Only China and Korea protest Japanese facsim every year again and again, people from other countries don't mind being invaded. Because those are backward countries, people are from stone age who need Japanese "civilization". Only Chinese and Koreans know what is shame and glory, what is national interest, and then fight against the Japanese.
No country "deserves" to be invaded , period. The country doing the "invading" , if not to rescue a population from extermination , is usually doing it for an ulterior and imperialistic motive.
Doesn't matter what name the country is. or what part of the world , the point is one should consider the catalyst as well as the end result.
Japan, clearly, at that time, was influenced by European political charter global imperialism. It was an unfortunate and sad part of Japanese history that we, along with the Eurpean powers such as France, England, Germany, Spain, Russia, --- were involved in hegemonic ideation. I suppose Japan was subject to the politics of the times and saw it necessary to be one of the colonizers or be colonized herself.
Still , that does not in any way excuse what Japan did to Chinese civilians and the poor behavior towards civilians in Chinanas well as in other parts of Asia that was conquered by the Japanese Empire.
I think that Japanese society should remember our mistakes in aggressive military adventurism. We have the tendency of over exerting our power and being ruthless and exceedingly brutal to our enemies. We must never, ever forget that.
Precisely, Lord Commander Snow. The purpose of the memorial is to educate us and our future generations about the tragedies the Chinese people as a whole had to endure from 1931 to 1945 and to cherish the hope that such horrors will never happen again. As for the latter point we can be grateful that China has risen like a phoenix from the ashes since then and became one of the most powerful nations on earth. I have no intention of boasting about it but I strongly believe in a strong, and more importantly, peaceful China. A thousand thanks goes to UNESCO for inscribing the documents about the very crimes in the Memory of the World Register.
@Nihonjin1051 @yoshi.oda Pew Research Center may suggest otherwise but fear not, I can assure you that China is no bulwark of Japanophobia. Above all, the documents about the Nanjing Massacre, the Memorial and the V-Day Parade last month is absolutely not intended to foster the said sentiment either.
Kenji, you said some time ago that you cannot wait for the day when China finally becomes nice to Japan. I can assure you again that it is in the best interest of the pragmatic Chinese leadership to maintain amicable ties to Japan and China is doing its best to put the aim into practice (our nations are close business partners to each other anyway
) but Tokyo must play its part as well. To put it mildly, the incumbent Abe administration can do better in doing so. Not that I suggest that the CPC's foreign policy is completely flawless though.
What is important , bro, is that both sides recognize and be cognizant on each other's goals, support base and the political economy. Self aggrandizement by catering to the passions of the masses can only do so much and is actually poisonous for any government. Abe and his administration thus should not cater solely to right wing agenda but also consider the centrist and left leaning positions so as not to isolate any segment of Japan's population with differing views. He must play politics. Even if Abe may have personal views , he must act and behave in such a way that requires him to consider Japan's
Overall good, not personal qualms. The same also for our friend, Mr. Xi.
China and Japan are larger than Abe and Xi. We must remember that. The dance of the Japanese Crane and the Chinese Dragon is one that is 3'millenia old; we must remember that ancient paradigm.