5/30The Japan Times --READERS IN COUNCIL-- "Japan, too, must make amends" Shizuoka J.WILSON
Perhaps it is the generally gentle and compassionate nature of the Japanese that makes the recent behavior I have witnessed so disturbing, even disgusting. Or it could be that if I were to imagine myself being so blatantly hypocritical, I couldn't even stand to listen to myself. For sure, being suddenly snatched as a young person from a Japanese beach and being forced to live in such a fanatical regime as that of North Korea must be a truly borrific experience. I am very happy that four of the five returned abductees and their families so far have had the opportunity to be re -united in such a pleasant county as that of Japan. However, from the accounts I have read about the abductees' live in North Korea, having the opportunity to get married, raise childen and be a family does not sound like a completely uncomfortable existence. And while 15 people kidnapped is 15 too many, I wouldn't rate it as an epidemic. Last Tuesday I also read about the plight of 15 Chinese men trying to get redress from the Japanese government for forced slave labor during World War II -- what I am sure was truly an uncomfortable existence. It makes me very angry to hear the events perpetrated upon them by the Japanese. I am angry that the media, including this newspaper, makes so much of the abductees, yet so little of the situation with the Chinese. I am truly upset that it appears as though the Japanese have no interest in accounting for their past evils. I was in anger that I came accross "The Rape of Nanking" (which I bought because I was so shocked to find it in a Japanese bookstore). This would definitely be an eye-opening read for any person whose only knowledge of Japanese history was garnered in a Japanese classroom.