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  • In 2014, a controversial Japanese politician ran for governor of Tokyo. Although he didn’t

  • win, his popularity among young voters was partially due to what many callJapanese

  • Revisionismof 20th century war crimes. Many Japanese youths refuse to shoulder the

  • burden of World War Two atrocities, while some politicians openly deny certain events.

  • So, what war crimes is Japan trying to hide?

  • Since the 1950s, government officials have repeatedly apologized for crimes committed

  • during World War Two, primarily authorized by Emperor Hirohito during the Showa Era.

  • However, in recent years, the government has attempted to downplay the severity of these

  • crimes. The most glaring examples of revisionism are in government-approved historical textbooks.

  • War crimes are rarely mentioned, and when they are, it is in a detached, inculpable

  • tone. Most school districts outright refuse to use these textbooks.

  • Internationally, Japan’s mass killings have been referred to as the Asian Holocaust. Some

  • estimate that during World War II, the Japanese military killed up to ten million people,

  • nearly 4 million of them Chinese. In one famous atrocity known as the Nanking Massacre, the

  • Japanese Army executed hundreds of thousands of civilians and prisoners of war over the

  • course of a month. Facts about this event have been widely disputed by Japanese officials,

  • despite international acknowledgement.

  • Another horrific crime was the Emperor’s establishment of human experimentation camps,

  • the most famous of which was Unit 731. Prisoners were infected with diseases and cut open while

  • alive and without anesthesia. Some subjects had their limbs removed and then reattached

  • on opposite sides. Some had frostbite intentionally induced, others were used as weapons testing.

  • Most women were raped. After the war, nearly all the researchers were given immunity by

  • the United States in exchange for the information they gained from these experiments. Furthermore,

  • records about the unit were destroyed, leaving only survivor testimony, giving weight to

  • denier claims.

  • Although there were many other war crimes committed, including faking surrender, reports

  • of cannibalism, forced labor, and torture, the most notable was the use ofcomfort

  • women." Original Japanese occupations saw mass rape of locals, so brothels for soldiers

  • were established. However, there were not nearly enough women to fill them, so as many

  • as 200,000 women and girls were kidnapped or coerced into sexual slavery. This issue

  • is particularly contentious for Japanese officials and journalists. In 2007, a number of surviving

  • comfort women demanded an apology from the Japanese government. Initially, the Prime

  • Minister said there was no evidence of these horrific crimes. However, several weeks later,

  • the Japanese parliament officially apologized. Japanese nationalists have since pushed to

  • rescind the apology.

  • Many Japanese youths consider the issue of 70-year-old war crimes to be unfairly lumped

  • onto them, pointing out that they were not the perpetrators of these events. However,

  • the push to whitewash history in order to appear blameless is in no way an appropriate

  • method of dealing with historical atrocities.

  • Japanese officialsdenial of comfort women is one of the saddest modern dismissals. See

  • this video by Seeker Daily to learn more about the lives of these enslaved women, OR if you

  • want more of the shocking history behind why China hates Japan, watch this video. Thanks

  • for watching TestTube News, don’t forget to like and subscribe for new videos every

  • day.

In 2014, a controversial Japanese politician ran for governor of Tokyo. Although he didn’t

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