HARBIN, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) — In late autumn, members of a Japanese delegation stood with solemn expressions in prolonged silence at an exhibition corridor presenting proof of crimes dedicated by the infamous organic warfare division Unit 731 of invading Japanese troops throughout World War II.
In latest days, the Japanese civil-society delegation visited the exhibition corridor and former websites of Unit 731 in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. During the go to, the delegation took the chance to trade views with Chinese specialists and students.
The delegation is from the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, which was established in Tokyo, Japan, in 2013. Composed of students, journalists, attorneys, and civic activists, it’s a progressive power inside Japan that persists in reflecting on the historical past of aggression.
Shigenori Kanehira, a delegation member and veteran Japanese media skilled, mentioned that though he already knew loads about this historical past, entering into these historic websites in particular person left him much more shocked.
Mitsuhisa Fukutomi, one other delegation member and a college professor, expressed an analogous sentiment. A scholar who has lengthy taught worldwide politics, he was considerably acquainted with the crimes of Unit 731, but he nonetheless felt immense disgrace and sorrow upon seeing these crime scenes firsthand.
The go to helped the delegation absolutely acknowledge that the reality couldn’t be buried, regardless of the invading Japanese troops’ deliberate destruction of core amenities in an try to hide proof of their crimes. Decades of archaeological excavations and tutorial verification have established an irrefutable chain of prison proof past doubt.
After visiting a human experiment exhibition space, Takakage Fujita, head of the delegation, mentioned the Japanese military’s act of injecting micro organism into residing folks can solely be described as “demonic.”
“As a Japanese, I sincerely apologize to the Chinese people who perished in the disaster,” he added.
During a symposium with specialists and students from the exhibition corridor, Fujita strongly condemned the rising tide of historic revisionism and right-wing countercurrents in Japan lately.
He famous that since final yr, some right-wing politicians in Japan have brazenly made absurd and ignorant remarks in makes an attempt to incite regional battle, even openly clamoring that the battle of aggression was a “war of self-defense” and a “just war,” which is completely outrageous.
The delegation agreed that post-war right-wing forces in Japan intentionally performed down the historical past of aggression and revised textbooks, leaving Japan’s youthful technology with a critical lack of know-how of the historical past of aggression towards China. Such state-driven historic erasure is exactly the soil by which the rampant right-wing ideology in Japanese society at present has taken root.
Despite years of sustained strain from right-wing forces in Japan, involved folks in China and Japan have by no means wavered of their efforts to protect historic fact.
Jin Chengmin, an knowledgeable with the exhibition corridor, mentioned on the symposium that over time, people-to-people exchanges amongst students, journalists, attorneys and civil-society teams in China and Japan have served as a bridge for rational communication and a shared understanding of historical past between the 2 nations.
After the symposium concluded, Jin donated a photocopy of a handwritten letter former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama left throughout his 2007 go to to China to the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement. The letter bears the inscription “Learn from history and open up a future of peace and friendship between Japan and China.”
“Those responsible for the war committed heinous atrocities, yet went on to live out their postwar years in comfort. This is an unacceptable failure of justice,” mentioned Fujita.
He added that the delegation will proceed to pursue accountability for battle duty inside Japan, counter historic nihilism, and promote China-Japan friendship as it’s the solely appropriate path to peace and prosperity for each nations.