Should Japan change?

Question

Should its constitution be re-written, and should Japan be able to build armies for its own purposes? Can and should its actions before and during World War 2 be forgotten? Forgiven?

Answer 1

Being a Chinese, I would never forget or forgive what the Japanese did to us in WW2.

I just hope WW3 wouldn't happen.

PS to tjinjapan

Japanese don't talk about WW2 because some of them believe what they did to Chinese were just "faked stories" or the young Japanese have no clue of what had happened at all. Please refer to these 2 links
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/08/23/nanjing_massacre_survivor_gets_200000/
http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/69-19171.aspx

PS to Jorienital

I guess, you are a Japanese but that doesn't make me change my statement!

Did I say Japan started the WW2? My last sentense implies I want peace, no WW again. I appreciate finer things in life and I do not want my comfortable life to be destoryed by stupid greedy war freaks.

You better not just learn about WW2 from "Japanese" history books and try to read some English ones, if you could read Chinese, read some as well. I recommend you to read 'The Making of the "Rape of Nanking"' by Takashi Yoshida.
http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryWorld/Asian/?view=usa&ci=9780195180961

The fact is - Japan "act" an important "role" in WW2 by invading many Asia countries, (nearly whole Asia Pacific Region).
Did you know when did Japan start that 8 years war in China? It was 7th July 1937, it is known as "The Second Sino Japanese War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_War_(1937-1945), WW2 was from 1939 to 1945 according to wikipedia. Did you know when Japanese army took over Hong Kong? They started bombing Hong Kong in 25th December 1941 night, within 3 days, English army hoisted the white flag and left Hong Kong.

What did Japan do good in WW2? or before WW2? to China? biased? Japanese slaughtered 300,000 Chinese in Nanjing (Nanjing Massacre Dec. 1937 to Feb. 1938). We still can find Japanese chemical weapons & bombs in Northern China and needed to be handled carefully!

Japanese Soldiers 2nd Lieutenants Mukai and Noda, had killing competition in Nanjing Massacre, held the record of killing 106 & 105 Chinese respectively, and was reported in Japanese Newspaper (see below first link)
http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/njmassac/killcomp.htm
http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/njmassac/nmintro.htm

If ever, war happened again in Asia Pacific, may the battle field would be in Japan instead of our motherland, so you would have a chance to feel how distructive it would be. (as a matter of fact, I do not hope any war would happen near us.)

I live in Hong Kong, my dad sometimes brings up how bad his eldest brother and his father suffered when Japanese "ruled" Hong Kong in those 3 years and 8 months. My uncle was kidnapped by the Japanese army and forced to work in Japanese millitary warehouse where he got killed.

My mother's father was also kidnapped by the Japanese army but he was lucky that he escaped in the night and sneaked back to his village.

If you have anyone of your family got killed in WW2, perhaps, you would see things differently!

Answer 2

The consititution being rewritten depends on the need of the Japanese Goverment. Japan should be able to build armies, just as any other nations.

The actions of Japan before and after World War II should be forgiven, but not forgotten. Untaught history tends to repeat itself. Germany has been forgiven for WWII, as has Japan. Still, there are people that hold grudges against these countries.

At the moment, Japan has more than the United States to worry about. We thus far have a good relation with Japan. There is still great tension between China and Japan (remember what the Spanish did the same to the Native Americans during the discovery of The New World), and North Korea seems to be aiming their nuclear warheads in their general direction.

Answer 3

Yes it should be rewritten. It is archaic and it was imposed by Douglas MacArthur after WWII. Japan needs a military. Germany committed more war crimes than Japan did. That is not to say what Japan did was not terrible. It was!!! But Germany has been forgiven, allowed to rebuild it's army and even has nuclear weapons on their soil. But every time Japan suggests rebuilding it military everyone has a s hit fit.
People say that Japan is not repentant enough. I say BULL S HIT!! They are very ashamed of what they did. So much so they don't like to talk about it. The German's are not nearly as sorry for what they did as the Japanese are. I live in Japan and they know the horrors of war and don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past. People see Japans failure to talk about it's past as being non-repenting. It's not that at all. It's the Japanese are SO ashamed of their past they don't want to be reminded of it. Their mentality is " if we ignore it it will go away"
So should Japan change it's constitution? YES, they need to desperately, especially with the threat of North Korea. They need to be able to defend themselves.

Answer 4

Does every nation admit today's US actions for mid-east?
Who can judge Japan today? nobody. They were already judged internationally.
Japan already has its own power. It is virtually military itself.
Are you still afraid of anything about Japan? If not, leave them alone.
The history classes of the China and Korea are biased too. If they are fair, they should also teach the good point of Japan did ever.
There are both bad and good side of a coin.
What is relation with WW3? learn history. WW2 was not started by Japan. Japan had entered into the war after 2 years time passed.

Answer 5

If North Korea continues on it's present course, Japan will become more self sufficient in it's own defense. This will unfortunately cause stress with China another of Japan's ancient enemies. It is my understanding that North Korea is still at war with the United Nations, and China (our large trading partner) is their main support, North Korea has never signed a peace treaty but only a cease fire so if they fire missiles would not Japan and South Korea be justified in firing back in self defense??

Answer 6

If Japan begins to design weapons, I feel sorry for it's enemies.

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Answer 7

To take war from the earth, is to take man from the earth.

Answer 8

If it ain't broke don't fix it lol