Posted by Robert Hill on April 25, 2005 at 20:03:36 from 195.92.168.174 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: Biggles & Co posted by John Nichols on April 24, 2005 at 23:15:33:
On the current China/Japan issue, whilst I haven't seen the school textbooks in question and wouldn't be able to read them if I did, I take exactly the opposite point of view to John Nichols. I think it's extremely common and extremely dangerous for countries to refuse to admit to themselves the atrocities they have committed in the past, because they tend to believe the vastly dangerous delusion "people like us could never do something like that." So long as people everywhere continue in that delusion, atrocities will continue.
I've heard of many, many instances of governments and nations having difficulty over issues like that, and with the exception of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa I've never heard of a nation dealing with the issue in a decent or half-decent manner.