It just seems that whenever the topic of Japan comes up people tend to ask my opinion because I’ve been there. So here it is, short and sweet.
I support demonstrations. Granted, I do believe that these, unlike the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, was approved by the government whether explicitly or unofficially, but is that so bad? You can’t expect an authoritarian government to relinquish its control and give everyone freedom of speech at once. Although these demonstrations agree with the government’s official stand, they also do represent the majority feeling.
I do not, however, support vandalism. Not only does that not help the cause, it also makes Chinese people look bad in foreign press, doesn’t it? If you want other people to hear you out, you must first earn their respect. Destroying property is definitely not the way to go. The people in the embassy and the stores aren’t responsible for the atrocity or the textbooks.
I’ve read quite a few articles about the textbooks too. They are there, have been approved, and are accepted by a very few private schools in Japan. So it’s less the actual influence of the books, and more the importance of the message, that government approval sends to the public.
To me, history is essentially, a story. They maybe based on facts — facts that require much interpretation and selection by the people who collect them and analyze them. If you go in with a purpose of searching for evidence to support your theory, you often find yourself ignoring other contradicting evidence.
There’s always two sides to the story, a hero to some is a murderer to others. China has done its own share of pilaging in its long history of being a vast empire, but I don’t remember reading much in my textbooks about China’s invasions of other sovereign lands. There’s also a lot of things the government does not want to admit as having done wrong. China’s modern textbooks probably don’t give what others see as an accurate account of Tiananmen Square or the Cultural Revolution. The thing is — as long as no one complains too loudly, the world will go on.
I think the fact of the matter is still who holds the better cards. China’s position on the UN Council and its current status in world economy gives it a lot of leverage. Unlike the land disputes, the apology issue is one the rest of the world sympathizes with China and Korea about. But if I get into that I’ll have to come up with a solution or possible scenarios, and that’s no fun so I’ll stop 😛
So here’s my personal stance. However hard it may be, I think Japan still needs to offer some kind of formal apology for World War II. Hey, Germany did it, although they did have one convenient Hitler to blame and it’s pretty difficult for Japan to point the finger at the royal family. I also think Japan should be a permanent member of UN Security Council because of its weight in the world. How that’s going to work out is not in my hands.
One thing I still must say is, it’s not like Japan as a nation is trying to deny the war’s existence. The photo above is the caption for a display in the Osaka Peace Museum. It’s a little hard to read, but basically it says that Japan framed the Manchurian Incident in 1931 in order to come up with an excuse to invade China due to difficult domestic economy. I think that’s a very fair account. I only say this because I feel like a lot of people hold a general animosity towards Japan and Japanese, and I just don’t think that’s the right way to go to solve problems. Anyway, I highly recommend anyone visiting Osaka to drop by the museum.
I keep telling myself I should never write anything controversial. So read what other people say. The end.
CNN
BBC
Asahi
Japan Times
Japan Times (Opinion)
Japan Today (Opinion)
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