Japanese react to Chinese protests
It seems that the Chinese are having rather tumultuous demonstrations about the Japanese defending their claim to a small group of basically deserted islands at the southern end of the island nation against claims by China that the islands belong to them.
At the root of this disagreement in the East China Sea, as in the South China Sea, is that beneath them thar waves lies a potential wealth of riches in energy in the form of petroleum and natural gas deposits (which both nations desperately need to power their economies).
It is interesting that the Japanese are sort of shaking their heads and going, “Why is this happening to us? Why are these people holding demonstrations/riots outside our embassy and at places where we have invested in their country?”
The Japanese admit that their ancestors (mostly anyway, very few of the World War II and before generation are still alive) did very bad things and things that they would never do now. They also know that the Chinese, more than once, have tried to invade their islands in the past.
Right now, they seem to be echoing Rodney King (Los Angeles race riots in the 1990s) “Can’t we just get along?”
Well, my friends: “Welcome to our world.”
The Japanese are learning what it is like to be Americans in many countries. It is not so much that you are doing wrong, but the other side is portraying you as the foreign devil to unite their people instead of having them question their own leadership.
As we have seen across the Muslim world in the recent weeks, it is not that the United States actually did anything wrong, especially by its own laws, but the national, community and religious leaders are using some obscure event to whip up their people into an emotional state that allows the leaders to be ignored over their own malfeasance.
Don’t worry, my Japanese friends. This is the normal state of international, political and human relations.
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