Official Who Denied Japan WWII Aggression Resigns

A senior Japanese Cabinet officer resigned today over his remarks that Japan was not an aggressor in World War II, but refused to withdraw the statements that caused a furor among Asian neighbors.

Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita accepted the resignation of Seisuke Okuno, director general of the National Land Agency, who touched off the controversy last month when he said Japan fought World War II to protect itself against colonization from “the white race.”

“I am not retracting my statements,” Okuno, 75, said after submitting his letter of resignation to Takeshita at the prime minister’s official residence in downtown Tokyo.

Okuno is widely regarded as the No. 3 man in government after Takeshita and Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.

Uproar in China and Korea

Okuno’s remarks, the latest in a series of attempts in recent years by officials justifying Japan’s actions before and during World War II, sparked an uproar in China and Korea, where the brutality of the Japanese military during the conflict is still a vivid memory.

Takeshita reportedly asked for the minister’s resignation after a heated Cabinet meeting this morning in which Okuno again justified his observations by saying that opinions that might upset relations with China should not be taboo.

With criticism also mounting from domestic opposition parties, Takeshita, who had not commented on the contents of Okuno’s remarks, finally broke his silence Thursday and said the statements were inappropriate and did not conform with the official view that Japan was the wartime aggressor.

In recent years, there have been a string of attempts to interpret Japan’s invasion of China and other wartime actions as part of a justified effort to preserve Asia for Asians.

Masayuki Fujio resigned in September, 1986, as eduction minister, after he said Japan’s 35-year occupation of Korea was “legitimate”.

Textbook publishers have attempted to revise Japanese history texts to play down the atrocities of the war.