The LAT reports that Japanese ultranationalists have harassed local cinemas into canceling screenings of director Li Ying’s film “Yasukuni”:
Five cinemas in Tokyo and Osaka have dropped plans to show the documentary “Yasukuni” beginning April 12, saying they feared for the safety of staff and patrons if they showed the film by Chinese director Li Ying.
His film addresses the question of Japanese amnesia about the nation’s wartime past by examining the clashing views about Yasukuni. Many Japanese regard the 19th century Tokyo shrine as the appropriate place to pray for the country’s 2.5 million war dead, whereas critics see it as a symbol of unapologetic militarism.
Both the director and the cinema owners said they had received threatening calls warning them against showing the film. Some of the theaters had been targeted by right-wing activists demonstrating in their signature black sound trucks, blasting nationalist slogans and tirades against the film at deafening volume through loudspeakers.
(HT to reader)
9 Comments
Interesting to see the Japanese adopt the tactics of the Musselmen.
Kinda like anti-abortion extremists in front of abortion clinics… what did the courts rule? Ah, racketeering.
I have witnessed the black trucks, they are deafening. My Japanese collogue was reticent to tell me what they were shouting.
I don’t if these were, but some of the uyoku dantai are made up of Koreans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyoku_dantai
I wonder if there are any clans man with the surname of Rodrigez or Sanchez. That would be a trip!
You know, it’s too bad that Japanese theaters are caving into this pressure… and no one seems to care or help in Japan.
I’ve heard that Li Ying’s documentary is very good and tries to be balanced. He really respects the Japanese, but is a little disturbed by their selective memory. An interesting part of the documentary I heard about is when he talks about the swords forged at Yasukuni that are revered by the shrine’s visitors. These swords, made just before WWII, were probably used to behead unarmed POWs. However, this fact is never addressed at Yasukuni and the swords are appreciated purely for their, uh, aesthetic style…
#4, I’d be skeptical on the issue…while many troubled Koreans in Japan ended up in shady groups, they were mostly biker gangs and the upper-tier Yakuza. Yet, it’s been a habit of odd Japanese groups to stereotype any bad happenings as stemming from a Chinese or Korean connection…recent example being the murder of Lindsay Hawker, which at the time of the announcement, many posts involved claiming the murderer was Korean.
I used to live near Yoyogi, the location of the Japan Communist Party headquarters in Tokyo. As such, we were often “treated” by caravans of flag-draped, black sound trucks with speakers blaring at decimal rates that would be illegal in most countries — and perhaps were in Japan, but the police never interfered.
Having been forced to pay attention to this weird, Japanese phenomenon, I can offer some minor insight. The trucks are owned or subsidized by some crusty, elderly right-wing millionaires who have no issues to hire through the yakuza low-level yakuza or “chimpira” who are punks looking forward to the day when they will be the Japanese equivalents of “made men.”
Today’s yakuza are unsurprisingly made up of the dregs of Japanese society. As such such, they have many ethnic Koreans and some Chinese Japanese who find full acceptance in these organized crime units. In other words, the allegations of Koreans often making up the yakuza are accurate. I have met some of them, myself.
In any event, there is an unsavory relationship between the yakuza and the Japanese police that seems at times to keep Japanese communities largely “safe” of street crime, but in the end, keeps Japanese society beholding to both sleazy individuals and principles, largely hidden from the view of most foreigners. The whole situation is pervasive, fascinating and disgusting.
# 7,
It hasn’t been firmly established that Tatsuya Ichihashi is a zanichi, a third generation Korean Japanese. However, even if he was, it is 100% clear that he is a Japanese citizen.