From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 16 Aug 92 17:13:47 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

borders@ms.uky.edu (Johnny Borders) writes:

>davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:

>>This may come as a real surprise but I have been in Japan for 10
>>years and during that time I've had many conversations with a wide
>>variety of people here and there is a "large" (can't say exactly,
>>but among those I have spoken with approx. 90%) segment who do *NOT*
>>feel that Japan was responsible for the war.  Instead, they have a
>>well-developed set of reasons why and how Japan was tricked into the
>>war and they believe this to be the case. Thus I don't think asking
>>the Emperor to apologize is going to get anyplace. 

>   Exactly how I feel, but I'm glad you substantiated the feelings (as you've
>heard them expressed) with some proof. Something, sadly, I could not do. I
>had no idea how the Japanese people really stood on this issue.

Hmmm, you seem to have taken my "people ... I have spoken with" as
"the Japanese people". This was neither said, nor intended. I'm only
referring to actual face-to-face conversations, not the culture as a
whole. 

Maybe the particular people I spoke with are typical, maybe not. My
point is that I'm talking about finding out why people do what they
do, not deciding it's wrong, complaining about it, and asking them
to change. 

>If they have "well-developed" reasons why Japan was 'tricked' into the
>war, I would like to hear them. I can understand that Japan was desperate
>for natural resources, and if no one was willing to give them, why not 
>just take them? The US has (recently) done worse things and over less
>important things. But tricked into bombing Pearl Harbor, um.. I'm not 
>going to buy that one, EVER. Of course, the Navy WAS caught with their
>pants down, but that's something typically "forgotten" in "remembering"
>Pearl Harbor.

As for the "well-developed set of reasons ... and believe this to be
the case", you appear to have taken this to mean some kind of
logical/factual argument whose conclusion is that the U.S. tricked
Japan into Pearl Harbor. It doesn't really matter what the reasons
are, the point is that the people I spoke with *believe* this to be
the case. Whether it is true in some factual/logical way isn't
relevant. I'm talking about a belief-system, not what actually
happened (whatever that might have been). 

[* details of my original post omitted *]

>Japan was not tricked into doing a lot of what it did.. The need for 
>resources was overwhelming (as history has it, but this may not be
>true). Manchuria was close by and rich with numerous resources and raw
>materials. I wouldn't say they were tricked here.
>
[* long paragraph along similar lines omitted *]

Be that as it may, that isn't the point I'm raising. According to
the conversations I've had, it simply doesn't matter whether you and
I believe they were tricked. *They* believe they were tricked, or
had good reason, or weren't doing anything different than other
imperial-colonial powers had done, or, etc., or, etc., or, etc.
IMHO, this is a matter of faith, and people who think otherwise are
written off as so much noise. 

Under these conditions, asking for an apology might be something
like asking the U.S. government to apologize for taking the land
from the original inhabitants of the area of land that only later
became known as "North America." Try that on for size and I bet
you'll find a well-developed set of reasons. 

The analogy doesn't quite fit, but I hope you get my point. There is
nothing to discuss, there are no reasons to be given. The people I
talked with believe quite clearly that Japan was not at fault and
are being polite by remaining silent as there is no cultural
imperative to contradict others who may believe differently. 

>>Meanwhile the bottom line is that along with it's preoccupation of
>>making money, Japan has become an economic giant. I would be
>>surprise at anything more than a vague reference to "remembering the
>>lesson from the past" from from the Emperor, and I wouldn't expect
>>any more than a token request for one as who can afford to bite the
>>hand that feeds them? 

>   An intriguing question.. Is Japan becoming too powerful once again?
>It's looking a lot like Germany is these days.. Nuclear weapons have little
>say against the glass and steel banks of Frankfurt and Tokyo. (a quote
>borrowed from World Report, with slight modifications :)

Yes, Japan is powerful because people buy what she sells.  If people
elsewhere feel that Japan is becoming too powerful, all they have to
do is stop buying and Japanese power would evaporate. If you just
turn off the rhetoric for a moment and look at who is working and
selling what, and who's talking and complaining where, is it any
wonder that Japan has become an economic giant? 

I can remember the night this hit me. I was going to the sento
(pubic bath, I really like them :) around 10:30 and suddenly I was
struck by all the people coming home from work. Sounds kinda strange
I know, but for the first couple of years I lived here I was coming
home along with them so I didn't pay it any mind. The thought came
to me, "Nobody else has a chance." I mean, in how many other
countries do people get up early in the morning, slog off to work,
and come back that late? I guess it's too simplistic a reason for
Japan's economic power but when I look around me all I see is people
working. Maybe there's just no substitute for elbow grease.

>   One more apology: I neglected to mention that the US went to no great
>pains to hide what they did to US citizens in the camps, and I failed to
>mention that these activities were restricted primarily to the West coast.
>There weren't a whole lot of Japanese elsewhere at the time, except Hawaii,
>where they went on undisturbed (though a lot went back to Japan anyway).
>Of all places, too.. Americans in Hawaii should have been the most militant
>of all, being as it was Hawaii that was attacked..

One of the more curious stories I read a couple of years ago was a
review of a book where one fellow who was living in California took
his family and went to another part of the U.S. when he heard they
were supposed to go to the infamous camps. Unfortunately I don't
have a reference, and I don't have any reference for whether people
were forcibly marched off to the camps, but I tend to believe not. 

I don't know about you, but if somebody told me that all foreigners
in the area I lived in had to report to some camp, I would suddenly
find that I was a resident of someplace else :-)

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087