Should Japan keep apologizing?

China and South Korea demand Japan to acknowledge the immeasurable suffering and damage the country caused during WW II and this happens every summer. My father is Japanese and he would just say that “they” just can’t let it go and that they will keep expecting Japan to apologize and make up for the damage.

My father’s view isn’t uncommon in Japan. He is a typical post-war child who didn’t learn much about the damage Japan inflicted on neighboring countries during WW II. I didn’t learn much either. I went to a pretty competitive high school in Japan so we had to memorize everything in Japanese/World history classes but for some reason, our textbooks didn’t cover much about the world war II.

Fast forward, I moved to California to go to college and when I took an introductory Mandarin Chinese course, my teacher from the mainland China couldn’t hide his hostility and agony toward us..the Japanese students and the same thing happened when I took an East Asian history class in college, my professor was a visiting lecturer from South Korea and he talked a lot about Japan and how the country had never made an official apology for the damage.

I went to see him during his office hours because I had a couple of questions. Of course, he saw my last name and asked if I was a second generation Japanese or a first generation. He might not have meant to sound hostile but I kind of understood how he felt about us. Well, I did tell him that I was a foreign student and grew up in Japan but my mother is Chinese-Thai. Then he looked at me confused and proceeded to answering the questions I had for him.

I still remember how a White American student challenged him and simply asked him why he felt the young generations in Japan had to apologize when we had nothing to do with the war. He became very hostile again and said it was a very Western way of thinking..whatever that meant.

I think the issue here is that Japan has never made a clear cut official apology and statement that acknowledge the extent to which the Imperial Japan had caused during the WW II. Once the country recognizes these issues, Japan can take a series of actions to make amends with neighboring countries and Japanese kids should be taught extensively what our ancestors did and why neighboring countries and people especially in China and Korea are still very much hurting and recovering from the past.

Even then, I do not know if these countries can still move forward because whatever Japan does may never be good enough to make up for such sufferings the country caused to their people 70-100 years ago. But all parties have to be open minded and Japan should continue to make the most sincere attempt to make amends with China and South Korea and they must be willing to work with Japan to move forward from the past.

One thing we all have to remember is brutal-what is done cannot be undone and all we can do is to learn from the huge mistakes and never to repeat the history and they have to remember that Japan did also suffer from the immeasurable damage two atomic bombs caused and all civilians were the victims of the war.

That being said, I am not justifying Japanese Prime Minister’s conservative stance on this issue. I am a byproduct of enemies basically as my grandfather from the mainland China actually had to escape to Thailand during the WW II but he never said one negative thing to my father and they always told us to learn to forgive and be open minded.