Perhaps some thought the eightieth anniversary of that brutal battle would be a chance for both the Japanese and the Americans to recognize their terrible brutality towards the people of Okinawa.
Pushing Japan to remilitarize was never, and still is not, a good idea. This is not just because an arms race in Asia is the last thing the region needs. But also because Japan, consistently unable to face up to its own history, is simply not the country to represent the world’s liberal democracies in Asia, especially as a military power.
On the death of Queen Elizabeth II, let’s talk about monarchies. Why do they still exist, and should they still be allowed to exist?
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of August 2019.
After almost three-quarters of a century it appears unlikely that Japan will ever receive an apology from the United States for its horrific atomic bombings.
If progressives truly believe in our values of freedom of expression, equal opportunity, and security, we must stand in solidarity with the Okinawan people.
In 1993, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono made the most full-throated admission and apology acknowledging that Japan had coerced women across Asia into being sex slaves—euphemistically referred to as “Comfort Women”—for the Japanese military during the Pacific War. More recently, however, conservative politicians such as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura have engaged in a campaign that is less about carving out a path toward reconciliation than to overwrite memories of an unsavory past.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on December 7, 2017.
