says
Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
姚锦祥:侵略者?更多日本青年人认为日本是“受害者” (Yao Jinxiang: Invader? More Japanese youths think Japan is a "victim")
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7404364829265281572/
In theory, Japan is one of the most developed countries, and young people have no obstacles in obtaining data and information, but why do they still have such a historical view? Why is their understanding of World War II still so narrow?
According to the author's experience of studying and living in Japan, this is probably determined by the structural factors and overall atmosphere of the entire Japanese society in viewing World War II.
In terms of value judgment on World War II, Japan is completely different from us. Whether in academia or the media, they are still more accustomed to using the term "Greater East Asia War (大東亜戦争)", and "Greater East Asia (大東亜)" related readings are flooding the Japanese market. In fact, there is also a value judgment behind this. In the eyes of the Japanese side, the origin of World War II was Japan's intention to liberate Asian countries from hundreds of years of colonization and oppression by the West. Its goal was not wrong, but problems arose in the subsequent implementation process.
Under this cognition, the Japanese side may not discuss the justice of the war, but the question of why the war was "expanded". They often hypothesize that if they stopped at a certain point in time, could they have kept the existing results in Asia? This is actually the basic concept foundation for many Japanese people when they look at that period of history.
Moreover, in the narrative of the history of World War II, Japan has replaced the "perpetrator identity" with "victim consciousness". This is a more "clever" logical transformation, but it has formed the social reality of Japan.
Every August, you will see countless Japanese people commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and the Kamikaze Special Attack Force. Behind this is a kind of "victim consciousness". Few Japanese people will talk about the massacres and biological warfare they created. All they remember are the two atomic bombs and the "dedication" of the Kamikaze Special Attack Force.
In their view, Japan paid too many sacrifices for this war and became the only country in the world to be bombed by a nuclear bomb, which made the Japanese feel more tragic.
The "pacifism" mentioned by Japan now is in essence not a reflection on war crimes, but more of a desire not to let war happen again in Japan. There is a fundamental difference between the two. The former starts from the identity of "perpetrator", while the latter is more from the perspective of "victim". We often say that Japan and Germany have fundamental differences in their assumption of war responsibilities, which is very obvious here.
In addition, Japan has repeatedly emphasized that it was only forced to react, not to take the initiative to attack. Time has entered the 21st century, but this logic is still deeply rooted in Japan. The missing Japanese soldiers in Wanping City (宛平城) became an excuse for Japan to invade China [TL's note: False flag operation]. But this set of rhetoric is still Japan's "official history" and the general social cognition.
Japan expanded from Northeast China and North China to the rest of China, then to Southeast Asia and to the struggle with Europe and the United States. Each time, it was packaged by the Japanese side as "forced response", which was done under the provocation of China and the West. Even for the Nanjing Massacre, Japan's explanation is, who made you resist so fiercely?
Therefore, the root cause of Japan's various misconceptions lies in its denial of the nature of "war of aggression". If they deny even this point, how can we expect them to have a correct historical view?
How does Japan conduct war education?
Of course, the formation of the historical view of young Japanese people is also inseparable from their war education.
In the early post-war period, Japan's historical education was relatively objective, and introduced Japan's aggressive behavior and its consequences in World War II in detail. However, since the 1980s, the compilation of Japanese history textbooks has gradually become a place for political struggle. Some right-wing forces advocate downplaying or prettifying Japan's aggressive behavior in World War II and emphasizing the "self-defense" nature. For example, the Nanjing Massacre was labeled as the "Nanjing Incident", military comfort women were placed in footnotes, or the color of "forced requisition" was weakened, which has become a routine operation. More sensitive topics such as Unit 731 and biological warfare have long disappeared from textbooks.
In addition to textbooks, "peace education" is also an important part of the Japanese historical view, which can be seen from the "Peace Memorial Park" everywhere in Japan.
Japanese schools often organize students to participate in peace education activities, such as visiting the atomic bomb explosion site or the Okinawa Battle Memorial Hall. These activities are designed to allow students to experience the cruelty of war firsthand and cultivate their appreciation for peace. Such activities usually emphasize Japan's identity as a "victim" in the war, and convey the peace concept of "war will never happen again" by showing the tragic scenes of atomic bomb explosions and post-war ruins.
On August 6, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima during World War II, about 50,000 people participated in the outdoor ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan.
However, due to the over-emphasis on Japan's victim status, some young Japanese people lack sufficient understanding and reflection on Japan's aggressive behavior in World War II. Although this "one-sided peace education" can strengthen young people's aversion to war to a certain extent, it conceals part of the historical truth, distorts historical cognition, and leads to their weakening of historical responsibility.
In addition, with the development of social networks, new media platforms have become a new channel for young Japanese people to receive war education. Many Japanese right-wing forces vigorously promote their historical views on social media and other platforms in an attempt to influence young people's cognition. Some right-wing groups even organize young people to visit places with strong political colors such as the Yasukuni Shrine (靖國神社), trying to shape their "orthodox" cognition of history in this way. This kind of propaganda on social media and cyberspace has an increasing influence on young people, especially among young groups who have less in-depth understanding of historical issues.
In general, the war education for young Japanese is either weakened or distorted, or simply brushed aside, so that most students only know the facts but not the reasons. Therefore, the view of war among young Japanese has a completely self-consistent logic, which is gradually drifting away from, and even completely different from, the victim countries such as China and South Korea. This is completely different from the path of co-editing textbooks by France and Germany, and is also an important reason why the historical contradictions between Japan and its neighboring countries are still difficult to resolve.
Right-wing carnival after the Hayata incident
The reason why the Hayata incident has attracted so much attention is not only because of the sensitive nature of the Kamikaze Special Attack Force itself, but also because it happened just one day before the defeat on August 15. This made the Japanese right-wing groups feel like they had found a treasure, and they were overjoyed, and they came forward to express their gratitude to Hayata and said that there was a successor.
For example, the representatives of the extreme right, HYAKUTA Naoki (百田尚樹), KADOTA Ryusho (門田隆將), and the right-wing media Sankei Shimbun (産経新聞), all came forward or broadcast live to support Hayata, and some even had tears in their eyes during the live broadcast. This may be a kind of "instrumental use" of Hayata herself, but this move is equivalent to putting Hayata "on the fire". Whether she likes it or not, she has been branded as a right-winger. For athletes who should keep a certain distance from politics, this may cause certain damage to Hayata's future career.
For several days, Hayata has neither spoken on personal social media nor accepted media interviews. For her, she probably didn't expect such a statement to cause such a huge uproar, and she didn't expect that as a sports person, she would be at the center of the storm in the political circle.
But now, the development of the situation is probably out of her control. It is difficult for her to respond, and it is impossible for her to challenge the "political correctness" of Japanese society. Silence should be the "least worst" choice at present.
As for the reaction of the general public, almost all of them stand on the side of Hayata, thinking that her approach is not wrong, and expressing "incomprehension" of the excessive reaction of China and South Korea.
A media person, FURUICHI Noritoshi (古市憲壽), expressed a slightly different opinion in the news commentary program of Fuji TV. He emphasized that "it is not because of the special attacks that Japan has achieved peace today. What we want to create is an era where special attacks no longer exist." As soon as this sentence came out, it triggered a siege and online campaign from all walks of life in Japan, criticizing him as a traitor to Japan. Therefore, even such a little different voice has been drowned in the torrent of public opinion.
Therefore, in Japan's exchanges with neighboring countries, it is not only the differences in national interests that lie between them, but also the huge differences in historical cognition. Hayata might still be wondering why the Chinese and Korean fans who were still congratulating her two days ago changed overnight? Of course, she needs to find the answer, and it may take a very long time.
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7404364829265281572/
What happened to the historical view of young Japanese people?日本年轻人的历史观怎么了?
按道理说,日本位于首屈一指的发达国家之列,年轻人在资料和信息获取上也没有丝毫障碍,但为什么还会形成这样的历史观呢?为何对二战的认识依旧如此偏狭呢?
依笔者在日本的学习与生活感受,这恐怕是由整个日本社会看待二战的结构性因素和整体氛围所决定的。
在对二战的价值判断上,日本与我们截然不同。无论是学界还是媒体界,依旧更习惯于使用“大东亚战争”这种说法,“大东亚”相关的读物更是充斥日本市场。其实这背后也是价值判断。在日方看来,二战的起源是日本意图将亚洲国家从西方数百年的殖民和压迫中解放出来,其目标是没有错的,只是后来的执行过程中出现了问题。
在这种认知下,日方讨论更多的,可能并不是这场战争的正义与否问题,而且战争为何“扩大化”的问题。他们经常也会假设,如果在某个时间点停住,是不是就可以守住在亚洲的既有战果?这其实是很多日本人看待那段历史时的基本理念基础。
而且在对二战史的叙述中,日本已经用“受害者意识”取代了“加害者身份”。这是一个更加“巧妙”的逻辑转换,但已经形成了日本的社会现实。
每逢八月,都会看到无数的日本人去纪念广岛原爆、长崎原爆、神风特攻队,这背后就是一种“受害者意识”。很少有日本人会去聊他们制造的屠杀事件和细菌战,他们所记住的只有两颗原子弹和神风特攻队的“献身”。
在他们看来,日本为这场战争付出了太多的牺牲,也成为世界上唯一遭到核爆的国家,这使得日本人的悲怆感无以复加。
现在日本口中所提到的“和平主义”,本质上不是对战争罪行的反思,更多只是不希望战争再次发生在日本本土而已。这两者是有根本不同的,前者是从“加害者”身份出发的,而后来更多是从“受害者”角度思考的。我们常说日德在承担战争责任上有根本不同,这里就体现得非常明显。
除此之外,日本还一再强调自己只是被迫反应,而非主动进攻。时间已经进入了21世纪,但这套逻辑在日本依然根深蒂固。宛平城失踪的日本士兵,成为日本侵华的借口。但这套说辞依旧是日本的“正史”和社会普遍认知。
日本从东北、华北扩展到中国其余各地,再到在东南亚与欧美的抗争,每次都被日方包装成“被迫应对”,是在被中国和西方挑衅之下不得已而为之。哪怕是南京大屠杀,日本的解释也是,谁让你反抗得那么激烈呢?
因此,日本种种错误认知的根源,还在于其对“侵略战争”本质的否认。连这一点都否认,又怎么期待他们有正确的历史观呢?
日本是如何进行战争教育的?
当然,日本年轻人历史观的形成,也和他们的战争教育分不开。
战后初期,日本的历史教育还较为客观,较详细地介绍了日本在二战中的侵略行为及其后果。然而,从20世纪80年代起,日本的历史教科书编纂逐渐成为政治斗争的场所。部分右翼势力主张淡化或美化日本在二战中的侵略行径,强调“自卫”性质。比如,南京大屠杀被标注为“南京事件”,从军慰安妇被放置在脚注当中,或者弱化“强行征用”的色彩,都已经成为常规的操作。而731部队和细菌战这样更为敏感的话题,在教科书中则早就不见了踪影。
除了教科书之外,“和平教育”也是日本人历史观的重要一环,这从日本到处都有的“和平纪念公园”就可见一斑。
日本学校经常会组织学生参加和平教育活动,如参观原子弹爆炸遗址或冲绳战役纪念馆。这些活动旨在让学生亲身感受战争的残酷,进而培养他们对和平的珍视。这类活动通常强调日本在战争中的“受害者”身份,通过展示原子弹爆炸和战后废墟的惨状,传递“战争不再发生”的和平理念。
2023年8月6日二战广岛原子弹爆炸78周年,约五万人参加了日本广岛和平纪念公园的户外仪式
但由于过度强调日本的受害者身份,使得一些日本年轻人对于日本在二战中的侵略行为缺乏充分的认识和反思。这种“片面和平教育”虽然能够在一定程度上强化年轻人对战争的反感,但却掩盖了部分历史真相,扭曲了历史认知,导致他们对历史责任的淡化。
除此之外,随着社交网络的发展,新媒体平台成为日本年轻人接受战争教育的新渠道。不少日本右翼势力在社交媒体和其他平台上大力宣传其历史观,试图影响年轻人的认知。一些右翼团体甚至组织青年参观如靖国神社等具有强烈政治色彩的场所,试图通过这种方式塑造他们对历史的“正统”认知。这种社交媒体和网络空间中的宣传对年轻人的影响力越来越大,特别是在对历史问题较少深入了解的年轻群体中,影响更甚。
总的来看,日本年轻人的战争教育,要么是被弱化或扭曲的;要么则是一笔带过,让一般学生只知其然、而不知其所以然。因此,日本年轻人的战争观有一条完全能够自洽的逻辑,而这套逻辑是与中韩等受害国渐行渐远,甚至是迥异的。这与法德共编教科书的路径截然不同,也是日本与周边国家历史矛盾依旧难解的重要原因。
早田事件之后的右翼狂欢
早田事件之所以备受关注,除了神风特攻队本身的特殊性之外,还在于其恰好发生在8月15日战败日的前一天。这使得日本右翼团体如获至宝,喜不自胜,纷纷出面表示“感谢早田”“后继有人”。
比如极右翼的代表人物百田尚树、门田隆将和右翼媒体产经新闻,都纷纷出面或直播为早田站台,甚至还有人在直播当中眼角含泪。这或许是对早田本人的一种“工具化利用”,但此举等同于把早田“架在火上”,无论她愿不愿意,已经给她打上了右翼的烙印。对于本应与政治保持一定距离的运动员来说,这对早田未来的职业生涯,恐怕会造成一定的伤害。
几天以来,早田既没有在个人社交媒体上发言,也没有再接受媒体的采访。对她来说,恐怕没想到这样一个发言会引发如此巨大的轩然大波,更没想到自己作为体育界人士,居然会处在政治圈的风暴核心。
但事到如今,事态的发展恐怕已经不受她的控制,她难以做出回应,也不可能去挑战日本社会的“政治正确”,沉默应该是目前“最不坏”的选择了。
而从社会普通大众的反应来说,几乎也都是站在早田一边,认为她的做法没有错,对中韩两国的过度反应表示“不理解”。
一位媒体人古市宪寿在富士电视台的新闻评论节目中稍微表达了不同的意见,他强调“并不是由于特攻才带来如今日本的和平,我们要创造的是一个不再让特攻存在的时代。”这句话一出,引发了日本各界的群起围攻和网络出征,批评他是日本的叛徒。于是,哪怕是这么一点的不同声音也已被淹没在舆论的滚滚洪流之中了。
因此,日本在与周边国家交往之中,横亘在其中的不只是国家利益的分歧,其根源还是历史认知上的巨大差异。早田可能还在纳闷,为何前两天还在向我祝贺的中韩粉丝,一夕之间怎么全都变了?当然,她有必要去寻找这个答案,而且可能会花费很长很长的时间。
In theory, Japan is one of the most developed countries, and young people have no obstacles in obtaining data and information, but why do they still have such a historical view? Why is their understanding of World War II still so narrow?
According to the author's experience of studying and living in Japan, this is probably determined by the structural factors and overall atmosphere of the entire Japanese society in viewing World War II.
In terms of value judgment on World War II, Japan is completely different from us. Whether in academia or the media, they are still more accustomed to using the term "Greater East Asia War (大東亜戦争)", and "Greater East Asia (大東亜)" related readings are flooding the Japanese market. In fact, there is also a value judgment behind this. In the eyes of the Japanese side, the origin of World War II was Japan's intention to liberate Asian countries from hundreds of years of colonization and oppression by the West. Its goal was not wrong, but problems arose in the subsequent implementation process.
Under this cognition, the Japanese side may not discuss the justice of the war, but the question of why the war was "expanded". They often hypothesize that if they stopped at a certain point in time, could they have kept the existing results in Asia? This is actually the basic concept foundation for many Japanese people when they look at that period of history.
Moreover, in the narrative of the history of World War II, Japan has replaced the "perpetrator identity" with "victim consciousness". This is a more "clever" logical transformation, but it has formed the social reality of Japan.
Every August, you will see countless Japanese people commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, and the Kamikaze Special Attack Force. Behind this is a kind of "victim consciousness". Few Japanese people will talk about the massacres and biological warfare they created. All they remember are the two atomic bombs and the "dedication" of the Kamikaze Special Attack Force.
In their view, Japan paid too many sacrifices for this war and became the only country in the world to be bombed by a nuclear bomb, which made the Japanese feel more tragic.
The "pacifism" mentioned by Japan now is in essence not a reflection on war crimes, but more of a desire not to let war happen again in Japan. There is a fundamental difference between the two. The former starts from the identity of "perpetrator", while the latter is more from the perspective of "victim". We often say that Japan and Germany have fundamental differences in their assumption of war responsibilities, which is very obvious here.
In addition, Japan has repeatedly emphasized that it was only forced to react, not to take the initiative to attack. Time has entered the 21st century, but this logic is still deeply rooted in Japan. The missing Japanese soldiers in Wanping City (宛平城) became an excuse for Japan to invade China [TL's note: False flag operation]. But this set of rhetoric is still Japan's "official history" and the general social cognition.
Japan expanded from Northeast China and North China to the rest of China, then to Southeast Asia and to the struggle with Europe and the United States. Each time, it was packaged by the Japanese side as "forced response", which was done under the provocation of China and the West. Even for the Nanjing Massacre, Japan's explanation is, who made you resist so fiercely?
Therefore, the root cause of Japan's various misconceptions lies in its denial of the nature of "war of aggression". If they deny even this point, how can we expect them to have a correct historical view?
How does Japan conduct war education?
Of course, the formation of the historical view of young Japanese people is also inseparable from their war education.
In the early post-war period, Japan's historical education was relatively objective, and introduced Japan's aggressive behavior and its consequences in World War II in detail. However, since the 1980s, the compilation of Japanese history textbooks has gradually become a place for political struggle. Some right-wing forces advocate downplaying or prettifying Japan's aggressive behavior in World War II and emphasizing the "self-defense" nature. For example, the Nanjing Massacre was labeled as the "Nanjing Incident", military comfort women were placed in footnotes, or the color of "forced requisition" was weakened, which has become a routine operation. More sensitive topics such as Unit 731 and biological warfare have long disappeared from textbooks.
In addition to textbooks, "peace education" is also an important part of the Japanese historical view, which can be seen from the "Peace Memorial Park" everywhere in Japan.
Japanese schools often organize students to participate in peace education activities, such as visiting the atomic bomb explosion site or the Okinawa Battle Memorial Hall. These activities are designed to allow students to experience the cruelty of war firsthand and cultivate their appreciation for peace. Such activities usually emphasize Japan's identity as a "victim" in the war, and convey the peace concept of "war will never happen again" by showing the tragic scenes of atomic bomb explosions and post-war ruins.
On August 6, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima during World War II, about 50,000 people participated in the outdoor ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan.
However, due to the over-emphasis on Japan's victim status, some young Japanese people lack sufficient understanding and reflection on Japan's aggressive behavior in World War II. Although this "one-sided peace education" can strengthen young people's aversion to war to a certain extent, it conceals part of the historical truth, distorts historical cognition, and leads to their weakening of historical responsibility.
In addition, with the development of social networks, new media platforms have become a new channel for young Japanese people to receive war education. Many Japanese right-wing forces vigorously promote their historical views on social media and other platforms in an attempt to influence young people's cognition. Some right-wing groups even organize young people to visit places with strong political colors such as the Yasukuni Shrine (靖國神社), trying to shape their "orthodox" cognition of history in this way. This kind of propaganda on social media and cyberspace has an increasing influence on young people, especially among young groups who have less in-depth understanding of historical issues.
In general, the war education for young Japanese is either weakened or distorted, or simply brushed aside, so that most students only know the facts but not the reasons. Therefore, the view of war among young Japanese has a completely self-consistent logic, which is gradually drifting away from, and even completely different from, the victim countries such as China and South Korea. This is completely different from the path of co-editing textbooks by France and Germany, and is also an important reason why the historical contradictions between Japan and its neighboring countries are still difficult to resolve.
Right-wing carnival after the Hayata incident
The reason why the Hayata incident has attracted so much attention is not only because of the sensitive nature of the Kamikaze Special Attack Force itself, but also because it happened just one day before the defeat on August 15. This made the Japanese right-wing groups feel like they had found a treasure, and they were overjoyed, and they came forward to express their gratitude to Hayata and said that there was a successor.
For example, the representatives of the extreme right, HYAKUTA Naoki (百田尚樹), KADOTA Ryusho (門田隆將), and the right-wing media Sankei Shimbun (産経新聞), all came forward or broadcast live to support Hayata, and some even had tears in their eyes during the live broadcast. This may be a kind of "instrumental use" of Hayata herself, but this move is equivalent to putting Hayata "on the fire". Whether she likes it or not, she has been branded as a right-winger. For athletes who should keep a certain distance from politics, this may cause certain damage to Hayata's future career.
For several days, Hayata has neither spoken on personal social media nor accepted media interviews. For her, she probably didn't expect such a statement to cause such a huge uproar, and she didn't expect that as a sports person, she would be at the center of the storm in the political circle.
But now, the development of the situation is probably out of her control. It is difficult for her to respond, and it is impossible for her to challenge the "political correctness" of Japanese society. Silence should be the "least worst" choice at present.
As for the reaction of the general public, almost all of them stand on the side of Hayata, thinking that her approach is not wrong, and expressing "incomprehension" of the excessive reaction of China and South Korea.
A media person, FURUICHI Noritoshi (古市憲壽), expressed a slightly different opinion in the news commentary program of Fuji TV. He emphasized that "it is not because of the special attacks that Japan has achieved peace today. What we want to create is an era where special attacks no longer exist." As soon as this sentence came out, it triggered a siege and online campaign from all walks of life in Japan, criticizing him as a traitor to Japan. Therefore, even such a little different voice has been drowned in the torrent of public opinion.
Therefore, in Japan's exchanges with neighboring countries, it is not only the differences in national interests that lie between them, but also the huge differences in historical cognition. Hayata might still be wondering why the Chinese and Korean fans who were still congratulating her two days ago changed overnight? Of course, she needs to find the answer, and it may take a very long time.
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