The Japanese have also encouraged the return of at least a hundred thousand South Americans of Japanese blood...a couple of years ago the Christian Science monitor had a story about them. Many were imported in the 1970's to work in the Japenese factories, since the Japanese figured they would fit in. Alas, culturally they are Japanese/spanish, not japanese, and many are third generation immigrants who don't speak Japenese...

Once in Manila, I had to translate for a Japanese in transit; he was visiting his Filippina girlfriend, and they were trying to clear him thru customs with the help of a Japanese translator...I noticed his Bolivian passport, and asked him if I could help in Spanish...and ended up with a three way translation (SPanish, english, tagolog)...He was Bolivian by birth and had immigrated to Japan to work in an auto factory, but hadn't mastered the Japanese language yet.

Hi!

I am sure what you write here is all true, and there is no excuse for that. Nevertheless, may I add one thing?

The suspicious attitudes on the part of Japanese toward foreigners developed to a considerable extent due to their past experience
with Western cololialism.
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi, de facto head of the state in the 16th century, discovered that Portuguese were selling Japanese slaves in large numbers overseas, he became furious. He proposed to buy back Japanese slaves, but Portuguese simply ignored. This slave trade was fully approved by the Jesuit missionaries.
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in response to the extreme racism against the Japanese both in Europe and the U.S.
If you are interested in more detail, please visit my web site.

http://www.ifrance.com/p-h/japan_ph.php?lang=en/

Thank you for your attention.

Michio Kitahara

i mut confess there is a lot of racism against africans by japanese and the whole rest of the world.
am an african ,ive seen it and i hear it all th time.japan tv shows u living in trees and shit which is not true.even if it were we are not animals pliz!!

The problem with the concept of racism is that as it is identified in modern society, it criticizes truthful opinions, rather than malice, or at least often makes no distinction between the two.

For example, to say that a person is black, is therefore distinct from a person who is white, and can therefore be said to be distinct because they have black skin, is a simple truth. No-one would deny that, notwithstanding other differences (i.e. not just skin colour). However, for example, to opine that black people are less intelligent would be viewed as racist. Why? Ultimately, the statement is either true or false, but even if it is false, it can't make the person racist. This is because a statement of a belief of fact or of a situation is not in itself 'prejudiced'. "Facts" can't be racist!! In both above examples, that's to say allegedly non-racist and racist statements, these are simple assertions about the differences in race.

The reason the first is 'not' racist and the second 'is', is because the first isn't pejorative or in anyway significant or damaging to black people - in this case. So what if they have a different colour skin? It's just a colour, after all. However, the second is viewed as racist because it can be seen to be detrimental. But because it may be detrimental through what it says, it doesn't mean it's racist; surely by that same degree, anything that was complimentary would be racist? No, the point about racism is that it makes no sense as a label unless malice is present in the claim or comment.
If you hold the opinion that based on experience, data or evidence you feel that black people are less intelligent that white people, then you should be allowed to think that as a point of fact. After all, we're allowed to think that there are certain medical differences between races without being accused of racist opinions (e.g. blood types, sickle-cell, etc).

The fact that the label 'racist' makes no distinction between a statement derived from malice and one derived from an honest, thought-through opinion shows the problem with the whole issue. Because quite simply, if it was on the basis of evidence your GENUINE opinion that blacks were less intelligent than whites, you shouldn't be classed with the same people who willingly go out to persecute people solely on the basis of their race. Otherwise, we're on the very dodgy ground of saying that one thought is as bad as one horrific action.

Around the mid-80s people in the UK were nervous of calling blacks black; this was because they thought they might be perceived as racist. Why? Because the underlying rule is that it's not truthfulness that is considered or even looked at in the race debate, it's whether the race in question could be looked down upon were people to be influenced by your opinion. So favourable opinions are in, disfavourable, or even neutral[!] ones are out.

The point above demonstrates that even the most ardent 'non-racists' are not genuine, because even they get caught up in their own silly rules and oppressive dogma. They get confused because they don't know when you can be truthful and when you can't; any condemnation of anyone on the basis that they were being truthful is inherently wrong as it is misdirected. No good comes out of such deception and concealment.

Lastly, the viciousness with which people are accused of racism and shunned accordingly is so a) calculating, b) enjoyed and c) pursued incessantly by its progenitors that it possesses all the hallmarks of the black and white thinking of so-called racists. It also closely mirrors the attributes of fasicm. If you make a point-by-point comparison of the attributes of the anti-racists and the so-called racists, you will find they match; after all, they both:

1) Show extreme intolerance
2) Ignore rational debate
3) Blur truth and emotion into one
4) Deflect criticism by changing direction or 'shouting down'
5) Enjoy the punishment of their foe
6) Address the whole issue on an all-or-nothing basis (the hallmark of intolerance)

Greetings!
I agree that Japanese are extremely racist towards all who are not Japanese. I got to college at the University of Central Oklahoma, in Edmond where there are a huge amount of Japanese internationals. For 1 and a half years I lived with two Japanese guys in a 3 bedroom apartment. When I fell in love with a Vietnamese girl, of whom I have dated for now 11 months, they totally blew up on me and said that if i were to date I should date american, or even Japanese because of "cleanliness". Honest to goodness this happened. Well, the view I had of all the Japanese both male and female changed. I told my roomates to go to hell, that I am an American, and that I can do whatever I well damn please. They quit talking to me, so I got fed up and moved out of that apartment. Its a true shame, because I was so in love with their culture at the time, I took 2 jap. language classes but now I have no desire to learn Japanese at all...

Ryan Korn

I think Den Beste put it best when he said: The philosophic justification for the "root causes" argument that we've heard so much about is the point: individual racists are not necessarily evil, even though racism is. Individual racists can be loving and compassionate chauvinistic contempt.

It reached its most pathological in Fisk's notorious attempt to explain away his being beaten by a crowd in Pakistan as ultimately being the result of western imperialism.

This attitude is racism of the characters. There are no villains in the movie, because it's not about that. By soft-pedaling the racism and yet never ducking it, the movie makes a more profound statement about it than some other films which pound it into the ground and paint all the characters as caricatures.

But it goes deeper than that: if we are responsible, then they will live good lives. They are less than we are. This is deeply loving and compassionate chauvinistic contempt.

Mark V. Shaney
"Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat!"

I have lived in Japan now for more then 3 years
and you will not belive the things that I have seen.
One friend my mine started dating a korean girl and after he did all his Japanese friends stoped seeing him. One more thing years ago Japan kidnaped Philippinos to have them work as slaves and even today after being 3rd or 4th generation they can not
get citizenship. and one more thing most if not all Japanese companies would hire a bum before they hire a nonJapanese.

As Kitahara's comments prove above, Japanese may be clean on the outside but they are dirty on the inside. Taking a bath everyday doesn't wash your filthy thoughts out. Racism is apparent in everything in Japan, from the belief that they are the only people in the world to use chopsticks to the instant forgiveness and celebrity status people of Japanese blood receive when returning to the homeland after their crimes overseas, such as Alberto Fujimori and Issei Sagawa, no matter how heinous

Like a spoilt child, Japan refused to play with the world for 200 odd years, sulking away with a "if I can't win I won't play" attitude. When a stronger country forced them to stop sulking and join in again, instead of learning the rules of the game, they became obsessed with winning itself. They were even helped to win a couple of wars which led them to believe proof of their superiority was just around the corner. With this in mind they petitioned the League of Nations to have them recognised as racially equal, something inappropriate given their miniscule contribution to WW1.

Joining with Nazi Germany, Japan launched a war so inconceivably cruel it led to the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These shocked even its most arrogant leaders into surrendering. Before the surrender schoolteachers were lining up their classes and shooting them one by one rather than be eaten by the invading Americans. This fear is especially interesting in light of the Japanese habit of dining on Australians during the war, often while they were still alive.

In the Japanese mind, their white victors had proven their racial superiority. They showed their resentment of this by turning their backs to U.S. soldiers in the street, a gesture famously returned to Hirohito by war veterans on his trips abroad. Here begins the Japanese anger. As well as disregarding the many races who were involved in defeating imperial Japan, this view is inconsistent with that of the victors themselves. U.S. propaganda films of the time depict the Japanese as an equal race under a totalitarian regime that has brainwashed its citizens. Proof of this brainwashing can be seen when Japanese citizens murdered their own wards to avoid capture and consumption.

In an extraordinary show of restraint, the victors decided to keep Japan as it is, but prevent it from playing the game whose rules it refuses to learn, similar to a parent putting the matches in the high cupboard. So Japan keeps both its belief in its own racial superiority, and the constant reminder in the presence of American soldiers, that there may be a superior race. The conflict of a superior race being defeated by an inferior race becomes a constant theme in Japan, and can explain much of the anger and racist behaviour seen there today. This conflict can only be resolved in some minds by creating, postbellum, reasons why the war was justified and how the other side didn't play fair. This is where Shintaro Ishihara steps up to announce that the Japanese were essentially freedom fighters on behalf of Asia, where Jun Kitahara justifies Pearl Harbor by saying that America had been racist. And this is where the cult of the atomic bomb victim stems from. For most Japanese, the war consists of these two bookends alone: Pearl Harbor and the A bombs. For them, it's not even clear in their minds who attacked who at Pearl Harbor. And they can't understand why anyone would bomb a peace loving country like Japan.

The rest of Asia doesn't see Japan as its liberator but as its oppressor. Using isolated acts of racism as a justification for what Japan did in WW2 is like murdering your neighbour's family because he looked at you funny. It's preposterous.

That a belief in Japanese superiority persists is shown by the case of Shinichi Fujimura, a con artist who was easily able to convince not just the Japanese public, but also educated archaeologists that he had found proof that Japanese were living a civilised life 500,000 years before Neandertals even arrived in Europe. The grudging respect Japanese give to the west is shown in their "look but don't touch" attitude to the world. Tour buses ferry them from sight to sight without them ever having to dirty their hands with the foreigners. These people are interested in the show, in the same way you might visit a zoo.

So the Japanese have both a superiority complex and an inferiority complex. This internal conflict is highly flammable. As is the right of any citizen to do, they enjoy their top status in Japan. Unfortunately, as has been seen in many labour disputes around the world, Japanese companies attempt to enjoy that same status outside Japan too. The many cases of murder, forced suicide, imprisonment, cruelty, torture, violence etc. on foreign workers in Japan is testament to just how explosive this conflict is. Having an argument with a Japanese person is informative because you can actually see when their essential racism bursts to the surface. When they feel challenged by a foreigner it is only a matter of time before they explode into racial slurs and violence.

This thinking is dirty. This is what needs to change. It is time to realise that the rest of the world has moved on from the League of Nations, 1919. Australia now welcomes Asians into its country. Japan doesn't. Australia thrives on Japanese tourism. Over 50% of Japanese businesses don't want an increase in foreign tourism. And these are the people who would benefit financially! Racist hiring policies are sanctioned by the government in Japan; an employer can discriminate racially and still be legal. Refusing to rent an apartment to a foreigner is standard practice. The kind of society where the father of an Olympic hammer throw champion can praise the efforts of his son in racial terms (Japanese are smaller and so must try harder) while ignoring the contribution of his mother (former Romanian javelin thrower), is a society that still believes it can win at war if it only tries harder. Japan was in Vietnam. It's now in Iraq. Koizumi wants a permanent seat on the UNSC and is contemplating removing article 9 (the peace clause) from the constitution. The self defence forces may soon become the defence forces. Is it any wonder, then, that North Korea is arming itself to the teeth in preparation for another assault by this nation of seething racist belligerents?

By the way, there is a very simple and very sad reason why Japan treats different colours of foreigner differently. They think they lost the war to whites. Until they lose to blacks or Asians, those groups will not move up the hierarchy.

hello all
I had just stumbled onto this site and found all comments very interesting. Particularly about the Japanese who were brought up overseas in third world countries. It's really sad at how the Japanese look down on other Asians but even sadder that they look down on their own people. I have had friends who were Japanese who were very helpful and others who had an extremely unjustified overrated opinion of themselves. Why did they behave this way? Because I am not Japanese but from Taiwan. In Taiwan there isn't a hatred of Japanese colonisation but because I am interested in Asian cultures I do feel that after all the money made from colonisation from Korea, Taiwan, China, Phillipines etc.... the least the Japanese people can do is to be more understanding of our cultures. After all, that is why a country colonises another country which is to make money. Look at England and the Netherland's social welfare system, how do you think their government has so much money to this day? I wish the Japanese would stop acting so snobby. You guys look up to white people but actually white people only respect white people. it doesn't matter how many latest technologies you can make. At the end of the day you are still Japanese to them and they are not going to make you the godmother of their child or whatever. Stop thinking other Asians must act like you and just respect other cultures. I mean Japanese don't even like being Japanese either. The businessman tries to emulate white people. The young people try to look white with blond hair or else they get dreadlocks and listen to bob marley and suddenly we should be convinced they could pass for Jamaican, not! Anyway, try to be humble and helpful towards others. Everyone should try to do that.