Hmm, I find "kamikaze attack" to be a fairly accurate coloqualism to describe the method of conveyance of the mass death of the WTC destruction. You say the kamikaze never attacked an innocent, but isn't a soldier who is provoked to battle by aggression an innocent?
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not completely slamming you, but I see alot of relativism in this thread. People claiming that a specific act was "similar" to another act perpretrated by another party. This is a lie frankly. You cannot compare the acts of an aggressor to those who are defending themselves.
I agree with bossel in alot of ways, I think the germans are a bit over the top in their self incrimination - but damn it if its not hard to understand how it came about. I think this is a fundemental difference between the german people and the japanese people. The germans have always struck me as a people that actually fear warfare (with good reason). The japanese, not so much - sure you will get the lip service to "peace" if you are in the country, but the undercurrent of nationalism there is very strong. I don't know why really, the speculation always comes back to isolationism.
Perhaps Germany has succeeded in a lot of ways because of their geographical position. Surely I think its hard to imagine success of the EU without a willing German partner? Also, while we can see on television the German and French P.M.'s actually embracing each other, could we see the Japanese and Chinese (or Koreans) doing the same thing?
Anyway, I give the Germans a lot of credit. I think they did the hard thing and came through well on the other side. I don't think anyone in their right mind thinks that Germany has any desire other than to live peacefully with its neighbors. And really, isn't that what learning history is all about? To not repeat the mistakes of the past?
In my heart, I'm not sure the Japanese have learned the same lessons. It's a combination of things, the self-victimization, the revisionist history books, nationalist propaganda, etc.
For instance, there is a big difference between saying Germany (the nation) was a victim and Germany (the people) were victims. Average people are always victims in war, even soldiers are victims in a lot of ways. To me it seems that there is no such distinction in many Japanese minds. It seems that to them the nation and the people are the same. Maybe more Japanese bought into their Imperialism than Germans bought into Nazism?
Anyway, I almost think that there is sufficient cause to pound the Japanese over the head with these things, atleast until I stop seeing comments like this:
The point of the matter is not that they are being hypocritical. If a neighbor ruthlessly beats his children, and one day you decide you too shall ruthlessly beat his children. If you come to your senses should you not atleast apologize to the children? If you do not, aren't the children both doublely wronged?
Waiting for everyone else to "do the right thing" before you can show any courage yourself is a poor way to live life.