Japan's War Memories

This covers Japan's history from the time of the occupation on through the 1990's. One of the interesting statements right off by the author is this: 'American amnesia towards Japanese war criminals is staggering.' Very few of the Japanese who actually were responsible for atrocities were actually ever tried by the U.S. Britain and Russia took more of an active interest in that than did the U.S.

It lists the rules that the SCAP set up, and they seem very reasonable.

1. No false reports or any threatening public security. (Considering how many lies the Japanese people had been told by their own government during the war, this one isn't surprising at all.)

2. Restrictions of freedom of expression were to be kept to a minimum, and debate on Japan's future was okay as long as it didn't threaten Japan taking its peaceful place among nations.

3. No discussion on the activities of the occupation forces, other than official announcements, and no false or subversion criticism or rumors regarding allied countries. (This again seems pretty reasonable.)

4. Broadcast news and commentary to be restricted to Tokyo Broadcasting Station. Other stations had to carry entertainment.

5. Any publications or broadcasting stations that make false reports or threaten public security will be suspended or closed.

There were a couple of stronger measures undertaken, and that was abolishing state Shinto, and having the Emperor admit he wasn't divine.

Neither the extreme Japanese right nor the extreme left is satisfied with the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.

Of the 28 indicted as class A war criminals, 7 were executed. The author points out that the U.S. omitted the men responsible for Unit 731. A later chapter looks into this more deeply. Another thing that is discussed at length are the various textbook controversies in Japan about how Japan textbooks tended to gloss over Japan's role in the war. The author also later examines the role of historical revisionists in Japan, especially in the 90's.

The Emperor considered that the two causes of the war were racism and oil.

There is also a section devoted to the Nanking massacre denial. He examines their objections to the traditional view of the massacre.

This is a good book for its time (1998). Matters haven't changed much since then, either, since there are still textbook controversies, still controversy over the Nanking massacre, etc. About the only really new thing is the spate of war movies coming out of Japan and their view of the war.

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page