"Remorse" and "regret" are not apologies. "I'm sorry" is an apology. Of course, in the Japanese language "regret" is almost as close as you can get to a genuine apology. But any Japanese leader's expression of "regret" always leaves Japan's war-wounded neighbors unsatisfied, which is why the issue never goes away. That is why the Murayama Statement of 1995 is so important because his words were a genuine apology in a sense that the rest of the world can understand. And the rest of the world, hurt by Japan, is the audience of apology, not the Japanese public.
The realities are that Japan started the Pacific War. Japan waged the war in a particularly heinous and criminal fashion, and Japan stubbornly refused to surrender long after its cause was lost. Japan was never the victim. Prime Minister Abe's account of history is deliberately wrong, and the motive is to misdirect people's attention.
The Sino-Japan War of 1895 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 were not about anti-colonialism. Not at all. They were about setting the stage for Japanese incursion into mainland Asia. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Manchurian Incident were deliberately manufactured as excuses for further illegal incursion into sovereign China. The collapse of Taisho democracy did not lead Japan to "impinge" on the international order of the day. It created a vacuum that allowed for the rise of Japanese militarism with a deliberate policy of aggressive expansion.
The atomic bombings of Japan were well deserved, and the country only survived because of the benevolent indulgence of the U.S.A. Japan's leadership is to blame for the atomic bombings since it was Japanese policy that drove America to that measure. Japan ought to have been wiped from the face of the earth, but alas!, that would have been too expensive.
It is the worst disservice to your foes not to let them know that remorseless consequences follow determined actions.
"Remorse" and "regret" are not apologies. "I'm sorry" is an apology. Of course, in the Japanese language "regret" is almost as close as you can get to a genuine apology. But any Japanese leader's expression of "regret" always leaves Japan's war-wounded neighbors unsatisfied, which is why the issue never goes away. That is why the Murayama Statement of 1995 is so important because his words were a genuine apology in a sense that the rest of the world can understand. And the rest of the world, hurt by Japan, is the audience of apology, not the Japanese public.
ReplyDeleteThe realities are that Japan started the Pacific War. Japan waged the war in a particularly heinous and criminal fashion, and Japan stubbornly refused to surrender long after its cause was lost. Japan was never the victim. Prime Minister Abe's account of history is deliberately wrong, and the motive is to misdirect people's attention.
The Sino-Japan War of 1895 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 were not about anti-colonialism. Not at all. They were about setting the stage for Japanese incursion into mainland Asia. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Manchurian Incident were deliberately manufactured as excuses for further illegal incursion into sovereign China. The collapse of Taisho democracy did not lead Japan to "impinge" on the international order of the day. It created a vacuum that allowed for the rise of Japanese militarism with a deliberate policy of aggressive expansion.
The atomic bombings of Japan were well deserved, and the country only survived because of the benevolent indulgence of the U.S.A. Japan's leadership is to blame for the atomic bombings since it was Japanese policy that drove America to that measure. Japan ought to have been wiped from the face of the earth, but alas!, that would have been too expensive.
It is the worst disservice to your foes not to let them know that remorseless consequences follow determined actions.