{"id":3037,"date":"2013-06-26T03:00:18","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T07:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2013-06-27T09:12:58","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T13:12:58","slug":"what-can-be-done-so-japan-will-acknowledge-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2013\/06\/what-can-be-done-so-japan-will-acknowledge-history\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can Be Done So Japan Will Acknowledge History?"},"content":{"rendered":"
More than 67 years have elapsed since the end of World War II (WWII).\u00a0 Yet the Japanese government still has not acknowledged or apologized for the massive, inhumane atrocities that the Japanese Imperial Army inflicted all over Asia during WWII.\u00a0 Soon there won’t be any more living sex slave (euphemistically called Comfort Woman by the Japanese government).\u00a0 Soon there won’t be any more living Nanking Massacre survivor.\u00a0 Soon there won’t be any more survivor of Japanese’ germ warfare attacks.\u00a0 Soon there won’t be any more survivor of the Bataan Death March.\u00a0 Soon there won’t be any more survivor of the prisoner of war (POW) slave laborers, and soon there won’t be any more living former Japanese soldier who participated in these atrocities.<\/p>\n
Yes, that time will come soon, very soon.\u00a0 The Japanese government may think that by that time no one will remember about these atrocities.\u00a0 However, she will be completely wrong, because there are just too many reliable records of what happened during WWII in Asia, including diaries and other written records by victims, eyewitnesses, as well as Japanese soldiers, photos and movies, real-time reports by media personnel and diplomats, official government and military reports and records of the Japanese military, and oral and video interviews of victims and former Japanese soldiers.<\/p>\n
The Japanese government still adopts the attitude that most of these atrocities did not occur, and claims that they were greatly exaggerated or invented by the victims. For example, just last month Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka and the co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, said that “the comfort women system was necessary.”\u00a0 Shinzo Abe, Japan\u2019s current prime minister and her prime minister during 2006-2007 has repeatedly said that \u201cthere was no coercion of women into sexual slavery during WWII, and there is no testimony from anyone in Japan.\u201d\u00a0 He also recently said that Japan’s wartime actions should not be called “aggression.”\u00a0 Takashi Kawamura, mayor of Nagoya, said in 2012 that \u201cthere was no Nanking Massacre, only the results of conventional acts of combat.\u201d Several government bodies, including the U.S., Canada, Netherlands, and the European Union, already passed resolutions in 2007 condemning the Japanese government for their position on comfort women [1].\u00a0 Apparently words alone are not sufficient, and more serious actions are needed by the world community so that Japan will acknowledge its history.<\/p>\n
This article identifies several actions that citizens of the world can take to exert pressure on the Japanese government so that it becomes obvious to them that it is also to their best interest if they recognize history.\u00a0 We emphasize that any single action is unlikely to be sufficient, but the set of actions as a whole may reach a critical threshold to result in positive results.
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Boycott Japanese Products When Reasonable Alternative Exists<\/strong>:\u00a0 Whenever there is a reasonable alternative, do not buy products from Japan.\u00a0 Unlike a few years ago, there are now reasonable alternatives to Japanese cars.\u00a0 The Korean Hyundai is essentially comparable to Toyota and Honda.\u00a0 The Ford Focus has been a very hot seller, competing with Toyota Corolla as the most sold car in the world.\u00a0 At the higher end, you have several alternatives to compete against Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura, e.g., Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Cadillac, Audi, and Lincoln.\u00a0 In electronics, computers, and cell phones, you have many non-Japanese choices.\u00a0 Perhaps the only kind of consumer products that you may have trouble finding a good non-Japanese alternative is pocket digital cameras.\u00a0 If we make such boycott successful, then it will hurt the pocketbook of Japanese companies which could lead to pressure within Japan to change the government’s political stand.<\/p>\n Do Not Select Tokyo to Host the 2020 Summer Olympic:<\/strong>\u00a0 Tokyo is one of the three finalists to host the 2020 Summer Olympic, with the other two being Istanbul and Madrid.\u00a0 Although hosting a summer Olympic is not necessarily a money maker, it does provide a great deal of political and public relation benefits that the Japanese government desires.\u00a0 Furthermore, it can help to revive a tourist industry that was greatly damaged with the earthquake, tsunami, and radiation concerns resulting from the massive 2011 earthquake.\u00a0 Recently a petition has already been introduced to urge the International Olympic Committee and various National Olympic Committees not to choose Tokyo to be the host city when they make their decision at their September 7, 2013 meeting unless the Japanese government officially acknowledges and apologizes for her WWII atrocities.\u00a0 In a little more than three months, more than 24,000 people from all over the world have already signed this petition.\u00a0 Please help to publicize this petition by urging your friends to sign this petition in the next couple of months and also urging your National Olympic Committee not to select Tokyo to host the 2020 Summer Olympic.\u00a0 For more explanation of why Tokyo should not be chosen to host 2020 Summer Olympic, read the article “Why Tokyo Should Not Be Selected to Host the 2020 Summer Olympic”:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.dontow.com\/2013\/06\/why-tokyo-should-not-be-selected-to-host-the-2020-summer-olympic\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n More Community Actions Like That of New Jersey’s Palisades Park:<\/strong>\u00a0 In October 2010, the small town of Palisades Park (with a population of about 20,000 people and a large number of Korean Americans) dedicated a memorial plaque in front of its township library to remember\u00a0 and recognize the 200,000+ comfort women for the sufferings that they endured, and to press the Japanese government to officially acknowledge and apologize for the inhumane atrocity that the Japanese Imperial Army inflicted on these innocent victims.<\/p>\n