Nanjing - Listen up and put it to bed

70 years, and China's still yelling. Ryan jumps in the middle and plays intermediary, with suggestions for both China and Japan so this noise can give way to peace.

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Hao'd by pandapassport 1 year 3 weeks ago-
Category: China News Tags:

nanjing

youlai

1 year 3 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago

Taylor, a reader of the article, referred to the Warschauer Kniefall of former chancellor Willy Brandt. It was probably no coincidence that Brandt had fought against the Nazis from Norway, before and during WW2. It was no coincidence that Konrad Adenauer, Germany's first chancellor after WW2, had been a strong opponent against the Nazis. They both had strength, because they had taken their own decisions, all the way - even "against their own country", if conscience demanded it. You could (and still can) hear a lot of Germans who are in denial of German atrocities. My impression is that very often, they can't love their parents or grandparents without justifying everything their older relatives did, everything they supported, or everything they ignored or tolerated. This seems to be a more prevalent attitude in Japan, though. It is apparently harder there to look on your country or ancestors in more than one way. Most Japanese, I believe, are genuinely ashamed of the past. The problem may be that, when Japanese people are ashamed, they don't talk about what makes them feel ashamed. Somehow, it doesn't seem to be about "repentence, confession, and forgiveness". But is the "yes-it-did" element of Japan really so small and timid, or does news about the "it-didn’t-happen" element sell better? I tend to believe that it just sells better. For sure, no victim is obliged to forgive the perpetrators, or the country they came from. But I see no use in keeping demanding apologies. Forced apologies are useless.

Dragonhorse

1 year 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago

Most Japanese believe Japan committed war crimes in WWII, I lived in Tokyo for over a year. The far right wing is what gets the most press, but is not representative of the average person on the street in Japan.

I posted about what happened in the aftermath of the war, what Japan said and what it did in regard to apologies and reparations. Make up your own mind:

http://pmsol3.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/japanese-war-crimes-and-reparatio...

youlai

1 year 3 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago

This link could be interesting to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7140357.stm
Japanese teacher Tamaki Matsuoka did some research on her own, and with a resarch group identified the army unit that carried out the Taiping Gate killings, one of the Nanjing massacres. The research group interviewed about 200 old Japanese soldiers.

Dragonhorse

1 year 3 weeks 2 days 10 hours ago

Being that most of the people involved are in their late 70's to late 80's this will not be a big issue in another 15 years, as 99% of them will have died. There will be some lasting resentment on the part of the Chinese (and Koreans) but none of this will stop "business".

In the end, these people were victimized twice. First by the Japanese and then by their own governments after the war, who gave up all rights to reparations. Chiang Kaishek was the first, then Mao (under a negotiation as part of normal ties in return for ODA), and then the S.Koreans under Park. Park took over 800 million in reparations from Japan and even more in loans and did not give a dime to victims of Japanese war crimes. I documented it all in the link above.

The only people who have not are North Korea.