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March 01, 2007
Shinzo Abe Darkens the Face of Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on March 1, 2007 that there was no evidence that the Japanese coerced thousands of women into working as sex slaves during World War II, a despicable outrage that should shock the world community. In doinh so he is apparently siding with some Japanese reactionaries who claim that these women willingly performed sex acts for soldiers.
This is further example of the willingness of the Japanese to distort and revise history and create myth. This will only serve to instill bigoted nationalism in the minds of Japanese youth and the world should take notice of this process. What are the likely outcomes of a national belief in myth and justification for past atrocities? That the justification of future atrocities are likely. Japanese leaders in the past have admitted the outrageous acts that were committed by the Japanese during World War II, though they have thus far chosen to teach school children propaganda instead of truth regarding Nanjing and other atrocities committed against the Chinese. Whereas Russia instituted glasnost and Germany has assisted others in learning the truths of their past deeds, their is a current in Japanese rhetoric that justifies the imperialism of the past.
There is no shortage of historic fact regarding the raping, the torture, and the pillaging by the Japanese in China. The acts of Japanese soldiers in Nanjing are exhaustively documented and substantiated by documentation, photographs and artifacts. And I also might add that what a person is willing to do at the point of a bayonet should not be construed as something they are willing to do without coercion. Abe's statements came at the time that a group of lawmakers from Japan's ruling party urged the government to revise the 1993 Kono Statement, which states that Japan's wartime military sometimes recruited women to work in the brothels with coercion. By refusing to acknowledge the mountain of evidence of atrocities that are Japan's national heritage Abe is darkening his and Japan's face in the world community. Let us not forget that though the Japanese do not have nuclear weapons they have the technology to produce them relatively quickly, and could arm themeselves with fury. While the world is focused on North Korea, Japan is the real the real dark horse in Asia.
