regarding andys reply (1 Viewer)

[Louis Badolato]

Fred, while I totally agree with you, I will say this: all Governments are barely necessary evils, some worse than others. Our government has perpetrated horrible attrocities, often against its own citizens, but it is probably the best government in existence. The japanese government, like Nazi germany and Stalinist russia, is among the worst.

That being said, while I detest the Japanese government responsible for the war, and the Japanese industry that propped up that government, I hold no malice against individual Japanese people who did not participate in the attrocities. One of my best friends in college, and one of the most decent gentleman I have had the good fortune to know, was my old Rugby team mate Taito Nakagowa. Taito certainly was not a participant in the the horrors, as he was born more than 20 years after the war ended, and I could never bear him any malice for it.

By the same measure, I don't believe that you and I are responsible for massacreing the Indians or for slavery of African Americans. I wasn't born, and I certainly don't believe I am responsible for these horrors any more than a young japanese person is responsible for the Bataan Death March.

 

[boot51]

Hi Louis, please don't take the " negative attitude" remark too seriously, those were some one else's words not mine. If I choose not to buy a Japanese car I look at it as supporting the American worker, an American company and the American economy the best way I know how, besides I prefer American cars. I do not look at it as "reinforcing and prepetuating a negative attitude". How many U.S. auto plants do you think are in Japan, free trade my butt. Are we getting too political yet?

Fred

 

[Chuck Harris]

I'll part company with others about driving a Japanese or a German car. I don't connect the two and have no compunctions about driving Japanese vehicles. While the Japanese don't own up to what happened in World War II, there are many things in Japanese society that I like and enjoy. While this may not be important to any of you, the Japanese have a reverence for jazz, sadly lacking in the country that developed the genre. And it's not for nothing that Japanese cars are popular because they are quality built machines, something it's taken us awhile to catch up on. And their history is quite interesting. Yes, they did many terrible things in World War II. Who hasn't in a war? Our history is checkered with similar incidents: the opening of the west and what happened to Native Americans.

So let he who is without sin...

I am well aware of our checkered past my Great Grandmother on my fathers side was a Chickasaw Indian. She pasted away when I was 8. My Great Grandfather Charles Thomas Harris, I am named after him. He was a Confederate Soldier, he all most lived to to see VE Day.I know he would not of bought a Yankee Car. His horse died three days after he did.

 

[Njja]

By the same measure, I don't believe that you and I are responsible for massacreing the Indians or for slavery of African Americans. I wasn't born, and I certainly don't believe I am responsible for these horrors any more than a young japanese person is responsible for the Bataan Death March.

Louis I hope you do not mind my slight edit of your quote to the above.
I just had to admire your quote, I believe you have hit the nail directly on the head. When an individual decides, he personally is owed something for
past actions upon his ancestors, wouldn't it be nice if the action was directed at the guilty party?
Instead everyone must suffer injustice to right a wrong committed against someone long gone. So the living are subject to injustice for what?
In this country are all men created equal? Or are some more equal then others?
And while we are at it, exactly who is responsible for the Hurricane damage to New Orleans? The state? I could see that, the city, well certainly. The US
Taxpayer......Hell, Hell No. Should the US government assist? Yes, what ever money is needed should be LOANED to Louisana, and New Orleans to be re-paid to the government (US Citizens) Instead most people have received on average $27,000 in aid.
Most if not all of us have insurance, and a bank account, do we not?
When Mount St. Helens went off do you remember Washington State asking for 200 Billion? I lived through two hurricanes in Florida, did they ask for
200 Billion? When are we going to cast aside this "Liberal Guilt" and wake up?
In my opinion a real man provides for his family, your children are yours till the day you die, after all you brought them here. The rest of this is just Nonsense.

Njja

 

[CannonFodder1971]

General social convention would be that in order to forgive someone you'd need them to apologise (or at the very least, if they were unapologetic you'd expect some expression of remorse for the consequences of their actions). However, at this stage a generation has passed and it is impractical to expect a Japanese person to carry a responsibility for the actions of a previous generation.

Someone also menitoned Shinto. Well you'd need to remember that the emperor was not a god per se, but a descendant of the sun goddess (Amaterasu?). And don't forget that here in the West no-one bats an eyelid at Lhamo Dhondrub claiming to be the 14th incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion, and even after a bloody civil war, an absence of any apology for the system of serfdom and so forth. So we'd need to be careful when we criticise belief systems. It matters less than you disagree with them than you understand the sincerity with which they're held. It's a key to understanding your enemy, and no I'm not going to even start on Islamic world etc.

What I would say is that I have no problem with someone who prefers a Kawasaki, but they should remember that unlike the descendants of the German companies (many of whom were restructured after the war following mergers etc) their Japanese counterparts, particulary the armanents production companies, did not engage in any comparable compensation schemes to the Chinese, Malaysian and other peoples who were the subject of their weaponary.

The current generation of Japanese kids the war is as remote as seppuku or oibara. That's bad in many ways but the given the whole political and cultural change over the decades of post-war reconstruction onwards should be celebrated as a winning example of "regime change". There'll never be anything comparable to what the Japanese inflicted on other nations, and whilst the Koreans and Chinese have every right to withhold forgiveness, I think it's better to remember that there is an unshakeable democracy in place and that as the next generation of Japanese explore their history we will move from having a regional ally to an actual friendship.