(no subject)
I've been reading through Embracing Defeat again, a book about how Japan dealt with the aftermath of having lost WW2, and again I found that one of the things that interests me most about the book is the jokes. Not the author's jokes, as that would be pretty poor taste, but rather the jokes that the Japanese people themselves made. For example:
Conservative politicians referred to the coming to democracy to Japan as "demo-kurushii", kurushii meaning 'suffering' or 'tormenting'.
The Emperor became known as "Mr. Ah-so" (Oh, is that so?) for responding to anything anyone said with that phrase, and also as "The Broom", since everywhere he went was cleaned up or rebuilt so as to make sure he didn't encounter any devastation.
The new constitution became known as the "yamabuki kempou" (mountain-rose constitution), because under the new constitution the emperor was like that flower: all beautiful blossom, no fruit.
And finally, one joke that surprised me in terms of how sacriligeous and prurient it was, given the subject of it:
Why is McArthur above the Emperor? Because the belly-button is above the prick. (It's a pun, in Japanese, chin can mean both "prick" and is the pronoun used by the Emperor to refer to himself.
Conservative politicians referred to the coming to democracy to Japan as "demo-kurushii", kurushii meaning 'suffering' or 'tormenting'.
The Emperor became known as "Mr. Ah-so" (Oh, is that so?) for responding to anything anyone said with that phrase, and also as "The Broom", since everywhere he went was cleaned up or rebuilt so as to make sure he didn't encounter any devastation.
The new constitution became known as the "yamabuki kempou" (mountain-rose constitution), because under the new constitution the emperor was like that flower: all beautiful blossom, no fruit.
And finally, one joke that surprised me in terms of how sacriligeous and prurient it was, given the subject of it:
Why is McArthur above the Emperor? Because the belly-button is above the prick. (It's a pun, in Japanese, chin can mean both "prick" and is the pronoun used by the Emperor to refer to himself.