丁元推荐文：虚偽的日本企圗以偷梁换柱的伎俩重温旧時荣耀/Insincere Japan Can’t Finesse Its Way Back to Old Glory/August 17, 2015

As the late bestseller author Iris Chang once pointed out, a truly reformed offender would have welcome every chance to earnestly apologize, beg for forgiveness, and try hard at every turn to ignite hope for friendly relations with his victims whether it’s a neighborhood clash or military conflicts between nations. Japan’s routine negotiation to minimize its apology and statement of regret simply clouds its sincerity. Abe’s use of a commission to “recommend” the language for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War (1931-1945) merely expose a deeply rooted hypocrisy.

Neo-conservatives in Japan claim that Japan has already apologized too many times. However, every apology offered by Japanese prime ministers and other key government officials in all occasions was personal in nature. None was officially authorized by the Japanese parliament through legislation. Nor, any of them include specific provisions to either outlaw repeated offense to distort or deny the history in the future or provide compensation to Japan’s wartime victims. Their ostensible apologies often avoid admitting guilt, acknowledgement of committing war crimes or grand scale murders. Instead, they merely express remorse for causing “damage” and “pain” which is a far cry from “killing,” “massacre,” “murders,” “war crimes,” or even simply “death.”

Worst of all, Japanese officials, including the prime minister himself, continue to distort history, make offensive public statements and repeatedly visit Yasukuni and openly attack critics of their conduct. Their outrageous actions totally negate the superficial words of purported contrition. Yasukuni is not only a place to pay homage to the spirits of the war dead, including the Class-A war criminals and hundreds of thousands other murders and war, the entire place is also a national monument to glorify Japan’s militarism and numerous deadly invasions of other nations. Constitution of Japan, Chapter III, Article 20(3) stipulates: “The State and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity.” A true national apology must start with a parliamentary legislation prohibiting distortion of history and the unconstitutional worship of war criminals under the disguise of bogus religious rituals.

There won’t be true peace or friendship between Japan and other Asian countries as long as Japan continues to hide behind its clumsy and meaningless word games to offer hollow apologies that no one believes in while aggressively expand its military offense capabilities in direct violation of its own pacific constitution.

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