Living in their own floating world

Japan sacks general over WWII stance
The Straits Times
Saturday, Novermber 1 2008 Page C9

Excerpts from the article:

Tokyo-Japan’s air force chief was sacked yesterday for writing an essay in which he denied the country was an aggressor in Word War II, a stance likely to anger its Asian neighbours.

General Toshio Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force, had made comments in an essay which won the top award in an inaugural contest aimed at describing “true views of modern history”.

“Even now, there are many people who think that our country’s ‘aggression’ caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War,” said the English-language version of the essay.

“But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War,” it said. “In Thailand, Burma, India, Singapore and Indonesia, the Japan that fought the Greater East Asia War is held in high esteem.”

“It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.”

The Greater East Asia War was a term used by Japan to describe the conflict in the Asia-Pacific theatre, emphasizing that it involved Asian nations seeking independence from the Western powers.


The further I read this article, the more incredulous I felt. I’m sorry Toshio-san, but contrary to what you believed, most people in Asia do not take a positive view of the “Greater East Asia War”. Just ask my grandmother, if she even grants you an audience that is, without her thinking that you are a evil barbarian who mercilessly killed her friends and relatives during what we called the Japanese Occupation here.

Seriously, it is because of such older generation Japanese people who refuse to admit and accept to the terrible things they did in WWII that result in Japan being unable to move on. People make mistakes all the time, but as long as you are willing to accept what you did was wrong then people will be willing to forgive you. It may take years and generations to forget the mistakes of the past, but eventually you will get there. Living in denial will just aggravate things and make others condemn you for trying to live in your own floating world.

True, what Japan did caused us to realize that we cannot depend on the ‘Western Powers’ to protect us from invasion forever. But that does not justify the atrocities committed by the Japanese military at that time in Singapore, China, and many other parts of South-East Asia.

When I was at Missouri living in an international dorm, I got the chance to interact with quite a few Japanese and Chinese students. Talking to them, I concluded that most young Japanese people simply do not care about what Japan did in WWII and what the Chinese thinks of them. Simply put, they are just tired of the whole issue altogether. And I do not blame them, because how can you expect to engage the young when the ‘history’ they learnt in their school textbooks contradicts with what the rest of the world says?

Now the Chinese students I talked to presented a much more interesting variety of opinions on this issue. I have Chinese friends who totally embrace the Japanese culture without so much as a thought of Japan’s involvement in WWII to those who still refuse to eat sushi precisely because of this issue. And I think in a way, the Chinese people have it the easier way simply because they were the victims of the past atrocities and can therefore choose to react the way they want without public censure and outrage over what is the ‘right’ way to respond to this issue.

I do not think that every Japanese I meet is an evil barbarian ghost like what my grandmother thinks. Contrary to that, one of the best friendships I had at Mizzou was forged with a Japanese girl. But sadly, I think that when I see the young Japanese people choosing to walk away and ignore their past makes them unaware of how deeply their ancestors had hurt the rest of Asia and those at Pearl Harbour. And what is history good for if we do not learn from our past mistakes? The day that Japan gets rid of the older generation of Japanese politicians who are the unremorseful descendents of many of the Japanese WWII war criminals will be the day that Japan finally takes the first step towards reconciling with their past mistakes.

Germany has moved on. And so should you, Toshio-san. If you have difficulty accepting the facts, just pay a visit to Sentosa here or read Iris Chang’s Rape of Nanking. And if you still don’t geddit, then please at least stop perpetuating your fallacies and retire to Mount Fuji. And make sure you have Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World to keep you company.