Apology Sought for Japanese Atrocities

Gearing up for a Sept. 8 protest against Japan, Asian American human rights groups in Los Angeles on Friday urged Japan to admit its World War II atrocities, issue a formal apology and make reparations to the victims.

Without coming to terms with its wartime past, Japan will not enjoy credibility in the community of nations, said Robert Tsang of the Alliance for Preserving the Truth of the Sino-Japanese War, whose family came from Manchuria.

After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, his grandparents were hounded by Japanese soldiers who barged into their home any time of the day and night looking for his father, who had fled, said Tsang, a chemical engineer who manages a medical office building in Little Tokyo.

But for the Japanese invasion, he would be living today in his ancestral land where his family had an apple orchard, he told a Little Tokyo news conference.

Representatives of the coalition, whose members include activists from Japan, suggested that the Japanese government follow the example of that nation’s playwright Yoshiji Watanabe, who has written a play seeking atonement for the sins of his father, a soldier in the imperial army, and his country.

The two-act play, “Reunion,” is scheduled for a tour of seven U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, to coincide with events in San Francisco commemorating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty between the United States and Japan.

Organizers of the Sept. 8 protest, which will include an outdoor concert at the San Francisco Civic Center, say they will blast away outside with Asian and Western rock music as dignitaries from the United States, Japan and other nations mark the occasion at a state dinner in the ornate San Francisco City Hall.

“The Japanese government’s attitude is arrogant, racist and very insulting to the victims,” said UC Berkeley professor L. Ling-chi Wang, organizer of an international conference on Japan’s World War II responsibilities, scheduled for Sept. 6-9 in San Francisco.

Dr. Kenji Irie, a naturalized Japanese American physician who has been practicing in Little Tokyo for nearly two decades, said he is troubled by some of the recent events in Japan, including the rewriting of middle school textbooks to sanitize ugly chapters in Japan’s history, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit Monday to the Yasukuni Shrine to honor Japan’s war dead.

Only by issuing an official apology, backed by monetary compensation, can the next generation of Japanese have pride in their country, Irie said.

Japanese writer Kinue Tokudome, who lives in the United States, said Americans need to understand that this country has maintained that all the claims against Japan were settled in the 1951 peace treaty, a position identical to Japan’s.

But victims, including former sex slaves, euphemistically called “comfort women,” say their individual rights were not waived by the peace treaty because Japan did not even admit to the existence of sex slaves when the treaty was signed. They say they want an official apology and reparations from the government, not from a private fund.

Repeating his government’s position, Consul Yasu Fujii of the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles said the claims against Japan were settled in 1951 and that Japan has already apologized and made reparations.