It's big in Japan
By Capt. Fogg
I'm resigned to the fact that people like Mel Gibson and Arthur Butz will continue for reasons known only unto them to insist that Hitler's death camps were not there to exterminate Jews and Gypsies and other decadent races. The world still remembers though. The world has seen the photos, the films, the books, the memorials, the gas chambers themselves. Holocaust denial is not accepted by most in America and is illegal in Germany although many here would like to stop hearing about it.
It's big in Japan though, the redaction of history for the purpose of resurrecting Japan and it's divine Emperor as a heroic nation attacked by those nasty Americans, Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos. Back in march, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that even though his government had formerly apologized and offered restitution, all those thousands of Korean women forced into prostitution weren't really forced and that although many thousands died after being relentlessly raped, they were volunteers.
He's now taken the redaction further. The Rape of Nanking never happened, says he. China remembers, Korea remembers, all of Asia remembers; has seen the films, the photos, the books. The memory persists in the families of the victims but the most powerful leader of the world's second biggest economy, the country George Bush wants armed with nukes, says it never happened. All history of Japan's heinous aggression and unequaled atrocities will soon disappear from that island and only the memorials to their glorious heroes of WW II will remain. I really am too upset to write more than this -- enjoy your Toyota.
I'm resigned to the fact that people like Mel Gibson and Arthur Butz will continue for reasons known only unto them to insist that Hitler's death camps were not there to exterminate Jews and Gypsies and other decadent races. The world still remembers though. The world has seen the photos, the films, the books, the memorials, the gas chambers themselves. Holocaust denial is not accepted by most in America and is illegal in Germany although many here would like to stop hearing about it.
It's big in Japan though, the redaction of history for the purpose of resurrecting Japan and it's divine Emperor as a heroic nation attacked by those nasty Americans, Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos. Back in march, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that even though his government had formerly apologized and offered restitution, all those thousands of Korean women forced into prostitution weren't really forced and that although many thousands died after being relentlessly raped, they were volunteers.
He's now taken the redaction further. The Rape of Nanking never happened, says he. China remembers, Korea remembers, all of Asia remembers; has seen the films, the photos, the books. The memory persists in the families of the victims but the most powerful leader of the world's second biggest economy, the country George Bush wants armed with nukes, says it never happened. All history of Japan's heinous aggression and unequaled atrocities will soon disappear from that island and only the memorials to their glorious heroes of WW II will remain. I really am too upset to write more than this -- enjoy your Toyota.
posted by Capt. Fogg at
6:05 PM
2 Comments:
Every war's history is unfortunately rewritten at some point. The inner optimist in me always hopes that it is out of a sense of shamed "Oh, nooooo, we couldn't possibly have....could we??" but I know that is a slim chance. While I do own and enjoy two Toyotas, I don't enjoy ANYONE denying the truth. But I have to say, it is hardly the Japanese alone....every nation participates in horrors in a war and then tries to sweep it away afterwards. It is one of the sadder aspects of human nature that denial is easier than restitution and repentance.
By
Anonymous, at 8:13 PM
You are right, but look at the way Germany has dealt with its past in comparison. Somehow it never seems to excuse anyone, at least in my opinion, to point out that others are guilty too.
I do have a feeling that the day will come when Japan will wish it had owned up to its deeds in China. I think the Chinese may help them remember.
By
Capt. Fogg, at 10:45 PM
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