in article 73fde4f0.0410150535.61ee4657@posting.google.com, John W. at
worthj1970@yahoo.com wrote on 10/15/04 10:35 PM:

> Ernest Schaal <eschaal@max.hi-ho.ne.jp> wrote in message
> news:<BD953A45.293BB%eschaal@max.hi-ho.ne.jp>...
>> 
>> Unfortunately, the denial of the Rape of Nanking and the denial of the war
>> crimes committed by leaders of the Imperial Army appears to be increasing,
>> as revisionist textbooks are now being approved by local schools and
>> right-wing politicians are becoming more powerful and more vocal.
> 
> I thought most of these politicians simply debated the numbers of
> those slaughtered and didn't all out deny the event took place (which
> is just idiocy).
> 
> Part of what bothers me isn't that they think it never happened; there
> are certainly politicians in the US that believe in the mission of the
> KKK. The thing is, for the most part the US politicians don't speak up
> that much, aren't given the major press time and if they are they
> aren't taken seriously, and they don't have the clout that the nuts in
> Japan seem to have. And I'm not sure why this is. Do Japanese as a
> whole believe that lunacy?
> 
> John W.

My automatic reply used to be that Japanese as a whole do not believe that
lunacy, but I am less certain about that now, based on the popularity of
some of the politicians espousing that lunacy, such as the current Tokyo
governor.