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Thanks vox! “Japan’s operation of military brothels during World War II was “deplorable,”…a top U.S. official said Friday, as victims expressed outrage at the Japanese prime minister’s denial that women were forced into sexual slavery.”
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Thanks vox! “Ever since passing what its Legislature promoted as the nation’s toughest laws against illegal immigration last summer, Colorado has struggled with a labor shortage…This week, officials announced a novel solution: Use convicts as farmworker
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Thanks vox! “Christian evangelicals…critics accuse them of taking advantage of vulnerable communities, forcing them to abandon their traditional beliefs and customs in exchange for the material goods and medicine they so desperately need.”
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Thanks vox! “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign excluded reporters for the Bay Area’s two largest ethnic newspapers from a fundraiser Friday at the Sheraton Palace Hotel — a perceived snub that led to days of harsh coverage.”
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Thanks Kimberly! “Still today among African Americans, there exists a strata between those with “bad hair” and “good hair,” the latter being hair that is most in sync with the dominant culture.”
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Thanks Kimberly! “AsianWeek Editor-at-Large Ted Fang announced Wednesday that the paper is cutting its ties with 22-year-old Kenneth Eng, whose recent piece “Why I Hate Black People” caused an uproar throughout The City”
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Thanks Frank! “As if there is something wrong with being black, like the two things can’t exist simultaneously and be a majestic thing. There is ignorance and stupidity in Puerto Rico and Latin America when it comes to blackness.”
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Thanks Rob! “If trust-fund hotties think they can be as funny as Jack Black by dressing like my aunts, uncles and cousins, or by applying black lip-liner and calling themselves La Sad Eyes for a night, the joke is definitely on them, not us.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
ren wrote:
re: Japan’s Abe
Abe’s such a tool. I can’t believe he’s suggesting these women desired to be gang-raped and enslaved. This is the problem with an ignorant public (kept ignorant by revising their textbooks and history), your governmental representatives can say the stupidest things without fearing criticism from their constituents. And people criticize other Asian countries for holding such anti-Japanese vitriol, it’s not all undeserved. But it’s nice to see the US, Japan’s only real ally, avoiding this issue… the US is so good at avoiding altercations that don’t involve them.
Posted 03 Mar 2007 at 6:28 pm ¶
Vandia wrote:
A good collection of articles Carmen! The NY Post piece regarding Tego Calderon was particularly touching( to me) as I just finished a book about the history of Puerto Rico.
The past few years we have seen a series of events which point to denial of Japanese war atrocities and crimes at a very high level. I can ‘t claim to be an expert but I think this may be an opportunity to discuss much forgotten issues. We always talk about the horrors of the holocaust but I remember reading recently that Japanese prisoners of war died at a much higher rate than those held at German prisons and concentration camps. Why are we not talking about those issues? I am not sure……
Posted 04 Mar 2007 at 1:46 am ¶
ren wrote:
Vandia,
Gavin Daws wrote a extensive book on the subject, Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War II in the Pacific. Compared to the Holocaust, a certifiable atrocity, you’d be hard pressed to distinguish the difference in brutality that got one universally abhorred and the other issue universally ignored.
To put it in perspective, the Japanese Imperial Army killed more Asians (not counting whites) in the roughly seven year span of invading China through to the end of World War II, than 25x the body-count in the dropping of two atomic weapons. This was, at the earliest, all of 70 years ago… my grandmother is 30 years older than this episode of history. I find it surprising hostility towards the Japanese isn’t worse. Apologies were never formally extended to Singapore or the Philippines for the massacres that occurred there.
The reason we don’t talk about it is that Japan is one of the world’s most powerful economies and a strong alley of the US. Korea revels in it’s nationalism, no doubt, but the Govt. also realizes the extent of their relationship with Japan is symbiotic. If people honestly believe that the Korean govt. tried to bury the Comfort Women issue purely out of “saving face”, it’s a bit naive. America is the same country that involved themselves be it illegally (in South America/Iran) or more publicly (Somalia) out of the interest of a superpower’s responsibility in preserving “human rights” yet they refuse to get involved, even a simple written statement, in regards to Japan’s atrocities many of which committed on Americans. And frankly, I’m not blown out of the water by a non-binding resolution.
This isn’t about morality, this is about the fear that reparations could damage an already flaky Japanese economy if they had to formally admit to wrongs and atone by financial means. International Law dictates that victims of human rights violations have the right to be compensated. It is in Japan’s (and America’s) self-interest not to admit to historical wrong-doing even if it so blatantly goes against historical evidence.
Posted 04 Mar 2007 at 4:55 pm ¶
FEB wrote:
Disappointed but not surprised: that’s how I sum up my feelings about Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso.
Japan never went through a soul-searching reexamination like Germany did during the period of “de-Nazification.” So this kind of attitude from their politicians is no surprise.
Posted 05 Mar 2007 at 2:14 pm ¶