This type of crime is particularly despicable and contemptible.
| Soldier Accused of Raping Girl
Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday denounced the suspected rape of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine on the southern island of Okinawa, an episode with echoes of a 1995 case that jolted the U.S.-Japan alliance. […] “It is unforgivable,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told a parliamentary panel in his first public comments on the latest incident on Okinawa, host to a huge U.S. military presence. “It has happened over and over again in the past and I take it as a grave case.” Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed anger over repeated incidents despite frequent promises by U.S. officials to prevent them. |
That story reminds me of this event:
| Soldiers Rape Girls
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that 20,000 (and perhaps up to 80,000) women were raped, their ages ranging from infants to the elderly (as old as 80). […] According to some testimonies, other women were forced into military prostitution as comfort women. |
Has Japan formally asked forgiveness for those World War II events (and many other cases of rape during that war)? It seems it has.
But any possible hypocrisy and double standard aside, and the affairs of nations aside, and the posturing of politicians aside, these stories remind me of what Jesus had to say on the subject of forgiveness.
In Luke 11:4 we have this: “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.”
And in Matthew 6:12,14,15 there’s this: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Then in Matthew 18 Jesus tells a story on the subject. Here are the concluding verses:
| 32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. |
So, now, which sin will I refuse to forgive?
For which offense or wrong will I continue to hold a grudge?
Who is currently on my No Forgiveness for These list?