Rape of Nanking, or Why Does Only West Have to Say They're Sorry

[jbg]

The U.S. has apologized for the forceable relocation of the Japanese, and I believe even for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even Germany (though not Austria) has apologized for the Jewish Holocaust. Funds are raised from well-intentioned Canadians and Americans for earthquakes and tsunamis in Muslim lands and strief-induced famines in those lands.

The startling fact is that even the most "Westernized" of the rest of the world, the Japanese, apologize for nothing, even the atrocities described below (link to article, excerpts below):

Exposing the 'truth' about the Nanking massacre

Posted: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:19 AM

By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer

BEIJING – "City of Life and Death" might sound like your average escapist action film helping to usher in the summer movie season.

But it’s not.

The 2-hour black and white epic recounts the early days of Japan’s occupation of Nanking (now known as Nanjing) in 1937. Over six weeks, Japanese troops committed brutal atrocities against hundreds of thousands of residents of the wartime Chinese capital.

Estimates of those killed vary wildly, but historians say around 200,000 to 300,000 people were slaughtered. It’s a dark episode of World War Two that doesn’t get much mention in the West, but here in China no one has forgotten.

"In China, everyone knows about the Nanjing Massacre," said 38-year old filmmaker Lu Chuan, who directed "City of Life and Death."

"But as far as I know, nobody outside of China knows [about it]… I think it’s important to let people outside of China know the truth, because wars and massacres are everywhere."

(snip)

I know that "love means never having to say you're sorry". Are Westerners the only people who have to fall on their swords and grovel to barbarians? No, the Japanese are not barbarians, these days. But the West is groveling to the 911 perpetrator peoples, etc.

[bush_cheney2004]

The U.S. has apologized for the forceable relocation of the Japanese, and I believe even for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even Germany (though not Austria) has apologized for the Jewish Holocaust. Funds are raised from well-intentioned Canadians and Americans for earthquakes and tsunamis in Muslim lands and strief-induced famines in those lands.

Yes and no....the US government has apologized and paid reparations for Japanese internments, but there has never been an apology for the use of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (nor will there ever be an apology IMO). General Curtis LeMay had already destroyed 60 Japanese cities with thousands of tons of incendiaries:

Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/08/us/no-ap...-hiroshima.html

[jbg]

Yes and no....the US government has apologized and paid reparations for Japanese internments, but there has never been an apology for the use of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (nor will there ever be an apology IMO).

My point is that the U.S. apologized for a discriminatory policy, not rising to the level of an atrocity. Whereis the Janjaweed's "apology"?

[Muddy]

The Japanese army was very savage not only to their enemy but even to their own soldiers. Corporal and even capital punishment was the norm in the Japanese Army. What we did to our Japanese citizens in Canada was partially wrong. There were 5th columists within ,but incarceration was a big stick but it did protect the Japanese from emotions running over. No one died, they were safe. What we did do wrong however was take away their property. But unlike the Japanese Army who murdered ,tortured our soldiers who were prisoner of war what we did pales in comparison. Where is the Japanese apology for it`s war crimes to those allied soldiers taken prisoner by the brutal Japanese Army?

As far as dropping the Atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima ,it saved millions of lives both allied and civilian.

[Wilber]

If you do something wrong, you should apologize. I have no problem with the Canadian government apologizing for its treatment of Japanese Canadians during WWII. They had one coming IMO. Japan's lack of an apology for the atrocities it committed during WWII speaks for itself. Quite a contrast to the kind of ownership Germany has taken of the Nazi barbarity.

[Peter F]

Please, jbg, do please explain how "the West is groveling to the 911 perpetrator peoples". Seems to me that the USofA and allies have declared war on those peoples and are killing quite a few of those peoples and some other non-perpatrating peoples to boot.

[Borg]

No apologies required.

These things happened before I was born - and were required at the time - deemed necessary by the duly elected leaders of the day.

Seems the white folks and the white governments of the world need to do this apology thing.

I wonder when the Japs will send my very aging Uncle some cash for the leg he lost as a POW in their coal mines - removed with a knife and a hand saw while underground - no pain killers - just some friends holding him down. He came home weighing almost 90 pounds - even with a lower leg gone, that is pretty light for a guy who stands sixx foot tall.

Apologies for the past are bullshitte - looking forward is far more important.

Borg

[Wilber]

Apologies for the past are bullshitte - looking forward is far more important.

The apologies were to Canadians who happened to be of Japanese descent, not to Japan or Japanese nationals, if so I would agree with you. It was racism pure and simple, we didn't intern or confiscate the property of Canadians of German or Italian descent.

An apology from the Canadian government is appropriate because it was an injustice done to Canadian citizens, many of whom were born here.

[jbg]

Quite a contrast to the kind of ownership Germany has taken of the Nazi barbarity.

Germany has. Austria, the real font of National Socialism, has not. They elected an ex-Nazi, Kurth Waldheim, President or PM recently.

[Wilber]

Germany has. Austria, the real font of National Socialism, has not. They elected an ex-Nazi, Kurth Waldheim, President or PM recently.

So who do you respect more, a government that shows it is capable of an apology or one that doesn't?

[jbg]

So who do you respect more, a government that shows it is capable of an apology or one that doesn't?

It all depends on the context. The actions of the U.S. during WW II was far less horrific than those of the Japanese. Apologies to those engaged in savagery stick in my craw. Apologies by the countries formerly engaged in savagery to their more gentle victims are fine by me. Thus I have little quarrel with apologies for anti-black prejudice and enslavement