Jack's letter to the Japanese Ambasssador:GP: Jack - Some readers are taking offense to the Pearl Harbor comments in your press release, and I have to say that it does read as a somewhat insensitive remark. Would you care to comment on that section or elaborate further on what you were trying to convey?
JT: Insensitive? What the Japanese are doing to our kids is insensitive and racist. The Japanese have for a very long time dumped pornography into this country in a fashion they would not tolerate in their own country. It is another version of Pearl Harbor.
GP: By porn, I take it you mean violent video games? Are you referring to various Japanese-made game platforms? (i.e. PS2, Nintendo, etc.) But Take-Two is an American corp., and Rockstar an English subsidiary. Most of the games I can recall you criticizing over the years have been American-published.. (GTA, 25 to Life, Bully, The Warriors, The Sims, Blitz: The League, Everquest, Doom, etc.)
JT: Sony is a Japanese company.
GP: But Sony only makes the player. I don't recall you criticizing any of their titles in a major way. If you take that approach, wouldn't TV, VCR, and DVD player manufacturers be equally complicit? Since their products play violent movies and even actual porn? And are also needed to play video games?
Toshiba, etc.?
JT: GTA is a Sony/Take-Two game. It was made by Take-Two exclusively for Sony's Playstation 2. Sony has led the planet in the distribution of mainstream porn. I don't have time to document it for you. As for the offensiveness of the Pearl Harbor comment, it's accurate and it's needed. The Japanese have a contempt for our culture which is patent. There (sic) dumping of garbage into our culture is a slow motion version of Pearl Harbor.
Thompson followed up with a letter on the topic to Japanese Ambassador Ryoko Kato. For space reasons, GP has attached it as a comment.
You can view it all on these links:The Honorable Ryoko Kato
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Japan to the United States of America
2520 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. Via Fax to 202-xxx-xxxx
Re: Sony's Ongoing Distribution of Violent and Pornographic Material to Minors in the United States
Dear Mr. Ambassador:
As a United States citizen who has been active and visible in opposing Sony's distribution of hyperviolent and sexually explicit video games to children in this country, I would respectfully request that your nation's government assist me in making this harmful distribution stop.
This request comes in the aftermath of recent news reports that certain local/regional governments in Japan will not allow, for example, the grotesque Sony/Take-Two/Rockstar Grand Theft Auto games to be sold to children in your country but Sony is more than delighted to distribute these games to our children in our country.
This is hypocrisy, and it must be remedied. Japan cannot allow to be done to our children what it will not allow to be done to its own.
Regards, Jack Thompson
http://www.gamepolitics.com/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/gamepo ... 4#t4599454
I didn't believe all this when I read it.
Oh, and for some amusement, he spelt the Japanese Ambassador's name wrong.
Ryoko is a girl's name. Its Ryozo Kato.The Honorable Ryoko Kato
In two words- SELF OWNAGE!
) I mean, LOOK AROUND YOU, Jack! There's violence on TV, on the playgrounds, in the news, and just in plain LIFE! Here's a short list of what to eliminate to keep kids from being exposed to violence:
