August 2005
The Rape of Nanking Redress Coalition and several affiliated World War II Truth in History groups – including the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, are demanding that Japan bring proper closure to all pending WW II issues on the 60th anniversary of the end of the war this V-J Day.
The groups express strong objection to the repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine – for the purpose of worshipping war criminals and promoting militarism - by Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his cabinet and LDP party members, as well as their distortion of history and denial of war responsibility. They demand that Japan pay compensation to the victims of its wartime atrocities.
Sixty years have passed since Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Forces at the end of World war II, but it has never come to terms with, or fully acknowledged and faced its responsibility for bringing horrendous destruction and the murder of tens of millions of innocent people in the neighboring nations that were invaded and/or colonized by its deadly Imperial Army.
Instead, the high officials in the Japanese Government continue to promote revisionism, distort history and refuse to offer an official apology and provide adequate compensation to Japan’s wartime victims through legislation in accordance to the Constitution of Japan. Each time, any of its national leaders - the prime minister or other officials, offers a public or private apology, other Japanese cabinet or ruling party members negate the expressed contrition by opposite actions, typically going to the Yasukuni Shrine to openly worship war criminals and glorify its past brutal expansionism.
For the last decade, Japan has gone in reverse to repeatedly revise the contents of the high school history textbooks and trivialize or intentionally omit the numerous war crimes committed against its victims.
The groups call on Japan to fully accept its responsibility and take constructive actions to bring closure to all these issues if it wishes to be recognized as "a normal nation with honor" which it claims to cherish. All commitments to address the pending issues must meet international standards and be committed through national legislation.