Posted on 12/12/2009 2:25:57 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
The visiting head of Japan's ruling party apologized Saturday for wrongdoings his country committed during its colonization of Korea in the early half of last century.
Speaking at a South Korean university ahead of his dinner meeting with President Lee Myung-bak later in the day, Ichiro Ozawa also called for increased cooperation among his country, China and South Korea in dealing with regional instabilities.
And China.
How absurd. Since when is wartime guilt transferable, from generation to generation? On that basis I could play the victim card against Norway, because the vikings raided my ancestors’ village on the Thames back in the ninth century. If the Koreans want justice for ‘comfort women’, let them start with Kim Jong-Il. That homicidal midget has kept a platoon of them on call for years.
How sad for you.
And yes, this post is very much deserved. Lay off your crack pipe. I have met some of the survivors.
I can understand this type of thing will draw approval here on FR —in their shoes, especially now, we the USA would apoligize.
In the Asian context, though, I’m sure of two things —the Japanese do NOT mean it, and the people to whom they would apoligize would certainly not accept the apology. In fact, such apoligies by Japan would probably inflame asian passions rather than assuage them.
And then in the more narrow question of political interest, it is a certainty that in the near to medium future the USA will simply need a Japan that is armed to the freaking gills (especially with SDI related stuff and other bigger no-no’s) rather than one for whom there are robust touchy-feelies in the rest of Asia...
Japanese apologies only make Americans feel better, as a matter of principle —nothing more.
US calls for Japanese apoligies at this point make the caller sound....stuck in some kind of time-warp. Sort of like saying Uncle Joe (of the USSR) is our friend, and that of all workers.
***some of the soldiers, the politicians, and the victims are still alive?***
Go harass them, if you’re so needy for reparations. Ozawa was born in 1942.
A simple apology and human decency now equate to a demand for reparations.
And supporting a humane outreach to those who have been wronged is "Harrasment".
Right. An insincere apology, offered to a group who don't accept it anyway, and are only demanding it in the hope of financial compensation.
Should the mighty USA - or Japan - be conducting its foreign affairs as per the Al Sharpton Doctrine?
Wow. That automatically entitles you to Related Victimhood Status. And entitlement is what this is all about.
The civilians who survived the Japanese are victims. As are the Jews, gypsies, Christans, etc who survived the German camps.
Those who support them generally do so out of decency. Perhapse when the attendant brings your meds, he will explain the concept.
I never claimed and personal damage from the Japanese.
But I do acknowledge they did some things that were very wrong and that they have spent the last 60 years refusing to own up to it. The problems they face with the rest of Asia are entirely of their own making.
Yes, Japan's success at business and its democratic freedoms are her own making. And naturally that provokes envy and resentment amongst her neighbours, several of whom have accomplished very little in those departments. For China to complain about Japanese wartime atrocities - when their leader murdered millions of his own people, twenty years after the war - is a bit farcical, don'tcha think?
OT Edd: I'm noticing that your grammar and spelling is steadily declining, with each post. Stay off the Night Train until we get this resolved? Thanks in advance, Byron
LOL
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