The "BS" Business

It is truly a sad day for 'free speech' and critical, objective
scholarly analysis. The actions and writings of BS smack of the old-
style Soviet custom of 'disinformation', which means that if you keep
on repeating untruths long enough, people start believing them.

By surpressing objective analysis of his work BS is putting
disinformation into play and what he wrote will eventually become
the 'truth' for many who read his work without the benefit of a
scholarly analysis of it.

One of my regrets is that I even bought that book in the first place,
given the turn of events. But when I purchased it, I was less
informed about the subject matter than I am now. But people learn. I
certainly will not buy anything else that BS has written in the past
or will write in the future.

As you mentioned, he should be thanking the researcher. (He should be
paying the researcher for correcting his errors!) BS could have used
the critique as an opportunity to write a 'revised' edition the next
time the book was printed. This may have increased his sales, because
perhaps people would buy a second copy of the book just to get the
corrected information. BS isn't as smart as he thinks. He just passed
up a money making opportunity!

If the mods think that my comments may get the message board into
trouble, please feel free to delete this post.

--- In SHQ@yahoogroups.com, "anreg1" wrote:

> By surpressing objective analysis of his work BS is putting
> disinformation into play and what he wrote will eventually become
> the 'truth' for many who read his work without the benefit of a
> scholarly analysis of it.

-----------------------------

True!

Furthermore there was a way out other than simply making a post
"disappear".

The way out would've been for BS to reply under a username and dispute
the review point by point.

The review cited Japanese works which are well known to researchers
and Japanese fans. BS knows the review cannot be disputed because
those are facts which BS cannot reconcile with the text which was
designed a "certain way" to push a certain interpretation.

Shinsengumi enthusiasts in their native land -do- read and discuss the
same issues we do here, they review books as well too. This is not a
matter of taking "sides" if some Japanese read BS they may say worst
and they'll even throw more sources at BS to prove the text wrong
point by point.

Anyone can see the official page of BS on a well known internet book
store.

There were some interesting reviews there too.

The difference between those reviews and what BS was unhappy is that
the review -deleted- basically nailed the text.

BS needs to go and argue with the Japanese authors not the messenger
who quoted those works.

---------------------------------------------
People have taken similar cases on free speech to the supreme court
you know.

And look at us...I've been fair and even pimped the book on SHQ!
Serious, we probably comprise a large number of people who bought the
work too...

What is BS saying? "thanks for buying my BS, but you can't find errors
in it otherwise I get unhappy"

These posts do not mention any names at all. There are no grounds for
legal action or intimidation whatsover. I had to delete stuff cuz
someone wanted to exercise understandably the utmost caution.
Again BS would have to prove the work is BS (^_^)
---------------------------------------------

When we post a short, concise essay about how the Imperial Army was
founded illegally:

1) waged war illegally via the use of a FORGED IMPERIAL
EDICT--resulting in the deaths of countless of civilians in Aizu and
northern domains
2) bore illegal Imperial standards (because some were made by Okubo
Toshimichi---this was from a "pro" Okubo bio! ^_^ )
3) stole bakufu property (the STONEWALL battleship) and in one
case...bakufu guns (this undermines the popular view that the
shogunate was not modernizing, if it wasn't how come it had so many
toys the Imperialists wanted? The bakufu not the Meiji had already
brought in French personel for modernizing the army!).
4) first democratic elections (ok it's just a small group of guys)
took place amongst samurai at Hakodate---buy the remnants of the
bakufu men (Enomoto, western educated, and our Hijikata Toshizo).

The list can go on and on and everything above is from good texts.

These are not popular views but they are the finer details sacrificed
for the sake of a master narrative designed for a people to feel
fierce pride for their nation---without understanding we're all human
beings, we're all good and bad---what's up with the LIES?

And all this info is gonna appear on a humble fansite, all shock full
of citation (^_^).

Anyone who wants to question us can go right ahead, cross check our
work a million times.

We're not afraid of a different opinion because we stick to the facts.
They can present their facts in the same way and we'll put stuff side
by side.

Suddenly the Boshin war takes on a new dimension and then you start to
understand why people were mad, why they fought and why blood was shed.