Personally, the war is over. The Japanese have no need to apologize. The current generation didn't brutalize all those Americans, did it? Besides, the Japanese army was defeated, the navy annihilated, half its urban area burned up, and that's before the A-bomb. As far as the Japanese are concerned I can say that I have my pound of flesh.
This is kind of nice though:
The Japanese people were wonderful. They were very kind, they were very hospitable, no question about it. They treated us beautifully ... And there's no reason why they shouldn't. We didn't do anything wrong (in the war).
One of the things I take great pride in as an American is the ability of our two nations to bury the hatchet, so to speak. Thirty, forty years ago there was a lot of Japan bashing in America, over the war of course, but also their domination of certain markets long considered to be rightfully American, cars, electronics, etc. They really did rub out faces in it. But, hey, they were making better TV's and better cars. Period.
That's all over with, really. Today the United States and Japan are allies, and not just allies, friends. P.J. O'Rourke once described a scene on Iwo Jima where American Marines and Japanese soldiers salute each other's flags at reveille. It is almost as if there is a bond now between our two nations a bond made in the Great Pacific War.
When Japan was hit by an earthquake and tsunami there was no American gloating, something that would have occurred in say, 1985. There was just American help, from the navy, from the Red Cross, from average Americans. My daughter's school made Japanese cranes as part of a charitable effort. I explained to my oldest that America and Japan used to be enemies but now we're friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment