Very nice profile of Haruki Murakami in Time.
Though he says he doesn't want to talk about Japanese politics, he returns to the subject again and again throughout a 212-hour conversation, bushy eyebrows bobbing as he worries about "politicians who rewrite history," and the growing tendency in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Japan to forget about wartime atrocities. Japanese history has always been in the background of his works — and his best novel, 1994's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, dissected the groupthink that led Japan into a catastrophic war — but now he wants to act. "Before, I wanted to be an expatriate writer," he admits. "But I am a Japanese writer. This is my soil and these are my roots. You cannot get away from your country."
Very glad to hear that Murakami's politics seem similar to mine.
I also have problems with re-inventing history and recent tendencies (well old tendencies, but they seem to be more gaining in prominence) amongst some to paint Japan as the victim and not the aggressor of the Pacific War.
Since this is a comment, I won't get into details (hey, I should blog about this), but instead of trying to teach kids about a "beautiful Japan" I'd rather have kids taught about Japan. Teach them things about what a democracy is and why voting is important and etc. As far as history, teaching what happened in the Pacific War doesn't change what Japan is now, and we all should be allowed to choose how we feel about our country after the good and the bad and the horrible things that were done under the Japanese flag in the past.
Wishy-washy? Perhaps, but that's how I feel in a nutshell.
The only people who think Japan was a "victim" in WWII are the ignorant and probably intentionally so. Usually attempts to paint Japan as victim go hand-in-hand with a healthy, and willfully self-flagelating, dose of anti-Western/anti-American hand-wringing due to some set of misplaced notions about Western culture.
But the whole point of attempting to assign "victim" or "aggressor" in any case is a bit nonsensical, unless there is a group seeking some form of future retribution or moral allowance for some kind of behavior. In this case, retribution is futile and irrelevant and moral allowance - as opposed to censure - is clearly not merited.
Tacts in the case of WWII are so grotesque and so well established that they even made an X-files episode about a subset of them!
cdg
I should extend my remarks: post-WWII, and the imposition of a good chunk of Western culture, Japan has become an exemplary nation. High standard of living, contributions across the board blah blah blah. So anyone in Japan (other than those directly responsible, and they're mostly dead) who thinks that the nation should somehow live in shame or apologize or whatever for getting the holy hell beat out of it sixty-five years ago is as deluded as those seeking some kind of moral absolution.
This trend of seeking absolution through apology for acts performed by individuals long dead, over whom those now living could not possibly have influenced, is just preposterous and I find it as loathsome a behavioral trend as those seeking such apologies in the first place.
cdg
Just like the Germans have done, the people of Japan, especially its leadership, need to recognize what was done during the war by another generation. It will go a long way in helping the true victims of other nations in bringing closure to such atrocities. We in the U.S.A. are still accounting for our own atrocities of our recent past. I'm certain we will be apologiging for our current actions across the globe. Can you say "Extraordinary Rendition"?