Japan has 1291 confirmed cases of patients suffering from COVID-19, suffered 44 deaths so far, has been forced to postpone Olympic Games 2020, yet it is bent upon raking up old issues. On 24 March 2020, the Japanese government approved new school textbooks renewing the claim that Senkaku Islands are Japan’s inherent territory. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang, when asked regarding the development by the Japanese news agency Kyodo correspondent at the Regular Press Conference, responded: “Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands have been China’s inherent territory since ancient times. We are determined and resolved to safeguard our territorial sovereignty. The fact that Diaoyu Island belongs to China cannot be altered no matter what the Japanese side says or does. We urge the Japanese side to act in strict accordance with the spirit of the four-point principled agreement between the two sides and make concrete actions to improve bilateral relations.”
Stepping on the toes of another neighbour, South Korea, Japan received a strong protest lodged by an aggrieved South Korean foreign ministry after Japan authorized new school textbooks renewing territorial claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo. Japan’s education ministry earlier approved 17 social studies textbooks in the social studies area for middle school students, including history, geography and civic studies. The new textbooks repeat Japan’s claim that the islets are its indigenous territory and are illegally occupied by South Korea. The Foreign Ministry of South Korea strongly protested the Japanese government’s approval of the middle school textbooks that distort, reduce and omit clear historical facts and contain unjust claims.
Apparently, Japan, which had supposedly shed its imperialistic tendencies following its crushing defeat at the hands of allied forces in World War II, is again becoming a troublesome neighbour
The South Korean Foreign Ministry also warned of a stern response to any unjust claims by Tokyo regarding the islets, reiterating that Dokdo is “clearly South Korea’s inherent territory historically, geographically and by international law.” Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young called in Japanese Ambassador Koji Tomita to lodge a complaint. Japan’s latest claim to Dokdo comes as bilateral relations remain chilled after months of discord stemming from pending wartime issues, including the unresolved issue of compensating Korean forced labor victims. South Korea was under Japan’s colonial rule from 1910-45. In 2014, Tokyo revised the teaching guidelines for modern history textbooks to reflect the government’s assertion about Dokdo. Most editions published over the following years for use in elementary, middle and high schools contained the distorted information.
The new textbooks for next year also contain similar descriptions for the Kuril and Senkaku islands at the center of territorial disputes with Russia and China, respectively.
Japanese government, which had faced a serious standoff in 2012 with China, by approving the new elementary school textbooks claiming the disputed Diaoyu Islands as part of Japan’s territory, has aroused strong denunciation from China immediately.
Apparently, Japan, which had supposedly shed its imperialistic tendencies following its crushing defeat at the hands of allied forces in World War II, is again becoming a troublesome neighbour. In its Imperialist era, which ended with the Second World War, Japan had not only occupied most of its neighbours but subjected the enslaved population to inhuman torture, rape and pillage. The occupying Japanese Imperialistic forces not only conducted some of the worst massacres in history but subjected the conquered women to serve as sex slaves to the invaders.
In modern times, we see the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visiting the controversial Yasukuni, a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded by Emperor Meiji to commemorate individuals who had died in service of the Empire of Japan during the Meiji Restoration. The shrine’s purpose has been expanded over the years; the deities enshrined at the Honden shrine within Yasukuni currently include more than 2,466,000 individuals who died in conflicts spanning from the Boshin War of 1867 to the end of World War II.
Controversies and political tension with China and South Korea arose due to the enshrinement at Yasukuni of many war criminals from World War II, including 14 Class A war criminals who committed heinous crimes to the victimized Asian peoples remain honored there and the historical revisionism in its accounts of Japan’s actions in the War, and intensified following visits by senior government officials such as various prime ministers.
To rub salt in the wound, Abe insists that the dependents of the convicted men draw war pensions and one of them – wartime Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu – received a first-class award from the post-war government, stating: “they are not war criminals under domestic laws.” The International Military Tribunal, which the Allies conducted between May 1946 and November 1948, put 28 political and military leaders on trial as Class-A war criminals, 14 of whom are now enshrined in Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine. According to Abe, they stood trial for crimes against peace and humanity, which he said were concepts created by the allies after the war and not enshrined in law.
In all fairness, Japan should avoid raking up old wounds during these testing times and be more mindful of the feelings of its neighbors.
The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host, who has authored six books on current affairs, including three on China