China slams Japan minister for ducking Nanjing massacre questions

[uawchild]

Source: Reuters

China on Friday accused Japan's new defense minister of recklessly misrepresenting history after she declined to say whether Japanese troops massacred civilians in China during World War Two.

Tomomi Inada, a 57-year old lawmaker known for her revisionist views of Japan's wartime actions, took up her post on Thursday and repeatedly sidestepped questions at a briefing on whether she condemned atrocities committed by Japan.

China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 massacre in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in its then capital.
A postwar Allied tribunal put the death toll at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny a massacre took place at all.

China's defense ministry, in a statement on its microblog, expressed "indignation" over Inada's comments, and said there was ironclad evidence of the Nanjing massacre.

"Her open denial of the ... facts is simply an attempt to cover up Japan's history of aggression and challenge the international order by reviving militarism," the ministry said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-japan-idUSKCN10G168

[malthaussen]

1. It's the typical magic...

... close your eyes and make it didn't happen. I wonder why they are so dainty about this one, though, it's not like every country throughout history has not massacred whole villages, towns, or cities. Or populations, if it comes to that.

-- Mal

[uawchild]

3. Post WWII Japan has consistently painted itself as a victim

How Japan and the U.S. Remember World War II

“The Japanese ignore everything before Hiroshima and the Americans ignore everything after Nagasaki.”

That’s interesting because the critique some people make is that Japan’s understanding of the war hasn’t changed at all, on any front, and that the country still sees itself as a victim rather than an aggressor.

It has a victim narrative, but that is true with every country, including Germany, which saw itself as a victim of its leaders. But Japanese victims’ narratives lasted a lot longer than others. There are several reasons for that, but probably the most important was the United States, which conspired in creating that narrative in the first few months after the American occupation. To achieve the goals of the American occupation, it was important to see the Japanese aggression and atrocities as something that was brought about by bad leaders, so that these leaders—but not the people—were held responsible. That was a good grounding for reforms. This narrative sat well with the Japanese but it was a co-created narrative.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/05/the_u_s_and_japan_have_very_different_memories_of_world_war_ii.html

[tonyt53]

4. As brutal as the Japanese were to American troops and Pacific islander, the Chinese had it worse.

The Japanese wanted to show the Chinese who was boss.

[Statistical]

24. Sadly it was far more evil than that.

They wanted the land for the expansion of the glorious empire and God's chosen people. The problem is Chinese were living there. They had to go, yes in a final solution kind of way. It wasn't showing them who is boss more like vermin extermination.

[melm00se]

26. The Japanese, the Chinese and the Koreans

have been at each other's throats for centuries.

Once one ethnic group has gotten a leg up on the other(s), Katie bar the door.

other than the 20th century examples:

Sino-Korea wars
late 4th century BC
1st century BC
3rd century AD
6th century AD

Korea-Japan
1500's
late 19th century

Sino-Japanese
13the-14th century
Late 19th century

[malthaussen]

8. Understandable, though they did nothing the West hadn't done...

... repeatedly. How were they to know that the ladder had been pulled up behind us before they decided to enter the 20th century?

I wonder how the US would respond if a nation larger and more powerful than us existed and decided to impose sanctions on us for our actions. Somehow, I doubt we'd take it in good part, either. We essentially fought 1812 and the XYZ affair because other powers decided to tell us what to do. Given that geopolitics has always been about exploiting whoever is weaker, while staving off states that are actually competitive to one's own, I have more sympathy with the Japanese for attacking China than most outside of Nippon. (And after all, it's not like the West hadn't already cut up the place into spheres of influence, and encouraged continual internal wars among the Communists, the Kuomintang, and six million warlords) The point is not that their actions were not infamous, as a US President might have it, but that they were no more infamous than anyone else's. Timing is everything, though, and when one tries to snatch a piece of a pie that is already divvied up, one is going to get his hand slapped.

Playing the victim card, though, is pretty lame. But it is convenient for oh, so many reasons, not least because it absolves the Imperial Family of all blame. Even though it was a Prince of that family who was in command of the troops who carried out the Rape.

-- Mal

[melm00se]

19. mymymymymy

persistent little bugger aren't you

[christx30]

25. There's a difference between the war of 1812

and the campaign of genocide that Japan attempted on the Chinese mainland. Unless I missed where US troops murdered 300,000 civilians in one British town.

[malthaussen]

27. Shall we talk about the U.S. campaign of genocide against the Indians?

Andrew Jackson made quite a name for himself after 1814, for example, wiping out natives. Maybe not 300,000 at one go, but the indigenes in North America were somewhat more dispersed than those in China. And his campaign against the Creeks occurred during 1812.

Nevertheless, you're conflating two examples. I cited 1812 and the XYZ affair as instances where the US didn't take kindly to being pushed around by bigger powers. Our wars of genocide have more to do with our desire for imperialism in North America than squabbles with European nations, although those were also an element in some of the earlier conflicts.

-- Mal

[uppityperson]

41. My goodness, aren't you the most obsessive little thing? You know your post will be removed

immediately, why continue to waste so much time and energy?

Thanks MIRT.

[DesertRat]

42. Crazy, isn't it?

[uppityperson]

43. You guys have been very busy.

[malthaussen]

44. I know, this has been going on for days.

Perhaps he gets 1/100th of a cent for every post he makes? In which case, he's overpaid.

-- Mal

[PersonNumber503602]

46. I missed it. What exactly is this person saying?

Just general spamming of some nonsense?

[GOLGO 13]

2. Japan needs to rearm herself. China think it can bully her for all eternity.

We need a stronger Japan with us to counter China's lawlessness.

[Codeine]

6. Goodness. Somebody needs a nap. nt

[GP6971]

7. Calling MIRT

[malthaussen]

9. Wow, that's the second time now I've seen one of those.

What a waste of effort. But I guess the poster has a lot of time on his hands, anyway.

-- Mal

[GP6971]

10. They are persistent

They often try swarming the board with new sign ups....most don't get through, but a couple do every now and then.

[In_The_Wind]

17. Damn! I used to read those when I was part of MIRT.

[melm00se]

11. The Chinese accusations

and the timing are all intended to bolster/inflame the folks back home as the Chinese try to consolidate their power in SE Asia.

[melm00se]

15. huh?

enjoy your time here

[haele]

18. Someone is either trolling, an angry tweener looking for some "respect", or -

is simply a tool that needs a quite time out.

If this person is serious -

That much hate indicates the mind this person was supposedly born with has taken a vacation, and that person is now a puppet that can be used by any blasphemous profit that wants to be in charge.

Not only that, if the tool has that much hate, it also indicates a great amount of fear is involved. That much hate always travels with an equal amount of fear to keep it stoked.

So - we have a cowardly wanna-be warrior of some pretend God who wants to shrink the entire universe of Creation down to a manageable cage for a few privileged people - of which this tool thinks he or she will be part of.

Unfortunately, we have to suffer through the ranting of such a tool until s/he finally blows up everything in an effort to meet the Creator of All, just so that tool can answer the question of why s/he pretends to know better what the Universe needs is than the Universe itself.

Dude, you need help. And not from that greedy blasphemous fuck pretending to have some knowledge of "God" or whatever he's calling it that's using you to his or her own profit over other people.

Haele

[David__77]

16. Tomomi Inada sounds to me like a right-wing nationalist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomomi_Inada

I think that Japan can maintain its sovereignty without attempting to justify its wartime actions.

[malthaussen]

20. There's a lot of that going around this century.

More to the point for Japan, I think, or for the leaders, is to have a chance to rearm after all these years. What they want to do with those arms is the question.

-- Mal

[melm00se]

21. Japan is really

the only country in that part of the world that has the technological capabilities and geographical positioning to stand off China.

Taiwan has the technology but is in a really crappy geographic location.
ROK also has the technology but China has the DPRK as a buffer against the ROK.

Japan is probably feeling awful lonely and naked with the recent Chinese posturing.

[forest444]

32. To say nothing of her boss, Dishonest Abe.

To hear him dis the current Japanese Constitution as a "peace constitution" is troubling.

He seems to be implying that Japan somehow needs a "war constitution" - hardly reassuring, considering who their neighbors are.

[uppityperson]

34. Huh, this thread is not as bad as the CC one, but someone seems to have an issue here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027254561