This feature article covers a lot of ground. It is basically letting rip on some thermes brought up by a conference at the Simon Wisenthal conference center in L.A..It includes eyewitness testimony as an example of the evidence revealed by veterans confessing to horrific atrocities committed in China in the 1930s and 1940s. Ic features a short but telling interview with Sheldon Harris California State University’ Professor Emeritus of History, as to the vast scale of bacteriological research, on human victims- 10-12000 "exterminated in lab experiments" (said Harris), on the effective American cover-up, the return of documents to Japan, and the subsequent system of denial.
The satellite conference by the Simon Wisentahl center in L.A. which sparked this article at every stasge revealed evidence of the Japanese Government’s continued complicity in concealing ths information.. One veteran testifying maintained " it is not cultural, but political, if the government apologises, it would acknowledge guilt, and would incur a huge payment burden for compensation" . it details the swarm of war guilt claims and swarm of litigation, And refers to the notorious denials by key ministers and the press. Chalmers Johnson, of the Japan Policy Research Institute, notes that a generation of Americans of Chinese ancestry", is a factor in the pressure to reveal the truth, and the changing roles of America and its allies allow a reappraisal that considers more than economic support and strategic necessities..
If I could anything to this detailed and overall superb article it would be this analogy to illustrate the futility of an image of Japan as a peace-seeker who will not even acknowledge the crimes of those of its countrymen who went to war is bizarre. Just consider a South Africa which turned its back on apartheid, declaring that no oppression against blacks had amounted to crime, no review need take place, no discussion of the events need occur, and you get the picture. Sure there are millions who want peace, but there is no point confusing a state of peaceful people and a state that can truly BRING peace.. But so long as the chest lays locked shut the state’s complicity in this means its condition is contingent, its commitment to understanding zero. © TR 17th/10/ 98
© Teal Ray... (with acknowledgement to Steve Hartley, Uzbekistan and the camels for inspiration)...