Occupation is the only way to force Japan to sit down and set the record straight. When war breaks out, it would be the a lot of asian countries against Japan. I don’t know if US would join japan to take on the entire asian continent.

>>>These countries aren’t the only ones whose women were taken to brothels to be used as sex toys by Japanese military personnel.  Prime Minister Abe should take a trip to Manila, Philippines and try to shout out his claim from the rooftops there.  Let’s see how long his shouting would go unchallenged—NOT!<<<

I whole heartedly agree.

I’m interested in why the denials? Is there some agenda among the Japanese hierarchy? These type of stories do come up from time to time from Japan.

Is the past is so ugly they wish to disown it? Really, it’s more a story how militarism corrupts human decency. A lesson all countries could learn from.

“China and Korea should settle this score with japan once and for all.”—-> These countries aren’t the only ones whose women were taken to brothels to be used as sex toys by Japanese military personnel.  Prime Minister Abe should take a trip to Manila, Philippines and try to shout out his claim from the rooftops there.  Let’s see how long his shouting would go unchallenged—NOT!

You just gotta wonder what the heck causes “leaders” to make such a patently absurd and viciously ignorant thing?  He’s got nothing else to do with his Prime Minister powers than this?  What a jerk.

This should not be so surprising.  The Japanese public, in general, choses to deliberately bury the past remaining ignorant of their role in the war.  A query of your average Japanese citizen regarding the war will reveal the following:  The war happened and Japan lost.  No more. 

The Japanese educational system provides no further exploration than that.  They focus much more on the prior “glorious” history of Japan and the extraordinary post-War Reconstruction.  They do not teach or discuss issues like pre-war Japanese militarism, the Japanese role in China, the extraordinary brutality meted out toward the conquered peoples, or even the Japanese direct causation of the war.

It is shocking that such an educated people can deliberately avoid their history.  Not even the post-war Germans were able to do this.

As to the prior comment, “revision” in this context = rewiting history to a more palatable version.  It has nothing to do with intellectual honesty or preserving the truth.  The old USSR and modern Chinese of course being the masters of such “revisionist” history.

The forced sex slaves are well documented. To deny japanese crime against humanity is downright barbarous.

China and Korea should settle this score with japan once and for all.

Japan’s history during and after WWII is complex and still obscured by denial and secrecy.

It is known that many war criminals were allowed to escape punishment—sometimes with U.S. cooperation.

Americans who were on the scene during this time period and had special insight were the Japanese-American men of the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service—the “MIS.”

The MIS participated not only in the battles in the Pacific, but also the occupation of Japan. Since the MIS was a top secret operation, MIS men are discreet even today.

However, they are an important part of the story of the investigations into war crimes and reorganization of Japan’s government, military and society after the war.

For more on this, the article below may be of interest:

“Eastwood, Spielberg have one more angle to cover in Iwo Jima films”

Steve Hammons
American Chronicle
February 23, 2007

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=21191

For some reason the label “revisionist” has developed negative connotations in popular north american culture with respect to historical methodology.  This is unfortunate since proper historical method is essentially revisionist.  When new evidence about some past event comes to light, it is perfectly reasonable to revise one’s historical account accordingly.  I’m not defending the prime minister necessarily, but I’m tired of seeing “revisionism” given a bad name by political rhetoric.