Category: Japan

It seems like if Prime Minister Abe really wanted to showcase a “New Japan” he should do more on the historical issue front, but at least he said he stood by the previous Kono Statement that offered an apology for World War II atrocities:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe drummed up support for the new Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation in his address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday, and signaled a “New Japan” is ready to enter into a liberalizing trade agreement with the United States.

The prime minister’s speech, the first given by a Japanese leader before a joint session of Congress, praised the U.S.-Japan alliance for winning the Cold War and allowing Japan to grow and prosper.

But as the new defense pact goes into plan, Washington and Tokyo have agreed the U.S. military presence on the Japanese island of Okinawa will be diminished and relocated to places outside Japan.

According to Abe, Japan will provide up to $2.8 billion to help “improve” U.S. bases in Guam.

Tokyo, in turn, will expand its self-defense role in the Pacific to include deploying deterrence against potential missiles headed for U.S. territory, a historic reinterpretation of Japan’s pacifist constitution…………………………….

“I will uphold the views expressed by the previous prime ministers,” Abe told the joint session of Congress, indirectly referring to the 1993 Kono Statement that acknowledged the Japanese military had forced comfort women to endure sexual slavery in brothels. [UPI]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/ZacharyKeck/status/592780225936805888

What to Expect From Abe's US Visit http://t.co/hSSx3MBlN7 pic.twitter.com/lHGFLX0PzH

— The Diplomat (@Diplomat_APAC) April 24, 2015

White House calls for 'final resolution' of Korea-Japan history issues http://t.co/orIcEB6tJZ

— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) April 24, 2015

Here we go again with arguing over remorse and apologies by Japan in the Korean media:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed Japan’s “deep remorse” over World War II, but did not issue a fresh apology to the people of Asia.

Abe delivered a speech on Wednesday on the first day of the two-day Asian-African summit in Indonesia marking the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference.

Referring to the principles of peace laid down at the original conference, Abe said in his speech that “With feelings of deep remorse over the past war, Japan made a pledge to remain a nation always adhering to those very principles.”

However, Abe did not offer an apology to the people of Asian countries who suffered under Japan’s colonial rule and aggression.  [KBS World]

Well at least KBS didn’t make a claim about Japanese never apologizing for their past World War II actions.  Instead they are upset their wasn’t a fresh apology.  This is actually progress.  I think Abe is just playing to the sentiment of the Japanese public now that is probably hit apology fatigue with all the demands for more apologies after their government has already made a number of apologies. Really the only thing that would make the critics in Korea happy is if a wrecking ball took out the Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese textbooks were burned (even if the information is accurate), and Abe commits seppuku on top of Namsan. Since that isn’t going to happen we will be hearing about this for years to come.

It will be interesting to see how long this cooperation lasts:

Despite repeated attempts by reporters to bait him into dredging up lingering resentments against Japan, a senior South Korean diplomat bit his tongue, downplaying 70-year-old tensions at a trilateral meeting in Washington.

“Diplomacy is about trying to find a way to work together while we have healthy differences on issues,” South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong told reporters at the State Department on Thursday.

Cho said South Korea had not changed its stance “on the issues of history,” but understood that cooperation between Korea and Japan was “beneficial to both governments.”

The press conference played perfectly into Washington’s Asia rebalance strategy, which relies on the U.S. mediating differences between Japan and South Korea in order to better coordinate on China’s economic and military rise in the region.

“We have an extraordinary array of shared interests and that’s built on a foundation of shared values,” Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said during the joint press conference. “That was obvious to me in conversations we had over many hours today covering an extraordinary array of issues.”  [Foreign Policy]

You can read the rest at the link, but I will get excited about cooperation when I see something more tangible happen between the two countries.

How strong is the U.S.-Japan relationship? http://t.co/pnMHPI6Avf pic.twitter.com/mG7bdw76Zq

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) April 15, 2015

Here is the latest on the comfort women front:

A congressional delegation led by U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met with Korean leaders including President Park Geun-hye on Thursday in Seoul, where they discussed regional and bilateral issues, particularly the outstanding historical issues between Korea and Japan.

The bipartisan congressional delegation arrived in Korea for a two-day trip, part of its five-nation Asia tour. The 10-member team included Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel and Sander Levin and Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.

During their meeting at the Blue House, President Park explained to the delegation the urgency of resolving the issues concerning Korea’s “comfort women,” a term used for the women Japan coerced into sexual slavery during World War II.

Park pointed out that the victims are now elderly – some reaching 90 years old – and that the clock was ticking, a Blue House official said.

Pelosi replied that the issues needed to be resolved for the sake of women’s rights, the official said.

Tokyo’s refusal to officially apologize for forcibly recruiting thousands of young women, mostly Koreans, into military brothels during World War II has long been a key point of contention between Seoul and Tokyo. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link,but I wonder if these representatives know that the Japanese government has already apologized multiple times in regards to the comfort women issue.  Here for example is the apology that Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato made back in 1992:

The Government again would like to express its sincere apology and remorse to all those who have suffered indescribable hardship as so-called “wartime comfort women”, irrespective of their nationality or place of birth. With profound remorse and determination that such a mistake must never be repeated, Japan will maintain its stance as a pacifist nation and will endeavor to build up new future-oriented relations with the Republic of Korea and with other countries and regions in Asia.

As I listen to many people, I feel truly grieved for this issue. By listening to the opinions of people from various directions, I would like to consider sincerely in what way we can express our feelings to those who suffered such hardship.  [Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan]

I wonder if this Congressional delegation knows that Abe already apologized over the comfort women issue all the way back in 2007 as well in Newsweek magazine:

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday expressed regrets that his country’s military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II.

The remark, made in an interview with a weekly U.S. news magazine on the eve of his visit to the United States, may have been aimed at mending fences. The premier has been criticized by many countries for claiming there is no evidence that the Japanese military took any part in the forced recruitment of the so-called comfort women to serve its troops who invaded Asian countries.

“As Japan’s prime minister, I’m extremely sorry that they were made to endure such pain,” Abe told Newsweek. The Japanese leader reiterated that his government respected and stood by a statement by former Chief Cabinet Minister Yohei Kono in 1993 that apologized for the Japanese military’s involvement in the use of women as sexual slaves.

There is no argument from me that Prime Minister Abe and some of the people around him have made insensitive comments in the past in regards to the comfort women, but they have maintained all prior apologies made by the government of Japan.  Is the standard now that every Prime Minister in Japan has to apologize for World War II crimes when they take office?  Even when they take office for a second time like Abe has after already making a prior apology?  This is why the Japanese public I think has reached apology fatigue and support Abe on this issue.  .

If the people criticizing Japan really cared about women’s right they would instead be directing their outrage towards China which currently maintains a modern day comfort woman system using North Korean refugees who are coerced into becoming prostitutes.  Likewise if Abe was serious about resolving the comfort women issue he would make Japan into a champion of women’s rights by advocating for the North Korean refugees currently being used as a modern day comfort women.  Instead 10 years from now the same people will probably still be arguing over who needs to apologize for what while the modern day comfort women system continues.

The file photo shows Japanese Emperor Hirohito (R) reading an address for a dinner party in Tokyo on Sept. 6, 1984, held in honor of a state visit to Japan by then South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. The address contained wordings to express regret over Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Diplomatic documents released by the South Korean foreign ministry on March 30, 2015, show that Japan believed in 1984 that it was “inevitable” for its emperor to make comments that express regret over its wartime wrongdoing. (Yonhap)

The Stars & Stripes has this sad story of a sailor trying to find this daughter who disappeared with her mother in Japan 40 years ago:

It’s been 45 years since James Walker went to war in Vietnam, leaving behind his daughter and her mother in Japan.

The young sailor thought they’d be reunited once he got back from deployment on the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. When the letters he wrote to his young family were returned marked “wrong address” Walker realized something was wrong. Almost four decades later, he’s still searching for them.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but hopefully Mr. Walker is able to find his lost daughter.