By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

TOKYO, Japan – The Defense Minister of Japan dismissed the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Toshio Tamogami, after he wrote an essay asserting Japan was not an aggressor in WWII.

In his essay, which had the theme of “true views of modern history,” Tamogami wrote: “Even now, there are many people who think that our country’s ‘aggression’ caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War.  But we need to realize that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.”

Tamogami went on to say that Japan’s military action in China in the early 1900’s was based on treaties, and that the Korean peninsula had been “prosperous and safe” under Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule.  He also contended that Japan was drawn into the war by President Franklin D Roosevelt because Roosevelt had been manipulated by the Comintern, an international communist organization founded in Moscow. Tamogami wrote, “Roosevelt had become president on his public pledge not to go to war, so in order to start a war between the United States and Japan, it had to appear that Japan took the first shot,” he wrote.

In a news conference, Yasukazu Hamada, the Defense Minister, said, “It is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him.  What he said was inappropriate for an air chief of staff.”  He should not remain in the job.” The quick dismissal is seen as an attempt to stop critical remarks from China, South Korea, and other Asian nations that have reacted angrily to past denials of Japan’s wartime past.

In the 1990’s, Japan officially apologized for its wartime past and acknowledged its aggression in Asia.  Recently, however, national politicians belonging to the right wing of the Liberal Democratic Party began a campaign to revise Japan’s wartime history.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Japan Air Force Chief Faces Sack – 31 October 2008

Japan Times – ASDF Chief Justifies the War, is Axed – 1 November 2008

The New York Times – Japan Fires General Who Said U.S. ‘Trap’ Led to Pearl Harbor Attack – 31 October 2008