Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Isn’t It Time to Stop Asking Japan to Apologize?
Yesterday Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pearl Harbor, the first time that a sitting Japanese prime minister has done so. This follows President Obama’s recent (and similarly historic) visit to Hiroshima.
Abe paid tribute to those who died at Pearl Harbor, offering his “sincere and everlasting condolences.” He renewed Japan’s commitment to peace, and spoke about how the US and Japan showed that it is possible for bitter enemies to become allies.
All of this is well and good. I have always taken heart from the history of our relationship with Japan, which is an achievement both countries should be proud of. And yet, for some reason, whenever there is an observance of this kind, all of the news stories seem to focus only on one question: Will Japan apologize for Pearl Harbor? (Even though Abe had made it clear in advance that that was not the purpose of this visit.)
I find this discussion to be frustrating and, as the years pass, increasingly stupid. For one thing, over the last 70 years, Japan has made many statements expressing “remorse” or “repentance” (or words to that effect). I know that in the field of international diplomacy such statements tend to be carefully constructed and closely analyzed, but come on; I’m satisfied that they’re sorry and won’t do it again.
More to the point, no one responsible for the Pearl Harbor attack is part of today’s Japanese government. Few people who were involved are even still alive. Do we really subscribe to a “sins of the father” philosophy of guilt? What is the point of extracting an apology from people who weren’t even alive at the time of the crime? Does today’s France owe anybody an apology for Napoleon? Are we still angry at Great Britain about the Stamp Act?
Actions matter more than words. For seven decades, Japan has consistently shown itself to have turned its back on the militaristic tendencies that characterized its government in the early 20th Century. It has consistently behaved as a country that is dedicated to peace (to an almost pathological degree, in my opinion) and freedom, and it has become one of our closest allies. Do these seven decades of unambiguous deeds not count? Is it really necessary, in 2016, to remind them once again that they lost the war? This is not how you treat your friends, not if you want them to remain friends.
I do not suggest that the war should be forgotten. History teaches us lessons, and we would be fools to ignore those lessons. But history is, after all, history; isn’t it time for us to move on?
Published in General
[Deleted comment. Was trying to be funny, but wasn’t.]
I have lived in the South for all of my fifty-two years, and I have never encountered anyone who calls it that.
I think I agree with this as well. Pearl Harbor is one issue but the other aspects of imperial Japanese aggression were much bigger. My understanding is also that Japan is not an open country. They do not like immigrants and are very tightly culturally controlled. I am not sure, as others have pointed at in this thread, if the Japanese people are as reformed as we might wish.
Also, this move toward the politic reconciliation is happening at a time when it might be “just the best option” rather than a real reconciliation as MJBubba has pointed out the political necessity of friends in the region. My understanding is that Japan and South Korea still don’t like each other. So, I think a little caution in believing Japan is another wonderful westernized country is in order.
The aspect of cultural superiority is one issue. Another is that the Japanese may not respect other countries to the point that they would be willing to commit the same atrocious acts that they did in WWII if it was in their best interests. This is not cultural strength but a worse culture to begin with. Just because Islamic countries are culturally strong does not mean we should like them or consider them like minded “conservatives”. Same with the Japanese culture. It may be strong, but that does not make it good. Their culture may have problems we should not ignore.
I think one of the questions is whether they would team up with bad countries against the USA if it made political sense. If we leave the region, what will the Japanese position become? Will they stand for freedom as we would like. In other words, if the Japanese only respect us because we give them good business and protect them, as soon as we withdraw are military support and put some tariffs on trade, will they still be allies at all?
I’m not convinced they could if they wanted to. Japan is rich, but they have virtually no military and no military subculture. It seems to me they have been quite thoroughly defanged, to what is probably an excessive degree.
There are an awful lot of speculative what-ifs in there, and I’ve seen no evidence for any of those fears. But even if everything you suggest is true, how would an apology for something that happened in 1941 help?
Where is your evidence for this? The Japanese by a huge margin refuse to have a military. They are as pacifist a nation today as they come.
Americans are a present and future oriented society. We really want to put stuff behind us, racial -baiters nonwithstanding. The idea that people are fighting in Europe over 1000 year old issues is nigh incomprehensible.
Japan, as a culture, is shame based, and apologies are part of that. Live and let live is not a Japanese value. I’d love if one of our members who lives there might chime in. (@10cents, I think?) They also believe that the stain of one’s ancestors applies to today. The American notion that you do not inherit the shame of your father is actually a very radical notion.
I too think they should move on, as long as they are honest with their kids about what happened. Then again, I am an American.
This was in response to the comment about conservative culture and how I am not sure that it does the anyone any good. As to the aspect of the policies of Japan, my comments were towards why we should not assume that Japan would be our ally just because they have been in the past. They don’t have a military so how would we know what they would be like with one?
I am just pointing out the questions we should ask before we let the Japanese control their region and loose our influence in the region.
Probably, but ceremonies that commemorate real things are useful. Apologies and making amends are more important in Japan than here, but it’s imposed by ones group, not outsiders. Japanese are not taught the history. That history is complex and requires the grasp of a number of important abstractions. Japanese don’t do abstractions. What’s important is that we are allies and want good relations and that we face common threats and challenges and must be reminded what can happen if we break those relationships. We need to be reminded of these things as well.
The point is that the fact that they don’t apologize is an indication of a culture that does not think about pearl harbor as a morally wrong action.
To be clear, I do not know enough about Japanese politics to say what this action by the prime minister means, but I do think that Japan has been very slow in making amends to other countries. It was only a couple years ago that the Japanese gave reparations for the treatment of Korean “comfort women”. Really, it has taken that long. I know politics take a while, but …
Anyways, to answer your question. Why does an apology matter. It tells us that Japan recognizes that their previous actions were wrong and that the country as a whole agrees to not do them in the future. From what I know about their closed culture I think that it is not off limits to say that they may not really want to talk about it in order to make sure future generation learn about the consequences of war. Some others on this thread have also mentioned how bad the Japanese are about telling the full truth about WWII.
Does this cause concern?
You’ve never met any Koreans then.
It is not an American notion, but a Judeo-Christian one – referenced in Deuteronomy.
And the Chinese and Koreans feel the same way (look at how the Chinese treat their ethnic minorities.) The Japanese perspective is the norm worldwide. The Left has ruined the word “multicultural,” but even the Right in the West is very much an outlier when it comes to tolerating other ways of life. That we tend to think of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan as honorary Westerners is proof of that.
Not practiced very much until America though. We have implimented it.
mutatis mutandi, of course.
I’m not sure that’s right. Unless I’m miss remembering, Deuteronomy says not to punish the son for the crimes of the father, or the father for those of the son, but for each to be punished for their own wrongdoing. Ezekial 18 has a similar promise from God. But elsewhere (Deuteronomy, Exodus, Numbers) there is a reference to the sins of the father being visited on the sons to the third and fourth generation. I take the first concept as an instruction on how to do justice and the second as a reflection of social reality (and of the nature of the hell we can expect from the sins of the baby boomers). We have eliminated much of the social shame of illegitimacy, but not the social consequences. I’m with @bryangstephens on this one.
Goodness, where do you live?
All we can do is try.
We humans aren’t very good at forgiving and forgetting. Here in the South, there are still folks on both sides, who are upset over the Civil War.
When my wife and I moved into a new parish we met one of the older couples. The wife was a delightful joy who always went out of her way to be friendly and cheerful. Her husband was a gnarled, weather-beaten old man who was visibly startled when he learned my wife was from Korea, like he had just assumed they would never invade his church. He mentioned he had been in Korea during the war, but it hadn’t been so nice. He muttered a few other things that I couldn’t catch. He never spoke to us much after that. I never held it against him. I figured I didn’t know what he had been through and that he had to work through it in his own way. Or not.
I was born and raised in Atlanta and have lived the majority of my life in the South. The only people I know that have ever used that term used it as a joke. Sort of like the difference between a Yankee and a Damn Yankee. ;)
Born in Louisiana, currently in Texas. The only time I’ve ever heard that phrase is from Yankees making fun of us.
Same here (though technically Marietta).
They do like to do that, even as they flee the north to move down here.
And then vote for the same stuff that made them want to leave in the first place.
Damnyankees.
Born and lived all my life in Texas. The first time I remember encountering the phrase was on the Internet, back in the ’90s. I’ve never heard it actually spoken by any fellow Texan.
Born in Louisiana, grew up in South Carolina, currently in North Carolina.
I assumed he was making fun of the typo.