The Chinese should most definitely compensate the Japanese for damage to the embassy. There are no reasons–abolutely none–for a failure to pay compensation. The Chinese can keep public order if they choose to do so.

The Chinese are upset that the Japanese are going to cut off ODA. The Chinese certainly don’t need it anymore, but they considered wartime compensation, even though that issue was supposedly settled.

The Chinese should most definitely compensate the Japanese for damage to the embassy. There are no reasons–abolutely none–for a failure to pay compensation. The Chinese can keep public order if they choose to do so.

Yet they aren’t keeping order. Maybe Japan should look at the reason why they aren’t.

Asking for compensation and an apology is petty.

[...] to the contrary were shrugged off. SECOND NOTE: Another historical perspective available here via Japundit. [...]

It seems pretty hypocritical to me to focus on the admittedly heinous history of Japan in China over 60 years ago while overlooking the magnitudes worse evil that was committed in the sixties and seventies in China by the Chinese government on its own people.

This only holds true if you hold China to the same standard as Japan. I personally despise the government in China. But Japan should be better than that and their government should be as well. The actions of Koizumi and others show that there really is no remorse for the actions that harmed so many.

but lets stop and think about the fact that this is 60 years later and the world lives with the best Japan of all possible Japans – rich, aid-giving, and pacifist.

Rich, aid-giving with a population that wants to change the constitution to allow a more aggressive military.

From Japundit: “A recent poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun revealed that 61 percent of Japanese voters favored revising the nation’s war-renouncing constitution.”

You have a nation that not only wants to forget its past, it wants to glorify it. All the while ignoring the atrocities committed. Add to that a willingness to change their pacifist constitution to a more agressive one and I don’t think we are looking at the “best Japan.”

Yasukuni Jinja is not merely a shrine dedicated to honoring war criminals. It’s kind of like the Arlington NAtional Cemetery of Japan, although that analogy is not entirely accurate.

No, comparing it to Arlington isn’t accurate. Yes, I do know that the Class A war criminals there represent a very small portion of those honored. But, the fact remains that they are there and while this is so, it tarnishes the entire shrine and makes a mockery of those that suffered because of them.

China sees the value in exploiting this issue, so it blows it all out of proportion. So, other than that, what is it that you think Koizumi is doing which is so offensive to China?

Koizumi is offensive in the way he deals with his Asian neighbors. He dismisses their concerns as if they matter little and sees no problem in offending with his actions.

Whether it is historical accuracy, visiting a shrine or disputed territories, his manner is one of arrogance and superiority. Almost as if the leaders of these countries aren’t worth his time, but better off being dealt with by lower level functionaries.

And hardly anybody in Japan wants there to be anything like the old military government. It’s democratic countries like Japan that should have strong militaries.

Yes, I agree. But only after finally dealing with their past. It doesn’t garner a sense of trust when you refuse to acknowledge your history, make bestsellers of books that glorify that history and denies the atrocities and pay honor at a shrine that glorifies war criminals.

When you add that to the mix, how can you expect your neighbors to calmly accept your wanting to expand your military and alter your constitution?

And why is nobody protesting that the same government that invaded Tibet in 1949 and committed horrible atrocities is not only not apologizing, but still in possession of its colony?

There have been many protests and harsh words over Tibet. They should continue and get louder and hopefully, one day, the brutal Chinese regime will fall. Hoping and wanting this though does not excuse Japan its failings.

Japan needs to deal with its dark closet of horrors without pointing the finger at others if they expect to play with the big boys. If they don’t, I think the current unrest of their neighbors is nothing like it will become.