Past and Present

[Hachiko]

"I can forgive, but I won't forget," says Jack Simmonds, an 82-year-old Australian, who was detained as a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II.
Along with fellow Australian ex-POWs Neil MacPherson, 82, and Jack Boon, 87, Simmonds was visiting Japan for the first time since the end of the war. "I wanted to see Japan, where I spent my war-time, with my eyes again," he said.

His thoughts are echoed by his fellow travelers.

"I don't have any ill feeling toward Japanese people," says Boon, who worked on the Japanese railway project in Thailand, immortalized by the movie "Bridge on the River Kwai," before being brought to Japan.

Japan Times

 

[ashuri2]

wow, i'm amazed at how forgiving some people are! to be able to forgive and make friend's with those who about 50 years before made you suffer...i hope i have that kind of compassion and determination to make sure those who died are remembered...

 

[Oliver]

Ah, but that's it. Current Japanese people had nothing to do with the last World War - most of them are too young, and even most who are old enough probably weren't even in the armed forces.

How many Americans objected to the second war in Iraq? For that matter, how many British? Even before Blair started hostilities in Iraq, the vast majority of British were dead against war in Iraq. My point? History repeats itself; if we were less than willing for war, who's to say the Japanese were any different in WW2?

Holding a grudge does not benefit YOU in the long term, at all! It just screws you up inside.