[gaijin]

That history is shameful, true, and it’s even deeper than most people think.

But you know what? Asian security is NOT AT ALL helped by dwelling on this at just this juncture —China is loudly knocking on the door of all it’s neighbors right now, and this just plays right into their hands.

This is time-warp stuff —it’s like the dolts screaming, “Uncle Joe is our ally...!” as our cargo planes have to take off for the Berlin Airlift.

The average age of FR is high —the memories are real, and I respect that.

But with 100 million angry Chinese guys with NO hope of getting married, and a Chinese economy built even more on easy paper and lies, and ever-growing Chinese defense budgets:

Are we really HELPED by this?

No. It’s like we’re in some weird time-warp, blind to what is in front of us, in the here and now.

[2ndDivisionVet]

There are millions of Filipinas looking for suitable mates, I wonder why they’re not marrying Chinese males?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

In answer to a pen pal in Yokohama yesterday, I said, the grandsons and granddaughters of the Japanese of that era have apologized many times. The Japanese paid a heavy price for their aggression and the instigators are all dead. In the last 68 years, Japan has been peaceful and no threat to its neighbors. In fact, it has helped to raise living standards in the same nations targeted in the Pacific War by building industry in those countries..

Tradition is big in Japan. If a Japanese politician wants to spend an hour, once a year at a shrine, it's no other country's business.

[ConradofMontferrat]

Gaijin-san,

I have to agree with you a lot. Japan learned a lot of hard lessons. Whipping them for things in the past is counter productive.

The “Trail of Tears” is one of our most ignoble moments in history and I don’t see a lot of folks rushing to dredge it back up.

Moving on into the future, the Dragon is real and has a dark mindset.

Looking to that future and dealing with it is paramount.