scratching at .8, just hopin'
I'm not saying WWII wasn't horrible and we shoudl forget the lessons it tought us but... should be let go by now? Do we really need to apologies like this? What does this change anyway? It's been 70 years. I doubt those veterans are suddenly going to be "Japan is OK!" if they weren't already.
Apologies are not needed, but greatly appreciated.
OMG NO NOSECONES
Japan largely brushed a lot of their WWII-era stuff under the rug and wanted it to dissapear. This apology is a good thing.
edited 8th Dec '11 1:10:27 PM by pvtnum11
Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.
Mandemo; an official apology helps with the whole "letting go" thing. An official recognition that wrong was done helps to sooth grievances. Consider for that cycle of revenge is a concept we have for a reason; people remember the things done not just to themselves but to their ancestors. Letting go tends not to be a thing we do well. Apologies can help us do that, as a people.
I have to say, though, with Japan's government's habits of denying or downplaying any wrongs this is a surprise. I wonder if more apologies are coming.
Unchanging Avatar.
Good for Japan.
Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.
I'll say "Good on Japan" when they offer official apologies to Korea and China for their horrible conduct during the occupation.
And stop, you know, trying to justify the invasions in the history books they give to their children...
Unchanging Avatar.
How about accepting a step in the right direction?
And they don't exactly justify it in their history books. They just avoid the topic.
Still unacceptable, but not as bad as you make it out to be.
Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.
Face Time
This is a good thing, really, even if it's 70 years in the making.
"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel
Proud Canadian
A little late.
If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
Interned Japanese-Americans didn't get an official apology from the US government until 1983. These things can take a while.
edited 8th Dec '11 5:57:01 PM by feotakahari
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
Proud Canadian
I know.
If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
watching down on us
This is a good step in the right direction for Japan! :)
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
I changed accounts.
I can honestly say I find this to be surprising.
I'll look for flying pigs if Japan apologizes to China-proper, though.
~shrug~
As for the Japanese internment, there was one Governor—of Colorado, if I'm not mistaken—that vehemently opposed the idea and fought it to the point of losing his position in the next election over it.
They built a statue of him. It's a good story, I thought.
I am now known as Flyboy.
Don't see what's so special about this apology, it's no different from the long list of apologies made by various prime ministers etc. which, while sometimes extending the apology to the entire government of Japan seems to be mostly understood as just a single guy expressing regret and doesn't seem to be enough to satisfy the need for an apology, held by most Koreans and Chinese. Whether that's because those apologies were not strong enough, or used to many weasel words or whatever or if it's because Korea and China will never accept any apology as being sincere, I do not presume to know. If it is the latter, I do not really blame them, considering the horrors unleashed upon their countries in the past by Japan, but I do question the international "Japan has never apologized" opinion, which most people seem to hold.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan
That is not to say that all international criticism of Japan's way of dealing with past war crimes is void. I myself have been to Yasukuni Shrine and seen the museum in there. The white-washing of the war done in that museum is disturbing. Though one needs to realize that this is a privately run shrine and not an expression of any official Japanese position and I have indeed spoken with quite a few Japanese people who really dislikes the Yasukuni Shrine for exactly this reason; it whitewashes the hell out of the war. Most Japanese people I've spoken to are indeed aware that Japan did really bad stuff in the war, but they really do not like talking about it. Which is a problem, but at least it's better than outright denying that it happened.
edited 9th Dec '11 12:38:25 AM by Mathias
@ Mathias
It's typically the backtracking, weasel words or blatant insults spoken by the people who offer those apologies that makes it in most cases "Japan didn't apologise". For instance, at one point one Japanese minister stated something apologetic about comfort women, and then within half a year, the next minister tapped to be prime minister stated that there were no comfort women, Korean females wanted to be raped systematically by Japanese soldiers and outright retracted any apologetic statements by previous ministers.
Japan's not a country to admit much wrongdoing for WW 2.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/12/08/japan-apology-canada.html
Japan has made a formal apology 70 years after the fact for their treatment of Canadian Po Ws from the Battle of Hong Kong. Of the 1975 soldiers deployed to Hong Kong, 1050 were killed or wounded either in the battle or in the subsequent imprisonment, forced labour and executions.