It’s true that Japanese governments have edged ever closer to fairly genuine-sounding apologies, the latest by the PM was the least reserved I can remember hearing. It is also true that there’s systemic denial over their almost total responsibility for the Pacific war, and the horrors they visited on Korea and China before WWII.
IMO this is another reason (only knowable in retrospect, I think) why the A-bombs were a mistake. It has allowed them to believe themselves the victims, and avoid the kind of soul-searching the Germans engaged in and are just emerging from. What it would take to change that, I just don’t know; perhaps Dopers who live there might be able to comment.
I’ve been discussing these issues lately with my Korean in-laws. We came to exactly the same conclusion as explained in the Korea Times article (we hadn’t read it yet): Japan talks nicely but does nothing to indicate true contrition. The veneration of war criminals, the refusal to justly compensate former sex slaves, the lack of teaching and awareness of Japan’s behavior in the first half of the 20th century.
And my in-laws actually like the Japanese people who they’ve met. The cultures have more similarities than differences. Many Koreans vacation in Japan and the nations are perfect economic partners. But the past is very important in Korean eyes and Japan’s stubborness to recognize it hurts.
I don’t know what the solution is, and I’m afraid the damage is permanent. Can anyone give some insight into what the typical Japanese (not politicians) thinks? Will the next generation be able to make amends, or will they not realize the problem?
The question concerning the justification of atomic bombs is really quite a different discussion so I won’t comment on that in this threat. However, in comment to your question, I don’t believe that a full scale invasion and not dropping the bomb would have lead to the same introspection as Germany. First, as cckerberos correctly notes:
Unlike the Germans, the Japanese did not have a long history of deep interactions with their neighbors. Yes, the Japanese had invaded Korea previously, but that was in 1592, and in no way comparable to the centuries of increasingly more destructive wars fought between the European powers cumulating in WWII and the final recognition that something had to be done.
I wonder if also there weren’t more German civilians involved in the atrocities. More civilians involved in rounding up and exterminating the Jews, for example. The Japanese atrocities were mostly committed by the military, and although there was Korean slave labor used in mining, for example, it would not be the same level. While this would not excuse the civilians, it may have made it easier to a denial of responsibility.
For Pleonast, I’m afraid that your typical Japanese doesn’t feel any responsibility. If the Japanese at the end of the war didn’t, it hasn’t gotten any better.
I don’t think that the typical Japanese does not feel any particular responsibility for the war. If asked about WW2, I don’t think you’re likely to hear much more than something like “War is terrible. We should make sure it never happens again.”
The most likely change that I can forsee is an attempt by the Japanese government to avoid actively antagonizing other Asian nations. A professor of mine told me that she had been recently told by Japanese trade officials that they wished Koizumi would stop visiting Yasukuni. I read yesterday that Koizumi told the Korean president about the possibility of building a state-run war memorial (link). That may or may not solve the war criminals issue. The textbook issue is unlikely to change significanlty… even if mainstream textbooks continue to improve, the New History Textbook will probably still gain ministry approval to be used the next time it comes up. Likewise, the comfort woman issue has gone as far as it can, I believe. Japan’s peace treaty with South Korea absolves them of any legal liability, and they’ve offered unofficial monetary compensation and apologies. I understand the comfort women wanting official recognition, but I can’t see the Japanese government shouldering the problems that would come with accepting civil liability for its actions in WW2 given that the issue will likely become moot in a few years when the last of the women is dead.
Honestly, though, I think that the damage at this point is already permanent. I can’t really imagine anything that the Japanese could do at this point to prove to Asia that they are sincerely remorseful (which is not to say that they shouldn’t try). The issue is too politically useful for the Chinese government for them to abandon it, and in Korea it’s been connected to everything from the Takeshima/Dokdo island dispute, the ethnic make-ups of the Yamato and Paekche nobles, to the Hideyoshi invasion. Even if the mainstream were to truly change, the Japanese ultra-right extremists would still exist, and I think that would be enough to keep the issue alive.
That’s a good point, though there would have been numerous Japanese civilians in Korea and Manchuria that could have been involved in various atrocities/exploitation. I seem to recall an account of a massacre of Chinese slave laborers by Japanese civilians somewhere on Honshu in Ian Buruma’s The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan (one of a number of books that this thread makes me want to re-read.)
It’ll be interesting to see if the upcoming debate over constitutional revision brings up any of these issues. Monty mentioned Korean concern over the security clauses above, but there are other areas that I’ve seen mentioned that could cause anger, such as the possibility of a weakening of the article in the constitution mandating the seperation of church and state (meaning that Yasukuni could become official again) and changes involving “moral education” in schools. I’d be surprised if any of the more extreme proposals actually saw the light of day, but you never know.
(and I sure made a lot of typos and grammatical mistakes in that paragraph you quoted)
Well, that would be a reason for the Chinese and the Korean politicians, not the Japanese politicians, to keep the issue alive, so to speak. But it’s Japan’s political leaders who can easily put the issue to rest: apologize, and apologize for real.