We never asked

for Armchair Asia's opinion, but it's always valued, informative, and interesting:

Saying nothing, ignoring complaints, and “looking forward,” is a very Japanese tactic to avoid responsibility and confrontation.

Why does that ring so true both personally and professionally?

Armchair Asia's July 9 post, Unforgiven,* concerns apologies and the continued lack thereof for the use of American POWs during WW2 by a number of major Japanese corporations.

Some may recall one of the companies, Mitsubishi, even denied in court that there was any forced labor in at least one of their mines (this specifically concerning Chinese slave labor):

...the Mitsubishi defense team has crossed a Rubicon of historical revisionism by denying that any forced labor occurred at its Fukuoka coal mines. More audaciously still, the company based these denials on its own 1946 site reports and the fact that Occupation authorities never brought CFL war crimes charges against it. Japan Focus (How's your Nikon working? Nikon wouldn't be part of the Mitsubishi group would it? Oh well, the war's long over anyway, isn't it? When's the new D700X coming out?)

This is all a shock as I just read an article by a learned Japanese PhD in which he claimed that Japan needs to tout its higher moral ground in WW2 to win friends and influence people today. His cute little article also shows just why WW2 is NOT over for some in this country, including some who could be mistaken for reasonable and maybe even cosmopolitan.

More on that later.

*There are links in the Unforgiven post worth reading as well.

2142: Edited for semi-clarity.