Apologies
President Clinton is
considering a formal, national apology for slavery. Skeptics from Newt Gingrich
to Jesse Jackson have registered dissatisfaction with the idea. Yet an apology
bill has already been introduced in the House. When have governments apologized
in the past? Which wrongs do or do not warrant apologies? Must apologies be
linked to material reparations?
Last
week, Mike Tyson offered a public apology for biting off a chunk of
Evander Holyfield's ear. Sportswriters called the fighter's pay-per-chew
regrets disingenuous, saying that his groveling was more about avoiding a
lifetime ban from the sport than about being sorry. Such self-serving apologies
are more transparent when the stakes are higher. The first national apology of
the 20 th century came nearly 80 years ago, when Germany was forced
to sign the Treaty of Versailles following World War I. The treaty stated that
Germany "accepts responsibility " for "causing all the loss and
damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have
been subjected." Reparations of 132 billion gold marks were commanded by the
agreement, but the apology that came with the money was even less heartfelt
than Iron Mike's.
One world war later, Germany asked for forgiveness again,
but this time the expression was genuine. The nation's leaders, who repeatedly
describe their nation's past aggressions as "the worst crimes against
humanity ," are still apologizing for starting World War II. One former
chancellor dropped to his knees in a Warsaw ghetto in symbolic atonement. The
German government has made payments to Israel totaling nearly $70 billion, not
including personal pensions for Holocaust survivors amounting to almost $15
billion. And Germany continues to make amends to new groups of victims. In 1992
it began reparations to 50,000 East German Jews. Last year it paid $1.35
million to Holocaust survivors in Lithuania, and it is negotiating like
agreements with Estonia and Latvia.
Poland has
also formally apologized for the slaughter of Jews, and Italy and Finland have
paid reparations, but other nations have been less forthcoming . François
Mitterand consistently claimed France owed no apologies, though in 1995 Jacques
Chirac recognized French responsibility in deporting Jews. Switzerland has
recently offered words of conciliation and established a reparations fund, but
many Jews feel it has yet to make full amends for its role as banker to the
Nazi party.
Japan's World War II penitence is
suspect. Although it has made monetary reparations--a total of $3.9 billion to
the Philippines, Vietnam, Burma, and Indonesia--Japan has been largely
unwilling to admit wrongdoing. It has made no official payments to China or
Korea despite its brutal invasions of those countries, and has never apologized
to Allied POWs, who now demand money and official recognition.
Also
seeking acknowledgment are the 200,000 "comfort women ," mostly Korean,
who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. Japan denied
their very existence until 1993. In 1995 it established a private "consolation
fund" for restitution, but most surviving comfort women have refused the money,
demanding a public apology and public compensation.
Japanese politicians' reluctance to apologize stems
from their fear of blaming ancestors and dishonoring war heroes. The government
has always used the word hansei , regret, instead of owabi ,
apologize. Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued an official owabi
apology on the 50 th anniversary of the end of World War II but soon
after qualified his statement, stressing that it was a personal apology, not a
national one. At the moment of Murayama's remarks, nine Cabinet members were
conspicuously visiting a shrine to Japan's military dead--some of whom had been
executed for war crimes.
The last
decade has witnessed a spate of public atonement. In 1988, Ronald Reagan
apologized to Japanese-Americans placed in internment camps during World
War II. Congress awarded $20,000 to each internee. In 1992, Canada returned
850,000 square miles of stolen ancestral lands to the Inuit. The Maoris of New
Zealand were ceded 39,000 acres of land and paid $112 million by the Crown in
1995, as part of a bill personally signed by Queen Elizabeth. Within a month of
taking office, Tony Blair marked the 150 th anniversary of the
Irish potato famine by acknowledging his predecessors' failure to aid an
ailing Ireland.
Of modern politicians, however, Bill Clinton is
the most contrite. In 1995, Clinton apologized to victims of unethical
radiation experiments conducted during the Cold War. This year Clinton offered
a formal apology to survivors of the Tuskegee medical study that denied
syphilis treatment to 399 black men. Certain victims of both projects have
received compensation. While Clinton is pondering an apology to descendants of
slaves, he says he opposes material reparations. Almost no slaves were
compensated after the Civil War.
Other groups still demand
apologies. Latin Americans of Japanese descent were extradited from their
countries by the United States, and interned just as their American brethren
were, yet received no reparations. Native American groups are fighting for
official recognition of their holocaust, arguing that any apology to slaves
must be paired with one to their own ancestors. Australian aborigines
have long sought acknowledgment of the atrocities inflicted upon them. (This
June, Australian Prime Minister John Howard once again stated his opposition to
issuing a national apology.)
On the other hand, while
Armenian groups struggle for official notice, they are not yet requesting
official apologies. Turkish governments since 1921 have refused to admit the
Armenian genocide occurred.
