RETURN TO THE RIVER KWAI (XVIII)

This is simply not good enough. It is time for the Japanese to come clean. Japan has to admit her war guilt and show some remorse and atonement for the war of aggression she unleashed. Japanese schoolchildren must be told the truth about the actions of the wartime generation . War criminals should not be officially honoured and war victims should receive due compensation .Above all , the world needs concrete assurances from Japan that it will never happen again . Unless and until that happens , Japan’s neighbours and ,indeed , people everywhere will continue to regard her with suspicion and mistrust . The hatred will go on and the sufferings of Teddy Prosser,Bob and all the other unfortunates caught up in that terrible time,will have been in vain.

ภาพจาก Moohin.com

RETURN TO THE RIVER KWAI (XVII)

One is tempted to let bygones be bygones,until one reads of the Japanese Prime Minister’s annual visit to the Yakasuni Shrine in Tokyo.The present encumbent ,Mr.Shinzo Abe ,as well as his predecessor ,Mr Junichiro Koizumi make a great point of doing this.The shrine honours Japan’s war dead in many wars . Nothing wrong in that ,one might think until one learns that the Book of Souls in the shrine contains the names of one thousand and sixty-eight people indicted for war crimes and proven atrocities committed during the Second World War. It includes General Hideki Tojo generally regarded as the mastermind behind Pearl Harbour ,a man hanged for war crimes by the Allies.The visits have provoked a storm of criticism in China and Korea ,which the Japanese have completely ignored.BBC correspondents in Tokyo report that Japanese school history textbooks depict the Second World War as a ‘war of defence’ and that Japan was forced into war by America’s oil embargo.Generations of Japanese schoolchildren are being taught that their country did not commit aggression during the Second World War ,but was instead a victim of it.China has repeatedly asked Japan-to no avail- to apologise for the massacres of Nangking,in which over 100,000 Chinese civilians lost their lives.Similarly,the so-called‘comfort women’ – Chinese and Korean women forced to act as prostitutes to cater for the sexual needs of the Japanese wartime army- have received no compensation for their ordeal , despite repeated requests.No apology has been forthcoming,either.

RETURN TO THE RIVER KWAI (XVI)

Over sixty years later ,what are we to make of all this? Many say that it is time to forgive and forget , as far as the Japanese are concerned. In our modern world,they are a leading economic power and are important trading partners.They have a democratically-elected government,and are now part of the community of nations.Hatred towards them will only hinder efforts to build a better world.Nothing is gained by living in the past . It will not bring the dead back to life.The Japanese suffered terribly in the war too.What about Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Is it not time to bury the hatchet?

Many Allied survivors and veterans find this impossible to do , however.In the seventies,the Japanese Emperor visited London and planted a tree in Kew Gardens as a symbol of peace and goodwill.Later,someone broke in and cut it down.In the nineties,the Emperor again visited London,and British veterans again lined the route,wearing their medals.As his carriage passed them,they turned their backs on him as a sign of contempt.A deep hatred still burns - sixty years on.

RETURN TO THE RIVER KWAI (I)

Saturday , January 12 th 2008 ,near Kanchana Buri ,western Thailand.

I am sitting in a jungle clearing ,sipping a cold beer and contemplating the river.It is calm now as it flows sluggishly by – you can barely detect a current.On the far bank is more verdant jungle.The whole place exudes an atmosphere of peacefulness and tranquillity.Yet it was not always so.For this is the Khwae Yai river , near Kanchana Buri in western Thailand ,the river the world knows as the River Kwai. Here the notorious ‘Death Railway’ and the famous bridge were built by the Japanese It is said that for every sleeper of the track that was laid,there is a corpse .It is a place full of ghosts of the past and spirits of the departed , and it has a unique atmosphere. I have been here many times,but it never fails to have a strong effect on me.It stirs up powerful emotions and evokes half-forgotten childhood memories.It is like that today.