a conversation between me and my Canadian friend

[elephant dadi]

(He said)

I'll agree to support that those textbooks should be rewritten to reflect the real history, but I think you're going to have to be alone in hating the Japanese.

The Japanese girls on my floor in residence, I should hate them for things that they didn't do? Should I hate the Germans, too? That was two generations ago. Most of the people who did that stuff are already dead. Should I hate the Americans for the things that happened in Iraq that were in the news last year?

The people who join the military aren't usually the nicest people!

People do insane things in wars... But it's only very few of them. You know that Chinese people were hurting Japanese people recently, because of what happened 60 years ago? Japanese stores getting destroyed... Japanese students getting beaten up... It's individuals, not the whole country.

The issue right now is that a few idiots in Japan approved some text books that ignore the attrocities the soldiers commited, and I'm guessing the Japanese gov't hasn't given an official apology for the stuff that happened in that war... But I'm sure hating all the Japanese and throwing paint at their consulate building will help fix it! No one wants to listen to someone who hates them.

Every country is full of "sin." There are bad people in every country. But most of the people are just people who want to live nice quiet happy lives, go to school and do well on their exams, have a bf or gf and a dog and a little house by the lake, and ...

You say that Japan is not worthy of respect... is China?

 

[elephant dadi]

(I responded)

China and Japan is the two countries like Israel and Saudi Arabian. Our national hate will last for at least several decades. This hate is not only from Chinese towards Japanese, it is from Japanese towards Chinese as well. Their textbook taught them to. According to your response, I can see some misunderstanding. We Chinese do not hate individual Japanese. We hate the Japanese country, and the new generation represents this country. You thought there is no need to hate the new generation who did not commit that 60 years ago’s crime. I disagree. The new generation represents a country that tortured more than hundred thousands Chinese people in highly cruel way. This level of torture is not normal human being can think about. This is against humanity. Such kind of crime is not a problem of apology. By accepting your Canadian citizenship, you also accept, to some degree, to carry the responsibility of your ancestors. Each and every Canadian citizen represents Canada the same way that each and every Japanese citizen represents Japan. Under these circumstances, I feel that an apology is utterly useless. Like, “hey sorry for all those years of torture and rape and pillage and murder, now can I have my UN seat?”. My reply is “ THE JAPS!!!”. It may take several generations to apologize to make Chinese people forget that past.