HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie)
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Organization: Cal State Long Beach
	<1992Aug20.180105.7746@news.iastate.edu>
	<SMITTIE.92Aug20130026@beach.csulb.edu>
	<1992Aug20.213140.17465@news.iastate.edu>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 22:52:03 GMT

>The clever people are those, surely you are among them, who think
>criticizing Japanese goverment unacceptable and hypocritical, and the one to
>be blamed are the people who were once tortured.

You, sir, should spend a little time READING what is posted here. I have posted
a very clear and exact statement on what I think about the current issue. By
your post above you have obviously not read it. I suspect that you only read
and respond to those articles posted here which charge you emotionally. I have
at no time said, implicitly or explicitly, nor do I believe that criticism of
the Japanese government is "unacceptable" or "Hypocritical".

There are several contributing to this thread who constantly and continuously
misquote, twist, take out of context, and otherwise alter the words of other
for their own benefit. As I have said before, whoever posted the original Open
Letter realizes the need and benefit of allies. However, most people do not
want to show themselves in support of a movement or group that harbors hatred
and racists or that manipulates the words of other to their own advantage.

Were that you could dispense with the emotionalism, the racism, the overt
hatred, and argue your case rationally and logically, I suspect that you would
find a few willing to ally with your cause. At this juncture I suspect that
most feel you have already exposed the irrational nature and behaviour to such
an extent that none will be convinced. A pity that.

smittie

-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
smittie@beach.csulb.edu |  current world problems would be yesterday's news.
________________________|___________________________________________________
From: jice@echo.asd.sgi.com (John Eisenman)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Have some cash
Date: 18 Aug 92 23:58:46 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <Bt7CJA.KAI.1@cs.cmu.edu>, jfriedl+@cs.cmu.edu (Jeffrey E.
F. Friedl) writes:
|> jice@echo.asd.sgi.com (John Eisenman) writes:
|> |> When I visited Japan about a year and a half ago, I found that
|> |> using US $ traveler's checks where a bad deal.
|> 
|> |> In Japan I exchanged my US traveler's checks for yen.  I did
|> this at
|> |> a bank.  The exchange rate for traveler's checks was much lower
|> |> (at least 8 yen/dollar) than the exchange rate for cash, and
|> even
|> |> that was not very good.
|> 
|> Well, don't know what to say about your experiences.  I deal with
|> yen<->dollar transactions all the time, and your experiences are so
|> very
|> very far out of the ordinary that I'm wondering if you might be
|> remembering
|> wrong. It was 18 months ago, you say.  When remembering buy rate =
|> X
|> and sell rate == Y while some people report 1/X and 1/Y and some
|> have
|> special fees and some have special fees but only on Tuesdays with a
|> full
|> moon and some have cash prices and some have TC prices and some
|> have CT
|> prices...... well, it can get confusing and easy to mix up......
|> 

I guess that I might have been confused about this, as I never
actually exchanged US$ cash for yen in Japan.  So, it is possible
that I misunderstood the posted information.  I just recall that the
exchange rate that I wound up getting was pretty poor, and I saw some
better rates posted.

What I do know is that I got a worse deal using traveler's checks at a
bank in Japan than using cash at a foreign exchange service in the US.
That's all that I can say for certain.

|> 
|> I did this when I went to France for a week last December.  When I got back,
|> I called my credit card company to find what I owed them and sent it in
|> right away.  My finance charges were very small (just two weeks worth) and,
|> as Mr. Eisenman has said, credit card companies do give reasonable exchange
|> rates.  It was a very good deal.
|> 

I guess that we agree that credit cards can be a good deal.

|> |> Again, this turned out to be even better for me because the dollar/yen
|> |> rate was on the way up, so that by the time I got the bill, things
|> |> where cheaper than I thought.
|> 
|> But still too expensive, I'd guess (-:

Yes, some of the things -- like hotels.  But, I mostly stuck to purchasing 
things that were cheaper in Japan than the us, or that were unavailable in
the US.  I was surprised to find that certain items imported from
Europe where cheaper in Japan than in the US -- for instance music CDs.
I assume that this has to do with the restrictive US import laws on 
recorded music.

--
John Eisenman (jice@sgi.com)

Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
7U-550
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd.		
P.O. Box 7311		
Mt. View, CA 94039-7311		

(415) 390-1551
Xref: sparky soc.culture.japan:6702 soc.culture.china:23011 soc.culture.hongkong:9797 soc.culture.taiwan:11895
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
From: liu10@husc10.harvard.edu (Eric Liu)
Date: 15 Aug 92 12:46:08 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <7062@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com> blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert) writes:
>
>In view of the "Open Letter to the Japanese Emperor" and
>some of the discussion related to that topic, I'd like to
>ask Chinese or Korean readers just exactly would be acceptable
>as an apology from the Japanese government or Emperor, and
>what constitutes "accepting responsibility".
>
>In other words, what is that the Japanese Emperor could say
>or do during his upcoming visit that would achieve this result?
>Or would anything he said be not enough, or considered insincere?
>
>I guess this is important, because so many people expect something,
>but I'm not sure that they even know what they expect, and have
>those with expectations set a goal that will satisfy them?
>
>Please remember, the Emperor as a symbol without power, can only
>use his words. What are the good words he should say?

All the Japanese emperor need to say is that his country was responsible
for the war and he would like to represent his people to apologize to all
the people that suffered from the war!  He doesn't even have to say it in
public;  he could issue a statement!   Is that so difficult?  Up till now,
Japan has never claimed responsibility for the war and have never showed
any signes of repentance for their unforgivable deeds!  All they've said
is that it's unfortunate that they war happened!  That's not acceptable 
at all to the millions of people who suffered tremedously through the war!
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND APOLOGIZE. 
>
>Please be frank.
>
>-Bill Lambert


-- 

Eric Liu
liu10@husc.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: zzuo@iastate.edu (Zhiqi Zuo)
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 23:37:53 GMT

In article <36976@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> djohnson@cs.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson) writes:
>>For me, a war-hate person, many 
>>Chineses and Koreans still hate Japanese, for the simple reason that
>>the lies are continuing floating in Japanese history books.
>
>Well, lies exist in history books of just about every country.  Would
>you hate them as much if the lies were about someone else?
>
>It is ok to hate the history books, but if you hate the people, you
>may find yourself being a contributing factor in the next war.
>Frustration and anger are understandable, but don't let these turn
>into hate.
>-- 
>Darin Johnson
>djohnson@ucsd.edu
>    "Only Nixon could go to China"  -- Vulcan proverb
From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Have some cash; Was: Re: Osaka Airport directions
Date: 17 Aug 92 02:14:28 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

tony2@prefect.uucp (21131-gozdz) writes:

>While your suggestion might seem rather humorous, I can
>assure you that Hotel Sun Royal in Kawasaki is listed as 
>a member of Japan Business Hotel Association (or something 
>like this, I don't have this info at home) on a list
>obtained from the Japan Travel Bureau in Manhattan. And
>my card was Corporate AmEx (don't leave home without it?)

And the JTB office told you that the Hotel Sun Royal accepted
Corporate AmEx?

>In all honesty, this was the only business hotel I
>checked in that would do that to me :-(

And how many was that? 

Sorry, but I can't take your claims to mistreatment so seriously.
Were they really doing this to you, personally? That is, they were
accepting other people's Corporat AmEX cards, but not yours? 

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
From: nakano@suncom1.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp (NAKANO Yasuaki)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Entomology in Japan
Date: 14 Aug 92 00:39:29 GMT
Reply-To: nakano@suncom1.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp (NAKANO Yasuaki)
Organization: Dept. of Information Engineering, Shinshu Univ.,500 wakasato, Nagano, Japan

In article <1473500052@igc.org> anlyyao@igc.org (An-Ly Yao) writes:
>Can anyone recommend a newsgroup with Japanese participants discussing
>entomology (that's bug business...) ?

I have not read articles regarding entomology in "fj" groups and you would
be disappointed if you want to search such articles. Of course I do not
subscribe all newsgroups and I might have lost some. 
If you want to post your own articles and you are reachable to "fj", 
fj.rec.misc or fj.sci.misc might be suitable.
Yasuaki NAKANO
nakano@wakasato.cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp
Xref: sparky soc.culture.japan:6973 soc.culture.china:23403 soc.culture.hongkong:9949 soc.culture.taiwan:12114
From: mhs@ukc.ac.uk (M.H.Smith)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 20 Aug 92 09:21:34 GMT
Reply-To: mhs@ukc.ac.uk (M.H.Smith)
Organization: Electronic Engineering Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.

In article <1992Aug18.204502.1796@news.iastate.edu> zzuo@iastate.edu (Zhiqi Zuo) writes:
   Once I came across a Japanese girl who absentmindly said that Manchuria
   STILL should be Japanese.

And if you come to Britain you will meet plenty of people who think
that India should still be a British colony; I hope you would not
judge me by what some moronic Brit says.

Malcolm Smith
From: danda@sj.ate.slb.com (Jeff Danda)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Learning Japanese in Japan
Date: 13 Aug 92 00:36:29 GMT
Reply-To: danda@sj.ate.slb.com (Jeff Danda)
Organization: Schlumberger Technologies, Fuchinobe, Japan


Have any of you other foreigners who are living/working in Japan had 
difficulties learning Japanese while in Japan?  What I mean is that have
you had problems with the Japanese people speaking english to you when you
start the conversation with Japanese?  I have found it quite anoying when you
are talking in Japanese and the other person is responding in english.  Sure,
you may say:" well they just want to practice thier english on you" but there
are two sides to every coin, I want to practice my japanese on them.  Ok, you
may say that the japanese dont get many opportunities to use thier english, but
I say that I did not come all the way over here to practice MY english.  I have
come to a point where if they start speaking english to me I have look at them
like I cannot understand a word that they are saying and say "eigo ga wakaranai
yo"  It gets frustrating sometimes.  Has anyone out there got any good ideas
on how to handle the 'speak japanese, respond in english' situations?

How about when you go into a restaurant with a japanese person and start 
ordering in japanese (perfect japanese) and the waitress automatically looks
like she doesnt understand you and looks to the japanese person accompaning 
you?  What is the proper way to handle this type of situation?

I would appreciate any input on how to handle the encounters with the people
who want to practice thier english on you without affending them.


thanks,
	Jeff
From: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: History Texts (Was: An open letter
Date: 19 Aug 92 16:12:30 GMT
Reply-To: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Distribution: soc
Organization: Horizon Research

In article <Aug18.233240.37729@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU>,
ntetsuya@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Nishimura) writes:

=> "History books" we are talking about are history text books to be used 
=> in high schools that will be censored before they are published as 
=> text books.  So we have ways to learn about the fact (and sometimes
=> about biased information) in Japan.

=> The problem I think is, it is these text books that are censored and 
=> watered-down or de-emphasized.  After school, many people just have no
=> chances to take a look at history books unless they like to read them.

=> So, we do have both sides of information in public, but unfortunately,

It's not so uncommon for HS history texts to be watered down, I suppose.
In my HS school education, three issues stand out about American History
that were surely sugar-coated relative to the "true" issues that led to
the events: 1) the Wars against Native Americans; 2) The Mexican War
of 1846; and 3) The Spanish American War of 1898.

High School texts are generally geared to educate facts, and differing
points of view are rarely discussed. Had a proposed US HS history text
taken the Native American point of view about the treatment of Native
peoples, I'm sure it would have experienced some at least "de facto"
censorship, in that it probably wouldn't be selected for use by any
states, counties or local school boards due to the fact that it would
be considered "too radical".... at least when I was HS.

Did anybody notice that Native Americans sometimes make similar
statements as those of (some) Korean and Chinese people have
relative to the Japanese History text issue? It's interesting.

Anyway, considering this, I wonder what German HS text books admit
about WWII. Can some one reading in Germany please comment?

Part of this issue seems to be the fact that the Japanese Central
government authorizes (by exclusion) HS texts. In the US, local
control tends to hide any censorship issues, but most people are
quite aware that there may be quite different texts here in say,
Bedrock Alabama (no offense to Alabama folks), or Concord MA.

And yet still, is the issue of what *should* be in a HS level
text book. 

(And yes.... also my point is to digress from the "apology"
issue, which will get nowhere, into a more concrete and
discussable idea that also seems to be a key sticking point,
and that some people have pointed out is an adjunct to an
acceptable apology.)

- Bill Lambert
From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie)
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Organization: Cal State Long Beach
	<1992Aug15.124608.14760@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 17:52:49 GMT

A curious thought. Who will apologize for all the other wars in history? I
don't mean that because no one does no one should. I only mean that I don't
think any country, nation, or people group are ever very honest with
themselves. Hell, most people are not very honest with themselves.

It has been 50 years. My wife (Japanese citizen) thinks that most Japanese know
the reality of what happened during WWII. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not.
The history books are being changed albeit slowly. Even if the Emperor does
apologize, if things run true to the norm, his sincerity will be questioned
along with his motives. The Chinese will continue to ask for some great formal
apology and the Japanese will continue to look to the future. Not much ever
changes.

smittie
-- 
___________________________________________________________________________
GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
smittie@beach.csulb.edu |  current world problems would be yesterday's news.
________________________|___________________________________________________
Xref: sparky soc.culture.japan:6882 soc.culture.china:23266 soc.culture.hongkong:9902 soc.culture.taiwan:12049
From: gang@ms.uky.edu (Gang Li)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 19 Aug 92 05:25:30 GMT
    <SMITTIE.92Aug15105246@beach.csulb.edu> <17AUG199211495637@vxcrna.cern.ch> 
    <903@hobby.ukc.ac.uk> <WEIGERT.92Aug19131845@etlhit.etl.go.jp>
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences

weigert@etlhit.etl.go.jp (Thomas Weigert) writes:


>MS> In article <17AUG199211495637@vxcrna.cern.ch> ikeda@vxcrna.cern.ch (IKEDA,M./EP) writes:

>MS> The situation is exactly the same with regard to Japan and her
>MS> neighbours. We have seen plenty of hysterical rants over the past few
>MS> days from Chinese and Koreans. They display a deep-seated
>MS> anti-Japanese feeling. No apology will destroy this racism. Japanese
>                                                        ^^^^^^
>MS> war crimes are just an excuse for racism.
>                                      ^^^^^^

>I suggest avoiding the word "racism" whenever it seems convenient to make a
>point. It is not at all clear whether the feeling exhibited towards Japan
>by many people in SouthEast Asia really are racist. More often I sense that
>these feelings are a well-founded concern over the possibility of renewed
>Japanese jingoism and renewed Japanese expansionist policies.

>The constant one-sided presentation of historical events, the censoring
>policies of the Japanese Ministry of Education in text books, the rantings
>of people like Shintaro Ishihara ("Lebensraum") , and the ridicolous
>refusal of the Japanese nation to acknowledge their guilt in the events
>before and during World War II, do little to put other Asian nations at
>ease. 

>Th.

Sounds reasonable. But I am not sure if you are a Japanese.
I heard that there is a "International Peace Museum" newly opened in Japan
(Kyoto?) have you been there? We all know that a lot of Japanese hate that
War, and they love peace.
I don't see any deep-seated hatred to Japanese people with no reason among
Chinese. But do Japanese people all have this feeling?
Is it dangerous to talk about the truth of the War in Japan? Are people
there afraid to talk about this? Do you think this museum will keep openning
for long time?
Do you think they can say "yes, thoese soldiers did a lot of things bad to
the other people."? Or they feel this kind of words would hurt their felling?
Thanks.

>--
>+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
>| Thomas Weigert                 |                                 |
>| Machine Inference Section      |                                 |
>| Electrotechnical Laboratory    |                                 |
>| Umezono 1-1-4, Tukuba-shi      | weigert@{mcs.anl.gov,etl.go.jp} |
>| Ibaraki 305, Japan             | +81-298-58-5918 (phone+fax)     |
>+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
From: harkcom@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp (Alton Harkcom)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Regarding Japanese T.V...
Date: 17 Aug 92 00:15:15 GMT
	<1992Aug10.094019.7036@tokyo07.info.com> <36693@sdcc12.ucsd.edu>
	<SMITTIE.92Aug10160135@lark.csulb.edu>
Organization: Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
In-reply-to: smittie@beach.csulb.edu's message of 10 Aug 92 23:01:37 GMT

In article <SMITTIE.92Aug10160135@lark.csulb.edu> smittie@beach.csulb.edu
   (Smittie) writes:

 =}It was mentioned under this thread that Cable is nonexistent. I think it
 =}should be noted that while cable is not at all common,

   Cable TV does exist but it is almost impossible to find anyone who
subscribes to it as it is just too expensive...  (I believe it is called
CATV)  The cost is 'second' hand knowledge so may not be accurate.
"vague second hand knowledge of a subjective judgement tends to be a
difficult thing to express..."

 =} the "sub-SAT disk"
 =}system is. In Japan they use small (about half a meter in diameter) satalite
 =}disks that receive a single from NHK which is very similar to cable in the
 =}US. Someone who is using this system can probably explain it better

   The current satellite system is called BS, Broadcast Satellite.  It
carries two NHK channels and a scrambled commercial carrier.  The dish
antennas can be purchased from roughly 400 to 1000 US dollars.  The price
is a good determinant of performance.  One must also pay a monthly fee
to NHK for having a BS antenna and tuner.  (Well, according to NHK one
must pay.  But many people don't because NHK is too greedy :)  This is
the same thing as the fee payed to NHK merely for owning a TV  (I
refused to pay saying that I don't watch NHK...  When I was told that
that is no excuse I closed the door in the idiots face.)

   The commercial carrier costs about 200 US dollars to join and about
20 US dollars per month (WOW WOW).  It often refers to itself as "the
movie channel" but it is nothing when compared to the pay movie channels
on US cable TV.  [more criticism of WOW WOW deleted in the interest of
saving a few thousand keystrokes].  To sum it up in the words of one
of my friends: "It is better than nothing...but not by much..."

 =}The current system has already become the de facto standard.

   There is a new CS, Commercial Satellite?, system just getting started.
It can't be received on a BS tuner.  This is pretty much the same thing
as BS though.  Once somebody gets NHK's grubby paws off viewers
pocketbooks then things might change in ways none of use suspect.
From: kenji@macrofield.or.jp (Kenji Rikitake)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Have some cash
Date: 17 Aug 92 19:38:42 GMT
	<Bt3I10.Ht9.1@cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: kenji@reseau.macrofield.or.jp (Kenji Rikitake)
Distribution: soc
Organization: Macrofield Corporation, Toyonaka-city, Osaka, Japan
Posting-Front-End: Terakoya-u kaku 2.0612 DEBUG 14-AUG-1992

In article <Bt3I10.Ht9.1@cs.cmu.edu>
	jfriedl+@cs.cmu.edu (Jeffrey E. F. Friedl) writes:
>In Japan, however, many department stores issue their own "Visa" (or MC)
>cards, and accept only those blessed "Visa" cards. A Visa sticker on the
>door doesn't mean they'll accept *your* Visa.

US VISA headquarters has been aware of this and VISA card issuers 
in Japan have been warned to let all stores accept all VISA cards. 
I guess the situation has got better - but not for MCs.

// Kenji
_.. .   .___ .___ .____ _... _.. _.._ _.._. ...__   _ ___ _.__ ___ _. ._ _._ ._
"Humour is by far the most significant behaviour of the human mind."
                                -- Edward de Bono, "I am Right - You are Wrong"