Japanese jingoism

KRAKOW, Poland -- The German army tormented Poland during World War II. Few know that the infamous Auschwitz camp began not as an extermination center for Jews, but as a camp for Polish political prisoners. The Germans' final plan for Poland was to completely exterminate the Polish people and create a living space -- the infamous Lebensraum -- for Germans. Recognizing his country's brutal history, German Chancellor Willy Brandt apologized for his country's actions during the war on a visit to the site of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1970.\nThe people of East Asia have never received such an apology from Japan. The Empire of the Rising Sun's treatment of conquered peoples during the war rivals that of even Germany in atrociousness. At such infamous events as the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese army tortured, killed and mutilated their continental neighbors.\nNot only did they abuse the conquered, but they treated American prisoners of war far worse than the Germans did. After the American army in the Philippines surrendered on April 9, 1942, Japanese forces subjected them to the barbaric Bataan Death March. Thousands died during this forced march because of the denial of food and water and intermittent beheadings by sword carried out by Japanese officers. Many of those who did survive perished in Japanese prison camps, subjected to such awful treatments as being kept in an iron box all day while the hot sun beat down. My great-uncle died in one of those hellholes.\nJapanese refusal to deal with past crimes has most recently manifested itself in the form of a new middle school textbook written by nationalist historians. The work, adopted already by eight private and eight public schools, whitewashes the crimes Japan committed against South Korea during the war and portrays the occupation of the nation as beneficial.\nThis dishonest portrayal of history has enraged the South Korean people. Their eldest people still remember how the Japanese army pressured them to adopt Japanese names and cease speaking the Korean language. Even more painfully, many venerable South Korean women recall the Japanese army's practice of recruiting "comfort women" -- that is, forcibly abducting and continually raping Korean women to satisfy the sexual desires of Japanese soldiers.\nAnd yet Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continues to visit the Yaskuni war shrine, where such Japanese war criminals as former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo lie buried. He has visited the site four times since he became prime minister in 2001, while relations with South Korea have soured to one of its lowest points since the normalization of relations in 1965. Sharing a common history of oppression that its island neighbor now spits in the face of, Seoul and Beijing are now closer than ever before.\nJapan's incessant insensitivity has emboldened Chinese nationalists by allowing them to portray Japan as a threat to national security. This lets Beijing unify its people against a common enemy, thereby turning its attention away from the awful human rights situation in the world's most populous nation and severely limiting the chances for liberal democratic reform.\nWith the North Korean nuclear hostility and the increasing militancy of China, America feels threatened by East Asia. Washington simply cannot afford to see its alliance in the region disintegrate in this manner. \nSecretary of State Condoleeza Rice recently said the United States will create a network of alliances to counter the rising Chinese threat. Yet that network will have little power if its primary members, South Korea and Japan, are at each other's throats.\nWhen she visits Tokyo this week, Rice should demand that Japan apologize for the war, fully recognize its past errors and stop honoring the tombs of war criminals.