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Excerpts from Thierry Carrez's message of 2015-07-08 01:43:32 -0700:
> Long Quan Sha wrote:
> > I have the same concern as a Chinese, Emperor Meiji will be linked to a
> > war happened in 1895, also invasion of Taiwan. That is so bad historical
> > memory for Chinese. Refer to :
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War
> > 
> > I recommend selecting another candidate.  
> 
> I agree that this is unfortunate naming and that we should consider
> picking another name.
> 
> I just wonder why nobody raised issues with the name while it was on the
> proposed names wiki page, while it was on the ballot, or while it was
> under final consideration. We've known that "Meiji" was an option for
> one month, and that it was #3 in the candidate names for more than 2
> weeks. And yet nobody ever raised any issue with it until it was
> officially chosen and announced, at which point it's a lot more
> difficult to change.
> 

Mistakes happen. It's not any one person's fault. We've been fortunate
to have relatively benign names chosen until now, but this one happens to
have context that those doing the evaluations did not have.

The cultures that are most sensitive to this particular name also have
quite a lot of respect and deference to authority built in to the way
they communicate, so it's possible they were silent out of respect for
those in the position of authority to choose such a name.

Either way, let's just learn from this that we should go a step beyond
legal evaluation, and also check for cultural issues with the name. It's
not enough that a vote determines the winner unfortunately. Voting is
part of the fun, and the names are supposed to be fun. However, they've
also become a connection for us to the place where we gather to work
together. (How many Icehouse Street selfies did we all take in Hong Kong
right?). And while Meiji is a wonderful name for those closest to Tokyo,
it seems that there are a quite a few in the region that may not feel
quite as positive about connecting with that name, which would be a shame.

We can't change the past, but we can certainly influence the future. I
think we should probably reconsider this name, and honor our Japanese
hosts with a name that is pleasing to the entire community.