The Korean channel in the L.A. area showed it with English sub-titles. I got a kick out of it.
Not only are they not remorseful, there seems to be a movement towards scrapping their pacifist constitution, and building up their military. Some of that may be prudent in light of China’s buildup, but I do not want to be tied by treaty to an aggressor in WWIII. If they want to build up a war with China, leave us out of it.
How did Japan deal with getting its ass kicked all the way to hell and back?
Simple.
1. “We were the good guys.”
2. “We were just minding our own business.”
3. “All the stuff people say we did is just lies.”
4. “We’re the only people in the world who’ve ever had a nuclear weapon used on them.”
5. “Sniff. Poor, poor, pitiful us. Sniff.”
I know the history of Japan in depth. Long story on how I ended up with a degree in Japanese history and politics from a Japanese college.
I can’t find much fault, if any at all, with Lee Hyon-soo’s article.
When I lived in Yokohama, I knew generations of Koreans that were still Korean, by Japanese law, and were threatened with deportation for the slightest offense. Never mind that the person may have been second or third generation, spoke NO Korean and had no relatives in Korea.
I don’t know if that has changed, but when I was on a 3 year torokusho, I had to stand behind loooonnng lines of Koreans to get it renewed.
Japan really does have a reckoning to do with how it treated its neighbors in the past.
To date, they have done a pretty bad job of it.
I don’t think it is healthy for a country to beat itself up too much over ignominious aspects of its past. If you do that, its citizens become less patriotic and more cynical, and thus prone to adopting the wackiest of liberal ideas that do great damage to their societies. Like people, societies and nations need a health measure of self-belief and pride to keep them going in a positive way. Just my humble opinion.
It’s not entirely a bad idea.
The following was posted on another thread on Sat May 11 04:18:32 2013 by ronnie raygun:
Have you ever come across news that the Ayatollah of Iran or the King of Saudi Arabia or even a Saudi Prince has visited Japan ?
Japan is a country keeping Islam at bay. Japan has put strict restrictions on Islam and ALL Muslims.
The reasons are :
1) Japan is the only nation that does not give citizenship to Muslims.
2) In Japan permanent residency is not given to Muslims.
3) There is a strong ban on the propagation of Islam in Japan .
4) In the University of Japan , Arabic or any Islamic language is not taught.
5) One cannot import a ‘Koran’ published in the Arabic language.
6) According to data published by the Japanese government, it has given temporary residency to only 2 lakhs, Muslims, who must follow the Japanese Law of the Land. These Muslims should speak Japanese and carry their religious rituals in their homes.
7) Japan is the only country in the world that has a negligible number of embassies in Islamic countries.
8) Japanese people are not attracted to Islam at all.
9) Muslims residing in Japan are the employees of foreign companies.
10) Even today, visas are not granted to Muslim doctors, engineers or managers sent by foreign companies.
11) In the majority of companies it is stated in their regulations that no Muslims should apply for a job.
12) The Japanese government is of the opinion that Muslims are fundamental ist and even in the era of globalization they are not willing to change their Muslim laws.
13) Muslims cannot even think about renting a house in Japan .
14) If anyone comes to know that his neighbour is a Muslim then the whole neighbourhood stays alert.
15) No one can start an Islamic cell or Arabic ‘Madrasa’ in Japan .
There is no Sharia law in Japan .
16) If a Japanese woman marries a Muslim then she is considered an outcast forever.
17) According to Mr. Kumiko Yagi, Professor of Arab/Islamic Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies , “There is a mind frame in Japan that Islam is a very narrow minded religion and one should stay away from it.”
It would be ironic if Japan is the last, and the successful, bastion against islam.
That history is shameful, true, and it’s even deeper than most people think.
But you know what? Asian security is NOT AT ALL helped by dwelling on this at just this juncture —China is loudly knocking on the door of all it’s neighbors right now, and this just plays right into their hands.
This is time-warp stuff —it’s like the dolts screaming, “Uncle Joe is our ally...!” as our cargo planes have to take off for the Berlin Airlift.
The average age of FR is high —the memories are real, and I respect that.
But with 100 million angry Chinese guys with NO hope of getting married, and a Chinese economy built even more on easy paper and lies, and ever-growing Chinese defense budgets:
Are we really HELPED by this?
No. It’s like we’re in some weird time-warp, blind to what is in front of us, in the here and now.
Those two bombs were richly deserved.
Ironically, by forcing a Japanese surrender, they saved the lives of TENS OF MILLIONS of Japanese.
So WWII was Bush's fault? Ok...
The main thing preventing another world war is free trade. The fact that countries like Japan and Germany are able to obtain goods and resources through peaceful trade has so far prevented the spectre of WW3.
The Korean channel in the L.A. area showed it with English sub-titles. I got a kick out of it.
At some point one has to move on and take notice of present threats or else suffer the consequence ofs inaction.
We beat up Germany left and right, but anyone who’s been to the Air Force Museaum at Wright-Pat can tell you where a downed pilot would have preferred:
Germany: Until near the end, not only well-fed, but health care and dental care. Near the end things started to break down somewhat. Nearly all made it home.
Japan: 50% chance of survival, at best. Torture. Geneva Convention did not exist to them.
Few alive today have any personal, adult memory of the Pacific war. Few living Korean suffered the atrocities the writer cites, and few, if any, living Japanese has any true moral guilt for those same atrocities.
The decision and the act of exploding atomic bombs and essentially destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the fire-bombing of Tokyo (which killed more than both atomic explosions combined) were just and right in the context of total war. But I can take no credit nor experience anything other than imagined guilt for those decisions or acts. These events happened more than a decade before I was born, and I can guess the imperialist period of Japan's history happened an even longer period before the birth, let alone the adulthood, of the writer.
It's like African slavery, or the massacre of Washita Creek. Should I feel remorse for that institution?
Ridiculous. And I had ancestors who owned human slaves.
I suppose, because I also have ancestors who were among the Creek tribes in Oklahoma, I should also hate myself...
There is a place for the study of these things, even for a study of the emotional reactions of those who will eternally carry guilt of innocence before God for their actions or thoughts. There is great learning and knowledge to benefit we who survive. But not for the purpose of political correctness or misdirected and improper guilt.
We live and die before God for our own actions, no those of the Dead (may they rest in peace).
Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany, as is National Socialism. There are no laws against denial of Japanese atrocities, nor was there a distinctive ideology to be banned following the war (as Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy). Most of the Japanese right wing is pro-American, but not all of it is. There are anti-Americans and apologists for Imperial Japan as well.
Another reason for the double standard is that Japan now benefits from political correctness as a non-Western, non-white power (though the Old Left hated Japan with a passion).
A final reason for going easy on Japan (despite the occupation) was because of the developing Cold War. Many Japanese who had been influential in the World War II government were pressed into service against Communism, just as East and West Germany were armed to the teeth by the Soviets and the West respectively.
I know that Communist China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos are more recent enemies and we have valid concerns about them (Red China most of all). But as much as I sympathize with Japan being pushed around simply because it isn't Communist (Commies never seem to do anything wrong), the fact remains that Japan was never de-"nazified" as were Germany and Italy and has never completely come clean.
A newly militarized Japan would indeed push back against our Communist enemies in Asia, but I'm afraid that things could get out of control very quickly. We could be facing the one remaining Axis power that was never ideologically purified.
I wish Japan well in its persecution by the Communists, but they must come clean and forswear once and for all their wartime ideology. Until they do, the danger will exist.
The Japanese are The Japanese!They got their ears pinned back in WWII and now they want to be their old selves once again!!All of this while we allow Jimmy Cawtah II “Gut”our military???????????????????????
The majority of the young actors were modern Japanese that were recruited to play the WW2 generation. These modern Japanese knew absolutely nothing about their country's history and what it had done in the 1930s and 1940s in Asia. Moreover, they were astonished when it came to playing Japanese soldiers of the period and the beliefs they held.
The young Japanese actors were quick learners and did a credible job of acting in “Letters”, but to a man they kept repeating over and over there was so much the did not know about The Pacific War and the Iwo Jima battle. They returned home far wiser than when they came aboard to make this movie. To his credit, Eastwood honored them at a public presentation.
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.