Testimony of former "Comfort Women"

This video contains stunning interviews of Chinese women who suffered at the hands of the invading Japanese army during WWII. The right wingers in Japan have consistently denied these charges and the so called Rape of Nanking.

Japan warns North Korea against launch - International Herald Tribune

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International Herald Tribune

Japan on Friday condemned North Korea's plan to launch a rocket, warning that it was legally entitled to shoot down any threatening object that falls toward its territory.
North Korea told global agencies this past week that it would put a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and April 8, using a rocket that will fly over Japan and the Pacific. The announcement unsettled neighboring countries that consider the launching a cover for testing the North's Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile. Washington, Seoul and Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of the United Nations all urged Pyongyang on Thursday to cancel its plans.
On Friday, Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan said: "They can call it a satellite or whatever, but it would be a violation" of a UN resolution. In 2006, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution banning Pyongyang from nuclear tests and ballistic missile activities after the Communist state detonated its first nuclear device. "Under our law, we can intercept any object if it is falling towards Japan, including any attacks on Japan, for our safety," the Japanese government's chief spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, said Friday.
If the North Korean rocket launching is successful, it will not fall toward Japan but rather fly over it. North Korea has said that it would consider any attempt to intercept its rocket "an act of war" and that it would attack the interceptors. Kawamura's remarks reflected Japan's growing anxiety over North Korea's missile capabilities. In 1998, North Korea launched its Taepodong-1 missile, which flew over Japan, although North Korea insisted at the time that this was another satellite launching.
This week, North Korea gave map coordinates for two danger zones where its rocket's spent boosters might fall. One lies in waters less than 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, from Japan's northwestern shore. The other lies in the middle of the Pacific between Japan and Hawaii.
It was unclear from Kawamura's comment whether Japan would attempt to shoot down a jettisoned rocket booster if it falls toward its territory. Japan, which has been developing a missile defense system with the United States, has said it is ready to shoot down an incoming missile.
International Herald Tribune Copyright © 2009 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

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Japan warns North Korea against launch - International Herald Tribune

Image via Wikipedia

International Herald Tribune

Japan on Friday condemned North Korea's plan to launch a rocket, warning that it was legally entitled to shoot down any threatening object that falls toward its territory.
North Korea told global agencies this past week that it would put a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and April 8, using a rocket that will fly over Japan and the Pacific. The announcement unsettled neighboring countries that consider the launching a cover for testing the North's Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile. Washington, Seoul and Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of the United Nations all urged Pyongyang on Thursday to cancel its plans.
On Friday, Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan said: "They can call it a satellite or whatever, but it would be a violation" of a UN resolution. In 2006, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution banning Pyongyang from nuclear tests and ballistic missile activities after the Communist state detonated its first nuclear device. "Under our law, we can intercept any object if it is falling towards Japan, including any attacks on Japan, for our safety," the Japanese government's chief spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, said Friday.
If the North Korean rocket launching is successful, it will not fall toward Japan but rather fly over it. North Korea has said that it would consider any attempt to intercept its rocket "an act of war" and that it would attack the interceptors. Kawamura's remarks reflected Japan's growing anxiety over North Korea's missile capabilities. In 1998, North Korea launched its Taepodong-1 missile, which flew over Japan, although North Korea insisted at the time that this was another satellite launching.
This week, North Korea gave map coordinates for two danger zones where its rocket's spent boosters might fall. One lies in waters less than 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, from Japan's northwestern shore. The other lies in the middle of the Pacific between Japan and Hawaii.
It was unclear from Kawamura's comment whether Japan would attempt to shoot down a jettisoned rocket booster if it falls toward its territory. Japan, which has been developing a missile defense system with the United States, has said it is ready to shoot down an incoming missile.
International Herald Tribune Copyright © 2009 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

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The great game of hunting pirates

Asia Times Online

Sea piracy off the coast of Somalia is looming large on the radar of world opinion. The recent hijacking of the oil tanker Sirius Star - a supertanker big enough to hold a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily production (2 million barrels) - has dramatically highlighted the expanding dimensions of the problem. The barely functioning government of Somalia is unable to curb the pirates who sail from its ports and seize cargo ships that ply past.
The pirates on board the Sirius Star have issued a US$25 million ransom demand, and warned of "disastrous" consequences if the money is not paid.
[..]Therefore, there is no question that the problem of piracy is also to be addressed ashore in Somalia. But, problems often enough, lend themselves to solution if only soldiers and geostrategists would step aside for a while. That is, at least, the expert opinion of Katie Stuhldreher. Writing in the Christian Science Monitor recently, she put forth a three-way approach to the Somalia problem. One, the international community should appreciate that the piracy in Somalia has its origin among disgruntled fishermen who had to compete with illegal poaching by foreign commercial vessels in its tuna-rich coastal waters.
This unequal fight created a local impoverished population. Resentment was also caused among the coastal population over the shameless dumping of wastes in Somali waters by foreign ships. The disgruntled local fishermen, who lost out, soon organized to attack foreign fishing vessels and demand compensation. Their campaign succeeded and prompted many young men to "hang up their fishing nets in favor of AK-47s".
Stuhldreher suggested, "Making the coastal areas lucrative for local fishermen again could encourage pirates to return to legitimate livelihoods." Therefore, she wrote, "A fishery protection force will eliminate the pirates' source of legitimacy." This could be done under the auspices of the UN or African Union or a "coalition of the willing".
Most important, "An international force sent to protect local industry will achieve the same goal as warships but in a more acceptable way. The principal reason piracy thrives along Somalia's coast is that there is no coastal authority to protect these waters. Armed foreign ships will still serve to fill that vacuum and deter attacks, but with the explicit mission of serving Somalia's people - the very people who have chalked up enough reasons to dislike foreign military interventions and are likely to view the presence of warships as intimidation."
But, will there be any takers for "nation-building" in Africa among the US, NATO and European member countries, Russia or India? Highly unlikely. Ideally, the international community should also commence a reconciliation process involving the residual elements of the ICU. In retrospect, like in Afghanistan in the case with the Taliban, a proper understanding of Islamism would help appreciate the worth of the ICU in stabilizing Somalia.
On the contrary, under the broad rubric of the fight against sea piracy, what we are witnessing is an entirely different template of maritime activity by the interventionist powers. The US has established a separate Africa Command in the Pentagon. NATO and the EU have stepped out of the European theater and entered the Indian Ocean area. Russia is seeking a reopening of its Soviet-era naval base in Aden. India has sought and obtained berthing facilities for its warships in Oman, which is an unprecedented move to establish a permanent naval presence in the Persian Gulf. The Indian Ocean is becoming a new theater in the Great Game. It seems a matter of time before China appears.
China of course is not a newcomer to the Indian Ocean. In 1405, during the reign of Emperor Yung-lo of the Ming Dynasty, a celebrated Chinese naval commander Ching-Ho visited Ceylon (presently known as Sri Lanka) bearing incense to offer at the renowned shrine of the Buddha in the hill town of Kandy. But he was waylaid by Sinhalese King Wijayo Bahu VI, and he escaped to his ships. To seek revenge, China dispatched Ching-Ho a few years later. He captured the Sinhalese king and his family and took them away as prisoners. But on seeing the prisoners, the Chinese emperor out of compassion ordered them to be sent back on the condition that the "wisest of the family should be chosen king". The new king, Sri Prakrama Bahu, was given a seal of investiture and made a vassal of the Chinese emperor. That was how Ceylon remained until 1448, paying an annual tribute to China.
Admiral Mehta has a worthy example in front of him, provided he can coax his reluctant country to flex its muscles in Africa for the first time in its ancient history. His best argument would be that unless he took an early lead, Ching-Ho might reappear in the Indian Ocean. But then there is an inherent risk insofar as the pirates who disappeared into the mist on Tuesday evening might also return looking for the INS Tabar.
Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

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Controversial hardliner set to replace Japanese PM

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guardian.co.uk

Taro Aso, one of the most controversial figures in Japanese politics, has emerged as the favourite to replace Yasuo Fukuda, less than 24 hours after the prime minister announced his surprise resignation.
While Aso stopped short of officially announcing his candidacy, the 67-year-old hawk made no secret of his ambitions.
"Mr Fukuda said last night that he wanted a successor to take over what he has done," he told reporters today. "I believe I am qualified to take over [his] agenda."
[..]While Fukuda was criticised for lacking charisma, Aso has stoked controversy with a succession of ill-judged outbursts, often directed at Japan's former wartime victims.
In 2003 he upset Koreans when he praised Japan's often brutal colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910-1945; last year he suggested that US diplomats in the Middle East would never be trusted to solve the region's problems because they had "blue eyes and blond hair".
As economics minister, he said he wanted to turn Japan into a country where "rich Jews" would want to live.
During the second world war, his father's mining company used Allied POWs as slave labourers. Aso joined the firm in 1966 and was president for most of the 1970s, but has refused to apologise for its past use of forced labour.
He did apologise, however, for an ill-judged remark about Alzheimer's sufferers, but created uproar again last month when he likened the opposition to the Nazis because of their obstructionist tactics in parliament.
He wants class-A war criminals "delisted" from Yasukuni, a shrine in Tokyo that honours Japan's war dead, thereby removing the biggest obstacle to members of the imperial family resuming their annual visits.
Aso's privileged background, and charges that he is out of touch with ordinary Japanese, may explain his gaffe-strewn past.
[..]Aso's hard-line stance against China and North Korea has secured him bete-noire status among Japan's neighbours, but his conservative populism plays well at home. A poll published yesterday put his personal approval rating at 26%, well ahead of Fukuda (5%) and Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the biggest opposition party, the Democratic party of Japan (DPJ) on 8%.

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A Shifting Balence of Power in the Asian Pacific

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The Chinese decision to deny US ships access to Hong Kong harbor marks a significant shift in the balence of power in the South China Sea. At the same time, Chinese ships have ported in Tokyo harbor for the first time. While largely symbolic, the meaning of these events should not be underestimated.
PINR

[..]On November 20, two navy minesweepers, the USS Patriot and USS Guardian, were performing routine patrol missions in the South China Sea when a weather storm descended upon them. Both ships were also running low on fuel. They sent an emergency request to Chinese authorities to dock at Hong Kong in order to weather the storm and refuel. The request was denied. The two ships were forced to stay out at sea.


Another incident centers around a U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk. The Kitty Hawk and the five support vessels that travel with her were scheduled to dock in Hong Kong on November 21, one day before Thanksgiving. The arrangements for this port call had been worked out well in advance, and the Chinese authorities had granted approval. As the USS Kitty Hawk approached port, Chinese authorities radioed to indicate that the approval had been revoked. In order to salvage some part of the holiday, the USS Kitty Hawk turned and sailed for Japan, where approval would be certain. Some time later, Chinese authorities radioed again to say that approval had been re-granted. Yet, by this time, the Kitty Hawk was well on her way to Japan and could not afford to turn back.


On the same day, two other events transpired. Chinese authorities sent a communiqué to the U.S. Department of the Navy to inform them that the pending request for the USS Reuben James to dock in Hong Kong on New Year's Day had been denied.


[..]Regarding the balance of power, the events of the last week are a clear indication that a change is occurring in East Asia. Expressed in the simplest terms, the U.S. Navy is losing the ability to dock in Chinese controlled territories while the Chinese navy is gaining the ability to dock in Japanese territories. The frontier of the American sphere of influence is regressing, while the frontier of the Chinese sphere of influence is growing outward.


At a deeper level of analysis the change in the balance of power is even more evident. The USS Kitty Hawk is considered a significant vessel by the Chinese. The ship provided indispensible support to the campaign in Afghanistan, to which China, along with other member states in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, has taken a clear stance of active disapproval. To the Chinese government, the USS Kitty Hawk is symbolic of Washington's role in Afghanistan and presence in Central Asia.


The USS Kitty Hawk is also symbolic of another long standing disagreement. In 1994, the Kitty Hawk was instrumental in putting down tensions between Taiwan and the mainland. Ever since 1998, the Kitty Hawk has been the flagship in U.S. efforts to maintain peace across the straits. As a result, to the Chinese government the USS Kitty Hawk is also symbolic of Washington's extended deterrence for Taiwan.


Given that the Kitty Hawk symbolizes Washington's presence and dominance in China's backyard, the rejection of the Kitty Hawk and concurrent expedition to Japan must be viewed as changes in the balance of power in East Asia. The extent and consequences of these changes are unclear at the present time. However, if these questions are to be understood in the future, the answers will most likely be gleamed from analysis of events in Taiwan, Japan and the Spratley Islands. If the spheres of influence are indeed shifting, any repercussions will be evident in these domains, which are situated at the threshold of the two spheres.

Ill Will Rising Between China and Japan

Conflict between Japan and China is heating up. Japan has not been listening to China's concerns about their increasing nationalism and suppression of the truth about Japanese atrocities in history books. Frankly, I don't think either countries government is behaving responsibly. Instead, they are stoking nationalist fires that they may lose control over.
New York Times

Japanese lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution that plays down this country's militarist policies in World War II, less than two weeks before ceremonies take place across Asia marking the 60th anniversary of the war's end on Aug. 15.


Though expressing "regret" for the wartime past, the resolution omitted the references to "invasion" and "colonial rule" that were in the version passed on the 50th anniversary.

[...]
Both governments are encouraging nationalism for their own political purposes: China to shore up loyalty as Marxist ideology fades, Japan to overcome long-held taboos against expanding its military. With the impending 60th anniversary, both are trying to forge a future on their version of the past.


In Japan, major newspapers have published articles defending the Class A war criminals convicted by the postwar Tokyo Trials, and a growing number of textbooks whitewash Japan's wartime conduct. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi makes annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine, where war dead including Class A war criminals are enshrined.


In China, a new television series called "Hero City" tells of how cities across China "fought bravely against Japan under the leadership of the Communist Party." In Beijing on Aug. 13, six former Chinese airmen from the Flying Tigers squadron are to recreate an air duel with Japanese fighters.


"On the one hand we have a victim's mentality, and on the other we don't see this much smaller country as being worthy of comparison with us," said Pang Zhongying, a professor of international relations at Nankai University in the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin. "The reality is that they must accept the idea of China as a rising military power, and we must accept the idea of Japan becoming a normal nation, whether we like it or not."


To Japanese conservatives, becoming a normal nation amounts to a revision of the American-imposed peace Constitution that they feel castrated - a term they use deliberately and frequently - their country. Arguing that Japan must draw closer to the United States, Mr. Koizumi's government has reinterpreted the Constitution to allow Japanese troops in Iraq and has reversed a longtime ban on the export of arms to join the American missile defense shield. Recent polls show an increasing percentage of Japanese favoring a revision of the Constitution.


The conservative news media have helped demonize China, as well as North Korea, to soften popular resistance to remilitarization. Sankei Shimbun, the country's most conservative daily, recently ran a series about China called "The Threatening Superpower."

Who Has The Worst Historical Record Of Human Rights - China or Japan

Here is a very interesting article by an ethnic Chinese about the current conflict between China and Japan.
Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: China's Selective Memory" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/opinion/28pu.html?th&emc=th">The New York Times: China's Selective Memory

If truth be told, however, China and Japan have much in common. China shares many of Japan's flaws and has yet to master some of its important strengths. We Chinese are outraged by Japan's World War II crimes - the forcing of Chinese into sexual slavery as "comfort women," the 1937 massacre of unarmed civilians in Nanking, and the experiments in biological warfare. Our indignation redoubles when the Japanese distort or paper over this record in their museums and their textbooks. But if we look honestly at ourselves - at the massacres and invasions strewn through Chinese history, or just at the suppression of protesters in recent times - and if we compare the behavior of the Japanese military with that of our own soldiers, there is not much to distinguish China from Japan.

Japan and China pledged to improve ties

International > Asia Pacific > China and Japan Leaders Pledge to Improve Relations" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/international/asia/24china.html?ex=1271995200&en=6983371ed79a1a40&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss">The New York Times > China and Japan Leaders Pledge to Improve Relations

The leaders of Japan and China pledged to improve ties Saturday after weeks of escalating disputes, easing tension but not resolving some critical problems besieging relations between East Asia's big powers. After a 55-minute meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit conference here, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan said both sides had agreed to look beyond disagreements and focus on the future.


But speaking at a separate news conference, China's top leader, Hu Jintao, sounded less optimistic, saying that Japan needed to reflect on its past and warning Tokyo not to meddle in its internal affairs by supporting Taiwan.


With both sides sending out olive branches in recent days, they appeared to soften their positions on some of the most contentious points. Mr. Koizumi did not insist on an apology or compensation for anti-Japanese vandalism in China, as Japanese diplomats had earlier. Mr. Hu did not directly demand that Mr. Koizumi stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are enshrined among Japan's war dead, as he had in their previous meeting, in November.

Koizumi made a public apology for Japan's excesses during the war, the first in a decade. Then tn this meeting that sounded more like business as usual and a way for the Chinese to discourage further demonstrations, Koizumi and Hu publicly shook hands.
But Hu's comments after the press conference and the absense of any references to Japan's new history books and Koizumi's tributes the shrine that includes war criminals speaks loudly that the basic problems have not been resolved, just put aside to maintain the mutually beneficial business relationship.
Whenever politics call for public participation in the conflict, the complaints will renew. China can't afford to be too belicose while it remains behind in military power.

The Rape of Nanjing Drives China's Protests

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

At one level, I can understand the anger of the Chinese. Japan did horrible things to the Chinese in WWII. They raped and pillaged for 14 years. Now Japan, which has always soft petalled its imperial history, further softened their history books for the next generation of children. I don't understand why a country would want to change its history unless it wanted to manipulate the people. I suspect Japanese leaders want to rebuild its military in response to China's saber rattling. This is indeed a wise course. But since WWII, the people of Japan have been largely pacifistic.
But I fail to understand why any country would manipulate its people when it can educate quite forcefully from the bully pulpit. I have the same issue with the Bush Administration.
Nanjing Massacre

The Chinese call it a war crime. The Japanese describe it as an 'incident' in their new history books. David McNeill reports from Tokyo on how the Nanjing massacre still haunts an uneasy relationship.
[...]
Japanese troops poured into the wartime capital city of Nanjing on 13 December 1937, after suffering heavy casualties in Shanghai. They then began a six-week orgy of medieval raping, killing and looting, carrying out what the United Human Rights Council called "the single worst atrocity during the World War Two era in either the European or Pacific theatres of war".

An American eyewitness, Minnie Vautrin, who kept a diary, wrote on 16 December 1937: "There probably is no crime that has not been committed in this city today." Witnesses said soldiers practised with bayonets on tied-up prisoners, burnt others alive and set dogs on children. Pregnant women were raped and bayoneted, decapitated heads were put on spikes or waved around like trophies, hundreds of unarmed civilians were mown down with machine guns and dumped in rivers and open graves.

Tillman Durdin, the New York Times reporter who called the rape of Nanjing "one of the great atrocities of modern times", described a car journey to the city's river front. "The car just had to drive over these dead bodies. And the scene on the river front, as I waited for the launch ... was of a group of smoking, chattering Japanese officers overseeing the massacring of a battalion of Chinese captured troops."
[...]
The best-known account, by the Chinese-American author Iris Chang, who committed suicide earlier this year and who said she "felt rage" and suffered nightmares during her research, claims more than 300,000 Chinese died and at least 20,000 women were raped. Her 1997 book, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, was the target of a vitriolic campaign by neo-nationalists in Japan who said it was full of lies and exaggerations.

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China Is Pushing and Scripting Anti-Japanese Protests

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952)
The New York Times > China Is Pushing and Scripting Anti-Japanese Protests

China has tapped a deep strain of nationalism among its people, gambling, analysts say, that it can propel itself to a leadership role in Asia while cloaking its move for power in the guise of wounded pride and popular will.

But the government also seems to have taken steps to control - some say manipulate - a nascent protest movement to prevent a grass-roots challenge to the governing Communist Party.

In the last few weeks, relations between Asia's two leading powers have reached their most serious crisis since diplomatic ties were re-established in 1972. China has confronted Japan over newly revised history textbooks that gloss over wartime abuses. It stepped up its claim to disputed islands and undersea gas reserves between the countries.

China took Japan and the United States to task for declaring that they would jointly defend Taiwan in case of an attack from the mainland.

After weeks of hints, Chinese leaders said outright on Wednesday that Japan did not have the moral qualifications to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. That effectively thwarted Japan's ambition to attain that status as part of an overhaul plan this year.

The steps have proved immensely popular at home. But stirring up patriotic sentiment to unite the country carries big risks, because party officials fear nothing more than unscripted political activity. Furthermore, they depend heavily on the good will of the major foreign powers to keep investment flowing and the economy humming.

This is very scary stuff. Truly, the Japanese and the Chinese are playing with fire. The Japanese change their history books so the people are less inclined to oppose an active military force.
The Chinese remember their past in WWII. But have they forgotten what history has told us over and over? Stirring up a war fever seems to lead inevitably to war. I suspect there is a power struggle going on behind the scenes in China. President Hu Jintao was named China's top military chief on March 13th, 2005 telling the Chinese military to "prepare for war". He seems determined to turn the Chinese people away from the desire for freedom towards nationalism. He continues a trend of actions that suggest the inner circle of leadership in China is very concerned about internal turmoil in the rural areas and in the cities.
However, if China leaders realize their worry, and find control of the demonstrations is lost, the war fever will have to be squelched. Its likely that little short of war will diffuse the anger. China could face a ominous choice either risk a civil war or plan a war of retribution against Japan.

Japan's Revisionist History

The escalation of tensions in the South China Sea is reaching a boil. Japan is in the process of shaking off its history. Unfortunately, rather than integrating the knowledge acquired from their past they are chosing to remove it from their history books.
This is very scary to me. Japan is a country with a history of belief in its genetic superiority. The rest of the peoples of east and southeast Asia were slaughtered whenever convenient as Japan built its empire during World War II. China and Korea have not forgotten. Indeed, the leadership of China has adopted an aggressive posture towards Japan and has been stoking a war fever in it's people while it builds up its war machine and prepares it's political and military leadership for war. Most of its sabre rattling has been at Taiwan, but with a US/Japan alliance in defense of Taiwan, they recognize their adversaries and allies. North Korea will do China's bidding. And now South Korea, may well its old foe Japan as a more palitable enemy than an ally in the upstart Taiwan with two HUGE armies to the north. Certainly all these countries know the US cannot protect Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
Japan's Revisionist History

The United States, ever quick to criticize China for human rights abuses, has of late been remarkably silent about Japan's ethical lapses, current and historical. Japanese politicians and publishers have made a cottage industry of denying the 1937 Nanking Massacre in which the Japanese killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in the old Chinese capital. This is an offense to Chinese sensibilities comparable with Holocaust denial in Europe. In recent months, major publishers and broadcasters have been bullied to conform and self-censor in accord with the rising tide of resurgent militarism. That tacit government approval is given to such xenophobic, right-wing thinking can be seen in the latest Ministry of Education-approved school texts that erase or evade critical lessons drawn from Japan's bad behavior in its war of aggression.


In the "New History Textbook," the Nanking Massacre is dismissed as a controversial "incident." And the war of invasion is no longer termed an invasion. New textbooks drop references to "comfort women," sex slaves of mostly Chinese and Korean origin who were forced to service Japanese fighting men in the field. To borrow a phrase from the late writer Iris Chang, the abused women are being raped a second time, this time by defenders of the Japanese army who attempt to erase them from memory.

Anti-Japan Fury Spreads Through China's Streets

Fueled by anger over unfinished historical business, an anti-Japanese wave continued rippling across China on Sunday, a stone-throwing, flag-burning rampage that shows the grip old grievances and violence still hold over Asia's greatest powers. Japan called in China's ambassador in Tokyo to demand an apology and compensation for vandalism against Japanese targets in several Chinese cities. But the widening anger of the Chinese street against Japan, which most observers say has arisen with the tacit consent of Beijing, represents a collision of nationalist forces in both countries.


Fury has been building in China as well as in South Korea since last week, when Tokyo approved new junior high history textbooks that soften previous descriptions of Japan's wartime brutality across Asia. Both countries complain that Japan is methodically recanting admissions of guilt for crimes committed during its imperial conquests of the first half of the 20th century. "For some reason, the Japanese just can't seem to stop themselves from picking at all these historical scabs," said a senior Western diplomat who has served in Seoul and Tokyo and who requested anonymity. "They don't grasp how deeply this stuff wounds the Koreans."


The debate in the Japanese media has focused more on the anti-Japanese backlash than on the forces that triggered it. Newspapers and magazines have matched the hardening national mood in recent years, with the powerful conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper calling Seoul's complaints "interference in the internal affairs of Japan." Observers note that many Japanese believe that the Chinese and South Korean governments are merely stoking public animosity to divert attention from their own political problems.


"Japanese people and the Japanese media talk only about the reaction of the Koreans and Chinese," said Takesato Watanabe, author of a just-published book on Japan's media called "A Public Betrayed." "We need the historical facts about how these issues are born in the first place if we are ever going to settle anything peacefully in Asia."


The first casualty of the furor may be Japan's bid for a U.N. Security Council seat. Tokyo is the second-largest contributor to the U.N. after Washington, and has allied itself with Germany, India and Brazil, the other rising regional powers, in pushing for permanent status on the world body's inner council.

Doublethink Dubya Doubletalks to Asian Allies

Incredibly, the Bush Whitehouse is caught in another lie to "allies". Before his administation is over, he'll have effectively changed the definition of an "ally" of the US. Did he really think the truth would not come out? Does he simply not understand the consequences of routinely lying to US allies? Or does he simply not care what anyone thinks and will do or say anything to accomplish his agenda?
I do think Bush and his cronies will do or say anything to accomplish his agenda, consequences be damned. In the Bush Whitehouse, the ends always justify the means. The pragmatic problem is that no one in the Whitehouse can seem to see beyond four years and the next election campaign.
U.S. Misled Allies About Nuclear Export

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction.

Pakistan's role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to cover up the part played by Washington's partner in the hunt for Al Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In addition, a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to the U.S. allies, which have known of such transfers for years and viewed them as a business matter between sovereign states.

Japan vs China, Is North Korea the Wild Card?

Japan-China tensions rise over tiny islands | csmonitor.com

In a sign of deepening popular and political animosity between China and Japan, Tokyo took formal possession this week of a tiny archipelago in the Pacific waters south of Japan. In the early morning of Feb. 9, Tokyo informed Beijing's embassy here that the Senkaku Islands would be administered by the Japanese coast guard.


The unexpectedly bold action by Tokyo received little attention here. But it is seen as a "serious chess move," says one diplomat, in a region where power relations are being redefined, and where tensions over energy, borders, military buildups, and ethnic rivalries are palpable. In Asia, drawing clear lines around territories that may hold oil and gas, is rare; Japan's move takes place amid a dispute with China over what constitutes legitimate zones of energy exploration in open seas.

Things seem to be heating up in the Asia Pacific. Japan is making aggressive moves against an increasingly belligerent China. In addition to seizing the disputed islands much closer to Taiwan than Japan, Japan is on a long range military build-up.
China meantime has been stirring up a war fever among its people about mistreatment from the Japanese during WWII. Meanwhile on their southwestern flank, Inda is a booming nuclear power that also sees China as a threat.
China would seem to need some friends in their neighborhood. Russia and China will be engaging in unprecedented military manuvers. Russia is another traditional rival of Japan. North Korea has been another traditional ally of China. While it seems clear that China would not want to rescue North Korea in another military adventure, they could use North Korea's aggressiveness and apparent unpredictability in their favor. China has the West apparently convinced that they will reign in their incorrigible neighbor:

North Korea's Fearmongering | csmonitor.com China can't afford to let Japan react and go nuclear, or further push the US to set up a missile-defense shield. If Beijing really believes the North has the bomb, it will act now.

Frankly I don't believe world events will persuade a security obcessed US from backing off a missile shield. And whether Japan goes nuclear or not, they are clearly under the US nuclear umbrella. The threat is the same one way or another.
Why would China give up a wildcard? They might calm the situation just to stoke the fire when its in their interest. I see no benefit to China that might induce them to stop North Korea from joining the nuclear club. If Japan and China ever do come to blows, North Korea's invasion of the South would necessarily limit the US ability to come to the aid of Japan. All of this is many years off. First China has to counter the US dominance of the skies.

Japan Beginning a 10 Year Plus Military Build-up

Japan is getting ready for a major military build-up in anticipation of China becoming the major military power in East Asia in coming years. They've begun moving troops from the northern islands where they kept an eye on Russia to their southern island where they worry about Chinese incursions into disputed islands. China has claimed all of the South China Sea to the continental shelf. That is well beyond Japan's claim to the halfway between the two coasts. China's claims extend to very close to Okinawa and Japan's claims get very close to Taiwan. Meanwhile, both countries are drilling for natural gas along the Japanese claimed line, well inside the China line. See map. This can't be good for cordial relationships. Both countries are already diplomatically protesting the other's drilling in the area. This combine with the war fever being stirred up by the Chinese government doesn't bode well for a calm China Sea.

 

Sino-Japanese 'cold war' stirs new tensions
Simon Tisdall | January 18,

The Guardian -  When Nobutaka Machimura, Japan's foreign minister, asked Israel to halt weapons sales to Japan's neighbours at the weekend, there was little doubt which particular neighbour he had in mind. And when Japan's defence ministry recently drew up contingency plans to deploy 55,000 troops in the event of an invasion of disputed islands off southern Japan, there was no question who the most likely invader would be. While the world watches China's rapid rise towards superpower status with awe, Japan, China's old enemy, watches with foreboding.

[Agonist, here and here.]