When I talked about the comfort-women-incident with a friend today, I insisted that Hashimoto wasn't wrong for saying comfort women were 'necessary', that there were things in society that were wrong but necessary, to which my friend told me that I was self-contradicting. "Being necessary, by definition, means it does more good than harm, which means it's relatively right."
I was still not quite convinced until the conversation moved on to what America did to Japan -- the two atomic bombings. When he said they might've been 'necessary', I belatedly understood that it actually did sound like justifying what was done. Being necessary and being right are slightly different things, but it's the same statement for emotional victims.
According to my friend, around the time of WWII, Japan had one foot in the feudal world and one foot in the modern world (we modernized rapidly and our morality hadn't caught up with our technology). We still had bushido as our backbone, and although it never taught us to disrespect others and be cruel, Japanese soldiers misbehaved in colonies in the way Europeans did several hundred years ago. Prostitution and war went hand in hand not only in Japan, but the way Japan did it was crueler than any other country. (In fact, it was bad to the extent that when Japan finally surrendered, we prepared a 'comfort house' for American soldiers because we didn't want them to 'misbehave'.) The fact that comfort women had been 'necessary' according to the Japanese mindset 'at that time' does not make what Japan did any less cruel.
Talking of moral relativity and bushido, one out of five Okinawans died when America invaded Okinawa, and many of them killed themselves because they were convinced that death with dignity valued more than life with shame. This sense of value stems from bushido, but it does sound pretty extreme according to today's sense of value (in which nothing weighs more than life), and this was what apparently frightened the Americans and made them think it was 'necessary' to drop some atomic bombs. Japan had been debating of surrendering after the first bomb, but the fact that Japan still hadn't surrendered upsetted the Americans. The second bomb may have not been necessary but it was reasonable for them to think it was. And if they hadn't dropped it, Japan may have fought till the last man died.
Now I remember how I felt shocked and angry when I learned in elementary school what America had done, but I don't have any raw feelings about it now. I have very good Americans friends, and I never think about the atomic bomb their grandfathers dropped. History is a story of humans doing wrong things to humans. We shouldn't forget it but we should learn to forgive and move on. It's a waste of energy to be angry, and if we were to like/dislike someone because of her native country's doings, I think it's a sad way to divide the world.
On a side note, my friend (Canadian) knew a lot more than me about what happened in Japan during WWII. One of the things he pointed out was that it was very illogical for us to be so upset about the atomic bomb and not care quite as much about the Tokyo air raid. 200,000 to 80,000 people were killed in the air raid (it was initially underestimated because America didn't want to make it seem like what they did was so cruel while Japan didn't want to admit America was capable of such killing), which means the atomic bomb just did in two seconds what it would take fire-bombing 12 hours -- the damage was the same.
I don't want it to sound like an excuse but in Japanese schools, modern history is taught in a rush because we don't have enough time by the time we get there. Teachers take too much time doing the Jomon era when humans in Japan used to spend their days fishing peacefully. My friend said it might be on purpose. "They don't want to teach history that makes Japan look bad." Maybe he's right.
The reason Kyoto wasn't bombed by the way, was because one of the American officers who were deciding where they should bomb had visited Kyoto thrity years before on his honeymoon and thought it would be a tragedy for all mankind if Kyoto and its art were destroyed. It really is the experience of individuals that change history.
The situation with Koreans and Chinese being angry at Japan is one of those situations where it's not going to be easy to solve. I've met Chinese people from China and Chinese people who have moved to England from childhood, and yet both groups still hate Japanese people and still misunderstand them. A lot of them look for biased articles and wrong information and present this to me. My Chinese acquaintance told me not to take Japanese from a Japanese guy because he would rape me.
返信削除Japan apologized seven times I've heard.
I spent about twenty minutes typing this comment!
Thank you so much Sonna for taking your time to read my writings and comment on them. I really appreciate it, and you're actually starting to become a part of my life. (I mean, I think you're the only person I talk to almost daily apart from my friends at school!)
削除I think it's sometimes absurd what the Koreans and the Chinese say. I really don't see why they're trying to breed anger... it's *their* waste of time and energy.
I am very happy to read your writings and comment on them. I think you're also one of the only people I talk to almost daily aside from people at work!
返信削除You're starting to become part of my life too. It's interesting the random connections we have with people and how they start to become part of our lives. It's hard to put into words, but I'm glad you understand.
About the mass casualties in Okinawa toward the end of WW2: all the conversations I had with Okinawans about these episodes were a lot less neutral about the role of the Japanese army in the "mass suicides". Apparently, all civilian populations that took refuge in military barracks were heavily "encouraged" to commit suicide by the imperial army, provided the means to do so and, if necessary, simply executed.
返信削除Many Okinawan people I met (especially the ones whose families lived on the smaller islands that were first taken by American forces, where 75% of the civilian population died), still hold a grudge against Japan for this (and the failure to properly recognise it).
The American who is credited with advocating against bombing Kyoto is the secretary of War at the time, Henry L. Stimson. Beside having spent his honeymoon there, he also realised that destroying some of the highest cultural treasures of Japan would make a post-war reconciliation nearly impossible (not sure how the atomic bombing would fit in these considerations). Quite an irony that Kinkakuji survived the war but had to burn to the ground a few decades later because of a pyromaniac monk.
Thank you for all the information! It really amazes me (and makes me feel ashamed) when foreign people know more about Japanese history and culture than I do.
削除It actually is a pretty famous story that the Okinawans were forced to commit suicide. After all, maybe no one who died believed in bushido; maybe it was only the people who *didn't* die that believed shame was worse than death. It's really ironic, and I do feel sorry for the Okinawans.
I totally forgot about Kinkakuji being burnt down, but you're right! That's such an irony!