Everyone has encountered extremely frustrating individuals who hold opinions so bizarre that it makes us wonder how they could be from the same planet as us. They’re usually trolling discussion boards online, spouting the strangest views and (in accordance with Godwin’s Law, which states that in any Internet discussion, someone will inevitably bring up Adolf Hitler) generally being as annoying as possible. I once had a discussion with a passionate Gundam fan who insisted that Gundam F91 was the “best” U.C. Gundam ever, which was perplexing to me since most fans would probably rank it at or near last place, and I reached the conclusion that some people were placed on Earth for the sole purpose of perplexing me. (Remember, this kind of contrarian is called an amanojaku in Japanese, after a mischievous Buddhist deity). This week I had a similar sensation while reading the news. First I saw a headline about China blasting Japan for “refusing to apologize” for World War II, which was funny because there have been no less than 50 official statements of apology by Japan, including several to China. (Maybe Wikipedia is blocked there, so they can’t see this information?) The humor continued when China’s leading newspaper posted an extensive article suggesting that Okinawa actually belonged to China and not Japan, based on the fact that the Ryukyu Kingdom used to pay tribute to China before being annexed by Satsuma in 1611 and by Japan proper in 1879. Based on that logic, all of Europe should still belong to Rome, and China might have to return itself to Mongolian rule, no matter who’s living there now and what nation they consider themselves to be part of.
China made Hibiki cry. Bad China!!
