Malaysiakini.com（http://www.malaysiakini.com）
Japan, an immature democracy, 25 July 2008
by Josh Hong
While I was not surprised at United States’ concerns over the arrest of Anwar Ibrahim by a special squad in balaclavas, Japan’s expression of similar sentiments was however intriguing.
MCPX
That the US has an unpleasant knack of teaching the world how to behave in accordance with "global standards" is well known, Japan, much like other Asian democracies such as South Korea and Thailand, usually refrains from deed or word that may seem interfering in others’ internal affairs.
When Anwar was arrested 10 years ago over the dodgy sodomy charges, Keizo Obuchi, Japanese prime minister at the time, indeed raised the issue with Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Obuchi’s misgivings somehow evaporated after more business deals were struck between the two countries.
But is Japan in a position to comment on the human rights situation in a "friendly" neighbour like Malaysia? Hardly.
I last met a Japanese official about a year ago in Kuala Lumpur over issues concerning East Asia. Throughout the conversation, the diplomat insisted Japan was now a "mature" democracy, while human rights in Malaysia, China and Burma were worrying to the island nation.
I was perfectly fine with his remarks, but his holier-than-thou attitude was irking, to say the least, prompting me to give him a short lecture on Japanese atrocities across Asia during World War II, and the nation’s inability to come to terms with a host of historical issues subsequently.
In general, I find that the Japanese officialdom is often under the delusion that a democracy on par with the US and the European Union countries needs only, inter alia, to ensure the protection of human rights here and now, while disregarding whatever that happened in the past, which of course is not true.
Look at Germany, Australia
Had the Germans not through their postwar actions demonstrated the badly needed repentance of the Holocaust and other war crimes during the Third Reich, European reconciliation would have been impossible and the new-born Germany a pie in the sky.
In short, the Germans are respected for their deep-rooted democracy of the present time as well as for their courage and readiness to atone for past sins. That West Germany went from political pariah to a model of modern liberal democracy in one generation is no small achievement indeed.
Although I am not here to dispute the US being a more democratic country than many others, Washington’s failure to address the massacre of the native Indian populations is regrettable. In this regard, Australia has set itself as an example when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered public apologies over the stolen generations early this year. It was certainly a right direction in national reconciliation and a fine gesture of transitional justice.
The same cannot be said of Japan, as the successive Japanese governments have refused to employ terms that are crystal clear in addressing the country’s militarist past. For instance, a Japanese prime minister would almost always prefer to use the word "regret" rather than "repent" as far as the invasion of Asia in the 1930s and 1940s is concerned.
Over the last few years, historical revisionism has been making a quiet comeback, with certain rightwing publishers seeking to whitewash war atrocities committed by the Imperial Army during the Pacific War, the outcome of which is persistently referred to as "the termination of war" rather than "a Japanese defeat". After all, the official document that clearly articulated Japan’s surrender following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is known as The Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the Greater East Asia War, issued by none other than the late Emperor Hirohito on 15 August 1945.
Does it mean that a war that was merely "terminated" could be "resumed"? I would leave it to historians and war strategists, real or wannabes, to debate on this.
Last year, Japan’s ministry of education touched on a raw nerve of the Okinawans when it attempted to edit history textbooks that showed the Imperial Army ordering civilians of the Okinawa island to kill themselves in the aftermath of WWII. Its flimsiness resulted in the largest demonstration in Okinawa since 1945, when more than 100,000 people took to the streets in protest.
Under Japanese and US tutelage, the grievances of the Okinawans never end.
Another issue that continues to plague the relations between Beijing and Tokyo is that of the so-called comfort women, a euphemism coined by the Japanese to refer to sex slaves in the army during the Sino-Japanese War and WWII. Ironically, the Chinese government now prefers to "look ahead" by forging closer economic ties with Japan, refusing even to extend state help to the victims of sex slavery.
Early this month, Japan hosted the G8 Summit in Hokkaido, an occasion that again made the country’s presence felt on the world stage. But how far can the land of the rising sun go on the path of democracy if it still cannot learn to deal with its own ugly past?
I certainly would not simply dismiss Japan’s concerns over the Anwar incident as a diplomatic gimmickry; but without an unequivocal acknowledgement of the historical injustices, it does make one wonder how much weight Japan’s words really carry in the eyes of its past victims.
（End）
