From: shao@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (SHAO CHUNG-SHANG)
Subject: Re: An open letter to the Emperor Akihito of Japa
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 08:10:12 GMT

In article <2351@aegis.or.jp> 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. 
>
>As I said, this may come as real surprise; it sure was a surprise to
>me. When I asked people how come the government doesn't voice this
>opinion (that Japan wasn't responsible for the war) there were a
>variety of answers. I will sum them up by saying that it just isn't
>in Japan's current economic interest to say things that will make
>trading difficult. 
>
>Perhaps the most curious thing is there was support for the Japanese
>position at the time. According to Life magazine of September 24,
>1945 (yes, I actually have a copy!) in "Pearl Harbor, The facts were
>known ... now is the time to assess their meaning":
>
>  For a long time the offical explanation of Pearl Harbor was that
>  we were slugged without warning when we were innocently going about
>  our business. Slugged we were, and there is no need to pallitate
>  the Japanese behavior. But to say that we were slugged without
>  warning is a radical distortion of the truth. 
>
>  As the coming invesitagtions will show, the Pearl Habor case moves
>  on many levels. The Republicans will charge--and prove--that the
>  Democrats ... have chosen tactics and timing designed to frustrate
>  any effective political reaction to it. The "isolationists" will
>  charge--and they have have evidence for their case---that Roosevelt
>  maneuvered the Japanese crisis in such a way as to invite the
>  Pearl Harbor attack when it came.
>
>Now please note that I'm not saying that Japan *was* tricked, I'm
>only saying there is a significant number of people here who
>*believe* Japan was tricked, and such people also existed in the
>U.S. at the time. While this view seems to have been lost in the
>outside of Japan, I think it remains very much alive here, even
>though it's a relatively taboo subject.. By the Japanese government
>remaining relatively silent on the issue, people in other countries
>can continue to believe that Japan was responsible, and people here
>can continue to believe that Japan was tricked. 
>
>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? 
>
>Realpolitik rules. Such is life. Shikata ga nai.
>
>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



well, pearl harbor may be the case as you said.  how about the war in
china?  how about the war in south asia? such as singaport, tailand...
did you hear any kind of excuses from japanese?  at lease i don't think
that chinese people wanted the war and the economic condition could
support a war at that time.  especially, all the battles were happened
on the land of china, not on the land of japan.

cs shao.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan