The 19th century Meji Gvernment's annexation of Hokkaido and Ryukyu proved lasting. Unlike Penghu, Taiwan, Laiodong Penisunlar, Shakalin and Korea, these two territories remain firmly within the Japanese border despite the WW II's unconditional surrender.
Ryukyu Kingdom, once a small yet independent maritime nation, is now just Okinawa Prefecture. I had always been mystefied by this special island nation.
Her merchant ships had traded as far as Annam, Siam and Malacca. Her diplomats had successfully maneuvered between two empires paying tribute to both without irking either.
Her land saw the fiercest battle in the Pacific war theater with thousand of her civilians were herded to jump off the cliff seemingly for the dignity of her emperor who was but a foreign ruler just 70 years earlier.
Being a small nation sandwiched between two giants, they are destined to be swallowed by either one. I have this profound sympathy for her and her peoples.
My recent trip to Okinawa was predominantly a children-centric tour. We visited the Churaimi Ocean Expo and sampled the local diets that were commonly attributed as the reason of longetivity among the locals.
That gave me very little opportunities to have a deeper glimpse of Okinawa.
At the downtown fish market in Naha, a trader told me that the younger generation could probably understand bits of Ryukyuan language but could barely speak the tongue. They have largely been Japanized though are conscious of their difference from the mainland Yamato.
This is not surprising given that she had been annexed by Japan 130 years ago and first came under the Japanese Shogun's suzerainty 4 centuries earlier.
Further, genetically they are both Mongoloid and religiously there is no conflict. After such a long period of subjugation, it is actually surprising to see any surviving Ryukyu culture and language.
Another young and handsome trader at Okinawa World, a theme park built on top of a 900 meter underground cave with amazing columns of stalactites and stalagmites, selling dragon-fly souvenier told me that if at all any facial feature that distinguish them from the Yamato is their dark and thick eyebrow. I wondered how objectiev this could be?
It was also interesting that the same chap told me his name is 6 Chinese characters in length, 3 each made up his surname and first name, that is a wholesome 6 characters compared to the typical 4-5 characters in a Japanese name.
Another cultural relic that is prevailent all over the island is the shishi (read in Hokkien, you can perhaps figure out what it is). It is a Ryukyuan lion figurine that is commonly seen on top of the roof or stood in pair just outside the gate or the door. The function is to expel the evil spirits.
At the Shuri castle in Naha where the last Ryukyu Kings resided, we could still see plague gifted by the various Qing emperors as late as Tongzhi.
The modern Sino-Japanese conflict started with a Ryukyu ship wreckage off Taiwan in 1871 where scores of Ryukyuan subjects were killed by the Taiwanese aborigine. The Meiji smelt blood and claimed compensation against the Qing government. A small and unsuccessful expedition was launched in 1874.
It is unimaginable that the millions of dead that followed in the ensuing 70 years had direct link to this Pacific Island. A monument commenmorating the deads stood elegantly silent just below the principla Shinto temple in Naha. I was able to stand before the monument to reflect for a few minutes the historical significant of a marine mishap.
The island is slow-paced ( the speed limit on the highway is 80 km/ph and around 40-50 km/ph off the highway) and the peoples like the Japanese are courteous and well-mannered. English, suprizingly is not widely spoken despite a huge American military presence in the island taking up almost 20% of land mass in Okinawa island.
Okinawa is a beautiful island with sandy beaches and scenic coastal line. The seafood is abundant and there is a type of seaweed that taste like fish roe. It is called the green cavier. I don't remember the name but it is surely one of the dedicacy my younger boy and I remember.
The weather in December is mild with 15-20 celcius but it is the low season for tourist to this Japanese's Hawaii.
There are reasons to come back for this island that is riched in history.
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, June 25, 2009
3 Films and Lesson for Humanity - Comments
Bro, thanks for a wonderful post. 3 movies with the backdrop of 3 terrible atrocities spanning 3 continents Asia, Africa and Europe. I think it is sobering that the most recent one happenned merely 15 years ago. And goodness knows what is happenning in Burma or North Korea even today?
What intrigues me the most is how the movies uncovered 3 different sets of reactions by both the perpetrators and victims. Along with the previous post about CCP's stance on reforms - or rather the lack of it - I am afraid it betrays some uneasy signs of immaturity amongst Asian governments and may be, even within Asian societies. I have a terrible feeling that we have not seen the last of barbarism and violence on an inhuman scale even within the most modern Asian societies. Underneath the veneer of Asian modernity and economic progress, there are dark violent impluses, deep insecurity and intolerance still festering and seething.
The Germans admitted the Holocaust as a tragedy and a national shame. The Nazi leadership was tried (by the Allies) but the rest of the nation - who bore some responsibility one way or the other - admitted responsibility and was forgiven, even by the victims.
Likewise for Rwanda. The victims - the Tutsis - came into power with the help of regional allies and from their bases in the Congo. In a region that is often prejudiced against by many who consider them uncivilized and barbaric, they exhibited extraordinary magnanimity and humanity against the people who earlier butchered them and their families. What does this say about the quality and leadership of the Rwandan people?
The important point is not only to recognise that the Germans and the Hutus were guilty but also that they were forgiven by their victims. That is an important concept. Calls for justice and responsibility must be accompanied by forgiveness not hatred.
In Asia, memories are long and are subject to political manipulation to create new generations of victimhood. That will only feed the demons of fear, intolerance and violence that can erupt uncontrollably at any moment. Asia still awaits the kind of leadership that not only call for responsibility and apologies but who also simulteneously offer forgiveness and tolerance.
I re-read with some poignancy your email to me from June 4 this year. That was a good article by Kristol. Little did I expect that a week later, one would experience a re-enactment in the streets of Iran. Comparing the young people in Beijing circa 1989 and in Tehran circa 2009, I see so much similarities: especially in their hope & haplessness, righteousness & recklessness, impressive people & tragic repressions. I saw perfect mirrors in their impulses for freedom and progress against a corrupt and reactionary regime. I saw their pride in their respective nations and ancient civilization. I also see patriots wanting reforms and change while respecting the "revolution" but ended up being smeared by their oppressors using unimaginatively identical language: as counter-revolutionaries and terrorists supported by foreign powers.
It is tempting to over-rely on analogies but there are important differences. For decades, the Iranians had some power of the ballot through elections. The powers-that-be still try to preserve a fig-leaf of ruling by popular mandate. The tanks were not (yet?) on the streets. The opposition leaders were not (yet?) locked up or shot. And the protest goes on in many ways. In an echo of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, every night at 10pm, protected by darkness, Iranians go up to their roof tops .... and repeatedly prayed out loud: "Allah-u-akbar" and soon they were joined by others from other roof tops, and then from more and more rooftops until the city roared with prayers. From a news report today, this still goes on for half-an-hour every night.
And through it all, I believe the Iranian people have gained the respect of many people in the world who are seeing them for the first time as intelligent, dignified, passionate, educated and fine-looking individuals - not the crude, turbuned, nihilistic caricatures painted by warmongers looking for a pretext for a war with Iran. With a people like this, its just a matter of time for change for the better in Iran.
What intrigues me the most is how the movies uncovered 3 different sets of reactions by both the perpetrators and victims. Along with the previous post about CCP's stance on reforms - or rather the lack of it - I am afraid it betrays some uneasy signs of immaturity amongst Asian governments and may be, even within Asian societies. I have a terrible feeling that we have not seen the last of barbarism and violence on an inhuman scale even within the most modern Asian societies. Underneath the veneer of Asian modernity and economic progress, there are dark violent impluses, deep insecurity and intolerance still festering and seething.
The Germans admitted the Holocaust as a tragedy and a national shame. The Nazi leadership was tried (by the Allies) but the rest of the nation - who bore some responsibility one way or the other - admitted responsibility and was forgiven, even by the victims.
Likewise for Rwanda. The victims - the Tutsis - came into power with the help of regional allies and from their bases in the Congo. In a region that is often prejudiced against by many who consider them uncivilized and barbaric, they exhibited extraordinary magnanimity and humanity against the people who earlier butchered them and their families. What does this say about the quality and leadership of the Rwandan people?
The important point is not only to recognise that the Germans and the Hutus were guilty but also that they were forgiven by their victims. That is an important concept. Calls for justice and responsibility must be accompanied by forgiveness not hatred.
In Asia, memories are long and are subject to political manipulation to create new generations of victimhood. That will only feed the demons of fear, intolerance and violence that can erupt uncontrollably at any moment. Asia still awaits the kind of leadership that not only call for responsibility and apologies but who also simulteneously offer forgiveness and tolerance.
I re-read with some poignancy your email to me from June 4 this year. That was a good article by Kristol. Little did I expect that a week later, one would experience a re-enactment in the streets of Iran. Comparing the young people in Beijing circa 1989 and in Tehran circa 2009, I see so much similarities: especially in their hope & haplessness, righteousness & recklessness, impressive people & tragic repressions. I saw perfect mirrors in their impulses for freedom and progress against a corrupt and reactionary regime. I saw their pride in their respective nations and ancient civilization. I also see patriots wanting reforms and change while respecting the "revolution" but ended up being smeared by their oppressors using unimaginatively identical language: as counter-revolutionaries and terrorists supported by foreign powers.
It is tempting to over-rely on analogies but there are important differences. For decades, the Iranians had some power of the ballot through elections. The powers-that-be still try to preserve a fig-leaf of ruling by popular mandate. The tanks were not (yet?) on the streets. The opposition leaders were not (yet?) locked up or shot. And the protest goes on in many ways. In an echo of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, every night at 10pm, protected by darkness, Iranians go up to their roof tops .... and repeatedly prayed out loud: "Allah-u-akbar" and soon they were joined by others from other roof tops, and then from more and more rooftops until the city roared with prayers. From a news report today, this still goes on for half-an-hour every night.
And through it all, I believe the Iranian people have gained the respect of many people in the world who are seeing them for the first time as intelligent, dignified, passionate, educated and fine-looking individuals - not the crude, turbuned, nihilistic caricatures painted by warmongers looking for a pretext for a war with Iran. With a people like this, its just a matter of time for change for the better in Iran.
3 Films and Lesson for Humanity
In the past one month, I watched 3 films with setting at different time and space.
One of which is The City of Life and Death (known in Chinese as Nanjing!Nanjing!). This is a story of the Rape of Nanjing. The film tells the story of, among other, a brave Chinese soldier who resisted the Japanese in street fighting following the retreat of his commander. He was eventually arrested and forced to march with thousands of Chinese POW to the Yangze River bank where they were all mercilessly machine-gunned down. This was not war. This was mass murder, masacre of the highest order against POW. The commanding officer of Imperial Army in Nanking then was Prince Asaka who lived a post war live filled with golf and died only in 1980s never was he brought to account for his role.
The films also tell about John Rabe, a German businessman with the Nazi membership who saved many Chinese civilians through setting up the Nanking Safety Zone. In the films, there were also other brave characters who gave their life to save other as well as the unsavoury who tried to save their own by selling out others.
There were also many uneasy scene where the girls were raped and enslaved as the comfort women. I remember from my reading that the girls at Jinling Girl College were mass raped by the Japanese soldiers. We are talking about thousand and thousand of violent sex victims many of whom didn't survive to tell the story.
It always anger me that someone out there, be it the right wing Japanese or the China bashers whatever their nationality, who denied the attrocity simply because they either cannot accept their responsibility or just hold the Chinese in contempt. The latter has their theory that the CCP made up or exagerate the Nanking massacre in order to give its rule the legitimacy. I find this Cold War era theory ludicrous and these peoples are no different from those who denied the Holocaust.
Back to the film, Lu Chuan, the film producer gave a sympathethic portrayal of a Japanese soldier for which he received death threat from the angry Chinese netizens. Again, this show the immaturity of many mainland Chinese who are unable to accept even a slight variant to the standard description of the Imperial Japanese army.
On the other hand, I am very happy to see more diverse perspectives introduced into the film making. What they did is not a revision of the history rather it is a microscopic perspective of a world with unlimited spectrum of characters and possibilities.
With hindsight, largely due to the Cold War, the perpetrator of war crime particularly the Japanese Imperial Family was not brought to justice. Emperor Hirohito was spared. So was Prince Asaka, the commander at the time of the Rape of Nanking.
Nevertheless, this responsibility in granting the immunity to the Imperial Family is largely that of Douglas MacArthur who single-handedly deprieve any notion of justice to the victims in the region and the humanity at large. What MacArthur did was equivalent to installing Hitler as the German Chancellor.
I will call for MacArthur family and the American government (vicarious responsibility) for a formal apology.
Moving on the second film Rwanda Hotel. This is a story of a Hutu hotelier, Paul Rusesabagina, who shielded hundred of Tutsi and moderate Hutu from the Hutu militia during the 1994 genocide in which an estimate of 800000 were killed.
The film blamed the Westen inaction against and the French complicity in arming the Hutu in wiping out the Tutsi. (It is disgusting that the France today are taking a high moral ground on human right)
It is really sad watching the so-called peacekeeper withdrew from a guarded compound full of refugees who minutes later were slaughtered by the advancing Hutu militia.
The conflict traces its root to the colonial era. The racial stereotyping and prejudice are human's greatest folly which is reenacted generation after generation. By the way, Rwanda is very much a Christian country most observers failed to highlight.
One thing strikes me was the role played by the media. In this case, the radio broadcast by the Hutu extremist repeatedly went on to the airwave to call for blood against the cockcroach, a code name for Tutsi. The radio also urged the Hutu to "taste" the Tutsi women.
In those senseless age, I wonder what one would do in those circumstances. Kill your neighbour? Protect your neighbour at the pain of being killed yourself if discovered? Tragically, the 1994 genocide saw many chose to be the latter. Catholic priest included.
Maybe the defence of duress is available but does that exculpate such a large scale of mass killing. Almost every surviving Hutu took part. There is simply no jail big enough to house them. Thus punishment is meted out to the organizer and the militia activist, the rest are rehabilitated in return for admission of guilt.
If this is called justice, this is justice. If one disagree, I could only fan out the message from Gandhi, an eye for en eye make the whole world blind.
The last film is the Reader starring Kate Winslet. It tells a story of a female Nazist who was tried and sentenced for killing the Jews at the Concentration Camp. Actually it was more of a story how a new generation of Germans come to term with the attrocity commited by their kins and loved one.
To a large extent, the German had dealt with the truth of Nazi crime much better than the Japanese. The Rwanda led by the Tutsi today are wise enough to forsake retribution im favour of truth and reconciliation.
As for the Japanese, short of a heartfelt apology from the Japanese emperor, the collective conscience of the Japanese will never be absoved of their involvement and complicity in the most attrocious crime against humanity committed in the region's history.
One of which is The City of Life and Death (known in Chinese as Nanjing!Nanjing!). This is a story of the Rape of Nanjing. The film tells the story of, among other, a brave Chinese soldier who resisted the Japanese in street fighting following the retreat of his commander. He was eventually arrested and forced to march with thousands of Chinese POW to the Yangze River bank where they were all mercilessly machine-gunned down. This was not war. This was mass murder, masacre of the highest order against POW. The commanding officer of Imperial Army in Nanking then was Prince Asaka who lived a post war live filled with golf and died only in 1980s never was he brought to account for his role.
The films also tell about John Rabe, a German businessman with the Nazi membership who saved many Chinese civilians through setting up the Nanking Safety Zone. In the films, there were also other brave characters who gave their life to save other as well as the unsavoury who tried to save their own by selling out others.
There were also many uneasy scene where the girls were raped and enslaved as the comfort women. I remember from my reading that the girls at Jinling Girl College were mass raped by the Japanese soldiers. We are talking about thousand and thousand of violent sex victims many of whom didn't survive to tell the story.
It always anger me that someone out there, be it the right wing Japanese or the China bashers whatever their nationality, who denied the attrocity simply because they either cannot accept their responsibility or just hold the Chinese in contempt. The latter has their theory that the CCP made up or exagerate the Nanking massacre in order to give its rule the legitimacy. I find this Cold War era theory ludicrous and these peoples are no different from those who denied the Holocaust.
Back to the film, Lu Chuan, the film producer gave a sympathethic portrayal of a Japanese soldier for which he received death threat from the angry Chinese netizens. Again, this show the immaturity of many mainland Chinese who are unable to accept even a slight variant to the standard description of the Imperial Japanese army.
On the other hand, I am very happy to see more diverse perspectives introduced into the film making. What they did is not a revision of the history rather it is a microscopic perspective of a world with unlimited spectrum of characters and possibilities.
With hindsight, largely due to the Cold War, the perpetrator of war crime particularly the Japanese Imperial Family was not brought to justice. Emperor Hirohito was spared. So was Prince Asaka, the commander at the time of the Rape of Nanking.
Nevertheless, this responsibility in granting the immunity to the Imperial Family is largely that of Douglas MacArthur who single-handedly deprieve any notion of justice to the victims in the region and the humanity at large. What MacArthur did was equivalent to installing Hitler as the German Chancellor.
I will call for MacArthur family and the American government (vicarious responsibility) for a formal apology.
Moving on the second film Rwanda Hotel. This is a story of a Hutu hotelier, Paul Rusesabagina, who shielded hundred of Tutsi and moderate Hutu from the Hutu militia during the 1994 genocide in which an estimate of 800000 were killed.
The film blamed the Westen inaction against and the French complicity in arming the Hutu in wiping out the Tutsi. (It is disgusting that the France today are taking a high moral ground on human right)
It is really sad watching the so-called peacekeeper withdrew from a guarded compound full of refugees who minutes later were slaughtered by the advancing Hutu militia.
The conflict traces its root to the colonial era. The racial stereotyping and prejudice are human's greatest folly which is reenacted generation after generation. By the way, Rwanda is very much a Christian country most observers failed to highlight.
One thing strikes me was the role played by the media. In this case, the radio broadcast by the Hutu extremist repeatedly went on to the airwave to call for blood against the cockcroach, a code name for Tutsi. The radio also urged the Hutu to "taste" the Tutsi women.
In those senseless age, I wonder what one would do in those circumstances. Kill your neighbour? Protect your neighbour at the pain of being killed yourself if discovered? Tragically, the 1994 genocide saw many chose to be the latter. Catholic priest included.
Maybe the defence of duress is available but does that exculpate such a large scale of mass killing. Almost every surviving Hutu took part. There is simply no jail big enough to house them. Thus punishment is meted out to the organizer and the militia activist, the rest are rehabilitated in return for admission of guilt.
If this is called justice, this is justice. If one disagree, I could only fan out the message from Gandhi, an eye for en eye make the whole world blind.
The last film is the Reader starring Kate Winslet. It tells a story of a female Nazist who was tried and sentenced for killing the Jews at the Concentration Camp. Actually it was more of a story how a new generation of Germans come to term with the attrocity commited by their kins and loved one.
To a large extent, the German had dealt with the truth of Nazi crime much better than the Japanese. The Rwanda led by the Tutsi today are wise enough to forsake retribution im favour of truth and reconciliation.
As for the Japanese, short of a heartfelt apology from the Japanese emperor, the collective conscience of the Japanese will never be absoved of their involvement and complicity in the most attrocious crime against humanity committed in the region's history.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Cape No.7 - Apolitical Film
Cape No.7 (海角七号) is a love-music film, and a really good one.
Watching this love film with certain political perspective, in my opinion, is hurting one's very soul for peace and love.
There are lines and a few scenes, just like in every other film, that is open to different interpretation. Yet, taking a radical interpretation to suggest this love film has a certain political innuendo is taking it too far.
The very first line "fuck you Taipei" by the main actor who left Taipei for his hometown after a disappointing career is seen by some quarters as poking the eye of the KMT.
The few scenes wherein an elderly supporting cast is singing and speaking Japanese is taken as glorifying Japanization is an outright failure to understand the historical setting in which that particular generation is subject to.
The last scene of a Taiwanese girl waiting at the dock hoping in vain for her timid and subsequently remorseful Japanese teacher cum lover to take her along with the ship departing for Japan following the surrender is interpreted as embracing Japanese Imperialism is also too arbitrary without most natural human sentiment for love.
Alas, all these misgiving and misunderstanding are stretched and twisted out of proportion. It is particularly sad that it has been politicized and it is also really unnecessary for many compatriots to make hurtful comment unhelpful to cross-strait relationship and that between Chinese and Japanese. This relationship I spoke about is not that between a polity and a polity. It is one that exist at the most basic level between peoples.
It is reported that the film is banned in the mainland because of its positive portray of Japanization in Taiwan. I hope this is not true.
Speaking for myself, I have been and will continue to be, highly critical against the right wing Japanese and also the Japanese royal house for failing to apologize unconditionally for the World War II aggression.
However, nothing in the film I find any attempt at glorifying the Imperial Japan. It is a plain portray of two love stories connected via the seven undelivered letters written on board by the then remorseful lover.
The separation between the Japanese teacher and his young Taiwanese lover in the film, is no different from, any lovers separated by the force of war and conflict. Their longing to be together and their love for each other is as human and natural as anyone of us would have desired.
It is terribly sad that many of critics have been possessed by an increasingly violence-prone nationalism to ruthlessly dismiss the bond of love between that of a man and a woman.
No way, shall we forget the history of pain and no way shall we deny the future of love and peace.
The past lesson of war and conflict make it even more imperative that love and friendship across the strait and across the East Sea shall ever be denied to us and the future generation.
********************************************************
The plot is centered at the seven undelivered love letters written 60 years ago to the title of the film, Cape No. 7, which is an old address during the Japanese rule in a very scenic seaside town, Hengchun, in the southern tip of Taiwan.
According to Wei Te-sheng, the film director, the choice of Hengchun is to amplify the various contrast in the story and the characters to deliver a message of inclusiveness of love for lovers, family and friends. This, I think, the film had succeeded.
The script delivered in Mandarin, Japanese and Min Nan (Taiwanese), particularly the latter maybe difficult for non-Min Nan speakers to understand the film well. This is a reason I believe why I like this film. Each time the Min Nan is spoken, I find resonance to my root, never mind it is slightly different Min Nan from what I speak.
My guess is that the film can strike a chord with very few overseas Chinese. There are simply not too many who speak Min Nan these day or have had an understanding of Taiwan.
No wonder, the film was recording breaking in Taiwan and yet it didn't have a strong showing in Hong Kong.
What is amazing in retrospect is that the casting is actually rather weak. The leading actor, Van Fan (an aborigine himself, this again show the inclusiness of this film) is actually a singer and had no silver screen experience prior to the shooting.
The actress is a Japanese who speak decent Mandarin who had little success in her earlier debut. Other supporting casts are mainly unknown. The film director himself had limited experience in a full-length motion and had to spend his own money to finish the production.
To live up as a successful blockbuster, Cape No 7 succeeded in connecting with everyone's longing for love, an universal value. Adding icing to the cake, the music, from sentimental to rock songs, sung mostly in Mandarin and few in Japanese, against a combination of modern and traditional musical instrument is so good to the extent that I keep replaying them from the Youtube.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Emperor Akihito must apologise for war crimes
I refer to SCMP David McNeil's "A movie laid to rest" on April 3 and Kevin Rafferty's "Japan Inc shuts its door to the past" on April 5 that discuss the Yasukuni Shrine issue.
All the Second World War victims by the Japanese's agression and brutality, are unlikely to get a wholehearted apology and or expression of remorse from the Japanese Government and the people of Japan.
Japan, in its collective psychology, thinks it lost the second World War because it faced a mightier for in the form of the USA - not because it was morally wrong to attack and occupy other country.
To make matter worse, Emperor Hirohito who ruled and not just reigned during the WW II, was not tried as a war criminal by the High Command of the US occupation forces in Japan in the immediate aftermath of Japan's unconditional surrender.
General MacArthur found it expedient to co-opt Emperor Hirohito as an ally in the newly emerging cold war era against the Soviets.
The subsequent adoption of a pacifist constitution and the democratization process introduced in Japan provided a purportedly legitimate sense of self-redemption for the Japanese, yet they suffer from frequent bout of amnesia and sometimes make denials regarding their WW II guilt.
The Liberal Democratic Party that was in power for almost the entire post war period up to today with the brief exception of 1993-1996 period was formed by a group of the right wing conservatives, who were previously the members if not the supporter of the Imperial Japanese Government during the WW II.
If Japan is sincere to repent her WW II crime, it has to start with the present Emperor Akihito to apologise on behalf of his father who was, as the ruling and reigning head of state, responsible for allowing Japanese agression during the War
Without this deed of repentance, the souls of the victims by the Japanese agression, from Korea to China and from the Allied force to the non-combatan civilians everywhere, will not rest in peace.
Emperor Akihito is now old and wise and should have the courage his father did not possess!
All the Second World War victims by the Japanese's agression and brutality, are unlikely to get a wholehearted apology and or expression of remorse from the Japanese Government and the people of Japan.
Japan, in its collective psychology, thinks it lost the second World War because it faced a mightier for in the form of the USA - not because it was morally wrong to attack and occupy other country.
To make matter worse, Emperor Hirohito who ruled and not just reigned during the WW II, was not tried as a war criminal by the High Command of the US occupation forces in Japan in the immediate aftermath of Japan's unconditional surrender.
General MacArthur found it expedient to co-opt Emperor Hirohito as an ally in the newly emerging cold war era against the Soviets.
The subsequent adoption of a pacifist constitution and the democratization process introduced in Japan provided a purportedly legitimate sense of self-redemption for the Japanese, yet they suffer from frequent bout of amnesia and sometimes make denials regarding their WW II guilt.
The Liberal Democratic Party that was in power for almost the entire post war period up to today with the brief exception of 1993-1996 period was formed by a group of the right wing conservatives, who were previously the members if not the supporter of the Imperial Japanese Government during the WW II.
If Japan is sincere to repent her WW II crime, it has to start with the present Emperor Akihito to apologise on behalf of his father who was, as the ruling and reigning head of state, responsible for allowing Japanese agression during the War
Without this deed of repentance, the souls of the victims by the Japanese agression, from Korea to China and from the Allied force to the non-combatan civilians everywhere, will not rest in peace.
Emperor Akihito is now old and wise and should have the courage his father did not possess!
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