Surely not. There were huge earthquakes in Kobe and Niigata recently , and nothing like that happened. I do not believe Tokyo people would behave differently from Kobe or Niigata people
Probably, and aiming at other East Asians
Probably, and aiming at Westerners
Probably, and aiming at Muslims
Probably, and aiming at any foreigners
Who knows ?
Probably not
Surely not
Surely not. There were huge earthquakes in Kobe and Niigata recently , and nothing like that happened. I do not believe Tokyo people would behave differently from Kobe or Niigata people
I would have to say when I first read the question I immediately thought this is ridiculous. Looking through the arguments on this page (note, I skimmed and did not necessarily read intensely), I noticed that 99% of people are focusing on Japan exclusively, ignoring the change in Japan's international presence and prestige it has been awarded since 1923.
I think Jieshi (quoted above) shares a parallel line of thought as I (though the rest of his post I don't agree with - no one would invade). In 1923, Japan was still the "fluke" East Asian country that had managed to modernize (let's levae defining modernity aside for now) faster than other Asian countries. Furthermore, it had escaped colonization by Western powers and had even established colonies of its own in Taiwan and Korea. This latter point is significant, as at this time Koreans were conceived of as being under Japanese rule. There was no country that would come and to the Korean's aid in the name of "Korea" (as at that time, Korea as an independent country did not exist in the Japanese mind, nor did it in most Western countries' minds). Therefore, there would have been (and was) no repercussion to the attacks from abroad.
Furthermore, in 1923, Japan had not been brought fully into the international sphere of economics and politics. The majority of trade still was with and within Europe, and Japan still took a backseat role in international affairs. This starkly contrasts with the present day, where Japan has the world's second largest economy (though for how much longer) and had no participation (partially because some of these groups had not been formed) in the G8, WTO, ARF, ASEAN+3, and other international treaty organizations. The League of Nations did not have much power, and there was no Human Rights Watch or other HR organizations. All of these are factors in how a country allows its people to act, and even in how educated people decide what consequences their actions will have.
To sum up so far, the international environment in 1923 was VERY different from the environment of now (or what we can expect in the future barring WW3). With the "eyes of the world" on a nation, people and the government will behave very differently. This is one reason why economic aid is always used as leverage in Africa and other developing countries. When you become important to the world (and equally, when the world becomes important to you), it becomes necessary to act according to the "rules of the game" so to speak. Of course, rules can be broken, but in the fold of the international blanket, they will come with dire consequences that most nations will be unwilling to face in this time of globalization.
A final point - the 1923 attacks began from the spreading of rumors that Koreans were committing arsony, robbery, and poisoning the wells. The newspapers did not help as many of them played these rumors as true, which is what truly started the avalanche of violence. The information age has changed things so that even uneducated people have access to everyday information in a variety of mediums from a variety of sources, including international ones (translated or otherwise). Thus, if you truly want to compare the circumstances and what initiated the killings - the mis-propagation of information - today's world would very likely prevent such a scenario from happening. Even in New York 2001, as some wrote, although there were attacks on people, there was not a mass dissemination of false-information saying that all Middle Eastern (even non-Caucasian) people had conspired in the attacks. What NY does show, is that yes, there is a distinct possibility of attacks against a people perceived of as threatening, but the attacks in 2001 are in no way comparable to the scale of the attacks in 1923. Thus, we see two things from the above that are required for a repeat of 1923: 1) a people (defined by race/region/language etc.) must first be perceived as threatening, and 2) information must spread rapidly to a large amount of people about the threat of these people.
Now, combining this with our earlier conclusions, I now ask again, what is the likelihood that 1923 can occur again?
My answer, surely not. At worst, I would see a post-9-11 repeat.
*I'm not going to go into how the spread of culture and the increase of comsopolitanism in the world affects people's mindsets, I think that's been taken care of to some degree by other posters.
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Funny that it is a myth written as history by Westerners!?
Every culture is racist to some extent. Japanese children kill themselves because of bullying, so do Americans, Europeans, and other asians. Sometimes there isn't enough of a response to a public disaster to avoid tragedy... Hurricane Katrina was the same way.
The lesson we need to learn is that we are all equals, and all capable of terrible things.
Last edited by AroundTheWorld; Jun 26, 2008 at 15:56.
Surelly not! Something like that couldn happen in others country,but not in Japan. I believe in japanese people and i now they never will do such a thing.
If you believe the governor of Tokyo, then precisely the opposite will happen. Foreigners will be the ones to be controlled. Sigh. Silly thread.
Those days are just around the corner. If the US has a major national catastrophe, such as a stock market crash and food shortage, expect to see the different communities (that are usually self-segregated) start turning against one another.
The idea that an earthquake that impacts just Tokyo is far fetched, but if there is harbored resentment or tension (like the US has) than a massive disaster followed by a crushed economy could lead toward people looking for a scapegoat. But it would have to take the ripple effect of jobless and poverty.
considering that I am 7 feet tall and a boxing player. that would be a nightmare for the police. just kidding .
actually who knows ?
Do remember that this was a while back and Japanese people have changed their views on foreigners. But if there ever was an attack I would say it would be on the Koreans. I've heard that many Japanese people don't like Koreans so that would be my guess. Just heard that. But in likely hood I don't think this would ever happen. I also agree with another member. Im 6"5. Nobodys gonna mess with me.
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