Japan really needs to come clean

You know, I'm a big fan of Japan and all things culturally dealing with Japan, but what shocks me is that this island of people cannot fess up to the whole comfort women situation it inflicted on women during World War II. Now, it's come to the point where its politicians are speaking for a nationalist sentiment power base and the rest of the Asian countries are going to start isolating Japan over this particular, stupid issue.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Japan must confront its past of coercing women into prostitution with Japanese troops in World War Two, China's foreign minister said on Tuesday, nonetheless stressing hopes of improved ties between the two Asian powers.

"The forced use of so-called 'comfort women' was one of the most serious crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in World War Two," Li Zhaoxing told a news conference on the sidelines of China's annual meeting of parliament.

"Comfort women" is a euphemism for wartime sex slaves. For more, click here.

Now, all Japan really had to do is fess up to the situation, and it can begin dealing with the future in a positive nature. Instead, it's burying itself in the past, and as a result people are going to start pointing figures at generations that never had anything to do with the original atrocities.

As it is, I don't want to buy Japanese products anymore. I felt this same way with South Africa during Apartheid, but if Japan wants to play the game of pretending this crap never happened, I think what the rest of the world can do is avoid any type of economic situation that deals with Japan. Granted, we can't cut off everything, but when you are faced with a decision where a Japanese product and a non-Japanese product are in front of you, choose the other one, at least until Japan starts to realize that it can't have its Coke and Pepsi in the same glass. This means a lot of specific products can be avoided as a result. What's interesting is that Japan will never realize that people are boycotting it, so it may seem like a worthless task, but in the end, much like I felt with Apartheid, it sure felt better knowing that each decision I made that did not benefit that country was a personal, moral victory for me.

And that's the lego spaceman's take on that.

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