In Perspective: Japan

Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

Thursday, 7 June 2007

Surprise G8 compromise

At last G8 leaders have reached an agreement on climate change. Only the US had differing views from the other powers on global warming.

According to an extract from the agreed text published on the G8 website, the leaders agreed to take "strong and early" action.

"Taking into account the scientific knowledge as represented in the recent IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports, global greenhouse gas emissions must stop rising, followed by substantial global emission reductions," the text says.

The American view seemed to switch between "Human-caused global warming isn't happening" and "Oh, that global warming — we don't want to do anything about it". The latter view was recently held by President Bush in his usual policy format of baseless rhetoric.

The disagreement over how to take action against climate change has been an issue since America fought the proposed climate change initiatives earlier last month. In addition to the usual issues, the strained relations between Russia and the West — including the US's hope for missile defense shields in Europe, and Russia's retaliation to such an idea — is also going to be a major factor at the G8 summit.

The Group of Eight developed nations, or G8, includes Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. The summit in its 33rd year is hosted this year by Germany and lasts from 6 June to 8 June. It is one of the major yearly world meetings. This will be the last summit for Britain's Tony Blair (leaving office on 27 June) and Russia's Vladimir Putin. It is the first for newcomers Shinzo Abe of Japan and Nicolas Sarkozy of France. Angela Merkel, the leader of Germany, plays host and tries to mediate hot issues like global warming; Prodi of Italy tries to please his fellow G8 members while keeping his fragile center-left coalition together; George W. Bush isn't well liked and along with Tony Blair will throw light jabs at the provocative Putin. The EU is also represented there. See also the G8 website.

technorati tags: bush, climate+change, global+warming, g8, united+states, politics, international+relations, diplomacy, foreign+affairs,

Friday, 2 March 2007

Japan still denying history

Circa 45 years ago, World War II-era Japan was expanding into what it hoped would be come an empire. The fascist-like military-led government, with the symbolic emperor at the top, was yearning for three things: land, iron ore, and oil. The latter two would allow the Japanese to industrialize more, and land is a commodity everyone wants — hold the radioactive Chernobyl and Yucca Mountain sites.

Japan has been all-too-modest over the WWII atrocities the former regime committed. One notable incident and constant source of tension between Japan and the lands it invaded in the late 1930s and early 1940s is the Nanking Massacre in Nanjing, China. The incident, also known as the Rape of Nanking, occurred when Japanese soldiers slaughtered somewhere between 150,000 and (the more likely) 300,000 civilians and raped tens of thousands of women in late 1937.

Recent controversies include the now-former Japanese Prime Minister visiting a shrine commemorating Japan's soldiers in the Second World War, as well as Japan's denial of incidents in school textbooks, for instance. As a note: the shrine incidents were ruled by a Japanese court as overstepping the bounds of state and religion; and provoked furor from South Korea and China time and time again.

So what has the Japanese government — still under conservative rule — done now to anger neighbors, historian, and most of the rest of us? Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has explicitly denied the Japanese military forced women into sex slavery, even though that directly contradicts and defies historical evidence as well as previous government reports.

"There is no evidence to prove there was coercion, nothing to support it," Abe told reporters Thursday. "So, in respect to this declaration, you have to keep in mind that things have changed greatly."

His remarks came as the U.S. House of Representatives has begun debating a resolution that would call on Tokyo to "apologize for and acknowledge" the military's role in wartime sex slavery.

But at the same time, in keeping a trend to revise Japan's history, a group of conservatives in the governing Liberal Democratic Party is stepping up calls to rescind the 1993 declaration.

That was the declaration by the Japanese government that admitted the sexual slavery and apologized, albeit poorly, to the women.

A nationalist who long led efforts to revise wartime history, Abe softened his tone after becoming prime minister last autumn. In fact, he at first said that he recognized the validity of the declaration, angering his conservative base.
...
Historians contend that about 200,000 women — Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipinos, Japanese, Dutch and Europeans — served in Japanese military brothels. For decades, Japan has denied that its military had been involved.

That denial changed a bit after 1992-3, but, as evident from everything from political statements to school books, Japan has a long way to go in accepting history.

No one not involved is to blame, but it is the government's responsibility to history and the its neighbors — the victims — to fess up to the despicable crimes of the past. In no way should people use negative stereotypes on the Japanese as is still done with Germans, because those same people are just as bad at accepting history than the Holocaust and war-crimes deniers.

How does Abe think siding with the history-denying Japanese far-right will help him? Abe's ratings have been taking a series of hits lately, not least following the row over the health minister calling women "birth-giving machines".

technorati tags: japan, japanese+politics, news, politics, japan, china, south+korea, shinzo+abe, abe, world+war+II, war+crimes, history

Tuesday, 26 December 2006

Happy Christmas (?)

Present to the needy [in the nearly forgotten genocide]:
-— Sudan 'to accept UN Darfur force'.
This is a possible beginning of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur, After so many years, is a bright light finally looming on the horizon for those suffering in the Darfur genocide — that much of the US media has basically ignored? Let's hope this positive step may help.

Present to the world [of foreign policy]:
-— End of the core of the traditional neoconservative movement in the US [for now]. About time!

Present to the deserving and distraught [Palestinians]:
-— Palestinians get a little Christmas present: some of their tax money back from Israel — with one usual hindering caveat.
-— Some good news for West Bank residents.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has announced an easing of restrictions on Palestinians, including dismantling roadblocks in the West Bank.

Present to the global balance (or, rather, imbalance):
-— Iran gets slammed with sanctions by UN Security Council. See, it can happen. Iran got what was coming to it, and the government knew that. Ahmadinejad rejects the sanctions. What else is new?

Present to NYT op-ed/free speech/transparancy/news source haters:
-— CIA redacts parts of New York Times op-ed piece by former government employees. Redacted information was sources available to all (e.g. news articles available online) say the op-ed writers. Interesting, nearly Orwellian news. Just to clarify, the article went through a publishing review process that exists to censor out classified information. In this case the information taken out was seemingly not classified at all. The piece was on Iran and the US policy with Iran. The authors' explanation of the redaction was also published.

National security must be above politics. In a democracy, transparency in government has to be honored and protected. To classify information for reasons other than the safety and security of the United States and its interests is a violation of these principles. It is for this reason that we will continue to press for the release of the article without the material deleted.

Present to the Daniel Denett, Sam Harris, et al of Britain:
-— Religion more bad than good, poll says. perfect news for the holidays.

More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension - greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.
The poll also reveals that non-believers outnumber believers in Britain by almost two to one. It paints a picture of a sceptical nation with massive doubts about the effect religion has on society: 82% of those questioned say they see religion as a cause of division and tension between people. Only 16% disagree. The findings are at odds with attempts by some religious leaders to define the country as one made up of many faith communities.

The UK is much more liberal in a cultural and religious sense than the United States — which has seen an increasing rise in far right-wing religious politics. In the US, about half are religious in the traditional sense and believe in creationism (i.e. the Earth was created by God about 6,000 years ago; men lived alongside dinosaurs; humankind started in an enchanted garden with a talking snake). Also, about one forth of Americans are evangelicals, quite conservative Christians backing the religious right.

Present to death [penalty advocates]:
-— Saddam Hussein to be executed 'within 30 days'. His appeal had failed as expected (see background).
-— Japan executes four on death row; first executions since new prime minster Shinzo Abe took office. ( See this and this post. Correction to previous posts: Japan and US two developed capital punishment countries; US not sole industrialized nation that has capital punishment.)