Yesterday, a video allegedly uploaded by ISIS demanded that the Japanese government pay $US200 million for two hostages. In it, a cloaked man waving a knife told the Japanese people to pressure their government to pay or the men would die. Online, the country’s Twitter users have responded. With a meme.
Picture: p90_ake
The political reality here is very, very grim. One of the captured men, Haruna Yukawa, went to the Middle East, after his life in Japan fell apart. The other man, journalist Kenji Goto Jogo, went to Syria to get him out. Previously, however, Jogo said, “If anything happens, I take full responsibility.”
With a deadline ticking away, many Japanese Twitter users have decided to stand up against the ISIS demands that they pressure their government and, as The Japan Times reports, have decided to “mock” the terrorists.
Picture: turuyasou
Picture: KagamineMeltAS7
A Photoshop meme under the hashtag “ISIS Crap Photoshop Grand Prix” (#ISISクソコラグランプリ) was created. Note that this is similar to the hashtag used for other Photoshop memes, such as the one last year for Final Fantasy XV. Meanwhile, popular site Naver Matome has been doing roundups of these ISIS ‘shops.
Picture: mibiko_onaho
Picture: arthur_i7
Picture: KRM_DOLL36
Picture: turuyasou
Picture: r18436572/Twitter
Other Twitter users have noticed too, writing:
Many Japanese blogs, including popular site My Game News Flash, are reporting how the glib Photoshops have allegedly angered ISIS members.
The gravity of this situation cannot be stressed enough. Two men’s lives are on the line. They could die. As noted on Togetter, there are certainly Japanese Twitter users who find the Photoshop meme “imprudent”.
With some of the Photoshops, it’s unclear if people are simply making light of the situation. In others, it does appear that they are poking fun at ISIS. The concern, obviously, is that people might seem too light-hearted about the lives of these men. Or perhaps, they’re using humour to resist being controlled through fear?
Picture: r18436572/Twitter
Picture: TheAnonNation
What is clear, however, is that there are some Twitter users refusing to bow down to demands that they pressure the Japanese government to pay up. For now, that is.
Comments
4 responses to “Japanese Twitter Users Stand Up To ISIS With… A Photoshop Meme”
Thank you Japan for being you
yes! this is awesome!
Depressing shit. I’d hate to be the families or government right now. It’s easy to be defiant with someone else’s lives. Fact is, ISIS has released hostages when ransoms have been paid, executed hostages when negotiation has been refused. Precedent says these lives CAN be saved.
So these armchair activists are thumbing their noses and saying, “Go ahead, kill those men, we won’t bow down when we have nothing to lose, ourselves.”
There’s nothing laudable about that.
The families must be hysterical. The government, faced with abandoning their citizens to horrific, public, graphic execution, or delivering money to fund terrorists.
I wish all the negotiation could be conducted by special forces, hand-delivering a significant number of small denomination bullets, all the ransom monies invested in dispatching civilization’s finest killers to where they can make the world a better place – one ventilated terrorist at a time. Unfortunately, it seems like the powers-that-be have calculated that this isn’t an option.
Hey I totally agree with what you said about the family and the government, but I would encourage you to think about these meme in a different way.
Firstly, there are some misunderstanding here: people who are doing this are definitely not the majority of Japanese, instead, they are mainly comic and animation fans (adults), who are usually isolated by the mainstream. You can’t expect people who are socially isolated be that emotiinally sensitive.
Also, I do believe that there is something positive here, yea the families would hate it, but how about the ISIS, they would hate it even more. Those cowards keep manipulating people through fear, and these meme just mocking their self-important ego. There are rumors saying that because of these meme makers keep harrasing ISIS by connecting ISIS with anime girls(who are barely dressed), ISIS was furious bcuz their image is distorted and thus shut down their tweeter acount. Yea these stupid memes certainly won’t stop terrorists from what they are doing, but they can, to some extent, free people’s mind from that fear-controlled state created by terrorists. Just like, “Hey why bother kidnapping? Come on just play video games and watch anime with us, don’t you like it? ” I know it’s silly, but it’s not that worthless.
I get what you mean and I fully understand you but the thing is, if the goverrnment does pay, there could be a chance where they would still not release the prisoners. also, the ISIS could use the money to become a even bigger threat and use it for bad things.
REALLY? What do you expect them to do w/ $200 million? Give it to charity? This it two men, two people of no political position AND that money could fund a lot of stuff ISIS want. You really think that’s a smart thing to do at ALL?
If it really were Kakarot and Luffy sitting there, ISIS would be history by now.
If only it were them, the trolling would be hilarious.