Japan Times
OPINION
READERS IN COUNCIL
January 23, 2000
Although Hong Kong legislators have every right to deliberate on a motion to demand that Japan apologize and pay compensation for its wartime atrocities (“H.K. mills demand for war apology,”Jan.13), I wonder if these same legislators would look into deliberating a motion that would demand that Britain apologize for its past imperialistic deeds toward China.
Certainly, the atrocities committed by the Japanese military during World War II were reprehensible and should not be condoned. If there is still any issue of injustice left, it should be addressed in a spirit of fairness and objectivity. The greatest injustice and humiliation inflicted on the people of China has to be, however, in the actions of British imperialism, which, through trickery and massacre all done in the name of gold, God, and glory, was responsible for kicking off the decline of the Qing Dynasty, the setting up of treaty ports, widespread drug abuse through the unabashed exporting of opium into China, and the seizure and subjugation of Hong Kong.
I don’t recall the British ever apologizing to the Chinese for these past actions nor do I recall the people of Hong Kong and China ever demanding the British to apologize. Could it be that the Chinese have a double standard-that it’s OK to demand an apology from a fellow Asian but, out of a subconscious sense of inferiority it’s taboo to demand an apology from the white man?
KO UNOKI
Fujisawa, Kanagawa
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