Vj Day: Queen To Lead 70Th Anniversary Commemorations

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33936830

I have just heard two people being interviewed on the Today Program. They were Japanese prisoners of war. The lady was only a child when she was captured. Both interviews made for grim but compelling listening. I recommend that anybody who is interested should track the interviews down and listen to them.

Yesterday, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed "profound grief" over his country's actions in World War Two. I heard on the radio yesterday that this was for the first time. Why on earth has it taken so long for Japan to formally apologise. What they did during WW2 was dreadful and completely unforgivable.

[EDDIE51]

At the time Mikey the Japanese regarded all other nationalities as sub-human. They thought this allowed them to use them as slaves or kill them at will. It was similar to Hitlers view of Jews.

[mikey4444]

Yes, I appreciate that Eddie, but I am questioning the tardiness of the jap apology.

There is an ongoing debate about whether Japan should be allowed to re-arm and send its military overseas. The debate always gets in top gear in August, for obvious reasons.

[Gromit]

Japan has apologised many many times.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

[mikey4444]

Thanks Gromit...I thought as much.

[Gromit]

And for the record, Japan made no apology yesterday. But they pointed out they had already apologised previously.

[anotheoldgit]

Yes on TV yesterday, they said they should now stop apologising for matters that took place almost outside living memory, pity the same can't be said regarding our forefathers involvement in slavery.

[Gromit]

// Many rapes were committed under the effects of alcohol or post-traumatic stress, but some cases of premeditated attacks, like the attempted rape of two local girls at gunpoint by two soldiers in the village of Oyle, near Nienburg, which ended in the death of one of the women when, whether intentionally or not, one of the soldiers discharged his gun, hitting her in the neck, as well as the reported assault on three German women in the town of Neustadt am Rübenberge.[57] On a single day in mid-April 1945, three women in Neustadt were raped by British soldiers. A senior British Army chaplain following the troops reported that there was a 'good deal of rape going on'. He then added that "those who suffer [rape] have probably deserved it. //

[mushroom25]

//pity the same can't be said regarding our forefathers involvement in slavery. //

or indeed those slights and injustices, real or imagined, perpetrated by the english on the irish, dating back nearly 600 years.

[sevenOP]

'Apology' and 'reparation' have different meanings, curious how far more attentions is 'paid' to apologies.

[Samuraisan]

If everyone were to apologize constantly for our forefathers sins and transgressions, where would it ever end ? All nations have behaved despicably during one war or another. And yes, Japan has apologized many times.

[Marshwarble]

Our soldiers were tortured and worked to death by the Japanese. We should remember them, but also remember it was not the proudest moment for the ones in charge in the UK.

[naomi24]

Mikey: //Why on earth has it taken so long for Japan to formally apologise.//

Gromit: //Japan has apologised many many times. //

Mikey: //Thanks Gromit...I thought as much. //

Naomi: :o/

[anotheoldgit]

Did Gromit post his 11:51 anti-British post in the wrong thread?

[douglas9401]

I think it was in the interest of 'balance', AOG. Gromit is nothing if not scrupulously even handed.