Pearls Of Wisdom

(I am 15 years old. My family is taking a trip to the US, where we visit the Pearl Harbor museum. We arrive just behind a large Chinese tour bus, and so have to wait quite a while in the line. As we do, we begin chatting with an older white couple. The conversation is going fairly well, until…)

Woman: “This is taking forever…”

Man: *waves at the many people in front of us* “You’d think they’d make them go last considering what they did here!”

(My whole family is momentarily stunned by the ignorance of this statement. It’s my little sister who speaks up first.)

Sister: “Uh… they’re Chinese, not Japanese.”

Man: “What does it matter? They’re all the same.”

Dad: “They… really aren’t. Japan INVADED China during World War II.”

Me: “In fact, the same day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, they also invaded Hong Kong. The fight went on for, like, eight days and thousands of people died!”

Man: “Oh…”

Mom: “And even if they WERE Japanese, it doesn’t seem fair to hold them accountable for something their government did over 50 years ago.”

(The two of them had the decency to look embarrassed but they turned away and didn’t say a word for the rest of the queue.)