Why are Japanese people unwilling to admit to the crime of invading China? Japanese | War | Invasion of China

On August 15th, Japan's surrender day.

78 years ago today, Japan declared unconditional surrender. The Chinese people's fourteen year long War of Resistance Against Japan welcomed the dawn of victory on this day.

However, the contemplation and impact brought about by this war still linger around the world today.

The initiator of that war now seems to have a different face.

Japan, which surrendered unconditionally 78 years ago - a country that launched an aggressive war - has yet to make any official statements, confess or repent.

Not only that, they actually use various covert means to worship those war criminals who invaded China, from worshipping ghosts to the people and even to the bureaucrats.

Why? Why do they not only have no remorse today, but also take pride in themselves, even though they initiated an aggressive war and caused damage to other countries?

Let's delve into the roots of culture today.

Loyalty to the Emperor is everything

From our perspective, the actions of the Japanese when traveling by car by the Emperor are very incredible. This is closely related to the formation of Japanese culture and personality.

Firstly, there is a serious lack of individual responsibility awareness in Japanese culture and national character. Masao Maruyama, an important thinker in the post-war intellectual history of Japan, once analyzed the character consciousness of Japanese people.

Masao Maruyama is a well-known scholar in the study of political and intellectual history in Japan, who has authored works such as "A History of Japanese Political Thought" and "Loyalty and Rebellion: The Spiritual State of Japan in the Transitional Period".

He pointed out that in Japan, for a long time, the emperor has always been the pinnacle of the value system, and for subjects, morality is an external existence.

That is to say, the sense of "responsibility" in Japanese consciousness is only "responsible" for the loyalty of the emperor, and lacks "responsibility" for their own actions, let alone the awareness of taking responsibility for their own actions from their inner conscience.

In short, Japanese people believe that loyalty to the emperor is the most important, and whether their actions are correct and in line with conscience is not important. Even the Emperor himself had no awareness of dictatorship and political responsibility.

According to the diary of the attendant, Emperor Showa of Japan was also distressed by his war responsibility in his later years.

In the trial records of the Tokyo trial, it is surprising that the main responsibility consciousness of war criminals is weak.

"The Nazi Germany launched a war, regardless of the cause, and had a clear awareness of the decision to start the war. In contrast, although China also launched a huge war, it could not find a clear awareness of the war, as if it was being oppressed by something and unconsciously sliding towards war," Masao Maruyama wrote in the book.

In 1970, German Chancellor Brandt knelt down to repent at the Warsaw Jewish Monument

That is to say, moral standards are absent from the genes of Japanese culture, replaced by a form of loyalty and closeness to the emperor.

Moreover, due to geographical limitations in Japan, it is difficult for foreign civilizations and ideological concepts to spread widely and deeply in people's hearts, which has shaped the natural soil for the deep rooting of such concepts.

The mentality of being beaten and scared

Next is Japan's "Muqiang" mentality.

In May 2022, during Biden's visit to Japan, he met with Fumio Kishida.

Since Japan's entrance was bombarded by Western gunboats and cannons, a large number of advanced Western cultures, technologies, and concepts have flooded into Japan, allowing the Japanese to see the "strength" and "advanced" of the West, as well as their own "backwardness" and "weakness", gradually forming the idea that "the weak will be ruled, trampled, and bullied by the strong".

In 1854, the US Far East Fleet battleships stormed into Edo Bay and aimed their guns at the shogunate palace of Edo City. The Tokugawa shogunate knew it was powerless to resist and was forced to sign the Kanagawa Treaty, lifting the more than 250 year old lockdown order, which became a shocking "black ship incident" in Japan.

The Japanese, who have always been deeply immersed in the environment of the jungle, have gradually formed the concept of "there is no good or evil in the world, only the difference between strong and weak". Bullying the weak by the strong is not shameful in their eyes, but rather a logical thing.

The famous Japanese manga "The Wanderer Sword Heart" expresses the concept that "the world belongs to the strong".

The samurai culture revered in Japan also carries the meaning of the jungle.

Narrowly advocating the strong and disdaining the weak has become another major characteristic of Japanese personality.

Of course, the idea of worshipping the strong is common among most ethnic groups, but we all know that worshipping the strong cannot be blind, but must be based on a certain bottom line. The bottom line is morality and ethics.

For example, we naturally dislike "brainless boasting". Even if we know the gap between countries, we will not lose ourselves because of it, nor will we do anything unethical or unethical because we worship the strong.

However, in the personality of Japanese people, due to the lack of reasonable "moral" standards, there will be a combination of "moral deficiency" and the concept of "the law of the fittest", forming a "subconscious" of evading responsibility and glorifying aggression.

Double faced personality

Finally, it is necessary to mention a pair of concepts deeply ingrained in the Japanese personality, "Jianqian" and "Honyin".

"Jianqian" refers to the opinions expressed among the general public, while "honyin" refers to one's true inner thoughts.

For example, even if a person has various opinions on his boss in the company, he will show recognition and appreciation of the leader's "pre construction" in front of others, while private and small groups will show the "true voice" of constantly roast about the shortcomings of the leader.

Isn't this just "face to face, back to back"?

Upon careful consideration, expressions such as "flattery goes against yin", "face to face and back to back", and "talk to people and ghosts" do exist in different cultures, but most of the time, they are derogatory.

We will despise those who say one thing and do another, thinking they are hypocritical and calling them "old yin and yang people".

But what sets Japanese people apart from us is that they naturally acknowledge this behavior, as it is a tradition rooted in the culture and character of the Yamato people.

Many Chinese students studying abroad or Chinese tourists in Japan feel a lot about it.

"We had a great conversation before yesterday, but the next day he reported me on the other hand."

"I have been working in the company for over three years, and today I realize that people have always looked down on me because I read Japanese slowly and don't like makeup."

"If you make a mistake, as long as you're not noticed, you don't think it's a mistake. I don't understand the Japanese brain circuits."

"Honyin" and "Jianqian" can be said to be Japan's excessive cultivation and elongation of "saying one thing and doing another thing".

During World War II, many Japanese people were kidnapped by the invading "Jianqian" and participated in the war by hiding their true pronunciation, because saying they didn't want to fight would be despised by everyone.

Even if the war ends, war criminals dare not reveal their true colors. Invading war criminals often claim to have been "coerced by superiors," while senior military officers use the excuse of "acting on the instructions of the Emperor and following the will of the Ferris Emperor.".

To this day, Japanese militarism is prevalent, becoming a series of covert operations such as distorting history and rewriting textbooks before the founding of the People's Republic of China. On the one hand, it has made the outline of the war against China increasingly blurred for more and more young Japanese people. On the other hand, even Japanese people who understand the truth find it difficult to use their own "true pronunciation" to persuade "before the founding of the People's Republic of China".

Under the control of mainstream ideology, everyone has the same tongue, and as for their inner thoughts, perhaps only they know.

The lack of a moral system, the blessing of a strong mentality, and the double-sided cultural personality have led Japanese people to still not believe that the war against China is a crime, but rather to worship war criminals in the imperial court.

The world has its own right path

The formation of Japanese culture has its own reasons, but no matter how distorted their culture, personality, or value system may be, they should not be an excuse to escape punishment.

Crime is crime.

The world has its own right path.

Know yourself and your enemy, and learn from history. We are grateful for the inclusiveness and inclusiveness of Chinese culture in its development process, which has nurtured our character of distinguishing right from wrong, punishing evil and promoting good. Our daily reflection on ourselves as a warning to the world has made us feel uneasy about our past mistakes; The cultural roots endow us with a pair of eyes that understand the distinction between good and evil, and an eternal heart that strives for goodness.

The sins and ugliness of the war against China more than seventy years ago cannot be concealed by the Japanese, no matter how cunning, forgotten, or relied upon.

And we need to bear in mind, not forget the sacrifices and blood of our ancestors, and walk our own path with more confidence and determination.

The light of victory will not be dimmed by sophistry and evasion, but will be brighter by remembrance and justice.

In the year of Guimao

June 29th

August 15, 2023