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Japan Fires General Who Said a U.S. ‘Trap’ Led to the Pearl Harbor Attack

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  • Japan Fires General Who Said a U.S. ‘Trap’ Led to the Pearl Harbor Attack

    Interesting article in The New York Times.

    Go figure.

    Fred

    November 1, 2008

    Japan Fires General Who Said a U.S. ‘Trap’ Led to the Pearl Harbor Attack

    By NORIMITSU ONISHI

    TOKYO — A high-ranking Japanese military official was dismissed Friday for writing an essay stating that the United States had ensnared Japan into World War II, denying that Japan had waged wars of aggression in Asia and justifying Japanese colonialism.

    The Defense Ministry fired Gen. Toshio Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan’s air force, late on Friday night, only hours after his essay was posted on a private company’s Web site. The quick dismissal seemed intended to head off criticism from China, South Korea and other Asian nations that have reacted angrily to previous Japanese denials of its militarist past.

    The defense minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said the essay included an “inappropriate” assessment of the war, adding, “It was improper for a person in his capacity as air force chief of staff to publicly state a view clearly different from the government’s.”

    In the essay, General Tamogami, 60, elaborated a rightist view of Japan’s wartime history shared by many nationalist politicians. But it was a rare formulation from inside Japan’s military, which, as Japan has been shedding its postwar pacifism in recent years, has gained a more prominent role.

    Japan’s military — whose operations are restricted by the nation’s war-renouncing Constitution — should be allowed to possess “offensive weaponry” and widen its defense activities with allies, the general also wrote.

    The article was posted on the Web site of a real estate developer called Apa Group after taking the $30,000 first prize in an essay-writing contest sponsored by the company.

    General Tamogami wrote that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 and thereby drew the United States into World War II after being caught in “a trap” set by President Roosevelt.

    “Roosevelt had become president on his public pledge not to go to war, so in order to start a war between the United States and Japan, it had to appear that Japan took the first shot,” he wrote.

    He denied that Japan had invaded China and the Korean Peninsula, arguing that Japanese forces became embroiled in domestic conflicts on the Asian continent.

    “Even now, there are many people who think that our country’s aggression caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War,” he wrote, using the term favored by Japan’s right to refer to World War II. “But we need to realize that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.”

    Since the mid-1990s, the Japanese government has officially apologized for its wartime past and acknowledged its aggression in Asia. But in recent years, nationalist politicians belonging to the right wing of the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party have waged a campaign to revise Japan’s wartime history.

    Few politicians have spoken as comprehensively as General Tamogami did. Instead they have telegraphed their sympathies with the rightist view of history. The current prime minister, Taro Aso, in the past publicly praised Japanese colonial rule on the Korean Peninsula. Mr. Aso, whose family’s mining business used forced laborers during World War II, also said Koreans gladly adopted Japanese names.

    Hours before the general’s dismissal, Mr. Aso said, “Even though he published it in a private capacity, given his position, it is not appropriate.”

    Last year, Shinzo Abe, then the prime minister, drew anger in Asia and the United States by denying the Japanese military’s involvement in recruiting the wartime sex slaves known euphemistically as “comfort women.”

    His comments led the United States House of Representatives to adopt a nonbinding resolution calling on Japan to acknowledge and apologize for its wartime sex slavery. Japan has yet to respond.
    Semper Fi

  • #2
    first this thread should be in international affairs not south Asian ,second if the nationalists are in japan's military i wonder how much longer before emperor yoshiro of c&c red alert 3 becomes a reality

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by bengalraider View Post
      first this thread should be in international affairs not south Asian ,second if the nationalists are in japan's military i wonder how much longer before emperor yoshiro of c&c red alert 3 becomes a reality
      Sorry to derail the topic but are you playing a beta of it raider? I wantsesss my kirovs...
      For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

      Comment


      • #4
        Sort of harsh for firing someone merely for expressing their personal opinion.
        Cow is the only animal that not only inhales oxygen, but also exhales it.
        -Rekha Arya, Former Minister of Animal Husbandry

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Tronic View Post
          Sort of harsh for firing someone merely for expressing their personal opinion.
          IMO He should have kept his personal opinion to himself then. The man was a serving General, comments like U.S.A. ‘Trapped’ Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour would have created bad blood among the countries, coming from such a senior official. I think it was inappropriate for someone in his position to publicly air such views, if he was looking for a merely academic discussion, then he shouldn't have done so while working for the govt. with whose official view he disagrees.
          When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? - George Canning sigpic

          Comment


          • #6
            denying waging wars of aggression is offending to all the nations around her, even if we forget a nation many miles away.

            Such nationalists must be in every army.

            I think more than the nationalists one might find anti war demonstrators (in Japan).

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            • #7
              Given that one of the conditions for command is good character and judgment, I'm not terribly surprised they axed him.

              Comment


              • #8
                Well, FDR did do everything he possibly could to anger Japan, cutting off oil and steel, freezing their assets etc., moving the Pacific Fleet over 2500 miles closer to Japan...

                The question is, what was his motive:

                Retribution for the Japanese invasion and atrocities in China?

                Or simply trying to push them into war with the USA...?
                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

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                • #9
                  Dumb ass freak.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
                    Dumb ass freak.
                    Seconded.
                    In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                    Leibniz

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
                      Dumb ass freak.
                      Ditto that.

                      ...and while I'm at it, who are the "many Asian nations who take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War"?

                      I'm guessing it isn't many of the ones who were actually occupied.
                      Last edited by Bigfella; 02 Nov 08,, 07:09.
                      sigpic

                      Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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                      • #12
                        It is stupid to fire anyone for his personal views.

                        Is the Japanese Govt in kowtowing mode?

                        One must allow free speech, even if it is contrary to the popular opinion, so that one understands all angles!

                        Only fools and those who have something to hide or cannot counter, muzzle!


                        "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

                        I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

                        HAKUNA MATATA

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Ray View Post
                          Only fools and those who have something to hide or cannot counter, muzzle!
                          Sir,

                          He's in uniform when contradicting the official policy of the Japanese government. That alone is enough to get him fired.

                          The defense minister, Yasukazu Hamada, said the essay included an “inappropriate” assessment of the war, adding, “It was improper for a person in his capacity as air force chief of staff to publicly state a view clearly different from the government’s.”
                          Last edited by Officer of Engineers; 02 Nov 08,, 13:40.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Should've done it after retirement.

                            ...and while I'm at it, who are the "many Asian nations who take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War"?
                            A small section of marginalized political leadership in India.I can't count any more.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                              Well, FDR did do everything he possibly could to anger Japan, cutting off oil and steel, freezing their assets etc., moving the Pacific Fleet over 2500 miles closer to Japan...

                              The question is, what was his motive:

                              Retribution for the Japanese invasion and atrocities in China?

                              Or simply trying to push them into war with the USA...?

                              I call it ,,, Natural order of things ...

                              westerward expansion of the United States interets and influence in the Pacific was bound to collide with 360-degree radially expansionist Japanese.

                              The rest (such as oil embargo, freezing assets, rising tension between two nations) is just run-up that leads up to the climax (sneak attack at pearl harbour), nothing more and nothing less. as simple as that

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