Olympic Charter
According to the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter of the International Olympic Committee, Olympism seeks “to create a way of life based on … social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles [1].” Japan is a country that still has not acknowledged and apologized for the massive and inhumane atrocities that the Japanese Imperial Army inflicted all over Asia during World War II (WWII). These atrocities included (1) forcing over 200,000 women and girls into sexual slavery (euphemistically called “comfort women” by the Japanese government), (2) slaughtering of 300,000 Chinese (many were women and children) in the Nanking Massacre over the six-week period from late 1937 to early 1938, (3) massive use of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction in over a dozen provinces in China killing over a million Chinese, and (4) torturing and murdering of prisoners of war (POWs) and using POWs as slave labor.
These frequent and massive atrocities were clearly part of the Japanese government’s strategy to attack and conquer other countries of the world. Sixty seven years have elapsed since the end of WWII, yet the Japanese government leaders are still denying the existence of these atrocities. Such behavior by the Japanese government shows a complete disregard for social responsibility and ethical principles, and is in complete violation of the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter. Therefore, the International Olympic Committee should not select Tokyo to be the host city for the 2020 Summer Olympic. [2]
Comparison of Japan and Germany
One should compare the actions of Japan and Germany, a country that also inflicted massive and inhumane atrocities on people in Europe during WWII, especially with the Holocaust on the Jewish people. In 1970 Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany fell to his knees at the site of the Warsaw ghetto and expressed the guilt, sorrow, and responsibility of Germany for the Holocaust. Germany has acknowledged, apologized, and compensated their Holocaust victims. Furthermore, it is a crime in Germany to publicly refute their WWII actions.
What about Japan? Mr. Shinzo Abe, Japan’s current prime minister and her prime minister during 2006-2007 has repeatedly said that “there was no coercion of women into sexual slavery during WWII, and there is no testimony from anyone in Japan.” Shintaro Ishihara, Governor of Tokyo, said in an interview in 1990 that the Nanking Massacre “is a story made up by the Chinese.” Takashi Kawamura, mayor of Nagoya, said in 2012 that “there was no Nanking Massacre, only the results of conventional acts of combat.” As recently as May 2013, current Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party said that the system of using women and girls as sex slaves in countries occupied by Japan was a wartime necessity in order to give Japanese soldiers a chance to rest, and the “comfort women” were not forced into sexual services through violence, threat, and abduction.
All of these are lies, as these atrocities were well documented by many eye witnesses, including Western journalists, businessmen, diplomats, missionaries, educators, and other international observers. Furthermore, the Japanese teacher and journalist Tamaki Matsuoka has interviews of over 250 former Japanese soldiers, with many of these interviews video-recorded, confirming the Nanking Massacre. Adding additional insult, Japanese government leaders, including her prime ministers, have regularly paid tribute at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo where 14 convicted and executed Class A war criminals are enshrined. This is analogous to German chancellors paying tribute at a memorial for Hitler. In addition, through its regulatory powers, the Japanese government has essentially rewritten their textbooks so that generations of Japanese already do not know about this part of WWII history.
Petition for 2020 Summer Olympic
Many governments have already passed resolutions condemning Japan’s position on the comfort women issue, including resolutions passed in 2007 by U.S. House of Representatives, Canadian Parliament, Lower House of the Dutch Parliament, and European Parliament. Apparently words alone are not sufficient to change Japan’s position.
If we don’t learn from history, then history can repeat itself, in the form of another Pearl Harbor attack, Nanking Massacre, Bataan Death March, sexual slavery, germ warfare, etc. For the sake of world peace, the world must take more serious actions than just words.
Therefore, we ask all peace loving people of the world to sign a petition to urge the International Olympic Committee and the various national Olympic Committees not to select Tokyo to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, unless the Japanese government officially acknowledges and apologizes for their WWII atrocities.
The English online petition can be accessed by clicking on the word petition.
Translation of Petition into other Languages
With the help of many friends, we have translated the English petition to several other languages: Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. These translations can be accessed or downloaded by clicking on the appropriate item below:
——————————————-
[1] Olympic Charter of the International Olympic Committee: http://www.olympic.org/Documents/olympic_charter_en.pdf
[2] The three finalist host cities for the 2020 Summer Olympic are Istanbul, Madrid, and Tokyo.
WE WANT PEACE, FREEDOM, JOY, LOVE
NOT
A
WAR, DESTROY, CRUELTY
THEY DID NOT REFLECT THEMSELVES LIKE GERMANY
i think they are not people..
Also, still the Fukushima nuclear plant is a big disaster which is an ongoing thing that has big effects on Tokyo.
Tokyo is dying land. There is rumor that says Japanese gov may try to move their capital city to Osaka since their Northeast land including Tokyo is too risky to live with nuclear radiation that could not be recovered in this century, perhaps not even within 24,100 years.
i want peace
They are inhuman persons.
They are bad people
They are inhuman people
They are inhuman people
They are bad ,bad ,bad ,& inhuman person ,also bad government
How can Japanese say that they want peace? After your apologize, then we can think about having a peace.
Don’t you feel sorry for the women who were raped and became sexual slavery for their youth? Most of the women were killed but few of them are still alive and remember everything: what the evils did to them and ruined their whole life. The Japanese who might read my comments, I want to say that you are tricked by your parents, grandparents, and your country; the truth does not go away but your guilty predecessors do not want to believe that their heroes did wrong things.
As a Chinese, I sincerely hope we, the Chinese, wish to have a real friendly Japanese neighbor– a strong, a peace loving, free and independent country, a respectable member in world society. In the long run, they should have a constitution of their own, not a constitution imposed by America.
However, to reach that state, first they need to totally abandon their militarist history of expanding and invading other countries like China, Korea and many others during World War II. They should learn from Germany and sincerely admit and apologize for their war crimes without trying to cover them up as they did in their post-war history. Today Germany is already a strong and respectable country.
I believe if Japan has the wisdom to do that, China should be their best friend to help them reach their goal, not The Philippines, not Vietnam, not Cambodia, not India. In return, Japan should also be the best friend of China on their road to modernization, since China is still far from a real modernized free country yet.
It is natural for us to ask peace for everyone.
Japan must admit what they did until now.
What they can do for us is to admit faults and apologize sincerely.
The Japanese government still has not apologized for the massive and inhumane atrocities that the Japanese Imperial Army inflicted on Asia during WWII.
I think they are inhuman people.
They are inhuman people
I think they are inhuman people.
Tokyo in Japan is not appropriate place to host 2020 Summer Olypics.
If sincere meaning of Olympics is for peaceful, then Olympics commitee must not select Tokyo.
oppose
oppose
I want peace
seriously i’ve got goosebumps
never make it happen
To be honest, does anyone here want to be in the nuclear radiated country?
No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oppose
no!!
NO!!!!!
I want peace of world
Japan doesn’t want peace
Japan should not be hosting Olympics, when I heard this news I couldn’t believe how stubborn they are. They have endlessly committed crimes from history. What makes Japan different from others is that
1. They don’t acknowledge their crimes
2. They steal cultures from their mother countries like China/Korea and never show any respect towards them.
Right now the nuclear crisis is very serious. Media is ‘shooshed’ by the Japanese government not to broadcast this issue, a world-wide disaster. Japan should have prevented the nuclear explosion while they could…but unfortunately, they did not. Although they were aware of the problem, they wanted to save money and avoided. Now see what happened. They called SOS to the U.S and the world for a help to build a barrier which would cost us couple of billions of dollars.