[Editorial] To free future generations from burden of apology, Abe needs to recognize historical facts

Posted on : 2019-08-16 15:45 KST Modified on : 2019-08-16 15:45 KST
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe honors Japanese soldiers who died during World War II in Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan area on Aug. 15. (Yonhap News)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe honors Japanese soldiers who died during World War II in Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan area on Aug. 15. (Yonhap News)

During a ceremony honoring Japanese soldiers who died in World War II, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe didn’t make any mention of Japan’s aggression in the war or of the entailing responsibility. Since 1993, Japanese prime ministers had expressed “remorse” and “condolences” on each Aug. 15, the day marking Japan’s surrender in the war, but Abe ended that tradition when he returned to power in 2012, seven years ago.

On the same day, Abe sent an offering to Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are enshrined, once again for the seventh year in a row. Fifty Japanese lawmakers on the far right paid a personal visit to the shrine.

While commemorating the end of the war in his address, Abe placed a particular emphasis on the harm suffered by Japan during World War II. He also remarked that Japan has “done everything in its power on behalf of global peace and prosperity, while keenly recalling the lessons of history.” Such remarks add insult to injury for the comfort women and others compelled to serve Japan’s war effort.

An important international academic conference was held the day before, on Aug. 14, which is the international day of remembrance for the comfort women. During this event, Chinese researchers unveiled confessions written by war criminals in the Japanese army, detailing sex crimes committed during the war.

In those written confessions, Japanese generals at the level of divisional commander apparently admitted that they’d given orders to set up comfort stations and ordered Korean and Chinese women to be brought there through inducement or deceit. Those documents stand as evidence contravening Japanese denials that its military was directly involved in the compulsory mobilization of the comfort women and the operation of the comfort stations.

In an official response submitted to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the end of 2015 and in other venues, the Abe administration has repeatedly expressed its position that there are no documents confirming that the comfort women were carried off by force. Japan claims that its investigation extended to documents held by the US National Archives and Records Administration and South Korea’s Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. If that’s true, there’s no reason why Japan wouldn’t look over documents composed by its own generals.

In a statement released on 2015, Abe said that future generations of Japanese shouldn’t be forced to shoulder the burden of apologizing. We hope he’ll recognize, before it’s too late, that the only way for that wish to be realized is by acknowledging the plain facts of history and officially apologizing to the victims.

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