From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Re: An open letter to Emperor Akihito of Japan
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 21:18:41 GMT

In article <9208191443.AA11571@otter.hpl.hp.com>
russil%idacom.hp.com@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Russil Wvong) writes:
>Dwight Joe writes:
>...
>Summary:
>    ~50 million Chinese died from 1900 to 1949 (famine, disease, infanticide)
>    ~20 million Chinese died during the Great Leap Forward (famine)
>    ? million Chinese killed during the Cultural Revolution (civil war)
>    30,000 Taiwanese killed during the 228 Incident (invasion)
>    ? million Tibetans killed during during the invasion of Tibet (invasion)
>(Historians estimate 1.5 million people died during the Cultural Revolution.)

I've read differently.

>
>>I have yet to see Chinese people apologize for the history of their
>>"glorious" society.  What sheer hypocrisy for the Chinese to be
>>demanding an apology from the Japanese.
>
>Apologize to whom?  The Taiwanese, yes:  the KMT should apologize to the
>survivors of the 228 Incident.  The Tibetans, yes:  the CCP should withdraw
>the PLA from Tibet and apologize to the Tibetans.  But what about the rest,
>the other 70-odd million victims?  Are you saying the Chinese people should
>apologize to themselves for dying during civil wars and famines?
>
>I think "shame" is what you're looking for.  You're saying, Chinese people
>should be *ashamed* of their history and culture, rather than glorying in it.

Let's stop looking at them as Chinese-ge for a minute.

The infants murdered by their Chinese parents weren't just Chinese; they
were human beings.  When Westerners talk about what the Japanese did during
WWII, they are talking about atrocities that happened to people--human beings.

If the Chinese hypocriticals demand a more excruciating apology than
the one that the Japanese emperor has already given, then we as
Asian-Americans (and other Americans) should expect--in fact, demand
--that the Chinese hypocrites should apologize for what the Chinese did to
100 million human beings.

I agree that there is a difference between Chinese atrocities and
Japanese atrocities.  The difference is the following.  Japan has admitted its
participation in WWII, and Japan's period of brutality ended more than
40 years ago.  _However_, the atrocities committed by the Chinese have
never ended, and the Chinese have never admitted what they've done.

Don't believe me.  Go pick some random Chinese twit off the streets.
Ask him how many people died in Nanjing, and he'll probably rattle
off some number.  Then, ask him how many people died in the massacre
of Taiwanese at the hands of the Chinese around 1949.  He'll probably
say, "What?"

Here's something else to think about.

As an intellectual, I can understand why the Chinese underclass
after the Maoist sought to execute the upperclass.  However, for the
life of me, I will never understand why a Chinese parent would
strangle her/his own baby girl with his/her bare hands.  I'll
never understand it.

Never.

>Well, considering the list of victims above, you may have a point.  Many
>Chinese intellectuals around the turn of the century, following the defeat
>and colonization of China at the hands of the European powers, would have
>agreed with you.  (The author of the "Ah Q" stories, for example.)

Hindsight also tells us that Japan should have been allowed to keep the
parts of China that were seized during WWII.  Those regions of
Chinese under Japanese control would, in 1992, be far more prosperous
and democratic than the wildest fascinations of the Chinese twits
living in those regions today.

>
>But I hope you're not saying that Japan should therefore be excused for
>invading Korea and China.

I never said that.

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