From: ibm01@acci.com.au (William Lo -> Elvis? Why not?)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Date: 20 Aug 92 06:14:15 GMT
Organization: IBM Australia/Australian Computing and Communications Institute

In article <2413@aegis.or.jp>, davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
|> karchang@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kar Man Chang) writes:
|> 
|> >To use a much tamer analogy, if someone mistreated you once, would you
|> >trust him afterwards?  If he apologizes, at least I know that he knows
|> >he did something wrong, and our relationship can probably start all over
|> >again.  But if he doesn't, I will be under the impression that he
|> >does not think that what he did is wrong, that we have very different
|> >standards of opinion, and we may never be able to interact beneficially.

	
	Not the best analogy here. But still get what you mean. Note that
the Japanese didn't just mistreat us once - well I wouldn't call they mistreatedus - It was indeniably a *SIN* rather than anything else, *AND NOT ONLY ONCE*!


|> I fail to see why China necessarily needs the relationship with Japan.
|> Until Japan apologizes of it's own accord, why not establish relationships
|> with countries and people China gets along with?
	^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	Are you speaking of the countries(excluding Japan) that China gets along
with? Pretty inexplicable here, mate. Why bother - again - to "establish 
relationships" when you already get along with them?


|> 
|> >I know some Japanese who are nice, but I only know a few Japanese, so
|> >my impression about Japanese is dominated by what I hear in the news 
|> >about the actions of their government and politicians. This may be a
|> >biased opinion, but that is all that I have got. 


	News isn't always telling you the truth you know - esp. news in
China(and unfortunately the 'news' you're now reading, guys!) 


|> 
|> In my experience, there is very little relationship beween the
|> actions of the Japanese government-politicians and the way people
|> really think.


	This applies to everywhere in the world where 'true' democracy doesn't
(or doesn't really) exist, it's telling an impossible story. But, when we're
asking for written and verbal apologies(we need both), and compensations in
real terms(ie. money), we're referring to those from the Japanese gov't(inc.
the parties who performed the killings). We're basically justice seekers. 
Justice and truth are things just too sacrosanct to deny.


|> 
|> >Even during WWII, I don't believe that all Japanese want to conquer
|> >China.  But the government controlled everything then, and it still
|> >appears that the government is in control now.  If the Japanese 
|> >government does not admit that what it did during WWII was wrong,
|> >there is no reason why its neighbours should not be suspicious of
|> >its intent.
|> 
|> Yes, I think the Japanese government is in control of many things.
|> Yes, I can understand how Japan's neighbous feel be suspicous. No, I
|> don't think that that yelling, screaming, complaining, demanding,
|> and otherwise trying to force Japan to apologize will have a
|> positive outcome. 


	Quite right. But we can't just sit there waiting for something to
happen, can we? You should recognise actions speak louder than words. That
is, some positive measures have to be done(perhaps in the form of sanction,
boycott, etc). Note that doing the positive things doesn't positively guarantee 
any success or the 'positive outcomes' if any. 


|> 
|> If you're hungry, you do your best to get something to eat. But if
|> you just walk into the store and grab it you get in trouble.  You
|> have to be a bit more clever and not only get what you want but get
|> it in ways that don't cause you more problems, don't you. 


	We're hungry, so we eat - that you and I do. It doesn't seem
right to say: we're hungry so we grab(food). Or if you presume we're nothing
but grabbers, that we're not 'clever' enough to get the food we want because
we're obviously too bloody desperate... baby, what the hell are you talking
about?

---Regards,
	Bill
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan