Let's be honest. The Japanese aren't sorry one bit. The Japanese are only sorry that they didn't win World War II and murder millions more of innocent civilians as the Japanese overlords of Asia.
The contrasts in the behavior of the Japanese and Germans for their war crimes are remarkable. Germans have paid full compensation. Why have the Japanese refused to pay any compensation? After all, Japan has been one of the richest nations in the world for many decades.
The reason is simple enough. Payment of reparations is an unequivocal act of apology.
Where does the German chancellor Merkel apologize? She visits a concentration camp and provides a heartfelt apology that clearly acknowledges German responsibility and regret.
Where does Japan's prime minister Kan give his apology? Behind a podium of course. He's not sorry one bit. What does he say? He reads the transcript that mirrors the same words from two former prime ministers; in other words, he recites the same boiler-plate. Here, as Japan's prime minister, let me read a few paragraphs behind a podium and we're done.
"Kan says Japan apologises and repent, but they are just words," said Kang Joo-hye, a member of a group representing former *** slaves. "He didn't mention the victims once, or pledge any action to heal their hurt or pain."
The stark contrast between the responses of rich Germans and Japanese to atone for their wartime atrocities cannot be more glaring. The Germans have paid billions of dollars in reparations. The Japanese have yet to pay a single dollar.
The Germans have built memorials throughout their country, including the capital Berlin itself, to show their remorse. The Japanese haven't built a single memorial as a sign of respect to the untold millions of Asian and Allied victims butchered by the Japanese.
The Germans commemorate their atrocities by visiting the sites of the heinous crimes during the anniversary and give a sincere heartfelt apology. The Japanese are defiant and give a standard recital by former prime ministers and read a few paragraphs behind a podium.
The Japanese are not sorry and they have no honor. They deserve my scorn as a cowardly and unrepentant people and society.
Transcript: Obama, Merkel And Wiesel At Buchenwald - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
"June 5, 2009 3:34 PM
Transcript: Obama,
Merkel And Wiesel
At Buchenwald
Posted by Kevin Hechtkopf
(AP Photo/Oliver Multhaup)
Merkel: 'We, the Germans, are faced with the agonizing question how and why -- how could this happen? How could Germany wreak such havoc in Europe and the world? It is therefore incumbent upon us Germans to show an unshakeable resolve to do everything we can so that something like this never happens again.'"
Japan repeats apology for Korean occupation as ties with Seoul improve | World news | guardian.co.uk
"Japan repeats apology for Korean occupation as ties with Seoul improve
South Korean critics brand Naoto Kan's apology for colonial rule from 1910-1945 as just empty rhetoric without reparations
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 August 2010 11.59 BST
Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, makes an apology for the occupation of Korea from 1910. Photograph: Junji Kurokawa/AP
Japan's prime minister has offered a "heartfelt apology" for his country's occupation of the Korean peninsula, but
indicated that Tokyo was not willing to discuss any claims for compensation.
In a statement that closely mirrored previous apologies to Asian victims of Japanese wartime aggression given by former prime ministers Tomiichi Murayama and Junichiro Koizumi, Naoto Kan acknowledged the suffering caused in the 1910-45 occupation
"It is easy for the side that inflicted the pain to forget, while those who suffered that pain cannot easily forget," he said in a statement ahead of the 100th anniversary of the start of colonial rule, on 29 August.
"I express a renewed feeling of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology for the tremendous damage and suffering caused by colonial rule."
The apology is being seen as an attempt to strengthen ties with South Korea, which have improved amid shared concerns over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and its torpedo attack on a South Korean warship in March.
Better political ties have been matched by co-ordinated policy during the global financial crisis and strong economic links: South Korea was Japan's third-largest export market in 2009.
A Japanese government spokesman said Kan's statement was not directed at North Korea, even though Japan had occupied the entire peninsula.
Kan's remarks differed slightly from the groundbreaking 1995 statement by Murayama repeated by Koizumi a decade later as it was directed exclusively at South Korea and recognised for the first time that the peninsula was annexed "against the will of the Korean people".
Kan, who spoke to his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, by telephone, said Japan would return a number of cultural relics, including documents describing court ceremonies during the Chosun dynasty [1392-1910], seized by Japan in 1922.
South Korea welcomed Kan's apology.
"We expect all Japanese people to share this view," said Kim Young-sun, a South Korean foreign ministry spokesman. "We hope that through proper recognition and reflection of the unfortunate history, close bilateral relations can further develop into a partnership for the future."
Conservative politicians in Japan, including members of Kan's Democratic party, had warned an apology would fuel demands for compensation. Japan insists all compensation claims were dropped when the countries signed a peace treaty and normalised diplomatic ties in 1965.
Despite the recent detente, the countries have failed to resolve several long-running disputes.
Japan refuses to pay compensation to South Korean women who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese military, before and during the war.
Campaigners calling for reparations from Japan over its wartime conduct said the apology did not go far enough.
"Kan says Japan apologises and repent, but they are just words," said Kang Joo-hye, a member of a group representing former *** slaves. "He didn't mention the victims once, or pledge any action to heal their hurt or pain."
In another move that reflects the recent improvement in ties, no Japanese ministers will visit Yasukuni a shrine to Japan's war dead, including class-A war criminals on 15 August, the 65th anniversary of the end of the Pacific war."
