More thoughts on the China-Japan Feud

The People's Republic of China is upset at Japan for approving textbooks for use in their schools that "plays down Japan's wartime atrocities." The book does not deny that these things happened. And maybe the PRC has a point. Maybe Japanese students should take a closer look at the uglier aspects of their history. But is this the stuff that international incidents should be made of? I think not. Japan is a peaceful nation. The Japanese are a peaceful people. World War II was the final purge of the warrior class from the positions of power in Japanese society (by the end of the feudal era, something like 30% of the population belonged to the ruling warrior class; that's a huge amount and a recipe for an Imperialist foreign policy in a modernized nation).

The modern Japan is a liberal Republic with a basic respect for human rights. The People's Republic of China is a tyranny that wouldn't know what a human right was if they had a dictionary definition right in front of them. Don't believe me? Ask Zhao Ziyang. Oh, wait. I forgot, he died recently after more than a decade and a half of being under house arrest. His crime? He thought that the tyrants of Beijing shouldn't use their tanks to roll over peaceful student protesters in Tiananmen Square. Remember, the Japan that the PRC is complaining about is the Empire of Japan of Emperor Showa and Prime Minister Tojo -- an entity that engaged in behavior that was not unlike the Behavior that the PRC currently wishes to engage in.

posted by The Sovereign Editor | 4:58 AM

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