Reddit mentions of Ten Years in Japan

So uh, at first it looked like you were severely misinterpreting what they were saying... but based on their comments in this thread, yikes. Yikes Edit: Read even more of their comments. YIKES

Personally, I'd feel weird as heck if I went to a place the US had attacked. It's weird enough being in a place that the US took over (Hawaii), or even the mainland since most of it was Native American territory. It's weird to think about something that you identify as objectively bad that you can't do anything about because it was so far in the past that you just have to sort of go with it, even though you know the original situation was wrong. There's probably a better word for it than "weird," it's really a type of dissonance I suppose, maybe sociopolitical dissonance? I'm going to call it that.

When I was first learning about Hawaii and the tourist spots, I mentioned to a friend that the Japanese people (meaning tourists from Japan) must feel weird at the Pearl Harbor memorial. But that's weird in that sociopolitical dissonance sense, not weird in a "how dare they" sense. I think it's a reasonable and not racist expectation that others would feel sort of weird about it as well, and that thus the tourists from Japan might be less likely to go to that particular memorial. My (local) friend (who also happened to be half Japanese) said that they were mostly just curious about it and wanted to understand it better.

I do think it's not totally beyond the realm of possibility that tourists were disrespectful, but it also sounds a lot like the original OP (not the OP of this thread) might not understand Japanese culture well enough to accurately interpret what their tourists may do or the meaning or intent behind their behavior. My understanding is that there has been some amount of militarist presence in Japan, so I guess MAYBE this person just happened to encounter a tourist group that was part of such a militarist group? Kind of grasping a bit, but that's the best I can come up with.

A bit of a tangent... Most people in Hawaii are probably more familiar with the details of Japan's involvement in WWII, but for anyone that is interested in learning more, I highly recommend the book Ten Years in Japan. It's by the US diplomat to Japan in the years leading up to WWII. Not only is it interesting insight, but he's also an excellent writer. Obviously don't only exclusively read that book, but it really is a worthwhile read.