Copyright 2006 -2007 All Rights Reserved Charleston C. K. Wang, Esq., Publisher |
Playing with Ghosts of the Asian Holocaust On June 7, 2007, former Taiwanese President, Lee Teng-hui, while in Japan, visited the Yasukuni war shrine and prayed in its inner hall because his brother is listed in the Shinto Book of Souls kept there. As Taiwan was under Japanese occupation from 1895 to 1945, his brother served with the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II, was killed on duty during February 1945 in the Philippines, and is enshrined at Yasukuni. In televised comments, Mr. Lee proclaimed that it was a private affair and asked that his appearance at Yasukuni not be linked with either politics or history. But the fact is that he is a former President of the Republic of China and his politics radically favors an independent Taiwan, separate and distinct from China. In this respect, he will always have his supporters and detractors. Leaving politics aside, there is the greater issue of closing our eyes to history. Beginning in the late 19th century and culminating in defeat in 1945, Japanese imperialism had caused the deaths of tens of millions of civilians and prisoners-of- war throughout Asia with such brutality that these acts are referred to as the Asian Holocaust, or more charitably, Japanese war atrocities. Thousands of those who had played key roles in the atrocities were tried and convicted by Allied war crime tribunals. During the Second World War, Japan was one the Axis powers whose dream of a Fascist new world order cast a dark shadow on humanity across the face of the globe. Their ignominy is an indelible part of modern history. The fact is that while memory of such war crimes in China is particularly bitter (19 million died in the war), atrocities were committed in Asia and the Pacific islands wherever the Japanese military invaded and attempted to secure its conquest. The victims were civilians and military personnel from all over the world. This infamy has caused Japanese politicians to eschew Yasukuni which honors 1068 war criminals of World War II, including 12 top convicts, along with 2.5 million other Japanese war dead. Those Japanese politicians who do visit a memorial tainted with a Fascist legacy are regularly castigated by pubic opinion within their own country and certainly by those in the world who remember. So why would Mr. Lee make such a gesture that many Japanese politicians would think twice of doing? His core motive shall remain known only to himself and to the ghosts of war. The objections of the living can be objectively stated. Mr. Lee at Yasukuni is an affront to the memory of the victims of the Asian Holocaust. Mr. Lee’s presence at Yasukuni is an affront to all humanity who have lost family and friends to the atrocities of that sad period of our history, atrocities which all good people should remember in order they are never again repeated. If Mr. Lee’s true intention is to pay filial respect to his elder brother, in lieu of bowing, praying, and making other obeisance in a foreign shrine, would it not be more fitting for the former head-of-state to request his brother’s symbolic re- interment to a private family resting place in the land where he was born and which Mr. Lee loves so dearly, Taiwan? An Opinion by Charleston C. K. Wang - June 20, 2007. |