This incident says nothing of the freedom of the press in Japan. Shueisha backed out of publishing the comic after several episodes had already been published. Just because they're a pansy company doesn't say anything about the Japanese government.

Anyway, if freedom of the press is a prerequisite to Security Council membership, how the hell did China get there?

You're right; that last part isn't clear. The freedom of the press issue is seperate but it is an issue: politicians influencing publications is clearly stepping over the bounds. What I mean is that unless Japan can face up to its past it cannot move forward.

Okay. I'll tell Japan to get right on it.

Don't forget the USSR is on the Security Council since day one and both them and China had permanent vetos.

So 40% of the UN's top position were occupied by two out of three of the most brutal, repressive regimes of the 20th century.

No wonder no one makes a big deal about Sudan being on the Human Rights Committee...

Don't believe everything that you read in Chinese and American newspapers. I'm a little bit more aqauinted with the culture in question as you should well know, and Japan has accepted its history, only in a different way from Germany.

Japanese culture has a higher respect for ancestors and to openly debase them is shameful, even if they are murderers. Germany has no such cultural tie and has gone above and beyond what it needed to do.

The particular comic was actually rather violent and sensationalised, it wasn't an acurate depiction of what went on from anybodies perspective, even China wouldn't say that it was acurate. I would like to see your country even begin to publish a comic about how your national forebears commited genocide against the aboriginal people or the British publish a comic about how they slaughtered the Zula. How about an American comic about the oppression of blacks and Mexicans. When will Bagdad the comic book come out, not soon that's for certain.

Don't take Germany as a good example, Germany went to far in accepting guilt, natinoalists, racists and lunatics have been using war guilt as a rallying cry for many years. Behind many anti semitic attacks these days is somebody who is angry about their ancestors and country being labeled, and about being continuously reminded about what happened. When you degrade somebody, it often send them off on an extreme vent.

Japan has a long long memory, this shame will be remembered and will haunt people for many generations to come, just don't expect any public outpouring of guilt, Japan doen't do this, it is a western idea. Japan doesn't behave the same way as you would, don't think that this means that it isn't accepting what went on during the war.

Many people seem to have as little understanding of how other countries deal with their past as George Bush does of how to deal with the present day.

I accept that cultural differences are at play here, ACB, but that does not change that Japan will struggle to advance both regionally and globally until it can reform this part of its national character. I haven't seen the comic in question, but it besides the point. Politicians pressured the publisher to remove the comic - that is not something that happens in other so-called modern democracies.

I also disagree that Germany went too far; rather I think that Germany has faced up to its past whereas Japan finds it shameful and refuses to confront it. This is the issue the rest of Asia has with Japan and its history. Cultural differences such as respect for ancestors does not mean a country should not deal with its past. That is why (most) societies evolve with time, and why most have changing values. Japan's failure so far to deal with this represents part of its problem and its current stagnation. Pleading cultural differences and foreign ignorance is hiding from the real issue.

Finally, my ancestors, like I, are Jewish. There are "comics" such as Maus about what my family went through only 60 years ago.