The Japanese government did alot of evil things in the 20th century, and I have heard they really did not address these things.
Do the Japanese people feel that what happened in the 20s, 30s and 40s was a bad thing, or is their view more positive? I know people in every country will generally view their countries actions as right or excusable (at least moreso than other nations will view their conduct) but what are the general Japanese views on the invasion of China, world war II, the invasion of Asia, or the conduct of the Japanese military?
Well the Japanese government has approved a new histroy text book for junior high with really distorted WWII history; however, there aren’t many protests in Japan against this. Therefore I concluded that the Japanese is ok with their government rewritting history to justify their invasion of Asian countries. We must be reminded the people of Japan is the voice of their government hence the decision of the Japanese government is the decision of average Japanese people.
Japanese as people have never fully admmited to the sins of their country during WWII. They often excuse the invasion of Asia as liberation of asia from European powers. The Rape of NanJing (former Chinese capital) where 400k civilians were raped, slaughtered is treated as an accident and whitewashed.
I find the acts of Japanese and their goverment really disgusting. As famous historian and author Iris Chang stated “it is to be raped again” and this is what exactly what the Japanese have done by refusing to live up history.
The Japanese people so far as I can tell are entirely oblivious to their government. “But they’re the government; they ‘govern.’ What would I have to do with that?”
Before Japan can get proper history books, the mass media needs to get out from under the governments thumb. Really I think that’s the big issue.
Sage Rat pretty much sums up what I wanted to say in response to derunrun.
Generally, the average citizen here seems pretty focused on the present and oblivious of the past century. Feelings toward Korea are pretty positive (there’s been a recent boom in Korean TV shows and movies, and a number of performers have become hit stars in Japan) while China’s viewed ambivalently as a potential market/potential threat that nobody really understands (the idea that China could feel threatened by Japan in any way but economically comes as a surprise). The violent vehemence of the protests in China and Korea are typically looked at with a baffled “what’s up with them?” response.
Sorry if the above is a little disjointed, I’m posting in bits and snatches. I’m a little pressed for time, so I’ll link to my post about textbooks here in Sampiro’s thread.
Widespread ignorance, especially among younger people - I had a student going on an exchange programme to an Australian high-school, an intelligent girl, who simply had no idea that Japan had ever been at war with Australia - or a state of denial: the general feeling, if there even is one, seems to be that “it was a long time ago, so what’s the problem?”.
If pressed, the common line is among older people is that “well, the government was hijacked by right-wing nationalists but we got over it and now we’re good pacifists, and anyway we suffered terribly when the Americans nuked us, but we’re big enough not to hold grudges”.
As Sage Rat said, there’s no real notion of collective responsibility, either for the past or the present: it isn’t really a participatory democracy in the Western sense, and the government is seen as a bunch of guys in suits who, well, govern: the idea that individual citizens could influence or oppose policy is almost totally foreign.
Really, most Japanese are either ignorant of historical hostility towards them, especially in Asia, or baffled by it: they tend to live in a kind of eternal present where the past isn’t so much denied as ignored.
Native Japanese? You mean the Ainu? No, of course not, nobody thinks of the Ainu, that’s the problem. :mad:
Bsides that, I pretty much agree with derunren.
When pressed on the subject, the Japanese government will refer to WWII as “an unfortunate incident” without accepting any responsibility. It’s a classic “yes means no” kind of situation. I don’t think they’ve ever been really pushed hard to explicitly accept responsibility and have been able to wiggle out of it with diplomatic language.
I don’t know to what extent the Japanese play the We Got Nuked card but my impression is that they’re willing not to mention it if everybody else forgets Nanking and Pearl Harbor.
I remember being the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum when they had the front end of the Enola Gay on display. The Japanese tourists who were around me seemed utterly fascinated looking in the bomb bay, but in an abstract way. It seemed to carry no more personal signifigance to them than General Custers Hat or a medieval plough.
My parents have been to the Arizona memorial and dad was a little pissed at the high spirits of the Japanese tourists. He said that there were quite a few vets there who didn’t like laughing and antics of the Japanese. The Japanese were apparently oblivious to the reverence and solemnity of the site rather than disrespectful.
Saw something on TV last night that reminded me of this thread. There was another report on the recent anti-Japan protests in China, along with concerns over what will happen when the new Ito-Yokado department store opens in Shanghai this weekend. The news anchors went through all sorts of doom-and-gloom fretting over where the anti-Japan forces will strike, how they’re organizing (they sent a camera crew into Akihabara to film inside an internet cafe that caters to Chinese students), speculated on American involvement (somebody found a Chinese anti-Japan website hosted from California), speculated on how dangerous this new-fangled internet-thingy is if it lets such dangerous people contact one another, speculated on what to do about the potential danger of Chinese in our midst, etc., etc., etc.
Throughout all of it, however, not once did they ever talk about just what it was that the protesters were pissed off about. When they showed the US-based website, I could clearly see the English text about “Japan’s refusal to own up to its past” but it was never mentioned in Japanese.
The text book is only approved for use, it is NOT in general use by the local school boards. Most do not/will not be using that text book so it’s not like it’s ALL that’s being taught anymore than some US history books might not go right into depth about US involvement in the “day of pigs” fiasco, Mai Tai (sp?) or various assassination plots against other country leaders.
The Japanese “people” (I’m 100% Japanese but not living there) probably don’t care either way. It’s not a huge national issue. Sure, it sucks but it’s similar to how the US government is bent on screwing over gay people. It’s just another social problem. Going by news reports alone is dangerous because if I were to do that I’d say the US is a crime riddled right-wing country filled with guns instead of my real life experience with Americans.
And as of right now students are taught a decent amount of history. My mother knows about WW2 and the mistreatment of POWs and the Chinese. As with anyone else, the history class was fairly basic just like everyone else. My history class (Canadian) only focused on the Jews and did not mention Nanjing at all. Only through self interest did I pick up “the Rape of Nanking” and learn about a whole missing chapter in history. Most Americans don’t know anything about Nanking so lets stop harping on the Japanese huh? There is no ‘banned’ history book in Japan. Anyone is free to read up on Nanking.
And the whole Chinese protest is interesting. Here is a government with a tight grip on the people. Where any anti-government protests are met with tanks and killing squads yet this little protest against Japan is just dandy. Gee, that doesn’t sound like propaganda to me.