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Q: No wonder they hate the Japs and each other
turned on the tv and what do you think was on
yep you got it ....a soap opera about how the communist party took on the Japs
change the channel and it is the National Army going head to head with the japs ..change again and now we have the Communist and the National winning the war .....then for a change of pace there is one were the communists are fighting the Nationals.
I know the Japanese were a evil empire and as a Australian know what they did to my people during that time .
most of the combatants left are in their 90s now
another 15 years or so and only a hand full that lived through this time will still be upright.
when can we move on ?
no wonder people cant move on when there is a constant reminder in your face
This issue is the one thing that unites all Chinese people. Every country has its own boogey-man. IS is the current boogey-man for many countries now.
I was at the in-laws recently and China's aircraft carrier came on tv in some basically innocuous story. Most of the family, the men in particular, started ranting about invading japan with the carrier as the tip of the offensive. They were delighted to be hatin' on the japs and the "fact" that China defeated them single-handedly in WWII, which they all learned at school.
Naturally, I was questioned about my opinion. They were surprised to hear about Australia's WWII history with japan, that my father fought in New Guinea (no one had heard of the country) and even more surprised that I held no malice towards the country. Then we all went out for sushi.
ambivalentmace:
yes, by their definition, i should kill every person i see here, my father lost 3 fingers to a chinese mortar round, and my first name was from a war buddy who died next to him in the korean war fighting chinese troops. my wife ask me why i dont hate chinese and i said it was my fathers job to kill, the bodies and people he kills has nothing to do with it, a cook makes food, he does not pick the food, the soldier has a job and picking the enemy is not his job. these people take things too seriously for things they have no control over and the things they can control they treat light hearted and wonder why they have no real values.
chinese and muslims are the only 2 kinds of people i have met in the world that talk about the 19 century like it was yesterday, its the most bizarre behavior, in algeria they will talk about the french occupation like it happened this year. in southern africa they will talk about british rule like their mother was a slave to a british officer. i do get a kick out of my wifes grandmother 88 years old saying the japanese were nice to her as a little girl and gave her toys and candy, but then everybody in the family gives her a dirty look and tells her to shut up.
philbravery:
i agree ....and history should not be white washed however it is pushed down the throat ever day
expatlife26:
right 100% on that. living in the past.
Russia got it as bad as anybody in ww2 and you can still sit down with a group of them and talk about daring deeds of the war and not how they hate germans.
I had a girlfriend who loved the story of the "nacht hexen", female pilots in old biplanes who would cut their engines and glide in silently to strike german camps.
Of course the ussr was a shitshow but a person can take a healthy degree of national pride in stories like that. I've never heard a chinese person talk about any particular victory or accomplishment...just hatred of the enemy.
expatlife26:
One connection between those two groups you mentioned is that both of them have this kind of grandiose sense of their superiority in the world.
Like they aren't just mad about how bad things happened, it's that "lesser" cultures did them to the great religion of islam or the middle kingdom. You grow up thinking that your place is superior in every way and a defeat and humiliation becomes that much deeper. It's not that Japan defeated the train wreck late Qing Dynasty it's that "Little Japan" dared to hurt wonderful great powerful China. And I would say the same thing about a lot of the Islamic societies. How could these infidels from France possibly have dominated us so handily? When your national self image is tied up in being this ultimate society it's tough to accept a defeat.
Smaller places you don't get that so much. God you know Vietnam has gotten it so bad over the years from different great powers. But they seem not to be wallowing in hate and self pity. They're still here and that's victory enough.
Adding to Ambi's point, people who actually lived through it (soldiers, witnesses) are left out of the conversation because if they were let in, their narrative would be very different.
Its not the Chinese people that have to move on per se, its the PRC. After all they control all mass media, its in their favour to keep pushing the anti-Jap line, it detracts the people from the real issues/problems i.e. intolerable pollution (air, water & land) income gap, low wages, working conditions, shitty Educ. & Health systems etc etc.
A convenient tool employed by the Govt. to maintain & consolidate their tenuous hold on power.
Push the button & the non-thinking people (unfortunately most of them...) will follow suit.
Dissapointing & sad, but more importantly, with this hold the PRC has over the people, potentially very dangerous!
This issue is the one thing that unites all Chinese people. Every country has its own boogey-man. IS is the current boogey-man for many countries now.
I was at the in-laws recently and China's aircraft carrier came on tv in some basically innocuous story. Most of the family, the men in particular, started ranting about invading japan with the carrier as the tip of the offensive. They were delighted to be hatin' on the japs and the "fact" that China defeated them single-handedly in WWII, which they all learned at school.
Naturally, I was questioned about my opinion. They were surprised to hear about Australia's WWII history with japan, that my father fought in New Guinea (no one had heard of the country) and even more surprised that I held no malice towards the country. Then we all went out for sushi.
ambivalentmace:
yes, by their definition, i should kill every person i see here, my father lost 3 fingers to a chinese mortar round, and my first name was from a war buddy who died next to him in the korean war fighting chinese troops. my wife ask me why i dont hate chinese and i said it was my fathers job to kill, the bodies and people he kills has nothing to do with it, a cook makes food, he does not pick the food, the soldier has a job and picking the enemy is not his job. these people take things too seriously for things they have no control over and the things they can control they treat light hearted and wonder why they have no real values.
Phil:
It has puzzled me for years now the claim that China single handed defeated the Japanese in WW II. Japan had about 1.3 milion soldiers in China, and they we not retreatigng when surrendered.
The ALLIES faced 3.5 million Germans in Europe and pushed them back all theway to
Berlin
philbravery:
it seams the battle lines are blurred depending which battles you see a movie about. i have yet to see one about the flying Tigers from a Chinese view point
ambivalentmace:
i showed the "why we fight" video from torrents of "the battle of china" were america trained their pilots, gave them fighter planes, and sent 4000 flights of supplies over the alps for 18 months to supply china, the students asked me why they never were told this and my response was all those men live in taiwan now. complete silence.
