On June 8th, 1954, a beautiful Japanese traditional bell was presented to the United Nations New York headquarters by the United Nations Associations of Japan in the name of People of Nippon. They named the bell for “absolute world peace.” However, there would be no use of tolling such a beautiful bell every year if Japan distances itself from the others. It has been approximately 68 years since the end of WWII and Japan is trying to go back to its “old glorious days” while Germany is walking the path of endless apologies and self-retrospection.
In December 1970, a chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt, knelt down in the rain at the monument to victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in front of myriad numbers of Polish people. Greatly impressed by Brandt’s action, prime minister of Poland at that time hugged Brandt when he was seeing Brandt off at the airport and people of Poland, who furiously criticized Brandt’s visit, kept quiet. This is a very famous anecdote that describes Germany’s attitude toward its shameful past. In January of this year, Angela Merkel, prime minister of Germany, said that “Adolf Hitler’s rise to power 80 years ago should go on reminding Germans that democracy and freedom cannot be taken for granted.” On the contrary, in April this year at the national ceremony, Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan, showed up in a military uniform with a helmet on and mounted a tank shouting out that he will have Japan’s health recovered.
Japan’s current foreign policy is very controversial among the Asian nations. We are not only talking about “big controversies,” like a possible military conflict with China at the islands Senkaku or Diaoyudao, but also about “small controversies” such as usage of the “Rising Sun Flag.” The flag was used by Japan since 1870 as an official military flag especially before and during the Pacific War. It is commonly perceived as a symbol of Japanese militarism and its cruel violence by China, Korea and other Asian countries who suffered from Japanese militarism. Hakenkreuz, a symbolic flag of Nazi Germany, and the Rising Sun Flag are both registered on Wikipedia as War Criminal Flags. While Germany strictly banned HakenKreuz, Japan proudly uses the Rising Sun Flag for self-defense forces and other various occasions. And this even goes further. Japanese newspaper, Sankei news, nervously reacted to China and Korea’s concern for usage of the flag: “It is very rude to treat the Rising Sun Flag as the same as HakenKreuzi” But it’s Japan that is very rude to the countries who suffered under that exact same flag.
Now, it is time to talk about one of the “big controversies.” After a defeat by Allies in WWII, Japan has been constitutionally prohibited from using military force or waging a war against other countries. This is why they have self-defense forces instead of an army and navy; however, the current government of Abe is trying to modulate this by coming up with military plans of developing Marine Corps that has very same capability from that of U.S. Marine Corps. Although Japanese government’s official representative mentioned that this is going to be a precautionary method for a possible armed conflict with China, China’s Foreign Ministry replied to such reference very uncomfortably saying, “Japan is over-exaggerating the antagonistic relationship between two countries and using it as an excuse to modulate its military policy.” Marine Corps is a type of military force that specializes very specifically on offense-oriented operations on the seashore. Furthermore, if they really acquire the formidable capability that stacks up to U.S. Marine Corps, this is going to be an extreme threat to surrounding nations. Comparing two different ways of remembering the past, Japan and Germany disagree on the method. Germany tries its best to remember, study and teach its youths about their shameful past while expressing their deepest sympathies to those who suffered from the tragedy. Contrastingly, Japan refuses to apologize to “Comfort Women,” proudly hangs the Rising Sun Flag everywhere and teaches the distorted history to its youths. Gratitude and Nobel Peace Prize was given to Willy Brandt only because he acknowledged the past. People of China and Korea are not asking Abe to come to their country’s monument park and kneel down apologizing to those who passed away, rather simply a change in attitude to manifest the peace suggested by the beautiful bell.
This is Andrew’s first column. What do you think about the different ways of remembering the past? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
