Success! Japanese and Korean lawmakers pledge to resolve comfort women issue

[Aepsilons]

2013 Statistics | OICA

 

[LowPost]

Why the bloody hell did you bring the Mongols up?

 

[Sanchez]

Congrats, this will open the doors to a better SK-Japan alliance.

You must be joking. The territory row would be next...

 

[Sanchez]

@Nihonjin1051 I have often seen pundits propose that Class A war criminals be "removed" from Yasukuni as a solution to this issue. What would that entail? Is it even possible, in the sense that there is something physical located at Yasukuni that can be moved away?

@Chinese-Dragon If such a thing were possible (e.g. if physical remains were located at Yasukuni, and disinterred), do you think that would remove the visits to Yasukuni as an issue, or do you think Yasukuni is too strongly associated with the Class A war criminals at this point to ever be considered a neutral shrine?

This is tricky! I believe that only the names of Class A war criminals were moved in since1980s. All eastern asians know that this is a gesture or mentality to deny the past rights and wrongs. There is an actual shrine of unknown war dead where US officials would sometimes visit...

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

This is tricky! I believe that only the names of Class A war criminals were moved in since1980s. All eastern asians know that this is a gesture or mentality to deny the past rights and wrongs. There is an actual shrine of unknown war dead where US officials would sometimes visit...

Ah, good point. Was it this place? Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Sanchez]

Ah, good point. Was it this place? Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You're right. Japanese politicians then chosed to ignore the signals of US government.

 

[terranMarine]

It's quite a dilemma, isn't it. Japan probably wants to ensure that if it gives concessions to China, that they will be final and allow the relationship to move forward. But China doesn't appear to be willing to discuss a settlement before concessions are provided.

A sad state of affairs, indeed, between two countries that I greatly admire.

Surely you can understand the animosity the majority of China harbors for what Imperial Japan had done. Over 20 million killed is not something that can be forgiven so easily. On top of that Japanese right wing politicians know how to enrage China and Korea with their twisted history version and the shrine visits. Not to mention the Diaoyu island issue has only made the matter worse. Our nihonjin here ofcourse would want to see a friendly relation between these two Asian powers, afterall China is very important to Japan's economy. But showing pragmatism isn't gonna cut it, bilateral trade has increased recently just not as much as Japan would have want it. Japan is also trying "hard" to arrange a meeting between Xi and Abe, this reflects who needs who more. The current situation is indeed sad, Japan caused it so China will continue to let this drag on as long Japan refuses to rectify the mistake she had made. Pride is just only one aspect of the whole picture.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Surely you can understand the animosity the majority of China harbors for what Imperial Japan had done. Over 20 million killed is not something that can be forgiven so easily. On top of that Japanese right wing politicians know how to enrage China and Korea with their twisted history version and the shrine visits. Not to mention the Diaoyu island issue has only made the matter worse. Our nihonjin here ofcourse would want to see a friendly relation between these two Asian powers, afterall China is very important to Japan's economy. But showing pragmatism isn't gonna cut it, bilateral trade has increased recently just not as much as Japan would have want it. Japan is also trying "hard" to arrange a meeting between Xi and Abe, this reflects who needs who more. The current situation is indeed sad, Japan caused it so China will continue to let this drag on as long Japan refuses to rectify the mistake she had made. Pride is just only one aspect of the whole picture.

I do understand. It's beyond me that Japanese prime ministers continue to visit Yasukuni without addressing the Class A war criminal issue. If the issue is not addressed, they should not visit Yasukuni while serving in office--is that really so hard? Is there no alternative way for Japanese politicians to pay respect to their soldiers who died in war that doesn't inflame China and South Korea so much (i.e. the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery that @Sanchez referred to)? We haven't even discussed the school textbook issues.

I can't imagine Germany behaving that way after the atrocities it committed in WWII. Germany faced its history directly, and worked hard to make reparations to its victims. It may have been hard for Germany to swallow its pride, but the hard work paid off--now it sits as the major power at the center of Europe.

If anyone can answer, why did the two countries (both allies in the war, both responsible for atrocities, both occupied by the United States) take such divergent approaches to reconciliation with their former victims? Maybe we can start a thread to analyze these two cases.

 

[terranMarine]

I do understand. It's beyond me that Japanese prime ministers continue to visit Yasukuni without addressing the Class A war criminal issue. If the issue is not addressed, they should not visit Yasukuni while serving in office--is that really so hard? Is there no alternative way for Japanese politicians to pay respect to their soldiers who died in war that doesn't inflame China and South Korea so much (i.e. the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery that @Sanchez referred to)? We haven't even discussed the school textbook issues.

I can't imagine Germany behaving that way after the atrocities it committed in WWII. Germany faced its history directly, and worked hard to make reparations to its victims. It may have been hard for Germany to swallow its pride, but the hard work paid off--now it sits as the major power at the center of Europe.

If anyone can answer, why did the two countries (both allies in the war, both responsible for atrocities, both occupied by the United States) take such divergent approaches to reconciliation with their former victims? Maybe we can start a thread to analyze these two cases.

This has been analyzed before, Germany did the correct thing by addressing the attrocities in school textbooks, acknowledging the crimes committed by Nazi. Keeping concentration camps instead of tearing them down (not sure if the Allies had any influence on this). Germany was devastated after the war, so in order to rebuild the economy the Germans quickly tried to establish relations with the rest of EU and the Russians. It will certainly do them no good if they tried to twist historical facts.

Japan on the other hand chose to close the door after defeat, it had American help to rebuild the country. Geographically Japan is an island which is isolated unlike Germany. Defeat is something very hard to swallow for the Japanese after the war, just look at the culture: senpuku, telling the pilots to commit suicidal attacks as last offence, telling Okinawans to jump off the cliff as the Americans are gonna commit crimes to them when they arrive. To them losing face is humiliation so perhaps that's why they tend to present their own version of WW2 in the textbooks. Call it pride or stubbornness if you will but one thing i can say is that Japan is very shortsighted in foreign policy with its East Asian neighbors. As one old Japanese war veteran in his 90s has recently said, he's gonna die soon but he is worried about Japan's future.

As for me and most Chinese, Japan can keep playing vocabulary games or paying respect to class A war criminals. Our spokesman/woman will continue to condemn them while Chinese are busy developing the rest of the country. Japanese politicians are too busy with their careers rather building a good relation with the neighbors.