Noslrac
However, luckily 3 others made it home safely.
Those camps saved lives alright!</sarcasm off>
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Open letter to President Bush:
Dear Mr. President, I write that with such pride! I don't believe there's a day goes by that I don't thank God for you, for your integrity, and for the strength you have shown that has rubbed off on every one of us Americans, regardless of party affiliation. As a survivor of a Japanese prison camp, I find there is one sad note that never seems to be addressed, though - one that has dogged every president since World War II. You, like them, have inherited a two-headed dragon. I'm speaking, of course, of the 1951 Peace Treaty that ended the war in the Pacific. They all seemed to believe that by perpetuating a wrong it would turn out right in the end. But history has shown it never happens. This dragon has to be slain, even if it, requires abrogating a treaty, something several of our brave allies of that time have already done. It was a treaty fraught with half-truths and outright lies, and a tragic travesty of justice. The only thing it had going for it was that it was expedient at the time. A time of fear, spawned by the threat of world Communism that reared its ugly head after the horrors and heartbreak of World War II. Enemies quickly became allies, especially In the case of Japan, sitting off the eastern flank of Communist Russia. She had to be restored, placated, and wooed so that she could be relied upon to be our westernmost early warning system in the event Russia had belligerent designs on the free world. How could this be done? This 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty offered a perfect solution. We made it magnanimous and generous, stressed that Japan was destitute and reeling under her war debt, and forgave her many debts to humanity. There was an additional plus to this magnanimity, it bolstered our image of being non- racist, another horror that had been magnified in WWII. And the biggest plus of all - it reopened trade with Japan, something we desperately needed to fill the void that came when the war effort was no longer our prime source of employment. That the treaty generated more lies than truths through the years soon became evident. We cannot blame Japan for exploiting them by rewriting history to show us as the belligerents; by denying the atrocities she perpetrated on her Asian neighbors, and American and allied prisoners of war; and by building upon it until she became, in this eyes of the uninformed, the hapless victim of a war she never started. It has taken over 50 years for Washington to allow the Japanese war files to be opened under the Freedom of Information Act. Possibly, because we knew what a hornets' nest it would set off. But with the opening of the files the fact came out that, far from being destitute, Japan had raped and robbed not only the people in the countries she overran, but their coffers as well, to the tune of over $100 billion (1945) dollars, as estimated by a member of the Japanese imperial family. We found that loot after the war, hidden in underground tunnels, mostly in the Philippines, where POW slave-laborers and natives were used to dig and stash it. Those tunnels then secured by blasting the entrances and burying the POWs and native laborers alive. I feel now is the time to abrogate that treaty, right the many wrongs it spawned, make Japan face the consequences of her atrocities and aggression, and apologize and pay reparations to those countries and individuals she victimized. I believe that, faced with the growing fascination of the world at the newly discovered files on Japan's war of aggression, she will bow to the inevitable, and apologize and pay her debt to humanity, so that she can once more take her place, with integrity, among the nations of the free world, something the tragic specter of her past has never let her do. The expediency that forced us to write the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 no longer exists. What does still exist is a fear of the future. A fear you have stood up to and are fighting with every ounce of your being. I know you don't need another thing on your plate right now Mr. President, but if we don't take a stand and bravely face the past head-on, we will not be able to face the future with any certainty. If we don't want to rock the ship of state at this time, there is still one thing that can be done: We can follow in the footsteps of Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many of our other-allies, and pay the American victims of Japan's aggression, as we paid the Japanese we interned during WWII. Our ex-POWs could not be proud of such a solution, but I believe the handful who are still alive would accept the reward for their courage, patriotism and suffering in the spirit in which it was given. PAMELA MASTERS - Camino ; |
I am currently reading "Unjust Enrichment" by Linda Goetz Holmes, which is about the "white" prisoners of war that the Jap corporations used during the war. I recommend it. And I commend your grandfather, for being able to live through it. If he's still among us, give him my best regards.
He not only had to survive years of "hell" in those mines but first had to survive the "hell ships" that transported him and his fellow POW's from the Phillipines to Japan.
I'm sorry if I don't have as much "sensitivity" for the "survivors" of the internment camps here in the U.S.. Sure, it would have been better - perhaps - if we had not done it, but they've been compensated. Now, it would be much better if they either supported reparations for your grandfather and the others who were horribly abused by the Jap corporations, or just shut up.