Japan Press Weekly

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2014 June 4 - 10 [JCP]

This week’s JCP international activities

US researchers interview Fuwa about Japan’s war responsibility

U.S. researchers focusing on Japan visited the Japanese Communist Party head office in Tokyo on June 2 to interview JCP Social Sciences Institute Director Fuwa Tetsuzo about Japan’s responsibility for its war of aggression.

The visiting group was composed of six researchers such as Robert Cole, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and Steven Vogel, chair of the Center for Japanese Studies at the university. They included young researchers specializing in political science at the research center.

In his interview, Fuwa noted that the JCP had struggled since its establishment in 1922 to oppose Japan’s interference in and invasion of other Asian nations such as Korea and China. He also pointed out that all political parties other than the JCP, including social democratic parties, voluntarily dissolved themselves and joined the Imperial Rule Assistance Association to support the war of aggression.

Looking back on his discussions in the Diet, Fuwa stressed that Japanese leaders have consistently denied that Japan’s past war was a war of aggression. He referred to the fact that when he questioned in 1989 then Prime Minister Takeshita Noboru whether Hitler’s war should be regarded as a war of aggression or not, Takeshita replied that “it should be left to the judgment of historians in the future”, shocking the whole world.

Fuwa added that Japan’s successive leaders, including current PM Abe Shinzo, have used the phrase “the judgment of future historians” as an expedient to shirk the war responsibility.


JCP Ichida attends Jordan’s Independence Day reception

JCP Vice Chair Ichida Tadayoshi on June 9 attended Jordan’s Independence Day reception held at a hotel in Tokyo.

Ichida offered his congratulations to Jordanian Ambassador to Japan Demiye Zuher Haddad and had conversations with other guests.