Vikings and the Japanese

[alanjjohnstone]

I'm a cynic and a sceptic. If it appears in a newspaper there is a purpose and it is not for its news value. 

The Independent which i used to praise in its coverage of the Iraq war bewilders me now.

The lead story on its website is one equating the Vikings from 800AD with the 20th C Nazi SS and extols the heroic  Anglo-Saxon defenders and the refusal of 60s and 70s historians to acknowledge Vikings as butcher terrorists (by reference to the decades, i read between the lines , the author means liberal/lefty historians)

Less prominent in the same newspaper is a story by Robert Fisk who's stature , imho, is on par with the greatest of journalists, about the atrocities of the Japanese Imperial Army, much less distant and their state approved denials and whitewash of them. He cites a law passed in Japan last year that imposes 10years jail on whistle-blowers of state secrets and 5 years for the journalists who raises any questions about such secrets.

Less publicised is Abe's government's rearmament . The so-called Japanese Self Defence force certainly had more right to the title than the supposed Israeli Self Defence Force, but these days it has acquired new weaponry to counter China and now can legally engage in arms trading. 

I am puzzled why a thousand year-plus atrocity story takes lead over something that is current and contemporary. 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-vikings-were-feared-for-a-reason-9241032.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/robert-fisk-sinister-efforts-to-minimise-japanese-war-crimes-and-portray-the-empire-as-a-victim-must-be-exposed-9242156.html

 

 

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