LeChatBotte comments

bass4funk

Not a contradiction. Meaning the Jihadists don't have ANY moral conviction whatsoever, following a prophecy, thinking it's God's will that his enemies will all be destroyed, therefore, they see it as their destiny to use a Nuclear bomb

So I think we agree. My point being, it was never going to stop with the USSR. We've been obsessively hunting weapons of mass destruction in those "unfriendly" states ever since.

And for those whining about the US being racist against the Japanese, yeah and the Japanese saw even fellow Asians as human. Come out of your ivory towers. War is not pretty and never has been.

I never pretended otherwise. This is not about black and white or even right and wrong. But if you say that in war, everything is allowed, including killing hundreds of thousand of civilians, then why invoke higher principles of universal Human Rights when complaining about the killings in Nanjing? Or even the treatment of POWs? Weren't the Geneva conventions, that define the rules of engagement, prohibiting the killing of civilians? You know, the ones that dictate humane treatment of POWs?

Double standards much?

bass4funk

I know the prevalent "theory" in the US is that a land invasion would have been much bloodier. I believe you're aware that opposing theories say that the Japanese were more than aware they couldn't go on forever against the US industrial strength and were already looking for a way out. We can go on with the "what if"s forever but no one really knows what would have happened either way.

If that were true, then the Earth would have been destroyed with the arsenal that the US and Russia posses, it did actually make everyone safe, because neither side wants to be obliterated.'

And you won't be able to stop Iran, that is because of bad political foreign policy. Now the only thing we can do is pray and hope for a different outcome and also

Aren't you contradicting yourself here? What you're saying is that the bomb kept us saved us from going to war with the USSR (which is true) but won't save us from the next one who comes. I'm afraid praying won't do us any good the next time around...

Japan incorporated Dokdo in 1905 based on terra nullius (Nobody’s territory). However, however Japanese government today claims Dokdo is an inherent part of Japan. What a contradictory! Japan dare to distort its own history for the false claim over Korean land.

Suin Kim,

Very twisted reasoning you have here. I think I'm starting to understand all those Korean claims about Japan "distorting" history now. If South Korea recognizes that prior to 1905 those islands were terra nullius and Japan incorporated them at the time. Then they were Japanese since 1905 making its annexation by SK in 1952 illegal in the Court of Law.

The idea that dropping those two A-bombs on civilians was morally justifiable because it saved many American lives is pure racial bias. It is based on the idea that American lives are more valuable than Asian lives. But someone said, other times, other moral standards right? After all, American society was segregated at the time.

The second idea being circulated that it has made the world a safer place is incredibly short-sighted. As much as many see it as retribution for the crimes perpetrated by the Imperial Army of Japan, we have only taken perpetrated the cycle of destruction by unleashing the most evil weapon of mass destruction in the world. It not only killed civilians than, it affected their children and their grandchildren. It's amazing how this article mentions the effects of radiation only in the context of Fukushima but not for Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

For those who think this is the end of it, just ponder this: a nuclear physicist friend of mine said the technology is now over 60 years old. It's a matter of time before a "rogue" regime like Iran gets a hold of it. As someone said, payback is a "bitch".

The guy was just executing orders but I'd consider it a stretch to call him a hero when as someone said, all he did was drop a weapon of mass destruction on a lot of civilians.

Part of what we believe makes us better than terrorists or otherwise "savages" is that even when using war as a means of resolving conflicts, we have rules of engagement:

CONVENTION RESPECTING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR ON LAND The Hague, October 18, 1907 [Ratified by the U.S. Senate on March 10, 1908] ARTICLE XXV The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited.

Protection of Civilian Populations Against Bombing From the Air in Case of War, League of Nations, September 30, 1938 [The Assembly] Recognizes the following principles as a necessary basis for any subsequent regulations: 1) The intentional bombing of civilian populations is illegal; 2) Objectives aimed at from the air must be legitimate military objectives and must be identifiable; 3) Any attack on legitimate military objectives must be carried out in such a way that civilian populations in the neighbourhood are not bombed through negligence;

One may argue that the Imperial Japanese Army never followed those rules of engagement. The easy way is to go tit-for-tat (what we did with the A-bomb I guess). Then who are we to go and judge them using those principles of Human Rights after the war? And don't even get me started with Communist China talking about Human Rights...

“China should calm anti-Japan rhetoric, delink wartime history from the islands dispute and open senior political channels to Japan,” said the group’s China analyst

Then another way to fan nationalism in China to help keep the Communist Party legitimate and relevant should also be suggested. Otherwise, how's it going to work?

Strangerland

The "he did it too" defense simply means two people (groups) are culpable. One doesn't negate the other.

I actually agree. It doesn't change what Japan themselves did. But it does make the accuser sound absurdly hypocritical. It's like asking a criminal to judge another criminal.

Strangerland

Once again we have people trying to justify Japan's past wrongs with 'well someone else did it too'.

What if that 'someone else' was South Korea themselves

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/11/us-southkorea-usa-military-idUSKBN0FG0VV20140711

Zichi

Except the Germans have never tried to revise their war past with denials and revisionism.

Are you kidding me? Growing up in France, I couldn't spend a week without hearing in the news that some German researcher came up with a theory that the holocaust never happened.

OssanAmerica

You are right Bertie, the Germans did it. But the Poles, Russians, Ukranians , etc.all don't make it an official a political and diplomatic tool and a hate fest.

But the key difference between Germany and Japan is the huge difference between China/SK and France. The French believed that in order to avoid the conflicts of the past, one needed to create a structure that would unite all Western democracies.

In 2012 the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/eu-nobel/index_en.htm

That's in stark contrast with some communist bully bent on revenge and their opportunistic vassal uh?

toshiko

I prefer Chinese food than KFC or Big Mac

As long as you don't know what it is you're eating you're fine

It's one of those cases a la Communist China where "if we do it to our own people it's our own problem, if you do it you are the worst monsters in history"

The women claim the South Korean government trained them and worked with pimps to run a sex trade through the 1960s and 1970s for U.S. troops, encouraged women to work as prostitutes and violated their human rights.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/11/us-southkorea-usa-military-idUSKBN0FG0VV20140711

China’s Foreign Ministry repeated that it had irrefutable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands

"Irrefutable" because they've started printing maps that say so? And of course, being the good commies they are, they think that if they repeat it enough times, we'll start believing it...At least we've been spared the insults on our ancestors, unlike the Australians.

I can't believe Miwa Yoshida made the list and Nakashima Mika didn't...

I'd agree in many ways but would put it differently: Japan's appeal goes beyond the simple economic factors of salary or other material factors important in raising a family like space.

Many countries in Europe are in a very similar mindset to Japan when it comes to immigration and citizenship.

This article is missing the point and by a lot.

European countries and especially countries like France have had chronic shortage of blue collar labor throughout the 20th century and have relied on immigration to remedy it. While being a workable short term solution, the medium and long term issues they have observed are populations that refuse to assimilate/integrate, leading now to their infamous suburbs and the rise of the far right in many western European countries.

Japan is wise to take note and implement a policy to take in only educated people more likely to integrate into their society.

Someone needs to show them how to disable the tracking feature or is it another excuse, now that they have siphoned enough of Apple's technology?

Good exercise in Democracy

OssanAmericaJUL. 12, 2014 - 06:59AM JST Good idea but what exactly would China gain from agreeing to this?

Nothing. Bilateral negotiations ensure that the CCP will never face anyone big enough on the other side of the table. Surmising that the Obama administration is too busy with the Middle East and having amassed enough hardware, they think it's the ideal time to take what they want.

“China-Japan relations are facing severe difficulty,” Qin Gang said at a regular briefing, repeating China’s objections to Abe’s visit to the war shrine and the island disputes.

Again, whatever happened to the Five Principles Communist China celebrated uh...a few weeks ago?

The Five Principles, as stated by the Panchsheel Treaty, signed on April 29, 1954, are:

Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Mutual non-aggression. Mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. Equality and cooperation for mutual benefit. Peaceful co-existence.

To be at peace with Communist China means to deter them from coming into your backyard. From that perspective there is nothing incoherent about Abe's course. One might disagree with his right-leaning policies - I do - turning the other cheek to the CCP or even waiting for them to slap you would just be foolishly stupid

->jerseyboy

Indeed, it is an opinion piece from the chief of the AP Pyongyang office so I'd like to believe it carries more weight and insight than at least my own opinion. That said, I don't think it's very hard to concur with it and we're all entitled to our own opinions...because we don't live in a totalitarian regime that suppresses Freedom of Speech like Communist China.

China’s overtures to South Korea — including the Seoul visit — play into its larger ambitions to build a China-centered network of alliances that sidesteps the U.S. and Japan

From another article on this site http://www.japantoday.com/category/opinions/view/expedience-pragmatism-shape-new-asian-alliances

From that perspective, you will start seeing more and more of these little signs of "divergence" between South Korea and Japan and the CCP's troll army drumming up how "nasty" Japan was 70 years ago. Of course they have to make the South Koreans forget China is responsible for the existence of a North Korea in the first place.

As far as I'm concerned, I'll start to avoid Lotte products like the plague and tell my friends!

House arrest is only the first step. Next they'll send her to "reeducation camp" where she gets brainwashed by comrade officer in the morning and works the rice fields in the afternoon for a couple of years

The Chongqing Youth Daily, a newspaper linked to the Communist Youth League in the southwestern >megacity, last week carried the map in a full-page advertisement under the title “Japan wants a war again”

Chest-beating fools without a conscience.

Groupthink makes you stupid. That’s a simple insight that eludes authoritarians everywhere. And when the >authoritarians get hold of a country, watch out

http://thediplomat.com/2014/06/the-closing-of-the-chinese-mind/

Who said anything about blaming anyone or justifying anything. My point is first, being the Chinese Communist Party and invoking Universal Human Principles to harass Japan is just comical at best knowing their own record in the matter. My other point being a reference - arguable - to Francis Fukushima discussing the 'end of history' with the fall of communism in Europe. If someone's going against the tide of history, it's the CCP. They should be go e already

there is still a minority group of people who ignore historical facts, who ignore the tens of thousands of lives >lost in the war, who go against the tide of history and deny and even beautify the history of aggression

Funny that, coming from a regime that whitewashes their own records of massacre against their own people, much more recent than 70 years ago - Tiananmen anyone? - and talk about the "tide" of history: aren't communist, totalitarian regimes supposed to be a threatened species?

Of course focusing on Japan and its current constitutional changes saves Xi from having to talk about North Korea in Seoul and how the CCP is responsible for the existence of Kim's regime and how they have been backing it.

Many wondered if this meant that China was beginning to back away from its traditional role as North Korea’s >staunchest supporter. Chinese media, however, are trying to avoid the North Korea question altogether.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/china-south-korea-ties-moving-beyond-north-korea/

He also wants to avoid talking about Hong Kong's calls for democracy so the CCP's troll army must have gotten further directions to further press on how Japan is not apologizing "correctly" etc etc...

“In the first half of the 20th century, Japanese militarists carried out barbarous wars of aggression against >China and Korea, swallowing up Korea and occupying half of the Chinese mainland,” Xi said in an address at >Seoul National University.

Funny he should talk about this because the very Chinese government that fought against Japan during WWII (now Taiwan) is the one that theoretically benefits from Japan's constitutional changes in the scenario of a confrontation with the PLA

http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/threat-theory-and-japans-collective-self-defense/

Asian2014

As a person of Asian (actually Chinese) ancestry I sympathize.

The western powers and Japan have been imposing their wills on China and even after the 2WW have been >writing their rules when China was in no position to protest

I just don't think, in that perspective, that picking on your Asian neighbors, including Japan is the way to go about it. In my view, the Japanese's real sin was to believe that even as Asians, they could stand on equal footing with the Western powers.

CruisinJapan

Much agreed and I believe we're all aware of that. That's why it's called bully behavior.

The nationalistic-tinged comments reported by Xinhua are Xi’s latest calling for a tougher military stance

Note that they have conveniently forgotten their principle of "peaceful rise". Talk about selective memory...

http://thediplomat.com/2014/06/reflecting-on-chinas-five-principles-60-years-later/