| Photos | 1 of 1 |
Prince Mikasa
Posted on 08/11/2006 12:07:11 PM PDT by Dr. Marten
Japanese royal offered war apology to China: report
Posted: 10 August 2006 1435 hrs
|
||||||
Prince Mikasa |
||||||
TOKYO : A member of Japan's royal family privately apologised to China's president in 1998 over Japan's brutal wartime occupation of the country, a report has said.
Official Chinese documents cited by Jiji Press quoted Prince Mikasa, brother of wartime emperor Hirohito, as making the apology to former Chinese president Jiang Zemin at an imperial palace banquet in Tokyo.
"My conscience pricks me even now. I would like to apologize to the Chinese people," Mikasa reportedly said in November 1998.
China has regularly accused Japan of failing to atone for the occupation, which continues to stir strong resentment.
Japan disappointed Jiang during the 1998 summit by refusing to use the word "apology" in a joint declaration, although then prime minister Keizo Obuchi apologized verbally.
Japan had one month earlier expressed a "heartfelt apology" in a joint declaration with visiting South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung, a former dissident who later won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Japan's ties with China and South Korea have been badly strained over current Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a Tokyo war shrine which honours convicted war criminals among 2.5 million war dead.
Current Emperor Akihito, the son of Hirohito, visited Beijing in October 1992 and said: "In the long history of relationship between our two countries, there was an unfortunate period in which my country inflicted great sufferings on the people of China. I deeply deplore this."
But Akihito did not mention war issues in his banquet speech during Jiang's 1998 visit to Tokyo.
The Japanese government in 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the war's end issued a landmark apology, which Japanese leaders including Koizumi have repeated at numerous occasions.
Mikasa, who is now 90, had first-hand experiences of the war as he was stationed as an army officer in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing from 1943 to early 1944.
Japanese troops captured Nanjing in 1937 and embarked on an orgy of murder, rape and destruction. Chinese historians put the death toll at 300,000; US-led trials of Japanese war criminals documented 140,000 victims.
Koizumi, who steps down next month, has signalled he plans to go next week to the Yasukuni shrine on the anniversary of Japan's surrender, a move sure to enrage China and South Korea.
China's demand for reparations will ever increase.
O_M_G!
This is huge.
PING!
I'm mystified as to why the Japanese PM feels the need to visit this war shrine again, knowing that it will arouse controversy in other nations. He's already made his point - move on.
THIS is BIG news. Japan has denied and rewritten history since WW2.
How can the Chinese govt., that has murdered 1 million Tibetans, and untold tens of millions of their own in the Cultural Revolution, demand an apology from ANYBODY???
China and Korea owe all of their development to Japanese occupation from the late 19th century on. Japan developed Korea and brought it out of the dark ages. Japan lost the war, but it should have been allowed to keep ruling most of Asia. It would have stopped Communism. China is the flu and prostitution capital of the world.
MAJOR ping!
Someone will need to check Rockefeller for a pulse.
If you watch Chinese movies made chiefly for Chinese markets, as I do, it is plain how deeply the Chinese loathe the Japanese. The Japanese have behaved badly in failing to acknowledge their barbarous conduct in WW2 in China, and in failing to teach that in their schools--younger Japanese are astonished when they discover this part of their history.
If you can find a copy, I recommend John Woo's "Don't Cry, Nanking", which is a big budget movie made in China in the 1990s, which covers some of this history. As far as I know, it was shown in the west only at film festivals. [email me about a possible import source of a VCD copy. I'm not selling this movie or have anything to gain.]John Woo's other movies are released here, but not this one.
I was astonished to learn from this movie and others that the Japanese drafted Taiwanese into the Japanese army. Japan had controlled Taiwan since the early 1900s.
ping
The RED Chinese have publicly stated the justification for what they have done to the Felon Gung by referencing Unit 731 and 100.
ping
As a matter of fact, at the surrender of Japan in 1945, Japan occupied a large part of China. There were no troops to spare to send to China, so, unbelievably, these Japanese troops were left armed and in place in China to keep general order until the end of 1945.
This led to a general distrust among Chinese of western motives--no big surprise there.
Japan gained control of Taiwan after the Qing Empire ceded it to them as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
I'm mystified as to why the Japanese PM feels the need to visit this war shrine again, knowing that it will arouse controversy in other nations. He's already made his point - move on.
And if true there is no doubt that the Chines government would wish to highlight it, and probably exaggerate it beyond all scope.
Indeed, Japan has also spent billions in aid to China helping develop its economy to what it is today. But regardless, when the Chicoms need a strawman to divert public attention from its own failed policies, they drag out Japan and WWII.
The Chicoms have killed more Chinese than the Japanese ever did, but when was the last time a Chicom apologized to the people????
Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
Is it a bad thing to give in to Chinese demands on so sensitive an issue?
Gaijin's apology version:
"We Japanese want to apoligize to China --cuz we repeal Article 13. Oh, and, uh....we've decided to build NUKES..."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.