Statement
Japan has an infamous colonial era, during which its military used brute force to subjugate large areas of China and many east Asian nations. Bad things happened to many people until Japan's unconditional surrender after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
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| The growth of the Japanese Empire |
Questions
Q1: 'Comfort Women'
In 1992, which country erected a statue outside the Japanese embassy and started demonstrations every Wednesday afternoon until the present day, to demand that Japan redresses the rights and dignity of women forced by Japan into sexual service during WW2 ?
a) Vietnam
b) Philippines
Bonus point
Q4: Hiroshima apology
In the run-up to President Obama's visit to Hiroshima in late May 2016; which nation vehemently objected to any possibility that the US might apologise to Japan for dropping atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but simultaneously suggested that if Obama was going to apologise to anyone, then their countrymen deserved it first and foremost ?
a) Korea
“If there is anyone he must apologize to, isn’t it the innocent non-Japanese victims ?"
Hiroshima aftermath
The best estimates suggest that the blast and firestorm caused by 'Little Boy' killed 70,000 people, with roughly an equal number dying slowly and wretchedly of their injuries in the month which followed. Only 30% of Hiroshima's population were soldiers, including the last surviving prince of Korea's Joseon Dynasty, Yi Wu, who was serving as Lieutenant Colonel in the Japanese army.
The bomb is still regarded as the least worst military option that was available at the time, even if the civilian losses, including an estimated 25,000 forced labourers from Korea, were admittedly huge. All non-military people were clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time on the day. However it is perhaps a uniquely uncompromising view to suggest that any of these people were more victims than the others.
b) Philippines
c) Korea
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| Statue of a Comfort Woman overlooking the Japanese Embassy - complete with demonstrations every Wednesday since 1992 |
Q2: Remembrance Day
70 years after Japan's ignoble WW2 defeat, if the Japanese prime minister visits Japanese war memorials in Japan to pay respects to the Japanese soldiers who voluntarily, but vainly, paid the ultimate price expected by their Emperor; then which country routinely condemns Japan's remembrance of Japanese countrymen as a celebration of Japan's militaristic colonialism ?
70 years after Japan's ignoble WW2 defeat, if the Japanese prime minister visits Japanese war memorials in Japan to pay respects to the Japanese soldiers who voluntarily, but vainly, paid the ultimate price expected by their Emperor; then which country routinely condemns Japan's remembrance of Japanese countrymen as a celebration of Japan's militaristic colonialism ?
a) Indonesia
b) Taiwan
c) Cambodia
d) Thaliand
e) Malaysia
f) Singapore
g) Mongolia
h) Laos
i) Burma
j) Vietnam
k) Philippines
l) Korea
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| Japanese PM Abe at the Yasukuni shrine in August 2013 |
Q3: Sea of Japan
In 1992, a United Nations conference was used to start a global campaign to rename the Sea of Japan as The East Sea. Twenty years later in 2012;
i) this proposal was rejected by the United Nations which declared it had no authority to decide such matters
In 1992, a United Nations conference was used to start a global campaign to rename the Sea of Japan as The East Sea. Twenty years later in 2012;
i) this proposal was rejected by the United Nations which declared it had no authority to decide such matters
ii) the International Hydrographic Organisation decided not to change the long-standing, internationally recognised 'Sea Of Japan'
iii) the Senate of Virginia rejected a bill to legally require school text books to identify the sea with both names. (Although confusingly in 2014 Virginia's House of Delegates finally relented and passed this into state law)
The country which has presumably solved all major international and domestic problems, allowing this issue to rise to the top of its To-Do list, thus justifying 20 years of unstinting international lobbying and making lots of new friends in the process would be ?
a) Russia
b) China
c) Korea
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| The Sea of Japan -vs- East Sea controversy: still passions run deep |
Bonus point
Q4: Hiroshima apology
In the run-up to President Obama's visit to Hiroshima in late May 2016; which nation vehemently objected to any possibility that the US might apologise to Japan for dropping atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but simultaneously suggested that if Obama was going to apologise to anyone, then their countrymen deserved it first and foremost ?
a) Korea
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| May 2016: Obama and Abe reflect at Hiroshima |
Hiroshima aftermath
The best estimates suggest that the blast and firestorm caused by 'Little Boy' killed 70,000 people, with roughly an equal number dying slowly and wretchedly of their injuries in the month which followed. Only 30% of Hiroshima's population were soldiers, including the last surviving prince of Korea's Joseon Dynasty, Yi Wu, who was serving as Lieutenant Colonel in the Japanese army.
The bomb is still regarded as the least worst military option that was available at the time, even if the civilian losses, including an estimated 25,000 forced labourers from Korea, were admittedly huge. All non-military people were clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time on the day. However it is perhaps a uniquely uncompromising view to suggest that any of these people were more victims than the others.
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