It's funny, if the Japanese had won, no one would complain about this...in fact, it would be quite acceptable. I don't think it matters if the guy visits a shrine or not on the day they surrendered. Honoring the dead isn't a bad thing. It's still part of their history, and why should their history - the good and the bad, not be embraced?
Lil ought to be the kidding! The leaders who waged wars on other people did not commit crimes? Do they have to shoot someone in the front line to qualify for that? I am not sure even Hitler killed a Jew personally. You think the leaders who waged wars intentionally and killed tens of millions lives did not commit atrocity, but you call Mao the killer of millions because his failed policy together with a sequence of bad luck unintentionally starved people? Whose payroll are you on? Taiwanese lobbiests or neo-conservatives groups?
Embraced with proud and teach their kids "there was nothing wrong with it"? What will you say if a bunch of muslims go to WTC on 9/11 and have a firewrok celebration? Does that count as embracing history?
That's the end of all the arguments here. Might makes right. This is why it is well within U.S. right to meddle in the Middle East because they are stronger. This is also why if China takes over Taiwan, it's within their right because they're stronger. This is also why it's with Iran's right to try and acuire a nuclear bomb, because it will make them stronger. I love New Yorker's posts, no pretentious moral high ground.
Yes, if the Japanese had won, it's highly possible I won't be here complaining. China would have been a wasteland. It's also highly probable that you won't be here defending them either. Embrace the history? You sound like Germans forget their history.
Welcome to the Henry Kissinger/Niccolò Machiavelli school of political philosophy. It must simplify the world quite a bit to eliminate the concepts of right and wrong, though I have a hard time distinguishing that sort of philosophy from sociopathy.
Most Taiwanese are offended by the Japanese Prime Minister's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine and also by their revisionists history. One thing that Chinese whether in the PRC, Taiwan or Hong Kong agree on is opposition towards Japan's rightward swing. For instance I was in Hong Kong in 1997 during the last crisis over the Diao Yu Tai (Senkaku) Islands and there were protests in Hong Kong along with the PRC and Taiwan.
Most Chinese, yes. Not those who put their hatred of China above all. Didn't Lee, the former leader of Taiwan, claimed he looked at Japan as motherland? Disgrace!
Funny how Germany and Japan are two of the most peaceful nations on earth. Funny how Israel and China are two of the most belligerent nations on earth. Does that irony not escape anyone?
Yup, don't start **** that you can't finish, cuz mother ****as are gonna come back mad as hell even if you act like a lil bizatch now. -this is my inflamatory, flamebaiting and moronic post of the week btw.
This is like the Orange Order parades that once prominently marched every year through Belfast to rub the noses of the native Irish. That turned out great for hundreds of years.
No, I think he is saying you are a sociopath since your position is it is accetable and nothing wrong to embrace this kind of history.
Yes, but if you apply is logic (which I guess there really isn't much of) you can then conclude that Israel is a sociopathic state. I know that hard for you to do...
If you still can't grasp what I'm saying... German doesn't memorate war criminals officially, yet Germany embrace their history perfectly fine. In fact, Germany remembers its war dead as well. Japan? Although the Japanese constitution says "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained," the Jieitai, is one of the most technologically advanced armed forces in the world and Japanese military expenditures are the seventh highest in the world. China being most belligent nation? Who are you kidding?
that he did. Lee was the b*stard son of a Japanese armry officer stationing in Taiwan, when the island was under Japanese occupation. I believe that Lee also served in the Japanese military during WW2
Japan is one of the most peaceful nations on earth. They protest nuclear tests, war, and always take a global approach. I think they have demonstrated enough consciousness that we can trust them as a nation to honor their dead as they see fit. If there is controversy, let their people (who make up a democracy by the way) protest it.
For a country that still have American millitary bases on their soil, I don't know what do you mean by "one of the most peaceful nations on earth". Obviously, you don't know much about Japanese political movements. I'm not surprise someone may express opinions like yours, be it due to lack of knowledge, insensitivity, or other reasons. What suprises me is the lack of voice, by active members of this board, to speak out against fallacies like yours. Then again, it's China we are talking about. So I'm not really suprised.
Care to enlighten us with your special criteria for a nation to qualify as "most peaceful" in your righteous eyes? Since one has to be totally different than its peers, to reach that "most" status, I would like to examine some of the uniqueness in Japan. 1. The only country enshrines CONVICTED and executed class A war criminals. 2. The only government who openly pays homage to CONVICTED war criminals. 3. The only army in modern age, OPENLY carried out systematical raping and killing of civilians. 4. The only country in modern age, OPENLY and SYSTEMATICALLY forced women from occupying countries to become military sex slaves. 5. The only country in modern age, where civilians celebrated murders on the street wholeheartedly, when murders presenting photos and diaries as record of some most disgusting crimes done to human beings, including killing competition, indistinguish raping of childrean and elderly etc etc. The list could go on and on, but if that's your definition of "most peaceful", you are right, there is no one on par with that country.
