Australians: Why do you seem so anti-Japanese?

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Ozmaniac

I don't believe that Australians are anti-Japanese, but we are certainly against some Japanese activities such as whaling and long-line fishing for tuna to grace the tables of wealthy Japanese. Never mind the painful and unnecessary deaths of dolphins and seabirds - just catch tonnes of tuna and sell it for a fortune.

Whaling is barbaric and unnecessary and we all resent the ridiculous fiction that it's for scientific research. That said, surely you realise that the Sea Shepherd is not an Australian ship and, while it may have some Australians in its crew (I don't know if it does or not), its Captain is certainly not Australian and it's funded by The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an International organisation based in the US. It has nothing to do with Australia and, while we may laud their motives, most Australians would rather they adopted more law abiding means of protest.

The only Australian ship near the whaling fleet was a government vessel which operated completely legally at all times and was merely observing the whaling activities as it had every right to do.

We do not judge all Japanese society by the appalling crimes perpetrated by its nationals 60 years ago, but we are also abundantly aware that most Japanese are completely ignorant of those crimes which we know are acknowledged by only a small minority of well informed and open minded people. My own father was a Japanese POW and was one of the few who survived his camp relatively unscathed - that's if weighing 45kg when liberated and with untreated injuries from beatings can be said to be unscathed. An uncle married a Dutch ex 'comfort woman' and she was still suffering from the treatment meted out to her by her Japanese masters when she died a few years ago.

I don't hate the Japanese but I wish they would stand up to their responsibilities in a civilised world and acknowledge the sins of the past. They would then be worthy of our respect.

cc_of_0z

Australians don't necessarily have anything against Japanese individually, but there are certainly good reasons why we ought to be pretty unimpressed generally:

1. Japan's whaling practices are not only barbaric, but regularly invade Australias national waters. If Australia were to do the same it would likely be considered an act of war. Personally I think our government should do to the whaling ships within our waters what we do with offending Indonesian fishing vessels - confiscate and destroy the ships and deport the crews. When the Japanese whaler failed to hand the intruders over to Australian authorities and then headed for the high seas with them on board, well if it looks like an abduction, and it acts like an abduction...

2. If its not bad enough that there are more Japanese signs in Queensland than English ones, we now have Japanese tourists being shepherded into Japanese owned and operated facilities by Japanese holiday companies. Far be it from us to dictate where the tourists shop, but it would be nice if they were given a choice to see the local culture at their own pace instead of the homogenised pre-packaged souvenir and shopping stops along the way. How would the Japanese feel if Australians visiting Japan ignored the local culture, only ate Australian food imported by Australian companies and only visited attractions that that made them feel as if they were still in Australia? Makes you wonder why they bothered coming in the first place.

3. Japan won't acknowledge its dark past from WW2, and particularly the atrocious way Australian prisoners of war were treated. How can a country learn from it's past if it continually refuses to face it? Put it this way - your country bombed Darwin, Broome and other places in northern Australia into oblivion during the WW2. While we observed the Geneva convention on our Japanese POWs, your lot systematically tortured, maimed, used as slave labour and murdered most of our guys under your country's charge. Remembering of course that Australia had very good relations with Japan prior to WW2. Now they return to the very places they once destroyed, behaving as if they are on Japanese territory and educating their kids that their country's behaviour during the war was somehow honourable. Let's also not forget that the leaders of your government, even today, regularly visit memorials to these same war criminals. Excuse me if I find that more than just a little rude.

The Mouse II

"Why do you seem so anti-Japanese?"
Ummm. last time I looked, we love the Japanese. We also have a healthy Japanese tourism industry here.
Where I live, local Japanese community is well respected.

I think you are confusing "Anti-whaling" and "anti-Japanese".

Cheers

Puddy S

Due to indiscriminate fishing from whalers from previous centuries, whales were nearly made extinct.
It was the banning of whaling that allowed some species to recover from the brink of extinction.

Clearly, the whales survival depends on human advocacy and ongoing protection. The anti-whaling protesters resorted to dramatic protests to ensure
their message would get media attention and to stir people and governments from indifference.
If it was your extinction at hand, wouldn't you want someone to stand up for you? That is what is happening. You've been stirred by the news. So the protesters "ends had justified the means" in their eyes (it seems).

Jonquill

I don't think Australians particularly hate Japanese people.
I'd say the whole whaling thing is a media beat up. Sure Aussies don't think whales should be eaten but I don't think many would be passionate about it if it wasn't on the TV all the time.

I'm sure there is a lot of worse stuff happening to endangered animals in the world that nobody knows or cares about.

We saw on the news those guys who got on the whaling ship uninvited - we just thought they were asking for trouble and whatever they got they deserved.

So, don't get your knickers in a twist about it - like every other thing the media chooses to carry on about eventually it all blows over and is forgotten.

Japanese are normally thought of as smart and innovative people, maybe you can work out how to farm whales in a sustainable way so that everybody can be happy.

BTW - the ships being used in the protest are they Australian or from Greenpeace, which I thought was an international organisation?

Wounded Duck

Your opinion of the Japanese fishermen is skewed by your nationalism. Your assertion that all Japanese are polite and respectful does not jive with the WWII Japanese invasion of the Pacific region. The horrendous treatment of Allied prisoners of war and the civilian population of the Philippines and China would point to another conclusion.

Catherine

Hey. Dont say that all of Australia is anti-japanese..

Why are you disgusted by Australians trying to stop whaling? Well if whaling continues, there will be no whales left for the future generations to see. Would you like that to happen? It kind of makes sense why Australians are trying to stop it..

Ashleigh M

yeah theres the whole killing whales when the rest of the world knows its wrong thing and well world war two. the japanse were very cruel in war. but its not like australians go around hating japanese people or saying the country is bad.

it just sounds to me like your trying to start a fight.

Bonnie C

I have to run right now, but I just wanted to say that they're over-fishing and destroying alot of other species too.....make that on land and sea.

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