Josh Ferguson Staff Writer

Cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom in Japan, a sure sign of spring. Watching the tiny buds develop, burst into bloom, and then quietly fall in a gentle breeze makes one acutely aware of the rapid passage of time. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. March 10 was the anniversary of the firebombing of Tokyo, an event that left over 100,000 people dead and over one million people homeless. April 1 marked the anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, a fierce battle that had Japanese forces fighting to the death, leaving approximately 107,539 soldiers and civilians dead. But the more infamous anniversaries are still to come: Aug. 6 and 9, the days when the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

While studying abroad in Japan this semester, I have had the opportunity to visit some of the numerous Peace Museums that exist throughout the nation. These museums serve to remind the Japanese people of the atrocities of war. At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, I had the privilege of hearing Yamaoka Michiko, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, speak about her experience that day.

The scene Michiko described was horrifying. She talked of how people, their clothes burned to ashes, their flesh melted from their bones, crawled towards the rivers of Hiroshima, desperate for a drink of water. Many died before they made it. Those who did would take one final sip of water. The rivers soon became clogged with corpses. She spoke of how beautiful the fireball created by the bomb was, casting a blue-white light upon the city before reducing it to ashes. She talked about her friends who survived the initial bombing, only to later develop horrible illnesses due to the massive dose of radiation they received from the bomb. People who seemed fine would begin to vomit blood, then die.

In discussing Japan as a victim of the horrors of war, we must not forget the atrocities committed by its army during and prior to World War II. During this period, Japan waged a bloody aggressive war against its neighbors, leaving over 20 million people dead. In the Chinese city of Nanjing, over 200,000 people were killed and over 20,000 women were brutally raped by the Japanese army. Through Asia, women were forced into sexual slavery, becoming “comfort women” for the Japanese army. Within the Japanese army, Unit 731 infected Chinese and Korean captives with various biological agents before conducting unaesthetized vivisections on the victims, which revealed the effects of the agents on internal organs.

While Japan is eager to assume the role of victim of the war, it shies away from taking responsibility for the war crimes committed by its own troops. Japanese schoolchildren see films such as Osaka: Sea of Flames, which graphically portrays the firebombing of the city of Osaka in the waning days of World War II. But their history textbooks make little mention of the war crimes committed by Japanese troops. What little information is included is under fire. Recently, Senior Vice Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura criticized the government's history textbook screening guideline that requires historical accounts take into consideration the sensibilities of Japan's neighbors, calling the guideline “masochistic.” Shimomura said that by 2006, textbooks must be compiled “in a proper manner.” The guideline on history textbooks was put into place in 1982 after China and South Korea heavily criticized the Japanese government for approving textbooks that characterized Japanese aggression during World War II as an “advance.” The refusal of Japan to take responsibility for its wartime atrocities is not limited to omissions in its textbooks. At the Osaka Peace Museum, which has a floor dedicated to examining Japanese war crimes in Asia, speakers who deny the massacre at Nanjing ever occurred are invited to give lectures. And Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi makes yearly visits to Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class-A war criminals are enshrined, enraging China and South Korea. The shrine’s website refers to these war criminals as those “who were cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces.”

By failing to fully acknowledge the war crimes in its past, Japan strains its already tense relationships with its neighbors, and is prevented the from taking on a leadership role in the region and in the world. The South Korean government has indicated that it will attempt to block Japan’s bid to win permanent membership on the U.N. Security Council, citing Japan’s “lack of reflection on the past.” In China, over 22 million people have signed an online petition aimed at preventing Japan from obtaining a permanent Security Council seat. Such is the dilemma of modern Japan. While it strives to become a leader of the future, its failure to fully examine its history keeps it tied to the past.