[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 51 (Monday, March 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4204-S4205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                          REVISIONISM IN JAPAN

 Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, as the chairman of the Subcommittee 
on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, I rise today to address a disturbing 
article in last Thursday's Washington Post. According to the Post, last 
Wednesday the mayor of Nagasaki, Motoshima Hitoshi, likened the two 
1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the Holocaust. He said, and 
I quote, ``I think that the atomic bombings were one of the two 
greatest crimes against humanity in the 20th century, along with the 
Holocaust.'' He was joined in these sentiments by Hiraoka Takashi, the 
mayor of Hiroshima.
  Mr. President, I am incensed by this comparison, and by what appears 
to me to be a growing revisionist tendency among some circles in Japan 
aimed at sanitizing its role as the aggressor and transforming it into 
the innocent victim of the atomic bomb. History is replete with 
instances which provide ample justification for the course the United 
States took to end years of war. For the benefit of these two 
gentlemen, let me note some of those facts.
  On December 7, 1941, without notice or declaration of war, the 
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, HI. I do not need to describe for my 
colleagues the carnage and death that followed. From that point, Japan 
engaged us in a protracted and costly war that ranged over the Pacific 
rim for more than 4 years and cost thousands and thousands of lives.
  Treatment of Allied prisoners of war was unconscionable. For 
Americans fighting in the Pacific
 theater, the likehood of dying in combat was about 5 percent. For 
American POW's in German prison camps, it was 4 percent. But for those 
in Japanese prison camps the number ran to 33 percent. Executions, 
tortures, the Bataan Death March, the record is replete with atrocities 
for which the victims have yet--50 years later--to receive an apology. 
It is somewhat ironic that also in the same edition of the Post is a 
lengthy article entitled, ``Still Waiting for an Apology: Historian 
Gavan Daws, Calling on Japan on War Crimes.'' I would commend it to 
Messrs. Hiraoka and Motoshima; they might learn a thing or two from it.

  A special unit of the Imperial Army, called Unit 731, conducted 
research in germ warfare with an aim at introducing plague, anthrax, 
and other fatal diseases into the United States. As the theater of war 
moved closer to the home islands, the United States and its Allies were 
reduced to fighting their way toward Japan on an island-by-island 
basis. The battles were costly--both in lives, time, and materiel. Just 
this week we remembered the 50th anniversary of the taking of Iwo Jima. 
In that battle, some 20,000 Japanese fought to the death--many 
committing seppuku rather than surrender.
  [[Page S4205]] All the signs available to us at the time indicated 
that this would be the course of the remainder of the war. Several 
Allied surrender ultimatums were rejected offhand by the Japanese. 
Thus, as the war drew to a close in Europe, we were clearly faced with 
a choice in Asia; do something to bring a quick end to our losses and 
suffering, or continue a painfully long, drawn-out, costly conflict. 
President Truman chose the only alternative a nation's leader would, 
and the bombs fell.
  Yet, some in Japan can overlook all that came before the bombs. Some 
can reduce Japan from the vigorous aggressor to the passive victim. Mr. 
Hiraoka seems to be of that ilk. For example, he emphasized that 
several early multinational conventions prohibited deliberate attacks 
on civilians, then proceeded to list those nations which did not live 
up to that ideal during the war era: German attacks on London, the 
United States firebombing of Tokyo, the British-led firebombing of 
Dresden.
  Yet, conspicuously absent from his list is the country behind the 
first such indiscriminate bombing: Japan. On December 1, 1937, the 
Imperial Army Headquarters in Tokyo ordered an attack on Nanjing, 
China. The planes came and laid waste to the city and its population; 
estimates of the civilian losses range from 100,000 to 200,000. The 
attack lives on in the minds of many Chinese as one of the most 
infamous events of the 20th century.
  Mr. President, the present strong relationship between the United 
States and Japan is of the utmost importance to us. I personally enjoy 
my nascent relationship with Kuriyama Takakazu, Japan's Ambassador here 
in Washington. But statements like those made by these two mayors 
cannot go unanswered; for to fail to rebut such revisionism is simply 
to lend credence to it.


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