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Phrase: Let bygones be bygones
As a white guy living in Japan for such a long time, it is impossible not to form an opinion about Japan’s relationship with Korea.
For the most part, somehow, Europeans have been able to let bygones be bygones since the Second World War.
Canadians and Americans have done the same when it comes to being friends with Italy, Germany and Japan.
We’ve all studied history and watched countless movies about what occurred almost 80 years ago.
We’ve let bygones be bygones and no longer have any hatred for any country related to what happened during the war years.
I have also studied what happened between Japan and Korea.
I know atrocities happened, and what Imperial Japan did to Korea was not fair.
I also know that living with hatred for someone is going to burn you up inside.
As I said, I’m not from this part of the world and have no cultural, political or military connections here.
However, why can’t both Korea and Japan just get along with each other?
The bickering, the little cheap shots taken at each other and the constant recycling of old hatreds seem so pointless.
I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but why can’t both countries grow the heck up?
Life is too short to waste time fighting about things that have happened in the past.
They happened, and there is nothing anyone can do to make them unhappen.
The time to reconcile for good has long passed.
Let bygones be bygones.
We don’t have to forget past wrongdoings but do have to forgive and move on toward a brighter future.
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Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13-14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 69.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.