what has Japan given to the world?

[potatoe]

hey i was wondering whathas japan given to the rest of the world,
i feel japan has taught about honour and a peaceful way of life

what does everyone else think? :gohan:

[JDubG]

I very much agree.

[Arch]

Hell yea, its given alot, off top of my head.

Video games ! :cool:
Blood bath movies :D
Anime
Technolgy
Mobile phones ! :keitai:

And much much more !
they showed the world, after WW2 through economic growth. All in all Japan is an wonderful, marvelous country. but most importantly it brought the world.

Sexy japanese girls :blush:

[Ewok85]

Fax and answering machines :d

[Duo]

hey i was wondering whathas japan given to the rest of the world,
i feel japan has taught about honour and a peaceful way of life

what does everyone else think? :gohan:

That's a typical stereotype. I don't think it's true. Japan had virtually no honor during WW2, the way that the Japanese Army treated the local people they invade is horrific. POWs in Japanese camps suffered the worst conditions, some were even ditched from a boat into the sea and left to die; while none of this was true for the Japanese counterpart that were caught by the Allies. The only peaceful time of Japan that I can think of is the Tokugawa Era, and that was only for 200 years. However, Japan has contributed to the world with many good stuff : anime :p, karate, kenjutsu, japanese swords and inovative techonoligical appliances.

[Knives]

they gave us japanese food :P or was that america again? lol

[Arc Light]

Duo's right...Japan's history is filled with conflicts, as is most of Asia.

[名無し]

while none of this was true for the Japanese counterpart that were caught by the Allies.I recommend you read the Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=%22Wartime+Journals+of+Charles%22+Lindbergh), or you can call him a liar even without reading the book.

[Duo]

I recommend you read the Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=%22Wartime+Journals+of+Charles%22+Lindbergh), or you can call him a liar even without reading the book.

I'm not saying there was no abuse to Japanese POW's, but certainly not like the things they did to their prisoners.

[Maciamo]

I think that Japan has discovered or invented much. Almost everything Japanese has been imported or copied from somewhere. But it is undeniable that Japanese have been able to develop some technologies, especially in electronics. Japan didn't invent the camera, the TV, nor the computer, nor video games, nor even the mobile phone, but has been able to develop them and make them their speciality.

Culturally, most of the traditional Japanese values have their roots in Confucianism and Buddhism.

It is especially in cooking that Japan has excelled and combined the best of the world in a new kind a cuisine. But again, little is truly Japanese at the beginning (=> see Japanese food (http://www.jref.com/culture/japanese_food.shtml) ).

[Bounty Hunter]

While asia was waging war, europeans was still in caves.

[Arch]

I think that Japan has discovered or invented much. Almost everything Japanese has been imported or copied from somewhere. But it is undeniable that Japanese have been able to develop some technologies, especially in electronics. Japan didn't invent the camera, the TV, nor the computer, nor video games, nor even the mobile phone, but has been able to develop them and make them their speciality.

Culturally, most of the traditional Japanese values have their roots in Confucianism and Buddhism.

It is especially in cooking that Japan has excelled and combined the best of the world in a new kind a cuisine. But again, little is truly Japanese at the beginning (=> see Japanese food (http://www.jref.com/culture/japanese_food.shtml) ).

lol well thats just kained me ! your right they have done alot on the development of these things. Japan has seen how a peaceful society can work, even with the blood thristy cartoons. Japan is an un-violent country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world.
It is also way ahead of the world in development of hi-tech toliets !

:D :D

[SkankRabbit]

While asia was waging war, europeans was still in caves.

???
We've had advanced civilisation around here for over 3000 years. The Minoans certainly didn't live in caves. So I dunno what you're on there.

Anyway.
What has Japan given the world...
Well, they haven't actually invented much from scratch that's for sure, but what they are really good at is taking other peoples ideas and making them smaller and more efficient. :-)

Add to that we have:
Mental fashions and hair styles.
Final Fantasy.
A surprising amount of Latin-American dictators.
And clean Whale-free seas.

[Keiichi]

Japan has inadvertantly sprung a whole group of weirdos around the world who likes anime. :D :D

[Duo]

While asia was waging war, europeans was still in caves.

Maybe Western Europe, but the Illyrians, the Greeks and the Romans were quite developed at that time.

[dadako]

SONY

NINTENDO

SEGA

MANGA

BLUE LED's

DREAMS OF MECHA

[bossel]

To answer the original question: Historically seen not so much, as it seems.

Here's a site with a List of Japanese Great Inventors in History (http://www.batfa.com/greatjapanese.html). There are 10 of them.

Although, the site from a Japanese car exporter. May be not that accurate, then.

But Japan is great in inventing "unuseless" stuff (http://www.methodshop.com/fun/Bad-Inventions/).

[Shinpachi]

I would use butter like that :-)

[canadian_kor]

How about a more efficient and worker-friendly assembly line in the automotive industry.

[dadako]

To answer the original question: Historically seen not so much, as it seems.

Here's a site with a List of Japanese Great Inventors in History (http://www.batfa.com/greatjapanese.html). There are 10 of them.


many more things have been invented since these guys, I'd say at least a million electrical components, ideas, mathematical practices, computer programs / algorythms, automotive components, machinery components, printing press things, railway bits and so on. All very usefull.

that list of 10 seem to be inventions that affected the 19 (20th?)century (which did see western countries inventing nearly everything practical).

The Japanese say that 90% of everything we use today was in someway invented in the UK.

[Arch]

many more things have been invented since these guys, I'd say at least a million electrical components, ideas, mathematical practices, computer programs / algorythms, automotive components, machinery components, printing press things, railway bits and so on. All very usefull.

that list of 10 seem to be inventions that affected the 19 century (which did see western countries inventing nearly everything practical).

The Japanese say that 90% of everything we use today was in someway invented in the UK.

wow that makes me feel all warm inside

:D :D

[Duo]

Well the UK had some great inventors during the industrial age, Brunel for one was simply a genius at all that he invented, including the first steel ship and the modern day propellor, which btw, is only 5% more efficient than that of Brunel's.

[SkankRabbit]

The Japanese say that 90% of everything we use today was in someway invented in the UK.

Well it's true innit.

Toilets, TVs, Computers, Calculators, Jump Jets, the programming for the World Wide Web itself, all the fun things really...

[Maciamo]

While asia was waging war, europeans was still in caves.

Don't know what you're talking about, but Greeks had already running water in Knossos in 2000BC, then developed advanced kingdoms with phalanxes, historians like Homer writing the Ilyiad and Oddyssey (see "Troy") around 1100BC, then the Olympic games were invented around 700BC, and philosophy and science developped during the 6 to 4th century BC, all before China's first Empire (around 300BC). Japan only started cultivating rice around 300AD and didn't have it's first proper kingdom and goverment till the 6th century AD. That's funny because Japanese often say that their collectivism is due to the fact that their ancestors were farmers (vs hunters for Westerners), while in fact Japanese were the hunters till 3000 years after the Greeks and 1000 years after Scandinavians and Brits.

Let us not forget also that what is now Britain, France, Belgium, Southern Germany, Spain, portugal, etc. had all received the culture, technology, legal and political system of the Romans as well as the philosophical, scientific and artistic developments of the Greeks by 50BC, still well before agriculture, writing, or the most basic form of civilization developped in Japan.

[RockLee]

They have given us a lot indeed...but the fact they want to perfect things is the real beauty of it all :-)

[Golgo_13]

Martial Arts.

Judo was the first Oriental fighting art to be included in the Olympics.

[Arc Light]

I recommend you read the Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=%22Wartime+Journals+of+Charles%22+Lindbergh), or you can call him a liar even without reading the book. oh yeah...

while none of this was true for the Japanese counterpart that were caught by the Allies.

Are you kidding? You haven't read the right history book dude...
There was DOCUMENTED proof that there was pure, unbridled, hatred between the US Marines And Japanese during WW2. I'm not talking about petty executions of prisoners, I'm talking about vengeance for Bataan, and other POW deathcamps. Things like tying POWs up in a line on the ground and running over their legs with a tank, or burning them alive with fuel from flamethrowers...anything they did to us, we did to them even worse. But, on the flip side of that, sometimes a GI/Marine was sympathetic to a Japanese POW, by either offering him food, or even just a cigarrette.

But look at us now...despite differences in idealogies, Japan is considered by many as not only one of the US's best allies, but also one of our best friends. Yeah, we dropped two H-bombs on them, but we also went in and helped rebuild the country, and now look. Kinda like getting into a fight with a kid in school after the two of you had been boiling up to it, and after the fight, you're best friends. (or at least that was the way it went back in my day)

Looking back, I believe that Japan has given back to the world many times over what the world has given to it. I seriously believe that the world would be drastically different if Japan and the US were on opposite sides. They may have had things forced down their throats by the west, but look at what became of it.

[Duo]

Are you kidding? You haven't read the right history book dude...
There was DOCUMENTED proof that there was pure, unbridled, hatred between the US Marines And Japanese during WW2. I'm not talking about petty executions of prisoners, I'm talking about vengeance for Bataan, and other POW deathcamps. Things like tying POWs up in a line on the ground and running over their legs with a tank, or burning them alive with fuel from flamethrowers...anything they did to us, we did to them even worse. But, on the flip side of that, sometimes a GI/Marine was sympathetic to a Japanese POW, by either offering him food, or even just a cigarrette.


I don't mean to say that nothing bad happened to Japanese POW's, but it's widely know how notorious Japanese treated their POW's and the local people of other Asian countries that they invaded. For a country that claimed such high honor as they did, they certainly showed none during WW2.


Looking back, I believe that Japan has given back to the world many times over what the world has given to it.

Hmmmmm, I don't know, I think the world gave more to Japan when they forced it open. I mean until the West really broke through the wall that the Japanese had built, they were still a feudal society with certain primitive elements that persisted in their life. After all Japan became such a power in Asia cuz they modeled their navy after the UK and their Army after Prussia.

[Maciamo]

There was DOCUMENTED proof that there was pure, unbridled, hatred between the US Marines And Japanese during WW2...

One notable difference is that Japanese despised people who surrendered, because it was more honorable for them to die in combat than surrender. In Kenneth G. Henshall's History of Japan (p 124-5) (http://www.jref.com/shop/showproduct.php?product=55&sort=7&cat=12&page=1), he explains that the death/surrender ratio of Japanese soldiers was about 80:1 to 120:1, while the Allied ratio was 1:4. In other words, there were 400 times more Allied who prefered to surrender rather than die. Once captured, the Allied typically wanted to write to their family to reassure them that they were still alive, while the Japanese prefered to say they were dead to avoid the shame of being taken prisoner. That is why Japanese treated their prisoners so badly.

He also mentions that the death rate of Allied PoW's in Japanese camps was around 30%, while it was only 5% in German and Italian camps. So if you think that Americans did the same to the Japanese as they did to them, it means they were much worse than the Nazis.

[sky888]

Japanese has shown the world how to be hardworking..

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[SkankRabbit]

I think that all the real animosity towards Japanese soldiers at the time was provoked by their utter inhumanity towards both civilian populations and captured soldiers. Which was so different to the west痴 rules of (modern at least) warfare.
Many Americans would have wondered why they should show any mercy at all to a force that was itself so merciless and cruel.
The general alieness of the Japanese might also have helped there. I mean, for a GI from the rural backwaters, he壇 have never even seen an Asian, let alone a Japanese in the flesh, so it was a lot easier to dehumanise them, in the exact same way the Japanese dehumanised foreighners themselves.
This combined with propaganda, and their own negative experiences at their hands, would have made it very hard for an American to respect the Japanese as human beings when they were captured.

So, personally, I think that it was the Japanese attitude itself that provoked that hatred.

[Deco#20]

Not only hardworkers, but developers too... and they gave us Samurais. :bravo:

[Wang]

Before the Japanese - Russian navy war in 1904-1905 the western people saw almost everything and everybody that was not western (European) as inferior and backwards.
The Japanese broke the myth that everything western is superior by defeating the Russians in 1904-1905. At that moment Japan successfully became the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a western power.

All the superpowers of World War 2 used propaganda to demonize their enemies so that their soldiers would fight better.
Also there was a difference in cultural background that lead to the fact that the Japanese treated the captured soldiers very bad, because for Japanese it was a big dishonor to let yourself be captured by the enemy in war.
Ofcourse the Western powers didn't understand this way of thinking.

[名無し]

The Japanese broke the myth that everything western is superior by defeating the Russians in 1904-1905.And it seems that their POW treatment during the Russo-Japanese War and WWI was rather nice.

Google (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=Russo+War+Matsuyama+POW)

[Deco#20]

[QUOTE=名無し]And it seems that their POW treatment of Russians during the Russo-Japanese War and Germans during WWI in Japan was rather nice.

Well seen! :cool:

[Dan B]

Maciamo,

That's funny because Japanese often say that their collectivism is due to the fact that their ancestors were farmers (vs hunters for Westerners), while in fact Japanese were the hunters till 3000 years after the Greeks and 1000 years after Scandinavians and Brits.
I've heard a cultural anthropologist, Joseph Campbell (http://www.jcf.org/), say something similar about the farmer/collectivist vs hunter/individualist link. From what I recall, he attributed individualism more to the northern European cultures which, presumably due to the weather and perhaps the soil(?), had a harder time with farming early on.

Clearly the link can't be absolute. But, as I'm not a scholar of ancient history, I wonder if perhaps it might still be valid and related to some critical periods of societal or philosophical development in Europe and Asia, respectively?

Regards,

Dan

[Golgo_13]

And it seems that their POW treatment [of Russians?] during the Russo-Japanese War and WWI was rather nice.

Google (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=Russo+War+Matsuyama+POW)

Compared to how the Japanese POWs were treated by the Russians--long after WWII had ended. Many thousands of Japanese POWs died in forced labor camps in Siberia for 10 years after the Japanese surrender.

I think that all the real animosity towards Japanese soldiers at the time was provoked by their utter inhumanity towards both civilian populations and captured soldiers. Which was so different to the west痴 rules of (modern at least) warfare.
Many Americans would have wondered why they should show any mercy at all to a force that was itself so merciless and cruel.
The general alieness of the Japanese might also have helped there. I mean, for a GI from the rural backwaters, he壇 have never even seen an Asian, let alone a Japanese in the flesh, so it was a lot easier to dehumanise them, in the exact same way the Japanese dehumanised foreighners themselves.
This combined with propaganda, and their own negative experiences at their hands, would have made it very hard for an American to respect the Japanese as human beings when they were captured.

So, personally, I think that it was the Japanese attitude itself that provoked that hatred.


I offer you an excerpt from "Moving Zen" by C.W. Nicol, a native of Cheltenham:

"My own background was not pro-Japanese. My deep adolescent interest in things Japanese horrified my family. The British too are an island people, often closed in their thoughts, and they had been soundly and well beaten by the Japanese. Britain, in my youth, still resounded with tales of tortured prisoners, beheadings, jungle railways. Donn [Drager] showed me a different side of the coin. He had fought in the Pacific war, seen friends die beside him on the beaches of Iwo Jima, faced and killed Japanese under circumstances of hate, and yet here was a man who loved and respected the Japanese, who understood that gentleness was the way of the warrior. Bigotry is left to those people on the fringe."

[名無し]

[of Russians?]Found a page (http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/russia/pmv0301/summit.html) that has a paragraph,
After the Japan-Russia War, the 6,000 Russian war prisoners were interred at Matsuyama where they received warm treatment and a cemetery was built for those who died at Matsuyama, as which a memorial is held in March of each year.And this is a thread (http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166) related to the previous post (http://www.jref.com/forum/showpost.php?p=100132).Compared to how the Japanese POWs were treated by the Russians--long after WWII had ended. Many thousands of Japanese POWs died in forced labor camps in Siberia for 10 years after the Japanese surrender.The MOFA page above also says...The sad story of Internment in Siberia: Sixty years ago the Soviet Union broke the Japan-USSR Neutrality Pact and entered the War, resulting in the internment of 600,000 Japanese people, amongst which 60,000 died in Siberia.

[Duo]

[QUOTE=Wang]Before the Japanese - Russian navy war in 1904-1905 the western people saw almost everything and everybody that was not western (European) as inferior and backwards.
The Japanese broke the myth that everything western is superior by defeating the Russians in 1904-1905. At that moment Japan successfully became the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a western power.
QUOTE]

Russia is not a Western Power, and besides during those times Russia was in no good condition at all.

[Wang]

About 82% of the people living in Russia are ethnic Russians so most of the country's people are western.
The culture and people of the ethnic Russian majority in Russia is mostly associated with that of European civilizations.

Russia is usually considered a European country primarily because the great majority of its population live on the west side of the Ural Mountains which is in Europe. Also, the capital city, Moscow, is in Europe. That's why most people consider Russia as a European country. Historically and culturally, the "core" Russia belongs to Europe.

http://www.google.nl/search?q=cache:OQbB3TQLqFQJ:www.asianamerican.net/opinion_main.html+%22west+side+of+the+ural&hl=nl

http://www.russianlife.net/edit0602.cfm

http://www.google.nl/search?q=cache:fjR_gaF_S0cJ:www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/954/news/b_12018.htm+%22russia+is+a+western&hl=nl

[DOSE]

Japan has given us Tamagochis!
They want us to forget the real world and live between annoying electric sounds, tiny screens with cute animations, and hundreds of buttons.

I don't know why but I think they are trying to confuse us with their electronic world... maybe it is like hypnoses and they are about to take the world over.
:(

[squallleonheart]

JAPAN HAS GIVEN US VIDEO GAMES>>>>YAY!!!!!
also cars, to get home and play those video games.... :p :D

[Golgo_13]

And all the Godzilla and other monster movies.

[Faustianideals]

Japan has given the world j-rock.

[maushan3]

JAPAN HAS GIVEN US VIDEO GAMES>>>>YAY!!!!!
also cars, to get home and play those video games.... :p :D

I think the most recognized thing aside from sushi and anime are cars! The top automobile companies are Japanese. Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Nissan. Nissan, the best of deals!

Mauricio

[yukio_michael]

They didn't invent the car... more or less, Karl Benz did... Again, they just took something and improved upon it, or learned ways to market it that were palatable to consumers.

Toyota if anything is good at understanding what consumers want and delivering that sort of product to them, in a timely fashion... Generally speaking this involves smaller, more gas-efficient cars.

Japan has a rich and vibrant culture, one that has existed for thousands of years. Just walking through the National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku) gives you some idea of the vastness and complexity of Japanese history and culture--- The myriad changes that have taken place throughout society from age to age.

Saying that Japan is most recognized for "sushi and anime" is like saying that the United States is best recognized for "hamburgers and Chuck Norris"...

[maushan3]

Yeah, true, I forgot WWII, electronics, etc. Yeah, I don't even like anime. It is just that when I tell them Japan, people automatically think the local sushi restaurant and Dragon Ball. But yeah, I really didn't think about it.

Mauricio

[KirinMan]

After skimming through some of the older posts on this thread I was a bit disappointed to see so many of the replies dealing with such a morbid topic as the dealings with POW's from WWII an event which everyone knows ended over 60 years ago. Quite a shame if you ask me. I was looking forward to seeing something more positive, as in my opinion, there are many things that Japan has given the world, that some people here were kind enough to point out as well. Ok I apologize for the rant.....on with my comments.

Whether it was the Japanese or not I am not sure but I appreciate the fact that the Japanese have made Cherry Blossom viewing such an event. The delicacy and the shortness of the life of the flower. An appreciation of the asthetic beauty of the flower blossom. Japan shared many of the trees with the US as a sign of friendship between the countries and in thanks to the Japanese the people in Washington D.C. can appreciate and hopefully understand a bit of the Japanese culture through viewing the Cherry Blossoms.

In my opinion one thing Japan has given the world, is a chance to understand and appreciate the shortness of beauty in one's life.

[yukio_michael]

In my opinion one thing Japan has given the world, is a chance to understand and appreciate the shortness of beauty in one's life.Not to play Devils Advocate, per usual, but I think many many people have come to this conclusion irrespective of the Japanese.

It's hard to say that because there are sakura blossom in Washington DC, that Japan has give them the ability to "appreciate nature"... I think many many people appreciate nature, and I think that it's a stereotype that sometimes the Japanese re-inforce that they are particularly adroit at appreciating nature... Just look at the photography of Ansel Adams, or the paintings of Van Gogh, and you'll see that this appreciation, or rather, this awareness of ones natural surroundings is inherant to many of us.

Japan has given us a wealth of literature and art, and in the past 50 years or so, an abundance of very important film that is unique in its design irrespective of Western styles...

Great authors such as Yukio Mishima have contributed a literature that is decidedly Japanese in style and creation.

And yes, I do agree, I do think it's important to say that the Japanese have given the world a modern stylized version of entertainment through animation and serial art... I'm not someone who discredits that. Its importance as a whole on the influene of Western popular art is much more interesting than the individual parts that it consists of...

It's hard to say that the Japanese have contributed a certain moralistic or spiritual aspect to people, just the same as its hard to say that of any country whose own cultural mores have not been exported or enforced on any other nation... People may draw inspiration from it, but in my opinion, though aspects of what we think of religion are present in Japan, it isn't as pronounced as it is other places where perhaps Christianity, Judaism, or Islam is practiced... It certainly exists, but in a more subtle, less constricting way.

[KirinMan]

yukio,

Thank you for your reply here, I think that part of the reason I wrote that post as it is, is because I was really disappointed that people would post so much garbage related to WWII instead of sticking to the topic.

I agree that Japan is probably not the "main" reason that humanity has a greater appreciation for the fragility of life. I was trying to make a point, probably rather poorly at that, that instead of dragging down the positives we, at least on this thread I would have liked to see everyone stick to the positives instead of the negatives.

I apologize for a "spur of the moment" type of reply that may have not really put across my intent.

Ok at least from here in Okinawa, the Japanese have given goya, hints to long life, tofu-yo, karate, eisa, ryukyu-buyou, hijiki, awamori among a list of other things.

I am glad that with your post here we were able to bring this thread "back' to where is should be. Thank you.

[yukio_michael]

I apologize for a "spur of the moment" type of reply that may have not really put across my intent.

I am glad that with your post here we were able to bring this thread "back' to where is should be. Thank you.There's no need to appologize, forums are sometimes a sort of spur of the moment communication, and you're still entitled to your opinion regardless of my own.

The WWII content? I totally skipped over that, I was more disapointed by Japan being characterized by anime and video games, it seemed a very shallow way to describe such a vibrant country.

It's natural for people to focus on the big things that happen throughout history, such as a World War, but we should save that sort of topic for a different thread than this one.