ABOUT MIYAZAKI'S "REVISIONNISM"
I am fed up by what I read about Miyazaki's "Kaze Tachinu", coming from people who haven't seen the movie which hasn't been released outside Japan.
Kaze Tachinu is supposed to be a "right wing japanese movie".
I'd like to decide by myself after having seen it. But I find difficult to imagine that a man like Miyazaki can make a negationistic and « right wing japanese movie ». I saw almost every movie he made and I always felt in them a hatred of militarism and wars.
And I read recently what he wrote about the comfort women ("For the comfort women problem, for the humiliation of the various peoples [of Asia], we must properly apologize and must pay proper compensation."), I read recently what he wrote about Abe Shinzo's intention to revise Article 9 of the japanese constitution. (Link)
The best part is
that at the same time in Japan some people call him « a
traitor » and his movie « anti-japanese ».
INEXISTENCE OF A
LEFT IN JAPAN?
When
I read as a comment on Kaze Tachinu, coming from an american, that
there is no left in Japan, I first wondered if there is a left in the
USA, in France, Germany, Italy, Spain or anywhere else...
I'd like to remind that just after the war japanese workers fought for their rights, there were strikes in Japan, the left parties were emerging. Mac Arthur forbade a general strike in 1947 and forbade the right to strike in the public service in 1948.
Not to mention the social movements in the 70's, or the support to Palestine.
Maybe nowadays there is no more left in Japan, but I don't see one in Europe or in the States...
I'd like to remind that just after the war japanese workers fought for their rights, there were strikes in Japan, the left parties were emerging. Mac Arthur forbade a general strike in 1947 and forbade the right to strike in the public service in 1948.
Not to mention the social movements in the 70's, or the support to Palestine.
Maybe nowadays there is no more left in Japan, but I don't see one in Europe or in the States...
ABOUT
REVISIONISM IN JAPAN
First I'd like to
talk about the International
Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo trial), which I personaly
consider as a caricature of trial, where only 28 persons were
charged, and where koreans were not invited, and where nothing was
said about the comfort women.
During this “trial”, the Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, uncle of Hirohito, who has been involved in the Nanjing killings, was never charged because of Mac Arthur's decision to spare all the members of the emperial family.
Neither Ishii Shirô was charged. He ran Unit 731, he and other leaders of Unit 731 were arrested by the american army but were given immunity in exchange of the results of their so-called researches, which have probably been used by the americans during the war in Korea.
Maybe if the Tokyo trial had looked like the Nuremberg trial Japan would not have now the problem they have about revisionism.
Revisionism in various ways, japanese Prime Ministers' visits to the Yasukuni shrine, statements by Abe denying the responsability of Japan or of the japanese army concerning the comfort women, statements by Osaka mayor Hashimoto Toru declaring that the system of comfort women was a necessity, Nagoya mayor Kawamura Takashi denying the massacres in Nanjing, stinking mangas by the mangaka Kobayashi Yoshinori denying everything and dreaming about a return to the bad times of Japan...
During this “trial”, the Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, uncle of Hirohito, who has been involved in the Nanjing killings, was never charged because of Mac Arthur's decision to spare all the members of the emperial family.
Neither Ishii Shirô was charged. He ran Unit 731, he and other leaders of Unit 731 were arrested by the american army but were given immunity in exchange of the results of their so-called researches, which have probably been used by the americans during the war in Korea.
Maybe if the Tokyo trial had looked like the Nuremberg trial Japan would not have now the problem they have about revisionism.
Revisionism in various ways, japanese Prime Ministers' visits to the Yasukuni shrine, statements by Abe denying the responsability of Japan or of the japanese army concerning the comfort women, statements by Osaka mayor Hashimoto Toru declaring that the system of comfort women was a necessity, Nagoya mayor Kawamura Takashi denying the massacres in Nanjing, stinking mangas by the mangaka Kobayashi Yoshinori denying everything and dreaming about a return to the bad times of Japan...
