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Jody Holeton
21st April 2003, 11:17
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=257343


Japan's Auschwitz Museum reopens in Fukushima


Monday, April 21, 2003 at 06:00 JST
FUKUSHIMA — The Auschwitz Museum of Japan dedicated to people killed during the Nazi Holocaust reopened Sunday in the city of Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture.

The Auschwitz Museum which was originally in the town of Shioya, Tochigi Prefecture, was relocated to Shirakawa after it was closed in March last year.

The museum has about 100 exhibits of photographs and personal effects of victims at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

The museum opened April 16, 2000, to lease part of the collection of Poland's state-run The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

It was set up by Shinshin Aoki who conceived the idea of building the museum after visiting the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp when he was 49.

Aoki's museum closed as the owner of the land on which the museum was built decided to sell it. Aoki died in August 2002 of esophageal cancer at age 67.

Mari Obuchi, current head of the museum, relocated the museum from Shioya to Shirakawa in neighboring Fukushima Prefecture, and reopened it, as was the cherished desire of the late Aoki. (Kyodo News)

Jody Holeton
21st April 2003, 11:20
WHy does it have an Auschwitz museum?

Does it have a rape of Nanking museum?
A comfort woman memorial?


Somebody explain to me why Japan LOVES to exhibit foreign SH!T (fake Mt.Rushmoore, a fake Statue of Liberty, etc. etc.) and just rips down all of its cool antiquities!

Steve Delaney
22nd April 2003, 06:35
I've been asking myself that one for a long time, Jody.

You pop down to Saitama and all you see in the small cities surrounding Omiya are pre-fab houses and housing blocks that will have to be taken down in about twenty years.

It's all about money and profit to the Japanese, there are very few people who are actually culturally aware or their past or of the cultural antiquities and treasures that still exist, let alone things like the massacre in Nanking, or the occupation of Korea.

Jody Holeton
22nd April 2003, 07:38
Profit and image is more like it......

I am so burnt out on Japan and dealing with the Japanese......


I hear my old hiking trails are going away in Hikone due to construction...

Japan could have become a great tourist country: beautiful temples, quaint hot water springs (Nikko etc.), English signs everywhere BUT....

I highly doubt Japan will ever become tourist friendly. Look at what happened to Japan at the world cup!!!!

Striking Hand
22nd April 2003, 07:50
Hi.

If I remember correctly the "Auschwitz Museum" was a private collection and private run Museum.

The Guy apparently ran out of funds and the Museum found a new sponsor that relocated the collection to the new site.

Will need to check up on the validy of the info though.

Cheers.

Tripitaka of AA
23rd April 2003, 09:02
Originally posted by Jody Holeton

I highly doubt Japan will ever become tourist friendly. Look at what happened to Japan at the world cup!!!!


I'm curious, what happened?

I watched it from the UK, and we had a number of different programs that followed tourists around. They all seemed to have a good time... and their experiences echoed my own. Did I get a different impression of the tournament's success? Or were you just referring to the Japanese team's progress...?

Jody Holeton
23rd April 2003, 10:02
Dave.....

Japan brought out police in riot gear in Roppongi.....
Half the seats didn't get filled.....
Just showed how Japan doesn't want a tourist industry.

Sure, people had a good time! You can have a good time in Japan if you HAVE money, are WHITE, here for a short time etc. etc.

I had dinner with a Chinese teacher last night (just back from Shanghai), she introduced me to some of the local Chinese workers...
These poor women: hostess bars, soaplands, Japanese contracts and gangsters.

I may b!tch about things here but OTHER foreigners have bigger problems!!

seskoad
3rd May 2003, 11:29
Hi jody,
seems you upset about situation and behaviour about japan. So what are you doing there? Can I swap the place with you? hehehehehehe :>

Jody Holeton
4th May 2003, 00:22
I wish!

Japan has been a nightmare for me!

P Goldsbury
4th May 2003, 03:06
Originally posted by Jody Holeton
I wish!

Japan has been a nightmare for me!

Hello Jody,

I am sorry to hear about that. Have you thought why?

A good friend of mine left Japan for good a couple of years ago. He had no illusions about 'Japanese uniqueness' and could handle the language quite well, but after 23 years he decided to call it quits and relocate to London UK. He finally lost patience with the minor irritations, rather than the big issues.

My friend had a thinner skin than I expected, as he later admitted to me. He found daily commerce with the natives an increasing trial. You know, things like being told he was in the wrong line at Narita airport because he was standing in the line for Japanese (he had a re-entry permit), or being asked for the hundred-thousandth time if he had lived here long and when he intended to return to his native country etc etc. I was surprised, for these things grate on me also, but not enough to make me want to jump ship.

I think the fact that I trained in the martial arts for ten years before coming here, from rather conservative Japanese teachers who believed in all the mythology, turned out to be a better preparation for living here than I had expected.

As for the Auschwitz museum, well, we have an A-bomb museum here. This is fine, and the level of evenhandedness displayed in dealing with the atomic bombing and what led up to it has improved over the years. But there is still an underlying readiness on the part of the city government to embrace the whole 'Japan as Victim' mindset.

Thus a specious solidarity is discovered between Japan and a whole host of other 'victims' and there is a dogged reluctance to explore any deeper issues. The 'Spirit of Hiroshima' slogan is trotted out ('Hiroshima no kokoro'--and 'Hiroshima' has to be written in katakana, in order to give the correct 'feeling'), as if this were some kind of sacramental mantra, the recitation of which were sufficient in itself to bring about what it signified.

All Japan's 'modern myths' have a clear locus in Japanese attitudes to English and how it is taught here. So perhaps you should stop teaching English... :)

Best regards,

John Lindsey
4th May 2003, 03:21
For more information on the Jews and Japan, visit:

http://www.haruth.com/JewsJapan.html

seskoad
4th May 2003, 05:43
Hi john,

Do you have information about Islam in Japan?

and for jody,

i think you have similar problem with the guy who was my english teacher in Jakarta. In Indonesia, we always want to be first world country rather than third world. We always made comparison to fellow indonesian that we are not as diligent as japanese in work and study. I asked the about japan to that english teacher and I was surprised when he said "I hate japanese, they can't speak english, very hard to teach them and they are lazy". Well, I don't think I have to believe him. But everybody has their own opinion.

Jody Holeton
4th May 2003, 13:19
Dear Seskoad,

Its not that the Japanese are lazy, its a whole attitude thing.

WHere is Soulend when I need him?

The movie "Bowling for Columbine" shows alot about American attitude. I come from Michigan blah, blah,blah! I don't get Windsor and Detroit and I don't get the Japanese attitude.

Read the book "Dogs and Demons," and you will see a perspective on Japan's attitude. I have seen and experienced some bad sh!t. The rackets of English schools, the rascism, the BS of Japanese education, dealing with a "your a gaijin" mindset, tatemae and all the beauracratic garbage.

I hope I am a rarity here in Japan but it has sucked for me and I am going home.

Joseph Svinth
4th May 2003, 19:58
Poor pitiful us is a common theme of Asian Americans, too.

Meanwhile, the training is good experience for working in a corporate environment.

seskoad
7th May 2003, 12:05
Anyway jody,

what you reckon to get a job as engineer in Japan? And please tell me, how much per year as international student if I want to take MBA in university like japan U or else? ......different from you, I really want to stay there.......as for language I can learn, I believe Indonesian tongue is easy to adapt.