Japanese Bayonetting a Prisoner

Japan’s prime minister ignored world opinion and insisted on worshipping convicted war criminals. The world should be worried.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi have resumed an annual tradition of visiting Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, in which 14 convicted class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, and other war dead are objects of worship. Prime Minister Koizumi argues that war criminals have already been punished, so after death there is no need to distinguish between those who died in battle and those executed for war crimes. Supporters claim that the shrine has been dedicated to the country’s fallen soldiers since its establishment in 1869.

They neglect to mention that the preeminent Shinto temple is a symbol of the country’s prewar militarism. These criminals were practically smuggled into Yasukuni in 1978 by shrine authorities, who recently published literature accusing the 1947-50 international war trials as illegal. They also claim that wars can never be criminal. Chancellor Shröeder pays respect to Germany’s war dead, but he does not pay homage to those convicted in war crime trials. South Korea has also protested the placement of plaques for the thousands of slave laborers in the Shinto shrine - as servants of the Emperor to be worshipped. Even the current foreign minister has advised the prime minister not to go.

The shrine also symbolizes pre-1945 state theology, in which religion and state were one. The Japanese Constitution asserts the separation of church and state.

This is not the first time that the government has tried to whitewash its role in enslaving millions of its neighbors, nor the first time it has tried to justify its invasion of its neighbors by its need for natural resources. The past two governments, in particular, have been reluctant to be as forthright with their responsibilities. Two years ago, the Japanese parliament adopted a national song and flag that were prominent during the war, Professor Sakai of Asian Studies at Cornell University points out in an interview with this writer. The symbolic message cannot be overemphasized. It is evident in the severe punishments inflicted on teachers and students who refuse to bow to the flag and sing along with the song during school ceremonies such as commencements.

Japanese citizens are well versed in the country’s war history, thanks to the great number of books dealing with the subject that have been published over the decades, says Professor Sakai. But the government has angered many countries by consistently trying to downplay its responsibility. Japan spends more money on defense than any other country except the U.S. — a fact American military hawks should take note of — yet it refuses to compensate any surviving comfort women and former slaves.

In a 1995 statement, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama sought to heal old wounds. “I express once more my heartfelt feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology,” he said. But now, Koizumi, who even more so than his late predecessor Obuchi is sympathetic to militarist feelings, said in an interview with domestic media that Tokyo and its Asian neighbors should emphasize the positive rather than focusing on spats. The two have also been very grudging in offering any type of apologies, often referring to past treaties instead.

Japanese Hacking a Prisoner.

World War II killed more people than any other conflict. Seventeen million people died, over twenty-seven million were injured, and countless others saw chaos or destruction of their homes. Japan maintains that a 1953 treaty with the U.S. — and subsequent treaties with Asian countries that badly need its cash — absolve its obligations to those whose lives it ruined. The U.S. signed a treaty in San Francisco to keep biological and chemical warfare secrets from the Soviet Union. But Japan’s infamous Unit 731 had obtained those secrets from live, fully conscious human subjects. Besides, the San Francisco treaty excluded sexual crimes, explains Professor Sakai.

Japan signed in 1965 a treaty with Korea that prevented Korean citizens from filing claims against Japan. When it reestablished relations with China in 1972, it included the same condition. Both treaties came with a large amount of cash. Germany and its corporations have used private means to compensate war survivors, however. Many Japanese favor such an option.

It is high time Prime Minister Koizumi comes to grips with his country’s past. He should unequivocally and put in writing his acknowledgement of and apology for its five decades of terrible human rights abuse. He should work with war survivors to reach a settlement; many comfort women, for example, were shunned or simply too traumatized after the war to lead a productive life. He should make amends with its neighbors and come clean with what the country did to the tens of thousands of Allied prisoners it so inhumanely treated. It is time for the Japanese government to admit that it lost a war that it should not have started, because if it refuses to learn from history, it will, sooner or later, destroy itself once again. Western nations such as the U.S. should bring pressure to spur such actions, because the price for not acting is right before our eyes, in every American middle school’s social studies textbook.