Judges dismiss Japan WWII libel

[Cullyn]

Judges dismiss Japan WWII libel
Japanese judges have thrown out a libel case against Nobel prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe, who was accused of lying about the country's war time past.

Mr Oe's book Okinawa Notes claims that the Japanese military ordered hundreds of civilians to commit suicide as US troops advanced during World War II.

A retired army officer and another man said the military never gave the order, but the court dismissed their claim.

Analysts say the ruling vindicates Mr Oe's views on Okinawa's history.

'Deeply involved'

The legal battle pitted two retired officers - including one who thought he recognised himself in the book - against Japan's best-known living author.

The claimants had wanted the book banned and claimed 20m yen ($200,000; £100,000) in compensation.

Judge Toshimasa Fukami did not rule on whether the military ordered the mass suicides, but he concluded: "The former Imperial Japanese Army was deeply involved in the mass suicides."

The ruling gives legal weight to the notion that the Japanese army coerced Okinawans into killing themselves when it became evident that the Japan's most southern outposts were about to fall to American troops.

The judge noted that Japanese officers handed grenades to the locals, and that the suicides - possibly as many as 1,000 - occurred only on islands where army posts were located.

Right-wing nationalists have long been locked in an ideological battle with left-wing intellectuals like Mr Oe, whom they see as unpatriotic muckrakers.

The government last year sought to tone down references to mass suicides in history textbooks - although the move was rescinded after tens of thousands of Okinawans took to the streets to protest.

Mr Oe won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7318560.stm

Published: 2008/03/28 12:31:35 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

This verdict is very good for the truth and for history, but still Japan really needs to own up fully to its crimes in WW2

 

[Swedishguy]

So, who do you think is right?

 

[Sharwood]

Double Post

 

[Sharwood]

This verdict is very good for the truth and for history, but still Japan really needs to own up fully to its crimes in WW2

One thing that truly disturbs me is Japan's continued insistence that there was no such thing as "comfort women" - Chinese and Korean women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Army. There's also quite a bit of revisionist history about the Rape of Nanking.

 

[aronnax]

Yeah, It also has yet to admit to the SookChing massacre it did in Singapore

 

[Sharwood]

Yeah, It also has yet to admit to the SookChing massacre it did in Singapore

Not to mention that every Japanese PM routinely visits a war memorial that includes convicted war criminals.

 

[QuoVadisNation]

I'm surprised that they have libel rules for the nation itself. Do their politicans also have the same protection? Just shows how different the same laws operate I guess.

Although..

The government last year sought to tone down references to mass suicides in history textbooks - although the move was rescinded after tens of thousands of Okinawans took to the streets to protest.

Ten of thousands of Okinawans can't be wrong?

 

[cybrxkhan]

at least this is one small step. i am glad to know that at least some Japanese are willing to admit their country's wrongdoings.

 

[Cullyn]

So, who do you think is right?

All war is a crime, ALL war. In saying that, some war is justifiable. Japan were out and out aggressors in WW2 (regardless of weather you think the USA or UK knew about Pearl harbour). It was Japan, who invaded South & East Asia and there acts while there are clearly recorded and accepted by everyone except the Japanese.

The deniers in Japan are wrong, those you do not learn form history are doomed to repeat it.

 

[Elrohir]

So, who do you think is right?

I think it's pretty clear that Japan was involved in some pretty messed up stuff in World War 2. Mass suicides certainly fits, and seems to be borne out by the evidence. (No one disputes Kamikazes, or that the Japanese didn't often differentiate strongly between military and civilian targets)

 

[Cutlass]

My worst grievance against Japan (and my father was a Navy survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack and 15 other Pacific war battles) is that they have never had the honor to own up to what they did both to start the war and what they did during it.

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

My worst grievance against Japan (and my father was a Navy survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack and 15 other Pacific war battles) is that they have never had the honor to own up to what they did both to start the war and what they did during it.

Agreed. And their persistence in that does poison me a bit against the whole country.

 

[Trajan12]

Even Germans haven't acted as petty as they act over there. They just went on an odd little censoring streak and moved on.

 

[Patroklos]

The blame agains Japan aside, if this author did falsley attirbute words/actions to this specific Army officer in error, he should be forced to change his work.

 

[boarder]

The Japs where worse then animals during ww2.
They need to admit exactly how bad they where.

 

[Gecko1]

The Japs (that is not an offensive term) need to ask for forgivness for their war crimes in Asia. Not Pearl Harbor though, that was fair game.

The Americans need to console in the A-bomb strikes and the bombing of Dresden.

The French need to stop being idiots and learn how to fight a war.

The Germans can stop crying now, they've been good war criminals and sucked up like never before in history.

The Americans also need to return a good amount of Japanese women .

 

[Sharwood]

The Japs (that is not an offensive term) need to ask for forgivness for their war crimes in Asia. Not Pearl Harbor though, that was fair game.

The Americans need to console in the A-bomb strikes and the bombing of Dresden.

The French need to stop being idiots and learn how to fight a war.

The Germans can stop crying now, they've been good war criminals and sucked up like never before in history.

The Americans also need to return a good amount of Japanese women .

Agreed about Japan.

I've actually read that for the amount of time America was in Europe, they committed more war crimes than Germany. That's impressive, in a not so impressive way. I've also met a few Pacific Islanders that survived the war who told me the only difference between the Japanese and the Americans was that the Japanese fed them better. Some of them were begging the Dutch and French to come back, or Australia to take over.

The French knew how to fight a war, it was the idiots in charge who didn't. If Charles De Gaulle's plans had of been followed, rather than that traitor Petain, France mightn't have been defeated. Notice I said mightn't. It's still entirely possible De Gaulle and Reynaud wouldn't have been able to hold out in Brittany, but they always had North Africa.

Except for the ones still hanging on in the Mid-East and South America, yup. Most of them have croaked though, Mengele included.

Forget returning them, bring them here! I'll be happy to take them off America's hands.

 

[Patroklos]

The Americans need to console in the A-bomb strikes and the bombing of Dresden.

The Americans didn't do Dresden.

 

[Yui108]

I've also met a few Pacific Islanders that survived the war who told me the only difference between the Japanese and the Americans was that the Japanese fed them better. Some of them were begging the Dutch and French to come back, or Australia to take over.

.

I hate to say this but I have to disagree. The Japanese used slave labor, starvation and propaganda. Also the Americans hardly occupied most of the islands, and if they had a grudge against the U.S. it was most likely due to the bombing we used against Japanese troops.

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

I've actually read that for the amount of time America was in Europe, they committed more war crimes than Germany. That's impressive, in a not so impressive way.

I'd be curious to hear which revisionist nutjob wrote this nonsense. The entire eastern front was one massive atrocity, war crimes by the bushel, I don't even need to mention the Holocaust and that'd already dwarf anything that occurred on the Western front. How exactly could anything America did actually compare?

I've also met a few Pacific Islanders that survived the war who told me the only difference between the Japanese and the Americans was that the Japanese fed them better. Some of them were begging the Dutch and French to come back, or Australia to take over.

I'd be curious to hear which islands we're talking about. The Japanese were as notorious for their treatment of 'natives' as they were for PoW's. And half the time they couldn't even feed their own 'island garrison' troops, so I don't know how their 'lowly subjects' fared any better on that front.