Japan's Past

From Yahoo:
"SKorea: Japan must educate its people about WWII"

 South Korea's foreign minister said Thursday that Japan's wartime past will overshadow relations between the two staunch U.S. allies until Japan educates its people about crimes committed during colonial rule. In an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said: "We are victims of Japanese colonial rule."

Kim, speaking a few hours before "serious" talks with Japan's foreign minister, also said South Korea would not compromise in its dispute over the tiny Dokdo islands, called Takeshima by Japan, which has further strained ties. "When the Japanese government claims DokdoBut he said South Korea recognizes its shared interests with fellow-democracy Japan, such as coping with North Korea and its nuclear ambitions. Both Japan and South Korea play host to tens of thousands of U.S. troops. Kim said Seoul wants to expand relations with Japan, including in military cooperation, but only if South Korean public sentiment allows it. In June, they put on hold an intelligence sharing pact after it provoked an outcry in South Korea. Japan occupied the Korean peninsula for 35 years until the defeat of fascist forces in World War II and also occupied much of China. Japan issued a formal apology in 1993 over its use of Korean women as sex slaves by its soldiers during the war, but has failed to convince South Korea it is truly contrite. Kim accused Japanese politicians of denying war crimes and said Japan's failure to educate its people properly about the past was the root cause of its various territorial disputes over islands in the region — including with Russia and Asia's premier power, China. "It's in sharp contrast with what Germany did to get the support and respect from the neighboring countries" after World War II, Kim said. "If Japan does it, I'm sure they can (get) respect from neighboring countries."

 

^ The South Koreans are right. Germany (well West Germany until 1990 since East Germany played the victim) took responsibility for what it did during the war and worked hard to improve relations with the countries it occupied and/or fought while Japan has done little. I saw a program on TV that said that the war is virtually skipped over in Japanese schools. That reminds me of a scene from "Family Guy" where they are in Munich on a bus and Brian asks the German guide why the war was left out of the tour and the guide screams "There was no war. We were all on vacation. Ask Poland." Of course that's not true, but this sums up what the Japanese portray to their own people and the rest of the war by not admitting or educating on the things they did during the war. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-japan-must-educate-people-wwii-