Japan Marks WW2 Anniversary With Apology

[s1eve]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3378425a12,00.html

TOKYO: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi marked the 60th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War 2 with an apology for suffering caused in Asia by Japanese military aggression and pledged Tokyo would never again take part in war.

In a nod to the emotive nature of the Aug 15 date, Koizumi was expected to refrain from visiting Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honoured with Japan's 2.5 million war dead. Koizumi has made annual visits to the shrine since taking office in 2001, but never on the anniversary of the war's end.

"On the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, I affirm that the peace and prosperity with which we are blessed today is built on the sacrifices of the many who lost their lives in the war against their will," Koizumi said in a statement.

"I renew my determination that Japan will never again follow the path to war," he said.

"Japan caused huge damage and suffering to many countries, especially the people of Asia, with its colonisation and aggression," Koizumi added.

"Humbly accepting this fact of history, we again express our deep remorse and heartfelt apology and offer our condolences to the victims of the war at home and abroad," he said, adding he wanted to build relations of trust with Asian nations.

Tokyo's ties with Beijing and Seoul, already chilled by Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni, grew even frostier in April.

Virulent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and South Korea after Japan stepped up its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and approved textbooks by nationalist scholars for use in junior high schools.

[ahsingjai]

Koizumi urged to stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/15/content_3355391.htm

TOKYO, Aug. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Nearly 200 people gathered on Mondayin Tokyo at a conference sponsored by a group of bereaved World War II families, demanding Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stop visiting the war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

They urged the Japanese prime minister to consider the feelingsof other Asian countries that suffered from Japan's wartime aggression. The notorious shrine in Tokyo honors 14 Class-A war criminals responsible for Japan's aggression war against its neighboring countries.

Koizumi indicated Friday he would not visit the Yasukuni Shrineon or around the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. Kyodo News said Koizumi apparently hopes not to provoke a further deterioration in relations with Japan's neighbors.

Koizumi made his fourth visit to the shrine on Jan. 1 last year. He has visited Yasukuni every year since taking office in April 2001.

Six decades after Japan's surrender in WWII, peace-loving people across Japan called for world peace, with war victims' relatives and civic groups taking to the streets or holding meetings to protect Japan's pacifist postwar Constitution.

[hooligan]

Woo hoo, you know what this means? No most posts about Japan's aggression on yellowworld! I rejoice!

[ahsingjai]

A BOY UNDER THE BOMBS
Looking back on brainwashing

By ERIC PRIDEAUX
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050814x6.htm

Koya Azumi leans over the living-room table at his home outside Tokyo on a warm afternoon, stirring coffee. Birds twitter outside, but otherwise there is only silence. It is a tableau of serenity, of peace.
But then, speaking softly, Azumi, a retired professor of sociology at the International Christian University in Tokyo, begins to recount his youthful memories of Japan at war, and his reflections on the prospects for peace in our time. His father was a career bureaucrat in the Home Ministry of the central government, and when the war ended in 1945 he was just 14.

'When Pearl Harbor happened on Dec. 8, 1941 [Dec. 7, local time Hawaii], I was scared, afraid that Japan might not win the war, and that my family and I might be killed. At the same time, we all had a sense of excitement, and, at first, all the news was good news.

Then, when I was attending an elementary school in Ikebukuro, my train was delayed at Tokyo Station one Saturday afternoon. I think that was the first bombing by American airplanes. In mid-1943, we moved into the governor's mansion in Utsunomiyamy father was appointed governor of Tochigi Prefecture, and stayed there when he was called back to Tokyo in late 1944.

The war was making itself felt at my school in Utsunomiya, too. A military man was assigned to each middle school to train students. I remember our school's military officer telling us what he had done in China. The accepted idea was that the Chinese were not really people -- they were less than human, so we could justify doing atrocious acts to them. He had himself tortured a Chinese man.

Why? Why did he do such a thing? It's interesting to realize that he felt free enough to tell us what he himself had done in China -- a war crime! And I was just appalled.

Still, the atmosphere was such that he was beyond criticism. It was all brainwashing.

Social institutions are man-made, including the institution of the Emperor. I can say that now that I have become a social scientist and witnessed how Japan has changed in the last 60 years. When I'm watching TV and see students in North Korea loudly expressing their loyalty to their leader, Kim Jong Il, I am reminded of Japan during the war.

Later my middle school became a factory, and we had fewer and fewer classes. A nearby aircraft factory they sent workers to supervise us as we made parts for their aircraft. We also had to dig air-raid shelters outside.

Then, one night, Utsunomiya was bombed. It was stormy, so we couldn't even hear the warning sirens. All I remember are colorful things, fluttering in the sky. They looked like pieces of cloth floating down, burning.

It was raining like mad, and I got in a shelter in the yard with my mother, older sister and two younger brothers. We could hear B-29s. I could hear things falling. Hissing sounds, then bombs hitting the ground -- bam, bam, bam!

Perhaps 100 meters away from us was a house surrounded by rice paddies. The rice paddies were ablaze from incendiary bombs.

The next morning I walked around to see what had happened, and in the schoolyard I saw bodies piled up. It was horrible. Overnight, the town was completely flattened, except for a few stone warehouses.

Amazingly, though, none of my relatives died during the war, and we didn't lose a thing. Of course, not everybody was so lucky. A classmate was killed by a low flying American plane. He was on a train coming to school and was hit by the plane's gunfire: batt-batt-batt-batt-batt! American planes were simply attacking the enemy, just as Japanese soldiers would attack enemy trains or people, I suppose.

We all welcomed the end of the war. We were so relieved! What can I say? Too bad Japan lost.

We moved back to Tokyo, where, in early 1946, my father was purged from public office by the Occupation forces, as were all wartime governors.

Although they say Japanese nationalism is coming back, I think if you ask any young Japanese man, 'Would you be willing to give up your life for your country?' -- I bet 98 percent would say 'no.'

Or if you ask, 'Would you be willing to give up your life for the Emperor?' I think you would get a unanimous response of 'no.'

Sixty years ago, 70 years ago, you'd have got a unanimous 'yes.'

The Japan Times: Aug. 14, 2005

[hooligan]

Damnit, let's work on the Chinese American issues than start finger pointing at other people's problems. We're not going to change anything as outsiders, it's got to start from their own communities.

[DragonKnight]

Well, it's about time.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Well, it's about time.
I'm guessing you missed the previous 18 apologies since 1984?

[SunWuKong]

I'm guessing you missed the previous 18 apologies since 1984?

to the best of my knowledge, they were "expressing remorse" until i think sometime in the 90s when they started offering "heartfelt apologies".

but what are they apologising for? it seems like they're apologising for some vague acts of doing wrong by people in Asia.

they've never officially recognised the number of people killed in China. Japanese courts haven't been rewarding reparation to comfort women. Japanese textbooks that play down Japanese imperialism and even justifying it are being published (the point is not how many schools adopt them, but the fact that the Ministry of Education approved of them). etc etc.

Damnit, let's work on the Chinese American issues than start finger pointing at other people's problems. We're not going to change anything as outsiders, it's got to start from their own communities.

to be honest, i feel more strongly about Sino-Japanese WW2 issues than i do about Chinese American issues. i can appreciate Chinese American history and the struggles we went through, and the fact that there's a lot more work that needs to be done for equality. but my grandfather wasn't a coolie or a railroad worker (wrong time period, but you know what i mean) - he did almost starve to death because of Japanese occupation though.

[hooligan]

to the best of my knowledge, they were "expressing remorse" until i think sometime in the 90s when they started offering "heartfelt apologies".

but what are they apologising for? it seems like they're apologising for some vague acts of doing wrong by people in Asia.

they've never officially recognised the number of people killed in China. Japanese courts haven't been rewarding reparation to comfort women. Japanese textbooks that play down Japanese imperialism and even justifying it are being published (the point is not how many schools adopt them, but the fact that the Ministry of Education approved of them). etc etc.

to be honest, i feel more strongly about Sino-Japanese WW2 issues than i do about Chinese American issues. i can appreciate Chinese American history and the struggles we went through, and the fact that there's a lot more work that needs to be done for equality. but my grandfather wasn't a coolie or a railroad worker (wrong time period, but you know what i mean) - he did almost starve to death because of Japanese occupation though.

As were many of my family members, but how much can you do here for the campaigns? Also, I'm really deadset against promoting the hatred that caused the acts in the first place.

[SunWuKong]

As were many of my family members, but how much can you do here for the campaigns?

probably not much. however, personally i discuss an issue not because i think i can change things, but because it interests me and/or concerns me. i mean, i don't think there's anything i can do to change the fact that we have an asshole in the White House right now either, but i'd still talk about how much of an asshole he is.

Also, I'm really deadset against promoting the hatred that caused the acts in the first place.

what do you mean?

[VV o n g B a]

probably not much. however, personally i discuss an issue not because i think i can change things, but because it interests me and/or concerns me. i mean, i don't think there's anything i can do to change the fact that we have an asshole in the White House right now either, but i'd still talk about how much of an asshole he is.i see it a little differently. i discuss issues b/c they interest me yes, but it's also b/c i see an opportunity for change even if i'm not the prime motivator.

japan/china/korea relations i think really needs a change and can be changed. as for bush... i haven't been motivated to discuss him much for months b/c there isn't an opportunity for change. he's either gonna accomplish what he wants or not, but the biggest damage (which is him getting reelected) has already been done and can't be changed. i discussed the supreme court pick for a bit, but since the nomination is gonna happen no matter what, i stopped.

[yoMAMA]

to the best of my knowledge, they were "expressing remorse" until i think sometime in the 90s when they started offering "heartfelt apologies".



I'm no expert on the Japanese language, and certainly i could be wrong.

But I think in Japanese, "remorse" is a really deep form of apology.

Which is different in Chinese because "deep remorse" sounds unconvincing but probably differently in meaning in Japanese.

[SunWuKong]

I'm no expert on the Japanese language, and certainly i could be wrong.

But I think in Japanese, "remorse" is a really deep form of apology.

Which is different in Chinese because "deep remorse" sounds unconvincing but probably differently in meaning in Japanese.

ah, ok, so maybe something is lost in translation. i wonder how these apologies are generally translated in Chinese-language news.

but regardless, i don't want to come across as too harsh on the Japanese government, and if it's any consolation, i think the mainland Chinese government has plenty of problems of its own, but obviously there are elements in the Japanese government that doesn't want to see Japan as a nation fully face up to what happened in WW2.

[yoMAMA]

but obviously there are elements in the Japanese government that doesn't want to see Japan as a nation fully face up to what happened in WW2.

well, the Japanese right wing, es examplified by the yasukuni shrine, is really bad.

[DragonKnight]

I'm no expert on the Japanese language, and certainly i could be wrong.

But I think in Japanese, "remorse" is a really deep form of apology.

Which is different in Chinese because "deep remorse" sounds unconvincing but probably differently in meaning in Japanese.
How about just saying they were 'fucking wrong'. :biggrin:

[yoMAMA]

How about just saying they were 'fucking wrong'. :biggrin:

I think they said it.

:wink:

[AngryABCGirl]

A lot of officials have apologized many times, and more real ACTION needs to be taken in reperations for comfort women and of the general denial of society for the atrocities and integration of those into school curriculum.

[nola]

Yeah reparations for comfort women and changes in school curriculum. Today's news though said he avoided the shrine honoring war criminals for the first time.

[SunWuKong]

Yeah reparations for comfort women and changes in school curriculum. Today's news though said he avoided the shrine honoring war criminals for the first time.

actually the questionable textbooks aren't used in the overwhelming majority of Japanese schools. the issue at hand is not that Japanese school children are using these books, because hardly any of them are using them. the issue at hand is that the Ministry of Education approved them. i think the current Minister of Foreign Affairs was actually an Education Minister in the past that approved of textbooks that whitewash what happened in WW2.

[applehead]

Yeah reparations for comfort women and changes in school curriculum. Today's news though said he avoided the shrine honoring war criminals for the first time.

and i also read interviews with japanese citizens
who said they didn't care about the shrine
but ever since other asian countries showed
disapproval of him visiting it, it made them
want to visit it more often.

[hooligan]

The connections are made, you think the US occupiers of Japan were going to let some of the best data collected tortuing Chinese just go?

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001712.htm

What would you call people who paid sadistic torturers for the information they had gleaned from macabre medical experiments on their helpless captives – and then used these evil findings to make biological weapons?

Why, you'd call them members of "the greatest generation," of course!

As we learn from ABC News (Australia) this week, (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1437314.htm) the American victors in World War II "gave money and other benefits to former members of a Japanese germ warfare unit two years after the end of World War II to obtain data on human experiments the unit conducted in China.

U.S. military intelligence showered millions of dollars on these Mengeles – along with "food, gifts, entertainment and other kinds of rewards" (emphasis added). One shudders to think what this unnamed largesse entailed – "comfort women," perhaps? It seems nothing was too good for these "top-flight pathologists" who murdered more than 3,000 Chinese, Russians and others in their torture chambers.

Their patron was Brigadier General Charles Willoughby, head of the G2 intelligence unit of the US occupation forces in Japan. In his reports to his superiors, Willoughby waxed lyrical on the cost-efficient benefits of his war-criminal wooing. The killers' "data on human experiments may prove invaluable," and was "only obtainable through the skilful, psychological approach" to the torturers – i.e., buying them off.

"All of these actions did not amount to more than 200,000 yen, netting the [United States] the fruit of 20 years' laboratory tests and research," Willoughby wrote. The cost of obtaining the data, said the general, was "a mere pittance."

The "cost" of this information, of course, was not the money, booze and broads that Willoughby laid on for these wretched preservers of medicine and science; the cost was 3,000 human beings subjected to unimaginable anguish and vicious destruction. But then, human life is always considered "a mere pittance" to those caught up in the great engines of power, in the vast inhuman structures – military, political, economic – that grind through individual lives like combine harvesters winnowing chaff. Even the agents of these structures – the high and mighty drivers of the engines – are reduced to desiccated husks, their own humanity hollowed out and drained away to grease the gears of the Machine.

And why did Willoughby and his agents so assiduously pursue the evil fruits of the torturers' work? In order to inflict unimaginable anguish and vicious destruction on other victims, on a mass scale, in some future conflict. The "information procured will have the greatest value in future development of the US BW (bacteriological warfare) program," Willoughby enthused to the brass.

This was part of a larger operation that saw the United States incorporate the fruits of Nazi medical experiments, Nazi methodology – even Nazi agents – into its biological and "psychological" warfare programs and its intelligence apparatus. One particularly illuminating – and chilling – example of this process can be found in the piece below.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1437314.htm

US paid for Japanese human germ warfare data

The United States gave money and other benefits to former members of a Japanese germ warfare unit two years after the end of World War II to obtain data on human experiments the unit conducted in China.

The Imperial Japanese Army established Unit 731 in 1936 to develop biological weapons using plague, anthrax and other bacteria.

Headquartered in the suburbs of Harbin in China's Heilongjiang Province, the unit conducted germ warfare in various places in China and used Chinese, Russians and others as subjects in human experiments.

The US-led allied powers that occupied Japan offered to waive war crime charges at the war tribunal for officers of Unit 731 set up by the Imperial Japanese Army in exchange for experiment data.

But two declassified US Government documents reveal Washington's eagerness to obtain such data extended to providing monetary rewards, despite the awful nature of Unit 731's activities, in an apparent attempt to beat the Soviet Union in the arms development race.

Historians believe that some 3,000 people died in the human experiments conducted in China by the unit led by military doctor Shiro Ishii before and during the war.

The total amount paid to unnamed former members of the infamous unit was somewhere between 150,000 to 200,000 yen, equivalent to about 20 million ($2.37 million) to 40 million yen today.

The two declassified documents were found in the US National Archives by Keiichi Tsuneishi, professor at Kanagawa University and an expert on biological and chemical weapons.

One of the top-secret documents was a "report on bacteriological warfare" for the chief of staff of the Far Eastern Commission, dated July 17, 1947, compiled by Brigadier General Charles Willoughby, head of the "G2" intelligence unit of the US-led occupation forces in Japan.

The other was a letter dated July 22 the same year that Brig Gen Willoughby sent to Major General SJ Chamberlin, director of intelligence of the US War Department General Staff, to illustrate the need for continued use of confidential funds without restrictions to obtain such intelligence.

In the documents, Willoughby described the achievements of his unit's investigations, saying the "information procured will have the greatest value in future development of the US BW (bacteriological warfare) program".

Citing a US War Department specialist in charge of the investigation, Brig Gen Willoughby wrote in the report that "data on human experiments may prove invaluable" and said the information was "only obtainable through the skilful, psychological approach to top-flight pathologists" involved in Unit 731 experiments.

The US side provided money, food, gifts, entertainment and other kinds of rewards to the former Unit 731 members, according to the report.

"All of these actions did not amount to more than (150,000-200,000) yen, netting the (United States) the fruit of 20 years' laboratory tests and research," the report says.

Brig Gen Willoughby described the cost as a "mere pittance" in his letter to Maj Gen Chamberlin.

Professor Tsuneishi said it had been thought that the US had gathered the information high-handedly by making unit members choose between cooperating or facing war crime charges, "but it has become clear that this was done by winning (unit members') hearts with money and rewards".

The General Headquarters (GHQ) of the US-led occupation forces started interrogating senior officers of Unit 731 soon after the end of war but the members denied having conducted human experiments.

The truth did not come to light until the latter half of 1946 when senior Japanese army officers detained in the Soviet Union confessed about the experiments.

In 1947, the GHQ moved to gather experiment data but because war crime charges against the Unit 731 officers had been waived by then, the GHQ was apparently forced to offer monetary rewards to access the information.
-Kyodo

Hah, I guess we'll just give them money for saving us the effort torturing Chinese with our chemical weapons.

[yoMAMA]

yep, the infamous post war U.S collaboration with the unit 731 thugs. :mad:

[Banana]

It's just like how the US absorbed top Nazis after the war to fight the Soviets. America has very selective ethical reasoning.