Writer: Siena Iwasaki Milbauer
Welcome to “Eyes On,” a series from AAOP that provides compact rundowns of important conflicts or crises in our global community.
As engaged youth, it can be hard to stay informed about all that is worth knowing. We hope this series can provide user-friendly but well-rounded summaries of events, and empower youth readers to knowledgeably take action in our world. Check out all our “Eyes On” installments at http://aaopmn.org/tag/eyes-on/
1) On July 8, 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while campaigning on behalf of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Nara, Japan. Abe was assassinated with a homemade gun by Tetsuya Yamagami, a former member of Japan’s Maritime Defense Force. The motive does not appear to have been political. Rather, Yamagami allegedly blamed a controversial religious group called the Unification Church for family financial and personal troubles, and associated Abe with the church. Though there is no evidence that Abe was officially affiliated with the Unification Church, his family and the LDP have had ties with the church for decades, and contemporary connections between the religious organization and members of the LDP have come under scrutiny following Abe’s assassination.
2) Understandably, Abe’s assassination shocked the world. This was particularly true given Japan’s notoriously low levels of gun violence. However, even as tributes to Abe poured in from world leaders, some public figures and activists highlighted another aspect of Abe’s legacy: his controversial conservative political agenda and dangerous historical revisionism.
Abe was the grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, a class-A war criminal who committed atrocities as part of the Japanese Imperial government during WWII, particularly during the Japanese colonization and occupation of Manchuria. Kishi was imprisoned after WWII, but was eventually released by the U.S. government and was enlisted as an anti-communist U.S. political ally in Japan, going on to become Japan’s Prime Minister.
Abe publicly acknowledged his grandfather as an influence and inspiration, and his policies reflected that. Throughout his long and influential career in Japanese politics, Abe consistently took steps to downplay and erase Japanese Imperial atrocities, including denying that the 1937 Nanjing Massacre happened, advocating for textbooks in Japanese schools that minimize Japanese Imperial war crimes, and refusing to apologize or accept responsibility on behalf of the Japanese government for the systemic sexual slavery inflicted upon tens of thousands of women during WWII known as “comfort women.” While Abe is best known in the West for his economic policies and his goal of fully re-militarizing Japan (though this policy point is also controversial), his most horrifying and long-lasting legacy may be his apologist nationalism.
1) Abe’s LDP and other conservative parties saw big gains in the election following Abe’s assasination. Already in the majority, conservative politicians are now in a position to further bolster their power, follow through on Abe’s political vision, and potentially fulfill certain Abe goals he was unable to accomplish in his lifetime. This is particularly true of Abe’s re-militarization goal, with conservative politicians poised to at the very least increase defense spending, and potentially go after Japan’s post-WWII constitution which has pacifist restrictions written into it. However, the aforementioned ongoing controversy around LDP connections to the Unification Church has seen current Prime Minister and Abe protege Fumio Kishida’s popularity plummet and weakened the LDP’s political standing. There will likely be continuing and important shifts in Japanese politics in the coming months and years, and Abe’s shadow is unlikely to fade.
2) Abe’s nationalist rhetoric and actions unsurprisingly damaged diplomatic relationships between Japan and other Asian nations, particularly China and South Korea where many Japanese Imperial atrocities were perpetuated. It remains to be seen whether the new leaders of the LDP will take a different approach, but there is not much to suggest that. As concern over human rights abuses committed by the governments of North Korea and China continues to rise, the ability of Japan to constructively collaborate with and support other countries in Asia and across the globe is perhaps more important than ever. Abe’s actions and continued legacy harm that ability, with yet-to-be-determined consequences.
Learn, amplify, and support: Within and without Japan, many activists and scholars continue to do the work of preserving history, educating new generations, and pushing back against dangerous revisionism. In particular, a robust organizing ecosystem continues to seek an official apology and state reparations from the Japanese government to “comfort women” who were brutalized under Imperial Japanese occupation, including a small group of still-living survivors. The list of organizations below, some of which focus exclusively on justice for “comfort women” and others on broad anti-nationalist action, is just a small sample of worthy groups you can follow, support, and jumpstart your engaged learning with.
– Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education (CARE)
– Kan Win
Sources
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