Nationalist candidate wins vote for Japanese ruling party presidency
Associated Press
(...)
"[Abe]'s from the generation that doesn't know war," said Takashi Sasagawa, an LDP member of parliament's powerful lower house. "Not knowing war is his strength, because he can be on equal terms with other countries."
War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance...is...Strength.
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Sasagawa has his base in Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture...and Amaterasu preserve me, I cannot pass up this one chance to post the "Absolutely Worst Japanese Pronunciation Pun Ever."
Here it goes:
An English-speaking foreigner asks his Japanese co-worker about his weekend plans.
"So, do you have anything special planned for this weekend?"
"Yes," replies the co-worker with great zest and a big smile, "I'm going to Kiryu."
If the above makes no impression, try reading the joke out loud.
It would be even funneier if "not knowing war" meant "not knowing about war". In fact, Mr. Sasagawa was almost surely referencing "senso wo shiranai sedai", i.e. "the generation that did not personally experience WW II/Great East Asia War/Pacific War/Showa War", and was trying to say that Mr. Abe did not suffer from a sense of guilt and other hang-ups that has led most of the nambier-pambier prime minsters who preceded him to embrace the Peace Constitution, suck up to China etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteIronically in this instance, the words "senso wo shiranai" were immortalized in 1970 in the pacifist folk rock hit Senso wo Shiranai Kodomo Dragon".