China hails Japan veteran who spoke of Nanjing horror

04 Jan 2006 09:09:33 GMT

Source: Reuters [ ]

BEIJING, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Chinese officials have expressed condolences over the death of a Japanese veteran, calling him "the conscience" of his country for speaking out about Japan's wartime atrocities in China.

Azuma Shiro served in the invading Japanese army during its notorious massacre of residents of Nanjing, then China's capital, in 1937. Fifty years later he published a diary of those events to show his remorse and rebut Japanese doubts about the scale of the atrocities.

China says more than 300,000 residents died in the attacks.

After his diary appeared, Shiro suffered harassment and threats from Japanese right-wing groups who denounced him as a traitor for his criticisms of Japan's past.

Shiro died in Kyoto on Tuesday at the age of 94. In his final years, he revisited China, including Nanjing, and his diary was also published in China.

"The death of Mr. Shiro is a loss for righteous Japanese people who dare acknowledge the truth of history and want to maintain friendship between China and Japan," said Zhu Chengshan, top official at the memorial hall for victims of the Nanjing Massacre, according to the Nanjing Morning News.

China's response to Shiro's death is a reminder of its sensitivity over what it sees as Japan's refusal to face up to its wartime past at a time when relations between the two countries are at a low ebb.

China objects to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where major war criminals are honoured along with millions of war dead. Beijing has denounced a school history textbook it says whitewashes Japan's invasion and occupation of much of China from 1931 to 1945.

On Wednesday, Koizumi rejected Chinese criticism of his war shrine visits but said he was committed to developing friendly ties with Bejing.

China has yet to respond to his remarks, but previously it has made clear that it regards the shrine visits as totally unacceptable, because they seem to make light of Japanese wartime guilt.

In April 2005, Chinese cities saw fervent, occasionally violent, demonstrations against Japan. More than one million Chinese signed an on-line petition denouncing Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.

Shiro last visited China in 2004, and his diary and statements were widely publicised in the Chinese press.

"The Nanjing Massacre is the iron fact that I experienced, and Japan must face and recognise the history and apologise to Chinese people sincerely," the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Shiro as saying.

"Only in this way, can the friendly relations between China and Japan truly develop."

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I'm glad i got to know some righteous Japanese. Do you know how to get his diaries. I would be interested to read it. It's sad that he died

6-26-06

NHK’s Finest Hour: Japan’s Official Record of Chinese Forced Labor

By William Underwood

Mr. Underwood has been a faculty member at Kurume Kogyo University and Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University since 1997. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Kyushu University, where he will submit his dissertation on Chinese forced labor redress later this year. He has a BA in Government-Journalism and an MA in Government, both from California State University, Sacramento. He is also a freelance writer and former newspaper reporter. This article will be reposted at Japan Focus this summer.


DIVISIVE ROAD AHEAD

Chinese forced labor victims and Japanese companies led by Mitsubishi Materials are now entering a decisive phase of the reparations process with diametrically opposed truth claims. Certainly the major 1993-94 investigation by NHK, the respected equivalent of the BBC in the United Kingdom or perhaps PBS in the United States, excludes Mitsubishi’s interpretation that only voluntary contract labor was involved.

Accountability has remained elusive in Japanese courts, where the government and companies still seek to shift responsibility onto each other. A legislative proposal for a CFL compensation fund, stressing the injustice of the present situation and the importance of moving toward reconciliation, has la nguished in the Diet for several years. As the “zenmen kaiketsu” (comprehensive solution) proposal succinctly summarizes: the Foreign Ministry Report identifies the 38,935 Chinese who were brought to Japan; the state continues to hold large deposits that were never paid out to these workers; and corporations that used Chinese forced labor received substantial state compensation.

The redress movement’s center of gravity is steadily shifting to China. Beijing has indicated that former workers will be permitted to file class-action lawsuits against Japanese corporations in Chinese courts, marking the first litigation in China stemming from Japan’s war conduct. Chinese individuals and companies are contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of China-side legal efforts. Petitions demanding apologies and compensation are being presented to the Chinese offices of Japanese conglomerates amid heavy media coverage. The oral histories of 600 workers were published in a five-volume collection last year, as younger family members of CFL victims fast passing from the scene pick up the reparations torch.

Because Japan’s current approach to wartime forced labor and other unresolved historical injustices represents a path that cannot lead to reconciliation, the CFL issue is certain to become more prominent within Sino-Japanese relations in coming years.

The closing scene of “The Phantom Foreign Ministry Report” shows Inose Kenzo standing alone in front of the Chinese forced labor memorial, with the din of Ashio’s summer cicadas dominating the soundtrack.

“My atonement for the war is not over yet,” Inose says with a pained expression. “I must continue atoning. One hundred nine people died at Ashio. If there are still people living in China who have not forgotten their resentment, I truly want to meet them and apologize. This memorial alone does not settle the past.”[49]