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Invited Speech
The Redress Movement -
International Citizens Forum on War Crimes and Redress, Tokyo, December
1999
& GA Biennial Conference, Washington, DC, November 2000
Elizabeth Chiu King
President, Human
Rights for China, Michigan
Presented at Symposium 2000
Michigan Historical Society of World War II in Asia
December 3, 2000, Madonna University, Livonia, Michigan
The redress movement focuses on the following four
issues - The Nanking Massacre, Biological and Chemical Warfare, Comfort Women, and Prisoners of War.
THE NANKING
MASSACRE
After the fall of Nanking, former capital of the Republic of China, the Japanese Imperial Army went on
a rampage of arson, plunder, rape, torture and massacre of civilians and disarmed soldiers. From December 1937 to March 1938
the massacre exacted a toll of more than 300,000 innocent lives.(1)
BIOLOGICAL & CHEMICAL WARFARE (B&CW)
Japanese Imperial Army special units, Unit 731 in particular, conducted extensive experiments and actual use of B&CW.
Vivisection of thousands of human guinea pigs was routinely carried out. Extensive B&CW was used in S. E. China (Zhejiang
and Jiangsu provinces) and in S. W. China (Yunnan Province and Burma border region), among other battlefields, resulting in
a casualty of over 700,000 Chinese civilians as well as soldiers.(2)
At the end of the war Japanese Army units buried
about 2 million poison gas bombs and other chemical warfare devices in N. E. China. Many of the containers have deteriorated,
resulting in leakage of the poisons and deadly contamination of the ground water. Over two thousand villagers died as a result.(3)
COMFORT WOMEN
Hundreds of thousands of girls and women were abducted by force or deception to become sexual
slaves of the Japanese Army. Among them were Chinese, Koreans, Philippinos, Indonesians and Dutch nationals and Malaysians.(4)
Recent research indicates that there were as many as 200,000 victims of enforced prostitution in China alone.(5)
The
comfort women had to serve as many as 30 Japanese rank and file daily. Treatment of venereal disease was their only relief.
Many died from failed attempt to escape or suicide. Those that have survived are now over seventy years old, living with
memories of permanent nightmare and in great need of financial and therapeutic help.
PRISONERS OF WAR (POWs)
POWs including Americans, Asians, Australians and New Zealanders, disarmed soldiers and civilians alike, were forced to
do slave labor in or outside Japan, without pay and with inadequate ration and medical care.(6) Statistics show that POWs
taken by Japan were several times more likely to die than their counterparts taken by the Nazis.
ICF, TOKYO, DECEMBER
1999
The forum was organized by concerned Japanese attorneys, scholars, doctors, and activists. The Global Alliance
for Preserving the History of WW II in Asia (GA) joined as its co-organizer. Other supporting groups include World Jewish
Congress, Canadian Jewish Congress, and Teachers' Federations from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Delegates from the United States,
Canada, Germany, the Philippines, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China participated in the redress issues under the
theme of Seeking Peace & Reconciliation for the 21st Century.
The forum concluded with the "Tokyo Appeal"
asking the Japanese government to accept wartime responsibility by offering an unequivocal apology and meaningful compensations
to its victims. A peaceful procession across town and through the Ginza area in memory of the victims of the Nanjing Massacre
on its 62nd anniversary (December 12) followed afterwards. While the forum received little media coverage, it provided opportunities
for members of GA to interact with international groups and exchange ideas on future course of action.(7)
GA BIENNIAL
CONFEENCE, NOVEMBER 2000
The keynote speaker was Yayori Matsui, Organizer of the Womens International Tribunal
for War Crimes (Dec. 3 - 12, 2000). Symposia followed to update the issues discussed at the ICF, including the POW redress
movement, the redress movements in Japan and Korea and China, redress litigation, and strategies for the future.
Most
lawsuits for redress on behalf of the victims have been unsuccessful in Japanese courts due to the Japanese governments policy
of denial of responsibility based on the terms of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty. To date, only one lawsuit for Chinese
slave laborers won a limited settlement from Kajima Corp. in Japan. Japan needs to enact special legislation to deal with
its responsibility for the war crimes committed by its Imperial Army (8), just as postwar Germany has done in dealing with
the responsibility for the crimes committed by the Nazi regime. A change of venue to litigate outside of Japan was necessary.
At present, litigations against Japanese corporations are being pursued in the U. S. courts on behalf of POWs and
comfort women, resulting in a series of class action suits.(9) Research in China is continuing, to register surviving comfort
women, to identify survivors of B&CW, and to collect and document the evidence for extensive B&CW conducted by the
Japanese.
With respect to the legislative initiative front, the GA push team shared the process and its success
for the passage of Senate Bill #1902 introduced by Senator D. Feinstein to declassify the Japanese Imperial Army documents.
Strategies for the future discussed at the conference include the following:
SHORT TERM ACTION
1.
Support for the Womens International War Crimes Tribunal, Dec. 8 - 12, 2000---At the GA conference, over $7,000 were collected
to enable selected victims from China to go to the Tokyo tribunal.
2. Organize a rally, on September 8, 2001, to
protest the commemoration of 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty.
3. Support the
nomination of Professor Saburo Ienaga for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize---Professor Ienaga has waged a legal crusade against
the Japanese Governments censorship of school textbooks for over thirty years. He fought single-handedly for truthful description
of Japans aggression and atrocities in Asia and the Pacific.
THE TOKYO TRIBUNAL, Dec 8 - 12, 2000
This peoples
tribunal was organized by international non-governmental organizations, including Violence Against Women in War - Network,
Japan, with the following objectives:
(1) To ascertain the responsibility of states and individuals involved in
the sexual slavery of comfort women perpetrated by the Japanese Imperial Army,
(2) To uphold justice, human rights
and dignity for the victims and end the cycle of impunity for violence against women in wartime and armed conflicts, and
(3) To document for the generations to come the records of comfort women system as indelible part of the 20th century
history.
Over seventy former comfort women are expected to testify, with Patricia Viseur-Sellers (Legal Adviser,
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), Hina Jilani (Lawyer for the Supreme Court, Pakistan) and others
as chief prosecutors, and with Gabrielle Kirk McDonald (former president of the War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia)
and others as the presiding judges.
PROTEST THE SAN FRANCISCO COMMEMORATION
An elaborate program to commemorate
the 50th anniversary (9/8/01) of the San Francisco Peace Treaty is sponsored by Japanese General Consul Office of San Francisco,
Japan Society of Northern California and National Association of Japan American Society. This treaty was flawed for it failed
to include necessary clauses to prevent the resurgence of Japanese militarism, provide a minimum measure of justice for Japanese
war crimes and compensate its victims. Japan still denies any responsibility for its atrocities during WW II by invoking
Article 14 of the peace treaty as follows:
Chapter 5 CLAIMS AND PROPERTY; Article 14: (a) It is recognized that
Japan should pay reparations to the Allied Powers for the damage and suffering caused by it during the war. Nevertheless it
is also recognized that the resources of Japan are not presently sufficient, it is to maintain a viable economy, to make complete
reparation for all such damage and suffering and suffering and at the same time meet its other obligations.
(b) Except
as otherwise provided in the present treaty, the Allied Powers waived all reparations claims of the Allied Powers, other claims
of the Allied Powers and their nationals arising out of any actions taken by Japan and its nationals in the course of the
prosecution of the war, and claims of the Allied Powers for direct military costs of occupation.
GA is planning a
big rally to protest the commemoration of the SF treaty. The occasion will be a golden opportunity to attract media attention
to gain public awareness and garner support for GAs cause.
POSITION RE REDRESS LITIGATION
The process
of litigation for redress on behalf of the victims is complex, expensive and time-consuming. GA is more inclined to serve
as a friend of the court, rather than be directly involved in the lawsuits
LONG TERM GOALS
Japan must
assume the responsibility for its role in WWII. It must issue official apology and provide adequate compensation to the victims
of its aggression. The historical truth of WWII must be preserved and taught in Japan and in other nations where it is not
taught today.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Each of us has a moral responsibility to ensure that the Third Millennium
will bring about a just and peaceful world for generations to come. Let us remember these words of Mark Weintraub of Canadian
Jewish Congress in his keynote speech at the ICF:
To remember is to recall and relive. It is the only way one can,
one must, approach catastrophe. . . Rekindling memory and the writing of history, coupled with advocacy, are the only possible
paths which can lead the successor governments of the perpetrator states to acknowledge the past and to confront it honestly.
Only as a result of such accountability can there come sincere remorse so that the past may be redeemed from absolute evil.
. . Let us, as members of the indivisible human family, enter into a partnership on a mission of repairing the world.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Keep informed
Participate in local/U. S.-wide activities
Enhance public awareness
of the Asian holocaust during WW II
Volunteer your help
Support surviving comfort women---$15/mo. will support
a victim in China
Notes:
(1) The rampage of arson, plunder, rape and massacre let lose in Nanking epitomizes
the conduct of the Japanese Armed forces during the war, and its scope and brutality have been the subject of many publications,
e. g., What War Means - Japanese terror in China, H. J. Timberley (1938); Hidden Horrors - Japanese War Crimes in World War
II, Tanaka Yuki (1996); The Rape of Nanking - The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Iris Chang (1997); The Nanking Massacre
- A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japans National Shame, Honda Katsuichi (1999), The Nanking Massacre in History and Historiography,
J. A. Fogel (ed.), 2000.
(2) See Factories of Death---Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932 - 1945, and the American
Cover-Up, S. H. Harris, Rutledge (1999), and Unit &31 Testimony, Hal Gold (1997); Some New Discoveries With Regard to
Japanese Biological Warfare, James Yin, paper presented at GA Biennial Conference, November 2000.
(3) See Newsletter,
No 2, Chinese Holocaust Museum Pro Tem, May 2000.
(4) See The Comfort Women, George Hicks, Norton, 1997, and Restoring
Koreas Identity Through the Redress Movement, B. M. Kim, paper presented at GA Biennial Conference, December 2000.
(5)
Rijun zai Yazhou shi2shi1 de jundui xingnuli zhidu----yi zhongguo weili (Japanese Army Practice of Sexual Slavery in Asia---in
China as an Example, Su Zhiliang, Shanghai Teachers College, paper presented at GA Biennial Conference, December 2000.
(6) See Prisoners of the Japanese - POWs of World War II in the Pacific, Gavan Daws, William Morrow & Company, 1994.
(7) See Report on the International Citizens' Forum on War Crimes & Redress ----Seeking Peace & Reconciliation
for the 21st Century, Yue-him Tam, Ph.D., President, GA, January 2000.
(8) A minority of Japanese Diet members
are trying to introduce such legislation but its passage is unlikely unless there is change of public opinion which is dominated
by the ruling conservative party and the right wing nationalists. See (6) above and Evaluation on the Redress Lawsuits in
Japan, Yutaka Saito, paper presented at GA Biennial Conference, November 2000.
(9) So far the U. S. court has invoked
Article 14 of the San Francisco Peace Treaty to dismiss several suits on half of American POWs. Some of the other lawsuits
are on behalf of Chinese nationals as legal residents in U. S. for whom Article 14 may not apply since China is not a signatory
of the San Francisco treaty and the ruling on their case remains to be heard.
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