And I'm a non-denominational Christian fron South east Texas lol. I've got no qualms with Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, or any Real Bible only believing Christian denomination. I was teasing too ^_^

Though I will say this, Pentecostals scare me a bit with their rolling in the ilse and running around everywhere n' such. Nice people though.

Heh. I have a paper from one of my previous classes that I think will fit into an upcoming class I have with Rubin, and I need to see if I can re-use the topic.

Yeah. The Pentacostals worry me a bit too. The ones I've met are also very close-minded. Hopefully, that was just that group specifically, but they're my only exposure to he group thus far.

Oh... don't let him know you're recycling a paper! Teachers frown on that, but I fully support this endeavor! XB

Our professors will allow us to turn the same paper in for multiple classes if it fits into both so long as we ask permission, and it's not like I'd just be printing out the old paper. I'd do some more work on it and rewrite bits. I'm just sure that it'd fit in so perfectly with this class, and since I'm also working on my senior thesis, I'd really like any break I can catch.

Ah, that makes sense. I hope he lets you do it.

I really hope so. The class is Modern East Asia, and my paper was about history textbook controversies in Japan.

Oh, that sounds interesting. Mind giving us a short summary of what it was?

-yawns softly - Well ladies, it was nice to have met you both and spent this time here with you but I do believe it is best for my psyche if I get to bed. I'm already forgetiing how to spell the most common of words. >_<-bows out- Good night and god bless. ^_^

Good night, Kings. Rest well and God bless. ^^

G'night, Wings.

The paper was basically about the way Japan portrays its actions in the history textbooks it provides to middle and high school students. They're being criticized a fair bit for attempting to minimize the invasions of China and Korea as well as whitewashing their war crimes. There are also a couple relatively minor (in comparison) issues the US has with their depiction of events during WWII, and there are problems with their acknowledgement and treatment of the survivors of the atomic bomb blasts.

Ah... that does sound like some issues. How do I say this... I think it's wrong not to put the truth in there but I can still understand why they wouldn't want to. It's not like the US has a spotless history either and we've tried to avoid it in textbooks as well. There are still some facts that are taught wrong... I'm just not sure which ones. ^^;

We're getting better about it. We tend to not outright deny that we did some bad things in our textbooks anymore, but they're completely removing references to the things they've done. These are things that the government has publically acknowledged as having occurred, but they're hiding it from their own people.

Here's a bit of text from an official, government funded and approved, translation of one of the textbooks in question:

“There was a confrontation between Japanese and Chinese troops, which marked the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. The first battles were fought in Korea, and then the hostilities expanded to southern Manchuria (northeastern China). The Japanese emerged victorious, having subdued Chinese troops in battles on both land and sea.”

What they neglect to make clear is that the Japanese troops attacked the Chinese first, and they also use some clever wording to make it sound as though the fighting in Manchuria was an accidental spill-over rather than an intentional invasion.

Wow. Yeah, it's all about how you word things... I really hope your professor lets you use that paper, it does sound like it would fit in very well.

I would like everyone to know that Jelly's Wishing Well is having page prizes if the thread can get to 1000 by next Thursday. It's at 461 right now. So if you want to chat and possibly win money, mosey on down there!

Well, they're also completely removing references to things like the Nanjing Massacre, Korean comfort women (basically, sex slaves for the Japanese soldiers), Bataan Death March. There was apparently also a small group trying to have the attack on Pearl Harbor removed from the textbooks. The biggest opponents to that were the Japanese veterans, which doesn't really surprise me.

Of course, I'm not just, like, wagging my finger and saying, "Bad, Japan! How can you guys think to do this?" I'll be one of the first to admit that the US has done some pretty crappy things, but you know, if we tried to do something like write slavery out of our textbooks, the ink wouldn't even be dried on the page before there was a major uproar over it. Granted, I think we misrepresent history in that the American Civil War was not originally about slavery (Lincoln refused to make it a primary reason for going to war because it would have made the border states--slave-holding states that stayed with the Union--leave), but that's beside the point I'm attempting to make.

Removing the attack on Pearl Harbor, removes the trigger for the outbreak of war between Japan and the US. I'm not saying that it needs to be in there for the sake of blaming Japan. I'm saying it needs to be in there because it happened, and it was what finally pushed America to join in World War II.

Also, they tend to use rather poetic and seemingly loaded language in some places to describe events. The books say things like:

“Japanese naval airplanes raided the American Pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The warships sank one after another and the airplanes on the ground were destroyed. It was a glorious result."

“Most of the people of Japan, who learned of the outbreak of war through the news media, were intoxicated by reports of victory after victory.”

It's been my experience that historical texts attempt to maintain an objective tone. Words like "glorious" and "intoxicated" have a rather biased ring to them, but I did make sure raise the point that they may simply sound this way when translated into English. Since I can't read the original Japanese text and have to rely on a translation, I can't say for certain, but something in me doubts it would sound all that much more unbiased. Also, check out how poetically the bombing of Pearl Harbor is described. You'd think they sank most all of the fleet from the way they write it, but I went and checked official military records. Yes, many ships were heavily damaged, and the planes were utterly decimated; however, of the 99 comissioned ships in or at the entrance of Pearl harbor at the time, only six were actually sunk as a result of the actual attack.

hey guys.

Hello Wings.

hey there everyone

Hi Rusalka! hello anyone else that is on. I'm going to try to get something useful done today!

I'm on for a bit, after a brief lapse due to weather. D=

hello Guive. its been a while since I talked to you.

Yes, holidays, weather, cookie-protecting all left Guivre far away from boards. D=

cookie protecting? hm, how did that go??

hey guys, whats up? Kat, i love your outfit!!!

hey BSW! thanks! but kitty has to go now. bye peoples....

bye Kat!

is anyone else even here?