Comments on: Gerald Curtis on the Comfort Women Issue http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/04/05/gerald-curtis-on-the-comfort-women-issue/ Independent Podcasting from Tokyo. Featuring Seijigiri, a discussion of Japanese news and politics, as well as TPR News, our twice a week look at Japan's top stories. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:12:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: Ken Worsley http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/04/05/gerald-curtis-on-the-comfort-women-issue/#comment-66694 Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:11:11 +0000 http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/04/05/gerald-curtis-on-the-comfort-women-issue/#comment-66694 I'm glad you picked up on that, and I like your post on the issue/interview. (I wish I could leave a comment at your blog -side note). I agree that I don't like hearing things like, "there isn’t much sympathy among the Japanese public for his position" without at least an attempt to corroborate the numbers. My own (anecdotal, not scientific) observations have been different; quite a few people I've talked to have been pushed right by the firestorm of criticism that has come from the US media. Whether or not the issue is properly understood (and I would say that it is not properly understood on either side, nor by Mr Abe, nor by myself, nor by Mr Curtis), people get defensive when they perceive that their country is being attacked. I’m glad you picked up on that, and I like your post on the issue/interview. (I wish I could leave a comment at your blog -side note).

I agree that I don’t like hearing things like, “there isn’t much sympathy among the Japanese public for his position” without at least an attempt to corroborate the numbers. My own (anecdotal, not scientific) observations have been different; quite a few people I’ve talked to have been pushed right by the firestorm of criticism that has come from the US media. Whether or not the issue is properly understood (and I would say that it is not properly understood on either side, nor by Mr Abe, nor by myself, nor by Mr Curtis), people get defensive when they perceive that their country is being attacked.

]]> by: Quiet People Are Very Annoying : Left Flank http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/04/05/gerald-curtis-on-the-comfort-women-issue/#comment-66610 Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:55:32 +0000 http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/04/05/gerald-curtis-on-the-comfort-women-issue/#comment-66610 [...] So, it’s more important for me to consider how China, Japan, South Korea, and the US relate to each other as states, than speculate about how the average Japanese citizen thinks about comfort women or Shinzo Abe (TPR highlights those details). And, there’s a problem, because even Curtis, but generally most pundits, reporters, and scholars, speculate about Japanese public opinion without much insight beyond suspect polling numbers. Even Curtis tossed some offhand percentages, and again I wish there was more interpretative research on those numbers available. When asked about how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s approval ratings in Japan and how the comfort women issue plays into that, Curtis is vague: [...] […] So, it’s more important for me to consider how China, Japan, South Korea, and the US relate to each other as states, than speculate about how the average Japanese citizen thinks about comfort women or Shinzo Abe (TPR highlights those details). And, there’s a problem, because even Curtis, but generally most pundits, reporters, and scholars, speculate about Japanese public opinion without much insight beyond suspect polling numbers. Even Curtis tossed some offhand percentages, and again I wish there was more interpretative research on those numbers available. When asked about how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s approval ratings in Japan and how the comfort women issue plays into that, Curtis is vague: […]

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