:: punched, drunk and loved ::

Sonntag, Mai 29, 2005

argh the papers today (or rather, yesterday. i really shud read papers in the MORNING of the exact day) revealed (partially) what i think about the yasukuni. but they make it such a dry academic piece it becomes sp difficult to read. the straits times really should employ me as their writer. but i am so lazy i don't record the thoughts down until someone else has come up with it too.

which is why laziness and procrastination-until-it-nv-gets-done are gonna be my greatest downfall.

all i can say now is - take things into perspective. there're things which ur authorities do not tell u too so any talk of "history" and "atrocities" and "morality" and blahblahblah are always hypocritical. or rather, in the perspective of the person. and it is a very, very childish thing to cancel that meeting. classic kindergarten-playground mentality. u fuel chinese nationalism, but what u didn't think of is that u fuel japanese nationalism too.

the massacres did occur, true. many, many people suffered and died, true. yasukuni houses war criminals, true. the revision of the history books is a step back, true.

but invasion of tibet, also true. cultural revolution and famine, also true. inner mongolia, again true. firearms and military weapons to the khmer rogue, true. that u became too weak fighting amongst urselves to stop any outsiders, even in the earlier stages, also true.

and do u mention all these, and more, in ur history books? no? i think ur history books need a revision too.

and paying respects to ur ancestors is a deeply-ingrained culture in asian cultures - east asian especially, whether ur ancestors did right or wrong stuffs. and u do not renounce them. well, usually. telling him not to visit the yasukni anymore is akin to telling u to take mr. mao out of the mausoleum, renouncing him as the great leader, and giving reparations to everybody affected during his great leap and cultural revolutions and re-educations. or like the vietnamese govt to renounce mr. ho as their founding father and admitting viet cong did hurt people.

becoz despite everything, people need ideologies to stay alive, fuels the mind and spirit. (my preferred choices include: materialism and instant gratifications.) and ideologies are never perfect - which is why nobody has truly found utopia. or as i like to say, u need to be a myopia to find utopia.

and then there are other factors, like his need for the coalition to work and support him. the erasure of certain history and blame by the u s of a itself. blahblahblah

so koizumi, i say go and visit the shrine again! stop ur kinda-spineless thing abt "visiting as a private citizen" and announce "i am going as a LDP person!". (but of coz, there is still the history books we need to talk about...)

pardon me, but i get terribly excited talking about history and certain politics. especially the wars. even tho' it is not well received in the circle. even tho' nice girls should not have strong opinions running contrary to popular views. for all these i blame my dad and our energy-charged arguments in front of the news channels and mr. kwan and his highly exciting last-min-WWII history-with-complex-chalkmaps-even-a-military genius-will-be-envious-of-taught-in-a-single-lesson in sec. one.

i think i shall take a jap history module again next sem. hmmm.

it was |2:32:00 AM|