Abe sticks to his guns
- By Shi Yongming
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 26, 2015
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Survivors of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre Xia Shuqin (left) and Chen Guixiang (right) attend an assembly marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Nanjing on August 15 (XINHUA) |
Japanese politicians have been determined to revive Japan as a world power. However, instead of reflecting upon the country's history of aggression and colonial rule to ease its neighbors' worries, they have tried to pursue the goal by embellishing the country's contribution to world peace. At the same time, some of the Japanese politicians have never stopped holding revisionist views. They have visited the Yasukuni Shrine where Japan's Class-A war criminals are enshrined, and tried to conceal the truth regarding their country's aggression and invasion in history textbooks. Speeches and remarks denying Japan's aggression are often delivered publicly by some right-wing politicians and scholars in an attempt to mislead Japanese people about the history of their country.
Some prominent politicians in Japan either in or out of office, such as prime ministers, cabinet members or senior officials, are the leading figures of this right-wing revisionist vanguard. Their speeches and behaviors have not only harmed the feelings of people whose nations have bitterly endured Japan's aggression in the past, but also raised suspicions over Japan's future.
Right in the wrong
As Japan's pacifism is overshadowed by revisionism, the country's prime ministers' remarks on historical issues have become a prerequisite for rebuilding political trust with China and South Korea. Therefore, the crux of the matter lies with the wrongdoing of Japanese right-wing political forces. If the Japanese Government keeps glossing over its past aggression and continues its revisionist actions, a distorted understanding of history will be passed down to future generations.
As for civilians in countries that suffered from Japan's aggression, Abe said quite casually that "numerous innocent citizens suffered and fell victim to battles as well as hardships such as severe deprivation of food."
Abe shied away from mentioning the brutal massacres and other war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army during the war. He didn't even allude to the Nanjing Massacre in China, the death camps in Southeast Asia or comfort women, but rather emphasized on casualties on the Japanese soil, such as the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He hinted that Japan was in fact a major victim during the war.
Furthermore in his statement, Abe deliberately mixed up two concepts—aggression and solving international conflicts through force—or rather, equated the two. For instance, he advised to "never again resort to any form of threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes," as if he were a committed pacifist. Under the cover of the so-called "proactive pacifism," Abe downplayed Japan's role as an aggressor in WWII.
In his statement, Abe trumpeted Japan's post-war peaceful development and values of freedom and democracy rather than offering an official apology for Japan's aggression in the past. As a matter of fact, Abe and his ruling coalition recently approved controversial security bills in the Lower House of the Diet despite strong opposition at home and abroad, undermining the pacifist constitution and leading Japan to the road of war.
Abe's statement did not help mend broken ties with the victims of the Japanese aggression, but on the contrary, has further widened the gap between Japan and its neighboring countries.
The author is an associate research fellow with China Institute of International Studies
Courtesy: Beijing Review
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