Germany and Japan: different ways of remembering war crimes and playing politics
- Angela MERKEL: the first German Chancelor to visit Dachau. Expresses "deep sadness and shame".The controversy: in Germany, a nation that faces its past and where honoring war criminals, Nazism, or the swastika flag is a crime, that's normal. But you don't do that during a political campaign: that's playing politics.
- Shinzo ABE: Japan's most shameless, unrepentent revisionist Prime Minister since his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, a war criminal who dedicated Mt Sangane to Hideki Tojo and Co. Regularly honors war criminals in Yasukuni.
No controversy: in Japan, a nation that never recognized any war crime and where revisionists control the political system, honoring war criminals, Imperial Japan, or the Rising Sun Flag, that's normal. And you must do that to survive politically: that's playing politics as usual.
Seoul Village 2013
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter
Add this page to your favorites
You actually have no idea how it looks like in Germany. German politicians are trying to erase Nazism as Germany-originated from history books and even tries to put it among their victims' nationalities. The was no Pole who was Nazi because Nazi during World War II was meaning "German Citizen" but Western European Government is currently talking about "Polish Nazis" all the time like something like this ever existed. So I will tell you the REAL difference between Japan and Germany- Germany is able to make a good picture of itself in front other countries like f.e. Korea by manipulating the history in books and media, and Japan is able to make a good picture of itself in the West by exactly the same manipulation. There is no difference, only you are manipulated.
ReplyDeleteOur countries had similar experience in the past, so I actually know how you feel.
Peace
The responsibility of Germany is not contested as blatantly as in Japan, and certainly not openly by mainstream politicians.
ReplyDeletePeople collaborated across Asia with the Empire of Japan just like people collaborated with Nazi Germany across Europe, some with high levels of responsibility, individuals (such as Laszlo Csatary, the suspected war criminal who recently died) as well as administration (for instance the French government recognized the role of the national administration in the 1942 Vel d'Hiv Roundup).
Some negationists do try to twist the truth by using these facts (e.g. Japan negationists saying that only Korean people were responsible for the abduction of "comfort women").
I'm not a Korean citizen but I'm very much aware of the bonds between two people who suffered particularly over the past century. Poland and Korea were both also victims of specific cultural genocides under Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan rules.