Kyoto lodging asks Israeli guest if he committed war crimes | The Asahi Shimbun
A lodging facility in Kyoto has drawn a protest from the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo for asking an Israeli man to sign a pledge that he had never been involved in war crimes.
Japan: "did you commit war crimes?"
Israel: "i'm outraged"
Japan:"that isn't a 'no'..."
If being asked to confirm that you have not committed war crimes makes you uncomfortable, then you might be a war criminal.
I'm pretty sure Japan's immigration asks if you've ever been convicted of a crime, so how is this any different?
It's different because no jury in Israel will convict someone of warcrimes (against Palestinians).
No conviction, no crime. EZ.
If israel doesn't like this treatment then they should stop the policy of forcing israeli citizens to serve in the israel genocide forces.
Classic Japanese. No dancing around or confusion about anti-semitism, just straight out asking the Israeli about recent war crimes.
Had the same as a Swiss guy living there: sure, everybody loves Roger Federer, but they also know about Nazi gold and the banking secret protecting dictatorships. And they just ask about it directly. Would never happen on Japanese topics though.
This right here is what I love about Japan.
When I was there a few years ago to snowboard, they had a "fuck you" policy to non-Japanese speakers in some towns because the Aussies basically run around rough shod and turn everything into a loud party.
Imagine being in a sleepy resort town while 7 dudes are walking down your cobbled street screaming about Ruggers, then one falls into the cold stream because they're drunk, so a rescue team is sent out... On a weekly basis.
There's simply a no more bullshit cap.
So, to be clear, you get how that's more than a little bit fucked up, right?
To demonstrate, imagine a deep southern U.S town instituting an English-only policy and aggressively turning away for example Spanish or Arabic-speakers.
This is not something to be celebrated. Ban the thing you actually want to prevent instead of pushing through unmitigated xenophobia.
imagine a deep southern U.S town instituting an English-only policy and aggressively turning away for example Spanish or Arabic-speakers.
Yeah that's called Tuesday in the rural south.
Yes, I do. But I am a foreigner there. When we don't observe their traditions and disrupt their society, I feel like it's okay for them to set boundaries.
I get why it's not right, but I also accept it. It's not my country, not my rules, not my traditions. So, I am willing to live by their rules.
I'm not saying it's the right thing to do but a big difference here is that up until VERY recently, the US did not have an official language, so for them to say "English only" would be a bit more offensive than for Japan (whose official language is Japanese) to say "japanese only".
Additionally, the US is on colonized land, so English wouldn't be the native language of the land. Japan on the other hand has existed for close to 40,000 years and was not colonized in the same way (Not saying that the Japanese historically haven't been colonizers, but the island of Japan is generally not). I genuinely wouldn't even be mad about it if someone in Manitoba made a rule that was like "Ojibwe only".
But also to your point, yeah the US did recently pick an official language AND launch an "English only" campaign for a whole profession and it is extremely fucked up.
You realize not every country wants foreigners right? It’s their right to dictate that. There was this whole thing about how America and England literally threatened Japan with artillery until they opened their borders.
As an Australian, what the fuck is a ruggers?
What was the policy? Or was it just that they literally said "fuck you?"
Not literally those words. From what I've seen online, various establishments, if not entire towns, have thrown up "Japanese only" or "Japanese language only" to discourage foreigners. They generally only do this after there's been a trend of tourists making asses of themselves, but since the first places to do it kind of went viral, it's not too surprising if the habit has sprung up elsewhere.
Sure, it's only a handful of disrespectful tourists when all the rest are fine, but if you allow any non-Japanese (person or language, pick your preference) eventually you'll get those tourists.
Like it or not, it's a simple way to say no to that.
Not only that, but it happened in Kyoto which is verryyy traditional. Plus it’s a small city that’s getting overrun with tourists. It was the only place where I felt bad for visiting. I mean it’s packed at especially the temples, you’re slow walking in this sea of people.
Yeah. The shit they were doing with geishas is fucky.
What you love about Japan is it’s cultural intolerance?
If you go into someone else's house, you need to be respectful of their space.
Many Chinese and Indian tourists regularly trample the alpine flower fields at Mt. Rainier National Park for selfies or just as a shortcut when they get tired of walking on the hiking paths.
When confronted, instead of being apologetic, they get defensive and diminish the impact of their actions by demeaning American culture and spaces.
"It's just some flowers. They'll grow back!"
Yeah, maybe. But that will take eighty years and it may not even happen due to climate change.
These kind of behaviors are what sours locals against tourism, especially when it is consistent across a cultural tourist groups.
We all need to do better when visiting each other's spaces, and that starts by owning our cultural shortfalls and poor behavior, with the goal of personally improving our own.
Ironically, I've never heard any complaints about Japanese tourists, as they often arrived well-educated about local customs and behave respectfully.
Intolerance of genocide...?
Military service is compulsory for Israeli citizens. The IDF has been committing war crimes daily for literal decades. It was a legitimate question to ask.
Wait, so Israel is not even trying to distance itself from war crimes... Their actual point is "not all war crimes are equal and it's difamatory to label everyone who commits war crimes with the same 'war criminal' label"... Wtf is wrong with those people.
No, their point is you shouldn’t be randomly asking Israelis if they committed war crimes.
The article points out there are ten nations whose citizens they ask this question.
Its what the free market wants ;)
What's the protest? "We don't want to be pointed at when we commit war crimes" ?
The embassy thinks it is messed up to ask people if they committed war crimes.
This is ignoring they ask people from 10 different nations this question.
Is "asking" messed up or committing war crimes more messed up?
How could any Israeli citizen say no on #3 At this point. Even if you arent directly committing atrocities yourself you still are funding the government engaging in it. Not to mention most all of them have served in one capacity or another (involuntary aspects nonwithstanding)
This honestly doesn't make much sense. The implication would be that all citizens are culpable for their government's actions once they start paying taxes.
Funding your government isn't a voluntary act, so your last parenthetical already invalidates most of what you said.
So by that logic, are all Americans war criminals because Americans pay taxes, which go to fund drone strikes that murder civilians overseas, domestic militarization of police, prisons, etc?
This is the same logic as "all Palastinians support Hamas."
The purpose of my comment was kind of to call out the ridiculousness of the question being on the form, because if that broad definition is how were defining war criminals, then yes I think logically it would mean people funding the war crimes in any capacity would then be war criminals themselves. Again, by the definition assumed based on the question being on the questionnaire. When I read it my first thought was that I could probably not say no to that question as a US taxpayer
Personally I dont think aiding & abetting in any way, especially through involuntary taxation, is enough to define someone as a war criminal. But its fair to say we (collectively) arent doing enough to stop the bad shit our taxes are funding, which is true of any Israeli citizen right now as well.
People could refuse to pay their taxes and risk arrest, but I dont think thats an effective form of protest. Better to not be in prison and have a voice. But there would be a logical consistency in doing it
So ... we should've hanged all the Germans in '45? The child soldiers drafted in Berlin? Shot the entire Japanese army? Drag all US-citizens to court for acting against the constitution?
I am going to be downvoted to oblivion, but: Lock up all Palestinians for not extraditing terrorists and war criminals?
Where do you think this will go, honestly? How is any of that justified, or fair? Should we commit a genocide of our own upon the Israelis? I know that's not what you said and I very much hope it's not what you meant.
This platform sometimes, fuck me.
the same amount of war crimes as happened in Nanjing
Japanese man scribbles down zero
Are these the same types of war crimes that the Japanese committed in WW2 which they deny and don't teach they younger generation about?
This isn't "whataboutism", this is pointing out a "pot and kettle" situation.
Probably, but what a government chooses to do and what the populace chooses are two inherently different things.
There are likely only a couple hundred or maybe thousand Japanese left who even had the opportunity to commit a war crime, yet that Israeli guy might've committed one prior to the last full moon.
So not really the same thing, nice try though, you'll get there one day.
The Japanese government won't acknowledge many of its war crimes or paid reparations to its still living victims.
If Germany said the Holocaust never happened, that would reflect very poorly on the German citizens that continue to elect the Holocaust denying government officials and you would be justified in asking German tourists if they acknowledged the Holocaust.
I don't know why you are being down voted.
I love that the Japanese are treating Israeli's as members of the apartheid genocidal state that they are.
Japan also hasn't recognized or paid reparations for many of the horrendous war crimes they've committed themselves.
Both things can be true at the same time.
How do you know if a future guest has been in the military in the past 10 years?
Military service is compulsory for Jews and Druze, both men and women, and for Circassian men. The active-duty period is 32 months for men and 24 months for women, followed by reserve duty until age 40.
If they're Israeli simply check if they're younger than 50.
2 years and 8 months for men?
My love for round numbers is offended.
Because if they're Israeli citizens, there's like a 99% chance that they were in the military at some point.
Their grunt style tee