Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara reports that the crew of the fishing vessel accused of ramming a Japanese coast guard vessel in the Senkaku islands harpooned a member of the coast guard who was knocked overboard.
The revelation comes by way of Shintaro Ishihara, the prefectural governor of Tokyo, in remarks made in an interview on Fuji TV (from 2:15):
The remarks in translation, referring to video recordings made by the Japanese coast guard of the incident, and kept from public eyes first with the excuse that they were “evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation” and then after Japan folded with the excuse that “they would damage Sino-Japanese relations if made public”:
The information, well, it’s going to leak out from somewhere. […] I heard from someone with the government (casually) that the coast guard’s man was somehow knocked off the ship and fell in the sea, where the Chinese crew harpooned him.
It’s hearsay, but I’ve heard the same thing from several people. If that’s true, we have to know, and I think we should make the video public, to allow the Japanese public to form the right opinion.
[…]
Well, we don’t know if it is true or not. Having these rumours circulating is not good for either country, so it’d be best just to make it public. The video’s there after all.
Whilst Ishihara is a relatively credible mainstream politician, he is known for a variety of outspoken and controversial nationalist statements.
Some have also suggested that his decision to publicise the rumour is a clever bluff – if enough rumours of outrageous Chinese behaviour and a desperate cover-up by the Japanese government start to circulate, the government’s only way (assuming the rumours are without basis) to quash them will be to release the video. Not releasing it will only seem to confirm that its content is as bad as the rumours suggest.
If the accusations are true, they would of course further enrage the Japanese public, spell the end of the current government and completely discredit China.
In response to the story, this anonymous post was made on 2ch, seemingly with insider knowledge:
They’re in talks with Wikileaks. It seems the images will come out from the western media.
The coast guard ship came alongside, and was boarded. Suddenly it broke away. The coast guard left on-board was thrown overboard.
The ship changed course as if to run over the coast guard in the water. He was frantically trying to escape by swimming off, and the fishermen went as if to strike him with a harpoon. The coast guard ship stopped in an effort to pick up the sailor.
The fishing boat came up behind as if to run him down again, but their man was just able to scramble onto the rear of ship, and then the fishing boat rammed into their rear.
Obviously the veracity of this report is as yet unknown – 2ch boasts such a vast user base (including a number of politicians who have at times admitted to frequenting the site), that it is not impossible for the post to be genuine, although it could just as well be an attempt to spread further rumour.
So far, all that is known for certain is that the government is refusing to release the video – presumably either because it would destroy Sino-Japanese relations as they have said, or because it would bring down the government when the extent of the government’s appeasement of China became known.
Neither case seems an ample justification for hiding the facts from the people – a leak may only be a matter of time.
You know what? I say the Japanese government deserves anything and everything the Chinese has thrown at them since the r♥♥e of Nanking, Unit 731, Comfort Women, and their other war crimes.
You want the Chinese to let it go? Then maybe Japanese textbook writers should stop trying to conveniently forget and downplay the atrocities.
Better yet, hand us an offering of someone from the Imperial bloodline (Hirohito retained his rule without repercussions from his hand in the war and authorizing the use of toxic chemicals and the scorched earth strategy) or at least get the Emperor to kowtow/dogeza, which no Japanese official has done in light of that event.
That’s right, the little weaboos here don’t know how deep this thing runs and how the culture REALLY works. Apologies aren’t official till the representative head smacks the ground. And since Japan still has an Emperor (from that bloodline no less), he’s gotta be one of the ones to pay the price and let himself be taken down a notch.
Let’s have the Prime Minister as well, one of which, in 2007, denied that Japan’s military ever forced women into sexual slavery. Tell me, are their heads worth more than all the Chinese that were killed?
“Oh dear, let’s not desecrate the almighty bloodline of Amaterasu by lowering them to apologize for Japanese war crimes!” f♥♥k that s♥♥t.
Japan consistently finds ways to weasel out of bearing full responsibility for their actions, so why should China curb their indignation? This is the Asian equivalent of the Holocaust, people, and they are hardly dealing with it as respectfully as Germany did.
Stop treating it like it’s some bygone event that’s already been neatly taken care of. Do some research! We’re not even getting close to getting an eye back for this!
f♥♥k you. The crimes of people in the past does NOT make guilty the people of the present. Okay, the history coverup stuff, sure, go ahead and castrate them if you must, but NO ONE, NO ONE, of today needs to take responsibility for s♥♥t that happened long ago, unless they were directly involved.
On a side note, Hokkaido was not part of “japan” until the 1900s and committed something of a “pleasant” genocide, interesting fact 70 percent of People who live in Okinawa say they are “Okinawans” not Japnese. It is such a petty world we live in.
So Japan is fighting on 3 fronts? The Diaoyu island, the kuril islands and Dokdo. Imerpialism all over again or just whining and bitching?
To those of you saying how China doesn’t have the necessary navy to invade Japan…
A fucking fishing boat managed to overpower a Japanese military vessel and kill a coast guard. If the words of this flaming bigot are true, then Japan really would be fucked if war broke out.
Am I the only one who thinks these islands are the size of my asshole and are not worth fighting for? They’re obviously just an excuse for political matters…
actually, they are.
China and the LDP had a secret and low-key deal of mutual understanding. Japan under the LDP administration will stealthily release all trespassers without too much media attention, wheras China will do their best to hold the nationalists back in sailing to the islands.
Bad thing is just; the LDP never told the Democrats about this deal (maybe intentionally) and so they fell into a political trap, by not dealing according to the established secret-deal.
China too, fell into the trap, since they presumed that the Democrats know about this deal; and overreacted when they saw how Japan ‘violated’ their mutual contract of not generating too much media-shitstorm, instead of dealing it as “business as usual”, like in the LDP time.
Now, the LDP-opposition can use this intentionally laid trap to spout propaganda against the ruling Democrats, boosting their profile and gain support from right-wingers and nationalist alike.
All this is just a cleverly laid political trap of the LDP. This is not really aimed vs. China, but more to sabotage the democratic rule.
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Tanaka-Sakai/3418
Also, I leave finding out how much of China’s total exports actually goes to the US.
Actually, the “deal” started during the Deng era.
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Tanaka-Sakai/3418
Also, some of u should find out how much of the China’s total exports goes to the US…
Obviously didn’t read a quantitative discipline at Uni or come from a sucky skool. Or maybe just dumb.