Oink! Oink!

The flap over Princess Masako, Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, a book about the Japanese Imperial family by the Australian journalist, Ben Hills, seemed to have come and gone rather quickly. It was last February.that Mr Hill's Japanese publisher, Kodansha, dropped its plans to publish a translation of the book, after the Imperial Household Agency threw a wobbly over its sneering portrayal of life inside the Palace. (see my post on the subject here). But six months later, the book has found a new Japanese publisher, and stirred predictable outrage among the sound truck-driving, Yasukuni Shrine-loving, Nanking Massacre-denying classes.

As the Kyodo news agency reports:

'Princess Masako' author, publisher threatened ahead of translation

SYDNEY, Aug. 21  KYODO   
     The Australian journalist who wrote a controversial biography of Japan's Crown Princess Masako has received death threats ahead of the release of the Japanese translation of his book.
     The Tokyo-based publisher of the translation, Daisan-Shokan, has also reported being targeted in protests by right-wing nationalist groups.
     The translation of ''Princess Masako, Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne'' by Ben Hills is due to be published in early September.
     Hills told Kyodo News he has received several e-mail death threats, via his website, in the lead-up to the Japanese publication.
     ''I have had death threats. They were saying things like, 'Die white pork!' They were quite racist,'' Hills said.

None of that is particularly surprising except for one thing.

WHITE PORK?

What is going on with Die white pork?

Am I missing somthing? Or is that simply one of the most underwhelming, bathetic, self-defeating, half-arsed pieces of invective yet devised, inadequate on so many levels? Die, white pig! would simply have been simply unimpressive. But how can the meat of animal which has already been slaughtered, butchered and cooked, die another death? You might as well put the fear of God into someone with Perish, veal cutlet! or Meet thy maker, chicken drumstick!

Die, white pork? Ooh, I'm scared - not.

And why white? And what is white pork anyway? Is it an inferior type, by comparison with the famously delicious kurobuta "black pork"? Is Ben Hills being tormented with the allegation that, as well as facing death for writing a book critical of the Imperial house, he is a metaphorically inferior cut of meat. Is it like saying, Drop dead, cut price off-cut of goat?

Am I failing to pick up on some interesting cultural nuances? In the Meji Period, the expression bataa-kusai (stinking of butter) was applied to the newly arrived Westerners whose consumption of dairy products was said to impart to them an unwholesome aroma. Figuratively, the expression is applied to those with an excessive or slavish urge to imitate Occidental styles and practices.

Is white pork a phrase from a similar era? Or a euphemism, like long pig, coined by hungry, cannibalistic Japanese soldiers in the wartime jungles of New Guinea?

Or is it just another sign of the severely limited intelligence, humour and verbal powers of the ultra-right?

Comments

[James]

Nothing helps create hype and sell books like authors telling the press about threats they've received.

[John Gregory Flinn]

At first I thought 'Die' was the german word for 'The' ....!?
Then I guessed it might mean that gaikokujin Hills should die twice, like the twice-cooked pork of oriental - mainly Chinese - cuisine.

It reminds me of the response in the British press to (outsiders')nasty comments about Diana.....

[chenxiwo]

anyway, "Oink" is the most expensive sound right now here, pork has been rised nearly 100% within one month.

there are so many coward threats that you have not enough vacancy to analysis every oink, have you?

[Ken]

I somehow think that this is a poor translation of buta = pig = pork. "Pig" is a common enough insult in Japanese as well as the rest of the world. I wonder if the translation error comes from Kyodo or from the originator of the insult, perhaps from the use of a web-based translation?

[Jun Okumura]

Dear Exile:

Ken is right; I don't think the sender was conveying cannibalistic sentiments by calling Mr. Hill the other white meat. The email threat must have read, "Shi-ne, shirobuta!", or "Shirobuta, shi-ne!" Since the kurobuta (black pig) is considered Japanese (actually Berkshire pig), and Mr. Hill is Caucasian (I assume), it is a racial comment.

Moreover, a pig is considered here to be a good-natured, even cute, but slow-witted, slothful, and filthy animal. None of this is particularly true - likewise, I am sure for Mr. Hill (other than "good-natured" and "cute"). Still, the notion helps the sender in his attempt to convey anger and disdain.

Dear CHENXIWO:

I hear that the blue ear disease is coming under control. Good luck, you all.

Yours sincerely,
The Sage Who-Knows-It-All (Almost)

PS: The translation went on sale on August 23, before the September publishing date. All books - not just magazines - are issued this way in Japan. I have no idea why.

[Chen]

Thanks to Okumura San. But,unfortunately, The oinks of the blue-ear have doomly drawn down porks from the USA which are far expensive than their native relatives. to think about the american Gyuniku（beef）.

[LJ]

I agree with Ken. I've heard quite a few times the words pork and pig unknowingly mixed up(by Japanese people).
It's most likely simply meant to read, "Die, white pig." Obviously a desultory phrase, and something I would associate with the ultra right-wing here in Japan.
Cheers.