A social media post by Japan’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, about her visit to memorial sites in Kuala Lumpur has drawn online criticism, with some Malaysians expressing anger over her remarks.
On Saturday (25 October), Takaichi posted on social media about visiting a Japanese cemetery in Kuala Lumpur, where she laid flowers at a memorial monument. In her post, written in Japanese, she said she was able to “commemorate our ancestors who lost their lives in Malaysia” and felt “deeply moved” by the experience.
The controversy stems from Takaichi’s framing of Japanese war dead as “ancestors” deserving of commemoration in her Japanese-language post, while appearing to treat Malaysia’s National Monument – which commemorates those who died in the struggle for independence, especially during conflicts like World War II and the Japanese occupation and the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) – as merely another stop on her diplomatic tour.
Critics view this as tone-deaf, given Japan’s brutal occupation of Malaysia during World War II. Japan occupied British Malaya, which included present-day Malaysia, from 1941 to 1945 during World War II.
cubiacer on
honestly japan needs to just own its war crimes already 🙄 we all know what happened and the denial just makes everything messier.
Al_787 on
I have to say I’m utterly disappointed how ignorant the Japanese youth is about issues like this, I think young Chinese know more about the CCP’s evils. Takaichi being more popular among the youth than other LDP leaders is yikes
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A social media post by Japan’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, about her visit to memorial sites in Kuala Lumpur has drawn online criticism, with some Malaysians expressing anger over her remarks.
On Saturday (25 October), Takaichi posted on social media about visiting a Japanese cemetery in Kuala Lumpur, where she laid flowers at a memorial monument. In her post, written in Japanese, she said she was able to “commemorate our ancestors who lost their lives in Malaysia” and felt “deeply moved” by the experience.
The controversy stems from Takaichi’s framing of Japanese war dead as “ancestors” deserving of commemoration in her Japanese-language post, while appearing to treat Malaysia’s National Monument – which commemorates those who died in the struggle for independence, especially during conflicts like World War II and the Japanese occupation and the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) – as merely another stop on her diplomatic tour.
Critics view this as tone-deaf, given Japan’s brutal occupation of Malaysia during World War II. Japan occupied British Malaya, which included present-day Malaysia, from 1941 to 1945 during World War II.
honestly japan needs to just own its war crimes already 🙄 we all know what happened and the denial just makes everything messier.
I have to say I’m utterly disappointed how ignorant the Japanese youth is about issues like this, I think young Chinese know more about the CCP’s evils. Takaichi being more popular among the youth than other LDP leaders is yikes