It's Easy to Say Gomen Nasai

[Mulboyne]

[FG Lurker]

That's a terrible translation, designed to make what he said look vague and somewhat unapologetic.

I guess translation is somewhat like statistics... You can make the results look just about any way you want.

[dimwit]

Tom's being a little disingenous here. Even average Japanese regard Murayama as an anomaly Prime Minister.

That is anyone who actually remembers Murayama. Personnally I hold as much contempt for the SDP as the LDP. By having Murayama as Prime Minister, the SDP sold their soul by allowing the LDP back into power.

I wonder if any Japanese Prime Minister was EVER gone to Nanking or Manila to lay a wreath for the non Japanese victims of WWII.

[FG Lurker]

I wonder if any Japanese Prime Minister was EVER gone to Nanking or Manila to lay a wreath for the non Japanese victims of WWII.

That's a very good point... I wonder how many more decades we have to wait before something like that will happen.

[Taro Toporific]

[cstaylor]

has always been missing from the Japanese "Apology"

But that's like almost all apologies in Japan: surface without substance.

[kamome]

I can't remember the Japanese words, but the exact Japanese term for "to be sorry" has never been used in any public Japanese statement about WWII. As I understand it, the words they always use are "regret" or "remorse" but never a true "apology". And Taro is right--it comes off as "regret" for the retribution the Japanese brought upon themselves rather than sincere grief/apology for the deaths of other Asian peoples.

[dimwit]

Which brings me back to my question. Has any Japanese Prime Minister ever visited Nanjing or Manila to lay a wreath for the non-Japanese victims of the war?

[L S]

[Big Booger]

[sludge]

Just a picture

[Blah Pete]

But by late afternoon most of the crowd at the embassy had dispersed, persuaded by police to board waiting buses to take them home.

So, the security police didn't do much to stop the crowd from attacking the embassy and they had busses ready to take the protestors back home. This CCP organization written all over it.
If any country does not deserve a seat on the security council it is China so they shouldn't be complaining about Japan trying to get in.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Demonstrations against Japan have spread in China since Tokyo approved a new history textbook that critics say glosses over atrocities by Japan's military in the first half of the 20th century, including forcing tens of thousands of Asian women into sex slavery.
...They shouted "Boycott Japanese goods!" and some threw plastic bottles of mineral water at the store.

The rest of the story

[emperor]

Does the guy just in front the flag look like a gaijin to you?

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

Does the guy just in front the flag look like a gaijin to you?

Well technically they are all gaijin.

[emperor]

Well technically they are all gaijin.

...from a Chinese perspective!!

...I bet hes CIA and carrying out some dastardly Black Ops campaign!!

..Free Beer and Fried Grasshoppers = Check... Buses to return activists home = Check...

[Buraku]

Not just old mainland China now, Ruskies wondering about these islands, Taiwanese looking for a sexslave apology, S.Koreans unhappy, Philippines, Vietnam...Seoul said the new books sought to glorify Japan's war-time past, a continuing source of regional tension.
The move follows a row between Japan and South Korea over disputed islands, and anti-Japanese protests in China.
The South Korean Embassy in Japan said in a statement: "The Republic of Korea expresses regret over the fact that some of the 2006 Japanese middle school text books... still contain content that justifies and glorifies wrongs"
most controversial of the new books was written by a group of nationalist historians called the Society for History Textbook Reform which would remind folks of Neo-Nazi writings that whitewash the Jewish holocaust
I asked the question before - South Korean military would kick Japan's rear !! ??
Is it clever for Blinky-Ishiharaand his LDP friends to pick fights at this time ? This ain't the strong JapanArmy that existed prior toWW2, its possible South Koreans may mop the floor with Nippon

[Samurai_Jerk]

Do you think that the plastic bottles thing was allowed by the gov't so there wouldn't be any real damage?

[AssKissinger]

Now Japan wants an apology because the Chinese are demonstrating because they want an apology.

April 10 - Japan lodged a formal protest against China today following violent, anti-Japanese demonstrations in Beijing, even as marches that focused on Japanese government offices and businesses widened to southern China.

The Japanese foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura, summoned the Chinese ambassador, Wang Yi, here this morning. Afterward, Mr. Wang said the Chinese government condemned the demonstrations on Saturday in which protesters threw rocks at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and vandalized Japanese businesses.

"We formally demanded China's apology and compensation," Mr. Machimura said after the meeting, adding that Mr. Wang had not apologized.

[jim katta]

But that's like almost all apologies in Japan: surface without substance.

pin pon!

[Steve Bildermann]

Look 'em up

Political Apologies - a Chronological list

August 2, 1894: Japan reportedly apologizes and offers to pay compensation to Great Britain for its cruiser Naniwa mistakenly firing upon and sinking the British ship Kow Shing. Japanese officials in London deny the report

December 15, 1937: Japan apologizes for sinking the U.S. gunboat Panay

1965: A joint statement issued by the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea includes "twenty vague words of apology" for Japan's 36-year colonial rule.

1972: Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka tells visiting Chinese Premier Chou En-lai that "Japan realizes her heavy responsibility in causing enormous damage to the Chinese people in the past through the war."

September 7, 1984: Alluding to World War II, Japanese Emperor Hirohito tells the visiting South Korean President that "it is regrettable that there was an unfortunate period in this century

October 23, 1985: In an address to the United Nations, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone apologizes for Japan¹s role in World War II.

May 27, 1990: South Korean leader Roh Tae Woo accepts Japanese Emperor Akihito's words of regret for the occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.

December 1, 1991: President Bush refuses to apologize for the use of atomic bombs in World War II.

December 4, 1991: Japanese Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe expresses "deep remorse" for the wartime suffering that followed Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

January 18, 1992: Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologizes for Japan's use of "comfort women."

October 23, 1992: During a royal visit to China, Japanese Emperor Akihito expresses his sorrow for Japan¹s wartime abuses.

August 10, 1993: Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa declares that World War II was a mistake and an act of aggression.

August 23, 1993: Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa uses his first parliamentary policy address to convey "a feeling of deep remorse and apologies for the fact that our country¹s past acts of aggression and colonial rule caused unbearable suffering and sorrow for so many people."

September 20, 1993: Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa apologizes for suffering caused by Japan in World War II.

November 6, 1993: In South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa apologizes to South Korean President Kim Young Sam for Japan's wartime actions.

August 15, 1994: Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologizes for the suffering caused by Imperial Japan and concedes that other Asians suffered "tragic sacrifices beyond description."

...and many many more.

Frankly this apologizing business is just as much a political ploy as is North Korea's 'yes we are building nukes, no were not, yes we are' hokey pokey

[emperor]

Some protesters have called for a boycott of Japanese goods

They might go without Cameras and Cars - cause they make so many cheap knockoffs themselves, but theyre going to exclaim "i cant live without my tako flavoured kisses!"

[Buraku]

Some protesters have called for a boycott of Japanese goods

They might go without Cameras and Cars - cause they make so many cheap knockoffs themselves, but theyre going to exclaim "i cant live without my tako flavoured kisses!"

Good point on the knock-offs

Perhaps you've confused the Chinese ( who have their own culture ) with Dubs, who wouldn't last two days without ManUnited Tshirts, BritishPop music, Eastenders and Skysports

[cstaylor]

Perhaps you've confused the Chinese ( who have their own culture )

When they aren't busy destroying it in the name of progress.

[Neo-Rio]

So what's this really all about then? The CCP trying to start a wave of anti-Japanese sentiment to stir the populace into a "buy Chinese" campaign, and perhaps motivate their workers to make better quality stuff like the Japanese?

Half the people protesting look as if they were never old enough to experienced Japanese occupation. It all seems a bit weird happening now because they're about 50 years late with the protest.

Oh well, first the cultural revolution, then the industrial revolution.

[mercutio]

Is it just me? or does that guy look like he throws like a 12 year old girl that rode the short bus to school?

[Mulboyne]

[gamma-ro]

Afterward, Mr. Wang said the Chinese government condemned the demonstrations on Saturday in which protesters threw rocks at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and vandalized Japanese businesses.

And yet, when I watched the news today, they were showing police officers standing around and doing nothing - and some were even smiling - while the protesters attempted to destroy anything Japanese they could find.

Also, and i don't know if this is completely true or not, but it seems as though the local government in the areas where the "protests" were happening sponsored buses to take people to the embassy, etc.

Doesn't seem like condemnation to me.

[Mulboyne]

Asian Wall Street Journal Editorial (11th April 2205 - no link)

Tiananmen Square's 1989 peaceful demonstrations were a violent uprising; Tibet had no claim to independence when China invaded in 1951; millions of Chinese did not die during the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward; The US started the Korean War by invading the peninsula; special FBI agents repress American workers.
Chian's recent indignation at Japan for approving textbooks that allegedly misprepresent history exploded over the weekendin riots in some Chinese cities. Japan could do more to own up to its past. But the quick and cursory glance at how China itself treats history shows that its distortions are of a far greater magnitude than Japan's
...It would indeed be a sign of maturity for Japan to admit to its sins. Teaching Japanese students to what depths a creative nation is capable of plunging...would be a good antidote to a repetition of history. But, frankly speaking, China's constant drumbeat about Japan's brutalities more than 60 years ago is also indoctrination...Beijing has fostered a pathology of victimology that creates problems today and stores up even more for the future.

[004Ninja]

Perhaps you've confused the Chinese ( who have their own culture )

When they aren't busy destroying it in the name of progress.

Japan will export PET bottle to China.
By the way...
Are use instructions of PET bottle necessary for Chinese?