On Friday, former Prime Minister of Japan Abe Shinzo was shot from behind in the city of Nara in Japan leaving him battling for his life. Abe was attacked while he was delivering a campaign speech in western Japan. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where his condition remains critical.
As the news of the attempt on Abe’s life started filtering out, celebrations began in China as all the social media platforms, including Weibo, Wechat and Youku were flooded with messages cheering the shooter.
Chinese internet users on Weibo were hailing the shooter as a hero and were wishing that Abe does not recover from his gunshot wound.
Chinese nationalists on Weibo have began to celebrate that Japan’s ex PM Abe is shot during campaign today.
— 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) July 8, 2022
they call the attacker “hero” and send death wish to Abe
photo credit @MachineGun____ #TheGreatTranslationMovement #大翻译运动 pic.twitter.com/K4cxtQd0pi
4. from Weibo
— 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) July 8, 2022
“i am waiting for Abe‘s death”
“who is the attacker？i want to donate money”
“I have to say，its a great news” pic.twitter.com/RMsofDfsXN
The messages on another highly popular Chinese platform Wechat were hardly any different with the Chinese nationalists in the mood for celebrations after hearing about the assassination attempt on Shinzo Abe.
3. From Weibo
— 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) July 8, 2022
“congrats from People of Shanxi”
“eat an extra bow of rice （for celebration） pic.twitter.com/l0oOvZmNVU
6.from WeChat
— 巴丢草 Badiucao (@badiucao) July 8, 2022
“Party Time”
“hope the men has trouble，hope the gun is fine”
“fuck i am so happy” pic.twitter.com/vP90onBlIb
Chinese nationalists were not the only ones pleased to see that Shinzo Abe was struggling for his life after the assassination attempt. There were several tweets from communists around the world trashing Abe, and feeling good about his ‘impending’ death.
Shinzo Abe is/was a fascist, sex slavery apologist, war criminal defender, free speech censorist, refugee human rights denier, propaganda disseminator, far-right, ultra-nationalist, capitalist, imperialist piece of shit
— Strewth 🏳️⚧️ (@StrewthQueen) July 8, 2022
Enjoy your weekend everyone 🙂
Even though Shinzo Abe was a far-right nazi-loving fascist scumbag who was buddies with Donald Trump & Steve Bannon, he didn’t deserve to get taken out this way.
— The USA Singers (@TheUSASingers) July 8, 2022
Nobody does.
Guns are a plague.
Violence is not the answer.
End of story.
Some of those trashing Abe didn’t even know who he was or what his politics was, but didn’t want to miss a chance to join the internet mob criticising him.
If you don’t know Shinzo Abe’s politics (I didn’t until today I’ll admit lol), he’s been described as a far-right nationalist and a fascist, and been praised by Steve Bannon. Suffice to say, bitch deserved it.
— AnCat🏴🐈⬛ (@Anarcho_Cade_2) July 8, 2022
Why the Chinese nationalists hate Shinzo Abe
The reasons why the Chinese hate Shinzo Abe date back almost 90 years. There are more recent reasons as well, but to understand the Chinese reaction, we have to learn in brief about Nobusuke Kishi, former Prime Minister of Japan.
It all started with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in China in 1931, and subsequently, a man by the name of Nobusuke Kishi becoming the Deputy Minister of Industrial Development in the newly formed Japanese puppet state Manchukuo.
Kishi had total control over the economy of Manchukuo in his new role, and he was tasked with the industrialisation of the region to support the national defense state. Kishi achieved that and delivered huge profits by allegedly employing the Chinese as slave labourers in the huge industrial plants he had set up in the region. There were widespread accusations of racism and abuse against the Chinese while Kishi was in Manchukuo. He subsequently returned to Japan and played his part in keeping the Japanese war effort going during the early years of Japanese involvement in the second World War. Kishi had also voted for the war in 1941 against the United States and Great Britain.
After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Kishi was branded as a Class A war criminal and held at Sugamo prison. However, he was identified by Americans as the ideal man to lead post-war Japan, which meant that Kishi was never indicted or put on trial for his role in the second world war and was released in 1948.
Kishi soon returned to active politics in post-war Japan, helped to establish Liberal Democratic Party (the most influential Japanese party to date) in 1955, and went on to become the Prime Minister of Japan in 1957.
In his personal life, Nobusuke Kishi had a son Nobukazu Kishi, and a daughter named Yoko Kishi. Yoko Kishi married a politician by the name of Shintaro Abe. The second son of Yoko Kishi and Shintaro Abe is Shinzo Abe, who has been shot earlier today leading to much joy among the Chinese.
Apart from his ancestry, Shinzo Abe is also disliked in China for his strong nationalist stand and his attempt to revive the Japanese military for its self-defence. Abe has also been accused by his critics of trying to take the country back to the days of Imperial Japan through his “right-wing” and “revisionist” policies.
