Shintaro Ishihara: Framing WWII as Japanese aggression is self-persecution
- By Wang Yanfang
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 21, 2013
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| Japan's right-wing politician Shintaro Ishihara [file photo] |
Japan's right-wing politician Shintaro Ishihara claimed on May 18 that if Japan's crimes during World War II were to be framed as Japanese aggression, this would in fact mean self-persecution, Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's national newspapers, reported.
Chosun Ilbo, one of the largest newspapers in South Korea, held that the reason why Japanese politicians such as Shinzo Abe and Shintaro Ishihara ignore history and international declarations, launching both men into a series of fallacies and insulting remarks, is that these statements effectively stabilize their political positions.
With the increasing sense of nationalism in Japan at the moment, the equation "fallacy equals 'patriotic statesman' equals 'great statesman'" holds validity with people.
Apart from historical issues, Ishihara voiced his discriminatory views against women, handicapped people and foreigners. Yet despite these derogatory remarks, not only had he never gotten out of Japan's politics, he was even elected governor of Tokyo four times, elected for the Japanese lower house ( the House of Representatives) and chosen to co-lead the Japan Restoration Party.
Nishimura Shingo, a member of the Japanese lower house, has recently stated that Japan sees a large number of South Korean prostitutes. He has also uttered several times that the Japanese should definitely discuss the issue of nuclear arms, but in spite of all the aforementioned he was still elected six times as a member of the lower house.
Many politicians -- such as Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology -- were elevated to key positions and gained name and fame with their biased statements that played hob with historical facts.
Analysts have said that Japanese politicians' continuous fallacies go to show that the nation's right-wing conception of history has become widespread among the country's people. Nationalism has been gaining popularity in Japanese society and therefore these fallacies did not receive any criticism.
Chosun Ilbo supposed that the underlying problem in fact lies with the Japanese government itself. The common fallacy voiced by Japan's right-wing politicians is that the evidence for the forced recruitment of women, for Japanese military brothels during World War II, remains unavailable. This is also the official position of Japan's government.
Tomoko Kami, member of the House of Councilors for the Japanese Communist Party, said that even though many civic groups have found plenty of evidence to back up these claims of coercion, the government has not installed any serious inquiry.
Chosun Ilbo also pointed out that these particular Japanese politicians only have eyes for the U.S. and simply choose to disregard the criticisms voiced by China and South Korea.
As Prime Minister in 2007, Abe claimed that the evidence for coercion was unavailable, which invited strong criticism from the U.S. media. After that, when he and then U.S President George W. Bush were having talks, Abe told Bush that his heart ached for the agonies and hardships the military brothels had caused and expressed his regrets.
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