Nancy Sherman argues that mere
future compliance from an offending action that has already been committed is
not adequate enough moral repair, her argument is deficient because it does not
take into account the improbability of any moral repair being attempted under
these conditions. I concede that more
being done to offer moral repair by the offending party is more preferred and
does more to mend the relationship between the offending party and the victims. However, in certain circumstances, requiring
the offending party to do more besides refraining from committing a wrong again
may result in no action towards moral repair taken. I argue that some steps towards moral repair
is better than none.
In the case of the Japanese government
responding to demands of moral repair for the unwilling human experimentation
done in Unit 731 it is unreasonable to ask for the Japanese government to do
too much. If they are to pass a law that
explicitly states the illegality of human experimentation on people without
consent that would be arguably the most likely, if only, way for them to offer
some form of moral repair. I will agree
that it is an inadequate form of moral repair and that more should be
done. However, the likelihood of that
happening is very slim. The Japanese
government will most likely not admit that their actions at Unit 731 were
wrong. However, a law stating that human
experimentation on unwilling victims is wrong without them stating that they
have done so in Unit 731 is the closest thing to an admission of guilt that the
victims will likely get. This law would
acknowledge fault at human experimentation and will offer an extra step in
moral repair in assuring the victims that other people will not suffer from
unwilling human experimentation.
Your Japanese example reminds me of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments in America... but more broadly, moral damage to generations of African Americans by the American government and its people through slavery, political repression, and economic repression.
ReplyDeleteArguably worse than these, the damage done by the American government against Native Americas, in which warfare and trickery almost wiped them out.
Of course it is illegal to destroy or discriminate in these ways NOW, but as in your example this definitely does not seem like adequate moral repair... and indeed worse so given that these evils were committed against generations of people. In fact, African Americans and Native American tribes still suffer the brunt of economic and social discrimination today.
Can such wrongs ever, truly, be repaired? It is understandable that hatred, guilt, and general anguish stemming from these historical wrongs will never be truly forgotten. In that way it may be a good thing that moral repair is so hard... We CANNOT forget... so best not to forgive too quickly, even if we could.
I have read several accounts of the human experimentation in Unit 731 and I feel this example does a good job of catching a hole in Sherman's argument. I am not sure however, that there would be any sort of adequate moral repair for a situation such as this one. To give another example from something we talked about today, I also do not think there is truly any moral repair for some veterans of war. I think veterans who have been through the mental, physical, and emotional turmoil of war and deployment will never have the same moral resolve they once had before their service nor will there be any sort of moral repair that would be sufficient. Their normal reactive attitudes that we all use every day have been trained out of them to such a degree that they may not be able to truly every get them back. Without these reactive attitudes and through their morally injuring service, it hold that instead of trying to morally repair them back to where they were, they instead must move forward with a new set of moral and reactive attitudes.
ReplyDeleteFor situations such as these, the amount of moral repair it would take to fully restore the condition is beyond what humans can give or receive. For Unit 731, it would not only take severe moral repair but also an apology to many past and even future generations as well as some sort of financial compensation for the people involved (including families, friends, etc.). For veterans, it would take a specifically tailored program to each individual to try and start moral repair; something not many people have the time, patients, or money for. I agree that asking this level of moral repair is simply demanding on the parts of many.