Obama's visit to Hiroshima

[Spark]

I just heard that Pres. Obama is visiting Hiroshima in Japan to pay respects. If he visited Japan, why haven't the Japanese government visited Pearl Harbor and offered their respects?

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

[Mopsus]

It would make more sense for them to visit Bataan.

[RINO Tom]

You have a problem with the US taking the high road?  I certainly don't.

[Santander]

If the Japanese government was in the habit of doing such things, Asia would be a very different place today. They will never even consider it.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I see no problem with this, so long as he doesn't actually apologize without a formal Japanese apology first (which I don't think they owe us at this point, nor should it effect our relationship).

[publicunofficial]

I see no problem with this, so long as he doesn't actually apologize without a formal Japanese apology first (which I don't think they owe us at this point, nor should it effect our relationship).

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[GMantis]

I just heard that Pres. Obama is visiting Hiroshima in Japan to pay respects. If he visited Japan, why haven't the Japanese government visited Pearl Harbor and offered their respects?

Pearl Harbor was a valid military target, so Japan certainly doesn't have to apologize for attacking it (of course they have done a lot of other things for which they do have to apologize for, but this mostly doesn't concern Americans).

[GMantis]

I see no problem with this, so long as he doesn't actually apologize without a formal Japanese apology first (which I don't think they owe us at this point, nor should it effect our relationship).

Apparently the Japanese emperor attempted to personally apologize to MacArthur, but he rebuffed him.

[All Along The Watchtower]

The real question is why it took more than half a century for the government of Japan to apologize for the Rape of Nanking.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

He's typing America's apology right now.

[Asian Nazi]

The real question is why it took more than half a century for the government of Japan to apologize for the Rape of Nanking.

Or the dozens of other horrible things they did during World War II and the decades leading up to it.  I have nothing against the Japanese people, but their government and a small sector of Japanese society are seriously f***ed up and totally unapologetic about the whole affair.

And while Pearl Harbor was a legitimate military target, they still launched an unprovoked attack on the United States in order to continue their genocidal war in East Asia.  Japan was unequivocally one of the bad guys during the war.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

None of you are your grandfathers (or great grandfathers I suspect) so none of you have a right to be offended. Reconciliation is good.

[Santander]

Or the dozens of other horrible things they did during World War II and the decades leading up to it.  I have nothing against the Japanese people, but their government and a small sector of Japanese society are seriously f***ed up and totally unapologetic about the whole affair.

The problem is partly because of Japan's educational system (which is even worse than the Chinese at teaching regional history) but also because of Japanese culture, which is probably less compatible with Western values than any other culture in the world. I attended a class at an Israeli university a few years ago which explained how far isolated Japan was relative to other cultures, although the professor said Israeli culture was also an outlier. To the Japanese, apologizing and reaching out to their neighbors (especially Korea) to reconcile is too humiliating to even think about. For us, we see their inaction as even more humiliating.

The cultural and moral incompatibility is one reason why I think we in the West cannot ever consider Japan to be a friend.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

None of you are your grandfathers (or great grandfathers I suspect) so none of you have a right to be offended. Reconciliation is good.

I don't expect the Japanese to apologize as I noted in my earlier post. I just stated that I opposed a hypothetical apology, which was never a serious proposal to begin with.

[Asian Nazi]

Or the dozens of other horrible things they did during World War II and the decades leading up to it.  I have nothing against the Japanese people, but their government and a small sector of Japanese society are seriously f***ed up and totally unapologetic about the whole affair.

The problem is partly because of Japan's educational system (which is even worse than the Chinese at teaching regional history) but also because of Japanese culture, which is probably less compatible with Western values than any other culture in the world. I attended a class at an Israeli university a few years ago which explained how far isolated Japan was relative to other cultures, although the professor said Israeli culture was also an outlier. To the Japanese, apologizing and reaching out to their neighbors (especially Korea) to reconcile is too humiliating to even think about. For us, we see their inaction as even more humiliating.

The cultural and moral incompatibility is one reason why I think we in the West cannot ever consider Japan to be a friend.

Bigoted ignorance, as displayed in your response, is one reason why I think we Asians cannot ever consider the white race to be a friend.

[Santander]

Bigoted ignorance, as displayed in your response, is one reason why I think we Asians cannot ever consider the white race to be a friend.

Too bad I'm not white. Your tribal mentality is disgusting. This has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with culture. I'm not some alt-right pseudo-intellectual who believes in white nationalism - I simply defend Western culture, and I believe that foreigners can be assimilated into Western culture. The fact is, Japanese culture is considered an outlier even in comparison to the rest of East Asia and even more so in comparison to Western culture. For these purposes, I define friendship as amiable ties founded on deep mutual understanding, like the US enjoys with the Anglosphere and most of Western Europe. Such a relationship is impossible with Japan because of the cultural incompatibility.

This also has nothing to do with ethnic Asians in Western society. I believe a precedent for well-integrated East Asian immigrants into Western society exists with the Japanese in Hawaii and Hong Kongers in Canada, and I welcome similar developments elsewhere. In fact, long-settled immigrants can be tremendously helpful in assimilating newcomers of the same ethnicity - again, look at the work of Chinese Anglican churches set up in Canada by Hong Konger immigrants in the 80s which now work to integrate Mainlanders into the country.