History has called us into Action

Japanese way of Apology Aug. 15, 2006

Japan with a history of aggression, crimes against Humanity, with NO signs of remorse is untrustworthy to be a permanent member on the UN Security Council. Letter to U.N. Secretary General Millions already joined to reject Japan

German way of Apology Dec. 7, 1970

Not only were the perpetrators not punished after the war, Nobusuke Kishi who oversaw the Slave labor program as minister of commerce and industry during the war, was imprisoned as a Class-A War Criminal suspect and later even made all the way to became Prime Minister of Japan in 1957. Okinori Kaya, a Class-A War Criminal for life imprisonment, paroled in 1955, later became Justice Minister. Shigemitsu Mamoru, Class-A War Criminal sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, became Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in 1954. The head of Unit 731, Shiro Ishii was permitted to continue medical research in Japan after the war. Ryoichi Naito, Ishii's right-hand man, founded Green Cross pharmaceutical companies, other Unit 731 leaders joined him there. Many directors of JNIH (Japan National Institute of Health) had served in biological warfare unit and involved in human experiments. Some went on to become Governor of Tokyo, Presidents of universities, Deans of medical schools, Heads of public health agencies, Head of Japan Olympic Committee, key position in Japanese drug and medical companies, lawmakers and industrialists.

Japanese veterans, war widows, families of those killed in action, civilians employed by the military, and citizens mobilized for the war, all receive generous benefits from Japanese government under the entitlement program.

In 1954, Japanese government even revised the Pensions Law to assist War Criminals for their pensions and compensation.

Japanese War Criminals received full military pensions and benefits from Japanese government,

But millions of their victims and families suffered, and continue to suffer in poverty, shame, chronic physical and mental pain, WMD Death Toll and WMD Injuries including Children continue to rise due to Japanese abandonded WMD weapons to this day .........

Japanese government officials and right-wingers, even some moderates, insist that all claims resulted from Japanese WW II transgression have been settled by the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty that Japan had paid the international Red Cross the equivalent of about $1 a day for missed meal and $1.5 per day for unpaid wages for PoW while the Allies agreed not to bring War Crimes charges against it, by citing the provision in Article 16 in which Allied nations agreed to waive all reparations in light of the postwar financial hardship Japan was experiencing. They also claim that Japan has paid a total of 27 billion dollars to 27 nations, transfer of Japanese capital equipment, facilities, other assets to nations abroad, and an apology was offered by Japanese Prime Minister Tomichi Murayama in Aug. 1995.

But his apology was only a personal one. He failed to make a formal and official apology in the so-called "No War Resolution". Only 26% of the diet members supported the Resolution and 47% were against it. Furthermore, the ex-education minister Seisuke Okuno managed to organize a national campaign and collected 4.5 million signatures against the Resolution. The revised version had the official apology deleted.

Critics also pointed out that the bulk of $27 billion did NOT come from its coffer. It was the relief funds the Allied sent to the PoWs in the Japanese camps throught the International Committee of Red Cross and they was illegally seized by the Bank of Japan in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. Japan only returned them to Switzerland as part of the 1951 San Frencisco Peace Treaty settlement.

The returned properties were looted by the Japanese Army. They were hardly any "reparations" but solely stolen goods.

Countless artwork, ancient antiques, valuable books and intellectual properties from China and other nations are still sitting in Japan's museums and private collections to this day.

Over 45 years, Japan systematically looted wealth of 12 Asian countries accumulated over thousands of years: currency, gold, platinum, silver, diamonds, gemstones, jewelry, cultural treasures, religious artifacts, art and antiques including more than a dozen solid gold Buddhas, each weighing more than a ton.

The looting and plundering, which was far more thorough than the Nazis, became the Japanese way to finance its brutal war. In China alone, Japan looted 6,000 tonnes of gold from Chinese capital Nanjing in 1938.

Far from being bankrupted by the War, Japan had been greatly and criminally enriched by the Plunder of Asia after the War.

Stolen artifacts from Asia found in Japan

It is estimated that Japan had looted more than 2.7 million books from China. After the war only 158,873 books were returned.

Japan's ODA (Official Development Assistance) to China begins at 1979 when China has finally began its open door policy for economic development after suffering more than 20 long years of irrational political turmoil. But China lacked capital while developed countries had large quantities of idle money.

Although ODA was often criticized as the " Checkbook Diplomacy", it has definitely provided some benefits for both sides. By helping China's infrastructural facilities, Japan has paved the road for its own Japanese company business an enormous economic opportunity in China, and is already Japan's largest trading partner. China is widely credited with having pulled Japan out of its years of economic stagnation as already shown in recent economic recovery. China in late 70s and early 80s, was still an energy export country. The ODA also helped Japan diversify its energy import sources and reduce reliance on Middle East at that time.

Japan's ODA for China comprises 3 parts: long-term loans, free grants and technical assistance. Total Japanese ODA to China is about US$ 30 billion. They are NOT free gifts. More than 90 % of the ODA are actually loans that must be paid back including the low interest.

China was the FIRST battle field ignited during WWII, yet the LAST one to end. And certainly was the most brutal war battle field during WWII. The 30 billion US$ ODA paid-back loans amount to only an in-significant tiny fraction of the financial losses in China caused by Japanese 14 years of atrocious destruction, estimated in many Hundreds of Billions US $. The total loss should be well over many Trillion US $ if the interest, direct and indirect economic, cultural, social, environmental and ecosystem destruction, damaged and looted wealth, invaluable and in-replaceable destroyed ancient cultural assets, relics, properties, arts, books, buildings, temples, natural resources, and other tangible or intangible losses were included, NOT to mention more than 35 Million Chinese casualties by Japanese indiscriminate killing, starvation and various diseases.

The total past War Indemnity that China paid to Japan alone was a staggering capital 265 million plus interest 321 million taels of silver (i.e. Total 586 Million taels of silver in 1895, about 7 times China's annual revenue).

China could not pay the crushing staggering War Indemnity and had to borrow money from several Western countries and paid heavy interest.

In fact, China continued to pay Japan the War Indemnity up to WWII.

In an extremely vivid contrast, the San Francisco Peace Treaty reveals that the reparations matter was postponed until Japan has the financial means to pay. It was never resolved.

To cover-up, U.S. insisted that Japan was badly damaged and bankrupt when the war ended, and waived Japan's war reparations.

In fact, few factories and mansions were destroyed or even seriously damaged, and there was little damage to the infrastructure. Japanese industries were dispersed widely and largely concealed from air attack. According to historian John W. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of WWII, the financial centers, transportation infrastructure, and public utilities in Japan remained largely intact.

According to Segraves, far from being bankrupted by the War, Japan had been greatly and criminally enriched by the Plunder of Asia after the War.

The Treaty had caused much controversial from the very beginning. After 54 years, the Treaty still remains very much controversial today.

In the San Francisco Peace Treaty (SFPT) process, the interests of Asian people and countries brutally victimized by the Japanese Imperial Army were mostly ignored.

Despite the protests by Asian countries most affected by the Japanese aggression, U.S. did NOT even invite China (both mainland-People's Republic of China and Taiwan-Republic of China) and Korea (both North and South) . China insisted on abolishing Japan's emperor system.

Soviet Union, India and Burma refused to participate. 3 signatories from Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) were actually representatives of the French colonial regime.

Only 4 Asian countries signed the treaty. Of these 4, Indonesia signed the treaty but never ratified it. The Philippine reserved its signatures and did not ratify the treaty. So in fact, the ONLY Asian countries that supported the SFPT were Pakistan and Ceylon, both colonies of Britain up till that time.

Furthermore, U.S. feared that Dutch's refusal of signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty might lead the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand to drop out as well, so on the day before and the morning of the treaty signing ceremony, U.S. principal negotiator, John Foster Dulles, orchestrated a " Secret Deal " with exchange of confidential letters between the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands, Dirk Stikker, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.

Yoshida pledged that "the Government of Japan does not consider that the Government of the Netherlands by signing the Treaty has itself expropriated the private claims of its nationals so that, as a consequence thereof, after the Treaty comes into force these claims would be non-existent."

The deal and letters had to be kept secret because Article 26 of the Treaty states that, "should Japan make a peace settlement or war claims settlement with any State granting that State greater advantages than those provided by the present Treaty, those same advantages shall be extended to the parties to the present Treaty."

In 1956, the Dutch did successfully pursue a claim against Japan on behalf of private citizens. Japan paid $10 million as a way of "expressing sympathy and regret." A year before, the British noted two other instances in which governments had made deals with Japan for reparations: a settlement with Burma that provided reparations, services and investments amounting, over 10 years, to $250 million; and an agreement with Switzerland that provided "compensation for maltreatment, personal injury and loss arising from acts illegal under the rules of war."

The letters were finally declassified in April 2000, by which time most potential claimants were probably all dead.

With the " Secret Deal " and by withholding documents, the U.S. has significantly contributed and played a major role in Japan's historical amnesia.

Japan subsequently signed treaties with other States, including the war claims settlements.

Both U.S. and Japan purposely ignored without honoring the provision of Article 26 and continues to deny its bounded responsibility to compensate its wartime victims to this day.

For details, refer to San Francisco Peace Treaty: Has Justice Been Served and Peace Secured ? , and A Just Peace ? The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty in Historical Perspective

"Those of us who really believe in human rights believe that justice has not been achieved by the San Francisco Peace Treaty," said Lillian Sing, a San Francisco Superior Court judge.

"Japan's historical amnesia is a result of collusion between the U.S. and Japan," said Mark Selden, a history professor at the State University of New York, " That collusion reached its height in the San Francisco Treaty of 1951." because the treaty becomes an obstacle to a full reckoning of the suffering Japan inflicted on other Asians and on American PoW.

Peace Treaty locked Japan into a flawed Present.

As Harvard Professor Akira Iriye had pointed out, U.S. used the San Fransisco Peace Treaty to turn Japan from a conquered and occupied country to its military ally aiming at responding to the communist countries, Soviet Union and China.

John Dower in his recent book, Embracing Defeat: "One of the most pernicious aspects of the occupation was that the Asian peoples who had suffered most from imperial Japan's depredations -- the Chinese, Koreans, Indonesians, and Filipinos had no serious role, no influential presence at all in the defeated land. They became invisible. Asian contributions to defeating the emperor's soldiers and sailors were displaced by an all-consuming focus on the American victory in the Pacific War".

San Fransisco Peace Treaty is therefore an un-precedented BIG Sell-Out of all countries in Asia and Allied PoWs by U.S.

In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of U.N. and of the war, Japan considered and proposed a "No War Resolution" in an effort to reflect its past history. However, it was rejected by Japanese Diet mainly because it contained a formal official apology for its wartime atrocities. Only 26% of the diet members supported the Resolution and 47% were against it. Furthermore, the ex-education minister Seisuke Okuno managed to organize a national campaign and collected 4.5 million signatures against the Resolution. The revised version had the official apology deleted.

That was exactly why on Aug 15, 1995 Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama could only offer a personal apology to mark the 50th anniversary end of WWII. It was a personal apology NOT passed by the Japanese parliament.

In Sept 1997 Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto also reiterated the apology. Again, his apology was NOT approved by the parliament.

In Oct. 8 2001 Japanese prime minister Koizumi, issued an apoplgy after visiting the Lugouqiao ( Marco Polo Bridge), site of hostilities that led to a full scale war invasion in July 7, 1937. However, the apology was simply based on and did not go beyond the wording used in a 1995 statement by Murayama. It was his personal apology and NOT passed by Japanese Diet.

This was exactly why in Nov. 1998, Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun ran a such naive headline: "We are fed up of saying sorry".

Japan also argues that individual victim cannot sue a state, and also argued that China had voluntarily give up the right of reparation from Japan in 1972 when Beijing and Japan established diplomatic ties. Although the Joint Communiqué and the Treaty have waived the state's rights to war damages, neither has ever specifically surrendered the rights of any private claims by Chinese citizens.

In fact, the obligation of States and the rights of individuals with respect to the violation of human rights cannot, as a matter of international law, be given away or extinguished by governments through peace treaty, peace agreement, amnesty or by any other means. This has been repeatedly affirmed in numerous resolutions passed by the United Nations over the years. (e.g. UN Resolution E/CN.4/SUB.2/RES/1999/16)

Professor Etsuro Totsuka of Kobe University in Japan has pointed out the following in his article Peace Treaty and Japan's Wartime Responsibility: Breaking the Treaty Defense :

1. Art. 3 of the Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed at the Hague, on 18 Oct. 1907 stipulates, "A belligerent party which violates the provisions of the said Regulations (i.e., the Regulations of Land Warfare annexed to the Convention) shall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation. It shall be responsible for all acts committed by persons forming part of its armed forces."

   This article of the 1907 Hague Convention was understood to have been customary international law and it was succeeded by Art. 91 of the Optional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Japan acceded to it on Oct 21, 1953 and bound China in 1956. Therefore, It guarantees individual victims the right to compensation.

2. China is not a Party to the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Therefore, The treaty is not applicable to China.
   
   
3. The Treaty of Peace between Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan) and Japan of Apr 28, 1952 became null and void in accordance with the Sino-Japanese Joint Communique of Sept 29, 1972.
   
   
4. The Sino-Japanese Joint Communique includes no explicit provision, which waived the right of individual victims. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations had also made public its legal opinion that the Joint Communique did not waive the right to demand reparations for losses and damages sustained by Chinese nationals.
   
   
5. Art. 148 of the IV Geneva Convention reads "No High Contracting Party shall be allowed to absolve itself or any other High Contracting Party of any liability incurred by itself or by another High Contracting Party in respect of breaches referred to in the preceding Article." Therefore, if any military personnel commit war crimes of grave breaches under Art. 147, the responsible Parties could not be allowed to absolve itself from any liabilities including responsibility for compensation due to the crimes and other Parties shall not be allowed to relinquish the rights of the victims without compensation from the responsible state.

   Also in the second sentence of Art. 7 of the IV Geneva Convention reads, "No special agreement shall adversely affect the situation of protected persons, as defined by the present Convention, nor restrict the rights which it confers upon them.” Therefore, the guarantee under Art. 148 cannot be adversely changed by any other international agreements.

   Therefore, these 2 articles clearly prohibited Japan and China to absolve Japan of the individual rights to compensation under the said Joint Communique, in particular, if it comes to the issue of grave war crimes.

During the lawsuits of Japanese detained in Siberia and that of Atomic Bomb victims, the Japanese government has consistently expressed that what was abandoned in the San Francisco Peace Treaty by Japan was not the individual's right to claim, but only the right to claim by the Japanese government on behalf of the individual from another nation (the right of diplomatic protection). Ironically, in the lawsuits with Chinese as the plaintiffs, the Japanese government then offered a totally different interpretation when dealing with Japan's own war responsibility. The Japanese government has effectively forfeited its own credibility.

In 1995, China’s foreign minister stated that the Joint Communique waived only the Chinese government’s reparations claims against the Japanese government, while leaving the claim rights of private Chinese citizens intact.

According to the minutes from a 1969 meeting and documents of some 808 government and shrine documents, released by the National Diet Library in 2007, entitled "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine" , Japanese government initiated and urged the Yasukuni Shrine to enshrine ALL Class-A, B, C War Cirminals.

Enshrinement Politics: war dead and war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine.

In 1959, Yasukuni Shrine began to enshrine Class-B and Class-C war criminals. In 1978, under the Cover-up of State-Terrorism by U.S. against Humanity, Japan secretly enshrined 1,068 war criminals including 14 Class-A War Criminals in Yasukuni Shrine to be worshipped as national heroes. News of the secret enshrinement caused an uproar when it leaked out 6 months later. It was a serious violation of Japanese Constitution, the separation of religion and state.

In July 1996, on Japan's "Day of Armistice", known as the "Day of Surrender", the Japanese Royal Family and Prime Minister Hashimoto went to the Yasukuni Shrine to pay official tribute there. In doing so, they effectively bestowed the status of "National Heroes" upon more than 1,000 convicted War Criminals.

In Jun 2006, even the Japanese Emperor Akihito also gave warning against a current Japan's return to the right-wing violence and militarist oppression.

Japan's "Peace Constitution Article 9"prohibits Japan from having an army. So, instead of an army, Japan calls it Self-Defense Force (SDF). As clearly indicated by its name, Japan is forbidden by the constitution to resort to military action unless attacked.

However, encouraged by US, Japanese Self-Defense Force is now the best equipped and most modern army in Asia. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Japan military spending in 2003 was US$ 46.9 billion, the 2nd largest in the world, even outstrips Britain's in total spending and manpower. Its navy is probably the 2nd largest in the Pacific. Bomb by bomb, Japan sheds military restraints. China is now trying to catch up.

Japan now inches toward a full-fledged military. A bill to revise the Defense Agency Establishment Law will be enacted soon. The agency will officially become the Defense Ministry in January, the first time the name of the agency has been changed in its 53-year history. Japan has about 240,000 SDF troops and one of the world's biggest defense expenditures. Japanese governments have explained away the contradiction by claiming that SDF is not a military but a kind of police force. Another bill aimed at instilling patriotism among students at school, is also expected to be enacted soon. It will be the first revision of the basic education law since it took effect in 1947.

Taking advantage of US war against Terrorism, ironically, instead of self-defense, Japan dispatched its Self-Defence warships for the FIRST TIME in the postwar period to Afghanistan; and then sent its Self-Defence troops to combat zone for the FIRST TIME to Iraq, to help fighting Terrorism.

It is a speechless mockery to its own Cover-up of extreme State-Terrorism committed during 14 years atrocious WWII.

Compared with most Shinto shrines, which were founded hundreds of years ago, the Japanese Yasukuni Shrine was a relatively recent affair. It was built by the Imperial Order of the Meiji Emperor in 1869 for the sole purpose to glorify Japan's imperialism. During WWII, Japanese Militarists took over the shrine. Yasukuni is a military war memorial to glorify its brutal past, anything but a symbol of peace. It grounds in central Tokyo include a museum devoted to glorifying Japanese militarism as a noble cause that tried to liberate Asia.

Ironically, Japanese Emperor Meiji, whose name Meiji originated from "Yi Jing (I Ching) " , a Chinese Classic , also took the name Yasukuni Shrine from a phrase in "Chunqiu Zuoshi Zhuan " (Shunju Sashiden) , another Chinese Classic , meaning "Bringing Peace to a Nation."

"Shinto " itself is Chinese words which means "the way of the gods" (Shin=gods; To is Tao=the way).

Of the 11 wars listed above, most of the Japanese wars were fought to invade and colonize China. Both Russia and Japan wanted to colonize the resource rich Chinese Manchuria. In 1904, Japan declared war on Russia, altogether ignoring China, who still technically ruled the area. The Russian-Japanese War was fought inside China to determine who had more "Rights" to colonize China. They spent a year and a half fighting each other on Chinese soil, ended with Treaty of Portsmouth. Again ignoring China, U.S. President Roosevelt presided the treaty: Russia lose all its holdings in China and Japan gain effective control southern Manchuria, securing its influence in Korea, which it would officially takeover in 1910. China wasn't even consulted by the foreign colonial powers on how to carve up their share inside China.

Just a few paces from where Japanese PM Koizumi dropped a coin and prayed, is the Yasukuni museum. The museum portrays Japan as both the martyr and savior of Asia to drive "the foreign barbarians", to liberate and protect Asia from Russian Bolshevism and European colonialism. Pearl Harbor was "forced" by "a plot" by President Roosevelt. Japanese-led massacres, Korean comfort women, Chinese sex slaves, tortured PoWs, WMDs are not mentioned.

The Yasukuni Museum display shows Japan as a victim of a conspiracy by Western colonial powers and Japan was forced into war in self-defence to bring peace to Asia.

In a Museum film, Pearl Harbor is described as a "battle for Japan's survival," while one exhibit blames the 1937 Nanjing Massacre on the Chinese leaders who fled the city while ordering their men to fight to the death. After the fall of Nanjing to the Japanese, the museum notes, "the Chinese citizens were once again able to live their lives in peace."

The 50-minute film even questions whether the Japanese invasion of Asia was ever a violation of international law.

The Museum also displays the first engine that travelled the infamous 415 km Railway of Death - Thai-Burma Railway without mentioning the savage death of 16,000 PoWs and 100,000 Asian Slaves, described by Cameron Forbes in his book Hellfire as " built on the Bones of the Dead", i.e. 300 death for each km. The C56 steam locomotive engine of the Thai-Burma Railway of Death was called by ex-PoW Eric Lomax as a "Monument to the Japanese Barbarism".

WWII is called "the Greater East Asian War", invasion of China is described as "China Incident". The Museum displays a reconstructed Zero fighter and a Kaiten or Japanese single-man mini-sub/human torpedo , and the Short Sword used by Gen. Korechika Anami who advocated to continue the War even after the 2 Atomic Bombs.

On display was a kaiten human torpedo, the innocently named "cherry blossom bomb" - a one-trip flying rocket piloted by suicide bombers.

There is also a monument in the shrine tributed to the hated dreadful Japanese Kempeitai , "It is like seeing a memorial to the Gestapo in a German cathedral." said ex-PoW Eric Lomax.

The website of the Yasukuni shrine then declares: "The Truth of modern Japanese History is now restored.”

What if a museum in Germany featuring a Nazi plane, a memorial to the bravery of the Gestapo, a display claiming the Poles welcomed their invaders ?

Again U.S., Britain and other countries remain thundering SILENT.

Okinori Kaya, a Class-A War Criminal for life imprisonment, paroled in 1955, and became Justice Minister. He was instrumental in getting a bill to the Diet that, if passed, would have turned Yasukuni into a national shrine. He kept the bill alive through 5 rejections until finally giving up in 1974.

According to the minutes from a 1969 meeting and documents of some 808 government and shrine documents, released by the National Diet Library in 2007, entitled "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine" , Japanese government initiated and urged the Yasukuni Shrine to enshrine ALL Class-A, B, C War Cirminals.

Enshrinement Politics: war dead and war criminals at Yasukuni Shrine.

in 1959, Yasukuni Shrine began to enshrine Class-B and Class-C war criminals. It had secretly enshrined 1,068 war criminals including 14 Class-A War Criminals in 1978. News of the secret enshrinement caused an uproar when it leaked out 6 months later. It was a serious violation of Japanese Constitution, the separation of religion and state.

In Seoul, Kim Yun-ok said, "The Japanese soldiers enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine are the very ones who Raped our grandmothers."

More than 86 % of the enshrined Japanese soldiers were from WWII. Private Tadokoro Kozo of the 114th division said in 1971 interview, " There wasn't . ANY . soldier who didn't Rape. After things were done, usually we killed them ..... We didn't want to leave any trouble behind .....",

i.e. ALL Japanese WWII soldiers are criminals , committed Mass Rape crime at the least.

According to the published figures in Oct 2001, there were 28,863 Taiwanese and 21,181 Koreans enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine without their families' permission. Most of them were forced into war service under Japan's colonial rule. Since Feb 1978, a group of Taiwanese residents in Japan who had learned about the list started legal proceedings to get the Taiwanese removed from Yasukuni. In Feb 1979, a group of 7 indigenous Taiwanese bereaved relatives came to Japan and, for the first time, demanded that their relatives be removed from enshrinement. The Taiwan Chinese arrived in Tokyo said they want their relatives' names removed from memorial plaques there because it is "morally unpardonable that Murderers and Victims are honored at the SAME place." In June 2001, 55 members of bereaved families from S.Korea filed a suit at the Tokyo District Court demanding the removal from enshrinement of their relatives. Okinawan families sue Yasukuni to end relatives' enshrinement.

In the past 3 years, Taiwan Chinese went to Tokyo 7 times to protest against Yasukuni Shrine , demanding de-enshrinement of their family member of the forcibly conscripted war dead, insisting that "We are not Japanese ! We are the Victims of Japanese war crimes !", but without success in liberating their enslaved ancestral souls.

The "Return the Souls of our Forebears" protest delegation has come to the U.N. and brought with them are 2 old books that record the Japanese army employed the extreme brutal "Three All Policy : Burn All, Loot All, Kill All" in 1913 and 1914 against the Taiwan Aborigines who were resisting the invaders. A Japanese military photographic team followed the fighting, compiled its photographs into these " Pictorial Albums of the Punitive Expedition" and submitted them to the Japanese War Ministry as evidence of the army's "great military achievements".

The 2 albums now serve as undeniable proof of the Japanese army's war crimes. During its invasion and 51-year occupation of Taiwan, Japan killed more than 600,000 Taiwan Chinese people, including large numbers of Aborigines.

For people in Asia, Yasukuni Shrine is a symbol of Japan's brutal militaristic past. It is a potent symbol of how the Japanese intoxicated by fascism and coerced by military rule, once collectively lost their reason and were fed fantastic myths, of racial superiority and the Emperor's divinity.

The brutal military aggression in Asia was promoted and justified by Japan as a sacred mission of the glorified militarism, racial superiority, and emperor worship. Dying for the Emperor was the highest virtue. That was why soldiers believed that they would meet after death at Yasukuni Shrine . It became both a state religion and a political ideology, of which Yasukuni Shrine is the prime symbol.

This is what makes the shrine such a disturbing place. Not the Class-A war criminals, or the Japanese Kempeitai monument, but this destructive ideology, which has survived intact despite war crime trials, democratic government, and more than half a century to analyze, debate, and reflect on the catastrophes of the past.

Japanese prime minister Koizumi is either ignorant or dishonest when he claims that visiting the shrine is simply "a matter of the heart".

Weekly news magazines and commentators on cable television current affairs talk shows have recently taken to describing Mr Koizumi's stance on Yasukuni as "Childish".

General MacArthur once described Japan as "A Nation of 12-year-olds" and Japanese "as a childlike people who would run amok without imperial guidance".

Ian Buruma, author of "The Wages of Guilt" wrote: "A normal society, a society not haunted by ghosts, cannot be achieved by 'normalizing' history. More the other way around..... When society has become sufficiently open and free to look back, from the point of view neither of the victim nor of the criminal, but of the critic, only then will the ghosts be laid to rest."

To the Japanese, 14 years of in-human brutality was a Holy War. They were fighting for the God-like Emperor. According to "Yasukuni Daihyakka" (Yasukuni encyclopedia), a pamphlet published by the Shrine, War Criminals are called "Showa martyrs"

Grand-daughter of Tojo: If there was no Emperor , there would be no Japan ......
DM : But the Emperor himself admits he is Korean.
Grand-daughter of Tojo : I know nothing about his roots , but I was astonished that he said such a thing ......

Japan rediscovers its Korean past . . . . . The Emperor's new roots - Emperor declared his own Korean ancestry.

It is because Japanese Nara city was the capital of Japan from 643 and 794 A.D. where Japan's earliest Emperors were buried. In fact, Conclusive evidences have shown that Japanese Nara Prefecture was actually a Korean colony. The word "Nara" itself means "motherland" in Korean. The Meiji government also agreed that Taizen Kumazawa from Nara was the legitimate heir of the southern Yoshino court.

In 2001, Emperor Akihito said he feels a close "kinship" with Korean and cited the fact that the mother of Emperor Kammu was also a Korean. He also appreciated Korean culture and technology brought to Japan. In fact, more accurately, it should be "from China via Korea to Japan".

In 1984, Emperor Hirohito made similar statement that the Imperial family had a "close kinship" with Korea.

In fact, the anthropologists and archeologists have confirmed that the modern Japanese came quite late from the mainland Asia to Japan only around 400 B.C., that is a very shallow root . DNA research has confirmed Japanese are close genetic kin to both Chinese and Korean.

"Archaeology has made a lot of progress," said Hisao Baba, curator of anthropology at the National Science Museum in Tokyo, "but politics has made it difficult for the Japanese general public to take a critical look at their own past."

Yasukuni Shinto Shrine is a symbol of Japan's failure as a nation to collectively face its past war responsibilities.

Strangely, there are NO human remains at Yasukuni Shrine. In 1952, Japan passed a "Resolution on the recovery and repatriation of the remains of war dead in overseas territories". Strangely, 60 years after, 50 % of Japanese dead soldiers, i.e. more than 1,160,000 of them are still not repatriated. Even now some 600,000 are retrievable. Inside the Biak cave, in a small island of Indonesia, the skulls of Japanese soldiers were set out in a row, their teeth and parts of thigh bones lined up. Every visitor comes to the Biak cave would really wonder: What do the Japanese think about their relatives' bones ? Why Japan and Japanese families don't care and completely dis-concern about the bones of their relatives ? What is this Japanese mentality ? After 65 years, some Japanese soldiers' bone finally going home.

Japanese pacifism is really originated more from a feeling that Japanese suffered during the war rather than from a recognition that Japan started the 14 years long brutal WMD war and caused extreme damage and pain to its Asian neighbors. Therefore, many Japanese do not think they need to be forgiven.

Since the war, only Prime Minister, Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1985 and Ryutaro Hashimoto in 1996, have made the visit, only once. The torrent of protest was enough to persuade them not to make another. However, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, drawing sharp criticism from other Asian countries, visited war shrine the 6th time as PM, and also the first on 15 Aug 2006, the anniversary of Japan's surrender, the most provocative date possible, signing the guest book as prime minister. Koizumi's dangerous game.

Under Article 11 of San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japanese government was to accept the verdit of the Tokyo Tribunal. Japanese Prime Minister to Yasukuni Shrine violates the Peace Treaty. This was why PM Nakasone refrained from further visits in the following years.

Hirohito visited Yasukuni Shrine 8 times as Emperor, last pilgrimage was in 1975. In 1978 the shrine's head priest secretly enshrined 14 Class-A War Criminals. "That's why I have since not visited the shrine" according to the diaries of former palace Grand Steward Tomohiko Tomita. However, many think it was an act of "self-protection" because Hirohito was afraid that their enshrinement would "reignite" debate over his holy responsibility of the war.

What is wrong about Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine to grieve for those who gave their lives for their country in the past war ? Here is an Editorial answer.

First in Feb., Japanese Osaka District Court ruled that the Koizumi's visit was made NOT as a private citizen but in his official capacity.

Then in Apr. 2004, Japanese Fukuoka District Court ruled that Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine has violated Constitution because it violated the separation of state and religion.

Also in Sept 30, 2005 Osaka High Court ruled Koizumi's shrine visits were a religious activity and Un-Constitutional. The Un-Constitutional Ruling stands since the Japanese government cannot appeal to the Supreme Court.

In fact, the question of Constitution was settled in 1991 when Sendai High Court ruled that an official Yasukuni visit by a PM or the Emperor was Un-Constitutional under Article 20 of the national charter.

Koizumi defied logic, insisting that neighboring countries would not be offended by his Un-Constitutional shrine visits.

The visits marked a further step in the resurrection and legitimisation of the symbols of Japan's Militarism.

The largest PoW suit was filed in Tokyo district court on January 30, 1995 by the Miami-based Center for Internee Rights. The suit, representing 33,000 U.S. military PoWs, 14,000 civilian internees and thousands more Dutch, British, Australians and New Zealand survivors, asks for an apology and $22,000 individual compensation from the Japanese government. After many court appearances and testimony this case will be decided by the Tokyo District Court in 1998. The final plaintiff testimony was given in Tokyo court on February 19, 1998.

Karn Parker, an international human rights lawyer fighting in the U.N. and Japanese courts over the last 4 years for the "Comfort Women" which Japan did not even admit until 1993, said Japan's refusal to compensate victims directly could partly be attributed to lack of pressure from other countries, especially the United States and China for political and economic reasons. "It does seem the Japanese government wants these old ladies to die one by one until the whole thing blows over," said Elaine Kim, an Asian Studies professor at UC-Berkeley.

However, things have finally started to change after the collapsing of communist Soviet Union, and the normalization of relationship between U.S. and communist China.

On Dec. 3, 1996, U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) which has focused almost exclusively on Nazi war criminals despite its mandate to pursue BOTH Nazis and their allies, finally took its FIRST STEP toward redressing this imbalance by adding the FIRST 16 Japanese war criminal names on the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment) since it was legislated in 1978 for denying more than 60,000 Nazi German, Austrian, and Italian war criminals entry to U.S.

This is a tiny step the U.S. government recently made to correct its willfully blind policy toward Japan's war crimes but of great significance. As Kei-ichi Tsuneishi, a Japanese Professor at Kanagawa University, says "The decision is likely to shock and wake up the Japanese."

However, Japan is blocking probe of War Criminals and refused to cooperate with the Justice Department to put the names of several hundred surviving veterans on the Watch List.

"Japan is the ONLY country in the world from whom we seek assistance that does not provide it." said Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's office of Special Investigations. Rosenbaum said his office has been able to identify less than 30 Japanese suspects compare to 60,000 Nazi, Austrian, and Italian war criminals on the "Watch List"

"After the war, they were not punished, so why is the U.S. government dealing with this problem now ?" said Masao Okonogi, professor of political science at Keio University in Tokyo.

"This seems to me remarkably hypocritical. At the end of WWII, the U.S. occupying force was aware of the information about Unit 731 but deliberately exonerated the men in return for their agreement to be debriefed on the findings of their atrocious experiments. We agreed to Cover-up their crimes." said John Dower, MIT professor and specialist on modern Japanese history and US relations.

On Jan. 4 1996, the U.N. Human Rights Commission released an official report, submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women by Radhika Coomaraswamy, on the wartime Sex Slavery, and report by International Commision of Jurists, Geneva Comfort Women : An Unfinished Ordeal.

In 1998, another UN report by Special Rapporteur Ms. Gay J. McDougall Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like practices during armed conflict. The reports are founded on years investigation and recommends that Japanese government should assume state responsibility and

1. Acknowledge its violation of international law.
2. Make a public apology in writing to individual women.
3. Pay compensation to individual women.
4. Amending educational curricula to reflect true historical realities.
5. Full disclosure of related documents
6. Identify and punish, as far as possible, involved perpetrators

The support for the U.N. report is growing around the world.

In 1999, the ILO Committee of Experts, i.e. the 20 member quasi-judicial expert body of the International Labour Organization, published its 3rd observation. In Observation concerning Convention No. 29, Forced Labour, 1930 Japan, the ILO Committee turned down the Japan's argument that the Convention should not be applied in the event of war. The Committee found Japan's violations of the Convention 29 concerning not only the issue of Sex Slaves but also the issue of Slave laborers by the Japanese industries during WWII.

Germany now appears to have regained the trust of her neighbors while in vivid contrast, the current resurgence of Japanese Militarism continues to invite suspicion from Asia.

Sept. 17, 1987, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the redress bill HR 442 (The Civil Liberties Act of 1988) for the wrongful internment of Japanese-American during WWII. That is a formal, unambiguous and unequivocal government apology. A copy of the U.S. Presidential Letter of Apology was sent with reparations checks of $20,000 to Japanese-American victims.

1. Acknowledge that the internment order violated basic civil liberties
   and constitutional rights.
2. Make a formal apology to the Japanese-American for the internment.
3. US $1.37 billion in compensation - $20,000 to each survivor.
4. US $50 million fund to educate the American public about the internment.

In 1988, the Japanese-Canadian also successfully managed to get

1. A formal apology from Canadian government to Japanese-Canadian.
2. Canadian $291 million compensation fund - $21,000 each in compensation.
3. Canadian $50 million educational fund.

During the war, to revenge, the Japanese government interned all the Americans and Western people about 2008 of them including children into prison camps in China until 1945. Cliff Chadderton, chairman of the National Council of Veteran Associations in Canada, has been trying unsuccessfully for the past 12 years to get compensation from Japan for the Canadian PoW since 1985. The PoW were captured by the Japanese on the Christmas Day 1941 in Hong Kong. They spent four years of extreme hardship as slave labourers. Many died in the Japanese prison camps. Mr. Chadderton said, "It is a legal debt owed by the Japanese".

Dec. 12, 1998 Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Canada has lobbied Japan unsuccessfully on the subject for some time. The government decided that time was too important for the aging vets to waste it on prolonged legal fights, so it paid up on its own to each PoW Cad $24,000.

During the 14 years brutal WWII invasion into China, Japan not only manufactured huge quantity of WMD Biological Weapons, it also mass produced WMD Chemical Weapons by its top-secret Chemical Weapons research facility Unit 615. Japan had used these destructive weapon in more that 2,000 battles against the Chinese and caused great civilian casualties. It has been estimated that 700,000 - 2,000,000 Chemical Bombs most of them loaded with mustard gas and many of them corroded and leaking, are still scattered in China.

Tokyo finally acknowledged the existence of WMD Chemical Weapon Unit 516 and is now helping to preventing the disaster, on the quiet. But Japan's efforts already come too late for approx. 2000 Chinese had already been injured by these abandoned deadly WMD Chemical Weapons.

Feb. 9 1997, as a signatory of Chemical Weapons Convention banning chemical weapons, Japanese government finally proposed that it may plan to build a large factory in Northern China to destroy these deadly weapons. After the treatment the extreme poisonous solid remainder - Arfrodic must be transported back to Japan for disposal. So far there is no concrete agreement. International chemical weapon prevention organization has pressed Japanese government to cleanup the weapons in 5 years, but the Japanese government said may need 10 years due to the large quantity of these deadly WMD Chemical Weapons. According to UN regulation, the chemical weapon must be destroyed by 2007.

Many deaths resulted e.g. owing to the poison gas released while dredging the Songhua River in Heilongjiang Province, and poison gas leaked out during sewerage construction on Guanghua Avenue in Mudanjiang City etc. Victims of these deadly WMD Chemical Weapons are now suing Japanese government and demanding compensation. The will be hearing in Tokyo court in July, 1997.

Feb. 12, 1997 Mrs. Li XiuYing, a Nanjing Massacre survivor, who is now 79 years old, tearfully recalled in the Tokyo court about the atrocities she had suffered 60 years ago : She was 19 years old with 7 months pregnancy. To avoid being raped, she forcefully smashed her head against the brick wall determined to suicide. She didn't die but fainted. After she woke up, she found herself lying on a cot. Then a Japanese soldier came to rape her. She again fought fiercely. Other soldiers came and used their bayonets keep stabbing her again, again and again for a total of 37 times during the fight. She lost her 7 months old fetus. She was later rescued by Mr. Magee and miraculously she survived. Magee used his camera and recorded her terrible conditions on film.

The 20-minutes film is now being used as the proof in the lawsuit against the Japanese government. Ms. Li and 9 others including some 731 survivors went to Tokyo to testify. "Japanese Government MUST apologize and compensate for the massacre." demanded 79 years old Mrs. Li in the court, "I want the whole world to known that it was such an In-human War." Their trip to Japan was organized and sponsored by a group of 200 courageous and conscientious Japanese lawyers, scholars and others so that the Japanese can be better educated through the court hearing.

The lawsuit is supported by the Society to Support the Demands of Chinese War Victims (SuoPei). Other SuoPei cases are:

• Forced Relocation to Japan, and Forced Labor
• Comfort Women
• Pingdingshan Incident: 3,000 people were massacred in Liaoning Province. The pretext for this slaughter was reprisal for cooperating with guerrillas in the resistance movement.)
• Abandoned Poison Gas and Bombs

March 20, 1997 the U.S. Justice Department added 17 more names to the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment) barring these Japanese War criminals from ever entering U.S.

March 27, 1997 the Center for Internee Rights (CFCIR, Inc.), representing former PoWs and civilian internees brutalized by Japanese forces, turned over 100 additional names of suspected Japanese war criminals to the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment) has more than 60,000 Nazis, Austrian, and Italian war criminals , but has less than 30 Japanese names added since 1996.

June 27 1997, Frits Kalshoven, a legal expert, Dutch professor emeritus at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, appeared as an expert in international humanitarian law suit filed by 46 former Philippine sex slaves in 1993 seeking 20 million yen each in damages for being forced to serve as "Comfort Women" during WWII.

The Japanese government insisted that individual war victims cannot sue a state based on international law and the postwar peace treaties have already settled the issue. Kalshoven pointed out that Article 3 of the Hague Convention of 1907 clearly implies, although it doesn't spell out, that individuals have rights to claim compensation against a state.

June 23 1997, Kalshoven also appeared as an expert witness in another damages suit in which 8 former Dutch PoWs and civilian internees, are demanding 2.2 million yen each.

Chinese citizens have for years been barred by their government from making claims for compensation from Japan. The number of surviving victims has continued to fall. The few alive are now more than 80 years old.

July, 1997 the Nanjing municipal government finally decided to trace massacre survivors, victims and witnesses. With the help of 10 thousand high school students including some Japanese student reps from 14 schools of Japan as summer camp activity, about 2630 survivors were found. The Nanjing City Notary Association also issued them with certificates in batches. Hope the Nanjing government will soon do more to help survivors in their endeavor to obtain justice.

July 25 1997, Resolution HCR 126, condemning Japan for its atrocities in WWII is also being introduced by Congressman Lipinski, Stump, and others. It calls for the Japanese government to :

1. Formally issue a clear and unambiguous apology.
2. Immediately pay compensation to all the victims of Japanese WWII war crimes.

The bill was cosponsored by 78 members of House of Representatives. Over 12,000 petitions had been gathered from every State in the Union in support of this legislation and over 50 veterans and military and human rights organizations are supporting HCR 126. Although it did not pass in the 105th Congress, a similar resolution will be introduced as soon as the 106th Congress is started in 1999.

August 11 1997, 108 Chinese filed a law suit involving the former Japanese Imperial Army's germ warfare in Tokyo District Court demanding $9.39 million compensation and apologies from the Japanese government. This was the latest in a series of court cases against Japanese WWII crimes. Kouken Tsuchiya, the plaintiffs' chief lawyer, said they needed such long time to gather evidence before filing suit because the Japanese government had covered up the germ warfare. The Japanese Imperial Army carried out germ warfare despite a ban under the 1925 Geneva convention.

Sept 22, 1997, Japanese steelmaker, Nippon Steel Corp. and the families of 11 Koreans have reached an out-of-court settlement for a lawsuit filed 2 years ago for using them as forced labor during WWII. The company will pay more than $163,000 in "condolence money" to each of the victims. "We are not completely happy with the settlement, but we wanted to focus more on the positive side -- the fact that a Japanese company is paying money for the victims and their memorial services," Akihiko Oguchi said. The families, however, plan to continue their legal fight against the Japanese government. Nippon Steel and many other corporate giants today, have said they only operated under government orders. Companies, including NKK Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kajima Corp., face similar lawsuits.

In Germany, the Federal Compensation Law for slave labour were established in 1953. Claims are valid for damage to health, persecution and for being kept in prison-like conditions.

Oct 7, 1997, 37 Japanese lawyers and scholars of a group established earlier this year, including lawyer Koken Tsuchiya, the former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Hosei University Professor Yoko Tajima and novelist Ayako Miurars, will push for legislation that would make Japanese government directly compensate foreign WWII victims. The group will urge a nonpartisan group of Diet members to introduce 2 bills, One bill would be aimed at investigating "violations of international humanitarian law" committed by the Japan before and during WWII. The other would enable a provisional payment by the government to the comfort women.

Nov. 1997, South Korean National Assembly decided to prohibit entry of war criminals into South Korea.

Dec. 10, 1997 the Tokyo District Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chinese former slave laborers during WWII. The lawyer Takashi Niimi said the group will appeal. In February, Judge Sonobe angered the plaintiffs when he, during an oral hearing, suddenly announced that the court would wrap up its deliberations without questioning the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs immediately filed for dismissal of the judges, but the Tokyo High Court rejected the motion. "An unjust ruling like this has not only hurt the Hanaoka victims," he said, "but also has downgraded the credibility and dignity of the Japanese justice system."

The plaintiffs claim that 986 Chinese were forcibly brought from China to Hanaoka copper mine in Akita and were slaved into hard labor for Kajima-gumi, the predecessor of Kajima Corp. In June 1945, the Chinese revolted and were soon rounded up and tortured. In the end, 113 Chinese died by torture. They sued the giant construction firm in June 1995, demanding 5.5 million yen each in damages for malnutrition, slave labor and torture.

Dec 15, 1997 The film "Don't Cry Nanjing" was finished back in 1995. But it has taken until the 60th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre to get it shown in Japan, but many cinemas in Japan are reluctant to screen the film.

Jan 12, 1998 Japan tried to apologize to Britain to smooth the visit of Emperor Akihito to Britain in May, for the suffering of prisoners during WWII. Japan also offered 1.3 million fund for the grandsons of the British PoWs to study in Japan for 1 year. But the veterans in both England and Canada rejected it as too little and too late. "There are several ways in which you can say sorry in Japanese without in any way apologizing. If it is not the form of Japanese that says, 'We apologize' [i.e. use more sincere Japanese word " shazai ", NOT much less sincere Japanese word "owabi"], I say so what ?" said Roger Cyr. " They were waiting for us to die then and they are waiting for us to die now." said Arthur Titherington.

On the very same day, Germany agreed to establish a fund of 200 million marks to compensate Jewish victims in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. They were barred from receiving the substantial compensation because of Cold War politics. Payments will be released over a period of 4 years starting in 1999.

In Hong Kong, Mr. Ng Yat-Hing, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Reparation Association, tells another fact that from 1941 to 1945, HK was under the control of Japanese Imperial Army. During this dark period, all other currencies were forbidden except the Japanese Military Yen, called Gunpyo. HK residents were forced to hand out their HK and foreign currency, gold, jewelry etc to exchange the Military Yen. Whoever disobeyed were executed. All the gold and valuables were either shipped back to Japan or used to buy military materials. The exchange rate at that time was 2 to 4 HK dollars for 1 Military Yen. After the war, the Military Yen immediately became worthless paper. Many residents were bankrupted and some became beggars while others starved to death. Many families had become broke over night. For decades, the Association has been unsuccessfully demanding the Japanese government to take the responsibility of exchanging the Military Yen which totals 540 million, now valued at about US $1.28 Billion, back to HK dollars. In August 1993, they filed a law suit with the Tokyo District Court. There has been 28 hearings in the Japanese court. The Japanese government is still trying to forgo its duty.

June 17, 1999 the Tokyo District Court rejected their request. Presiding Judge Seiichiro Nishioka acknowledged that the exchange of HK dollars with Military Yen was compulsory. He said, "Whether the plaintiffs should be compensated is not a matter to be decided by the courts but one to be decided by the Diet." "We are not demanding for war compensation, we are demanding Japan to pay back their legal debt", said Mr. Ng. "The Japanese government's fraudulent act of reneging on its debts will remain in history." Japanese courts rejected a similar claim filed by a Taiwan Chinese woman on her Military Yen in the early 1980s.

Mar 12, 1998, the Japanese Supreme Court will rule : In 1987, Mr. Shiro Azuma, a retired Japanese soldier, published "My Nanking Platoon" a diary describing his days in Nanjing. It described criminal acts committed by the Japanese Imperial Army which included savage killings, malicious rapes and countless war atrocities. Mituharu Hashimoto and his former officer Hideo Mori claimed the diary is a collection of lies. The Tokyo Lower Court ruled against Azuma. Mr. Azuma wrote in his recent letter, "On March 12, 1998 exactly at 2 pm, I will testify in the Supreme Court, and I will tell the truth of the Nanjing Massacre. The seats for the public hearing will, without doubt, be filled with the Kaikosha Society, the group of the old Japanese Imperial army officers...... I am 86 year old now, but I will fight to death like a young man, but this time is not for the Emperor but for the Justice and the History."

Dec 23, 1998 Dismissing the appeal, presiding Judge Koetsu Okuyama of the Tokyo High Court said Azuma's diary describes some Imperial Japanese Army actions that cannot be recognized as fact. Expressing strong disapproval of the ruling, Azuma's lawyers said they will appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

Apr. 6, 1998, a US $11 millions movie " Pride - The Fateful Moment" about Tojo's trial and execution was released by Toei Co. in Japan. Gen. Hideki Tojo, a class-A war criminal, was Japan's prime minister in 1941 and gave the go-ahead for the attack on Pearl Harbor. He stepped down in 1944 to take responsibility for the fall of Saipan. The movie's cast said they wanted to correct what they called misconceptions. Tojo, they said, took Japan to war in self-defense and to liberate Asia from control by white Western colonizers.

The growing popularity of such views here can be seen by the crowds that lined up to see the movie, making it one of the top-grossing domestic films of last year with proceeds of $169 million. By contrast, only a handful of theaters dared to show "Nanjing 1937," a Chinese film released at almost the same time. Right-wing protesters even slashed the screen at a Tokyo theater where the film was shown.

Apr. 21, 1998 failing to give any specific arguments or evidence Kunihiko Saito, the Japanese Ambassador to Washington took the extraordinary move of attacking the international best selling book The Rape of Nanking - The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII.

In addition, Saito sternly warned members of the US House of Representatives not to sponsor the HCR 126. The bill currently has 63 cosponsors and various victims groups and veterans groups are pushing for its passage prior to the adjournment of the 105th Congress. Over 12,000 petitions have been gathered from every State in the Union in support of this legislation and over 50 veterans and military and human rights organizations are supporting HCR 126.

Rabbi Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote a protest letter to Japanese Ambassador Saito for failing to provide "any specific details to back up your serious allegations." In April 28 reply to the rabbi's letter, Ambassador Saito merely quoted from the war apology read by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on Aug. 15, 1995 and offer no specific back up for his allegations. But the apology in 1995 was not passed by Japanese parliament.

Apr 27, 1998 calling the army's actions an example of sexual and ethnic discrimination and a "fundamental violation of human rights", Japan's Yamaguchi District Court Judge Hideaki Chikashita ruled that Japan must compensate the 3 South Korean women forced into sexual slavery during WWII with $2,300 each. The lawsuit was filed in 1992 by 10 women who demanded about $4.2 million in compensation for the pain they had suffered. However, the court rejected claims by 7 of the women, who had demanded in the same lawsuit that the Japanese government pay them for being slaved to work during the war. Seita Yamamoto, attorney for the 3 women, said he would appeal for more money and apology. Some are outraged," he said. Still, he called the ruling a big step in the right direction.

Japanese government has refused to compensate individual war victims, arguing that postwar treaties settled all wartime claims. Japan has paid $760,000 to former sex slaves, but through a privately funded body "Asian Women's Fund" so it could skirt admitting official responsibility. Many women have refused to accept money from the fund, which they say reflects Japan's failure to show true remorse for its wartime actions. Japanese government spokesman Kanezo Muraoka called the ruling "regrettable". Both the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Seoul declined comment. The ruling is likely to profoundly affect other 5 pending cases and encourage others to file similar lawsuits.

May 26, 1998 Japanese Emperor Akihito visited England while survivors of PoW turned their backs and booed the newly arrived Emperor. Some protesters whistled Colonel Bogey, the tune associated with the film Bridge on the River Kwai. Many wore red gloves to symbolize the blood they said was on Japan's hands. They were seeking $22,800 compensation and an sincere apology.

June 22 1998 Author Iris Chang has challenged to a public debate six Japanese scholars who say the 1937 "Rape of Nanking" never happened. "These revisionists are engaged in a second rape of Nanking - the Rape of History," she said. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks Nazi war criminals, likened Japanese revisionists to those who say that accounts of the Nazi Holocaust were fictionalized or exaggerated. "Japan cannot be trusted as a member of the community of nations until it once and for all, sincerely and genuinely, apologizes for its deeds during World War II -- beginning with Nanking," Cooper said.

June 25, 1998 Yoshio Shinozuka, Takemitsu Ogawa and Shiro Azuma are all aging Japanese veterans who repeatedly have admitted participating in WWII atrocities, and wanted to bring their quest for redemption to the US and Canada. Mr. Shiro Azuma got a severe cold and abandoned his plan to go abroad. Ironically US and Canada barred Shinozuka from entering the country due to their past war crimes.

The US Justice Department barred Shinozuka as a result of a 1996 decision to add suspected Japanese war criminals to the "Watch List" (Holtzman Amendment), which contained names of more than 60,000 Nazi, Austrian, and Italian war criminals. But has less than 30 Japanese names added since 1996.

Shinozuka argued that those like himself who want to tell the truth about war crimes should not be on the "Watch List".

Saburo Ienaga, a professor of Japanese history who has battled with mixed success to get Japanese high school textbooks to include the facts of the country's conduct in World War II, suspects that the U.S. government fears Shinozuka's testimony would embarrass American officials. "He will cause them problems, not because of what he did, but because of what he knows."

They were scheduled to take part in a historical tour called " The Forgotten Holocaust of WWII in Asia." and forum of "A Glimpse of Reconciliation-Unit 731 Photo Exhibition". It was organized by The Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. It traveled five cities: Toronto, New York, Washington, D.C., Vancouver and San Francisco from late June to early July. Mr. Koken Tsuchiya, a senior lawyer from Tokyo, was leading the delegation. He is also the chief attorney for the lawsuit of 108 Chinese germ warfare victims against the Japanese government.

Of the 3 eyewitness, only Dr. Takemitsu Ogawa was allowed to enter into the US to give his testimony. In recalling the basis of Japanese military training, Ogawa explained that it was a training of killing with the three-all policy: kill all, burn all, and loot all. Even with the thorough education system at the time to brainwash the Imperial soldiers, many were not psychologically fit to kill and developed autonomic ataxia with symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, abnormal fever, incontinent urine, asthma, spasm, paralysis of one side of the body, etc.

"The soldiers knew that if they deserted the three-all order, they would be shot dead. In those extreme situations, they showed abnormal symptoms - that was extreme autonomic ataxia," Ogawa explained. One of "The soldier was so afraid to return to the battlefield that he killed himself." Ogawa's testimony sheds light on Japan's experience on the war -something that its government and people had for a long time kept silent about.

July 31 1998, Japanese new agriculture minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who is opposed to describing Japan's wartime atrocities in school textbooks, said that Asian women may not have been forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels during WWII. A few hours later, he retracted them. "They were forcibly recruited," He said at a later news conference. The new Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi played down the incident.

In the past Japanese cabinet ministers have frequently made similar public comments DENYING atrocities Japan committed during WWII, with some losing their posts over the statements. As in January 1997, Seiroku Kajiyama, a LDP contender for the premiership, claimed that "comfort women" had provided sex to Japanese troops "for money."

Feb. 1999 Nobukatsu Fujioka, a professor at Tokyo University and the chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform which aims to erase all Japan's atrocities from text book, "Comfort women were not sexual slaves" said the professor. They were simply prostitutes taken to war zones by private brokers," Fujioka told a luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

August 23, 1998 Banned from entering North America, 4 Japanese veterans made a global Internet Web Apology over a satellite video link to panelists at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Click here to view and listen to the testimonies of Japanese Witnesses.

Hakudo Nagatomi said he had witnessed part of the weeks of slaughter from late 1937 to early 1938 at Nanking. Later, as a member of the Imperial Army's tokumu kikan (intelligence force) in China, he had "burned to death" two children inside their house, a crime for which their mother confronted him at a trial in China after the war. "I am so sorry," said Nagatomi, weeping. "I would like a judge to punish me. That is the only way I can repent."

Two of the other Japanese veterans Shiro Azuma and Yoshio Shinozuka, had both been denied entry in June to the US and Canada for their suspected involvement in "crimes against Humanity. Azuma has become well-known in Japan for publishing a diary he kept as a soldier in Nanking that details atrocities. He has since been threatened many times by rightists in Japan, and accused of libel and fabrication by other Army veterans, including his former platoon commander, who are suing him in court. Azuma said he had personally bayonetted to death 37 Chinese civilians, "old men and women, some cradling children in their arms, just like potatoes on a skewer."

Shinozuka, a member of the Imperial Army's infamous "Unit 731" said he took part in the mass cultivation of fleas to carry bubonic plague, and of typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, plague and anthrax germs. He also took part in the live vivisection of five Chinese prisoners who had been infected with plague germs to test their deadly efficacy. At Unit 731, Shinozuka and his colleagues would dismissively refer to these guinea pigs by their code name--"maruta" (wooden logs). This slang derived from the cover story during the construction period: The Chinese laborers and inhabitants of Ping Fan were told that the huge complex was destined to become a lumber mill.

A former co-member of the Unit 731 "youth corps," Kanetoshi Tsuruta said he also took part in the Nomonhan offensive, dumping liquid from an oil drum into a river which had been laced with typhoid bacilli.

Sheldon Harris, professor emeritus of history at California State University and author of the book, "Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover-up" stressed the enormous scale of Japan's top-secret biological warfare (BW) effort and of the atrocities committed in the process. "My calculation, which is very conservative, and based on incomplete sources as the major archives are still closed, is that 10,000 to 12,000 human beings were exterminated in lab experiments. Most were wiped out in four to six weeks, but sometimes it took 6 months," Harris told the satellite conference.

In addition, BW "field tests were carried out all over China including Manchuria," in which "a quarter of a million innocent people were wiped out ... This was a massive undertaking by the entire Japanese scientific community of the time," Harris told the global audience, "there were BW laboratories in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanking, Singapore, Rangoon and Bangkok," he said.

"The U.S. government is as culpable for inaction as Japan, and the Canadian, British, Dutch and Australian governments knew about it ... While the US "bears a major responsibility" for the coverup of Unit 731, the greater responsibility lies with Japanese."

Tokyo panelist Koken Tsuchiya, the chief lawyer for 108 Chinese victims and relatives of victims of Japanese biological warfare, said, "I am embarrassed as a Japanese by the attitude of the Japanese government of not revealing, on its own, information about BW activity and issuing an apology."

Akira Fujiwara, emeritus professor of history at Hitotsubashi University, added, "There are still politicians in Japan today who deny that the Imperial Army committed atrocities in Nanking. Those who speak out against the atrocities at Nanking receive threatening letters from rightists .... Like Auschwitz symbolizes the atrocities committed during the war by the Nazis, so does Nanking symbolize the worst atrocities committed by the Japanese Army"

Sept 22, 1998 Following Volkswagen's lead, Siemens announced its own plans for a 20 million mark fund to compensate former slave laborers forced to work for the company by the Nazis during WWII, in addition to the 7.2 million marks it had paid to the Jewish Claims Conference in 1961 to provide humanitarian help for the victims. Along with Siemens and Volkswagen, Krupp, Daimler-Benz, Audi and BMW are named in a New York lawsuit seeking a portion of the company profits for thousands of former slave laborers.

Oct. 9, 1998 The Tokyo District Court rejected claims by 46 Filipinas who said they should be compensated for being forced into prostitution by the Japanese military during WWII. The judge ruled against the women saying they could make no individual claims against a nation without international laws to support the action. Lawyers for the women argued that the 1907 Hague Convention requires a nation to pay compensation if it violates the terms of the convention.

The ruling is in stark contrast to two special reports issued by the United Nations that have proposed that Tokyo compensate individuals forced into sex slavery during WWII. official report, submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women by Radhika Coomaraswamy, on the wartime Sex Slavery, and report by International Commision of Jurists, Geneva Comfort Women : An Unfinished Ordeal.

In 1998, another UN report by Special Rapporteur Ms. Gay J. McDougall Systematic Rape, Sexual Slavery and Slavery-like practices during armed conflict.

Oct. 9, 1998 Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi issued his country's apology which was more sincere than those made in the past to the South Korean people for its 35 years of wartime brutal colonial rule. A joint declaration made by Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, said Obuchi "expressed deep remorse and extended a heartfelt apology to the people of South Korea, having humbly accepted the historical fact that Japan inflicted heavy damage and pain on the people of South Korea through its colonial rule." But he made no mention of sex slaves. It was the first written apology ever issued to an individual country by Japan for its actions before and during WWII.

The South Korean leader promised Obuchi a gradual opening up to Japanese cultural imports, banned since the Japanese occupation ended in 1945. Japanese movies, popular songs and even cars are prohibited in South Korea. Obuchi offered Kim a loan package to beat its economic downtrun. Many insisted that Japan must pay compensation to the "comfort women".

Nov. 26 1998 Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Tokyo for a six-day visit, becoming the first Chinese head of state to set foot in Japan. However, Japan's inability to apology for its wartime crimes to China was back onstage in a big way. This suggests a sinister failure by Tokyo to renounce its past or to mend its ways. It also casts doubt on the sincerity of previous Japanese attempts to apologize to its neighbours. It also reflects the power of right-wing groups within and outside Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

At the same time, the Tokyo District Court tersely rejected a lawsuit filed in 1995 by WWII PoWs and civilian internees demanding an apology and US $22,000 compensation for each detainee. "I spit on the doorstep of the Diet. There's no justice in this country." Arthur Titherington, a former PoW said after the ruling. "Germany has been able to mollify the world about its wartime past because they didn't hide things, like Japan did," Yasuo Kurata said.

Nov. 30 1998 The Tokyo District Court dismissed a damages suit filed in 1994 by seven Dutch men imprisoned by Japanese military forces and a Dutch woman forced into Sex Slavery during WWII, seeking $22,000 each in compensation. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued that Article 3 of the 1907 Hague Convention allows individual victims of war to claim damages from the nation whose armed forces violated rules of war, such as humanitarian treatment of PoWs and respect for the life and rights of residents in the occupied territories. Presiding Judge Taichi Kajimura acknowledged both the inhuman brutal treatment against the plaintiffs and its illegality. Nevertheless, he dismissed the plaintiffs' claims for compensation, saying international law does not give individuals the right to seek redress for suffering during war. The government maintained that the Hague Convention, which Japan ratified in 1911, stipulates state-to-state relations and cannot be applied to individuals.

The recognition of both the inhumane brutal treatment against the plaintiffs and its illegality "is very important -- in relation to the Hague Convention of 1907," said plaintiff Gerard Jungslager "We are going to appeal because individuals' rights have not yet been recognized.... However, the most important step is that the first step has been set in the right direction."

March 28, 1999, In Japan Tokyo, a controversial $12 billion yen national museum, Showa Hall Museum was officially opened. It is Japan's first museum about the WWII. However, inside there is nothing about Japanese war crimes - comfort wowen, Nanjing massacre, Unit 731, germ warfare, not even Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima etc. Kazuo Ohashi, a pacifist, was so outraged by Showa Hall he has filed a lawsuit with his supporters accusing the government of misusing tax money to build it. "It's a sham," Ohashi said. "The museum contains nothing about the war." His lawsuit is pending in a Tokyo court.

Apr. 1999 In a landmark settlement, giant steelmaker NKK Corp. agreed to pay US $34,000 to a South Korean man who was forcibly brought to Japan for slave labor during WWII. This is the second court-brokered settlement of such a suit. The first payment by a Japanese company to a plaintiff -- a bereaved family receiving payment from a company in the first case. Kim Kyung Suk, 72, filed his lawsuit in 1991 demanding 10 million yen in damages and an apology from the company. Though the court admitted NKK's wrongdoing, it dismissed any responsibility of the steel giant, saying the 20-year statute of limitations had already run out. His lawyer, Kazuyuki Azusawa, says the threat of losing a subway contract in Seoul may have prompted the settlement, "Japanese companies are not sincere,".

May 1999, Canada ALPHA is launching a electronic postcard sending campaign to support the Canada Federal Bill C-479 Recognition of Crimes Against Humanity Act. The purpose of the Bill is to mandate the establishment of an exhibit in the Canadian Museum of Civilization to recognize the crimes against Humanity as defined by the United Nations that have been perpetrated during the twentieth century. If this Bill is passed, then exhibits on the systematic and organized atrocities and crimes against Humanity committed by the Japanese military machine throughout Asia before and during WW II will be included in the national Musuem of Civilization.

Aug. 24, 1999 The California State Assembly approved the resolution AJR 27 by urging Japan to apologize for its wartime atrocities and offer individual compensation to American veterans, former sex slaves and other victims. They also passed laws extending the statute of limitations for WWII lawsuits to 2010. The resolution maintains that the Japanese actions are not enough, and calls on the Japanese government to issue a "clear and unambiguous apology." It calls on U.S. Congress and the President to also seek an apology and reparations from Japan.

July 1999 9 Taiwan Chinese women forced to work as sex slaves are taking the Tokyo government to court demanding 10 million yen each in compensation and an official apology. At least 2,000 Taiwan Chinese women were forced to work as comfort women but only about 40 disclosed their grief.

Aug 9, 1999 Japan's parliament voted 166 to 71 enacted bitterly contested legislation enshrining as national symbols the notorious rising sun flag and the imperial hymn Kimigayo as the national anthem. Comdemned by hundreds protesters demonstrated outside the building because of their connection with Japan's militarist and imperial past.

Aug. 27, 1999 In a 15-2 resolution, the U.N. Subcommission on Human Rights rejected Japan's reasons for denying government compensation to women forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military during WWII. It stressed that under international law, governments are responsible for war crimes and other rights violations committed by their soldiers. The Japanese governments "shall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation".

Aug. 1999 Ralph Levenberg filed a class-action suit under a new California law that authorizes any World War II slave-labor victim to sue for compensation. The defendant is Nippon Sharyo, one of Japan's biggest makers of railroad cars. Levenberg is demanding compensation and a clear, no wiggle-room apology. Levenberg's lawyers already have other big Japanese corporations in their sights, including heavyweights like Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. Both firms were named in a suit Levenberg filed earlier this year in a U.S. federal district court and both could face litigation under the new California law.

If companies in Europe are moving, however reluctantly, to close the final accounts of the war, their counterparts in Japan have not yet begun. At least 46 war redress suits have been filed in Japanese courts, Not one case has been won. According to attorney Yoshitaka Takagi, 3 cases have been settled out of court, including a forced labor case against steel giant NKK Corp. In 2 cases, the courts ruled that the plaintiffs had been wronged, though they declined to order restitution, saying it is up to parliament to decide whether and how to compensate victims.

Sept 3, 1999 A California based lawyer Barry Fisher urged the Japanese and U.S. government, Japanese companies to disclose wartime documents that would expose facts about the forced labor of American prisoners of war in Japan during WWII, whereas the German government recently disclosed papers that revealed over 500 firms were involved in the Holocaust.

Sept 13, 1999 500 American ex-PoWs used as slave laborers during WWII are seeking an apology and compansation. The lawsuit, which seeks nationwide class-action status, was filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, N.M., against five Japanese companies - Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Mitusi & Co., Inc., Mitsubishi International Corp., Nippon Steel Corp., and Showa Denko, They used POWs to produce war goods between 1942 and 1945. Such actions are illegal under the Geneva Convention and various treaties that Japan's wartime government promised to honor. Eli J. Warach, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit comes more than 50 years after the war because evidence and information withheld by U.S. agencies during the Cold War was only recently declassified. Several ex-PoWs also said U.S. officials warned them in 1945 and asked them to sign secrecy document not to discuss their experiences.

Sept 22, 1999 The Tokyo court ruled that it does not acknowledge the right of a foreign individual to seek compensation for war damages from Japan. The lawyer of 10 Chinese plaintiff, Hiroshi Oyama complained that the decision was based less on the law than on the judges' personal political views. The plaintiffs will appeal, said another of their lawyers, Harumi Watanabe. They demanded compensation for suffering caused by wartime biological experiments, the Rape of Nanking and the firebombing of Yong'an city. The Japanese government has acknowledged that during the war its Unit 731, based in the Chinese city of Harbin, conducted experiments with bubonic plague, anthrax and cholera on thousands of Allied prisoners of war and Chinese civilians.

Oct. 27, 1999 Members of the LA-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and the New York-based Alliance in Memory of Victims of the Nanjing Massacre met with Attorney General Janet Reno and Pentagon officials. The activists said US officials promised to persuade Japan to supply information about human experiments in WWII. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., sent a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi urging that his government release the documents. If not complied, Lantos said he plans to sponsor legislation in Congress that would declassify U.S. documents relating to WWII in hopes of finding information. Meanwhile, Cooper and other activists want Washington to modify the amnesty granted to Japanese veterans or express some regret. "If the U.S. will acknowledge its moral error perhaps that will inspire the Japanese to look at this black hole," Cooper said.

Nov. 4 1999 Japan's leading journalist Honda Katsuichi reflected on the Nanjing Massacre to the world through the internet. Click here to listen. He also discussed his new book The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shame.

Dec. 7, 1999 On the anniversary of Japan's attach on Pearl Harbor, New York lawyer Edward D. Fagan, best known for his billion-dollar lawsuits on behalf of Jewish Holocaust survivors, filed a class action lawsuit against the Japanese industrial giants Mitsui, Mitsubishi Corp. and Nippon Steel Corp. on behalf of former prisoners of war who were used as slave laborers. A total of 18 class action lawsuits have already been filed in the U.S, with dozens more planned.

Nov. 8, 1999 US. Congressmen introduced Resolution H.3254 codifying WWII war crimes claims. H.3245 is a parallel bill to Resolution S.1856, introduced last Thursday in the Senate, to amend title 28 of the United States Code to authorize Federal district courts to hear civil actions to recover damages or secure relief for certain injuries to persons and property under or resulting from the Nazi regime and its wartime allies including Japan. It furthers the resolve of the U.S. Congress to bring proper closures to outstanding WWII civil liability issues.

November 10, 1999 Resolution S.1902 was introduced to review and examine wartime documents related to Japanese war crimes from 1931 to 1948, declassify them and released to the National Archive for public access. It is a parallel bill to a US Senate resolution S.1379 passed by unanimous consent in both the Senate and the House last year to declassify all Nazi war crime records through a similar interagency.

Dec. 17, 1999 German, U.S. and east European officials agreed to setup a US $5.2 billion fund to compensate Nazi-era slave and forced labourers, about $8,000 for each in a concentration camp and about $3,200 for each non-concentration camp forced labourer. Payment would start in the middle of year 2000.

Dec. 24, 1999 Japan finally announced that its government will spend US $27.7 million dollars to destroy all their Chemical Weapon left in China during WWII. It is estimated 700,000 - 2,000,000 Chemical Bombs still scattered in China. Many of them are corroded and leaking and have caused many causalities to the Chinese. As a signatory of Chemical Weapons Prevention Treaty, Japan is pressed by the International chemical weapon prevention organization to cleanup in 5 years, but the Japanese government said 10 years are required due to the large quantity of these deadly WMD Chemical Weapons. According to UN regulation, the chemical weapon must be destroyed by 2007.

Jan. 2000 Officials in the Japan's 3rd-biggest city of Osaka said they had no choice but to let a nationalist group hold a conference, ironically in the Osaka Peace Center, with the theme "The Biggest Lie of the 20th Century" insisting that the 1937 Nanjing Massacre never occurred. The same citizens' group organised a screening of the Japanese film Pride - The Fateful Moment which depicts WWII leader Hideki Tojo as a heroic warrior rather than a Class A War Criminal at the same facility in 1998.

Voices dismissing or greatly playing down Japan's wartime crimes are regularly heard from Japanesee political, academic and media establishment. The governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, for one, has frequently called the Nanjing Massacre a lie. In the past Japanese cabinet ministers also frequently made similar public denying comments with some losing their posts over the statements. In January 1997, Seiroku Kajiyama, a LDP contender for the premiership, even claimed that "comfort women" had provided sex to Japanese troops "for money".

Jan. 19, 2000 U.S. Nebraska State Senator Don Preiester of Omaha and 12 of his Senate colleagues have introduced Legislative Resolution 298 (LR 298) condemning the atrocities Japanese military committed in the WWII and demanding the Government of Japan to offer formal apology and compensations to its victims. A similar resolution passed in California, namely AJR 27, which was introduced by Japanese American Assemblyman Mike Honda of San Jose.

Jan. 27, 2000 To underline that Germans intend to remain aware of Nazi evils, German government decided to build a monument just south of the landmark Brandenburg Gate. The monument will consist of a vast field of 2,700 close-set concrete slabs resembling stones in a graveyard. Jan. 27 is also Germany's annual Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism, established in 1996.

Feb 1, 2000 Resolution HR 3561 was introduced in the US House by Brian Bilbray. It is a parallel bill to the Senate Resolution S.1902, the Japanese Imperial Army War Crime Disclosure Act on Nov. 1999. HR 3561 & S.1902 are to create an interagency work group, fully funded for 3 years, to review and examine wartime documents related to Japanese war crimes from 1931 to 1948, declassify them and released to the National Archive for public access.

Feb. 2000 In a speech to Israel's Parliament, Johannes Rau, the German president said, "I ask forgiveness for what Germans have done - for myself and my generation, for the sake of our children and our children's children."

May 15 2000 Senate Resolution 174 was introduced. The resolution calls attention to the atrocities committed by Japan against the Chinese and others during WWII. It also called on the Government of Japan to issue a formal apology and reparations to the victims of its war crimes.

May 18, 2000 Trying to blunt fears of Asian countries about a resurrection of Japanese militarism, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori apologized for any "misunderstandings" for endorsing the nationalists' view that Japan is a "divine country" whose emperor has a pipeline to the gods, but he refused to retract his comments, which he said were meant to reflect "Japan's eternal traditional culture." The WWII invasions were fuelled by Shinto Religion which held that Japan's emperor had a mandate from the god to take over Asia. Defeated, constitution was rewritten to separate religion and politics.

But the old militarism lives on among Japan's ultraright, who glorify the country's war history and play down documented war atrocities. Japanese Prime Minister Mori made his statement Monday to a group of legislators and Shinto leaders in a speech marking the 30th anniversary of the Parliamentarian Conference for Shinto Politics League, of which he is a founding member. Opposition parties called for Prime Minster's resignation. Mr. Mori apologized again a week later and still refuses to withdraw it.

May 24 2000 Japanese Emperor Akihito started a state visit to the Netherlands, Dutch. To remind Japan of its war crimes and unfinished responsibilities, the Foundation for Japanese Honorary Debts (JES) organized a series of activities during the state visit, which were supported by many international peace organizations, including veteran and grassroots organizations from Japan, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, US and Canada. Many observers commented on these activities as a powerful moving force facilitating a new milestone in the international redress movement against Japan.

JES also sponsored the exhibition of photos and stamps in the Hague. Entitled "Unfinished Matters: The Other Face of Japan", the exhibition focused on the Nanjing Massacre, the Military Sexual Slavery, and the Unit 731 unit. The very first of its kind in Europe. To further enhance public awareness of Japan's unfinished business, JES organized protest marches in Amsterdam and Hague. to coincide with the arrival of Emperor Akihito. Joined by several hundred supporters, many put on the JES jacket imprinted "Pay Your Debts" in both Japanese and English.

July 6, 2000 German Parliament passed a bill setting up billions dollar slave fund for the Nazi-era slave and forced laborers. They formally apologized to the victims "for what Germans did to them". The vote on the compensation fund bill was 556-42, with 22 abstentions. It is being financed 50-50 by German industry and the government. It was signed on July 17 and formally established the 10 billions marks (US $7.5 billion) slave fund. More than 3,127 German firms have pledged money. "This closes one of the last open chapters of the Nazi past," said the German Chancellor, "We are setting down a durable marker of historic and moral responsibility."

July 12, 2000 Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. a Japanese machine-toolmaker has reached a settlement with 3 South Koreans who served as forced laborers during WWII. settled a lawsuit filed by the South Koreans in Sept. 1992. It is the first time that a compromise of this kind has been made at the Supreme Court. It is the third such settlement, following a compromise between Japan Steel Corp. and former Korean workers recruited during WWII. Kensuke Imura, president of Nachi-Fujikoshi, said in Toyama that the company will pay the Koreans "settlement money," but he did not specify the amount. The plaintiffs had sought a total of 20 million yen in damages, 5,200 yen in unpaid wages and a public apology.

About 60 lawsuits seeking compensation payments for forced labor during the war are being heard throughout the country.

Aug. 15, 2000 Nine members of Japan Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet went into Yasukuni Shrine and bow deeply before its altar to offer their prayers. The Prime Minister himself, already under fire for comments that stirred memories of Japanese Militarism, stayed away. Among those honored at the Yasukuni Shrine are the Japanese war-time prime minister, Hideki Tojo, and many other Japanese military leaders convicted of WWII war crimes. For people in Asia, Yasukuni Shrine is a symbol of Japan's brutal militaristic past.

Sept 4 2000 Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo prefecture, turned a hitherto boring annual earthquake drill into one of the largest military exercises most Japanese have seen since WWII. More then 7,000 uniformed soldiers participated in the streets of central Tokyo with tanks and helicopters. Many questioned the need for a military drill on this scale. "Ishihara wants to change the Constitution and turn Japan into a big military country again." said Atsuo Nakamura, an opposition member of Paliament. Japanese Prime Minister visited the basement command room of Japan's Self defence Forces to monitor the drill.

Oct 14 2000 In room 103 of Tokyo district court, Japan was at war with her own History. It was the first testimony of its kind, former Japanese soldier of notorious Unit 731, Yoshio Shinozuka, 78, told the court he participated in mass production of cholera, dysentery and typhoid germs. He also assisted in the vivisection of Chinese civilians during WWII. He said one of his reasons for testifying was disappointment with the government's efforts to come clean about the war. "What I have done was something that nobody should have done as a Human Being." he said.

Nov. 2000 The first case of its kind to be tried in Chinese courts, Xia Shuqin is suing Asia University professor Osamichi Higashinakano and writer Toshio Matsumura for distorting the truth about the Nanking Massacre. Xia is also seeking compensation and public apology from Matsumura, author of "Big Doubts about the Nanking Massacre," and the Tentensha Publishing House for printing the two books.

Nov 7 2000 Since Japan has refused to compensate British PoW of Japan for their suffering in WWII, and time was too important for the aging vets to waste it on prolonged legal fights, British Government announced its own compensation for PoW, £10,000 each, at a cost to British Government of 180 million £. Canadian governmnet did the same in 1998, paid up on its own to each PoW Cad $24,000.

Nov 29 2000 Major Japanese construction firm Kajima Corp. agreed to set up a US 4.6 million fund to compensate 986 victims of WWII slave labor worked in Hanaoka mine. 418 out of 986 Chinese died due to the brutal conditions. However, at the same day Kajima issued its own statement that :

1. The payment of $500 million yens was not the result of a case settlement, but financial assistance to the aging plaintiffs on humanitarian ground in the spirit of Sino-Japanese friendship;
2. Kajima is not admitting any guilt or accepting any legal responsibility of the death or injuries of the plaintiffs;
3. The death of many plaintiffs were caused by illness or harsh wartime conditions.

All three points above were blatant lies. The Global Alliance demands that Kajima Corporation to retract its Statement by Feb 12 2001 and continue with appeals to other Kajima clients and world communities to pressure Kajima. About 60 suits have been filed against the Japanese government or Japanese companies for compensation for slave labor during WWII.

Dec 7 2000 Japanese court rejected a lawsuit filed by nearly 80 aging Filipino women demanding apology and US 9 million in compensation for being forced to work as sex slave. Some of the women were as young as 10. "I will fight till I die," said plaintiff Carmecita Ramel. "They are all criminals, the Japanese government." Last week the court also rejected a former Korean sex slave's demands for compensation. approx. 200,000 women were forced to work as sex slave by Japan in WWII.

Dec 27 2000 President Clinton signed into U.S. Public Law 106-567, the "Intelligence Authorization Act for F/Y 2001," in which the the original S 1902 of "Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2000" is included as Title VIII. It now allows the public for the first time in over 55 years to have access to hitherto classified U.S. documents which are expected to shed more light upon the extent of the war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Government during WWII. But some researcher remain skeptical because the law's "national security" exemptions.

The attacks had killed 50,000 people in 6 years. "After 60 years, we are still finding positive antibodies of bubonic plague in rats, dogs, cats and other animals. Every year a certain number of healthy people develop typhoid. Japan's germ warfare has left behind problems that still threaten our lives," Qiu said. Fears of another outbreak still haunt the city. After decades of denial, Japan only acknowledged few years ago that Unit 731 existed but has refused to confirm its activity.

Jan. 2001, Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori publicly referred to the Sino-Japanese War as the "China Incident". His view reflects the thinking of some senior Japanese politicians.

Jan. 2001 In Canada, British Columbia Ministry of Education has published "Human Rights in the Asia Pacific 1931-1945" which was developed by the B.C. Ministry of Education in collaboration with B.C. teachers, academics, organizations and individuals. Most Canadian textbooks about the WWII focus on Europe, and this teachers guide deals with Asia including Japanese Nanjing Massacre, Biological Warfare 731, Comfort Women etc. The contributors to the teachers guide include the B.C. Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (B.C. ALPHA) , the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association human rights committee, and Canadian veterans and prisoners of war. To view Table of Contents of this publication Click Here.

Feb 8 2001 The Tokyo Hight Court refused to hear an appeal by a group of Hong Kong residents asking Japan to honor Military Yen, issued by the occupying Japanese military during WWII. The Japanese Imperial Army occupied HK between 1941 and 1945 and forced residents to exchange HK dollars, foreign currency, gold and jewelry for bills insured by the Japanese military. Anyone disobeyed were executed. Japan then used the money to buy war supplies. At the end of the war, the Allied Forces instructed Japan to declare the bills had no monetary value. Many families became broke overnight The bills stated they could be coverted into yen at par value.

17 HK residents filed the case against Japan in 1993, demanding their money back and compensation totaling Yen 768 million. The Tokyo District Court threw the case out in 1999, saying the bills had lost their value and the group had no grounds to claim the money. Since that decision, five claimants have died. "We are not demanding for war compensation, we are demanding Japan to pay back their legal debt", said Mr. Ng. They will appeal to the Tokyo Supreme Court.

Feb 21 2001 During a meeting of LDP supporters in Akita Prefecture, former Japanese Defense Minister Hosei Norota blamed the US for forcing Japan into the war and shameless said: "Colonialism in Asia was rooted out to the hilt thanks to the Greater East Asia War."

On Feb 24 2001, in the Hague War Crimes Court, the International Tribunal has convicted the 3 Serb commanders in the Bosnian town of Foca in 1992 and 1993, where hundreds of women were abducted and sexually enslaved by Bosnian Serb soldiers. They received prison terms of 28, 20 and 12 years. The 3-judge panel ruled that Mass Rape is a crime against Humanity, the 2nd most serious category of international Crimes after Genocide.

Feb 26 2001 Resolution No. 7 similar to the two bills passed in California and similar to HR 126 (US Congress) has been introduced in the West Virginia Legislation. The resoluton is calling on the Japanese Government to offer a formal apology and compensation to wartime victims.

Mar 2 2001 In view of the growing anger of people over Japanese government's move to authorize school textbooks that many critics said distort its wartime history, Korea and China called in the Japanese ambassador to deliver their protest. In protest, South Korean has frozen all military exchanges and canceled plans to further open its market to Japanese music tapes, cartoons and video games.

Many Japanese Historians and History Educators put forward their appeal We Cannot Entrust History Education to a Textbook That Distorts History . There is also the International Scholars' Appeal.

May 14 2001 Asian Human Rights Commission has initiated an online petition Statement of Concern about Japanese History Textbook

A book published last Sept challenges the official history of Japanese Emperor's wartime role "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan" by Herbert P. Bix, a Boston-born historian who teaches at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.

Bix reveals new information on the degree to which the U.S. government systematically deceived the whole world. As cold war deepen, US needs Japan as an anti-communist bulwark in Asia. Evidences show that senior aides to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Japanese court officials schemed to fix testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials so as not to implicate Hirohito.

Bix, using official records that will be difficult for the Emperor's apologists to refute, shows Hirohito knew all the war crimes in China, and involved deeply in early strategic decisions as Japan's army marched through China, approved an alliance with Hitler and Mussolini, and the plan to attack Pearl Harbor.

In Japan, some politicians are now joining scholars in calling for a reassessment of the Emperor's new clothes. "The Hirohito diaries should be made public," says Diet member Taro Kono.

Apr 25 2001 Within hours of becoming Japan's new prime minister, Koizumi told in his first news conference Japan's Peace Constitution Article 9 should be amended to legitimize the use of military force. Koizumi has refused to reverse the approval of new distorted high school textbooks. he also intends to pay an offical visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15.

May 24 2001 After 60 years, US slaved PoW are still seeking justice. Their efforts have run into opposition from an unexpected source - U.S. State Dept. The State Department has filed papers in federal court in California stating the treaty prevents the courts from hearing the lawsuits. "The government has betrayed us. They will probably stall the lawsuit until we are all dead and gone." Henry Cornellisson said.

July 18 2001, the House of Representatives voted 395-33 to amend an appropriations bill that would prohibit the departments of Justice and State from using money to prevent former PoWs from seeking a fair hearing against Japanese companies. A House bill designed to help the veterans in court sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda, would let federal courts ignore a key section of the 1951 controversial San Francisco Peace Treaty that waived all claims against Japanese nationals for crimes committed during the war. "If the bill passes, it will open up the process and remove the roadblock the State Department has put up," said Linda Goetz Holmes author of a newly publish book Unjust Enrichment: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes Using American PoWs .

There are now 35 separate civil suits that cite as defendants some of the world's largest corporations, including Nippon Steel, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Mitsui Mining USA. You can support them to pass "The Justice for US PoWs Act of 2001" (H.R. 1198) so that Japanese companies will be forced to take responsibility for their cruelty and atrocities.

May 30 2001 German Parliament approved compensation fund of US $4.5 billion to slave laborers, about $7,000 each to people forced to work in slave labor camps, but less to those forced to work in factories. Half the money is to be paid by more than 6,000 German companies including DaimlerChrysler, Bayer, Bertelsmann, Deutsche Bank, Hugo Boss, Mannesmann and Allianz. The other half is being paid by the government. Most recipients live in Eastern Europe.

Germany has already paid more than US $60 billion in reparations since WWII.

Jun 21, 2001 Tokyo District Court dismissed a Sex Slave case, ruling individuals did not have the right to demand compensation from the Government. 5 women from Shanxi province, China filed a lawsuit in Tokyo in 1995 demanding an apology and 20 million yuan (US 6 million) in compensation from Japan. One died in 1998, leaving 4 to pursue the case. The women had already filed an appeal. Of approx. 200,000 sex salves, no one knows how many still survive. They were forced to serve up to 30 - 40 men a day. Many have concealed their past, considering it too shameful.

In 1998, the Yamaguchi District Court recognised the Japan's use of so-called comfort women and ordered the payment of 900,000 yen in compensation to 9 former Korean sex slaves, but the ruling was later overturned.

Jul 12, 2001 Tokyo District Court ordered Japanese government to pay 20 million yen to a former Chinese forced labourer. However, the victim is paid for his suffering as a fugitive, NOT as slave laborer. Liu Lianren of Shandong Province was sent to a mine on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido in 1944 after the military abducted him. Liu escaped in Apr 1945, and went into hiding until Feb 1958. He didn't know the war had ended. Liu filed suit in March 1996. His relatives took it over after his death.

The judge said Japan should be held responsible for Liu's suffering as a fugitive NOT as slave, who was brought to Japan at the Japanese government's behest. Lawyer Toru Takahashi said his only regret is that the court fell short of ordering the Japan to pay compensation for subjecting Liu to forced labour. Japanese government has filed an appeal.

Some 114 Chinese are seeking redress from Japan and its private firms in 8 other trials, while 3 other suits are expected to be also filed by former forced labourers from China.

Aug. 13 2001 In protest over Japanese Prime Minister's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine and whitewashing Japan's war crimes in the new textbooks, 20 South Korean cut off tips of their little fingers. They plan to mail the severed pieces to the Japanese embassy. The signs near the Yasukuni Shrine refer to the Tojo and other war criminals as martyrs.

In Seoul, Kim Yun-ok said, "The Japanese soldiers enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine are the very ones who Raped our grandmothers."

More than 86 % of the enshrined Japanese soldiers were from WWII. Private Tadokoro Kozo of the 114th division said in 1971 interview, " There wasn't . ANY . soldier who didn't Rape. After things were done, usually we killed them ..... We didn't want to leave any trouble behind .....",

i.e. ALL Japanese WWII soldiers are criminals , committed Mass Rape crime at the least.

Aug. 15 2001 According to few survey, the school districts across Japan are now refusing to use the government approved distorted new textbook that glosses over Japan's wartime atrocities. "It could lead us down a mistaken path again." said Yukio Wani.

Sept. 2001 A lawsuit seeking $1 trillion in repatriations from the Japanese government was filed in the U.S. District Court in Chicago. The suit uses declassified documents to argue that former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida told the Dutch government that the 1951 treaty did not mean the Allied powers were forfeiting the right of their citizens to sue Japan for wartime damages.

Sept 10 2001 A Jewish history museum with 3,000 square meters, the largest in whole Europe, formally opened in Berlin, Germany.

Oct. 8 2001 Japanese prime minister Koizumi, during his one day visit to Beijing, issued his war apoplgy after visiting the Lugouqiao ( Marco Polo Bridge), site of hostilities that led to a full scale war invasion to China in July 7, 1937. He also visited a War Museum. However, the apology was simply based on and did not go beyond the wording used in a 1995 statement by Murayama. His personal apology was NOT passed by Japanese Diet. Even so, Koizumi left open the possibility that he may visit Yasukuni Shrine again next year.

Oct. 19 2000 Judge William McDonald of the California Superior Court in Orange County ruled, in three slave labor suits, two against Mitsubishi and one against Mitsui, that it is the courts, not the executive branch, that determine the meaning or applicability of the treaty; that the court has a right to hear the PoWs claims.

The PoWs point out that Japan made payments to Britain, Holland, and Switzerland after the treaty, money that was used by those governments to compensate PoWs. Article 26 obliges Japan to give the same advantages to all other nations if, after the San Francisco Peace Treaty, better terms are reached with individual nations.

Nov. 1 2001. Over 900 people filed a lawsuit against Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi for his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in August. They argued that his official visit to the Yasukuni Shrine had violated constitution which was rewritten after the war to ensure the separation of religion and politics.

Nov. 29 2001 The entire Japanese government, not just the military, was involved in the decision to provide sex slaves, Japanese researchers said at an international conference in Los Angeles on Japan's war crimes. After Japan invaded Manchuria, China in 1937, Japanese government created the Imperial Conference, composed of the emperor, the military and the leading Cabinet ministers. This body made all important decisions including approving the "comfort women", historian Hirofumi Hayashi of Kanto-Gakuin University in Yokohama said.

Other research presented indicates that the actual number of sex slaves more than the 200,000 previously estimated by a United Nations human rights agency. Su Zhi Liang, a history professor from Shanghai Teachers University, noted that the U.N. estimate did not take into account China, because China came into the research picture much later than its Asian neighbors. In Shanghai alone, the Japanese military set up 90 sex stations, with about 500 women serving soldiers at each station.

Nov. 29 2001 Los Angeles Superior Court judge, rejecting the US federal government's contention, has again refused to dismiss a Koreatown resident's slave-labor lawsuit against Japanese companies. Now a U.S. citizen, 79-year-old Jae-Won Jeong was forcibly taken to a slave labor camp in 1943 to break limestone by hand at a quarry for Japan's Onoda Cement Manufacturing Co. in the northeastern tip of the Korean peninsula.

Judge Lichtman said he was struck by the DOUBLE STANDARD in U.S. government's position concerning slave-labor that the U.S. government has not objected to suits seeking compensation for Nazi slave-labor victims but did in the suits against the Japanese companies.

10 Dec 2001 A documentary film "Japanese Devils" about brutal role of Japan's 14 years brutal invasion to China between 1931 - 1945, has been awarded with film prizes in Germany and Portugal. 14 veterans of the Imperial Army testify to their own brutal participation.

"Once you've killed your second or third, you stop thinking about it." Yasuji Kaneko describes how he grew numb to slaughter after bayonet drills using live Chinese prisoners tied to stakes. "It was ultimately about competition, how many you killed becomes a standard of achievement." Another interviewed veteran describes throwing babies onto camp fires just for laughs.

Former Japanese sergeant major, Masayo Enomoto, says he became so inured to murder and so steeped in the idea that the Chinese were sub-human that he thought nothing of chopping up a Rape victim, cooking her flesh and serving it to his hungry troops.

Director Minoru Matsui said his main reason for making the documentary was to counter Japan's tendency to "sugarcoat" history. "The biggest reason for making the film was to preserve a record," producer Kenichi Oguri said. "After making it, we held a preview. Some young Japanese said they didn't even know Japan had fought a war with China".

China is now home to the world's largest chemical weapons cleanup campaign for 700,000 - 2,000,000 Chemical Bombs.

"This is something that has been done before, but not on that scale," said Abu Talib, a chemical weapons expert from Mitretek Systems in Falls Church, Va. in U.S., " Most of the chemical weapons around the world, you're talking hundreds and thousands -- not such a huge pile."

Whether such a monumental task can be completed by 2007, the deadline imposed by the international Chemical Weapons Convention, remains to be seen.

Japan only admitted in November 1995 that it had used "lethal gases" during war.

The weapons have continued to injure, kill and damaging the environment. 18 alleged postwar victims are finally to get a hearing in a Tokyo court in Feb or March after years of filing suit for compensation.

According to court records, the injuries to plaintiffs were sustained during the leak of a mustard gas bomb in 1974, in which sailors aboard a ship on a local river were poisoned; a leak of barreled poisonous gas in Mudanjiang in 1982; and the explosion of a poison gas bomb in Shuangcheng in 1995, and four other cases. The plaintiffs want an apology from the Japan and 360 million yen in compensation.

Jan. 1 2002 Chu Chung Wen is not a U.S. postal worker or a recipient of an anthrax-tainted letter. He is an elderly man living in China, one of thousands who suffered anthrax infections caused by Japanese germ warfare. Chu and his mother developed swollen lymph nodes when the infection spread from the skin to internal tissues.

He contracted anthrax in 1942 while working as a slave laborer for a Japanese-occupied airport located in the village of Nan Zi. "more than half the people repairing the airport" came down with the "unknown disease" Chu recalls. Japanese military disseminated anthrax germs, as part of the waged bacteriological attacks in the Chinese east-coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

Now a restitution trial for Japanese biological warfare is going forward in a Tokyo court. The plaintiffs are demanding apology and compensation for the deaths of their relatives killed by biological warfare carried out by Japan's notorious Unit 731 and Unit 164. The thousands of victims included 2,100 civilians, whose personal details have been verified in China.

In a prepared statement for the trial, a 78-year-old Japanese veteran, Yoshio Shinozuka, confessed: "From July to November 1940, I participated in the production of typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, plague and anthrax germs" at Unit 731 headquarters.

Feb 2, 2002 It is rare that a foreign-written book becomes so critical in explaining another country's history to its own people. The "Embracing Defeat" by John W. Dower have sold about 122,000 copies in just few months in Japan. The extraordinary popularity of this 900 pages history about postwar Japan raised a deep question - Japanese people understanding of their own country's history.

Many Japanese say they have now understood their country's WWII history for the first time.

Feb 10 2002 In Japan, at the Fukuoka District Court, the Japanese government said in a statement that Koizumi "did not visit the Yasukuni Shrine in his capacity as the prime minister". The lawsuit was filed by 211 people demanding 100,000 yen each in compensation that the visit violated the constitutional. Similar lawsuits have also been filed in Chiba, Tokyo, Osaka and Ehime prefectures.

In 1991, the Sendai High Court ruled that a 1985 Yasukuni visit by then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone violated the Constitution. Japan's two other high courts handed down similar rulings in 1992.

Mar 22 2002 U.S. medical expert Dr. Martin Furmanskihave specialized in research into the biological war waged by the Japanese and historian Sheldon Harris emeritus professor of history at California State University researched this field for 20 years, in their fortnight long trip to China, have proved that a bacterium called glanders was used by Japanese troops during WWII. "Glanders was a disease first found in horses, and it could attack human beings," said Furmanski. Human beings' legs are most affected by the disease. "Only one out of 20 people with the disease could survive."

Medical records showed that glanders had virtually been wiped out in 1906, but new cases suddently broke out in the 1940s during WWII in China."

Japanese showered 7 WMD biological pathogens on Zhejiang province to retaliate the Doolittle Tokyo Raid.

Even today, one hard-hit village in Zhejiang still bears the nickname "Rotten-Leg Village 1 .2 .3" because so many older residents are scarred with glanders from the 1942 attacks . Their flesh are still rotten and have not been healed since they were attacked - they have been suffering physically and mentally for almost 60 years now . The Forgotten Victims of Biological Warfare and the Shocking Pictures by the The Sunshine Project.

Apr 21, 2002 Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi made a surprise visit to the war Yasukuni Shrine that also remembers convicted war criminals, drawing sharp criticism from China and South Korea. Koizumi made no effort to disguise, "My visit was as Japan's prime minister," he told reporters after the visit. During the last August visit, Koizumi had refused to specify if he was going in an official or private capacity.

Apr 26, 2002 In the first such ruling in Japan, Japanese court ordered Mitsui Mining to pay $85,000 to each of 15 Chinese forced laborer to work for it in WWII. Almost immediately Mitsui Mining filed an appeal. The company said Mitsui Mining shouldn't have to bear the responsibility, "Basically, it's a matter of government policy." The Japanese government, however, has so far denied its responsibility.

May 10 2002 Ruling that Toshio Matsumra's book "Great doubts on the Nanking Massacre" was irrational, the Tokyo District Court ordered him and the Tokyo publishing house, Tendensha, to pay Li Xiuying 1.5 million yen in compensation. The judge said there was no rational reason for claiming that Li was not one of the victims of the massacre who appeared on Magee's footage. But the court rejected Li's claim for an apology.

Li, now 83, sued Matsumura and his publisher in 1999. She was 18 and pregnant at the time, narrowly survived after suffering 37 sword slashings by Japanese soldiers who had try to rape her. Li's separate damages lawsuit demanding Japanese government compensate for her injuries is still pending at the Tokyo High Court.

May 25, 2002 There is a growing movement among Bataan veterans to force Japan for apology and compensation. Of the 12,000 US PoW at Bataan, only 4,000 were alive by the end of war. Marching for days in terrible heat, beaten and deprived of food and water, estimated 7,000 to 10,000 of the 78,000 US and Filipinos PoW died. They were then transported to Japan in " Hell Ships" and elsewhere as slave laborers.

With little protection from the January cold, PoWs frozen to death. "We were throwing American bodies overboard at the rate of 30, then 40, then 50 a day all the way to Japan," Mel Rosen said, "The Death March was a Sunday stroll compared to the 3 Hell Ships." Only 200 to 300 of the 1,600 prisoners loaded on the 1st ship made it to Japan. When Rosen arrived in Japan, his weight had dropped from 155 to 88 lbs.

Mel Rosen, now 83 a retired colonel living in Falls Church, Va., is the lead plaintiff in a $1 trillion class-action lawsuit against Japan filed in Sept 2001 in federal court in Chicago. " The Japanese are waiting for us to die off," he said, "I have been waiting 60 years for an apology from Japan".

"The [US State Department] fought tooth and nail to help the people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis," Rosen said, "In our case [Resolution H.R. 1198], it would help us if they just shut up. In fact, they're fighting tooth and nail for the Japanese."

July 9, 2002 Hiroshima District Court rejected 5 Chinese who were taken to Japan as slave laborers during WWII have no right to demanding 27.5 million yen in compensation. Judge Kiyomasa Yamagaki acknowledged that the Nishimatsu Construction Co. was responsible, but rejected their demand, arguing that more than 20 years have passed. "The court has recognized our sufferings and yet we still lost. Where is the justice in this ruling ?" said Lu Xuewen. It is in stark contrast to the Fukuoka District Court decision handed down in April, when Mitsui Mining Co. was ordered to pay 165 million yen in compensation to 15 Chinese for forced labor.

Aug 15, 2002 On 57th anniversary of surrender, 5 Japanese cabinet ministers and Tokyo's governor made their visit to the controversial war Yasukuni Shrine which secretly enshrined 1,068 War Criminals including 14 Class-A War Criminals in 1978. News of the secret enshrinement caused an uproar when it leaked out 6 months later. It was a serious violation of Japanese Constitution, the separation of religion and state. Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi made his official tribute to Yasukuni Shrine Aug 13, 2001 and Apr 21, 2002 drew sharp criticism from both China and South Korea.

Aug 27, 2002 Germany and Canada has signed an agreement that Germany will pay pensions starting next year to German-speaking Canadian Jews who were living in Eastern Europe during WWII.

Germany has paid similar pensions to Jews and non-Jews living in Israel and the US since 1995.

Aug 27, 2002 After 27 court hearings since 1998, and with former Unit 731 Japanese soldiers including Yoshio Shinozuka, came forward as witnesses, Japanese court had no choice and finally recognized for the FIRST TIME that Japan had conducted Biological Warfare in China during WWII. even though Japanese Supreme Court has confirmed the existence of "Unit 731" that developed bacteriological weapons.

But the court rejected the demand for apology and compensation of 10 million yen ($83,430) each by 180 Chinese victims. Kohken Tsuchiya, lawyer said, "It's still a loss for the plaintiffs so we would like to appeal."

Contrarily, the Japanese government still refused to recognize that its army ever waged Biological Warfare due to lack of evidence.

This partial victory came 4 days before Dr. Sheldon H. Harris, Emeritus Professor of History at California State University, passed away in peace. Dr. Harris was author of the groundbreaking book "Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare 1932-45 and the American Cover-up", that helped to focus international attention to defeat the repeated denials, blatant lies and continuing cover-up by both Japanese and U.S. governments.

Sept 6, 2002 Covered head to toe, Japanese and Chinese specialists in chemical weapons disposal were digging in a wooded area in Heilongjiang. It is the latest effort to find and remove WMD Chemical Weapons including mustard gas and lewisite - a fluid that emits poisonous vapours. Estimated 700,000 - 2,000,000 Chemical Bombs were left behind in China by Japan's Imperial Army. The experts showed reporters four 75 mm artillery shells loaded with mustard gas that were unearthed in April.

Lawyers for Chinese plaintiffs are suing Japanese government because the leaking Chemical Weapons have already caused some 2,000 deaths since the end of war. The digging will continue until Oct. 1, 2002.

Dec. 20, 2002 More than 600 Japanese nationals orphaned and left in China at the end of WWII filed a suit Friday, demanding the government pay damages of 33 million yen per person for their suffering both in China and in Japan. "We want the government to acknowledge that we were orphaned because of the war Japan waged". Hundreds more of the orphans plan to join the damages suit.

Jan. 14, 2003 Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi visited again the Yasukuni Shrine provoking protests from neighbors victimized by Japanese aggression. Yasukuni Shrine secretly ensrined 1,068 War Criminals including 14 Class-A War Criminals in 1978. News of the secret enshrinement caused an uproar when it leaked out 6 months later. It was a serious violation of Japanese Constitution, the separation of religion and state. It is considered a symbol of Japanese wartime military imperialism. This was his 3rd time since he became prime minister.

Jan 22, 2003 Federal Appeals Court, San Francisco, strikes down 1999 law enacted by California Legislature allowing slave laborers of Japanese and German corporations in WWII to sue for wages and injuries; finds law is impermissible intrusion on federal government's exclusive power to make and resolve war; also dismisses claims by slave laborers on other theories, saying statute of limitations bars them and may not sue for wages and injuries.

Mar. 11, 2003 The Tokyo District Court rejected the lawsuit filed by 42 Chinese slave labourer during WWII, seeking damages and unpaid wages, a total 840 million yen from the Japanese government and 10 Japanese companies (Hazama Corp., Nishimatsu Construction Co., Tekken Corp., Nittetsu Mining Co., Japan Energy Corp., Furukawa Co., Ube Industries Ltd., Dowa Mining Co., Tobishima Corp. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp.) The Judge said the plaintiffs lost their right when 20 years had passed since the illegal act. However, the judge also rejected the legal argument that the state bore no responsibility for the actions of civil servants that occurred before enactment of the State Redress Law.

Mar. 28, 2003 Japanese Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a group of South Korean women seeking compensation and apology from Japan for their forced Sex Slavery during WWII. It also ruled today that Japan does not have to pay $1 million to the 80 year old Korean comfort woman Song Shin-do. Japanese government insists that the compensation issue was settled on a government-to-government basis in postwar treaties. The stance has drawn criticism at home and abroad that it remains unrepentant for its war crimes.

Mar 28, 2003 Breaking from over 30 years of strict non-military use of the high sky, Japan launched its first pair of reconnaissance satellites today. Critics say the launch violates a 1969 resolution that prohibits military use of space by Japan.

Apr 10, 2003 In the 59th General Assembly of the U.N., both South and North Korea urged Japan to take measures in accordance with the recommendations made by U.N. Special Rapporteurs to apologize and pay compensation to Korean women forced into Sex Slavery for Japanese soldiers during WWII. In the 1996 report, the rapporteurs denounced the Japanese government for failing to take legal responsibility for the comfort women and falling far short of punishing those responsible for the "inhumane crimes".

Apr 23, 2003 Japan's Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) is holding aerial refueling exercises with the U.S. Air Force from April 21 to May 2, the first such exercises for the ASDF -- ever. U.S. is actively encouraging Japan to move away from its constitutional restrictions and rearm itself.

Apr. 28, 2003 In unprecedented denial, the family members of the two Japanese lieutenants, Mukai Toshiaki and Noda Takeshi who were well known for their Killing Contest to behead 100 Chinese with their sword in 1937, launched a libel suit against the Mainichi. They are seeking a total 12 million yen in damages, claiming that that the defendants failed to retract the stories although it has been "proved" that the alleged massacre did not take place.

Also sued for libel were the Asahi Shimbun that printed a follow up story in 1971, former Asahi writer Katsuichi Honda who reported the story and was one of authors of a book challenging revisionists view that denies the Rape of Nanking, and a Tokyo publishing house that published his book.

May 15, 2003 Tokyo District Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by 5 Chinese who demanded Japan to pay 80 million yen in damages for their health problems caused by Japanese abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons. They mistakenly spilt hazardous liquids on their bodies and inhaled poisonous gas while examining chemical weapons they found. They are still suffering from the after-effects, such as paralysis of an arm, breathing difficulties and a decline in their eyesight. The judge ruled that Japan goverment broke no law when it failed to recover the weapons. Japan abandoned 700,000 - 2,000,000 Chemical Bombs in China.

June 12, 2003 30 South Koreans forced into labor in Siberia during WWII by Japan sued the Japanese government for their unpaid wages, demanding an average of 10 million yen per person in damage. They base their lawsuit on international custom and the Geneva Convention for the Protection of War Victims. They launched the suit along with a group of 133 South Koreans who separately sued Japan demanding that the remains of their relatives who died in the war after being conscripted by the Japanese military be returned and that their enshrinement at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo be rescinded.

July 26 2003 The Japanese Diet passed legislation allowing the government to proceed with plans to dispatch up to 1,000 troops to bolster the US-led occupation of Iraq. The deployment will be the 1st time Japanese soldiers have been stationed in a combat zone since the end of WWII and the 1st time without a UN mandate. The law is designed to circumvent the Japan's "Peace Constitution Article 9" that prohibits the use of military force except in self-defence.

Aug 13, 2003 A scrap metal collector in Northeastern China, Qiqihar had mistakenly uncovered 5 drums filled with mustard gas abandoned chemical weapons by the Japanese Army in WWII, harmed more than 40 people. One man had chemical burns over 95% of his body and later died. Others had suffered from vomiting to severe burns. Japan has apologized to China for the incident, but offer NO compensation.

This is the FIRST official acknowledgement by the Japanese Government that the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII used Chemical Weapon (mustard gas). The next step should be the official acknowledgement of the use of the WMD Biological Weapon by the infamous Unit 731.

Approx. 700,000 - 2,000,000 Chemical Bombs most of them loaded with mustard gas and many of them corroded and leaking, are still scattered in China. More than 2,000 Chinese had already been injured by these abandoned deadly WMD Chemical Weapons and damaging the environment. Japan has acknowledged leaving behind chemical weapons in China, has been looking for and disposing of such armaments according to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Many doubt such a monumental task can be completed by 2007 because Japan has been inactive in the chemicals cleanup despite its promise.

Sept. 12, 2003 Saito Gun, head of the Japanese investigation team admitted that another 52 mustard gas bombs found in Gaocheng, a city east of Shijiazhuang in 1991 and stored in the mountainous area around Lu Quan, were indeed left by Japan. The 52 mustard gas bombs will be dug up and sealed for future destruction. In reference to the compensation claims of the 20 victims injured, Saito refused to comment.

Ge Guangbiao, Chinese director of the office dealing with the problems said: "The Japanese Government should provide overall statistics on its abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons in China to the Chinese Government, including the location, numbers and categories of the weapons."

Sept. 29, 2003 The Tokyo District Court awarded 190 million yen (US 1.5 million) to 13 Chinese who sued the Japanese government over the abandoned WMD Chemical Weapon causing Chinese killed and injured in 1974 and 1982, and a shell explosion in 1995. It ruled against a ruling the same court issued for a separate case in May. Judge Yoshihiro Katayama said the Japanese government had neglected its responsibility to supply information to China over the whereabouts of the weapons, which killed and wounded Chinese.

This is the first time a Japanese court has accepted a damages claim related to abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons overseas.

The court ruled that "Distributing and abandoning poison gas weapons and similar actions, which are illegal under international law, cannot be accepted as justifiable. Not allowing the right (to claim damages) just because 20 years have passed goes against the principles of justice and fairness." However, the Japanese government has refused to accept the verdict and appealed to the higher court.

Oct. 20, 2003 To the WMD mustard gas victims (one killed and 42 injured) in Aug. incident in Qiqihar, Japanese government decided to offer 300 million yen, but NOT as compensation. But despite the inducement, the family of the person killed by the mustard gas is pressing on with plans to sue the Japanese Government.

Dec. 8, 2003 Japan has retrieved a total of 36,000 Chemical Weapons including bombs, poisonous fume pipes and iron barrels containing chemical preparations and put under temporary safekeeping. A unnamed Japanese official said in an interview with Oriental Outlook magazine, Under the UN Chemical Weapons Convention, Japan has until 2007 to destroy 700,000 - 2,000,000 of them. But experts say it will take much longer to safely dispose of so many WMD Chemical Bombs.

Dec. 9 2003 "Dispatching the Self Defence Forces to Iraq violates our constitution, which forbids the use of military forces," Peaceboat director Tatsuya Yoshioka said. Protesters held placards denouncing Koizumi and his allies as “war criminals”. Japan's post-war constitution bans the use of Japanese force as a means of settling international disputes.

Dec 10, 2003 Grief overflowed and anger erupted as aged Japanese survivors confronted the Enola Gay, the US warplane which unleashed the world's 1st atom bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. The Enola Gay was put on display for the 1st time in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, which also includes a just retired French Concorde and space shuttle prototype. However, the vigil stirred anger among some visitors to the museum. "Remember Pearl Harbor" "What about the Nanjing massacre ?" several men shouted, as several scuffles broke out.

Dec 26, 2003 Japanese Supreme Court turned down a 920 million yen damages suit filed by Filipino women forced into Sex Slavery for the Japanese military during WWII. The suit has been filed by 81 people, including former "comfort women" from the Philippine and relatives of those who have died. Supporters said it was the Japanese government that lost the court battle, because Japan was deprived of an opportunity to make amends for its wartime wrongdoing.

Jan. 1, 2004 On New Year's Day, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited war shrine the 4th time, the controversial Yasukuni Shrine which secretly enshrined 1,068 War Criminals including 14 Class-A War Criminals in 1978, triggering instant condemnation from China and South Korea. Before Koizumi, only serving postwar prime minister, Yasuhiro Nakasonein 1985 and Ryutaro Hashimoto in 1996, had visited the shrine. The torrent of protest was enough to persuade him not to make another. Koizumi defied logic, insisting that neighboring countries would not be offended by his un-constitutonal shrine visits.

Jan 15, 2004 Japan is sending troops to combat zone FIRST TIME since WWII. 600 ground troops and 400 air force and naval personnel are due to be deployed in Iraq by March. Public are opposed to the plan arguing that the mission violates the Japanese Peace Constitution which prohibits offensive capability.

Feb. 10, 2004 The Tokyo High Court rejected an appeal by 7 women from Taiwan for an official apology from Japanese government and a total of 70 million yen in damages for being forced to become Sex Slave during WWII. The plaintiffs said they will appeal to the Supreme Court and are considering taking the case to the international tribunal.

Mar. 15, 2004 There could be over 700,000 or even 1,000,000 lives lost to Japan's Biological Warfare programme said Daniel Barenblatt, author of new book "A Plague Upon Humanity: The Secret Genocide of Axis Japan's Germ Warfare Operation", in a recent interview. Barenblatt said the plague bacteria released then still lingers on in some animal populations today. "It is still there.... rodents still test positive for antibodies to the bubonic plague ..... What the US did in making the deal with top doctors is unconscionable. As far as we know, no one in the US government raised any more objection to it."

Mar 23, 2004 The Sapporo District Court rejected an 860 million yen damages suit against the Japanese government and 6 companies filed by 43 Chinese who were forced to work at coal mines and construction sites in Hokkaido during WWII.

In a similar lawsuit in 2002, the Fukuoka District Court ruled for the First time that the Japanese government and a mining company both committed a crime in using slave labor. But the court ordered only the company to pay compensation and excluded the state, agreeing with the government's argument that it cannot be held responsible.

Mar. 26, 2004 In Japanese Niigata District Court, Presiding Judge Noriyoshi Katano acknowledged that the Chinese were forced to perform hard labor under poor working conditions for Niigata-based harbor transport company Rinko Corp. (previously known as Niigata Koun) and ordered the state and a Japanese company to pay 88 million yen in compensation, marking First time for a Japanese court to order both Japanese government and a firm to pay damages for slave labor crimes. The judge dismissed the defendants' arguments that the statute of limitations for the crimes had passed.

Apr 7, 2004 Hiroyuki Hosoda of a group of 211 activists filed a lawsuit alleging that Koizumi's visits to the shrine violated the constitution. Fukuoka District Court ruled that Koizumi's visit in his official capacity as prime minister to the Yasukuni Shinto shrine indeed violated constitution of separation of church and state. But the court rejected their claims for compensation,

In Feb. the Osaka District Court refused to rule on the constitutionality of the visit, saying the plaintiffs had not suffered emotional turmoil as claimed. Four other cases are making their way through Japanese courts.

May 27, 2004 A group of 219 Japanese citizens filed a lawsuit claiming Japan's dispatch of troops to Iraq violated Japan's pacifist constitution. One of the plaintiffs is Nobutaka Watanabe who was one of 5 Japanese taken hostage by the militants in Iraq. Four similar lawsuits have been filed by other groups across Japan.

June 14 2004 U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the lawsuit against Japan filed by 15 kidnapped and enslaved former "Comfort Women" when they were only 10 - 26 years old from China (People's Republic of China), Taiwan (Republic of China), North and South Korea and the Philippine, to be reconsidered by the Appellate Court in the District of Columbia if Holocaust survivors and heirs can sue the French national railroad for transporting Jews and others to Nazi concentration camps during WWII. It is an encouraging news to the plaintiffs. Japan has argued that it is entitled to immunity from suit in U.S. courts concerning its pre-1952 acts.

July 9 2004 Hiroshima High Court overturned a lower court decision in July 2002, which ruled that too much time had passed to award compensation. Nishimatsu Construction must pay 27.5m yen ($255,000) in damages to 5 Chinese (2 of whom have since died) worked as slave labor in a power plant construction site owned by Nishimatsu. Presiding judge Satoshi Suzuki ruled Nishimatsu's argument that the statute of limitations had expired "seriously goes against justice". Japanese Government has acknowledged that many people suffered as a result of forced labour, but insists that most reparations were settled by treaties.

Jul 24, 2004 "The abandoned weapons issue is little known in Japan," said Japanese freelance director Tomoko Kana, who recently completed a doucmentary film From the Land of Bitter Tears."The way Chinese people feel about this issue is very similar to how Japanese feel about North Korea's abductions of Japanese," she said.

Min Liu whose father was killed in 1995 by Japanese abandoned artillery shell, was hoping of becoming a school teacher, but instead she has since been working at her relative's cafeteria to pay off her father's medical bills. The film captured the emotional Liu and 3 other victims from separate incidents has been on, including the scene of Liu giving a tearful hug to her mother while the mother burst into tears, confessing that she pulled the plug on her injured husband because family could not pay the medical bills and thus took him out of the hospital. He died the following day.

Tokyo District Court awarded the 13 plaintiffs a combined 190 million yen in damages, but Japanese government filed an appeal. The case is now pending before the Tokyo High Court.

Jul 23, 2004 Two Chinese children playing near a river in Dunhua, Jilin Province, injured by mustard gas leaked from the Japanese WMD Chemical Weapon discarded by the Japan in WWII. Japanese embassy statement says it was "quite regrettable" and expressed sympathy for the victims. At least 2,000 Chinese have so far become victims of the discarded 700,000 - 2,000,000 Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons since the war ended.

Aug 2, 2004 Fifteen years have passed since Human Bones that Haunt a Nation - Japanese war atrocities, dug up at a construction site in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, linked to the infamous Unit 731, and they remain a mystery that Japanese authorities still appear reluctant to resolve. The citizens' group speculate that Unit 731's victims' corpses were sent to the medical school for research purposes, and now ask Japanese government to use DNA and superimposing technology to verify their origins.

Kanagawa University professor Keiichi Tsuneishi said Japan's failure to address the issue over the past 15 years shows how the people disregard Unit 731's atrocities. The group is also demanding that the ministry and Shinjuku Ward excavate another site near Toyama Park where it suspects, based on testimony of some surviving officials, that more remains might be buried. Japanese authorities have refused to comply.

Aug 3, 2004 Payment worth US$ 401 million will be paid to some 130,681 Nazi-era Jewish slave laborers in 62 countries. The payments come from the German Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future", a US$ 6 Billion dollar Slave Fund established in 2000. Half of the DM 10 Billion Foundation's Funding is provided by the German government and half by the German industries and businesses. The first disbursement to Jews, totaling $703 million, was transfered to recipients between June 2001 and July 2004. Payments to non-Jewish slave laborers were largely covered by humanitarian organizations.

In addition to reparations from the German fund, the Claims Conference also disbursed a special payment to slave laborers out of 1.25 Billion Swiss Banks Settlement signed in 1999 by the Swiss banks. The banks agreed to compensate slave laborers, following evidence that during WWII they raked in profits on deals and financial services for German factories that used slave laborers.

"I pay tribute to all those who were subjected to slave and forced labor under German rule, and in the name of the German people beg forgiveness", said Johannes Rau, German president in 2000, "We will not forget their suffering."

Aug 9 2004 13 former Chinese slave laborers (6 relatives of laborers who have died) forced to work in the Makimine copper mines in Miyazaki Prefecture during WWII, filed a damages lawsuit against the Japanese government and Mitsubishi Materials Corp., seeking 184 million yen for compensation, and demand an official apology.

Aug 12, 2004 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage, have both reiterated U.S. support for Japan's eager quest for permanent UN Security Council membership and urged Japan to revise war renouncing Article 9 of its Constitution if it wants to become a permanent U.N. Security Council member.

Aug 12, 2004 German Interior Minister Otto Schily joined a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of a Nazi massacre site in Tuscan village, in Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Italy, calling it a "place of shame" for Germany. In August 1944, Nazi SS soldiers were ostensibly hunting for partisans, but instead they rounded up and killed approx. 560 villagers

Also in 2002, President Johannes Rau became the first German leader to visit another 1944 Nazi massacre site of 700 people killed, at Marzabotto in the hills south of Bologna, where he expressed sorrow and shame.

Aug 14, 2004 Germany has offered its first formal apology for the colonial-era massacre of Herero tribe by German troops in Namibia 100 years ago. Herero chief Kuaima Riruako said the apology was appreciated but added: "We still have the right to take the German government to court."

Some 200 ethnic Herero filed a lawsuit in the US court of the district of Columbia in Sept. 2001 demanding $2 billion from the German government and $2 billion in damages from several German companies including Deutsche Bank, mining company Terex Corporation, formerly Orenstein-Koppel Co., and the shipping company Deutsche Afrika Linie, formerly Woermann Linie, all of which allegedly profitted. About 55,000 Herero died after German officers issued an extermination order in 1904 to crush an uprising against German colonial rule.

The US district court of Columbia was chosen to hear the case as it has a 215-year-old law on its books, the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, that allows for such civil action from foreign countries.

Aug 15, 2004 Three Japanese ministers, joined by 58 members of parliament, paid homage to the country's war dead in the Yasukuni Shrine , which celebrates Japan's military past and sparked anger from neighbouring countries.

But Junichiro Koizumi had visited the shrine 4 times since he became the Japanese prime minister. Mr. Koizumi who had vowed to visit the shrine every year, avoided the shrine this time obviously because the illegality of his visits ruled by the Japanese court in April.

Aug 21, 2004 Japan plans to build a 2.8 billion dig-up facility and two incinerators in Haerbaling in north China's Jilin province to clean-up its abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons. China worries about the chemicals that will be released in the air during the disposal process. Japan may be difficult to meet the 2007 deadline demanded by the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to dispose all its 700,000 - 2,000,000 abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons. At least 2,000 Chinese have so far become victims of the discarded Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons since the war ended.

Aug 26, 2004 A Japanese history textbook omitting Japanese wartime atrocities was approved by Tokyo's school board for use in a public secondary school in the Tokyo. China and Korea say it distorts history and omits Japanese wartime atrocities, e.g. WMD Biological Warfare in China and the use of hundreds of thousands of military Sex Slaves.

Sept 15, 2004 Despite a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that WMD weapons are unlikely to be found in Iraq. However, Japan refused to admit that there are no WMD in the war-ravaged Iraq. Even Brithish PrimeMinister Tony Blair admitted that WMD which is vital to the case for the Iraq war, was wrong. Also, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that he hasn't seen "any strong, hard evidence" to link Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaeda terrorists who staged the 9/11 attacks.

After 2 years intensive search with 1,200 experts, U.S. finally quit the WMD search. Unfortunately, the WMD was the main reason for US to "pre-emptive" invade Iraq. End to search for WMD seals doubts about pre-emption.

Sept. 18 2004 Instead of reflecting on own war crimes, the 10-member Japanese advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will recommend that China be treated as a military threat. Japan will also discuss the possibility of permitting US and Japanese military flights to an island halfway between Okinawa and Taiwan, and build a port there.

Sept. 21 2004 Japan, Germany, India and Brazil told UN in joint bid seeking for a permanent seats on the UN Security Council.

Japan said it has been the second largest contributor to the UN and is involved in peacekeeping operations. In fact, U.N. members' contributions are in line with assessments based on their relative "Capacity To Pay" with a ceiling set at 22% - the rate at which the US is assessed. Next come Japan (12.53), Germany (8.018), Britain (6.604), France (6.123), China (3.189)% in 2011.

"The U.N. is not a board of directors and you cannot decide its composition according to the financial contribution", Chinese spokesman said, "We want to see a responsible attitude from the Japanese including a clear understanding of historical issues."

Sept. 24 2004 In a steelworks site located in Ningan county, Mudanjiang China, a team of Japanese and Chinese experts unearthed more than 2,000 Bombs. 89 of the 2,000 bombs were confirmed as WMD Chemical Bombs abandoned by Japan. China says Japan made the WMD weapons in Hiroshima. At least 2,000 Chinese have so far become victims of Japanese discarded 700,000 - 2,000,000 Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons since the war ended.

Sept. 26 2004 The Chinese say there are 4 barriers on Japan's way to U.N. "Permanent Seat" :

1. Peace Constitution
2. Honestly face up to its own History
3. At the US' bidding and losing independence
4. UN competition and complicated procedure

Korea also questions Japan's Security Council bid.

Sept 29, 2004 Settlement reached in Osaka High Court that Tokyo-based Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co. has to pay 21 million yen to a group of Chinese abducted to Japan during WWII to work as slave laborers and their surviving family members. However, the company refused to offer an apology. The plaintiffs will continue their suit against the Japanese government, which has claimed the statute of limitations for compensation has expired. The Kyoto District Court ruled in last year that the Japanese government and Nippon Yakin Kogyo had acted illegally in abducting the plaintiffs and used them as slave laborers. But the court rejected the plaintiffs' demand for compensation.

Oct 1, 2004 A Japanese defense ministry panel has urged that the military be given the capability to launch "Pre-Emptive Strikes", shoot down Japan's pacifism, a move that would deviate from Japan's long-held defense-only policy. "A Pre-Emptive Strike would go beyond what current government policy and Article 9 of the Constitution allows," said Takehiko Yamamoto, political science professor at Tokyo's Waseda University. Article 9 renounces the right to go to war and forbids a military, although it is interpreted as permitting forces for only self-defense.

Oct 3, 2004 According to a research report, Japan secretly studied the possibility of Japan going nuclear. The report, dated July 30, 1981, is titled "On nuclear equipment" and was part of a research project on "The future of Japan's defense policy."

It was the 2 Atomic Bombs, "Little Boy" and "Fat Man", had finally stopped Japan's in-human War Crimes.

What if Japan had succeeded in building its own A-Bomb first in the WWII ?
Nobody would ever doubt that the Japanese would have certainly used it 60 years ago.

For nearly 6 decades, historians have been unable to solve one of the mysteries of Japan's WWII WMD Atomic Bomb Project : How close were Japanese scientists to building the Atomic Bomb ?

A long-lost wartime 23 pages document of Imperial army papers returned to Japan in April 2002, finally offer some insight into Japan's WMD Atomic Bomb Project - An Unrealized Nuclear Armageddon in China.

Oct 7, 2004 Despite a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that WMD weapons are unlikely to be found in Iraq. Japan refused to admit that there are no WMD in the war-ravaged Iraq. Even Brithish Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted that WMD which is vital to the case for the Iraq war, was wrong. Also, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that he hasn't seen "any strong, hard evidence" to link Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaeda terrorists who staged the 9/11 attacks.

A new CIA report by US arms inspector of Iraq Survey Group in 1,000 pages concluded U.S. "Almost All Wrong" on Iraq's WMD Weapons. The report forced Bush to recast his rationale for Iraq war. This time, Japan said the U.N. resolutions justify the War.".

After 2 years intensive search with 1,200 experts, U.S. finally quit the WMD search. Unfortunately, the WMD was the main reason for US to "pre-emptive" invade Iraq. End to search for WMD seals doubts about pre-emption.

Apr 1, 2005 "Dead Wrong" on Iraq WMD crippled US credibility A new presidential commission reported "We conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq's WMD". It is probably the biggest blunder in the history of US.

Apr 25, 2005 CIA final report: No WMD in Iraq "After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted" Mr Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), wrote in the 92-page addendum.

Oct 16, 2004 Tokyo District Court rejected the lawsuit of compensation 20 million yen each over the Japan's refusal to give unpaid wages to Korean laborers forced to work and died at Japan Iron & Steel Co. (Nippon Steel Corp.) Kamaishi plant in Iwate Prefecture in Japan during WWII. The families had discovered through company documents that a total of about 9,500 yen unpaid wages to the deceased and had been placed in trust. Judge ruled that domestic laws based on a 1965 agreement between Japan and South Korea had terminated the property rights of Korean nationals.

In a separate 1995 lawsuit, families are also seeking damages from Japan and Nippon Steel. The steel giant agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid roughly 20 million yen as "condolence" money. In 2003, the Court rejected their demand for compensation from Japan government, and they are appealing.

Oct 19, 2004 Japanese politicians including Tsutomu Takebe, newly appointed secretary general of the ruling LDP, and former prime minister Tsutomu Hata of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan and others, altogether 79 Japanese politicians made a pilgrimage to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine . For people in Asia, Yasukuni Shrine is a symbol of Japan's brutal militaristic past.

Oct 29, 2004 Since 1999, the playing of the Imperial Japanese notorious militaristic anthem Kimigayo (His Majesty's Reign) and the flying of the notorious militaristic Hinomaru (Rising Sun) flag, have been compulsory at Japanese school ceremonies, but many teachers refuse to toe the line and filed a lawsuit taking the Tokyo education board to court. Kazuhisa Suzuki, who teaches civics at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, said: " It's as though Germany brought back the Nazi swastika and forced teachers to stand for it. If teachers don't fight it, who will ?". Last year 243 teachers were punished for not honouring the notorious Militaristic flag and 67 reprimanded for not ordering students to sing the notorious anthem.

Japanese Emperor opposes compulsory flag, anthem in schools

Nov 2, 2004 "I buried poison gas weapons. I received the emergency order from our commander," the 83-year-old former Japanese soldier told the Tokyo High Court. The testimony could overturn the government's contention that the Japan was not involved in the dumping of WMD Chemical Weapons in China. Five Chinese who became ill after digging up ground where chemicals had allegedly been buried, are seeking damages of $750,000. The Tokyo District Court had dismissed the lawsuit in May last year, prompting the plaintiffs to appeal to the high court.

Nov 10, 2004 Iris Chang, author of " Rape of Nanking - The Forgotten Holocaust", a young author, historian, and Human Rights advocates dies at age 36. The news re-minds Japanese unspeakable atrocities :

"An estimated 20,000 - 80,000 Chinese women were raped. Many soldiers went beyond rape to disembowel women, slice off their breasts, nail them alive to walls. Fathers were forced to rape their daughters and sons their mothers as other family members watched .........."

Nanjing Massacre claims another life.
Sad news stunned the Survivors of Rape of Nanjing.
Granddaughter of Survivors of the Nanjing Massacre
New Interest in Japan's War Atrocities, but Why Now ?

Dec 4, 2004 Japanese media still deny Nanking Massacre "No serious scholar has denied the gist of The Rape of Nanking -- that it was one of the most brutal war crimes in history."

Nov 11, 2004 A popular Japanese comic would self-censor after nationalist anger about its portrayal of Japanese brutality during the Rape of Nanking. Young Jump, halted publication of its long-running story, "The Country Burns", in September after being inundated by phone calls and e-mails objecting to the latest episode. The magazine ran an apology for illustrations showing Japanese soldiers bayoneting helpless captives, assaulting women and beheading civilians in former Chinese capital Nanjing. The publisher also said it would delete 10 pages and amend another 11 when the story is released in book form. There is no precedent for such self-censorship in Japanese comics, which often have graphic war scenes.

Nov 29, 2004 After more than a decade legal process, Japanese Supreme Court refused compensation to 35 kidnapped south korean Slaves and Sex Slaves. Japanese government has refused to pay any compensation saying such claims were settled through postwar peace treaties. In March 2001, the district court said too much time had passed for the redress. It also ruled that international laws banning Sex Slavery don't require restitution.

The suit was originally brought in Dec. 1991 by 3 south Korean Sex Slaves, the first such victims to shed light on their plight after staying silent for decades out of shame.

Nov 30, 2004 Japan's top court denied compensation to abducted Slave fatalities of an explosion on Japanese ship ferrying Korean Slaves home after WWII. It was a sharp reversal to the survivors who filed their case in 1992 and won in a lower court in 2001. The Koreans were angered that Tokyo annually pays compensation to relatives of the 25 Japanese crewmen killed on the ship, but offers no compensation to the hundreds abducted Slaves and Sex Slave victims and their kin.

Nov 30, 2004 Japanese Education Minister Nariaki Nakayama slams textbooks as 'self-torturing' over Japan's war atrocities.

Dec 1, 2004 Women's organisations from Asia, Europe and North America agreed to act together from next year, the 60th anniversary of WWII to made Abducted Sex Slaves By Japan To Become Global Issue In 2005. "We'll launch a million-signature campaign worldwide to demand an apology and compensation from the Japanese government," said Suda Kaori, a Japanese member of the Korea Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sex Slavery by Japan.

Dec 3, 2004 Japanese "War Orphans" sued Japanese government and demand 33 million yen compensation for each of them for being left in China for such a long time and receiving little or no Japanese language education or job search support after they came to Japan. Similar suits have been filed at 12 district courts across Japan, including in Tokyo, Kyoto and Kagoshima.

Dec 6, 2004 Former abducted Sex Slaves from South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippine gathered in Tokyo, Kyoto, Fukuoka etc in mass rallies across 10 cities in Japan to demand a formal apology and compensation.

Dec 9, 2004 Nanking Massacre survivor Li Xiuying dies at 86. She was 18 and pregnant, was attacked and slashed 37 times with swords by Japanese tried to rape her. She lost her unborn baby but survived after treatment by an American doctor, Robert Wilson. In 1999, Li sued right-wing Japanese authors who claimed she had faked her accounts and won. The Japanese Supreme Court awarded her 1.5 million yen against author Toshio Matsumura and Tendensha, the publisher that the book "A Big Doubt About the Rape of Nanking" had damaged Li's reputation.

Dec 12, 2004 A day after the pro-U.S. government voted to keep Japanese "Self-Defense Force" in war of Iraq for another year, Japan took another step away from its post-war pacifism on by ending its decades-old ban on military exports.

Dec 12, 2004 In a written statement, Juanita Cruz, a native of the Mariana Islands witnessed Japanese atrocities in Guam. Vividly told of how she at 8, was unable to help her mother while she was repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers, and how she at 10, watched her 5 years old young brother die as a Japanese soldier cut his tongue off. All around her, people were being beaten, beheaded or gunned down with machine guns, she said at a forum in Tokyo.

Dec 15, 2004 Four former abducted Chinese Sex Slaves lost appeal in Tokyo High Court.

Dec 20, 2004 Shiro Takahashi, editor of history textbook which whitewashes Japan's war crime atrocities has been appointed to the local school board.

Jan 4, 2005 Filmmaker T.F. Mou (sometimes referred to as T.F. Mous) is probably best known as the director of the Man Behind the Sun (also called Black Sun 731). He followed up with another travelogue of Japanese war atrocities film: Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre.

Jan 12, 2005 Japan top politician pressured NHK to alter television program on a mock trial on abducted Sex Slaves before it was aired. The trial ruled late Emperor Hirohito and others "guilty", but this part was deleted.

In July 2001 the citizens group that sponsored the mock trial sued NHK and the two companies that made the program. The court ordered the firm that made the program to pay the citizens group 1 million yen in compensation, but both rejected the ruling and filed appeals in the Tokyo High Court.

Japanese minister Shoichi Nakagawa and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe both denied pressuring NHK to edit abducted Sex Slave program.

Jan 13 2005 The first real-name military record of a surviving abducted Sex Slave has been discovered. It is an important piece of evidence in refuting Japanese denials.

Jan 14, 2005 Harry, son of Britain's Prince Charles and 3rd in line to the throne, drew a storm of world wide protest by wearing costume with a Nazi Swastika armband to a birthday party. Prince has ordered his son to visit Auschwitz concentration camp. Harry said he was sorry, "It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize".

German government has made displaying the Swastika and other Nazi symbols illegal in Germany. Germany would have tried Prince Harry for Nazi prank. Now, German politicians have called for Nazi symbols to be banned throughout Europe.

For comparison :

Since 1999, the playing of the Imperial Japanese notorious militaristic anthem Kimigayo (His Majesty's Reign) and the flying of the notorious militaristic Hinomaru (Rising Sun) flag, have been compulsory at Japanese school ceremonies, but many teachers refuse to toe the line and filed a lawsuit taking the Tokyo education board to court. Kazuhisa Suzuki, who teaches civics at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, said: " It's as though Germany brought back the Nazi Swastika and forced teachers to stand for it. If teachers don't fight it, who will ? ". Last year 243 teachers were punished for not honouring the notorious Militaristic flag and 67 reprimanded for not ordering students to sing the notorious anthem. You cannot force them to sing it in Japan, or to listen in London . Hinomaru, 'Kimigayo' express conflicts both past and future. Over 1700 Japanese teachers have been punished throughout Japan's schools. In Tokyo alone, 388 teachers were subject to heavy punishment after 2004.

Teacher Katsuhisa Fujita who urged parents attending a graduation ceremony to remain seated during Japanese national anthem was fined $1,800. Though Fujita was ejected, about 90 % of the students remained seated during the song, school officials said.

To support the hundreds of teachers and students who refuse to sing the current Japanese notorious militaristic national anthem at school, someone has turned the Japanese notorious militaristic national anthem "Kimigayo" into English titled "Kiss Me" as an allusion to the Japanese Sex Slavery. It takes the syllables of each word of the Japanese and turns them into phonetically similar English words to support the protest of people who are forced to sing as "a small pillar of opposition in people's hearts".

In ironically speechless vivid contrast, U.S., Britain and other countries remain thundering SILENT.

In Sept 2006 Japanese district court ruled that a Tokyo metropolitan government order compelling teachers to stand up for Japan's notorious national flag Hinomaru (Rising Sun) and sing the notorious national anthem Kimigayo (His Majesty's Reign) violated the Constitution.

Jan 19, 2005 In a rare ruling, Japanese Hiroshima High Court ordered Japanese government to pay compensation to 40 kidnapped Korean Slaves , 1.2 million yen ($11,740) each.

Tens of thousands of kidnapped Koreans and Chinese were brought to Japan to work in factories and mines as forced Slaves to keep Japan's war machine going. Dozens of compensation suits have been filed, but almost all have been rejected by Japanese courts. Japan has insisted that compensation issues were settled by diplomatic ties in 1965.

Jan 20, 2005 Weekly Protest Rally in front of Japanese Embassy by former abducted Korean Sex Slaves in Seoul. The latest one was their 641 rally.

Jan 21, 2005 UN General Assembly held a special session marking 60th anniversary of liberation of Holocaust Nazi death camps for First Time. Kofi Annan said, "It is essential for all of us to remember, reflect on, and learn from what happened 60 years ago......".

"I express my shame over those who were murdered, and before those of you who have survived the hell of the concentration camps," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, "The vast majority of Germans alive today are NOT to blame for the Holocaust, but they DO bear a "Special Responsibility".

Jan 24, 2005 Japan to end private AWF for Sex Slaves. Most victims strongly opposed the "Asian Women Fund" because the private fund covers up Japan's war crimes and refused it saying, "We want no charity, but dignity".

Research has shown that the previous estimated 200,000 by U.N. did not take into account of China, because China came into the research picture much later than its Asian neighbors. In Shanghai alone, the Japanese military set up 90 sex stations, each had about 500 women. The actual number of Sex Slaves should be more than 200,000. Only 10% lived through the ordeal and just about 500 are believed alive today. They were forced to serve up to 40 men a day.

No one knows the true figure. Many have concealed their past, considering it too shameful.

Jan 27, 2005 German Chancellor paid tribute at the entrance to Auschwitz and promised that Germany will fulfill its "Moral Obligation" to keep alive the memory of Nazi's crimes.

Jan 28, 2005 Japanese court refused to award damages over PM's shrine visits to relatives of Okinawa people killed in Battle of Okinawa who said they suffered distress from Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine . More than 140,000 Okinawan men, women and children, about 1/3 of the population of island were killed, including many forced to commit Mass Suicide by Japanese soldiers. Many Okinawans see themselves as much victims of Japan as of the U.S.

Fukuoka district court ruled that Koizumi shrine visits violated Constitution.

Feb 5, 2005 Proposals for the U.N. by East Asian NGOs say Article 9 has contained militarism in Japan and is key to maintaining peace in the region.

Feb 20, 2005 China-Japan tension grows because of competition for resources and old resentments, especially the latest conflict of 5 uninhabited isles, known by Chinese as Diaoyutai and Japanese as Senkaku Islands near a continental shelf containing natural gas.

Feb 23, 2005 China's oldest abducted Sex Slave died at age 94. Only about 60 former abducted Sex Slaves are known of in China; most have never come forward because of shame. But in Shanghai alone, Japanese set up at least 83 brothels.

Feb 25, 2005 Japanese court rejected lawsuit by abducted S.Korean Slaves worked at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. munitions factory.

Feb 25, 2005 S.Korea urges Japan to be 'candid about the past'

Feb 26, 2005 Japan, Philippine secretly agreed on postwar compensation in 1955 to a total amount of $800 million.

Feb 26, 2005 Only 7 of 9 elderly abducted Sex Slaves lived long enough to hear Japanese Supreme Court deny their claims.

Mar 1, 2005 S.Korean urges Japan to compensate for past. S.Korea said if Japan is angered by North Korea's kidnapping of its citizens, it should also provide compensation for thousands of kidnapped Koreans who were forced into Slavery and Sex Slaves.

In Jan. S.Korea declassified documents revealing that S.Korea's past military government agreed to accept a US$800 million economic package as reparations from Japan when established ties in 1965. The revelation triggered an uproar. Critics accused Japan of abusing S.Korea's poverty to settle the issue in its favor. They also charged that their own government sought quick economic aid in exchange for national pride. Calls are growing for nullifying the normalization pact and re-negotiate terms of compensation.

Mar 4, 2005 Family members of Japanese, S.Koreans and Taiwan Chinese war dead demanded Junichiro Koizumi stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine . About 10 members also submitted a letter to Yasukuni Shrine requesting that it stop enshrining their relatives. According to the published figures in Oct 2001, there were 28,863 Taiwanese and 21,181 Koreans enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine without their families' permission. Most of them were forced into war service under Japan's colonial rule.

Mar 7, 2005 Honorable Judge Yosh Yamanaka speaks against Japan to have a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council in the International Petition to U.N. Campaign by joined organizations in Japan, Korea, China, Philippine, US and Netherlands to collect 1,000,000 signatures to U.N. to reject Japan.

Mar 11, 2005 Germany passed a bill to restrict rallies by neo-Nazis. The bill will also allow courts to impose sentences of as much as 3 years in prison or a fine on anyone found guilty of approving, glorifying or justifying the Nazi regime in public.

Mar 11, 2005 Sex Slaves demand compensation and apology from Japan through U.N. Women's groups in 10 countries willl launch a petition drive. “We want to collect one million signatures in Taiwan, China, Japan, North and South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippine, the Netherlands and East Timor,” Lai Cai-er, spokeswoman for the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, "We do this because the Japanese government is waiting for the surviving Sex Slaves to die." Aged 80-year-old Chinese Sex Slave went to Japan to serve as witness in a Tokyo court.

Mar 11, 2005 2005 revised edition of Japanese History textbook distorts even more than the 2001 Edition: denies Japanese forced Koreans to adopt Japanese names during the colonial period; excises all mention of Sex Slaves, portraying Japan as more victim than aggressor; claims Japan had "no choice" but to occupy the Korea;

2005 New Japanese History textbook questions Nanjing Massacre and says China provoked war : downplaying "21 Humiliating Demands".

Although still suffering as a Western colonial victim, during W.W.I, China sent 96,000 laborers to help allies and worked in the trenches. 2,000 had died there. At end of W.W.I at the peace conference in Paris, China requested: do away with the privileges of imperialist foreign countries in China, cancel the Japanese "21 Humiliating Demands", take back the privileges in Shandong that Japan had taken from Germany.

However, not willing to give up their forced colonial privileges in China, the U.S., Britain and France rejected China's demands. Ignoring China, Article 156 of Treaty of Versailles transferred German concessions in Shandong, China to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China.

China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, compounded with the Japanese 21 Humiliating Demands led directly to the first mass movement in modern Chinese history, i.e. the famous First Chinese student movement : May 4th Movement in 1919 and triggered a nationwide Boycott of Japanese Goods. The movement also ignited a wave of searching efforts by the intellectuals for a solution to save China from foreign colonial powers, i.e. G8 - Canada + Austria. Some advocated gradual cultural reform, while others introduced Marxism and led to the birth of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mar 16, 2005 German foreign minister calls Jerusalem's new Holocaust memorial a place of "deep shame" for every German because "the name of my country, Germany, is and will forever be inseparably linked to the Shoah, the ultimate crime against Humanity."

Mar 19, 2005 Japanese high court rejects Chinese Sex Slave suit for apology and compensation. They were taken at age 13 and 15. Judge said their right "has been disclaimed and expiated with the signing of the Treaty of Peace Between Japan and China" and the statute of limitations under the Civil Code, which gives claimants 20 years from the incident to file for damages, had elapsed.

Mar 24, 2005 S.Korea is ready for "Diplomatic War" with Japan, President Roh said, as tensions flared over a territorial row and a Japanese Textbook critics say whitewashes Japan's Militarism. "These actions are not just undertaken by a single local government or some thoughtless extreme nationalists, but they are done under the abetting of the Japanese leadership and the central government," Roh calls for an apology over colonial rule. S.Korean protestors burned Japanese flags, cut their little fingers and one man torched himself outside Japanese embassy and Wired citizens wage "War"

Mar 27, 2005 Japanese notorious Militaristic national anthem and flag, only gazetted as national symbols in 1999, remain as symbols of Japan's Imperialistic past. Many teachers refused to follow. Last year 243 teachers were punished for not honouring the notorious Militaristic flag and 67 others reprimanded for not ordering students to sing the notorious Militaristic anthem. You cannot force them to sing it in Japan, or to listen in London . Hinomaru, 'Kimigayo' express conflicts both past and future. Over 1700 Japanese teachers have been punished throughout Japan's schools. In Tokyo alone, 388 teachers were subject to heavy punishment after 2004.

Teacher Katsuhisa Fujita who urged parents attending a graduation ceremony to remain seated during Japanese national anthem was fined $1,800. Though Fujita was ejected, about 90 % of the students remained seated during the song, school officials said.

To support the hundreds of teachers and students who refuse to sing the current Japanese notorious militaristic national anthem at school, someone has turned the Japanese notorious militaristic national anthem "Kimigayo" into English titled "Kiss Me" as an allusion to the Japanese Sex Slavery. It takes the syllables of each word of the Japanese and turns them into phonetically similar English words to support the protest of people who are forced to sing as "a small pillar of opposition in people's hearts".

Kazuhisa Suzuki, who teaches civics at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, said: "It's as though Germany brought back the Nazi Swastika and forced teachers to stand for it. If teachers don't fight it, who will ? ".

In Sept 2006 Japanese district court ruled that a Tokyo metropolitan government order compelling teachers to stand up for Japan's notorious national flag Hinomaru (Rising Sun) and sing the notorious national anthem Kimigayo (His Majesty's Reign) violated the Constitution.

In vivid contrast, German government has made displaying the Swastika and other Nazi symbols illegal in Germany. Germany would have tried Prince Harry for Nazi prank. Now, German politicians have called for Nazi symbols to be banned throughout Europe.

Mar 30, 2005 A group of Chinese and S.Koreans sue over Japan textbook that whitewashes Japan's war crimes.

Mar 31, 2005 Tokyo High Court rejected compensation to abducted Chinese Sex Slaves.

Mar 31, 2005 52 Japanese teachers punished for refusing to sing "Kimigayo" notorious Militaristic national anthem. Last year 243 teachers were punished for not honouring the notorious Militaristic flag and 67 others reprimanded for not ordering students to sing the notorious anthem.

Apr 1, 2005 22 Millions signed the Petition to U.N. to reject Japan.

Apr 1, 2005 S.Korea has vowed to block Japan UN bid

Arp 4, 2005 Chinese protest at Japan UN bid turns violent In Shenzhen, more than 3,000 protestors took to streets. "Down with the Japanese empire" they shouted. In Chengdu, 10,000 protestors surrounded a Japanese department store and began smashing its windows.

The China Chain Store & Franchise Association urged members to Boycott Japanese Goods.

Apr 5, 2005 Japan History Textbook anger E Asia

Apr 5, 2005 Japan holds tight grip on Textbook on Iraq War

Apr 5, 2005 15 Japanese civic groups issued a statement, " The 'dangerous' contents filling the Textbook as a whole have not changed in any essential way. There are even parts that have been revised for the worse.", down playing Nanjing Massacre, ignoring Sex Slaves, depicting Japan as aimed at liberating other Asian countries".

Apr 9, 2005 S.Korea said, "It's unfortunate for the entire world that we have to exist with a people who honor their past of invasion and harm ..... Japan's attitude does not fit with the universal values that must be sought by human society." Roh said.

Apr 11, 2005 The most contentious history text removes all references to the comfort women and suggests that Korea and China invited or benefited from the Japanese occupation. Just one new history textbook out of 8 mentions the comfort women this year, down from 7 in the mid-1990s, and references to other war crimes have been toned down or dropped. Japanese government Liberal Democrats, well over 100 of whom - including Education Minister, Nariaki Nakayama - publicly back the historical revisionist movement in schools. Under Mr Koizumi's government, hundreds of teachers have been punished for refusing to stand for the notorious Militaristic national anthem.

Apr 11, 2005 Germany led a commemoration of 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazis' Buchenwald Death Camp. "We cannot change History, but this country can learn a lot from the deepest shame of our History," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged the world never to forget the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis, "I bow before you, the victims and their families."

Apr 12, 2005 U.S. has of late been remarkably SILENT about Japan's ethical lapses, current and historical.

Apr 14, 2005 "All history textbooks are shifting their focus away from Japan's wartime atrocities" said Mikio Someya of Japan Teachers' Association, the leading teachers' union in Japan.

Apr 15, 2005 Schröder: Japan Can Learn From Germany saying postwar Berlin had won the respect of its neighbors in how it contended with its Nazi past.

Apr 16, 2005 Japan's largest national newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun called on readers to celebrate new Textbooks of cutting out all mentions about the Sex Slaves. "No matter how young or old, none of the women we rounded up could escape being raped..... Afterwards "we always stabbed them and killed them. Because dead bodies don't talk." Yasukuni Museum display shows Japan as victim of a conspiracy by Western colonial powers and Japan was forced into war in self-defence to bring peace to Asia.

Apr 17, 2005 Violence flares as the Chinese rage at Japan.

Apr 18, 2005 East Asians urge Japan to own up to wartime record

Apr 19, 2005 Tokyo high court denies compensation to Chinese victims over war atrocities. The Court upheld a 1999 lower court ruling that international law barred foreign citizens from seeking compensation from the Japanese government and the statute of limitations had expired and it was too late to seek damages. The 10 plaintiffs demanded compensation caused by biological experiments, the Rape of Nanjing and the Firebombing of Yong'an city in Fujian province. In 11 raids from 1938 to 1943, Japan dropped firebombs killing and injuring more than 10,000 inhabitants in Yong'an city.

Yoshio Shinozuka, a courageous and conscious former member of unit 731 who testified on behalf of victims said, "I don't know how to apologize. Today, I've never felt so ashamed to be Japanese."

Apr 19, 2005 China has offered to repair Japan's Beijing embassy damaged in protests. Local authorities in Shanghai have expressed readiness to pay damages to Japanese restaurants.

Pointing to the Nazi Concentration Camp of Auschwitz in Poland and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan as precedents for UNESCO protection of war ruins, China would seek UNESCO World Heritage protection for the ruins of a Japanese WMD Biological Warfare center of Unit 731 in Harbin, including its laboratories, prisons and crematoria used for experiments on humans to develop WMD weapons.

Japan's government officially neither denies nor recognizes any activities of Unit 731, even though Japanese Court has recognized for the first time in 2002 that Japan had conducted Biological Warfare in China during WWII.

Apr 20, 2005 Japan Prime Minister Koizumi said he doesn't think his visits to Yasukuni Shrine hurt feelings of Chinese people and Japanese lawmakers plan to visit War Shrine

Apr 20, 2005 Nanjing Massacre: The deepest of wounds United Human Rights Council called it "The single worst atrocity during the WWII era in either the European or Pacific theatres of War".

Apr 22, 2005 Koizumi has reiterated his personal "deep remorse" over its colonial aggression in Asia at the Asia-Africa summit. His personal apology was NOT endorsed by Japanese Parliament, only based on speech made by former PM Tomiichi Murayama in 1995. It was dis-credited immediately by the 80 Japanese members of Parliament visited Yasukuni Shrine most of them from Koizumi's own LDP party. MPs undermine Japanese apology.

However, Koizumi's personal apology were a far cry from what many Asian nations have long clamored for: A strongly worded government official statement of apology that is formally and officially approved by Japanese Parliament as a "Truly Legal National Apology" using the more sincere Japanese word " shazai ", NOT the much less sincere Japanese word "owabi".

Apr 23, 2005 Japan's failure to own up to its past threatens its future

Apr 23, 2005 Mr Koizumi's education minister, Nariaki Nakayama and his deputy secretary general, Shinzo Abe are among more than 100 LDP supporters of the neo-nationalist group that wrote the disputed Textbooks.

Apr 26, 2005 German expert: Japan needs to launch debate on History Eberhard Sandschneider, Director of the Research Institute of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said that there should be an open and self-critical debate within Japan.

Apr 26, 2005 Tokyo District Court rejected a damages suit over PM Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine . All courts, in Chiba, Osaka, Matsuyama, Fukuoka, Naha and Tokyo, rejected similar damage suits without issuing a constitutional judgment. Only the Fukuoka court ruled in Apr. 2004 that Koizumi's Yasukuni visit violated the Constitution of separation of state and religion.

Apr 26, 2005 Malaysian lawmakers demand apology from Japan over war crimes.

Apr 26, 2005 China detains 42 for anti-Japanese protests

Apr 28, 2005 Former Japan PM denies 'Gentlemen's Agreement' with China over war shrine.

May 3, 2005 Beijing finds anti-Japan protest a 2-edged sword

May 3, 2005 Japanese PM Koizumi apologized for sufferings inflicted on estimated 14,000 Dutch Pows held by the Imperial Japanese Army in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. The Honorary Debts Foundation received more than 80,000 claims. It has sent 125 petitions detailing requests to the Japanese government. In a letter to the UN, the foundation also expressed its opposition to Japan's bid to be a permanent member of UN Security Council.

May 3, 2005 Members of the Korean Community held a anti-Japanese protest outside consulate in Sydney.

May 4, 2005 Although still suffering as a Western colonial victim, during W.W.I, China sent 96,000 laborers to help allies and worked in the trenches. 2,000 had died there. At end of W.W.I at the peace conference in Paris, China requested: do away with the privileges of imperialist foreign countries in China, cancel the Japanese "21 Humiliating Demands", take back the privileges in Shandong that Japan had taken from Germany.

However, not willing to give up their forced colonial privileges in China, the U.S., Britain and France rejected China's demands. Ignoring China, Article 156 of Treaty of Versailles transferred German concessions in Shandong, China to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China.

China refused to sign Versailles Treaty, triggered the famous May 4 Movement and the first organized Boycott of Japanese Goods. A major opposition movement arose - the first real questioning of Western and Japanese treatment of the Chinese. A national identity began to emerge from the May 4 Movement.

May 4, 2005 Should history textbooks make you love your country? Most people would say "yes." And that's why textbooks inevitably distort the past - even here, in the good old USA.

May 4, 2005 China walks nationalist tightrope The demonstrations in 1919, when students marched through Beijing to protest against colonial Japan and other foreign powers, marked the birth of China's first mass movement : May 4 Movement. The nationalistic, patriotic gathering was joined by workers and intellectuals, and eventually led to the birth of the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese police head off May 4 anti-Japan protests

May 5, 2005 Denmark apologizes for WWII 'mistakes'. Danish prime minister said, "An apology cannot change history. But it can contribute to recognize mistakes made in history and hopefully help future generations to avoid similar mistakes in the future."

May 9, 2005 Speaking to a special joint sitting of parliament marking the 60 anniversary of the end of the war, German Mr Köhler said: "We have the Responsibility to keep alive the memories of all the suffering .... We Germans look back with horror and shame ..... "

May 10, 2005 China to mark war's end; activists seek memorial day The announcement breaks from China's usual stance of avoiding war memorial events to keep peace with Japan. Every year since 2001, activists in Beijing have urged China's top legislature, to approve a memorial day, but their suggestions have never been approved.

May 10, 2005 Germany opens new Holocaust memorial marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. " Today we open a memorial that recalls Nazi Germany's worst, most terrible crime ...." said parliamentary president Wolfgang Thierse. He added Germany now "faces up to its history".

May 10, 2005 Chinese historians have called for more awareness of China's "indispensable contribution" to the Allied victory in WWII. History of WWII would have been completely different without China's 14 years WWII with brutal Japan.

Chinese army pinned down Japanese in Asia, and saved valuable time for allied forces in Europe that helped prevent a Japanese attack on the Soviet Union and the possible convergence of the two strongest fascist countries in the East.

"That is the main reason why Japan did NOT respond the demands of Germany to attack the Soviet Union or invade British troops in Southeast Asia,"

Without Chinese resistance, it would have been almost impossible to implement the 'Europe First' strategy."

May 11, 2005 Authors defend controversial Japan textbook

May 12, 2005 However, attending the 60th anniversary of End of War and in stark contrast to an earnest apology by German leader Gerhard Schroeder, at a press conference in Moscow, Koizumi said : Japan has done enough "Self-Examination".

May 13, 2005 Japan approved controversial national holiday to honor Wartime Emperor Hirohito to glorify its brutal militaristic past, a bill that would make Hirohito's birthday on April 29 a national holiday called Showa Day. A similar bill was twice scrapped under political pressure and criticism.

It is a speechless irony to the whole Asia : the name of Hirohito's reign "Showa " is originated from "Shu Jing " , a Chinese Classic , which means "Enlightened Peace".

May 13 2005 Tokyo High Court acknowledged a 1932 Massacre in China's Liaoning Province but rejected any compensation for the 3 survivors.

May 15, 2005 Japan plans to build about a dozen new factories in China to dispose WMD Chemical Weapons abandoned in WWII. About 700,000 - 2,000,000 WMD abandoned in China. So far, only 37,000 of them have been dug up and treated. In 2004, 2 children were injured by Japanese WMD Chemical Weapon leaking mustard gas in a river. A similar leak in Heilongjiang province, the WMD killed one person and injured 42 in 2003. China say the abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons have victimized at least 2,000 Chinese since 1945 end of war.

May 16, 2005 A fact-finding group has identified 406 Japanese companies brought Koreans to Japan as Slave laborers.

May 17, 2005 Japanese PM Koizumi rejects criticism of war shrine visits.

May 19, 2005 Singapore joins chorus against shrine visit

May 21, 2005 Disney here has rightist-yakuza links

May 24, 2005 S.Korea : Japan should follow Germany's lead on History.

May 26, 2005 Senior Japanese lawmaker : No need to apologize for war Crimes and said "war criminals" was just a label imposed by the victors and are no longer regarded as criminals in Japan. China rips official's war-criminal remarks.

June 1, 2005 8 former Japanese PM against Koizumi's shrine visit. However, Koizumi will keep visiting the war shrine, his aide says.

June 3, 2005 Yasuhiro Nakasone, former Japanese PM whose own shrine visit in 1985 sparked huge Chinese protests, urged Koizumi: Don't repeat shrine mistake.

June 3, 2005 In Japanese Parliament, Shii read out a Yasukuni brochure that argued Japan's wars of aggression were an effort to free Asia from European colonialism. The writings also alleged that U.S. forced Japan to attack U.S. in 1941. Questioned in Parliament about his shrine visits, Koizumi was typically defiant. The shrine is similarly unrepentant. Yasukuni's guardians recently invited the public to compose a song that both praises Japan and burnishes its image overseas.

June 4, 2005 In a written statement, officials from Yasukuni Shrine have said the Shrine will not remove the 14 Class-A War Criminals, because the outcome of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal that convicted them remains controversial. It also said the Diet unanimously adopted a resolution in 1953 denying the existence of "War Criminals" in Japan in connection with WWII.

Jun 5 2005 Top Japanese newspapers suggest building non-religious war memorial to solve Yasukuni problem

Jun 5 2005 Israel, Germany celebrate 40 year ties Forged in the aftermath of Holocaust, Germany is Israel's closest partner and supporter in Europe, second only to U.S. in terms of economic and political ties.

Jun 5, 2005 Germany offers Japan clues on postwar Harmony.

Jun 6, 2005 Japan to spend US$1.9 billion to build a factory in China to dispose its WMD Chemical Weapons abandoned in WWII. About 700,000 - 2,000,000 WMD abandoned by Japan. Under a 1997 international convention, Japan is obliged to clean them up by 2007. So far, only 37,000 of them have been dug up and treated. In 2004, 2 children were injured by Japanese WMD Chemical Weapon leaking mustard gas in a river. A similar leak in Heilongjiang province, the WMD killed one person and injured 42 in 2003. China say the abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons have victimized at least 2,000 Chinese since 1945 end of war.

Jun 6, 2005 Japanese Foreign Minister has called China's criticism of shrine visits "absurd" and defended the controversial history textbook.

Jun 7 2005 Japanese Parliament's speaker urges Koizumi not to visit war shrine

Jun 7, 2005 Yuko Tojo, granddaughter of wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo, is now speaking out against the postwar Allied tribunal that convicted him as a Class-A war criminal. She argued that Japan fought the war in self-defense

Jun 8, 2005 A Taiwanese aboriginal lawmaker with 60 aborigines, will travel to Japan to demand the removal of the names of aboriginal war dead from Yasukuni Shrine .

Discounting Yasukuni authorities' earlier statements that they have already become "gods" and nobody has the right to decide their fate, Kao Chin said that the Kaosha warriors are not Japanese and their "confined Souls should be released and allowed to return to their home in Taiwan. "Shackling of the warriors' Souls" in Japan is the "saddest event in the history of Taiwan's aboriginal people," She said her people will travel to Japan one group after another in a bid to "release" their ancestors' Souls in their own way.

The group will also demand an open apology from the Japanese Government for atrocities committed in Taiwan. Documentaries showing how Taiwan's aborigines were slaughtered or tortured by the Japanese were shown at the press conference.

Jun 9, 2005 Joint History report shows huge gaps between Japan and S.Korea

Jun 10, 2005 Chinese-Americans join push for war redress from Japan

Jun 10, 2005 Families of Japan's war dead ask PM to reconsider visits to shrine

Jun 13, 2005 About 28,000 Taiwan Chinese war dead are enshrined at Yasukuni under Japanese names they were forced to assume. The Taiwan Chinese arrived in Tokyo said they want their relatives' names removed from memorial plaques there because it is "morally unpardonable that Murderers and Victims are honored at the SAME place."

Jun 13, 2005 Japan's Minister of Education and Culture, Nariaki Nakayama praised the recent deletion of Sex Slaves from History Textbooks. Then, Japan apologized again for the Sex Slaves.

Jun 14, 2005 Many know the "Schindler's List", the film about a German who personally saved 1,100 Jews. Not widely known, the Chinese Consul Feng-Shan Ho in Vienna defied his government's policy and issued 20,000 visas that let European Jews into China from 1938 to 1940, Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany to China, a seemingly unlikely haven then under Japanese occupation. "China was the only country that would accept us," said Rita Atterman Feder.

Jun 19, 2005 The Ghost Of Mr. Tojo Opposition is growing to Koizumi's Yasukuni visits.

Jun 20, 2005 Okinawa Suicides and Japan's Army: Burying the Truth?

Jun 20, 2005 S.Korea, Japan remain at odds on History

Jun 23, 2005 Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court ruling awarding government compensation to a Chinese Slave. The original July 2001 ruling said Japan had a responsibility after its defeat to protect people forcibly taken to Japan. Liu, who first sued the Japanese government for compensation in 1996, died in 2000, and his son took over the suit.

Jun 27, 2005 Korean on Saipan seeks Japan's apology ahead of imperial visit and hope Emperor Akihito will visit Korean Peace Memorial next to the monument, built in memory of estimated up to 10,000 Koreans who died in the Battle of Saipan. Lu Yunfei said, "If he goes there and pays respects to Japanese and other victims who were sacrificed, he should make a distinction between the murderers and the victims." Japanese Emperor made a surprise visit to Korean memorial

Jun 27 2005 Another 3 Chinese injured by Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons.

Jun 29, 2005 US court rejected a damages lawsuit against Japan filed by 15 Asian Sex Slaves.

Jun 30, 2005 "The Phantom Unit 731" directed by TV producer Haruko Yoshinaga, documents Japan's WMD Biological experiments in China.

Jun 30, 2005 U.N. received petition to block Japan's Security Council bid with more than 41 million signatures seeking wartime redress from Japan.

Jun 30, 2005 Chinese survivors of Hanaoka Slave Incident mark anniversary. On June 30, 1945, Chinese Slaves near a copper mine in Odate, Akita Prefecture, Japan staged an uprising. More than 400 Chinese Slaves killed. Liu said, "We will continue to pursue a resolution to the crimes committed by Japanese militarism, no matter how long it will take."

Jul 3, 2005 No apology, no forgiveness.

Jul 10, 2005 Evidence of vast plant that Japan used PoWs as human guinea pigs in WMD Chemical and Biological Warfare found in remote grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China. "It covers an area of 40 square miles. It may be the largest and best-preserved gas experiment site in the world ..... Japan conducted WMD Chemical and WMD Germ Warfare in 2/3 of the country, but especially in the north, north-east and south of China," said Mr Jin Chengmin. "It should be qualified for World Heritage status. The ruins serve as a permanent reminder of the atrocities Japanese troops committed in China."

Jul 11, 2005 Chinese Americans lead effort to put pressure on Japan. Poland Hung said. "If we ignore and deny history, how can we promote peace ? ".

Jul 12, 2005 Japanese Education Minister: "Comfort Women" have no place in Textbooks.

Jul 12, 2005 German Government has bought a former labor camp near Berlin to open a Memorial to commemorate German Slave laborers in 2006.

Jul 13, 2005 Dispute: Rock or Island ?

Jul 14, 2005 The kamikaze and the communist: WWII survivors embody conflict that still haunts Japan. Japan was trying to rid Asia of Western colonialism. Japan wasn't invading Asia, Japan was liberating it. And, in the end, Japan had no choice but to fight or die. "I still believe that today," Toshio Yoshitake said.

Jul 14, 2005 Japan's High Court upheld a lower court verdict, which ordered Japanese government to compensate 9 Slave miners a total of 82 million yen ($732,000).

Jul 16, 2005 Female activists in Japan will open a Women's Active Museum on War and Peace to display Sex Slave's material in Tokyo.

Jul 18, 2005 Chinese Forced Labor, Japanese Government and Prospects for Redress.

Jul 19, 2005 Japan court rejects WMD Germ Warfare compensation. Upholding a previous ruling, however, the Tokyo High Court backed a lower court's landmark 2002 declaration that Japan had carried out WMD Biological Warfare, something the Japanese government has never officially acknowledged. But rejected demands by 180 Chinese for compensation and apology.

"It's a not a verdict you could reach if you were human," Yoshio Shinozuka, who has spoken of his involvement in WMD Germ Warfare, said, The judge was just making excuses for the Japanese government." And China demands Japan take responsibility for WMD Germ Warfare. They filed the appeal with the Supreme Court.

Jul 22, 2005 Japan finds itself staring at the Past as it looks into the Future.

Jul 23, 2005 Yasukuni: What draws Koizumi to the shrine ?.

Jul 24, 2005 "Seidan" means "Imperial decision" a mixed documentary footage and dramatic reconstruction to explain: Was the Emperor willing to sacrifice himself completely -- not only his throne but his life -- for the sake of his people ? Or did he give up reluctantly and only after he believed he would be spared ? What "Seidan" shows is that, though the emperor finally ended the madness with his "divine decision" he could have cut the nation's losses much earlier. "Seidan" still makes the Japanese people out to be victims, but in this case they are victims of their own leaders, and the emperor.

Jul 25, 2005 The "Chinese Schindlers". And The Angel of Austria's Jews . Some historians say Shanghai saved more Jews from the Nazi Holocaust than all Commonwealth countries combined.

Jul 28, 2005 Tojo's granddaughter says Japan war PM no criminal.

Jul 28, 2005 Tokyo school board adopts disputed History Textbook.

Jul 28, 2005 Tokyo shrine raises hackles. Minoru Morita, a Tokyo-based political analyst said, "These days we very often hear more experts say publicly that the U.S. wants such adversary relationship between China and Japan and that's why they remain SILENT."

Jul 30, 2005 Fund set up to help victims seek compensation from Japan. Takahashi Tohru, Japanese lawyer and head of the Japanese lawyer team for helping Chinese said one of the major difficulties was the lack of money to collect evidence and lawyers have no money to conduct their field studies.

Jul 31, 2005 Who should be blamed for Japan's WWII Militarism. Among experts, a loose consensus has emerged: not only the military was to blame but everybody in the era: politicians, bureaucrats, teachers, the media, the public as a whole and erstwhile demigod Emperor Hirohito.

Aug 2, 2005 Japan law makers adopted a resolution on the 60th anniversary of WWII that states Tokyo regrets the "suffering" it caused in Asia but dropped references to Japan's "colonial rule" and "acts of aggression" included in the resolution that marked the 50th anniversary of the War.

Aug 2, 2005 More than 300 Japanese lawmakers urged Koizumi to visit Yasukuni Shrine on the 60th anniversary of WWII.

Aug 2, 2005 NGO in Japan have opened archives on Sex Slaves to protest war crimes against women by Japan.

Aug 3, 2005 "Any colonial government was harsh, but no other imperialist countries but Japan attempted to wipe out the culture and spirit of a whole nation.” said Lee Bae-Yong, a history professor at Korea's Ehwa University.

Aug 5, 2005 Japanese LDP party executive Shinzo Abe, a popular hawk often cited as a likely successor to Koizumi publicly criticizes the Toyko War Tribunal, "But there is a big problem that they were judged by the victor countries ..... and according to retroactive laws." Abe said.

Aug 5, 2005 Hiroshima Anniversary: Iraq War spurred a new nuclear arms race. Iran, an NPT member insists on its right to pursue nuclear power, has been infuriated by U.S. nuclear co-operation with India, a non-member of the NPT, which blasted its way into the nuclear "club" in tit-for-tat tests with Pakistan in 1998.

Aug 8, 2005 Herbert P.Bix - Showa Scholar Supreme said,"Hirohito was Imperial Japan's hereditary head of state...supreme commander of his forces...a religious leader...nation's chief pedagogue. He lived in a world of high politics. So, naturally, he engaged in politics... Yet, this man never assumed responsibility for what happened to the Japanese and Asian peoples whose lives were destroyed or harmed by his rule..... He was more concerned about preserving an empowered monarchy -- with himself on the throne..... He never took responsibility for the war that was carried out in his name..... Morally, I thought he was a very weak person. He lacked backbone, and I think his reign was a tragedy for the Japanese people..... Gen. MacArthur and the Truman administration shielded the Emperor and documents were placed off limits....."

Aug 9, 2005 Lack of war knowledge among Japanese youth appalling

Aug 10, 2005 Women's groups across Asia, Manila, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Osaka and other Japanese cities, urged Japan to apologize and compensate Sex Slaves. "Japan abducted me and forced me to become a Sex Slave," 76-year-old Korean Lee Yong-soo said, "The Japanese government should have come to my home and kneel down to apologize." In Philippine, Julia Poras, was abducted by Japanese at age 13 "Japanese soldiers tied up my hands and feet. I felt like an animal ready to be slaughtered," she said. For 8 months, Japanese lined up in an underground hideout and took turns raping her, Poras said.

Aug 13, 2005 4 former S.Korean Sex Slaves handed over 550,000 signatures petition to Japan demanding apology and compensation. The petition was also submitted to UN.

Aug 14, 2005 For 60 years, Japan still struggles with responsibility and Not all Japanese have learned the lessons of war.

Aug 15, 2005 U.S. provided money, food, gifts, entertainment and other kinds of rewards to the former Unit 731 members, even 2 years after the War to obtain data on human experiments conducted in China, according to 2 declassified U.S. government documents. The 2 declassified documents were found in the U.S. National Archives by professor Keiichi Tsuneishi at Kanagawa University and an expert on WMD biological and chemical weapons.

Aug 15, 2005 Japan expresses "remorse" over WWII. But in his speech in front of the emperor, Koizumi did not use the word "apology". 2 of his ministers, and more than 47 lawmakers visited Yasukuni Shrine. Anti-Japanese protesters turned out in Hong Kong; Seoul, S.Korea; Manila, Philippine; and Taipei, Taiwan.

Aug 15, 2005 Michael Weiner, professor of East Asian history said, "V-J Day is very odd in comparison to V-E Day ....." He and Michael Bernstein, a history professor at UC San Diego agree that V-J Day had deeper implications and less obvious consequences than the defeat of Nazi. "I have been struck by how little people in the US and Europe understand the terrible impact the war had on more than 50 % of world's population." Weiner said.

Aug 18, 2005 "I think there are just as many Japanese Americans puzzled and angry that Japan hasn't come to grips with what happened in WWII," said Don Nakanishi, a Japanese American and director of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA.

Aug 18, 2005 A non-governmental fund, named "History, Human Rights and Peace", was established to help Chinese victims to file lawsuits demanding compensation from Japan and aid research on relevant historical facts. "This is an international fund. We welcome individuals and organizations from various countries, especially Japan, to contribute to the fund," said Wang Xuan, head of the Chinese team of plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Japanese WMD Biological Warfare in WWII.

Aug 19, 2005 In stark contrast with very active Germany's Schroeder participating in June 6th V-60 celebrations in Europe, Japan's Koizumi was not invited to any of Asian country across the Pacific to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Japan's WWII surrender.

Aug 23, 2005 Tokyo District Court has ruled that the notorious " Bushido - Killing Contest Game " , were not a journalist's fabrication.

Aug 24, 2005 "I can accept the fact that the young generation of Japanese is not to blame. It was their fathers and grandfathers. But until they own up, they'll always be a pariah nation," 84-year-old Baden Jones, a PoW survivor of the notorious Railway of Death, said at the Thailand's Hellfire Pass.

Aug 26, 2006 S.Korean disclosed diplomatic documents exchanged with Japan for the two nations' normalization and declared that Japan is legally responsible for its war crimes. The documents detail negotiations held on compensation for victims, covered the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in Japan, and the retrieval of Korean cultural assets taken to Japan during the colonial period.

Sept 3, 2005 In a ceremony commemorating 60th V-J Day, members from 22 countries unveiled a Peace Monument, a wall 60 metres long and 60 steps high, in Beijing Chaoyang Park, funded from private donations worldwide.

Akie Kato, a Japanese represented the Japanese veterans to sign the Beijing Peace Declaration in the ceremony. Her husband was captured by Chinese forces in 1940 and later joined an anti-war alliance organized by Japanese, fighting on the Chinese side in 1945 and even helping the People's Liberation Army in liberating the Northeast. "Peace and justice are what we fought for," she said. "The war caused catastrophe to both the Chinese and Japanese peoples. The value of peace is immeasurable."

Sept 8, 2005 The un-thinkable: A Nuclear-Armed Japan.

Sept 18, 2005 China marks War Anniv. without demonstrations at Japan embassy.

Sept 20, 2005 Japan recovers 281 WMD Chemical Weapons in Yichun city's residential area in China.

Sept 24, 2005 Japan blind to a Dark Past.

Sept 29, 2005 870 remains of kidnapped Korean Slaves found in Japan.

Sept 29, 2005 Tokyo High Court rejected a suit demanding compensation against Koizumi visiting Yasukuni Shrine . The judge also ruled that Koizumi worshipped there privately, and therefore there was no need to decide whether the visit violated the constitution.

Sept 30, 2005 One day after the Tokyo High Court ruled that Koizumi's visits could not be classified as an official visit. The Osaka High Court ruled Koizumi's shrine visits were a religious activity and Un-Constitutional. The court ruled several reasons why Koizumi's shrine visits were official: Koizumi used an official car and was accompanied by his aides; he visited the shrine to carry out a campaign pledge; and the PM did not clarify if his visits were done in a private capacity. The court said the visits "supported and promoted a specific religion."

Oct 7, 2005 Japan to dispose its abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons in China.

Oct 10, 2005 Japan returns looted anti-aggression monument to Korea. The ancient monument built in 1707 records brave stories of Korean victory of anti-Japanese aggression 400 years ago.

Oct 15 2005 China demands Japan to speed up destroying WMD Chemical Weapons

Oct 18, 2005 Asians angered by the 5th visit to Yasukuni Shrine by PM Koizumi.

Oct 18, 2005 About 100 Japanese lawmakers also visited the Shrine, joined by 94 aides representing legislators.

Oct 19, 2005 Taiwan, Japan, S.Korea families protest Yasukuni enshrinements. "Since the Osaka ruling has made it clear the principle of separation of religion and state, his (Koizumi) visit can be seen as cheating. I think victims are exploited, families are used," said Ryuken Sugahara, a Buddhist priest whose father was drafted in 1943 and succumbed to disease in the South Pacific. He urged a joint effort by relatives of the war dead to get the shrine to remove the names of their ancestors.

Oct 19, 2005 Japanese PM's shrine visits reflect importance of educating Westerners about Asia WWII. In April, the Ontario government in Canada agreed to include Asian WWII in curriculums of the province's secondary schools. Documentary: Canadian Surviors of WWII in Asia.

Oct 19, 2005 Pointless Provocation in Tokyo

Oct 23, 2005 Just a few paces from where Japanese PM Koizumi dropped a coin and prayed, is the Yasukuni museum. The museum portrays Japan as both the martyr and savior of Asia to drive "the foreign barbarians", to liberate and protect Asia from Russian Bolshevism and European colonialism. Pearl Harbor was "forced" by "a plot" by President Roosevelt. Japanese-led massacres, Korean comfort women, Chinese sex slaves, tortured PoWs, WMDs are not mentioned.

Oct 25, 2005 Korea demands apology over Yasukuni before summit.

Oct 25, 2005 Where Japan is heading.

Oct 28, 2005 In a comprehensive report entitled " Still Waiting After 60 years: Justice for Survivors of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery System", Amnesty International outlines the brutal treatment suffered by "comfort women" and the excuses given by Japan over the years to deny responsibility for their suffering, Amnesty International called on Japan to accept full responsibility for Sexual Crimes.

Japan has argued that Rape was not a war crime until 1949, when it was incorporated into the 4th Geneva Convention. Amnesty International argues in its report, that there is a wealth of evidence that Rape in the context of armed conflict was a crime under customary international law during the entire period in which the Japanese government operated its system of sexual slavery.

Nov 2, 2005 S.Korea upset over Japan foreign minister. Aso said that Japan's colonial policy of forcing Koreans change their names to Japanese names was because Koreans wanted Japanese names.

Nov 3, 2005 2 Koreas celebrate looted monument returned by Japan.

Nov 4, 2005 Ghosts of wartime Japan haunt Koizumi's cabinet.

Nov 6, 2005 Japanese and Korean scholars said 1905 Korea Protectorate Treaty paving way to annexing Korea illegal, and therefore Japan had no right to represent Korea when it signed any further treaties, including the Potsdam Treaty in 1945, which ended the war in the Pacific and divided the Korean Peninsula into North and South.

"The evidence that the treaty was illegally signed and therefore null and void is strong. Ultimately, this is an issue that will likely have to be tried at the International Court of Justice in The Hague," Ryukoku University professor Esturo Totsuka told the symposium.

Nov 6, 2005 Yasukuni Shrine Visits - A sign of Japan's decline ?.

Nov 10, 2005 Japan considers building a secular war memorial to resolve Yasukuni Shrine issue.

Nov 15, 2005 China, S.Korea blast Japanese leader's visits to Shrine. "If German leaders worshipped Hitler and worshipped the Nazis, how would the European people look at this ?" said Li Zhaoxing.

Nov 17, 2005 Japan struggles to dispose abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons in China and may have trouble meeting the 2007 deadline.

Nov 17, 2005 Japan faces isolation at APEC . . High price for shrine visits.

Nov 17, 2005 Japan is stuck in its Past. Its refusal to come to terms with it threatens to define its future and that of the whole of Asia.

Nov 18, 2005 Emperor's new clothes - Observations on Japan.

Nov 19, 2005 "Stop apologizing; Actions are more important", Korean PM Roh told Koizumi in APEC. "Criticism of his trips to Yasukuni, regarded by many as a symbol of unrepentant Japanese militarism, originated mostly in China and S.Korea. But after last month's visit it widened to include the rest of Asia, N.America and Europe", except U.S.

Nov 22, 2005 Japan to revive Military. Other than in name, Japan already has one of the world's best funded "Militaries" devoting close to five trillion yen (44 billion dollars) to defense a year. Japan has skirted its Peace Constitution by referring to its troops as the "Self-Defense Forces".

Nov 22, 2005 Tokyo teacher embattled over war History. Japanese city official said Japan never invaded Korea. Teacher demurs.

Nov 25, 2005 Japan's embassy protests Singapore over Yasukuni editorials. In Singapore, 80,000 civilians most of them ethnic Chinese, were massacred by Japanese troops during WWII.

Nov 29, 2005 former Sex Slaves suspect Japan aid "another ploy to evade its legal responsibility". The Lila Pilipina, Lolas Kampanyeras and Malaya Lolas have documented more than 350 cases from 1992 to 2004. Not one was included in the reparation agreement, activist Nelia Sancho said.

Dec 1, 2005 Nationalist Comics become popular in Japan. A reversal of Japan's history of aggression in Asia.

Dec 3, 2005 Japan, China to jointly destroy Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons.

Dec 3, 2005 Family ties: The Tojo legacy.
Grand-daughter of Tojo: If there was no Emperor , there would be no Japan ......
DM : But the Emperor himself admits he is Korean.
Grand-daughter of Tojo : I know nothing about his roots , but I was astonished that he said such a thing ......

Dec 14, 2005 S.Korean Slaves lose Japan court fight. 4 deceased S.Koreans were kidnapped and enslaved in Japan Iron & Steel Co., now known as Nippon Steel Corp., their relatives demanded Japanese government to pay compensation. Tokyo High Court rejected their appeal.

Dec 15, 2005 The International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-profit organization that studies international conflicts, recommended that Japan should build a separate war memorial to replace the Yasukuni Shrine .

Dec 16, 2005 Shrine issue dogs East Asia summit. "Germany came to terms with its past history by even giving up claims to certain territory," said Roh, "Germany did not build any facility that memorialized individuals who caused pain and suffering to their neighbors during the war."

Dec 24, 2005 Emperor asks Japan to 'accurately understand' History

Dec 31, 2005 Japan urged China not to disclose diplomat's suicide: Chinese embassy

Jan 4, 2006 Azuma Shiro, former Japanese soldier who was the first to apologize for Nanjing crimes, died at the age of 94, called by many as the "Conscience of Japan". He personally went to Nanjing 7 times to apologize. He published his war diary "My Nanking Platoon" to show his remorse and rebut Japanese doubts about Nanjing Massacre. He suffered harassment, threats and was sued for libel by Japanese right-wings who denounced him as a traitor.

Jan 15, 2006 Japanese article downplaying Death March angers survivors. Two survivors urge the leading Japanese magazine to apologize because "the intention of the article was not to recall history, but to rewrite it."

Jan 20, 2006 Japan vs. China: The other clash of civilizations ?

Jan 31, 2006 Japanese FM Taro Aso, a contender to succeed Koizumi, backtracked on his call for Emperor to visit Shrine. Emperor Akihito has refrained from praying there since he was enthroned in 1989, unlike Koizumi who has prayed at Yasukuni every year since taking office in April 2001.

Feb 1, 2006 The Yasukuni problem. What makes the shrine such a disturbing place, is NOT the Class-A war criminals or the Japanese Kempeitai monument, but this destructive ideology, which has survived intact despite war crime trials, democratic government, and more than half a century to analyze, debate, and reflect on the catastrophes of the past.

Feb 1, 2006 China ban for Memoirs of a Geisha.

Feb 2, 2006 China threat ?

Feb 2, 2006 Japan's Social Democratic Party : Japan defense forces are un-constitutional.

Feb 3, 2006 Japan's plans to change its pacifist constitution could lead to another war in the region, an Oscar-nominated director warns in a new documentary.

Feb 5, 2006 China condemned Japanese FM Taro Aso who credited Taiwan's high educational standards to Japan's 50-year colonial rule. During Japan's brutal colonial rule, Chinese culture was suppressed. Taiwan Chinese were forced to study and speak Japanese, simlar to the Cultural Massacre in Korea . If any good, why did Japan apologized ?

2 days later, he denied that he used the word "country" for Taiwan, "I am aware that it would be a problem to call Taiwan a country because The Asahi Shimbun has been making a fuss about it for 25 years. I am not that stupid," he said. However, he can be heard, in the tape of his speech, clearly saying "country".

Feb 6, 2006 Japan should stop Shrine visits, Singapore says.

Feb 11, 2005 Tsuneo Watanabe, Japan's most powerful media baron, equates Tojo with Hitler. He added, "This person Koizumi doesn't know history or philosophy, doesn't study, doesn't have any culture. That's why he says stupid things". As to the kamikaze pilots glorified as willing martyrs for the emperor, "It's all a lie that they left filled with braveness and joy, crying, 'Long live the emperor!' " he said, angrily. "They were sheep at a slaughterhouse. Everybody was looking down and tottering. Some were unable to stand up and were carried and pushed into the plane by maintenance soldiers".

Feb 13, 2006 Singapore preserves legacy of Japanese brutalities. "The Japanese came down and took over Singapore and slaughtered many people. We think that the horror of the war is something we have to remember."

Feb 16, 2006 Japanese FM Taro Aso said that Japanese Class-A War Criminals are not criminals according to Japanese standards.

Feb 17, 2006 A group, led by Atsuko Aoyagi, a homemaker from Miyazaki Prefecture who supports several lawsuits in 1990 filed by Koreans pressed into military service or forced labor, published a book explaining the suits in Japanese and Korean. The group plans to take the book to the UN Human Rights Commission, along with a petition calling on Japan to compensate the Korean.

Feb 17, 2006 After 61 years, Japan finally apologized for Manila destruction in WWII estimated 100,000 Filipino civilians massacred by the Japanese.

Feb 20, 2006 Man sues Japan firm in China for Slavery compensation, the first suit of its kind.

Feb 24, 2006 Japan’s FM should watch his words.

Mar 5, 2006 Chongqing bombings victims to sue Japan for Indiscriminate Bombing . Japan was the FIRST in Asia engaged in "Indiscriminate Bombing" on civilians started in Jan 1932 in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chongqing and other Chinese cities. Japan dropped numerous incendiary bombs onto the Chinese capital of war time, i.e. Bombing of Chongqing.

Mar 8, 2006 China, Japan in new Shrine row.

Mar 10, 2006 Court ruled Slave labor was wrong but no redress because more than 20 years had passed. But the court said what the Japanese government and companies had done was unlawful. The Japanese companies are Kajima Corp., Kumagai Gumi Co., Taisei Corp. and Tobishima Corp.

Mar 15, 2006 Since 1992, Korean Sex Slaves have been demonstrating every Wednesday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul demanding apology and compensation. Today, the slogan at the back reads, " 700th Wednesday rally ".

Mar 23, 2006 Tsuneo Watanabe, Japanese Media tycoon, chief editor of Japan's largest daily newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, well known for its conservative stance, now calls for clearer war apology by Japanese premiers, "It would be best for Parliament to set up a standing committee on war responsibility and express its position".

Mar 24, 2006 China to refurbish, expand Unit 731 exhibit into peace park.

Mar 28, 2006 Japan approved Military use of its space program, breaking another taboo. In 1969, the Japanese parliament adopted a resolution that limited the use of space to non-military applications. Ironically, Japan has already launched 2 spy satellites in March 2003.

Mar 28, 2006 Japanese court dismissed former Chinese Slaves lawsuit seeking compensation from Japanese government, Mitsui Mining Co., and Mitsubishi Materials Corp.

Mar 29, 2006 Japan completed its annual screening of school textbooks and ordered publishers to to underline Japan's claim to islands claimed by its neighbours and make changes likely to inflame tensions.

Mar 30, 2006 S.Korea protest over newly revised textbooks about Tokto island . China lodged a strong protest against Japan and reiterated China's claim to the Diaoyu islands, and Russia blasted Japan's claim to the south Kuril islands.

Mar 30, 2006 Japan drops plan to submit new U.N. Security Council reform bid this spring.

Mar 30, 2006 40 Chinese sues Japan for its indiscriminate bombing of Chongqing civilians before and during WWII.

Mar 31, 2006 In Chinese Wuhan University, there are 60 cherry trees planted by Japanese invading forces. Some Chinese internet users are now denouncing the 60 cherries as "sinful trees" and "flowers of shame", calling for the trees to be uprooted because they symbolise Japan's brutal invasion.

Apr 2, 2006 Two senior candidates to become the next Japanese prime minister Abe, Aso reject Chinese demand to halt war Shrine visits, calls China a military threat, rebuffs conciliatory gestures over Yasukuni Shrine .

Apr 8, 2006 China to expand display of Japan's WMD Biological 731 atrocities.

Arp 9, 2006 Japan's opposition leader calls war criminals should be removed from Shrine.

Apr 10, 2006 Gulf widens between China, Japan.

Apr 14, 2006 Japan to revise education laws to promote patriotism, a taboo since WWII.

Apr 14, 2006 China tones down anti-Japanese activism.

Apr 17, 2006 New Japan-China spat over gas.

Apr 19, 2006 Stakes rise in Japan-S.Korea island flap.

Apr 21, 2006 Germany agrees to open Holocaust archive.

Apr 21, 2006 96 Japanese MP lawmakers visited the Yasukuni Shrine including 6 parliamentary secretaries of the Koizumi Cabinet.

Apr 23, 2006 According to report by Simon Wiesenthal Centre, 16 Nazi War Criminals were convicted in 2005. Since 2001, a total of 48 convictions.

Apr 24, 2006 Japan hopes to grow coral around disputed Pacific outcrop . Dispute: Rock or Island ?

Apr 28, 2006 Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso family's mining company used thousands of Koreans as Slaves. His position as foreign minister is untenable.

May 1, 2006 US Resolution H.Res. 759 calls on Japan to accept responsibility for Sex Slavery.

May 4, 2006 Joint French-German history textbook is to be unveiled in France. Paradoxically, it was not WWII provided the main topic of debate, but the US role in the world since 1945. The book will be on the curriculum in French and German schools.

May 9, 2006 Germany updates official list of Jews murdered by Nazis. The 4-volume book, containing 150,000 names of all known German Jews killed in the Holocaust with new information following German reunification in 1990. "We have a moral duty to keep alive the memory of all the Jewish victims of the Nazi dictatorship and pass it to future generations." said Bernd Neumann, German state minister for the arts.

May 11, 2006 UN chief Kofi Annan recalled a "remarkable" ceremony in 2005, in which leaders of former WWII enemies stood side by side in Moscow to mark the 60th anniversary of War. Annan hopes one day a similar remarkable ceremony will be held in Asia. He called for a truthful handling of the past, noting that history books should convey facts "honestly and clearly".

May 14, 2006 Japan FM Taro Aso denounced by British former PoWs for his connection to his family's coalmines exploited 12,000 Korean Slaves and 101 British PoWs at its Yoshikuma pit in the southern island of Kyushu. Japan ordered records destroyed in 1945, but 3 amateur historians in Kyushu have documented what happened from local sources. They found the workers were underground for 15 hours a day 7 days a week.

May 17, 2006 When Aso visited Australia, did Japanese FM Taro Aso know that the father of Australian FM, Alexander Downer, had been a Japanese PoW in the notorious Changi jail in Singapore?. If Alexander Downer Sr. had been sent to Kyushu, as some 200 other Australian PoWs were, he might have become a Slave in Aso family coal mine.

May 18, 2006 Koizumi Shrine visits hurt Japan at UN, UN chief Kofi Annan says. "really stupid," said Koichi Nakano, professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo. "goes to Yasukuni while saying we also want a seat on the Security Council. That's not going to work."

May 23, 2006 Chinese victims of WMD Chemical Weapons seek more support from Japan. Ding Shuwen, 26, suffered burns to much of his body by Japanese WMD mustard gas in Aug. 2003. Liu Hao, 11, suffered burns to his legs and hands by Japanese WMD mustard and lewisite gases in July 2004.

May 25, 2006 Koreans want their dead relatives' names removed from Yasukuni Shrine lost their case in a Tokyo court.

May 27, 2006 Japan lavished $410 million aid to Pacific Island nations for Tokyo's bid of U.N. Security Council.

May 29, 2006 China asks Japan to return Balhae monument artifact currently held at Japanese imperial palace.

May 29, 2006 To support the hundreds of teachers and students who refuse to sing the current Japanese notorious militaristic national anthem at school, someone has turned the notorious militaristic national anthem "Kimigayo" into 2 English versions titled : "Kiss Me" , and "Kiss Me Girl" , urge people to remember Japan's war crimes including Nanjing Massacre and Sex Slaves. It takes the syllables of each word of the Japanese and turns them into phonetically similar English words to support the protest of people who are forced to sing as "a small pillar of opposition in people's hearts".

May 30, 2006 Japanese teacher fined over national anthem protest. Katsuhisa Fujita who urged parents attending a 2004 graduation ceremony to remain seated during Japanese national anthem was fined $1,800. Though Fujita was ejected, about 90 % of the students remained seated during the song, school officials said.

Jun 1, 2006 Hiroshima memorial honors first 3 Chinese victims. A national memorial for Hiroshima victims honored Chinese casualties for the first time - 3 Chinese Slaves exposed to searing radiation in the blast. Japanese government official Kaori Fujiwara said she does not have estimates of how many Chinese were in Hiroshima at the time of the attack.

Jun 7, 2006 Emperor Akihito gave warning against a return to the right-wing violence and militarist oppression.

Jun 7, 2006 U.S. covered-up Nazi crimes during Cold War.

Jun 9, 2006 In Guam, Japanese took everything from his family except the clothes on their backs. "You treat an animal better than us," said Sinajana resident Ignacio San Nicolas, 73, who was 9 years old when the Japanese occupied Guam, said he and other children were forced to watch as the Japanese beheaded 3 people in Mangilao. "They put a big fear on all of us, that you have to do what they want you to do, or you're dead."

Jun 17, 2005 Japan appeals court dismisses Chinese Slaves lawsuit.

Jun 21, 2006 Japan's current foreign minister, Taro Aso, receive an appeal to his "honor and decency" in the repayment of Slave debt more than 60 years old. Taro Aso himself ran Aso Mining Co. from 1973-79, has never acknowledged his family company's illicit employment of thousands Slaves and PoWs.

Jun 24, 2006 Japan shrine challenge rejected. The court did not address that issue of constitutionality, but the judge said that people might feel upset about Mr Koizumi's visits, it did not mean they could claim damages from him.

Jun 28, 2006 Koizumi lashes out at critics of his Shrine visits.

Jun 29, 2006 Taku Yamasaki, a close ally of Koizumi, said his Shrine visit may be unconstitutional.

Jul 1, 2006 Japan's foreign minister cancels PoW war ceremony at last minute, and had to made it only as a private one.

Jul 5, 2005 China may give Japan until 2012 to clean up WMD Chemical Weapons. Japan's produced 7 Million WMD Chemical bombs during the War, contained mostly mustard gas, as well as hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, arsenic and a blistering agent called lewisite. As many as 300,000 WMD bombs were found at the largest dump in Harbaling in Jilin. Another 37,500 WMD bombs were found in Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang province of China.

Jul 11, 2006 Slow pace of Japan WMD Chemical Weapons disposal. A total of 689 shells and bombs were unearthed in Ning'an of Heilongjiang, of which 210 were confirmed to be chemical weapons. The joint digs and collections have been going on for 9 years, so far not a single WMD Chemical Weapon has been destroyed by Japan. In 2003, a man was killed and 43 injured when 5 canisters of Japanese mustard gas were disturbed.

Jul 20, 2006 Hirohito visited Yasukuni shrine 8 times as Emperor, last pilgrimage was in 1975. In 1978 the shrine's head priest secretly enshrined 14 Class-A War Criminals. "That's why I have since not visited the shrine" according to the diaries of former palace Grand Steward Tomohiko Tomita.

Jul 21, 2006 Unit 731 planned germ warfare against U.S. after end of war.

Jul 23, 2006 Schindler of Nanjing. Story of John Rabe is to be made into a Hollywood movie. Rabe's house, with support from his former employer Siemens, will be turned into a memorial.

"Rabe was praised as a living bodhisattva, or living saviour, by those survivors, which is really high praise in Chinese culture," said Huang Huiying who has written a biography of Rabe. 3,000 Chinese women from Jinling Women's University knelt by the roadside in gratitude when Rabe was finally forced to leave the city early in 1938.

After returning to Berlin, Rabe gave lectures about the massacre and tried to get Hitler to intervene. He was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo for 3 days and told to shut up. After the war, he was de-Nazified and was kept alive by food parcels and money sent from grateful colleagues in China and he died of a stroke in 1950.

Jul 25, 2006 Germany agrees to open Nazi files which describes how the Holocaust was carried out for research purposes, not just for the victim's families.

Jul 31, 2006 AOL executive and sports-team owner, Ted Leonsis backs the documentary on "The Rape of Nanking" - a story about 12 heroes who saved 250,000 Chinese from death. It is now near completion with a marketing slogan: "What would you have done ?".

Aug 4, 2006 The front-runner in the race to be Japan's next Prime Minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe declines to say whether he secretly visited Yasukuni Shrine in April.

Aug 10, 2006 Japanese Prince Mikasa apologized to China over war. Japan disappointed China during the 1998 summit by refusing to use the word "apology" in a joint declaration, although then prime minister Keizo Obuchi apologized verbally. But Prince Mikasa, brother of wartime emperor Hirohito, had first-hand experiences of the war as he was stationed as an army officer in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing from 1943 to early 1944. He said in 1998 to Jiang at an imperial palace banquet in Tokyo that " I'm still profoundly ashamed of the violence committed by the Imperial Japanese Army. I want to apologize to the Chinese people," the prince was quoted as saying.

Aug 10, 2006 A group of Taiwan aborigines led by Legislator Kao Chin Su-mei left for Japan, similar to their last year's attempt, demand Japanese government to remove the names of their ancestors from Yasukuni Shrine because their ancestors were forced to fight for the Japanese Army. They will also file a new suit with a court in Osaka to have their ancestors' names removed from the Shrine.

Aug 11, 2006 Facing the past, embracing the future.

Aug 11, 2006 Families of the S.Koreans who were taken to Japan as Slaves or conscripted into the Japanese military during War and died in Japan submitted a letter to the Japanese government asking to find Korean Slaves' and conscripts' remains.

Aug 12, 2006 Japanese protest war Shrine a 2nd day.

Aug 13, 2006 War shrine target of protests in Japan.

Aug 13, 2006 A shrine to Japan's past not worthy of official visit.

Aug 15, 2006 Koizumi set to anger neighbors one last time with shrine visit. Ignoring protests at home and abroad, Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine drawing protest from China, S.Korea. It was Koizumi's 6th visit as PM, but his first on Aug. 15 the anniversary of Japan's surrender, the most controversial date possible, signing the guest book as Prime Minister.

Aug 18, 2006 German media condemn Koizumi's shrine visit as a "stubborn and stupid goodbye". The Chinese government had remained restrained which was a sign to Japan's leaders that China remained committed to its political dialogue with Japan.

Aug 18, 2006 A recent award winning documentary " The Ants" ["Ari no Heitai"] reveals the fact that after the War, Japan was not disarmed after all, and the U.S. knew it. Mr. Okumura is a living witness to that." It is a story about how Waichi Okumura and other Japanese soldiers were left behind after WWII and fought the communists during the Chinese Civil War.

"The Allied powers were accomplices," said Asaho Mizushima, a law professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. "The Japanese soldiers fought the communists so the United States didn't have to send its own troops ...... [Chinese Civil] War against China was the first Japan fought after WWII. As many as 550 soldiers were the first victims ..... Japanese government, however, cannot admit it ..... At stake is not only Japan's breach of the Potsdam Declaration but a question of war-renouncing Article 9. Japan was not disarmed after all, and the U.S. knew it. Mr. Okumura is a living witness to that."

Aug 23, 2006 A Chinese court ordered 2 Japanese authors and their publisher to pay compensation to a Chinese woman Xia Shuqin who survived the Nanjing Massacre. 7 of her 9 family members were killed. The court also ordered the suspension of publishing of Matsumura's book, "A Big Doubt about the Rape of Nanking" and Higashinakano's book, "A Thorough Examination of the Nanjing Massacre." Both were published in 1998.

In Japan, the Tokyo District Court ordered Matsumura and Tendensha to compensate Li Xiuying, another Chinese Nanjing survivor, in a similar defamation suit in 2002. However, the Tokyo High Court upheld the ruling. Li died at 86 in 2004.

Aug 23, 2006 Bitterness remains among Dutch, host of Japan imperial family. During war, About 12,000 of Duch PoWs died in captivity, and many Dutch women were forced to become Sex Slaves.

Aug 25, 2006 Japan to delete a Yasukuni shrine exhibit accusing U.S. of engineering a war with Japan, and discuss further changes to the glossing over Japan's wartime history related to U.S.. But are unlikely to address any contentious displays relating to the Japan's brutal invasion of China, Korea, and Asia.

Aug 26, 2006 More than a hundred historians, legislators and victims of Japanese occupation from 13 countries gathered in Philippines for a 3 day forum to demand redress.

Aug 28, 2006 Koizumi denied his war shrine visits encouraged nationalism.

Aug 30, 2006 Sex Slaves' lawsuit demanding apology and compensation from Japan rejected by a Tokyo court. The suit had been filed by 8 Chinese women, 2 of whom died and had their suits taken up by relatives. "With regard to this unjust decision, I want to ask if Japanese people have any conscience," Chen told a news conference.

Spet 1, 2006 In Canada, British Columbia Ministry of Education published in 2001, "Human Rights in the Asia Pacific 1931-1945" which was developed by the B.C. Ministry of Education in collaboration with B.C. teachers, academics, organizations and individuals. Most Canadian textbooks about the WWII focus on Europe, and this teachers guide deals with Asia including Japanese Nanjing Massacre, Biological Warfare 731, Comfort Women etc. The contributors to the teachers guide include the B.C. Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (B.C. ALPHA) , the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association human rights committee, and Canadian Veterans and Prisoners of War. To view this publication online : Click Here.

Sept 2, 2006 Japan’s likely next hawkish premier Shinzo Abe. Unlike Koizumi who has accepted the validity of the Tokyo trials in which Japan’s wartime leaders were judged, Mr. Abe has not. Abe used to visit Yasukuni regularly on Aug. 15. It is because Mr. Abe is the grandson of Nobusuke Kishi who oversaw the Slave labor program as minister of commerce and industry during the war, was imprisoned as a Class-A War Criminal suspect and later became Japanese prime minister in 1957. Over the years, Mr. Abe supports nationalist scholars in their efforts to whitewash Japan’s war crimes in the school textbooks. He has staunchly supported the War Shrine visits. He also said that Japan should revise the pacifist Constitution which does not allow Japan to possess a real army.

Sept 3, 2006 Koichi Kato, an outspoken Japanese politician whose mother's house was burned to the ground after he criticized Koizumi's war Shrine visits, warned that increasing intimidation by Japnese right-wing extremists is casting a chill over free speech in Japan. "There is less freedom than before to express one's feelings," said Koichi Kato, a onetime senior member of the governing Liberal Democratic Party. "I am one of the few who dares to say things on the record," he said.

Sept 17, 2006 Japanese likely next hawkish PM Shinzo Abe unapologetic over war.

Sept 17, 2006 Tokyo sitting on a gruesome Unit 731 secret. After 60 years of silence, former wartime nurse Toyo Ishii says she and colleagues at an army hospital at the site of the Toyama No. 5 apartment block and its nearby park, were ordered to bury corpses, bones and body parts of possible victims of Tokyo's Unit 731 bio-experiments on live PoWs.

In 1989, during construction of a Health Ministry research institute at the former army medical school site in Tokyo, unearthed dozens of fragmented thigh bones and skulls, some with holes drilled in them or sections cut out. In 2001, the Health Ministry concluded that the remains -- many of them of non-Japanese Asians -- were most likely from bodies used in "medical education" or brought back from the war zone for analysis at the medical school, though it acknowledged that some interviewees had suggested they were shipped from Manchuria, northern China, where the Unit 731 was based. Japan refused the repeated requests for DNA tests from relatives of several Chinese believed to have perished in Unit 731.

Sept 21, 2006 Japanese textbooks do not mention the Death March, the Rape of Manila. When Japanese tourists come to the Philippines, they are appalled to learn that the place was the headquarters of the dreaded Kempeitai military police and its cells once served as torture chambers. The Japanese visitors would say their compatriots would never commit savagery and stories were made up by Filipinos.

Sept 26, 2006 Japanese new PM Abe's ambitions reflect his past, an unapologetic stance on Japan's war, pushing for a renewal of patriotic education in public schools, backing textbooks whitewashing Japan's wartime past and supporting visits to the Yasukuni shrine.

Sept 30, 2006 Japanese district court ruled that a Tokyo metropolitan government order compelling teachers to stand up for Japan's notorious national flag Hinomaru (Rising Sun) and sing the notorious national anthem Kimigayo (His Majesty's Reign) violated the Constitution. Kazuhisa Suzuki, who teaches civics at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, said: " It's as though Germany brought back the Nazi Swastika and forced teachers to stand for it".

Sept 30, 2006 Japan's resurgent nationalism has global ramifications.

Oct 2, 2006 Abe eyes Asia trip but won't budge on Shrine.

Oct 6, 2006 Yasukuni Shrine to review claims that U.S. forced Japan into WWII following U.S. government complaints.

Oct 6, 2006 Japan's new PM Shinzo Abe insisted Japanese WWII leaders were NOT "war criminals" ..... That also was the case for my relative" he added. His grandfather Nobusuke Kishi who oversaw the Slave labor program as minister of commerce and industry during the war, was imprisoned as a Class-A War Criminal suspect and later became Japanese prime minister in 1957.

Oct 15, 2006 US Congress was on the verge of approving a first-of-its-kind resolution urging Japan to formally acknowledge its responsibility for the enslavement of more than 200,000 Sex Slaves. It had more than 50 Republican and Democratic co-sponsors, including the only Japanese-American member of Congress. "In one of the most extensive cases of human trafficking in the 20th century, more than 200,000 women and girls throughout Asia were recruited by force, coercion, or deception, and kept at the mercy of the Japanese military in subhuman conditions under which they were raped..." said a letter signed by more than two dozen lawmakers. Japan has paid $60,000/month to Washington firm of Hogan & Hartson to prevent Resolution 759 from reaching a vote before the House adjourned on Oct. 13.

Oct 9, 2006 Abe chose China over the US for his first overseas trip.

Oct 18, 2006 84 Japanese MP including a top adviser to PM Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine. Another 90 lawmakers were represented by their aides. The overwhelming majority of the visiting parliamentarians were members of Abe's ruling LDP.

Oct 19, 2006 "I did something cruel ..... I have a responsibility to speak the Truth about the war." said Akira Makino, 84, a resident of Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture. Japanese medic admits experimenting on live victims in Philippines. Vivisections were carried out at a rate of between once every 3 days and once a fortnight. Limbs were cut off, their blood vessels were sewn up and they underwent abdominal operations.

Oct 27, 2006 Japan repels Hong Kong activists in sea showdown . Japanese militarism & Diaoyutai (Senkaku) island -- A Japanese historian's view.

Oct 30, 2006 A Japanese court will conclude hearings over an appeal of a landmark court ruling that held Japanese Rinko Corp. and government responsible for compensation to the Slaves 88 million yen (US$749,766) in damages.

Oct 30, 2006 Victims of U.S. firebombing raids on Tokyo in WWII are among about 100 people to sue Japanese government for starting the War and taking too long to stop it. "If they'd stopped the war sooner, neither the firebombing nor the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (in Aug. 1945) would have taken place," said Taketoshi Nakayama, the group's chief lawyer.

Nov 1, 2006 Japan's PM wants to rewrite War-renouncing constitution clause.

Nov 3, 2006 Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief of ruling LDP, reiterated his call for a debate on whether Japan should develop WMD nuclear weapons and labelled the Nagasaki bombing a crime.

Nov 8, 2006 A resource center of Japan's wartime aggression has opened in Japan, Saitama Prefecture, exhibiting documents in which some 300 Japanese veterans confess to wartime crimes. Health problems had made Hisao Kubotera, 86, from Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture, one of the Chukiren members who responded to the group's call. He was reluctant to go out to speak until recent moves by the government leading Japan to make the same mistakes as it did in the prewar days have spurred him to talk. "In my local area, there are few people willing to listen to what I say, labeling me a Communist. I'm also sad that many who have been to the war remain silent," he said. "But I should keep on talking...I think this will be our long, long fight to preserve peace".

Nov 9, 2006 Opposition sought resignation of Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso for his calls for a debate on going WMD Nuclear.

Nov 14, 2006 Germany tries 'Holocaust denier'. If found guilty, Germar Rudolf could face up to 5 years in prison. In Feb 2005, British revisionist historian David Irving was found guilty of denying the Holocaust by an Austrian court and sentenced to three years in prison.

Nov 15, 2006 Japan: WMD Nuclear arms allowed for defense.

Nov 15, 2006 Chinese Slaves sue Japanese government and companies which refuse even to pay them their unpaid wartime wages, much less offer compensation. “The Japanese government bears responsibility for our suffering, and so do companies,” said Tang Kunyuan who was worker “No. 66” at a mine here owned by Mitsubishi Mining, now known as Mitsubishi Materials, one of the world’s leading makers of metal and ceramic materials for the electronics industry.

Nov 25, 2006 Japan's navy conducted medical experiments on Filipinos during war, including women and children, Akira Makino, 84, a repentant former navy medic stationed on Mindanao island in the Philippines during the war, who said he took part. Vivisections were carried out at a rate of between once every 3 days and once a fortnight.

Nov 26, 2006 "The Truth of modern Japanese History is now restored.” – Web site of the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo.

Dec 2, 2006 China filmmaker finds wartime Sex Slaves. The people in the hamlet burned most of their photographs of Gai Shanxi, a former Sex Slave, and all of her belongings because they believed anything related to her would bring them bad luck. But Chinese filmmaker Ban Zhongyi persevered and over the years, Ban found women who shared horrific stories of being taken with the 22-year-old Gai Shanxi to a pillbox in nearby Jingui village, where they were raped every day by 20 to 30 men. " She offered herself to the army in order to protect other girls," one woman said.

Dec 9, 2006 Having failed in gov't suit, Korean group "Anti-Yasukuni Joint Action" on behalf of the 21,000 Koreans memorialized in Yasukuni, announced that it is suing the Yasukuni Shrine instead of the Japanese government to have family members' memorial tablets removed. Families in Japan and Taiwan filed a similar lawsuit with the Osaka District Court in August.

Dec 9, 2006 A militarily resurgent Japan is creating nervous reactions from neighbours. Such nationalism has already sparked street protests from Japanese teachers who are resisting orders to force students to sing the national anthem and salute the flag. "If you look at all the laws they passed in the past 3 years, it is preparation for war like we did 60 years ago," says Yumi Kikuchi, a writer.

Dec 10, 2006 Japan inches toward a full-fledged military. A bill to revise the Defense Agency Establishment Law will be enacted soon. The agency will officially become the Defense Ministry in January, the first time the name of the agency has been changed in its 53-year history. Japan has about 240,000 SDF troops and one of the world's biggest defense expenditures. Japanese governments have explained away the contradiction by claiming that SDF is NOT a military but a kind of police force. Another bill aimed at instilling patriotism among students at school, is also expected to be enacted soon. It will be the first revision of the basic education law since it took effect in 1947.

Dec 17, 2006 Japan rightists fan fury over 17 abductions by N.Korea, ignoring the fact that Japan had abducted more than 200,000 of young girls and women and enslaved them as Sex Slaves , and also abducted and kidnapped Millions of Asians as Slaves.

Dec 25, 2006 Japan to quicken WMD Chemical Weapons clean-up in China.

Dec 25 2006 China, Japan to hold talks to narrow history gap. A similar joint history study between Japan and South Korea took 3 years and the final report released last year only highlighted their differences, stating the views of both sides. 2 days talk ended without touching upon sensitive subjects like the Nanjing massacre, and agreed to continue next March.

Dec 28, 2006 Last summer, Yoshinori Katori, then-Foreign Ministry spokesman, acknowledged that nationalism, most often on the right, had become a "new phenomenon" in Japan.

Dec 30, 2006 Japan's navy denied a report that Japan and the US held a drill simulating a Chinese invasion of disputed islands. One of the drills addressed a hypothetical Chinese military invasion of a group of uninhabited islands called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese that both Tokyo and Beijing claim, Kyodo News agency said, citing unidentified Japanese and U.S. officials. Japan claimed the islands in 1895 when it colonized Taiwan, but the US controlled them after WWII and returned them to Japan, instead of China, in 1972. Taiwan also claims the islands as its territory.

Jan 3, 2007 Japanese-American lawmaker Congressman Mike Honda to carry torch calling for Japan to redress Sex Slave issue.

Jan 9, 2007 Germany wants Holocaust denial to be EU-wide crime

Jan 9, 2007 Japan launches first Defense Ministry since WWII. Japan already has one of the most powerful Military forces in the world with one of the world's biggest Military budgets at US$ 41 Billion a year.

Jan 10, 2007 Is Japan a Western country or an Asian one ? In 2005, it was reported that nearly 70 % of Japanese people thought their country was NOT a part of Asia but part of of the West.

Jan 11, 2007 Nanjing wounds bleed 70 years on.

Jan 14, 2007 Rightist threats raise fears in Japan. "Speech and journalism in this country are facing an extremely difficult situation," Masato Kitamura, chairman of the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, told the group's annual meeting recently. Japan's estimated 10,000 ultra-rightists, have become increasingly violent in recent years, the National Police Agency said in its annual report last year. When ruling party lawmaker Koichi Kato criticized a prime minister's trip to Yasukuni Shrine, retribution from Japan's right-wing was swift: An extremist set his house on fire. "Many people are now keeping their months shut. Parliament is not an exception." said Kato.

Jan 17, 2007 Japan's ruling party pledges to continue visits to Yasukuni. The vow was contained in the policy platform adopted at the party's annual convention.

Jan 17, 2007 U.S. organ releases guide on Japanese war crime records to help researchers locate and use the thousands of files in the U.S. National Archives relevant to Japanese war crimes. The guide of more than 1,700 pages, made available last week together with a 240-page reference book, sorts and provides outlines of declassified materials from U.S. agencies that probed Japanese war crimes.

Jan 22, 2007 Japan Yasukuni Shrine revises exhibits on China saying that it had not changed its view of history, to make its exhibits "easier to understand".

Jan 25, 2007 Chinese victims of Japanese WMD Chemical Weapon sue Japan's government for compensation, over the sickening of 44 people including one died in 2003, when construction workers broke open a barrel of WMD poison gas left behind by Japan in WWII. In Japan, the government spends some 3 billion yen (US$24.8 million; ?19.1 million) annually to provide free medical care and other social benefits to about 4,500 Japanese who worked at 3 WMD Chemical Weapons factories during the war, according to Akira Ibori, one of their lawyers.

Jan 25, 2007 Japanese nationalists to make own Nanjing movie to counter a series of movies coming out this year on its 70th anniversary.

Jan 28, 2007 Japan's leader urges dumping Pacifism from Constitution .

Jan 29, 2007 Tokyo High Court ordered the NHK network and 2 companies to pay compensation for diluting Sex Slave program, about a mock war tribunal that found wartime Emperor Hirohito guilty of Crimes against Humanity for Sex Slaves. Shinzo Abe, then the deputy chief cabinet secretary, and fellow conservative politician Shochi Nakagawa, now policy chief of the ruling LDP Party, have admitted asking NHK to be "neutral" in covering the mock trial. But Satoru Nagai, a former NHK production staffer who blew the whistle on the case, had testified that Abe demanded that the program be cancelled.

The Courts, Japan's "Military Comfort Women" and the Conscience of Humanity.

Jan 30. 2007 Japanese court rejects Japanese 'War Orphan' suit. About 6,300 abandoned Japanese in China, including 2,500 under the age of 12, returned to Japan since 1972 according to the Japanese Health Ministry. Most were raised by Chinese who kindly adopted them.

Feb 1, 2007 US lawmakers submitted a draft resolution denouncing Japan for the Sex Slaves and call on Japan to offer an official apology "should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner". It describes the Sex Slaves as "forced military prostitution by the government of Japan" that is "considered unprecedented in its cruelty and magnitude." H.RES.121

Feb 9, 2007 Sex Slaves to testify before US Congress, which will debate resolution H.Res. 121 calling on Japan to formally apology to More than 200,000 Sex Slaves before and during the War.

Feb 14, 2007 3 Sex Slaves Testify Against Japan. Australian Jan Ruff O'Herne shaved her head to make herself unattractive. She punched and kicked and screamed, even though it invariably meant she received a worse beating. "Never did any Japanese rape me without a fight. I fought each one of them," Through tears, the 3 women at the hearing spoke of their anger, shame and defiance, and of the physical and mental scars that remain. "I am so embarrassed. I am so ashamed," said Lee Yong-soo, "But this is something I cannot just keep to myself..... I will not leave the Japanese government alone until they get down on their knees in front of me and give me a sincere apology", she said.

Feb 14, 2007 S. Korean group to sue Yasukuni Shrine over listing of Koreans.

Feb 14, 2007 Black Gold, Rising Sun: A Review of Gold Warriors. referred to as "Yamashita's Gold". The introductory note of the book "should anything odd happen, we have arranged for this book and its documentation to be put up on the Internet at a number of sites. If we are murdered," authors write, "readers will have no difficulty figuring out who 'they' are." Gold Warriors wields nearly one hundred pages of annotations, backed up by archival CDs containing further documents, photographs, maps, letters, and tax records, to deliver a devastating indictment of the Japanese political system and its sordid history of corruption and war crimes. Likened to "A Giant Vacuum Cleaner" passing over East and Southeast Asia, the Seagraves describe how the Japanese government, together with Organized Crime, systematically looted the treasuries, banks, homes, and art galleries of 12 Asian countries. The proceeds from this plunder, coordinated in secret by the U.S. Truman administration, was used to finance a covert political action fund to combat communism, referred to as the Black Eagle Trust, enabling the US government to buy elections in countries such as Italy and Greece and to maintain a one-party plutocracy under the LDP in Japan.

Feb 16, 2007 At U.S. hearing, Sex Slaves rejected Japanese official apologies as an insult calling Japan's Asian Women's Fund in 1995 as "an insult" because the money was from private donations to skirt Japan's state responsibility. H.RES.121

"If you don't officially apologize or make compensation, then give me back my youth," said Kim, 81, repeating statements she made to the Japanese parliament more than a decade ago.

Statement of Jan Ruff on hearing of "Comfort Women"

Feb 19, 2007 Japan anger at US Sex Slave bill said the resolution was not based on facts.

Feb 24, 2007 Japanese movie honours kamikaze pilots.

Feb 24, 2006 Declassified CIA records reveal U.S. hand in birth of Japan's right wing.

The U.S. association with Japanese War Criminals illustrates how U.S. embraced Japanese nationalist and conservative forces after War and helping them reassert their grip on the government once the occupation ended in 1952. "When we talk about the emergence of neo-nationalism or a strong right wing in Japan today, this has very deep roots and it involves a very strong element of American support," said John Dower, historian and author of "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II."

Feb 26, 2007 Japanese medical dissection of living prisoners in Filippine. Mr. Akira Makino cut open 10 Filipino prisoners, including two teenage girls. He amputated their limbs and cut up and removed their livers, kidneys, wombs and still beating hearts for no better reason than to improve his knowledge of anatomy. The lieutenant cut him open, and pointed out, ‘Here’s the liver, here’s the kidneys, here’s the heart’. The heart was still beating, then he cut the heart open and showed me the inside. That was when he died.

Feb 27, 2007 Ernst Zuendel, a Holocaust denier handed a 5-year jail term by German court.

Mar 1, 2007 S.Korea urges Japan to compensate for past. "(Japan) should stop glorifying or justifying its wrongful past and take actions sincerely, in accordance with its conscience and internationally accepted principles."

Mar 1, 2007 Japan PM: no evidence of coercion in Japan's WWII sex slavery.

Mar 2, 2007 As the 70th anniversary approaching, At least 6 movies about the Nanjing Massacre are in the works including one by Japanese Satoru Mizushima, who runs a Japanese satellite-TV station, to deny the massacre.

Mar 2, 2007 Japan PM: Rejects Japan’s role in Sex Slavery. Mr. Abe’s statement was to reject a 1993 government statement that acknowledged the military’s role in setting up brothels and forcing, either directly or indirectly, women into sexual slavery. After becoming PM, in fact, Abe first said he recognized the validity of the declaration, angering his conservative base. Nariaki Nakayama together with 120 lawmakers want Japan government to revise the declaration.

Mar 3, 2007 Following Abe's remarks, Rep. Mike Honda, said in a statement that "the overwhelming historical record . . . (makes) it clear that the Japanese Imperial Army forced as many as 200,000 women into sexual slavery during the Second World War." Honda, along with a group of powerful House Republicans, is sponsoring legislation calling on Abe to offer an official apology to former Sex Slaves. Growing chorus slams Sex Slaves remarks . H.RES.121

Mar 4, 2007 Facing outrage, Japan PM to stand by Sex Slaves apology, an aide said, but did not explain the apparent Abe's denial that coercion was involved.

Mar 5, 2007 Japan: No more apologies to Sex Slaves.

May 8, 2007 Denial reopens wounds of Japan's Ex-Sex Slaves.

Mar 9, 2007 The shame Japan cannot dodge. Japan had joined in 4 international treaties that barred sexual trafficking in women and forced labour: the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (1921), the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic (1904), the International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic (1910) and the Agreement on the Abolition of Forced Labour (1930).

Mar 9, 2007 Survivors of the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo and bereaved family members sued the Japanese government. 112 Japanese sued Japan of starting the war and refused to surrender, and neglected providing aid to raid victims.

Mar 10, 2007 Hirohito reluctant in war with China according to a diary kept by a chamberlain Kuraji Ogura. However, when the War was in Japan's favor, the emperor hoped that islands captured in the South Pacific would become part of Japanese territory. He appears to have swept aside any hesitancy about War that he once had. "We have to be very careful before entering into war, but once fighting starts it has to be carried out thoroughly," the emperor is quoted as saying.

Mar 11, 2007 Sex Slave history erased from texts; '93 personal apology next ?. Note the '93 apology was NEVER approved by Japanese parliament.

Mar 12, 2007 No truth and no reconciliation . Japan’s ‘Comfort Women’: It's time for the truth.

Mar 13, 2007 Japanese ruling party policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa said, Japan's military did not force women into sexual slavery and the government should re-examine a 1993 apology."

Mar 13, 2007 Congressman Mike Honda riles Japan over brothel apology. Honda is a 65-year-old Japanese American who spent his childhood in a WWII internment camp in Colorado . H.RES.121

Mar 13, 2007 Japan court refuses to award compensation for injuries caused by Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons. Japan court did acknowledge that Japan illegally abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons in China.

Mar 14, 2007 The complicated history of Korean war criminals. After the War, some 5,700 were punished as class B or C war criminals. Among them were 148 Koreans convicted. "They were punished for being Japanese, but were rejected aid for not being Japanese." by the Japanese government.

Mar 14, 2007 The Tokyo High Court overturned a landmark ruling in 2004, ordering the Japanese government and a company to compensate Chinese Slaves. But the court acknowledged that Japan and Niigata-based Rinko Corp. had acted illegally and had violated the human rights of the 11 Chinese, but rejected the plaintiffs' demand for compensation.

Mar 15, 2007 Sex Slaves still seeking Japan's apology. When Virginia Villarma's husband found out, he walked out on her and their 5 children. Many could never marry because of the shame, some were so brutalised they could never have children while others just shut themselves away from society all together. "Some of them died abroad, some killed themselves for what they regarded as shame they have brought to their families, others dared not to let their family or relatives know and chose to bury their pain and agony in their minds," Wang said.

Mar 16, 2007 Coercion means something different to Japan's government in 2007 than it did in 1993, or 1945.

Note the Japanese '93 apology states that "....The Government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments....."

Mar 16, 2007 German court sentenced Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf to 2 and half years in prison. Rudolf's conviction follows another Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel who was jailed for 5 years by German court.

Mar 16, 2007 Japan PM Abe repeated that there was no evidence that the Japan had forcibly recruited women into Sex slavery.

Mar 16, 2007 Dutch government seeks explanation from Japan on coercion of Sex Slaves.

Mar 17, 2007 Uncomfortable truth for Japan.

Mar 17, 2007 Statement of Jan Ruff on hearing of "Comfort Women".

mar 17, 2007 The Committee for the Instruction of A Correct View of History comprised of 110 South Korean lawmakers submitted a written demand to Abe through the Foreign Ministry for an officially apologize and to stop distorting Japan's history textbooks and start teaching Japanese students about Japan's war crimes.

Mar 17, 2007 Japan refused to comment on former Japanese PM Yasuhiro Nakasone's memoirs of his service as a naval officer and he set up a military brothel during War.

Mar 18, 2007 Japan cannot contain its fury over N.Korea's failure to "sincerely" face up to its role in kidnapping a handful of Japanese civilians during the Cold War and forcing them to teach Japanese customs and language to N.Korean spies. "The Japanese become very emotional about the abductees because the victims are Japanese... What Abe is demanding from N.Korea, an apology and punishment for the people who did it, should be the same standard he applies on comfort women." says Yoshimi Yoshiaki, a Chuo University professor and co-chairman of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility. "They were raped by the Japanese military," said Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Mar 18, 2007 What is the difference between no coercion in recruitment and the coercion in the comfort stations, which deprived Sex Slaves of human rights ? The Japanese cabinet council is playing with words. Japan is insisting that N.Korea should free 17 Japanese who had been kidnapped by N.Korea, or it would not participate in economic aid for N.Korea that was agreed to at the six-party talks. But what about the the 200,000 Sex Slaves kidnapped by Japan ? N.Korea leader Kim Jong-il acknowledged the kidnapping of the Japanese. Why won't Abe acknowledge and apologize for the coercion of Sex Slaves ? Japan is the #2 in economic power. However, nobody agrees that Japan is the #2 world leader.

Mar 18, 2007 "We want Japan to acknowledge the wartime atrocities and put their history right. The children of Japan should be taught the historical truth of WWII history about the atrocities" said Jan O'Herne. But Japan's leaders are making sure the opposite is happening. "They destroyed our lives," said Virginia Villarama, "We have no bright tomorrows because of what they did to us".

Mar 18, 2007 They say that after war, the losers get the gallows and the winners get to write the History. Except for Japan.

Mar 23, 2007 The irony of Japan calling for more transparency about the abductees by N.Korea even as it tries to sweep its own past under the rug. Japan is actually shooting itself in the foot as it clamors for more information about those 17 abductees by N.Korea, while brushing aside the issue of 200,000 Sex Slaves . Abe's double talk.

Mar 23, 2007 Japan Ex-PM Nakasone backs more Japan apologies for wartime sex slavery. However, Nakasone claims his "comfort station" was for recreation only.

Mar 23, 2007 Guam is seeking compensation from the U.S. government, not from Japan because the US has forgiven Japan's war debts. It called for about $200 million in compensation and grant programs for Guam residents, including $25,000 payments on behalf of residents who died during the Japanese occupation and smaller payments for injury and forced labor. H.R.1595.

Mar 27, 2007 Japanese court rejected a damages suit filed by Chinese who sought compensation from Japan and a Tokyo company.

Mar 23, 2007 Canadian MPs have tabled a motion that would urge Japan to apologize and provide compensation to the Sex Slaves.

Mar 27, 2007 Japan PM Abe refused to withdraw a recent statement that the military did not forcibly recruited Sex Slaves, but offered them an Personal apology. His denial of state coercion has drawn charges of hypocrisy, because Mr. Abe won his popularity by championing the cause of 17 Japanese allegedly abducted by N.Korea, ignoring abducting 200,000 Sex Slaves by Japan.

Mar 28, 2007 Japanese historian published article in Newsweek denies Sex Slave and Nanjing Massacre. Hideaki Kase, a right-wing Japanese historian, wrote: "U.S. Army records explicitly declare that the comfort women were prostitutes, and found no instances of 'kidnapping' by the Japanese authorities..... Many Japanese politicians have also come to believe that the Nanking Massacre was a fabrication of the Chinese".

Mar 28, 2007 Japan disputes U.S. daily's criticism of Abe over Sex Slave issue. Mitsuru Kitano, the embassy's minister for public affairs, told Fred Hiatt, the U.S. daily's editorial page editor, by phone that the editorial was premised on a "mistaken" view. In the piece entitled " Shinzo Abe's Double Talk" published in Washington Post criticized Abe's attitude on the issue, comparing it with his enthusiasm for resolving N.Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals and refusing discussions with N.Korea until it provides information on abductees certified by the Japanese government.

Mar 29, 2007 Minutes from a 1969 meeting and some 808 government and shrine documents, released by the National Diet Library, entitled "A New Compilation of Materials on the Yasukuni Shrine" show the Japanese Government was involved in discussions with Yasukuni Shrine officials around 1958, reached an agreement that 12 Class-A War Criminals should be made eligible for enshrinement, "while avoiding any announcement". Another document dated April 1958, Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry urged the Yasukuni Shrine to list the names of hundreds of lower-ranking Class-B and Class-C War Criminals. "How about enshrining them in a way that would be hard to discover ?" a document quoted an unnamed official as saying, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.

"Judging from the documents, it was the Health Ministry that made the first move," said Chifuyu Hiyama, an official at the National Diet (parliament) Library that published the 1,200-page book. The Health Ministry, provided a list containing the names of executed Class-A criminals, including wartime leader Hideki Tojo, according to a January 31, 1969, Yasukuni document. Class-A criminals "can be honored" but the process must be carried out secretly, the shrine document said citing an agreement with the ministry. "Announcement should be avoided," it added. The book "confirmed the government's initiative to enshrine war criminals through active interaction with the shrine", said Koichi Nakano, an associate professor of political science at Tokyo's prestigious Sophia University.

Mar 30, 2007 Japanese academics and lawyers to counter Japanese atrocity deniers, will hold symposiums in 10 countries to expose Japanese war crimes.

Mar 31, 2007 Japan court dismisses abandoned Japanese war orphan lawsuit. Thousands of Japanese children were abandoned in China as their Japanese parents fled to escape the approach of former Soviet troops at the end of the War. Many Japanese children were later adopted by Chinese citizens.

Mar 31, 2007 Japan orders history books to revise passages on forced Group Suicides in Okinawa, will no longer acknowledge that the Japanese Army was responsible for a major atrocity in Okinawa. The high school textbooks say the Japanese army handed out grenades to residents on the southern island of Okinawa and ordered them to kill themselves rather than surrender to the Americans. The Education Ministry said there was no definitive evidence that the suicides were ordered by the army. About 200,000 Japanese civilians and soldiers died. It was only in the late 19th century that Japan officially annexed Okinawa, a kingdom that, to this day, has retained some of its own culture. During War, when many Okinawans still spoke a different dialect, Japanese troops treated the locals brutally.

Mar 31, 2007 Japan had punished 35 teachers for not standing up to honor the militaristic national anthem during graduation ceremonies. 3 of the teachers will be suspended for up to 6 months, 12 received pay cuts and 20 were given warnings. The militaristic “Kimigayo” was a imperial military song during War and was adopted as the Japanese national anthem in 1999. The latest action has brought to 381 the total number of teachers reprimanded in Tokyo for resisting the order to sing.

Mar 31, 2007 Tokyo is all Alone.

Mar 31, 2007 In Japan, a historian stands by proof of Sex Slavery.

Apr 3, 2007 Members of the Japan Acton Network for the 'Comfort Woman' Issue, accompanied by 3 Diet representatives, submited letters of protest against PM Abe’s series of statements denying Japanese governmental involvement in coercing the comfort women into sex slavery. They also raised concern over efforts to revise the 1993 “Kono Statement".

Apr 11, 2007 The former president of the Japan Bar Association criticized Japan for denying the forced Sex Slavery. "Though Japanese politicians are calling for a reinvestigation, it would be meaningless unless it is based on meticulous research. It is far-fetched that they believe the victims were not coerced only because official records don't say the word 'coerce'." He asks Japan to open up stored records on Sex Slaves.

Apr 14, 2007 S.Korea tells Japan it regrets delay in talk on handover of Korean remains. A list kept by the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry shows that the remains believed to be of 1,135 Korean servicemen and civilian employees of the former Japanese military are at the Yutenji temple in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.

Apr 16, 2007 US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report concluded that Japan's war crimes acknowledgments has been weakened in the eyes of many by related controversies over Japan's historic record, e.g. Koizumi's visits to Yasakuni Shrine, History textbook, and statements by individual Japanese political leaders. "Abe government's denial of any evidence of military coercion in recruitment goes against the testimony former comfort to Japanese government researches who compiled the 1992-1993 government report and the testimony of forced recruitment by nearly 200 former comfort woment from different Asian countries and the Netherlands of the 400 plus testimonies cited in Yuki Tanaka's book, Japan's Comfort Women".

Apr 16, 2007 Newly discovered documents show Japan directed Sex Slavery: historian. Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor of history at Kanto Gakuin University found 7 items while combing through the massive storehouse of documents submitted during the 1946-1948 "Tokyo Trials" of war criminals. One document, written by Dutch prosecutors and dated March 13, 1946, quoted a Japanese civilian employee of the Japanese army who said an officer made local women in occupied Borneo stand naked and slapped them in the face. "We detained them under orders of the chief security officer to find excuses to put them into brothels," the Japanese employee was quoted as saying, according to Hayashi. Another document also includes testimony by a Japanese lieutenant, who said the army forced women into sexual slavery on Indonesia's Moa island. "It says that it was in retaliation for local villagers who attacked the Japanese force," he said. "The army killed 40 villagers and put 6 of their daughters into brothels." "one of the 6 agreed to the demands that she work at a brothel, while 5 others refused" but were forced.

Apr 17, 2007 Japanese Academics claim proof Japan forced Sex Slavery. Hirofumi Hayashi, a professor at Kanto-Gakuin University, presented several documents of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal as additional evidence to prove that the Japan military kidnapped women to serve as Sex Slaves. "It is a great mystery why the Japanese government ignores these documents," Hayashi said, pointing out that Japan had signed peace treaties that ended the war. Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a history professor at Chuo University, said the Japanese wartime government and the military were responsible, Japan should offer an apology clearer than the 1993 statement. "It's shocking that there are no statements issued under a cabinet decision or approval regarding the comfort women," Yoshimi said.

"These are official documents compiled by various nations, and the verdict also confirmed that women were coerced. Since Japan accepted the Tokyo war crimes trial verdict in signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty, it cannot ignore the significance of these documents," said Hirofumi Hayashi, a political science professor at Kanto Gakuin University.

Apr 20, 2007 Japan government said it accepted Sex Slavery verdict in post-war trials.

Apr 20, 2007 Ex-education minister: Japan's Sex Slavery allegation based on fabrication.

Apr 22, 2007 The Burden of Japan.

Apr 26, 2007 U.S. troops ignored Japan's Sex Slavery, used Japanese brothels after war. The first RAA brothel, called Komachien - The Babe Garden - each woman serviced from 15 to 60 clients a day. American historian John Dower, in his book "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of WWII" says the fee was 15 yen or about a dollar. US leadership provided the Japanese government with penicillin for comfort women servicing occupation troops, established prophylactic stations near the RAA brothels. A Dec. 6, 1945, memorandum from Lt. Col. Hugh McDonald, a senior officer with the Public Health and Welfare Division of the occupation's General Headquarters, shows US occupation forces were aware the Japanese comfort women were often coerced.

Apr 27, 2007 Japanese Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling that had ordered a Japanese company to pay Slaves of WWII. In 2004, the Hiroshima High Court ordered Japanese construction firm Nishmatsu Construction to pay a total of 27.5 million yen ($230,000) to a 5 Chinese in compensation for slavery in Japan. Tens of thousands of Chinese and Koreans were brought to Japan before and during war as Slaves.

Apr 27, 2007 Japan Supreme Court: No war redress for Slaves and Sex Slaves, Rights void but abuses admitted, "Chinese people have lost their rights to judicially claim war compensation from Japan, Japanese people or its companies" under the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique". China declared it "renounces its demand for war reparations from Japan." The declaration, however, did not specifically refer to individual rights to claim. Referring to another plaintiff, 78-year-old Song Jiyao, who became blind in an accident while being forced to work under severe conditions, Lu said: "How can the top court hand down such a ruling facing Mr. Song?". Japan's Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying compensation to 2 former Sex Slaves.

Japan's Supreme court denies compensation to former Sex Slaves and Slave laborers from China but acknowledged that they had been coerced by the Japanese military or industry, quashing dozens of similar cases that have been working their way through the lower courts in recent years because of a 1972 joint statement in which Beijing renounced war reparations from Japan. China's Foreign Ministry denounced the rulings, describing them as "illegal and invalid" and calling the court's interpretation of the 1972 statement as "arbitrary".

"I didn't even get paid," said Shao Yicheng, 82, at a news conference, "I was just made to work. The least I want is to get my wages. I want justice."

According to the court, Japanese soldiers took 15-year-old girl - a virgin who had yet to have her first period, was raped repeatedly for 2 weeks by soldiers, including the commanding officer, the court said. Her family obtained her release, but soldiers kidnapped her again, confining her and raping her repeatedly, the court said. The 13-year-old also a virgin who had yet to have her first period, was kidnapped and raped repeatedly for 40 days described by the court.

Toshitaka Onodera, the lead lawyer for the Chinese plaintiffs, said that despite the rulings against them, the Supreme Court had now established the historical record, including the military’s direct coercion of women into Sex Slavery.

According to Japanese government data, about 38,935 Chinese men were Slaved in Japan in 135 sites for 35 companies, 22 of which are still in business. Of the total, 6,830 men, or nearly 18 % died in a little more than a year because of brutal working conditions. Countless others died after their capture in China or during their transit to Japan.

Apr 28, 2007 60 years later, pain still fresh for Sex Slaves. She's 78 years old, but for Lee Young-soo, life as she knew it ended at age 15 when Japan forced her to be a Sex Slave for 3 years. She once tried to escape and hid in a cave, but Japanese soldiers found her, beat her and tortured her until she lost consciousness, she said.

Apr 28, 2007 Abe apology over Sex Slaves goes only so far. US congressional leaders have been considering a bill H.RES.121 urging the Japan to issue a formal apology. The bill H.RES.121 co-sponsored by 90 other members but opposed by the Bush administration. Abe has apologized for the women's 'painful situation', he has stopped short of acknowledging Japan's role in kidnapping the women and coercing them into military brothels. Some congressional representatives said his remarks did not go far enough. The dispute overshadowed Abe's visit as protesters gathered outside the White House and a Korean American organization published an open letter in The New York Times criticizing Japan's refusal to formally and 'unequivocally' apologize.

"We would like the Japanese government to offer the victims of sex slavery an official apology endorsed by the cabinet and passed by Parliament. Why should the president of the U.S. accept the prime minister’s apology ? He wasn’t a victim of Sex Slavery." said Mike Honda who is spearheading bill H.RES.121.

May 4, 2007 Protests as Japan's PM urges new constitution. Thousands of Japanese pacifist activists rallied to protest against the conservative premier's call for revising the absolute pacifism of the post-war constitution. "We oppose a revision that makes the constitution worse! We are against policies that make this country involved in US-led wars!" demonstrators chanted in a parade through Ginza shopping district in Tokyo. Japanese Parliament is set to pass legislation on rules for a national referendum on rewriting the constitution - a move likely to anger Asian neighbours who suffered under Japan's wartime aggression. The current constitution bars Japan from using force as a way to settle international disputes, although Japan skirts the rule by calling its military army "Self-Defence Forces".

May 8, 2007 Japanese Premier ceremonial made a ceremonial offering to war shrine but not visit. Chief Cabinet Secretary told reporters that the offering was made by Mr. Abe as a private citizen and not in his capacity as Japanese leader. However Ms. Ishida, the spokeswoman, said the plant carried a small wooden placard that read "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe". Japan's PM riles neighbours with offering to war shrine.

May 9, 2007 Japan war PM's granddaughter in bid for parliament. Yuko upheld a family code of silence on her grandfather until the mid-1990s, but has become increasingly outspoken since then. Like many conservatives she argues that Japan did not fight an aggressive war but rather one of self-defence.

May 10, 2007 Korean Education Minister sent a protest letter to Japan against Japan's distortion of history in textbooks. "We found that a draft textbook originally depicted the issue of Dokdo's sovereignty as being subject to negotiations between the two countries, but was changed by the Japanese ministry during the screening to claim the territory belongs to Japan, Koo Nan-hee, a ministry official said. "Also, the Japanese government had the textbooks describe the `comfort women’ issue as `settled matter’ from `matter to be settled,’".

May 10, 2007 Japan's Supreme Court rejected compensation claims for death and suffering caused by Japan's WMD Biological weapons, the Rape of Nanjing, and the indiscrimate firebombing of Yong'an city in China's Fujian province. Japanese government has never formally apologized over its WMD Germ Warfare program or its rampage in Nanjing. Japan acknowledged a germ warfare unit 731 existed, but has remained mum on its details.

May 12, 2007 3rd-generation Japanese-American makes big waves in Japan. Mike Honda's resolution H.RES.121 - calling on the Japanese government to unequivocally acknowledge its history of wartime sex slavery and apologize for it - was steadily gaining co-sponsors. Although the resolution is not binding, the Japanese government, with the support of the Bush administration, has lobbied fiercely against it. A news conference with Bush culminated in an odd moment when the president said he accepted Abe's apology. The apology, Honda said, was not Bush's to accept. During war, his family, like other Japanese-Americans, was sent to an internment camp. They spent 14 months in a Colorado camp - an experience that would later influence Honda's politics. "It taught me that if governments make mistakes, they should apologize," he said. "I was a schoolteacher, and so I know what happens in a country when you don't teach history correctly," Honda said. "It's insane not to teach your children the truth.

May 12, 2007 Japan's suicidal "kamikaze" film sparks talk of peace. Director Shinjo Taku has said he had no intention of glorifying the extreme policies adopted in wartime Japan. "In a word, I think the military leaders of the time were despicable," said Taku. "They took these pure, inexperienced young men and sent them off to die. I think they should take responsibility for that." "It made me think we should never go to war. War is terrible and all it leaves behind is bitterness," said a 58-year-old businessman. "I don't really feel proud of them," Kunimitsu Suzuki said, "I think with the education they had, they were forced into it".

May 12, 2007 New proof' of Japan Sex Slaves. They come from the Dutch government archives and include the testimony of a 27-year-old Dutch woman from May 1946, found by a Japanese journalist. The Dutch woman's testimony says she had her clothes ripped off her by Japanese military police, taken to a brothel and forced to work as a prostitute, despite her efforts to resist. That testimony was submitted to the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal as evidence of forced sex slaves in Magelang, in what is now Central Java, in 1944. Japanese Foreign Ministry says it has not seen the documents so cannot comment.

May 12, 2007 Another Chinese woman testifies to Japan's Sex Slavery. They were raped daily by more than 50 Japanese soldiers and if they dared to resist, they were beaten. Zhou added that she was so traumatized by the incident that she never stopped crying. As a result, she contracted a serious eye disease and eventually lost her sight. She had served as a 'comfort woman' for 2 months. A local town official redeemed her. Seeking revenge, her husband joined the army. The recent death of a former Chinese Sex Slave Lei Guiying, who was raped by a Japanese soldier at the age of 13 and was later forced into working in a Japanese-run brothel in Nanjing for 2 years. "She burst into tears when I read her a local newspaper story about the death of Lei Guiying, the only person to have testified to wartime Japanese sexual slavery in Nanjing," recalled Jiang Weixun, her 62 years old son. He subsequently encouraged his mother to go public with her own experience. "My mother has finally stood up to testify to wartime Japanese atrocities," said Jiang, "she deserves the respect and support of all the Chinese people".

May 14, 2007 Japan wants to rewrite its pacifist constitution which says Japan forever renounces the right to wage war. About 200 pacifist and left-wing activists rallied in front of parliament, chanting, "Don't change the constitution for the worse!" "It is regrettable that the bill passed without correcting its grave problems," said Seigo Hirayama, president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.

May 15, 2007 Accord opens Holocaust archive in Germany. The archive has long restricted access to these documents to family members of victims of the Holocaust, frustrating scholars who complained they were being deprived of access to a vital historical record. Electronic copies of documents from a closely guarded Nazi archive will begin flowing to several countries for the first time since the end of World War II, after an agreement announced Tuesday by the 11 countries that oversee the archive in central Germany. Archive to expand access to files on the Holocaust . Nazi archives finally made public.

May 18, 2007 Japan has approved a new law requiring schools to teach patriotism for the first time since WWII.

May 21, 2007 In a statement issued at the end of a 3-day conference of Japan's Sex Slaves, "We demand Japan to carry out the recommendations by the UN Human Rights bodies". In 1996 the U.N.' sub-commission on human rights adopted a resolution urging Tokyo to further cooperate with it to solve the wartime sex slavery issue. "Japan must take full responsibility and necessary execution of policies for official apology, reparation, truth and fact finding, as well as prevention of reoccurrence".

May 22, 2007 U.N. condemned Japan tried to cover up its Sex Slavery. U.N. report said the victims suffered "incurable wounds" and are experiencing "continuing abuse and re-traumatization as a result of the state party's official denial of the facts, concealment or failure to disclose other facts, failure to prosecute those criminally responsible for acts of torture, and failure to provide adequate rehabilitation to the victims and survivors".

May 23, 2007 Japan ignites protests in Okinawa over revision of war History. 4 local assemblies are now protesting an order by Japanese PM Abe's Education Ministry to remove from school textbooks all references to military involvement in the group suicide deaths. They have passed a resolution demanding the central government reverse its decision, and several other communities are considering the measure. "He wants to create a new fiction". "A few days before the landing of the U.S. troops, the Japanese army assembled the young men of the island," Tomiyama said in the report. "There was a speech instructing them never to be taken as a war prisoner. The army gave each one two grenades: one for attacking Americans and the other to kill themselves". Shinjun Tomiyama was a village official on Yoneda's island home of Tokashiki in charge of army liaison during the war.

May 24, 2007 UK POWs want Japan apology. Arthur Titherington, chairman of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors' Association, wants to meet Japan's Emperor Akihito on a visit to Britain next week and urge him to get the Tokyo government to apologise to detainees and pay compensation. In 1998, hundreds of PoWs and Slaves survivors turned their backs on Akihito as he drove to Buckingham Palace for lunch with Queen Elizabeth, shouting "Go home" and "Compensation overdue".

May 27, 2007 Japanese film sings ode to 'beautiful' kamikaze. "I think there was despicable behaviour from the commanding officers. They took these very young, pure, untarnished men and sent them off to their death," said Taku Shinjo, the film's director "I would like them to take responsibility."

May 29, 2007 Australia veterans want apology from Japan PM Abe, calling for an apology over Japanese war crimes and environmentalists demanding an end to whaling.

May 29, 2007 Aso Mining's POW labor: the evidence. Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso is refusing to confirm that POWs dug coal for his family's firm — even challenging reporters to produce evidence. Evidences are as following:

On Aug. 19, 1945, the Imperial Japanese government's Committee to Negotiate Surrender delivered to U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur by hand in Manila, a list of prison camps in Japan and the names of private companies using Allied POWs. The Fukuoka section of the document shows the Camp 26 workforce was assigned to Aso's Yoshikuma colliery. This POW camp list can be found today in the MacArthur Memorial Archives in Virginia (Record Group 4, Box 23).

On Jan. 24, 1946, Aso Mining submitted a 16-page report detailing conditions at Yoshikuma to the Japanese government's POW Information Bureau, using company stationery and attaching an English translation. Ordered by Occupation authorities investigating war crimes against POWs, the company report claims the Westerners were fed, clothed and housed better than Aso's Japanese workers and Korean labor conscripts. The Aso report includes the company's Feb. 22, 1945, letter to the Japan War Ministry requesting use of 300 Allied prisoners for one year. Camp 26 opened on May 10.

These records produced by Aso Mining can be viewed in Maryland at the U.S. National Archives (Record Group 331, Box 927). The U.S. National Archives also retain the comprehensive Camp Management Report, compiled by the Japan POW Information Bureau and submitted to American military investigators in Tokyo on June 7, 1946. It confirms the "Aso Mining Industry Company" utilized 150 of the healthiest Camp 26 prisoners in the Yoshikuma coal pits.

The company even reported that prisoners could "take a rest in the recreation room," Also claims that, soon after Japan's surrender, prisoners thanked Aso officials for their kind treatment by giving them gifts.

A copy of the "Roster of Deceased Allied POWs in Japan Proper" resides at the National Diet Library in Tokyo. The roster records the names of the two Australian soldiers who died at Aso Yoshikuma: John Watson and Leslie Edgar George Wilkie. It is accessible online at the Web site of the POW Research Network Japan, run by Japanese citizens working to clarify the historical record.

Another U.S. government document in the National Diet Library is Report No. 174, issued by the Investigation Division of GHQ's Legal Section on Feb. 1, 1946. It summarizes a two-day inspection of the Camp 26 site, referring to the statement of an Aso company official as "Exhibit One." It also lists the names and ranks of Imperial Japanese Army personnel who guarded the POWs when they were not in Aso Mining's custody.

A 1982 book published by Japan's National Defense Academy also states that the camp's prisoners worked for Aso Mining. Arthur Gigger said Japan should stop denying the reality of forced labor at Aso Mining. "I know it happened," he said. "I was there."

Jun 1, 2007 Chinese make rare protest at Japanese embassy. A small group of Chinese, including former Slave laborers and at least one elderly woman Sex Slave, protest outside Japan's embassy in Beijing. " I am going to sue those Japanese monsters who treated me so cruelly," said Liu Qian, 86, fighting back tears. "They seized us, took us to their military base and raped us. We were held there for 41 days. After being locked up, we could not even walk, only crawl," said Liu Mianhuan, 81, who was forced to be a Sex Slave.

Jun 1, 2007 Compensation for Korean women rejected by Japan. Nagoya High Court rejected compensation to S.Korean women forced to work under harsh conditions in ammunition factory operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries during War, but acknowledged that Japan government and company violated international law. The high court, citing international law, described Japan's move as "illegal because it was an act that gravely violated justice and fairness as well as rejected the dignity of the individuals."

Jun 7, 2007 Japan's military illegally gathered information on the activities of ordinary citizens in 2003 and 2004, including those who opposed the dispatch of Japanese troops to Iraq, Japan's Communist Party said.

Jun 7, 2007 Ex-Taiwan leader Lee visits Yasukuni Shrne to honour his brother. Former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui who pushed forward Taiwan independence, visited Yasukuni Shrine to pay tribute to Lee's brother served in Japanese navy and died during War. Lee is a fluent Japanese speaker who went to university in Kyoto and even has a Japanese name.

Jun 12, 2007 Japan court dismisses another Slave lawsuit by Chinese. The Chinese Slaves were brought to Japan in 1944 and forced to work at the Oeyama mines of Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co. under harsh conditions.

Jun 12, 2007 Tojo's granddaughter asks Japan to revive its army.

Jun 13, 2007 Germany wrapped up Nazi Slave past by paying more than 4.37 Billion euros to 1.665 Million Slaves with one-off payments of between 2,500 to 7,500 euros through its Slave fund to survivors in 98 countries -- in places from Monaco, Nepal, Thailand to Poland and US. The leftover funds -- about 450 Million euros -- will be used for a documentation centre as well as humanitarian and medical programmes.

Jun 14, 2007 Japanese Urge China to remove photographs and exhibits from museums that they say distort the truth. A group of 42 Japanese lawmakers, mainly from the ruling LDP, vowed to press China to stop showing "fake or wrongful" photographs, films and exhibits that reflect badly on Japan. Former Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and former Defence Minister Tokuichiro Tamazawa are also in the group. "There are cases of photographs being exhibited with captions that say comfort women were abducted by Japanese troops, but in fact they were women being protected by Japanese soldiers and taken back to their village," said LDP lawmaker Tomomi Inada. "We want to have such fake photographs removed."

Jun 15, 2007 44 Japanese parliament members placed a full-page ad in The Washington Post that denies Japan's Sex Slavery . The full-page ad, which seeks to share "the truth with the American people" was signed by 44 members of Japan's parliament.

Jun 15, 2007 Okinawans protest Japanese history textbooks. 4 local assemblies in Okinawa filed protests against descriptions in new Japanese high school textbooks of mass suicides. "It is an undeniable fact that "mass suicides" could not have occurred were it not for an order, coercion, manipulation or other acts by the Japanese military," the Tokashiki assembly said.

Jun 15, 2007 Japanese courts reject Japanese war orphans' lawsuits. The Japanese war orphans claimed Japan was responsible for causing them to become Japanese war orphans left behind in China or died there because they settled in then Manchuria under Japanese government policy. A total of 2,200 Japanese war orphans adopted by Chinese, have filed similar damages lawsuits against Japan in 15 district courts.

Jun 16, 2007 Former Japan PM Nakasone admits U.S. may have moved nuclear arms through Japan. According to declassified U.S. documents from the 1960s, the two countries tacitly agreed to exempt sea and air nuclear transit from the idea of "nuclear introduction" prohibited under the Three Nonnuclear Principles approved by Japan Diet in 1971.

Jun 16, 2007 Japan Supreme Court rejected appeals by 42 former Chinese Slaves seeking compensation. The case had been filed against the government and the 10 companies, including major contractors and mining operators Hazama Corp., Furukawa Co., Nishimatsu Construction, Ube Industries, Dowa Mining, Nittetsu Mining, Mitsubishi Materials Corp. and Japan Energy Corp.

Jun 19, 2007 Japan ruling MPs call Nanjing Massacre fabrication. Nariaki Nakayama, head of the group, said members could not let "lies and deceit be spread around the world".

Jun 21, 2007 Japan changes name of Iwo Jima.

Jun 22, 2007 Okinawa furious at Japan's Group Suicide textbook revision. Japan's education ministry ordered publishers of high school textbooks to modify their descriptions of the Group Suicides. The step outraged Okinawa residents.

Jun 26, 2007 The war according to Aso Co.. Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso oversaw publication of the 1,500-page Aso company history as president and CEO of Aso Cement Co. In 1975 book called "The 100-Year History of Aso", the book suggests the US tricked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor and glorifies the Japanese war. Aso Mining employed 7,996 Korean conscripts, according to one wartime government report. Recent estimates by Fukuoka-based historians peg the total at 12,000. There were also 300 Allied PoWs at the Aso Yoshikuma Mine in Fukuoka Prefecture. 6,090 Chinese Slave laborers were used at 16 sites in Fukuoka, and 11% of them died.

Jun 26, 2007 The resolution introduced by Japanese-American lawmaker Mike Honda was approved 39 to 2, US House panel calls for Japan Sex Slave apology. The motion is paradoxical for two separate reasons. Firstly because its promoter is Michael Honda, of Japanese origins. Secondly because, it places the Japan before a moral choice it cannot afford to ignore.

Jul 14, 2007 A group of more than 200 Japanese lawmakers, scholars and journalists submitted a letter to U.S. urging them to revoke the resolution, arguing that there were no Sex Slaves and that the women were prostitutes.

Jun 28, 2007 "People should worry about the direction Japan is taking," award-winning film "White Light/Black Rain" maker Steven Okazaki said when he was asked about recent trends among Japanese leaders to look away from the country’s militaristic past and its victims.

Jun 28,2007 Austria's Reconciliation Fund has paid 30 million Euros to Czech victims in compensation.

Jul 3, 2007 China lawyers reveal 17 more Japan war sex slave. The youngest survivor found was just 12 when she was forced to be Sex Slave.

Jul 3, 2007 "Nanking" a US-made film documenting eyewitness accounts of Nanjing Massacre opened in Beijing. It is a film about the Best and the Worst of Humanity". "There are people who still claim the incident never happened," he said. "But we have forensic evidence, photographic evidence and film evidence, and there's eyewitness testimony. What else do you need ?"

Jul 4, 2007 The Okinawa government passed a resolution demanding Japan not to remove the references to direct military involvement in the mass suicides. "It is an unmistakable fact that mass suicides in Okinawa could not have taken place without the military's order", said the resolution. Once an independent kingdom known as Ryukyu, Okinawa was a prosperous trading nation with its own culture and language.

Jul 6, 2007 Told to commit mass suicide, Okinawa survivors now face elimination from history. "The army had given us 2 grenades each. They told us to hurl the first one at the enemy and to use the second one to kill ourselves," Choho Zukeran told the Guardian from his home in Okinawa. "Lots of my school friends were told to commit suicide by Japanese soldiers. At school we had been brainwashed ... [that] to surrender to [US troops] would be to disgrace the emperor," said the 75-year-old retired teacher and local councillor.

Jul 7, 2007 China marks anniversary of war with Japan with a U.S.-made film "Nanking" documenting Japanese atrocities opening in theatres nationwide and schoolchildren holding a candlelight vigil. China's first museum dedicated to "comfort women" opened to the public at Shanghai Normal University on Friday.

Jul 9, 2007 The horrors of Nanking. In 1997 when Chang Zhiqiang bought a television set. His live changed. "I was watching a TV program in which some right-wing Japanese people were denying the massacres in Nanjing had ever happened. I was outraged," he says, "I couldn't sleep. They killed so many people. My father, my mother, my brothers ..... I came out of that pile of dead bodies an orphan. "And I thought, `You haven't paid us compensation. You haven't really admitted your crime. And now you insult us by saying there's no such thing? No such thing ?'" When the 79-year-old survivor was being interviewed with the camera running and "Nanking" film crew were listening to a simultaneous translation. "suddenly, we couldn't hear anything. The translators just stopped. They were weeping," he explains.

Jul 10, 2007 Thousands Japan war orphans adopted by the Chinese will receive more aid on condition that they will drop their lawsuits against Japan government.

Jul 15, 2007 Museum to 'comfort women' opens in Shanghai, the third of its kind in the world. The others are in Tokyo and Seoul. According to Su Zhiliang, director of the Chinese Comfort Women's Research Center and founder of the museum, said his research has shown that there were about 200,000 comfort women in China, but just 47, who have publicly declared it, are still alive.

Jul 17, 2007 Ironically, now Japan becomes global court's member to prosecute crimes against Humanity and War Crimes.

Jul 18, 2007 Japan court scraps ruling of Chinese victims by Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons.

Jul 18, 2007 Offspring of Nazi Holocaust survivors are seeking reparations from Germany to pay for psychiatric treatment.

Jul 27, 2007 Nationalism gains strength in Japan. The LDP, controlled by a nationalist faction, will keep its grip on parliament's lower House of Representatives, which picks the prime minister, passing legislation intended to set the stage for revising the constitution, and approving school policies that stress "patriotic" education. Shintaro Ishihara, a nationalist who is governor of Tokyo, punishes 320 teachers who won't follow the patriotic line in the classroom.

Jul 30, 2007 With one of the surviving victims looking on, US House passed H.Res. 121. It urges Japan to "formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for the suffering of Sex Slaves. Lantos said, "Some in Japan do not understand the meaning of the word Rape." However, there is no Senate counterpart to the House resolution, partly in deference to longtime Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat and Japanese American who opposed the resolution. Last year, Japan hired former House minority leader Bob Michel to lobby against the measure after a committee passed it, and it never reached the floor. The Japanese Parliament has never endorsed an official apology or acknowledgement of past sex slavery.

Jul 31, 2007 Japan rejects US calls for apology over 'comfort women'.

Aug 2, 2007 Germany wants Russia to return missing art treasures of war booty. According to cultural experts, a total of 180,000 items taken from collections in Berlin are in Russia and Poland.. The Hague Convention regulating wars on land requires art treasures seized by occupying forces to be returned. Poles furious at German 'war booty' claim . Germany, Poland in tussle over treasures . Looted Art : Part 1 . Part 2.

Aug 11, 2007 Filipino Sex Slaves call on Japan's new parliament to act. About 450 such Philippine women have surfaced since 1992 to demand justice from the Japanese government. 84 of them have since died.

Aug 14, 2007 Japan's right wing re-emerges. An estimated 10,000 people belong to Japan's hard-line right-wing nationalist groups, and their penchant for violence is increasing, according to Japanese police reports. There are close connections between the yakuza (a Japanese organized crime gang) and the right-wing nationalist groups.

Aug 16, 2007 WWII dead remembered. Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono said in a speech that he expressed his sincere apologies and sympathy to those who had their human rights infringed, suffered great pain in mind and body and are still suffering. Kono went on to say, "[Japanese people] chose a new regime symbolized by a Constitution that bans the use of force overseas." Abe in peace pledge on war anniversary. Abe and his Cabinet refrained from visiting war-related Yasukuni Shrine, only one member broke ranks and visited.

Aug 18, 2007 Korean war criminal sues Japan government. During the war, Japan drafted about 240,000 Koreans to serve as "Japanese" soldiers or as civilian workers. Of these Korean recruits, 148 were convicted as Class-B, C war criminals for war crimes and for abusing POWs, and 23 were hanged, according to research by Aiko Utsumi, a professor at Keisen University in Tokyo. When Japan signed the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty, restoring its sovereignty, Koreans were stripped of the Japanese citizenship they had been forced to adopt during Japan's colonial rule. "Japan forced Koreans to participate in the war (as Japanese) but then refused to pay us compensation because (we were suddenly no longer Japanese citizens). That's irrational," said Lee, who now runs a taxi company in Tokyo. "The government's attitude is unforgivable." Koreans who served the Japanese military were branded as collaborators back home, Lee said, noting this stigma forced them to stay in Japan, where they meanwhile had to endure strong discrimination. In 1991, they sued the Japan government, demanding an apology and redress. However, the Supreme Court rejected their claim, although it admitted Japan failed to enact laws to help the plaintiffs.

Aug 23, 2007 Abe praises 2 Indians who backed Japan in WWII. Abe visited India and met relatives of nationalist Subhash Chandra Bose, who advocated violent resistance sided with Japan during WWII to fight British, and Radhabinod Pal, the sole judge who dissented at the Allied tribunal that condemned to death war-time Japanese leaders. Abe spent time looking at black and white photos of Bose, his 1942 meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berlin.

Radhabinod Pal, the only one out of 11 Allied justices who handed down a not guilty verdict for Japan's top wartime leaders at the Tokyo trials. "Justice Pal is highly respected even today by many Japanese for the noble spirit of courage he exhibited during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East," Mr. Abe told the Indian Parliament.

In 2006, Shinzo Abe insisted Japanese WWII leaders were NOT "war criminals" ..... That also was the case for my relative" he added. His grandfather Nobusuke Kishi who oversaw the Slave labor program as minister of commerce and industry during the war, was imprisoned as a Class-A War Criminal suspect and later became Japanese prime minister in 1957, released together with thousand others due to the Cold War because U.S. desparately needed the speedy rebuilding of Japan that would provide an anti-Communist bulwark in Asia.

Aug 30, 2007 Japanese court rejects Chinese slaves compensation suit.

Aug 30, 2007 "Opium was too dirty and it has been kept secret until now" said Hideo Kobayashi, a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. The latest finding in the document on the Japanese-run opium firm Hung Chi Shan Tang, now kept in the National Diet Library, reveals Japan used opium to gain economic hegemony over China's yuan-based legal tender in the 1940s, using it to bolster the Military Yen "gunpyo" scrip. Japan issued Military Yen "gunpyo" to procure materials in China, using the scrip to subvert China's legal tender. He said Tokyo was engaged directly in the currency operation involving opium. The document shows the amount of opium exchanged for gunpyo was valued at "nearly Yen 100 Million" in 1942. "This is a tremendous amount. Opium would make a perfect weapon (against legal tender) because its sales were huge," Kobayashi said.

Sept 6, 2007 Tokyo lawmakers protest against US resolution, saying it is "a fabrication of history" the letter signed by 43 current and former city councillors and prefectural assembly members and 2 right-wing activists handed to the US embassy. It said that if the US Congress did not withdraw the resolution, the activists would launch a movement to demand a US apology for the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Sept 19, 2007 Australia will vote on a motion urging Japan to apologise and pay compensation to former Sex Slaves . Sex-slave resolution fails.

Sept 20, 2007 The divine origins of Japan's imperial family come under scrutiny as it allows limited access to 2 burial sites. Their greatest fear is that proper inspections of the tombs will reveal compelling evidence that the Japanese imperial family originated from China and the Korean peninsula. Akihito alluded to his Korean ancestry on his 68th birthday in 2001.

Sept 26, 2007 Korean Slave laborers taken to Sakhalin Island by Japan sued Japan and Japan Post seeking repayment.

Sept 28, 2007 Mass suicides of families indoctrinated by Japanese propaganda, including mothers and their babies, have been well documented. But this year, Tokyo in effect declared that such events never took place. Okinawa's local government has reacted with fury to the Japanese Education Ministry directive, issuing an unprecedented unanimous statement in June demanding that the government reverse its decision. "It is an undeniable fact that mass suicides could not have occurred without the involvement of the Japanese military," said the statement.

Sept 30, 2007 110,000 Okinawans protest over Japan textbook. Brainwashed by Japanese Imperial Army soldiers into believing that American troops would rape all the local women and run over the men with their tanks. Japanese soldiers gave the Okinawan men 2 hand grenades each, with instructions to hurl one at the Americans and then to kill themselves with the other. Most of the grenades failed to explode. After watching a former district chief break off a tree branch and use it to kill his wife and children, Rev. Shigeaki Kinjo and his older brother followed suit. “My older brother and I struck to death the mother who had given birth to us,” Mr. Kinjo said in an interview at the Naha Central Church, where he is the senior minister. “I was wailing of course. We also struck to death our younger brother and sister.” Mr. Kinjo, who said he decided not to kill himself after he saw that Japanese soldiers were not committing suicide themselves.

Oct 3, 2007 Japan officials hint at textbook change following huge protest. "We must openly acknowledge that this is a tragedy that happened repeatedly," said Hiroyuki Hosoda, deputy secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Education Minister Kisaburo Tokai said his ministry would consider restoring the reference if he received a request from publishers to do so. Last year, Japan tried to whitewash Japanese wartime crimes triggered immediate protest from Okinawa residents and academics. Okinawa's war time wounds reopened.

Oct 18, 2007 67 Japanese legislators visit controversial Yasukuni Shrine.

Nov 23, 2007 A new Nazi camp memorial exhibition center opens in central Germany, the Bergen-Belsen camp, to more accurately document prisoners’ experiences there. It draws on archive material that came to light in the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War.

Nov 23, 2007 German government started constructing of an exhibition center at the site where the Gestapo, leaders of the SS and other top officials in Adolf Hitler's police state presided over Nazi-era crimes.

Nov 3, 2007 Panelists remember Nanking. “One lady we spoke to was only 7 during the massacre,” Violet Fang one of the co-producers of the “Nanking Massacre” documentary, said. “She woke up after fainting, seeing her mother and sisters naked and dead on the table after being raped. A Westerner took a picture of her at the house with all those bodies, so because she had evidence, she felt strong enough to sue the Japanese. When she sued the Japanese for what they did, they sued her back, saying that she was a total liar.”

Nov 3, 2007 Painstaking research by British historian Mark Felton, author of Slaughter at Sea: The Untold Story of Japan's Naval War Crimes, reveals that Japanese Navy was far worse than Hitler's Kriegsmarine. Japanese Navy ordered the deliberately sadistic murders of more than 20,000 Allied seamen and countless civilians in cold-blooded defiance of the Geneva Convention. There is only one documented case of a German U-boat skipper being responsible for cold-blooded murder of survivors. In the Japanese Imperial Navy, it was official orders.

"The Japanese Navy sank Allied merchant and Red Cross vessels, then murdered survivors floating in the sea or in lifeboats. Allied air crew were rescued from the ocean and then tortured to death on the decks of ships. Naval landing parties rounded up civilians then raped and massacred them. Some were taken out to sea and fed to sharks. Others were killed by sledge-hammer, bayonet, beheading, hanging, drowning, burying alive, burning or crucifixion. I also unearthed details of medical experiments by naval doctors, with prisoners being dissected while still alive."

Nov 8, 2007 Dutch demands Japan to apologize and compensate Sex Slaves.

Nov 20, 2007 Mass rape victims now ill. In Filipine, Japanese soldiers belonged to the Geki Group of the 14th District Army under Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, pillaged and burned the village, killed all males, then herded the women and girls to their garrison to be mass raped.

Nov 23, 2007 Former Sex Slave takes fight to Canada. Researchers and historians estimate that as many as 400,000 women and girls in Asia - half of whom are Chinese - were forced to become Sex Slaves. Only 46 former sex slaves still alive in China after one died earlier this year. Former Sex Slaves seek Ottawa's help.

Nov 25, 2007 Germany it is dealing with a new wave of property claims from former East Germany filed after the collapse of the communist government. Germany long ago satisfied the vast majority of claims pending from the war. It has spent an estimated $100 billion, adjusted for inflation, to victims of Nazism. However, the communist East German government had generally refused to compensate Jewish losses from the Third Reich.

Nov 26, 2007 Koreans and Taiwanese who paid for Japan's crimes. Many Korean and Taiwanese civilians were executed for Japan's war conduct. About 20,000 Koreans who perished in US atomic bombing. Some of them were prosecuted as Class-B and -C war criminals on charges of abusing the POWs. 23 Koreans were executed and 125 others were given fixed-term prison sentences. They received cold treatment being regarded as traitors. They are now demanding that Japan government apologize and offer compensation.

Nov 26, 2007 Japan's Nanjing film says war criminals were martyrs. Japan's wartime leaders, hanged as war criminals, were martyrs, says the Japanese director Satoru Mizushima's "The Truth About Nanjing" film backed by nationalists, including Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, argues that the 1937 Nanjing massacre was a fabrication by China, and discredits several witness accounts by Westerners who were in Nanjing at the time, calling them communist "spies".

Nov 29, 2007 Canada's parliament has unanimously passed a motion calling on Japan to apologise to the Sex Slaves. Japan must offer "a formal and sincere apology expressed in the Diet to all of those who were victims". In 1993 Japan issued an apology, but Japan's parliament never approved it. Similar motions have been adopted in the US and the Netherlands. Historical moment video in Canadian Parliament for Sex Slaves.

Dec 5, 2007 PM Yasuo Fukuda made the first apology by a Japanese leader for failing to support war orphans who were left behind in China. Thousands of Japanese children and women were abandoned in China after defeat. Thousands Japanese war orphans were adopted by Chinese families. Some 6,000 Japanese war orphans have already returned to Japan from China.

Dec 5, 2007 "The evidence for a massacre is faked. It is Chinese Communist propaganda." For support, Satoru Mizushima brandishes a book containing what he says are dozens of doctored photos. One shows a beheaded Chinese corpse with a cigarette in its mouth. "Japanese people don't mistreat corpses like that. It is not in our culture." The world will soon get a chance to assess his claims when Mizushima's movie "The Truth of Nanking" reaches the cinemas. Mizushima offers a very precise figure for the number of illegal deaths: zero. Japan's documentary is supported by over a dozen lawmakers, including Nariaki Nakayama, a former education minister under ex-Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro and a panel of academics led by Higashinakano Shudo, a history professor at Asia University in Tokyo. Was the Imperial Japanese Army guilty of any war crimes? "None", producer Sakura's Mizushima replies. "In war, atrocities will always be carried out by a small number of individuals, but did the Japanese army systematically commit war crimes? Absolutely not." Tension rising over the 'Rape of Nanjing'.

Dec 11, 2007 Nanking -- Horror of war . Interview with "Nanking" producer Ted Leonsis . Remembering what happened in Nanking . Documented Atrocities . Tears for Iris Chang . A testament to war's barbarity and madness.

Dec 13, 2007 China marks the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre . China recalls war massacre with sirens and peace bell . In Japan, denial over Nanjing still holds sway after 70 years.

Dec 13, 2007 European Parliament approved the resolution on Justice for the Sex Slaves urging Japan to formally "acknowledge, apologies, and accept historical and legal responsibility, in a clear and unequivocal manner" and "to remove existing obstacles to obtaining reparations before Japanese courts". The resolution was passed with 54 in favor and 3 abstentions . European Parliament demands Japan to apologize.

Dec 25, 2007 The Shanghai's maritime court ruled Japan firm should compensate Chinese family for the theft of 2 ships during war. The family first filed a suit seeking financial recompense in Tokyo in 1964, but was unsuccessful. Undeterred, they brought the case back to Shanghai in the early 1990s.

Dec 26, 2007 In Sept, more than 100,000 Okinawan people protested against Japanese government order to delete the reference in textbooks on Japanese army involvement in mass suicides. Japan will restore textbook references to the involvement of Japan's army in mass suicides of Okinawans officials said. Last month, textbook publishers submitted passages reinserting references to the military’s "coercing" or "forcing" Okinawans into mass suicide. But the ministry rejected this clear description, opting for the softer and vaguer reference to the military’s "involvement".

Dec 30, 2007 Exhibition in Illinois State Museum : Minnie Vautrin - The Goddess of Mercy. Vautrin was a missionary and head of Ginling College for Women in Nanking, China, when, in 1937, the Japanese army invaded the capital city. She saved the lives of more than 10,000 Chinese women and children. The display of her objects at the state museum includes personal mementos, photographs and Vautrin’s Order of the Jade medal, the highest honor given to a civilian by the Chinese government.

Jan 6, 2008 Shattering Jewels: 110,000 Okinawans protest Japan's textbook censorship of Group Suicides. Compulsory Mass Suicide, the Battle of Okinawa, and Japan's Textbook Controversy.

Jan 10, 2008 Germany had accepted all claims for pensions for Jewish slaves by Nazis. The Ministry said that it had received several thousand claims, and agreed to pay 2,000 euros apiece to ghetto survivors who have not been compensated before.

Jan 17, 2008 Japan failed to properly compensate 2 Chinese children injured by Japan's WMD Chemical Weapons in 2004, said the plaintiffs demanding compensation totaling 66 million yen (around 617,000 U.S. dollars).

Jan 17, 2008 Remaking an Atrocity: filmmakers discuss the documentary 'Nanking' . "It did not leave my ears – the sound of their pitiful voices." And that’s as close to an expression of remorse as we get.

Feb 12, 2008 Japanese court rejects damages suit by Chinese Slaves. 3 of the plaintiffs have died after they filed the suit in 2004.

Mar 10, 2008 Philippine passed resolution urging Japan to "apologize and accept" its responsibility to the Sex Slaves. In the meantime, some Japanese soldiers send apologies to Filipino people. One soldier said that the images of the babies continue to haunt him because some Japanese soldiers raped and killed the women in Cordillera and burnt their houses.

Mar 11, 2008 Belgium to compensate Holocaust survivors. $170 million in restitution for the Jewish community and families of Holocaust survivors whose property and goods were looted by Nazi occupiers. Overall, $54 million will be paid to individual claimants, with the rest going to a Jewish trust that will help the poor and keep the memory of the horrors alive.

Mar 16, 2008 Seeking recognition for the "Death Railway" Slaves. Between 200,000 and 300,000 Asian Slaves — no one knows the exact number — were press-ganged by the Japanese and their surrogates to work on the Death Railway. About 100,000 Asian Slaves and 16,000 PoWs died described by Cameron Forbes in his book Hellfire as if was "built on the Bones of the Dead", i.e. 300 death for every km.

Mar 10, 2008 Germany to compensate WWII Slaves worked in ghetto through Ghetto Labor Compensation Fund. The German government estimates that 50,000 people around the world are eligible.

Mar 27, 2008 "Yasukuni" won a best documentary award at Hong Kong's international film festival. The film has already spurred controversy in Japan, with one theatre operator, T-Joy, deciding to scrap plans to screen the documentary citing potential "trouble". Japanese cinemas shut out doc "Yasukuni". Lost love over Yasukuni Shrine. Dancing with the devil over 'Yasukuni' . Distributor to go ahead with showing 'Yasukuni' despite a request from the Shinto shrine to delete some of the content.

Mar 28, 2008 Japan court ruled the "Japanese military was deeply involved in the mass suicides" presiding judge Toshimasa Fukami ruled at the the Osaka District Court. The lawsuit was filed against Oe and the publisher of his 1970 book of essays "Okinawa Notes" which mentioned how Japanese troops ordered Okinawan to kill themselves rather than surrender to US. In Sept, more than 110,000 Okinawan protested Japan's textbook censorship of compulsory Group Suicides.

Apr 1, 2008 2007 was the initial obliged deadline for Japan to clean up its WMD Chemical Weapon left in China during war. Japan missed and is now obliged to finish by 2012 under an international treaty. However, Delay again caused by corruption in Japan WMD Chemical Weapon cleanup. China says Japan left some 2 million WMD Chemical munitions, and the WMDs have already caused about 2,000 deaths after the war. In 2004, 2 boys were injured by Japan's WMD.

Apr 22, 2008 62 Diet members visited Yasukuni Shrine included Eriko Yamatani, an aide to the prime minister; Yoshio Nakagawa, a senior vice-minister of the Cabinet Office; deputy farm minister Masahiro Imamura; and 5 parliamentary secretaries.

Apr 22, 2008 N.Koreans atomic victims demand Japan pay compensation that it has given to other atomic victims.

May 5, 2008 Thousands Japanese rally for Japan peace constitution. Participants in the 3-day "Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War" included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland and Beate Sirota Gordon, an original drafter of the Japanese Constitution in 1947. "there are increasingly vocal calls from within Japan to get rid of this article of the constitution."

May 8, 2008 Japan approves military use of space.

May 26, 2008 China torch relay: Nanjing.

Jun 6, 2008 No longer ethnically uniform, Japan now recognises indigenous Ainu people. The resolution recognises for the first time that the Ainu "are an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture, ahead of next month's summit of the G8 on the northern island of Hokkaido, home to most of Japan's estimated 70,000 Ainu, but stressed it would not accept any moves by indigenous people for independence or property compensation. In 1899 enacted the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Act, under which the Ainu were forced to give up their land, language and traditions and shift from hunting to farming. The Ainu traditionally observed an animist faith with a belief that God exists in every creation, respecting trees, hills, lakes, rivers and animals.

Jun 12, 2008 Japan Supreme Court overturned lower court ruling for NHK to pay damages for improperly revising Sex Slaves programme. The programme included a mock trial by activists who found the late Emperor Hirohito guilty of crimes against humanity, but the show was later aired without the footage of the verdict in 2001. The "verdict" was handed down by an international panel of four judges led by Gabrielle McDonald, the former president of the international war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia. Satoru Nagai, a former NHK production staffer, had testified that former prime minister Shinzo Abe, known for his nationalist views, demanded that the program be cancelled.

July 3, 2008 Ahead of an international conference of indigenous peoples and G8 summit hosted by Japan in Hokkaido Japan finally recognized the Ainu as an "indigenous people". The Ainu had lived on Japan's northernmost island for centuries, calling their home Ainu Mosir, or Land of Human Beings. Japan seized their land and renamed it Hokkaido, or North Sea Road. In 1869, Japan set up the Hokkaido Colonization Board to encourage Japanese settlers to move to Hokkaido. The Ainu were eventually stripped of their land, forced to abandon hunting and fishing for farming, forbidden to speak their own language and taught only Japanese at school. That history — little known by the Japanese today and even among the Ainu themselves — was repeated later in Japan's Asian colonies. "That's why I think it's a good thing that Japan lost WWII," said Koichi Kaizawa, 60, an official at the Biratori Ainu Culture Preservation Association. "If Japan had won, so many others would have lost their language and culture."

July 9, 2008 Chinese Slaves redress rejected by Japan Supreme Court.

July 11, 2008 In Toyko, an exhibit titled "One day, the Japanese army arrived — Rapes and Comfort Stations in China". "Many women were abducted and raped by Japanese soldiers as a warning against Anti-Japan movements there" said Eriko Ikeda, director of the exhibition at the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, known as WAM. A woman in Guilin, who was married at the time, was abducted with six or seven other women and got pregnant while being repeatedly raped at a comfort station. Her son, fathered by a Japanese soldier, has been discriminated, was forced to withdraw from an elementary school and was repeatedly hit by his father, said, "I hope the Japanese government will apologize to my mother.". A woman from SKorea was recruited at age 17 that she would work at a Japanese factory but was actually brought to a comfort station in Shanghai. "I was forced to work with 30 to 40 men a day and I didn't have time even to sleep".

4 damages lawsuits were filed in Japan, of which the plaintiffs already lost 3 cases, according to WAM. The Japan court acknowledged the plaintiffs' claims that they were "abducted, confined, continuously beaten and raped by Japanese soldiers" but rejected their demand for 23 million Yen each partly because their right to demand redress expired after 20 years. One of the plaintiffs is Chen Yabian who suffered 8 miscarriages during 9 pregnancies after surviving the wartime atrocities. Former Japanese soldiers Hajime Kondo said, "I once joined a gang rape with several other soldiers." Another panel says: "I was told by my colleagues, 'It's your turn. I had become such a man, who joined a gang rape and killed nonresistant people without hesitation, while I spent 4 years in battlefields." Stirred by his remorse, Kondo has repeatedly visited China since 2000 while testifying in court cases on behalf of the victims.

July 13, 2008 Guam remembers Chagui'an massacre, Tinta massacre, Faha massacre by the Japanese. Former Merizo Mayor Ignacio "Buck" Cruz tells the story of the Tinta massacre, where 30 men and women, including his father and brother, were herded into a cave to be killed. Only 16 survived the attack. There were no survivors of the Faha massacre. In 1944, shortly after US landed on Guam, 100 men, women and children were taken into a cave at Fena. At least 34 were killed after Japanese soldiers hurled grenades at the victims, and then shot and stabbed the fallen in the caves with bayonets.

July 18, 2008 Germany, France agreed to compensate 5,800 surviving Slaves from the Alsace-Lorraine region.

Aug 18, 2008 Germany thanks Russia for returning looted Art, asks for the rest back. Soviet Union returned 1.5 million art treasures looted at the end of WWII to E.Germany 15 years ago. German museums are staging a series of exhibitions to say thank you. Gratitude is one half of the message. The other is: Can we have the remaining 1 million works back now too, please?

Aug 26, 2008 Nazi slave labour archive 6.7 million documents digitised. Copies were transferred to Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Memorial, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland. Experts estimate 12 million people were forced to work for the Nazis or its industries.

Aug 27, 2008 China urges Japan to remove its abandoned WMD Chemical Weapons which still posed severe threats to the peoples' life, property and local environment.

Aug 31, 2008 Akio Ishii, the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee has brought to light "Behind Japan's famous façade of social harmony and homogeneity". "Often hidden from view are troubling elements of the country's social life involving stigmatized communities such as the burakumin and the minority ethnic groups like the Ainu or the many Koreans, Filipinos and other foreigners living in Japan today".

He himself descended from a burakumin family. The burakumin are the Japanese version of India's untouchables. Buraku in fact is the Japanese word for village or hamlet. When the social status system was established during the Edo era in the 17th century, the burakumin were considered lower than the three main classes—warrior, peasant and townsfolk. They were considered as belonging to the "eta" (extreme filth) and "hinhin" (non-human) classes. These "filthy subhumans" were relegated to the buraku, or hamlets, outside of the establishment ("min" means people). Japan has enacted laws to protect the burakumin, but incidents of discrimination persist, such as in marriage and employment and in discriminatory remarks or inquiries made by public officials and non-burakumins. Estimates of burakumin range from 1.2 to 3 million.

Sept 17, 2008 90 year old former Nazi tried over war crime of ordering the killing of 14 civilians. The trial may very well be one of the last cases of its kind since most Nazi criminals have died in recent years.

Sept 19, 2008 Japanese massacre of British PoWs was 'covered up'. A total of 548 British and Dutch PoWs were machine-gunned by Japanese sailors.

Sept 22, 2008 Elderly Japanese war victims to sue Japanese government for damages and apology for their suffering. A similar damages lawsuit was also filed last March by 112 people over Tokyo air raids.

Oct 20, 2008 Despite its admitting that the slaves had suffered "extremely large" psychological and physical damages, Japan's high court turned down the former Slaves' appeal on the grounds that the plaintiffs lost their rights to war repatriations under the Japan-China joint declaration issued in 1972.

Oct 21, 2008 Japan's current PM haunted by family's wartime past. "Many died and got injured while working. I'm here alive and talking, but that's just because I was lucky enough to survive the close calls," said Roh, who was among more than 10,000 Koreans forced to work in the Aso family mine from 1939-1945. Taro Aso only conceded, NOT apologized, to the foreign reporters on the EVE of becoming Japan prime minister that PoWs worked at his family's coal mine in Kyushu during WWII. More details.

Oct 31, 2008 Japan general says WW2 military acts not aggression. Spokesmen for Japan's foreign and defense ministries declined comment on the air force general's comments. Japan fires general who said a U.S. ‘trap’ led to the Pearl Harbor attack.

Nov 3, 2008 WWII apologists persist despite Japanese policy.

Nov 6, 2008 More than 70 Japan air force officers reject war apology.

Nov 7, 2008 "China's Schindler" Ho Fengshan commemmorated in Vienna. Ho issued thousands of Jews with visas to Shanghai, helping them escape Nazi persecution and slaughter. "China was the only country that would accept us," said Rita Atterman Feder. The Angel of Austria's Jews. Some historians say Shanghai saved more Jews from the Nazi Holocaust than all Commonwealth countries combined.

Nov 9, 2008 Wrestling with a guilty verdict.

Nov 11, 2008 Taiwan's parliament passed a resolution asking Japan to apologise and compensate the Sex Slaves.

Nov 12, 2008 Ousted Japan air force chief defends Japan was not an aggressor in WWII . Tamogami's world: Japan's top soldier reignites conflict over the past.

Nov 25, 2008 Sex Slaves demand Japan apology. A group of surviving former sex slaves from across Asia demanded that the Japanese government enact legislation to compensate victims, an official apology, and the inclusion of historical facts in school textbooks.

Dec 1, 2008 Indigenous at last !.

Ded 2,2008 Many back my WWII views: sacked Japan general. "Politicians and bureaucrats do not support me on the surface," sacked air force chief Toshio Tamogami told a news conference. "But in actual fact I think many of them agree with me. They just can't say it in public." He told a news conference. "If you look at what the major world powers were doing at the time, I think Japan was gentler."

Dec 7, 2008 Ousted Japan air force chief tells parliament he doesn't regret his apologist essay . Facing the past: war and historical memory in Japan.

Dec 19, 2008 Japan admits the current PM Taro Aso's family used PoWs as Slave labors in its coal mines. The admission came after the Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, released documents showing that 300 British, Dutch and Australian PoWs worked at a mine owned by Aso Mining.

Dec 21, 2008 Germany started building a memorial to Gypsies persecuted by the Nazis in Berlin's central Tiergarten park. Some 220,000 to 500,000 Gypsies were killed during the Holocaust.

Jan 9, 2009 Japanese new school textbooks accused of rewriting wartime history. The row reignited amid reports that new school textbooks will not state that the military forced civilians to kill themselves at the end of the WWII.

Jan 12, 2009 Japanese reading of WWII history stirs debate. The Japanese air force chief Toshio Tamogami's views are common among nationalists, including former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who spearheaded a partially successful campaign over several years to remove mention of Japan's wartime atrocities from textbooks. Only in recent years, after lawsuits from victims, has Japan acknowledged some of its brutalities, including the use of poison gas in China and sex slaves recruited in countries under wartime occupation.

Japanese current PM Aso himself has had to admit to parliament for the 1st time that his family-run company used hundreds of Allied war prisoners at its mines in the final months of the war. He offered no apology.

Feb 13, 2009 Movie about China's Schindler tells story of unlikely German hero.

Feb 24, 2009 67-years ago, the Japanese engaged in a murderous rampage in Singapore which has come to be known as Sook Ching Massacre to ferret out anti-Japanese elements in the local Chinese community, lead to the death of at least 5,000 Chinese, according to Japanese sources. Locals, however, put the death toll at as high as 100,000.

Mar 7, 2009 Sent to Hiroshima as slaves during WWII, they returned home to face poverty, prejudice and loneliness. 2,665 S.Korean atomic bomb survivors could file lawsuit against Japan as a result of the Japanese court ruling. An estimated 40,000 Koreans died and 30,000 were injured in the atomic blasts over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For years, survivors lobbied for medical care. Progress has been slow. Although Japan has paid for medical treatment for its own victims -- known as hibakusha, or "explosion-affected people" -- foreign survivors were ignored until Nov. 2007, when the Supreme Court voided a 1974 government declaration that atomic bomb survivors living outside Japan could not receive benefits.

Mar 20, 2009 "Good Nazi of Nanjing" A film about a member of the Nazi party who saved thousands of Chinese during the massacre in Nanjing. During the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in 1946, Prince Asaka denied any massacre of Chinese and said he had never received any complaint about his soldiers' conduct. Teruyuki Kagawa says: "When faced with this film, many people will be shocked [to learn] the Japanese carried out such cruel acts."

Mar 26, 2009 Japanese court rejects teachers' lawsuit over current Japanese militaristic national Hinomaru flag and Kimigayo anthem used during War. They were made legal national symbols only in 1999. Since 2003, the Tokyo Board of Education has required public school teachers to stand and face the rising-sun flag and sing the national anthem, which reveres the country’s emperor. A group of 172 teachers and staff members said the board breached the Japanese Constitution when it censured them for refusing to follow the directives, and they demanded damages of 550,000 yen, or nearly $5,600, each.

Mar 27, 2009 Japanese high court turned down a damages suit filed by 8 Chinese who were forced to be slaves at a Mitsubishi Mining Co. copper mine in Japan during War. Of the 8 plaintiffs, 6 are now deceased.

Earlier this month, another lawsuit filed against the Japanese government and two Japanese companies, Mitsui Mining Co. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp, by 45 Chinese slave laborers in Japan during War was also turned down by the Fukuoka High Court.

Mar 28, 2009 Plan for art looted by Nazis to be returned to owners, a new law that would allow museums to restore artwork looted by the Nazis to Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

Apr 2, 2009 Mother carries daughter's torch to spread her message about the "Forgotten Holocaust".

Apr 9,2009 Japanese war vet haunted by horrors in China. "I'm old now. This may be my last chance to tell what really happened," Ichiro Koyama, 88-year-old former Japanese soldier said in a recent interview, "It was hell. I still cannot forget their blood spraying."

Apr 20, 2009 A senior Japanese politician has called for Japan to develop nuclear weapons to counter N.Korea threat.

Apr 21, 2009 Japan PM Aso sends offering to controversial Yasukuni war shrine. The day after PM Taro Aso sent an offering there, 87 ruling and opposition lawmakers, mostly from Aso's Liberal Democratic Party, visited the Tokyo shrine.

Apr 26, 2009 Nanjing Massacre through the eyes of Japanese soldier.

Apr 28, 2009 S.Korea's wartime Sex Slaves: Hoping for closure at the end of their lives.

May 1, 2009 China tells Japan to own up to wartime atrocities or risk national backlash in recent summit talks.

May 3, 2009 Japanese Nishimatsu Construction Co. plans to settle a Chinese Slaves compensation claim . The claims were rejected by the Hiroshima District Court but upheld by the Hiroshima High Court. But the Supreme Court ruled that the 1972 joint communique signed by Japan and China had settled all wartime compensation issues, including claims by individuals. But the court at the same time urged Nishimatsu to make relief efforts because "it profited from the forced labor of Chinese who suffered extremely grave physical and psychological pain."

May 5, 2009 Japanese soldiers killed more than 3,000 women, children and elderly of Pingdingshan Village in China on Sept. 16, 1932, known as the Pingdingshan massacre. Aihara Kumiko, member of the House of Councillors, or the upper house, came to present a apology letter signed by 10 members of the lower house and 14 of the upper house of the Japanese parliament to the survivors of the massacre.

"The Japanese soldiers told us they were going to take our picture and gathered us in a group. But under the black cloth they didn't have cameras, they had machine guns. The soldiers even bayoneted bodies to ensure the villagers were dead," recalled a survivor named Yang Yufen in 2006, after the survivors' 10-year-long lawsuit for an apology and compensation was rejected by the Japanese Supreme Court. It's estimated that 20 to 30 villagers survived the massacre, but now only 5 of them are still alive. "We will push the Japanese government to offer an apology and compensation for the massacre," she said.

May 31, 2009 Bataan Death March survivors hear the 1st apology from Japan's ambassador. Ichiro Fujisaki's apology was only welcomed by some. Others criticized it, saying it was long overdue, not aimed directly at Americans and didn't seem to come from the Japanese government as a whole.

June 1, 2009 Man pursues official apology from Japan for war atrocities. Despite pressure on the Japanese government, neither apologies nor reparations have been forthcoming, according to Peter Stanek, who contrasts Japan's silence with Germany's repeated apologies to Jews for the Holocaust and its payment of $50 billion to Israel.

June 12, 2009 Australian ex-PoW seeks apology from Japan's PM Aso. Coombs was one of about 300 PoWs forced to work in Aso Mining's coal mines in 1945. In Sept. 2007 he unsuccessfully sought a meeting with former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe during APEC group's summit in Sydney. The issue gathered new momentum when Aso became PM in Sept. 2008.

Aug 8, 2009 A joint memorial service was held in Tokyo for 6,830 Chinese Slaves who died in Japan after being forcibly taken as slave laborers during WWII. Nearly 40,000 Chinese were forced into slavery at 135 locations throughout Japan.

Aug 12, 2009 Shrine a litmus test for Japan's premiers.

Aug 13, 2009 Indigenous people from Taiwan protest at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo demanding that the Japan to remove their ancestors' names from the shrine, chanting "give us back our ancestors' spirits".

Aug 13, 2009 Former Sex Slaves still seek justice from Japan. 81-year-old Korean woman Gil Won Ok hopes Australian MPs to follow the US, Netherlands, UK, Canada, the 27 member European Union, along with S.Korea and Taiwan, and more recently even 3 city councils in Japan, by passing a motion in parliament, calling on Japan to take full responsibility for what Amnesty says was an institutionalised practice, a deliberate policy of Japan's war time authorities to kidnap or bribe girls as young as 12 to be used as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers. She said the Japanese government thinks that if the survivors die, if all of us die, then this issue will finish, but history doesn't finish like that.

Aug 15, 2009 Japan voices remorse for WWII as ex-premiers visit war shrine. Amid Japan's efforts to own up to its wartime aggression former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni shrine. Aso has indicated he will stay away from the shrine, although consumer affairs minister Seiko Noda was expected to visit. Last year 3 ministers, including Noda, visited the shrine. Ahead of the Aug. 30 national election, some 40 conservative politicians also made a pilgrimage to the shrine.

Aug 22, 2009 Former Japanese chief of the air force calls for nuclear arms. Toshio Tamogami, the chief of the Japanese air staff, sacked last year after writing imperial Japan was not an aggressor in the WWII. His book has sold 100,000 copies since March and 20,000 copies of his 2nd book calling for Japan to develop an atomic bomb were printed earlier this month. Tamogami was received by an ecstatic audience in Hiroshima on Aug. 6 when he gave a speech demanding nuclear weapons, "Japan should arm itself with nuclear weapons so that a 3rd atomic bomb is not dropped on us".

Oct 20, 2009 More than 50 Japan lawmakers visit war shrine, PM stays away.

Oct 28, 2009 German court fines Holocaust-denying bishop $16,822.

Oct 29, 2009 Tokyo High Court rejected the claim for the removal of S.Koreans' names from the Yasukuni shrine, who were forced to serve in the Japanese imperial military.

Nov 10, 2009 Japanese war orphans return to China for an emotional reunion with their Chinese foster families. The Japanese orphans had been left behind by their parents after the 8-year war against China. More than 2,800 Japanese orphans were taken in by Chinese families, and most of them went back to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s after normalization of bilateral ties. However, some of the war-displaced orphans' life are not easy in Japan.

Nov 30, 2009 John Demjanjuk Nazi crimes trial starts in Munich, accused of helping to murder nearly 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp.

Dec 12, 2009 16 more new evidence items, as proof of the Japanese atrocity during WWWII, were donated to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese man surnamed Ohigashi. The photos were shot by a military officer in Feb 1938 and sent to his daughter namely Yamazaki Yonego. Pointing at a photo which showed scattered bodies, Ohigashi said, "they are the best evidences of the history, in which Japanese troops committed bloody atrocities in Nanjing."

Dec 21, 2009 260 memoirs published 1990-2006 detail Japanese wartime sex slavery. It was able to newly identify the locations of 35 brothels in countries such as China and Indonesia, in addition to the more than 700 sites discovered earlier. The books, containing references to interviews of comfort women by military police offices as well as drawings of brothels

Dec 24, 2009 7 former Korean Slaved laborers got 1.1 U.S. dollars each from Japan. Japan has paid 99 yen ($1.1 U.S. dollars) as part of a welfare pension refund to 7 elderly Korean women, who were slaved to work during Japan's occupation of Korea from 1910 through 1945. The payment is a result of a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 1998 by the women to claim the money they paid to a welfare pension fund while working at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries between Oct. 1944 and Aug. 1945. The Korean victims and the Japanese public have criticized Tokyo for not reflecting inflation in calculating the amount, and petition for a review in cooperation with Japanese civic groups.

Jan 11, 2010 Japan to come clean on secret nuke deals with US. It was a long and shocking act of Japanese official stonewalling: Agreements long hidden in Japanese Foreign Ministry files allowed nuclear-armed U.S. warships to enter Japanese ports, violating a hallowed principle of postwar Japan. Yet their very existence was officially denied. "The Foreign Ministry repeatedly denied their existence, even in statements before Parliament," lawmaker Muneo Suzuki said. Even after American officials acknowledged the pacts in the 1990s, leaders of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party persistently denied them, right up to Taro Aso, the last LDP prime minister before Hatoyama's Democrats took over. "They did not exist," Aso said in a nationally televised response to a reporter's question last July. The 1969 document, signed by Eisaku Sato and Richard Nixon, showed they agreed that U.S.-occupied Okinawa would be returned to Japan, but the U.S. would retain the right to have nuclear weapons on the island if the necessity arose. The agreements on Okinawa were a key part of the secret pacts that also covered U.S. warships entering ports throughout Japan. Secrets and lies.

Jan 11, 2010 Former 'Sex Slaves' to hold 900th Wednesday protest in front of the Japanese Embassy. The 1st Wednesday protest was held on Jan. 8, 1992. They demanded that Japan issue an official apology and teach Japanese students about the harsh history of the colonial era. The United Nations has urged Japan to settle the issue, while the U.S. Congress adopted a similar resolution. Still, Japan has ignored the international call for an apology and compensation. The number of former comfort women is decreasing. Some suspect that Japan is engaged in a waiting game.

Feb 1, 2010 "Secret" 1965 memo reveals U.S. and Japanese government's betrayal of Okinawan aspirations and Japan's "Three Non-Nuclear Principles" in the 1969 Reversion Agreement.

Feb 15, 2010 Bones could reveal truth of Japan's Unit 731 human experiments Its scientists subjected more than 10,000 people per year to grotesque Josef Mengele-style torture in the name of science, including captured Russian soldiers and downed American aircrews. "Most people do not believe it even happened; the rest just want to cover it up and forget about what Japan did during the war," said Tsuyoshi Amemiya, a retired military historian. "Young people don't know and they don't want to know."

Mar 9, 2010 Japan finally ended decades of denials by confirming the existence of Secret agreements with US, Japan allowed US nuclear-armed warships into Japan in violation of Japan's non-nuclear policies.

Mar 9, 2010 Since 1843, U.S. had sent its army to China for nearly 30 times.

Mar 23, 2010 As German authorities pursue suspected Nazi war criminals to the last, a court sentenced 88-year-old former SS soldier, Heinrich Boere, to life imprisonment on charges of killing three Duch civilians in 1944.

Apr 1, 2010 Japanese activist Tamaki Matsuoka's Torn Memories of Nanjing, new documentary exposes Japanese war criminals after years of Japan's whitewashing of its own history. "Chinese and Japanese perceptions of this war are totally different," said Matsuoka, "That's why this documentary is called Torn Memories of Nanjing. My mission is to help more Japanese people learn the facts."

Apr 2, 2010 Assessing the Japanese Nishimatsu Corporate approach to redressing former Chinese slaved laborers: The Nishimatsu Settlement Controversy.

Apr 12, 2010 Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 2005, the United Nations adopted a resolution (A/RES/60/7) "rejecting any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event" and condemned "without reserve" all manifestations of such acts.

Apr 16, 2010 Nanjing: A journey to hell. The worst atrocities of the WWII. Japanese soldiers buried civilians alive, sometimes leaving their upper bodies exposed and letting dogs rip them apart. They nailed prisoners to wooden boards and ran them over with tanks or horses, or stabbed them with long needles. They hung Chinese victims by their tongues, or burned them in their houses. Tens of thousands of women were raped and mutilated, with some pregnant women having their babies torn from their bodies.

Apr 7, 2010 Topography of Terror documentation center has opened on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters Niederkirchnerstrasse, where the Nazi regime of terror and persecution was controlled. It includes an auditorium and library in addition to a permanent exhibit focusing on the atrocities committed in the name of the German people. Cost about $27 million. Nearby is Germany's main Holocaust Memorial.

May 17, 2010 Japanese Teachers' Union boycotts right-wing textbook. The teacher's union branch said the textbooks made by right-wing groups contain many inaccuracies, including the Japanese government’s attempt to legitimize the country’s past aggression in Asia.

May 17, 2010 Japan's last vets of Nanking massacre open up. Young Japanese infantryman Sawamura turned numb when he was ordered to bayonet a Chinese peasant as fellow soldiers looked on and taunted him. "You captured him, so you get rid of him," his lieutenant barked. "I stumbled forward and thrust the blade into his body until it came out on the other side," said Sawamura, who is now 94 years old. Another Japanese veteran, former navy sailor Sho Mitani, 90, said in the film, "The army used a trumpet sound that meant 'Kill all Chinese who run away'. We were taught from childhood in schools that Chinese were like insects".

May 23, 2010 Guam's WWII survivors seeking compensation from the US instead of Japan because the US forgave Japan's war debt decades ago. The House twice approved similar resolutions last year by substantial margins but the measures weren't considered in the Senate.

May 24, 2010 Japan court rejects WMD Chemical weapons victims' claim. The plaintiffs — 43 Chinese injured and 5 relatives of one who died in the 2003 accident in Qiqihar city, northeastern China — demanded the Japanese government pay 1.43 billion yen ($16 million) in damages. Japan's government was not responsible for the accident, the court said, noting, however, residents faced imminent danger from chemical weapons left behind in the area. Satoshi Ibori, a Japanese lawyer representing the plaintiffs, called the ruling "extremely unfair". Tokyo has agreed to pay 300 million yen ($3.3 million) in one-time compensation to the Qiqihar victims. But the plaintiffs say that amount would not cover their medical costs and income losses. At home, Japan spends some 3 billion yen ($33 million) annually to provide free medical care and other social benefits to about 4,500 Japanese who worked at 3 chemical weapons factories in China during the war, the lawyers said.

Jun 15, 2010 Shelter under the Swastika: the John Rabe story. The paradoxical image — the swastika as refuge — fascinates director Florian Gallenberger. But his film was repeatedly delayed since the Chinese authorities had to consider whether his film might offend their Japanese business partners and scuttle their enterprise. Then a history textbook for schools was adopted in Japan that omitted any mention of the Nanjing massacre. "And suddenly we were told, 'OK, now you can go on with your project because they really offended us with this schoolbook,' " says Gallenberger. "So we realized that we are not just making a film on a historical thing, but that this subject is so alive".

Jul 28, 2010 Ground-zero of Imperial Japan's germ war.

Aug 12, 2010 Japan PM apologized for Korea's suffering under colonization as part of a statement marking the 100th anniversary of the annexation in 1910. "Germany and Japan are completely different," said Mr Izumi. "Germany's apology was very easier to do...one group [the Nazis] took the responsibility. But for Japan, all the Japanese have to take responsibility for its colonial and WWII wrongdoings."

Sept 6, 2010 Chinese war Slave labourers to sue Japanese Mitsubishi Materials-agency.

Sept 14, 2010 Former US POWs received apology from Japan government -- but silence from Japanese business, after decades of lobbying for the barbaric treatment they suffered while POWs. However, N.L. PoW rejects Japanese apology who wants compensation instead, "Apologies don't mean a thing to me," Jack Ford said "They refused to give us any money for the labour we performed in Japan. Canada did pay the Japanese that were interned in Canada, but Japan never came forward with any money of any kind". Former POWs want Japanese company apology. More than 60 Japanese firms used PoWs as slaves during war.

Sept 18, 2010 After years of failed efforts by plaintiffs to sue in Japan, a group of elderly Chinese plan to file lawsuit in a Chinese court against 2 Japanese companies demanding an apology and compensation for slavery during WWII. It would be the first filed in a Chinese court.

Sept 27, 2010 Special exhibition in Berlin, Germany: "The Germans, the Forced Labourers and the War". Over 20 million men, women, and children were taken from all over Europe as "foreign workers," prisoners of war, and concentration camp inmates to perform forced labor.

Oct 2, 2010 Won Ok Gil was only 13 when forced to be sex slave by Japanese during the war. The UN estimates that Japan used 200,000 sex slaves. Chinese scholars put the number at double that, saying the UN figures don't take into account the approximately 200,000 sex slaves in China during Japan’s occupation of China.

Oct 5, 2010 Japanese forces fed Korean laborers human flesh during colonial era. Survivors testified that fellow laborers started to disappear and their bodies were found missing chunks of flesh. The Koreans rebelled and killed 7 Japanese soldiers after they found out they had committed cannibalism but 100 of these laborers were later killed by Japanese forces in retaliation.

Nov 5, 2010 The case against Japanese war-time abuses in Philippines. 65 years since WWII, Isabelita Vinuya, a Filipino victim and survivor of Japanese war-time abuses, remembers the atrocities vividly. "The men were tied, more that 30 of them were tortured, some some hung upside down, their sex organs were cut off and fed to them, and they forced to admit they were guerrillas," Vinuya says. Now, 79-years old, Vinuya says, only 51 of the original 92 petitioners are still alive today, most of them are bed-ridden and ailing. "We have a petition before the Diet (parliament) in Japan. We do not want financial assistance for the Lolas. We want legal compensation and genuine public apology", said Virginia Pinlac.

Nov 14, 2010 French railway apologizes for collaborating with Nazis. SNCF hopes to secure a $2.6 billion bid for a high speed rail project in Florida, and another $45 billion project in California, but it has met with opposition from law-makers and members of the Jewish community in both states, some of whom want the company to clarify its role during WWII before any sale is considered.

Nov 17, 2010 20th anniversary of 'Sex Slaves' Wednesday protests. For the past 20 years, the former Korean sex slaves have been staging protest rallies in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul every Wednesday demanding Japan's official apology, compensation, full disclosure of Japan's wartime sex slavery, construction of a memorial, and the inclusion of the Japanese wrongdoings in textbooks.

Nov 26, 2010 Amnesty International calls for justice for 'Sex Slaves'. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Amnesty is joining with other activists to call on the government of Japan to provide justice for the survivors of the country’s WWII military sexual slavery system. A petition of around 620,000 signatures signed by people from Korea, Japan, the Philippines and other countries has been presented to Japan.

Dec 6, 2010 Germany doubles money to aging Holocaust survivors. "I view this as a statement from the German government about their commitment to facing their history and providing support for survivors," Greg Schneider said. Double the money it provides for the at-home care of aging victims of the Holocaust, increasing it to 110 million euros ($146 million) worldwide for 2011 and the number of financially needy survivors receiving subsidized care is raised to roughly 70,000 from the current 58,000.

Dec 12, 2010 Korea, Japan lawyers join forces for 'Sex Slaves'. Kenji Utsunomiya, president of the largest lawyers' group in Japan, said in a joint statement issued in Seoul with the Korean Bar Association that sex slavery during WWII should be acknowledged as a "grave infringement" upon the dignity of the affected Korean women.

Dec 14, 2010 Japan disguised Korean Sex Slaves as nurses. A S.Korean government probe has found that Korean sex slaves mobilized by Japan to Southeast Asia and other regions soon after WWII were disguised as military nurses.

Dec 15, 2010 Germany gives $80 million to preserve the death camp of Auschwitz. Germany pledged to pay euro 60 million ($80 million) into a fund for Auschwitz-Birkenau to preserve the barracks, gas chambers and other evidence of Nazi crimes at the former death camp, some of which are deteriorating to the point of collapse.

Dec 22, 2010 U.S. advised Japan on obtaining reduced sentences for war criminals. According to the documents dated Jan. 21 and 23, 1958, Japanese Prime Minister Kishi asked the U.S. during his visit in June 1957 to lighten life sentences for the 10 war criminals, released on parole, including Koichi Kido, a former lord keeper of the privy seal. Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, himself was a suspected Class-A war criminal. Besides Kido, the 10 convicts include former Finance Minister Okinori Kaya, former Ambassador to Germany Hiroshi Oshima, and former Army Minister Sadao Araki. The other six died while they were serving time in prison or on parole. After his sentence was reduced, Kaya returned to politics in May 1958 and went on to serve as justice minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda.

Dec 26, 2010 Sex Slaves exhibition unveils Taiwan's litigation against Japan. "We flew to Japan several times but they would not let we victims testify in court, " said Chen Tao, one of the 13 surviving comfort women in Taiwan, referring to trials that took place between 1999 and 2005, when the Japanese high court ruled against the former sex slaves in 3 separate appeals. "These grandmothers don't want monetary compensation from the Japanese government. They only ask for an official apology, " said Liao Ying-chih, chairwoman of the TWRF.

Jan 4, 2011 Another former Sex Slave victim dies, reduced the number of the state-registered former Korean comfort women to 79. Time is running out to resolve the issue. 9 died last year and the majority of the survivors are in poor health.

Jan 30, 2011 German, Polish leaders honor Holocaust victims. "The name Auschwitz stands unlike anything else for the crimes perpetuated by Germans against millions of human beings," Germany's President Christian Wulff said in a speech. "They fill us Germans with disgust and shame. They lay upon us a historical responsibility that is independent of individual guilt. We must never again allow such crimes. And we must keep the memories alive." The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the global day of commemoration established by the U.N. in 2005, was picked to coincide with the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945. In Berlin, German parliament speaker Norbert Lammert told lawmakers it is the duty of later generations to keep alive the memory of those murdered by German Nazis.

Feb 21, 2011 Japan confronts truth about its WMD Biological Warfare and tests on PoWs. "They dug a hole 10 metres deep and for a month after Japan's surrender they threw bodies into it," recalled Toyo Ishii, 88, a former nurse, "The bodies included those of people who had been used in experiments to test the effects of germs." Ms Ishii says she and others helped dump bodies and body parts. An apartment building was built on top of the grave "so it would not be dug up again".

Mar 5, 2011 Japan says sorry to former Australian PoWs. However, it was mainly a Personal Apology only. The apology was offered to the 5 old diggers in person in Tokyo by Japanese foreign minister Seiji Maehara, who told them he was sorry from the bottom of his heart for their treatment.

Mar 12, 2011 John Demjanjuk found guilty of Nazi war crimes German court sentences 91-year-old Ukrainian to 5 years for his part in killing 28,060 Jews at Sobibór concentration camp.

Jul 23, 2011 Japan court refuses to remove name of living S.Korean from Yasukuni Shrine. A Tokyo court ruled against S.Korean 86-year-old Kim Hui-jong who had filed a suit against a Japanese shrine, which honors him together with convicted WWII criminals even though he is alive. Kim also sued the Japanese government in 1959 twice to take his nameplate out of the Yasukuni Shrine, but those suits were dismissed by the Japanese court. The court also rejected actions filed by bereaved S.Korean families of 9 WWII victims, who have demanded their deceased members be eliminated from the shrine.

Aug 24, 2011 Japan's Filipino wartime sex slaves tell their story in documentary In "Katarungan! Justice for Lolas!" people in Manila as well as Luzon and Leyte islands testified how barbaric Japanese soldiers sexually targeted local women. "Katarungan" means justice and "lola" means grandmother in Tagalog. "Many of them became victims of sexual violence by Japanese soldiers at the ages of 14 or 15, and they are around 80 years old now," said Chieko Takemi. "I wanted to record the lives of those who have survived decades of hardships." The sexual slavery in the Philippines came to light in 1992 when, in response to calls by a local women's group, a victim revealed she had been raped by three Japanese soldiers at age 14 and was kept at a "comfort station" for 9 months. About 400 women have followed her in revealing their experiences.

Aug 30 , 2011 What war criminals ? Japan's new PM raises old concerns in Asia. Noda has said that he doesn't believe that the Class A Japanese war criminals convicted are indeed war criminals under Japanese law. That stand, which he repeated at a news conference earlier this month, has sparked complaints in China and S.Korea.

Sept 30, 2011 Japan asks Seoul to oppose monument to "Sex Slaves". Japan has asked SKorea's government to stop a group of elderly former sex slaves from erecting a monument near the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The women were forced into prostitution serving Japanese soldiers during WWII. For years, they have protested in front of the Japanese embassy every Wednesday, seeking an apology and compensation. They plan to erect the memorial stone when they hold their 1,000th demonstration in December.

Sept 30, 2011 Korea forms task force on Japan's wartime sexual slavery.

Oct 3, 2011 Japan: No talks, compensation for SKorea sex slaves.

Oct 9, 2010 Palisades Park to display first US memorial to the former forced Sex Slaves by Japan.

Oct 10, 2011 S.Korea presses Japan at U.N. over Sex Slaves. It is the first time in nearly a generation that a Korean diplomat has raised the issue at the U.N.’s Third Committee. Each year since 1992, S.Korea has broached the issue at the less influential U.N. Human Rights Council.

Dec 7, 2011 Japan apologises to Aussie PoWs. A group of Australians who visited Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba included Lorna Johnston, who became the first Australian female former PoW to get an apology from Japan. She is reportedly the only survivor of a group of 76 Australian PoW nurses in the same region at the time. However, it was NOT formally and officially approved by the Japanese Parliament. It was only an Personal Apology.

Dec 8, 2011 More than 16,000 Holocaust survivors are eligible for pensions from Germany. The payments became possible because the German government had agreed to revise the conditions for eligibility. Until now, victims had to prove they had been in a ghetto, in hiding, or living under false identity for at least 18 months during the Nazi era. Now that time period has been shortened to 12 months -- a change that will enable more than 8,000 survivors to qualify for compensation.

Dec 9, 2011 Dutch apology for 1947 Indonesia massacre at Rawagede. "On behalf of the Dutch government, I apologise for the tragedy that took place in Rawagede on the 9th of December, 1947," Dutch ambassador Tjeerd de Zwaan said. Netherlands would pay 20,000 euros to the relatives, but lawyers say the exact figure is still being negotiated.

Dec 13, 2011 After 70 years, Japan admits barbaric treatment of Canadian PoWs. Nearly 300 Canadians were killed in the Hong Kong fighting. Twice that number died during 3½ years of being imprisoned in Japan, doing forced labour on the docks and in mines, working 12 hours a day on meagre rations, and enduring various atrocities. The only Canadian executed as a "war criminal" in the WWII was a sadistic prison guard of Hong Kong Canadians — Kanao Inouye, a second-generation Japanese-Canadian who taunted and bullied Canadians, and was known and feared as "the Kamloops Kid" or as "Slap Happy". Ironically, sentenced to death as a war criminal, Inouye appealed that he was a Canadian; a second trial found him guilty of treason, and he was hanged.

Dec 9, 2011 Canadian PoW unimpressed by Japanese apology. Japan apologized for the harsh mistreatment of Canadian PoW. "They were requested to do it years ago, and they refused point blank, they wouldn't acknowledge it," "Apologies don't mean a thing. There's no money in apologies", said John Ford, who spent 3 1/2 years in a Japanese PoW camp as a forced labourer. the Japanese kept about 1,700 Canadians, who suffered beatings and malnutrition and were treated as slaves. However, it was NOT formally and officially approved by the Japanese Parliament. It was only an Personal Apology.

Dec 12, 2011 "Wednesday Rally" vs. Japan's Sex Slavery to mark 1,000th rally. "Wednesday Rally", a weekly demonstration held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to demand Japan's official apology and compensation for Korean women used as sex slaves in WWII, will mark its 1,000th assembly this week. The first rally was held Jan. 8, 1992, by 30 people from women's rights groups, including the council, in the run-up to then Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa's visit to Korea. The plight of the victims was included in the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights adopted by 171 nations in 1993 in Vienna. In 1998, a U.N. human rights subcommittee unanimously adopted a resolution to support the final report by U.N. Special Rapporteur Gay McDougall urging Japan's early resolution of the matter. Of the 234 victims registered with the Korean government, 169 have died. With 14 such victims dying this year, just 65 Korean victims survive. Tokyo has rejected every one of the council's proposals, however, saying individual rights to compensation disappeared when Japan indemnified losses suffered by Korea in 1965 under a treaty that normalized bilateral ties. The Wednesday demonstration was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest rally on a single theme in March 2002, when its 500th rally was held. In Canada, even high school students joined this 1000th comfort women's quest for justice.

Dec 15, 2011 Statue of Sex Slave 'comfort woman' erected outside Japanese Embassy in Seoul. The women unveiled a life-size bronze rendering of a young girl about the age they would have been when they were taken as sex slaves. They left it across the street from the embassy, so Japanese officials would think of them each time they looked out.

Dec 25, 2011 Germany to compensate Jews who fled the Nazis in the Soviet Union. Germany has agreed to grant one-time compensation to Jews who fled the Nazi onslaught in the Soviet Union during WWII, even if they ended up in regions that Nazis did not conquer. Hardship Fund payments of 2,556 euros will be made starting January 1 to Jews who fled between June 22, 1941, and Jan 27, 1944, from parts of the Soviet Union that were up to 100 km from the most easterly advance of the German army, even if they were not later occupied by the Nazis.

Jan 27, 2012 Korean war criminals tried as Japanese. After war, 148 Koreans and 173 Taiwanese were convicted as war criminals, of which 23 Koreans and 26 Taiwanese were executed. Most of the some 3,000 Korean war criminals were lowly prison guards. Japan cut all benefits to the hundreds of thousands of former colonial veterans from Korea and Taiwan in stark contrast to the practice of other past colonial powers such as the US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Even after their release, Lee Hak-rae with Japanese name Hiromura Gakurai and his colleagues could not return home, where they had been labeled "Japanese collaborators" because of their war-crimes convictions. To the Japanese government and public, they were unwelcome "garlic-smelling Koreans". Lee, 86, and the surviving family members is now pushing to pass a symbolic compensation legislation in the Japanese Diet and demand Japan's apology for making them as prison guards and abandoning them after the war. "This will be the final task of my life", he said.

Feb 2, 2012 Healing Southeast Asia Japan's 'Sex Slaves'.

Feb 17, 2012 Japan liable for wartime sex slaves, crimes against humanity: ex-UN envoy. "When they all pass away, the Japanese government will be left with a debt that can never be redeemed," Kim said.

Feb 20, 2012 Japanese Mayor denies Nanjing Massacre. The Chinese city of Nanjing has suspended its sister-city relationship with Nagoya, Japan, after Nagoya’s mayor expressed doubts that the Japanese Army's 1937 Nanjing Massacre actually took place.

Mar 2, 2012 S.Korea presses Japan on wartime Sex Slavery. Last Dec., a statue was set up outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul to mark the 1,000 day of this group's protest rally. The elderly comfort women and their supporters have been gathering every Wednesday since 1992. The statue has attracted visitors from in S.Korea. Nomura Motoyuki, a 81-year-old Japanese pastor, said: "The hardships suffered by the comfort women were real. It's natural for me to feel sad and regret as a Japanese citizen."

Mar 30, 2012 New York Times' ad demands Japan’s Sex Slavery apology.

May 12, 2012 A New York lawmaker proposes a monument and a street to memorialize the former forced Sex Slaves by Japan.

May 21, 2012 In New Jersey, Memorial for 'Comfort Women' deepens old animosity. The Japanese lobbying to remove the monument. The authorities in Palisades Park rejected the demand. Korean groups in the New York region and across the country to plan more such monuments.

May 25, 2012 Documentary with testimonies from 6 survivors, about Nanking Massacre, "Comfort Station" & Forced Labor, by Raymond Lemoine, a Canadian educator.

May 26, 2012 Germany's doctors apologise for sadistic experiments Nazi doctors carried out. German Medical Association has apologised for the sadistic experiments carried out by Nazi doctors on Jews. The body has admitted that many doctors under Nazi-rule during the WWII were guilty of 'scores of human rights violations'. German medicine as field has remained silent about it all these decades – until today.

May 30, 2012 New York Times' ad urges Japan to learn from Germany to apologize over "Sex Slavery" with famous picture of Willy Brandt kneeling at the Warsaw Ghetto begging for forgiveness for the European holocaust.

Jun 7, 2012 Forgotten faces: Japan's former Sex Slaves, the comfort women. These grandmothers were forced into sex slavery 70 years ago. They lived and survived alone. Afterwards no one remembers them.

Jun 12, 2012 Forgiven but not forgotten. Despite a history spanning over 2,000 years, the events that truly crystallise Nanjing’s identity took place in a mere 6 weeks. In 1937, Nanjing — once one of the four major capitals of ancient China — became the site of Japanese brutal massacres.

Jun 14, 2012 Art experts discuss effort to recover art looted by Nazis. 67 years after the WWII, there are still millions of items that were lost or stolen during the Nazi era that have not been recovered. The items were taken by the Nazis themselves, plundered by the Soviets.

Jun 28, 2012 "Sex Slaves" memorial stirs debate. Right-wing Japanese lawmakers and activists have rounded up more than 25,000 signatures for a petition on the White House website asking the Obama administration to take down a monument dedicated to the memory of former Japanese "Sex Slaves".

Jun 28, 2012 Plan for monuments and street renamings honoring the former Japanese "Sex Slaves". If approved, the plan would see the changing of one street name to "Comfort Women Memorial Way". The name changes would be at either Union Street between Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue or at 39th Avenue between Union Street and College Point Boulevard. The monuments would be located at either Lippmann Plaza, which connects Roosevelt and 39th avenues or on a greenstreet at 156th Street and Northern Boulevard.

Jun 28, 2012 2nd memorial stone honoring "Sex Slaves" erected in NY. The 2nd memorial stone honoring "comfort women" was unveiled at Veterans Memorial in Eisenhower Park of Nassau County, New York, after the first at Palisades Park in New Jersey.

Aug 16, 2012 Japanese cabinet minister visits Yasukuni Shrine. Japanese cabinet minister Jin Matsubara visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where 2.5 million war dead -- including 14 leading Japanese war criminals from WWII seen by neighbouring nations as a symbol of the country's militaristic past. He is the first minister to openly visit the shrine on Aug. 15 since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power 3 years ago.

Aug 16, 2012 East Asia's sea disputes: scar tissue from war wounds. "In some sense, the U.S. bears some responsibility for all this," said Daniel C. Sneider, associate director for research at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, "Who had sovereignty over these islands were problems that were left to fester. "We created the situation. We ended the war with the treaty to serve our Cold War needs." War's legacy plagues Japan and its neighbors.

Sept 24 2012 Germany launches Nazi war crimes probe against Philadelphia man. Johann "Hans" Breyer, a retired toolmaker 87-year-old, admits he was an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp.

Sept 24, 2012 Japan shifting to right in foreign policy, military strategy: U.S. paper.

Sept 25, 2012 Chinese victims to appeal after Japan court rejects compensation over fatal Chemical Weapon gas leak. The fatal Chemical Weapon gas leak in Qiqihar City in 2003 left more than 40 people wounded with one death. Qiqihar was where Japan's WMD Chemical Weapon troops were located during WWII.

Sept 26, 2012 Taiwanese war criminal sees himself as victim and wants compensation from Japan. Like the Koreans - also a colonised people - the Taiwanese were second-class members of the Japanese army.

Oct 5, 2012 Giant Japanese "Sex Slaves" poster erected in Time Square. "In 2012, Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during WWII are still waiting for a heartfelt apology from Japan," it says.

Oct 11, 2012 German president remembers Czech victims of Nazi massacre. German President Joachim Gauck paid tribute Wednesday to the Czech victims of a 1942 Nazi massacre that razed a village near Prague in retaliation for the assassination of a senior Nazi. "It's very important to speak about this bloody and terrifying past ... (and) to pass our knowledge to future generations," Gauck said. "We have been waiting for this apology for 70 years," Marie Supikova, a survivor of the massacre who was born in Lidice in 1932, told the public Czech Television.

Oct 12, 2012 China's oldest former Japan's Sex Slave dies at 91. Yin Yulin was identified 17 years ago as one of the Japanese army sex slaves, she went to Japan twice, testifying as a victim, but both court verdicts refused to accept her claims.

Oct 19, 2012 Japanese ministers and opposition leader visit Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine commemorates Japan's war dead - including convicted 1,068 war criminals including 14 Class-A war criminals.

Oct 26, 2012 Germany unveils memorial to Roma Holocaust victims. Germany has unveiled its national memorial for an estimated half-a-million Sinti and Roma persecuted and murdered by the Nazis in Europe. It is a lasting reminder of the "sufferings of hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma victims as well as those people who were annihilated by the inhuman racist policies of the Nazi terror regime." It is also a warning for the future "to remain alert, protect the minorities and to take over responsibilities," Merkel said.

Oct 27, 2012 China to pointedly publish 80-volume set on Tokyo war crimes tribunal. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei criticized Japanese Cabinet ministers' visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals. "The Yasukuni Shrine issue concerns whether Japan can correctly perceive and deal with its history of militarist aggression" Hong said.

Nov 2, 2012 Japan blasted over Sex Slaves in UN human rights meeting. Japan faced international criticism over its military's use of sex slaves in WWII in a UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dec 19, 2012 Japan new PM Shinzo Abe's second chance.

Jan 8, 2013 Isle rows, War crimes, 'Sex Slaves' all pose challenges to Japan for improving ties.

Jan 18, 2013 Revisionism Tokyo-style.

Jan 27, 2013 Holocaust Memorial Day: genocide victims remembered across world.

Mar 13, 2013 Japan PM Abe: Tokyo Trials war crimes convictions were victors' justice.

Mar 13, 2013 In Abe's future, a nationalist rewrite of the past ?

Mar 20, 2013 China and Japan spar over War Trials, more than 6 decades on.

Apr 6, 2013 Germany 'tracks down 50 suspected Auschwitz guards'. 50 former Auschwitz guards were tracked down by the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, may face prison terms in Germany, 68 years after the War.

Apr 22, 2013 Japan war shrine visits anger China, S.Korea. The shrine which includes 14 leading war criminals, is seen by neighbours as a symbol of Tokyo's imperialist past. PM Shinzo Abe donated religious ornaments with "prime minister" written on them, but didn't visit the shrine himself. Former Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is now finance minister, and 2 other Cabinet ministers prayed at the shrine over the weekend. 168 lawmakers paid the visits on Tuesday morning.

Apr 29, 2013 Japan PM Abe's inability to face WWII history. Japan PM Abe: "The definition of what constitutes aggression has yet to be established in academia or in the international community. Things that happened between nations will look differently depending on which side you view them from".

Apr 29, 2013 Abe-history: Japan Premier again seems set on stoking controversy and ire.

May 1, 2013 Abe: No need to explain Japan constitutional revision to China. Among many constitutional amendment plans, Japan aims to revise the "war-renouncing Article 9" to enable the Self-Defense Forces to become a full military.

May 4, 2013 92-year-old former kamikaze pilot angered over move to amend Constitution.

May 6, 2013 Former German Auschwitz guard arrested 70 years after alleged war crimes.

May 7, 2013 Will history again trip up Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ?

May 8, 2013 Japan pulls back on denials of WWII Sex Slavery.

May 8, 2013 Under pressrue, Japan Abe repeats Japan's admission of War Aggression.

May 14,2013 Japanese Mayor : Japan's Sex Slaves were 'necessary'.

May 16, 2013 Japan isolating itself with provocative nationalistic acts.

May 16, 2013 Japanese politicians still struggle with wartime past.

May 17, 2013 Japanese Mayor stays in the hot seat.

May 17, 2013 Never too late: tirelessly pursue 50 elderly Auschwitz war criminals. On Monday, German state police arrested a 93-year-old man accused of being a guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Hans Lipschis is the 1st suspect to be facing charges as part of a drive launched earlier this year to track down 50 suspected Auschwitz guards who are believed to be living in Germany.

May 18, 2013 Female lawmakers blast Hashimoto, call him the 'shame of Osaka'.

May 18, 2013 Ishihara blasts Hashimoto over wartime 'aggression' statement.

May 19, 2013 Hashimoto denies 'comfort women' were Sex Slaves.

May 20, 2013 Japan still can't get the War right.

May 20, 2013 Other militaries guilty of wartime sex slavery, says Japanese politician.

May 22, 2013 The Hashimoto controversy and Japan's failure to come to terms with its past.

May 23, 2013 Japanese lawmaker says 'Sex Slaves' are wartime prostitutes.

May 24, 2014 Japan's former Sex Slaves snub Japan Osaka Mayor Hashimoto.

May 28, 2013 Japanese politician reframes comments on Sexual Slavery.

May 29, 2013 Sex Slaves : S.Korea's survivors of Japanese brothels.

May 30, 2013 Osaka council members seek to censure Hashimoto over 'Sex Slaves' controversy.

May 31, 2013 5 Nobel laureates slam Hashimoto over Sex Slaves' servitude remarks.

June 5, 2013 San Francisco spurned Hashimoto amid Sex Slaves outrage.

June 12, 2013 Scholar finds archive details of '48 war criminal hangings

June 12, 2013 Into the frightening "Evil Men" territory where Japanese soldiers in China perpetrated some of the worst crimes imaginable : the book "Evil Men" drawing on 1st hand interviews with Japanese convicted war criminals from the WWII. Listen to an interview with the author on CBC Radio.

June 16, 2013 Photo exhibit vividly captures Japan's brutality of war. One Japanese was at the exhibit opening. "I think this kind of exhibition could not be held in a national historical facility in Japan," said the Japanese man at the event "It is very painful for me to see these things," the 25-year-old said. It is unfortunate that most of the youth in Japan are not allowed to know about this grim period in history, he said, adding that he didn’t have any idea about the horrid details of the war in Asia until he went to college.

June 19, 2013 Hungary charges 98-year-old Laszlo Csatary, over Nazi war crimes . He topped the 'list of Most wanted' Nazi war crimes suspects known to be still alive.

June 19, 2013 U.N. report criticizes Japanese politicians' remarks on 'Sex Slaves'. The U.N. report criticized Japanese politicians and local leaders for denying the facts about "Sex Slaves" and urged Japan to take measures to prevent "re-traumatizing" the victims.

June 25, 2013 Japan hid evidence on forced mobilizing of Sex Slaves for 6 years.

June 30, 2013 30 local assemblies in Japan adopt resolutions condemning Hashimoto's Sex Slaves' remarks.

July 6, 2013 "Taiwanese comfort women" exhibition opened in Tokyo, Japan. 92-year-old Cheng Chen-tao, former Taiwanese comfort woman, appeared at the opening ceremony. Cheng said she was forced into 5 years of sexual slavery in India. During the period, she attempted suicide several times and had several abortions that rendered her infertile.

July 6, 2013 Statue for "Sex Slaves" to be setup in California. In 2010, the "Sex Slaves" memorial in the Palisades Park is the first in US dedicated to the women.

July 9, 2013 Japanese nationalist protest of 'Sex Slaves' sculpture fails.

July 24, 2013 Nazi hunters launch German campaign to nab hidden war criminals, offering rewards of as much as 25,000 euros ($33,000) for information resulting in the capture and conviction.

July 30, 2013 S.Korea court tells Japanese company to pay for Slave-laborer.

July 30, 2013 In Japan for release of movie, Angelina Jolie speaks out against rapes in war.

Aug 1, 2013 Japan deputy PM on Japan's constitutional reform: Learn from the Nazis. Japan aims to revise the "war-renouncing Article 9" to enable the Self-Defense Forces to become a full military. "The German Weimar Constitution changed, without being noticed, to the Nazi German constitution. Why don't we learn from their tactics ?" said the Japan Deputy PM Aso.

Aug 2, 2013 Japan deputy PM retracts "Why don't we learn from the Nazis".

Aug 7, 2013 Japan raises eyebrows by unveiling largest warship since WWII.

Aug 11, 2013 Ex-Sex Slave, supporters demand justice from Japan. In Tokyo, Estelita Dy, 83, and her supporters to commemorate the day the 1st victim Kim Hak-soon of Japanese sex slavery came forward on Aug. 14, 1991, and helped lay the groundwork for other victims, including Dy, to come out.

Aug 14, 2013 Ex-Korean war criminal seeking compensation, apology from Japan. Once sentenced to death for war crimes, Korean Lee Hak-lae was later spared the gallows and is now on a mission. A total of about 3,000 Korean worked as PoW guards and 148 were sentenced as "Japanese war criminals". 23 were executed. While 70 of his colleagues joined Lee in starting the movement, most have since died and there are only 6 remaining. Japanese government decided Lee, now 88, and his colleagues were not eligible for compensation or pensions because they did not have Japanese citizenship.

Aug 15, 2013 3 Japan ministers visit Yasukuni Shrine upsetting Asian neighbors. Japan shrine still flashpoint 68 years after war.

Aug 16, 2013 Fight for Justice: the Japanese Military "Comfort Women" –– Resistance to Forgetting & Responsibility for the Future.

Aug 18, 2013 Japan steelmaker 'will accept S.Korea slave labour ruling' for unpaid salaries and compensation.

Aug 22, 2013 Japan mayor urges San Francisco board to retract condemnation of his sex slave justification.

Aug 23, 2013 Japanese school board's bid to limit access to a classic anti-war comic has sparked an outcry.

Aug 26 2013 San Francisco not swayed by Japan's Sex Slave apologist Toru Hashimoto.

Aug 26, 2013 Japan school board bows to outcry, drops curbs on anti-war comic.

Sep 2, 2013 Germany tries 92-year-old man for Nazi war crime. Siert Bruins, former member of the Nazi Waffen SS, on charges that he murdered a Dutch resistance fighter in 1944.

Sep 2, 2013 An 80-volume book details numerous Japan war crimes. Nearly 50,000-page book detailing the post-WWII Tokyo Trials of Japanese war criminals was released, which provides the most fundamental, 1st-hand documents on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE). The IMTFE formally prosecuted 28 Japanese Class-A war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, the former prime minister of Japan.

Sep 3, 2013 1st 'comfort women' run marks suffering by sexual slavery victims. "When you start to feel the pain that all runners must feel, please remember the silent suffering of so many victims of sexual slavery during WWII," said John Chang. Jangmin Choi, 16, said it was the 1st time she ever ran a race, and that her legs were in pain. "I tried hard for the grandmas and I feel happy," she said. "in my mind the grandmas had a hard time, and I couldn't give up for them, and I finished."

Sep 17, 2013 Japan to list WWII Slave Labor sites with UNESCO as World Heritage sites.

Sep 18, 2-13 Beijing museum unveils 'evidence' of Slave labourer by Japan during WWII.

Sep 20 ,2013 Government must admit 'comfort women' system was Sexual Slavery said the Professor of Japanese modern history at Chuo University in Tokyo.

Sep 27, 2013 WWII Sex Slaves: the pain that time cannot heal.

Oct 5, 2013 Archives reveal Japanese atrocities on Diggers kept secret. In 1950s Australian government released dozens of suspected Japanese war criminals under pressure of the U.S. to wrap up the war crimes trials. Walklate and Eagleton's killers' case file was downgraded to 'G' status. The controversial ranking system allowed Japanese war criminals to walk free and their files to gather dust in the archives.

Oct 7, 2013 Document that proves Japan 'forced' women into Sexual Slavery unveiled. Japan insists there is no official evidence to prove the victims were forced to provide Sexual Services.

Oct 15, 2013 Colonial Japan forced even young girls into hard labor: report.

Oct 18, 2013 90-year-old former Nazi soldier handed a life sentence for role in Greek massacre.

Oct 18, 2013 Japan minister, 157 lawmakers visit controversial war shrine which enshrines convicted Class-A war criminals. China calls Yasukuni 'spiritual tool of Japanese militarism'.

Oct 24, 2013 S.Korea blasts Japan court ruling on Koreans enshrined at Yasukuni without their consent. "Enshrining at Yasukuni Shrine those Korean victims forced into labor against their will is enormous encroachment on the honor and dignity of them and their families because the shrine glorifies Japan's imperialistic aggression," spokesman Cho Tai Young said. An 88-year-old former civilian employee is also enshrined as a "spirit of war dead" despite being still alive.

Nov 3, 2013 Japan's sunken wartime gold sparks frenzied hunt.

Nov 12, 2013 Professor: U.S. actively suppressed publicity of Japan's Biological Weaponry human experiments of WWII. By offering Japanese bribes and amnesty from capital punishment for their war crimes, the U.S. convinced them to share their findings of killing 10,000 Chinese civilians, Russians, and American PoWs while testing biological weaponry.

Nov 18, 2013 Glendale officials refuse Japan's request to remove the memorial Statue for Sex Slaves.

Nov 25, 2013 Yasukuni and the enshrinement of War Criminals Yasukuni shrine cannot be attributed simply to religious or filial impulses. In fact, it was a blatantly ideological and political act driven by an urge to justify and legitimize a highly controversial chapter in Japanese history.

Nov 27, 2013 China and S.Korea's plan to erect a monument to a Korean independence hero upsets Japan.

Dec 2, 2013 Nazi war criminal who evaded justice for 6 decades dies at 92 in German prison.

Dec 16, 2013 Germany probes 24 Nazi death camp guards - including 3 women.

Dec 20, 2013 Japanese politicians want Glendale's 'comfort women' statue removed.

Dec 20, 2013 The Nazi art theft crisis in Europe.

Dec 23, 2013 Japan's Angkor art: Booty or fair exchange ?.

Dec 26, 2013 Japanese PM adds to tensions in Asia by visiting Yasukuni shrine that honours war dead including secretly enshrined 1,068 war criminals with 14 Class-A War Criminals in 1978.

Dec 30, 2013 Germany urges Japan to deal "honestly" with WWII past.

Jan 1, 2014 Japan minister follows Abe in visit to war shrine, pouring salt on wound for China.

Jan 7, 2014 US awareness of Japan’s war crimes still thin.

Jan 9, 2014 China calls for 'warning' to Japan over war tribute.

Jan 9, 2014 Korean sex slaves under Japanese military cry out for justice for 22 years.

Jan 11, 2014 France: Japan must show respect .

Jan 18, 2014 Holocaust survivors in Shanghai, China. It is estimated that between 1933 and 1941, around 30,000 Jewish refugees arrived in Shanghai from Germany and countries annexed by Nazi Germany.

Jan 18, 2014 US conducted field experiments of biological weapons in Okinawa in early 1960s. A pathogenic fungus called "rice blast", which causes lesions on rice and wheat, is considered one of the most harmful diseases in rice cultivation.

Jan 24, 2014 China, Koreas rap Japan over history at U.N..

Jan 27, 2014 Japan's NHK boss apologises for 'Sex Slaves' comments.

Jan 27, 2014 Japanese war orphans set up monument to commemorate Chinese foster parents. At the end of the WWII, a large number of Japanese war orphans were abandaned and about 4,000 Japanese children were adopted by Chinese.

Jan 28, 2014 Japan's deliberate oblivion of history discordant with int'l Holocaust remembrance.

Feb 4, 2014 Governor of Japan broadcaster NHK denies Nanjing massarcre.

Feb 7, 2014 Japanese broadcast official: We didn’t commit War Crimes, the U.S. just made that up.

Feb 8, 2014 Japan sparks fury with UN move to immortalise letters from Kamikaze pilots.

Feb 8, 2014 Ghosts of Japan’s past. Japan PM Abe considers the war crimes tribunals "victors' justice" and believes Japan should abandon its "masochistic" guilt.

Feb 12, 2014 Time running out on former Sex Slaves' quest. Only 55 women left who registered with the S.Korean government as former sex slaves, down from more than 230 with average age 88.

Feb 15, 2014 Singapore held war memorial service for civilian victims of Japanese Occupation.

Feb 17, 2014 Japan holds weapons-grade plutonium enough for 50 nuclear bombs. The weapons-grade plutonium was bought for research purposes during the 1960s. Japan has resisted returning to the US more than 300 kg (660 lb) of mostly weapons-grade plutonium which could be used to make up to 50 nuclear bombs.

Feb 21, 2014 265 Anne Frank books vandalized in Tokyo public libraries.

Feb 26, 2014 Chinese sue Japan firms over Slave labor during WWII.

Feb 25, 2014 China mulls days to remember defeat of Japan, Nanjing Massacre.

Mar 1, 2014 Dark chapters in Japanese history.

Mar 2, 2014 Addressing Japan's 'Comfort Women' issue from an academic standpoint.

Mar 5, 2014 Wartime sex slaves urge Japan's PM to drop plans to re-examine 1993 apology.

Mar 8, 2014 Record: Japanese Navy official tried to cover up 'Sex Slaves' issue. According to the Japanese Justice Ministry report, the former chief warrant officer said he took 270 or so women, mostly Indonesians, to the island of Bali as comfort women.

Mar 24, 2014 Japan finally to hand over 50 nuclear bombs-uranium to U.S. which could be used to make 50 nuclear weapons, but still retain large quantities of plutonium . . . More Details.

Apr 4, 2014 documentary: Torn Memories of Nanjing by Tamaki Matsuoka. Japanese vets admit on film to Nanjing atrocities. Former Japanese soldiers describe in detail how they worked as a team to hold down women and girls, checking their private parts for sexually transmitted diseases and drawing lots to decide who would go first. Few veterans showed any remorse. Out of the 250 former Japanese soldiers interviewed , only 3 expressed regret for their actions, Matsuoka said. Watch the film.

Apr 4, 2014 Namelist of the 34,282 forced Chinese Slave labourer by Japan during WWII.

Apr 20, 2014 China court seizes Japanese ship over unpaid wartime compensation to enforce WWII related compensation in a civil lawsuit. Mitsui has argued that it is not liable to pay compensation given that the ships which Daido rented were requisitioned by the Japanese military during the war. More cases against Japan are likely to be filed in Chinese courts.

Apr 22, 2014 150 Japanese lawmakers visit Yasukuni Shrine which shrines 1,068 war criminals including 14 Class-A War Criminals.

Apr 24, 2014 China releases Japanese ship after US$28 million payment over wartime compensation.

Apr 27, 2014 China 'releases Japanese wartime documents'. The 89 documents released include letters written by Japanese soldiers, newspaper articles, and military files unearthed in the early 1950s. Papers prove Japan forced women into WWII brothels.

May 3, 2014 Firm shies from Sex Slaves statue lawsuit to avoid being seen as a corporate entity that denies the history of sexual enslavement.

May 24, 2014 'Sex Slaves' memorial to be unveiled in Washington suburb.

May 25, 2014 The Forgotten Comfort Women of WWII.

Jun 2, 2014 WWII Sex Slavery papers passed to Japanese PM Abe urged to acknowledge 'Sex Slaves' were coerced by Japan government and military.

Jun 7, 2014 Japan under-reports 80 nuclear bombs-plutonium to IAEA . . . More Details.

Jun 11, 2014 Japan demands China withdraw bid for UN recognition of Nanjing massacre.

Jun 20, 2014 China pointedly adds Japan's WW2 'Sex Slaves' house as protected historic site.

Jul 4, 2014 Japan split as Abe overturns pacifist defence policy.

Jul 8, 2014 China to open Japan's wartime WMD 'Chemical Weapon Lab' to public.

Aug 6, 2014 Monument dedicated to former Sex Slaves unveiled in New Jersey . Judge rules "Sex Slaves" monument does not violate Constitution.

Aug 6, 2014 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Japan's approach to the issue of "comfort women" causing further violations of victims' human rights

Aug 11, 2014 Japanese emperor urged to return inscribed Chinese relic.

Aug 15, 2014 Japan PM Shinzo Abe's offering to war dead angers China and S.Korea.

Aug 27, 2014 Japan PM sent prayer note to war criminal ceremony which praised their contributions to the country. The ceremony was held in front of a stone monument that honors about 1,180 Japanese war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and the 13 other executed officials. Ceremony organizers said on their website that the tribunal was the victors' "retaliation" against the losers, and that those who were executed were "wrongfully convicted" by the allies and their honor should be restored.

Sept 21, 2014 "Comfort Women" abuses were crimes against humanity.

Oct 17, 2014 China protests at Japanese PM's latest WW2 shrine tribute. Shinzo Abe, sent a ritual offering to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals are honoured. A group of 110 legislators and 80 aides prayed at the shrine for the war dead.

Oct 26, 2014 Sex Slave urges Japan to apologize as survivors' time running out.

Oct 28, 2014 Japanese village grappling with War Sins comes under attack from Net Right since Abe became PM.

Oct 30, 2014 S.Korean court orders Japanese firm Nachi-Fujikoshi to pay Slave laborers.

Nov 17, 2014 Japan requests "McGraw Hill" remove "Comfort Women" from history books.

Nov 14, 2014 The Sex Slaves and Japan's war on Truth.

Nov 24, 2014 Extremists flourish in Abe Shinzo's Japan.

Nov 30, 2014 330,000 pieces of Japanese chemical weapons abandoned in China to be destroyed. Japan had abandoned at least 2 million tonnes of chemical weapons at about 40 sites in 15 Chinese provinces at the end of WWII.

Nov 29, 2014 The women who won't be silenced.

Nov 30, 2014 Sex Slave controversy reignited in Japan.

Dec 11, 2014 Victims of the Rape of Nanking send resolution against Japan to U.N..

Dec 11, 2014 Japanese nationalists attempt to revise history on 'Sex Slaves'.

Dec 12, 2014 For Japan's Shinzo Abe, unfinished family business.

Dec 13, 2014 China leaders preside at WWII massacre remembrance.

Dec 19, 2014 Profiting from Imperial Japan's 'Death Railway'.

Dec 19, 2014 WWII Sex Slaves bear witness.

Jan 8, 2015 Japan's WWII Crimes: Reexamining the "Comfort Women" issue.

Jan 9, 2015 China brings Sex Slave issue into spotlight.

Jan 9, 2015 Japanese journalist sues after magazine disputes his reports of WWII Sex Slavery. Takashi Uemura said the attacks reflect a trend where revisionists try to silence those who look at "the dark side of Japanese history - its wartime actions that they want to hide."

Jan 10, 2015 Japan's Emperor speaks truth to power. The Emperor has continued his father's boycott of Yasukuni Shrine that began when 14 Class-A war criminals were secretly enshrined there in 1978.

Jan 24, 2015 Japanese children left in China after war inspire film about peace. Film titled "Bokyo no Kane--Manmokaitakudan no Rakujitsu" (The bell of nostalgia--the sunset of Manmo pioneer immigration groups). Hisako Yamada said it is not easy to see through governmental propaganda and lies in any era.

Jan 29, 2015 Japanese PM Abe denies Sex Slavery and criticized an U.S. textbook.

Feb 6, 2015 Chinese scars endure 70 years after Unit 731 liberation.

Feb 8, 2015 International criticism escalates over Tokyo's apparent attempts to whitewash wartime atrocities.

Feb 9, 2015 US academics condemn Japanese efforts to revise history of 'Sex Slaves'.

Feb 9, 2015 Japan's angry tell-all memoir.

Feb 13, 2015 Adviser to Japan PM Abe denies existence of war criminals.

Feb 15, 2015 Japan pressed for apology over 1945 Battle of Manila.

Feb 19, 2015 Japanese newspaper sued over war Sex Slaves. More than 2,000 people are suing the liberal Asahi newspaper to demand that it place international advertisements apologizing for its coverage of wartime sex slavery, saying it has stained Japan's reputation.

Feb 25, 2015 Japan, China spar at open debate on 70th anniversary of WWII.

Feb 25, 2015 WWII Chongqing bombing survivors lose lawsuit against Japanese govt.

Feb 25, 2015 2nd ruling favors Sex-Slaves statue.

Mar 4, 2015 Emperor and PM diverge on Japan's memory of war.

Mar 18, 2015 Japanese historians contest textbook's description of 'comfort women'.

Mar 19, 2015 Japan's PM can address US congress only if he acknowledges war past.

Mar 20, 2015 German couple pay Greece £630 'war reparations'.

Mar 20, 2015 "Sex Slaves statue" proposal riles group of Japanese Canadians in Burnaby.

Mar 23, 2015 Greek Jews seek €20m from Germany for "Death Camp" train fares.

Apr 1, 2015 Greece wants Germany to pay for WWII . Greece claims €279 billion in German war reparations.

Apr 5, 2015 German rallies protest world militarism & NATO warmongering. The pacifist movement in Germany plans to hold around 80 rallies during the Easter weekend nationwide in support of world peace and denouncing militarization, the arms trade and NATO's role in conflicts around the globe.

Apr 5, 2015 Japanese Kyushu museum breaks taboo with live dissections of 8 US PoW display. US prisoners of war had parts of their brains and livers removed. The war crimes included intravenous injections of seawater, in order to determine whether salt water could be used as a substitute for saline injections, as well as live vivisections. Some of the men had parts of their liver removed to determine if they could survive, and others had sections of the brains taken out to see if this would be a cure for epilepsy. The tribunal later found 23 men guilty. One individual killed himself in prison during the trial, but five were sentenced to death, four to life prison sentences and the rest received shorter sentences.

To cover-up, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, later commuted all the sentences and reduced the prison sentences in 1950. By the end of the decade all involved in the case had been released. The infamous Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, carried out thousands of vivisections in northern China. Many of those responsible have never been held accountable for their actions due to the cover-up of State-Terrorism by US government.

Apr 10, 2015 Man tells of his horror at discovering his airman grandfather was dissected alive. The grandson of one of the US airmen vivisected alive by Japanese doctors during WWII has revealed the moment he was told of the horrific experiments as a teenager.

Apr 11, 2-15 Japanese WMD Unit 731 to be open to public. Japanese Unit 731 was a secret biological and chemical warfare unit set up in China during WWII. The experiments ranged from chemical and biological warfare tests on live humans to vivisections. According to records obtained during the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials, between 3,000 and 12,000 men, women and children died during the experiments conducted at the facility from the mid 1930s until 1945.

Apr 17, 2015 How Shanghai opened its doors to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution, to Shanghai - the only city that would admit Jews without visas. He Fengshan, a diplomat who headed China's mission in Vienna from 1938 to 1940. He issued visas to about 1,200 Jews, but his daughter believes he may have issued thousands more visas.

Apr 19, 2015 Dissing Comfort Women, house speaker John Boehner Panders to Japan's most toxic PM.

Apr 21, 2015 Elderly Korean war criminal seeks redress from Japan.

Apr 22, 2015 Japanese MPs make provocative visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine.

Apr 22, 2015 70 years later, a Korean "comfort woman" demands apology from Japan.

Apr 24, 2015 Wartime Sex Slave urges Japanese PM to apologise during US trip.

Apr 27, 2015 Japan's whitewashing of WWII history rankles some U.S. veterans.

Apr 29, 2015 A lifetime later, a Korean 'comfort woman' still seeks redress.

Apr 30, 2015 China, S.Korea criticise Japan PM Abe's speech in US for failing to apologize for war Crimes.

May 6, 2015 Japan peace museum removes war crimes exhibits after closure threat. Japanese right-wing nationalists have forced a Japanese peace museum to remove exhibits about the country's wartime atrocities in the latest effort to purge what the Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, calls "masochistic" views of the country's history.

May 7, 2015 Japan scholars in West issue statement calling for 'unbiased accounting' of war crimes. Titled "Open letter in support of historians in Japan" is signed by 187 Japanese studies scholars working in the U.S., Britain, Australia and Japan.

May 11, 2015 China sets holiday to mark 70th anniversary of Japan defeat.

May 13, 2015 Abe's Japan cannot apologize for the Pacific War.

May 16, 2015 Japanese museum sparks outrage in China after asking for love letters and diaries of kamikaze pilots to get special historical status.

May 14, 2015 Western scholars press Japan's Abe on war crimes.

May 20, 2015 Germany to pay compensation to Soviet prisoners from WWII. Germany sets aside $11 million for payments surviving Red Army soldiers imprisoned by German forces.

May 20, 2015 Abe's wife visits Yasukuni Shine which honors Japan's war dead including criminals.

May 20, 2015 Group seeking proper accounting of Japan's war crimes doubles in size. The number of scholars calling on Japan to conduct an "unbiased accounting" of its WWII war crimes has more than doubled to 457 in 2 weeks : "Open letter in support of historians in Japan"

May 22, 2015 JCP's Shii: Abe has never read the Potsdam Declaration.

May 26, 2015 Compensation win for Japanese teachers forced to sing notorious militaristic national anthem. Since 1999, the playing of the Japanese notorious militaristic anthem Kimigayo (His Majesty's Reign) and the flying of the notorious militaristic Hinomaru (Rising Sun) flag, have been compulsory at Japanese school ceremonies, but many teachers refuse to toe the line and filed a lawsuit taking the Tokyo education board to court. Kazuhisa Suzuki, who teaches civics at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, said: "It's as though Germany brought back the Nazi Swastika and forced teachers to stand for it. More Details.

May 26, 2015 Korea objects to heritage status for Japan's WWII 'Slave Labour' sites.

May 26, 2015 Japanese historians call on nation to face up to 'Sex Slaves' issue.

June 2, 2015 Japan's WWII "Sex Slaves" Revisionism comes to the US.

June 10, 2015 Former Japanese PM tells Shinzo Abe to confront wartime atrocities in Asia.

June 23, 2015 Japan's PM heckled at the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa. The Okinawa people shouted "go home" and "stop lying" as the Japan's PM took the stage.

June 26, 2015 Chinese seek damages from Japan over Slaved labor during war.

June 27, 2015 Japan has a flag problem. Much like the Confederate battle flag, Japan Rising Sun flag was a symbol to imperial aggression and war crimes.

Jul 14, 2015 Japanese left behind in war express gratitude at memorial for Chinese parents.

Jul 19, 2015 Japan's Mitsubishi makes war apology to US war Slaves, but NOT to the Chinese and Korean Slaves.

Jul 21, 2015 Nazi hunters: Serge and Beate Klarsfeld awarded medals of honour by Germany.

Jul 21, 2015 10,000 cries for Justice. Thousands of letters from victims of atrocities suffered at the hands of the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War. All letters can be searched and displayed using the search capabilities described in the "Search" page.

Jul 23, 2015 Germany launches first Holocaust professorship devoted to the study of the Holocaust.

Jul 23, 2015 Japan Mitsubishi unwilling to apologize to Canadian Slaved PoWs.

Aug 3, 2015 Japan revisionists deny WW2 Sex Slave atrocities.

Aug 5, 2015 Shrine that venerates Japan's undigested militarism becomes focus for revisionist patriots who want to bring back pre-war constitution.

Aug 9, 2015 Japanese citizens urge government to acknowledge WWII crimes.

Aug 4, 2015 China starts posting Japan's war criminal 'confessions' online . : . Confessions reveal Japanese atrocities.

Aug 11, 2015 Osaka mayor continues feud with SF, objects to proposed 'Comfort Women' memorial.

Aug 12, 2015 'Children of the aggressor': the Japanese war babies adopted by China

Aug 12, 2015 A (very) short history of Japan's war apologies. "The world criticizes Japan for failing to come to terms with its past," writes Jennifer Lind in her book Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics. "Tokyo's apologies have been perceived as too little, too late. Even worse, its politicians repeatedly shock survivors and the global community by denying past atrocities; its history textbooks whitewash its wartime crimes"

Aug 13, 2015 Germany won respect by addressing its WWII crimes. Japan, not so much . . Japan's difficult reconciliation with its past.

Aug 13, 2015 Many praise Germany, scorn Japan 70 years after WWII.

Aug 13, 2015 Japan used American POWs for human experiments.

Aug 13, 2015 The Hong Kong fight to cash in Japanese military yen . More Details.

Aug 14, 2015 Japanese PM Shinzo Abe stops short of new apology in war anniversary speech.

Aug 15, 2015 Japan's emperor strikes more apologetic tone than Abe over WWII.

Aug 15, 2015 Emperor's contrite apology welcomed as PM Shinzo Abe's criticised.

Aug 15, 2015 Abe statement was vague in all the wrong places . . Abe's sorry apology.

Aug 18, 2015 Abe's avoidance of the past.

Aug 24, 2015 Japan refuses to take part in China's 'Victory Day' event to mark end of war.

Aug 30, 2015 Japan military legislation changes draw huge protests. The BBC's Yalda Hakim: "Scenes like these are unprecedented in Japan". Thousands of people have protested outside of Japan's parliament against new legislation that would allow the military to deploy overseas.

Sept 3, 2015 Japanese war veteran is honored for fighting for China. Kancho Kobayashi was one of 30 war veterans honored by Chinese President Xi Jinping for siding with China against imperial Japanese forces to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII and China's victory over Japan.

Sept 15, 2015 Protesters spill over police barricade to rally against Abe's security bills.

Sept 15, 2015 Former WWII 'Sex Slave' honored with commendation from San Francisco.

Sept 22, 2015 San Francisco supervisors approve memorial for Sex Slaves and urges Japan to "fully acknowledge and apologize" for enslaving women, also calls for Japan to compensate them.

Oct 3, 2015 China nominates documents on Nanking Massacre, 'comfort women' for UNESCO register.

Oct 5, 2015 Japan seeks to 'block' UNESCO application for Nanjing Massacre.

Oct 8, 2015 Wartime sex slaves at the heart of UN battle between Japan and China.

Oct 10, 2015 Documents of Nanjing Massacre inscribed on Memory of World register . . . Memory of the World.

Oct 13, 2015 Japan threatens to halt Unesco funding over Nanjing massacre listing.

Oct 20, 2015 Shinzo Abe stays away as Japanese lawmakers visit contentious Yasukuni Shrine.

Oct 21, 2015 Germany tells Netanyahu: We are responsible for the Holocaust.

Oct 21, 2015 A new look at Japan's wartime atrocities and a US Cover-up.

Oct 28, 2015 Statues placed in S.Korea honor former "Sex Slaves" enslaved by Japan. An unsmiling S.Korean girl stares forward with an accusatory expression. Sitting beside her, in a separate chair, is a Chinese girl, her fists clenched on her lap into balls of defiance.

Oct 29, 2015 Japan declines Nanjing Museum's request to return wartime stones.

Nov 4, 2015 Remains of nearly 2,750 wartime Slave laborers found in Japan.

Nov 11, 2015 US nisei Mineta urges Japan to make definitive WWII apology. Norman Mineta, the first American of Japanese ancestry to become a Cabinet member in the US.

Nov 21, 2015 "CrossTalk" Chinese wave - on the remaking of the Pacific.

Nov 24, 2015 Should Japan formally apologize for its past war sex crimes?.

Nov 24, 2015 Ads with WWII symbols pulled after outcry in New York.

Dec 1, 2015 Exhibition on abandoned Japanese WMD Chemical Weapons in China held in Holland. Due to the fact that Japan has failed to provide any information on their burial, the weapons have been found purely by chance, with consequent human casualties and environmental pollution. They have been found dumped in densely populated areas, in nature reserves and in rivers and lakes, as well as off shore. At Haerbaling in Jilin province alone, the largest Japanese ACWs burial site discovered in China up to now, it is estimated that around 330,000 pieces of such weapons remain buried.

Dec 1, 2015 Japan's prince Takahito spoke against his country's War Crimes

Dec 11, 2015 Japanese island, used to make WMD Chemical Weapons during WWII, now a paradise for rabbits.

Dec 13, 2015 As China remembers Nanjing Massacre, ex-WWII Sex Slave recounts ordeal.

Dec 13, 2015 Why do we know so little about China in WWII ?.

Dec 18, 2015 Abandoned in Manchuria, Japanese migrants became "living corpses" after WWII.

Dec 22, 2015 California slated to include Japan's Sex Slaves during war in high school curriculum from 2017.

Dec 26, 2015 Sex Slaves photographer wins lawsuit against Nikon.

Dec 28, 2015 'Sex Slaves' - a painful legacy for Tokyo and Seoul . Former sex slave: Lee Ok Seon.

Dec 28, 2015 'Sex Slaves' : Japan's 70-year sex slavery war crime.

Dec 30, 2015 S.Korea's 'Comfort Women' reject deal with Japan . Backlash from 'Comfort Women' deal.

Jan 6, 2016 Japan and S.Korea's non-solution for the "Sex Slaves" . China, Taiwan apply pressure to Japan over 'Sex Slaves' issue.

Jan 6, 2016 Protesters gather in New York outside Japanese consulate to denounce 'Sex Slaves' deal.

Jan 17, 2016 Document proving Japan's Official Sex Slavery now at home in KU library.

Jan 18, 2016 Japan's foreign minister challenges use of 'Sex Slaves' term for 'comfort women'.

Jan 25, 2016 Legacies of war : Sex Slaves continue their struggle.

Jan 25, 2016 Former Sex Slaves reject Japan and S.Korea's 'comfort women' accord.

Jan 29, 2016 Japan's apology to S.Korea shows what public apologies should (Not) do.

Jan 31, 2016 Japan denies forced Sex Slavery to UN, despite signing landmark deal with S.Korea.

Feb 1, 2016 Filipina Sex Slaves demand reparations from Japan.

Feb 2, 2016 100 S.Korean victims of Japan's Slave Labor join lawsuits against Japanese firms.

Feb 3, 2016 Japan tells U.N. it has found no evidence of forced WWII Sex Slavery.

Feb 3, 2016 Japan's latest apology to "Sex Slaves" just empty words without a full admission of responsibility.

Feb 9, 2016 Intellectuals slam Abe's push to revise Constitution.

Feb 10, 2016 Filipino "Sex Slaves" blast Japan for recent claims before U.N..

Feb 17, 2016 Jan Ruff-O'Herne, 93-year-old Australian former 'Sex Slave' still waiting for apology from Japan.

Feb 18, 2016 S.Korea warns Japan over 'Sex Slaves' accord after claims of no proof.

Feb 26, 2016 Lest we overlook the "Asian Holocaust".

Feb 18, 2016 Japanese court rejects compensation claims over Battle of Okinawa.

Mar 3, 2016 Film depicting horrors faced by Sex Slaves for Japan army tops S.Korea box office.

Mar 18, 2016 Japan to return 331 kg of nuclear bombs-plutonium to US . . More Details.

Mar 31, 2016 How Germans came to grasp the horror of their history.

Apr 21, 2016 Japanese PM makes offering to notorious war-linked Yasukuni shrine.

May 3, 2016 Mass protests in Japan as battle over changes to pacifist constitution looms.

May 13, 2016 Japan still must confront its claim of victimhood.

May 15, 2016 Sex Slave victim thanks star who said no to Japan.

May 17, 2016 70 years later, the ‘tragic’ stories from Japanese war crimes trials still sting.

May 27, 2016 War Crimes of imperial Japan: A lesson in moral equivalence for Mr. Obama.

May 28, 2016 Victims of Japan's war crimes appalled by Obama apology tour.

June 1, 2016 Japan Mitsubishi Materials apologizes to Chinese WWII Slave laborers.

June 1, 2016 Civic groups ask UNESCO to list Sex Slaves records.

June 3, 2016 Apologies by Japan always ring hollow.

June 19, 2016 Settling Japan's wartime Slave labor suits.

June 30, 2016 63 Chinese Slave labourers reject Japanese Mitsubishi Materials settlement deal . 2.

July 15, 2016 Germany to apologise for the genocide of indigenous Namibians. Germany says it will formally apologise for the genocide of tens of thousands of indigenous Namibians while they were under colonial rule more than 100 years ago. Up to 100,000 Herero people and around 10,000 Nama people died in a systematic extermination by German troops in modern-day Namibia from 1904 to 1908.

July 15, 2016 "Comfort Women" history to be included in California textbooks.

July 20, 2016 Australia, UK, US complicit in Indonesian Massacres, international Judges say . 2.

July 20, 2016 CrossTalk: China vs lawfare.

Aug 4, 2016 Court rules in favor of memorial to Sex Slaves.

Aug 4, 2016 Japan's defence minister ducks questions on war aggression, Nanjing massacre.

Aug 6, 2016 Comfort women statue unveiled in Sydney.

Aug 13, 2016 Former Sex Slaves protest Japan's resurgence of militarism.

Aug 17, 2016 A letter from Normandy to Abe: Lessons for Japan from WWII.

Aug 26, 2016 Japan: S.Korea's WWII 'Sex Slaves' to receive $90k each.

Oct 19, 2016 Japan cabinet ministers visit controversial war shrine.

Oct 24, 2016 Japan knocks Shanghai "Sex Slaves" memorial . "Comfort women" museum opens in Shanghai.

Oct 26, 2016 Japan is withholding its ¥4.4 billion to UNESCO.

Nov 1, 2016 Comfort women group in Japan receives bomb threat.

Dec 19, 2016 Japanese NGO's Nanjing Documentary Film Festival about the Nanjing Massacre . Taiheimon: disappeared 1,300 people.

Dec 19, 2016 Japan pays UNESCO dues suspended over UNESCO included a dossier on Nanjing of its "Memory of the World" programme, which is intended to preserve important historical materials.

Dec 25, 2016 Germany moves to atone for 'forgotten genocide' in Namibia. Berlin discusses possible reparation payments over massacre of tens of thousands of people in early years of 20th century.

Dec 28, 2016 Japan's defense minister visits Yasukuni after Pearl Harbor. Shrine worships Class-A Criminals in the WWII.

Dec 31, 2016 ‘Comfort women’ statue erected again outside Japan consulate.

Jan 5, 2017 Japan to recall ambassador to S.Korea over Sex Slave statue.

Feb 18, 2017 Singapore renames WII Japanese occupation exhibition following outcry.

Mar 5, 2017 Haruki Murakami acknowledging Nanjing Massacre in new book rattles right wing.

Mar 10, 2017 Europe's first Japan's Sex Slave statue set up in Germany.

Mar 16, 2017 WWII start in 1937 in Asia and not in 1939 in Europe.

Mar 18, 2017 Namibia doesn't want "aid" to make up for Germany's genocide—it wants $30 billion.

Mar 28, 2017 US Supreme Court rules in favor of Glendale's 'Sex Slaves' statue.

Apr 17, 2017 Court documents dhowing Japan's wartime coerced Sex Slavery disclosed.

Apr 17, 2017 Hitler's Mein Kampf returns to Japanese schools as 'Teaching Material' . Abe cabinet allows use of Hitler's autobiography 'My Struggle' in Japanese school.

Apr 21, 2017 Abe sends offering to the controversial Yasukuni shrine that includes convicted 14 Class-A war criminals.

Apr 29, 2017 Tokyo court declines to rule on constitutionality of Abe’s 2013 Yasukuni visit.

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