The Japanese are at it again

Denying history and making many neighbours mad in the process. The issue of Japanese war crimes is one that you can not escape here. It draws anger and ire in Korea and China and has citizens of both countries, as well as many south east Asian nations, foaming at the mouth. This instance is the mayor of Nagoya telling visiting members of the Nanjing city council (the two cities are sister cities and have a bustling trading relationship) that the Nanjing massacre is overplayed and that it was a conventional battle and any casualities were as a result of that, and not of any massacre. The denial of the Nanjing massacre, much like the denial of Chinese and Korean comfort women (sex slaves), denial of torture and forced labour in their colonial empire, continually claiming land lost in their colonial empire as their own (Dokdo with Korea and Senkaku with Taiwan/China), continued denial of teh mistreatment of allied POW's and the continued honouring of generals who ordered these crimes has soured relations between Japan and its neighbours and allies since the war and has harmed Japan's reputation abroad.

Now to state my bias up front, I do not believe that a man is responsible for the crimes of his father or grandfather. The Japanese TODAY have nothing to apologize for as they have done nothing wrong. I would even argue that a private in the Japanese army of that time is a victim of his government as much as the people he is being ordered to kill. However, by denying this history and teaching your children that it did not happen you are taking responsibility for it, inflicting more hurt and even justifying it. Germans today owe no apology for Hitler because they have already apologized, taken responsibility and offered to make amends. They also make sure young people know what happened so that it won't happen again. I doubt that the European Union would be able to move forward if Germany made holocaust denial a state policy. The Japanese denial of their colonial crimes continues the cycle of hate and violence and passes that anger on to another generation. But these are just my opinions.

It makes even less sense to me when it seems like all the Japanese government would have to say is "yeah sorry, we f*cked up, won't happen again" and then not pretend like it never happened. It would transform regional relationships and remove lingering hatred from any current disputes. The Korea/Japan relationship really requires a blog (or six) of it's own, so I'll just say that it's not always pleasant, and this sort of denial on the part of Japan is a huge part of the reason why.