Thursday, June 03, 1999

Children of the war can't apologize for the past

During Japanese Emperor Akihito's visit to Great Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that Japan has apologized enough for its brutal treatment of British soldiers and civilians during World War II.

The Japanese Labor Camps Survivors Association, on the other hand, has rejected as inadequate the apology given by the Japanese prime minister in January.

The brutality shown by the Japanese during World War II is beyond this generation's reasoning, but hasn't the time come to move on? For those who experienced the hardships of the time, it has not.

The former POWs remain unwilling to forgive, still convinced that the Japanese are not truly sorry.

Yet this is not due to extreme indifferent on the part of the Japanese people so much as the fact that those who are younger than 65 have nothing to be sorry for.

Emperor Akihito, himself, was only 11 years old at the time of the surrender in 1945.

If apologies are not enough, what will be? What are former POWs asking from the children and grandchildren of the transgressors?

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