The Second World War ended in 1945 as a Japan when Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration. This war not only made much tragedy but also left many problems. They are restoring diplomatic relation problem, territorial issues, American base problem, Japanese children lefted behind in China and so on. One of the important issues is the conflict of historical understanding. This includes the issue of the war responsibility as a defeated nation. Japan have intended to accept the war responsibility since the end of the Second World War, and Japan mentions the responsibility is now complete. However, some countries such as China and Korea still blame Japan for the war responsibility. This blame can't be overlooked. In order to form a good relationship with them Japan should take an effective action on historical understanding between Japan and China, Korea because an insufficiency of knowledge of what Japan have made reparation for since the end of the Second World War is used for stirring anti-Japanese feeling and this feeling will be a wall of cooperation with Japan.
As mentioned above, Japan practically have accepted the war responsibility as a defeated nation. Japan paid totally 1 trillion yen for other countries as a compensation. Moreover, Japan assisted some countries which refused the right of demanding compensation with building factories and many supplies. Therefore, Japan understood Japanese war responsibility was complete. However, it seems to be not enough to help them, especially Korea, because Japan established a special law before doing compensation. The special law prevented Korean soldiers and his family from the right to perceive compensation. In other words, Japan didn't deal with them individually. Therefore, Korean people who served in the war still claim compensation for Japan. Taking action on that movement is required for Japan.
The historical understanding of China is based on the belief that is the lack of Japanese supports for the individuals. Many Chinese historians mentions that Japan didn’t paid the compensation for the individuals. It is true that Japan didn’t pay compensation for the individuals, but this point of view misses the fact that Japan paid reparation for the Chinese government, and that reparation was used for reconstructing China. In other words, that reparation was actually used for reconstructing each person’s life.
The historical understanding of Korea is also based on the belief that Japan didn’t do anything for the individuals. Before thinking about what Japan did for Korea, it is necessary to know the Korean condition in the Second World War, that is, the Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan. This means Korean government practically didn’t exist in there. The Korean people was in there but Korean government was not in there. This situation make the understanding more complicated because Korean people was considered as Japanese soldier when Japan ruled the Korean peninsula. If Japanese participated in the war as a soldier, they were given compensation by Japanese goverment after the war. Therefore, Korean people who were considered as Japanese soldier should be given compensation, but they didn’t perceive it because of the special law. This law separated Korean from Japanese unless Korean people was considered as a Japanese during the war. As a result, Korean haven’t perceived compensation from Japan yet. What Japan did for Korea is only paying reparation. That reparation was the same case as China. Japan paid for Korean government but didn’t pay for the individuals.
The above shows the different historical understanding between Japan and China, Korea. Japan argues that they did pay compensation for the countries. China and Korea argues that Japan did not pay compensation for the individuals. The problem is whether Japan paid for the country or the individuals. Seeing the definition of the war responsibility, a defeated country’s due is paying something for victorious countries to or countries to restore the desolate countries. Therefore, Japanese argument is not wrong, but Japan should take an effective action on historical understanding because Chinese and Korean people haven't admitted Japanese war responsibility yet and this conflict isn’t useful for Asian society as a partner.
There seems to be two effective actions. One of two is that Japan keep saying stubbornly that they paid compensation for governments, and it gave them economical wealth. The second action is that Japan accepts their opinions, namely deals with them individually. However, it appears that the latter is better than the former. Most of Japanese politicians tend to prefer to the former but it is difficult to persuade them because they often use the thought that Japan didn’t achieve the war responsibility as diplomatic bargaining chip. The second one doesn’t mean passive. Though Japan deal with them individually, it isn’t all of the cases. Japan should accept the case, such as the special law. When the case is identified completely injustice, Japan should modify the past failure. When Japan can rethink the past failure and modify it, the Asian relationships will be good.
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