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Japan's dilemma on WWII reparations
By Adrienne McPhail
January 26, 2005
In an unusual ruling last week, the Hiroshima High Court overturned a March,
1999 lower court ruling and ordered the Japanese government to pay 40
plaintiffs 1.2 million yen each in compensation to the group of South Koreans
who had been forced to work in a Mitsubishi plant during World War II.
Once again, the subject of alleged Japanese war crimes and reparations has
surfaced in the contemporary nation of Japan. As the former West German
chancellor, Willy Brandt, stated while visiting a memorial for the Jews in
Warsaw, "No people can escape their history."
The comparison between the Japanese reaction to suspected war crimes versus the
Germans is striking. While Japan has chosen to downplay this issue, Germany has
formally apologized and compensated the victims. According to Balbina Hwang, an
Asian expert at the Heritage Foundation, the international community is
skeptical about Japan's intentions when they are unwilling to embrace their own
history. She questions how Japan can become a political and diplomatic leader
without addressing this issue.
Now that Japan is attempting to secure a permanent seat on the U.N. Security
Council, this issue may very well become a major obstacle. The standard
argument that Japan has already addressed their obligations under the 1951 San
Francisco Peace Treaty is unconvincing. The United States was mistaken in
negotiating this treaty when China, Taiwan, North and South Korea were not
allowed to participate. These Asian countries should not have to recognize a
treaty to which they were not a party when they are the alleged victims of
these acts.
Two of the most glaring war crimes that will have to be answered are the Rape
of Nanking and the "comfort women" stations. While there is a wide disparity in
the actual numbers of Chinese POWs and civilians killed during the Japanese
occupation of Nanking in late 1937 through early 1938, the most reliable
sources state that there were between 50,000 to 100,000 illegal deaths. First
hand accounts estimate that 40,000 people were killed during the first week of
occupation. The rape figures are more difficult to estimate but most experts
agree there were a minimum of 20,000 women raped. Although there have been less
than 60 cases filed by the women forced to work in the sex comfort stations by
the Japanese military, a U.N. commission study sights that 200,000 women were
enslaved.
The Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia, a
federation consisting of 40 organizations that began in 1994, is just one of a
number of groups calling for both a formal apology from the Japanese government
and just compensation for the victims. In the United States 33,587 U.S.
military personnel and 13,966 U.S. civilians were captured by Japanese forces,
many of whom were used for forced labor. The state of Georgia has adopted and
passed a resolution calling for reparations and other states are pressuring the
U.S. Congress to address this issue.
Although former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama personally apologized for
illegal war crimes in 1995, he failed to obtain support in the Diet for an
official apology by a margin of almost 2 to 1. In fact, there was a national
campaign in which 4.5 million signatures were gathered against Murayama's
resolution for an apology. The excuse that it has been over 60 years is also
weak. It was not until the 1980s that the United States formally apologized and
paid compensation — $20,000 per person — for the illegal internment of
Japanese-Americans during the war.
The time has come for Japan to face this dilemma in a direct and forthright
manner. The concept that the less attention this receives the better, has
proven to be false and it is quite conceivable that China will use this topic
to try and prevent Japan from winning a permanent seat on the U.N. Security
Council.
There is another reason why Japan should tackle this problem, and that is to
ensure that they do not end up the victims of revisionist history. The idea
that what we do not learn from history we may repeat from ignorance is valid.
Japan has an opportunity to prove many of its critics wrong and at the same
time correct an error from its past.
The relationship between Japan and its Asian neighbors will not be the
partnership that it could become without this resolution. Admission, apology
and reparations would solve this dilemma and enable Japan to go forward into
the future as a symbol of a fair and peaceful nation.
The writer is an American journalist based in Yokosuka, Japan.
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