HISTORY IS RECORDED BY THE VICTORS...
Plato is said to have said over two thousand years ago,
"Those who tell the stories rule society".
Or as George Orwell re-phrased in "1984"
Who controls the past, controls the future.
Which is probably why both Japan and China are currently at loggerheads as to which version of the story should be told.
At a dinner with friends last night, several at the table expressed surprise at the seemingly "sudden" animosity between the two countries, with anti-Japan riots in the at the Japanese embassy and consular offices in Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou over the weekend. The picture below is part of a CNN story on the events of the last few days.
I suppose it is easy to forget some details, after over half a century, surrounding Japan's partnership with Nazi Germany in launching a a world war, primarily for regional domination. And that domination included some pretty vicious acts against Chinese citizens (warning: graphically disturbing pictures).
Again, as in the preceding post about the history of hostilities between China and India, we really need to understand the historical context here, not only of the long ago past, but also of the recent past, including the US government's stance, implicit or otherwise on this subject.
This LA Times commentary by Peter J. Cunningham on the subject yesterday, I think does an excellent job in this regard, and is highly recommended. Again, some key takeaways for the "executive summary" types:
- The United States, ever quick to criticize China for human rights abuses, has of late been remarkably silent about Japan's ethical lapses, current and historical.
- Japanese politicians and publishers have made a cottage industry of denying the 1937 Nanking Massacre in which the Japanese killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in the old Chinese capital. This is an offense to Chinese sensibilities comparable with Holocaust denial in Europe.
- In the "New History Textbook," the Nanking Massacre is dismissed as a controversial "incident." And the war of invasion is no longer termed an invasion.
- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has linked his political fate with the unrepentant rightists at home and President Bush's policy abroad, keeps the unholy alliance functioning, offering vocal support for U.S. aggression in Iraq while hailing Japan's fallen military heroes of a bygone era.
- In Beijing last week, Japanese Ambassador Koreshige Anami defended the publishing of right-wing textbooks as a testament to Japan's "freedom of speech and publication." Why then was veteran manga artist Motomiya Hiroshi forced to retract and apologize for "My Country is Burning"? Why then did the NHK TV network, after getting a high-level warning, preemptively cut short a program on comfort women that laid blame on the emperor?
- If a Chinese Internet cafe gets closed down, it's front-page news. Why isn't the U.S. equally concerned about setbacks to free speech in Japan?
Most of us as individuals, have been taught to own up to our mistakes, learn from them, and hopefully not make them again. Countries, especially democracies, have the same responsibility, in spite of the pragmatic demands of politics.
The good news is, most countries, especially democracies, do own up to some of their sins from the past over time.
A good example set by the US in this regard was when President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom to Fred Korematsu on January 15, 1998, acknowledging America's mistake in interning thousands of Japanese-American citizens after the Empire of Japan's attack at Pearl Harbor. The entire story is well worth reading and remembering, and can be found here at PBS.org. The story is particularly timely since Fred Korematsu passed away March 30, 2005.
The cynical can well-claim that this was done when the political cost of acknowledging this was minimal and they'd may be right. It's when the political cost is high, and yet the right thing is done, is when there ought to be a medal awarded to a nation's leader/s for taking such action. Those are the winners that history should always record.
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