Saturday, December 10, 2016

Many Japanese Leaders Are Worried That Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Will Apologise At Pearl Harbor When He Visits Later This Month

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe walk in front of a cenotaph after they laid wreaths at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Business Insider/South China Morning Post: Japanese leaders are pressuring Shinzo Abe not to apologize for Pearl Harbor

Conservatives in Japan have reacted angrily to suggestions Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should use his visit to Pearl Harbour in late December to apologise for the attack that brought the US into the second world war.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday that Abe’s two-day visit to Hawaii from December 26 would be for “consoling the souls of the war dead, not for an apology,” but an editorial in the Asahi newspaper said the Japanese leader should use the occasion to “vow never to resort to the use of arms based on genuine remorse for rushing into a reckless war”.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The group that is pressuring Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to not apologize at Pearl Harbor also believe in this ....

.... the society has determined that China triggered the Sino-Japanese war in August 1937, there was no massacre of civilians in Nanking four months later and “comfort women” were willing and well-paid professional prostitutes. Equally, annexation of the Korean Peninsula was “inevitable” because the kingdom was unable to maintain its independence, while the Korean people flourished under benevolent Japanese rule.

When I lived and worked in Asia this Japanese position of denial on what they did (or did not do) during the Second World War just drove everyone else throughout the continent completely nuts (especially those in China, Korea, and the Philippines). This absurd position that many Japanese (even to this day) continue to hold onto has caused incredible damage to Japanese relations with everyone else in Asia. And even though the war ended 75 years ago .... the scars and bitterness do not only still remain .... but I predict will only intensify with time.

8 comments:

B.Poster said...

Time to move forward people. Imperial Japan is dead, buried, and will never rdturn. Holding on to bitterness helps no one. One of the things I've always found impressuve about America is our capacity to forgive others for past wrongs done to us.

I'm not interstested in reenactments of any type here. That war ended over 70 years ago. The participants are mostly dead now, while the few remaining alive are very old. Furthermore the nations involved are all completely different countries today than they were in early 1940s.

Those who would expect a Japanese apology here remind me of people who live in glasx houses. Such people shouldn't throw stones!!

Time to move forward people. The challenges of today are far to great to cling to old grievances.

Unknown said...

I am more worried about what they teach students every year in textbooks than an apology form people, who were not alive at the time for people, who are dead.


Unknown said...

The burma Railay was a link between the Thai railway system and the Burmese railway system.

It is about 90 miles long. It had one 'famous' bridge.


The movie "The Bridge over the River Kwai" is one big fat lie.

Commandos did not take out the bridge. The U.S. Air force did after about 4 tries. Flak was heavy and the US Army Air Force could not get a bead on the bridge coming from the south. So on the last time they came out of the north over the mountains. It gave them surprise but also a short time to line up for the bomb run. They succeeded in taking out a steel reinforced concrete pylon. The bridge was not built by happy British POWs whistling as they went to work.

Medical for ulcerating wounds was sitting in the river and letting minnows eat the dead flesh.

I highly recommend visiting the River Kwai Bridge Museum. It is educational, gut wrenching and your dingus will not fall off.

The railway is 258 miles long and completed at the cost of 162,000 lives (est.). That is ~ 627 lives per mile. 12,621 POWs died.

The rest were little brown people who for some reason RRH does not care much about. He thinks they are stupid and can only do one thing at a time.

RussInSoCal said...

Japan doesn't owe the US an apology for attacking Pear Harbor. It was a well planned, sharp attack on a military target. But they missed the big prize - the US aircraft carriers and the massive fuel oil storage facility adjacent to Pearl Harbor.

Eight of the ten battleships hit were soon returned to service. And only 6 months later the US defeated Japan at Midway. A turning point in war.

So no apology necessary from Japan over Pearl Harbor and no apologies from the US for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

B.Poster said...

Aizino,

Thank you for the information the Kwai Bridge. I agree with you about the text books. The American ones at least tend to be quite atrocious. With few exceptiins the approach can be summed up by "America, bad. America's adversaries, good."

Russ,

You are quite correct. Had they gotten the "big prize" they might have been able to defeat the Americans quickly. Defeating the Japanese at Midway only six months later was an amazing achievment. America of that era had awesome industrial might.

Today, not so much. Such an achievment would not even be possible today. The entire industrial base would almosr certainly need to be built from scratch and the enviro-whackos would need to be fought almost every step of the way.

I think POTUS Elect Trump understands this, hence the desire to renegotiate trade agreements partly to build an industrial base. Business people, good ones at least, are excellent at thinking long term. In contrast, politicians seldom think beyond the next election and enriching their cronies.

Right now the possibility of the US being able to win a military confrontation with Russia, China, or much less both of them is pretty near zero percent. If I understand this, then certainly US military commanders do. Furthermore I'm pretty sure the Russians, the Chinese, and their allies are planning the attack and are only holding off for now to allow themselves time to get stronger in order to minimize the cost.

This explains Trump's desire to come to an accommodation with the Russians. Try and head this off now. Additionally an industrial base might give us a fighting chance in a military conflict that we currently don't have. Trade agreements need to be renegotiated. Also, an equitable agreement between the US and China should improve relations. Additionally Trump's emphasis on nuclear weapons that has some in the medua in absokute hysteria indicates further keen understanding on the part of POTUS elect. When surrounded by superior conventional forces, those nukes need to be ready to fly in the blink of an eye and the adversary or potential adversary needs to understand this!!

B.Poster said...

How quickly the Americans of the era were able to recover after Pearl Harbor was amazing. Such a recovery at that pace would not be possible right now. I've often wondered what would have happened if Al Qaeda had began with a military target as opposed to the WTC. They very likely would have crippled us. Since they didn't go with the military target first, we will never know.

They could have even selected a nuclear power plant. The WTC was about the most strategiclly insignificant target they could have picked. The tactics were brilliant. As for strategic thinking, not so much.

In contrast, Pearl Harbor was strategically brilliant. The failure to get the "big prize" aginst an unprepared enemy seems to indicate the tactics used may have been kess than perfect.

RRH said...

Whatever Aizino,

You are proof positive that one does not need a dingus to be a dingus.

Aizino is just angry that all those brown people died without having a chance to do the work around his mom's house that he is too lazy to do.

Crododile tears, dingus falling off...

Oh Aizino, you're (all of you) such such humanitarians'.

Huh,uh,uh Huh oh muh muh muh my dingus....


LMAO!!!

Unknown said...

More so than you are RRH. You're a lib.