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| Fifth Column |
| WTF? |
| 2004-04-12 |
| Hat tip LGF A Japanese Reader 4/8/2004 08:03PM PST It seems like you guys aren’t aware that these 3 Japanese civilians are anti-war lefties, actively against Japanese troop deployment in Iraq. Members of a non-profit organization. They remind me of Rachel Correy. One of them is a journalist(by contract) from Weekly Asahi (Asahi is kinda like BBC...anti-Japan/America, Pro-north korea/china). Noriaki Imai, 18 year-old student activist, has his own group against war. Here’s his homepage in Japanese... if you read in translation, you will know that he and others had same interest as the terrorist who kidnapped them. And here is the link of Nahoko Takato (the kidnapped woman) translation work - " letters from Iraq". Again in mostly in Japanese, but you can read English part of it. Whatever their opinions are, kidnaping is kidnaping. Yet Japanese government is showing a strong attitude against those terrorists, which I think is great. That besides, public opinion in Japan seems to split in two. Anti-war/Anti-deployment people who want the troops to come back to Japan. The type of person who’d say, " if those 3 civilians get killed, it’s Koizumi’s fault!". There are also conspiracy theories all over Japanese-internet that these 3 individuals are complicit in their own kidnaping. some point out this --Noriaki Imai posted in a thread, with the title "Big secreat Plan!" on April 7, 2004 09:57: " I have met the freelance journalist from Weekly Asahi today! After we chatted a while, he told me a big plan! It might be great. I think this will be a great achievement in history, and miss takato is also interested, so I think it’s worth doing" (translated by me). The source I got this information does not provide the link to this thread, so it’s up to you to believe it or not. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #9 I used to drink a bunch of Asahi when I was there - Asahi dry was my favorite. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-04-12 1:53:33 PM |
| #8 Well, the probability is that the whole thing started as a hoax, (not that it will finish as a hoax) so why is Cheney going to all this trouble |
| Posted by: tipper 2004-04-12 12:51:14 PM |
| #7 "I thought Asahi was beer......? " Well, it's a lefty, all-organic, Vegan sort of beer, made with synthetic yeast (yeast is a living organism, doncha know...) Actually, when they say that the Asahi Shimbun is "left", that does NOT mean it is like one of those pamphlets handed out at ANSWER marches; it is more "left-liberal" like the LA Times, etc... IOW, it is a real newspaper with a certain editorial slant... |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H 2004-04-12 12:25:10 PM |
| #6 ..from Weekly Asahi (Asahi is kinda like BBC...anti-Japan/America, Pro-north korea/china). I thought Asahi was beer......? ;) |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-04-12 11:46:49 AM |
| #5 DOH! |
| Posted by: Evert Visser in NL 2004-04-12 6:04:24 AM |
| #4 Ah, and here is the Corbomite mentioned in the article. |
| Posted by: Evert Visser in NL 2004-04-12 3:24:08 AM |
| #3 Domo arigato Japanese reader. |
| Posted by: Evert Visser in NL 2004-04-12 3:15:29 AM |
| #2 Hmph -it's been discussed on LGF too ... |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2004-04-12 12:39:36 AM |
| #1 This is hilarious. If true, I fell for it hook, line and sinker. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-04-12 12:25:48 AM |