csua.org/u/e1f -> www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/international/asia/19comics.html?hp&ex=1132462800&en=9089215d5cdce1cd&ei=5094&partner=homepage
China," which portrays the Ch inese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanes e origin says: "Take the China of today, its principles, thought, litera ture, art, science, institutions.
Enlarge This Image Sharin Yamano/Shinyusha In "Hating the Korean Wave," a young Japanese woman says, "It's not an ex aggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!"
Enlarge This Image The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and a dvocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in J apan in the last four months. In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan's fellow Asians and i n the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, th e books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan's worsening relat ions with the rest of Asia. They also point to Japan's longstanding unease with the rest of Asia and its own sense of identity, which is akin to Britain's apartness from the Continent. Much of Japan's history in the last century and a half has b een guided by the goal of becoming more like the West and less like Asia . Today, China and South Korea's rise to challenge Japan's position as A sia's economic, diplomatic and cultural leader is inspiring renewed xeno phobia against them here. Kanji Nishio, a scholar of German literature, is honorary chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, the nationalist organizat ion that has pushed to have references to the country's wartime atrociti es eliminated from junior high school textbooks. Mr Nishio is blunt about how Japan should deal with its neighbors, sayin g nothing has changed since 1885, when one of modern Japan's most influe ntial intellectuals, Yukichi Fukuzawa, said Japan should emulate the adv anced nations of the West and leave Asia by dissociating itself from its backward neighbors, especially China and Korea. "I wonder why they haven't grown up at all," Mr Nishio said. Mr Nishio, who wrote a chapter in the comic book about South Korea, said Japan should try to cut itself off from China and South Korea, as Fukuz awa advocated. "Currently we cannot ignore South Korea and China," Mr N ishio said. But in our hearts, psychologi cally, we should remain composed and keep that attitude." The reality that South Korea had emerged as a rival hit many Japanese wit h full force in 2002, when the countries were co-hosts of soccer's World Cup and South Korea advanced further than Japan. At the same time, the so-called Korean Wave - television dramas, movies and music from South K orea - swept Japan and the rest of Asia, often displacing Japanese pop c ultural exports. The wave, though popular among Japanese women, gave rise to a countermove ment, especially on the Internet. Sharin Yamano, the young cartoonist be hind "Hating the Korean Wave," began his strip on his own Web site then. "The 'Hate Korea' feelings have spread explosively since the World Cup," said Akihide Tange, an editor at Shinyusha, the publisher of the comic b ook. Still, the number of sales, 360,000 so far, surprised the book's ed itors, suggesting that the Hate Korea movement was far larger than they had believed. "We weren't expecting there'd be so many," said Susumu Yamanaka, another editor at Shinyusha. "But when the lid was actually taken off, we found a tremendous number of people feeling this way." So far the two books, each running about 300 pages and costing around $10 , have drawn little criticism from public officials, intellectuals or th e mainstream news media. For example, Japan's most conservative national daily, Sankei Shimbun, said the Korea book described issues between the countries "extremely rationally, without losing its balance." As nationalists and revisionists have come to dominate the public debate in Japan, figures advocating an honest view of history are being silence d, said Yutaka Yoshida, a historian at Hitotsubashi University here. Mr Yoshida said the growing movement to deny history, like the Rape of Nan jing, was a sort of "religion" for an increasingly insecure nation. "Lacking confidence, they need a story of healing," Mr Yoshida said. "Ev en if we say that story is different from facts, it doesn't mean anythin g to them."
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