April 23, 2007
Japan should own up and move on
I am a big fan of postwar Japan; but there is no denying that the Tokyo government committed some major crimes against humanity during World War II. (My grandfather, a World War II veteran, would spend hours expounding on this topic when he was alive.)
For the most part, these crimes belong to history and should remain there. Sixty years is a long time. Moreover, today we have other problems to worry about in the region. The irresponsible and erratic governments of North Korea and Communist China are presently far greater threats to peace and security in East Asia than the ghosts of World War II.
That having been said, there are some factions in Japan that have a difficulty with owning up to history. The “comfort women” of World War II is one of the issues that seems to provoke the most fits of denial.
During the Second World War, the Japanese military forced thousands of women---mostly Koreans and Chinese---into involuntary sexual servitude. The historical evidence is out there, and many of the victims and witnesses are still alive.
The Japanese government has been waffling on the comfort women issue ever since the early 1990s, when former Korean comfort women began protesting against the Japanese government. Now the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is doing a back-and-forth dance about the government’s degree of culpability:
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said Tokyo feels “responsible” for forcing women to work in brothels during World War Two, Newsweek magazine has reported.
Abe's remark appears to be an effort to deflect U.S. criticism over comments he made last month that there was no proof the government or the military had forced the women, mostly Asian and many Korean, to serve Japanese soldiers in the brothels.
–Reuters 4/21/2007
As a mature democracy, Japan should be able to acknowledge its past crimes without suffering a major identity crisis. Every country--- the U.S., China, Russia, France, etc.--- has skeletons in its national closet. The world has yet to produce a nation of saints. But Abe’s earlier attempt to deny the government’s role in this shameful chapter of Japanese history comes across as pathetic. It also distracts the world from the more current and quite urgent issues that affect East Asia----like nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula.
Own up, Mr. Abe, so we can all move on.