History Japan marks 80 years since WWII defeat

[thomas]

Japan commemorated the 80th anniversary of its defeat in the Second World War on Friday, with at least one cabinet minister among the thousands who visited a shrine regarded by many of Japan's neighbours as a potent symbol of its wartime aggression. Agriculture Minister Koizumi Shinjiro, who ran in the LDP's leadership race last year, paid an early-morning visit to Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine honours the spirits of 2.5 million war dead, including fourteen wartime leaders convicted of the gravest war crimes - eleven were convicted as Class A war criminals, one was convicted of Class B, two died before completing trial - as well as more than 1,000 others found guilty by Allied tribunals following Japan's surrender in 1945.

Photo credit: Yamada Manami (via Reuters)

China and South Korea have criticised past visits by senior Japanese officials that they say gloss over Tokyo's wartime actions and damage diplomatic ties. Supporters say the shrine honors all of Japan's war dead, regardless of their roles. No sitting Japanese prime minister has visited the shrine since Shinzo Abe in December 2013, drawing an expression of disappointment from then-U.S. President Barack Obama. The last premier to visit on the anniversary of Japan's surrender was Koizumi's father, Junichiro Koizumi, in 2006. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday sent an offering to the shrine, Kyodo News reported. Another offering he made in October provoked criticism from both South Korea, a Japanese colony for 35 years, and China, whose territories were occupied by Japanese forces in World War II.

Japan minister joins crowds at contentious shrine to mark 80 years since World War Two defeat

Japan marked the 80th anniversary of its World War Two defeat on Friday, with at least one cabinet minister joining thousands of visitors at a shrine that Japan's Asian neighbours view as a symbol of its wartime aggression.

www.reuters.com

No surprise, Sanseito was represented with over 60 party members.

Japan LDP's No. 2 Moriyama visits Yasukuni shrine ahead of WWII 80th anniv. - The Mainichi

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Hiroshi Moriyama, the No. 2 figure in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited the war-linked Yasukuni shrine on Thursday, a day

mainichi.jp

時事ドットコム

Abe aide Nishimura visits war-linked Yasukuni shrine - The Mainichi

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Former industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, known as a close aide to the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visited the war-linked Yas

mainichi.jp

 

[thomas]

While Japanese officialdom commemorated, this also happened at Yasukuni (it happens every year).

Photo credit: Eugene Hoshiko via AP/picture alliance

Japan grapples with its past 80 years after World War II

Right-wing groups in Japan continue to push historical denialism in a bid to whitewash wartime atrocities. South Korea, which suffered under Japanese occupation, wants Japan to be more open about the past.

www.dw.com

 

[thomas]

China commemorates the end of WWII with a series of war-themed movies: one about Japan's infamous Unit 731, and another one about the Rape of Nanjing.

"While the military war has ended, the history war continues," says Professor Gi-Wook Shin, of Stanford University, explaining the two sides remember those years differently, and those differences add to the tension. While the Chinese see Japanese aggression as a defining, and devastating, moment in their past, Japanese history focuses on its own victimhood - the destruction caused by the atom bombs and post-war recovery.

However, China also grapples with its past:

That period is now being revisited under a regime that holds patriotism as central to its ambitions: "national rejuvenation" is how Xi Jinping describes his Chinese dream. While the Party heavily censors its own history, from the Tiananmen Square massacre to more recent crackdowns, it encourages remembering a more distant past – with an outside enemy. Xi even revised the date the war with Japan started – the Chinese government now counts the first incursions into Manchuria in 1931, which makes it a 14-year war, rather than eight years of full-fledged conflict.

And it still boils down to that one - sincere - apology China and Korea believe had never been given.

It is "also from millions of ordinary Chinese people to Japan. They've never issued a sincere apology, they are still worshipping [the war criminals], they are rewriting history – no-one will treat them as friends", the comment says, referring to some Japanese right-wing figures' dismissive remarks. Tokyo has issued apologies, but many Chinese people believe they are not profuse enough. "Japan keeps sending a conflicting message," Prof Shin says, referring to instances where leaders have contradicted each other in their statements on Japan's wartime history. For years, in Chinese history classes, students have been shown a photo of former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling before a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1970. The Chinese expect a similar gesture from Japan.

Nanjing: How the massacre still haunts China-Japan relations

Eighty years after Japan was defeated, a wave of Chinese films about the occupation are fuelling memory and anger.

www.bbc.com