The unquiet past | Hacker News Reader

The unquiet past

economist.com

35 pointsTurukawa9 comments

An ex-boss of mine once was on a business trip with me and asked if he could stop at a shrine to pay his respects on the way home. I, naturally, had no objection.

When we got there I said "Hmm, boss, I'm not sure I can read those characters. Does that say 'Yasukuni'?" "Good show!" "Is this the same Yasukuni that... has been recently mentioned on television?" "Yes. What of it?"

Thus began a very, very long day. Word to the wise: looking obviously American in August at Yasukuni is a bad idea. It's not the death glares, per se, it is the earnest nationalists who come up and try to teach you The True History of WWII.

Do they teach The True History of Pearl Harbor?

In a previous HN discussion, I believe it was the commentary on the changed ownership of The Economist - several commenters said that they think The Economist usually carries biased and badly nuanced pieces when it comes to territories outside of the West.

I'm not holding this against anyone, but as far as I can see, this piece is nuanced and well balanced. I can not find any particular bias towards any one entity. But if anyone does see any, please bring it forward, as I'm genuinely interested.

On a related matter, I don't think the subject and timing of this article is at all a coincidence.

Well, of course not ;) It is: the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, the once-a-decade formal apology by the Japanese PM for their actions during the war (a massively contentious issue where his every word is analysed by Japan's neighbours, and which wasn't felt to be sufficiently contrite this time), as well as falling within the usual politics of the region.

I was thinking of the Economist's change of ownership.

The actual title is "Asia's second-world-war ghosts". The first section is called "The unquiet past".

I have the print edition, and it's called "The unquiet past". I think the other 'title' may be for SEO purposes.

If you're interested in this story, check out the drama "Daichi no Ko" from NHK. A real tear jerker about a Japanese boy raised by Chinese parents during the Cultural Revolution.

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