Imagine if Germany still waved the swastika symbol nowadays
glances at the Bundeswehr using the Iron Cross as its emblem, which is meant to hark back to the Teutonic Order and the crusades, and which the nazis unsurprisingly fucking loved using all over
this flag was raised when japan took other countries' territories and committed removed, mass murder, and genocide...
tbf you can also say this about the yankkkee flag, the british flag, the french flag, the spanish flag... the list goes on
And you'd be correct
Importantly, they didn't lose and get occupied and sign a treaty of not being allowed to do war again. It's not like imperial countries are going to suddenly develop morality and change themselves.
🤷♂️ well yeah
there's still a meaningful difference between that and when someone raises a nazi/confederate/rising-sun flag and says "This is what I love about my country"
in the popular western imagination the atom bomb totally absolved japan of its long history of crimes against humanity and transformed it into a model western country
westerners and finding ways to ignore the depravities of their allies, name a better duo
In the same way the the Jewish holocaust absolved Israel, in perpetuity, for the 70 years and going, genocide to the Palestinian people.
What can I say, we love our narratives wherein an Original Sin is absolved through sacrifice. I wonder where that comes from?
We should have got ridden of nationalism after WWII but we did not. I find it rather "logical" that with how the world is turning out under capitalism that the most ugly side of nationalism is having a comeback (pretty much in all countries that celebrate capitalism, aka the west).
Not sure how it is in other countries but in Germany we have to constantly hear how our nation and our way of life is at risk. Every propaganda piece tries to make our NATION out to be something glorious, something worth dying and killing over. How could people not become moronic nationalists and live in this society? The only way of losing my nationalism was to reject what society offers and I got to be honest, it is kind of lonely here. Actually finding ways to change people or things about this country is very hard and people who do have my utmost respect.
Anyways, I don't see anything special here. Just standard western nationalism-exceptionalism if that makes sense. It however is shameful how Japan ignores or even glorifies its past. Pretending to be critical would probably not make a big difference (looking at you Germany 😠).
Anyways, I don't see anything special here. Just standard western nationalism-exceptionalism if that makes sense.
I think it's more than that.
Symbols associated with colonial projects can bring up a lot of generational trauma in countries that were on the receiving end of the atrocities performed by past colonizers. This is something that is easy to overlook for outsiders from countries without that history.
The effects of Imperial Japan on the East Asian countries were significant, particularly for China. Remember, WWII began in the 1920s for China and arguably half of the fighting for the entire war occurred in China along with war crimes and atrocities or imperialism that were never repaired and are largely overlooked in the West. Some countries in the region managed to eject imperial Japan just to have the Western Allies bring the same Japanese officers right back to run their new colonial projects after "liberating" the East.
The hard feelings toward Japan are deeply rooted in a bloody and violent history of subjugation that has never seen apologies or reparations made. While US POWs can say they too experienced trauma from imperial Japan, it's nothing compared to what the people of East Asia experienced every day in their homes. The trauma has a different, deeper nature and this is easy to overlook from an outside perspective when viewing the original post.
It's even worse, the flag that was raised above every Japanese atrocity is this familiar one:
No, you see, if you start flying the bad flag, the Japanese become possessed by this evil spirit
Too bad fascists had to use cool symbols so now the swastika is forever tainted (which gets weird when a lot of SEA still uses it for stuff) and Japan just has to have a naked circle with no sun beams
They can only co-opt because creating something new and cool requires having a soul.
Yeah and it sucks to let those elements be co opted forever but i guess there isn't really an expiration date on a symbol being associated with bigotry, imperialism and death
I want to go watch Patlabor 2 again now lol
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