7 decades after WWII, many praise Germany, scorn Japan - Sentinel & Enterprise
7 decades after WWII, many praise Germany, scorn Japan
By Foster Klug Associated Press
UPDATED: 08/12/2015 06:58:03 AM EDT
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Both nations brutalized continents. Both slaughtered and abused tens of millions of people. But while Germany is held up as a paragon of post-World War II reconciliation, Japan is mired in animosity with its neighbors seven decades later.
In many ways, the stunning economic and political resurrections of both countries since the war ended 70 years ago Sunday have been a windfall for their respective regions. Both have largely been generous in aid, both, for the most part, sterling examples of liberal democracies.
But talk to Europeans and Northeast Asians about Germany and Japan and you'll often find stark differences in perception.
This photo from Wednesday, July 15, 2015 shows a memorial to late German Chancellor Willy Bradt in the heart of the former Warsaw ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. The memorial recalls his spontaneous gesture of falling to his knees in 1970 in the former ghetto in remorse at German crimes during World War II. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski) (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)
Some of this is linked to the Soviet threat during the Cold War, which forced Europe to work closely with powerful West Germany. No such unifying force emerged in ultracompetitive Northeast Asia.
A kneeling West German chancellor is a European icon of reconciliation, but China and the two Koreas see Japan as having continually gotten a free pass.
Protected by U.S. forces interested in establishing a regional military bulkhead, Japan's Emperor Hirohito, the public face of the troops who ravaged Asia, was never held accountable. Nor were many suspected war criminals, including the grandfather of current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. There's also criticism that frequent whitewashing of history by senior Japanese leaders, including Abe, nullifies Tokyo's repeated attempts to display remorse.
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7 decades after WWII, many praise Germany, scorn Japan - Sentinel & Enterprise