Diaoyu Islands: The Truth (2014)

As a Taiwan born Chinese descendant now a US resident, the movie gave me broad perspective on the Japan-Sino (Japan - Eastern Asia in general) relationship. It is very balanced from a long term point of view. I have many Japanese friends. They are all very nice, clean and gentle as individuals. But when they form a group with pride and loyalty, things can get out-of control in a big way. To be fair, Chinese can be similar. But they usually don't do crazy things to outsiders. They do have cultural evolution and Tibet/Taiwan problems which they consider as internal issues.I praise the director, as one of many American, can be critical of US foreign policy. (US government is "for the people" internally, but very bossy in foreign policy. It is based on the "US interest" which can be very subjective, biased and war prone.) This kind of criticism is very much lacking in China and Japan. I hope that there will be more different and balanced voices coming out of China and Japan (and oversea Chinese/Japanese). Such will be the first step toward "reconciliation" in the short term. Government recent actions (from US, Japan and China) were generally useless if not hazardous. One minor issue: I didn't give it a 10 because it didn't mention (enough) about Taiwan, which is the closest populous land to Daioyu island. It is a major traditional fishing area of Taiwan's fisherman. Taiwan should have a bigger (if not major) say on the subject.

Back when the Islands was on a map drawn by china, the whole of china was smaller and was actually four countries, and Tibet was far larger. This was around the time that Japan reached into 1/3rd of Korea, and into Russia past Hokkaido. QED Maps change; but the land is in Japanese ownership, and they appear to be slightly more trustworthy than the Chinese at this point in history.. china is a nation forged by war and murder, and the Chinese have worked with the Mongolians a number of times to try and go to Japan and wipe it out, and so Japan is rightfully wary of giving china any foothold from which to place or launch missiles or whatever. Its ALL about who can be trusted more. As an 'outsider' (of the village mentality), I would not even go to china....Japan on the other hand is far more civilised. Not perfect, but far more civilised than the often hysterical (Tiananmen) china.

The previous user who rated 1 has not rated any other titles. It sounds like he will put whatever taking China's side into the category of simple Chinese propaganda. I just thought people should be aware of the extent of western bias about China and get out of the myth of "we are good guy your are bad guy so whatever we said is for the truth or free speech blabla ... for good but whatever you said is propaganda". Stop being so damn insecure and hiding behind such a shield, there is no fear in accepting the facts and admitting you are wrong. The previous user said "In the UK for example, if Scotland wants to be independent so be it, stop being so damn insecure, you've got over a billion people!!" Besides his baleful sense of humor, I think it shows his anti-China intention and misleading. That is a territory conflict between China and Japan. It is about territory integrity being endorsed by nations all around the world, including UK and US. So, I think a better example would be, "if Spain wants Gibraltar, we UK would give it. The Queen already has enough colonies, or already lost enough, including HongKong and Singapore. She would not mind to lose one more, would she? :-)" I am fairly sure the previous reviewer has no double-standard problem so he would explain why there was such an independent war in north America over 200 years ago if the nice and generous UK people really do not mind it.Come on. China wants that island because it is the right thing to do. It because it belongs to China. No one should accepts the wrong facts. On the other hands, its justice to set it right again. I am not 100% sure but I can sense what deeply in the previous reviewers blood from his analogy of "you do not need it because you already got 1 billion people" - so he implied western people or culture has no sense of justice. They has no interest in right or wrong. Western people just consider two facts "what we want?" and "How can I get it?" but never ask themselves "Is that right thing to do?" For example, we want lands - then take it from Indians; we want labors, then take the freedom from Africans ... UK returned Hongkong to China not because it was the right thing to do but simple because it cannot.Stop the fear of the rise of China since you would not mind losing Scotland ... And you've already lost enough so you would not mind lost some more :-) China want Diaoyu island because it belongs to China, it is the right thing to do, like Hongkong. China does not want Scotland because it does not belong to China. It is very simple -- everyone does the right thing. If you ever took something from others, stop the "please-accept-the- fact" crap, return it and apologize, beg for victim's pardon, and pray if the other side chose not to forgive you. It has been long time for UK's and Japanes to forget about their broken arrogance. More and more wrong things would be set back again. The Diaoyu island is a chance for Japanese to set things right up and pray for Chinese's forgiveness, like Germans keep taking every single chance to appeal for the forgives from Jews. This movie is actually a chance and even a favor for Japanese to set things back to right and apology then regain the chance to survive in east Asia and next century, in a world ruled by China.Japan attacked pearl harbor, killed over 4000 US soldiers there - as return, US nuked two Japan cities, burned out 3/4 of Tokyo, killed million's of Japan civilians. Considering this fact, China is too nice, isn't it?

Western countries have always been biasing against China. Japan is an ally with America. Folks in western countries barely know the truth about China, not just the dispute of Diaoyu Island, but also China's history, society, politics, Taiwan and Tibet. You know what medias want you to know. The information is always filtered by media's attitude towards China. I am just glad to see someone is willing to show the truth. Japan refuses to admit and apology for their flagitious war crimes. Japan refuses to admit it brought trauma to several countries by invading them. Let's say what's done is done, China and Korea are willing to let go of the trauma. But Japan still refuses to apologize, and Japanese government recently revised their history text books by teaching their youngster incorrect history. Japanese right-wingists are rising, America should let people see the truth, instead of taking part with Japan.