Letters to the Editor
September 25, 2007
Frankly, My Dear
We Japanese Americans give a damn, Lenn (“Lenn Sakata Number 1 in California League History,” Sept. 14).
Wouldn’t you make a great Dodgers manager?
Kiyoshi Nakawatase
Torrance, Calif.
Oregon Trail
Wish we had a strong Legislative API Caucus in Oregon. Move northward friends (“Assemblymember Lieu Tapped To Head API Legislative Caucus,” Sept. 10)!
Joseph Santos-Lyons
Via e-mail
Seeing is Not Believing
Why should they apologize for showing a work of art that some people might find offensive (“Group Rejects Apology for ‘Sixteen Candles’ Screening,” Aug. 10)?
If the main focus of the movie was to demean Asian people, I could see Asian Media Watch having a point. But one comic relief Chinese exchange student is hardly that.
Would showing Mortal Combat, Goonies, Kung Fu Hustle or Big Trouble in Little China be offensive? How about Boys in the Hood? It depicts a lot of black people in a bad light. Is showing Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle verboten because the white people come across as buffoons? If showing a film is forbidden because it gives a historical perspective on an ethnic group and some people are offended, our culture would be poorer for it.
Bayard (no last name given)
Via e-mail
Pro-Chinese American Life
The United States is wasting good Chinese Americans so that they can have media stories to promote anti-China propaganda (“Chinese Americans Shouldn’t Get in Bed With Feds,” July 27). The FBI ads in the Chinatown papers were about provoking a response to China.
I am exhausted and discouraged by this country’s policies regarding the value of Chinese American life. I feel like being Chinese is like being aborted.
Cerise Ly
Via e-mail
A Sorry To Say
Forcing women into sexual slavery is only one of the crimes committed by the Japanese army during the war (“Japan’s Shame Over Apology,” Apr. 20).
There is the Nanking Massacre. There are people whose bodies were used in bio-chemical experiments in northeastern China.
What’s done cannot be undone. But to acknowledge, to apologize, to show an intention to compensate for the injuries, are the first steps toward healing.
Or the inherited pain and hatred will be passed down through generations among the victims. The Japanese government owes us an apology.
Lin (no last name given)
Via e-mail
Monkey Business?
I was very offended by the movie 3:10 to Yuma, which showed some railway-building scenes featuring Chinese workers.
The actors made comments like: “I am trying to teach the Chinaman how to build railroads.” Followed next was the showing of a monkey, with the comment from one of the actors: “Trying to teach a monkey how to build a railroad.”
This is a very racist in degrading the Chinese with the utmost insult.
Peter K. Chiang
Sunnyvale, Calif.
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