Taro Aso’s warning about Nazis

  • Profiles of the Day
    • More at Japan Probe Friends...

    Taro Aso became secretary general of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a few days ago, and he’s ready to take on the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Politics blogger MTC has reported on a statement Aso made in response to claims from the DPJ that his party had “lost touch” with the feelings of Japanese voters:

    「歴史を見れば政権与党から民心が離れた結果、ナチスのような政党が政権を取った例もある」

    “Looking at history one finds examples where the result of ‘the ruling party’s having lost touch with the feelings of the people’ was the seizure of power by parties like the Nazis.”

    The NTV news video embedded in this post shows Aso making a similar statement last month, but now that he’s assumed a major leadership position in his party, his comments have drawn more media attention.

    Related Posts with Thumbnails

    8 comments - What do you think?   Posted by James - August 5, 2008 at 10:31 am

    Categories: Politics  Tags: ,

    • sireB

      the nazis will forever be the pin-cushion of this era. (sucks for the german psyche, but oh well)

      and japan will forever deny its WWII equivalence. (this will actually be more detrimental for japan than it will be for the rest of asia)

      • ダビ

        The “equivalence” is only there in that both Germany and Japan fought aggressive wars of expansion – usually when people speak about the atrocities of WWII in Europe they mean the holocaust and clearly there is no equivalence there.

        • edwardhasnewgoggles

          I don’t really think it’s a matter of “equivalence” at all. If western people talk about WWII, it’s most likely going to be Germany and the holocaust, whereas if you talk to an Asian person you’d probably get more about Japan.

          I think that regardless of the crime, the holocaust and what Japan did in Asia are on the same levels (in terms of aggression/violence/etc). Sure, Germany killed a lot more people, but really…numbers shouldn’t matter that much when you’re dealing with innocent life.

          On a semi-related topic, you could go with the endless debate about the atomic bomb. Who was more important, American lives or Japanese lives?

          No matter how you look at it, an innocent life is an innocent life no matter what country that person is from.

          • ダビ

            The holocaust refers to the industrial extermination of Jews and other “undesirables” in the gas chambers – Japan didn’t do anything like that.

          • edwardhasnewgoggles

            ha, tell anyone in SE asia that. You’re just looking at stats…they’re both terrible crimes regardless of the numbers. Trust me, you’ll get a nice piece of mind.

    • http://witzl.blogspot.com/ Mary Witzl

      Dabi, I think you will find that there are parallels between Japanese and German war crimes even if there is not an exact ‘equivalence.’ I agree with sireB; this tendency to deny or justify Japan’s history of aggression is more harmful for Japan than for the rest of Asia.

      Thank God there are still people like Saburo Ienaga in Japan. I applaud Fukuda’s decision not to visit Yasukuni Jinja.

      • ponta

        I agree with Dabi. He is not denying nor justifying Japan’s history of aggression. Few Japanese historians justify it.

        Does the tendency to deny the accusation of genocide by the western Allies
        harmful for the U.S?
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bacque

    • http://witzl.blogspot.com/ Mary Witzl

      In answer to your question, ponta — yes.