Pete The Elder

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April 20, 2005

Japan Apology

There have been many comments in the blogosphere about the anti-Japan protest in China over the past few weeks (see here, here, and here for instance). Most of them have commented on the idea that the protests were really about deflecting criticism away from Chinas government and an increased sign of Chinese nationalism. Far be it from me to discourage commie bashing, but in some ways the protestors have a point. Brian Preston at Junk Yard Blog writes,

China stoke its citizens against Japan for crimes committed during World War II; i.e. long before the protestors were actually born and long after the guilty have either been executed or died naturally. And years after Japan apologized for its wartime behavior.

This is mostly true, but it seems that Japan has done a very half assed job of apologizing. Here is an example of what I could find on Japan apologies,

Saying her country had caused an "incurable scar," Japan's foreign minister yesterday commemorated 50 years of peace by apologizing for the "tremendous damage and suffering" of World War II.

Makiko Tanaka, reiterating an apology made by Japan's prime minister in 1995, said Japan has never forgotten the "tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries during the last war." She made special note of former prisoners of war, hundreds of whom have sought reparations from Japanese companies that benefited from their slave labor.

"Facing these facts of history in a spirit of humility," Tanaka said, "I reaffirm today our feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology ..."

But if you look at what happened with the earlier apology by Tomiichi Murayama, you find that the government of Japan did not apologize, its Prime Minister did.

Japan's former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologized to the victims of Japan's aggressive war. His apology should be welcome.

However, as already been pointed out, his apology was only a personal one. His feelings were obviously not shared by the majority of his colleagues in the Japanese government. He failed to make a formal and official apology in the so-called No War Resolution. Only 26% of the diet members supported the Resolution and 47% were against it...Furthermore, the ex-education minister Seisuke Okuno managed to organize a national campaign and collected 4.5 million signatures against the Resolution.

Here is a list of Japan apology statments from Wikipedia, which from my search seems to be the most complete list. Most of them seem to be personal apologies by government officials and not official government statements (i.e. a resolution passed by the majority of the diet). For instance here is Morihiro Hosokawas statement, I myself believe it was a war of aggression, a war that was wrong. Nice start, but that can hardly be considered an apology from all or even a majority of Japan.

Now normally this would not be a big deal as these sorts of apologies do not mean much on their own. But in Japan there is a history of violent and aggressive nationalism that has not been repudiated by a large portion of the population. Notice that above when given a chance the diet chose not vote for an apology and Murayama had to express his regrets on his own. This combined with the government approved textbooks that often whitewash Japans role in WWII and the continued violent intimidation of Japanese people who criticize Japans past is not a good sign that Japan as a whole has learned from its mistakes. I do not think this will lead to Japan trying to take over Asia again anytime soon, but I can understand other Asians and Americans being resentful that Japan has not owned up to its sins. This is even more true when you compare it to Germany, which has for the most part done a good job of trying to make up for its sins.

Maybe I am bothered by the fact that I read the Rape of Nanking a few weeks ago, but it seems that in sixty years it would not be too hard for the government of Japan to offically issue a statement like,

World War II was our fault. We acted like jerks and committed lots of attrocities. Japan invaded your countries for selfish reasons because of our greed and desire for power. We are sorry and it won't happen again.

Posted by Pete at April 20, 2005 10:50 AM

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Comments

Posted by: Commando at April 21, 2005 12:42 PM