Comments on: Japan Times, Foreign Office organ? http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/ Photos, Stories and articles on East Asia Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:54:22 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Asian History Carnival #14 (Straight Outta Beijing…) http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-253813 Asian History Carnival #14 (Straight Outta Beijing…) Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:10:19 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-253813 [...] Travelogue blogs about a 1937 article from the Far Eastern Survey on the question of whether or not the Japan Times was a [...] [...] Travelogue blogs about a 1937 article from the Far Eastern Survey on the question of whether or not the Japan Times was a [...]

]]> By: Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-230024 Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:12:24 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-230024 [...] Nationalistic journalism? by the Mutantfrog [...] [...] Nationalistic journalism? by the Mutantfrog [...]

]]> By: Jade Oc http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-216241 Jade Oc Wed, 16 May 2007 04:53:30 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-216241 Another of those "Kokumin" books, I see. Amazon Japan has it as four stars, due to the number of Uyoku sympathisers posting reviews. The sort of book that "「古事記、日本書紀から話は始めるべきだ」とご指摘されております。" The same old same old, really. Another of those “Kokumin” books, I see. Amazon Japan has it as four stars, due to the number of Uyoku sympathisers posting reviews. The sort of book that “「古事記、日本書紀から話は始めるべきだ」とご指摘されております。” The same old same old, really.

]]> By: M-Bone http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-216077 M-Bone Tue, 15 May 2007 12:17:58 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-216077 国家の品格 is bad but I`ve just been reading a book called 国民の教育　by Watanabe Shoichi that is similar but worse. At one point, he describes American primary education as being more far right than wartime Japanese education. That is what he thinks Japan should be going for at present. Watanabe Shoichi: A guy for whom militarist Japan was not militarist enough. 国家の品格 is bad but I`ve just been reading a book called 国民の教育　by Watanabe Shoichi that is similar but worse. At one point, he describes American primary education as being more far right than wartime Japanese education. That is what he thinks Japan should be going for at present. Watanabe Shoichi: A guy for whom militarist Japan was not militarist enough.

]]> By: Aceface http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-216065 Aceface Tue, 15 May 2007 11:16:28 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-216065 Bryce: I've got a lot to say about KvW and Johnson.I'll write a long post after Icame back from Korea. Bryce:
I’ve got a lot to say about KvW and Johnson.I’ll write a long post after Icame back from Korea.

]]> By: marxy http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-216026 marxy Tue, 15 May 2007 07:22:28 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-216026 Sorry I missed this thread! Re: Taro I wrote this a while back: http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/2006/02/book-report-spe.html I think you have to read Nakane whether you believe it or not. Does set a lot of themes of Japanese studies. Also, dumbest book I have read about Japan for a while: 「国家の品格」 Seriously, I was trying to be fair when I reviewed it in length, but the guy is a total fucking moron who can't complete a single thought. Whether you agree with his politics or not, it's a mess. Sorry I missed this thread!

Re: Taro

I wrote this a while back:
http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/2006/02/book-report-spe.html

I think you have to read Nakane whether you believe it or not. Does set a lot of themes of Japanese studies.

Also, dumbest book I have read about Japan for a while: 「国家の品格」 Seriously, I was trying to be fair when I reviewed it in length, but the guy is a total fucking moron who can’t complete a single thought. Whether you agree with his politics or not, it’s a mess.

]]> By: Bryce http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-214545 Bryce Fri, 11 May 2007 00:33:38 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-214545 Hey, Sorry to backtrack a few messages, but I see van Wolferen has done an interview in a certain mouthpiece of the foreign office. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070506x1.html He is now turning his penetrating analysis to the United States, which - he still has his "Enigma" glasses on - he claims is the same sort of large amorphous kafka-esque web of non-responsibility that dominated his Japan view. Ho hum. Is there nothing that this guy can do that isn't based on something that Chalmers Johnson wrote? At least Johnson focuses on particular policy areas (industrial policy for Japan, military base politics for the United States - see Empire of Sorrow). Van Wolferan has to go for the whole shebang. I wonder how many conservatives who thought van wolferan was the best thing since sliced bread when "Enigma" came out will now be willing to endorse his views on "America". Some of his comments about Koizumi/Abe were interesting. Hey,

Sorry to backtrack a few messages, but I see van Wolferen has done an interview in a certain mouthpiece of the foreign office.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070506×1.html

He is now turning his penetrating analysis to the United States, which – he still has his “Enigma” glasses on – he claims is the same sort of large amorphous kafka-esque web of non-responsibility that dominated his Japan view. Ho hum. Is there nothing that this guy can do that isn’t based on something that Chalmers Johnson wrote? At least Johnson focuses on particular policy areas (industrial policy for Japan, military base politics for the United States – see Empire of Sorrow). Van Wolferan has to go for the whole shebang.

I wonder how many conservatives who thought van wolferan was the best thing since sliced bread when “Enigma” came out will now be willing to endorse his views on “America”.

Some of his comments about Koizumi/Abe were interesting.

]]> By: Aceface http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-214453 Aceface Thu, 10 May 2007 16:00:53 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-214453 I've been mistaken Kinoshita with Ichikawa.My bad,Ichikawa Kon never made Narayama.Yes you are correct as always M-Bone. I’ve been mistaken Kinoshita with Ichikawa.My bad,Ichikawa Kon never made Narayama.Yes you are correct as always M-Bone.

]]> By: Mutantfrog http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-214447 Mutantfrog Thu, 10 May 2007 14:56:34 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-214447 Huh, so that's what that movie is about. I saw it without subtitles back in like my first year of study abroad and didn't really understand the story. I should really watch it again some time. Huh, so that’s what that movie is about. I saw it without subtitles back in like my first year of study abroad and didn’t really understand the story. I should really watch it again some time.

]]> By: M-Bone http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/comment-page-2/#comment-214446 M-Bone Thu, 10 May 2007 14:53:59 +0000 http://www.mutantfrog.com/2007/05/01/japan-times-foreign-office-organ/#comment-214446 I always call that one the `Yatsu haka mura satsujin jiken` - the image from the 1970s film of a dude running around a town with two candles tied to his head (occult thing) and a shotgun in one hand and a katana in the other, is one of the more interesting things in Japanese film history. Didn`t Kinoshita Keisuke (24 Eyes, Carmen Comes Home, etc.) do the original Narayama? I`m not a huge Kinoshita fan (he is the guy who beat out Kurosawa and Ozu in the critics polls in the 1950s but has been mostly forgotten in the West and is now considered to be inferior to the masters in Japan). Has anyone here seen Ichikawa`s remake of his classic murder movie (featuring Kindaichi, the same detective who shows up in Yatsu Haka Mura) `Inugami-ke no Ichizoku`? I didn`t have a chance to see it when it came out because I was not in Japan. I always call that one the `Yatsu haka mura satsujin jiken` – the image from the 1970s film of a dude running around a town with two candles tied to his head (occult thing) and a shotgun in one hand and a katana in the other, is one of the more interesting things in Japanese film history.

Didn`t Kinoshita Keisuke (24 Eyes, Carmen Comes Home, etc.) do the original Narayama? I`m not a huge Kinoshita fan (he is the guy who beat out Kurosawa and Ozu in the critics polls in the 1950s but has been mostly forgotten in the West and is now considered to be inferior to the masters in Japan).

Has anyone here seen Ichikawa`s remake of his classic murder movie (featuring Kindaichi, the same detective who shows up in Yatsu Haka Mura) `Inugami-ke no Ichizoku`? I didn`t have a chance to see it when it came out because I was not in Japan.

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