And knowing what to say and what not to say. Japan Probe chronicles an interesting event that occured at Yasukuni shrine where a Canadian forgot about where he was-when he opened his mouth:
From the translation provided by Japan Probe-(their words not mine-their Japanese is better than mine! The rest of this post is their post-repeated):
The incident apparently took place on August 15th, the day on which people come to the Yasukuni Shrine to pray for those who died in the Pacific War. The Canadian, who is identified in YouTube comments as Pierre Pariseau, informs Tamogami that the kind of speeches he was giving in Japan would get him arrested in Germany. His statements anger the crowd of right-wingers around Tamogami, and they start yelling at Pariseau.
The following goes down:
- Pariseau keeps ranting about how this kind of speech would be illegal in Germany. Satoru Mizushima rants back about how he is being disrespectful, etc.
- As Pariseau is trying to walk away, Mizushima keeps grabbing him. A cop shows up and gets in the way. The cop then grabs Pariseau as Pariseau insists he is going home.
- Right-wingers with cameras follow Pariseau as he leaves the area. At one point he tries to walk into the middle of a busy road. (To catch a taxi?)
- Police completely surround Pariseau and force him against a wall. They question him about what happened. He keeps pointing at the camera, possibly because he does not want to be filmed. The camera footage ends with Pariseau being escorted down the street by a bunch of cops.
This site claims that police made Pariseau apologize:
Canadian Pierre Pariseau questions former Gen. Toshio Tamogami during commerations for the 64th anniversy of end of World War Two at Yausukuni shrine in Tokyo, Japan on Aug 15th 2009. Gen. Toshio Tamogami was dismissed after publishing an essay asserting that Japan was not the aggressor in World War Two. Long term Japan resident Pierre Pariseau was attempting to leave the shrine after being grabbed and shoved by supporters of the General as he attempted to get a taxi he was prevented from doing so by police. He was taken to a police box near Ichigaya station for 2 hours. He was released after writing a letter of apology to Yasukuni shrine,Channel Sakura and Gen. Toshio Tamogami. Mr Pariseau asked the General if he knew “That he would be arrested in Germany for doing what he was doing?” Established in 1869 by the Meiji Emperor to commerate those who died in the Boshin War. The shrine now houses the souls or ‘kami’ of Japan’s war dead including 14 A-class war criminals who were interned among the 2.5 million war dead in 1978. Visits to the shrine by Japanese Prime Ministers create tensions with Japan’s Asian neighbors.
It was really dumb of Pariseau to start an argument with a crowd of right wingers in the middle of their most sacred territory on the day they gather to honor the war dead. He could have been seriously injured.
The Yasukuni Shrine is not a public forum. It is a privately owned and operated religious site and it has the right to ask police to make troublemakers leave the grounds of the shrine. The shrine is not under an obligation to allow dissenters to come in and challenge its supporters. Pariseau would have been a lot safer if he’d joined the left wing protest going on outside the shrine that day. That being said, however, it seems that the police went a bit overboard in surrounding and detaining him.
Japan is not Germany. It does not restrict free speech by outlawing certain historical views. People are allowed to share opinions on history, even if those opinions are stupid.
You need to remember that Canadians were amongst the victims of some of the very people these old men were paying their respects to.
…not that it is the only reason why he would and should be offended by the ceremony.
No argument about that. However, being offended at Yasukuni is a dangerous luxury. Its the equivalent of walking around Harlem with a “I hate niggers” sign on you chest. They are not kidding when they say he could have been hurt.
Even the Japanese as a whole don’t like their right wingers-but they tolerate them.
“Its the equivalent of walking around Harlem with a “I hate niggers” sign on you chest.”
Except that they are the racist, not him, right?
Maple,
If you lived any amount of time in Japan, you grow accustomed to racism. We Americans talk about it-Asians live it every day. Try asking a Korean if he wants his daughter to marry a rich Japanese man. The answer will normally be no-although with the world wide recession that’s not a 100% chance anymore.
The thing is-as long as there is a significant portion of Japanese and other Asian women who get a charge out of f*cking white guys like me, then you can deal with the Asian racism a lot better than our kind…………….
I’d be curious to know that when you started to speak Japanese did this lessen the “racism’?
It seems that this is an issue STILL, in Korea among expats, even those that speak Korean and know the culture. Especially true in the entertainment areas and when there is a lot of alcohol flowing. Ajushees can get pretty nasty with a few bottles of beer in their veins.
Actually no-it did not. For one thing, I have just and advanced working proficiency in the language, I’m not fluent. That Canadian was pretty fluent and pretty natural in his spoken Japanese.
Here’s my take: I’m a Gaijin. That means no matter how long I were to live there or speak the language, I will always be a Gaijin. I’d say its the same in Korea.
Well Skippy, I see why you love the place! The fascist police drag away the free speech skalywag and Canadian ne’er do well to save him from himself. They’re quite alright with jap fascists spouting crap about WWII and how great the japs were to work out the whole greater east asia co-prosperity sphere but let ONE Canadian jackass speak truth to power and it’s like watching the body react to a germ cell – quickly surrounded by little “white” cells to contain the infection and eliminate it….quickly before anybody else can get infected. In your terms, they did it to save the jackass from himself. Quite a polite and civil little society you got there partner….Wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to it.
To this day, probably 90% of all Japs would agree that their efforts in the Pacific War to “free” Asia from colonialists was a good thing. It’s a shame that we had a severe shortage of nukes in 1945 or I can think of one other place one might have been usefully employed….well OK, maybe 10 places.
Curtis,
Having lived in Japan I cannot disagree with you more strongly. Most Japanese are aware that the war was a terrible tragedy-and that they were wrong. That said, they believe the statute of limitations has long since passed and they should be allowed to get on with their collective lives as a nation.
Let’s turn your analogy around. I show up at a tea party and “speak truth to power” about how all tea party goers are ignorant bastards. It may be true but its not smart.
Skippy,
Hard to argue a point when you simultaneously hold Yasakuni as a national memorial (and yes, I’m willing to accept that it is far more than an Arlington to the Japanese) but nonetheless, the Imperial Army raped most of Asia and would not stop or consider stopping until atomic weapons were used on them and yet they revere every one of those mother raping father stabbing baby killing assholes. Purely badly for Japan, the pols know that all Japanese revere those baby killers en toto and insist on paying their respects which just leaves the raped asians more than a little peeved that the Japanese cannot accept their role in raping asia, a lot, and insist on revering these ancestors no matter what their crimes were. I’ve only spent a couple of days in Japan but more than a year in Korea so I may have a different perspective. You know, if the Japanese ceremonially took all the dead war criminals out of Yasakuni and dumped them in rubbish pit on live TV, the raped asians would probably be more accepting of the Japanese insistence that these baby rapers deserve the occasional visit from the Prime Minister.
There is no statute of limitation on murder, genocide, mass murder, etc. The Japs got off because we nuked them and felt remorse, something I don’t think many Japanese feel today. Today they feel put upon just because their fathers and grandfathers raped asia.
Oddly enough Skippy, let me postulate that some left wing nut attended a tea party and gave lip and shite to the tea partiers…………….. Let us suppose that this has happened. DID YOU SEE THE HORRIBLE VIOLENT RESPONSE ON TV AS THE EXTREME RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS TORE THAT LEFTY APART? Yeah, me neither. Let’s contrast American behavior while honoring its war dead with the freedom riders and contrast it with left behavior at WTO demonstrations. I barely, in fact, I don’t see the lefty thugs attacking, spitting at and brandishing weapons at citizens who go to town hall meetings anywhere on TV. It’s left to the internet to show these assholes being socialist assholes. It’s funny, Glenn Reynolds has no trouble finding video of lefties beating up on American citizens but you’d think with the left wing bias of our press that even ONE instance of tea partiers terrorizing a lefty agitator would find its way to national prominence. Yet there it is; not one sample. Sad aint it?
I’ll tell you what. Huntsville is an oasis of civilization in the deep south. Why don’t you try speaking truth to power at the next tea party in your neck of the woods? Let me know how that turned out. Hey, while your not busy, let’s contrast video clips on you tube of Americans speaking at universities. People like Anne Coulter or Mike Adams and contrast that with your pick of lefties such as Noam Chomsky, or any other left wing ideologue of your choice. Shall we restrict ourselves to counting pies thrown or disruptive violent demonstrations that curtails the speakers right to free speech?
DID YOU SEE THE HORRIBLE VIOLENT RESPONSE ON TV AS THE EXTREME RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS TORE THAT LEFTY APART?
Actually, A UAH student tried to do that at a Tea Party here this past spring and the police had to intervene to save him from the crowd. Pretty similar to what happened here. The teabaggers were verbally abusive-just like the Japanese extremists were. The
doucheteabaggers don’t like to admit that their crowds do get out of control-and more often then they think.Bad behavior is bad behavior regardless of which side starts it. Someday someone is going to get shot at one of these things.