history4

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

On the anniversary of the end of WWII, let's renew our resolve to head toward peace!
Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The war waged by Japan's wartime militarism ended on August 15, 1945. Now that three out of every four people in Japan were born after the war, each one of us must squarely face up to the history of the war of aggression and renew our resolve never to go to war again.

Japan launched the war of aggression for the purpose of bringing the territories and resources of other Asian nations under its control, and killed more than 20 million Asian people. In Japan alone, over three million people lost their lives.

This year's anniversary of the end of WWII came amid fierce criticism growing in Japan and abroad at Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's visit to Yasukuni Shrine giving a government endorsement to the shrine's view of history that justifies the war.

During the war, Japanese militarism committed many crimes in the areas under its occupation in Asia: slaughter of noncombatants, assaults, looting, brutal forced labor, and rape and pillage.

In Korea under Japan's colonial rule, Koreans underwent such cruel treatment that their national pride was trampled down by force.

The post-war international order was founded on the common understanding that wars waged by Japan in Asia and by Germany and Italy in Europe were wars of aggression and crimes against humanity. This became the basis of the international political framework to work to create a world in which no country can ever again wage a war of aggression.

The Japanese Constitution that clearly expresses the deep remorse over the war of aggression became the starting point for most Japanese to live peacefully in the post-war era.

The Liberal Democratic Party, however, has long held political power without truly reflecting on the war of aggression. Prime Minister Koizumi's yearly visit to Yasukuni Shrine after his assumption of office in 2001 fundamentally undermines this starting point of the post-war world, and in fact has caused a crucial stalemate in Japan's Asia diplomacy.

It is time for every one of us to criticize the Koizumi government and the LDP politics that run counter to the progress of humanity. Let's head down a path to make use of the determination of peace as the Constitution stipulates that we, "resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government, do proclaim that sovereign power resides with the people and do firmly establish this Constitution."
- Akahata, August 15, 2006