From: ikeda@vxcrna.cern.ch (IKEDA,M./EP)
Subject: Re: Mimana Theory Revisted (due to the Nara tombs being excavated)
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 17:47:00 GMT

In article <3697@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov>, masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda) writes...
>In article <Aug.7.17.04.55.1992.15447@gandalf.rutgers.edu> junglee@gandalf.rutgers.edu (Jung S. Lee) writes:
>......
>>  I grew up with hearing about Japanese gov't to put incorrect
>>  historical facts between Korea and Japan for whatever reason.
>>  I think it's not a big deal. It is History. What matters is that we
>>  have not gotten any proper apology from Japanese gov't(How come it
>>  is so hard to say, "I am sorry"?). That always bothers me. I can
>>  forgive them and have a happy relationship with them as long as they
>>  come to me and say "I am sorry".  
>......
> 
>   This would also mean that he cannot have a happy relationship with Japanese
>unless the Japanese government comes to HIM and apologizes.
> 
>   I wonder how old this gentleman was in 1945.
> 
>   Born more than a decade after the end of WWII, I've never felt that I 
>as an individual owe anything to Korean or Chinese people, especially those of
>the postwar generation. Someone might call my attitude arrogance. However,
>I don't think my feeling is exceptional among the postwar Japanese. In addition,
>I've never been given any reasonable explanation about what I owe to, 
>let's say, a Korean student studying in the US.
> 
>   What he mentioned about the modification of history textbooks and the lack
>of appropriate apology by the Japanese government is more or less true. This 
>would deserve the name of "arrogance", and I don't believe that this is the 
>way it should be.
>At the same time, if he is old enough to have suffered from Japanese invasion
>before and during WWII, I'd be willing to say, "I'm sorry about that." (Well,
>of course, this is rather a compassion than an apology.) 
>If his parents or grandparents suffered, I'd also feel sorry for them.
>However, if he is a young student of twenty something and still claims that
>Japanese owe him an apology and that he is in the position where he can
>decide to or not to forgive us, I cannot help calling his attitude 
>"arrogance", too. 
> 
> A Korean friend of mine told me that she had gone through the Korean education
>which emphsized that "Japanese ARE bad," "Japanese ARE NOT friends," and that 
>"Japanese owe YOU." I don't know how common it is, but the education of this
>kind may not convey any constructive concept for the Korea-Japan relationship.
> 
>   I, like many other Japanese, did learn about the Japanese atrocities
>at school and from other sources. Even though textbooks are somehow 
>biased and "dramatized", and education could be influential in an inappropriate
>way, there is a way to know better what the realities are if we go for it.
>So is in Korea, so is in China, and so is everywhere, I hope.
> 
>  This is not related to the quite flaming discussion on the Korea-China 
>relationship in this thread (I was not expecting to see the four-letter word
>in s.c.j.), and I didn't mean to be picky, but I just wanted
>to say that we could establish a friendly and happy relationship at least 
>between young generations.
> 
>   Please, go back to the main-stream thread.
> 
>Michiaki Masuda

What are some of the opinions in Japan concerning the decision to
restrict what the emperor can say when he visits China?

Hope there will be friendly relationships with Korea and China
in future generations.

-- Makoto
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan