Images: the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression

[Keel]

There goes another historic opportunity.

Abe offers no fresh apology for Japan's wartime atrocities
August 14, 2015

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends a news conference for delivering a statement marking the 70th anniversary of World War II's end, at his official residence in Tokyo August 14, 2015. Abe acknowledged Japan had inflicted "immeasurable damage and suffering" on innocent people but said generations not involved in the conflict should not be burdened with continued apologies. [Photo:China Daily]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday mentioned previous governments' apology for Japan's wartime past, but refrained from offering his own apology in a statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II at his official residence in Tokyo.

"Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war," the prime minister said. "Such position articulated by the previous cabinets will remain unshakable into the future."

But the prime minister also said that Japan must not let its future generations "be predestined to apologize."

Abe said that aggression and war should never be the means to resolve international disputes and Japan will abandon colonial rule forever, but he stopped short of mentioning directly Japan's past aggression and colonial rule before and during WWII.

In the 1995 landmark Murayama Statement, then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama directly stated that "following a mistaken national policy," Japan, "through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations."

Meanwhile, Abe also failed to directly refer to the "comfort women," a Japanese euphemism for about 200,000 women who were forcibly recruited as sex slaves in Japanese military-run brothels.

"We will engrave in our hearts the past, when the dignity and honor of many women were severely injured during wars in the 20th century," said the prime minister.

On the reason why Japan launched the wars in the past, the prime minister laid bare his historical revisionism by blaming the Western countries' colonial economic blocs that delivered a blow to Japan's economy and Japan therefore used force to "overcome its diplomatic and economic deadlock."

Abe also said that Japan's modernization came from a sense of crisis of Western powers' overwhelming supremacy in technology and waves of colonial rule toward Asia.

On Japan's future, Abe claimed that his country will uphold " proactive pacifism" and cooperate with countries sharing common values to contribute to world peace and prosperity.

"Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war," the prime minister said. "Such position articulated by the previous cabinets will remain unshakable into the future."

But the prime minister also said that Japan must not let its future generations "be predestined to apologize."

Abe said that aggression and war should never be the means to resolve international disputes and Japan will abandon colonial rule forever, but he stopped short of mentioning directly Japan's past aggression and colonial rule before and during WWII.

In the 1995 landmark Murayama Statement, then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama directly stated that "following a mistaken national policy," Japan, "through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations."

as expected

here the value of his speech

 

[Jlaw]

There goes another historic opportunity.

Abe offers no fresh apology for Japan's wartime atrocities
August 14, 2015

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends a news conference for delivering a statement marking the 70th anniversary of World War II's end, at his official residence in Tokyo August 14, 2015. Abe acknowledged Japan had inflicted "immeasurable damage and suffering" on innocent people but said generations not involved in the conflict should not be burdened with continued apologies. [Photo:China Daily]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday mentioned previous governments' apology for Japan's wartime past, but refrained from offering his own apology in a statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II at his official residence in Tokyo.

"Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war," the prime minister said. "Such position articulated by the previous cabinets will remain unshakable into the future."

But the prime minister also said that Japan must not let its future generations "be predestined to apologize."

Abe said that aggression and war should never be the means to resolve international disputes and Japan will abandon colonial rule forever, but he stopped short of mentioning directly Japan's past aggression and colonial rule before and during WWII.

In the 1995 landmark Murayama Statement, then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama directly stated that "following a mistaken national policy," Japan, "through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations."

Meanwhile, Abe also failed to directly refer to the "comfort women," a Japanese euphemism for about 200,000 women who were forcibly recruited as sex slaves in Japanese military-run brothels.

"We will engrave in our hearts the past, when the dignity and honor of many women were severely injured during wars in the 20th century," said the prime minister.

On the reason why Japan launched the wars in the past, the prime minister laid bare his historical revisionism by blaming the Western countries' colonial economic blocs that delivered a blow to Japan's economy and Japan therefore used force to "overcome its diplomatic and economic deadlock."

Abe also said that Japan's modernization came from a sense of crisis of Western powers' overwhelming supremacy in technology and waves of colonial rule toward Asia.

On Japan's future, Abe claimed that his country will uphold " proactive pacifism" and cooperate with countries sharing common values to contribute to world peace and prosperity.

"Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war," the prime minister said. "Such position articulated by the previous cabinets will remain unshakable into the future."

But the prime minister also said that Japan must not let its future generations "be predestined to apologize."

Abe said that aggression and war should never be the means to resolve international disputes and Japan will abandon colonial rule forever, but he stopped short of mentioning directly Japan's past aggression and colonial rule before and during WWII.

In the 1995 landmark Murayama Statement, then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama directly stated that "following a mistaken national policy," Japan, "through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations."

But does this surprise anyone here?

 

[TaiShang]

73-yr-old Japanese war orphan visits grave of his Chinese foster parents

73-year-old Japanese war orphan Nakajima Yuhachi came to Mudanjiang to pay homage to the graves of his Chinese foster parents.

Mudanjiang in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province is the place where he was brought up by his Chinese parents.

“Thanks, China!” Nakajima wrote in his memoir published at his own expense. With Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, Nakajima's family all became refugees. His birth mother gave him to a Chinese vendor who went door-to-door to find Nakajima a new home. A peasant woman Sun Zhenqin agreed to adopt him even though she knew Nakajima was a Japanese descendant.

Little Nakajima was quite skinny due to dyspepsia. His foster mother fed him with the food she chewed, and massaged his belly every day. His condition got better and better. In the following 10 years, his foster parents brought him up until he left China for Japan at age of 16. “I am a Japanese descendant, but they brought me up. What good hearts my foster parents have. ”

http://bit.ly/1Lamsxo



***

Unit 731: Inside look at Japan’s covert biological warfare unit

As China marks the 70th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression this year, the site that housed Unit 731 in Harbin in Heilongjiang Province has been opened to the public.

Unit 731 was a top-secret research base established in Harbin and acted as the nerve center for Japan's biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during World War II.

The covert unit was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes and the death of some 10,000 people during the Japanese invasion of China.

The personnel of Unit 731 conducted lethal human experiments in the lab and prison in Harbin, a site that continues to be a horrific reminder of the past.

Shiro Ishii, the head of the unit, along with others under his command, raped and mutilated prisoners, while also carrying out tests on them for diseases such as the Bubonic plague, cholera, small pox and botulism. The ultimate goal of such experiments was to develop Japan's biological warfare program.

The victims of Unit 731 comprised citizens of many nations, including Chinese, Russians, Koreans, Mongolians and even a few American prisoners of war.

According to the testimony of veterans from Unit 731, they had the backing of the Japanese government and were given ample funds and quality equipment to carry out the experiments. For instance, the military spending of Unit 731 accounted for about half of the whole spending of Japan's Kwantung Army.

In the week following Japan's surrender in 1945, Unit 731 was busy destroying evidence of its work, and blew up the base. After the war, the soldiers of the unit were ordered not to say anything about what they did.

Even to this date, the Japanese government hasn’t acknowledged Unit 731's atrocities, despite the evidence that has been discovered at the site.

Watch this video as CCTVNEWS’ Guan Yang visits the site that was the base of Unit 731.

 

[Aepsilons]

73-yr-old Japanese war orphan visits grave of his Chinese foster parents

73-year-old Japanese war orphan Nakajima Yuhachi came to Mudanjiang to pay homage to the graves of his Chinese foster parents.

Mudanjiang in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province is the place where he was brought up by his Chinese parents.

“Thanks, China!” Nakajima wrote in his memoir published at his own expense. With Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, Nakajima's family all became refugees. His birth mother gave him to a Chinese vendor who went door-to-door to find Nakajima a new home. A peasant woman Sun Zhenqin agreed to adopt him even though she knew Nakajima was a Japanese descendant.

Little Nakajima was quite skinny due to dyspepsia. His foster mother fed him with the food she chewed, and massaged his belly every day. His condition got better and better. In the following 10 years, his foster parents brought him up until he left China for Japan at age of 16. “I am a Japanese descendant, but they brought me up. What good hearts my foster parents have. ”

http://bit.ly/1Lamsxo

Heart warming!

 

[Keel]

Heart warming!

what about the second part of post # 124 - the savagely inhuman, one out of many "war-crimes- against-humanity" of the imperial japanese in Unit 731

 

[TaiShang]

China publishes videos on sufferings of wartime sex slaves

China's State Archives Administration (SAA)plans to release videos documenting the suffering of sex slaves at the hand of the Japanese military over 70 years ago.

The eight-part video series will be released on the SAA's website, one per day, beginning exactly 70 years after Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.

Japan invaded northeast China in September 1931. An estimated 200,000 women, euphemistically known as "comfort women", were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese troops.

China publishes videos on sufferings of wartime sex slaves - People's Daily Online

 

[TaiShang]

People visit Nanjing Massacre memorial to remember victims
2015-08-16 08:17:03 | Editor: Song Miou

 

[Keel]

More pics from the above Memorial, Nanjing

A very bitter trace is left in the soul by the pictures of massive executions, barbarity of occupants, written and video evidence of survivors of that horrible slaughter.

 

[Keel]

Inside are the excavated remains of massacre victims committed by Japanese fascists in Nanjing.

Eternal flame

Mother statue

 

[Keel]

Nanjing Massacre Memorial

Bronze lane with bare feet imprints of 222 Chinese — those, who miraculously remained alive then.




Poem «Snowstorm».
Author — one of the Nanjing massacre survivors.

Iris Chang, author of the book The Rape of Nanking
28.03.1968 - 09.11.2004

 

[Keel]

 

[TaiShang]

Alert raised following Abe's Yasukuni offering
August 17, 2015

A Chinese official and scholars issued an alert over right-wingers in Japan on Sunday following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's offering of a ritual donation to a shrine endorsing convicted war criminals.

On Saturday－the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II－some Japanese Cabinet members and about 70 lawmakers visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

Abe's ritual offering was conveyed by an official from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

On Friday, Abe delivered a long-awaited statement on behalf of the Cabinet, but drew criticism as he mentioned apologies made by previous Cabinets but failed to apologize himself.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China firmly opposed and was dissatisfied with the Yasukuni pilgrimage, because the shrine is a "spiritual tool" and symbol of the aggression launched by the Japanese military.

Hua noted that August 15 was the day when Japan declared an unconditional surrender.

"Only by squarely facing and deeply reflecting upon the past history of aggression and making a clean break with militarism can Japan unload the historical baggage and truly open up the future," Hua said.

Huang Dahui, a professor of East Asian studies at Renmin University of China, said fewer Japanese lawmakers had visited the Yasukuni Shrine this year than last, but this was just "a move to echo the Abe Statement and avoid provoking world opinion during the anniversary".

The Abe Cabinet's efforts in tackling the historical issue were insufficient and "a proactive apology by Abe may be more effective", Huang said.

The academic estimated that Japanese right-wingers "will have a higher profile in the near future" as the anniversary comes to an end.

Japanese Emperor Akihito marked the 70th anniversary of the war's end on Saturday with an expression of "deep remorse," Agence France-Presse reported.

His comments "have attracted increased attention at a time when Abe appears to be pushing for a less apologetic tone toward Japan's past", the report said.

In an article in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming referred to the fact that both China's military and its civilians made enormous sacrifices－35 million casualties－for victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).

Liu said, "History must be remembered in order to prevent attempts to deny the atrocities and crimes of the Japanese aggressors, attempts to distort the history of World War II and attempts to white wash militarism."

Lian Degui, deputy director of the Japanese Studies Center at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said that as Abe advances his "strategic diplomacy, facing up to history could reassure people".

 

[TaiShang]

Taiwanese civic groups protest Japanese PM's WWII statement
CNA
August 16, 2015, 12:00 am TWN

TAIPEI - More than 100 people representing several civic groups staged a protest in front of the Interchange Association of Japan's Taipei office Saturday to express disapproval of a statement by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, especially his remark that Japan should not be expected to express remorse indefinitely.

The civic groups, including the Cross-Strait Peace Forum (兩岸和平發展論壇), the Taiwan Labor Party (勞動黨), the New Party (新黨) and the Chinese Unification Promotion Party (中華統一促進黨), demanded that Japan sincerely repent for its aggression against China in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and warned against the resurrection of Japanese militarism.

The protesters said that while Abe mentioned aggression and apology in the statement, he also said Japan's future generations must not be expected to continue apologizing.

They said that Abe's apology was insincere.

In addition, they said, security bills being pushed by Abe would allow Japan to send its Self-Defense Forces abroad, indicating a resurrection of Japanese militarism.

Staff of the Interchange Association, which represents Japanese interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic relations, accepted a protest statement from the protesters.

Foreign Ministry Issues Statement Against Shrine Visit

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry expressed regret over a visit by a Japanese lawmaker to a controversial shrine for Japan's war dead on behalf of the Japanese prime minister.

The Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo honors Japanese war dead, including executed Japanese World War II war criminals. It is seen by several countries in Asia as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism.

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement of regret Saturday after Japanese lawmaker Koichi Hagiuda of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), also an aide to Abe, visited the shrine earlier in the day.

The ministry said it hopes Japanese politicians will learn from history, reflect on Japan's past actions and take into consideration the hurt feelings of the people in countries that suffered from Japanese aggression during the war. It also called on Tokyo to promote and develop friendly relations with neighboring countries in an effort to maintain peace and stability in the region. Hagiuda said he paid respects to the souls of those who sacrificed their lives in the war and that he visited the shrine on behalf of Abe in his role as head of the LDP, foreign media reported.

 

[TaiShang]

Report on 'comfort women' released

Photo released on Aug. 16, 2015 by the State Archives Administration of China shows a Japanese military report in 1943 on comfort stations. A series of historical reports and personal letters, published by China's State Archives Administration on Sunday, has presented new evidence about the Imperial Japanese Army's war crimes in enslavement of "comfort women." (Xinhua)



Photo released on Aug. 16, 2015 by the State Archives Administration of China shows a Japanese military report in 1938 on enslavement of comfort women. A series of historical reports and personal letters, published by China's State Archives Administration on Sunday, has presented new evidence about the Imperial Japanese Army's war crimes in enslavement of "comfort women." (Xinhua)



Photo released on Aug. 16, 2015 by the State Archives Administration of China shows a Japanese military report on the situation of military comfort facilities. A series of historical reports and personal letters, published by China's State Archives Administration on Sunday, has presented new evidence about the Imperial Japanese Army's war crimes in enslavement of "comfort women." (Xinhua)

 

[TaiShang]

People visit the 'Great Victory, Historic Contribution' exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, at the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression near Lugou Bridge, also known as Marco Polo Bridge, in Beijing, China, July 8, 2015.