Beyond apology, moral clarity

Urging Japan to apologize for war crimes is not enough. The US must confront its own role in ignoring Asians' suffering.

from the April 2, 2007 edition

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Stanford, Calif. - The House of Representatives is considering a resolution to urge Japan to acknowledge and apologize for the Imperial Army's forced organization of brothels during the war, staffed by so-called comfort women. It is an overdue but encouraging step, and Congress should pass it.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drawing of distinctions about the degree of coercion used to bring Korean, Chinese, and even Japanese women to these brothels is an unfortunate response to the proposed resolution. There are certainly areas of ambiguity in the historical record about this and other Japanese war crimes. But the direct involvement of the Japanese authorities, including the military, in the forcible recruitment of comfort women has been well documented, including by Japanese scholars.

Furthermore, the issue is not the degree of criminality but rather the willingness to take clear moral responsibility for a past that continues to cloud the present. Faced with the international criticism of his remarks, Mr. Abe became more "apologetic" recently, but he still has not clearly confronted the issue. It is vital that the Japanese take seriously the pain that still burdens Chinese, Koreans, and other victims of past Japanese aggression.

The reckoning with the past, however, is not simply a matter of passing judgment on Japan's misdeeds. The United States, too, bears responsibility for the failure to fully account for and confront Japanese war crimes. The US is not an outsider to the problems of history arising out of the wars in Asia, and America must confront its role in mishandling Japanese war-crime issues after 1945.

First, the US played a crucial role, whether intended or not, in shaping the process of historical reconciliation (or lack thereof) after the war. Unlike the Nuremberg trials, the Tokyo war-crimes tribunal focused on the actions that most directly affected the Western allies – the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war.

The proceedings paid only cursory attention to crimes committed against Asians, such as Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the use of forced Korean labor in Japanese mines and factories. The US largely failed to appreciate the massive suffering of Chinese and Koreans at the hands of Japanese invaders and victims' need to dry up the deep well of anger left behind.

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