8 Asians

The Rape of Nanjing: When will Japan ever learn?

The other day, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan denied that Japan’s military had forced foreign women into sexual slavery (better known euphemistically as “comfort women“) during World War II, contradicting the Japanese government’s previous 1993 statement that acknowledged the military’s role in setting up brothels and forcing women into sexual slavery.

This is just plain ridiculous and an outrage. It just so interesting that on one extreme, Germany’s national psyche is haunted by the Holocaust, while Japan revisits every so often and denies the occurrence very well documented existence of “comfort women” and The Rape of Nanjing. It is this kind of behavior and statements that continually raises mistrust and near term acceptance as Japan as a regional and political economic power and continues to threaten Japan’s legitimacy during China’s rise.

Better for Japan to repent fully and put this issue to bed than to continue to revisit and re-interpret history.

When will Japan ever learn?

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Comments (4) to “The Rape of Nanjing: When will Japan ever learn?”

1. susan wrote:

   Sigh. When, indeed.

   Posted on 03-Mar-07 at 11:26 pm | Permalink

2. C(h)ristine wrote:

   this news, when i heard it, made me very very sad. and angry. i wonder about the psychology of a nation in such deep denial. (the same nation that evaded (for economic reasons) the “discipline” that Germany had to undergo, after WWII).

   Posted on 04-Mar-07 at 10:16 pm | Permalink

3. Cat D wrote:

   I can say for sure that not all of Japan is on the side of the government on this matter. The online TIME article about movie productions in the works of the Rape of Nanking mentions that there is a large activist community in Japan who are against the whitewashing of their history.

   Posted on 04-Mar-07 at 10:29 pm | Permalink

4. Ben wrote:

   John,

   Looks like despite the pending (nonbinding) resolution in the US House of Representatives, Abe is unlikely to modulate his position (that contractors, rather than the Japanese military themselves, are to blame for these brothels):

   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/world/asia/05cnd-japan.html

   Posted on 05-Mar-07 at 11:47 am | Permalink

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