Regarding Florian Coulmas' July 9 article, "Act of missionary hypocrisy": It is not the American government, per se, that is calling on the Japanese government to acknowledge the pain suffered by the "comfort women." In fact, President George W. Bush has let it be known that he has no problem at all with the current Japanese government.
Instead, it is a House of Representatives' committee controlled by Democrats, in defiance of and against the explicit direction of the U.S. State Department, an executive branch office controlled by the Republicans, that is issuing the call for an apology. Many of the Democrats on this committee feel as strongly as Coulmas seems to that Abu Ghraib, torture and other sins committed by the U.S. government are wrong.
I fully support the idea that the United States should formally apologize for the Vietnam War as well as for the war in Iraq, and make reparations in both cases.
For those of us who condemn both wars, I don't think it is in any way hypocritical to support passage of the House resolution. One day I believe that it will be possible for the U.S. to make formal apologies for its own actions as well.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.