Japanese general denies Japanese wartime aggression
CBC – Japan’s air force chief will be dismissed for writing an essay that claims the country was not an aggressor in the Second World War.
Gen. Toshio Tamogami wrote an essay entitled “Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?” in which he argues that Japan was not an aggressor in the Second World War. The essay was entered in a contest and posted on Friday to the website of contest organizer, Japanese hotel and apartment developer Apa Group.
“I think it is improper as the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view clearly different from that of the government’s,” Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters on Friday.
“Therefore, it is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him.”
Among Tamogami’s arguments in the essay are that Japan’s military occupation of China was based on treaties and that the Korean peninsula was “was prosperous and safe” under Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule.
He further argued Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, was a result of a trap laid by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and rejected the verdicts of the Allied War Tribunal, which convicted Japanese wartime leaders as war criminals after Tokyo’s defeat in 1945.
“The Tokyo trials tried to push all the responsibility for the war onto Japan and that mind control is still misleading the Japanese people 63 years after the war,” he wrote.
Japan expressed remorse for its actions during the war, often referred to in Japan as the Greater East Asia War, in 1995 in a landmark apology directed at Asian countries that suffered due to Japan’s military actions.
“Even now there are many people who think that our country’s aggression caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War,” Tamogami wrote in the essay.
“But we need to realize that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation,” he said.
Similar views are shared by some right-wing Japanese scholars and politicians but the publicly released comments contained in the essay were expected to rouse anger in China and South Korea, where memories of Japan’s wartime acts and colonization still run deep.
Hamada said the government had to act swiftly against Tamogami so it was clear Japan does not share his views.
Prime Minister Taro Aso has also publicly stated Tamogami’s written statements were inappropriate.
Japan’s air force chief sacked over WWII comments
AFP — Japan sacked its air force chief on Friday after he wrote an essay in which he denied the country was an aggressor in World War II, a stance likely to anger its Asian neighbours.
China, the two Koreas and other Asian nations still have painful memories of Japan’s aggression and colonial rule, and there had been speculation that General Toshio Tamogami’s comments could strain relations.
“What he said was inappropriate for an air chief of staff as it differs from the government’s position. He should not remain in the job,” Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told a news conference announcing his dismissal.
Prime Minister Taro Aso, also known for his conservative views on history, told reporters: “Even if he expressed it personally, it is inappropriate.”
Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force, offered the opinion in an essay on the theme of “true views of modern history.”
The general wrote, “Even now, there are many people who think that our country’s ‘aggression’ caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War.”
“But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War,” Tamogami said, according to the essay’s English version.
“It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.”
The Greater East Asia War was a term used by Japan to describe the conflict in the Asia-Pacific theatre, emphasising that it involved Asian nations seeking independence from the Western powers.
The thesis runs counter to a 1995 statement issued by then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama and endorsed by his successors which apologised for Japan’s past aggression and colonial rule in Asia.
When Aso took office in September, he pledged to stand by the apology.
The Murayama statement acknowledged that Japan through its colonial rule and aggression “caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.”
But there has been a persistent nationalistic argument in Japan that the Murayama statement was part of the country’s “masochism” aimed at accommodating Asian neighbours.
“Among the major powers at that time, Japan was the only nation that tried to incorporate its colonies within the nation itself. In comparison to other countries, Japan’s colonial rule was very moderate,” Tamogami wrote.
“We must take back the glorious history of Japan. A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline.”
Japan renounced the right to wage war after World War II and calls its de facto military the Self-Defence Forces.
Despite its officially pacifist position, Japan has often come under fire for its perceptions of its wartime past with neighbours closely watching for any sign of a militarist revival.
China suspended top-level exchanges during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who paid homage each year to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which honours the Japanese war dead including top World War II leaders.
Under Koizumi, Japan also deployed ground troops in southern Iraq, its first military deployment since the world war in a country where fighting is under way.
Tamogami, who at 60 belongs to Japan’s post-war baby boomer generation, stirred controversy in April when he defended a Japanese airlift operation in Iraq which was ruled unconstitutional by a provincial court.
He said some of his troops might have been hurt by the ruling but, using a comedian’s phrase, said that a majority of them felt “to heck with it.”
Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine honours the Japanese war dead including top World War II leaders
The US Pacific Fleet burns after a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941
Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937 — using Manchuria as a launching base for their troops
More than 300,000 people were killed in the Nanjing Massacre — an infamous war crime committed by the Japanese military
Taro Aso has conservative views on history but has pledged not to upset other Asian nations.
International covenant on civil and political rights (link)
CCPR/C/JPN/CO/5, 30 October 2008
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE, Ninety-fourth session, Geneva,13-31 October 2008
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIESUNDER ARTICLE 40 OF THE COVENANT
Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee
Tags: Japan, war crime, WWIIJapan
22. The Committee notes with concern that the State party has still not accepted its responsibility for the “comfort women” system during World War II, that perpetrators have not been prosecuted, that the compensation provided to victims is financed by private donations rather than public funds and is insufficient, that few history textbooks contain references to the “comfort women” issue, and that some politicians and mass media continue to defame victims or to deny the events. (arts. 7 and 8)
The State party should accept legal responsibility and apologize unreservedly for the “comfort women” system in a way that is acceptable to the majority of victims and restores their dignity, prosecute perpetrators who are still alive, take immediate and effective legislative and administrative measures to adequately compensate all survivors as a matter of right, educate students and the general public about the issue, and to refute and sanction any attempts to defame victims or to deny the events.
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It’s amazing that the Japanese still deny everything.
In Japanese school they’ll teach maybe 2 minutes of it.
“We fought hard and we lost. Let’s move on”
Meanwhile the Germans except full responsibility are still apologizing for it. So much so the Jews are probably sick of it by now :)
it’s sad that some japanese still don’t want to accept their evil deeds. but on the other hand, i do remain optimistic as china becomes stronger, both the japanese and american govts will be more restrained to let extremists to slip thru the cracks
As long as there are just voices to counter the voices of insanity in the country itself and some actions are taken to control such extremism, I’m fine with it