Chrenkoff Hits the Nail on the Head with the China/Japanese Hatefest....

I loved his thoughts back during the Gulf War II. He again comes through with well written logic....here.

The current stand-off between China and Japan presents an interesting moral conundrum: China is in the right as far as the official reason for the dispute is concerned - Japan still has not, sixty years on, come to terms with its role in the Second World War. Unlike Germany, which has tried very hard to exorcise the Nazi demons and make amends with the victims of its past aggression, Japan still can't get it why the rest of the East Asia resents having been invaded by the Japanese Imperial Army, it doesn't seem to accept that its actions led to deaths of millions, often in gruesome atrocities like the Rape of Nanking, and it continues to glorify and whitewash its militaristic past in public observance and history books.

Yet, Japan today is a Western democracy and a strong US ally, while China is ruled by the legatees of people responsible for deaths of several times as any of their own countrymen as were killed by the Japanese. Japan still falsifies its history of relations with China; China still falsifies its history of relations with itself. Furthermore, Japan is a stable, non-expansionist state, reasonably - albeit not completely - happy with its current role in international affairs. China, on the other hand, has clear designs against one small democracy (Taiwan), hegemonic ambitions over the whole region, and even greater dreams of superpowerdom to rival the United States.

As distasteful as Japan's continuing historical insensitivity is, it's clear where our loyalties should lie. [My emphasis]

Read the rest of the piece. But the issue is that these things tend to get out of control and have consequences beyond their intended victims. Other foreigners and visitors are at risk of violence for real or perceived historical "crimes."