Sixty-six years have passed since the Japanese imperialists surrendered unconditionally to Allied forces. However, Gen. Douglas MacArthur didn't properly clean up the far-right imperialists in Japan who were responsible for war and caused millions of casualties in Asia and the Pacific, unlike with the “denazification” of Germany.
What Asian people worry about is that the far-right imperialists have never repented for the horrible crimes committed against other Asian countries and their people.
These days, Japanese imperialism is gradually reviving due to the efforts of these extreme rightists. They provoke Korean people from time to time and incite tensions between the two countries by raising spurious territorial issues.
Due to cultural and tourism exchanges, Korean and Japanese citizens are getting closer than ever before. However, a handful of Japanese imperialists continue to instigate malice rather than goodwill.
More serious is that some neo-imperialistic Japanese politicians jump on the bandwagon and promote their evil revanchism in the Japanese community, which does not want to go down such a dark path again. Such politicians do it for their own narrow political purposes.
Japan is the country that bears the “original sin” of launching World War II, thereby leading East Asia to disaster in the past century.
Responsible Japanese people, especially their politicians, should behave reasonably to move toward cooperation and goodwill with neighboring countries, rather than stirring conflicts and grudges.
Peter Jang
Seoul
noster7@naver.com
Seoul
noster7@naver.com
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