LOS ANGELES -- It's true that Asian values may not be all they used to be. But they still pop up now and again with the capacity to dazzle and astonish. It's possible to argue, in fact, that if Asian values remain a strong enough force over time, they could even mitigate emerging Asian nationalism. Two recent Asian political dramas illustrate why.
In Japan last week, a few terrified private citizens returned home after an awful captivity ordeal in Iraq. But they were not warmly received. Many asked why they took matters into their own hands, ignored the government's advisory against going to Iraq to get captured by kidnappers, who then demanded the withdrawal of Japanese humanitarian-forces from their country?
Had the victims been American, you can imagine the media psychodrama ("HOSTAGES: DAY 5"). But in Japan, a curious thing -- to the West anyway -- happened. The media downplayed the story, and the public reacted with antipathy. What's more, the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi not only refused to negotiate with the kidnappers (who eventually released the captives after intervention by Muslim clerics) but threatened to charge the "grandstanders" for the full cost of their return airfare to Japan.