Abe faces calls after praising wartime ‘hero’
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should correct his historical attitudes and clarify his country’s militarist crimes in World War II before promoting a diplomat who is credited with helping about 6,000 Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution, a Chinese expert said.
Chiune Suhigara, called the “Japanese Schindler” by his country’s media, is a diplomat who issued Japanese transit visas during World War II to help thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi-occupied Poland in 1940, despite his country being a close ally of Nazi Germany.
Suhigara was praised by Abe at the former Japanese consulate in Lithuania on Sunday.
Lyu Yaodong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Abe should first clarify his standpoints on Japanese crimes in the Asian battlefield during World War II before promoting “heroes” of the war.
Abe said: “Suhigara worked far from Japan and in very difficult circumstances, but he had a strong belief as a Japanese diplomat and saved many Jewish people,” after he had toured the former consulate and sat at Sugihara’s desk, according to Japan’s Kyodo News.
“Mr Sugihara’s courageous, humanitarian deeds have been highly praised around the globe and provides with guidance as to how we should survive in this world, where rule-of-law-based international order is being challenged in various forms,” Abe added.
On Friday, Abe kicked off a six-nation European tour to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania after a recent rejection of the Republic of Korea’s demand for an official apology over “comfort women”, a euphemism for girls and women who were forcibly recruited to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
According to Kyodo News, in August, Tokyo applied to include Suhigara’s hometown of Yaotsu, in Gifu Prefecture, as intangible cultural heritage so as to promote the diplomat’s humanitarian spirit and attract more foreign tourists.
In the same month, when marked the 72nd anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, Abe still sent an offering to the Yasukuni Shrine which honors, among others, 14 Class-A war criminals of the conflict, despite calls by China and the ROK for Japan to face up to its wartime past.
“Abe should face the history and avoid being a historical revisionist,” Lyu said, adding that Tokyo’s praise for Suhigara does not “make up for the mistakes during war”.