The Problem of Apologies

June 25 marks the establishment of the Korea and Japan diplomatic relations which brings up the subject of "comfort women." I've heard this many times before and wondered what exactly did the current Japanese officials were referring to when they say that they've already apologized for that before.

This brought me to  Murayama's statement on this page from the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry. I've read a bit more about the establishment of the Asian Women's Fund and its purpose, as well as its accomplishments by the time it was dissolved. It made me wonder some more why other Asian nations still harbor ill-sentiments about it.

My hubby pointed out that it was a matter of how sincere the apology came across and it seems that the Japanese government itself didn't really officially apologized. That 1995 was half-baked, and it was even still followed by other actions that seems to downplay what happened in the case of the comfort women issue.

He then suggested that I look up the Germany case after the World War 2. There were several points that I managed to glean from reading a NYTimes article (2014 April) and another lengthy one from here as well and even from a yahoo answers page.

Generally speaking, the German government, the people apologized. Not once, but a lot of times.  Not just one person but as a whole nation. There is the pronoun factor "we" instead of just the individualized "I." I think, it is, indeed, an important point when dealing in foreign affairs issues between nations. Specially with Korea who have the culture of "we." This I learned last Sunday in my Korean language class. I have heard this pronoun used so often before but never really understood that it stems from their culture. I had this impression before that they just don't use a lot of pronouns but there's actually more to it.

Another point that came up was how the government treated that era of atrocities and how this is portrayed in their school textbooks to educate the younger generations. There's no better way to rewrite a twisted history but to teach that to the future citizens of the country. I have yet to ask a younger Japanese myself and find out what really are in their school textbooks.

There are more issues surrounding this post-war apologies by Japan and Germany and how they differ. Even though my sentiments lie with the aggrieved nations from the start, a curious mind led me to try to learn what the other party is actually referring to. Japanese apology efforts were not enough. Koreans are not exactly the only one that thinks so otherwise. I believe, I understand it a little better now.