Years of Poems and Spirits

NYT ran an article (c) several days ago about two best selling comic books in Japan which expressed a mixture of abasing its two neighbors (China and Korea) and belonging to the more superior west.

Some highlights:
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today! … there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of.”

In another comic book, ”Introduction to China,” which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism … ”Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There’s nothing attractive.”

The author leveled some sharp criticism too:
Paranoia: “Today, China and South Korea’s rise to challenge Japan’s position as Asia’s economic, diplomatic and cultural leader is inspiring renewed xenophobia against them here.”

Japan’s “in-Asia but not of-Asia” “aspiration”: ” …nothing has changed since 1885, when one of modern Japan’s most influential intellectuals, Yukichi Fukuzawa, said Japan should emulate the advanced nations of the West and leave Asia by dissociating itself from its backward neighbors, especially China and Korea. ”

Jealousy: ”The ‘Hate Korea’ feelings have spread explosively since the World Cup,”

Whatever-that-is: “… the Japanese began acquiring Caucasian features in popular drawing. The biggest change occurred during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1905, when drawings of the war showed Japanese standing taller than Russians, with straight noses and other features that made them look more European than their European enemies. ”

The most worrysome:
“As nationalists and revisionists have come to dominate the public debate in Japan, figures advocating an honest view of history are being silenced, said Yutaka Yoshida, a historian at Hitotsubashi University.”

—For all I care, I’d rather leave this type of noise in the background. But they keep creeping up and up and up. To be fair: not all of the nonsense are from Japan.
—Even Prof. Bachman of my East Asia Politics class sent us this article. He attributed this to in-security among the Japanese.
—Not sure when the Japanese not expressing those thought during the 80s is necessarily a good thing.
—For a country with Japan’s achievement and statue, there should have been a civil liberal/progressive force that enlightens the mass using such adversity. Instead, this is just pure indulgence of their insular paranoia.
—I wouldn’t have posted this unless for a response from Japan quoted in a Chinese website (again wenxuecity … sigh)
—The equivalent of Wall Street Journal in Japan is screaming faul with this article (again if wenxuecity does not lie to me. I dare to quote this because based on the translation of other American news it seems genuine.)