this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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A Comm for Historymemes

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[–] aeronmelon 96 points 5 days ago (4 children)

First to industrialize

The Japanese were dumbstruck when the Dutch showed them machinery. They had been handpicking rice and painting lewd pictures of octopi up until that point.

[–] PugJesus 67 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

First to industrialize amongst their neighbors. And mechanization of rice harvesting is a very late invention.

As is, for that matter, lewd octopus drawings, which date only to the 19th century.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

First to industrialize amongst their neighbors.

The OP is still misleading to make his point.

As is, for that matter, lewd octopus drawings, which date only to the 19th century.

Most famous example from 1814 (NSFW): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s_Wife Although I bet that for a popular artist to be able to publish this openly, it probably means it was already floating in the culture before. The article mentions earlier netsuke, but without dates and the sources are books.

[–] PugJesus 22 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Most famous example from 1814

Yes, the 19th century.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I am providing additional information to your point.

[–] tjsauce 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

How was OP misleading then?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

About the "first to industrialize", it didn't make sense unless you add "among its neighbors", because Western countries industrialized before and brought a lot of technology to Japan, especially modern guns and much more after the Meiji restoration from 1868 and the reopening of Japan after 2.5 centuries of isolation under the Edo period.

[–] Raiderkev 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Damn, didn't know tentacle porn went back so far

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah, I knew it was going to surprise a few people!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Also, can Japan really "whitewash" a food from India?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I guess it's just a mean way to say soften to adapt to local taste. It may also be to appeal to racist people who don't believe cultural mixing is positive. It's about Japanese curry. Japan appropriated a lot of other foods, for example breads from Europe and did their own versions, it's rather fun. Their word for bread is "pan" パン, it comes directly from Portuguese (also same in Spanish).

[–] BrokenGlepnir 19 points 5 days ago

Some of them still do the second one. And it may have rubbed of on everyone else

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

They might be the fastest to industrialize, at least.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

They were so late to industrialize that they were using mules/donkeys to taxi new zero planes from the factory to the runway during WW2.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The whitewashed curry came to Japan via the British Royal Navy.

[–] Atlusb 10 points 5 days ago

Well it is good stuff. Best currys outside their country of orgin are being cooked here.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Fried fish was introduced to England by the resident Jewish population in London, along with fried chips. They had migrated to England from the Netherlands, and Portugal/Spain before that.

[–] toofpic 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You should probably reread the last part of the post

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

I wasn’t saying it was wrong, just sharing some fun history facts…

[–] jaycifer 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh, I just read a book called 1632 that touched on this. If I recall the term for them was Sephardic Jews, and due to prejudice large portions of them moved around until settling in England because the monarchy at the time promised protection. They still weren’t allowed real positions of power, but did fill many roles as financial advisers.

Of course the book was published 25 years ago, so some of that information may be outdated.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oooo I’ll have to put that on my list! Thanks for sharing.

[–] jaycifer 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Eric Flint wrote it. I don’t think I made it clear, but know that it’s a piece of fiction where a coal mining town from Virginia gets sent back in time to 1632 German Thuringia and brings American values to the Thirty Years War. It was written by a historian though, so the setting around the story is as accurate as it could be. A lot of the book has aged not so great in terms of what was progressive for the 90’s when it was written, but the premise is out there enough to make up for it, and I really enjoyed how the history is portrayed.

[–] DragonsInARoom 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Would've thought that China would've had a bigger historical empire than Japan?

[–] PugJesus 19 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Historically yes, but in the 19th and early 20th century, Japan expanded significantly, while China shrunk. China was still bigger, but Japan had 'gained' more imperial territory, if that makes sense.

[–] wjrii 7 points 5 days ago

So I guess this would this also take into account a difference between an "Empire" and a "kingdom" or other proto-nation-state-ish polity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

What would make more sense is if the OP situated it in recent history in some way, it would have made his post more clever.

[–] Toneswirly 12 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Japanese curry is not white-washed...

[–] Lennny 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's Indian curry by way of white people, readapted to the Japanese.. It most certainly IS white-washed. They just dyed it back to make it less white.

[–] VindictiveJudge 5 points 5 days ago

Like a maraschino cherry.

[–] KuroiKaze 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah it is often sold very spicy and is fucking incredible.

[–] Atlusb 12 points 5 days ago

Also driving on the left for roughly the same reason.