Shintaro Ishihara., 慎太郎 石原. Options

[Ogumo]

I am curious as to what people's thoughts are about this very...."outspoken" man.

Ishihara is the brother of the now long dead yujiro ishihara. He himself is and play writer and artist of sorts. That is not why you are reading this. I am also sure that if any of you had enough interest you already knew these facts.

He is indeed a racist with out doubt we can get that of the way now. This is not my problem with him. My main problem with him is that he is simply openly racist and offensive towards others. Also his denials of historical events. Some of is past comments are especially bad and are unforgivable... He simply does not know when to stop when he is ahead. I cannot even defend him to say that his comments are blow out of proportion because the reaction he gets is just what he deserves. If he were to stop using derogatory and historical denials... he may be alright.

Ishihara has been portray as incredibly anti american. Of course this is typical demonization of by the caucasions of anyone that does not agree with their practices.

There are events that shapeded his opinion when he was a child. One such event was an american GI humiliating him infront of his entire town when he was a child. Nothing serious like pulling a gun on him or anything but it was enough. In away I am glad the american did what ever the hell it was. It made atleast one man suspicious of what ever americans did ever since. Good for him.

I think that the single incident that really made this man what he is was that he supposedly was almost killed by an american fighter plane as a child. The americans allegedly strafed in one of their aircraft. Ishihara then dove to the ground and heard other aircraft. This time zeros with red suns emblazened on their sides and wings chasing down the american attackers. Of course this event could have been of his own creation. Remember he was writer and this could have simply been another story he created later on. However I believe that the americans did shoot at him (Japanese Child).

Let us over look that for now.

My main reason for even making this thread is not to defend this man. To do so would be futile considering that even I myself feel that he is a racist. In around 98 I read a book by this man "japan that says no". Now book was very good some what outdated by 98 (mentions of the soviet union) but still good. I actually recommend this book to each japanese. I even think that there are full copies online for viewing. This book was SO interesting that the american pentagon decided that they needed to translate this book and give it extra publicity U.S.A (He proposed that japan should sell computer technology to the USSR.)

What made me personally love this book was that it called for japanese people to stand up to the americans (the americans did not like this at all haha.) It was basically about being tough and defiant on every little thing. Also acting with only self interest in mind when dealing with them. He also disagree with the friendly japanese buisness practices that were being taken in the 80s (the book was made in 91). He also at the same time ironically advocated japan becoming more friendly with asia. One of the comments that I specifically remember was "Japan needs asia more than america". Another good quote "In the japanese and American relationship. I hate the japanese the most. They do not speak up". The book was of course appealing for me because it spoke of remilitarization and independence of japan. Always good topics to win me over indeed.

Even with books that speak of romantic freedom from the american tyrants. I feel much guilty to support ishihara himself. He has made far too many uncalled for comments about other groups of people. However he does make excellent points regularly about the america-japan "relationship". Comments that despite his racism against others...cannot be ignored.

By the way here is a link about another of his on going projects.
http://202.221.217.59/print/news/nn06-2004/nn20040624f3.htm

This will be my final thing here for the next few weeks.

This post has been edited by Ogumo: Jul 27 2004, 07:08 AM

[Musashino]

"The Japan that can say No" was, IMO, fairly boring and tedious to read.

The only thing noteworthy about the book was that it consistenly complained about Japan constantly "leaning over" for the America. E.g. He told of how Mitsubishi built a very advanced and modern air fighter, but had to can the project and give it up to the American side after they (the Reagen administration) complained about it. Otherwise, it was nothing more than hundreds of pages filled with wild diatribes about Japan having to be more independent and fire more warning shots at America, telling them they cannot boss Japan around any longer.

And I don't particularly like how he portrayed Nakasone as Reagen's personal lap-dog.

This post has been edited by Musashino: Jul 27 2004, 07:49 AM

[Digital Insanity]

Basing from the actions of Shintaro Ishihara, I can now safely conclude that he's a misrepresentation towards the Japanese.

[CJK]

he wouldnt be where he is without the votes of the people so how can he be a misrepresentation; he is undoubtably a representative, a governor for one of the largest cities on the planet. Racist, cowardice politicians like him shouldnt be serving at all.

[IORI]

Didn't he say that when he was little back in WW2 the American pilots strafed at him while he was licking an ice cream or something?


All i know is he is an old xenophobe and he has serious issues he also blames chinese and korean "gangs" for everything wrong in their society.

He's sympathetic to Taiwan and has connections to Lee teng hui and to the dalai lama.

In general his comments are so far fetched and ridiculous that i don't even take him seriously anymore.

[死南蛮]

in what way did the yank humiliate him? Was he butt-raped publicly?

[jonii-wanwan]

I have read this book, and I personally enjoyed it. The man is a racist, there's no denying that. But he is a nationalist and he loves his country. He has pride in his Japanese people, something that Japanese have lost ever since they lost in WWII.
He was calling his people to wake up to themselves, from the mass brainwashing that they have forged on themselves that Japan is under America.
Why was it a best-seller? Maybe deep down somewhere, Japanese people still have some pride in their country.

[Hiroki]

Maybe deep down somewhere, Japanese people still have some pride in their country.

Oh we have pride in being Japanese,
You just have to get out of Tokyo to find it.


Ishihara's thoughts are controversial, and even though I do not like the thought of it, they paralled what was in the back of most people's minds. Especially the generation that lived through the war years. Perhaps it was also because it was published at a time of Japanese recession. This man had thought that it was the American and other xeno-cultures that were adversely affecting the Japanese people and economy. Blame had to be targeted, and his views were the most thought provoking.

I'll reiterate this again, Ishihara's a nutter of a man. His xenophobic views are baseless and archaic, but he does well as governor of Asia's most economically important city.

[jonii-wanwan]

Well, I'm living in Osaka now, and we all know how proud Osakan people are. However, even in this city, everyone seems to have a complexity of foreigners. Which is painful to see. Having said this, I find Japanese people who were born abroad and who are native English speakers, are always proud to stay they're Japanese. Maybe Shintaro Ishihara is a bit of a nutter, but there has to be some kind of explaination why his book is so famous. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_confused.gif)