[Editorial] Is Japan Building a Wall Around Itself?

The very day that scholars in the three countries of Northeast Asia published History to Open the Future, a history textbook for building a mutually beneficial community that goes beyond a history full of conflict, comments appeared in Japan that threw cold water on its historical significance.

On Friday Masahiro Morioka, aide to Japan's minister of health, said that about the Tokyo war crimes trial that it was a "unilateral trial" by an occupation force that "made its own interpretations about peace and humanity," and that Japan's Class A war criminals are no longer criminals in Japan. Morioka is also a two-time parliamentarian with the Liberal Democratic Party (DLP). He said also that it is a "very good thing" that prime minister Junichiro Koizumi has been visiting Yasukuni Shrine. On the same day, former prime minister Yoshi Mori said that claims by Korea and China that there are distortions in Japan's history textbooks are an attempt to find fault with Japan.

We find these repeated remarks to be very disturbing. Koizumi defends his visits to Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are enshrined, while claiming that Japan has adequately apologized for and reflected on the past. Would it be acceptable in the international community for a German or Italian prime minister to visit graveyards where the leaders of fascist government are buried and then say every country gets to remember war dead in its own way? Who is supposed to believe the Japanese government's repetitions about "deep regret" when a man working for the cabinet makes comments that are a direct affront to the conviction of war criminals and an elder politician in the LDP writes off the issues raise by neighboring countries as an attempt to find fault with Japan?

Koizumi should immediately remove Morioka from his position and remind all the members of his cabinet to be prudent. Japan needs to realize that its isolation in Northeast Asia will become more serious if it does not fundamentally correct the bad habit of having politicians issue destructive remarks and then not face what has happened.

The Hankyoreh, 28 May 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]