China Urges Japan to Reflect on Its World War II Aggression, Back Up Its Apologies With Action

Story dated 23 April 2005

Imagine that your grandfather was a schoolyard bully. Further imagine that he mercilessly tormented some small kid throughout elementary school and took his lunch money every day. Now fast-forward two generations. You are not your grandfather. You think bullying is wrong and that bullies should be punished. When you talk about and remember your grandfather, though, you only sometimes mention that he was a bully -- you never talk about what he did. Now imagine that the grandson of the kid your grandfather bullied is calling for you to apologize, and to make reparations for your family's "schoolyard atrocities", and saying in news conferences that your treatment of the history of your grandfather shows that you have no remorse for his actions. He is calling publicly for you to "seriously reflect on the concerns" of the people descended from the people your grandfather bullied. (Oh, I almost forgot, he is also saying that relations between you and he might be repaired if you refuse to stand up in defense of a guy that he, himself, wants to bully). Be honest -- you would dismiss such a person as a lunatic and a bully, and you would dismiss his pale attempts to distract attention from what he wants to get away with as mere nonsense. People are only responsible for their own actions. They cannot reasonably be held responsible for the actions of others. Organizations (and countries) are not people. To say otherwise would be to commit the reification fallacy. You cannot continue to punish them once the malefactors are no longer a part of the organization. To do so would be to punish the innocent. And when one "punishes" the innocent, one is actually committing an assault against that innocent person and needs to be brought to justice.

What I have described above is exactly what the tyrannical People's Republic of China is trying to do to Japan. And don't think for a minute that this has nothing to do with Japan's support of Taiwan. ABC news barely gives this any notice in their article. At the very end of the first page, they mention that "[t]he Chinese president said relations between the two nations could improve if Tokyo refused to support any moves toward independence by Taiwan. Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing still claims the island as its territory." So, the Japanese are expected to take punishment for the actions of their parents and grandparents, but the tyrants of Beijing can make plans to conquer a sovereign and free nation in the here and now with impunity? There is something wrong with the state of international affairs if we aren't willing to call China on this, and there is something wrong with the news coverage if they aren't willing to give China the same scrutiny they give Japan. China also opposes the idea of giving Japan a permanent seat on the UN Security Council based on their WWII actions. Pay attention, people. Just ignore Beijing's concerns -- those tyrants have a seat on the Security Council and they are openly planning to conquer another nation. Better yet, take their seat away and give it to Japan. In my opinion, the UN stands for nothing so long as we allow tyrants to affect its policy decisions.

posted by The Sovereign Editor | 1:59 PM

_____________________________________________