morning to see the tuna auctions at the world’s largest fish market and as I entered the staion I saw sleeping figures, wrapped in blankets, being woken by station staff. I then noticed that they were well dressed men waking up and realised that they had probably had a few drinks and missed their last train home so bedded down on the platform, with the blankets being supplied by station staff, only in Japan.
I agree that the media is only focusing on the negative but good news is bad news and does not sell advertising, if there were riots in the streets and fights breaking out over fuel and water it would be writ large but at the moment the structure of this very well ordered society is holding fast. We can only wish them well as the country suffers death from a thousand cuts but they are nothing if not inventive and industrious, they will recover, given aid and time.
Perhaps this is not the time to comment on Japanese tourists in Australia – but I’m going to. They are, without doubt, exceedingly ill-mannered. I’ve been elbowed out of the way on more than one occasion – whether it be getting food, taking a photo or simply standing in a queue.
I’ve watched some of their ‘contest’ programs – briefly it must be said, since I found them to be utterly sickening.
I make no excuses for my antipathy towards the Japanese. I have seen and read far too much about their war-time atrocities and have been utterly disgusted that they have not been prepared, as the Germans have done, to acknowledge their history. I am pleased that they are finally facing their past – but it is far too late for people like my step-father and the thousands of PoWs, like him, who suffered at Japanese hands, not only then but for the rest of their lives, … or for the hundreds of thousands of Asians who fared even worse than the PoWs did.
I do not feel, as one of my relatives seems to think, that this is retribution for their past. It is a tragedy of the most horrendous proportions. I can feel for their suffering, but I find that I am unable to change my opinion about them as a people.
Bleedin’ Eck Boa,
I see your point but sins of the father and all that.
I have never had dealings with Japanese tourists so I am unable to comment on that score nor have I ever visited the place. I have always wanted too but never had the means nor opportunity to do so.
As for the war, yes they fought dirty but we did too. The Dambusters raid and the carpet bombing of Dresden are still points of contention now. Also, I believe Japan paid a very high price Hiroshima and Nagasaki stylee. I know I would have a hard time saying sorry after being on the receiving end of a nuke.
You are of course entitled to your view, it simply surprises me that’s all. You are usually so even handed with most historical events. 🙂
Yes, Ferret, I suppose I am – well I try to be.
Fighting is one thing – and I have a very basic attitude to war – which is don’t start a war unless you are prepared to do what is needed to win. And if that includes the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki – so be it. No one on ‘the other side’ hesitated to use their weapons to the best of their ability to kill, maim, and terrify the Allies, nor would they have been reluctant to use ‘The Bomb’ had they had it, so I am totally unable to understand why anyone has a conscience about what the Allies did in order to win. That’s what they set out to do – and you can’t win a war with one hand tied behind your back…
But, I see how one treats the civilian populations one has under one’s control, and PoWs as quite a different matter. Both the Germans and the Japanese treated their ‘conquered peoples’ appallingly. The Japanese, in some cases, far worse than the Germans. The Japanese most certainly treated their PoWs far worse than either the Germans or the Allies.
The Germans have acknowledged their actions, the Japanese never have – indeed they have denied them and written their history books to ‘skip over’ their actions. It is not a case of visiting the sins of the fathers on the children – the fathers should have acknowledged their sins themselves. I am not certain of my facts here, but I believe that it is ‘the children’ who are now seeking to understand their history. Good for them if I have it right – all civilised countries should acknowledge that some parts of their history has been ‘dark’. It is then that they finally ‘grow up’ and make the effort not to repeat those atrocities again.
Furry Nuff Boa,
It came out of left field that’s all. Had Mrs Osborne posted it, I would not have batted one small furry eyelid. 🙂
“The nightmare returns: Chilling echoes of Hiroshima’s destruction in images from the aftermath of tsunami”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366126/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Chilling-echoes-Hiroshimas-destruction.html
We can go back in time and find the most barbaric examples of man’s inhumanity to man and to be specific the Japanese treated their POW’s in the most terrible way, my Uncle amongst them. We can also look at their military code at the time which meant that surrender to the enemy was not an option and that anyone who did was subject to the most savage retribution, this is not mentionedby way of excusing what they did, it is just a fact.
Picking up on your theme Boa, I said to my wife yesterday that there are probably some ex WWII POW’s who are watching events unfold in Japan with a degree of satisfaction, though having come in regular contact with these guys through a charity I would be surprised if there were many, if any at all. There comes a time, and this is one of them, when the sheer humanity of what is occuring must come to the fore, and regardless of what the ancestors did in the name of Bushido I think under the circumstances we are seeing unfold before us, Japan needs our support, not a retrospective judgement call.
Boadicea: I am also familiar with Japanese tourists: invariably courteous, polite, well-mannered, and good-natured. In neither Germany nor the USA have I ever had a problem with the Japanese. I don’t know why Australia would be an exception, but that behaviour seems very a-typical. I’ve found others, especially US and French tourists, to be vastly more obnoxious. I’ve also lived with the Japanese and have found them generous, pleasant, and a great deal of fun — they don’t even steal everything that isn’t nailed down or even that if they can find a way to get the nails out!
The Japanese generally only behave crassly when they are harried, harassed, and provoked.
Perhaps they are simply not familiar with Australia’s quirks? I’ve found that Australians, when one is ignorant of their customs and culture, are often misunderstood. Also understand that Australian English is difficult for the Japanese to understand.
When it comes to the war… Most WWII veterans who fought against Germany said that they
would have been friends with the German soldiers on any other occasion, that after they had met them and got to know them they preferred going to the pub and drinking a pint with them rather than anything else. Those who fought against the Japanese often have a very, very negative opinion of the Japanese that still has not been reduced.
I think some here may have missed my point.
I was, firstly, pointing out that my experience of Japanese as tourists was not as polite as some here have found them in their own country. I agree with your point, Christopher, that ‘tourists’ from many countries can be pretty obnoxious – but none, other than the Japanese, have ever physically shoved me aside in their eagerness to get whatever it is they want.
In the second place, I have nothing but sympathy for the horrors that Japan is suffering at the moment. To watch ‘events unfold in Japan with a degree of satisfaction’ is appalling, and would, in my view, be visiting the sins of the fathers on the children. It is as well that the relative in question did not express his views to me personally.
Finally, I was expressing my opinion about Japan in general. To assert that all countries have committed crimes does not condone the fact that ‘others’ have written them out of their history books and do not acknowledge them. Again here, the focus is on Japanese treatment of Western PoWs, with the usual excuse that it was ‘their way’. The whole-sale slaughter and abuse of millions of civilian Filipinos, Malays, Chinese and other non-Western peoples is conveniently forgotten – if indeed it has ever been remembered by the West.
However, I must agree that this is probably neither the time or place to discuss this.
Christopher –
I guess you are too young to understand the antipathy and hostility that many British and Australian people still harbour towards the Japanese. It may assist your understanding if you conduct research on the conditions in Japanese PoW camps, and understand how many occupants died because of Japanese ill-treatment. Starvation, over-work and capricious beheadings and other barbaric executions.
Until very recently, the Japanese have refused to acknowledge their behaviour during WWII (including their abysmal treatment of women in the forced brothels they kept for their soldiers, where women of many races, including nurses and nuns, were regularly and repeatedly raped – again, research this).
The Germans acknowledged their behaviour and as a nation have worked very hard to ensure that subsequent generations know about what happened, so that it will never happen again. The Japanese have hidden their disgusting behaviour from their children, pretending that it never happened, and projecting an internal image that lauds their military as “honourable” warriors. This is a lie – the Japanese military were the lowest of the low, without honour, and their crass behaviour was at the behest of their disgusting Emperor, who should have been executed as a war criminal.
It is only in the last month that Australian PoWs have received an apology from the Japanese government – there were a whole four of them left alive to be present at the ceremony where the formal apology was made. No apology has been made, ever, to the the women who were raped in their pleasure camps (I forget the phrase used – possibly it was “comfort women”, or some similar euphemism).
Turning to the behaviour of Japanese tourists.
During the 70s and 80s I encountered many Japanese tour groups in France and Austria. Their behaviour was uniformly execrable, making American tourists look like good guys, and that’s saying something.
I recall in particular a group in Calais, who marched over the formal gardens in front of the Hotel de Ville, crushing the flower beds and scattering debris. I also recall a group in Vienna, some 20 strong, who attempted to enter a lift before the occupants had left. Those occupants were a Lufthansa captain (clearly ex-Luftwaffe, and 6′ 6″ tall) and Bearsy. We glanced at each other; I nodded, he clicked his heels and we marched through the ignorant Nip peasants, scattering them.
Your experience of contemporary Japan may be good. Great, it’s not before time.
As far as I’m concerned, Japanese are the arseholes of the world, even unto the tenth generation. They deserved to be nuked – it’s a shame only two A-bombs were dropped.
The Chinese are equally opposed to the Japanese – research what the Japanese did to them during their occupation of China. No honour or politeness there.
Ferret – you’re too young, too. Perhaps Boadicea’s strong reaction may help you understand the depth of feeling that Japanese cause in those who had relatives or friends who suffered mightily at their hands.
Bearsy and Boadicea: it is perfectly understandable that Australians would have a rather low opinion of the Japanese, especially those who saw their brothers in arms have their ligaments cut and thrown into pits in New Guinea where Japanese soldiers would, once they needed something to eat, cut a limb off and cook it. Naturally the Australians would be kept awake to prevent them from going into systemic shock and dying, ruining their source of food. The term “comfort women” is highly sanitised. There were 400,000 of them — 80pc Korean, (the rest from Taiwan, China, and Australian and Dutchwomen taken hostage in Indonesia and Papua-New Guinea) — who were promised jobs are wash-women or house-keepers. In the most extreme instances, these sex slaves would have had to have sex over 100 times per day with dozens of men. This was rooted in Mori Ogai’s late-19th century writings about the virility of the Japanese man — that is, men’s sexuality is paramount. If a Japanese is to truly have sex properly, the woman must bleed and writhe in pain. Now, you might wonder how the story of these women came out… During the 1970s Japanese corporations organised sex-tours in countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, and Korea where the prostitutes would be taken aback by some of the men plucking pubic hairs from them. They would say “we did this in the war for good luck”. This they would ask their mothers and grandmothers about. It was only then that it came out. You may have hard that in 1996 a Japanese “charity” collected funds and sent cheques accompanied by a letter from the then Japanese prime minister informing them that this was for “services rendered during the war”. The Japanese government also did a back-room deal with the Korean government in which the Korean government said it was Korea’s fault that they did not protect their women, something which in reality, as a Japanese colony, Korea was in no position to do. There has also been that deafening silence about China, especially the Rape of Nanking. Four-hundred-thousand were killed in an orgy of rape, pillage, and slaughter. A pregnant woman was filmed having her baby cut out of her womb and a bayonet stuck up her pikachu and that film was spread around China to warn the Chinese what would happen if they tried to resist. Should I go on? Would you be interested in my take on the Chinese sex-trade/slavery in Japan today? Would you like me to go on about how Filipina women are treated in contemporary Japan? Would you like me to go further into detail about other less than savoury aspects of Japanese history and culture?
In my own life I have been very lucky with the Japanese. I’ve lived with them, I’ve come to know them very well — good and bad. The Japanese are people of dual nature — both the kindest, gentlest, and most generous people while being the cruellest, most cold-blooded, vicious people at the same time. Generally, I would prefer being around the Japanese over most other people. Japan from 1868-1945 took a course where its entire history and culture was perverted and destroyed for increasingly chauvinist purposes. Bushido was not practised during WWII, the most scientific cruelty was. It was a course that would, inevitably, wind up in absolute destruction. I can’t speak for you, you have the right to your opinion and they’re justified. You speak from your experience, I speak from mine.
Christopher
I couldn’t have imagined that you were not well informed. Again, you have missed my point. It is not the actions themselves, appalling as they were.
It is the fact that they ‘have hidden their disgusting behaviour from their children, pretending that it never happened, and projecting an internal image that lauds their military as “honourable” warriors.’ I have no doubt, although some may disagree with me, that given a climate where such behaviour becomes ‘acceptable’ almost any nation might well behave in a similar way – it is the acknowledgement of those actions and the determination not to behave in the same way again that is important – well to me – and this the Japanese have steadfastly refused to do, until very recently.
It is perhaps an odd quirk of mine that I cannot respect a people who are so dishonest as to hide from their past the way that Japan has.
Boadicea: I addressed my comment to both of you in order to save time.
The primary difference is the fate of Germany and Japan after WWII. Germany was treated properly, Japan was not. Germany’s war criminals were hunted down, arrested, put to trial, and held to account for their actions. German civilians were helped to rebuild the country, and life went on. The US needed a large Asian ally to serve as a counterweight to Mao’s China. India was not suitable, but Japan was. Thus, the US government literally allowed Japanese officials to get away with murder to serve its own political aims. It’s an open secret that a Japanese air force officer who once feasted on the liver of a US pilot he shot down and cut out while he was alive became a prime minister. The Japanese are also gaoled by their language. Most do not speak foreign languages well, if at all. Even if they wanted to learn things they would be seriously limited by the limited amount of information available in Japanese. I cannot approve of those actions, either. I hold the Jewish view of apologies — one cannot apologise for an action that one did not personally commit, nor could someone accept an apology from someone who did her or him no wrong.
I am aware of the American role in allowing the Japanese to side-step their war crimes. Economics, politics, and military expediency..
I am also of the opinion that no one can apologise for what one didn’t do to those who were not the victims. However, a rewriting of Japanese history books to include the truth would go a long way to amending my, and I suspect quite a few other people’s, attitude towards Japan.
Boadicea: if the Japanese were simply to face up to their own history and no longer house war criminals at a national shrine, the South Koreans would quickly embrace a strong alliance with Japan — this is the only real sticking point left as they both realise that China is a bigger threat to both of them than they are to each other. It would also help strengthen popular opinion of Japan in Taiwan and also make the Chinese less hostile.
Thank you, Christopher and Boadicea, for your very interesting points. Do you think Japan will ever bring itself to lose face by acknowledging its war crimes? This “losing face” seems to be all important. I also dislike the hypocrisy about the “scientific whaling”.
Oh! Well! It sounds as though it is now politically advantageous for Japan to acknowledge its past… I suppose that’s better than nothing!
Sheona – they are already making a start. As Bearsy said they have ‘apologised’ to Australian PoWs. A couple of weeks ago there was a report about them excavating a site where some horrendous medical experiments were undertaken – and it was clear that this was part of the effort to face up to the past.
But it appears as though political advantage might have what we would call “a sair fecht” against the all-important “face”.
Boadicea: one of the main reasons why Japan has not acknowledged the past was because they did not want to have to pay for their crimes. Japan would have been brought before international courts and been forced to pay reparations to its victims. That isn’t an excuse, that’s actually a reason given. Now that virtually all their victims are dead, what can be done? Not that that is reassuring to the women who were raped thousands of times and dared not say anything in order to try to have a respectable life.