Pseudo intellectual douche bag of the month

Whatever happened to Iris Chang?
By Eamonn Fingleton
counterpunch

In reaction to the December 4,2008 article by Eamonn Fingleton in Counterpunch, I sent Fingleton the following email.

You have actually achieved with your latest article "Whatever Happened to Iris Chang?", an astonishing mass exercise of pseudo-intellectual pathology, while escaping any accountability for your a-historical attempt at rehabilitating Chang's charlatanism, and your laughable conspiratorial suggestion in regard to her death. Iris Chang was a fraud and her book was one of the most successful & profitable emotional con-job of the 90's. For any serious individual with either, an academic or a personal interest related to the Nanking massacre, Your article is beyond criticism, but not above the reach of cynical entertainment. It would be a considerable waste of time on my part, to point out every errors, blatant lies and sheer distortions that are disseminated within your article. Either you are an imbecile totally lacking any historical & academical perspective on the issue of the Naking massacre, or you are a barometer for agitprop trickery, with a particular agenda in mind. I shall end this rant on a positive note, I am fully aware that you are doing your best at stealing Iris Chang's academic accomplishment..., you certainly have some entertainment value. Next time, please take an issue on which you probably have extensive understanding, like Black helicopters, New world order conspiracies and Alien abductions. Alex Jones is always looking for serious journalist like yourself.

"It is a pity. Chang was actually a more than averagely scrupulous fact-checker and in virtually all cases she had solid sources for what she wrote".

At least you & Chang do share something in common.

"True, The Rape of Nanking was well written and Chang had added considerably to what was already known from the 1930s".

Since her book was debunked by Western and Japanese academics, scholars and authorities on the Nanking massacre (but a 13 year old could have done the job...), your understanding of history pre and post 1930's is subject to the wildest speculations....

"Yet, as the truly sickening photographs presented by Chang showed, the bestiality at Nanking was uniquely shocking".

Especially since The Rape of Nanking is the height of grotesquerie full of countless fake photos....

Iris Chang and your ilk are providing ammunitions to those who claim that nothing ever happened in Nanking!. Incase you actually want to learn something about the Nanking massacre.

Picking at the wound
by James Leibold
Lecturer in Politics and Asian Studies
japanesestudies

The Nanjing Incident.Recent Research and Trends
by David Askew
Associate Professor
japanesestudies

This is the response i received from Fingleton.

"I am a little surprised at your tone but I am happy to give you a substantive reply if will do what all readers did
in the old days before email -- provide a snail mail address to
vouchsafe for their bona fides". EF

And this is the second & final mail i sent to Fingleton.

Quite an admirable way to avoid having to respond to my initial remarks.

I apologize for my "tone", I used to believe that journalists and writers were supposed to be held accountable for their writings, but since you apparently are one of those generous individuals who work for free, and share their wisdom and knowledge for the sake of a better world...The fact is, I am actually half Japanese and live in Tokyo. I happen to be in a very good position to have an extensive understanding of Japanese war crimes, since my own Grand Father was a Class B war criminal. Forgive me for not being willing at swallowing Iris Chang blatant forgery, i know better and if you don't, you shouldn't be writing on issue on which you don't have a clue.

"What propelled the Nanking book was its unique shock value in breaking a half-century-old omerta in the Japan studies field. Quite simply in pre-Chang days, Nanking was virtually never mentioned by American Japan watchers".

That in itself is a ridiculous statement!, since there is a vigorous debate on the Nanking massacre that has been taking place among Japanese and Western scholars for decades!, but apparently something you are totally unaware of. At least there is about one accurate sentence in your article, "What propelled the Nanking book was its unique shock value.....". Yes indeed, like those Mondo movies " pseudo-documentary".... Feel free to consider them as historical or academic endeavors, but forgive the rest of us (who have actually spent years researching and studying the Nanking massacre) for considering your article as an epitome of ignorance & pseudo-intellectual arrogance.
If you honestly believe what you have written in your article, You have no idea of what you are talking about!.
Bonitas Non Est Pessimis Esse Meliorem
(It is not goodness to be better than the worst).