Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
(with apologies to Sir Elton John)
First, read this article from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Then, read this article about Missouri's debate about whether that state should be the first U.S. state to apologize for slavery (there's a Dred Scott connection here).
Finally, please answer all three of the following questions in your post:
1. Should Japan apologize for the comfort women? Why or why not?
2. Should the United States apologize for slavery? Why or why not?
3. What are the plusses and/or minuses of a nation or a state admitting that it did something wrong?
First, read this article from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Then, read this article about Missouri's debate about whether that state should be the first U.S. state to apologize for slavery (there's a Dred Scott connection here).
Finally, please answer all three of the following questions in your post:
1. Should Japan apologize for the comfort women? Why or why not?
2. Should the United States apologize for slavery? Why or why not?
3. What are the plusses and/or minuses of a nation or a state admitting that it did something wrong?
posted by Mr. G at 3/15/2007 04:30:00 AM
9 Comments:
hello from study hall!
i think that it is right for japan to apologize for the use of comfort women during world war two. as the article said it might smooth diplomatic waters but then again a nation like china or north korea might want to be compensated for the use of the comfort women, not just the individual people. japan shouldnt have to pay the entire country if a demand like this is made, i beleive that what it is doing is just.
the US should efiantly apologize for the use of slaves but their are a few problems that might arise out of this. who will the US be apologizing to? if it is meant to lessen racism against blscks in places such as the south then i dont think that it isnt going to go that way. groups such as the KKK still exist(remember the cross burnings in durham in 2005) and their not just going to stop hating blacks just because the government said sorry. its their way of life to discriminate these groups. also some people might want to be compensated by the government, and i dont think that that should happen.
if a nation apologizes it might smooth diplomatic waters as i said before. that is a good thing, as it will always be. also you might run into the conflict of people wanting to be compensated for what their relatives had to go through. i dont think that that is fair. if any one is being compensated it should be the people who suffered, not their great great great grand children. thats just being greedy because all you want right then is money that you dont deserve. if all the people who you are apologizing to are dead then who are you apologizing to?
in this argument someone might say that because of slavery the blacks didnt have the same political power untill later, which would be a reason that they should be compensated. but women got their rights later and in the 2008 eight election is the first time that a black man and a woman have a serious shot at taking the presidency. but of course they are both from the same party so that lessons the chance of who ever makes it out of the primaries chance of becoming president.
HELLO FROM THE ANTI-MALL!
I think that Japan should appologize for the "comfort women". This was an atrocious policy that scarred many women for the rest of their lives. If Japan doesn't have the money for official appologies then they should find a way to make the money.
The US should appologize for slavery aswell. Slavery in the US was one of the worst things that any country has ever done to a people. It was the worst form of slavery in the history of the world as far as anyone knows to date. An appology is very much overdue, and the US could easily make the funds for an official appology, by cutting funds for the ridiculous war in Iraq.
In my mind there are no minusus in making an official appology and offering reparations. It forces a country to admit its mistakes and then move on and learn from them.
i dont think it is necessary for japan to apologize for the comfort women or for the us to apologize for slavery. what difference would an apology from japan or the us make now? the people who needed to apologize are the people who were in power at the time, allowing these things to happen. the people living and governing the us or japan today are not the people who were living and governing when these things were going on. why should they have to apologize for something they didnt do or weren't even around to witness? while yes, it would be a nice gesture for either country to apologize - i don't think it is necessary. i think apologies are called for when the people and governing people of today have made a mistake or done something wrong. of course most people today are sorry that slavery or comfort women ever existed, theres lots more to be sorry for too. but i think to apologize for the people of the past is a little silly because its not a true apology when it doesnt come directly from those who were in the wrong.
I think Japan should apologize for the comfort women, but I don't think it should involve money, because that would almost make them prostitutes. Like Philip said, an apology from the US for slavery is way overdue. I don't know if it makes sense for the states to apologize, the people who made the laws allowing slavery are more at fault, so maybe just the judicial systems? I don't know. I think it is good for nations and states to apologize for doing things wrong, even though it won't undo past actions. It reminds people that whatever happened was not okay, and it keeps people from forgetting.
Why must an official apology include money? This idea of reparations is not something that I particularly favor because it does not really serve a point. If I forget something that I needed to give someone and need to apologize, I do not hand them 20 bucks. Giving money to these peoples great-grandchildren does not help the actual slaves cope with the pain they went through. I mean if were going to "apologize" for all actions of slavery or oppression in the past everybody bring a check tomorrow for Philip's ancestors. The decision that a government should apologize for regrettable actions is perfectly fine though. I understand that we must use our past to influence our future but focusing so hard on the past and ignoring everything that is wrong with the world right now is foolish, prejudice remains in the United States and if anything it has expanded from where it was during slavery. On the subject of the Japanese, "comfort women" the same thing is going on all over the world. I'm pretty sure that family of the 14 year old girl Iraq that was raped by US troops, watched the troops kill her family and then US troops killed her, are getting any sort of reparations and I'm pretty sure no national apology was issued either. My point is apoligze get over it and do something to stop these problems from repeating or this cycle will continue.
The apology from Japan is a bit late. An apology to the women should have been made way back when the issue was still prevalent, and most of the women were still alive. Both the soldiers that are at fault and the women that were pressed into service are old or dead. The apology would be a nice gesture, but a little out of context.
The apology for slavery would be a similar situation. Monetary compensation would be a little hard because there are so many descendants of slaves. How much would each person get? Would the amount of money depend on the number of generations?
The apology of a nation to a group of people is a nice thing to do, but is more effective the closer to the actual transgression. The longer from the date of the crime, the less effective the apology grows.
I think that Japan shouldn't feel obligated to apologise for the indiscretions of the past. Does this mean I condone it? No! However, the Nipponese Empire of WWII is NOT the current governmental power in Japan. Not even close! You can hardly blame people who were not in charge for the mistakes of those that were.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
If every son had to apologise for the sins of his father, I doubt we could ever get anything done. After all, Humanity is a symphony of death, destruction, murder, rape, and other heinous acts of inhumanity (such a misnomer, in my opinion!).
As for slavery? I think a similar thing applies. Slavery was a horrendous thing. Again, father-son issue plays even more heavily here.
A state should apologise for its mistakes. However, also, I believe that a state from one time is not the same as a state from today. I do not condone, condemn, nor defraud the institution of the above issues, but, in my mind, states are not the same thing.
I dont think it is necessary for Japan to apologize for comfort women during world war two. Yes it scarred the women who were used for sex and at that time the relatives and the chance of becoming one of those women. But bringing that problem back up just to apologize about it today could cause the women to realize what men could do to them. Women could possibly become even more aware of the fact that they did that and start hating them all over again. I think that in Japan this would be different because more people would be aware of what happened to them. Also, i am giong with everything that Berro said on this queestion.
The United states shouldnt apologize for slavery. We should be dealing with problems that are happening today, not problems that happened a long time ago. If someone hit me today, i wouldnt want an apology for it 80 years from now. i would want it then. So we should be dealing with issues that are occuring today.
Plusses-making the person in charge feel better. Letting everyone know his/her opinion on things.
Minuses-briging an issue back up. money doesnt fix everythnig.
If my ancestors were slaves, i dont think they would appreaciate me getting paid for their work.
Should Japan appologize for having the comfort women? Yes. Since it happened in World War II, half of those women are probably dead already, but the ones that are alive need to be appologized to.
Should the U.S. appologize for slavery? NOW? No. Should the U.S. have appologized for slavery back when it was happeneing and righ after it was over? Yes, because back then there were people to appologize to. Appologizing now would be VERY pointless. There's not one left to appologize to who was ever a slave in the U.S., unless there's some 200 year old person I don't know about. In the case of blacks in the U.S., it might not be a bad idea to appologize for all the segregation and the mistreatment of blacks that took place, but appologizing to people who have been dead a hundred years is like stealing something from a store and going back to pay for it after the store's been demolished.
There isn't much downside for appologizing in Japan. The U.S., however, would look pretty pitiful appologizing about slavery. There's no one alive who even HAD slaves. We'd basically be appologizing for something we didn't do, and I'ma tell you right now if someone threw a rock at someone else's head, I wouldn't go up to the person and say "Sorry for throwing a rock at your head" when the guy who did it is standing behind me. And money isn't gonna make anybody feel an better about what happened and SURE isnt gonna make the situation better in anyway.
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