it doesn't really matter what country you are from... every country downplays it's atrocities... this isn't isolated to japan only....... the same thing happens in most places..... textbooks and school education plays up the good parts and downplays if not ignores the bad parts.
japanese textbook, chinese textbook, british textbook, american textbook.... it doesn't matter.... the only countries where is is particularly bad is countries like China or North Korea, where it isn't a matter of downplaying, but all out denial elimination from history, to the point that the majority of the population doesn't even know what you are talking about when you mention parts of their own history.
Germany had WWII
America has had Vietnam, Trail of Tears, and now the war in the middle east
Romania has had it's issues with the ethnic roma minority
Many central and south american countries have their own issues
So do many african nations.
blah blah blah blah blah
it would be nice to see some country take the lead and promote the world before their own country for a change....
i don't consider myself a citizen of one particular country, but a citizen of the world (i have three passports)..... more countries need to start supporting such a view
the world is not a "Us vs Them", but a "We".... it's a shame that it takes things like the tsunami in southeast asia for us to behave in such a manner....
I find it particularly amusing when I hear my Chinese students bitch and moan about the Japanese revisionism, yet they haven't a clue about their own revisionism.....
if they had any clue what happened prior to the great march, the cultural revolution and tiananmen square, they wouldn't be as quick to voice such an opinion.
since i have never lived or visited japan, it's hard for me to criticize the validity of such an article, but i have found that many of the articles published in western newspapers have become particularly weak journalistically....
much of it has moved away from if not entirely eliminated investigative journalism and instead become mostly of a collective outlet of public relations releases where they take news from official "spokespeople"
i find that many of the articles i read in western newspapers about china reak of PR spiel given to them by the chinese government.....much of journalism from mainstream sources has become increasely one-sided.
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