Controversy
Demands for an apology and compensation have been a recurring topic in South Korean, Taiwanese, and Chinese politics. Many people, including high-ranking officials and scholars, criticized them, saying that those apologies, which are usually made followed by denial of war crimes by the Japanese lawmakers, as inadequate and insincere.
In October 2006, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's apology was followed on the same day by a group of 80 Japanese lawmakers' visit to the Yasukuni Shrine which enshrines more than 1000 convicted war criminals. Two years after the apology, Shinzo Abe also denied that the Imperial Japanese military had forced comfort women into sexual slavery during World War II .
In 2010, one comfort woman from Taiwan stated, "It’s unacceptable that the Japanese government still refuses to apologize for what it did." President Ma Ying-jeou also declared, "It is the responsibility of the Japanese government to admit its mistakes and apologize... The battle is not over yet and it is regretful that the Japanese government still refuses to face its mistakes."
As of 2010, 24% of South Koreans still feel that Japan has never apologized for its colonial rule, while another 58% believe Japan has not apologized sufficiently.
Read more about this topic: List Of War Apology Statements Issued By Japan
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
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