Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Australia / Japan Apologies

Something really amazing has been announced this past week that really surprised me. I truly thought that it was something that just wasn't going to happen: Australia will apologise for the Stolen Generation!

This is something I think the majority of Australians had been wanting to happen for a while with a lot of us wondering why it hadn't been done already. One major theory was that if the government admitted fault for the Stolen Generation they would be liable to lawsuits and expectations of funds for compensation.

Now, finally I can have conversations about apologies concerning Japan without feeling like a hypocrite, though to be fair, while Australia just refused to apologise, Japan has a history of simply refusing that events took place and even editing school text books content.

Such massive yet little known incidents include;

The Kanto Massacre which happened in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Quake in 1923 in which the Japanese military spread rumours concerning poisoning of water, rape and murder being committed by non-Japanese (mostly Koreans) and then assisted in the rounding up and murdering of 6000 (of the 30,000 Koreans in Japan at the time) Koreans, 700 Chinese as well as numerous Okinawans and Japanese people from other regions who spoke other dialects who were thought to be Koreans pretending to be Japanese.

Note: Interestingly enough the Kanto Massacre is the reason a lot of Japanese businesses including my current place of occupation include small radios in their earthquake evacuation emergency kits to prevent spreading of rumours and rely on fact reported by the media.

WWII Mass Suicides in Okinawa where the Japanese military stole food and supplies, executed those who hid theirs, used Okinawan civilians as body shields and finally spreading anti-American propaganda that compelled 10,000 Okinawans to kill themselves and their families so as to avoid capture from the Americans who they were told would rape, beat, murder and mutilate them.

The Rape of Nanking. Horrific events committed by the Japanese military and government during WWI in which they raped, mutilated, and committed unthinkable things to the citizens of the Chinese city, Nanking / Nanjing. Roughly 350,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed in the eight week period.

Thoughts?

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Labels: Australia, japan, Japanese Social Issues, Rape of Nanking

2 Comments:

mommycool said...: Hello...been here and I think I'll be a frequenter here reading your posts...I am also in Japan right now...in Toyohashi. Will be leaving on the 29th of this month. I truly enjoy staying here, nice place huh?!; Tuesday, 05 February, 2008
Brad said...: Cheers! Great to have you on bored and glad you liking the country! Bit of a strange time to visit, Winter. You should come back in March/April! Bril' weather and just in time for the Sakura season!; Tuesday, 05 February, 2008