"Modern Japan is a vibrant democracy, a model international citizen."
Posted by Morrissey on February 16, 2024, 10:00 pm
RNZ National, Saturday 17 February 2024, 10:10 a.m.
Kim Hill has retired, but the slackness and the political naïveté continue on Radio New Zealand's flagship Saturday Morning program. After the 10 a.m. news, Susie Fergusson's guest was the Princeton professor Gary J. Bass, who is an authority on the post-War trials of Japanese war criminals.
What Professor Bass had to say was mainly very interesting. However, Susie Fergusson sadly but predictably let him slip in this bit of absurd propaganda near the end of the interview: "Modern Japan is a vibrant democracy, a model international citizen."
Maybe she was just not paying attention. I sent her the following email, which hopefully (fingers crossed!) she will read out on air after the 11 a.m. news....
Japan is "a model international citizen"? Really?
Dear Susie,
Professor Bass claimed that Japan is a "model international citizen."
That will come as a surprise to the residents of the South Pacific, who protested in vain against Japan dumping its nuclear waste in their waters.