Responsibility to Speak Out - Takanohana for Sumo and Japan for Peace

A few days ago, Takanohana, a former Yokozuna sumo wrestler and currently stable master, apologized to the Japan Sumo Association (Nihon Sumo Kyokai) and withdrew a complaint he had filed with the cabinet office. It was about the assault of a Mongolian wrestler of his stable by other Mongolian wrestlers of other stables, including Yokozuna Hakuho and Yokozuna Harumafuji, last year. As a result of the scandal, Harumafuji retired in November 2017. If you are unfamiliar with the scandal, go to: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/11/27/national/hakuho-says-will-tell-truth-fellow-wrestlers-assault-takanoiwa-rid-sumo-world-pus/#.WrwY5q8h1ok

Not only is the sumo community conservative and violent, but also he himself was raised in such circumstances. Fighting the association means fighting his late father and grandfather, also sumo wrestlers, and himself, too. So, many Japanese had known that it must have been hard for Takanohana to fight the association, but hoped him to keep fighting to reform this one of the most closed circles in Japan despite challenges he would face. But another assault between his own disciples suddenly put it to an end. He surrendered as if he had had no right to speak out about others' violent behaviors because he and his disciple were guilty for the same wrongdoing. But is that so? If someone does a wrongdoing, do they no longer have the right to talk about others doing the same and tell that they are wrong? Or once a country commits a crime, does the country lose the right to speak about another country making the same mistake and tell others that although it made a grave mistake, what the other is doing is also a crime? I don't think so. Even if you make a mistake, do a wrongdoing, commit a crime, you still have the right to say that those doing the same thing are wrong, but on one condition. You have first to apologize and keep apologizing until the apology is accepted and sometimes you have to do so forever, because it is what sinners and criminals are supposed to do. You also have to change words and behaviors to prevent recurrences. And this is what Japan needs to do to the neighboring countries. We have to keep apologizing to them and show that we have been changing our legal and educational systems to prevent us from committing the same crime, e.g., penalizing imperialistic and racist words and actions and discussing our ways of thinking and actions during the war in school classes. This also allows us to more objectively understand our position as the only victim of atomic bombs and gives us the right to say what is wrong is wrong to countries which have nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction.

Apologizing for your stupid action on one hand while criticizing others for the same action on the other causes ambivalent feelings, but conniving by keeping quiet because of your own difficulty to deal with such feelings is abandoning responsibility. I want Takanohana to keep fighting for the sumo community. Also, Japan should fight to abolish nuclear and other weapons for peace while demonstrating that we have been reforming ourselves so that the same mistakes will never be made by not only us but also others.