Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi offered an apology Monday for Japan's wartime military aggression and vowed the country would never wage war again, instead striving to maintain the path of a peace-cherishing nation. Speaking before a government-sponsored memorial service at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo, Koizumi expressed renewed remorse for the war, saying, "We will do our utmost to further develop friendly relations with the rest of the world and gain more trust from the world as a nation that cherishes peace."

His remarks at the memorial service — the fifth time for him to attend in his capacity as prime minister — were similar to a statement he issued earlier in the day following the cabinet's endorsement of it.

http://japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=346291


Better late than never.

Well I, for one, apreciate the gesture and the Japanese people's continued friendship with America over the last 60 years.

I see an apology for invading in WWII. I don't see jack diddly mentioned about war crimes or being sorry for them.

All their school text books they fail to mention about what the Japanese troops did in there name, and deny that they did any thing wrong. According to them the rape of Nanjing did not happen it was just Chinese propaganda. There were no death marches and the POW were treated the best they could while the Japanese troops were being killed by the Allies. Now if they are now saying these books are wrong are they going change them,, well I for one don't think that they will.

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

All their school text books they fail to mention about what the Japanese troops did in there name, and deny that they did any thing wrong. According to them the rape of Nanjing did not happen it was just Chinese propaganda. There were no death marches and the POW were treated the best they could while the Japanese troops were being killed by the Allies. Now if they are now saying these books are wrong are they going change them,, well I for one don't think that they will.

I think that it is very usual that governments do not teach their´s school boys the crimes they had comitted in the past. There are too many examples.
I do not think that Russian text books talk about the Gulag´s. I do not think that US text books talk about the indian genocide. Definatly spanish text books do not talk very much about the indian genocide in South America. The crimes of the british against australian Aborigines.....And we could keep mentioning crimes for a while...

The important thing is that they recogniced what they did.

Hi,

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

All their school text books they fail to mention about what the Japanese troops did in there name, and deny that they did any thing wrong. According to them the rape of Nanjing did not happen it was just Chinese propaganda. There were no death marches and the POW were treated the best they could while the Japanese troops were being killed by the Allies. Now if they are now saying these books are wrong are they going change them,, well I for one don't think that they will.

Is that a New thing ? .......... is Japan the only Country to do that? ........... aren't we all do that ?


Peac
-=SF_13=-

they went down fast enough.. i dont think japan will try that any time again

Corrocotta.......We where told about what had happened in Australia and in the Boer Concentration camps when I was at school, we were taught history warts and all. No country has a perfect history. Also what about the Spanish inquisitions now they must have been a lot fun in Spain

Originally Posted by Corocotta

I do not think that US text books talk about the indian genocide.

US Text books do indeed tell about the genocide of the American Indians (At least the ones that I had and my kids have). They also go into detail of the Japanese internment camps in the States during the war. My kids history books even tell how we helped to setup tyrants like Saddam Hussein.
Our media and many historians seem at times to take a certain pleasure in pointing out our past sins.
No nation is perfect and our governments have all done things in the past that we find abhorrent. The point for me is whether or not the nations recognize their past sins. I doubt that there are very many people here in the States that are not fairly aware of how we screwed the Natives.

I think that until Japan fully recognizes their "sins" the world will always have some doubts about them and their intentions.

Originally Posted by Claymore

US Text books do indeed tell about the genocide of the American Indians (At least the ones that I had and my kids have). They also go into detail of the Japanese internment camps in the States during the war. My kids history books even tell how we helped to setup tyrants like Saddam Hussein.
Our media and many historians seem at times to take a certain pleasure in pointing out our past sins.
No nation is perfect and our governments have all done things in the past that we find abhorrent. The point for me is whether or not the nations recognize their past sins. I doubt that there are very many people here in the States that are not fairly aware of how we screwed the Natives.

I think that until Japan fully recognizes their "sins" the world will always have some doubts about them and their intentions.

i would have to think if you read about ww2 in books from america,england,russia,germany,japan..... there will be some 1 side-ing