Posted on 05/11/2013 4:17:50 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
From time to time Japan’s political leaders visit the Yasukuni Shrine where Class A war criminals are included on the list of remembrance, then make controversial remarks that deny or gloss over the acts of aggression that Japan committed in the first half of the 20th century.
By so doing, they give legitimacy to a self-centered and distorted interpretation of Japan’s ignoble history that many Japanese harbor, as illustrated below.
After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan embarked on an ambitious modernization program, modeling itself on advanced European countries such as Britain, France and Germany. To emulate those countries which had overseas colonies, Japan wanted to colonize its neighboring country, Korea.
To gain hegemony on the Korean peninsula, Japan fought wars successively against China and Russia. From the Sino-Japanese war and the Russo-Japanese war, Japan emerged victorious. And Korea fell into the hands of Japan among the spoils of war.
When it comes to Japan’s colonization of Korea, many Japanese people argue that Koreans wanted it. Then, how can they explain the widespread popular uprising by Koreans in March 1919?
Many Japanese blame the United States for the eruption of the Pacific War. They take the view that the United States left Japan no choice but go to war after placing embargos on oil and steel exports to Japan and demanding that Japan withdraw troops from China.
Some even argue that Japan was the real victim of the Pacific War on the grounds that numerous innocent Japanese citizens died when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Just because Japan fell victim to this horrendous bombing many Japanese people naively believe that their nation was absolved of the guilt associated with the atrocities that Japanese troops committed against other Asians during the war.
While waging the Pacific War the Japanese government proclaimed that its purpose was to liberate Asians from the yoke of Western imperialism and many Japanese still believe this to be the case. It is true that Japan kicked Western powers out of many parts of Asia during the war.
However, what Japan really wanted was to secure procurement of vital raw materials such as oil, iron ore and rubber by controlling the countries which produced them. Contrary to its proclamation, Japan ruled the conquered Asian countries more ruthlessly than did the Western powers it replaced. To this undeniable historical fact, many Japanese people turn a blind eye.
At the turn of the 20th century, Japan emerged as the most powerful country in Asia. Overly self-confident, Japan attempted to conquer the whole of Asia by force. However, Japan was defeated soundly in the Pacific War and suffered the shame of being occupied by American forces. Many Japanese people lament over their country’s defeat but feel no remorse for starting and waging the horrible war.
In a nutshell, Japan’s political leaders and public do not fully acknowledge their country’s past aggression. Instead, they try to justify or make excuses for Japan’s wrongdoing.
As long as they continue to do so, they will have themselves to blame if Japan is regarded with distrust and is unable to play a leading political role commensurate with its economic strength in the international community.
Koreans want Japan to clean the slate in the same way Germany did and start afresh as a trustful neighbor. However, this seems to be wishful thinking on our part. To us Japan is a country which is close geographically yet remote emotionally.
And America refuses to come clean on it's latest escapades in Libya and Syria. Hypocrite.
For the record, despite my screen name I am not Jewish and do not sit next to Lord Rothschild in meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion.
Try oil rich Muslim Saudi Arabs. They been buying off America for decades.
Complaining about the moral failings of other countries while dismissing the corruption in our own is shortsighted and stupid.
Refusing modern-day Japan, which has been nothing but friendly towards US and Western interests for decades, the right to arm because of their WWII crimes is suspiciously similar to forcing Americans to grovel in apology for slavery, wars against the Indians, etc. We shouldn't accept politically correct groveling as Americans, nor should we demand it of other nations.
The Japanese were the ones that set the rules for a war characterized by brutality and cruelty. Small wonder so few Japanese were taken prisoner — their code did not permit it and they routinely abused, starved, and murdered both civilian and military prisoners. As the lands the Empire had conquered in the heady early days of the were liberated by the Allies, the Japanese high command issued orders to kill the prisoners being held. Civilized behavior? Hardly.
One of the most ghastly revelations was the Imperial Japanese Army's Unit 731. This unit specialized in chemical and biological warfare. Run by Lt. General Shiro Ishii, Unit 731 surpassed the Third Reich for war crimes of this kind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731. Cold war politics prevented Ishii and his subordinates being tried as war criminals. Instead, the Allies granted immunity when all the records of Unit 731 were turned over to them. Ishii died from throat cancer in 1959, aged 67.
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