Xinhua Insight: "Historical holy war" a doomed fiasco Japan should avoid

For most of the people around the world, history is about objective facts of the past. However, for a handful of right-wing Japanese politicians, it is not.

With witnesses speaking out and wartime victims and their families demanding apologies, right-wing politicians are flagrantly trying to distort the truth and whitewash the country's aggressive past and atrocities during World War II.

Evidence indicates that Japan has waged a "holy war" on historical issues, glossing over its aggression. This has been likened to the "holy war" Japanese militarists believed they were fighting in the name of "Greater East Asia" during WWII.

This Saturday marks the 70th anniversary of Japan's announcement of unconditional surrender following WWII.

Like his predecessors, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to issue a statement around the anniversary. However, just like in 1937 when speculation abounded as to whether Japan would launch a full-scale invasion into China, the current prime minister's upcoming statement is also shrouded in uncertainty.

BETRAYAL OF HISTORY

Conjecture surrounding the content of Abe's statement and whether it will touch on the topics "colonial rule", "aggression" or "apology", and whether the statement will be official or personal.

Such wording appeared in a landmark statement by former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, on Aug. 15, 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. Its content was repeated by his successor, Junichiro Koizumi, in 2005 on the 60th anniversary. Both statements were endorsed unanimously by the cabinet.

The incumbent prime minister, however, is reportedly planning to deviate from tradition and there is talk of the date of the address changing, the absence of key wording and it being personal rather than in his capacity as prime minister.

According to Japanese media, Abe's statement will express "remorse" for Japan's wartime actions, stress its pursuit of peace in the postwar era and depict a nation looking to the future. The focus of the statement will be the latter two parts while the "remorse" section may be toned down.

Former prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa, who has during his tenure unequivocally admitted to Japan's wartime crimes, said in an interview with Tokyo Shimbun that any statement that undermines the spirit of Murayama and Koizumi's statements will be detrimental.

Abe has personally visited or made ritual offerings to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead including 14 Class-A convicted WWII criminals, disavowed a universal definition for "aggression" and made remarks denying the Nanjing Massacre and the practice of wartime sexual servitude. These actions have failed to convince the world that his cabinet accepts responsibility.

His right-wing path is also followed by his cabinet.

Ruthlessly defying the sentiments of the victim countries and people, the Japanese administration has shown no sign of the considerate trait boasted to be a virtue of the Japanese nation.

American anthropologist Ruth Benedict has used the images of "the chrysanthemum and the sword" to describe Japanese culture. However, when it comes to its authority, the tranquil "chrysanthemum" has vanished with only the warmongering "sword" remaining.

WARLIKE PERILS

Abe and his administration have been in office for almost three years, during which time Japan eased its weapon export rules, increased military spending, weakened civilian control over the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), and pushed controversial security bills and amendments to its pacifist Constitution. These appear to be perilous moves to seek military power.

Japan's postwar Constitution states that "... land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

Such provisions, though having laid the political cornerstone for Japan's peace and stability and its economic takeoff, are seen by right-wing forces as shackles on the country. This situation is reminiscent of a similar situation involving Japan's military authority in the 1930s, which resented and withdrew from the disarmament agreements in the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty.

There are even more signs that may make people wary of a possible return by Japan to its militarism past.

By controlling public broadcaster NHK, Abe has made the organization a right-wing mouthpiece, which is not dissimilar to the wartime media frenzy for militarism in Japan.

In addition, the Japanese government has revised textbooks to indoctrinate students with ideas about Japanese rule over the Diaoyu Islands, which are in fact Chinese territory, as well as some other disputed territories. This resembles the Japanese authority's teaching to justify its colonial rule in northeast China in the 1930s.

Moreover, people may fairly doubt the concepts of "proactive pacifism" and "arc of freedom and prosperity" touted by Abe, as they look so similar to Japan's wartime rhetoric of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", which was used as an excuse for its invasion and occupation of China and other regional neighbors.

What could be seen as alarming is the acceptance of this right-wing ideology among some ordinary Japanese citizens.

The opinion that China and the Republic of Korea are causing a fuss over historical issues are sometimes topics on Japanese online forums, which, once again, seems like the situation over 70 years ago when many Japanese, blindfolded by their militarist authority, were bewildered by the resistance of the Chinese and Korean peoples.

A DOOMED WAR

Fortunately, however, sober and peace-loving voices are still the mainstream among Japanese public.

According to a recent poll by the NHK, the support rate for Abe's Cabinet has dropped to 37 percent with over 60 percent of respondents expressing disapproval of the country's controversial security bills, which will allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

Hano Kenji, a former local council member in Toyama, criticized Abe's ignorance of the country's aggressive past as "shameless."

More than 70 years ago, Japanese militants waged a war of aggression under the banner of a "Holy War." Decades after, the Japanese administration could be seen to be continuing this "Holy War" on historical issues, heading toward a similar doomed end. Endi