Instead of being apologetic, Japan is becoming more and more brazen. This worries me. It has to stop.

lol

Isolation

Hope he has a tin hat

What did this poor fellow do to deserve being stranded with his wife on some godforsaken rock?

Kim Sung Do, It's about damn time Japan start acting in its interests instead of groveling and appologizing for things they did almost 100 years ago.

"It's about damn time Japan start acting in its interests instead of groveling and appologizing for things they did almost 100 years ago."

When exactly has Japan "ever" groveled or apologized for things they did almost 100 years ago ? I'd really like to know ! Japan has never groveled, apologized, or admitted to any of its wartime atrocities... never !

imgold, the appologies by Hosokawa and others have been posted a billion times before. Reperations have been made and relations normalized years ago. WWII is the stick the Korean's use to beat Japan with but the western world considers the matter closed. I could care less about the rocks, I just find this hermit's comments frustrating and indicative of the Korean Psyche. Japan lost its colonies, was nuked, and occupied. War criminals were executed and the government was restructured. Just because there are right wingers in Japan who deny the war crimes doesn't give you a pass to blame all of Japan.

"Just because there are right wingers in Japan who deny the war crimes doesn't give you a pass to blame all of Japan."

Tokyo Governer Ishihara, a right winger ? Koizumi, with his visits to Yasukuni, a right winger ?

usaexpat... them some pretty high ranking "right wingers" don't you think ? Of course I could go on and on about hollow apologies, denied compensation for Korean victims of the atomic bombings, Mitsubishi's rise to power on the back of wartime slave labor, comfort women, etc. But hey why pass the blame on to "all of Japan" ?

imgold, Yaskuni is a whole other kettle of fish that I don't have the time to re-hash with you but Koizumi a right winger... no. Ishihara a right winger, yes absolutely. The claims of hollow appologies are typical of what has caused the right wing backlash. There are an awful lot of Japanese who feel that it will never be enough and therefore react by turning a deaf ear whenever someone (usually a Korean or Chinese activist group) demands more appologies or compensation. Syngman Rhee that good friend of the US spent the reperation money on building dams while disappearing his own people and yet the Koreans continue to be "victims" of Japan. Can you see where the fatigue comes from?

I can't believe someone actually live there in complete isolation.

It's like Adam and Eve all over again.

Blind nationalism can make one goes ....blind.

Well, international border disputes happen all the time and everywhere, and most of the time each side drags in feuds from the past as political expedients.

There appears to be no point in letting this escalate. Is there any value except prestige or losing face in these islands?

In the meantime, there is a good reason to be critical of Japans dealings with the past. Japans main partner in the war, Germany, caused even more misery and consequently was treated even harsher, and for decades too had to face mistrust. Both countries decided to do better, to put more attention to abstracts like human rights, international responsibility, democracy and so on.

The difference appears to be that in Germany this has taken root in everyday life. The abstracts have grown a soul and a heart. Enough people believe with all their heart in their own freedom, in that they should be treated in a certain way and should treat others the same way they want to be treated themselves. Wether from their own government or anyone else, those who hurt other people will find stubborn opposition in Germany.

And that works. When there is a true heart and soul of living and letting people live, the people recognise that. Germany has earned her place among the most respected bastions of freedom today, not by making endless apologies or groveling or by some institutions or by rigidly being against something, but by asking themselves constantly the question if they are doing the right thing now. And sometimes that meant letting bygones be bygones and letting the matter of territories which are infinitely more valuable than these areas and where 2 million Germans lived happily before the war rest, because making a fuss of it now was incompatible with the desire to be friends with their neighbours.