Inspired by this CSM article (via Matt Stinson), and some of the comments and posts at East Asia Watch, I’ve authored a satire which, I think, puts current East Asia relations in perspective for North American readers. (Note that this is basically 90% the same as the aforementioned CSM article linked above, I’ve just replaced the names of countries, leaders, etc. Please also note that I’m an amateur satire writer.)
Memphis teacher embattled over war history
By correspondent Filmore Longview
Memphis, TN ““ Joe Baxter is a 23-year veteran of public schools here. Like many US history teachers of his generation, he dislikes new textbooks that frame the US as fighting for the freedom and democracy of the southwest during the Mexican-American War.
Yet until last year, Baxter, who calls himself “pretty ordinary,” rarely went out of his way to disagree. But when a nearby county adopted a schoobook that states “The US freed the people of the Southwest from the Mexican tyranny,” Baxter decided to act. His social studies class sent an apology to Mexican President Vicente Fox – an action that sparked Baxter’s removal from the classroom.
The war history dispute between the US and Mexico is now so front-and-center that it is cited by some on both sides of the border as a reason to end NAFTA. Many in Mexico say that the Baxter case shows how nationalist policies are creeping into the minutiae of American daily life.
Baxter, who says his two sons have Mexican friends, was censured after his class did a study group on America’s invasion of Mexico. Scholars are all but unaminous: General Zachary Taylor crossed the Rio Grande and goaded Mexican soldiers into firing on the US army to create a false pretext for war. Baxter’s social studies class wrote a letter of apology to Fox, saying that to say otherwise was “a disgraceby objective historical standards, but are falsely presented as an American fight for freedom and democracy overseas.”
American nationalism is approaching a Nazi-like infatuation: children pledge allegiance to the flag, school boards approve textbooks that gloss over America’s history of war crimes such as slavery, the Trail of Tears, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, the interventions in the Caribbean, and the ugly underbelly of the Cold War. This has been exacerbated by President George W. Bush’s goading of America’s neighbors with his annual visits to Arlington National Cemetary.
At the recent summit of the Americas last week, it was unclear whether Bush and Fox would even meet. Fox told Bush outright that his visits to the Arlington and texts ignoring historical truth were “provocative.” When Bush tried to argue otherwise, Fox responded harshly: “No matter how positively we interpret your feelings, the people of Mexico will never accept it.”
Meanwhile, Baxter has been put on administrative duties and removed from the classroom, and he seems a little stubborn. “We’re going down the same path today — just read “A Pretext For War” by James Banford. America only fights wars for Israel and oil, and all the big corporations and rich people on Wall Street. Those who say we fight for freedom are living a lie.” Currently, teachers that stress America’s responsibility for wartime aggression are increasingly framed as “liberals” living in the past.
Baxter’s case has been picked up as yet another case of the growing strength of the right-wing in the United States, but Professor Berman Richards of the University of Tennessee says the fuss is overblown. “The textbook that started this mess was adopted in just one county in Tennessee,” he said, noting that more than 99% of textbooks used across the country mention that Taylor may have started the Mexican American War. Richards also points out that Arlington is a memorial to all of America’s war dead, not just war criminals Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, William Henry Harrison, and Curtis LeMay, and that most countries have religious sights of worship to recognize their war dead. “Both sides just need to relax.”
Does this mean I should prepare placards and buy a bus ticket to Arlington? Can somebody bring a megaphone? We’ll need some good chants, too – who has a good sense of meter? Curzon, I expect placards with big maps displaying Mexico’s territorial integrity in garish colors. Maybe we could get those guys with the puppets to do something too…
There are a few ways it’s not an exact parallel, such as Arlington cemetary doesn’t have a museum that declares we were out to “liberate Mexico from tyranny”, whereas Yasukuni does. But then again, it’s satire, so fisking it would be missing the point, wouldn’t it?
just curious, can you do one for polish-jew in germany?
we just do not know enough american-mexicana history to comprehend this.
True… but Arlington is a “national” cemetary, run by the federal government, with no museum on the grounds. After WWII, the US told Yasukuni to either become a.) a secular government institution, or b.) a religious institution independent from the government — they chose the later and the shrine has been privately funded ever since.
This is a perspective comparison, not a crossover in the space-time continuum.
Well, I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of your satire… It’s about damn time we invade Mexico again!
The only difference from Japan/China is Mexico/America share a language…Spanish.
There are a few ways it’s not an exact parallel,
Thousands killed in one versus millions killed in the other, just for starters.
I do have to say that Sun Bin’s request for a contrast to Germany would probably be a better “perspective comparison”, given that Japan and Germany were both axis powers, did heinous experiments, virulent racial nationalism, etc.
Also, the original paragraph:
You replaced Koga Toshiaki with a school book. Of course, Washington D.C. city council is not exactly on par with the Tokyo city council as a prominent political body… what person would be a better replacement? A state senator? A governor?
I loved the satire! Good work. For the record, I actually agree which is why I used the word ‘bellyaching’ in my EAW post. Yes, there were millions killed– and there can be little doubt about the sick brutality the Rising Sun operated with. But in the modern context, Japan has apologized a million times and whether they like it or not, those war criminals are buried in the Yasukuni Shrine. If there’s ever been needless “stirring of the pot,” this has to be a candidate.
I can’t say I “loved” the satire, but I appreciated it. But the problem with satire is that it can too easily supplant the real seriousness of an issue with the absurd, satirical situation rather than bring greater clarity to the issue.
Just sayin’, is all.
Admiral wrote:
For the record, I actually agree which is why I used the word “Ëœbellyaching’ in my EAW post. Yes, there were millions killed””?and there can be little doubt about the sick brutality the Rising Sun operated with.
I think this is where this satire misses the mark. There should be little doubt, but in actuality there are loads of it. (e.g., It is noteworthy that the comfort women were paid for their services, so calling comfort women ‘sex slaves’ doesn’t fit. All the evidence points to the ‘comfort women’ system being voluntary, but any attempt to explain it rationally based on actual facts simply means being shouted down as a right winger.).
But in the modern context, Japan has apologized a million times
Not a million times. A dozen times, maybe, but then that dozen of times seem to be backtracked by “but it wasn’t so bad,” “but we had no choice,” “but you benefitted from it,” etc.
Now if there were actually a million apologies, that would actually put a dent in the millions of people killed and the millions of more who were injured or had their lives ruined.
and whether they like it or not, those war criminals are buried in the Yasukuni Shrine.
They are not buried there; they are enshrined there. And their enshrinement is not from the end of the war, but the end of the 1970s, when they were put there as a statement that the decisions of guilt handed down were illegitimate, thus making the executed (or those who committed suicide to avoid execution) war casualties.
But the problem is not Yasukuni itself, but that the PM and government representatives visit this place that is centered around justifying Japan’s murderous aggression. The enshrinement of the fourteen is only part of that.
If there’s ever been needless “stirring of the pot,”Â? this has to be a candidate.
Are you saying the enshrinment itself is a needless stirring of the pot, or the visits to Yasukuni, or the complaints about it?
If it is the last one, I don’t see how Korean (or Chinese or Dutch) complaints about these visits are obsession about the past when visiting the war shrine itself is not the same.
An excellent, funny, and meaningful post. Thank you.
i guess you didnt like my post?
*sigh*
Do we need to revisit the apology issue again? Maybe it’s time I refired up the ol blog, Curzon has my blood pumping again.
Kudos to Kushibo’s reply.
No revisiting necessary, apology is not the issue:
Blatheron: to what do you refer?
Curzon, are you sure the date of that Roh quote is correct. I thought he’d said that months ago.
By the way, whatever one feels about the issue, I think it’s fair to say that what a ROK president has to say has become a lot like what a US president has to say in that it is more represntative of his viewpoint and that of his administration, not the country’s viewpoint.
Presidential pronouncements used to be more like Supreme Court decisions (perhaps because presidents were in power for so long, on average), but no more.
Case in point: what Roh says above completely undermined the policy of his predecessor (Kim Daejung, also a left-of-center leader), to let things of the past remain in the past (can’t remember the exact quote) when dealing with Japan.
Korea’s next leader, if a conservative or a pragmatic leftist or centrist, will probably be more like Kim than Roh.
The date was either the 18th or the 19th — news reports are not unaminous on the date, possibly because of the time difference. It doesn’t seem extraordinary that Roh has repeated similar sentiments, and Roh has “issued similar statements in the past.”:http://www.cominganarchy.com/2005/05/07/roh-rebukes-plunge I hold out similar hopes for a less-leftist ROK president in the future, but opinion polls would suggest that Roh is doing more than running his mouth off.
It was that May pronouncement to which I referred.
As far as polls about anti-USFK, anti-Bush, or anti-Japanese sentiment are concerned, they tend to reflect the furor at the time. It’s irresponsible to put too much stock in these highly unreliable, highly misleading snapshots.
And a president’s words and actions tend to lead public opinions on matters related to Tokyo and Washington, to a great deal, rather than be led by them. If Roh had gone on television and said something similar to his predecessor instead of fueling the flames with his talk of “diplomatic war,” the furor would have died down within a week.
Enshrining, burying– I really couldn’t care less at this point. For some reason, a big media hullabaloo is being made about this– and this is really the main point. This is such a non-starter of an issue. Further, it is being used by other countries for rally around the flag effect in a vicious, cycle-inspiring sort of way. Japan is not. Japan is doing it in a constructive way. More on that later.
Those people are a part of Japan’s history, and there are a lot of people’s memories bound up with the Shrine, not just some war criminals. The others needn’t be forgotten because the war criminals are there– and incidentally, some war criminals are far less deserving of the moniker than others.
And in diplomatic terms, apologizing a dozen times IS like apologizing a million times. It’s a ridiculous amount but it doesn’t look like it will ever leave the agenda since some countries think that they can gain some leverage with it. Kudos to Koizumi for getting a life.
Their visits are not about celebrating war criminals or the brutalities of the past, but about how Japan will move forward with its nationalism. The way I see it, Japan shouldn’t have to fear acknowledging its past, seeing it, accepting it, making it whole within the people’s context.
I happen to believe that Japan, as it stands now, is still capable of the brutalities of the past. This is not going to change based on if the PM and the administration visits the Shrine. With time, perhaps all can come to grips and try to understand why people do the things they do. Even the heartless, brutal Japanese Empire had its beauty.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned that the S.S. had pretty sweet uniforms. Those guys knew fashion.
One thing I think that Germans fail to mention on the millionth time they apologize for the Holocaust is that without ol’ Adolf, there wouldn’t be any Israel. Thankfully the Japanese are not so remiss in their situation.
Now this is also a good satire :)
Kushibo:
?? I think it’s fair to say that what a ROK president has to say has become a lot like what a US president has to say in that it is more represntative of his viewpoint and that of his administration, not the country’s viewpoint.??
EXACTLY!!!! THAT IS 100% RIGHT! So when Koizumi visit’s Yasukuni, it doesn’t say anything about the people of Japan, but only about Koizumi and his administration correct? Or are there a special set of rules just for this one too? Also, if we want to get specific and say Japan hasn’t apologized “a million times”, but only about “a dozen”, the number is actually 36, that’s like, almost a million times more than a dozen. ;)
I honestly think it’s all a mater of prospective. Having not been in Korea for more then an hour while changing flights, as opposed to being in (Japan friendly) Taiwan for three months and Japan for 3 years, I look at it from a Japanese viewpoint. Having said that, I think the Japanese side understands the Korean viewpoint better then the Korean side understands the Japanese viewpoint. The Japanese acknowledge the issue offends Korean people, however it also explains how it is being understood, regardless of the fact that the explanation falls on deaf ears.
Lastly, now here’s the kicker; I mentioned before that I think of everyone that’s ticked at Japan for WW2, the Dutch people are the most pissed. I’m 100% Dutch. It doesn’t bother me. My Grandfather, born in the Netherlands, is infuriated with WW2-time Japan, but he is able to do something that it seems many can’t, that was Japan 60+ years ago, this is Japan now. Many people are trying to hold people responsible for something they did not do; something they could not control. Mr. Tanaka, 40, didn’t kill anyone. The people of Korea and China have received 36 apologies from people who committed no crime. They have no control over the fact that they were born on Japanese soil. They have no control over the fact that their dead relatives did something horrible. What do people want from them? They are already getting much, much more than they could ever get from me.
As a side note, my Grandfather has been to Japan on multiple occasions, loves Japan, and encourages me to continue studying here. His aggression is towards a Japan that hasn’t been in existence for 60 years.
Given the impending Asian war with China, we need to recall the strength and honor of our Japanese allies… should we not allow them to re-arm their navies and air forces?
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/1/19/02630
Given the economic leverage China seeks strategically here, should we not consider history’s peace in the Orient?
My grandfather was a prisoner of war in a Nazi camp in North Africa for four years, one of only 12 survivors. When he came back home he not once said anything bad about Germans. He never stopped buying German products. And lastly – and most critically – he never told us about what happened while he was there, and CERTAINLY would have never cried about it or wrote a book about it. He’s a hardass, and people like him don’t cry or complain (which is most likely why he survived). The holocaust and massacre victims writing endless books and shedding tears on camera are highly suspect in my mind. Are these whiners even romotely possible to be actual survivors?
On the other hand, my Jewish step grandfather was never in the holocaust, was never directly a victim of the Nazis, and he sings the chorus of “never again” and boycotts German products. See a pattern here?
Another point that needs to be made is that right-wing politicians visiting Yasukuni might be imbued with a sense of worshipping “war heroes”, but that’s not what the shinto religion teaches on the subject. The fourteen class A war criminals enshrined there are -according to religious precepts – “cleansed” of all worldly guilt. Any criminal is said to pay for his crimes in full when he dies. Yasukuni is a kind of dry cleaners for souls. They put names on the registry to cleanse the souls and make them more welcome inhabitants of the world (where they are said to still be living). So the registry also includes people whose souls we wouldn’t want running around uncleansed like the victims of invasion, like the many Chinese and Korean victims listed on the registry. So it should be noted that if anybody goes there thinking they are respecting “war heroes” are not very well educated in what is admittedly an unpopular and widely misunderstood religion.
Another point that needs to be made is that right-wing politicians visiting Yasukuni might be imbued with a sense of worshipping “war heroes”Â?, but that’s not what the shinto religion teaches on the subject. The fourteen class A war criminals enshrined there are -according to religious precepts ““ “cleansed”Â? of all worldly guilt. Any criminal is said to pay for his crimes in full when he dies. Yasukuni is a kind of dry cleaners for souls.
Since the Yasukuni-14 did not die during war (a couple died of natural causes), how is it that they were justified in being enshrined there? Is anybody who fought in war to be enshrined there, even if they died from lung cancer, getting hit by a bus, or just old age?
Are all executed “war criminals” enshrined there, or is it just these fourteen? Is Hong, a Korean executed after the war for his role in Japanese POW camps, also enshrined there?
If it is natural that these fourteen were to be enshrined there, why did they wait over three decades to enshrine them there? It would seem that their post-war, non-wartime deaths did not necessitate their enshrinement. Was this a deliberate political act, not a religious one?
They put names on the registry to cleanse the souls and make them more welcome inhabitants of the world (where they are said to still be living). So the registry also includes people whose souls we wouldn’t want running around uncleansed like the victims of invasion, like the many Chinese and Korean victims listed on the registry.
I thought the only names enshrined were of the military personnel who died in wartime, not the victims. I know that Koreans are enshrined there, but this was because they were in the Imperial Army or Imperial Navy (some of them as willing volunteers).
So it should be noted that if anybody goes there thinking they are respecting “war heroes”Â? are not very well educated in what is admittedly an unpopular and widely misunderstood religion.
The shrine is not a stand-alone feature. The people who run the shrine also run a museum which seeks to promote a very sanitized, no-apologies view of Japan’s aggression.
But your point about religion stands. Shinto religious figures purport that their religious doctrine means that the Yasukuni-14 canNOT be dis-enshrined, thus creating a roadblock to anyone who would like to solve the problem in a way that would include visits by Japanese officials to Yasukuni.
There are many who do not support this religious view (certainly most do not in the countries that were victims of Imperial Japanese aggression, but many in Japan as well), which is all the more reason for Japan to have a secular place to honor its war dead.
Japanese politicians seem to enjoy the confusion over this issue. They can please the right who think the shrine enshrines war heroes, while they can at the same time claim the noble values of Shinto religion. Koizumi when answering questions abroad insists on his agreement with these values, but when he goes home he doesn’t tell his supporters that.
I’m much more interested in what Curzon started talking about with me in Nanjing, which was about the situation on the street in Japan. If what he says is true, militarism and worship of violence is budding in the culture (very different from my impression in 1999), which is in tandem with Chinese sentiments. Again my point stands that the issue here is an ideolgy taking root, and not an issue of “history” (as it is obfuscated) and especially not an issue of race or nationality. I wrote my entry in an effort to stop the cheerleading for either “side” (which is only politically clear). I think that any of us in principle should be willing to oppose, in theory, imperial hubris and violence.
Kushibo: I’m very interested in more information about the attached museum. Please continue to discuss it in detail, and if you have the time, paste some links up for me.
heriabbit,
i think what you have described is a pretty accurate picture.
this is a link to an “CSM article on the museum”:http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2005/1021/p01s04-woap.html
aside from the political bickering, the koreans and chinese are genuinely worried about japan’s re-arm, and its shift to the right wing.
Sun Bin
I read the article and I think it does little toward understanding history, but rather attempts to point fingers at who is “mainstream” and who isn’t. The most glaring innacurracy in the article is the quotations around Roosevelt’s plan to goad Japan into attacking US soil. Though maybe many “mainstream” historians (no doubt many American high-school history teachers included) think Roosevelt had no such plan, that is clearly refuted by documents released under the freedom of information act in the 90′s. These documents show that Roosevelt was in fact hoping to entice the Japanese army to make what would appear to be a first attack. As America – without a declaration of war – placed an oil embargo (an act of war) on Japan, Pearl Harbor could not possibly be seen as a first attack. Incidentally, it wasn’t a “sneak” attack either, as these documents show foreknowledge of the attack. In “Day of Deceit” this evidence is made all too clear. And really I don’t need to read books like that anymore, because all war starts that way. One country secretly attacks another, or kills its own citizens in an effort to get the other side to escalate. War is the health of the state and the impoverishment of the people. The state will always be playing war propaganda games, and when a society agrees to go along with a war, they’ve already been fooled to the nth degree.
The picture given of the museum, though, is not very pretty. These types of museums are all over the world. If you’re going to a museum to learn history, you’re already hopeless.
So Chinese going to the massacre museum here in Nanjing are hopeless. And people getting emotional about Japan vs. China are about as intelligent as soccer fans.
well, it is no secret that roosevelt oppose japanese aggression in asia from 1937-194, and he imposed embargo and wanted to join the war. but it is very different from what yoshukan said. “US wanted a war to improve its economy, after it joined the war, it reverted the recession….”
if one follows the embargo=war logic.
1. cuba should strike norfolk, va
2. china should strike guam during 1950-1978
p.s. do not compare nanjing museum with yoshukan. this is what the japanese fascist do.