The mascot for an obscure Japanese town has caused a scandal after daring to say that Japan killed 20 million in a war of aggression, with 2ch and Japan’s online right banding together in a successful effort to silence him.
Manbe-kun is the image character created by the Hokkaido township of Oshamanbe (population: 6,354) in 2003 for PR purposes (in Japan these awful local government mascots are so common they have come to be known as “yuru-chara” – “lame mascot characters”).
The character’s design is derived from local produce (crabs, scallops and the Siberian iris) and the character found itself pressed into the usual half-baked efforts to market an insignificant fishing port as a place of interest.
All this changed in late 2010, when Manbe-kun opened an official Twitter account.
Manbe-kun soon became notorious for his wicked tongue and provocative remarks, largely ignoring his duty to promote local scallop sales (although his mere existence is promotion itself) and instead becoming a minor Internet celebrity with almost 100,000 followers.
This all culminated in his remarks on the 14th of August (the day before Victory over Japan Day, which is celebrated as a national holiday in Japan as “End of the War Day”):
“Well, tomorrow is End of the War Memorial Day, so Manbe-kun is going to study!”
“I watched a documentary – back then Japan was just like North Korea is now!”
“However you look at it, everything started with Japan’s war of aggression. Thank you!”
“3,100,000 Japanese were sacrificed. Japan’s victims were 20,000,000 of the people of various Asian nations.”
As might be expected of any public comment which fails to portray Japan as an innocent victim of American aggression and the liberator of Asia, this immediately provoked an enormous storm of criticism online:
“They’ve all been brainwashed to think this stuff in Hokkaido.”
“He crossed the line!”
“Filthy leftist!”
“Of course, it had nothing to do with not having any resources!”
“He’s gone too far, someone needs to reign him in!”
“He’s crazy!”
“Stop this fabrication. Apart from China it was all in the Pacific, and the armies were all whites anyway.”
“He must be a Korean!”
“The person writing all this stuff is definitely one of you lot…”
It appears all this went according to Manbe-kun’s keikaku, however:
“Today I trolled all the net right-wingers!”
This annoyed 2ch even more:
“Isn’t he some Korean monkey?”
“His views are so prejudiced and one-sided!”
“His hobby is fishing.” [“trolling” = “fishing” in Japanese]
“Is it OK for him to be doing this stuff?”
”Doesn’t he know his history? Dirty leftist.”
“This must be a new PR tactic. Making fun of war is the lowest!”
“I’m jealous of anyone who can get paid for saying such crazy things.”
“He’s pouring oil onto the fire by saying he might expose the names of complainers…”
“As expected of the great idiot detector.”
“He’s gone too far!”
“Inciting a thousands of rightists to protest there would bring in quite a bit of revenue…”
“What is with the suppression of free speech in our society?”
“This is the image character for a town though…”
“With over 80,000 followers he must have the most followers of any purely obnoxious Twitter user.”
“Nobody ever goes there so they think they can say what they want!”
Oshamanbe’s mayor (an independent) eventually issued an official apology for his remarks after receiving hundreds of complaints (and the usual death threats), saying “Manbe-kun’s Twitter remarks about the war have caused much worry and bother to everyone, so I must offer my apologies.”
He went on to blame the PR firm running the account for the remarks, stressing that the remarks are not the views of the town, and to say Manbe-kun’s Twitter account is to be closed.
Manbe-kun’s site bears a similar apology from the PR firm, although it should be noted that both apologies avoid disputing the factual accuracy of his remarks – in fact, the PR firm’s boss gives says to a newspaper that “personally, I don’t think the remarks were in error, but it was inexcusable.”
The account has since reopened, although it is not clear if the irreverent remarks which have projected him to fame will continue.
This in turn prompted the expected triumphalism:
“A great victory!”
“So we won again!”
“Make him into the communist party’s mascot.”
“They took their damn time!”
“Serves him right!”
“It’s not a victory until the person behind the costume is exposed!”
“These threads keep going on and on, but nobody’s been able to deny that a Japanese dictatorship started wars of aggression.”
“What part of his ‘3 million sacrifices and 20 million victims’ statement is leftist propaganda anyway? As usual, the net right is a pack of idiots…”
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That really looks like a terribly designed mascot you would like to kick on the nuts. Gawd, and I thought Hornswoggle is the most annoying mascot ever created in human history. Look at the mayor, his face clearly has "I'm not amused" written all over it.
Anyone for a bet for whether it's Korea or Chinese behind it this time?
I think you are missing the point of the article
Behind the psychotic responses on 2ch? Well, maybe it's both.
Or maybe it was someone reasonable? Such elusive creatures do exist, as shocking as it may sound.
2ch need to grow the fuck up and stop being trolled by such stupid things.
You expect too much.
The same with 4chan and 2chan.
Well, they did manage to force him to apologize and have his Twitter account (about to be) closed so the rage expressed can be considered as something worth doing. Now if only this same method can be applied to lead to Ishihara's total boycott, de-coronation.. or assassination.
They just cant handle the truth.
who could accept being a bunch of losers. only thing worthy of praise in them was the different attitude they took after the war. but now they are
talking pure garbage, and from the source it comes from i bet the must be a bunch of ugly fat hikimoris who blame everyone else except themselves for being a bunch of losers. to prove my point just look at Ishihara, and think of who put him there.
I would kind of think it's no coincidence this kind of sharp comedy comes from Hokkaido, whose native Ainu population has been either killed off or forcibly subjugated by putting in a Japanese population there to 'water down' the native blood and essentially wipe out the Ainu.
Japan was and still is pretty imperialistic and it seems to play on the idea that it is Japan versus the world (or the western world) and that they need to take over other Asian nations to do it. And the ironic thing is that they look at many European and American conquests and they think it's okay to do so. Eons after the colonialism went out of style and it became a modern era.
I don't feel any anger towards that comedy. Because it is the sharp, honest truth.
can we get this translated and posted to 2ch?
What you say is very thoughtful and well put.
However please understand that Japan awoke from 250 years of self imposed isolation to find themselves under armed coercion by the West. Sort of like waking up in the middle of the night and finding someone standing over your bed with a gun in your face. Because of that Japan saw Western technology as something to be desired and imitated. So goodbye Tokugawa Shogunate, hello Meiji Emperor.
The Japanese don't have a patent on colonial savagery. The US, UK, France, Germany,Spain and Netherlands could show them a few things. Hell, The King of Belgium once had the native mine workers hands cut off if they missed their quota in the Congo! Talk about work incentives!
Colonialism was still in full swing until after WWII and the struggles of independence started up through the 1960s.India, French Indochina, Malaya, Indonesia, Rhodesia, Belgium Congo etc. Colonialism is still around, just more subtle since it's economic (the velvet whip) and not the sword so much.
to be perfectly fair the anti-colonial movement has claimed a lot of lives as well... especially the decolonization of the overseas Portuguese territories (in particular Angola), which were wealthy, peaceful territories where the government was fairly popular (the US stopped trying once it realized that, but the USSR kept going, kept failing then decided to attack at home instead, starting the Carnation Revolution by influencing junior officers in the army).
This is just stuff I've read on Wikipedia, which leans to the left, so I was quite surprised.
Not sure how civil rights were in the area, but once again I note the government was fairly popular in Angola and Mozambique and that those places have been hellholes since and Portugal's economy has never recovered completely to its growth rate before the revolutions.
Only the vikings could have taught the japanese "a few things." The bubbling pile of shit that occupied Japan in the 40's was one of the most barbaric civilizations in history. Such a parasitic race that offered only torment to the world probably should have been completely destroyed, the japanese should thank the world for not exterminating them like some jungle tribe. If the war was in 1840 they would not have been shown mercy.
They'll either ignore it or call you a Korean anyway.
@14:53 As a World War 2 junkie, I really can't help but agree with you there Anon. Pretty much everyone in the damn War did what they had to do.
So killing POW and brainwashing the civilians of Iwojima into commiting mass suicide is what they had to do?
Just like the Nazis absolutely HAD to kill all Jews, gays, gypsies and pretty much everyone who was not worthy on their eyes or opposed them (yeah newsflash, it wasn't just jews)?
I suggest you haul you big hairy ass back to school and pay close attention to those history classes.
Read your Darwin, Anon from 17:21. I mean "Origin of Species". The Nazis actually had some really cool thing going on. They just treated people like animals and who would allow obstinate animals to breed? No one would, you pick the best animals to get even better ones in the next generation. Sounds fucked up to apply this to humans? Maybe, but no one cared. I mean at the time. All those nations that could have easily prevented this from going on patiently waited till the germans nearly finished building the atomic bomb. (Guess where the americans and russians got it in the first place to wage that cold war.)
It's not even that hard to dig all this stuff up, but still, no one cares. History was already written by the winners, why rewrite it to reflect the truth? Besides, no one likes the truth. The japanese don't, I don't, you don't. So just fuck it and tell some convenient lies. God's in his heaven, everything's alright with the world.
The germans had their really bad (nazis) but also their good.
My grandfather (eastern front) observed first hand the difference betweent the wehrmacht and the SS. Very different organizations and I know some (very) localized fighting broke out between the two in some places over what the SS was doing. There still is no excuse that so many germans turned a blind eye to the atrocities happening in their own concentration camps.
The japanese? Brutal to those they defeated, no mercy to the defeated, extermination and experimentation on POWs. Mass suicide by the japanese troops and even citizens when they faced defeat.
I know (or knew) US vets from Europe and vets from the pacific. The european vets I know hold no hard feelings towards the germans. I have a hard time finding pacific vets who don't just plain hate japanese.
Apparently, Hitler's incestuous pre-ejaculating ass got eliminated from the gene pool. And yes, it's a fact, his niece testified to it.
@22:48
You are an idiot with no concept of basic Eugenics. Humans may be animals but they have incredible intellectual potential which could, with proper education, lead into many useful technologies for everyone to benefit from. For all we know, the Nazi may have killed the next Einstein.
Your familiarity with military science and history is underwhelming. The allies barely won WW2 and they did so only because the German supreme commander was an egocentric idiot.
@Anon of 19:13 19/08/2011
Keep in mind, they would've killed off Einstein as well, if he hadn't gotten out of Dodge in time..
You know the whole Jewish thing and all that. :P
“These threads keep going on and on, but nobody’s been able to deny that a Japanese dictatorship started wars of aggression.”
Yeah this guy is pretty much correct. I don't see what the problem is. They were slaughtering and raping people left and right. That's pretty much just history. And not just oral history... we have pictures! xD FFS Japan!
But can you?
Want to talk about WW2 gaz chambers (ridiculous) lies?
Talk when you get a fucking clue.
I do have a fucking clue.
I'm sure you can take it to the next level and beat some sense in poor me.
For starters, how about explaining what science can't explain about the so called nazi gaz chambers and crematoriums.
I'll also be happy with any undeniable proof it happened. See, I'm not such a villain.
(Good luck with that as the official version is that no proof exist as the nazi destroyed them "all" as they were defeated, leaving no single trace of such a planified massacre).
"official version is that no proof exist"
Utter bullshit. If you're truly just ignorant then do your own homework, it only takes a few seconds to find all the evidence you need. If you're a denier then just go fap to your picture of Hitler and fuck off.
Actually, there are some facilities(?) that you can still visit in germany. While the gas chamber story sounds pretty far fetched to me, as it is ineffective because you still had to carry the bodies, the crematoriums most surely did exist and some of them are still around. The device I saw was a body height meter that hat an opening for a bullet, aimed at the neck of the person that was to be measured. The crematorium was right next to that room. Now that's what I call effective. Why kill in some gas chamber and carry the bodies all the way, if you can make them walk right besides the damn crematorium and somewhere in the process get their data? Gas chambers wouldn't even save time, but only make things (killing off people) more difficult and time consuming.
@07:57
They had slave labor to do all the heavy dirty work of looting the bodies then carting them off to the crematoriums while they could sit around in their offices drinking schnapps.
They probably thought it was effective enough.
There are plentiful firsthand accounts by former prisoners and nazis who were there.
@22:58
You know, some of those gas chambers still remain to these days. You can go visit one if you are so skeptical.
Speaking of truth, I would like to see Manbe-kun strikes on you guys again someday later, revealing how double standard the people in Sankaku Complex can be. All these love-dovey reaction towards Japan and all of sudden you guys show your bipolar sides once WW2 is mentioned.
Also K-pop rocks! Both of you double standard Japan lover-haters here need to stop worshiping that country and come embrace the power of the Korean wave!
Well, they're all just people like you and me, and we all have our imperfections. We just have to learn from them.
And K-Pop is rather nice, but I'd like to see punk and metal go more mainstream in Korea, like in Japan. Pop dominates the market in Korea.
How that fuck is that a double standard? Is called ethics you idiot.
If you are saying that loving Japan also means that one must turn a blind eye on Japanese warcrimes then I suggest that you grow the fuck up. That's like saying that if you are going on vacation in Germany or Austria, than you need to like Hitler. It's bullshit.
And fyi: Pop Music sucks big hairy balls in general, no matter where it comes from.
K-pop is pretty terrible most of the time, actually. Its cutesy lyrics are contradicted by provocative dancing (for girl groups) or blatant homosexuality (for guys)
Occasionally catchy but more often blunt. And they have way too much American charts influences. I don't listen to the radio here for a reason.
LOL that's where you are wrong.
Music is ALL about preference. It's 99.99% of the time SUBJECTIVE.
What you really are saying is "I don't like POP music" "I think it sucks, but that does not mean it actually DOES."
You can't objectively prove in anyway that a genre sucks because you don't like certain aspects or side effects/people who like it/because it's mainstream/etc.
No double-standard. The truth is the truth. And anyone with common sense would never deny Japan's atrocities even if they loved many things Japanese. It would sicken me if someone who loved some aspect of Japan was Pro-Japanese about every issue. It's reassuring there are plenty of sensible people here when it comes to this issue.
send Huey from the boondock and have him state the truth and watch every country or site at least collapse upon it self with the truth lol
"Uh huh. You were makin' them riot again weren't you?"
if someone troll you saying "your mother is a bitch and and a whore" will u just shut up? it just the same thing man.
All according to keikaku!!!!!!
The icon even provides a visual for trolling. But they still went for it!
When all Japanese die, I'll be happy.
JAP MUST die!
"2ch need to grow the fuck up and stop being trolled by such stupid things."
When your only source of 2ch comments is from the selectively translated pieces here on sankaku, I think you should be able to figure out who's the trolled one here.
Its an ugly mascot, its obviously born to troll people
Certainly. And they can make another mascot to troll people again...
that statement can apply to both manbe-kun and ishihara...
Some people just can't handle the truth. Japan was the bad guy in WWII.
Axiz...Bad Guys...the Allies...Good Guys...and the Hero is me!
Someone has been learning history from Call of Duty.
And the US were the good guys, right?
History is written by the victor. It's only natural that the loosers end up being the "bad guys". Yes, Japan was an aggressor in WW2, but so were all the other major powers.
So if US was an aggressor just like japan as you claim, then why isn't japan, korea, taiwan etc. all US states right now?
That's not how peace treaties work buddy.
You know Japan is still partially occupied, yeah?
I don't want to take sides on this, but Japan doesn't have the right to kick America out of it's affair. America wrote the Japanese constitution (for the first time in it's history banning a female ruler, no less. Just a bit of interesting history for ya) and has, as I'm sure you know, plenty of bases in Japan which Japan doesn't have any final say in.
Well you guys got a major Assfuck in Vietnam, dont ever fucking forget this.
Gotcha!
I don't understand. If US is an aggressor like an axis power, then when japan surrendered why didn't they get invaded and assimilated like what the axis power did to other countries? Isn't making the peace treaty showing they wanted nothing more then to stop the axis power and are therefore not an aggressor?
Anyways I'm not saying your wrong, I'm not an expert in history as you make yourself sound, just a Highschool kid so enlighten me then how US is aggressor like japan like you say?
^ anon @17:47
Don't understand what is your point about peace treaty(only shows US wishes to stop the war). US didn't invade any countries in wwII, so why then would you consider them an aggressor country like Japan?
They only reason they are getting "assfucked" is they are not fighting wars like wars used to be fought. They have weapons you can only dream of, and are not even using them.
Think Iraq and Afghanistan would be the same, if even little village and town was getting bombed before the troops even searched it for Insurgents?
Think about it.
If it weren't for those two nukes and the following surrender of Japan, there wouldn't be Japan or Japanese for that matter.
Oh no how it hurts. Grow up.
Well thats mainly because there was no bombing, the single most effective method to fuck up infantry, from fears of Soviet intervention.
@ Garcia “Fucking” Hotspur
You're retarded. The Vietnam Conflict was a US strategic victory, but a political loss. How?
The US won every major battle, but the deciding factor was the political battle back home that caused the withdrawal.
58,000+ US troops, and 300,000+ South Vietnamese, died for the freedom of the S. Vietnam; all of which were in vain because of the anti-war liberals.
It could be called a War of Attrition. It wasn't unwinnable, just required a commitment.
If we had at least kept a military presence and the North at bay, S. Vietnam could have become a growing economic power like S. Korea.
@18:17
You mean aside from not being able to financially support another colony? The US would have been facing endless resistance from the local populace if they tried. Just look at the how Ottoman empire in Eastern Europe fared. Subjugating foreign culture never works.
And capitulation is not a peace treaty.
No one said anything about the US, so you can take your obvious butthurt somewhere else.
The entire point is that Japan is whining about how people view them when what is being said is the obvious truth.
It's like someone getting pissed off when we tell them a red light isn't purple.
It's to be expected given that every one here thinks the US is the worst country in the world (heh).
Get your facts straight, the US wasn't even planning on joining the damn war until Japan attacked. They attacked us first so we retaliated with full force. Because the US threw in their weight so long after the war started (about 10 years for the European side) we were able to send in fresh troops in what was a battle of attrition. It's really no miracle we won when we had a thirst for revenge and the troops to back it up.
America never wanted in the war? The economy was in shambles the New Deal wasn't even helping the economy in the 40's. Not that we did not need the New Deal and a lot of its incenatives. There were many Americans who wanted to go to war with Japan for the atrocities in China. In fact most Americans didn't want another Europeon War, however many more wanted war with Japan because Americans at this time were racist as fuck.
Guess what? so were your beloved Japanese.
FDR wanted to join the war, but even though he had enough power to brush the constitution aside, the American people were so against the war that he couldn't get us to join. Since 1900, there were only two wars that had strong public support at their start: Vietnam and Iraq. (Ironic, huh?)
The US didn't want the Iraq War, The US wanted the Afgan war, Iraq was sorta tossed in as a 'bonus' -Look over there, those guys are bad too- kind of trick.
They weren't planning what? You get your facts straight:
books[dot]google[dot]com/books?id=ow5Wlmu9MPQC&pg=PA39&dq&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
Moving most of the US fleet in the direction of Japan was an obvious provocation. The US practically pushed Japan into the Axis by placing a pseudo-embargo on them. They covertly provided direct support to China and were actively planning to invade Japan way before the attack. Not only that, but they were demanding that Japan must abandon the Axis, even through they were responsible Japan joined in the first place.
If there was a step to escalate the conflict, the US took it. They asked for the war.