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Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Saturday November 1 2008 00.01 GMT
US President Franklin Roosevelt -accused by Japan's air force chief Toshio Tamogami of having drawn Japan into the war. Photograph: Corbis
The chief of staff of Japan's air force is to be sacked after he claimed the country had been drawn into the second world war by the US and denied it had been an aggressor during its occupations of the Asian mainland.
In an online essay entitled Was Japan an Aggressor Nation? General Toshio Tamogami yesterday claimed that Japan had been provoked by the then US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, and that many of Japan's wartime victims took "a positive view" of its actions.
The claims drew a swift rebuke from politicians. The defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said he would dismiss the general immediately. "I think it is improper of the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view that clearly differs from the that of the government," he told reporters. "It is inappropriate for him to remain in this position."
The prime minister, Taro Aso, a nationalist who has upset Japan's neighbours with ill-judged comments about the war, described Tamogami's views as "inappropriate, even if they were made in a personal capacity".
In the essay, which is likely to spark outrage in China and South Korea, 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 Great East Asia War." Japanese nationalists use the term the Great East Asia War to support their view that Japan entered the conflict to free Asian countries from western colonialism.
"But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the [war]. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor," he wrote.
He said the Korean peninsula had been "prosperous and safe" under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation and that Roosevelt had "trapped" Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour in December 1941. He went on to accuse Roosevelt of being a puppet of the Comintern, the international communist movement founded in Moscow in 1919.
Tamogami, who did not seek the defence ministry's permission to submit the essay, called for Japan to reclaim its "glorious history". He said: "A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline."
He shares the view of many neo-nationalists that the Allied war crimes tribunals - which sent several Japanese leaders to the gallows - were a farce.
But it was his description of Japan as victim rather than aggressor that made his position untenable.
Japanese leaders, regardless of their personal views, have repeated an official apology to the country's wartime victims issued by the then prime minister, Tomiichi Murayama, in 1995. Aso, too, has said he will stand by Murayama's apology.
Though an outspoken critic of China's military spending, Aso has attempted to continue the thaw in relations between Tokyo and Beijing.
Nov 1, 2008
Air force chief had written essay denying Japan was aggressor
TOKYO: Japan's air force chief was sacked yesterday for writing an essay in which he denied the country was an aggressor in World War II, a stance likely to anger its Asian neighbours.
General Toshio Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan's Air Self-Defence Force, had made the comments in an essay which won the top award in an inaugural contest aimed at describing 'true views of modern history'.
Photo: General Tamogami's essay won the top prize in a contest.
'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,' said the English-language version of the essay.
'But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War,' it said. 'In Thailand, Burma, India, Singapore and Indonesia, the Japan that fought the Greater East Asia War is held in high esteem.
'It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.'
The Greater East Asia War was a term used by Japan to describe the conflict in the Asia-Pacific theatre, emphasising that it involved Asian nations seeking independence from the Western powers.
The essay, entitled Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?, was posted on the website of a Japanese hotel chain which organised the contest.
Japanese media feared it could provoke antipathy from China, the two Koreas and other Asian nations which still have searing memories of Japan's aggression and colonial rule.
Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the general's views ran counter to the government's position on Japan's role in World War II, for which it had apologised to people in countries that came under Japanese colonial rule.
'What he said was inappropriate for an air chief of staff. He should not remain in the job,' he told a news conference.
In 1995, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama had issued a statement apologising for Japan's past aggression and colonial rule in Asia.
Current Prime Minister Taro Aso also has conservative views on history but pledged on taking office in September not to upset other nations.
Despite its officially pacifist position, Japan has often come under fire for its perceptions of its wartime past, with neighbours closely watching for any sign of a militarist revival.
China suspended top-level exchanges during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi, who paid homage each year at Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, which honours the Japanese war dead, including top World War II leaders.
Gen Tamogami, who at 60 belongs to Japan's post-war baby boomer generation, had stirred controversy in April when he defended a Japanese airlift operation in Iraq which was ruled unconstitutional by a provincial court.
He also rejected the verdicts of an Allied tribunal which convicted Japanese wartime leaders as war criminals after Tokyo's defeat in 1945.
Last Updated:
8:50PM GMT 31 Oct 2008
Japan's defence minister has dismissed his air force chief for claiming that the country was not an "aggressor" in the Second World War and was trapped into entering the conflict by the United States.
General Toshio Tamogami's essay, posted on the website of a Japanese hotel and apartment developer, was expected to spark anger in China and South Korea, where memories of Japan's wartime acts and colonisation run deep.
Beijing and Seoul say Tokyo has failed to properly atone for its invasion of the Korean peninsula, Taiwan and parts of China.
"His views are different from the government's. It is not desirable for him to stay in the job," Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters soon after the essay was made public.
In the essay, titled "Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?" Tamogami said it was "certainly a false accusation" to say Japan was "an aggressor nation" during the Second World War.
"The current Chinese government obstinately insists that there was a 'Japanese invasion,' but Japan obtained its interests in the Chinese mainland legally under international law through the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and so on, and it placed its troops there based on treaties in order to protect those interests," he wrote.
He also claimed life under Japanese occupation was "very moderate" and cited a rise in the population on the Korean peninsula during Japan's 1910-1945 occupation as "proof that Korea under Japanese rule was also prosperous and safe."
Gen Tamogami also claimed that Japan was tricked into attacking Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, by US President Franklin D Roosevelt.
Japan was "snared in a trap that was very carefully laid by the United States in order to draw Japan into a war," he 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. Japan was caught in Roosevelt's trap and carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor," he wrote.
Gen Tamogami ended his essay by saying Japan should reclaim its glorious history and warning that a country that denies its own history is destined to fall.
Japan renounced its right to wage war in its 1947 US-drafted constitution, and Tokyo has repeatedly expressed remorse to its neighbours for its colonial rule and wartime aggression, including in a 1995 statement by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the war.
But Japan has struggled to convince Asian critics - and victims - of its contrition because of a strong nationalist presence in the Japanese government. Last year, a group of nationalist lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party angered China by saying the generally accepted death toll in the "Rape of Nanking" massacre was grossly inflated.
Gen Tamogami's essay won a writing competition organized by a hotel and condominium developer, Apa Group, which published the prize-winning article on Friday.
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk,
Friday October 31 2008 17.13 GMT
The chief of staff of Japan's air force is to be sacked after he claimed the country had been drawn into the second world war by the US and denied it had been an aggressor during its occupations of the Asian mainland.
In an essay entitled "Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?" General Toshio Tamogami claimed that Japan had been provoked by the then US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, and that many of Japan's wartime victims took "a positive view" of its actions.
The claims, made today in an online essay, drew a swift rebuke from senior politicians.
The defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said he would dismiss the general immediately. "I think it is improper of the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view that clearly differs from the that of the government," he told reporters.
"It is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him."
The prime minister, Taro Aso, a nationalist who has upset Japan's neighbours with ill-judged comments about the war, described Tamogami's views as "inappropriate, even if they were made in a personal capacity".
In the essay, which is likely to spark outrage in China and South Korea, Tamogami wrote: "Even now there are many people who think that out country's aggression caused unbearable suffering to the country's of Asia during the Great East Asia War," he said.
Japanese nationalists use the term the Great East Asia War to support their view that Japan entered the conflict to free Asian countries from western colonialism.
"But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the [war]. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor."
Tamogami, who took up the post in March 2007, called for Japan to reclaim its "glorious history". He said: "A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline."
He said the Korean peninsula had been "prosperous and safe" under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation and that Roosevelt had "trapped" Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour in December 1941. He went on to accuse the then US leader of being a puppet of the Comintern, the international communist movement founded in Moscow in 1919.
Tamogami, who did not seek the defence ministry's permission to submit the essay, also shares the view of many neo-nationalists that the Allied war crimes tribunals - which sent several Japanese leaders to the gallows for war crimes - were a farce.
But it was his description of Japan as victim, rather than aggressor, that made his position untenable.
Japanese leaders, regardless of their personal views, have repeated an official apology to the country's wartime victims issued by the then prime minister, Tomiichi Murayama, in 1995. Aso, too, has said he will stand by Murayama's apology.
Though an outspoken critic of China's military spending, Aso has attempted to continue the thaw in relations between Tokyo and Beijing since taking office in September.
Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:30am EDT
By Yoko Kubota
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's defense minister said on Friday he will sack the air force chief of staff for saying that Japan was ensnared into World War Two by the United States and was not an aggressor in the conflict in Asia.
General Toshio Tamogami's essay, posted on the website of a Japanese hotel and apartment developer, was expected to rouse anger in China and South Korea, where memories of Japan's wartime acts and colonization run deep.
"I think it is improper as the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view clearly different from that of the government's," Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told a group of reporters.
"Therefore, it is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him."
Japan expressed remorse for its war-time actions in 1995, following it up with another apology a decade later.
Kyodo News Agency quoted Prime Minister Taro Aso as also saying that the essay, in which the air force general denied Japan was ever the aggressor in China, was inappropriate.
Disputes over wartime history often fray ties with Beijing and Seoul, although relations with China especially have warmed in the past two years as both sides seek to put priority on deepening trade and investment.
"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," Tamogami wrote in the essay.
"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," he said.
The English and Japanese language versions of the essay were posted on hotel and apartment developer Apa Group's website (http://www.apa.co.jp_report/index.html).
APOLOGY
Similar views are shared by some right-wing Japanese scholars and politicians. But successive Japanese governments, including Aso's, have backed a landmark government apology to people in countries, particularly in Asia, that suffered under Japan's colonial rule and aggression.
While Aso is known as an outspoken nationalist, he has been expected to take a pragmatic view on the relationship with China. Just last week, the leaders of the two countries met in Beijing and agreed to set up a hotline to deepen trust.
Hamada said by acting swiftly against the general, the Japanese government had made clear it did not share his views which he said could stir controversy in Asian nations.
Tamogami said in the essay that Japan's military actions in China were based on treaties, and that the Korean peninsula under Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule "was prosperous and safe."
He argued that Japan was drawn into World War Two by then U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he said was being manipulated by the Comintern, the international communist organization founded in Moscow in 1919.
Tamogami also rejected the verdicts of an Allied tribunal which convicted Japanese wartime leaders as war criminals after Tokyo's defeat in 1945.
(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Page last updated at 15:48 GMT, Friday, 31 October 2008
The head of the Japanese air force is to be sacked after saying the country was not an aggressor in World War II, Japan's defence minister said.
Yasukazu Hamada said Gen Toshio Tamogami's views, written in an essay, ran counter to the government's position on the war.
"Therefore it is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him," he said.
The general's views are likely to anger many of Japan's neighbours.
China, North and South Korea and other Asian nations still have traumatic memories of Japan's aggression and colonial rule.
Japan expressed remorse for its wartime actions in 1995, and then gave another apology 10 years later.
Acting swiftly
Mr Hamada said that by acting swiftly against the general, the Japanese government was making it clear that it did not share his views which, he said, could stir controversy in Asian nations.
"What he said was inappropriate for an air chief of staff," Mr Hamada told a news conference.
"He should not remain in the job."
Gen Tamogami, 60, is chief of staff of Japan's Air Self-Defence Force.
Ships burn in attack on Pearl Harbor
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought the US into World War II
In his essay on the theme of "true views of modern history", he 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 realise 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."
World War II in the Asia-Pacific region is referred to as the Greater East Asia War by those who saw it as Asian nations seeking independence from Western powers.
Gen Tamogami said that Japan's military action in China in the early 20th century was based on treaties, and that the Korean peninsula had been "prosperous and safe" under Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule.
He also argued that Japan was drawn into World War II by then US President Franklin D Roosevelt.
He said Roosevelt had been manipulated by the Comintern, the international communist organisation founded in Moscow in 1919.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is also known for his conservative views on history, said the general's viewpoint was inappropriate "even if he expressed it personally".
After its defeat in World War II, Japan renounced the right to wage war. It calls its military the Self-Defence Forces.
However, correspondents say that despite its pacifist position, Japan's neighbours are closely watching for any sign of a militarist revival.
By Natasha Lee and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, November 1, 2008
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Okinawa police Wednesday questioned the American pilot of a U.S. government-owned Cessna that made an emergency landing Oct. 24 in a sugar cane field in Nago, Okinawa prefectural police said Thursday.
The incident left the pilot injured and caused a temporary power outage to about 700 homes in the Makiya district in Nago, said police, who believe the plane was low on fuel when it struck an electrical cable and landed in the field, catching fire.
The small plane — carrying the pilot and three other Americans — belongs to the Kadena Air Base Aero Club, which serves as a flight training center and offers recreational island flight tours.
In an e-mail statement Tuesday to Stars and Stripes, the 18th Wing said "Aircraft assigned to Kadena Aero Club have been suspended to fly following Oct. 24." Kadena Air Base officials did not say when the aircraft could resume flying.
Kadena officials did not respond to a Stars and Stripes request Thursday for an update in the incident. Police interviewed the pilot Wednesday at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa on Camp Lester, where he has been hospitalized since being transported from Hokubu Hospital in Nago shortly after the accident, an Okinawa police spokesman said. The pilot, 45, suffered injuries to his left ankle and cuts to his chin, the spokesman said.
Previous accounts of the accident indicated the pilot had been treated at the Japanese hospital and released.
The spokesman said the interview lasted five hours but declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation. Okinawa police are trying to determine whether the pilot could face charges of negligence but said they have been limited by the U.S. military in their investigation. Kadena officials have not responded to requests by the Okinawa police to interview the three passengers, the spokesman said.
Japanese media reported the four Americans are airmen with the 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron; Okinawa police released the ages of the passengers as 30, 28 and 24.
Following an on-site inspection of the damaged aircraft Oct. 25, the Air Force recovered the plane, preventing Okinawa police from securing it as evidence.
The plane was headed to Kadena Air Base from Amami Island. Okinawa police have said they would like to determine if the single-engine plane has a flight recorder to verify whether the pilot radioed to Kadena air traffic control about a fuel shortage. The status of forces agreement, however, stipulates the military has control of its property.
Nago Mayor Yoshikazu Shimabukuro is urging the Japanese and U.S. governments to revise the status of forces agreement. He filed a complaint Tuesday with Lt. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer, Okinawa area coordinator and commander of Marine Corps Bases Japan, asking the military to release the cause of the accident.
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
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