Can Japan escape history?

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 50 years ago devastated the two cities, but not Japanese arrogance. Although Japan now wants to impress on the world that it is not what it was during the war 50 years ago, it is still trying hard to conceal from its own people numerous atrocities committed by its troops throughout Asia.

It is said that history is the trail of the footsteps of God, whose judgment nobody can escape. Since there is no denying that the Japanese are an intelligent and esthetically sensitive people, it may be hard to believe that the Japanese authorities still want to keep their own people uninformed about the dark side of Japan's history. Many Japanese of the present generation claim that they want to know the truth, but their authorities have, during the last five decades, made every effort to hide it.

Those efforts become especially clear every time Japan and the rest of the world commemorate the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Every time the Japanese authorities condemn the use of the bomb, they fall short of explaining why the United States felt it had to drop it.

The Japanese understandably resent the two atomic bombs that killed over 80,000 Japanese at the time of the bombing and about the same number in the following years. But other people, especially those involved in the war in the Pacific, hope the leaders in Tokyo will also think about the other side of the tragedy.

The U.S. had strong reasons to stop the war immediately, especially in light of the fact that Soviet troops had reached the Korean peninsula. Had Washington then invaded Japan, as many Japanese would have been sacrificed as were killed by the A-bomb, if not more.

As for the Indonesian people, the A-bomb came like a savior in disguise. Millions of people in Japanese-occupied territories during World War II, which included Southeast Asia, died from hunger, torture, forced labor and other manifestations of cruelty at the hands of Japanese officers, who purported to be our "older brothers".

It may not be too far from the truth to say that Indonesians were among those who suffered most. Because the rice that was grown was requisitioned to feed the Japanese imperial soldiers, Indonesians had to eat the roots and trunks of banana trees, or other foodstuffs they had never touched before, in order to survive. Many people could not afford to buy clothes decent enough to wear under ordinary circumstances. Millions had to wear shorts made of used gunny sacks. Many Indonesian women were sent to work as sex slaves in the barracks of Japanese soldiers.

Tens of thousands of Indonesians who opposed Japan's policies were reportedly earmarked for execution. In West Kalimantan alone at least 21,000 innocent people were reportedly killed, though the number might actually be twice that, based on accounts from Japanese officers who spoke up after the war.

These atrocities were never openly discussed or confirmed, not so much because of a lack of evidence but because Indonesians tend to forgive and forget. The fact that many Indonesian leaders had collaborated with the Japanese occupying authorities also caused these aspects of history to pass into obscurity not long after the war's end.

Japan's reluctance to admit to the atrocities committed by it's imperial soldiers might be due to the fear that, by doing so, others might begin to doubt that country's present intentions. However, a continued absence of any expression of Japanese concern is raising questions about whether Japan, as a nation, has really shed the brutal nature which its soldiers displayed so openly during the war.

Since the world knows that most Japanese now do not want their country to return to militarism, this hiding of historical facts seems all the more pointless.