April 25, 2005
Japan, China, Apology, Textbooks - Simple Right?
But Japan's neighbors have a long memory. Some say a victim complex. After all, Japanese leaders have apologized many times for Japanese aggressions and excesses throughout Asia. The Japanese Emperor himself delivered an apology in Beijing some years ago. Most of the Japanese who invaded China and Korea are long since dead, and the new generation(s) are anti-war. Right?
The problem is that apologies have a hollow ring when actions contradict the words. For example, there is a great outcry in Asia every time a Japanese Prime Minister visits Yasukuni Shrine (which memorializes Japan's fallen soldiers, including a number of war criminals). This has been argued back and forth, and frankly I don't understand. I don't come from a culture that venerates the dead, at least not in the same way, and I haven't looked closely at the relationship between Shinto religion and Japanese nationalism either. To me, the issue of textbooks is more concrete. Recently, Japan has approved a list of history textbooks for classroom instruction that generally gloss over or simply don't mention the terrible things Japanese troops did in Korea and China. This has been going on for many years, actually, and today a great many Japanese don't understand that the Koreans and Chinese are so upset about. They don't know the full story nor have they had to wrestle with the 'dark side' of what their grandparents' generation did. They have never struggled with moral dilemmas. They are ill-informed and ill-equipped, some would say, to prevent history from taking a similar course in the future.
My wife completed her education in Japan and graduated from a good university here, but she never knew what really happened in Korea and China until she went to the USA for graduate school. In the USA she learned about the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers and saw (through Korean and Chinese friends) how real and raw the wounds are even today.
So what is the present crisis about?
I have read that it's about politics. That China is controlling the situation to serve their own ends. They have power to deny Japan a seat on the UN security council. They want to be the leader in Asia. And they would rather have Chinese people mad at Japan than pointing fingers at Chinese leaders for their own internal problems. I also hear it's all about business. On the news here, almost every time a Japanese person is quoted, he (not she) is saying a variation of, "This is bad for business." Outside commentators also say that both China and Japan have to be careful, because both neither of the two countries can afford to stop buying and selling with each other.
Finally, I hear it's about justice. I'm sure this is a popular sentiment on the streets of China and Korea, and it's actually fundamental to China's big picture position: that Japan shouldn't be a member of the security council because the country is essentially immoral (unable to take responsibility for evils of its past or be trusted with leadership in the future).
Strange to hear "immorality" cited in an international debate. Strange also for China to make the accusation. I admit I wasn't exactly seeing straight on this until I read this article in BBC news. But I still think it's an important point, and the fact that China is saying it gives the world some permission to bring the argument back to them.
All the participants on the stage seem a bit screwed up. This is a social, political, moral, political, economic and emotional mess. But there are things that can be done to begin straightening up the mess.
Why can't Japan change it's textbooks? It seems so easy to me. There's no need to bathe in shame here -- I'm just thinking of giving balanced information and facts using the best available historical information. What a grand and practical gesture that -- if knowledge is a good thing -- would benefit, not harm Japan!
My Japanese teacher doesn't think it will be so easy. I need to listen to my tape of our lesson today, though, to figure out exactly what she said. But one thing I caught -- which we both agreed on -- is that there must be powerful people behind Koizumi who are pulling his strings. There is always a sense about the government here that most things are behind the scenes and out of the hand of ordinary people.
Technically, ordinary people form a powerful group. Voters. They could take Koizumi and the LDP out of power. How idealistic of me to say that! I know... I could get all cynical, which is why I don't say much about Japanese politics much in this blog. But today I want to think Japan could change on a point like this. I really think it would be in the country's own self-interest, and it would be the right thing to do. Why is it so hard?
Posted by jw at April 25, 2005 11:25 PMInteresting BBC article - thanks for posting the link.
I read on another Blog about a comparison of Chinese history textbooks to Japanese, and it seems that both are very biased. Japan only has a few pages on WWII, and explain that they have thousands of years of history, so can't focus on it. But China has a similar or longer history, yet puts almost half the textbook on this one time period. If true, this supports what the BBC article says about the government using the teaching of history for their political purposes.
Posted by: Peter Donohue at April 26, 2005 02:53 AMnice blog i'm reading it all from the beginning.
Posted by: simone(italy) at April 29, 2005 12:18 AMyea...in the end, i think they both have issues. i'm chinese but my boyfriend is japanese & currently resides in japan. my parents make (a half-hearted "chinese-pride" attmept) for us to try to boycott japanese supermarkets, blah blah, but it doesn't seem like the main japanese population even really understand what the heck everyone is making such a big deal about.
political manuverings shall be the death of our world.
Posted by: tess at April 29, 2005 07:40 PMyea...in the end, i think they both have issues. i'm chinese but my boyfriend is japanese & currently resides in japan. my parents make (a half-hearted "chinese-pride" attmept) for us to try to boycott japanese supermarkets, blah blah, but it doesn't seem like the main japanese population even really understand what the heck everyone is making such a big deal about.
political manuverings shall be the death of our world.
Posted by: tess at April 29, 2005 07:41 PMThere's an excellent page on a major and under-reported development in Asia,
'Japan Forges Strategic Link With India, Another Emerging Superpower'
on the 'New World Order Intelligence Update' current news' page.
There's also a detailed and sombering warning on Iran, by Svott ritter, there -
'Sleepwalking To Disaster In Iraq'
Posted by: Paula McKenzie at April 30, 2005 11:39 PMYou write well over these issues. It's going to be exciting to see what's up next regarding these issues.
Posted by: Anders at May 1, 2005 06:47 AMaloha. i'm wondering about the whole "Japan apologized" deal.. i personally know very little, but Koreans are up in arms, petitioning to remove Japan's bid for that permanent seat on the security council, yes, citing immorality -- that Japan never did apologize for the atrocities committed against Korea. good read; i'll be sure to read the bbc article too.
Posted by: dave at May 2, 2005 07:15 PMThe Koreans and Chinese (and other countries in Asia) have (generally speaking, of course) held onto a great deal of anger toward Japan for a long time. They have passed this anger down to the younger generations. It's amazing, in a way, that they can so effectively remain angry -- but other cultures that have suffered atrocities in history tend to have long memories, too. Japan has apologized many times, but they have been faulted for not making sincere, complete or sufficiently public apologies. To make matters worse, certain actions by Japanese leaders continue to inflame the wounds (and there are ultra nationalists in Japan whose greatest regret is that Japan lost the territories it captured in Asia). All of this is the kind of thing you won't read about in a US newspaper unless, for some reason, it flames up into a "big story" for some reason (as recently it has in China).
Posted by: Andy at May 3, 2005 05:28 PMI remember when I was in Japan last summer and the Asian world cup soccer match between China and Japan aired. There were Chinese protests and a lot of obvious Chinese anger towards the Japanese. I was living with a host family and I talked to the twenty year old son in the family about it. He basically expressed that he didn't understand why the Chinese were so upset and wished things could be smoother. It was a genuine remark, but before then I assumed (without warrant) that the Japanese were just arrogant about it. Now, whether or not the older generations are in fact arragont, it seems like the younger generation has become ignorant, which is exactly why I think the education thing is of utmost importance.
Posted by: Jason S at May 4, 2005 02:56 AMJapan does need to apologize to the world, and especially China, for the horrible things they did during World War II.
Posted by: Haruko at May 4, 2005 10:00 AMhello andy,
im a 19 year old Marine Corps recruite trying to finish school, i take a photo 3 class in my school and got and assignment to do an e-mail interview with a photographer discussing photography and their history with the art. i was wondering if you would be up to it. thank you.
Dear Andy,
My name is Julien and I am the webmaster of www.expat-blog.com . I am myself an expat (I am French, I lived 2 years in London and I am now in Madrid -Spain since last September).
I had the idea to create a blog to share my expat experience, to keep in touch with my family and friends. I was also interested in other expat blogs, such as yours, and I thought it would be interesting to create a classified expat blog directory.
I began to program the www.expat-blog.com website during my free time; and realized it would be pretty cool to create a free blog hosting platform for expatriates (it should be ready in a month).
Do you think it is a good idea?
Would you like to add your blog in the expat blog directory?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
Julien
Posted by: Julien at May 5, 2005 04:52 AMAndy,
Very happy to have stumbled across your blog. I'm a grad student working toward a Master's Degree in Strategic Intelligence, and in the winter of 2003, I wrote an analysis of the likelihood for Japan to develop an indiginous nuclear weapons capability in response to threats from North Korea/China. I don't think that many people outside of Northeast Asia are familiar with the depth of animosity that exists between Japan, China, and the Koreas. It's certainly a powderkeg.
On a side note, I'm also the volunteer translation and editing coordinator for a ministry called Japanese Christian Fellowship Network - a group that assists Japanese nationals who accept Christ while working/studying in the US. They find support networks and churches to assist these folks upon their return home. It's a little ministry, but they do great work.
Incidentally, I'll be starting formal Japanese lessons in the autumn. I've always had a fascination for the culture (really, since I was about 8 or 9), and feel that the Lord has placed the Japanese people on my heart.
Sorry to get things sidetracked! Anyway, terrific post. I look forward to reading more. Consider yourself blogrolled.
Posted by: Jared at May 10, 2005 08:32 AMYou mean The UN security counsil, Not the US security counsil ..Plz make the Change
Posted by: Ashish at May 10, 2005 04:39 PM"US Security Council" -- oops. I don't think that's anything more than an honest typo, really. Funny it took so long for someone to notice.
Posted by: Andy at May 10, 2005 06:30 PMActually, I didn't read any of this blog (hope u'll excuse me) -- I just saw it as a way to contact u w/ some info, & pls bear w/ me as this has probably nothing to do w/ ur blog, but w/ one of ur other web pages.
I saw on ur "JAPAN LINKS" page, under the section "Travel and Transportation in Japan," that u had the Hyperdia link up there w/ the mention that it was only in Japanese, & I thot u might find this link helpful http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/
It's not their official one, but I've used it for quite a while now & it works pretty good. I recommend it to any gaijin in Japan who doesn't yet read kanji, but wants to be able to find good train routes & train timetables for travel in Japan.
God bless you with a good day!! :)
Posted by: Nina at May 25, 2005 12:57 AMActually, for awhile it wasn't available in English, and then it was again. Thanks.
Posted by: Andy at May 29, 2005 08:43 AM