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Unit 10—Handout 5-2
China Waits—Justice, Apology, and Reconciliation:
China, Japan, and World War II (1931-1945)
by Maryann McLoughlin
At the end of WW II in August 1945, China (as well as other Asian countries) had expected an apology
from Japan for Japan’s war crimes, in particular for the Rape of Nanking, Japan’s experimental germ warfare
program, for the horrors suffered by Chinese “comfort women, ” and for the Japanese treatment of POWs,
particularly POWs used as slave laborers. China is still waiting.
China (and Japan) has seen the efforts Germany has made to apologize and to pay reparations in order to
achieve some closure for the atrocities committed by Germany in Europe during WW II. Germany has not
only apologized for the past but has looked toward the future; Germany has a superior education program in
place along with laws that protect all its citizens against hate crimes and prejudice. China continues to wait.
The United States is initially to blame for the failure of Japan to confess its blame and apologize.
Immediately after WW II, the United States felt that it was important not only to get Japan back on its feet
as a democracy but also to have Japan as a bulwark against the “Reds.” The U.S. was fearful of Stalin, and of
China and Korea becoming Communist. The U.S. wanted a democratic ally in the Pacifi c where it could have
military bases, even after the occupation was over. Indeed, to this date, the US has military bases on mainland
Japan and Okinawa.
Another reason Japan did not apologize is that the US had dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
so many Japanese saw themselves as the victims instead of the victimizers. Moreover, at the International
Military Tribunal Far East, only a few high-level generals were prosecuted and punished. For example, General
Matsui, who was horrifi ed at what was done at Nanking while he recuperated from a tuberculosis attack, was
tried and hanged. Emperor Hirohito and Prince Asaka, his uncle, were left to live comfortable lives, even
though they had as much to do with the massacre at Nanking as had Matsui. Matsui and a few others like
him were fall guys. General MacArthur who oversaw the occupation told the US government that Hirohito
should not be brought to trial because leaving him on the throne would simplify MacArthur’s occupation and
pacifi cation of Japan.
So China waited. And still waits. There have been efforts since 1945 to reconcile, to educate, to achieve
closure; however, especially in recent years, the Japanese seem to be going in the opposite direction of justice
and apology. For example, Prime Minister Koizumi went several times to the Yasukuni Shrine, a shrine that
glorifi es the war criminals of WW II and is a symbol of Japan’s militaristic past. (This action of Koizumi’s
is similar to Reagan’s visit to Kolmeshöhe Cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany, where Waffen-SS are buried
along with American soldiers.)
Additionally, many Japanese school textbooks are revisionist, covering up Japan’s aggressive and brutal
behavior during the war. These coupled with an upsurge in Japanese nationalism and calls to create a Japanese
military do not seem to create an atmosphere of justice and reconciliation between Japan and China and
Chinese victims.
What would justice look like? Justice would mean that Japan would settle the suits fi led by Chinese victims
such as the one fi led by Li Xouyin, a civilian survivor of the Nanking massacre who was raped multiple times
as well as stabbed thirty-seven times by Japanese bayonets. Justice would mean that the Japanese Diet would
enact legislation recognizing the WW II war crimes of the Japanese. Justice would mean that reparations
would be paid to the victims—the “comfort” women who were forced into wartime brothels, Chinese victims
of Japanese medical experiments, rape victims of the Nanking massacre, slave laborers deported from China
(and Korea) to labor in Japanese mines, and to the ill-treated POWs, for example, those on the Bataan Death
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