Congress: Help Japan, pass comfort women resolution.

Written on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 7:57 pm | by J

Last March 11, the Lower House Committee on Foreign Relations unanimously passed a resolution condemning World War II sexual slavery in the Far East and urging Japan to unambiguously apologize and to compensate the victims. Instead of being submitted to the plenary of the House of Representatives for final approval, however, the said resolution would be returned to the committee for a revote.

The Japan Times reported yesterday that the decision to make a revote on the resolution was done after intense lobbying from the Japanese Embassy in Manila. The Embassy, foreign relations committee chair Rep. Antonio Cuenco said, pointed out that only three congressmen of the 55-member committee voted on the resolution when in fact at least 12 members are required to make a quorum.

Tokyo employed similar lobbying actions to prevent similar resolutions from being passed in the legislative bodies of Canada, the Netherlands, the European Union and the United States. This was the first time, however, that the Japanese successfully scored a feat in delaying a resolution’s passage.

The Japanese ambassador should not be bombarded with praises from his home office though, for the revote was caused not by sophisticated diplomatic maneuvers whatsoever, but through the blunder of the Philippine lawmakers themselves.

The incident tells a lot about the calibre of the Philippines’ parliamentarians. Why would they hold a committee session, much more vote on a significant resolution, without quorum? Are they really that stupid? Or have they railroaded too many a legislative process that they seem to do away with simple House rules already?

Make no mistake, though. As much as I detest the stupidity of these congressmen, I also detest Tokyo’s “meddling and intensive lobbying to kill the resolution.”

Contrary to the Leftists’ allegations, the Japanese Embassy did not do, as far as I see it, any nasty stunt or dirty play. They only pointed out that rules were not observed when the committee voted on the resolution, hence the document is void. Doing that seems to be, at least to me, well within their legal right.

But beyond the legality of this action comes a more important question: was it morally right for Japan to seek a delay in the passage of the said resolution? I mean I’m not even talking about sovereignty issues here. It’s about Tokyo’s attitude towards its past militarist actions.

If, as the Japanese ambassador clearly stated in his Bataan Day address, Japan really feels sorry about the atrocities of war, why would she be anxious to prevent the supposed representatives of a nation to condemn the atrocities and to recognize the plight of the victims?

The answer is because amidst overwhelming pieces of evidence of the Imperial Army’s involvement in World War II sex slavery, the 1998 UN report on comfort women, and the Kono-Murayama apologies, the Japanese government is still not really completely sorry for the war atrocities Japan committed in the Far East.

Right-wing elements continue to be a big force both in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. These people have been for years trying to dilute and rescind the formal apologies of Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, making Japan’s official stand on the issue ambiguous They were behind the NHK’s one-sided anti-comfort women propaganda and the moves to revise history books by diluting the Japanese government’s responsibilities for the horrible war atrocities.

Foremost among these hawks is their erstwhile figurehead, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who once said that while he feels sorry for the comfort women, he still thinks that there are no documentary evidence that would prove direct complicity of the Imperial Army to the war-time sex slavery.

There shouldn’t be any such documents of course, for papers were burned by Imperial officials shortly before surrender. What Abe really meant is that he does not believe the testimonies of the victims, as well the pieces of evidence presented by third party researchers.

What’s more, the former prime minister’s supposedly dovish successor, Yasuo Fukuda (whose mandate- not unlike Arroyo’s- is questionable too, by the way), seems to continuously toe Abe’s line on the issue. Worse, even opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa seems to be unsympathetic to the comfort women.

What these politicians don’t realize is that this seemingly unrepentant attitude towards their war-time atrocities is hurting Japan’s international standing. Badly.

Japan has been anxious to assert a more influential role in global diplomacy. One of the ruling party’s main objectives, although temporarily at the backburner due to several domestic imbroglios, remains to be the revision of the pacifist constitution. Both the government and the opposition wants a more active overseas role for the Japanese “self-defense” forces. They want to play a dominant role in Asian geopolitics. They even want a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Japan is no longer content with being affluent, she now wants political influence commensurate to her economic standing.

But recent efforts toward this end have been frustrated by widespread regional Japanophobia.

Tokyo has failed, for instance, to push Seoul and Washington into making the North Korean abduction of Japanese nationals during the Cold War an issue in the six-party talks. This, of course, happened after Abe made the comfort women evidence-denials and is in part due to strong anti-Japanese sentiments in Korea.

The grand Japanese proposal to build an “arc of freedom and prosperity” in the Far East, along with Tokyo’s efforts to forge alliances with India and Australia to check China’s growing influence, has been met with suspicions by several Asian nations.

Similarly, critics of the Japan-Philippines FTA continuously invoke war-time anti-Japanese sentiments, an indication that Japanophobia persists among Filipinos too.

More importantly, the most vocal critics of Japan’s bid for permanent membership in the UN Security Council are Asian governments.

These Asian resentments are neither shallow nor unfounded. Members of the generations that saw the horrors of Japan’s aggressive war are still living. The memory of that war, therefore, remain vivid and not just a thing from the history books. It’s not something that can be combated by Japan’s pop offensive.

More importantly, these Asian resentments hinge on an issue of morality. Women were raped. Somebody’s got to apologize- and atone for the crime. The Japanese people of today have nothing to do about it, sure, but their government nonetheless has the moral responsibility to acknowledge the crime, seek forgiveness, and to officially compensate the victims.

No, it’s not a matter of money. Money won’t bring back the stolen happiness of these comfort women. It’s about a nation recognizing past wrongdoings. It’s about a nation sending a strong message that they are sincere in their resolve not to commit the past mistakes again.

Resolutions like the one pending in the Philippine Congress can help Japan send this message once and for all. For this is the message Japan should send if she wants to gain trust and confidence.

And, frankly, no amount of ODAs can ever send this message across.

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About The Author: J is a 19 year old varsity debater and a sophomore taking up International Relations at the Lyceum in Manila. He loves to write about geopolitics. His personal blog is The Nutbox.

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