The BIG Fuss Over a Textbook?...
You all should have heard from the news about the contested issue over the newly published Japanese History Textbook... Just a penny of my thoughts... I think the PRCs are over-reacting!!! Crazy people... I know about Japanese history and how China Chinese and Koreans had suffered under the Japs' hands.. However, all these are HISTORY... What are those protesters doing now? Trying to remind people around the world to sympathesize them? I strongly believe that in this post modern era, the new generation of Japaneses have the right to be respected. Their grandfathers' doings are not within their control...
Radically, I even think there is nothing wrong with "changing the history"... I mean who really knows about the exact history? For the Koreans, they have their own perceptions on what happened during WWII and similarly for the PRC and Japanese... I agree that some parts of the dark history are struck off in this textbook, but I really think it is a good idea... Whats the reason behind to remind Japanese young kids that their grandfathers or great grand fathers were once murderers and rapists? As part of nation building, I support Japanese to reinvent their history... =p
As for PRC, I got a phrase for them "yuan1 yuan1 xiang1 bao4 he2 shi2 liao3" (i.e. revenge is never ending) Why keep reminding themselves that they were once victims of WWII? They should have let their lives go on... Especially the future generation's lives to move on... reminding them of these unsightly pasts will only create more contestations between nations...
Old Japan WAS guilty... But not the contemporary Japan... Thats all I ve to say... 
It is absurd to me (maybe not to the PRCs and Koreans) that a harmless looking textbook like this would have catalysed this strings of violent acts in Beijing, HK and Korea...
2 Comments:
haiz... i guess it's always like that... That time got a bunch of jap students came to rvhs... we were so stunned when we realized they didn't know japan was involved in WW2.. It was almost like they didn't even know there was such a thing. (coz they saw our war pix outside the history room and they were stunned... and we were also as stunned) It's kind of scary -- like the truth is hidden from you, and one day you find out about it in a totally alien place... kind of unfair also (as in realizing the truth by stumbling upon it)
but then... i still believe there were good jap soldiers at that time despite half of their army were murderers and sadists. War can drive people to do lots of unexpected things... haiZ~ humans...
but history is history, and since the fact is that the Japanese were conquerers they should teach their young never to have that sort of expansionist thought ever again. you are right to point out that the contemporary Japan isn't at fault tho', i think the possibility of another Jap occupation happening is pretty low, looking at Japanese society now.
History will forever be linked with diplomacy. thats what the Japanese govt have to keep in mind. i know the PRC people were too radical, but they had a reason for that. afterall, the Germans had admitted their mistake, why not the Japanese? (ok, thats a pretty cliche example but ya.haha)
-xiuqin
Post a Comment
<< Home