On 10/20/2004 7:10 PM, Eric Takabayashi wrote:
> Scott Reynolds wrote:

>>No, I am saying that in another decade or two it may not matter much to
>>people throughout Asia who was the aggressor in WW2.
> 
> Japanese will care perhaps even less than now.

Yes.

> Do you believe Chinese will forgive or forget? (Note to Ernest: not that I believe
> they should, or that they are "too emotional".)

That may depend more on what the government propaganda machine finds
expedient than on the desires and intentions of Chinese young people.
But yes, I think they will forget eventually. And forgiveness will be
beside the point because the guilty parties in Japan will have long
since passed from the scene.

>>You may call this historical ignorance
> 
> Yes.
> 
>>and a bad thing.
> 
> Not so much that it is "bad" (though it is), but on a more practical note, that the
> Japanese will lack some understanding of why so many people in other countries may
> have a negative image about Japan and Japanese now or in the future, if they are
> ignorant. In extreme cases, Japanese may come to actual physical harm. They should be
> warned about this.

Indeed, they should.

I suspect that the danger will continue to lessen as the years pass, though.

>>My point is that forgetting the past may have good aspects as well as bad ones.
> 
> Former enemies of Japan will also need to forget to some degree before looking
> forward. The Japanese can't decide to "forget" by themselves, or encourage others to
> "forget", which is why others get angry.
> 
> Negative feelings will last at least some decades after the last survivors are gone,
> if not longer.
> 
> I do not know or understand the process by which the British and US became close
> allies over two centuries, but it was probably a mutual effort.

I suppose so, but the fact that the Americans were former British
subjects and culturally quite similar to the British certainly helped as
well.

The Americans wanted to be free of British political domination but they
did not despise Britain and the British or consider themselves superior.
This is quite different from the attitude of the Japanese toward their
former imperial subjects.

> Why, yes. And now the US also needs Japan as an ally, and the US focuses increasing
> efforts and attention, economically and politically, on China instead. "Japan bashing"
> gave way to "Japan passing" in one writer's words, during the Clinton era.

This is a Japan-centered viewpoint, as is reflected by the Japlish
expression "Japan passing" used to express it. It is simply not
realistic to expect thinking in the US to revolve around Japan, which is
after all a rather small country and only one of the nations with which
America has friendly relations.

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Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com