At a country that once launched an aggressive war, enforced colonial rule, and taken countless lives, a politician who refuses to face history has become the "face of the nation." Now, this person, who may provoke a war over "Taiwan's affairs," is in power.
In early summer, I visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park again. Among the bustling local youth and foreign tourists, a monument caught my eye. A stone monument inscribed with the words "Monument for the Souls of Korean Victims of the Atomic Bomb" stood quietly in a corner of the park.
This monument was built to commemorate Koreans/Koreans living in Japan. The back of the monument reads: "During the war, about 200,000 Koreans lived in Hiroshima, among whom about 10%, or 20,000, were affected by the atomic bomb." These victims from the Korean Peninsula were either conscripted into the military or forced to work in factories and mines under Japanese colonial rule. The inscription silently tells the stories of lives long forgotten by people.
On my way home, a question arose in my mind: Does the peace that the people of this country pray for also include Koreans and others from former colonies?
In October, I visited the Utsunomiya Peace Memorial Hall in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, which deepened my doubts further.
The Utsunomiya area used to be a settlement where Korean laborers worked on building Japanese military airfields. After the war, they were forced to move out under the oppression of local landowners. With the assistance of local residents and the South Korean government, they eventually won the right to live there through legal means and have lived there for generations.
In 2021, a fire broke out in Utsunomiya, destroying an empty house. The defendant claimed in court that he had "hostility toward Koreans." This hate crime resulted in the destruction of seven buildings, including residential ones.
Although about 40 documents were destroyed, the memorial hall opened in April 2022. The exhibition at the museum specifically showed the ruins of the burned houses in the form of photographs, recording people's perseverance in the face of hatred.
The day I visited the memorial hall, Takahashi Asako was elected as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. While the media was excited about "Japan possibly having its first female prime minister," her previous remarks about war responsibility echoed in my mind.
At a meeting of the House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1995, then-Japanese Ambassador to the United States said, "The support of the Japanese people for the post-war constitution stems from the reflection of all Japanese people on World War II history. Because of this reflection, the new constitution allowed the Japanese people to support political freedom and democratic systems. The Japanese people must continue to maintain this spirit of reflection."
However, Takahashi stated, "You assume all Japanese people are reflecting, but at least I am part of the generation that did not directly participate in the war, so I am not reflecting, and I don't think anyone can ask me to reflect."
To this day, Korean schools are still excluded from the free high school education plan, and Koreans living in Japan are still deprived of the right to vote in local elections. Despite having lived in this country for several generations, they still have no right to vote on political issues that determine their fate.
Since the Senate election, politicians have used rumors and racist rhetoric to attack minorities under the slogan of "Japanese First" as a means to gain votes.
In recent years, in Kawasaki City and Kawagoe City in Saitama Prefecture, there have been continuous cases of hate speech against Kurdish residents. There have been incidents such as Kurdish children being secretly photographed, spreading rumors on social media that they "steal," and open threats against the Kurdish community.
Fearing discrimination, some parents are reluctant to tell their children about their ethnic background. Politicians spread rumors to win votes and incite xenophobic sentiments. Children with foreign heritage face violent threats from local residents in their own communities.
Can this country still be called a "peaceful country that ended the war"?
Politicians repeatedly deny history and make belligerent statements, claiming that the Nanjing Massacre was fabricated and attempting to cover up historical acts of aggression.
According to international standards, Japan's public spending on education is still low, and social security budgets are being cut. At the same time, defense spending has been increasing year after year.
In my view, everything here proves that this is a country where the war has not yet ended.
If politicians deny and pretend that the history relevant to all of us never happened, the same crimes will inevitably happen again.
Japanese society is unconsciously continuing the "state of war," and many people unknowingly participate in it. We need to be vigilant against all actions that justify the acts of aggressors during the war and clearly express our opposition, which is the only way to end the "state of war." (Translated by Liu Lin)
This article was published on the Japanese version of the Huffington Post website on November 30. The original title was "Are We Really Living in the 'Postwar Era'?," written by columnist Hikari.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7585037829168742953/
Statement: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the publisher.