Observances of WWII Closure Receive Varying Reactions
May 2, 2024
In today's world of geopolitical lines drawn in just about every major corner of it, it is pretty much standard procedure that each country keep its people happy, instill and maintain patriotism among its people, especially up and coming youth, and it is also expectation that heritage, cultural events would be in a manner that would prevent or preempt its own people from turning against the country in the least bit. In short, often, recalling disliked or controversial aspects at an event or observance may be left out.
Nations have done things in the past, that today, perhaps they are not the most proud of, such as events in wartime situations. The idea in terms of betterment, and peace, is to improve, and change, which could mean stopping engaging in certain activities.
Since these comments are coming from the US, I will humbly use the US as an example. There was a time, for instance, before the Civil War, where 'slaves' was perfectly legal. President George Washington had his slaves, which he eventually set free. Although slavery now, post the Civil War, Reconstruction era, Civil Rights era, is generally disliked, it does not mean that the US is going to stop glorifying our first President. At every event, every celebration, shout and give utterances about the vagaries of slaves, would be awkward. The Country has moved on, in a process of change.
Some of the war strategies from within the past century, there would be no conceivable way the US would do that now in 2024. There are criticisms as we speak, post year 2000, of what has been consolidated and assessed as 'Yellow Peril", for example. If it did exist, aspects of it can be analyzed as self-destructive nonsense. While instilling hate may have worked for battles in one area, it was counter-productive to other efforts.
A simple illustration of counterproductive nonsense, is when in the past few years, namely 2019 onward, women from the Philippines were attacked over notions having to do with COVID-19 coming from China. Anti-Asian hate was so built up, and built on ignorance that did not distinguish nations, there were some to put it bluntly unfortunate and even embarrassing moments.
This April 2024, nations near Japan have expressed a 'disappointment' over Japanese Prime Minister Kishida offering to the Yasukuni Shrine.
In some context, those who have made such expression may have well been well within their right. It is not my place to say yes or no, especially if they are leaders of their nations. However, from other perspectives, there might be a perception that their is some give or take, considering changes over the years.
Most US schoolbooks describe Japanese government back in the days just leading up to the end of WWII to be 'imperialist'. Perhaps the exact style or ingredients that went into Japanese imperialism may not fit exactly with the general definition of imperialism per se. Notwithstanding the 'waverances' in analysis over everything that happened, Japan of today does not really seem to fit the same set of practical directives from a time about 80 years ago, before cell phones and social media, globalization and so forth.
Because there was a war and there were heroes, there were heroes, which might be appropriate that they stay, in the dimension of having heroes, while at the same time, opinions of whether everything those heroes stood for may have some disagreements.
All said, I would say, for all to keep the efforts for keeping the peace.
Nations have done things in the past, that today, perhaps they are not the most proud of, such as events in wartime situations. The idea in terms of betterment, and peace, is to improve, and change, which could mean stopping engaging in certain activities.
Since these comments are coming from the US, I will humbly use the US as an example. There was a time, for instance, before the Civil War, where 'slaves' was perfectly legal. President George Washington had his slaves, which he eventually set free. Although slavery now, post the Civil War, Reconstruction era, Civil Rights era, is generally disliked, it does not mean that the US is going to stop glorifying our first President. At every event, every celebration, shout and give utterances about the vagaries of slaves, would be awkward. The Country has moved on, in a process of change.
Some of the war strategies from within the past century, there would be no conceivable way the US would do that now in 2024. There are criticisms as we speak, post year 2000, of what has been consolidated and assessed as 'Yellow Peril", for example. If it did exist, aspects of it can be analyzed as self-destructive nonsense. While instilling hate may have worked for battles in one area, it was counter-productive to other efforts.
A simple illustration of counterproductive nonsense, is when in the past few years, namely 2019 onward, women from the Philippines were attacked over notions having to do with COVID-19 coming from China. Anti-Asian hate was so built up, and built on ignorance that did not distinguish nations, there were some to put it bluntly unfortunate and even embarrassing moments.
This April 2024, nations near Japan have expressed a 'disappointment' over Japanese Prime Minister Kishida offering to the Yasukuni Shrine.
In some context, those who have made such expression may have well been well within their right. It is not my place to say yes or no, especially if they are leaders of their nations. However, from other perspectives, there might be a perception that their is some give or take, considering changes over the years.
Most US schoolbooks describe Japanese government back in the days just leading up to the end of WWII to be 'imperialist'. Perhaps the exact style or ingredients that went into Japanese imperialism may not fit exactly with the general definition of imperialism per se. Notwithstanding the 'waverances' in analysis over everything that happened, Japan of today does not really seem to fit the same set of practical directives from a time about 80 years ago, before cell phones and social media, globalization and so forth.
Because there was a war and there were heroes, there were heroes, which might be appropriate that they stay, in the dimension of having heroes, while at the same time, opinions of whether everything those heroes stood for may have some disagreements.
All said, I would say, for all to keep the efforts for keeping the peace.
Posted by HCN.
