This is a really good post. A couple of months ago the U.S. congress was debating a resolution that Japan should apologize to the comfort women--and I basically agree on that point, but since when has the U.S. apologized for slavery or imperialism segregation, and since when do we get to claim a moral high ground by telling other countries to say they're sorry?

I wonder if people are so quick to accuse Japan of racism because
(a) going to Japan might be their first experience of being in a racial minority--and that can be a shock if you are soaking in white privilege;
(b) either that experience, or learning about issues like Japanese imperialism, comfort women, WWII, etc might be their first experience of learning that Japan is not, you know, happy anime funland.