Sign a Petition Against the Revisionist History that Glorifies Japan's WWII aggression
K.F.
Say NO to ‘Revisionist History’ that glorifies Japan’s WWII aggression and war crimes! STOP Prime Minister Abe from miseducating Japan’s children #TruthTodayPeaceTomorrow
Please sign here and help us meet our goal of 20,000 signatures by sharing this petition: https://www.change.org/p/say-no-to-revisionist-history-that-glorifies-japan-s-wwii-aggression-stop-prime-minister-abe-from-miseducating-japan-s-children-truthtodaypeacetomorrow
Thank you,
Kei Fischer,
Eclipse Rising
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Say NO to ‘Revisionist History’ that glorifies Japan’s WWII aggression and war crimes! STOP Prime Minister Abe from miseducating Japan’s children #TruthTodayPeaceTomorrow
We, friends and families of peace-loving people of Japan, are increasingly alarmed by the Abe Administration’s understanding of Japan’s wartime role during WWII, which stands in diametric opposition to that widely accepted by the rest of the world. The Abe Administration justifies Japan’s invasion and colonization, and either ignores or trivializes systematic crimes Japan committed against people of other countries along the way.
In recent years, we all have heard the controversial news of Japan’s prominent leaders visiting the Yasukuni Shrine. The Yasukuni Shrine is not just a shrine that happens to enshrine the very leaders that plunged Japan into the Asia Pacific War (Class A War Criminals) and into an alliance with fascist dictatorships of Italy and Nazi Germany as a member nation of the Axis Powers. It is an institution that unabashedly represents views of those who romanticize Japan’s war of aggression as a “Holy War” that sought to ‘liberate Asia for Asians,’ and refuses to admit Japan’s responsibility in Japan’s numerous atrocities including, for instance, the Nanjing Massacre (‘the Rape of Nanking’). The repeated visits by Prime Minister Abe and his cabinet members to the Yasukuni Shrine strongly suggest the Administration aligns with such views.
In fact, Prime Minister Abe claims that the ‘Class A War Criminals’ enshrined are merely “those who were judged in the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal*,” and therefore, “are not criminals at all, according to domestic law.”**
In addition, Abe co-signed a public opinion ad in the November 4, 2012, issue of The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s daily newspaper, which sought to ‘educate’ misguided Americans with the ‘facts’ and explicitly denied Japan’s responsibility of the systematic sexual enslavement of tens of hundreds of women known as “Comfort Women.”
Imagine for a moment, how offensive and unforgivable it would be if the German government today took on the position of officially denying the very history of genocide by the Nazi regime. Such a thing would be unimaginable as is repugnant.
At present, the Abe Administration is aware of the global scrutiny under which its own historical revisionist stance is placed; thus, it has been careful in evading any further international attention on this matter. Instead, the Administration has been advancing a clandestine strategy behind the scenes: to fundamentally alter the purpose of public education in Japan, so it can systematically promulgate its own understanding of Japan’s wartime history through Japan’s school system. Throwing an unprecedented shroud of secrecy over what otherwise would have been routine procedures of approving textbook curricula guidelines, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEXT) is implementing Abe Administration’s vision for Japan’s schools: to instruct children in the ideological and political doctrine of Imperial Japan, rather than to prepare them to live in, and lead, a democracy.
This is nothing short of a complete reversion to the very role of education in wartime Imperial Japan that actively groomed its own boys to enthusiastically become Japan’s ‘holy’ live ammunition (e.g., Kamikaze fighters).
If we don’t do what we can to prevent textbooks designed to promulgate fictional, whitewashed version of Japan’s wartime history, like one espoused by the Abe Administration, the revisionist perspective of history could become that of an entire nation of peoples — the Japanese society as a whole. In fact, the revisionist perspectives are no longer just marginal, they are a dominant force in Japan, as The New York Times alarmingly points out in its editorial “Whitewashing History in Japan” on December 04, 2014. This is all the more reason the international support is critical.
We believe education should prepare Japan’s children to lead Japan towards peace and harmony in the region, by holding their own country accountable to our collective vision: peace and justice for all peoples and nations. Protecting Japan’s children from being sucked into the emerging ‘war machine’ is what this petition seeks to support; after all, that is the only way to ensure Japan’s history of wartime atrocities will never be repeated in their generation.
All signatures from around the world will be consolidated and submitted to the Japanese government by the grassroots community leadership of this global petition campaign, "Ehime Citizens Group to Support the Ehime Textbook Trials" by end of March 2015.
Thank you for your solidarity!
This petition is endorsed by (as of Jan 10, 2015):
East Point Peace Academy
Ecumenical Peace Institute/Clergy and Laity Concerned -- Northern California
Fukushima Response
Japan Multicultural Relief Fund
Japan Pacific Resource Network
Kaohsiung Awakening Association
Japan-US Feminist Network for Decolonization
Newman Nonviolent Peacemaking Group/Fr. Bill O'Donnell Social Justice Committee, San Francisco Bay Area
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
Nipponzan Myohoji Bainbridge Island Sangha
NoNukes Action
Peace Development Fund
PEACEWORKERS, San Francisco, CA
School of Unity and Liberation
Sloths Against Nuclear State
Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation
Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine
United Public Workers For Action (UPWA)
Veterans for Peace, East Bay, Chapter 162
——————- footnote ——
*International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMFTE)
**
In “Towards a Beautiful Nation,” author Shinzo Abe states, “‘Class A
War Criminal’ refers merely to the people who were tried and judged in
the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMFTE), [commonly
known as] the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals, according to the concepts such
as “crime against peace” and “crime against humanity” that were
developed after the war.” Therefore, he argues, “they are not criminals,
according to Japan’s domestic law.”
This is a petition launched globally by the “Ehime Citizens Group to Support the Ehime Textbook Trials” — contact: Etsuo Okumura, at gf742bpjye...@mopera.net
Check out this petition in Japanese here: http://kyoukasyosaiban.web.fc2.com/1/j2.pdf
Go to change.org in Korean and find our petition there!
Translation in Chinese and other languages coming soon.
Contact us: Eclips...@gmail.com