45% of Korean Kids: “Japan is Our Biggest Enemy!”

I really have to disagree on that "Philippines" part. The country is in turmoil not because of being invaded by Japan in the past, but merely out of its own citizens' and governments' incompetence. Anything else would just be an excuse to throw around the blame rather accept the reality of things.

@ TFish & Shippoyasha

Precisely. It's a gross simplification to say that we as a future generation are apologizing for the sins of the fathers. Consider the idea to a nation who doesn't know much about others, or has little communication that we take for granted in our internet era. These people only have history to judge how the future will come. It's the cyclical nature of history that we all inherently understand, and it's not untrue, so we'd be incorrect to say it's foolish to believe history would repeat itself.

Apologizing for the failures of a nation in the past is not only an admission of of a mistake in the past, but a representation of the fact that the nation will not do the same in the future. In order to understand a mistake, one must first admit it. Mentioning something publicly and recognizing it as the wrong way to have done things is simultaneously clearing the past for many millions of people sometimes, and also a declaration that it will not come again in the future.

To deny its existence is to generate the unconscious feeling that they had every right in the world to do it, and to complain is the mark of a weaker dog. It is arrogance and ego that allows a nation not to recognize and comment about something they have done, nothing more. It doesn't mean that they must grovel and beg forgiveness, but to understand and make note of their history. Prove to the people that they are not a stagnant culture that will not propagate the same histories that have generated such hatred and fear initially.

The current generation wasn't responsible for the war and generally holds very different views than the military government in 1945. If the fascists didn't own up properly and weren't punished adequately that's regrettable, but an apology from Japan now would be meaningless.

"No government today should have to apologize or make any mention of what happened in world war 2 simply because of the fact that most of the world leaders weren't even alive during the war."

Funny you should say that; Clinton still apologized for the Japanese interment camps of WW2.

I think it's less a "moral obligation" and more a "you do this because it'll be better for humanity as a whole." It's definitely true that if my dad killed your sister, I shouldn't have to pay for it, and I'm not obligated to apologize or help you through your time of grief. However, by doing so, maybe I'll spread goodwill, help alleviate some of the pain, and make you more likely to want to work together with me. (It's kind of understandable that you wouldn't want to have anything to do with the family of your sister's murderer, right?) It's just a way to make things nicer for everyone at no cost to myself.

I wonder when people will stop hounding for an apology from people that did nothing wrong.

It seems everyone's mentality is for children to pay for the sins of their fathers, when no matter how many people my parents murdered or raped I'd never tell people that I am personally sorry for what I did when it was my parents not I that did something wrong.

No government today should have to apologize or make any mention of what happened in world war 2 simply because of the fact that most of the world leaders weren't even alive during the war.

Killing is still killing no matter from which country, and I'm not surprise Japan is not at the top of that list of killed the most.

People have power, money or even meaning does not give them the right to kill other. Two wrong does not make a right, yet there are no people asking other country to apologize for what they done.

So typical that you guys only focus your hatred for the most know crime and been blinded by lies.

TFish, I agree with the notion, but it's not that simple when histories of nations goes much longer and ties between parent and child is considered to be much tighter than it is in the west.

Also, even in the case of serial killers and the like in Korea, they had moments where the entire city bowed out of respect and sadness before. Like with the Virginia Tech shootings. Koreans in their nation was not responsible, but they felt responsible anyway.

And at this point, yeah, it's not about a direct apology. But a gesture. An olive branch. And again, we can't really expect much out of the bumbling Japanese government. But everyday people may. We can get into Korean-pop and manage to make friends with Korean kids and break that cycle and racism in our own ways. We can share the love of anime, manga, baseball, etc. And during the World Cup in early 2000s, they shared the whole event amongst both nations. Maybe they can try that again.

As for 'post mortem' apologies, the Popes has done that many times. America is doing it now with Native Americans (or trying to). Australia is doing it with its native population. It's not a crazy idea as you may think. Nor does the people apologizing have to give up all dignity. Besides, the victims usually don't have the power to be bullish about it anymore. Especially if they lived in another era.

a) I think Clinton shouldn't have done that, for obvious reasons.
b) Holding up Clinton as an example of moral fortitude is ludicrous.

I think the asian cultures that Japan oppressed won't be satisfied until they get hundreds of millions of dollars from them and make it illegal for Japanese to question the atrocities committed by their government and military (much like Germany by the Jews).