August 15th 2005 marked the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 in the Pacific, and each nation commemorated the event from its own unique national perspective, reflecting its people's sentiments regarding the defining event of the twentieth century. Yet most attention was drawn to Japan, a defeated Axis country that despite its dramatic restoration and remarkable economic recovery, has remained at odds with its neighbors -- China and Korea in particular -- over its inability to come to grip with its malevolent past. There are two main points of contention.
The first centers around Prime Minister Koizumi's annual visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine, which worships war martyrs including Class A war criminals of WW2. A closer inspection of the Shinto shrine reveals its identity as more than a symbol of harmless religious tradition; it deifies Japan's royal family, glorifies its imperial past, and justifies its aggression on neighboring countries. An excerpt from its
webpage reads:
The textbooks depict as a historical fact the story of Asian women who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese Army. Imparting this story to students who are still young and immature has become a great problem since last year. This matter is drawn upon the judgment professed by the Military Tribunal for the Far East that Japan fought a war of aggression. Can we say that this view is correct? We must pass judgment on this matter in the same manner of a tribunal that passes judgment after gathering credible proof. We cannot help but feel that the possibility of ulterior motives have not been discounted. Isn't it a fact that the West with its military power invaded and ruled over much of Asia and Africa and that this was the start of East-West relations? There is no uncertainty in history. Japan's dream of building a Great East Asia was necessitated by history and it was sought after by the countries of Asia.
The second concerns the right-wing revisionists' repeated attempts to whitewash Japan's bloody and violent past by their rewriting of local history textbooks: eliminating any mention of slavish comfort women in China and Korea, relabelling its "invasion" of Asian countries as "liberation", and downplaying the historical credibility of Rape of Nanking. Unlike the outnumbered and ignorant Neo-Nazis in Germany, this extreme ideology is championed by more than a radical few; influential political figures including Tokyo Governor
Ishihara Shintaro share similar views. This is why Koizumi's carefully worded apology to war victims on the day of rememberance was met only with
skepticism.Emotional protests in China and Korea have only suceeded in amplifying nationalistic sentiments in Japan, and with the country's upcoming re-election and rampant talks of constitution rewriting to permit a full-strength army, the region has reached a critical point in history where we can destablize into perpetual, self-destructive warring fractions like the Middle East or the Balkans, or we can find a common ground among us as fellow men, iron out our ideological differences, and cooperate like the EU.
My plea to the Japanese government is to take a hard look at Germany's contrite reparation efforts after WW2. As a nation, they acknowledge and bear full responsibilities for Nazis' atrocities and crimes against humanity, constructed numerous museums and memorials throughout the country as reminders of their grave errs, and respectfully responded to advices from neighboring Poland to correctly and appropriately define history textbooks. After 60 years, it is fair to say that Germany has succeeded at some tangible level in conveying at least the majority's sincere repentence to their neighbors, earning their trust, and is now forging ahead to build a collective future through the EU. One who stubbornly ignore his past, however glorious or ignominious, is doomed to repeat the same mistakes. By teaching ambiguity, distortions and bravados instead of history, are you not condemning your own children to the same ethnic hatred and conflicts, thereby sentencing them to the same ill fate? Heed from Him who said it most pointedly and succinctly,"REPENT and sin no more!"
My prayer request to all Christians is for temperance, forgiveness and charity for the leaders of China, Japan and Korea, to never ever forget the tragic consequences of a terrible terrible war, and to labor ceaselessly together till we find a way -- any way -- to mend our scars and heal our wounds, one victim at a time. We can obliterate each other's future, or we can build a common one together. Rook e7, check; it's your move.
stepping onto a crowded morning train, amidst the tired and weary eyes of late commuters, delfly but hurrily i retrieved my nondescript Russian novel and buried myself inside the volumous pages of words. the first visual moments of Romans-fonted English alphabets on cheap coarse-grained paper, creating an orderly and abstract world of black and white, brought an instant comfort and relief. incidental neighbors' piercing glances, flickering like flash lights of a coordinated search party, were no longer manacing, or even intrusive. i was in the underground, where only the rhythmic humming of the running train was audible, urging me to dive deeper down the underworld of beastly men and cultic intelligentia of a bygone time. when i no longer saw crafty prose and cutting words, but a wry face of a greasily old baffoon, spitting venomous lies and stirring up a scandal out of pure spite and self-indulgence, i knew i have arrived at my destination. 
