The restless photographer

Tokyo grafitti

John Slaytor — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:15:21 +0000

What does it mean?

Tokyo grafftti

old woman on pedestrian crossing, Tokyo

John Slaytor — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:36:59 +0000

I really wanted Vivian Maier’s ‘Street Photography’ book to be a knock out but from the pages I have seen so far, it’s not. Better to get excited by a lesser known street photographer such as Saul Leiter.

old woman on pedestrian crossing, Tokyo

slumped commuters on a train platform

John Slaytor — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:38:17 +0000

slumped commuters on a train platform

man strolling in Tokyo park, Japan

John Slaytor — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:15:23 +0000

man in park, Tokyo

Distressed onlookers, Tokyo

John Slaytor — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:54:18 +0000

distressed onlooker, Tpkyo

female Japanese nationalist protester against NHK, Tokyo

John Slaytor — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:13:06 +0000

Japanese nationalist protesting against NHK

female Japanese nationalist protester against NHK, Tokyo

John Slaytor — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:10:38 +0000

Japanese nationalist demonstrating against NHK

male Japanese nationalist protester against NHK, Tokyo

John Slaytor — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:05:18 +0000

In Steven McClure’s youtube video referred to in my earlier post, he notes one of the demonstrators is dressed in a Panda outfit but doesn’t know why/

In my photo, the young man is clutching a Panda photo – it presumably has to do with China but what specifically?

Japanese nationalist demonstrating against NHK

Japanese nationalist protester against NHK, Tokyo

John Slaytor — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:02:07 +0000

Japanese nationalist demonstrating against NHK

Japanese nationalist protest against NHK, Tokyo

John Slaytor — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:18:11 +0000

Recently reading a history of Japan since the 1853 American invasion, ‘Inventing Japan, 1853-1964; by Ian Buruma. Actually I’ll stop there. What right did Commander Perry have to insist Japan open its borders? Perry seems to have a history of bullying and then invading countries, beginning with Mexico.Unfortunately American aggression didn’t end with Perry’s demise. I am mindful of Benjamin Harrison’s quote:

We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.

If you bully others at some point you may get a taste of your own medicine.

This is a longwinded rant. Back to why I began writing it, according to Burama’s book on Japanese history, Japanese nationalism has been quite influential in Japanese politics, with politicians regularly assassinated prior to WWII.

When strolling through Yoyogi Park, we stumbled upon a Japanese nationalist protest outside NHK’s headquarters.

NHK is Japan’s public broadcaster. An American man in his twenties in the crowd told us the demonstrators ”were Japanese Nazis”. An elderly Japanese man explained the demonstrators were upset about the NHK being biased towards South Korea. I couldn’t find any information in the media about the protest but came across a youtube video about an earlier demonstration in the month (December 2011).In the earlier demonstration,

“The demonstrators were marching from Hachiko Square in front of Shibuya Station up Koen-dori to NHK. One sign says that NHK should stop promoting the “Korean wave,” which has seen all kinds of South Korean cultural exports become hits in Japan; one sign expresses opposition to a woman becoming Emperor; and one rather bluntly accuses NHK of being a “spy” for China and Korea.” excerpt from Steve McClure’s youtube video.

Japanese nationalist demonstration against NHK

So the 31 December 2011 demonstration may have been against Korean and Chinese TV programmess being shown by NHK.

In the next few blogs, some portraits of the protesters.