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Saying that history repeats itself is hardly a cliche. It’s an unpredictable trend. The same aphorism doubly applies to the internet. We all remembered what happened back in March after the Tohoku Earthquake. There was a great wave of sympathy directed towards Japan’s plight accompanied with a swell of hate. For whatever reason, people thought that a natural disaster was karmic retribution for World War II and deemed it socially acceptable to voice those thoughts online. As result, a UCLA political science major and a fourteen year old witnessed the internets collective moral fury firsthand. Such also seems to be the case for the Women’s World Cup. The Women’s team tied 2-2 on July 17th, 2011, but dominated with penalty kicks by 3-1 and proved victorious against USA. In light of this, “Pearl Harbor” and “Jap” is currently trending on Twitter as countlessly bitter American fans take to the World Wide Web. Granted, most of the current tweets are from those expressing outrage over such a trend, but the same thing also occurred in March. However, its doubtful that the same internet vigilantism will occur. It’s one thing to respond rancorously to the suffering of thousands and another to be a sour sport over a soccer game.
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Well, it’s official: The United States will play Japan this Sunday for the title in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup. For the U.S., which last won the women’s title in 1999, getting to the final match took a tough but decisive victory over the French ladies’ team. Meanwhile, Japan beat Sweden in a come-from-behind 3-1 victory. Ironically, Sweden had beaten the U.S. earlier in the tournament, winning a match in group play by two to one. For the championship game, objective observers say the teams are not quite evenly matched. The U.S. has size and experience on the world stage superior to their Japanese counterparts. However, Japan is currently the world’s sentimental favorite, largely due to the March 11th earthquake and tsunami disaster in Tohoku and the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. At the link, you’ll even read quotes from U.S. ladies’ team members Hope Solo and Rachel Buehler giving Japan a lot of love and encouragement for what the country has been through the last four months. Will sentiment and ganbare gain victory over grit and experience? At this point no one can say. But it will sure be a thrill finding out this Sunday. (CNN World Sports – USA vs.Japan in FIFA)
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