When Foreign Minister Taro Aso visited Australia recently, did
he know that the father of the Australian foreign minister,
Alexander Downer, had been a Japanese prisoner of war in the
notorious Changi jail in Singapore? And if Alexander Downer Sr. had
been sent to a certain camp in Kyushu, as some 200 other Australian
POWs were, he might have become a slave laborer in the Aso family
coal mine. Aso was in Australia for security talks with his
American and Australian counterparts.
Japan's history problem is also with other U.S. allies such as
Australia and Singapore. And Aso has special problems, since his
family has never acknowledged what it did, let alone offered
restitution. The Aso family coal mine enslaved 197 Australian, 101
British and two Dutch POWs. And there were 10,000 Koreans there as
well, treated appallingly. If readers wish to see a photograph of
Fukuoka POW Branch Camp No 26 at Keisen, which serviced the Aso
Kogyo Co.'s Yoshikuma mine, it can be found on the Internet.
Like Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, Aso also has visited
Yasukuni Shrine, which served as a spiritual apparatus for Japan's
war mobilization. At the Yushukan there, renovated in 2002, sits
one of the engines of the Thai-Burma railway. That is an insult to
every Australian.
The death rate among Australians captured by the Japanese was about
30 percent, in comparison with about 2 percent for those captured
by Nazi Germany. And in the litany of atrocities inflicted on
Australian POWs, the Thai-Burma Railway is almost as notorious as
the Sandakan death march of 2,400 Australian prisoners in Sandakan,
Borneo, only six survived (because they escaped). None of the 750
British prisoners survived. And one of the Australian victims at
Sandakan was the uncle of Paul Keating, Australian prime minister
from 1992 to 1996.
Moreover, it is not only Australians who should be outraged by the
presence of that engine at Yasukuni. There were more than 600
Americans enslaved on the Thai-Burma railway. They were mostly
survivors of the USS Houston, sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea in
February 1942, and an artillery battalion of the Texas National
Guard that had been captured in Java.
That might be of considerable interest to the current American
ambassador to Japan, who is from Texas. Perhaps Ambassador Tom
Schieffer should spend a few hours at Yasukuni with a
translator/interpreter. The Yushukan preaches that Japan was "lured
into war" by the United States. And that America imposed "victor's
justice" on Japan in 1945. So how can the U.S. hope to build a
"normal alliance," of the kind it has with Britain and Australia,
if Japan turns to leaders who subscribe to such views?
But in Australia, a rising generation is reading about the Pacific
War. For example, a spate of new books has been published on the
Kokoda Track, in which raw Australian conscripts fought the cream
of the Imperial Japanese Army in New Guinea. So a new generation is
reading about the atrocities inflicted on Australian soldiers and
civilians, including children and missionaries. Yet at Yasukuni,
there is a memorial to the "brave Japanese soldiers" who fought "to
the north of Australia."
Aso and Abe are both contenders to succeed Koizumi, although Abe is
much more likely to win. But if either becomes prime minister, and
continues to visit Yasukuni, he should not be surprised if Japan
starts to have a big "history problem" with Australia. The Cold War
is over. Australians no longer need to turn a blind eye to the fact
that Japan has, unlike Germany, proved unable to settle the issues
of World War II. So the LDP should think very carefully indeed when
it decides on Koizumi's successor.
Robyn Lim is professor of International Relations at Nanzan
University Nagoya and is a former Australian intelligence
analyst.
The Japan Times: Wednesday, May 17, 2006