Cripes A Mighty wrote:
I understand where wixlover is coming from yall. Not to pour gas on the fire but............
First let me say that I am certainly no racist, I judge the man not the race. When I visited Pearl Harbor 2 summers ago obviously I encountered a good number of Japanese citizens. Now let me say that I have a good Japanese friend that I would never consider calling a 'Japanese'. At the Arizona memorial it was totally different though.
Im sure a good number of us have been there so I wont go into detail. But I have never seen a more disrespectful group of folks that were there that day than the Japanese present. Not just one individual, the whole lot of them. I had one push me in line at the gift shop, jump in front of me while I was taking pictures and just generally rude altogether.
The two events that still boil my blood today are:
1. There is a Pearl Harbor veteran that tells his story before you get on the boat ride. The Japanese in the theater were talking loudly carrying on and laughing throughout his story. He even stopped once and asked them to be quiet.
2. On the Arizona memorial, they showed absolutely no respect for the 1,177 Sailors that died there. Just giggling talking acting like they owned the place.
As someone who served and knows the price these men paid just doing their jobs, the actions of the Japanese folks that day deeply upset me.
I later spoke with a park ranger about it and he said that (not all) they tend to be disrespectful there.
Sorry yall, but this is how I feel, it would be like me going over to Hiroshima laughing my behind off and glorifying it. I would never think of doing such a thing.
I hope you guys halfway see my point of view and dont bite my head off.
Unfortunately, that is typical of Japanese tourists. Their cultural norms don't translate well in certain situations. Last fall, we were in Sweden watching the changing of the guard at the castle in Stockholm. There were barricades to keep the tourists distributed around the perimeter of the parade ground. Inevitably, after you took your place up against the rail (i.e. a front row view), a group of Japanese would push in front of you and root you out of the space you'd showed up early to get.
The piece de resistance was when one Japanese lady crossed the barrier and walked 20' out onto the parade ground to make a picture. That was a real WTF moment. After a few seconds, the guards "encouraged" her to return to an appropriate vista.
Again, the bottom line is that there are different cultural norms. The Brits are polite and queue up neatly for everything (unless they are drunk, soccer hooligans, or both), and the Japanese violate your personal space and make lots of noise at inappropriate times.