[TheCommodoreAfro]

Originally posted by Hack&Lube+Aug 25 2005, 03:00 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Hack&Lube @ Aug 25 2005, 03:00 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

List of Japanese Apologies to Asian countries to attone for war crimes

Most of the Asian backlash against Japan has to do with the fact that the governments of Korea and China took reparation money from Japan after the war, and invested it on infrastructure. It never made it down to the people directly affected by the wars, and in the case of Korea, was managed irresponsibly.

War Reparation Payouts

It happened, it was horrible, but to what extent can you blame the current generation of Japanese for something that happened before their parents and grandparents were born? I think it's time for the region to move on.

I have no problem with the Japanese. I love Japan. I have many friends there actually. I don't know how else to demonstrate my love for Japan. I eat Pocky and Ramen everyday? I spend my evenings reading manga? Now I sound like some sick otaku. Anyway...

But it does irritate me to see how the war is sometimes portrayed in Japanese textbooks and I recently read a translated article from a Japanese paper during the anniversary where the author pushed the blame onto the allies for the war and claimed that such attrocities were exaggerated.

It's just frustrating that such a mindset still exists and I fear that education is not properly demonstrating the true horror of what happened (to many of my relatives indeed) in that period. You know over here in North America, it would be immediately be disgraced or at least intense scrutiny if something similar occured, such as teaching that the holocaust never happened, etc.

I don't particularily take offense that Koizumi visits the shrine that supposedly has war criminals or soldiers that commited attrocities but I'm certain that Vietnam wall in Washington is also full of names that commited horrors in Vietnam. [/b][/quote]
The thing is, there is a textbook out there but it only adopted by a fraction of 1% of the schools in Japan. Kinda like if, say, Ann Coulter wrote a treatise on Islam and it was only bought by Fox University. It was still approved as a textbook - just nobody in their right minds uses it. The only people who do are the Japanese militarists and they are far from a majority. They're the fataers who drive down the streets here in imperial flag adorned vans and tell me to leave the island.

Freaking idiots exist everywhere. And there are a lot of translations of Japanese textbooks on the issue that aren't really translations at all - just crap stirring the pot. Everyone's got an agenda.

I disagree with you on Yasukuni though - Koizumi has got to stop visiting there while he is the PM. It's not worth it in terms of their overseas realtionships, while the majority of Japanese disagree with it, as well.