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News Analysis: Abe's pushing for historical revisionism concerns Washington ahead of tour

By  Jon Day (Xinhua)    20:21, March 13, 2015
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TOKYO, March 13 -- Heat is mounting around Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abeprior to his visit to the United Stateswhere he is schedule to deliver a speech to the U.S. legislature on bilateral ties as the world approaches the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, according to experts both in Japan and the United States.

Abe is due to make the U.S. trip in late April or early May.

Japanese political observers believe that the emphasis on the speech will be on Abe's views as to how Japan intends to contribute to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and how the Japan-U.S. alliance has and will continue to be central to this and Abe, according to experts here, will likely seek to further deepen bilateral ties, through new official guides for defense cooperation as well as ongoing economic collaborations.

But as Japan is pushing for Abe to speak to a joint session of the House and the Senate, and in doing so, potentially making him the first ever Japanese prime minister to achieve this, concerns are beginning to swell over the content and real motivations behind his address, based on a number of political irritants its ally has had to deal with recently, causing Washington to scrutinize Abe and his smoke-and-mirrors antics more clearly.

Political watcher Teruhisa Muramatsu told Xinhua that Republican member of the House, who serves as chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ed Royce, would ultimately decide the scope of Abe's role, if any, in making a speech in Congress.

Royce has already been petitioned by a number of his Korean- American constituents who are livid that Abe, who has sought to whitewash over the Imperial Army's brutal use of sex slaves, or comfort women, during WWII.

Japan's top government spokesperson conceded recently that this was just one of the stumbling blocks that the Japanese leader may face from the U.S. on his tour there this spring and many more questions that have arisen of late will also need answering, of Abe delivering a statement on the 70th war anniversary.

This statement holds a lot of global gravitas and the former statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, which admitted Japan's aggression in WWII and apologized for the atrocities caused, has become the internationally-accepted statement and de facto apology from Japan for its wrongdoing during the war.

The current prime minister considering rewording the Murayama statement to paint a rosier picture of Japan's wartime actions and previous moves to attempt to rewrite the Kono Statement, which admitted Japan's culpability in coercing and kidnapping women and children to work in brothels during the war, has been meet with furore from Japan's neighbors, the international community at large and has been blasted by leading historians whose evidence on such matters remains incontrovertible.

According to one government official, "Concerns may arise over the planned speech by the prime minister being subject to some pressure from the U.S. side concerning its content, such as Japan' s readiness to inherit what is referred to as the 1993 remarks by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono regarding the issue of the so-called comfort women of wartime on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere.

High-ranking politicians and bureaucrats that join Abe on the ultra-right side of politics in Japan have even openly denied the Nanjing Massacre ever occurred, with so-called "testimonies" from former Imperial Army members making the headlines in a series run by a right-wing newspaper, known for its close affiliation with politicians who harbor the same twisted right-wing ideologies.

"On many occasions recently Abe has said that he wants Japan to face history squarely and show remorse for its wartime atrocities so that Japan can move forward and not be stuck in a historical quagmire of its own creating," Muramatsu told Xinhua.

"But Abe has always made his feeling on history clear, and had, earlier in the year vowed to step up his and his government efforts to "fight a mistaken view overseas about Japan's wartime actions."

"What make anyone think that Abe's overall stance towards this has changed? Abe could give the most heartwarming statement on the anniversary of the end of WWII, but nothing will change, it's just semantics," Muramatsu said.

"If people think that this statement will mean that the prime minister will suddenly stop being a historical revisionist, an ultra right-wing conservative and a leader whose sole objectives are ensuring that his legacy is one that sees Japan remilitarized, the military normalized and allowed to operate the world over, including in the seas and air in and around Japan," said Muramatsu.

"Look at all that Abe as achieved for the military recently, with the Constitution soon to be amended and as many as 10 new pieces of legislation passed through parliament to expand the role of the military overseas," he added.

"People who believe this anniversary war speech will somehow magically change the course that Abe has charted for Japan are exactly the kind of people Abe has being manipulating since his second term in office began," Muramatsu said.

He went on to say that obviously the U.S. understands this and have been following the rhetoric versus the militaristic actions of Abe very closely, as have certain factions in Europe, if German leader Angela Merkel's recent visit here and comments are anything to go by, but other countries just seem to be focusing on the rhetoric, assuming that a positive anniversary speech will somehow miraculously forgive Japan's abhorrent history and see it return to a future of pacifism.

This is all too simplistic for Abe, who in times of diplomatic strife tends to, at the last minute, offer an olive branch with one hand, whilst hiding a sabre in the other.

One point in case being what goes on in classrooms in Japan. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has carte blanche to teach what it likes, or to put it more accurately, Abe has carte blanche to tell the MOE what it should be teaching in terms of history and geography.

Abe, however doesn't have such a grip in overseas classrooms, something he is intent on remedying. His attempts to revise the historical record on "comfort women" is just one aspect of a broader agenda and according to recent editorial on the matter, the government has "also set aside more than a half billion dollars for a diplomatic and propaganda offensive to "restore Japan's honor. It recently announced the establishment of "Japan Houses" around the world to promote the country's image and to whitewash past war crimes," it read.

"The first Japan Houses will be set up in London, Los Angeles, and Sao Paulo by the end of 2016, but the plan does not end there. "

"We are half-satisfied. By mobilizing all means, we must strengthen Japan's information strategy so that in a real sense, we can have others "properly" understand what is good about Japan, " said Yoshiaki Harada, a lawmaker with Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Records also show that after following 19 leading American historians blasting efforts by Abe to whitewash historical records by applying pressure on McGraw-Hill publishing company in the U.S., to change textbook passages concerning the Japanese military's terrible abuse of "comfort women" during the 1930s and 1940s, Japan also recently offered 5 million U.S. dollars to Columbia University for a Japan studies position.

It was the first time Tokyo has made such a grant in more than four decades and Kan Kimura of Kobe University said there is a concern that Japan is conceding ground in an information war with some of its neighbors and it must catch up, by spreading its version of history as far overseas as it can.

"This concerted ideological campaign is part of the Abe government's remilitarization of Japan and preparation for war. It is aimed at whipping up patriotic sentiment at home to dragoon a new generation of youth to go off to war, while blunting criticism abroad not only of past crimes, but the Japanese government's current military build-up," the editorial concluded.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Editor:Zhang Yuan,Bianji)

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