I saw Cheesie's recent blog posts on Japan and how they've been unfairly and overly-blamed for the war atrocities committed even though such a long time has passed. As a student who's been studying Japanese for the past 5-6 years or so, I've actually given this issue a lot of thought. There are certain points which I acknowledge and agree with, but others that seem a bit dubious to me.
basically, the main points of her posts (there were two) centered around a few points: a) debunking the myth that Japan has yet to apologize even a single time for the war atrocities; b) China's and Korea's irrational hating on Japan; and c) how the Japanese, in comparison, have not been taught so much hatred. There is other stuff as well, like about her frustration that Japanese youths are getting more obsessed with Korean pop culture instead of their own, but I see that as a separate issue. I'm more concerned with the others first. also, disclaimer: this is not a hate post on any race or nationality. I actually like Japanese culture a lot, or I wouldn't have stuck to studying Japanese for so long, all the way until JC level when most of the people I know have dropped the subject a long time ago.
firstly, I want to talk about a) the myth that Japan has yet to apologize for their war atrocities. Cheesie mentioned that Japan has been apologizing almost every single year since the war ended. apparently there were lots of comments implying that Japan didn't. while what cheesie said is true, I think one of the reasons why Japan's apology has never sunk in is because while official statements of apology are being made by the government every year every time the anniversary of the war comes around, no one has yet to see any sort of actions accompanied by these "official apologies". in fact, there are visits being made by officials to the Yasukuni shrine in memory of the supposed war heroes almost every year, and when questioned, they just say something along the lines of how they're doing so only in their personal capacity, and it's not representative of the Japanese government. I think the message conveyed by these statements are the opposite of the intended meaning; they seem to imply that the Japanese government is only apologizing because it's the politically correct thing to do, and that they wouldn't really do it otherwise. Also, there's the issue of education with regards to world war 2, which is pretty much non-existent. In contrast, there seems to be much focus (not in textbooks, but in general) placed on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb victims and stuff. All these seem to make out for a very imbalanced and skewed image of what happened in the world war for the Japanese themselves. I remember a History teacher telling me once (I think it was during sec 2?) that some Japanese ended up crying really badly after visiting some museum at Fort Minor on some war atrocities committed during the Japanese occupation in Singapore. however, at the museum in Japan (either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, can't remember which) there is little acknowledgement of what damage the Japanese did in other countries, which only a small section displaying some random textbooks from southeast asia, and only a short caption saying something like Japan did some harm in other countries as well. and then there's also the issue of war compensation to the individual victims, although I think Japan's economy is too bad to even be considering doing that. and cheesie did raise a significant point on that - that they're being conveniently used by the chinese and korean media every time they want to hate on Japan. but again - I still think the claims for war compensation are pretty valid. just the fact that they're being used as a tool to hate on Japan doesn't make it any less so.
My point is that the apologies made by the Japanese government don't seem sincere, like they're just doing it for the sake of it, and they'd much rather just forget about the whole thing. Well, pretty much the whole world doesn't care anymore other than China and South Korea since that's where the most damage has been done, but it'll be very hard for Japan to fully move on from the whole incident if they don't make any convincing show of effort that they're truly apologetic. I don't even think they ever will, really, because from what I hear the general Japanese population seem to be quite apathetic towards all these politics, other then some minor groups advocating for education about world war 2. not surprising, considering they don't even know much about the issue if their education syllabus is any indication. it's harder for people to accept when Germany has monuments and stuff made to remind their own people of their war atrocities, particularly towards the Jewish population, but Japan has done nothing of the sort. That's also why I'm like "well duh" when cheesie complained that no one really cares about what Germany did during the war anymore.
secondly, there's b) China's and Korea's irrational hating on Japan. This is where I agree more with cheesie. while Japan hasn't really appeared very sincere in her apologies, I think China and Korea have gone too far to make an enemy out of Japan, just because of very extremist nationalism. Cheesie raised some points that I hadn't really considered before - that their textbooks are probably full of propaganda shit as well. I don't know to what extent, but the tone is probably quite condemning of the Japanese. In Singapore the tone is quite neutral, I think, although it is a bit hard to ignore statistics and stuff like 'rape', which is a word that can't really be played down by any substitution. I actually think China and S. Korea is being a little childish on the whole issue - particularly China, who keeps getting hung up on Japan's better relations with Taiwan. this is obvious, I should think, but China has been too irrationally aggressive when it comes to territorial disputes, not just with the Senkaku Islands and Taiwan, but with regards to other southeast asian countries as well. like dude, get a grip, stop thinking everything should belong to you! anyway, with regards to this point, I'm in full agreement with Cheesie.
third, c) how the Japanese have been brought up not to hate, in comparison to their korean and chinese counterparts. Um, I think this one is a bit of a "duh" point which has somehow been overly beautified by Cheesie. the koreans and chinese have more reason on their side to hate Japan than the other way round if you consider what each party did to the other, although they did take it too far. This is one aspect that is similar to the israeli-palestinian conflict: no matter how objective you try to sound in terms of tone when describing the origins and the events in the conflict, it's quite hard to deny that Palestinians have obviously suffered more than Israeli's have, given how they've been so badly oppressed. No matter what tone is used, just looking at the facts is enough to easily give anyone the conclusion that Israel has kind of been a bully, although terrorist groups in Palestine don't help matters too.
I follow cheesie's blog regularly because her life is the kind I would like to have - I think I've been dreaming of going to Japan and staying there to work and shopping and all that shit in like FOREVER. but there are some things about Japan that I don't really appreciate as well (e.g. violent manga porn - some of which I used to read quite often. lol, ironic, I know. and embarrassing to admit...), although they've been pretty much outweighed by the things that I DO love about Japan. I used to be quite biased towards Japan in the past, but I think after so many years I've been able to detach myself slightly and view things in a more objective manner. not completely objective, but more at least. yup, that's about all that I wanted to say in response to cheesie's post.
Also, this is kind of indirectly related, so I'll say this too. I actually think educating the Japanese on world war 2 will HELP encourage Japanese nationalism, because I'm assuming the reason why they don't educate the Japanese on such is because they don't want any Japanese feeling ashamed of themselves. if so, that's a pretty short-sighted way of looking at it. if education on world war 2 is actually implemented in the syllabus, it will be a big step in convincing China and Korea that they're truly sincere about the whole apology thing, AND it will help Japan's overall international image. if someday Japan were to ask to be allowed to actually have a civilian army instead of a private one like they do now, and have national service for Japanese youths like S. Korea and Singapore, (which will help strengthen Japanese nationalism ultimately), they have more convincing power on their side when they say it's for defense and not for like world domination or whatever (which is quite unlikely), since Japanese youths have been educated on the ill effects of war, and would never think of initiating it. I'm pretty sure the international community would be more inclined to back Japan up on that, too, if China and Korea still has anything to say about it. and besides strengthening national unity, think of all the other practical benefits to be gained! like in economic terms. if relations between the east asian nations thaw, it will help trade and shit (I can't say much because I'm not studying economics in school like most of my classmates are, but i'm still pretty sure it WILL help), and economic integration even, like what China is pursuing with Taiwan now (both of them are on more amicable terms as of recent years, although the president (or some official with the surname Ma? not too familiar with Taiwan politicians) is receiving a lot of flak from Taiwan citizens because of it). like seriously. they have more to gain than to lose if the Japanese does so!
