Down The Rabbit Hole: Koizumi Junichiro

OK, I didn't really know about the Chinese grudge thing until I came here, and I only hear the Chinese side, so I was wondering if you could point me to specific times/issues that Koizumi apologized for? Then I might say more to Chinese people other than "Yeah, gee, Unit 731 was pretty bad" and "Yeah, but my country nuked them, so can't we just sorta call it a day?"

Dave

Prime Minister Koizumi apologised over a number of things on several occasions but the most important one would probably be in October 2001 when he visited the Lugouqiao Museum of the Anti Japanese War (war denies simply wouldn’t do that), I don’t have his speech in English to hand, and wouldn’t ask you to believe me if I translated it because I could be making the whole thing up. But loosely he said that Japan apologized without reservation and felt deep remorse for the suffering that Japan had caused to China.

Here is an excerpt from an official Chinese website to prove that it did happen, the website was actually published by the Chinese government so it is not bias towards Japan in any way.

“Japanese government. Prime Minister Koizumi issued a speech at Lugouqiao Museum on the Anti-Japanese War in October last year, admitting aggression, regretting the war, and extending condolences and an apology.”

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zygy/gyhd/t24987.htm

The problem is not that Japanese leaders are not apologising, it is that Chinese people either don’t know that they are, or are not accepting the apologies that are made. I doubt that any apology would be accepted not mater what it said.

In 1972, Japan officially apologised during the normalization of relations, and China accepted that apology as being full and complete, though it does not widely teach this in schools. Successive Prime Ministers have also made various apologies as well.

More importantly though in April 1989, three months after the death of his Father Emperor Hirohito, Emperor Akihito made a personal apology on behalf of his himself and his late father, who presided during the war. Constitutionally the emperor can’t apologize on behalf of the country, but it was a big deal because of the cultural position that the Emperor holds.

To Japan the war is a great shame, and shame must be born silently and with dignity, China wants prostration and wailing of regret, and if you know anything about Japanese culture, you will know that Japan simply does not act that way. Instead of wailings of remorse, Japan has engaged in quiet reflection and contemplation.

You also have to bear in mind that there were a lot of atrocities and some of them have still to be uncovered, so nobody can be expected to name each individual act or even know what they are.

China is making a deliberate effort to distort history; Chinese text books don’t match American or European text books. China needs an enemy to distract people China’s its own problems and to distract them from the atrocities committed by their own leaders over the centuries, you don’t see this kind of hatred in Korea do you.

China also still sees Japan as being its weaker neighbor, and can’t stand it when it doesn’t pay homage to it as it wants. It’s sort of like America and Cuba.

Visit me @ http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com/

Prime Minister Koizumi apologised over a number of things on several occasions but the most important one would probably be in October 2001 when he visited the Lugouqiao Museum of the Anti Japanese War (war denies simply wouldn’t do that), I don’t have his speech in English to hand, and wouldn’t ask you to believe me if I translated it because I could be making the whole thing up. But loosely he said that Japan apologized without reservation and felt deep remorse for the suffering that Japan had caused to China.

Here is an excerpt from an official Chinese website to prove that it did happen, the website was actually published by the Chinese government so it is not bias towards Japan in any way.

“Japanese government. Prime Minister Koizumi issued a speech at Lugouqiao Museum on the Anti-Japanese War in October last year, admitting aggression, regretting the war, and extending condolences and an apology.”

http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zygy/gyhd/t24987.htm

The problem is not that Japanese leaders are not apologising, it is that Chinese people either don’t know that they are, or are not accepting the apologies that are made. I doubt that any apology would be accepted not mater what it said.

In 1972, Japan officially apologised during the normalization of relations, and China accepted that apology as being full and complete, though it does not widely teach this in schools. Successive Prime Ministers have also made various apologies as well.

More importantly though in April 1989, three months after the death of his Father Emperor Hirohito, Emperor Akihito made a personal apology on behalf of his himself and his late father, who presided during the war. Constitutionally the emperor can’t apologize on behalf of the country, but it was a big deal because of the cultural position that the Emperor holds.

To Japan the war is a great shame, and shame must be born silently and with dignity, China wants prostration and wailing of regret, and if you know anything about Japanese culture, you will know that Japan simply does not act that way. Instead of wailings of remorse, Japan has engaged in quiet reflection and contemplation.

You also have to bear in mind that there were a lot of atrocities and some of them have still to be uncovered, so nobody can be expected to name each individual act or even know what they are.

China is making a deliberate effort to distort history; Chinese text books don’t match American or European text books. China needs an enemy to distract people China’s its own problems and to distract them from the atrocities committed by their own leaders over the centuries, you don’t see this kind of hatred in Korea do you.

China also still sees Japan as being its weaker neighbor, and can’t stand it when it doesn’t pay homage to it as it wants. It’s sort of like America and Cuba.

Visit me @ http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com/

Most of the people I talk to about this issue (and I talk to a lot of Chinese people about this issue)
a) don't know about the apologies given by various Japanese leaders several times in the last 50 years.
b) aren't in the slightest bit surprised that the government has hidden these from them. (The Chinese have the most amazing cynicism about their own government propoganda. As one young gentleman said to me not an hour ago, "I don't believe a single thing the government tells me.")
c) will admit that actually, to them, it doesn't matter in the slightest whether or not Japan has apologised. What matters to them, and once they trust you, they'll tell you this too, is the money.
There are at least two points to note about this:
1) The Chinese are extremely jealous of the economic success of the Japanese.
2) Unlike Germany, whose post-war economy was severly hampered by huge reparations, Japan never paid a penny in the wake of WW2 (my reference for this is the excellent 'The Rape of Nanking' by Iris Chang).

Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a minute. Japan did pay reparations, billions of dollars. It is still paying them, only they weren’t called reparations.

China waived all rights to reparations in 1972. They were too proud to receive the money.

Reparations from Japan are called Official Development Aid. Japan began paying this out decades ago and is now one of the largest donors in the world.

To save Japanese pride, reparations were called development aid and were given in the from of grants, loans and low interest payment credit. China received about $920 million dollars worth last year alone in credit.

I’ve commented on your blog so you have my email address, email me and I will go over this in greater detail. There are a lot of misconceptions going round that need clearing up.

You are right about the money, China still sees Japan as the weak neighbour that it was hundreds of years ago and can’t get over Japan’s sudden rise and its stagnation for decades. It comes down to pride, and nobody has pride like the Chinese.

Germany's reperations were covered quite a lot by loans from America, the big reperations that you hear about were after WWI.

ACB

Ah, if it started in 1972, that would be beyond the scope of Iris Chang's book. As I said, that was my source. Anyway, the people I'm talking to don't care about whether or not reparations have been paid. Not really. What they care about, and we do agree on this, is that Japan is incredibly rich and powerful and China isn't. Pure, sheer, jealousy.
So far, I haven't had the impression that it's because they feel that Japan is 'supposed' to be their poor, weak neighbour - but I've never asked that question. If I see anybody today, I'll ask them. I think they just see rich, developed Japan, and believe that they too should be entitled to that. Interesting. Hold on for further investigations.