Since the Second World War, no Japanese government has paid for
the crimes committed by the Japanese militarists during the war.
This is because following the war, the Americans dropped the issue
of the war crimes committed by the Japanese militarists. They not only
refused to pursue the issue of bringing war criminals to justice,
but they reinstated a large number of the war criminals to
positions of authority, in order to create a bulwark in the
Pacific region against communist China and an independent Korea.
One of the heinous activities of the Japanese militarists
was the kidnapping of hundreds and thousands of Korean women to
be used as "sex slaves" for the Japanese army. The women were
called "comfort women" and, to date, the Japanese government
refuses to even acknowledge the crimes committed against them,
let alone give compensation.
The latest crime in this regard is that the Japanese
government is setting in motion some local assemblies and
individuals to create public opinion calling for striking out
descriptions concerning the "comfort women for the Japanese army"
from the textbooks of history, contending that the "comfort women
for the army" itself had not existed and that the descriptions
about this are "unreliable."
The significance of the refusal of the Japanese government
to admit to and settle the issue of its crimes against the Korean
women is that it will commit such a crime again. Militarism is
being incited in Japan in an open way. For instance, in a recent
speech in Washington by the Japanese ambassador to the United
States, he said that the "re-examination of Japan-U.S. defence
cooperation guidelines" now progressing apace is aimed at coping
with "an event of contingency" on the Korean peninsula and that
Japan and the U.S. are examining the defence issue in an effort
to promote reunification of the peninsula. The re-examination of
the defence issue is the re-examination of the strategy to invade
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The deletion of any mention of the war crimes of the
Japanese militarists from the textbooks is an effort to inculcate
a militarist spirit in the Japanese youth. It is the youth who
are used as cannon-fodder in wars of aggression, as a shock
brigade to execute the designs of the Japanese militarists and
American imperialists for reinvasion, instead of imparting the
past crimes of the Japanese imperialists to the younger
generation.
The Korean people suffered great damage as a result of the
crimes committed against them by the Japanese militarists. They
will never accept the refusal to compensate the Korean "comfort
women" for the crimes committed against them and will continue to
insist that this be done. This is important to make sure that not
only they compensate for past crimes committed, but that the road
is not opened to commit the same again.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
