Re: History Re-Written
Felix,
[ QUOTE ]
Putting Japan and Germany on a 60 year guilt trip is a long time. The actions of the Japanese Prime Minister are those of a man who is resentful of the repeated and prolong assaults on the pride of the Japanese nation.
[/ QUOTE ]
No, they are indicative of a prolonged and systematic attempt by the Japanese government to bury all evidence of wrongdoing. Japanese schoolchildren are not taught about what happened in WWII. It's wiped from their closely controlled history books. I've seen young (20-something) Japanese become shocked and ashamed to the point of tears when learning the truth about their culture and their history. They are simply never taught. Compare that to Germany, where they owned up to their wrongdoing, and made a determined attempt to destroy all remnants of Nazi ideology. Their parliament made a law saying that the history of the Holocaust and German atrocities must be taught in German schools.
The trouble is that Japan today still has elements of the culture that spawned the horror of WWII. The blind obedience to authority. The belief in racial purity. A deep nationalism and suspicion of foreigners. A culture of male domination. Don't get me wrong, the Japanese are a friendly, generous and successful people, and in many areas they put Americans to shame. But underneath this stuff still exists. Many of those who committed atrocities went on to positions of power in government and elsewhere, and it's no surprise that they've been trying to rewrite history ever since WWII finished. Imagine the outcry if the Germans had tried to do the same thing, and allowed former Nazi leaders to go on to positions of power in government and elsewhere, instead of facing war crimes charges.
The PM's comments are an outrage, and we should be appalled. I'm amazed this debate is even happening.
|