Apples and Oranges

Japan should own up to its past and apologize, says the Jakarta Post:

Japan’s stalled maturity
Opinion and Editorial – April 08, 2005

Amid the controversy over the Japanese government’s decision on Tuesday to approve the revised New History Textbook, it is worthwhile to read the speech of German Chancellor Gerard Schroeder during a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January: “The past cannot be overcome. It is the past. But its traces and, above all, the lessons to be learned from it extend to the present. We have a special responsibility to engrave Germany’s past in our hearts.” The speech clearly demonstrated the Germany’s maturity in accepting responsibility for that country’s World War II wrongs and to learn from it.

But why do we get the strong impression that the two countries are very different in dealing with their past? The tempting question may arise: Is it natural to expect Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to express a similar message as the German leader—of course, in his own way—when the world commemorates the end of the World War II in August this year?

Similar sentiments are expressed here, here, here, and here. The logic? Germany has said sorry; Japan should too.

Can anyone spot the difference between Auschwitz and colonial rule in Korea and Taiwan? This isn’t rocket science. One was a genocidal concentration camp. The other was imperialism—practiced in similar forms by Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Russia, and others during the 19th and 20th centuries. “But Japan’s imperialism was… worse!” so the argument goes. Bollocks. Please compare Japan’s imperial rule in Korea and Taiwan*, where they set up schools, built roads, a police force, and established civil society, to other instances of colonial rule:

• King Leopold of Belgium’s reign of terror in the Congo; 10 million killed; dismemberment as punishment; concentration camps; forced starvation…
• The European Slave Trade in Africa; tens of millions enslaved and permanently displaced…
• The Soviet Union’s collectivization of Ukraine (4 million dead); the Kazakhstan Famine (1.5 million dead, approximately one in three of the entire Kazakh population);
• The Bengal Famine; four million people died of hunger in the world’s worst recorded food disaster in 1943; other British famines in India in the 19th century killed a total of several tens of millions… (See also: similar famines in Ireland…)
• The systematics massacres, displacements, and germ warfare against the native inhabitants of the Americas that killed millions…

None of the above perpetrators have apologized. Would it be superfluous to add that Japan’s comparatively decent imperial rule indirectly led to the current functionality of modern South Korea and Taiwan? Especially compared to disfunctional Southeast Asia, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. The only factor working against Japan is that they were nominal allies with the Nazis, and they lost. But genocide? Apples and oranges.

Did Japan do terrible things? They admit as much. I’ve been to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial (sorry, I should get the title correct… “Memorial for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre Killed by Japanese Invaders.”) Pictures of Japanese Prime Ministers and politicians visiting the memorial are everywhere, laying wreaths and doing their best to heal the divide between China and Japan. And yes, Japan has apologized. As President Roh of South Korea recently stated:

“The fundamental problem is that the Japanese are looking to distort and justify their past aggressions. They have occasionally apologized, but their latest behaviors invalidated those apologies.”

The wording tells a lot. They’ve only apologized “occasionally!” Where are the monthly broadcasts declaring their war guilt? The tribute payments to the descendents of the descendents of the victims? Unacceptable! This gets to my main point, ladies and gentlemen: the actual apology is irrelevant. Koizumi could apologize again. And again. But saying sorry isn’t the issue. Korea is afflicted by an anti-Japanese psychosis, and China suffers from the brainwashing education of an authoritarian government struggling to maintain legitimacy. Marmot said it best:

…the fact that President Roh would make such a statement while pursuing a policy of “coexistence and coprosperity”Â? with North Korea and buddying up with China makes it hard for me to take the “Japan problem” seriously. “A misfortune to coexist with Japan?” “Japan doesn’t accord with universal values?” This after his defense minister says China has the greatest interest in peace and stability in the region?

Finally, to return to the Jakarta Post:

In the meantime, there is a growing opinion among many Japanese people that “enough is enough.” Many Japanese feel that they have done more than enough to show their regret and pay their war debt. They feel that they continue to be cornered and now it is time for them to stand up.

Too true. I’m glad to say that Japan is finally fed up with the collective nonsense of China and Korea, with Koizumi’s Yasukuni visits being just the first volley in what will be a long diplomatic war. Taiwanese politicians are visiting Yasukuni to show solidarity with Japan, and a new realignment is emerging: China and Korea versus Taiwan, Japan, and the United States.

What does a pro-Taiwan, Japanophile American such as myself think of that? I relish the future.

*= I don’t include Japan’s invasion of Mainland China or Manchuria because imperial (as opposed to military) rule was never established.

UPDATE: Another rationale on why apologies ain’t the answer:

The reason that apologies are not accepted is that the sense of being humiliated/aggreived is fundamental to the nationalist identity in China (and Japan).

In the former, at least, I agree.