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a kid's primer to the war, japan style

Thanks to Toren for passing along a link to the strangest current events lesson ever.

The author of the website explains:

JAPAN -- While flipping through the channels last Saturday night trying to pick up news on the war, I came across a show that was teaching kids about the conflict. It looks like the show (or segment) is called Kodomo Nyusu (Kid's News). They were using toy props and cartoons to show a trio of very glum-looking kids what was happening in Iraq. While well-intentioned, it was too bizzare to pass up, so I grabbed my camera and started snapping photos.

Basically, what the show seems to be telling kids is this:

In the center of Baghdad lies a very big head. The head is known as Saddam Hussein. Saddam's great defense in this crazy war lies in two things: soldiers that shoot bullets out of strap-ons and obliterating the sun in Super Mario world.

While that is going on, goofy Saddam prints out all of his Nigerian scam emails and drops them on his people, in the hopes that they will all head to Nigeria to get rich and leave him alone so he can he watch a badly dubbed version of Saddamzilla v. the Bearded Soldiers.

Oops, someone has got to go pee-pee! Time out!

After the giant man finishes his business the war resumes, and we see a giant hand getting ready to roast Saddam's head on an open fire.

"Yay! Snack time! Saddam sandwiches!"

Oh, not so fast kiddies! First you have to open your math textbooks to page 17. Now, using this chart as an example, calculate the number of journalists that will be kicked out of Iraq before the war ends.

"Mommy, I miss Geraldo. Please bring him back!"

Yes, I could have done so much more with this if only it wasn't so early.


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A Japanese kids' TV show attempts to explain the war. Michele doesn't help matters any by supplying an alternate translation.... [Read More]


Very weird; yet its still better than their coverage of WW2:

"The level of ignorance about World War II throughout Japan is appalling," says Chang, shaking her head. One Japanese psychology professor she talked to said he's been asked by more than one puzzled college student: Who won the war? ... "Even the media is involved in an unspoken code of silence on this. It's alarming to me how much suppression is still going on." ...

"There are people who are openly denying that the [Rape of Nanking] happened, and the government supports the practice of enshrining them," she says, her voice taking on an edge. "It's like building a cathedral in the memory of Hitler, and worshipping statues of Hitler as God... At a minimum, they should put in their textbooks a true accounting of what happened."

Thanks, I needed a laugh today.

Someone call CNN, the japanese are doing a better job covering the war than they are.