Japan Wants Response (From China), China Tells Japan Face History

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5677621&cKey=1113307554000

NEW DELHI/TOKYO (Reuters) - China's premier told Japan to "face up to history" and Tokyo's trade minister called China "scary" on Tuesday as a dispute over Japan's wartime past rumbled on after violent weekend demonstrations.

Thousands of Chinese took part in the protests over what many in Asia see as Japan's failure to own up to atrocitiesbe fore and during World War II and Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters in New Delhi that Japan must "face up to history squarely" and that the protests should give Tokyo reason to rethink its bid for a permanent council seat.

"The strong responses from the Asian people should make theJapanese government have deep and profound reflections," hesaid.

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[NashVegas]

1. Remember to Forget

The biggest favor the US did for Japan post WWII was allowing that country to gloss over its atrocities.

Germany, OTOH, was made an international scapegoat with all of it's dirty laundry on display for all of its citizenry to cope with. Except for those few US intelligence deemed usable enough to spirit out.

(This post is not to play down German atrocities, just to point out one of those cultural phenomena things.)

[Kagemusha]

2. As much as the Japanese may be in the fault here,

it's not like I think China and Korea are exactly objective about their history either. Aside from nowhere places like Canada though, who is?

[NNN0LHI]

5. No ones hands are clean here

I seem to remember some charges of atrocities committed by Canadian forces in Somalia and elsewhere if my memory serves me. My grandfather was French/Canadian so I think I can broach this subject without fear of being called a Canadian hating American.

Don

[Merlin]

4. Sounds right. The disavowal of the emperor as god was thought enough...

humiliation.

But it is quite a surprise to realize there's been no general assumption of responsibility and no cultural remembrance for the purpose of avoiding a repetition of history as in Germany.

[zara]

3. China's Thug Tactics and Japan's Amnesia

True enough the Japanese are glossing over their history.
But then again, do not we in the US do the same? The terror bombings of Tokyo by the US were war crimes. But we were the victors, and we wrote history. Japan on the other hand was the loser at war, later the victor at peace. And certain forces in Japan are trying and to some extent succeeding to rewrite history. And indeed, the post above that we did the Japanese a favor by allowing them to protect their war criminal emporer, etc. is no doubt accurate.
But consider China. The cultural revolution. The mass murders and re-education. The support for Pol Pot regime. The war vs. the Vietnamese. The Korean war. The threats against Taiwan. The take over and brutal repression of Tibet. The incredible economic power it is amassing. The huge population. The nuclear weapons. Remember the comment about the nuclear strike on Los Angeles from a few years back?
This is to say, that the Chinese's current tactics to stoke public ire against Japan for actions 60 years ago by a passed generation are worrisome thuggery coming from the economic, political, and nuclear superpower that is China.
Think Iraq is bad? Wait until China invades Taiwan.
Oh no, but China wouldn't do that--they might, if nationalism gets ahead of common sense (happened before hasn't it?) or if the economic boom stalls and the huge population struggles, and the government determines a war is just the thing to bolster support for the one party state.
What China is doing by allowing rabble rousers to attack Japanese embassies with rocks, and to threaten Japanese persons on the streets, is like but far worse than what the GOP rabble rousers did in Florida to help steal the election for * by shutting down the count in Miami through violence. Its a much wider scale by China. It is politics by barely restrained terror.
The Bush administration, fixated on the middle east, with an overstretched military, is near helpless against China. Look at its repeat failures in the N. Korea situation. Look at the huge trade deficits with all major economies in East Asia.
Bush administration is focused on Taiwan. Japan has joined this policy recently in a significant shift.
A cold war is unlikely, because the Japanese and the US are so deeply embedded economically in China. The Chinese know this, and use this.
What we have here is a new superpower that will influence its region. When the 800 pound gorilla moves, the mice nearby better watch out. Unfortunately, Japan's power is stagnant and economic. THe US is overstretched. An arms race of titanic proportions may result. Japanese will nuclearize.
Lay this on Bushco's doorstep.

[bemildred]

6. China worries me a lot.

Huge and growing power and huge and growing problems.
A train wreck looking for a place to happen.
An empire in an age that has been very unkind to empires.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. As one who is living in the shadow of the 800-pound gorilla,

I am afraid your assessment is correct

[NNN0LHI]

9. You are either an economic or political analyst. Or both?

Aren't you? Your future input on these types of subjects is going to be very helpful around here. Thanks for the post. And welcome to DU too.

Don

[LeftistGorilla]

7. China Tells Japan Face History

this is only the begining...