Shinzo Abe’s Duty to History
The Japanese prime minister does the U.S. no favors by overlooking his country’s past atrocities.
By CHUNG MIN LEE
April 16, 2015 12:57 p.m. ET
http://www.wsj.com/articles/shinzo-abes-duty-to-history-1429203445?mod=rss_Opinion?mod=hp_opinion
All eyes in Asia are on Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he prepares to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on April 29. This year being the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, what historical message will Mr. Abe choose to deliver?
He has roughly three options: admit the horrible wrongdoings of Japan’s military regime before and during World War II; stress a kind of moral equivalence between Japan and the U.S., as Tokyo started the war by attacking Pearl Harbor but Washington ended it by dropping two atomic bombs; or highlight Japan’s postwar history as a model democracy, America’s best friend in Asia and the region’s biggest contributor to economic development.
If Mr. Abe’s previous comments and actions are a guide, he will likely choose the second and third options, which reflect the narrative that most Japanese prefer. Mr. Abe has said that Japan must never go back to its imperialist past, but he has also stressed the solemn duty of honoring Japanese soldiers killed in World War II.
Yet if Mr. Abe continues to whitewash and ignore Japan’s wartime atrocities—including sexual slavery and grotesque medical experiments on live prisoners, including Americans—then Japan will lose its claim to being a postwar beacon of democracy, human rights and dignity.
Many Americans feel uneasy, if not fatigued, by the constant Chinese and South Korean focus on history. Yes, they say, Japan made terrible mistakes during the war, but that was 70 years ago and it’s time to move on. Besides, all countries have dark chapters in their histories, and China is hardly an exception. Japan has been a responsible major power since 1945, is one of the largest contributors to the United Nations and stands with the U.S. on virtually all the important issues. South Korea’s wounds are understandable, but a fellow democracy and major U.S. ally should have the courage to look beyond historical grievances.
Such assertions miss a central point: Japan’s benign postwar record doesn’t erase what came before. The still-mighty yen can buy many things, but it can’t buy the collective memory of Asians or even Americans.
Mr. Abe’s revisionism works against U.S. strategic interests—including President Obama’s signature pivot to Asia—because a Japan that won’t come to terms with history undermines regional reconciliation and provides China with its best excuse for growing its military. A Japan that denies history also raises China’s international profile and feeds a perception that China’s official voice is in harmony with the rest of Asia’s.
Amid China’s rise, ensuring security and stability in Asia isn’t just about maintaining effective deterrence and defense. It also requires strengthening Asian democracies and building up soft-power assets such as respect for human rights, civil liberties and historical reconciliation.
No matter how much Japan contributes to the U.S.-Japan alliance or overseas development assistance, a Japanese leader who is moved to tears by a hit movie on the sacrifices made by kamikaze pilots in World War II, or who disputes that 300,000 innocents were butchered in the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, can never win the hearts and minds of fellow Asians.
Mr. Abe may believe that winning hearts and minds isn’t nearly as important as turning Japan into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” But if that’s the exclusive message he wishes to convey to the U.S. Congress, he will forsake a golden opportunity to showcase Japan as an indispensable U.S. ally, a responsible counterpart vis-à-vis China and, most importantly, a friend to the rest of Asia.
Mr. Lee is professor of international relations at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies and a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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[jamawns' comment]
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Based on primary source,
[Nanjing incident]
http://goo.gl/ZiJieL
Q:How did CCP make the number of 300,000 victims from the number of 200,000 population of Nanjing?
A:200,000>300,000 is mathematically incorrect.
Q:Did citizens in Nanjing escaped from and were afraid of the alleged JPN slaughters?
A:Population in Nanjing immediately rose 200,000 to 250,000 during JPN occupation.
[Comfort women]
http://goo.gl/OB58fZ
Q:Did JPN government and military officially forced the women to become millionaires?
A:U.S. Gov managed to fail to find evidence of JPN's coerced prostitution in 8.5 million page official document by investing $30 million and 8 year investigation.
[Unit 731]
http://goo.gl/XfMRVS
Q:Does the United States Government have evidence that biological experiments were conducted on prisoners by Unit 731 in Manchuria during World War II.
A:(US Government)
We have not been able to locate conclusive evidence that POW's were the subject of biological warfare experiments.
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@Robert Shannon
[POW]
JPN did not admit POW treaty of 1929 and only agreed to follow it, because JPN had its original tradition to treat POW.
Such cultural background made tragedies.
On the other hand, US ally did not allow JPN surrendering soldiers with holding hands and white flags.
US ally killed them before they got POW status.
JPN commemorates even enemy dead soldiers and has no culture to insult enemy's dead bodies, while UN ally crafted JPN soldiers' dead bodies and sold them in their homeland.
The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh
http://goo.gl/J55XZc
Anguish of surrender, very page 206 was censored.
http://goo.gl/HhhtLH
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@Timothy Connor @AVERY MORROW
(1)
In 2014, U.S. air-raided against ISIL bandits. U.S. had no territorial ambition. Do you think U.S. invaded ISIL?
(2)
In 1978, Vietnam sent military to Cambodia to fight against Pol Pot. CCP declared the war against Vietnam for punishment. Vietnam had no territorial ambition. Do you think Vietnam invaded Cambodia?
(3)
In 1937, the year of the start of Sino-Japan war, Imperial Japan sent military to Sina against bandits and communism terrorists. Japan had no territorial ambition. Pope Pius XI supported the action of Japan in China by saying "The action of Japanese troops was not to invade, but to protect China. They are fighting to get rid of communism there. As long as communism in the world, Catholic believers should cooperate with Japan without hesitation."
His speech was released to all over the world but he was passed away in 1939 so his influence was limited.
Has his voice ever been heard by the U.S. citizens?
http://goo.gl/Z51OpU
http://goo.gl/XuLrYH
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[The protest of Ben Blakeney in The Tokyo Trials]
The U.S. Lawyer Ben Blakeney working for accused Japanese required justice on Tokyo trial court.
"The bald proposition indeed, is that, as a matter of law, individuals may not be charged with responsibility for wars, not at all because of high position in the state but because existing law does not prohibit it and assess a penalty. For this reason, additionally, the Indictment, insofar as it relates to the new crime of waging war by individuals, should not be tried by the Tribunal. It is superfluous to add that all charges of conspiring to do what was not itself criminal must likewise fall.
As my next point, I wish to discuss ... the proposition that killing in war is not murder. That killing in war is not murder follows from the fact that war is legal. This legalized killing -- justifiable homicide, technically, perhaps -- however repulsive, however abhorrent, has never been thought of as imposing criminal responsibility.
...
If the killing of Admiral Kidd by the bombing of Pearl Harbor is murder, we know the name of the very man who [sic] hands loosed the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, we know the chief of staff who planned that act, we know the chief of the responsible state. Is murder on their consciences? We may well doubt it. We may well doubt it, and not because the event of armed conflict has declared their cause just and their enemies unjust, but because the act is not murder. Show us the charge, produce the proof of the killing contrary to the laws and customs of war, name the man whose hand dealt the blow, produce the responsible superior who planned, ordered, permitted or acquiesced in this act, and you have brought a criminal to the bar of justice."
The judge does not yet reply it about this protest.
http://goo.gl/uc2jFt
(Thanks for anonymous translator)
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Shinzo Abe’s Duty to History is correcting historical view from fiction/fabrication to real fact, in other word, from Tokyo trial view to Greater East Asia Co-prosperity view by based on the fact, not denying but accepting.Tokyo trial, so called 'kangaroo court' has been known as the theater of anti-Japan propaganda in order to justify UN ally atrocities and to blind people toward Greater East Asia co-prosperity ideology.
The picture of this article is Yasukuni Shrine at which Indian Judge of Tokyo trial was enshrined. Justice Radhabinod Pal had answered the question at the engraved words from him “When time shall have softened passion and prejudice, when Reason shall have stripped the mask from misrepresentation, then Justice, holding evenly her scales, will require much of past censure and praise to change places”'
http://goo.gl/ZgBA7j
(Justice Radhabinod Pal)
http://goo.gl/epfHX3
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[The Joint Declaration of Greater East Asia]
It is the basic principle for the establishment of world peace that he nations of the world have each its proper place, and enjoy prosperity in common through mutual aid and assistance.
The United States of America and the British Empire have in seeking their own prosperity oppressed other nations and peoples. Especially in East Asia, they indulged in insatiable aggression and exploitation, and sought to satisfy their inordinate ambits: n of enslaving the entire region, and finally they came to menace seriously the stability of East Asia. Herein lies the cause of the recent war.
The countries of Greater East Asia, with a view to contributing to the cause of world peace, undertake to cooperate toward prosecuting the War of Greater East Asia to a successful conclusion, liberating their region from the yoke of British-American domination, and ensuring their self-existence and self-defense,. and in constructing a Greater East Asia in accordance with the following principles:
1.The countries of Greater East Asia through mutual cooperation will ensure the stability of their region and construct an order of common prosperity and well-being based upon justice.
2.The countries of Greater East Asia will ensure the fraternity of nations in their region, by respecting one another's sovereignty and independence and practicing mutual assistance and amity.
3.The countries of Greater East Asia by respecting one another's traditions and developing the creative faculties of each race, will enhance the culture and civilization of Greater East Asia.
4.The countries of Greater East Asia will endeavor to accelerate their economic development through close cooperation upon a basis of reciprocity and to promote thereby the general prosperity of their region.
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5. (Censored the original sentence in WSJ. The content is the statement of making friendly relations, abolishing racism, promoting ethnic culture, opening resources throughout all over the world, and contribute to world peaces)
(English words)
http://goo.gl/NB24vF
(Film movie)
http://goo.gl/YjZ0NN
Glorious Imperial Japan, Greater East Asia Conference Vol.2 November 5, 1943
