The "Save Darfur" kid is particularly ironic. And horrifying. 

Trigger warning wtf??? I thought trigger warnings are for people who are gonna be reminded of some violent physical or mental abuse, not for people who are offended by ignorance or who read the word "tsunami"

Racism and insensitivity isn't rational. A person may be insensitive and  downright racist against Japanese, and not have that same attitude toward other Asians. I think that some people in the USA still have a particular hatred of Japanese people because of Pearl Harbor.

Also, just because a person uses a photo of himself holding up a "Save Dafur" sign while posting an offensive commentary about Japanese, it does not mean that he likes Black people. He may also be racist against Black people in general or in particular while he's just going along with the current "Save Dafur" fad in causes.

If it was Britain who won, would there be as much comments?

Wow. Imagine that there really are people out there who have so little respect for others that a goddamn football game will set them off. This reminds me of the last time that Japan beat Sweden in football - in the 30's - and the commentater just went on a confused and now very famous rant about "japanese, japanese, japanese everywhere, they're kicking, they're throwing themselves, they're doing everything to win the game..." How can so little have changed in 80 years?

I was afraid this was going to start up again. I do have remark that while watching the pre-game show I felt like ESPN was totally exploiting the tragedy of the tsunami. It was basically all they said about the Japanese team, not about how they played up until then or in the past. To me, it came off like the Japanese were not an equal team to the US, and that all they had was this tragedy. 

In the end the better team won, and it was apparently going to "heal Japan". I love soccer, but it's not magic.

Wow. That's disgusting.

I live in New Orleans, and several of my friends made comments / FB statuses saying that while they hated to see the U.S. lose, Japan's win felt like a Katrina/Saints situation, so in a way, it's a victory for everyone. I really appreciated that outlook on the situation.  (In 2009 the Saints won the Superbowl for the first time EVER to the great jubililation of a city still rising from its knees). After such a devasting year, it's wonderful to see anything that can help lift the spirits of the people in Japan.

Is the silver lining that they care about women's football????

I'm curious how you have determined that these posters are being straightforwardly unironic in their statements and not making deliberately over-the-top and provocative posts as a way to poetically suggest how invested they were in the sporting situation. After all, our pop culture does seem to have a great deal of deliberate irony built into it, as well as a sense of humor often predicated on intentionally ludicrous statements presented straight-facedly.

Did you interview them each individually, or how did you get at the actual underlying meaning and not the superficial appearance?

This is such a good example of Billig's concept of 'banal nationalism'.

I just have to mention though....there were also many people on forums who expressed dismay and even anger at the USA team losing, but with maturity and compassion for what Japan has been through lately.  Patriotism is not always 'blind', and nationalism is not always insensitive towards other nations, in spite of its inherent superiority complex.

Re:
"some of the updates suggest that the gods were smiling on Japan in the
aftermath of the tsunami, allowing them to win because they’ve had such a
rough time of it lately. Of course, this nicely erases the athletic
ability of the Japanese team and the possibility that they were actually
just better than the U.S. team."

I actually did think that maybe Japan was just fated to win, but that isn't just because I can't cope with the fact that the US was a worse team. I thought so because the US did play tremendously (and I think, much better) in the first half, they just had really tough luck on getting their shots in the goal.  Japan did play well toward the end, but I really did think that the US spent more time playing better, it just wasn't meant for them to win.

Are these people serious? Although I doubt that they are doing anything more than expressing their bad sportsmanship, I wish they would stop being so heartless! Another thing: would these people dare to say those ignorant comments in person, or is it the symptom of fingertip communication?

It might be tempting to invoke some kind of fate or divine intervention because the US was indeed the stronger side throughout the match. I was far from an impartial viewer, but it's a fact that the US missed close chance after close chance, especially in the first 15-20 minutes. I think these comments would be more pernicious if Japan had clearly dominated.

Obviously the blatantly racist (and just generally terrible) comments are a whole different matter.

Surprise. White people are racist. Especially so when they experience failure.

I'm pretty sure that this article as well as many of the comments on here can be considered defamation of character.  That you all immediately jump to "racism" is just a bunch of bull.  Sure the people quoted in the article may have made some unruly comments in the heat of the moment, but quoting them (without their permission) and immediately calling them racist is exactly what's wrong with this country.  We have fallen in to this bind of getting everything handed to you, and if you don't get your way, you claim racism or file a lawsuit.  I'm just sick of it, nothing can be taken with a grain of salt... I wish we could live back in the day when everyone just worked and lived peacefully without expecting someone else to do it for them.

Absolutely disgusting. How can people even think of comparing losing 15000 human lives with something as insignificant as a sports match? Unbelievable.

Lol, I like the kid holding the 'Save Darfur' sign.

am i the only one who feels really weird about using quotes of random, dumb asshole people as a sociological source? I mean I know that nothing reflects our society better than the internet but well it's just no surprise that you might find a couple of hateful people in this world?!

I also find this "aww poor japan, it's okay, they deserved to win"- attitude a simply disgusting and patronizing way of coping with own anger and disappointment. it's hipocrisy at its finest. I generally dislike the common international attitude towards japan, how many people tend to belittle and ridicule this nation e.g. "oh those crazy japanese!!"

as a person with no nationalistic feeling or identity at all (and who lives outside the US) any emotion that is linked to patriotism seems completely absurd to me in the first place.

Jingoistic, yes. But racist? Would wishing a reprise-bombing of Dresden on Germany or a second potato famine on Ireland be touted as racist news? Doubtful. This is an issue of nationalistic fervor gone awry, color irrespective.

Why cant sport just be sport- both teams were awesome and it was a great game. The US team also managed to lose with dignity which is something to be proud of in itself.. far more dignity obviously than some of thier fans.

"people we dont know arent real people- we are the only really real people so only bad things that happen to us matter" (and wishing horror and death on others over games is o such a joke.)

This is just a particuarly horrible example.

The Japanese team had been nothing but fair in their game, they were kind and good and they were respectful throughout the whole tournament. Ironically, a good number of the Japanese women had played in America before or probably still are. It's insensitive, painful (even for me to see it and I ain't Japanese) and racist. A lot of non-Japanese Asians were happy that they won the world cup. It wasn't just a victory for Japan, it has multiple meanings in themselves, we Asian women who are considered docile, accepting, weak and inferior won the goddamn world cup. :)