Japanese Netizens Photoshop ISIS Terrorist, Chinese Reactions

Islamic extremist group ISIS has released a new video threatening to kill two Japanese hostages. News of this has been amply reported in the Chinese media but despite the expectations of some given China’s reputation for anti-Japanese nationalism, it has yet to become a trending topic on the Chinese internet.

News articles on the homepages of China’s major mainstream online portals (ex. Tencent News) have few Chinese netizen comments, with the only contextually notable blip about the news story possibly being the following Sina Weibo microblog post that briefly trended into the social network’s top 10 daily rankings. The post itself remarks on Japanese netizens reacting to the hostage situation by photoshopping “Jihadi John“, the terrorist appearing in the ISIS video, .

From Sina Weibo:

@小野妹子学吐槽: Yesterday, after two Japanese people were abducted by the extremist group “ISIS”, the internet in the island country wasn’t full of seriousness but instead of many netizens happily engaging in a Photoshop contest, quickly photoshopping the terrorist [to absurdity]… They sure are [irreverent, daring, careless, reckless]

Comments from Sina Weibo:

桂抡镁：

I think the one on the right actually supported the extremist group, had gone over to support them, only to end up being abducted.

终究觉得睡觉好：

So I want to ask, does Japan not have any saints?

葡萄也能砸牛顿：

We wouldn’t Photoshop, we’d tell the hostage to stay strong, to not cry… We must let the world see our shining rays of niubi humanity…

只是一碗凉皮：

@逆悲： The left one is a freelance journalist: Goto Kenji. The right one is someone who joined the Free Syrian Army and was captured after battle: Yukawa Haruna. Yukawa Haruna has previously posted on the internet that he is organizing civil war in China’s Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, etc… [copying another post]

一切重新开始0729：

Nippon netizens sure are irreverent, whereas a bunch of Chinese saints have their hearts in pieces.

林大顺AB：

However Kim Jong-un saw through it all long ago.

莫桐-：

Makes the terrorists very awkward.

呆萌小肉綱：

They’d be cursed to death here in China.

緿号—–二月初七MUA_MUA：

The reason why the Japanese masses are so calm and indifferent is mainly because they have Ultraman, Naruto, Soul Reapers, Conan,

岚影拖延一时爽随后火葬场：

Too irreverent… I must say they’d be flamed to death here in the Heavenly Kingdom. Were there really no Nipponese [Japanese} flaming/criticizing [these photoshoppers]?