Roos on the American POWs of Japan

Questions for the Record Submitted to
Ambassador - Designate John Roos by
Senator John Kerry (#9)
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
July 23, 2009

Question #1:
In December 2008, the Government of Japan revealed in testimony to the Diet by an official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry that there were still unexamined documents held in Japan’s ministries and private corporations containing detailed information on American POWs held by Japan during WWII that have not yet been released to the public.

What efforts will the U.S. Embassy make to ensure the release of these records so that appropriate American authorities and scholars can create a complete and accurate list of those interned by Imperial Japan?

Answer:
Over the past 60 plus years, our relationship with Japan has evolved from one of bitter enmity to a rock-solid friendship. The sacrifice of the men and women who served our nation in WWII made that possible. The Department of State believes that post-war Japan has made significant efforts to atone for the actions of the Imperial Government of the 1930s and 1940s. We hope Japan’s apologies expressed by Ambassador Fujisaki in San Antonio provide our brave men and women with a sense of peace and satisfaction at this late stage in their lives, but I am aware that such deep suffering may sometimes find no healing salve.

Japanese industrial conglomerates were heavily involved in prosecuting the Japanese war effort and supplemented their work force with Allied POWs. The position of the United States is, and has been, that subsequent claims against Japanese corporations were satisfied by the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco.

I believe, however, that an open accounting of the past will help to strengthen our Alliance even more in the future, and if confirmed, I will work for such an accounting.

Question #2:
On May 30th, the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., Ichiro Fujisaki, delivered in person a long-sought formal and official apology to the former American POWs from the Japanese government. The Ambassador also noted during his apology that the Foreign Ministry was considering including American POWs in the 1995 Peace, Friendship and Exchange Program for Allied POWs or a better, more permanent fund for the joint U.S.-Japan fund for the study and exchange on the Pacific War.

How do you plan to encourage the Japanese government and Japanese companies to follow through with a program for understanding and reconciliation?

Answer:
The United States is actively encouraging Japan to include American POWs of Japan in the Peace, Friendship, and Exchange Initiative. The State Department has engaged both the Japanese Embassy in Washington and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo on this issue, and we believe that the Japanese are considering our request in earnest. If confirmed, my staff and I at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo will continue to stress the importance of this overture to our Japanese counterparts and will encourage a quick decision so that our veterans are offered inclusion in this initiative of reconciliation.

Women's Rights

The Japanese government sent a 20-person delegation to the 6th UN-sponsored periodic review of Tokyo's efforts to eradicate discrimination against women. Japan signed in 1980 (ratifying in 1985) the 1979 UN Convention establishing the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), popularly described as ''an international bill of rights for women."

On July 23, the delegation found itself disputing the CEDAW's criticisms that Japan, a G-7 country, had failed to advance the rank of women in society or to fully address the wartime "comfort women" issue. Thus far, the Committee found measures to address discrimination against women were insufficient.

Based on the comments issued at meeting, the Committee is expected to recommend in late August that the Japanese government take remedial measures on those issues affecting women where it believes Japan should do more. Some committee members accused Japan of making light of the fact that the Convention is binding.

Atsuko Okajima, who heads the Gender Equality Bureau of Japan's Cabinet Office, downplayed the latest assessment by the UN Committee. She told a news conference after the meeting that Japan has steadily implemented the measures it formulated under the basic gender equality plan devised in 2005. She cited the 2007 revision to the Equal Employment Opportunity Law among the government's efforts toward greater gender equality.

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 44th session (20 July - 7 August 2009) that includes details on the meeting on the Japan Country Report, July 23, 2009, HERE.

CEDAW Press Release on Japan HERE.

More on CEDAW.

Advancing An Asia-Centric Foreign Policy

The Shukan Shincho is not the most reliable of Japanese publications. It is all gossip and innuendo. Thus, it is fun reading.

Its June 18th edition ran an unattributed article titled: "DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama's 'Fraternity' Philosophy Turns Out To Be 'Weak-Kneed' During His Visit to South Korea." Whereas the author is dismissive of DPJ President Hatoyama's views on history and foreign policy, if the reporting is even partly true, this represents significant progress on the history issues for Japan.

Hatayama is willing to settle the apology issues for the war and accept Japan's responsibility. He has a "fraternal" view of Japan's place in Asia. It is in Japan's interest to cement ties to its neighbors through reconciliation and contrition.

Here is a translation of the article:

"There is a trend to glorify colonial occupations in Japan. No one in the Democratic Party of Japan [DPJ] supports the trend." DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama explained his historical perception during talks with President Lee Myung Bak on 5 June, when he visited South Korea.

According to a political reporter, "This visit to South Korea was practically the first task Hatoyama addressed after taking office as DPJ president. Eying the next general election, in which a change of government will very likely happen, he appealed to people both at home and abroad the DPJ's 'Asia-centered' diplomatic policy."

Hatoyama made the following remarks, in reply to President Lee's "demand for an apology"; he expressed "Japan could become a more advanced nation by willingly offering its apology about the past," and "it is necessary for Japanese political leaders to have courage." These remarks remind us of the "prostrate foreign policy" during the times of the Murayama and Hosokawa administrations.

"At the time of the Hosokawa cabinet, Hatoyama served as deputy chief cabinet secretary. He might have confused his fraternity doctrine, which he advocates, with an apologetic diplomacy" (according to the reporter).

There was a "prelude" to what he said in the talks. In an interview with South Korean papers immediately before assuming the DPJ presidency, Hatoyama clearly said, "I assure you that whoever becomes prime minister, no government officials, including myself, will visit the Yasukuni Shrine." Furthermore, when asked about the centenarian anniversary of Japan's annexation of the Korean Peninsula, Hatoyama said, "(Japan) should regret it considering the tremendous damages we inflicted upon the South Koreans." In April, he said in a program on the Internet, "Local suffrage should be granted to permanent foreign residents"; "The islands of Japan do not belong to Japanese only"; and "Japan should be ashamed." Diplomatic analyst Tadae Takubo, being dumbfounded at these remarks, said, "In the world of diplomacy, we stand for our own argument. Where is Hatoyama's ground, Tokyo or South Korea? He did not mention anything about the Japanese government's official opinion. I want to ask him if he really is a Japanese politician." Indeed, he is a poor candidate for prime minister... [ellipsis as published].

California Apologies

On Friday, July 17th, the California Legislature apologized for the state’s past persecution of the Chinese immigrants who built the state’s railroads, gold mines and agriculture industry.

The Senate earlier this month approved the resolution expressing regret for 19th century and early 20th century laws that “resulted in the persecution of Chinese living in California.” The Assembly had backed the measure in late June, and the California secretary of state put it on the state’s official record Friday. The legislation, ACR 42, was co-sponsored by Assemblymen Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) and Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles).

As Time Magazine wrote on July 22nd:

The apology is the latest in a wave of official acts of remorse around the globe. In 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a similar apology, expressing regret to Chinese Canadians for unequal taxes imposed on them in the late 19th century. Last February, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to his country's Aborigines for racist laws of the past, including the forced separation of children from their parents. Five months later, the U.S. Congress formally apologized to black Americans for slavery and the later Jim Crow laws, which were not repealed until the 1960s. And most notably, in 1988 the U.S. government decided to pay $20,000 to each of the surviving 120,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned in camps during World War II. Says Donald Tamaki, a San Francisco–based attorney who helped overturn wrongful WWII-era convictions of Japanese Americans: "Part of what a humane society does is recognize past injustices and address them."

Yes, now where is Japan?

The LA Times writes about this legislation Here and the Wall Street Journal blogs Here.

No

The Asahi Shimbun reports in its July 1 Online edition that

Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba has asked Toshio Tamogami, the controversial ex-chief of the Air Self-Defense Force, to change the date of a speech planned for Aug. 6, the day the city memorializes the atomic bombing of 1945, officials said.

The mayor sent a letter to Tamogami, pictured, and the organizer of the lecture, the Japan Conference Hiroshima, on Monday.

Akiba said the lecture, "Questioning the peace of Hiroshima," could upset hibakusha survivors and victims' relatives.