Japan should be repentant and liable

Japan must be liable for its wartime crimes against peace and humanity, no matter how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe deny the historical truth and evidence, an article carried by Wednesday's China Daily said. It's the third consecutive signed article publicized by the newspaper this week to criticize Abe. Japan's war crimes are beyond dispute, read the article by Bu Ping, a researcher with the Institute of Modern History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. But Abe has become unparalleled in making headlines for its abject denials of the history, according to Bu. Abe has more than once come under fire because of his controversial comments, one of which was his remark that the definition of "aggression" has yet to be established in the international community or academia. His militarist actions, from posing inside a jet emblazoned with the number "731", a reminder of the imperial Japanese army's notorious Unit 731 that conducted horrific human experiments during World War II, to his year-end visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine that honors 14 Class-A war criminals, have also been widely condemned, the author wrote . Abe has gone further down the revisionist path, claiming that the Tokyo Trials were merely "victor's justice" and the Japanese wartime leaders charged with Class-A war crimes are "not war criminals under Japan's laws," Bu said. During the Tokyo Trials (1946-48), groups of major political and military leaders in Japan were indicted on 55 counts of "crimes against peace", "conventional war crimes" and "crimes against humanity", wrote Bu. Though most of the court battles centered on substantiating the crimes against peace charges, Japan's use of forced labor and the so-called "comfort women", and its illegal use of chemical or biological weapons are all crimes against humanity that were overlooked in postwar trials and should be re-examined today, Bu said. He said, in a 1998 report on the issue of "comfort women," the United Nation's Special Rapporteur Gay J. McDougall concluded, "Japanese Government's arguments to the contrary, including arguments that seek to attack the underlying humanitarian law prohibition of enslavement and rape, remain as unpersuasive today as they were when they were first raised before the Nuremberg tribunal more than 50 years ago." Despite all the evidence, including first-hand testimonies and the condemnation of the international community, Abe publicly declared that there was "no evidence" that women had been coerced into sexual slavery when he first became prime minister in 2006. "Now, in office for the second time, Abe has said he intends to review the 1993 Kono Statement, which expresses remorse to former 'comfort women'," Bu was quoted as saying. Abe's rhetoric denial of Japan's war crimes against humanity and its liabilities, and his relentless efforts to revise the Constitution and rearm Japan, have dragged Japan into an abyss of disgrace, said Bu. A real danger to the international community as well as Japan looms large as Abe's words and acts mirror those of war-time politicians of militarist Japan, Bu warned. Abe has visited India, the Middle East and Africa this year. While this may have succeeded in increasing business opportunities for his country, he has not won any sympathy or repaired the damage he has caused to Japan's image in the international community with his denials-of-the-truth posturing. He never will unless he truly repents, Bu concluded.