China and Japan Spar Over War Trials, More Than 6 Decades On - NYTimes.com

China and Japan Spar Over War Trials, More Than 6 Decades On - NYTimes.com: "BEIJING – What would international reaction be if Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, were to publicly cast doubt on the fairness of the Nuremberg Trials, which condemned top Nazis at the end of World War II?

Something quite similar may have happened recently in Japan, where, according to media reports, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cast doubt on the Tokyo Trials there (these found about two dozen prominent Japanese guilty of war crimes; seven were sentenced to death).

Here’s a headline from the Japan Daily Press: ‘PM Abe says WWII war crime trials were just ‘victors’ justice.’ ’

‘In a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee last Tuesday, Abe said that what the world now thinks of the outcome of World War II was dictated by the victorious Allied Forces and it is only under their judgement that the Japanese were condemned,’ the Japan Daily Press article said, citing an article in The Telegraph.

World War II is still a sensitive topic not just in China but further afield in Asia, where memories of brutality by the invading Japanese Imperial Army linger and many believe that Japan, unlike Germany, has never entirely faced up to what it did. Memories may be bitterest in China, where millions died and where the government uses anti-Japanese sentiment to bolster nationalism.

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(Via.)