USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    China
    Home / China / Top Stories

    Japan's view of history still rankles

    By Chen Weihua in Washington | China Daily USA | Updated: 2014-08-20 11:23

    Just moments after Dennis Blair, former commander of the US Pacific Command and former director US National Intelligence, expressed his puzzlement over why China and South Korea would still have historical issues with Japan, he got a quick explanation.

    One Japanese journalist rose from the back of the audience, saying that Japanese studies show that the Japanese military had not systematically recruited and coerced comfort women during the WWII.

    An American woman sitting in the front clearly could not let the comment pass. "That's not true!" she shouted.

    Japan's view of history still rankles

    South Korean Ambassador to the United States Ahn Ho-Young (right) speaks at a seminar on the future of Northeast Asia on Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation. At left is Dennis Blair, former commander of the US Pacific Command. Chen Weihua / China Daily

    The setting was a seminar exploring the future of progress in Northeast Asia held on Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington on Tuesday.

    Ahn Ho-Young, South Korea's ambassador to the US and a former vice minister of foreign affairs, also pushed back, citing studies that show convincing evidence of coercion involving the comfort women issue. He cited the 1993 Kono Statement by Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono which concluded that the Japanese Imperial Army had forced comfort women to work in military-run brothels during WWII.

    "That's why we in Korea keep saying that denial is not helpful," he said, repeating a long-standing view also expressed by South Korea President Park Geun-hye.

    "True courage lies not in denying the past but in looking squarely at history as it was and teaching the growing generation the correct history," Park said back in March when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other right-wing Japanese politicians wanted to re-examine the Kono Statement.

    Ahn, a career diplomat of 36 years, refuted the notion that somehow Japan had taken responsibility for the war crimes and it was South Korea which has not accepted it. The same argument was also heard in the US and some other countries regarding China, as if it were China and South Korea who are obsessed with history, without Japanese provocation.

    Ahn blasted a former senior Japanese official who wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post recently arguing that South Korea's growing ties with China will undermine its relationship with the United States.

    "I am very disappointed," said Ahn, unhappy about the op-ed's attempt to sow discord between South Korea's relations with China and the US.

    While expressing his optimism over the future of the South Korean-Japanese relationship, Ahn blamed the ups and downs in the bilateral relationship on Japanese politicians' recidivism not to recognize the past and take responsibility for what had happened.

    Ahn clearly did not see eye to eye with Blair when the latter tried to downplay Japanese politicians paying homage to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class A Japanese war criminals from WWII are honored.

    South Korean President Park expressed her disappointment right after Abe sent a ritual offering to the Yasukuni Shrine on Aug 15, the day Japan surrendered in WWII.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also blasted Abe by saying that "their acts once again demonstrated the Japanese government's wrongful attitude towards historical issues".

    "China is firmly opposed to that," she said.

    Hua described the core of all issues surrounding the Yasukuni Shrine as whether the Japanese government can adopt a correct understanding of and attitude towards its history of aggression, whether it can respect the feelings of the people in the victimized Asian countries and whether it can honor the positions and commitments it has made so far on historical issues.

    "Only when Japan honestly faces up to and deeply reflects upon its past of aggression, and truly makes a clean break with militarism, can the China-Japan relationship have the chance to realize a sound and stable development," she said.

    The US has long been troubled by the fact that its two main Asian allies - Japan and South Korea - would not come together on security issues, thereby decimating the so-called US-Japan-South Korea trilateral security.

    While many believe such trilateral security is aimed at China, Blair said it is not in the US interest to try to make Japan and South Korea into an anti-China coalition, a statement that surprised quite few given his critical rhetoric on China throughout the seminar.

    chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

    Editor's picks
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    亚洲欧美日韩在线不卡中文| 久クク成人精品中文字幕 | 熟妇人妻中文a∨无码| 潮喷失禁大喷水aⅴ无码| 五月天中文字幕mv在线女婷婷五月| 69久久精品无码一区二区| 久久久久久精品无码人妻| 日韩精品久久无码中文字幕| 国产高清无码毛片| 亚洲V无码一区二区三区四区观看 亚洲爆乳精品无码一区二区三区 亚洲爆乳无码一区二区三区 | 久久久无码一区二区三区| 久久久网中文字幕| 最新中文字幕av无码专区| 成在人线av无码免费高潮水| 亚洲精品无码MV在线观看| 日本中文字幕网站| 91久久精品无码一区二区毛片| 亚洲AV无码欧洲AV无码网站| 国产品无码一区二区三区在线| 精品久久久久久无码中文字幕一区| 无码国内精品久久人妻麻豆按摩| 精品无码人妻一区二区免费蜜桃| 亚洲国产精品无码久久一线 | 精品日韩亚洲AV无码一区二区三区| 六月婷婷中文字幕| 亚洲中文字幕无码一久久区| 中文无码vs无码人妻| 国模吧无码一区二区三区| 国产成人无码18禁午夜福利p| 日韩人妻无码精品一专区| 亚洲精品无码专区久久久| 亚洲午夜国产精品无码老牛影视 | 亚洲av无码成人黄网站在线观看| 精品日韩亚洲AV无码一区二区三区| 天堂Aⅴ无码一区二区三区| 亚洲欧美成人久久综合中文网 | 亚洲AV无码国产精品色午友在线| 国内精品人妻无码久久久影院导航| 中文字幕精品一区二区三区视频| 日韩av无码免费播放| 亚洲乱码无码永久不卡在线|