Mr.Pieeater wrote:
Smithereener wrote:
cyborg_ninja-117 wrote:
Emperor didn't say shit. It's their honour thing. For Centuries Samurai have never surrendered to the enemy, just like the ww2 Japanese army.
Bingo. It's really the "honor" that makes them deny anything. I've heard that if you were to ask a normal Japanese person on the streets of Japan and ask them about Iwo Jima, they wouldn't know. I'd think it's sort of like the Chinese Government denying Tiannemen Square.
LOL, trust me a Japanese person would know about Iwo Jima... ESPECIALLY since there is a movie about it in theaters right now which was almost entirely created by Japanese people.
The reason Chinese people do not know about Tainnemen Square is because the government restricts what information they can recieve. Japan is just as open as the United States with information. Except maybe with companies, all companies in Japan have a closed book policy on all of their financial information.
I think maybe you don't know much about Japan from that statement. Its a great country, they are good friends to the US, just like England.
I admit, I don't know the details of the events or occurances in Japan today. Maybe a little bit of history, but no real modern history. But I'm not ignorant enough to think that Japan isn't an ally of the US, nor did I ever state that Japan is a bad country. I wrote "I've heard" on purpose, I have no real credible source, so I just wanted to verify the statement and see if it was somewhat true. And what I meant by the not knowing of Iwo Jima was the same way that a lot of American high schoolers don't learn a lot about the Korean or Vietnam War. High school textbooks dedicate two or more chapters to causes, events, and consequences of both World War I and II. Yet, most of the time, the Korean and Vietnam War is barely covered in one or, at most, two chapters, which do not focus on the actual war itself. A brief mention and that's all. Ask an average American citizen to name at least 3 battles from WWI/II and name a few generals, he'd probably be able to name them. Ask them to name at least 3 battles or generals from the Korean/Vietnam War, and you'd probably get blank stares.
The analogy to Tiannemen Square was bad, I'll admit that too.
And I don't think you know much about Asian culture in general. Most FarEast Asian traditions revolve around two major factors: Honor and Fidelity. Elders are highly revered and honor is a huge part in the ways families function. I just simply believed that Iwo Jima or any other crushing defeat that the Japanese suffered was taught at a bare minimum, much like the "Korean/Vietnam War in Textbooks" scenario I described above. Therefore, it must make somewhat sense that the average Japanese person might not know about Iwo Jima.
Btw, I knew about
Letters From Iwo Jima.
Whoever left the Karma, PM moi so I could return it.
Last edited by Smithereener (2007-03-03 09:16:19)
