BBC apologises for Japanese atomic bomb jokes on QI

[BEagle]

BBC News - BBC apologises for Japanese atomic bomb jokes on QI (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12260577)

The BBC said it was sorry for any offence caused and would be replying shortly to a letter received from the Japanese embassy in London.
:rolleyes:

Might the remaining survivors of Japanese wartime brutality expect a similar apology from the Japanese embassy?

I hope the BBC includes a complimentary set of Tenko DVDs with its response.....:uhoh:

[Background Noise]

Might the remaining survivors of Japanese wartime brutality expect a similar apology from the Japanese embassy?Do you mean 'Might the remaining survivors of Japanese wartime brutality expect a similar apology from the Japanese embassy, if it 'made light' of the suffering of POWs?'

I don't think the embassy is asking the BBC to apologise for the bombing, just the jokes made about it.

[BEagle]

I see your point. However, until the Japanese offer 'Shazai' for their war crimes, any BBC apology should have been withheld.

[teeteringhead]

Seems hardly a "joke" but a statement of fact. To survive Hiroshima and then go home to Nagasaki would indeed qualify for "unluckiest man in the world".

... or am I missing an obscure point.....:confused:

[mynameisjon]

Considering that the west didn't even push for the prosecution of the most heinous war crimes the Japanese committed in China during the war, some of your statements are fresh.

[pasir]

...While it seems that the so called joke was at the expense of
japanese civilians - I doubt there would be much loss of sleep over this by many former POWs of Jap style hospitality - or the relatives of captured USAAF aircrew first paraded naked around Tokyo prior to execution by decapitation - or those bayoneted on the operating table at Singapores Alexandra BMH while Chinese student nurses were herded into an adjacent
building and burnt to death - or the hundreds of Chinese civilians gunned down as they were forced into the sea off Changi - or those survivors of
a Jap sub who lined the survivors along the deck only to also suffer
decapitation - To list but half of further WW2 Jap attrocities would
require a volumn or two at least.

...

[2 sheds]

It's about time that the BBC had a bit of backbone and stopped apologising to every buggah who claims to have been offended. And beside which, it was not so much a joke but a light-hearted observation about the poor chap's situation.

2 s

[Eric T Cartman]

I doubt there would be much loss of sleep over this by many former POWs of Jap style hospitality
When I was growing up in St.Albans in the 50's, a friend of my father ran a radio & tv shop near us. He had been a victim of just such hospitality & made a point of refusing to sell or repair anything made in Japan. If following this course nowadays , I doubt your business would last long, but to me this has always symbolised the depth of feeling amonst far-east war veterans.

[Tankertrashnav]

Its really odd how different cultures see humour differently. I saw the QI programme concerned, and thought the observations quite funny, but there you go, I thing its fair to say that black humour has always been a feature of British comedy.

Personally I think Ricky Gervaise is about as funny as toothache, but even I was taken aback that the biggest offence taken at his by now notorious Golden Globes rant was over his remark that he thanked God he was an atheist. That would get a laugh over here but apparently religion is the big no-no for comedians in the states.

Different cultures - different reactions.

[Mechta]

When I was growing up in St.Albans in the 50's, a friend of my father ran a radio & tv shop near us. He had been a victim of just such hospitality & made a point of refusing to sell or repair anything made in Japan.

My uncle also had a radio and tv shop, but in Chichester, before and after the war. Although he didn't go the Far East, a lot of his friends did, and as a result, he too had the same policy towards Japanese products. I think one of the reasons he sold the business in the early 1970s was that he would have had to sell Japanese products to remain competitive, and could not bring himself to do so.

[Krystal n chips]

I had two uncles who worked for Japanese Railways as it were, due to being in Singapore at the time,,,,one was actually repatriated...quite why he was never sure. You can correctly surmise their views.

My father worked for a then, major pump producer in the late 70's and one day they were informed of an impending visit by a delegation looking to use their products. The management, showing a rare acumen, said that anybody who wished to take the day off, would not be penalised....there were no takers.....hence the atmosphere during the tour was Arctic and the sentiments expressed from the generation that had been there, left nothing to the imagination as the guests toured the facility....there was no further contact thereafter.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Hardly aircraft history or nostalgia is it? Certainly not the latter. The bin beckons.