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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Too little and too late? I'm sorry ?
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Saul the Apostle
Shipmate
# 13808
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Posted
Mitsubishi the Japanese industrial giant has issue an apology for using allied prisoners as forced labour (under terrible conditions) in World War Two.
Apparently this is the first apology by any Japanese company since 1945.
See here....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33584704
Is this apology a cynical ploy near the 70th anniversary of the end of WW2 or VJ day?
Saul the Apostle
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"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."
Posts: 1772 | From: unsure | Registered: Jun 2008
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
I'd be tempted to say Yes.
And even if the Mitsubishi Corporation is now, finally, 'fessing up to its appalling behaviour during WWII, it comes as a single instance to set against the persistent revisionism of the past 70 years.
The USA, in its obssessive anti-communist zeal to promote Japan as the 'good' far east country, did their own servicemen and women and those of other countries, not to mention the population of Manchuria, a grave wrong; and one that has been seized on wholeheartedly by successive right-wing politicians in Japan, especially under the recent leadership of Shinzo Abe.
There should have been formal protests about the publication in 2000 of The New History Textbook which uses so much whitewah on Japanese history since the time of the first Sino-Japanese War that it makes the average book from Stalinist Russia look like a document of record: instead it was approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education in 2001, with only China and South Korea registering formal protest.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Gramps49
Shipmate
# 16378
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Posted
I note the article states that the one survivor who was present felt the apology was sincere.
I am reminded of the story Unbroken in which an Amerian aviator was severely tortured as well.
Both Americans were able to forgive their enemies.
Would that others could do this.
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
At the least, the first impulse should not be the most cynical and jaded interpretation. Give them a chance to demonstrate it is sincere.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
Once a person has died - in this case a lot of people - you cannot apologise to them. Imagining you can is giving yourself a totally illusory pat on the head,
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Reconciliation with past wrongs has to start somewhere. An apology like this, if it starts something and is a first step is a generally good thing. Japan has not really addressed its history of brutality and ware crimes. Might this be the start of something like this?
There are many other historical wrongs that still influence current social relations among peoples and nations. Any moves that move in a reconciliation direction are supportable for any of these. Just hope that the apology is a bellwether for additional steps.
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Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Ricardus
Shipmate
# 8757
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
At the least, the first impulse should not be the most cynical and jaded interpretation. Give them a chance to demonstrate it is sincere.
I don't disagree with your general point, but what would actually count as a demonstration of sincerity?
If the Japanese government apologised, but continued to use whitewashed school textbooks, I think we would be justified in regarding the apology as insincere. But I don't think there's any analogous thing Mitsubishi can do.
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Then the dog ran before, and coming as if he had brought the news, shewed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail. -- Tobit 11:9 (Douai-Rheims)
Posts: 7247 | From: Liverpool, UK | Registered: Nov 2004
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
Can a corporation be sincere, anyway? Seems to me a corporation is a conglomeration of people, some of whom may be sincere, some of whom are hypocrites, and some of whom weren't in any way involved or maybe even alive when crime X happened. Any corporate apology / restitution is going to flow out of all these attitudes.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure apologies should be made--but asking for sincerity is probably heading down a rabbit hole. Better to ask for ironclad policy changes or other checks to prevent similar stuff from ever happening again. Or else restitution, or both.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Can a corporation be sincere, anyway
I don't think I see why not. Of course corporations aren't people, but they are entirely capable of deciding, as a matter of corporate policy, that employees acting on behalf of X corporation will act in manner Y.
Can Mitsubishi be sincere? Sure - if their other actions are consistent with their apology. Does their enslavement of POWs get mentioned in their official corporate histories? Does their company lend support to politicians who deny wartime atrocities or not?
If all their actions are consistent with admitting their fault and apologizing for it, I have no difficulty calling a company's actions "sincere".
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
If a corporation can't be sincere because it's a conglomeration, that so much more applies to states and nations. If we think a government can apologise, then so can a company. If we don't think a company can, then nor can a government.
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
I apologize for Hiroshima.
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Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
If a corporation can't be sincere because it's a conglomeration, that so much more applies to states and nations. If we think a government can apologise, then so can a company. If we don't think a company can, then nor can a government.
This-- and what Lamb Chopped said. I teach the kids that " sorry" means, I wish I hadn't done it and I won't do it again. In this case, calling for removal of whitewashed history texts and some sort of reparations would be evidence of some sort of regret that it happened, and at least they will never lie about it again.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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