Ernest Schaal <eschaal@max.hi-ho.ne.jp> wrote:
> in article ckrb14$l1e$1@news.Stanford.EDU, mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net at
> mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net wrote on 10/16/04 11:25 PM:

>> Ernest Schaal <eschaal@max.hi-ho.ne.jp> wrote:
>> 
>>> I must admit to reservations about the author (a gaijin scholar working in a
>>> Japanese university) since he parrots the language of Japanese "scholars,"
>>> who call it an "incident" instead of a "rape".
>> 
>> But that's simply the Japanese use of the word "jiken". While not
>> unambiguous, it does NOT imply a trivial matter. They use it to describe
>> (eg) the Sarin Gas attacks in Tokyou, and assuredly they do not think
>> lightly of the "Sarin Jiken".
> The author in question was not Japanese and was writing in English.

> Therefore, the use of the word "incident" instead of "rape" is telling.

Not if he's describing it from the standpoints of Japan and China which
are, after all, the 2 nations most immediately concerned.

Mike