'Historical holy war' a doomed fiasco Japan should avoid
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E-mail Xinhua, August 14, 2015
In addition, the Japanese government has revised textbooks to indoctrinate students with ideas about Japanese rule over the Diaoyu Islands, which are in fact Chinese territory, as well as some other disputed territories. This resembles the Japanese authority's teaching to justify its colonial rule in northeast China in the 1930s.
Moreover, people may fairly doubt the concepts of "proactive pacifism" and "arc of freedom and prosperity" touted by Abe, as they look so similar to Japan's wartime rhetoric of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", which was used as an excuse for its invasion and occupation of China and other regional neighbors.
What could be seen as alarming is the acceptance of this right-wing ideology among some ordinary Japanese citizens.
The opinion that China and the Republic of Korea are causing a fuss over historical issues are sometimes topics on Japanese online forums, which, once again, seems like the situation over 70 years ago when many Japanese, blindfolded by their militarist authority, were bewildered by the resistance of the Chinese and Korean peoples.
A DOOMED WAR
Fortunately, however, sober and peace-loving voices are still the mainstream among Japanese public.
According to a recent poll by the NHK, the support rate for Abe's Cabinet has dropped to 37 percent with over 60 percent of respondents expressing disapproval of the country's controversial security bills, which will allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
Hano Kenji, a former local council member in Toyama, criticized Abe's ignorance of the country's aggressive past as "shameless."
More than 70 years ago, Japanese militants waged a war of aggression under the banner of a "Holy War." Decades after, the Japanese administration could be seen to be continuing this "Holy War" on historical issues, heading toward a similar doomed end.
