Japanese Court Again Rejects Germ Warfare Damages, Acknowledges Crime Itself

TOKYO The Tokyo High Court rejected on Tuesday demands from Chinese plaintiffs for compensation and an apology from Japan’s government for biological warfare in China before and during World War II.

The court, however, backed a landmark ruling in 2002 that recognized that Japan had carried out biological warfare during the war, something the Japanese government has never officially acknowledged.

Story continues... Also, you can read about the2002 ruling here. There are many articles on Japanese history here and historical memory here. Not only foreign victims of Japan’s colonialism suffer, as shown in the recent story, Japanese Court Rejects Funds for War Orphans.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Introducing Japan IndyMedia-�C���f�B���f�B�A�̏Љ�

Indymedia Japan is a site where the readers join the editors in making available news and commentary about social and political issues/activism in Japan.インディメディアは、自由に記事の投稿ができるサイトです. 

Ken Masuoka’s Website/ �v�����̃y�[�W"�̏Љ�

From Indonesia to Iraq, Ken Masuoka’s respected translations of articles originally published outside Japan bring to the Japanese speaker information not provided by many other Japanese language sources, let alone English ones. 

Introducing CNIC (Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center)

With both English and　日本語 sections, this website will keep you up-to-date on not only the dangers of nuclear energy but also the corruption within the government/nuclear industry. Like other websites and journals introduced here, much or what is offered cannot be found in the mainstream press. The website is produced by professionals, so there is little if any hyperbole that might be expected from anti-nuclear activists. That makes this site even more valuable.

Introducing People’s Plan Japonesia

Although not frequestly updated, yet another source of enlightened commentary is PPJ. With recent articles on “Bashing Gender Equality: Establishing a System that Skews the Population on All Sides,” which talks about the ruling party’s attempts to toy with the gender equality that is supposedly enshrined in the country’s constitution, or “Japan should turn back from a collision course with Asian neighbors--Perception of history and anti-Japan demonstrations in China,” the reader is provided a perspective rarely offered in the mainstream press.

Introducing the Japan Press Weekly

The Japan Press Weekly is a publication of the Japan Press Service. While affiliated with a political party (Japanese Communist Party), which might cause some readers to overlook it, many of the articles present information on Japanese society that you will not find in other English language (or even most Japanese language) newspapers and journals. For example, one might conclude from reading the mainstream Japanese press that only Chinese and Korean government officials oppose PM Koizumi’s participation in Yasukuni Shrine ceremonies. Not so, there are many Japanese people actively opposed to the ever-rightward drift of the Japanese government, but this goes unreported most of the time, thus making even Japan’s so-called liberal newspapers like the Asahi and Mainichi accomplices of Koizumi and company by their abdication of any journalistic responsibility.  For English speakers, such a journalistic wasteland makes publications such as the Japan Press Weekly even more valuable.

Introducing Japan Focus

Japan Focus, the version here part of ZNet’s Asia Watch section, is actually a subsite of the even larger main Japan Focus site.  Though there is a very clear progressive thread that runs through many of the articles (many originally in Japan and translated into English), the website even includes articles from right-leaning sources in order to present a broader overview of social issues confronting Japan, such as U.S. military bases on Okinawa, relations with North Korea, China and Taiwan, the Pacific War/WWII and revisionist history, the environment, minorities, people’s movements and much more. In particular, their articles on North Korea present viewpoints rarely seen in the mainstream Japanese press, which tend to be too gullible in reporting the received wisdom of tainted sources like the Japanese and U.S. governments. One reason for the often high quality is no doubt the fact that many respected writers as David McNeill, John Junkerman, Herbert Bix, Yuki Tanaka, Gavan McCormack, Mark Selden, John Dower, Adam Lebowitz and Doug Lummis are associated with the website.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Yugoslav Activist in Japan Seeking Translators

Sulejman, who came to Japan from the former Yugoslavia 14 years ago (and thus the title of this article) is known to many people protesting Japan’s support for the U.S. war, as he and his wife Kanako were standing almost continuously in front of the US.Embassy since the start of the war.  Now, Sulejman is editing a magazine of political commentary and is hoping to collaborate with people who can translate between Japanese and English for a small translation fee.

For details, contact him at

Or, telephone him at 090 1268 4412 (mobile) 042 853 6303 (home).

Here, in his own words, is what Sulejman thinks about the overlap and linkage between issues confronting social activists in Japan and around the world:

Since the death of Yugoslavia, the world has become my home. No matter where you go you never feel homesick. and as for the fight against Imperialism, the resistance to it, in my head, is always global, one, with barricades and war fronts all over the world, all fighting against the same enemy. Now, our enemy may appear strong but it is not. WE are the real power, you and I and all the people involved in the struggle against injustice and all the “wretched of the earth”. We must never forget that there are many more of us than of them. That thought alone is a weapon if properly used. Now, who are they? The enemy? G7, IMF, WTO, EU, NATO, WB, UNSC… now if you take a closer look these are almost all the same countries, a bunch, a handfull of criminals compared to billions of us. The problem is not that they have the guns and the money, the problem is that they are organized and we are not, they are united and we are not, they have found something to sell (even if it’s empty) to the people, what do we have to offer instead?

By the way, I teach French and English. In the beggining I just used to talk about these problems to whomever would listen since I’ve come to Japan, then I started writing about it (10 of my letters appeared in the Japan Times), and at last I took to the streets (demonstrating in front of the U.S embassy since I consider it (the U.S.A.) to be the head of the Imperialist monster). What do we, activists, want? What are our demands? What is our economic alternative to the current one? What is our plan of action? Is our way of reaching out to the people at large effective? Does the population at large see an alternative in us, an alternative to the mainstream political parties? I am sorry if it’s too long. If there is anything else you would like to know, feel free to ask.

Here is an essay he sent us:

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Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Comfort Women, NHK, Fuso-sha-, Tsukurukai, ABE Shinzo--VAWW-NETジャパん

A documentary on Japan’s war crimes was modified due to pressure from rigtists from the Liberal Democratic Party.  Long suspected by progressive activists, this was confirmed recently by reports in the Asahi Shimbun quotiing senior government and NHK officials.  Yet the money scandal involving NHK has gotten more coverage than this attempt to distort Japan’s wartime and colonial history.  Involved in this manipulation of a news documentary were people involved with the infamous Tsukurukai, which not only has succeeded in getting its revisionist history into junior high schools little by little, but--due to its acceptance by the Momkasho (Mombusho)--has persuaded almost all publishers to make their own textbooks more righ wing in hopes of finding favor with the Education Ministry too.

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