My Japanese wife is extremely angry about the new Avatar movie and see these Kanji being on a whaling harpoon as a hateful attack against Japan. Can anyone help me understand how this should be interpreted? And the potential reason James Cameron decided to put these Kanji on a harpoon. I understand it means “Japan catch”.
She feels doubly angry as the Kanji “日” was on a red background, like the Japanese flag.
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i noticed this too and thought it was a strange and unnecessary choice. i’d like to hear what the explanation is, if there is one other than “whaling = japanese”
Could have had Norwegian? Truth hurts, maybe.
I think it could rather mean “Catch the day” or “Catch the sun” Both more typical poetic level of things people like to write on boats/harpunes? (like carpe diem or catch the best)
I understand that a Japanese person – due to the ongoing international criticism – might immediately go there to say 日＝日本 but technically it is not directly saying Japan/Japanese. Same for the color scheeme red background is not automatically the japanese flag (which btw is white background, but I guess your wife might refer to martial or naval flags which at least in the past were red based <- again a stretch though, those are not the current Japan, right…). Lastly, are any other current countries part of the Avatar universe – is it not a fantasy story in which it is human vs. aliens? (sorry, I never watched it)
Unless Japan is explicitly mentioned and additionally called out in the context of the movie, I think it is a stretch to get upset here.
Typical Japanese reaction, they can’t handle guilt and never take responsibility for their bad input on the world
The thing is, the kanji 日 by itself is _normally_ understood to mean “Japan.” It’s a representative kanji. Therefore, I’m not surprised by her reaction. My Japanese wife also thinks the same.
I rolled my eyes at this too. If the whalers hadn’t been implied to be just another part of the same American conglomerate then it wouldn’t have felt so out of place.
I caught the same thing… and wondered what the kanji meant. I’m kinda pissed that they would just blatantly label the harpoon as Japanese made, or from Japan, but also the movie is set up to make you hate whaling. Cameron 100% wanted to make that blatant push on Japanese whaling.
Japan insists on hunting & eating whales. It means that much to them… even though in actuality only a tiny percentage of Japanese people do this. Most young Japanese have never even tried it. YET, Japan as a people defend it.
So what do they expect? You can’t have your “cake” and eat it too. Or should I say whale? Too on the nose?
My fiancee is Japanese and when we walked out of the theatre all he could talk about is how horrible the dolphin and whaling is in Japan.
That being said, James Cameron promoted the new film by going to a dolphin show in Japan for the premier, so he can also eat a bag of dicks.
[Pretty sure it is 日浦 Hiura which is a surname. Roughly it could be sunny coast.](https://imgur.com/X0HgDlE)
[Sorry, but it isn’t the same kanji you posted. The radical for water is clearly present in the left side of the 2nd kanji.](https://imgur.com/a/ZTJZYRW) Probably Hiura
Maybe if your wife’s country didn’t slaughter whales, Japan wouldn’t be associated with the abhorrent and inhumane whaling industry. The movie is obviously making a statement about Japan’s treatment of the ocean sea life. Good on the filmmakers for calling out Japan for it’s bullsh*t.
Your wife is part of the problem and should be ashamed that her country supports whaling in this day and age.
I found a Japanese [twitter thread ](https://twitter.com/plposfnrxitydso/status/1604394610192748545?s=46&t=qETBJ8mpg2JbHQSu4ZTTKw)with some photos from a article/book about the props, (theatrical pamphlet?). There are some other kanji on the harpoon guns too
https://imgur.com/a/JQpFonn/