DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 03/07/07

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E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 03/07/07 INDEX: (1) Ozawa-led Minshuto expects Rengo's support for candidates in single-seat districts through strengthened alliance in Upper House election (2) Opinion column by Yukio Okamoto -- 70th anniversary of Nanjing Incident: Government responsible for countering anti-Japanese arguments (3) Editorial: Comfort women issue-Makeshift policy comes back to haunt (4) Now is the time to rebut Japan-bashing by the US Congress over the "wartime comfort women" issue ARTICLES: (1) Ozawa-led Minshuto expects Rengo's support for candidates in single-seat districts through strengthened alliance in Upper House election MAINICHI (Page 5) (Full) March 7, 2007 In the run-up to the House of Councillors election this summer, Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) President Ichiro Ozawa, who places priority on the organized vote, is stepping up efforts to strengthen cooperation with Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation). Although former Minshuto President Seiji Maehara tried to find ways to limit dependence on trade unions, the main opposition party has now returned to placing high hopes on Rengo's support for its candidates. Rengo has decided to field eight candidates, the same number it fielded in the previous election in ¶2004. Efforts are also being made to win over unaffiliated voters, given that union membership is on the decline. The "honeymoon alliance" between Minshuto and Rengo, though, is somewhat complex. Ozawa has been visiting single-seat constituencies (where one seat is up for re-election) with senior Rengo members since last month. He visited Nagasaki with Rengo Chairman Tsuyoshi Takagi yesterday. Before going there, Ozawa and Takagi had already visited five other constituencies. Ozawa was criticized for having stayed away from a House of Representatives plenary session on March 3, in which the FY2007 budget bill was adopted. He intends to continue to give priority to election campaigning over Diet affairs. Ozawa is scheduled to make a round of visits to most of the 29 single-seat constituencies with senior Rengo members. He carries with him memos defining the details of each bloc, such as the results of past elections and the number of union members. Everywhere he goes, Ozawa underscores his determination to " work hard in the campaign both for the proportional representation seats and single-seat districts." Some members in the ruling camp have confided, "Depending on labor unions is an antiquated concept." In the alliance between Rengo and Minshuto, however, Rengo itself is probably more concerned. In the case of the All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers' Union (Jichiro),only one-sixth of all its members voted for its candidates in the 2004 Upper House election. For the upcoming election, the union picked as its candidate a 59-year-old woman who started working at a municipal government as a part-timer. The Japan TOKYO 00000971 002 OF 007 Federation of Telecommunications, Electronic Information, and Allied Workers (Joho Roren) has decided to field a thirty year old young woman in an attempt to win over unaffiliated voters. Rengo aims to get all of its eight candidates elected, whereas Ozawa expects Rengo to support Minshuto-backed candidates in single-seat constituencies. The main opposition party has not made monthly payments to Rengo-backed candidates to support their campaigns, based on the view that "the union can take care of the money and personnel." a senior member of the Election Committee said. Such a severe response has put extra pressure on Rengo. (2) Opinion column by Yukio Okamoto -- 70th anniversary of Nanjing Incident: Government responsible for countering anti-Japanese arguments YOMIURI (Page 12) (Slightly abridged) March 2, 2007 How gloomy! The documentary film Nanjing, which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival, is to come out. The film includes footage shot at the time, interviews with Chinese survivors, and former Imperial Japanese Army soldiers, and footage showing Western people. The film shows scenes of Japanese soldiers slaughtering or raping Chinese people one after another. There was also a scene of a former Japanese serviceman confessing what he saw at the time with a strained laugh. The theme of the film is a story about American medical doctors who saved many Chinese from Japanese soldiers. Just before the last scene of the film, the messagem, "The number of victims topped 200,000 persons" as stated in the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal is quoted without reservation, and present-day Japanese wearing military uniforms are shown shouting "Banzai" in front of Yasukuni Shrine. I am sure a number of people who saw the film would come to hate Japan and Japanese. Following this film, similar films depicting the Nanjing Incident are expected to be produced this year. The easiest approach to this sort of film is to reject and ignore it. Our daily lives would not be jeopardized directly by that film as long as we live in the comfortable world of Japan. But while the Japanese people pay no heed to the film, the film will be released across the world and become available on the Internet. The producer is the co-founder of AOL. He has a powerful tool to send a message to the world. I had an opportunity to talk to him, and both of us took time for discussion. He is not anti-Japanese, but he seemed to have determined his view of Japan before Japan has sent a message to the world. Every country has a history of slaughter and brutality that it does not want to face. The film depicts Japanese soldiers' deeds done over six weeks as the most atrocious act in modern history. This may make people of other countries, including the United States, who feel a sense of guilt toward what their countries had done in the past, relieved at the thought that what they did was not as brutal as Japan's acts. Nothing occurred in the year marking the 50th or 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Incident. Why now on the 70th anniversary? Obviously, there are overseas Chinese organizations that systematically plot against Japan. What they desire most is to join hands with Americans to denounce Japanese militarism. TOKYO 00000971 003 OF 007 But there seem to be more reasons. One is that some in Asia and the US are beginning to suspect that Japan is going to move to deny its war responsibility. How should Japan deal with that? My conclusion is that the Japanese government, upon examining the Nanjing Incident, must transmit its views to the world. For instance, what actually occurred in Nanjing and what did not occur there? Was there a massacre or not? I think the government can conduct a survey and come out with a definite conclusion. Doing so is never a pleasant process. But there are people who experienced (the Nanjing Incident) and are still alive. There are records left behind by former Japanese soldiers and diaries of military officers and soldiers involved in the incident. Also, there are distinguished scholars and researchers who independently conducted surveys in Japan. A number of ways to shed light on the truth are available now. I think the government needs to declare its resolve to examine Japan's history before the people of the world are deeply imbued with an anti-Japanese spirit stemming from scenes created by films like this. Doing so is the only way to rebut the criticism that the scale of the Nanjing Incident is just as China has asserted, but Japan is trying to cover it up. Otherwise Japan cannot have any way to counter an intentional anti-Japanese campaign. It is the government's responsibility to protect the honor of the present-day Japanese people. Yukio Okamoto: Advisor on international issues and guest professor at Ritsumeikan University; served as director of the First North American Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as advisor to Prime Minister Hashimoto and Prime Minister Koizumi; and is 61 years old. (3) Editorial: Comfort women issue-Makeshift policy comes back to haunt SANKEI (Page 2) (Full) March 7, 2007 A US congressional resolution blaming the Imperial Japanese Army over the "comfort women" issue is now causing ripples. In a House of Councillors Budget Committee session, Prime Minister SHINZO ABE was grilled with questions over a 1993 Japanese government statement that came from the then chief cabinet secretary, Yohei Kono, and that became one of the grounds for the resolution. In South Korea, President Roh Moo Hyun referred to the resolution and denounced Japan for "an act of barbarism under Japanese imperialism." Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing also criticized Japan. The way things are going, Japan's image-whether the resolution is adopted or not-will be hurt. This could unreasonably mar the Imperial Japanese Army's honor as well as the Japanese people's. The Kono statement pointed to "the Imperial Japanese Army's role" in setting up brothels and transporting comfort women. The Kono statement took the position that comfort women were recruited mainly by brokers. However, the statement also noted "the role of government authorities, et al.," adding that women were "enticed" and "coerced" to serve as comfort women. Furthermore, it expressed the Japanese government's "heartfelt apology and remorse" for all TOKYO 00000971 004 OF 007 former comfort women, saying the government pays "sufficient attention" to lawsuits instituted by former comfort women for compensation. However, Nobuo Ishihara, who was the then deputy chief cabinet secretary and took part in the making of the Kono statement, has SIPDIS testified that the government-despite thoroughgoing fact-finding surveys conducted in Japan and abroad by its ministries and agencies concerned-could not find out any documentation or evidence that may be taken as denoting government or military orders to cart off those women. In South Korea, 16 women claimed to have once served as comfort women. The Kono statement was only based on what they said. The Japanese government recognized them as forced comfort women, but that resulted from a political judgment made by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono and then Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa in compliance SIPDIS with the South Korean government's demand, Ishihara says. Japan has only to give in and apologize. If Japan does so, the overseas criticism of Japan would die down over time. Political leaders in those days might have thought in this way. However, it actually did not. On the contrary, the Japanese government was condemned even more bitterly. The US congressional resolution was also based on the Kono statement, according to US Representative Mike Honda, a sponsor of the resolution. We should say the makeshift political decision has come back to haunt the nation. On March 5, the House of Councillors Budget Committee met. Prime Minister Abe, sitting in on the chamber's committee, stated that his government would "basically follow" the Kono statement. The prime minister then replied: "There is no evidence to endorse coercion in the narrow sense of the word. Government authorities did not break into their houses to take them away like kidnappers." What if the prime minister now were to say he would undertake an overall review of the Kono statement? Anti-Japanese people overseas may exaggeratedly interpret and exploit his words for their anti-Japanese propaganda. The premier might have such a judgment. Japan needs time and perseverance to redeem its honor. At the same time, political leaders should also have the courage to say what is true on the comfort women issue, based on the facts of history. (4) Now is the time to rebut Japan-bashing by the US Congress over the "wartime comfort women" issue By Yoshiko Sakurai, journalist Shukan Bunshun (Pages 144-145) (Abridged) March 8, 2007 On Feb. 25, 2007, US Representative (Democratic Party) Michael Honda, a third-generation Japanese-American, appeared on a Japanese television talk show (by satellite relay). When asked by the program's host, "How can you say that there was coercive recruitment of comfort women (by the Japanese Imperial Army during wartime)? Show us your proof?" Here is his reply: "Hasn't there actually already been a comment on that in the form of the (Kono) Statement? So if there had been no coerciveness, why then did the prime minister of Japan express his heartfelt apology?" Something we had long feared, the bill for the "Kono Statement," had finally come due. TOKYO 00000971 005 OF 007 On Jan. 31, US Rep. Honda presented a resolution to the floor of the House of Representatives that contained the words: "The former Japanese Imperial Army during World War II forced young women to become sex slaves. We demand a formal apology from the Japanese government." In connection with the resolution, a hearing was held on Feb. 15, in which three former comfort women gave testimony. Since 1996, the same resolution has been submitted five times, but each time, the House rejected it. This time, however, there is a strong possibility that there resolution will be adopted. When the Kono Statement was first issued in 1003, I covered the event as a reporter, interviewing both Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobuo Ishihara. What was clear to me then was the lack of objective facts to support the statement that "the Japanese government coercively recruited comfort women (during the war)." At the time, the Japanese government had collected documents from all over the world to verify the truth, but it did not find even one document to indicate there had been coercive recruitment (by the government and military). In spite of that, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono on August 4, 1993, issued a statement that claimed there existed a large number of comfort women who "were assembled against their wills, lured by sweet words or coerced," and that "there were government authorities and others who directly took part in such." Moreover, at the press conference, Kono flatly stated that coercive recruitment (by the military) was a fact. But why did the government admit to something that never existed? At the time, the Republic of Korea was strongly pressuring Japan to admit that the coercive recruitment (of comfort women) was being intentionally carrying out (during the war) by the Japanese government. The government of South Korea was strongly demanding that if objective facts could not be found, the Japanese government should then listen to the testimony of the former comfort women themselves. An investigation took place, in which 16 former comfort women testified. However, in this investigation, only their singular statements were heard; neither rebuttals nor questioning was allowed. It was an investigation in name only, as such, it had no value. In that connection, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Ishihara said that he was convinced that since it was "an issue involving the moral dignity of women," by "wrapping up matters by having the government admit to coercion, the Republic of Korea government would not make this any more of an issue than is was now." Despite that, since there had been a promise to the women neither to release the contents of their testimonies nor their names, even today, the contents of what they had said have never been disclosed. It has become a black box, since the evidence was never made available. As expected, there was no coercion from the start Even at the House of Representatives hearing, in the testimony of two South Korean women, one had been an orphan, and her foster parents had kicked her out in order to make money for the family. She was led away to a comfort station by a Korean dressed in a military uniform. The other person was lured by a friend and left home without telling her parents. She was led away by a Japanese male dressed in civilian clothes. TOKYO 00000971 006 OF 007 I feel deep sympathy toward the appeals of those women who had received horrible treatment in the comfort stations. Yet, their testimonies do not show that the Japanese government or military was "coercively recruiting" comfort women. This time, there was also the testimony of a Dutch woman (now living in Austria) who had been interned by the Japanese military in Indonesia and made into a comfort woman. It is true that in Indonesia, Japanese soldiers stationed there were merciless toward interned Dutch women and made them work as prostitutes. But the military unit that knew about such activities was ordered to close the comfort station, and after the war, the participants were executed as war criminals. The Indonesia incident is material that can be explained as a case in which the state was not the entity carrying out coercive acts. In addition, on March 4, 1938, the government issued guidance on tracking down the identities of dealers so that they would no longer pose as military officers when recruiting comfort women. There are documents dated June 27, 1944, that show the police being augmented on the Korean Peninsula in order to see that women were not being rounded up by force. However, the Japanese government did not at all rebut charges using such factual information. Instead, the Japanese government apologized without rebuttal. As a result, at present, voices are being raised in the US House of Representatives that the Kono Statement was an insufficient apology. In the hearing, Ms. Mindy Kotler, who is associated with a group working on the issue of postwar reparations, ranked Japan's comfort-women issue in the same category as the Holocaust in Germany. She said: "The Japanese government has never formally apologized. Until now, the apologies of prime ministers have all been personal views." She continued: "The chief cabinet secretary is like the press spokesman at the White House. Just like the apology of a press spokesman at the White House is not the US government's apology, neither is the chief cabinet secretary's apology the same as the Japanese government's apology." She then went on: "Kono was a lame duck and held no responsibility toward anyone." She stressed: This issue is not just for today; it is an issue for tomorrow, as well." In other words, the problem will continue indefinitely into the future. Even the chairwoman of the Washington Alliance on the Comfort Women Issue, the group backing the adoption of the House resolution, stated: "In 2005, 42 million persons signed a petition against Japan obtaining a seat on the United Nations Security Council. They signed a petition that said Japan was not qualified to hold such a seat since the Japanese government has not formally apologized for the sex slavery." However, since the names on the petition were collected on the Internet in a way that anyone could sign up more as many times as they wished, the validity of the petition is questionable. Must break away from the Kono Statement Regarding the series of recent moves, Japanese Ambassador to the US Ryozo Kato has sent a letter to the House of Representatives stating: "Japan has already officially apologized"; and, "Letters of apology were sent to comfort women." He explained the contents of the Diet resolutions on the 50th and the 60th anniversaries of the TOKYO 00000971 007 OF 007 end of the war. But the most important part was omitted: He did not rebut that there was no truth to the charge of coercive recruitment. In 1991, when the former comfort women filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government, the government said that the statute of limitations had run out, and it used technical legal issues to fight the lawsuit. The government never sought to verify the testimonies of the women. In addition, some Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers have been making such easygoing remarks as, "The resolution is non-binding"; and, "No one in the United States is making a fuss." But the public hearing and its television transmission were reported all around the world, so most likely gave Japan a negative image. Japan should now be tackling the facts behind this case. Under today's sense of values, what happened in World War II and even in the Korean War that came just after are totally unacceptable. But systems similar to the comfort stations were established in other countries, as well. Among those countries, only Japan has been singled out for special criticism because of the point that the government and military authorities were regarded as the coercive force. That is indeed why the point is being made that Japan should apologize even though it has apologized. There needs to be a clarification of the facts as the main premise. This negative legacy all started with the Kono Statement. Someone must make a decision to break with the Kono Statement. I ask Mr. ABE as the prime minister to make such a decision. SCHIEFFER