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
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