Distorting Japan's behavior a political crime<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post Asia Correspondent Harvey Stockwin
\nexplores why it is that Japanese cabinet ministers keep on
\nresigning after they have distorted wartime history.<\/p>\n
HONG KONG (JP): Once again, another Japanese cabinet minister
\nhas been forced to resign because he has offended Asian opinion
\nby misrepresenting Japan's behavior in the first half of the
\ntwentieth century.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 12, immediately prior to the commemoration of the
\nending of World War II, Environmental Agency director-general
\nShin Sakurai, spoke about Japan not intending to be the aggressor
\nin Asia prior to World War II, and of Japan having been the
\nliberator of peoples oppressed by European colonial rule.<\/p>\n
\"Literacy rates (in Asia) are far higher than in African
\ncountries (which were) controlled by Europe,\" Sakurai said,
\nadding that Japan should publicize that its wartimes actions were
\nboth good and bad. Sakurai was clearly implying that whatever
\nliteracy rates former Asian colonies have achieved were primarily
\ndue to the three to four years of Japanese \"liberation\" which
\nthey enjoyed in 1941-1945, a beneficial experience which the
\nAfrican colonies missed.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministries of South Korea and China quickly
\nprotested. Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama quickly
\nadmonished his minister, with Sakurai being a member of the
\nconservative Liberal Democratic Party. On Aug. 14, Sakurai
\nresigned.<\/p>\n
His departure raises a crucial question - why do Japanese
\nministers go on doing it?<\/p>\n
The question naturally arises because he is the second
\nminister to resign this summer for this reason. Several other
\nministers have resigned for the same reason in the past two
\ndecades. Others have misrepresented Japan's colonial and wartime
\nrecord but have avoided having to resign as a consequence. All
\nthese incidents simply cannot be merely attributed to
\nincompetence and a refusal to learn from other politician's
\nmistakes.<\/p>\n
First and last, these incidents keep occurring because many
\nJapanese, not least its politicians, simply still do not know
\nwhat that real record was. From 1931 onwards, when Japan began
\nthe march towards World War II by conquering northeastern China
\nand turning it into its colony of Manchukuo, the Japanese people
\nwere only told about victories and achievements. The wartime
\ngovernments were highly successful in brain-washing the Japanese
\npeople with a highly distorted view of history.<\/p>\n
To say the very least, the Japanese Ministry of Education has
\nnot considered it a priority to rectify these distorted
\nperceptions in the 49 years since Japan's surrender. Many would
\nargue that, to the contrary, the ministry has worked hard,
\nthrough its textbook policy, to sustain the distortions.<\/p>\n
Secondly, there has been a postwar political incentive not to
\nput the record straight. Aug. 15 is commemorated within Japan as
\nthe day on which Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender,
\nsaying that the Pacific War \"had proceeded not necessarily to
\nJapan's advantage\". Had Gen. MacArthur subsequently forced
\nHirohito's abdication, (instead of allowing his reign to
\ncontinue) Japan would have been much more likely to explore a
\nharsher and more relevant verdict. Conversely, it is only since
\nHirohito's death that Japan has started to tentatively explore
\nmore relevant and accurate perceptions of what actually happened
\nin the first half of the century.<\/p>\n
Thirdly, Aug. 15 is commemorated in both South and North Korea
\nas their Liberation Day from Japanese colonialism, even though
\ntroops from the Soviet Union and the United States did not
\nactually do the liberating until a later date. Neither Koreas
\nhave any happy memories of Japan's attempts to eliminate their
\nlanguage, their names or their culture. In Korea, under Japanese
\ncolonialism, it was rather as if the British in India had forced
\nMahatma Gandhi to call himself John Smith.<\/p>\n
When Sakurai, now 61, was a youth, official propaganda
\nstressed Japan as a liberator of Asia from colonialism, a view
\nwhich appealed to Japanese public idealism. Again, Japanese were
\nnever told that the British colonial rulers were welcomed back in
\nMalaysia and Singapore after Japan's brief rule in those
\ncountries - or that Japanese \"liberation\" reduced Manila early in
\n1945 to a smoking ruin.<\/p>\n
Fourth, Japanese politicians are typically parochial to an
\nastonishing degree. Well-heeled Japanese members of parliament
\nsometimes pay for their constituents to visit Southeast Asia but,
\nunlike U.S. congressmen, they themselves seldom travel. In any
\ncase, when they do, the politicians are no different from
\nJapanese tourists - they tend to mix with their own people rather
\nthan expanding their foreign acquaintances when abroad.<\/p>\n
Fifth, being domestically preoccupied, Japanese politicians
\npay very careful attention to politically active groups of
\nveterans and relatives of the war dead. Such activity reinforces
\nthe pressures to see the past in a favorable light. It seems
\nimpossible for Japanese to be happy concluding that their loved
\nones died courageously in an evil or morally dubious cause. The
\nrelatives of the deceased have to believe that both the cause and
\nthe deeds were good.<\/p>\n
Sixth, the historical recollections of Sakurai and his
\npredecessors are but an extreme manifestation of the Japanese
\nnationalist tendency to believe that \"my country is always
\nright.\" This is in stark contrast to those countries where the
\nethos is rather \"my country, right or wrong.\"<\/p>\n
So, to put it simply, Japanese nationalism produced the
\nfanaticism which was so often on view 50 years ago, just as
\nJapanese nationalism produced a subsequent refusal to see
\nprecisely how and why the nation had gone wrong.<\/p>\n
Given the enduring strength of that nationalism, and the
\nrelative weakness of anything approaching a truly international
\noutlook within Japan, it is very unlikely that Sakurai will be
\nthe last minister who has to resign for justifying the
\nunjustifiable.<\/p>\n
Window 1: Japanese nationalism produced the fanaticism which was so
\noften on view 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
Window 2: It is very unlikely that Shin Sakurai will be the last
\nminister who has to resign for justifying the unjustifiable.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/distorting-japans-behavior-a-political-crime-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}