Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!onodera-news!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!newsfeed.gamma.ru!Gamma.RU!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!x003194.ppp.dion.ne.JP!not-for-mail From: "John Yamamoto-Wilson" Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Gifu bombing anniversary? Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2003 21:48:11 +0900 Lines: 30 Message-ID: References: <3F05CA44.9F142BE8@yahoo.co.jp> <545bd492.0307041729.584a4fdd@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: x003194.ppp.dion.ne.jp (210.234.3.194) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1057409665 1905842 210.234.3.194 (16 [169501]) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:1890 masayuki yoshida wrote: > > Even Fukuyama was carpet bombed, with (they include injuries) a casualty count > > of 80,000. Lack of media or public attention and a focus on the A-bombings, > > particularly of Hiroshima, has contributed to this ignorance or apathy among > > Japanese. Many even forget the Tokyo firebombing. > > As far as the majority of contemporary Japanese is a post-war > generation, using the word 'forget' is not appropriate. You mean > failing to recall person's real experience by the term? Perhaps what Eric means is something like "many teachers forget to teach their students" about such things. I forget what percentage of Japanese twenty-somethings didn't know that Japan had fought a war on the same side as Germany and against the United States in a recent survey, but it was rather depressingly high. And even in this newsgroup there have been numerous gaffes by Japanese people who clearly have a very hazy idea of what actually went on in the 1930s and 40s. Still perhaps that's a tradition in itself - the "floating world" - only now it's a world of karaoke, pachinko and shopping sprees, and the realities of history all seem very far away... -- John http://rarebooksinjapan.com