Japan's air force chief sacked over WWII comments

It just amazes me that even today people are still in denail of the truth . I guess in regards to Pearl Harbor they were invited to attack.


Japan's air force chief sacked over WWII comments


TOKYO (AFP) – Japan sacked its air force chief on Friday after he wrote an essay in which he denied the country was an aggressor in World War II, a stance likely to anger its Asian neighbours.



Japan's air force chief sacked over WWII comments - Yahoo! News

 

As people of Chinese ethnicity, and citizens of Singapore residing in British North Borneo at the beginning of the Pacific War, my wife's parents and older siblings experienced the tender mercies of the Greater East-Asia Co-prosperity Sphere first-hand. Whatever Japan's intentions may have been for their colonies, I have been assured by my in-laws that the GEACPS was anything but "moderate" and benevolent in their behavior towards Chinese persons regardless of their nationality or citizenship. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to discuss the GEACPS with a number of Asians who lived through the Japanese occupation of their homelands, and I have yet to meet a single person who expressed a positive opinion of the period of Japanese occupation.

 

Tamogami should take heed of his own statement:

"We must take back the glorious history of Japan. A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline."

To look at only the "glory" and ignore the damage caused by his nation is to "pursue a path of decline", not evolution, but devolution.

 

Rather than blaming just the General, maybe Japan should look at it's educational system and it's lack of teaching the subject properly.

 

The Chinese lost a dozen million at least, which makes what happened in China the least studied mass atrocities in the Second World War, though Americans remembered at least the insulting and nasty offenses given from them somewhat makes up for it. As a great admirer of Japan's fine cultural achievements and the art of their cuisine which I consider a divine gift on humanity, the Japanese denial of their history continues to astound me and many in Asia felt they were still rubbing salt on a still painful wound.

 

What can we say that has not been said before.

 

Funny how they will sack the General but wont come out and say that Japan was the one that instigated the aggressions. Look at the history in the 30s to the 40s. How many times did the Japanese attack first? As opposed to being attacked first?

 

Great replies, I just wonder how deep that mind thought of the ex Air Force Chief's is and maybe he is expressing the thoughts of many Japanese to this day.
They have done a great job burying the real truth of their horrendous actions since WW 2,sad and disheartening as it is to realize for many.

 

Therein lies the rub, Django.

 

I'm sure the General was expressing the opinions that are held by many Japanese today. Whether these opinions represent a majority of Japanese, however, I don't know. Part of the problem is the Japanese education system which does not teach the objective truth about Japanese actions in the 1930's and 1940's, but informed Japanese do manage to learn what really happened by contact with the citizens of other countries. Having said that, the attitude that some Japanese hold is incomprehensible to me; they feel that the Japanese did nothing wrong in WW II and consider themselves simply victims of more powerful forces. Here is a statement made by one Japanese poster on the Japan Forum regarding Japanese responsibility for the mass murder of Chinese civilians in WW II;

"The Japanese weren't bent on world domination. If that were true then after Pearl Harbour Japan would of continued her push to the mainland and eventually annexed California, but who knows...right ? No, matter how awful Nanking was the Japanese were not on a mission to annihilate the Chinese.
Sure, blind allegiance may of led them to commit acts of savage murder but that was for fun and to regale their friends with stories of conquest in asia. These soldiers were given a hereos welcome upon returning to Japan and awarded metals of valour for courage."

It's NOT a crime to visit Yasukuni Shrine ! [Archive] - Japan Forum

In all fairness, it must be said that other Japanese, as well as other Asians, strongly disagreed with that poster and criticized him for his attitude, but it is indicative of the cavalier attitude of a segment of the Japanese population.I believe the inability of some Japanese to acknowledge and accept a certain amount of responsibility for the death and destruction caused by the Pacific War is fundamentally rooted in the Japanese culture. John Dower in "War Without Mercy" and "Embracing Defeat" explores that idea (and ultimately rejects it), but does not provide a satisfactory explanation in the context of western values and thought systems. Suffice it to say, my wife, who is Chinese, and has lived in Asia for a number of years, despises the Japanese to this day; hers is not an uncommon opinion in the Far East.

 

They should just face up to the facts and admit it. In public and in the schools and move on.


Japan struggles with WWII legacy



Remembering the war dead can be a controversial act in Japan



After Japan's air force chief was sacked over an essay in which he appeared to question his country's accepted role as an aggressor in World War II, the BBC's Andre Vornic reports from Tokyo on Japanese attitudes to the war.
Japan expressed remorse for its wartime actions in 1995, and followed with another apology a decade later.
But the entry that won General Toshio Tamogami an essay competition described Japan as a victim.
Gen Tamogami's comments suggest revisionist readings of history persist


The essay said Japan had only occupied China to secure rights it had obtained under various treaties. It also portrayed Korea under Japanese rule as prosperous and safe.
Disputes over wartime history often stir tensions between Tokyo and Beijing, but his swift dismissal should ensure no lasting damage is done to relations between Japan and its neighbours.
Announcing the dismissal on Friday, Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said it was improper for the general to publicly state a view clearly different from that of the government.
Black vans
Comments such as those made by Gen Tamogami suggest readings of history, widely seen as revisionist, persist in Japan.
Black vans known as gaisensha are a familiar, if fairly infrequent, presence on the streets of Japanese cities.
Operated by far-right groups and bedecked with imperial flags, they broadcast military songs and nationalist slogans as they crawl through traffic.
The gaisensha remain a fringe phenomenon, at the crossroads of extreme nationalism and organised crime.
Many in the Asia-Pacific region still recall atrocities by Japanese forces

Most Tokyo residents see them as an inevitable nuisance - a case, as they would put it, of "shoganai" ("It can't be helped.")
They take no more notice of the black vans than of the vociferous crows plaguing the capital's skies.
The Yasukuni shrine, in the heart of the city, is an altogether more stately affair than the gaisensha.
Contrary to popular belief, the shrine only houses the remains of a handful of war criminals, among those of millions of Japanese war dead.
But the museum there presents a strikingly different interpretation of history from that familiar to Westerners, Chinese, Koreans, or indeed most Japanese.
There is no mention of the Rape of Nanking - a rampage by Japanese troops through the city of Nanjing regarded in China as a genocidal orgy of violence.
The episode is instead described as a move by Japanese troops to protect the law-abiding Chinese population from bandits and terrorists.
Furthermore, it is said, far from being a colonial oppressor, Japan sought to free Asian nations from Western domination.
'Pragmatists'
There is no doubt that a strand of thought remains active in Japan which rejects official versions of the nation's past as victor propaganda.
Japan is a pacifist nation under its constitution


The new Prime Minister, Taro Aso, is himself a conservative nationalist.
He has praised Japan in the past as a unique example of a nation with one culture, one language, and one ethnic group.
He has also angered China by describing it as a considerable threat.
Yet that perception is common across the Far East and South-East Asia, where Beijing's sharply rising military spending is a cause for disquiet.
In fact, as prime minister, Mr Aso has courted both China and South Korea, offering to host a three-way summit in the southern city of Fukuoka.
"He is not anti-China - he just has a loose tongue," says Tsuneo Watanabe of the Tokyo Foundation think-tank.
Professor Watanabe confesses to being surprised that Mr Aso has not made a single faux pas since becoming prime minister a month ago.
"But in any case," he adds, "government policy in Japan is made by a core of pragmatists."
Naivety
No Japanese administration, including Mr Aso's, has questioned a landmark 1995 official statement which said that through its colonial rule and aggression, Japan had inflicted tremendous damage and suffering on Asian and other countries.
Formally a pacifist nation under its American-written constitution, Japan is also at heart a passionately pacifist society - sometimes startlingly so.
People here can be heard wishing for world peace in a tone that to Western ears might carry a touch of naivety, like a leaf torn from the book of beauty pageant contestants.
A sign advocating peace - admittedly rusting at the edges - also greets tourists boarding the pleasure boats that ply the waters of Tokyo's Sumida river.
The very gestures that would be considered routinely patriotic elsewhere, such as flying the national flag or playing the national anthem, remain intensely controversial in Japan.
A significant left-liberal strand of public opinion holds both symbols to be inherently fascistic.
Earlier this year, a Tokyo court ordered the city government to compensate 13 school teachers who had been reprimanded for refusing to sing the anthem in class.
The capital's gaisensha vans continue to make occasional appearances, with their shrill loudspeakers extolling the nation, excoriating its critics, denouncing liberal thought. But for every black van, or the odd headline-grabbing revisionist statement, a wealth of unobtrusive signs suggests militarism and aggression have been durably expelled from Japan's collective psyche.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan struggles with WWII legacy

 

what a loser saying that in front of many thousands of people

 

That damned Roosevelt!!! How dare he set a "trap" LOL.

"Tamogami wrote in the essay, ‘‘Our country is said to have invaded the Chinese mainland and the Korean Peninsula in the prewar period,’’ referring to the period before and during WWII.

‘‘But surprisingly few people are aware (of the fact) that the Japanese army was stationed in these countries on the basis of treaties,’’ he wrote.

‘‘Even now, there are many people who think that our country’s aggression caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War. But we need to realize that many Asian countries take a positive view’’ of the war, he stated in the essay.

‘‘The Japan that fought the Greater East Asia War is held in high esteem’’ in countries such as Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, he claimed.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East tried to ‘‘push all the responsibility for the war (WWII) onto Japan,’’ Tamogami wrote.

‘‘And that mind control is still misleading the Japanese people 63 years after the war. The belief is that if the Japanese army becomes stronger, it will certainly go on a rampage and invade other countries, so we need to make it as difficult as possible for the SDF to act,’’ he said.

Tamogami said in the essay that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 after being caught in ‘‘a trap’’ set by then U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt."

Air force chief fired over essay denying Japan's aggression during World War II › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

 

Yeah, like a poacher walking into his own snare. LOL!

There is almost an element of Greek tragedy about the whole story of Imperial Japan. The more it tried to resolve it's perceived problems, the deeper and more entangled it became in the morass it created for itself. Just like today; the more it denies responsibility for the war, the more problems it causes, and the more attention it focuses on itself.

 

Sure, like the USSR was sitting on top of a number of E.European countries on the basis of treaties. Hungary 1956? Czechoslovakia 1967? All treaties.

 

You noticed that too huh?

 

Of course I noticed, I was THERE at the time !

 

I meant the statement LOL. Reminds me of the Family Guy episode where the German tour guide states that they were "invited!" into Poland LOL.

 

The Japanese still have a major problem dealing with their role in WWII. It is disgraceful that they have never taken any responsibility for their actions in SE Asia in the period 1937-45.

 

It seems like they might never will. Especially with people like the general in the government.