[Outcast_Searcher]

He didn't even say that it was Japan who started it .
but harped along on how much the Japanese people had suffered from it

So the rest of the axis had NOTHING to do with WWII? It was all the Japanese fault?

So the Japanese should be celebrating because the US nuked two of their cities? Today the US calls combatants who attack civilians TERRORISTS. Funny how that works.

I'm just a white guy with friends from all walks of life who strives to ignore things like religion, race, how people dress, have sex, how tall they are, their eye color, and all that other stuff, and look at what people actually do re their communities.

The one-sided antagonism here reminds me of my completely irrational long time girlfriend's mother (call it virtual mother-in-law). I loved Japanese cars like Toyotas because they provided me GREAT service at a reasonable price -- especially compared to the crap Detroit offered. Plain and simple.

She HATED Japanese cars because of WWII. This was a good SIXTY YEARS AFTER WWII.

With attitudes like this, little wonder the way the constant fighting and killing seems so endless in the Middle East.

And I'm NOT giving the Japanese a "pass" for Pearl Harbor. I am saying that 70 years later, the entire fiasco which was WWII needs to be looked at with some perspective. It seems to me, for example, that there was this guy called Hitler who was rather aggressive and wasn't quite all goodness and light (I was more sympathetic to the emotions of my Jewish stockbroker who wouldn't buy German cars in the 80's/90's).

[Cog]

Bataan Death March
Rape of Nanking
Unit 731
Comfort Women

The Japanese Army would have condemned millions of Japanese civilians to death by opposing our invasion of the main islands. Fortunately the dropping of the two nukes caused the Emperor to pause in those plans. When we did occupy Japan at war's end, we were certainly a lot more benevolent than the Japanese would have been had the roles been reversed.

[C8]

I think I remember a poll taken after Hiroshima in an old newspaper of the time- and Americans pretty much wanted to nuke ALL of Japan. Many lost loved ones in that war and the feeling was that Japan started it and was very cruel (many recalled GI's having being decapitated).

But once you start down the road of apologies where do you stop? It seems like a double standard fro Japan to apologize but somehow these apologies WON'T happen:

1. China's murder of millions of its own people through the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution
2. Khmer Rouge slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians
3. North Vietnam's and North Korea's invasions and butchery
4. China's occupation of Tibet

As for expert advice on how not to say anything much just listen to any school superintendent- I swear these folks could teach politicians a thing or two on the subject

[sparky]

.
@ outcast-searcher
the axis had nothing to do with the Asian war ,the Japanese started it in 1931 ,Hitler wasn't even in power
as for the baionneting of nurses , wholesale slaughter of ten of thousand of defenseless civilians at Nankin
beheading of captured war prisoners or their death on the Burma railways ,
and many many more events , unreported ,
those were not "incidents" by local commanders but a consistently applied policy all through the Empire
some of whose perpetrators are honored to this day as worthy example of behavior

make me want to puke.

[Tanada]

Japan’s environment minister, Tamayo Marukawa, endorsed two new coal-fired power projects near Tokyo, while urging the power producers that will operate the plants to ensure they put measures in place to cut emissions from the facilities.

The endorsement is a reversal of the stance adopted by the environment minister in November when she said she wouldn’t support two other coal projects because a voluntary framework set up by the power industry to cut greenhouse gas emissions wasn’t sufficient.

In February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which has the final authority to approve individual coal power projects, said it will require power producers to boost the efficiency of their plants after power companies set up a council to review efforts to cut emissions.

The projects endorsed by Marukawa on Friday include a 650-megawatt project planned by Chubu Electric Power Co. and Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings and a 645-megawatt unit proposed by Electric Power Development Co. and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. Both coal-fired power plants will be located in Ibaraki prefecture, which lies roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Tokyo.

Marukawa’s endorsement carried with caveats, with the minister saying an increasing ratio of power from coal is a source of concern as it will obstruct Japan’s efforts to tackle climate change, according to statements from the environment ministry describing Marukawa’s letters to the trade minister, Motoo Hayashi.

Environmental groups criticized Marukawa’s stance, saying that it falls short of efforts to globally address the climate challenge. A meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations in western Japan wrapped up Friday with a declaration including a section on climate change.

“It is outrageous that the minister issues such statements” while G7 leaders agreed to speed up efforts to decarbonize the global economy, Kimiko Hirata of the Kiko Network, a Kyoto-based environmental group, said by phone. “By continuing to offer such a response to the coal issue, I wonder how Japan sees itself in the eyes of the world?”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... h-of-tokyo

[dissident]

There is no real penalty for burning fossil fuels for the politicians. The consequences of CO2 emissions are still too far removed from the "action --> effect" perceptions of their constituents. This kick the can down the road mode of operation in "advanced" societies will still be in full swing decades from now.

[Subjectivist]

So much for the industrialized nations reducing their CO2 emissions. Let's close all the CO2 free nuclear plants and replace them wth Coal and Natural Gas! Gosh that will surely solve the problem!!!

[C8]

New Japanese Law Makes 'Online Insults' a Jailable Offense

Dedication to free speech is in short supply around the world, with Britain and Canada previously considering similar bills.
JOE LANCASTER | 7.9.2022 8:00 AM

This week, a Japanese law went into effect making it a jailable offense to be a jerk on the Internet.

As reported by The Japan Times, the legislation, passed in June, strengthens the country's punishment for "online insults." According to CNN, "Under Japan's penal code, insults are defined as publicly demeaning someone's social standing without referring to specific facts about them or a specific action…The crime is different to defamation, defined as publicly demeaning someone while pointing to specific facts."

Previously, the penalty for online offensiveness was either a fine of less than ¥10,000 (about $73 USD) or fewer than 30 days in prison. Under the new law, which went into effect Thursday, the penalties increased to as much as a year in prison and a fine of up to ¥300,000 (about $2,200 USD). It also extended the statute of limitations from one year to three.

A push for the law came in 2020, when Japanese wrestler and reality TV star Hana Kimura committed suicide after allegedly receiving abusive messages on social media. The bill briefly stalled over concerns that it would stifle legitimate criticism of politicians. Finally, the legislature reached a compromise, inserting a provision requiring that "a review will be conducted within three years…to determine if it unfairly restricts free speech," per The Japan Times.

Why wait?

Any criminalization of "offensive" speech is inherently subject to abuse. After all, whoever is in power at a given time will get to decide what's offensive.

Japan's new law is quite broad. It doesn't define what is or is not "demeaning," and since there's no requirement that the statements be statements of fact, it could mean anything. CNN quotes Seiho Cho, a lawyer in Japan, who says that the law lacks "a guideline that makes a distinction on what qualifies as an insult….If someone calls the leader of Japan an idiot, then maybe under the revised law that could be classed as an insult."

Indeed, this is one of the hallmarks of the First Amendment: the right to criticize those in power, even crudely or crassly, without (legal) retribution. As an epithet against President Joe Biden, "let's go, Brandon" may be juvenile, and some may consider it hateful, but it is unquestionably protected speech.

Japan enjoys one of the most free and open societies, with the nonprofit Freedom House rating it 96 out of 100 points in its global freedom ranking, including 15 out of 16 in the Freedom of Expression and Belief category. Such an overt criminalization of unpopular speech represents a worrying trend in the wrong direction.

Around the world, dedication to free speech is in short supply. Last year, Canada and Great Britain considered laws that would ban online rhetoric perceived as hateful or harmful. Even in the U.S., there is a trend lately among younger generations to equate speech with violence.

Speech is not violence, and attempts to regulate it as if it were will only empower the regulators at the expense of the powerless.

https://reason.com/2022/07/09/new-japan ... e-offense/

Coming soon to America if polls showing lack of support for Freedom of Speech by younger generations are correct

[Newfie]

Kripes, the internet would have to shut down, and all main stream “news” media.

[C8]

Kripes, the internet would have to shut down, and all main stream “news” media.

I am thinking of learning Japanese so I can insult them online from the safety of the US.

[JuanP]

Kripes, the internet would have to shut down, and all main stream “news” media.

The internet would not have to shut down and neither would MSM. The internet is very easy for governments to censor and control, as they already quite successfully do, using algorithms and social media. Most MSM everywhere on the planet are already, essentially, propaganda outlets. I would say that Freedom of Speech, and most particularly freedom of thought, is mostly a thing of the past, except for a small minority of people.

What concerns me more than Freedom of Speech is freedom of thought. Most people in the West and some other places have been thoroughly brainwashed already and they already speak and write brainwashed nonsense. They voluntarily censor themselves. And for those who don't a little fear goes a long way. What happened to Manning and Snowden has scared the shit out of countless millions.

We live in a world of falsehoods, lies, inaccuracies, half-truths, and distortions. IMO, a very small percentage of people in the USA, where I spent the last 30+ years of my life, have any real connection to or understanding of the truths that TRULY challenge the people in power. We have become a truly sad bunch. Learning the truth and accepting reality are fundamental to being a fully realized human, and people capable of doing that are increasingly rare.

I feel just like Diogenes must have felt walking around the streets with his lantern in his search for a human being, not an honest man as many wrongfully claim. Even with 8,000 million people on this planet and the internet, they are increasingly rare, and it is almost a miracle to find one. The degeneration of this website over the last 10 years being a typical example. The same applies to women, of course. To people like Diogenes and me most people are essentially subhuman because they never realize or manifest their full humanity. Most people are an insignificant fraction of the person they could be.

Like I said above, we have become a truly sad bunch. Orwell's 1984 had nothing on today! Today's world is much worse than Orwell imagined it would be and getting worse every single day.