Japan’s past is an open book–especially in Japan

“I was a boy educated in the militarist state. During my second year of primary school, I was praised for writing a poem titled, “Japan is the country of the gods and will not lose the war”. At the time, I was very proud of being asked to recite it at morning assembly.

“I drew a map of the world and hung it in my room. I stuck pins with a Japanese flag attached into them whenever there was news about the war in the newspaper or on the radio. My thoughts ran along the line of, “Oh, so this is how much territory we’ve occupied. I wonder if we’ll quickly attack and invade the United States?”

“I learned a lot of geography that way, such as the location of Palembang on Sumatra, where oil was produced, and Corregidor, the fortress in The Philippines. I memorized everything: the date and the location Japanese forces sank the unsinkable British battleship, HMS Prince of Wales, the date Singapore fell…

“My mother died in a bombing raid, and we were taken in by our grandparents in Kagoshima. When we said our goodbyes to the neighbors, my younger brother told them, “I’m going to join the tokkotai (kamikaze squadron) and smash the enemy!” Caught up in the moment, I declared, “I’m going to become a scientist, build a new weapon, and smash the enemy too!” In fact, even after I got to Kagoshima, I devoted a lot of time and effort to drawing a design of a rocket-like bomb. I honestly thought it would finish off the Americans.

“Japan surrendered about a month after I transferred to the Hirakawa Primary School in Miyanojo (now Satsuma-cho), Kagoshima Prefecture. The children who had been evacuated in a group from Tanegashima came running toward us shouting, “The war is over! We can go home now. Hooray!”

“Miyanojo was a country town, and the Hirakawa Primary School was located on the outskirts. Many children had been evacuated there, and the local kids bullied them. Because those children were happy Japan had lost the war, the Miyanojo children denounced it as a false rumor and beat them up. Blood ran from their noses and smeared their faces red. Every year on August 15, it pains me to recall the sight of that red blood. Few people now still remember those days. Even if those who administered the beating have forgotten, the people who were beaten will not forget.

“Even if we were to resist, there was no denying that we had lost, so our only choice was to accept the situation. During the war, all the adults had said they would commit suicide if we were defeated, so I wondered when everyone would kill themselves. But time passed, and no one committed suicide. Instead, orders were given at school to blacken out the militaristic sections of the textbooks.

“By chance, the ink covering those parts in my textbook was thin, and after it dried I could read the words underneath. My teacher hit me when he caught me reading them. Until just a short time before that, the sections that had been blacked out had been repeatedly used by the teachers used for classroom instruction. Why must I be struck because the ink was thin? Something within me burst open.”

Masazumi Harada M.D.
University professor

SOME OBSERVERS OVERSEAS, both in Western countries and in East Asia, would have you believe that “Japan” is either desperately trying to deny its Imperial past, or desperately trying to prevent its citizens from finding out about it.

One wonders why, when it comes to the subject of Japan, otherwise intelligent people can behave as if they were born yesterday.

Earlier this week, I discussed an article written by Oliver Kamm for the New Republic, in which he indignantly revealed that “The Ministry of Education’s annual screening of textbooks resulted this year in a particularly egregious softening of references to the Imperial Army’s conduct in the Battle of Okinawa.”

The Imperial Army conduct to which Mr. Kamm referred was their orders to, or encouragement of, Okinawan civilians to commit suicide during the American invasion of the islands. Some Okinawans obeyed.

Yet this week the Okinawa Prefecture Assembly adopted its second resolution calling on the Ministry to reinsert those sections. The resolution was supported by members from all parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party, which heads the national government.

The daily newspaper to which I subscribe ran an article Thursday morning on the Assembly’s resolution in the middle of page 2. It included an explanation of the excised material and what happened during the Battle of Okinawa.

In other words, anyone in Japan who can pick up and read a newspaper already knows more about this issue–past and present–than Mr. Kamm ever will. Japan is just as much a fully informed democracy as any country in the West.

Are the Japanese in denial of their past? That’s not the reality that appears in the newspapers or on television every day. That’s not what I see in the books for sale in neighborhood shops or available for free in public libraries. That’s not what I hear in conversations among people at social gatherings, especially as the evening wears on.

Political discussion programs on Japanese television are just as spirited, and the questions just as pointed, as any on American television or the BBC. Representatives from all the political parties with seats in the Diet participate, and that includes the Japanese Communist Party.

Here’s a question for American readers: When was the last time you saw a member of the American Communist Party giving hell to a representative of the party in power, either Democrat or Republican, on national television? Now, try to imagine what they might say to a member of the Bush Cabinet today in such a situation.

Japanese television viewers wouldn’t have to use their imagination. That happens here all the time, both on political discussion programs and during Diet interpellations of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet broadcast live on NHK. Do you really think the Japanese Communist Party (much less any other opposition party) would overlook any attempt to whitewash the country’s past?

The reminiscence at the top of this post written by Dr. Harada appeared this morning at the top of page 8 of my local newspaper. It was accompanied by a copy of the same photograph here, showing Japanese listening to Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of the surrender that was broadcast on the radio. The article didn’t take long to translate, in part because the language was easy enough for the average teenager to understand.

The most noteworthy aspect of the article is this—its appearance is not in the least bit noteworthy. It is literally an everyday occurrence. This information is, as Mr. Kamm would say, engrained in the culture.

Do yourself a favor and dismiss out of hand anyone who tries to convince you otherwise.