Regarding Mihoko Matsubara and Yang Yi's Sept. 29 article, "Chinese social media reshape image of Japan": We don't have to be in China to know how evil and cruel Japanese soldiers were when they occupied and pillaged our country in World War II.
While we agree with those Asians who say that America found it easier to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese than on its white German cousins, the atrocities committed and denied by Japan are not just the stuff of drama. Images of the repeated rape of young girls, mutilation of women with the sacred Samurai sword, and the bayoneting of babies tossed into the air are very much alive in our collective memory. Unlike China, the Philippines has the freest press and most open democracy in Asia, and school textbooks are not riddled with anti-Japanese historical facts. Yet, we don't have to be reminded by any state apparatchik: We saw what happened and we are keen to pass it on to our grandchildren.
Indeed, is it not karmic retribution that Japan, after so many years of arrogance, is now aging and ailing so?
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.