Women in Seoul march in
memory of the women of Korea and
all of the countries that
neighbor Japan who were forced into
sexual slavery by the
Japanese Imperial Administration in the
years before and during
World War II.
On Korean Independence Day, Japan Must Admit to its Crimes (The Hankyoreh, South Korea)
"Japan hasn't made a clean break with its imperialist
history, nor is there any reason to believe that it will. ... Indeed, it would
be bizarre for nations that actually suffered a country's invasions to simply
accept it's denial that they ever occurred (arguing that “no definition of 'invasion'
has yet been established”) or calling it “normalization” to excise from its
history the story of the comfort women, who are living international symbols of
human rights abuse."
Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: As friction with China and Korea grows, Abe, the most right-wing Japanese leader in years, wants to revise Japan's post-war constitution for the first time. After decades as one of the world's most peaceful nations, can Japan again be trusted to have a national military?
Gwangbokjeol Day in South
Korea [Restoration of Light Day], or what Japanese call the “anniversary of the
war's end,” is a day closer. Because the two countries take such a different
view of August 15, things tend to be particularly tense on both sides of the
sea [of Japan] this time of year. This year, the waves are particularly rough.
This year, we greet the anniversary with the most militarist, right-wing Japanese
administration in since the Second World War: a government under Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe that believes Japan did nothing wrong
except lose the conflict.
During
a visit to his home prefecture of Yamaguchi on Aug. 12, Abe said it was his
“historic mission” to amend Japan's constitution.
“I
still haven't accomplished what I set out to do,” he said. “The battle starts
now.” He used similar language right before last year's Liberal Democratic Party
leadership polls, saying that not being able to pay his respects at Yasukuni Shrine with his first Cabinet in 2006 was the
“ultimate grief.” He seems to be expressing a determination to continue on down
the path of militarization and right-wing extremism, regardless of the concerns
of neighboring Korea and China.
Abe's
statements this week dashed any hope that after his party's resounding victory
in the House of Councilors
elections [the upper house of the Diet], he would avoid history-related disputes
likely to stir up bad blood with Japan's neighbors and focus instead on his
country's economy.
There
have been other unmistakable signs of a more aggressive foreign policy approach:
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso's remarks about Japan
needing to take a lesson from fascist Germany on how to amend the Constitution,
and the launching of a flat-topped destroyer called Izumo, the name of an earlier
warship that participated in the 1937 bombing of Shanghai
during Japan's imperial invasion. The same goes for the appointment of onetime
ambassador to France Ichiro Komatsu. This advocate of more open-ended exercise
of Japan's collective self-defense rights has been appointed director general
of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, which is in responsible for interpreting the
Constitution. Then there is the apparently inevitability Aug. 15 visit to the Yasukuni shrine by State Minister of Administrative Reform
Tomomi Inada and other cabinet members, even in the face of widespread Korean
and Chinese objections.
[Editor's
Note: Minister Taro Aso's comment about "Nazi
tactics" for altering Japan's constitution refer to the pacific
constitution adopted during the American occupation, which forbids Japan from
having a formal military, and which is exceedingly difficult to amend. His full
remark was, "Germany's Weimar Constitution was changed into the Nazi
Constitution before anyone knew ... It was changed before anyone else noticed.
Why don't we learn from that method?"]
It
could not be more obvious why Japan's neighbors are so opposed to and anxious
about these moves to amend its constitution, which would legalize the maintenance
of a standing army, and all of the signs of an intensifying nationalism. Japan
hasn't made a clean break with its imperialist history, nor is there any
reason to believe that it will.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Provocation or strange
coincidence?: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
poses in a fighter
numbered 731 - the number of a secret unit -
Unit 731 - which conducted
genocidal experiments on human
beings during World War
II.
Indeed,
it would be bizarre for nations that actually suffered a country's invasions
to simply accept it's denial that they ever happened (arguing that “no
definition of 'invasion' has yet been established”) or calling it
“normalization” to excise from its history the story of the comfort women, who are living
international symbols of human rights abuse.
Instead
of viewing Aug. 15 as the “day of the war's end” during which it paints itself
as a victim of war, Japan must accept it as a genuine defeat. Only then can it
leave behind its reputation as the root of discord in East Asia and become a genuine
friend to its neighbors.
