DATE=8/25/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=JAPAN WAR CRIMES NUMBER=5-44137 BYLINE=ALISHA RYU DATELINE=LOS ANGELE CONTENT= Internet=yes Voice at: Intro: Lawmakers in California have recently passed a resolution, urging the government of Japan to heal the lingering wounds of World War Two and offer a formal apology to victims of Japan's war crimes. But as V-O- A's Alisha Ryu explains, the Cold War is partly to blame for Japan's reluctance to acknowledge its past. Text: The California Legislature approved the measure on Tuesday after an emotional debate that ranged from examining Japan's misdeeds to whether U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Japan should also be considered atrocities. In the end, most lawmakers said they agreed with the author of the resolution -- northern Californian Assemblyman Mike Honda. Mr. Honda -- who is a third- generation Japanese-American -- believes Japan has not yet met its responsibilities on the war crimes issue despite repeated apologies by a succession of prime ministers and billions of dollars in economic aid to affected nations. // First Honda Act // What still has not happened is that the apology has not been ratified and acted upon by the Parliament of Japan or the Diet of Japan. When that happens, it becomes an official governmental apology. // End Act // Mr. Honda says the apology should be extended to everyone who was victimized by Japan's Imperial Army, including American veterans who were forced to perform slave labor in prisoner-of-war camps, an estimated two hundred thousand women from Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and elsewhere forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers, and the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who were brutalized and massacred in the event known as the "Rape of Nanking (now Nanjing)" sixty years ago. // Second Honda Act // This is not about shaming people. It is about apologizing for a shameful event that happened. It only raises the esteem of a person or a nation when that person or nation is able to have the courage to acknowledge the acts and apologize for it unequivocally. // End Act // But according to noted Japan scholar Frank Gibney, getting the Japanese government to apologize is vastly complicated by Japan's postwar history in which the United States played a leading role. He points out when World War Two ended, Western allies dismantled the power structure in Nazi Germany but failed to do the same in Japan. The United States -- eager to rebuild Japan into an ally against Communism -- chose to leave Emperor Hirohito on the throne and much of Japan's wartime power structure intact. Mr. Gibney says not surprisingly, the postwar Japanese government instituted a policy of silence about war atrocities which left generations of Japanese largely ignorant about the truth. // First Gibney Act // Because of Cold War policies, the United States chose not to make too much of Japan's war guilt after the war crime trials had concluded. The existing Japanese government inevitably included quite a few people who were guilty of war crimes. So, many of the unpleasant facts about Japan were swept under the rug (kept hidden) by all concerned. // End Act // Mr. Gibney says the Japanese people has also been under far less pressure than Germans to examine their past because -- unlike Germany -- there are no reminders of atrocities in Japan. // Second Gibney Act // With the Germans, it was inescapable because they saw the evidence before their eyes. You had the concentration camps that were right in Germany. In Japan, all the damage was done overseas. // End Act // Assemblyman Honda agrees raising awareness in Japan is as critical as raising awareness elsewhere. He says he introduced the California resolution to persuade other Japanese-Americans and Asian-Americans to create public pressure on the Japanese government. // Third Honda Act // We need to have other communities in other states to work with their legislators to do a similar thing so that over time, we will have a wave of public sentiment for our government to ask Japan to apologize. // End Act // Uniting in this common cause -- he says -- will also be an opportunity to strengthen ties between all Asian communities in the United States whose respected countries were deeply wounded by Japan's wartime aggressions.(Signed) NEB/PT 25-Aug-1999 21:26 PM LOC (26-Aug-1999 0126 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
