Abe`s review of Tokyo War Crimes Trials

It seems that Japan`s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (DLP) will set up a war and history recognition verification committee reporting directly to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to re-evaluate the examine the verdicts handed down by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to Japan`s World War II criminals. The Tokyo War Crimes Trials gave death sentences to seven war criminals, including former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was responsible for Japan`s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Nobusuke Kishi, a former Japanese prime minister and Abe`s grandfather, was also indicted but acquitted for having opposed the expansion of the war. If the DLP starts its "verification" of history since the Sino-Japan War and Russo-Japan War as part of moves to mark the 60th anniversary of the party`s founding, it is very likely that the responsibility for the war will be reversed.

The core of Japan`s history revisionism led by Abe is to deny Japan`s responsibilities for the wars it started, including the Pacific War. Since Abe took power, Japan`s right-wing forces have strongly claimed that the post-war system was forced upon their country by the United States and that the views of war criminals and Japan`s pacifist constitution must be revised in order for Japan to reborn as a normal state. In 2013, Abe denied the results of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials by dismissing them as victors` justice.

Although the DLP plans to set up an ambiguous panel and decided not to announce the review results, the real intention is clear. The Abe government reviewed the 1993 Kono Statement, which acknowledged the Japanese military`s responsibility for forcing women, including South Koreans, to serve at military brothels. Then, Abe denied the responsibility by falsely claiming that the statement was a result of a political compromise between Seoul and Tokyo. It is highly likely that he will use the results of the re-examination of the Tokyo trials as grounds for the denial of Japan`s war responsibility and as a springboard for revising the pacifist constitution that renounces war.

If Japan insists on reviewing the trials, it has to do it right. The United States colluded with Japan`s ruling elite to exclude Japanese Emperor Hirohito, who was ultimately responsible for the war, from the post-war indictment in a move to facilitate its rule of post-war Japan. The perception that the Japanese emperor`s impunity also removes Japanese people`s responsibility is the starting point for the history distortion.

Japan made a comeback to the international community after signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the Allied states on the condition of accepting the Tokyo War Crimes Trials. The re-examination of the trials is a challenge to the United States, the victor, and is a revelation of Japan`s ambition to modify the post-war order as it sees fit. If Japan negates the values of free democracy, the rule of law and human rights, believing in its alliance with the U.S., Washington should give a strong warning and put a brake such moves.