[Zakeet]

In answer to your questions ...

Shinzo Abe didn’t do anything. This is akin to Bill Clinton apologizing for slavery. Not needed. ... Who cares, really? He didn’t make the decision to go to war. ... Abe had nothing to do with WWII, and probably wasn’t born yet. He has no need to apologize for something the government under his command did not do.

We are not asking Abe to apologize personally, but to do so on behalf of the Japanese people. He should do this because he is their elected leader and has been placed by them in charge of their government.

It was our imperialism that drove them to attack us.

How did you come up with that? Did the Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Micronesian, Burmese, Thai, Indian and Papua New Guinean imperialism also force the Japanese to attack them? Didn't Japanese imperialism play a part ... perhaps a small one? If so, shouldn't the Japanese confront it eventually?

How many Japanese leaders from 1941 are alive today? ... Only their apologies would have any meaning.

My German-American mother (her family immigrated to the U.S. in 1815; three brothers served with distinction in the European Theater during WW II) traveled extensively throughout Europe and Israel. She apologized frequently to holocaust survivors and their descendents for the actions of her (unknown to her - she never met them and didn't even know their names) relatives. Her actions were always accepted with gratitude and acknowledgement that it helped the healing process. They needed to know that not all Germans were like the ones who brutally butchered their friends and loved ones.

What difference does it make?

Accepting responsibility for your actions by admitting them is the first step in repentance. It's the prime reasons why the Allies insisted that the Germans apologize for the holocaust. We remember so that we will never make the same mistake again.

Recall that the atrocities captured in these photographs, as well as millions of others, are ignored and forgotten by millions of Japanese, expunged from their historical records, and never taught to their children. This is very, very dangerous.

What is the purpose of making such a statement at this point in time?

Because it's better to be late than to never do something that you should do ... something that decency demands that you do.

[a fool in paradise]

It was our imperialism that drove them to attack us.

>> How did you come up with that? Did the Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Micronesian, Burmese, Thai, Indian and Papua New Guinean imperialism also force the Japanese to attack them? Didn't Japanese imperialism play a part ... perhaps a small one? If so, shouldn't the Japanese confront it eventually?

It doesn't reflect my view, it reflects some of what the Japanese said at the time and what academics and anti-war types claim today.t Japanese imperialism play a part ... perhaps a small one? If so, shouldn

[SoFloFreeper]

Dude. I am all in on the fact that the Japs were brutal and we did the right thing in 1945 to end the war.

No apologies.

Seventy plus years on, we have been allies for many decades.

We won the war.

Now we have some common enemies to focus on: the communists among us, and outside our borders, for instance.

[dhs12345]

I understand completely what you are asking for and you are certainly justified. The only problem: then we would have to apologize for atom bombs being dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Bottom line: war is hell. However, some of us are more civilized than others. During WWII, after Germany fell, Germans fled west towards the American and British armies and away from the Russians. They knew very well that Americans are compassionate even during war and how brutal the Russians were.