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TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Yasuji Kaneko, 87, still remembers the screams of the countless women he raped in China as a soldier in the Japanese imperial army in World War II.
Some were teenagers from Korea serving as sex slaves in military-run brothels. Others were women in villages he and his comrades pillaged in eastern China.
"They cried out, but it didn't matter to us whether the women lived or died," Kaneko said in an interview with The Associated Press at his Tokyo home. "We were the emperor's soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we raped without reluctance."
Historians say some 200,000 women -- mostly from Korea and China -- served in the Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Many victims say they were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops, and the top government spokesman acknowledged the wrongdoing in 1993.
Now some in Japan's government are questioning whether the apology was needed.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday denied women were forced into military brothels across Asia, boosting renewed efforts by right-wing politicians to push for an official revision of the apology.
"The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion," Abe said.
Abe's remarks contradicted evidence in Japanese documents unearthed in 1992 that historians said showed military authorities had a direct role in working with contractors to forcibly procure women for the brothels.
The comments were certain to rile South Korea and China, which accuse Tokyo of failing to fully atone for wartime atrocities. Abe's government has been recently working to repair relations with Seoul and Beijing.
The statement came just hours after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun marked a national holiday honoring the anniversary of a 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule by urging Tokyo to come clean about its past.
" I was so young. I did not understand what had happened to me. My cries then still ring in my years. Even now, I can't sleep." - Lee Yong-soo
Roh also referred to hearings held by the U.S. House of Representatives last month on a resolution urging Japan to "apologize for and acknowledge" the imperial army's use of sex slaves during the war.
"The testimony reiterated a message that no matter how hard the Japanese try to cover the whole sky with their hand, there is no way that the international community would condone the atrocities committed during Japanese colonial rule," Roh said.
Dozens of people rallied outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to mark the anniversary, lining up dead dogs' heads on the ground with pieces of paper in their mouths listing names of Koreans who allegedly collaborated with the Japanese during its 1910-45 colonial rule. Protest organizers said the animals were slaughtered at a restaurant; dogs are regularly consumed as food in Korea.
Roh's office said late Thursday it did not immediately have a direct response to the Japanese leader's remarks. In Beijing, calls to the Chinese Foreign Ministry seeking comment on the remarks were not immediately returned.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would not comment on Abe's statement. "I'll let the Japanese political system deal with that," he said.
Abe's comments were a reversal from the government's previous stance. In 1993, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologized to the victims of sex slavery, though the statement did not meet demands by former "comfort women" that it be approved by parliament.
Two years later, the government set up a compensation fund for victims, but it was based on private donations -- not government money -- and has been criticized as a way for the government to avoid owning up to the abuse. The mandate is to expire March 31.
The sex slave question has been a cause celebre for nationalist politicians and scholars in Japan who claim the women were professional prostitutes and were not coerced into servitude by the military.
Before Abe spoke Thursday, a group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers discussed their plans for a proposal to urge the government to water down parts of the 1993 apology and deny direct military involvement.
Nariaki Nakayama, chairman of the group of about 120 lawmakers, sought to play down the government's involvement in the brothels by saying it was similar to a school that hires a company to run its cafeteria.
"Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs, and set prices," he said.
"Where there's demand, businesses crop up ... but to say women were forced by the Japanese military into service is off the mark," he said. "This issue must be reconsidered, based on truth ... for the sake of Japanese honor."
Sex slave victims, however, say they still suffer wounds -- physical and psychological -- from the war.
Lee Yong-soo, 78, a South Korean who was interviewed during a recent trip to Tokyo, said she was 14 when Japanese soldiers took her from her home in 1944 to work as a sex slave in Taiwan.
"The Japanese government must not run from its responsibilities," said Lee, who has long campaigned for Japanese compensation. "I want them to apologize. To admit that they took me away, when I was a little girl, to be a sex slave. To admit that history."
"I was so young. I did not understand what had happened to me," she said. "My cries then still ring in my years. Even now, I can't sleep."
edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD.../index.html
Some were teenagers from Korea serving as sex slaves in military-run brothels. Others were women in villages he and his comrades pillaged in eastern China.
"They cried out, but it didn't matter to us whether the women lived or died," Kaneko said in an interview with The Associated Press at his Tokyo home. "We were the emperor's soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we raped without reluctance."
Historians say some 200,000 women -- mostly from Korea and China -- served in the Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Many victims say they were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops, and the top government spokesman acknowledged the wrongdoing in 1993.
Now some in Japan's government are questioning whether the apology was needed.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday denied women were forced into military brothels across Asia, boosting renewed efforts by right-wing politicians to push for an official revision of the apology.
"The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion," Abe said.
Abe's remarks contradicted evidence in Japanese documents unearthed in 1992 that historians said showed military authorities had a direct role in working with contractors to forcibly procure women for the brothels.
The comments were certain to rile South Korea and China, which accuse Tokyo of failing to fully atone for wartime atrocities. Abe's government has been recently working to repair relations with Seoul and Beijing.
The statement came just hours after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun marked a national holiday honoring the anniversary of a 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule by urging Tokyo to come clean about its past.
" I was so young. I did not understand what had happened to me. My cries then still ring in my years. Even now, I can't sleep." - Lee Yong-soo
Roh also referred to hearings held by the U.S. House of Representatives last month on a resolution urging Japan to "apologize for and acknowledge" the imperial army's use of sex slaves during the war.
"The testimony reiterated a message that no matter how hard the Japanese try to cover the whole sky with their hand, there is no way that the international community would condone the atrocities committed during Japanese colonial rule," Roh said.
Dozens of people rallied outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to mark the anniversary, lining up dead dogs' heads on the ground with pieces of paper in their mouths listing names of Koreans who allegedly collaborated with the Japanese during its 1910-45 colonial rule. Protest organizers said the animals were slaughtered at a restaurant; dogs are regularly consumed as food in Korea.
Roh's office said late Thursday it did not immediately have a direct response to the Japanese leader's remarks. In Beijing, calls to the Chinese Foreign Ministry seeking comment on the remarks were not immediately returned.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would not comment on Abe's statement. "I'll let the Japanese political system deal with that," he said.
Abe's comments were a reversal from the government's previous stance. In 1993, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologized to the victims of sex slavery, though the statement did not meet demands by former "comfort women" that it be approved by parliament.
Two years later, the government set up a compensation fund for victims, but it was based on private donations -- not government money -- and has been criticized as a way for the government to avoid owning up to the abuse. The mandate is to expire March 31.
The sex slave question has been a cause celebre for nationalist politicians and scholars in Japan who claim the women were professional prostitutes and were not coerced into servitude by the military.
Before Abe spoke Thursday, a group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers discussed their plans for a proposal to urge the government to water down parts of the 1993 apology and deny direct military involvement.
Nariaki Nakayama, chairman of the group of about 120 lawmakers, sought to play down the government's involvement in the brothels by saying it was similar to a school that hires a company to run its cafeteria.
"Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs, and set prices," he said.
"Where there's demand, businesses crop up ... but to say women were forced by the Japanese military into service is off the mark," he said. "This issue must be reconsidered, based on truth ... for the sake of Japanese honor."
Sex slave victims, however, say they still suffer wounds -- physical and psychological -- from the war.
Lee Yong-soo, 78, a South Korean who was interviewed during a recent trip to Tokyo, said she was 14 when Japanese soldiers took her from her home in 1944 to work as a sex slave in Taiwan.
"The Japanese government must not run from its responsibilities," said Lee, who has long campaigned for Japanese compensation. "I want them to apologize. To admit that they took me away, when I was a little girl, to be a sex slave. To admit that history."
"I was so young. I did not understand what had happened to me," she said. "My cries then still ring in my years. Even now, I can't sleep."
edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD.../index.html
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TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japan will not apologize again for its World War II military brothels, even if the U.S. Congress passes a resolution demanding it, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament Monday.
Abe, elaborating on his denial last week that women were forced to serve as frontline prostitutes, said none of the testimony in hearings last month by the U.S. House of Representatives offered any solid proof of abuse.
"I must say we will not apologize even if there's a resolution," Abe told lawmakers in a lengthy debate, during which he also said he stood by Japan's landmark 1993 apology on the brothels.
Historians say that up to 200,000 women -- mostly from Korea and China -- served in Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and '40s.
Accounts of abuse by the military -- including kidnapping of women and girls for use in the brothels -- have been backed up by witnesses, victims and even former Japanese soldiers.
But prominent Japanese scholars and politicians routinely deny direct military involvement or the use of force in rounding up the women, blaming private contractors for any abuses.
Abe last week sided with the critics, saying that there was no proof that the women were coerced into prostitution, igniting a storm of criticism and protests in South Korea and other countries where the women came from.
On Monday, he elaborated, saying there was no evidence of coercion in the strict sense -- such as kidnapping -- but he acknowledged that brokers procuring women otherwise forced the victims to work as prostitutes. Abe did not explain further.
The U.S. House is considering a nonbinding resolution that would demand a formal acknowledgment and apology from the Japanese government for the brothels.
A House committee heard testimony last month from women who described being taking captive by Japanese authorities and repeatedly raped as so-called "comfort women."
Abe suggested he did not consider such testimony conclusive evidence.
"There was no testimony based that had any proof," he told lawmakers Monday.
edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD.../index.html -
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Even after 62 years, Grant Goodman, a retired Kansas University history professor, still is involved in a World War II-era Japanese dispute.
On Friday, nationalist Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied that the Japanese Imperialist Army ever owned and operated military brothels, or “comfort stations,” during World War II and questioned the nation’s public apology made 14 years ago for its involvement in sex slavery.
Goodman, 82, who uncovered documentation that proved the brothels indeed existed, was shocked.
“I was disbelieving,” he said about Abe’s statement. “I thought this is cuckoo, why now? This issue has been buried for years.”
The retiree sat in his Brandon Woods Retirement Community home, adorned with Japanese decor, and shared an account of a visit in August of 1993 with a former Japanese consul general in Kansas City, Mo.
“He told me thanks to my documents, the Japanese government had been forced to admit that they were responsible for the comfort women,” he said.
The meeting was a memorable moment, Goodman said, and the consul appeared grateful, but he said the apology was likely done out of political and economic interests.
Wartime intelligence
Goodman discovered the documents when he was serving as a second lieutenant for the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Service during World War II. He gathered intelligence about the morale of Japanese armed forces, interrogated captured Japanese prisoners of war and translated Japanese documents for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section at Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in Manila, Philippines.
Goodman was 20 when he was translating documents about Japanese armed forces amenities. Some of those amenities included opportunities for leave, geishas and brothels. He translated a 12-page document outlining the direct involvement of the Japanese military in the organization and utilization of brothels. He said it caught his attention, and he knew that U.S. military intelligence had known Japanese military brothels had existed since 1937, but he didn’t know what to do with the information at the time.
He kept a copy of the documents and mailed them home to his parents. He didn’t touch them again until 1992.
It was in that year that Goodman noticed a news account about Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki, of Chuo University in Tokyo, who had found similar documents in the Japanese Defense Agency archives. Soon afterward, Japan’s prime minister offered a public apology for the government’s role in the matter of “comfort women.”
After the apology, Goodman was reminded of the research report he possessed. He released his copy of the documents to a Japanese journalist in order to prove the government’s role in the brothels.
Taking responsibility
Goodman said he doesn’t understand why the current prime minister would contradict the evidence, and why now.
“He must think he’s going to gain some internal political mileage,” he said. “Otherwise, I really don’t get it.”
Takao Shibata, a Japanese lecturer at Kansas University and former Japanese general consul in Kansas City, Mo., said the prime minister should not have made the comment.
Shibata said Abe was referring to technicalities of historical evidence when he stated the military wasn’t coercive in mobilizing the women because the military was authorizing private companies.
“The fact is there is no evidence to prove there is coercion, that’s what he’s saying,” Shibata said. “We should take the responsibility; we apologized in 1993 and that is the sentiment of the Japanese people, and the prime minister should have expressed that.” Instead, the nation appears to be avoiding the responsibility of the historical deplorable act, Shibata said.
Goodman said it’s going to be an unpleasant issue among Japan, Korea and China because so many Koreans and Chinese were enslaved. According to editors of the book “Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II,” to which Goodman contributed a chapter, 200,000 Asian women were enslaved during the war.
Goodman said he has documentary films of Korean women who were sex slaves.
“I break up every time I see it,” he said. “It’s terrible how they were treated.
“It’s an unfortunate phenomenon all the way around.”
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through my experiences of living in Japan for so long I have discovered many things that are done in completely opposite ways
but it remains obvious that many politicians find honor with their head's up their
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What I don't understand is why did he say this? Japanese politicians often say that they've already apologized so there is no need to apologize again. But this sounds like a retraction. Is he trying to please his base? Does this have anything to do with the resolution that is going through Congress?
By the way, Mike Honda, a Japanese American Congressman from California who grew up in an internment camp, strongly supports this resolution. Here is what he had to say about it:
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Thank you, Chairman Faleomavaega, for holding this historic hearing. And thank you for inviting me to testify before the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on the comfort women tragedy, which my good friend and our former colleague, Lane Evans long advocated to be addressed by the U.S. Congress.
As the members of the Subcommittee know, I recently introduced H.Res.121, a resolution calling on the Government of Japan to formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force’s coercion of young women and girls into sexual slavery starting in the 1930s during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands. Euphemistically known as “Comfort Women,” these violated women have too long been denied their dignity and honor.
My interest in seeking justice for the Comfort Women began during my career as a schoolteacher in San Jose. A couple decades ago, I learned that Japan’s Ministry of Education sought to omit or downplay the comfort women tragedy in its approved textbooks. As a teacher interested in historical reconciliation, I knew the importance of teaching and talking about tragedy and injustice without flinching from the details. Without honesty and candor, there is no foundation for reconciliation.
My subsequent research on Japan’s long unresolved history issues with its former adversaries led me to pursue efforts toward reconciliation in the California State Assembly. In 1999, I authored Assembly Joint Resolution 27 (AJR27), which called on Congress to urge the Japanese government to issue an apology for the victims of the Rape of Nanking, Comfort Women, and POWs who were used as slave laborers. The resolution was ultimately passed.
Now, nearly nine years after the passage of AJR27, I stand united with several of my colleagues in the House, from both parties, in support of H.Res.121 and the surviving Comfort Women who are here with us today. The urgency is upon this Committee and the Congress to take quick action on this resolution. These women are aging and their numbers dwindling with each passing day. If we do not act now, we will lose a historic opportunity to encourage the Government of Japan to properly acknowledge responsibility for the plight of the Comfort Women.
Elected officials of Japan have taken steps to address this issue, and for that they are to be commended. In 1993, Japan’s then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued an encouraging statement regarding Comfort Women, which expressed the Government’s sincere apologies and remorse for their ordeal. Additionally, Japan attempted to provide monetary compensation to surviving comfort women through the Asia Women’s Fund, a government initiated and largely government-funded private foundation whose purpose was the carrying out of programs and projects with the aim of atonement for the Comfort Women. The Asia Women’s Fund is to be disbanded on March 31, 2007.
Recent attempts, however, by some senior members of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party to review and even possibly retract Secretary Kono’s statement are disheartening and mark Japan’s equivocation on this issue. Additionally, while I appreciate Japan’s creation of the Asia Women’s Fund and the past prime minister’s apologies to some comfort women, which accompanied this Fund’s disbursal of monetary compensation from this fund, the reality is that without a sincere and unequivocal apology from the government of Japan, the majority of surviving Comfort Women refused to accept these funds. In fact, as you will hear today, many Comfort Women returned the Prime Minister’s letter of apology accompanying the monetary compensation saying they felt the apology was artificial and disingenuous.
Mr. Chairman, let me make my intentions abundantly clear: this resolution provides for historical reconciliation and then moving forward. It is not in any way meant to and should not damage our strong relationship with Japan. I understand that many feel strongly that this resolution is unnecessary, that it focuses too much on the past, and fear it will negatively affect regional stability along with our alliance with Japan.
These worries are unfounded. I feel strongly that accepting responsibility for the Comfort Women tragedy is worthy of a nation as great as Japan is to do. I also feel strongly that reconciliation on this issue will have a positive effect upon relationships in the region as historical anxieties are put to rest.
I ask that Members of Congress understand that apologies on matters of historical significance are important and that they are the first, necessary steps in any attempt to reconcile differences or atone for past actions. Our government has made its own mistakes. But in its wisdom, it has made the difficult choice to admit wrongdoing.
For example, in 1988, Congress passed, and President Ronald Reagan signed into law, H.R. 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which was a formal apology to U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly put into internment camps during World War II. As someone who was put into an internment camp as an infant, I know firsthand that we must not be ignorant of the past, and that reconciliation through government actions to admit error are the only ones likely to be long lasting.
For many Japanese Americans whose civil and constitutional rights were violated by internment, that dark chapter of history was closed by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which emerged over 40 years after internment. Seeking reparations was a long and arduous journey, but the apology, once it came, was clear and unequivocal. Reconciliation is something our generation should rightfully be calling for in order to promote the growth of a peaceful global society, and to address issues of the past so we can finally put them to rest.
Americans have high expectations of close allies such as Japan, which shares so many of our values and ideals. Japan’s current approach of denial to the Comfort Woman tragedy -- some call it a historic fabrication -- detracts from the relationship and questions the overall alliance in the eyes of Japan’s neighbors. It compels one also to question Japan’s appreciation of the Dutch, British, and Australian soldiers who recently guarded Japan’s Self Defense Forces in Iraq, whose country’s nationals are said to have been included in the Comfort Women system. Most important, the failure of Japan to successfully resolve their culpability and responsibility toward the Comfort Women casts doubt upon Japan’s commitment to human rights, violence against women in war and UN leadership.
Mr. Chairman, for reconciliation and justice for these women, I have worked very hard to bring these three survivors, Ms. Lee Yong Soo, Ms. Kim Koon-Ja, and Ms. Jan Ruff O’Herne, to Washington. They are the human face of the wartime violence against women. Their words reflect not just history but the continued pattern of organized abuse of women in conflict. Members of Congress who feel that this resolution is unnecessary need to look no further than these three women who know that they speak not just for themselves but also for the young women in Burma, Bosnia, and Darfur.
I commend groups such as the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women, Amnesty International, V-Day, the Korean American Voter’s Council, the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Justice for Comfort Women, the Global Alliance for Preserving History of World War II in Asia, and the Center for Women Policy Studies for their continued and tireless work on behalf of these women -- without which much of the efforts to keep this issue alive would have failed long ago.
I urge the Committee to act swiftly on H.Res.121 so that it soon may come to the floor for a vote. The strength and humanity of these women and the truths to which they testify today must supersede any political pressures to stop this resolution.
Thank you.
www.house.gov/apps/list/p...stimony.html
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What i meant to mean was-
lots of things are different here but things in the realm of politics are not so different from over there .
History is not so well written over there(states) either but maybe the agenda is.
The government's are obviously corrupt and don't have a clue &/or don't care for the common goodness of human's alike.
Thank you for posting this. I don't watch TV much but I checked the national news the last couple of nights and didn't hear
any mention of this. It was interesting to see an LJW headline. That is my hometown newspaper.
Why else would they(Abe...) deny these things, and others, but to eventually want to erase it from the minds for future soldiers/slaves. Some honor=ignorant pride.
Japan never stands up for themselves nor can protect their culture towards the manipulations of America yet they want to stand up for this?
i don't know?
Another thing is the internationally known abductions of Japanese by the North Koreans. This deserves attention and follow through but it seems strange to me that nothing at all is mentioned of the 100 fold(10,000?s fold) of abductions by the Japanese not so long ago and throughout the countries history.
Some traditions here have actually been born through abductions from Korea & China.
Subtle Fascist(redneck) ways still linger. Their is racism here but fortunately it's not violent. Half's(I called my children doubles) have had it hard here(some more than others) but I think it is changing for the better now with the young people.
Yes, the Japanese people do not speak out for change. Most people have lost all faith towards representation and enjoy themselves passively. It used to bother me as well but then again, has any of all that speaking out changed the way things are done in Bushland?
The sooner the better.
People are waking up and becoming aware. Others are going, going, long gone and here comes Nationalism again. Here & there.
What can we do????? but be-aware as we enjoy our times and spread the gratitude. Do what we feel is right and don't take part in things that hurt others or the Planet. Awareness travels through what we do.
Eventually it will become so ridiculous & cave in on themselves. Fighting it will just feed their agenda on & on.
Japan also has a truly sensitive and beautiful culture, and people, that I would like to see have better representation!
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Thank you very much for posting these, Maple.
I am a Japan-born Japanese living in US. And I think not only the current PM/government but also all previous PMs/cabinets are just too fucking stupid. Even as a Japane-educated Japanese, I completely fail to see the "benefit" of not apologizing to the people of China and Korea, nor do I see the point of their "honor" in not apologizing.
This is a typical example of the fact that Japan as a whole hasn't changed. I blame this on not only the PM and the cabinet, government officials and Yakuza's, but also the Japanese citizens who are reluctant to act for a change and are contempt in letting this go or ignoring or choosing inaction, instead. Their leaders (if you can call them "leaders"... what a laugh) can even envision what are to come in the future because of this more than 60-year-old issue. To keep an "honor"? With the current world standard, Japan should be detested by the rest of the world for the past crime.
Germans are so smart. Look where they are now, and I can see their good future. I don't see that in Japan and its actions.
And Japanese people are wondering, "why do they hate us?" or "why can't we get along?" Bullshit.
In my mind, this is to become one of the major reasons for any future conflicts in Far East, if they don't do something about it.
Not only the US government (the keeper of the tail-wagging puppy called Japan), but also UN, NATO, EU and ASEAN all should put enormous pressure on those ignorant assholes to get this resolved. They deserve an economic sanction, if you ask me. (Why only middle-eastern nations got to suffer from whatever the reason, recent or past?) -
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It's funny, my father said the same thing. I guess it goes without saying that he was unusual in marrying a foreign woman, but my Japanese side of the family was very much against the Emperor and Japan's wartime attrocities, so they are not the norm. My father always said the Japanese hasn't changed and it is only a matter of time before they become a military power again and wage war. I'm not sure if I totally believe in this, but I do believe that if a people do not acknowledge responsibility for their mistakes, they are in danger of repeating it in the future. This is a classic case of denial, probably to avert feelings of shame.
But this issue will go on as long as they hold on to this attitude that "it happened so long ago" and that "things happen in war" etc. My God, what's so difficult to say: "We take full responsibility for the wartime attrocities including forcing women in Asia into prostitution and the Rape of Nanking and other such incidents that were sanctioned by the army." I mean, what's so difficult about that? Is it because acknowledging the truth would freak people out and they will convulse on the ground because of shame? If that's the case, they need therapy. Just acknowledge it, make amends, and move on. They are just making matters worse for themselves by continually acting this way.
There is no honor in this what-so-ever. How about the honor of acknowledging guilt? I thought apologizing was considered honorable in Japan, no? An employee screws up, the boss apologizes. So why can't the nation do the same?
Anyway, I do think this has a lot to do with Japanese culture on a whole. Resistance to change, keeping "bad" things hidden, etc.
This is a lot like the Armenian Genocide. Turkey keeps denying it and it's been going on forever. It's often been said that it was the Armenian Genocide that influenced the Holocaust, as Hitler once said:
"Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter -- with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilisation will say about me. I have issued the command -- and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad -- that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness -- for the present only in the East -- with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space which we need. Who, after all, speaks to-day of the annihilation of the Armenians?" -
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TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan, under diplomatic fire for appearing to sidestep responsibility for forcing women to act as wartime sex slaves for its soldiers, said on Wednesday that the government stood by a 1993 apology acknowledging coercion.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stirred anger in China, Taiwan and South Korea with remarks last week appearing to question the state's role in forcing the mostly Asian women to act as prostitutes during World War Two, although he also said the earlier apology stood.
The apology, known as the "Kono Statement" after then-chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono, in whose name it was issued, acknowledged the Japanese military's role in setting up and running wartime brothels as well the fact that many of the women were taken to and kept in the brothels against their will.
"The government stands by the Kono Statement, including its recognition of coercion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference. "Recent comments by the prime minister show this stance will not change."
Abe touched off additional protests when he said on Monday that Japan would not apologize again over the sex-slave issue, even if U.S. lawmakers adopt a resolution calling for an apology.
The non-binding resolution introduced by U.S. Congressman Michael Honda, a California Democrat, calls on Japan to unambiguously apologize for the suffering that thousands of Asian women, many Korean, endured at the hands of its Imperial Army.
Despite the government apology, reference to "comfort women" -- Japan's euphemism for wartime sex slaves -- was deleted from many school textbooks in 2005, and some lawmakers in Abe's ruling party say that the 1993 statement should be watered down.
South Korea has expressed outrage over Abe's remarks and on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing urged Japan to confront its past on the topic and accept responsibility while Taiwan called on Japan to apologize and compensate the women.
'Comfort women' protest
Elderly South Korean women who had served as "comfort women" protested on Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, while in Tokyo members of a women's group gathered near parliament to lambast Abe's remarks and show solidarity with the victims.
Around 30 women gathered in Sydney to wave red paper butterflies with the words "Break the silence. Bring justice to comfort women."
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, visiting Seoul on Tuesday, noted that Japan had apologized in the past.
But an editorial in the New York Times blasted Tokyo for what it termed "efforts to contort the truth" -- an attack that was featured on Japanese news programs.
Shiozaki sought to allay concern that Abe's refusal to apologize again contradicted the spirit of the 1993 statement.
"Parts of the resolution are not based on objective fact, and it does not include what the government has done up to now, so that's why the prime minister has said Japan will not apologize again -- a view that does not contradict the statement at all," he said, adding that the intensifying debate was not constructive.
"The longer this discussion goes on, the more misunderstandings there are likely to be," Shiozaki said.
Abe, who wants to rewrite Japan's pacifist constitution and restore a sense of pride in the nation's past, upset core conservative supporters when he softened his stance on wartime history after taking office last September.
That shift was generally seen as an effort to smooth the way for summits with China and South Korea to improve ties that had chilled under his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.
Analysts have said Abe's recent comments were intended to bolster his core conservative support at a time when his popularity ratings among voters generally have slumped.
"There is no evidence to back up that there was coercion as defined initially," he told reporters on Thursday, apparently referring to accusations that the Imperial Army had kidnapped women and put them in brothels to serve soldiers.
Abe told parliament on Monday that there seemed to have been some cases of coercion, such as by middlemen, but he said that officials had not broken into peoples' homes and kidnapped women.
Some experts say that not all or even most of the women were physically coerced, but they say that does not absolve the Japanese government of responsibility for their suffering.
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WHAT MASSACRE?
LDP, DPJ ranks hear Nanjing denial lecture
About 30 lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan gathered Tuesday to hear a controversial historian talk about why he figures the Nanjing Massacre is a "complete fabrication."
At the second of a three-part lecture series held in a building housing lawmakers' offices across from the Diet building, Shudo Higashinakano, a history professor at Asia University in Tokyo, told the small group that the Nanjing Massacre was simply Chinese government propaganda.
"I've investigated many materials and come to the conclusion that a massacre never took place," Higashinakano claimed.
The professor was invited by a group of 16 lawmakers who already agree with him, including Toru Toida and Tomomi Inada of the LDP, and Jin Matsubara and Shu Watanabe of the DPJ, the main opposition force.
Higashinakano is a well-known public figure. Last year the Nanjing City Intermediate People's Court ordered him and another historian to pay 23 million yen in compensation to a Chinese woman for alleging in a publication that she had lied about having witnessed the massacre. Historians worldwide generally agree that the Imperial Japanese Army killed at least 150,000 civilians and raped thousands of women and girls during its occupation of the former capital of China in 1937 and 1938.
Higashinakano bases his claim on reports that the population of Nanjing, about 200,000, did not decline between 1937 and 1938.
Higashinakano told the group there was no organized rape or murder, and individual soldiers caught raping women were severely punished by their superiors.
"There might have been individual cases of stealing and rape, but the incidents were far from what the word 'massacre' implies," Higashinakano said. He said any reports of mass murder of civilians were legitimate executions of Chinese soldiers by the Japanese.
The group applauded Higashinakano at the end of his 90-minute talk and Matsubara said, "I'm convinced now that the Nanjing Massacre never took place."
The first lecture, last month, contested the content in the "Rape of Nanking" by the late American journalist Iris Chang. The last lecture, March 13, will be on what historians who don't believe the massacre took place think actually happened during Japan's occupation of the region.
According to the organizer, the lectures are to counter several films being made outside of Japan and will be released this year to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre.
The 10 films being prepared are based on wrong information and are hateful toward Japan, Higashinakano charged.
Despite his claims, there was a wealth of Western press photos and correspondence coming from Nanjing at the time detailing the atrocities, as well as diplomatic correspondence, including from Germans, whose nation at the time had yet to add Japan to the Axis powers. Some of the items were later used in the Tokyo war crimes tribunal.
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I am not sure if Japanese will come to see themselves waging war again in the future, and personally that's something I don't want to see. But you never know when the recent PMs and the cabinet, Liberal Democratic Party and other scums keep wagging their tail to the US government administration(s) that's infatuated with waging wars. A little puppy might grow up to be a little pitbull.
Japan has no vision for itself for the future. Everything they do is reactionary to what takes place, based on no visions, plans, and even an opinion of some politicians. No wonder the Japanese public is lost.
America is a very insteresting place, because one election - notably the election in last November - can reflect the public views and opinions and start changing its course. Changing its own course and fate! Whatever the US will be doing in the near future, its people have spoken and expressed their sentiment. Not Japan. That fucking place never changes.
Because of the fact that Japan has no visions and plans for itself, it doesn't see the future. Germans saw their future, shortly after coming out of the nightmare of Hitler and WW2. They just knew what to do, in order to sustain itself as a nation for the post-war period, build back up, grow, and stabilize. That's where they are, still maintaining a certain level of "what to do to become a good world citizen diplomatically". Case in point, it's good to reflect how they behaved around 911, US invasion of Afghanistan, and US invasion of Iraq. Germans are civilized and conscious in that way. Again, not Japan. I can't shake off an idea that I have about my own motherland: Japan is just a third-world country mentally, still in development state, which is to last near forever, who happens to have lots of fucking money. If you think that a wealthy nation implies a civilized nation, Japan is an example that shatters that belief. They need to grow up mentally and in their consciousness.
One hope that I have for Japan is to become a cultural and creative center in Far East, as in my mind Asians are not the kind of people who can think out of box and bring out truely original and creative ideas. With their social system defunct and collapsed, those who have flexible minds and creativity among younger generations have just started to notice and take leads in such lifestyle. Out of these creative young minds come interesting films, anime, music and non-standard cultures and lifestyles. Of course, these people also tend to be pretty detached from Japanese politics and diplomacy, so I don't know what kind of political and diplomatic changes they would be able to bring.
I said Anime, because, if you look at the credits of anime movies and TV shows, you would find that the creation is really collaborations among Far East Asians: Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, etc. which I take it as a positive. On the other hand, I am throwing up my arms and rolling my eyes about the mainstream in Japan. -
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I know Bush wants Japan to alter its pacifist constitution so that Japan can become a partner in regional security, but based on their recent political maneuvers, I'm not so sure this is such a good idea. I mean, should a country that cannot acknowledge its past war crimes act as a military power?
Anyway, it looks like Abe is consulting the same playbook as Bush. Those who question Japan's actions both past and present are anti-Japanese terrorists who hate Japanese freedom. Maybe we should start calling him Bush's poodle in Asia.
The thing about Japan, as I understand it from my father, is that the whole motivation for the generation that grew up in the aftermath of WWII was to rebuild Japan and make it prosperous again. It's the same catch up to the West thing, which the country did during the Meiji Restoration.
But now that Japan is the second biggest economy in the world, this motivation doesn't apply anymore. Hence, you have a newer generation that's visionless.
My father only voted once in Japan and has subsequently said that there is no point as everyone always votes for the LDP (which is not totally correct, as I believe the LDP has lost twice since WWII). And I've personally been optimistic that there is now an opposition party, the DPJ. But it looks like members of the DPJ also question Japan's role in committing attrocities during WWII. How disheartening.
My view is Japan is half way between a Western/civilized/industrialized/whatever-you-want-to-call-it country and a third world country. But I don't think it's totally as bad as some backward countries out there. If I remember correctly, Japan does gives a lot of financial aid to poor countries.
Also, there has been Japanese here and there that have thought outside of the box, like Akio Morita (founder of SONY), Fusajiro Yamauchi (founder of Nintendo), the guy who came up with the idea for the shinkansen (forgot his name--check out the program about bullet trains on the History Channel), Toru Iwatani (who created Pac-Man), Toshihiro Nishikado (designer of Space invaders), and many others.
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I agree about imposing sanctions on Japan, but that will never happen. Japan and China are the two countries that are keeping the U.S. afloat right now. They are the ones who are buying dollars to finance our national debt. They could always threaten to sell dollars.
Japan has always played its hand well in geopolitics. Because of the Korean War and then Vietnam, Japan made itself an ally that the United States couldn't do without.
Again, the parallels with Turkey is quite striking. Resolutions for recognizing the Armenian Genocide has continually been scuttled due to pressure from Turkey. The United States desperately wants to have a permanent outpost in the Middle East and Turkey is more than happy to let them use their airbases. But this comes at price.
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