The Japanese Embassy in London has issued a formal protest against the BBC for airing a programme daring to call a man who survived both Hiroshima and Nagasaki the world’s unluckiest man.
The objectionable clip:
The man in question, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, survived both atomic bombs dropped on Japan during WWII, dying of natural causes in 2010, aged 93. During his life he freely told the tale and participated in a variety of films and documentaries, and even wrote a book about his experiences.
The Japanese government took exception to the programme however, and its embassy issued a formal rebuke to the BBC and the show’s production staff for “handling his story in an inappropriate and insensitive manner.”
In response to this and some criticism by Japanese residing in the UK, the show’s staff emailed them an apology saying “it was very regrettable the show caused offence” but pointing out that the WWII tragedies of Americans and Europeans “were handled in the same fashion.”
Some additional context to the Japanese complaints is the fact that mocking the dead is usually considered to be in poor taste by Japanese, whether intended malignly or not.
Additionally, the so-called “hibakusha” (atomic bomb victims) both form a politically influential lobbyist group which receives special benefits and a potent symbol of what many Japanese would like to perceive as their WWII victimhood and the wickedness of the barbarian invaders.
Naturally enough, 2ch is very keen on the opportunity to simultaneously play the injured victim of racism whilst heaping slurs on the white pigs who dare to desecrate the name of the honoured dead:
“Those English gentlemen just love to discriminate!”
“For him to be nuked twice but live to 93 actually makes him more like the world’s luckiest man…”
“Britain is like that. They can make anything the seed of a black joke.”
“‘It’s very regrettable the remarks caused discomfort’ – that’s not an apology at all!”
“Stop making fun of the dead!”
“The harsh humour of the English is quite amusing, especially when it comes to war.”
“This is going too far!”
“I can’t abide Europeans for making these kinds of jokes!”
“It can’t be helped – the man even emphasised his misfortune himself.”
“If you subtitled this and aired it in Japan it would become a big issue!”
“They really laid into him – die you bastards!”
“Don’t our crappy variety shows always make fun of foreign countries too?”
“The British have no character and it shows!”
“He got nuked twice – it’s pretty childish to protest about calling him unlucky when it’s a fact.”
“It’s not even a discriminatory remark, it’s just a programme filled with crude humour.”
“One of our embassies actually did something for once!”
“The British were always a wicked and spiteful people…”
“So they think just because they make fun of their own casualties as well it’s OK to make fun of us? Are the BBC all idiots or what!?”
“Even their apology seems to be sarcastically making fun of us.”
“Those British weren’t even nuked and they still don’t live past 93!”
“What a disgraceful show, laughing about the deceased like that!”
“You can tell they just think ‘the Japs who are upset just don’t get the joke’ – this pisses me off.”
“Well, they’re English so what can you do? It’s still out of line by Japanese standards, so a protest is appropriate though…”
“This crosses the line! This would be completely unacceptable in America. I’m really furious!”
“The BBC is alright, but CNN does nothing but trashy tabloid sex stories about Japan…”
“I’m so pissed! Destroy Britain completely!”
“They don’t even consider dropping those bombs on us a bad thing, so naturally they laugh about it.”
“Their brains rot away because of all the terrible food they eat. The British are of low intelligence.”
“They eat pig food so no wonder they find it funny.”
“The ones who were unlucky were the ones who died.”
“What can we do to piss them off?”
“Tell them Princess Diana is partying with the devil in hell!”
“Try calling Queen Elizabeth a dirty whore.”
“‘British food is the best in the world, isn’t it!!”
“How about if we sink the Prince of Wales again!”
“If he was just bombed twice with conventional bombs Japan’s wouldn’t protest. Japan is way too sensitive about nuclear weapons.”
“Well, if a Jew who survived a concentration camp and 9/11 was called the world’s unluckiest man I doubt Jews wouldn’t find it funny and I can’t see them protesting about it…”
“If they joke about Auschwitz and Allah then I forgive them.”
“At least he had the good fortune not to be born British in the UK!”
“They should at least have offered a grovelling apology!”
“The British sense of humour is warped.”
“What’s with this huge over-reaction just because the A-bomb is involved? It’s ridiculous. He lived to a ripe old age and died a peaceful death, it’s better than a death at Nagasaki.”
“Britain is just a vicious little island nation. Anywhere they fill their cities with surveillance cameras deserves everything it gets.”
“They’re just still bitter we sunk the Prince of Wales – HAHAHA!”
“The English are the rudest people in the world and their mass media is the crudest there is.”
“If they don’t laugh at the misfortune of others they can’t stomach that swill they have to eat.”
“Doesn’t anyone think this guy is really unlucky? I sure did.”
“This is all because they are prejudiced against Asians.”
“They have to eat all that beef with BSE so they’re all even more messed up than the people who got nuked.”
“They think of Asians as nothing but monkeys. All whites think that. They’re deluded.”
“Somebody teach those British apes proper comedy.”
“Nuke Britain! Then they’ll understand!”
“They shouldn’t be making fun of other countries. The government should hound them for an apology.”
“I thought this guy was unlucky when I heard his story. I think the issue is actually that we live in an atmosphere where we can’t even say something like that.”
“I would rather the protest be about the fact this guy wasn’t called the luckiest man to have ever lived – 2 nukes and he died peacefully age 93.”
“They should take the producer to the memorial – that’ll change his thinking!”
“That didn’t even work on the people who actually developed and dropped the bomb.”
“Thinking of the white pig who thought up this joke makes me sick. He should be beheaded!”
“They should have got his permission before he died.”
“Of course they protested. These people probably just think it’s like being bombed in an air-raid!”
“It’s pointless saying anything to them. They’ll just ridicule the fact you’re even protesting.”
“We can’t even laugh about a joke like this – no wonder we have so many suicides.”
“The real issue here is whether he was lucky or unlucky.”
Lol Ishihara will probably use this in some way to bolster his call for arming Japan with nukes. I can see it now “The perverse nations of the world have made light of one of our own, let us bomb them in retaliation!”
Then again, he might just say his nation deserves to be mocked for being sinners themselves. The many forms the crazy old bastard’s insanity can take are unpredictable 😛
f♥♥k you dolphin! And f♥♥k you whale!!!!!
p.s. I hope yamaguchi didn’t lose friends and family in both bombings (although the chances are good that he did)…to survive after losing your loved ones would be horrible 🙁
It’s not like they were being prejudiced over it. They discussed that he was unlucky that he had to experience both bombings, and lucky that he survived them both. QI jokes should be taken with a grain of salt.
Everyone’s jumping the bandwagon despite not even having watched the episode. People should stop driveling over things that happened in the past. History is history.
Hey, 2ch… Before you start accusing Westerners of being “barbarians” why don’t you look up Nanking?
There’s Western axiom: Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Bitches.
well it’s not really funny to make fun of the dead, im sure they didn’t mean it.
“The BBC is alright, but CNN does nothing but trashy tabloid sex stories about Japan…”
this ^^ seriously CNN is much worse than this.
Japanese TV, official Japan youtube, MIXI and so-on have really taken this non-story and ran with it..makes you wonder what *real* news they are trying to cover up. Trolling nationalists about foreign countries is the easiest way to deflect criticism from yourselves, and it seems like Japan is taking a leaf out of China’s playbook on this one.