Aso calls sex slave resolution in U.S. groundless

And who let all this go on right in front of their noses, the IJA thats who, they were running the show!

gw

 

I quote from an article by Noam Chomsky on the web entitled Guilt of War Belongs to All.

"The victors of the Second World War have ruled out any apology or expression of remorse for the atomic bombings or other actions, but Japan has repeatedly been condemned for failing to confess its war guilt fully and adequately as the anniversary of VJ Day approaches.

To paint Japan as a singularly evil aggressor which refuses to apologise for its past ignores not only the gestures which the Tokyo government has made, but also the gestures which the West has not.

Visiting China in May, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama marked the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war by expressing 'sincere repentance for our past... including aggression and colonial rule that caused unbearable suffering and sorrow for many people in your country and other Asian nations'.

Not long before, Nicholas Kristof, the Tokyo correspondent of the New York Times, reported a poll showing that the Japanese 'believe four to one that their government has not adequately compensated the people of countries that Japan invaded or colonised'. He also noted that, two years earlier, the Japanese Prime Minster had offered Japan's victims an 'explicit apology for the war'.

Kristof went on to write, however, of his concern for Japan's failure to offer an adequate apology 'for invading other Asian countries and killing millions of people'. One of his articles was headlined, 'Why Japan hasn't said that word', expressing our bewilderment over Japan's unwillingness to acknowledge guilt.

Japan is not the only country that has difficulty saying it is sorry. American officials have toppled governments over the past half-century, and Americans do not lose much sleep over the American invasion of Canada during the War of 1812 or the incursions into Mexico in 1914 and 1916 -- the obvious cases that come to mind when we consider the possible reasons to "say that word".'

Aggressors only have to apologise when they lose wars, and, even then, there are exceptions. Some Japanese intellectuals are said to have admitted that Germany is more remorseful than Japan over the Second World War, but they explain that Germany's mighty neighbours would not let the Germans forget what they had done. Weaker nations, such as China and Korea, have not been in a position to exert such pressure on Japan.

Few intellectuals in the United States have asked whether similar factors might have something to do with... Theodore Roosevelt, the racist historian who became President of the United States, putting in The Winning of the West, his 1890s' four-volume celebration of the American spirit: 'As a nation, our Indian policy is to be blamed, because of the weakness it displayed, because of its shortsightedness, and its occasional leaning to the policy of sentimental humanitarians; and we have often promised what was impossible to perform; but there has been no wilful wrongdoing'.

According to Keegan, it is a Japanese tribal custom, 'not to admit that the tribe itself has done wrong, either in the present or the past. It would indeed be wrong to make such an admission; wrong for the tribe, wrong for any individual member'.

Could 200 years of a history of crushing weaker adversaries have something to do with the fact that the very idea of 'saying that word' is even less comprehensible in American culture? Such questions occur only to 'wild men in the wings', to borrow former national security adviser McGeorge Bundy's description in 1967 of those who failed to perceive the nobility of the US crusade in Vietnam.

...In his recent memoirs In Retrospect, Robert McNamara, the architect of America's intervention in Vietnam, relates that, by 1967, 'the stresses and tensions' were so bad that he sometimes had to take a sleeping pill.

Fortunately, for the nation's health, there is not much else that might cause Americans to 'lose sleep' as we commemorate events of recent history."

 

More stinky comments from an Aso.

 

The topic is not about who else has done what, whenever - it's simply about Aso denying an aspect of history as real. It's the anguish of the denial that cuts, not the miniscule details.
Just stop the gabble, pull the finger, show a human face and make amends.

Finish it. With dignity.

 

Honda on Fuji TV. I can't hear what he says in English though. It's Interpreted.
http://video.mina-kuru.jp/soft_detail.html?softsq=1042

He failed to present SINGLE evidence of sex slavery.
Asked logical basis of his belief on sex slavery, he went,

'Victims are saying it happened'.

'Japanese goverment apologized to and compensated comfort women,
and so it must have been forced slavery.'

I don't think Japanese people will be convinced that this is anything remotely credible.
They will just feel like they are betraided. If apology and compensation is used against Japan,
for Evil Japan promotion campaign, what's the point of doing so ?

If you speak Japanese, you can see that pretty much everybody in the program thinks it is not only
groundless, but also none of America's business in the first place. Granted Fuji TV is right-center,
I think even lefties will find it hard to be Honda's side. Oh wait, I voted for, well, Communist Party last time.
I may be a lefty myself..

 

Is Foolishness a Duty of Congress?

By Marion Edwyn Harrison, Esq.

"H Res 121 is ridiculous for a variety of reasons. Some of them, without limitation and not necessarily in prioritized order: (1) Our United States Government has no jurisdiction over the Japanese Government. (2) Adverse affect upon American - Japanese relations. (3) Congress is, or should be, overwhelmed with issues within its jurisdiction (e.g., spending of taxpayers’ money out of control; unlawful immigration out of control; no effective missile defense system; Social Security headed for bankruptcy; delay and defeat in confirmation of Federal judges; so on). (4) A similar resolution failed in the 109th Congress. (5) In 2001 the Japanese Prime Minister published a letter of apology.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the H Res 121 sponsor has no experience in foreign affairs and never served in the military. His two years in the Peace Corps may manifest some altruism but hardly amount to expertise.

Fortunately H Res 121 probably will not be enacted. More important, however, is the underlying fact that the Constitutional role of Congress is to legislate, and of the Senate also to advise and consent to nominations and to ratify treaties, neither House to pontificate with resolutions of opinion or of advice to foreign sovereignties as to how publicly to atone for historical mistakes.

The number of ancestors of each of us doubles in each generation. None of us can be responsible for the misconduct of ancestors. All such resolutions of apology at best are foolish; when they tell friendly foreign governments how to apologize for historical error they are more than foolish.

http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/2007/070215.aspx

Mike Honda, as expected, embarrassed himself again on Sunday by failing to present any evidence of forced sexual slavery.

"Since PM apologized, there must have been forced sexual slavery!!"

Simply brilliant Mike Hyundai!!

 

some nations are getting more than a little tired of the U.S. meddling in 'internal matters' of other nations. This nation should realize by now it needs to back off and stop trying to control the world or the universe for that matter.

 

I must say Mike Hyundai is a good one. lol

I love US as much as I love Japan or possibly more than I love Japan.
And I think you all are fair to put up with my Engrish and listen to me.
I feel that if I say right things, they will be heard.

I hope the congress makes a right decision. Seeing this Mike Hyundai guy on TV,
I am convinced that this guy knows nothing about comfort women.
It was pretty obvious that he doesn't even care. He does it only to secure some votes.

 

at the sheer level of stupidity displayed by
Mike Honda and others involved in house resolution 121.
Adding to my shame is that no other country, friend or foe, is stupid enough to waste their time and money passing pointless resolutions asking us to apologize for enslaving the African Americans, or the Genocide of the American Indians.

 

As an American I have to state again this is not worth them wasting time drawing up a resolution for anything. ADVISE yes, but to stick our governments noses any deeper than that is pointless... I have to agree with Ossan on this one. Waste of time really a waste of time...

 

I cant see why everyone all over the world keeps seeking "official" appoligize for things that has happened in the past. It serves no purpose what so ever in this current age, other than to keep the blood boiling and thoughts away from the real issues at hand and other problems. People, be you a politician, a fundamentalist or a common Joe, it happened in the past, so leave it there! And yes, it doesnt matter if it is something that happened in during the second war world or if it is some drawing in a some paper. Just forget about it and Move On!

 

It's comments like the above that made Rep. Mike Honda write the Resolution on behalf of the comfort women who should receive an apology before they death. The "evidence" that you seek are on the bodies of these women who have been scarred with knives and burnt marks. There are testimonies of actual victims spanning half-way across the world from various Asia and western countries. This is not a story that's fabricated or made-up by the Korean government. It's a stubborn cover-up made by the Japanese government that this didn't happen when the truth is revealed. I'm sorry to say that your history will never disappear because it's the descendants of the victims who are fighting for their grandparents' rights to an apology. Without an apology from the heart, genuine remorse, evidence of conscience, and education to its people so they will not be in denial, this issue will never ever die down. There can be no forgiveness. There can be no possibility of friendship between us.

Yes, I agree that America bear blame for it's own crimes against Japan during WWII and should apologize and face the truths. But this is a separate issue from the crimes of Japan against its neighbors. To say that it happened because their neighbors were "weak", as if to suggest that they invited the attack is ridiculous. It's Japan who was the aggressors and military-prone, not that the neighbors were weak. Actually, your neighbors are pretty strong, in case you haven't noticed the wealth and prestige of China and Korea. To the commentors that said that Korean buy Japanese products. Yes, Koreans love Japanese products, just like Japanese love American products.

 

Abe tried very hard to be a friendly Prime Minister with his neighboring countries. Now the true Abe has begun to appear. He said there was not fact to prove that Asian women had been coerced to be "comfort women". If that's was the Japanese government's position, why did they apology earlier? It looks like it will be a long hot summer for Ape. Oh, so sorry, I meant Abe.

 

Sorry, but the rest of us are not as naiive as you. Not acknowledging your own history and deliberatly lying about it and teaching your children untruths about it means that history will repeat itself. The Imperial Japanese war criminals of the past led Japan and most of South East Asia to Hell. We must ensure that Ane, Ishihara, Aso and the other morons in the LDP are not allowed to repeat the diabolical deeds of the past. They must not only apologise - but repent, and make amends.

 

Why does the US need to condemn Japan's behavior during WWII? Didn't bombing the hell out of the place, conquering it, and occupying it make the US position clear?

Another example of an ethnic lobby involving the US in nonsense that is it shouldn't be involved in.