CAI HONG

lives for their country”.

The Tokyo war crimes tribunal of 1946-48 made explicitly clear that Japan’s military actions since 1928 had been an act of aggression and, ipso facto, “murder”. Acts of cruelty toward both prisoners of war and civilians had been so widespread as to seem almost an expression of national character, the tribunal concluded. Japan could hold memorial services for the military and civilian war dead after the defeat, but not praise them.

One can feel a sense of victim consciousness in the country generally. And the war is seen by most as a chance to remind the younger generations of the hardship and sacrifices of those years, rather to draw attention to imperial Japan’s aggression and atrocity.

Indeed, Japan is always nervous and defensive when people, both at home and abroad, reopen the old wounds. Many Japanese people hold that the past is past and should be left alone.

In 1993, then-chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono issued a statement, approved by the cabinet of former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa, expressing “apologies and remorse” to women used as sex slaves by Japanese troops during World War II. Contact the writer at caihong@chinadaily.com.cn