Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi has apologized for his country’s aggression in WWII. [That means it's safe for you to fly there Wednesday.-ed. I'm relieved.] The Chinese now should also be “relieved” since much of this sudden public atonement has been at their instigation. We shall see if their Communist Party in turn apologizes for the estimated fifty million deaths at the hands of the Great Helmsman.
UPDATE: But hasn’t there been a tsunami on their North-east Coast?-ed. Only a 4-inch one.
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Roger–you are SUCH an idealist–thats different, dontcha see?
I am suprised that a Jew of your intelligence and sensibilities would make light of a series of crimes that were surpassed in their barbarity and wickedness in the 1930s and 1940s only by those committed in the Holocaust.
The Rape of Nanking
Scarred by history: The Rape of Nanjing
Between December 1937 and March 1938 one of the worst massacres in modern times took place. Japanese troops captured the Chinese city of Nanjing and embarked on a campaign of murder, rape and looting.
[Extracts]
1) “Thousands of bodies were buried in ditches
Based on estimates made by historians and charity organisations in the city at the time, between 250,000 and 300,000 people were killed, many of them women and children.
The number of women raped was said by Westerners who were there to be 20,000, and there were widespread accounts of civilians being hacked to death.
Yet many Japanese officials and historians deny there was a massacre on such a scale”
A Christian missionary, John Magee, described Japanese soldiers as killing not only “every prisoner they could find but also a vast number of ordinary citizens of all ages”.
“Many of them were shot down like the hunting of rabbits in the streets,” he said.
Some victims were reportedly buried alive
2) “After what he described as a week of murder and rape, the Rev Magee joined other Westerners in trying to set up an international safety zone.
Another who tried to help was an American woman, Minnie Vautrin, who kept a diary which has been likened to that of Anne Frank.
Her entry for 16 December reads: “There probably is no crime that has not been committed in this city today. Thirty girls were taken from the language school [where she worked] last night, and today I have heard scores of heartbreaking stories of girls who were taken from their homes last night – one of the girls was but 12 years old.”
Later, she wrote: “How many thousands were mowed down by guns or bayoneted we shall probably never know. For in many cases oil was thrown over their bodies and then they were burned.”
“Charred bodies tell the tales of some of these tragedies. The events of the following ten days are growing dim. But there are certain of them that lifetime will not erase from my memory and the memories of those who have been in Nanjing through this period.”
Minnie Vautrin suffered a nervous breakdown in 1940 and returned to the US. She committed suicide in 1941.
Also horrified at what he saw was John Rabe, a German who was head of the local Nazi party.
He became leader of the international safety zone and recorded what he saw, some of it on film, but this was banned by the Nazis when he returned to Germany.
He wrote about rape and other brutalities which occurred even in the middle of the supposedly protected area.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/223038.stm
Virutally the only thing that can be said in favor of Japan is that almost alone amongst the nations of the world she did more than a little to protect Jewish refugees fleeing genocide.
What 50,000,000 dead? Chomsky didn’t see nobody…
Japan did more than a little to protect Jewish refugees fleeing genocide?
Interesting. Do you have any sources for that, Joshua?
The main point is that a country with as much blood on its hands as China is not in the best position to demand apoligies from others for similar crimes.
flenser, fyi… http://www.eagleman.com/sugihara/
also this http://xenon.stanford.edu/~tamar/Kobe/Kobe.html
Joshua:
Roger’s post concerns the absurdity of China demanding apologies when they have not apolgized for at least equal attrocities and the fact that Mao is still lionized as a great man, with his image everywhere and his true history is only available to people who have access to foreign books.It would be one thing if massive pictures of Tojo were displayed in the center of Tokyo. They are not. China making demands on Japan for apologies and historical reckoning is like a pimp lecturing his employee’s on chastity. The notion that present day Japan resembles the pre-war Japanese government or that there is any chance that they would take up their aggressive tactics again is simply a fantasy. China pumps up the guilt propaganda machine to take attention away from their repressive regime and their military buildup. The governments of Asia should worry about the country that has the ability to crush them and it isn’t Japan. China is the country that is threatening an invasion of Taiwan and supports the Stalinist nightmare regime of North Korea which also talks of war on her southern neighbors. The history of the Imperial goverment of Japan is a nightmare but the current government of Japan bears no resemblance to that government. Is Japan threatening her neighbors? No. Is China? You know it. Who should we be more concerned about?
I think it’s sort of silly, like a dominoes theory of apologies. First one apologizes, which means another has to because, you know, he did it first. When does it stop? Shall we go back to the beginning of recorded history?
BTW The Great Raid 9great movie) shows the depravity of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines quite vividly. But the Japanese people were manipulated by the cult of death du jour yet now are honorable members of the family of civilized nations. Life goes on. Get over it.
However, I would enjoy it immensely if Michael Moore were to apologize one day.
Roger?
I was going to post some links, but then I saw you already had. I like this story…
http://www.ourjerusalem.com/history/story/history20041114.html
…
Japan is apologizing because Japan, or should I write the Koizumi government, has international aspirations and an apology for past aggression against neighboring nation-states is a relatively painless part of the price that makes it possible to realize them—or so it is hoped.
Turkey, or should I write the Erdogan government, also has international aspirations.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002439318_turkey13.html
A strong earthquake and a tsunami warning in Japan http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050815.wquake0816/BNStory/International/
This isn’t even the first time Japan has apologized. The whole point of making them go through this again has little to do with WWII atrocities so much as it has to do with making them feel weak.
Given the aggressive nationalism we’re now seeing in China I think it may only be a matter of time before Japan re-militarizes (if there is such a word). China’s nationalism may even become more militant due to the “bare branches” – poor young males with no chance of marriage due to the male surplus. Such men could become a destabilising force within China so the government might try to direct their attention towards foreign countries.
Roger:
The apology proganda wars do not stop after the apology is given. The next step is to trumpet how it took 50 years to apologize. Then of course there is the gambit of complaining that the apology was not sincere so another apology is required. Then of course there is the demand for individual apologies to the relatives of the victims. And celebrating the anniversary of the apology is always good. It never ends.
Kevin,
Why not prepare an apology template based on your excellent outline, and offer the whole thing whenever an apology is demanded? One may include a clause about all the unintended and unimagined harm/slight/offense/insult/exploitation etc. the apologizing nation had caused to anybody and everybody throughout its entire history of existence. It will save time and feelings.
it’s like that old saw, if ya have to ask how much it costs, ya can’t afford it. Similarly, for those needing continual apologies, apologies are not enough.
What I want Japan to do is do-over the past, and leave out the wartime cruelty. But since we can’t go back in time, I’ll settle for the sterling friend among the family of nations that Japan is now, in this time.
Maybe China can camp outside the Emperor’s palace in Tokyo until he agrees to meet with them…
Wonder who I’d have to apologize to in order to get concessions? The hot dogs and beer alone will make a fortune.
Katherine:
A good idea but a prepared pre -apology apology template would show that the nation planned to commit a grave offense and thus would require another apology for the pre meditated contemplation of evil. And it would trigger the lack of sincerity apology clause.
ìBTW The Great Raid 9great movie) shows the depravity of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines quite vividly.î
John Dahlís The Great Raid is a must see movie. It deals with the real life rescue of American POWs held by the Japanese at the end of WWII in the Philippines. Left wing movie reviewers like Stephen Holden of the New York Times are ridiculing the heroism and nonpolitically correct view of Japanís disgusting Buishido culture. Donít listen to them. The Great Raid is the sort of story that should be viewed by everyone who is a teenager or older. It stars Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, James Franco, and Connie Nielsen. This fantastic film is not for the faint of heart. There is much violence and cruelty. In the very beginning, there is a scene showing American soldiers being deliberately set on fire by their Japanese captors.
How much is The Great Raid hated by the likes of Holden and his fellow leftists? Take a look at his review:
ìAbout the only thing to be said on behalf of “The Great Raid,” a tedious World War II epic that slogs across the screen like a forced march in quicksand, is that it illustrates a depressing similarity between reckless war-mongering and grandiose moviemaking. ì
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2005/08/12/movies/12raid.html
I’m in rather a rush, so I’ll have to answer the above in point form:
1) If a nation’s citizens cannot feel guilt and sorrow for the past wrongs their country has committed, they also cannot feel pride for her past achievements, and without the latter no nation would continue to exist. If you cannot feel guilt about slavery, you cannot feel pride about Jefferson, Washingston or Lincoln, or indeed even your nation’s contribution to the defeat of fascism. You have no more real, literal connection with the good than the bad.
2) A nation like Japan that not only does not genuinely apologise for her past crimes but engages in denial is likely at some point to repeat them. The Holocaust could not have occurred without the almost complete co-operation of occupied Europe and the so-called neutral nations. One of the main reasons for the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe is because of its failure to face up to the active collaboration of many millions of her citizens in the Holocaust and the fever of Jew-hatred which has gripped Europe for many centuries. Because of this failure, the vast bulk of property that was stolen from the victims of the Holocaust remains in the hands of the gentile thieves of Europe. Because of this failure, Europe feels at liberty to dish Israel at every opportunity. Had Europe faced up to her crimes, I doubt very much whether in 1973 when Israel stood on the verge of destruction, Europe would have refused to allow the overflights of American planes rushing military aid to the Jewish state.
I also have grave doubts as to whether Japan has undergone much of a change at all: the rampant racism, jingoism and insularity are all very much still part of that nation.
3) A denial of crimes in many ways makes a person just as guilty as the individual who carried them out. Who could possibly refute the charge that most Holocaust deniers would have gladly participated in that genocide if they had had the opportunity?
4) In asking for an apology, China is saying to Japan that the wholesale whitewashing of history that she still engages in is an affront to the sensitivities of the survivors of the genocide Japan visited upon that and other nations in the region.
5) If Germany together with its German eduction system had embarked on a campaign of Holocaust denial and justification, Simon would be outraged. That he is not likewise outraged by Japan’s conduct here is more than a little sickening. Is the life of an innocent Chinese child murdered in Nanjing by Japanese fascists any less sacred than a Jewish child murdered in Lodz or Treblinka by a Ukrainian or Lithuanian collaborator?
6) Whatever the conduct of China’s communist party, that has absolutely nothing to do with this issue. Germany’s crimes in World War II are not diminished in any way because millions of her citizens were ethnically cleansed (and in many cases killed) by Poland. Germany and Austria’s rape of Poland is not somehow made less because of that latter nation’s vicious anti-Semitism or the collaboration of many of her citizens in the Holocaust. More pertinently, Germany’s manifold crimes against millions of Russia’s citizens in World War II are not diminished because Stalin and his henchmen murdered millions of fellow citizens.
7) Those who believe this is all due to the machinations of China’s political elite have no understanding of the great well of anger that still exists among China’s citizens about this issue.
“Japan did more than a little to protect Jewish refugees fleeing genocide?
Interesting. Do you have any sources for that, Joshua?”
Polish Jews in Japan
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005283
Refuge in Shanghai
http://www.gluckman.com/ShanghaiJewsChina.html
http://www.gluckman.com/ShangJew99.html
I don’t know whether it is mentioned in the above pieces, but the Japanese refused to hand over the Shanghai Jews to representatives of the German Gestapo when they visited that city.
There are many other articles if you Google for them.
Joshua,
You neglect to establish how much handwringing is necessary in order for you to feel satisfied. You correctly note a number of faults but I’m rather disinclined to believe that correcting those particular items would result in an “OK, that’s enough” statement on your part.
How much time do you spend in contemplative reflection on the collective guilt of Jews for attempting genocide on the Canaanites? How much much time on the Jewish practice of slavery?
None, I would imagine. I spend precisely that much time on “collective guilt” myself. I’ll never spend a moment more on it, either.
We live today, not yesterday. What is Japan doing today that merits concern? The killers are still running China and there is no reason to believe that they won’t kill again.
My family has been in North Carolina since the early 1700′s. I don’t know that any of my ancestors, simple farmers with modest land holdings, ever actually owned slaves but it’s of course possible and in any event they were part of the culture that condoned the practice (as far as I know, we had no abolitionists in our family, but that too is possible). However, it would not occur to me to apologize to anyone on their behalf.
Of the many (many, many) gripes I had with Bill Clinton, one of the biggest was his penchant for apologizing to anyone and everyone for America’s past sins, real or imagined. It was self-indulgent, self-serving, self-aggrandizing and egregiously hypocritical considering he never seemed to get around to apologizing for his own bad behavior.
I do not want apologies from anyone for anything over which they had no control. All I want from Japan, or Germany, or America for that matter, is acknowledgement of a history that is neither revised nor ignored and present behavior that evidences the lessons learned from that history.
Roger, Joshua
Thanks for those links. The Japanese have a well earned reputation for having an insular, even xenophobic, society. Their tolerance towards Jews, at the same time as they were engaging in atrocities against Chinese and others, seems inexplicable. Divine providence?
The FDR administration rather famously was “uncooperative” to Jewish refugees seeking to enter America. Can either of you offer a theory as to how this can be reconciled with the extraordinary Jewish-American loyalty to the Democratic party?
It seems to me that collective responsibility is an especially problematic matter in America because it continually renews itself by taking in so many people who come from elsewhere. As an American of this particular moment, I understand how the institution of slavery affected our history and continues to reverberate to this day. But in antebellum times, my ancestors were still subjects of the Manchu Empire, culturally and geographically far distant from Bloody Kansas, Harper’s Ferry and the plantations of the Old South. So as to the matter of collective responsibility for the stain of slavery, I might well channel Tonto: “What do you mean, ‘we,’ white man?”