It's called irony

Well, after all that Japan angst on my part, it gets even better.
Things both Japan and the US have done

Ethnic cleansing
Rhetoric of racial superiority
Invaded other people's territory
and now comfort women.

Who is more at fault here? Japan for allowing America to take over their infrastructure and supplying the comfort women, or the US for overlooking an unjust system because it was convenient for them? Perhaps it doesn't matter. According to US history, our armies are always the good guys. We fought Britain for freedom, the South to end slavery, WWII to end the Holocaust, according to the myths. I had an awesome history teacher in high school who punctured a lot of these myths for me, but I still think most people are taught this way in school, and continue to think that way. We don't know any different.

I think BrownFemiPower raises a good point when she asks why everyone seems so surprised that "our boys" would do something like this. Maybe this comes from the fact that "the comfort women" thing comes from one of the "good" wars, pre Vietnam where we were supposedly doing the right thing for the right reasons, standing up to fascism and all that. This is when the misplaced patriotic idea that "our boys" are better or more humane than anyone else's "boys" doesn't hold water. We just replaced one empire with another. We're no different or any better than they were.

On a more narcissistic note, my grandfather was in Japan during the Occupation. Looking at those pictures of the soldiers lining up, I couldn't help but wonder if he was in that picture. And what if he was?

Sheesh, it sure is getting heavy around here in general. Something funny better happen to me soon, or I may as well just color this blog black and rename myself Rayvenn Nytewyng or something. (Apologies to Laurel.)