Forgotten Holocaust - Cover-up against Humanity
This Forgotten Holocaust is definitely the worst case of systematic governmental Cover-up of State-Terrorism by U.S. against Humanity in our Human History.
Of all the countries on Earth, Japan is the ONLY nation that used ALL 3 WMD in war, i.e. WMD Biological Weapons, WMD Chemical Weapons, and the addictive WMD Drug.
Unlike the Jewish Holocaust, Japanese Rape of Nanjing, WMD Biological Warfare unit 731, 100, WMD Chemical Warfare unit 516, Opium Monopoly Bureau, Sex Slaves, Slave Laborers are barely mentioned in most histories of WWII and is absent from almost every textbook.
There are many reasons for the story of the Asian Holocaust has taken so long to get out :
The cover-up is mainly due to the Cold War between U.S. and the former communist Soviet Union, and communist China, especially after the start of Korean War in June 1950 and then the Vietnam War in 1960s.
As the Cold War deepened, U.S. desparately needed the speedy rebuilding of Japan as a constitutional monarchy that would provide an anti-Communist bulwark in Asia.
U.S. granted immunity to the Emperor and Prince Asaka. Evidences show that senior aides to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Japanese court officials schemed to fix testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials so as not to implicate Hirohito.
After the surrender, Japanese government and military moved swiftly to destroy evidence that might assist in the prosecution of any Japanese for war crimes, including Emperor Hirohito. The Imperial Army, Navy, and almost all government ministries, destroyed their incriminating files.
Vast archive of Japanese military records were in the hands of U.S. for 9 years after the war. In 1957, all Japanese military records were ordered to be returned to Japan. The reason given to the 1986's congress PoW hearing. John H. Hatcher, Army Record Management of US Army explained, "because the problem of language was too difficult for us to overcome.".
As the Cold War intensified, U.S. believed that the Anti-Communist aims would be difficult to achieve if the Japanese people were alienated by continuing prosecutions of their war criminals.
Therefore after the war, U.S. conducted a half-hearted show trial - The Tokyo Trial which most historians agreed was a flawed trial focused only on the maltreatment of PoW ignoring all other unspeakable brutalities (e.g. Unit 731) committed against the Asians by the Japanese.
For the same reason, the US called a abrupt halt to further war crimes prosecutions. MacArthur released large number of the remaining Class-A suspects from detention. Many of these suspected war criminals were able to move smoothly into politics, bureaucracy, and big business.
At the same time, MacArthur began to wind down the Class-B and Class-C trials.
Australian prosecutions of Japanese War Criminals were obstructed by lack of cooperation from the U.S. government.
U.S. was active in apprehending Nazi war criminals, denazifying German society, and collecting and protecting archives of the Nazi regime, all of which have by now been de-classified. By contrast, from the moment of Japanese surrender, US Government sought to exonerate the Emperor Hirohito and his relatives from any responsibility for the war. US still keeps many of its archives concerned with postwar Japan highly classified.
Unlike Germany where intensive de-Nazification procedures were employed to prevent former Nazis entering parliament and the bureaucracy, US allowed Japanese War Criminals to enter parliament and seek public office.
It has been estimated by the US Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations that at least several thousand Japanese escaped prosecution as a result of the pre-mature termination of war crime prosecutions by the US in 1949.
Nazi doctors were held accountable for their crimes in the famous 1947 "Nuremberg Doctors Trials", but there were NO comparable "Japanese Doctors Trials".
After the war, influential groups of Japanese intellectuals wanted Emperor Hirohito tried for his War Crimes, but were turned down by U.S..
Instead, U.S. handed power and put Japan's government back in the hands of the same notorious men and other war criminals who started the brutal war in Asia. This was equivalent to reinstating the Nazi party in postwar Berlin.
By protecting Hirohito from prosecution as a War Criminal, U.S. laid the foundation for Japan to refuse to confess, only to whitewash its War Crimes, distort History Textbook, portray itself as Atomic Victim instead of atrocious Colonial War Criminal.
To the Japanese, 14 years of in-human brutality was a Holy War. They were fighting for their God-like Emperor.
The Japanese Militaristic Brain-Wash of beliving other Asian as Sub-Human was so successful, most Japanese simply forgot the fact that MOST of their own so proudly proclaimed "superior" culture are really originated from "inferior" China. Even today, the Japanese writting still adopts many Chinese characters. The Japanese "Banzai" or "Manzai" was also originated from the Chinese "Wansui" for the Chinese Emperor.
Therefore, Under the U.S. Cover-up, when U.S. occupation ended in 1952, the Japanese government immediately pardoned ALL its War Criminals.
Another sinister reason for U.S. granted immunity from war crimes prosecution to the Japanese doctors of Unit 731 & Unit 100 was to exchange for their in-human data and helped covering up Japanese War Crimes so that U.S. could gain some advantages of the WMD Biological Weapon - An act utterly ignoring international laws and against Humanity.
NGO The Sunshine Project has discovered that even today US is still actively developing Biological and Chemical Weapon. On 24 Sept. 2002 Sunshine Project provided evidence for US Military Secret Chemical Weapons Program violating international law.
U.S. government not only pardoned some of Imperial Japan's top leaders, short-circuited reparations programs, reversed the dissolution of Japanese conglomerates and also waived payment of international relief funds to American PoWs after the war.
The truth was also hampered by the great upheavals that followed in China with the resuming of the interrupted Civil War which last for another 4 years un-ended with the Communist took over mainland (People's Republic of China) and Nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan (Republic of China).
Then followed by another 30 long years of various extremely irrational and disastrous political chaos in mainland China.
Due to Civil War, both Chinese government competed to consolidate their own regime at any cost, and was eager to flatter and win diplomatic recognition from Japan, and both need financial loans and trading partnership with Japan to rebuild war torn China.
The mainland Chinese government is also very fearful of this popular protest might be linked to its own Communist Party's complicity in abuse in its past and other social discontent by her people, have greatly hampered the situation.
To encircle communist China, U.S. signed Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with Japan on Jan. 19, 1960.
Faced with China's rising power, the US and Japan are reinforcing bilateral security relations by changing Tokyo's pacifistic military posture for their common interest - to prevent an ever-stronger China from emerging as the global and regional superpower, especially militarily, in the coming decades.
Therefore, without any political support, the Un-Told Holocaust has fallen largely to the war's survivors and their children to tell their tales.
But for years, Asian survivors kept silent out of shame and a desire to shield their families from a painful past. "They didn't want to burden their children with this dark heritage," said historian Peter Black. Just as many Holocaust survivors were also reticent about their concentration camp experiences.
New Interest in Japan's War Atrocities, but Why Now ?
As the numbers and affluence of Asian in the Asia countries and U.S. have grown, so has the desire to document the war, commemorate its victims and excoriate its villains.
"My father's generation passed on its legacy silently," Kwan said. "Unlike the Jews, who came together and forcefully announced what occurred, the Asians have tried to brush it aside and say it's OK. But it's NOT OK."
" The new generation is made up of people who grew up in the US, are curious about their roots, and possess the English language skills and connections to conduct effective political campaigns," Chang said. It parallels to the 80s and '90s which led to a surge of interest in Holocaust studies.
Shielded by U.S., the "Japan's refusal to face up to its War Crimes keeps this alive," said Kirby of Harvard.
For US, China is the only country that has high potential to threaten US global dominance in the 21st century. Rise of China is one of the great events in economic history.
When she wakes she will shake the world.
For Japan, China undermines Tokyo as the leading power in the region. To cope with this "China Threat", Tokyo is adopting a more muscular military posture, one that causes alarm to its WWII victimized neighbors.
In 2005, for the first time the joint US-Japanese defense policy statement named China as a "Security Threat". 2 months after, Japan explicitly agreed with US that Taiwan Strait was a "common strategic concern" of US and Japan. Then, Japan announced the Japanese Coast Guard would officially take control of the disputed Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands. Japan is also discussing with US on building enhanced US command and control base facilities in Japan and cooperation on missile defense as well as force deployment.
U.S. hawks now refer to Japan as the "Britain of the Far East".
Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, U.S. has repeatedly pressured Japan to revise Article 9 of its constitution. In fact, U.S. has been doing everything in its power to encourage and even accelerate Japanese rearmament.
However, just in the opposite, on Apr. 30, 2005 the leaders of China's Communist Party and of Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party, the 2 sides that fought China's Civil War, formally ended 6 decades of hostility with a nationally televised historic handshake and pledged to work together to undermine Taiwan's Independence movement.
The meeting is the first between the leaders of the two parties in 60 years; the last was in the wartime redoubt of Chongqing, when Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong made a final, failed bid to reach a cease-fire.
"The parties reached a common understanding on upholding the '92 consensus, opposing Taiwanese Independence and striving for peace and stability in the Taiwan Sea," said in a joint communiqué.
Lien said his 8-day visit had unleashed a process of engagement that holds out the promise of peace, stability and increased trade.
China hosts a 2nd Taiwan opposition party head.
Under the Cover-up of State-Terrorism by US against Humanity, Japanese government with its economic power, is able to wage a sophisticated campaign after the WWII :
Japan portrayed itself as an Atomic Victim rather than a colonial Atrocious War Criminal.
Documents translated from the 731's original reports can be found at the US Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah using the Freedom of Information Act.
In 1949, after knowing the unit 731 & unit 100, Russian immediately sent a request through the International Bureau of Investigation to prosecute Ishii Shiro 731's commander and all related personnel, but the request was dismissed by U.S. government as a communist propaganda.
In response, on Dec. 25, 1949, Josef Stalin ordered the Khabarovsk Trial.
Vladislav Bogach, author of a book about the trial "Outlaw Weapon", wrote "experts proved that in one cycle, up to 300 kg of plague bacteria, 800-900 kg of typhoid and about a ton of cholera were produced. In one unit, there were 13,000 rats ... The output of incubators was 45 kg of infected fleas during 3-4 months."
As the trial ended, the daily Suvorovsky natisk expressed its anger,
"These are not humans the military court is trying; they are monsters and villains, and there is no proper word in human language to characterize them ...."
"They have no sympathy ... The Japanese were robots."
However, unlike the Nuremberg Trial and Tokyo Trial, in which high-ranking German and Japanese officials were hanged or life sentenced, in Khabarovsk trials the war criminals were mostly sentenced to terms of only 20 to 25 years. Several years later, all were quietly sent back to Japan and freed in 1956.
The interrogation reports, some 18 volumes were never released.
Many Western historians have criticized Soviet for handing down such light sentences. "My guess is that the Soviet made a deal with the Japanese similar to the one completed by the Americans" Harris said.
A 137-page counterintelligence file from the National Archives which had been declassified, makes it clear that U.S. intelligence agents not only covered up war crimes against Americans, but also aggressively protected the architect of those crimes, Lt. Gen. Shiro Ishii.
"At the request of Nationalist Chinese officials who heard about "bacteriological experiments upon Chinese and Americans as human guinea pigs," the U.S. counterintelligence corps prepared a report on Ishii, the head of Unit 731, according to a July 24, 1947, memo. The document makes it clear that a high-level U.S. intelligence officer, Col. Philip Bethune, quashed the report after informing his agents that " no information is to be released to any agent as data on subject is classified as top secret." The agent who wrote the memo, identified only by the initials WSC, also wrote that "Col. Bethune desires no further action be taken in this case. No further action was taken."
Months later, on April 15, 1948, it was noted for the record that "It is of a highly sensitive nature, and that every precaution must be taken to maintain its secrecy."
A report dated April 18, 1947 from the legal section of Gen. MacArthur's headquarters, specifying that the Unit 731 investigation was "under direct Joint Chiefs of Staff order." "Every step, interrogation, or contact must be coordinated with this section," said the report by Lt. Neal R. Smith of Report of Investigation Division, Legal Section, " The utmost secrecy is essential in order to protect the interests of the United States and to guard against embarrassment."
Some of the reports were labeled "Commander in Chief" that leaves little doubt that US President Truman was informed of the events. President Truman also withdrew the 1925 Geneva Protocol outlawing Chemical and Biological Weapons from Senate ratification of protocol in 1947.
Vast archive of Japanese military records were in the hands of U.S. for 9 years after the war. The documents, first screened by the CIA, include hundreds of thousands of pages of War Ministry records from 1868 to 1942, Naval Ministry records from 1868 to 1939 and operational records of many units throughout the war including Unit 731. In 1948 the CIA turned over the records to the National Archives, with no indication of what, if anything, had been removed.
In 1957, all Japanese military records were ordered to be returned to Japan.
Concerned over the potential loss, a group of scholars including Edwin O. Reischauer of Harvard University and John Young of Georgetown University, obtained a Ford Foundation grant to hurriedly microfilm what they could. In February 1958, after about 5 % of the records were copied, Young recalled in an interview, the documents were sent to Baltimore and loaded aboard a ship for Japan. "There was no way we could read them all," said Young, who deplored the loss.
Young, who assisted Allied war crimes investigators in China after the war, compiled a 144-page index to the pages that were microfilmed. A microfilm set was presented to the National Diet Library in Tokyo, "An irony, Young said, considering that Japan has now closed off the collection. "I can tell you frankly, the militarists felt relieved," Young said. "As a historian I couldn't stand it."
This issue was also raised in the 1986's congress PoW hearing. John H. Hatcher, Army Record Management of US Army explained, "because the problem of language was too difficult for us to overcome", therefore all records were returned to Japan.
Subcommittee member Solomon was stunned, "to say that didn't have the expertise in this country to translate those records is almost incomprehensible." It clearly indicated that the subcommittee members believed that there was a Cover-Up.
It was until Dec. 3, 1996, U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) which has focused almost exclusively on Nazi war criminals despite its mandate to pursue BOTH Nazis and their allies, finally took its FIRST STEP toward redressing this imbalance by adding the FIRST 16 Japanese war criminal names on the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment) since it was legislated in 1978 for denying more than 60,000 Nazi German, Austrian, and Italian war criminals entry to U.S.
However, Japan is blocking probe of War Criminals and refused to cooperate with the Justice Department to put the names of several hundred surviving criminals on the Watch List.
"Japan is the ONLY country in the world from whom we seek assistance that does not provide it." said Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department’s office of Special Investigations. Rosenbaum said his office has been able to identify fewer than 100 Japanese suspects compare to 60,000 Nazi, Austrian, and Italian war criminals on the "Watch List"
"After the war, they were not punished, so why is the U.S. government dealing with this problem now ?" said Masao Okonogi, professor of political science at Keio University in Tokyo.
"This seems to me remarkably hypocritical. At the end of WWII, the U.S. occupying force was aware of the information about Unit 731 but deliberately exonerated the men in return for their agreement to be debriefed on the findings of their atrocious experiments. We agreed to Cover-Up their crimes." said John Dower, MIT professor and specialist on modern Japanese history and US relations.
In the San Francisco Peace Treaty (SFPT) process, the interests of Asian people and countries brutally victimized by the Japanese Imperial Army were mostly ignored.
This Treaty had caused much controversial from the very beginning. After 54 years, the Treaty still remains very much controversial today.
Despite the protests by Asian countries most affected by the Japanese aggression, U.S. did NOT even invite China (both mainland-People's Republic of China and Taiwan-Republic of China) and Korea (both North and South).
Soviet Union, India and Burma refused to participate. 3 signatories from Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) were actually representatives of the French colonial regime.
Only 4 Asian countries signed the treaty. Of these 4, Indonesia signed the treaty but never ratified it. The Philippines reserved its signatures and did not ratify the treaty. So in fact, the ONLY Asian countries that supported the SFPT were Pakistan and Ceylon, both colonies of Britain up till that time.
Furthermore, U.S. feared that Dutch's refusal of signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty might lead the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand to drop out as well, so on the day before and the morning of the treaty signing ceremony, U.S. principal negotiator, John Foster Dulles, orchestrated a " Secret Deal " with exchange of confidential letters between the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands, Dirk Stikker, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.
Yoshida pledged that "the Government of Japan does not consider that the Government of the Netherlands by signing the Treaty has itself expropriated the private claims of its nationals so that, as a consequence thereof, after the Treaty comes into force these claims would be non-existent."
The deal and letters had to be kept secret because Article 26 of the Treaty states that, "should Japan make a peace settlement or war claims settlement with any State granting that State greater advantages than those provided by the present Treaty, those same advantages shall be extended to the parties to the present Treaty."
In 1956, the Dutch did successfully pursue a claim against Japan on behalf of private citizens. Japan paid $10 million as a way of "expressing sympathy and regret." A year before, the British noted two other instances in which governments had made deals with Japan for reparations: a settlement with Burma that provided reparations, services and investments amounting, over 10 years, to $250 million; and an agreement with Switzerland that provided "compensation for maltreatment, personal injury and loss arising from acts illegal under the rules of war."
The letters were finally declassified in April 2000, by which time most potential claimants were probably all dead.
With the " Secret Deal " and by withholding documents, the U.S. has significantly contributed and played a major role in Japan's historical amnesia.
Japan subsequently signed treaties with other States, including the war claims settlements.
Both U.S. and Japan purposely ignored without honoring the provision of Article 26 and continues to deny its bounded responsibility to compensate its wartime victims to this day.
For details, refer to San Francisco Peace Treaty: Has Justice Been Served and Peace Secured ? , and A Just Peace ? The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty in Historical Perspective.
"Those of us who really believe in human rights believe that justice has not been achieved by the San Francisco Peace Treaty," said Lillian Sing, a San Francisco Superior Court judge.
"Japan's historical amnesia is a result of collusion between the U.S. and Japan," said Mark Selden, a history professor at the State University of New York, "That collusion reached its height in the San Francisco Treaty of 1951." because the treaty becomes an obstacle to a full reckoning of the suffering Japan inflicted on other Asians and on American PoW.
Peace Treaty Locked Japan into a Flawed Present.
John Dower in his recent book, Embracing Defeat: "One of the most pernicious aspects of the occupation was that the Asian peoples who had suffered most from imperial Japan's depredations -- the Chinese, Koreans, Indonesians, and Filipinos had no serious role, no influential presence at all in the defeated land. They became invisible. Asian contributions to defeating the emperor's soldiers and sailors were displaced by an all-consuming focus on the American victory in the Pacific War".
San Fransisco Peace Treaty is therefore an un-precedented BIG Sell-Out of all countries in Asia by U.S.
In Oct. 1999, in a Letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein for the Bill S.9102 , i.e. the Disclosure Act of Japanese War Crime Documents, History Professor Sheldon H. Harris of California State University emphatically stated in his letter that :
The ""sensitive" documents as defined by archivists and FOIA officers are at the moment being destroyed...... Three examples of this wanton destruction......" by U.S.
1. "In 1991, the Librarian at Dugway Proving Grounds, Dugway, Utah, denied me access to the archives at the facility. It was only through the intervention of then U.S. Representative Wayne Owens, Dem., Utah, that I was given permission to visit the facility. I was not shown all the holdings relating to Japanese medical experiments, but the little I was permitted to examine revealed a great deal of information about medical war crimes. Sometimes after my visit, a person with intimate knowledge of Dugway's operations, informed me that "sensitive" documents were destroyed there as a direct result of my research in their library."
2. "I conducted much of my American research at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. The Public Information Officer there was extremely helpful to me. Two weeks ago I telephoned Detrick, was informed that the PIO had retired last May. I spoke with the new PIO, who told me that Detrick no longer would discuss past research activities, but would disclose information only on current projects. Later that day I telephoned the retired PIO at his home. He informed me that upon retiring he was told to "get rid of that stuff", meaning incriminating documents relating to Japanese medical war crimes. Detrick no longer is a viable research center for historians."
3. "Within the past 2 weeks, I was informed that the Pentagon, for "space reasons", decided to rid itself of all biological warfare documents in its holdings prior to 1949. The date is important, because all war crimes trials against accused Japanese war criminals were terminated by 1949. Thus, current Pentagon materials could not implicate alleged Japanese war criminals. Fortunately, a private research facility in Washington volunteered to retrieve the documents in question. This research facility now holds the documents, is currently cataloguing them (estimated completion time, at least twelve months), and is guarding the documents under "tight security".
Starting from Korea, in the course of 45 years, Japanese gold hunting expert teams accompanying Japan's armed forces had systematically emptied treasuries, banks, factories, private homes, pawn shops, art galleries, and stripped ordinary people, while Japan's top gangsters looted Asia's underworld and black economy.
For 45 year, Japan systematically looted wealth of 12 Asian countries accumulated over thousands of years: currency, gold, platinum, silver, diamonds, gemstones, jewelry, cultural treasures, valuable ancient books, priceless manuscripts, religious artifacts, artworks and historic artifacts, and antiques including more than a dozen solid gold Buddhas, each weighing more than a ton.
The looting and plundering, which was far more thorough than the Nazis, became the Japanese way to finance its brutal war. In China alone, Japan looted 6,000 tonnes of gold from Chinese capital Nanjing in 1938. When the plunder was later unable to ship to Japan due to US submarine blockade, The treasure of Golden Lily was buried in Philippines, known as the "Yamashita's Gold", estimated US$ 500 billion-plus of wealth looted from 12 Asian countries accumulated over thousands of years.
Shocking details of the Japanese unjust enrichment could be found in the controversial book Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold, backed up by massive amounts of the author's raw research material, which is available in 2 CD-ROMs containing more than 900 megabytes of documents, interviews, maps and photographs assembled during their meticulous research for independent verification.
A Swiss court disclosed in 1997 that one of the solid gold Buddhas is now in a bank vault beneath Zurich’s Kloten Airport, along with a large quantity of other gold bullion recovered by former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and held in Marcos family accounts.
In 1997, a team from Japan’s Asahi television was led to a mountain cave in the Philippines, where they filmed and examined 1,800 of these bars, worth $150 million, and drilled core samples that confirmed their province.
After Japan's surrender, some golds were recovered by US. But US decided to steal and unjustly enrich itself instead of returning to its rightful Asian owner for their recovery after War.
According to the Seagraves, US financial experts from CIA instructed Santa Romana to deposit the gold in 176 reliable banks in 42 different countries. Instead of returning these looted gold to the rightful owners of Asian countries to recover in the aftermath of WWII, U.S. unjustly enriched itself by stealing these looted gold and set up Slush Funds to finance and influence politics around the world for its own interests. The slush funds became US political worldwide action fund to fight communism. The most famous one is known as the Black Eagle Trust, or the M-Fund to reinforce the treasuries of its allies, bribe political leaders, manipulate politics, military, economics and elections around the world.
After the war, according to Segraves, US used the looted treasure from Asia as sort of Japanese Marshall Plan to re-build Japan, and develop Japanese key industries such as coal, iron, shipbuilding and electric power for Japan's "Economic Miracle Recovery" and as bulwark against communism.
Far from being bankrupted by the War, Japan had been greatly and unjustly enriched by the Plunder of Asia after the War.
"Truth is something governments do not wish to be known. Big corporate media and bootlicking academics have tried to undermine our books by pretending they don't exist or saying that the M-Fund is imaginary. But look at the CD-ROMs. Secrecy, lying and corruption have become the official seal of Tokyo and Washington" says Peggy Seagrave.
The fact that the U.S. still refuses to declassify relevant OSS/CIA materials, in blatant contravention of U.S. Freedom of Information laws, strongly suggests to many scholars and historians that there is something serious to Cover-Up.
Peter Calvocoressi, author of the book "Total War", wrote "What seems quite incredible is that the cover-up conspiracy - for it is by no means a demonological exaggeration to speak of it as a conspiracy - was maintained throughout the three years which elapsed between the Japanese defeat and the conclusion of the Tokyo Trial ... and that ... this conspiracy was sustained for so long afterwards."
Under the Cover-Up of State-Terrorism by U.S. against Humanity, Japanese government with its economic power, is able to wage a sophisticated campaign after the war:
Japan portrayed itself as an Atomic Victim rather than a colonial Atrocious War Criminal.
Minoru Morita, a Tokyo-based political analyst said, "These days we very often hear more experts say publicly that the U.S. wants such adversary relationship between China and Japan and that's why they remain SILENT."
Remorseless Japan, assisted by U.S., has committed the " 2nd Rape of Nanjing -- Rape of History " , has committed the " 2nd Nanjing Massacre -- Massacre the Massacre " , has committed the " 2nd Holocaust -- Holocaust the Holocaust ".
Japan has now being able to skirt the soul-searching for its War Crimes for more than half century.
Most people have termed it "The Forgotten Holocaust".
The recent very strong reactions, i.e. large scale of protests against Japan and millions signed the online petition to U.N., from the people of Asia, especially from China and S.Korea, have shown that even though the WWII ended in Asia 60 years ago, the bitter issue of Japanese War Crimes committed before and during that war has clearly not been resolved.
The Textbook was first approved by Japanese Government screening panel 4 years ago and had already caused extensive outcry in 2001 from neighbouring WWII vicitimized countries. China condemned Japan 'absurd' rewrite of WWII in 2001. Japanese education ministry said 137 changes had been made after widespread protests from Korea and China in 2001.
Dec. 2000 Appeal by Japanese Historians and History Educators - We cannot entrust History Education to a Textbook that distorts History.
Though given away for free, the Government approved nationalist New History Textbook is used only by 18 junior high schools. But it has caused outrages and been denounced by many Japanese conscientious educators and liberals in Japan.
It also underscores a disturbing broader trend in recent years. Japan's largest national newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun has called on its readers to celebrate the new Textbooks of cutting out all mentions about the Sex Slaves.
" All history textbooks are shifting their focus away from Japan's wartime atrocities," said Mikio Someya, spokesman for Japan Teachers' Association, the leading teachers' union in Japan.
"They are approved because their contents reflect the views of the government and conservative ruling party members." said Yoshifumi Tawara, who heads Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21.
The 2005 revised edition of Japanese History textbook distorts even more than the 2001 Edition: excises all mention of Sex Slaves, portraying Japan as more victim than aggressor; claims Japan had "no choice" but to occupy the Korea;
The new textbook questions Nanjing Massacre and says China provoked war : downplaying "21 Humiliating Demands".
Although still suffering as a Western colonial victim, during W.W.I, China sent 100,000 laborers to help the allies in France; about 2,500 died. At end of W.W.I at the peace conference in Paris, China requested: do away with the privileges of imperialist foreign countries in China, cancel the Japanese "21 Humiliating Demands", take back the privileges in Shandong that Japan had taken from Germany.
However, not willing to give up their forced colonial privileges, U.S., Britain and France rejected China's demands. Instead, Article 156 of Treaty of Versailles transferred German concessions in Shandong, China to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China.
China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, compounded with the Japanese 21 Humiliating Demands led directly to the first mass movement in modern Chinese history, i.e. the famous First Chinese university student movement : May 4th Movement in Beijing in 1919 and triggered a nationwide Boycott of Japanese Goods. The movement also ignited a wave of searching efforts by the intellectuals for a solution to save China from foreign colonial powers. Some advocated gradual cultural reform, while others introduced Marxism and led to the birth of the Communist Party.
15 Japanese civic groups issued a statement, " The 'dangerous' contents filling the Textbook as a whole have not changed in any essential way. There are even parts that have been revised for the worse.", down playing Nanjing Massacre, ignoring Sex Slaves, depicting Japan as aimed at liberating other Asian countries, using wartime propaganda terminology e.g. calling WWII the "Greater East Asian War".
The Textbook has been a big problem in Japan since end of war, 32 Years History Textbook Legal Battle for details.
Recently, Japanese civic groups ran an advertisement in the Yomiuri Shimbun calling on people to reject the new textbooks
The Root cause of the bitterness is NOT the History Textbook or the bidding of U.N. Security Council which are only the triggering factors. The Real Root Cause is the Cover-Up of State-Terrorism by U.S. against Humanity. It is also the Real Solution for the people in Asia because Without the Cover-up, Japan will have to Naturally and Willingly follow the great example set by the courageous Germany.
WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab warned Asia of the Risk of Un-Digested History, " Coming from Europe where a reconciliation process has taken place, we have today a clear "European Identity", parallel to our National Identity. This has not happened here in this region. We speak a lot about Asia, but where is the "Asian Identity" ?
The "Asian Identity" could only be achieved through the only path available, i.e. through truly sincere apology, compensation, and forgiveness.
Only then, the people of Asia can truly live peacefully and harmoniously together, and only then their Asian dream of an Union similar to the European Union (EU) could be realized in the future.
From history, we know that Militarism is extreme State-Terrorism.
Ironically, Japanese War Crimes cover-up is, in fact, a Cover-Up of State-Terrorism by U.S. against Humanity -- an U.S. "With-Us or Against-Us" mockery to its own war against Terrorism.
Fumiko Nakamura, a 91-year-old former public school teacher, can't shake the profound remorse she feels. Ms. Nakamura used to exhort her students to fight for the Emperor. She is deeply ashamed of her involvement in the war. " I will carry this sin as long as I live," she says.
As Japan expands its military roles abroad, her voice has grown louder. Now that some Japanese leaders want to turn the "Self-Defense Forces" into Full-Fledged Military, 91-years-old woman has become more vocal than ever. "I see certain parallels between present situations in Japan and in the pre-war period," she warns.
Noriaki Kamiya, a high school social studies teacher in Nagoya. Rather than hiding his family history, Kamiya talked about it in his classroom and around Japan. At first he referred to his father obliquely, as an "acquaintance."
But in 1995, a young Diet member declared that her generation bore no responsibility for wartime atrocities, and he sees worrying signs of a revival of the same kind of nationalistic thinking. So he began speaking openly. " Japan has emphasized the part of Japanese as victims, such as in Hiroshima. But it hasn't touched the shameful parts." said Kamiya.
The Asia Peace Alliance of Japan in Japan which has support from 64 organizations warned that nationalism is on the rise and more should be done to prevent the younger generation from thinking that Japanese militarism is the way to go.
"Everything I hear these days makes me really upset," said Sunao Tsuboi, now 80 was a university student when the bomb exploded over Hiroshima. "I get a strong feeling that Japan is leaning to the right, that we're going down a road that we've been down before," His face still visibly scarred from the atomic burns and is worried Japan may again be headed down the path of militarism.
Kinhide Mushakoji, Professor of Osaka University of Economics and Law, said: "Now we're part of the west and millitarizing in support of the American government. People think it's right, That's what's really the problem I'm concerned about."
Taking advantage of US war against Terrorism, ironically, instead of self-defense, Japan dispatched its Self-Defence warships for the FIRST TIME in the postwar period to Afghanistan; and then sent its Self-Defence troops to combat zone for the FIRST TIME to Iraq, to help fighting Terrorism.
It is a speechless mockery to its own Cover-Up of extreme State-Terrorism committed during 14 years atrocious WWII.
Japan's Soul Searching
Not only were the perpetrators not punished after the war, Nobusuke Kishi, who had served as the wartime czar of Chinese Slaves and spent 3 years in Sugamo Prison as a Class-A War Crimes suspect, even made all the way to became Prime Minister of Japan in 1957. Okinori Kaya, a Class-A War Criminal for life imprisonment, paroled in 1955, later became Justice Minister. Shigemitsu Mamoru, Class-A War Criminal sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, became Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in 1954. The head of Unit 731, Shiro Ishii was permitted to continue medical research in Japan after the war. Ryoichi Naito, Ishii's right-hand man, founded Green Cross pharmaceutical companies, other Unit 731 leaders joined him there. Many directors of JNIH (Japan National Institute of Health) had served in biological warfare unit and involved in human experiments. Some went on to become Governor of Tokyo, Presidents of universities, Deans of medical schools, Heads of public health agencies, Head of Japan Olympic Committee, key position in Japanese drug and medical companies, lawmakers and industrialists.
Kobayashi Rokuzo - President - National Epidemic Prevention Institute
Nakaguro Hidetoshi - President - Defence Forces Medical School
Naito Ryoichi - President - Green Cross
Kitano Masaji - Chief Executive - Green Cross
Kasuga Chuichi - President = Trio-Kenwood
Yoshimura Hisato - President - Kyoto Municipal Medical University
Yamanaka Motoki - President - Osaka Municipal Medical University
Okamato Kozo - Dean - Kyoto University Medical
Tanaka Hideo - Dean - Osaka Municipal University Medical
Ishikawa Tachiomaru - President - Kanazawa University Medical
Kasahara Shiro - Vice president - Kitasato Hospital
Japanese veterans, war widows, families of those killed in action, civilians employed by the military, and citizens mobilized for the war, all receive generous benefits from Japanese government under the entitlement program.
In 1954, Japanese Public Officials Pensions Law was revised to assist War Criminals for pensions and compensation.
Japanese War Criminals received full military pensions and benefits from Japanese government,
But millions of their victims and families suffered, and continue to suffer in poverty, shame, chronic physical and mental pain, WMD Death Toll and WMD Injuries including Children continue to rise due to Japanese abandonded WMD weapons to this day .........
Japanese government officials and right-wingers, even some moderates, insist that all claims resulted from Japanese WW II transgression have been settled by the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty that Japan had paid the international Red Cross the equivalent of about $1 a day for missed meal and $1.5 per day for unpaid wages for PoW while the Allies agreed not to bring War Crimes charges against it, by citing the provision in Article 16 in which Allied nations agreed to waive all reparations in light of the postwar financial hardship Japan was experiencing. They also claim that Japan has paid a total of 27 billion dollars to 27 nations, transfer of Japanese capital equipment, facilities, other assets to nations abroad, and an apology was offered by Japanese Prime Minister Tomichi Murayama in Aug. 1995.
But his apology was only a personal one. He failed to make a formal and official apology in the so-called "No War Resolution". Only 26% of the diet members supported the Resolution and 47% were against it. Furthermore, the ex-education minister Seisuke Okuno managed to organize a national campaign and collected 4.5 million signatures against the Resolution. The revised version had the official apology deleted.
Critics also pointed out that the bulk of $27 billion did NOT come from its coffer. It was the relief funds the Allied sent to the PoWs in the Japanese camps throught the International Committee of Red Cross and they was illegally seized by the Bank of Japan in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. Japan only returned them to Switzerland as part of the 1951 San Frencisco Peace Treaty settlement.
The returned properties were looted by the Japanese Army. They were hardly any "reparations" but solely stolen goods.
Countless artwork, ancient antiques, valuable books and intellectual properties from China and other nations are still sitting in Japan's museums and private collections to this day.
Over 45 years, Japan systematically looted wealth of 12 Asian countries accumulated over thousands of years: currency, gold, platinum, silver, diamonds, gemstones, jewelry, cultural treasures, religious artifacts, art and antiques including more than a dozen solid gold Buddhas, each weighing more than a ton.
The looting and plundering, which was far more thorough than the Nazis, became the Japanese way to finance its brutal war. In China alone, Japan looted 6,000 tonnes of gold from Chinese capital Nanjing in 1938.
Far from being bankrupted by the War, Japan had been greatly enriched by the Plunder of Asia after the War.
Stolen Artifacts from Asia found in Japan
It is estimated that Japan had looted more than 2.7 million books from China. After the war only 158,873 books were returned.
Japan's ODA (Official Development Assistance) to China begins at 1979 when China has finally began its open door policy for economic development after suffering 30 long years of irrational political turmoil. But China lacked capital while developed countries had large quantities of idle money.
Although ODA was often criticized as the "Checkbook Diplomacy", it has definitely provided great benefits for both sides. By helping China's infrastructural facilities, Japan has paved the road for its own Japanese company profitable business in China and thus helped to pull Japan out of years of economic stagnation as already shown in recent economic recovery. China in late 70s and early 80s, was still an energy export country. The ODA thus helped Japan diversify its energy import sources and reduce reliance on Middle East at that time.
Japan's ODA for China comprises 3 parts: long-term loans, free grants and technical assistance. The bulk of the ODA are loans. Total Japanese ODA to China is about US$ 30 billion. They were NOT free gifts. All ODA loans including the low interest must be paid back.
The 30 billion US$ ODA paid-back loans amount to only a fraction of the financial losses in China caused by Japanese 14 years of atrocious WWII, estimated in many Hundreds of Billions US $. The total loss could be Trillion US$ if the interest, direct and indirect monetary and properties damages, environmental and ecosystem damages, looted wealth, cultural assets, natural resources, and other tangible or intangible losses were included, not to mention 35 Millions Chinese casualties caused by Japanese indiscriminate killing, starvation and various diseases.
A close examination of the San Francisco Peace Treaty reveals that the reparations matter was merely postponed until Japan has the financial means to pay. It was never resolved.
However, according to Segraves, far from being bankrupted by the War, Japan had been greatly enriched by the Plunder of Asia after the War.
The Treaty had caused much controversial from the very beginning. After 54 years, the Treaty still remains very much controversial today.
In the San Francisco Peace Treaty (SFPT) process, the interests of Asian people and countries brutally victimized by the Japanese Imperial Army were mostly ignored.
Despite the protests by Asian countries most affected by the Japanese aggression, U.S. did NOT even invite China (both mainland-People's Republic of China and Taiwan-Republic of China) and Korea (both North and South).
Soviet Union, India and Burma refused to participate. 3 signatories from Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) were actually representatives of the French colonial regime.
Only 4 Asian countries signed the treaty. Of these 4, Indonesia signed the treaty but never ratified it. The Philippines reserved its signatures and did not ratify the treaty. So in fact, the ONLY Asian countries that supported the SFPT were Pakistan and Ceylon, both colonies of Britain up till that time.
Furthermore, U.S. feared that Dutch's refusal of signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty might lead the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand to drop out as well, so on the day before and the morning of the treaty signing ceremony, U.S. principal negotiator, John Foster Dulles, orchestrated a " Secret Deal " with exchange of confidential letters between the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands, Dirk Stikker, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.
Yoshida pledged that "the Government of Japan does not consider that the Government of the Netherlands by signing the Treaty has itself expropriated the private claims of its nationals so that, as a consequence thereof, after the Treaty comes into force these claims would be non-existent."
The deal and letters had to be kept secret because Article 26 of the Treaty states that, "should Japan make a peace settlement or war claims settlement with any State granting that State greater advantages than those provided by the present Treaty, those same advantages shall be extended to the parties to the present Treaty."
In 1956, the Dutch did successfully pursue a claim against Japan on behalf of private citizens. Japan paid $10 million as a way of "expressing sympathy and regret." A year before, the British noted two other instances in which governments had made deals with Japan for reparations: a settlement with Burma that provided reparations, services and investments amounting, over 10 years, to $250 million; and an agreement with Switzerland that provided "compensation for maltreatment, personal injury and loss arising from acts illegal under the rules of war."
The letters were finally declassified in April 2000, by which time most potential claimants were probably all dead.
With the " Secret Deal " and by withholding documents, the U.S. has significantly contributed and played a major role in Japan's historical amnesia.
Japan subsequently signed treaties with other States, including the war claims settlements.
Both U.S. and Japan purposely ignored without honoring the provision of Article 26 and continues to deny its bounded responsibility to compensate its wartime victims to this day.
For details, refer to San Francisco Peace Treaty: Has Justice Been Served and Peace Secured ? , and A Just Peace ? The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty in Historical Perspective
"Those of us who really believe in human rights believe that justice has not been achieved by the San Francisco Peace Treaty," said Lillian Sing, a San Francisco Superior Court judge.
"Japan's historical amnesia is a result of collusion between the U.S. and Japan," said Mark Selden, a history professor at the State University of New York, " That collusion reached its height in the San Francisco Treaty of 1951." because the treaty becomes an obstacle to a full reckoning of the suffering Japan inflicted on other Asians and on American PoW.
Peace Treaty Locked Japan into a Flawed Present.
As Harvard Professor Akira Iriye had pointed out, U.S. used the San Fransisco Peace Treaty to turn Japan from a conquered and occupied country to its military ally aiming at responding to the communist countries, Soviet Union and China.
John Dower in his recent book, Embracing Defeat: "One of the most pernicious aspects of the occupation was that the Asian peoples who had suffered most from imperial Japan's depredations -- the Chinese, Koreans, Indonesians, and Filipinos had no serious role, no influential presence at all in the defeated land. They became invisible. Asian contributions to defeating the emperor's soldiers and sailors were displaced by an all-consuming focus on the American victory in the Pacific War".
San Fransisco Peace Treaty is therefore an un-precedented BIG Sell-Out of all countries in Asia by U.S.
In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of U.N. and of the war, Japan consideredand proposed a "No War Resolution" in an effort to reflect its past history. However, it was rejected by Japanese Diet mainly because it contained a formal official apology for its wartime atrocities. Only 26% of the diet members supported the Resolution and 47% were against it. Furthermore, the ex-education minister Seisuke Okuno managed to organize a national campaign and collected 4.5 million signatures against the Resolution. The revised version had the official apology deleted.
On Aug 15, 1995 Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama offered an apology to mark the 50th anniversary end of WWII. But his personal apology was NOT even passed by the Japanese parliament.
In Sept 1997 Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto also reiterated the apology. Again, his apology was NOT approved by the parliament.
In Oct. 8 2001 Japanese prime minister Koizumi, issued an apoplgy after visiting the Lugouqiao ( Marco Polo Bridge), site of hostilities that led to a full scale war invasion in July 7, 1937. However, the apology was simply based on and did not go beyond the wording used in a 1995 statement by Murayama. It was his personal apology and NOT passed by Japanese Diet.
This was exactly why in Nov. 1998, Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun ran a such naive headline: "We are fed up of saying sorry".
Japan also argues that individual victim cannot sue a state, and also argued that China had voluntarily give up the right of reparation from Japan in 1972 when Beijing and Japan established diplomatic ties. Although the Joint Communiqué and the Treaty have waived the state's rights to war damages, neither has ever specifically surrendered the rights of any private claims by Chinese citizens.
In fact, the obligation of States and the rights of individuals with respect to the violation of human rights cannot, as a matter of international law, be given away or extinguished by governments through peace treaty, peace agreement, amnesty or by any other means. This has been repeatedly affirmed in numerous resolutions passed by the United Nations over the years. (e.g. UN Resolution E/CN.4/SUB.2/RES/1999/16)
Professor Etsuro Totsuka of Kobe University in Japan has pointed out the following in his article Peace Treaty and Japan's Wartime Responsibility: Breaking the Treaty Defense :
1. Art. 3 of the Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed at the Hague, on 18 Oct. 1907 stipulates, "A belligerent party which violates the provisions of the said Regulations (i.e., the Regulations of Land Warfare annexed to the Convention) shall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation. It shall be responsible for all acts committed by persons forming part of its armed forces."
This article of the 1907 Hague Convention was understood to have been customary international law and it was succeeded by Art. 91 of the Optional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Japan acceded to it on Oct 21, 1953 and bound China in 1956. Therefore, It guarantees individual victims the right to compensation.
2. China is not a Party to the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Therefore, The treaty is not applicable to China.
3. The Treaty of Peace between Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan) and Japan of Apr 28, 1952 became null and void in accordance with the Sino-Japanese Joint Communique of Sept 29, 1972.
4. The Sino-Japanese Joint Communique includes no explicit provision, which waived the right of individual victims. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations had also made public its legal opinion that the Joint Communique did not waive the right to demand reparations for losses and damages sustained by Chinese nationals.
5. Art. 148 of the IV Geneva Convention reads "No High Contracting Party shall be allowed to absolve itself or any other High Contracting Party of any liability incurred by itself or by another High Contracting Party in respect of breaches referred to in the preceding Article." Therefore, if any military personnel commit war crimes of grave breaches under Art. 147, the responsible Parties could not be allowed to absolve itself from any liabilities including responsibility for compensation due to the crimes and other Parties shall not be allowed to relinquish the rights of the victims without compensation from the responsible state.
Also in the second sentence of Art. 7 of the IV Geneva Convention reads, "No special agreement shall adversely affect the situation of protected persons, as defined by the present Convention, nor restrict the rights which it confers upon them.” Therefore, the guarantee under Art. 148 cannot be adversely changed by any other international agreements.
Therefore, these 2 articles clearly prohibited Japan and China to absolve Japan of the individual rights to compensation under the said Joint Communique, in particular, if it comes to the issue of grave war crimes.
In 1959, Yasukuni Shrine began to enshrine Class-B and Class-C war criminals. In 1978, under the Cover-Up of State-Terrorism by U.S. against Humanity, Japan secretly enshrined 1,068 war criminals including 14 Class-A War Criminals in Yasukuni Shinto shrine to be worshipped as national heroes. News of the secret enshrinement caused an uproar when it leaked out 6 months later.
In July 1996, on Japan's "Day of Armistice", known as the "Day of Surrender", the Japanese Royal Family and Prime Minister Hashimoto went to the Yasukuni Shrine to pay official tribute there. In doing so, they effectively bestowed the status of "National Heroes" upon more than 1,000 convicted War Criminals.
The Japanese ruling LDP party and right wingers even incorporated the worship as the national policy that the cabinet ministers should officially pay tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine. Japan Foreign Affairs Committee has even approved a motion on November 28, 1996 asking all visiting Heads of State to pay homage at the Yasukuni Shrine to their War Criminals.
Japan's "Peace Constitution Article 9" prohibits Japan from having an army. So, instead of an army, Japan has a Self-Defense Force (SDF). It was called an "emasculated" military force since it was forbidden to resort to military action unless attacked.
However, encouraged by US, Japanese Self-Defense Force is now the best equipped and most modern army in Asia. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Japan military spending in 2003 was US$ 46.9 billion, the 2nd largest in the world, even outstrips Britain's in total spending and manpower. Its navy is probably the 2nd largest in the Pacific.
Compared with most Shinto shrines, which were founded hundreds of years ago, the Japanese Yasukuni Shrine was a relatively recent affair. It was built by the Imperial Order of the Meiji Emperor in 1869 for the sole purpose to glorify Japan's imperialism. During WWII, Japanese Militarists took over the shrine. Yasukuni is a military war memorial to glorify its brutal past, anything but a symbol of peace. It grounds in central Tokyo include a museum devoted to glorifying Japanese militarism as a noble cause that tried to liberate Asia.
Ironically, Japanese Emperor Meiji, whose name Meiji originated from "Yi Jing (I Ching) " , A Chinese Classic , also took the name Yasukuni from a phrase in "Chunqiu Zuoshi Zhuan " (Shunju Sashiden) , another Chinese Classic , meaning "Bringing Peace to a Nation."
War / Colonial Brutal Invasion/War Dead:
Meiji Restoration - 7,751
South-West War - 6,971
War against China - 1874
Taiwan Punitive Expedition
( Taiwan Mudan Invasion ) - 1,130
War against China - 1894
Sino-Japanese War - 13,619
War against China - 1900
Boxer Rebellion - 1,256
War .inside China - 1904
Russo-Japanese War - 88,429
21 Demands - 1915
First World War - 4,850
War against China - 1928
Jinan Incident
( 53 Jinan Massacre ) - 185
War against China - 1931
Manchurian Incident
( 918 Invasion ) - 17,176
War against China - 1937
China Incident
( 77 Marco Polo Bridge Full Invasion ) - 191,250
War against China - 1941
Great East Asian War
( Asia Invasion WWII ) - 2,133,915
Total War Dead: 2,466,532
Of the 11 wars listed above, most of the Japanese wars were fought to invade and colonize China. The Russian-Japanese War was fought inside China in 1904 to determine who had more "Rights" to colonize China, ended with Treaty of Portsmouth.
Just a few paces from where Japanese PM Koizumi dropped a coin and prayed, is the Yasukuni museum. The museum portrays Japan as both the martyr and savior of Asia to drive "the foreign barbarians", to liberate and protect Asia from Russian Bolshevism and European colonialism. Pearl Harbor was "forced" by "a plot" by President Roosevelt. Japanese-led massacres, Korean comfort women, Chinese sex slaves, or tortured PoWs are not mentioned.
The Yasukuni Museum display shows Japan as a victim of a conspiracy by Western colonial powers and Japan was forced into war in self-defence to bring peace to Asia.
In a Museum film, Pearl Harbor is described as a "battle for Japan's survival," while one exhibit blames the 1937 Nanjing Massacre on the Chinese leaders who fled the city while ordering their men to fight to the death. After the fall of Nanjing to the Japanese, the museum notes, "the Chinese citizens were once again able to live their lives in peace."
The Museum also displays the first engine that travelled the infamous 415 km Railway of Death - Thai-Burma Railway without mentioning the savage death of 16,000 PoWs and 100,000 Asian Slaves, described by Cameron Forbes in his book Hellfire as " built on the Bones of the Dead", i.e. 300 death for each km.
WWII is called "the Greater East Asian War", invasion of China is described as "China Incident". The Museum displays a reconstructed Zero fighter and the Short Sword used by Gen. Korechika Anami who advocated to continue the War even after the 2 Atomic Bombs.
Okinori Kaya, a Class-A War Criminal for life imprisonment, paroled in 1955, and became Justice Minister. He was instrumental in getting a bill to the Diet that, if passed, would have turned Yasukuni into a national shrine. He kept the bill alive through 5 rejections until finally giving up in 1974. However,
in 1959, Yasukuni Shrine began to enshrine Class-B and Class-C war criminals. It had secretly enshrined 1,068 WWII Criminals including 14 CLASS-A War Criminals in 1978. News of the secret enshrinement caused an uproar when it leaked out 6 months later.
In Seoul, Kim Yun-ok said, "The Japanese soldiers enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine are the very ones who Raped our grandmothers."
More than 86 % of the enshrined Japanese soldiers were from WWII. Private Tadokoro Kozo of the 114th division said in 1971 interview, " There wasn't . ANY . soldier who didn't Rape. After things were done, usually we killed them ..... We didn't want to leave any trouble behind ....."
Nearly 21,000 war dead from Korea and 28,000 from Taiwan, most of them forced into war service under Japan's colonial rule, are enshrined at Yasukuni without their families' permission. The Taiwanese arrived in Tokyo said they want their relatives' names removed from memorial plaques there because it is "morally unpardonable that Murderers and Victims are honored at the SAME place."
In the past 3 years, Taiwanese went to Tokyo 7 times to protest against Yasukuni Shrine, demanding de-enshrinement of their family member of the forcibly conscripted war dead, insisting that "We are not Japanese ! We are the Victims of Japanese war crimes !", but without success in liberating their enslaved ancestral souls.
The "Return the Souls of our Forebears" protest delegation has come to the U.N. and brought with them are 2 old books that record the Japanese army employed the extreme brutal "Three All Policy : Burn All, Loot All, Kill All" in 1913 and 1914 against the Taiwan Aborigines who were resisting the invaders. A Japanese military photographic team followed the fighting, compiled its photographs into these " Pictorial Albums of the Punitive Expedition" and submitted them to the Japanese War Ministry as evidence of the army's "great military achievements".
The 2 albums now serve as undeniable proof of the Japanese army's war crimes. During its invasion and 51-year occupation of Taiwan, Japan killed more than 600,000 Taiwanese people, including large numbers of Aborigines.
For people in Asia, Yasukuni Shrine is a symbol of Japan's brutal militaristic past.
It is also a symbol of Japan's failure as a nation to collectively face its past war responsibilities.
It is not that the Asian do not want to forgive the Japanese. Unfortunately, it is many of the Japanese do not think they need to be forgiven.
Since the war, only Prime Minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1985 and Ryutaro Hashimoto in 1996, have made the visit, only once. The torrent of protest was enough to persuade them not to make another. However, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, drawing sharp criticism from other Asian countries, visited war shrine the 5th time to the Yasukuni Shrine on Oct. 18, 2005 since he became prime minister.
Under Article 11 of San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japanese government was to "accept the judgements" of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Japanese government officials to a shrine that has deified war criminals violates the spirit of the Peace Treaty.
Japan has not yet signed the convention for the International Criminal Court, which tries War Criminals.
What is wrong about Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine to grieve for those who gave their lives for their country in the past war ? Here is the answer.
First in Feb., Japanese Osaka District Court ruled that the Koizumi's visit was made NOT as a private citizen but in his official capacity.
Then in Apr. 2004, Japanese Fukuoka District Court ruled that Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine has violated Constitution because it violated the separation of state and religion.
Also in Sept 30, 2005 Osaka High Court ruled Koizumi's shrine visits were a religious activity and Un-Constitutional. The Un-Constitutional Ruling stands since the Japanese government cannot appeal to the Supreme Court.
In fact, the question of Constitution was settled in 1991 when Sendai High Court ruled that an official Yasukuni visit by a PM or the Emperor was Un-Constitutional under Article 20 of the national charter.
Koizumi defied logic, insisting that neighboring countries would not be offended by his Un-Constitutional shrine visits.
The visits marked a further step in the resurrection and legitimisation of the symbols of Japan’s Militarism.
The largest PoW suit was filed in Tokyo district court on January 30, 1995 by the Miami-based Center for Internee Rights. The suit, representing 33,000 U.S. military PoWs, 14,000 civilian internees and thousands more Dutch, British, Australians and New Zealand survivors, asks for an apology and $22,000 individual compensation from the Japanese government. After many court appearances and testimony this case will be decided by the Tokyo District Court in 1998. The final plaintiff testimony was given in Tokyo court on February 19, 1998.
Karn Parker, an international human rights lawyer fighting in the U.N. and Japanese courts over the last 4 years for the "Comfort Women" which Japan did not even admit until 1993, said Japan's refusal to compensate victims directly could partly be attributed to lack of pressure from other countries, especially the United States and China for political and economic reasons. "It does seem the Japanese government wants these old ladies to die one by one until the whole thing blows over," said Elaine Kim, an Asian Studies professor at UC-Berkeley.
However, things have finally started to change after the collapsing of communist Soviet Union, and the normalization of relationship between U.S. and communist China.
On Dec. 3, 1996, U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) which has focused almost exclusively on Nazi war criminals despite its mandate to pursue BOTH Nazis and their allies, finally took its FIRST STEP toward redressing this imbalance by adding the FIRST 16 Japanese war criminal names on the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment) since it was legislated in 1978 for denying more than 60,000 Nazi German, Austrian, and Italian war criminals entry to U.S.
This is a tiny step the U.S. government recently made to correct its willfully blind policy toward Japan's war crimes but of great significance. As Kei-ichi Tsuneishi, a Japanese Professor at Kanagawa University, says "The decision is likely to shock and wake up the Japanese."
However, Japan is blocking probe of War Criminals and refused to cooperate with the Justice Department to put the names of several hundred surviving veterans on the Watch List.
"Japan is the ONLY country in the world from whom we seek assistance that does not provide it." said Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department’s office of Special Investigations. Rosenbaum said his office has been able to identify fewer than 100 Japanese suspects compare to 60,000 Nazi, Austrian, and Italian war criminals on the "Watch List"
"After the war, they were not punished, so why is the U.S. government dealing with this problem now ?" said Masao Okonogi, professor of political science at Keio University in Tokyo.
"This seems to me remarkably hypocritical. At the end of WWII, the U.S. occupying force was aware of the information about Unit 731 but deliberately exonerated the men in return for their agreement to be debriefed on the findings of their atrocious experiments. We agreed to Cover-Up their crimes." said John Dower, MIT professor and specialist on modern Japanese history and US relations.
On Jan. 4 1996, the U.N. Human Rights Commission released an official report, submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women by Radhika Coomaraswamy, on the wartime Sex Slavery, report by International Commision of Jurists, Geneva Comfort Women : An Unfinished Ordeal, and also another report by Special Rapporteur Ms. Gay J. McDougall in 1998 : Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like practices during armed conflict. The reports are founded on years investigation and recommends that Japanese government should assume state responsibility and
1. Acknowledge its violation of international law.
2. Make a public apology in writing to individual women.
3. Pay compensation to individual women.
4. Amending educational curricula to reflect true historical realities.
5. Full disclosure of related documents
6. Identify and punish, as far as possible, involved perpetrators
The support for the U.N. report is growing around the world.
Germany now appears to have regained the trust of her neighbors while in vivid contrast, the current resurgence of Japanese Militarism continues to invite suspicion from Asia.