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Face is very important in east Asia. It applies to China, Korea and Japan.
What Japan did is also a bit hard to forgive quickly. It'll take time.
The Jews are pretty sensitive too. For example, any research attempting to question the holocaust is banned in many western countries. Any alternative interpretation of Hitler is absent in media. China and Korea are not really more sensitive than that. Talking about those issues certainly irritates Jewish people too.
Why do the Japanese today continue to honor the war criminals? For example in 2013, anime creator Hayao Miyazaki made a film called The Wind Rises, which paints a designer of Japanese warplanes as a hero. Did the Japanese then (and still today?) think that they had to use torture to stop their country from being conquered by a foreign power during or after the war, whether it be the USA, USSR, or even Nazi Germany (who started out as their friend)?
The U.S. honors generals who waged wars of extermination against native Americans so that white people could take over their land. And we honor people who owned slaves and defended slavery as our sacred Founding Fathers. War Criminals are everywhere.
In the film, the main character finds aircraft to be beautiful and thus strives to create beautiful things. As Japan descends into imperialism, he wrestles with the fact that the planes he designs are being used for war, and the very end of the film addresses that.
Miyazaki is well-known to be a pacifist, and his company also produced Grave Of The Fireflies, which was a really touching and heartbreaking film that depicted wartime Japan in a stark and negative light. There was another well-known manga and anime, Barefoot Gen, which depicts life in wartime Hiroshima leading up to the atomic bombing, and the after-effects of it on the people of Hiroshima. Barefoot Gen is particularly critical of wartime Japan and its actions against the rest of Asia; one of the central characters is a Korean neighbor who was forcibly relocated to Japan and is treated horribly. The children wrestle with being taught that Koreans are sub-human, but admiring the kindness of their neighbor and not understanding why people hate him. Their father laments the stupidity of the war and the atrocities that the Japanese are committing against other peoples. In Grave of the Fireflies, the boy who is the main protagonist is in many ways an allegory to wartime Japan - emboldened after early successes, he becomes obstinate and stubborn, refusing to change his direction to suit the reality changing around him, which ultimately leads to his little sister's death, and finally, his own.
These movies humanize the Japanese people who were just that; people who through whatever twist of fate were born in Japan during that time period. I don't think that this is a bad thing. The Japanese Empire did some amazingly sick and twisted things during the war, and of course, these things should be acknowledged, of course. But to make this topic off-limits, or always react to them with anger, finger-pointing, and a reminder that the IJA/IJN did sick things to the rest of the world is to strip out the humanity from the Japanese civilians who were basically along for the ride and by-and-large had no idea of the atrocities that were being committed, many if not most of whom had been brainwashed by spiritual nationalism. If anything, it is important to explore these themes and present them in a way that average people can understand, so that they are better-equipped to see analogues in today's world.
Sure the Japanese people were innocent and didn't know atrocities were committed....right! I guess this is why there were newspaper clippings of head chopping competitions for the Japanese public to read and enjoy because it was just make believe fiction.
To me, while old history should not be used to rile up modern nationalist feelings, the same can be said about white washing history to the point where any mention of history is considered to have a sinister motive. They are both bad and driven by political agendas.
Why don't the Japanese just take the name plaques of these class A war criminals out of that silly shine? Nobody cares about them preying to the common soldier's spirit, but do they really absolutely need to have those convicted war criminals in there too? It seems to me such a stupid thing to do in this day and age, unless, of course, the Japanese do so because they truthfully have no remorse about the atrocities.
If so, then all bets are off. It is what it is, folks.
Why might Mutsuhiro Watanabe (the war criminal in the recent film Unbroken) have refused to apologize for his actions? Louis Zamperini was an Olympic hero in Japan both before and after he (coincidentally) was held a prisoner there. He offered at least once to reconcile with Watanabe, offering unconditional forgiveness, but Watanabe refused.
Why don't the Japanese just take the name plaques of these class A war criminals out of that silly shine? Nobody cares about them preying to the common soldier's spirit, but do they really absolutely need to have those convicted war criminals in there too? It seems to me such a stupid thing to do in this day and age, unless, of course, the Japanese do so because they truthfully have no remorse about the atrocities.
If so, then all bets are off. It is what it is, folks.
A leader is only as powerful as those that follow him, choose to obey his orders. The common soldiers are the ones who committed the atrocities. Praying to the common imperial japanese soldier is just as bad.
Then there is an even bigger problem that I thought.
I don't understand why the Japanese are always accusing the Chinese and the Koreans of not letting go of the past when they deliberately do things to rip open these old wounds. Then of course, the Japanese go running to their American masters and demonstrate their deep loyalty to the US (like the AIIB debacle). I am American and even I am embarrassed for japan. What a nice and loyal puppy.
In East Asian culture, a lot of things the Japanese have done are unforgiveable. The rape of Nanking, Unit 731, and many other war crimes are just so atrocious. Post war Japan is nothing like Post war Germany. Japan has not paid war reparations like Germany has. It is not even close.
When Japan says they have apologized or done what ever to obtain forgiveness, is rather silly. What have they done? I guess the only thing that will satisfy some people is eye for an eye, blood in blood out. I know that sounds bad, but what else is there.
Having NOT read all of the posts in this thread, I will say that what I have been led to believe is that as a result of the US forcing American products onto the Japanese thus weakening the local economy, the emperor was forced to decide between being overthrown or uniting the country under a common cause (conquering the Pacific and Asia). Apparently there were plenty of unhappy and powerful people who had enough of the weak government being pushed around by the west.
The military leaders who were very much in power, even more so than the monarchy used the emperor's weak position to exploit the situation and to increase military power and strength.
The emperor never was a man in control of his country. He was merely a puppet of the military leaders.
I admit I am not exceptionally educated on the matter, but that is the way I remember it happening.
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