It was perhaps surprising that there is so much ill will in China against Japanese school text books. The demonstrators we saw on TV were youngsters. They could not have remembered the Rape of Nanking when the Japanese butchered the civilian population, but they must be aware of it. Was the occupation of Malaya by the Japanese any different than the presence of the British? As I understand it from my reading, admittedly from English language sources, the British were in the Malay States by invitation from the Sultans. The British had bought the islands of Penang and Singapore from the Sultans and the Malacca Straits Settlement from the Dutch. Of course, they were followed by the Chinese who opened shops. Problems arose due to Malay bankruptcy law. If a debtor could not pay his creditor he and his family had to provide services to the creditor. Thus, debt slavery arose. As there was no such law in the Straits Settlement, population drifted from the Malay States to Malacca. To arrest the de-population of the Malay States the Sultans invited the British to provide the same administration as in the Straits Settlement with the exception of religious affairs. I guess there were benefits both ways and it brought the rubber industry which was essential to the twentieth century motor industry. Another source maintained that fifty per cent of the rubber was produced by Chinese smallholders. Though I digress, bankruptcy laws also caused problems in Vietnam. Under the bankruptcy law before the French a creditor could not force a creditor to part with his rice paddy. The debtor was always allowed to retain his rice paddy to support his family. The French repealed this sensible law and peasants became dispossessed of their land in a spiralling of debt owed to unscrupulous creditors. To get back on track, it is not today’s generation that should held accountable for the sins of the past. Holding Germany accountable for World War One created World War Two. However, history does serve a purpose because we can always learn from the mistakes of the past.