Hundreds protest in California ahead of Abe's visit

Oh geez...

japanese prime ministers in the past have a[pologized japan has paid renumeration to korea.come on people enough. time to move on.

yawn

Ronald, let's say your mama was a sex slave. You wouldn't be saying that to your mama, would you?

Even if the savagery (Japanese History) is of the past, it's a present matter if the savagery is justified, denied or downplayed. Japanese should just acknowledge the past, and learn to move on.

It may have happened 70 years ago; but the lies, denials and white washing of history still happens today.

Their would be no protest against Abe if he and his cronies simply knew how to shut their mouths. Thats why the German Chancellor is greeted warmly while Abe is disparaged.

Maybe Japan and Turkey could compare notes.

It may have happened 70 years ago; but the lies, denials and white washing of history still happens today.

You know what's funny? About the only people that I know deliberately lied in the whole comfort women mess happens to be on the pro-side and definitely not facing any pressure. I'll give you two names. One, Yoshida (who eventually recanted). Two, Lee Yong-Soo, who can't even keep her tale straght:

http://warehouse9.blogspot.hk/2012/11/comfort-women-testimony-of-lee-yong-soo.html

Koreans are still doing this even Japan apologized already about the past, and Japan paid year 1965: 6000billion dollar 1965: 8billion dollar +α 1983:40billion dollar 1997:100billion dollar 2006:200billion dollar 2008:300billiok dollar

And Korea did not return the 300billion dollar for helping and making the WorldCup studium in Korea.

This all goes to show that Abe can corrupt Japanese textbooks and muzzle the Japanese media but he and his rightwing cronies cannot escape the truth. In the U.S. people are not afraid of Abe and they will rub his face in his lies an evasions. The world will see it. And the world will sneer at Abe and the LDP. There will be nothing that Abe can do about it either.

I am sure NHK and rest of the Japanese media will either not report it or under report it. But even in Japan the facts will get out.

Standing in San Francisco is 2015 with a sign that says "Remember Pearl Harbor" is a good way to look ridiculous. Shouldn't these Koreans be running their "Japanese" restaurants in the city? Who is serving the sushi?

Remember Pearl Harbor

What about it? We live in the present towards a better future. No need to hold grudges against a nation nor their people for what happened more then half a century ago. Grow up already!

Really? Stop making people of today re-apologize for things that happened and were already apologized for DECADES AGO!

**Minhazur RahmanApr. 29, 2015 - Japan paid year 1965: 6000billion dollar 1965: 8billion dollar +α

**

Are you serious? Japan total country GDP for 1965 was only 82 billion USD !

I cannot find a single Engish internet news site that has published this story by AP. Except JT.

Good to see abe seeing the results of his stupidity, Japan could have put this to bed decades ago, but sadly needs reality shoved in its face, too bad these same protests were not happening in Japan!

I expect abe to make Japan look pretty bad this year, IDIOT!

japanese prime ministers in the past have a[pologized japan has paid renumeration to korea.come on people enough. time to move on.

Im sure they will, once Japanese prime ministers of the present stop reneging on those apologies and claiming most of it never happened.

it doesn't matter if PAST PRIME MINISTER had already apologized, IF the current prime minister claims that they did nothing wrong.

If someone raped your family, and apologized immediately, but after 20 years starts to say that the rape didn't happen, does previous apology count? no, it does not

"I cannot find a single Engish internet news site that has published this story by AP. Except JT.

That's because JT does not report the news, it tries to get traffic to sell internet advertising.

Any article with keywords like "apology" "comfort women" scores good traffic. Good for business, bad for news.

Well let's be fair here. Germany must apologize for the atrocities they committed. Former Soviet Union also. The murders, the rapes, the theft....

It is very sad to have lived that time in many places in the world. The Japanese weren't all bad. Stories of individuals helping others exist.the rulers were terrible! They certainly turned a 180 U-turn on the situation. Japan a is self sustaining peaceful economic power. Theve paid a heavy price as did Germany after the war. The rebuilding, the social acceptance, the rise to Global economic powers.

Likd Gokai wrote, all USA media such as ABC, CBS. NBC. WGN,3 CNN chaneels were too busy reportint Baltimpre Riots that they did not report SG pr NY abri /ablmb protest. SF locals had Dodgers winning Giants every day and none local News had A's son /[Angels. No ither news. In shortened political news Abe and Obama shaking scene had about 4 secibds, Nothing on OBS either

]

Some people have no future because they can't stop living in the past. These dinosaurs, fortunately, will eventually die off and the rest of us can move on without their annoying trill.

Maybe these same people should apologize for rounding up US citizens that have Japanese decent, putting them in camps, and stealing their belongings? Maybe they should apologize for dropping two nuclear bombs on Japan? Maybe we should remember that while we demand apology, maybe we should offer one:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/1495651/American-troops-murdered-Japanese-PoWs.html

http://zeroempty000.blogspot.com/2006/10/japanese-pow-in-russia-and-china.html

Maybe we should remember that the Japanese government that committed these acts no longer exists. The government that is in place now was created by MacArthur. Maybe we should remember that even after 70 years Japan still has US forces stationed there.

Maybe we should remember that Japan has apologized on multiple occasions and fully met all of it's obligations and that the Korean government decided to keep the money for itself and failed to give anything to the private citizens

http://www.jiyuushikan.org/e/reparations.html.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

There is no doubt in my mind that Japan did horrible things during the war - and while they were not the only country doing these horrible things that isn't justification for them, nor is it justification for the horrible things that were done to Japan. At what point do we recognize that Japan has become a significantly different, better country than it was in WWII? At what point can we say it is no longer reasonable to hold Japanese citizens accountable for acts that were committed decades before they were born?

This is so stupid. What happened 70 or more years ago has little or nothing to do with modern day Japan. Japan has been a peaceful nation for 70 years now and that should be an example of how other countries should also behave. Are Jewish people asking for every German diplomat to apologize for what the Nazis did to the 6+ million Jewish people that were exterminated? Are the people of Iraq protesting that the USA invaded their country under false premises and killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians directly or indirectly. How about the millions of native American "Indians" and the list goes on and on. Has the USA ever apologized for it's war crimes, I think not.

My J-wife was born in the 1960's, do I have to ask her to apologize every December 7th for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, of course not! Heck her dad was only 10 years old when the US Army Air Corps fire bombed Tokyo and they lost every possession they owned and he does not make me say sorry or begrudge me. Come on Korea quit whining and move forward and forgive and if you can't forgive then find some other cause. Why don't Korean people in the USA go to the DNK embassy in NYC and protest, nope because the NK's will exterminate your cousins on the north side of the border.

We have to consider that also other former colonial powers are not so inclined to apology. See Britain, example:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-21503533

David Cameron has described the Amritsar massacre as a "deeply shameful event". Although he stopped short of a formal apology, it joins a number of other events - which predate their arrival in No 10 - that UK prime ministers have tackled in recent years.

It seems Abe's language. Apparently it's pretty difficult to say "sorry", uh? Meh.

What happened 70 or more years ago has little or nothing to do with modern day Japan

Ok. Then, why won't Japan teach its children the truth about it?

@Black Sabbath - Are you saying that a government might alter what is being taught so that the government doesn't look unfavorable? That a school system might want to teach things based on their own desired perceptions, instead of the truth? Shocker, I think it is completely unbelievable that any world government, any school system would want to teach anything but absolute facts based.

@Black Sabbath: Be realistic. All historic books worldwide are biased.

Growing up CA, these anti-Japan sentiments are common among Korean/Chinese Americans. Even among Japanese Americans- who distance themselves from Japan's WW2 aggression. These protests in SF (and in LA) shouldn't surprise anyone. These two cities boast of large affluent asian populations.

JohnY921. Japanese have moved on. It's China and Korea that refuse to move on. Don't see Japan and America going at it still over Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima and Nagasaki do you? The treaty normalizing relations laid out that after the large reparations paid and apology made hat no more nineties would be paid not anymore apology required. Yet both China and Korea continue to ignore that treaty. Every single pm should not have to apologize to appease them. Although I kinda wish Abe would give a big heartfelt apology so then the world could see who's really being unreasonable as I doubt hey would drop it or even consider any apology good enough.

Korean Americans and Chinese Americans at the protest chanted and waved signs. They spoke in both English and Cantonese and held high the South Korean flag.

It's hard not to agree with their sentiments.

Japanese have moved on.

There's moving on.....and there's not knowing what you've moved on from. With Japan it's the latter. There's an appalling lack of historical knowledge here.

The treaty normalizing relations laid out that after the large reparations paid

Nope, because the sex slaves weren't covered by the treaty. Neither were the previous treaties Japan signed in the 1920s against forced labour. Regardless of whether or not Japan is still liable to give compensation - it has a historical obligation to its victims to instruct its people on what they did in WW2

These issues have been addressed, but left victims disgraced. There was an agreement which tried to fix that. Then South Korean politicians found they could play political gamesmanship by attacking Japan but never helping the victims. As they'll be fewer living survivors soon - the new tactic are "comfort women" statues and renaming the Japan Sea.

Japanese bureaucratic geniuses didn't help by whitewashing their national history books. The Emperor has called them on it.

North Korea and China are using similar tactics for political gain.

Staging protests won't accomplish the simple task of helping the victims, which Japan gave South Korea funds to do many years ago. Maybe PM Abe should mention that along with his apology about this issue.

Any new funds should go into an UN program to prevent future child victims in South East Asia like in Myramar which there's fighting that's being ignored.

TheOkinawan,

Are you saying that, since "any school system" won't tell the absolute truth, we should all just give up and let obvious attempts of history falsification slip through our fingers? Great attitude. Always the same argument with you guys - "The others do it, so we do it."

marcelito,

Wait no more. As expected, NHK follows what the dear leader has mandated ,and reported nothing about any pesky protests.

No report on this (USA) Still Baltimore news. And top news in /sf is Dodgers won against Giants again.