Report: China Protest at Japan U.N. Bid Turns Violent

[NNN0LHI]

TOKYO (Reuters) - Protesters smashed a local Japanese supermarket's windows after a demonstration in China against Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council turned violent, Kyodo news agency reported Sunday.

Protesters in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in southwest Chinabroke the windows of Japanese-owned supermarket Ito-Yokado onSaturday, Kyodo said.

Many Chinese harbor deep resentment of Japan's war-time past and what they see as Tokyo's failure to own up to atrocities.

Beijing estimates up to 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded by invading Japanese troops from 1931 to 1945.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5652379&cKey=1112536284000

[ixion]

1. the chinese have their own set of atrocities, but the japanese should

apologize (albeit that seems like a shallow resolution).

I think if Japan is serious about a seat at the table, apologizing for killing 35 million people is a small thing to ask.

[ET Awful]

2. If China will apologize for what they did (and are still doing) to Tibet

then maybe I'll listen to them complain about someone else apologizing. China has no right to demand apologies from anyone.

[Jim Sagle]

3. Except Japan.

[Zynx]

4. Yeah. Japan owes China big time.

What they did was horrendous.

[ET Awful]

7. And China owes Tibet, Taiwan, and their own people even more.

Mao killed more Chinese than Japan did. Yup, Japan's treatment of the Chinese was horrendous, but China is in no way morally superior or innocent enough to demand any kind of apology.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. Back then there were three sets of fighting groups

Of course, there was the Japanese Imperial Army, but there was also a civil war going on at the same time, between the followers of Mao Tse-tung and the followers of Chiang Kai-shek. It would be naive to think that the Japanese were responsible for ALL those deaths. My Chinese office mate told me that Mao wiped out quite a few KMT (Kuo-min Tang) villages along the way and attributed it to the Japanese, in order to gain supporters from other villages ("Look at what those awful Japanese did to Y village! We must work with Mao to stop them!"). Of course, once in power, Mao had no reluctance to eliminate or otherwise remove those people he saw as a threat to his power. And he kept doing it, through the '50s and '60s, and most likely until his death in 1976.

[ET Awful]

13. That's part of the point I'm trying to make.

To just unilaterally state that Japan should apologize is to ignore Chinas own history.

How many millions did China kill when they conquered Tibet? Never mind the fact that Tibet had no army and was, overall, a peaceful nation. I mean when the Dalai Lama is forced to flee into exile things have gotten pretty bad.

[ClarkUSA]

8. And Jews have no right to demand apologies from Germans...

Japanese had no right to demand apologies from the U.S. for their WWII internment.

Up to 2 million Chinese alone were killed during the Rape of Nanking.

This occurred before any Tibet issue. Besides, the Dalai Lama has recently said that he wants Tibet to remain as part of China.

[MeinaShaw]

10. Tibet is not Nanjing

What China is doing in Tibet is protecting themselves. Look at the countries that are on their western border. As for what Japan did to China, it was far worse than anything going on in Tibet. That does not excuse anything but the Nanjing incident and other Japanese atrocities are in need of an office Japanese apology to China. Instead, Japan seems to be doing exactly the opposite.

[Art_from_Ark]

11. How do you know the Japanese did ALL those bad things at Nanjing?

Remember, China was also fighting a civil war at the same time. And the leader of one of the warring factions was none other than Mao Tse-tung, who himself was responsible for the deaths of millions of Chinese once he got absolute power.

My former office mate, who was Chinese and who had grandparents who were killed during that time, believes that Mao killed a bunch of supporters of the Kuo-min Tang (the faction of Chiang kai-shek, Mao's civil war opponent), and blamed it on the Japanese to rally the peasants to his side. Mao was a ruthless son-of-a-bitch, and he definitely had the capacity to pull something like this.

[The Magistrate]

12. The Killings In Nanking, Sir, Were Committed By Japanese Soldiers

If you wish to learn something about the period, an excellent starting point is a book called "Thunder Out of China" by Mr. E. B. White, that is far and away the best piece of contemporaneous reporting on China in the period of the Second World War.

No real point would be served by going into any great detail about the pattern of guerrilla war behind Japanese lines after 1937, or the mutual conflict between the K.M.T. and the C.C.P. organizations, but it killed comparatively few people, and was not one-sided. That the great bulk of death and destruction originated with the Japanese is quite clear: when a major campaign over several provinces is launched under the official name "Kill All! Burn All! Loot All!" there really is little more that can need saying....

[Art_from_Ark]

15. I've learned a lot about the period, sir,

from someone whose family was actually there.

Sure, the Japanese Imperial Army did awful things in China. But so did the Chinese themselves! Mao's strategy was a "two birds with one stone" trick-- kill off the opposition's supporters, then blame it on the invaders. Who would question him, since the invaders were killing plenty of people on their own? Mao was just as ruthless as the invaders were.

[ET Awful]

14. I see, so invading a peaceful nation and conquering it is

"protecting themselves." Killing millions, burning half the Buddhist temples in Tibet, executing monks for no reason other than that they're monks, all that is "protecting themselves."

You aren't too familiar with what China actually did to Tibet I take it?

[UCLA Dem]

5. I think they both have committed atrocities and just need to stop this!!

[daleo]

6. When did committing atrocities keep a country off the Security Council?

I think it is damn near a requirement for admission.