If readers go to the Hodo 2001 site’s public opinion survey archive and scroll down to the poll from 8 April, they will find an opinion poll that shows that the Japanese people are not exactly rallying behind The Facts brigade (and let’s not forget the honorary representative from the English-language blogosphere).
The third question in the survey asked, “Regarding the comfort women issue, do you think that Japan has apologized sufficiently?” 43.8% answered no, 37.2% answered yes. (Beyond that, a majority answered “no” to the question asking whether Prime Minister Abe should pray at Yasukuni.)
At the same time, the survey found that 59% of respondents “cannot understand” the repeated criticism by Chinese and South Korean leaders of the various statements made by Japanese politicians about history problems, which goes to show, I think, that historical reconciliation begins at home; there is a limit to what efforts to improve acceptance of past crimes emanating from outside Japan can achieve, which is not to say that others should abstain from good-faith criticism of the revisionists, relativists, and deniers, but it must be done with the knowledge that ultimately the Japanese people have to do the job themselves.
