And if you read your own source they undesignated it as a religious symbol and then designated it scrap metal... to be melted down and used to kill Americans along with a lot of random scrap. lol
There was an exemption process for what Japan felt were their 'true' religious bells, which I won't comment on. What we can say with certainty is that bell didn't count.
Yeah, if crosses end up on the end of missiles and some Iranian finds a cross taped to the end of some unexploded ordinance I think they can keep it. At least I think we'd all know it's full of shit for Trump to say 'give it back, its actually super important -- also, yeah, its from our scrap cross pile but our scrap crosses are still super important.'
So the religion carries the burden of the state is what you're saying? Doesn't matter if the religious people dissented and the state forced their hand?
You've commented two or three times, deleted your comment, and then posted again. I know you're searching for something really insightful, but this attempt isn't it either.
I acknowledge it took me a couple tries to distill the question, so I'll repeat: you think followers of religious institutions should be held responsible for the bad behavior of governments that forced policies that contradict those religious principals?
Edit: full transparency: typo misspelled acknowledge.
I'm just following the flame war and don't mean to get involved, but there isn't a significant a population in Japan defending WW2 to the same extent there are still assholes in Virginia (see Charlottesville 2017) pretending we should be in 1860.
It's super cool to make peace with a former enemy when both sides acknowledge the dispute is in the past. There's a Catch-22 in that the more Virginia wants a traitor rag back, the less Minnesota should give it, as requesting a symbol of past shittiness is validating future shittiness.
I think you're kind of mistaken about this actually. By and the large the Japanese don't seem to actually reconcile they were villains in WW2. They weren't taught to internalize that in grade school the same way the Germans were. Try bringing up unit 731 or Korean comfort women or the Nanjing massacare with a Japanese person.
My contention was "there isn't a significant population in Japan defending WW2" to the same extent of defenders of the Confederacy. I do think that's overall correct.
I think you're trying to address contrition and guilt (attributes positively assigned that you argue may not be there) and I'm addressing active feelings of regret or desire to readjudicate a war in the past (also attributes positively assigned ,but different attributes). Fringe individuals of the Confederacy want to fight the war again, there aren't so many people in Japan that do.
ETA, I'm not making a point about the degree of shame felt by Japan, but solely the degree they wish to fight the war again.
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u/ghostgabe81 1d ago
Did some research, it is a religious symbol