How do modern Japanese feel about Koreans?

[Jean-Francois]

Eh..eh窶ｦ I was always and still am told by my Korean friends that Korean people have the HAN 窶 a tragic feeling about what had happened in their history, yet a strong will to maintain their nationalism. I know this sounds a little lunar窶ｦbut even most of their pop music and soap operas have a sad story to tell i.e. somebody has to die or be blind as in 窶弩inter Love Song窶 and some music video of S.E.S..
They tell me it is a way to express their sentiment (actually I still don窶冲 get this one? How???).

They also tell me that because their country, in the past, had experienced constant invasions from China, Japan and Russia; they still have very strong feelings towards the Second World War. And they want me to tell people in this forum the reason they are still mad at Japan because they feel 窶徼he Japanese extremists have twisted the history.窶 Arrrrrrgh! Back to square one. It is not my intention to go into these two countries窶 history. I don窶冲 even care about the Sino-Japanese relationship.

But poor Korea, stuck between China and Japan窶ｦand Russia. It was like the Poland of Asia and China had bullied Korean for centuries. I think I would cut them some slack窶ｦ

 

[Maciamo]

Aside from the Jews, do the young French and Poles (and those from other countries in Europe that Germany invaded during WWII) still show animosity towards today's German people for their ancestors having invaded their countries and committing atrocities?

Almost nobody, thanks to the European Union and effots to improve relationships btw European countries. Europeans understand that what happened during WWII has nothing to do with younger people (under 70 years old ) nowadays. How can you condemn somebody for their father's crimes ? That is against human rights and elementary reason. Mentalities still have a long way to evolve in Asia...

 

[stupidumboy]

Eh..eh窶ｦ I was always and still am told by my Korean friends that Korean people have the HAN 窶 a tragic feeling about what had happened in their history, yet a strong will to maintain their nationalism. I know this sounds a little lunar窶ｦbut even most of their pop music and soap operas have a sad story to tell i.e. somebody has to die or be blind as in 窶弩inter Love Song窶 and some music video of S.E.S..
They tell me it is a way to express their sentiment (actually I still don窶冲 get this one? How???).

They also tell me that because their country, in the past, had experienced constant invasions from China, Japan and Russia; they still have very strong feelings towards the Second World War. And they want me to tell people in this forum the reason they are still mad at Japan because they feel 窶徼he Japanese extremists have twisted the history.窶 Arrrrrrgh! Back to square one. It is not my intention to go into these two countries窶 history. I don窶冲 even care about the Sino-Japanese relationship.

But poor Korea, stuck between China and Japan窶ｦand Russia. It was like the Poland of Asia and China had bullied Korean for centuries. I think I would cut them some slack窶ｦ

seems like that they just have no idea about korean history.
go and tell them to learn right history first before whining.

korea was invaded by mongolians and japanese(its happend in 20 century though),what is russians and han chinese? even tang dynasty only alied with shilla dynasty and fought in chonla province. after a few years they just kicked by shilla troops.

I think your korean friends have big victimization without learning right history.

Korea is teaching pupils very exaggrated victimization.
all the jokes.
if i was in charge of the history education of korea,i will teach the proudness of being survived under constant harships,not whining about the past.

I think Korea adopted this childish historical education because they needed unification of the national people after korean war.
Its time for changement.

 

[canadian_kor]

seems like that they just have no idea about korean history.
go and tell them to learn right history first before whining.

korea was invaded by mongolians and japanese(its happend in 20 century though),what is russians and han chinese? even tang dynasty only alied with shilla dynasty and fought in chonla province. after a few years they just kicked by shilla troops.

I think your korean friends have big victimization without learning right history.

Korea is teaching pupils very exaggrated victimization.
all the jokes.
if i was in charge of the history education of korea,i will teach the proudness of being survived under constant harships,not whining about the past.

I think Korea adopted this childish historical education because they needed unification of the national people after korean war.
Its time for changement.

I always wondered why Koreans have such big issues with the Japanese, when our country has been invaded by the Chinese and Mongolians (btw, Mongolians were a brutal people when they were roaming across Europe and Asia, they probably did a lot of crazy things to Koreans [e.g., pillaging, raping, etc.] when they invaded and occupied our peninsula, yet I wonder why my fellow Koreans don't speak out against them?).

 

[stupidumboy]

I always wondered why Koreans have such big issues with the Japanese, when our country has been invaded by the Chinese and Mongolians (btw, Mongolians were a brutal people when they were roaming across Europe and Asia, they probably did a lot of crazy things to Koreans [e.g., pillaging, raping, etc.] when they invaded and occupied our peninsula, yet I wonder why my fellow Koreans don't speak out against them?).

well you know,every occupation troops tend to abuse local invaded people in some extend to show off their superiority and victory.
its not only the problem in the past but it happens even today,however its much better because there are international agreement to prevent those things today.

if you read 魏志東夷傳 that was written by 陳壽 in Qin dynasty.
it described Kokuryo troops bavarian aspects very well.
Kokuryo was the kingdom where used to occupy half of the northern korean peninsula and large part of Manchu.


Korean folks just had no power to show off their power in history apart from Kokuryo kingdom.
Thats why Koreans have inferiority about their history and intend to exaggrate much about it even today.

if you ever been history educated in korea ,you probably heard this many times -that korea never invaded other foreign countries therefore we are very good people. its all the jokes.

Look at gwangju massacre and cheju massacre happend in 1981,1948 respectably. Koreans killed their minority bros and sis people. even 20th century.

how funny.

 

[Maciamo]

The Corean spelling represents the pre-20th century connotation. A more romantic traditional time with a single unified Corea, before it was occupied, almost erased, and later split in half in the past century.

Primarily English speaking countries use the "Korea" spelling. Many of the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian) and countries in Europe use the C spelling exclusively.

You know it's very simple. Latin (=Romance) languages do not use "K" in general except in a few imported words, so that is why it is a "C". Germanic languages have a preference for "K" instead of "C". It has nothing to do with romantic or traditional feelings in Korea, as the Roman alphabet is a recent import anyway. There is only one right spelling in English and it is "Korea".

However, why are there two or three posts wirtten in a language most of the other members can窶冲 understand? Is the writer sending us a message that our opinion doesn窶冲 matter? Only people who speak, read or/and write his/her language matter?

Excuse me, but why not email or send a private message to Buddha Smoker as an alternative? I窶冤l never post in Corean in this forum except if there was a Corean section because I think it窶冱 impolite, pedantic and sneaky for me to post something other people can窶冲 read but can see some smilies hitting or laughing off their heads as in a couple other threads, although this thread only has one smilie.

If you had changed the encoding of your browser to Japanese, you would have seen that the message was written in Japanese and not Korean. As this is a Japan-related forum, I would expect some people to understand Japanese, and if they don't, then they'd probably want to learn. Then, Kara is Japanese, so there is nothing pedantic or sneaky about it.

During Japan's occupation, the Japanese government changed Corean to Korean because they felt that Coreans were inferior to Japanese and K ranked lower (ranked later like i...j...k...l) than J alphabetically speaking.

If they realy thought so, I am very disappointed at their state of mental retardation. Even 7 year old children know better in Western countries (you know, as some infants in kindergarten say they are better because their name is higher on the list). Can't believe politicians haven't evolved since kindergarten. Why not trying a stupid rhyme on the name after that ?

During Japan's occupation, the Japanese government changed Corean to Korean because they felt that Coreans were inferior to Japanese and K ranked lower (ranked later like i...j...k...l) than J alphabetically speaking.

That also makes countries like Afghanistan, Armenia or Azerbazhan amomg the best and the UK and US among the last. But then, what do you do of countries changing name like Zaire => Congo, and what about a different ranking depending on the name in each language. E.g. Germany is called "Allemagne" in French, "Deutschland" in German, "Germania" in Italian and "Tyskland" in Swedish. Asian people usually lack language skills to understand these things.

And your point is?

A stamp to a certain extent can reflect the cultural - art and social trend of an era
but Elvis Presely and Marilyn Monroe were on the some American stamps too. Did it mean they had been the president and first lady of united states?

Well, animals, machines (cars, trains...), or famous people often figure on stamps, but here do not forget that Marylin Monroe was president JFK's lover.

However, the country's name on a stamp is something that normally stays the same on every stamp. I do not even understand why they would have to write it in English, as no European countries do. In Germany it is only written "Deutschland", in Spain only "Espana". It is somewhat superfluous to write "Korea or Corea" on Korean stamps or "Japan" on Japanese stamps (actually they write "Nippon").

 

[Maciamo]

Nippon was used in some japanese stamps too. It doesnt mean japanese folks have changed Japan into Nippon in the olympics or any other international organizations such as United Nations.

Of course they have. "Nippon" is the Japanese name of Japan (reading of the kanji 日本). In the olympics, depending on the country where you are watching TV or reading the newspapers, country names change. In France, they will write "Japon" instead of "Japan" and "Coree" instead of "Korea". In Japan they only write 日本 and 韓国, respectively.

 

[cricket]

During the world cup,most Japanese were turned off by the too patriotic style of rooting of the fans or you can say by the whole nation.

Japanese people thinks Koreans are too hot,very showy with their emotions,talks and acts in excited manner,such traits which are the very opposite of the people here.

Lately,there have been positive signs though. Korean made dramas are gaining popularity esp. the one that is shown in NHK and pop stars and singers are gradually being accepted, I for one is a BOA fan.

 

[jeisan]

Nippon or Nihon are after Hangul or Hanguk...

(i make no claims to the accuracy of spelling for any of the above words.)

 

[shiroma]

During the world cup,most Japanese were turned off by the too patriotic style of rooting of the fans or you can say by the whole nation.

It is somewhat well-known that there was a Web site called http://www.2002japanworldcup.com/. This is a nice summary of general public's feeling about the games.

The last two paragraphs of the article relate to a recent news report.

 

[Jopok]

Like I said before, I know not all Japanese are racists. I watched the Corean news about six months ago; there were some Japanese from the older generation, contributed money to build a memorial for Lee Hwang, a Corean teacher from the Yi Dynasty.

Canadian_Kor:

Neeja jinjja hankooksaramemyun erun modok eul ilbonforume ssjianeruira?!

Nowadays, we don窶冲 refer ourselves as Koryoin. Koryoin is a term for those Coreans who were forced to go to Central Asia. They were kidnapped by the Japanese Imperial government to work in Russia, China and Manchuria.

We call ourselves 窶徂ankooksaram窶 or 窶徂ankookin窶? We call Corea 窶彭aehanminkook窶 or 窶徂ankook窶?

We don窶冲 hate China and Mongolia because at least they didn窶冲 twist our history! The Mongols were cruel? But the Japanese WERE the cruelest! And in the Won dynasty, there were plenty of mixed marriages between Mongols and Coreans, subsequently Coreans admit that we have Mongolian blood. Our ancestors didn窶冲 lie to us to say we were descendants from the sun, moon, star or whatever!

You didn窶冲 go through the war yourselves and you didn窶冲 experience their brutalism. You don窶冲 have the right to criticize the victims. Most comfort women still did not receive any compensation from the Japanese government and they have to be criticized by people like you when they tell the truth to the world?

Why is it so important for you to be liked by Japanese people? I have looked around in this forum and see very few Corean members. You know why? Because we know that a lot of Japanese, not all, only obsessed with people who have high nose- bridges, white skin and deep eyes. You want to know how modern Japanese think about 窶廳窶捐reans? Even in this day and age in Japan, Japanese people still think there窶冱 nothing wrong for them to call us 窶徊osenjin窶 which is like calling a black person the N word. [There are a lot of Chinese members, but their mentality is different from ours. China is a big country. South Corea is a small country so we have to bond together to protect our heritage].

The Japanese government always complicates the procedure for all foreigners to stay in Japan because they want to create a hard time for Japanese-Coreans, especially Coreans!

Nonetheless, like nearly every one of the Corean descents, I don窶冲 like to frequent any Japanese forum to praise their culture. In addition, I am working on a project and my team members are bitching me to stop killing my time at this point. As a result this will be my last post for today. No more cut and paste to save time! I just won窶冲 waste my time to talk to people like you. Enjoy your stay and justify your obsession with Japan by holding a grudge against your own people!

From another Canadian Corean

 

[kirei_na_me]

Like I said before, I know not all Japanese are racists.

then...

You want to know how modern Japanese think about 窶廳窶捐reans? Even in this day and age in Japan, Japanese people still think there窶冱 nothing wrong for them to call us 窶徊osenjin窶 which is like calling a black person the N word.

Aren't you contradicting yourself? In the first quote you say not all Japanese are that way, but then in the second, you're kind of lumping them all together, right?

Nonetheless, like nearly every one of the Corean descents, I don窶冲 like to frequent any Japanese forum to praise their culture.

Well, in that case, I suggest you go find(or stay) at a Korean board then. We can have debates, but when it takes on a very condescending tone and seems more like an attack, people lose their patience.

Besides, demonstrating this type of behavior says plenty.

 

[Golgo_13]

As a result this will be my last post for today.

Thanks for the warning.

 

[cricket]

. You want to know how modern Japanese think about 窶廳窶捐reans? Even in this day and age in Japan, Japanese people still think there窶冱 nothing wrong for them to call us 窶徊osenjin窶 which is like calling a black person the N word.

I think it's Kankokojin for the South Koreans and Chosenjin for the North.Just as westeners say North and South Korea.

The Japanese government always complicates the procedure for all foreigners to stay in Japan because they want to create a hard time for Japanese-Coreans, especially Coreans!

Do you know that most rich pachinko owners here are from S.Korea? Japan is famous for being strict and uncooperative when it comes to visa matters but maybe bec. plenty of crimes commited by foreigners from Asia. Just last week,a pro.pickpocket group from S.Korea was big news.One was caught,five are still at large. An eighty years old obaasan was the victim and they were carrying knives and spray guns.

Young Japanese people today thinks highly of the South's artists and culture.
Ishiyaki bibimbap(?) is famous here and we always have kimchee!!
Sad to say, the same thing can't be said for the North,largely because of the still unsolved Abduction issue.

 

[cricket]

Oh,Golgo san, Thanks for the link.
I surely agree with the writer(nice summary link) (^_^)

 

[shiroma]

Well, in that case, I suggest you go find(or stay) at a Korean board then.

There are countless message boards out there like this for people who love certain types of discussion topics.

Do you know that most rich pachinko owners here are from S.Korea?

That is not quite correct. Please study Chogin and Ashikaga Bank to see which country pachinko money is sent to.

Just last week, a pro. The Pickpocket group from S.Korea was big news. One was caught, and five are still at large. An eighty years old obaasan was the victim, and they were carrying knives and spray guns.

It would be better if you could provide news source URLs, like:

Several Injured by Knife-Wielding Thieves at Tokyo Railway Station (Kyodo) http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20040624252
Eight hurt by Purse Snatchers at Denenchofu Station (Yomiuri) http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040625wo23.htm
Purse-Snatching Foreigner Busted Again (Mainichi) http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200406/25/20040625p2a00m0dm009000c.html
S. Korean Held in Theft Case Deported in 1992 for Similar Offense (Kyodo) http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20040625179

 

[stupidumboy]

This man is Japanese who keeps on posting one of the nationalistic Korean daily newspaper discussion web board everyday.He became very famous.

한겨레

By the way,his logic and knowledge is very strong
.he seems to know Korean and sometimes uses trans software to post his opinion.

He sometimes gets high votes from the netizens in terms of posted opinions even though his thought always stays on anti Korea.

 

[shiroma]

This and this posts might not be related to history much, the Korea board in the News & Hot Topics section would be a better place for further discussions.

 

[10almonds]

about Kankoku-jin or Chosen-jin,
When NHK made it the title as "Korean language lecture",
the organization of North Korea (Chosen jinmin kyouwakoku) protested.
When NHK made it the title as "Chosen language lecture", the South Korean organization made a protest, saying, "It is discrimination to our race."
Therefore, the program of NHK decided the title to be a "Hangul alphabet word lecture." I have heard it in this way.
btw
I've heard that
"Korean who says that it is friendly about Japan cannot make a living in the South Korean society. "
"it becomes a death penalty depending on case."
For example, I've read with a magazine that a writer who wrote "the protest of a pro-Japanese group" became likely to a death penalty by the hero contempt charge.
Magazine said " South Korean government determined this work as "detrimental books." and in South Korea,"anti-Japan education" is large every year. "
It was about in AD2000.

Are these true things?

Anyway ,
"the sonata of winter" is extremely popular in Japan, and a rental video is always lent out. BoA and YUN SONA are also very popular in Japan.
I want to make friendship with South Koreans people anyhow.
kimchi and CHIJIMI are my favorites. I'm eating the kimchi almost every day.
And sometimes I am making and eating CHIJIMI on my own. (^^*

CHIJIMI is very yammy!!!!!
I LOVE CHIJIMI.

(I don't know whether it is that C was set to K.or not,but Nihon is internationally set to Japan.)

I'm sorry to be poor English.

韓国人か、朝鮮人か、について。
NHKが、テレビ番組のタイトルを「韓国語講座」とした時、北朝鮮系団体が抗議をし、
「朝鮮語講座」とした時、韓国系団体が「民族差別だ！」と抗議した。
だから、NHKは、「ハングル講座」とタイトルをつけた、
と私は聞いた事があります。

ところで、
"日本の事を良く言う韓国人は、韓国社会で生きていけない."
"場合によっては死刑になる事がある"
私は雑誌で、「親日派の為の抗弁」を書いた韓国の作家が、英雄侮辱罪で、死刑になりそうに
なった、と読んだ事があります。
韓国政府は、彼の著作物を「有害図書」に指定し、ビニール袋に入れて販売する事を義務付けました。
と書いてありました。
韓国のアンチ日本教育は、年々激しさを増しているともありました。

これらは事実ですか？


とにかく。
「冬のソナタ」は、今、日本で大人気です。ビデオはどこのレンタルショップへ行っても、
貸し出し中で、中々借りられません。
昨日も１巻につき、１０本以上あったのですが、全部貸し出し中でした。

BoAやユン・ソナも日本で大変人気があります。

私は韓国の人と仲良くしたいです。
キムチやチヂミは、私の大好物です。
キムチは殆ど毎日食べています。
チヂミは時々、自分で作って食べているんですよ。(^^*
チヂミは最高!!!

（Corea か Korea かのTopicは私は分かりませんが、NihonもJapanと国際的にされていますね。）

変な英語でごめんなさい。

Yorosiku *^^*

 

[canadian_kor]

Canadian_Kor:

Neeja jinjja hankooksaramemyun erun modok eul ilbonforume ssjianeruira?!

Yes, I am really a Korean. Is there a problem in me participating in discussions here?

Nowadays, we don窶冲 refer ourselves as Koryoin. Koryoin is a term for those Coreans who were forced to go to Central Asia. They were kidnapped by the Japanese Imperial government to work in Russia, China and Manchuria.

It was not the Japanese who kidnapped the Koreans to work in Central Asia, it was Stalin's forced-migration policies during the Second World War. Get your facts straight brother.

We don窶冲 hate China and Mongolia because at least they didn窶冲 twist our history! The Mongols were cruel? But the Japanese WERE the cruelest! And in the Won dynasty, there were plenty of mixed marriages between Mongols and Coreans, subsequently Coreans admit that we have Mongolian blood. Our ancestors didn窶冲 lie to us to say we were descendants from the sun, moon, star or whatever!

Why do Koreans such as you get a kick out of reminding other Koreans that we are the most "mongoloid" out of all the modern Asians? Big deal. And, btw, the Koreans are predominately of the Tungusic stock, not Mongolian.

You didn窶冲 go through the war yourselves and you didn窶冲 experience their brutalism. You don窶冲 have the right to criticize the victims. Most comfort women still did not receive any compensation from the Japanese government and they have to be criticized by people like you when they tell the truth to the world?

First of all, I did NOT say that what the Japanese government/military did in the past to all the comfort women should be accepted. I am also opposed to what they did. Secondly, I do not recall criticizing the victims. What I was criticizing was the anti-Japanese sentiment expressed by a lot of young Koreans these days who just spout out their extreme xenophobic nationalistic views by pointing fingers and putting down others. Korean pride does not equal anti-Japanese banner-waving.

Why is it so important for you to be liked by Japanese people?

I did not come here to get some peer approval from the Japanese people on this forum like some teen who needs to get some attention because of some self-esteem issue. I came here to learn more about Japan, its culture, and its people. Is that such a big crime for a Korean to do? Why are you here? Are you here just to paste away your anti-Japanese disgust? Like I told you before, if you want to do that go find a different forum. This place is for people who want to have insightful and productive discussions on things Japanese (though not only limited to that).

I have looked around in this forum and see very few Corean members. You know why? Because we know that a lot of Japanese, not all, only obsessed with people who have high nose- bridges, white skin and deep eyes.

First of all, it is sad that there aren't many Koreans here. It would make a lot of them see that the Japanese aren't the "little demons" that their parents and grand-parents make them out to be. Secondly, I think your comment regarding the Japanese being obsessed with people who have "high nose-bridges, white skin, and deep eyes" is quite irresponsible and ignorant. I don't know where you got that idea. In fact, why don't you also criticize all those Korean women who get their noses done to make it look higher and their eyes done so that they look bigger (you know, ssangapul).

You want to know how modern Japanese think about 窶廳窶捐reans? Even in this day and age in Japan, Japanese people still think there窶冱 nothing wrong for them to call us 窶徊osenjin窶 which is like calling a black person the N word. [There are a lot of Chinese members, but their mentality is different from ours. China is a big country. South Corea is a small country so we have to bond together to protect our heritage].

I have a Japanese friend I've known for quite a long time. I have never received any sort of negative treatment from him or his family. In fact, in university, the Japanese people who I got to know where very nice and friendly to me. Whenever they socialized with me, they never let the "Korean-thing" get in the way. Perhaps your experiences were different. If so, I'm sorry to hear that.

Nonetheless, like nearly every one of the Corean descents, I don窶冲 like to frequent any Japanese forum to praise their culture. In addition, I am working on a project and my team members are bitching me to stop killing my time at this point. As a result this will be my last post for today. No more cut and paste to save time! I just won窶冲 waste my time to talk to people like you. Enjoy your stay and justify your obsession with Japan by holding a grudge against your own people!

Fine, and I don't find it a loss to talk to ignorant and narrow-minded xenophobe "patriots" like you. I'm not obsessed with Japan. I think you're confusing obsession with appreciation. Nothing wrong with appreciating another culture's history, customs, and food. Also, where did you get the idea that I held some grudge against my own people? There is a difference between holding a grudge and constructively criticizing an unhealthy attitude. I'm proud of my heritage too, but when Koreans start bashing other people it makes me just want to shake my head. If "Korean pride" means "All of you suck" then hell with "Korean pride." I'm more reasonable, sensible, and mature than that.

From another Canadian Corean

Obviously, you don't know what it means to be CANADIAN.

 

[kirei_na_me]

This and this posts might not be related to history much, the Korea board in the News & Hot Topics section would be a better place for further discussions.

Yes, good idea.

 

[cross-platform]

Fine, and I don't find it a loss to talk to ignorant and narrow-minded xenophobe "patriots" like you. I'm not obsessed with Japan. I think you're confusing obsession with appreciation. Nothing wrong with appreciating another culture's history, customs, and food. Also, where did you get the idea that I held some grudge against my own people? There is a difference between holding a grudge and constructively criticizing an unhealthy attitude. I'm proud of my heritage too, but when Koreans start bashing other people it makes me just want to shake my head. If "Korean pride" means "All of you suck" then hell with "Korean pride." I'm more reasonable, sensible, and mature than that.

Wow, I think you summed my feeling up exactly, except I want to tell that to a lot of the Americans here with "American Pride." There is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are, and where you are from, it just becomes a problem when you think you are better than everyone else because of it. Nice to know that there are people that think the same way as me.

 

[Golgo_13]

変な英語でごめんなさい。

Yorosiku *^^*

Totemo jouzu na Eigo desuyo!

Eigo to Nihongo ryouhou de kaitekurete gokurousan deshita!

Yes, good idea.

As long as Japan-bashing is off limits.

 

[kirei_na_me]

Wow, I think you summed my feeling up exactly, except I want to tell that to a lot of the Americans here with "American Pride." There is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are, and where you are from, it just becomes a problem when you think you are better than everyone else because of it. Nice to know that there are people that think the same way as me.

I also agree. Having too much pride can be blinding. I'm not religious at all, but I think there is some truth to the saying, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

As long as Japan-bashing is off limits.

Indeed it is off limits.

 

[Glenn]

Wow, I think you summed my feeling up exactly, except I want to tell that to a lot of the Americans here with "American Pride." There is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are, and where you are from, it just becomes a problem when you think you are better than everyone else because of it. Nice to know that there are people that think the same way as me.

I'm in the same boat here. When the whole anti-war vs. pro-war thing was going on I was against the war. I kept getting sick of people saying that being against the war was unpatriotic, and I remember thinking "what's so patriotic about blindly believing everything the government tells you, and that everything that your country does is right? Isn't it more patriotic to think critically about one's country's policies, and want them to be acceptable to people worldwide?" I think that canadian_kor has done an excellent job of capturing that sentiment.