Thursday, October 29, 2015

Historical revisionism undermines Abe’s apology

the books being distributed by Dietmembers
By Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ARC Laureate Fellow based at the School of Culture, History and Language, at the College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University and APP member

First published in the East Asia Forum, 26 October 2015

On 14 August, the day before the 70th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a long-awaited statement on Japanese memory of the war and his vision for the future. In it, he emphasised that the apologies given by previous Japanese cabinets ‘will remain unshakable into the future’. Abe’s statement received mixed responses from around the world. While some expressed concern at its account of 20th century history, the United States welcomed Abe’s ‘expression of deep remorse for the suffering caused by Japan during the World War II era, as well as his commitment to uphold past Japanese government statements on history’.

But recent events raise serious questions about the commitment of the Abe government to upholding past apologies.

For the past several weeks, prominent members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have sent unsolicited gifts of two books to academics, journalists and politicians in the English-speaking world (mostly in the United States). The books are accompanied by letters that draw attention to Abe’s 70th anniversary statement. They claim that history is being distorted by certain unnamed individuals and urge the recipients to read the books as a corrective.

The first book is Getting Over It! Why Korea Needs to Stop Bashing Japan, by Oh Sonfa, a naturalised Japanese citizen of Korean origin who is best known in Japan for publications disparaging her former homeland. Oh’s book urges Japan to turn its back on China and particularly on South Korea, which, she argues, suffers from incurable ‘narrow egotism and prejudice’ reflecting the nation’s ‘history and its racial characteristics’.

Echoing Japanese wartime propaganda, Oh paints Japanese colonial expansion, in opposition to Western colonialism, as essentially good. While she describes Western imperial powers as brutal and exploitative, she claims Japanese colonial control of the Korean peninsula ‘implemented no policies aimed at exploiting Korea’, ‘did not use armed suppression to govern’ and even ‘abolished restrictions on freedom of speech’. All of this will come as news to most historians of Asia.

The second book, History Wars, Japan — False Indictment of the Century, is written [by Sankei Washington reporter at large Yoshihisa Komori] and published by the right-wing Sankei newspaper. It pours vitriolic scorn on the historic 1993 Kono Statement, which apologised to former ‘comfort women’, who were sexually exploited in Japanese military brothels during the war. The Kono Statement, along with the Murayama Statement, is the most crucial of the Japanese government official statement on wartime history that Abe declared Japan’s ‘commitment to uphold’ in his statement.

History Wars claims that there is no evidence to support Japan’s 1993 admission that some ‘comfort women’ had been recruited against their own will, at times with the direct involvement of Japanese military or officials. A number of the book’s arguments echo those presented in June 2014 by a team created by the Abe government to investigate the processes that led to the Kono Statement, though the Sankei book expresses these arguments in more extreme terms.

History Wars depicts the surviving Korean ‘comfort women’ as confused old women tempted into giving false evidence by promises of money. And it claims that the Japanese government made the apology knowing it to be factually baseless, simply out of an ardent desire to appease South Korea. These bizarre claims are based on a selective misreading of the available historical evidence and have been strongly denied by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, who issued the 1993 apology.

return address on package
National Press Club DC
If these books had been distributed by a fringe right-wing organisation, they might have caused minor embarrassment. But they are being distributed by leading politicians from the ruling LDP, including a key member of the party’s International Information Investigation Committee (LDP/IIIC). One of the politicians actively distributing the books in the United States has since been appointed the special advisor to the prime minister on cultural diplomacy. [Another, Lower House member, Katsuyuki KAWAI, was recently appointed special advise to the prime minister. Dr. Inoguchi has a PhD from Yale University and is on Japan's National Commission for UNESCO.]

On 19 June 2015, the LDP/IIIC presented Prime Minister Abe with an interim report on proposed measures to counter the ‘anti-Japanese propaganda of China and South Korea etc’. Abe’s reported response was to exhort the committee to ‘further strengthen its efforts’. On 19 September, the Committee passed a resolution that blamed the distortion of ‘international society’s perception of our country’s history’ on ‘lies’ disseminated by the liberal Asahi newspaper. It went on to call for a national information policy that would ‘change from the merely “neutral” or “defensive” stance to a more positive dissemination of information’. The dissemination of History Wars and Getting Over It appears to be a step in this ‘positive dissemination’ campaign.

This is deeply concerning as it suggests that the campaign has been endorsed by Abe and is being carried out by key figures in the ruling LDP party. These actions are inconsistent with Abe’s promise to the global community in his statement on 14 August. Historical revisionism that denounces the Kono Statement and whitewashes the record of Japanese colonialism is incompatible with Abe’s expressions of ‘deep remorse’ and promises to ‘engrave in our hearts the past’.

There is no evidence to suggest that the extremist views expressed in these two books are shared by most ordinary Japanese people. The actions by members of the LDP are undermining decades of hard work by many Japanese civil society groups to heal the wounds of past violence. Such factually inaccurate accounts of Japan’s war history can only damage the standing of Japan in the international community. The time has come for a more reasoned approach from all participants in these tragic and destructive ‘history wars’.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Russia announces plans to build military base on disputed Kurile Islands


Seventy Years After the End of WWII, the Kuriles Still Roil Russian-Japanese Relations

By: Dr. John C. K. Daly, Jamestown Foundation


On October 22, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia plans to build a military base in the Kurile Islands, annexed by the Soviet Union from Japan at the end of World War II (Zerkalo Nedeli, October 22). Shoigu did not specify what the facility would be. Following Shoigu’s remarks Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the government was studying the Russian defense minister’s statements, telling a press conference in Tokyo, “We do not have accurate data, [due to] the form in which the declaration was made, so there will be no further response until after a full examination of this information is made. Our position remains unchanged” (Vzgliad, October 23). Tokyo’s position, since 1945, has been that Russia must return the four southernmost Kurile Islands, a demand that Russia has consistently refused.

The Kurile archipelago straddles the western Pacific Ocean from the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido to the southern tip of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The four southernmost of the chain’s 18 islands—Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and the Habomai islets—are called the Southern Kuriles by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan. The dispute involves the four islands seized by Soviet forces after the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) declared war on Japan, on August 8, 1945.

The declaration came three months to the day after the end of the war in Europe, as Joseph Stalin had promised his Western allies at both the Yalta and subsequent Potsdam conferences that the USSR would enter the Pacific theater against Japan after European military operations ended. The declaration nullified the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact of April 13, 1941, which was to run for five years. By September 1, the Soviet seizure of the Kuriles was complete. Since 1956, Japan has persistently demanded the return of the “Northern Territories,” but both the USSR and, since 1991, the Russian Federation, have refuted Japanese claims.

During the Cold War, the Kuriles assumed increasing strategic importance for the USSR because they block the entrance to the Sea of Okhotsk. Beginning in the late 1960s, the Soviet navy introduced the Yankee-class submarine, armed with 16 SS-N-6 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). At that time, many Western analysts predicted that the USSR would assume a “bastion defense” concept for this and successive ballistic missile submarines. The “bastion defense” concept involves removing ballistic missile submarines from enemy coastlines into Soviet maritime “bastions”—one of which being the Sea of Okhotsk—making it both difficult for enemy maritime forces to penetrate and easier for the Soviet military to defend (Richard L. Haver, “Soviet Navy Perspectives,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1988, p. 236).

Yet, Russia’s interest in retaining the Kuriles is not solely nationalistic and military. On Iturup, near the Kudriavyi volcano, is the world’s richest known deposit of rhenium, a rare earth element used in alloys to create components for missile and supersonic aircraft technology (Interfax, August 10). Moreover, nickel-based rhenium super-alloys are used in combustion chambers, turbine blades and jet engine exhaust nozzles. The Iturup rhenium deposit’s discovery was announced in 1994 (Nature 369, May 5, 1994, pp. 51–52).

Because of this element’s low availability relative to demand, rhenium is among the most expensive of metals; in March in the wake of earthquakes in top producer Chile, prices of refined rhenium pellets, used in heat-resistant alloys by the aircraft industry, were quoted at $4,000–$5,200 per kilogram, up from around $3,600–$5,000 per kg the previous week (Reuters, March 31). In August 2015, Interfax reported that Kurile Island production of rhenium could reach up to 40 tons by the year 2025 (Interfax, August 10).

Other mineralogical deposits in the Kuriles include thousands of tons of titanium and iron ore, along with 1,867 tons of recoverable gold and 9,284 tons of silver. The islands are also surrounded by rich fishing grounds (Pravda, January 26, 2012).

Three months before Shoigu made his announcement of new Kurile Island military facilities, Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev told reporters that the island chain would be included as a territory of priority development (TOR) for Russia, along with two areas in Khabarovsk krai and one in Primorye. Medvedev added that the total funding of the Kurile program was set at $1.1 billion over the next decade, further noting that he planned to visit the Kurile Islands in the future (Vzgliad, July 23). More recently, on October 15, emphasizing Russia’s military interests in the contested archipelago, Russian Eastern Military District spokesman Aleksandr Gordeev announced that advanced Russian Su-35 fighter jets carried out military exercises near the Kurile Islands (TASS, October 15).

The Kurile dispute remains unresolved since World War II and has kept Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty (see EDM, July 31, October 9). Farther afield, Russia’s expansion of its military bases in both the Arctic and Kurile Islands, combined with its intervention in Syria, is causing concern in the West. An official of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), speaking on condition of anonymity, recently told Voice of America, “Russia is increasingly assertive and unpredictable” (Voice of America, October 23). 

Unlike Japan’s diplomatic dispute with South Korea over the Liancourt Rocks or the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, also claimed by China and Taiwan, the Kurile issue is the result of military action, not contested sovereignty claims based on historical maps and documents. As Vladimir Putin’s administration has been increasingly flexing Russia’s military prowess against opponents ranging from NATO to the Islamic State, it would seem that diplomacy remains Japan’s best option, despite a lack of success over seven decades.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Monday in Washington, October 26, 2015

OVERCOMING THE LIMITS TO GROWTH: SUSTAINABILITY LESSONS FROM JAPAN. 10/26, 10:00-11:15am. Sponsor: CNEAPS, Brookings. Speakers: Mireya Solís, Senior Fellow, Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies, Brookings; Hiroshi Komiyama, Chairman, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Founder, Advisory Board, U.S.-Japan Research Institute, President Emeritus, University of Tokyo.

click to order
PUTIN’S CRIMEAN GAMBLE: RUSSIA, UKRAINE, AND THE NEW COLD WAR. 10/26, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Brookings. Speaker: author Marvin Kalb, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy; Moderator: Martin S. Indyk, Executive Vice President, Brookings.

THE RISE OF THE WORLD'S POOREST COUNTRIES. 10/26, Noon-2:00pm, Lunch. Sponsor: National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Speakers: Steven Radelet, Donald F. McHenry Chair in Global Human Development, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Richard Messick, Senior Contributor, Global Anticorruption Blog; Moderator: Marc F. Plattner, Vice President, Research and Studies, NED.

click to order
DEVOTION: A TALE OF COURAGE FROM THE "FORGOTTEN WAR". 10/26, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI). Speakers: Adam Makos, Author, Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice; Lt. Gen. Wallace "Chip" Gregson (USMC, Ret.), Senior Advisor at Avascent International, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs; James Person, Ph.D, Deputy Director, History & Public Policy Program, Coordinator, Center for Korean History & Public Policy, Wilson Center.

EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION: A CONVERSATION WITH PAKISTAN'S CIVIL SOCIETY LEADERS. 10/26, 4:00-5:15pm, Reception. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speaker: The 2015 Emerging Leaders of Pakistan, including Ali Haider, Anam Bhatti, Danish Ali Bhutto, Fakiha Ali, Fatima Rizwan, Hussain Haider, Khalid Khawaja Mushtaq, Rafia Farooqui, Rizwan Shoukat, Saima Feroz, Sawai Mal, Syed Azhar Shah, Usman Khan, Zahra Ali, and Zulqarnain Jameel; Moderator: Nazia Khan, Assistant Director, South Asia Center, Atlantic Council.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule April 20-26, 2015

Monday, April 20, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:53 Depart from private residence
09:06 Arrive at office
09:07 Meet with Minister in charge of Abduction Issue Yamatani Eriko
09:40 End meeting with Ms. Yamatani
09:41 Meet with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji
10:02 End meeting with Mr. Hiramatsu
10:34 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu; Administrative Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Sugiyama Shinsuke; Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs Yamasaki Tatsuo; Administrative Vice-Minster of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Harihara Hisao; Administrative Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ishiguro Norihiko; Administrative Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Muto Hiroshi; and MOFA’s Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa
11:21 End meeting with Mr. Kato, Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Yamasaki, Mr. Harihara Hisao, Mr. Ishiguro, Mr. Muto, and Mr. Uemura

PM
12:41 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
01:01 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
01:15 Speak with Governor of Mie Prefecture Suzuki Eikei
01:26 Finish speaking with Mr. Suzuki
01:27 Speak with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro and LDP Upper House member Iwaki Mitsuhide
01:41 Finish speaking with Mr. Kimura and Mr. Iwaki
01:42 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shitaro, and MOFA’s Mr. Saiki and Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Ihara Junichi
02:04 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Saiki, and Mr. Ihara
02:36 Interview with American newspaper Wall Street Journal
03:33 Interview ends
03:50 Receive a courtesy call from Speaker of Milli Mejlis (Parliament) of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ogtay Asadov
meeting with Heike Associaiton
04:01 Courtesy call ends
04:15 Speak with Chairman of National Heike (Taira Clan) Association Nozaki Hiroshi and colleagues
04:23 Finish speaking with Mr. Nozaki and colleagues
04:24 Meet with Mr. Yachi, MOFA’s Mr. Saiki, Mr. Sugiyama, and Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji
04:57 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Saiki, Mr. Sugiyama, and Mr. Tomita
04:58 Depart from office
05:00 Arrive at Diet
05:01 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:02 Speak with Mayor of Shizuoka City (Shizuoka Prefecture) Tanabe Nobuhiro
05:03 Finish speaking with Mr. Tanabe
05:04 LDP Officers Meeting
05:15 Meeting ends
05:23 Leave LDP President’s Office
05:24 Depart from Diet
05:26 Arrive at office
05:43 Ministerial Council on Monthly Economic Report and Other Relative Issues meeting
05:56 Council meeting ends
06:10 Speak with Mr. Yachi and Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanehara Nobukatsu
06:19 Finish speaking with Mr. Yachi and Mr. Kanehara
06:20 Meet with LDP Lower House member Kawai Katsuyuki
06:38 End meeting with Mr. Kawai
07:28 Depart from office
07:41 Arrive at Fuji TV in Daiba, Tokyo
08:00 Appear on news program
08:49 Finish appearance
09:09 Depart from Fuji TV
09:31 Arrive at private residence

Tuesday, April 21, 2015
AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:41 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:54 Arrive at office
07:58 Meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro, Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Director-General of Budget Bureau Kagawa Shunsuke, Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs Yamasaki Tatsuo, and Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu
08:25 End meeting with Mr. Aso, Mr. Kishida, Mr. Kagawa, Mr. Yamasaki, Mr. Asakawa
08:29 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:38 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:40 Meet with Mr. Aso, MOF’s Mr. Kagawa, Director-General of Tax Bureau Sato Shinichi, and Mr. Asakawa
09:22 End meeting with Mr. Aso, Mr. Kagawa, Mr. Sato, and Mr. Asakawa
09:35 Meet with Minister in charge of TPP Amari Akira, Chief Domestic Coordinator of Governmental Headquarters for TPP Sasaki Toyonari and Deputy Chief Negotiator Oe Hiroshi
09:50 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Sasaki, and Mr. Oe
09:51 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
10:25 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
10:28 Meet with resident US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy
11:00 End meeting with Ms. Kennedy
11:04 Receive a courtesy call from the winners of the 2015 (31st) Japan Prize
11:19 Courtesy call ends
11:20 Speak with the governor of Fukui Prefecture Nishikawa Issei
11:26 Finish speaking with Mr. Nishikawa
11:27 Depart from office
11:30 Arrive at ANA InterContinental Hotel Tokyo in Akasaka, Tokyo. Lunch meeting with former mayor of Yuya-cho, Yamaguchi Prefecture Fujita Yoshihisha and others at Chinese restaurant Karin within hotel
11:48 Depart from hotel
11:55 Arrive at Diet
11:57 Enter Lower House Chamber
11:58 Speak with LDP Lower House member Kishi Nobuo

PM
12:00 Finish speaking with Mr. Kishi
12:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
12:04 Speak with LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Hosoda Hiroyuki
12:09 Finish speaking with Mr. Hosoda
12:49 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
12:50 Leave Lower House Chamber
12:51 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Office. Greet Lower House Speaker Oshima Tadamori
12:53 Leave Lower House Speaker’s Office
12:54 Depart from Diet
12:56 Arrive at office
12:58 Meet with Chairman of LDP Election Strategy Committee Motegi Toshimitsu
01:24 End meeting with Mr. Motegi
01:31 Depart from office
01:40 Arrive at Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Moto-Akasaka, Tokyo. Attend Spring Garden Party with wife Akie
03:18 Depart from Akasaka Imperial Gardens
03:25 Arrive at office
04:32 Interview open to all media: when asked “the possibility of holding a Japan-China Summit meeting during the Asian-African Conference,” Mr. Abe answers, “if there is a chance to hold a summit meeting in a natural way, I am ready. I hope to Japan and China can return to the origin of mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests and further improve our relations.”
04:35 Interview ends
04:36 Depart from office
04:55 Arrive at Haneda Airport
05:21 Depart from airport on personal government aircraft bound for Indonesia in order to attend 60th Anniversary of Asian African Conference Commemoration Summit
(Local time in Jakarta City, Indonesia)
Arrive at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta City, Indonesia
Arrive at Hotel Mulia Senayan in Jakarta City
Stay night at hotel

Wednesday, April 22, 2015
AM
(Local time in Jakarta City, Indonesia)
Attend 60th Anniversary of Asian African Conference (Bandung Conference)
Commemoration Summit at Jakarta Convention Center. Commemorative photo session. Opening Ceremony
Offer flowers at Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery in Jakarta City. [military casualties and veterans from Indonesia's War of Independence as well as many Japanese veterans of the Imperial Japanese Army who assisted]
Conference with Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ibrahim Mahlab within convention center
Give speech at the conference

PM
(Local time in Jakarta City, Indonesia)
Working lunch with King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al Hussein at Hotel Mulia Senayan
Conference with President of Indonesia Joko Widodo within convention center. Conference with Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina
Conference with President of China Xi Jinping. Interview open to all media. Conference with President of Iran Hassan Rouhani
Stand and speak with Foreign Minister of Republic of Tunisia Baccouche Taieb.
Dinner meeting at Merdeka Palace
Stay night at hotel

Thursday, April 23, 2015
AM
(Local time in Jakarta City, Indonesia)
Depart from Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta City on personal government aircraft

PM
05:38 Finish attendance of 60th Anniversary of Asian African Conference Commemoration Summit, arrive at Haneda Airport on personal government aircraft
05:55 Depart from airport
06:15 Arrive at Imperial Palace. Register return to Japan
06:22 Depart from Imperial Palace
06:39 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Friday, April 24, 2015
AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:32 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:44 Arrive at office
08:04 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:17 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:20 Meet with Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio; Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Miyazawa Yoichi; Minister of the Environment Mochizuki Yoshio; and Commissioner of Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Ueda Takayuki
08:46 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mt. Miyazawa, Mr. Mochizuki, and Mr. Ueda
08:47 Meet with Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ohta Akihiro
09:09 End meeting with Mr. Ohta
09:23 Meet with Special Advisor to President of LDP Hagiuda Koichi
09:40 End meeting with Mr. Hagiuda
10:14 Meet with MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji
11:01 End meeting with Mr. Saiki and Mr. Tomita
11:41 Meet with Chairman of Japan-US Business Council Ishihara Kunio
11:56 End meeting with Mr. Ishihara
11:59 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu

PM
12:39 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
01:19 Meet with Minister in charge of TPP Amari Akira and Chief Domestic Coordinator of Governmental Headquarters for TPP Sasaki Toyonari
02:02 End meeting with Mr. Amari and Mr. Sasaki
02:08 Meet with Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, MOFA’s Administrative Vice-Minster for Foreign Affairs Sugiyama Shinsuke, Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji and MOF’s Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs Yamasaki Tatsuo and Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu
02:45 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Tomita, Mr. Yamasaki, and Mr. Asakawa
02:46 Speak with Governor of Fukuoka Prefecture Ogawa Hiroshi
02:49 Finish speaking with Mr. Ogawa
02:51 Meet with Mr. Kishida; Administrative Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Sakamoto Yasuo; Mr. Sugiyama; Administrative Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Harihara Hisao; Administrative Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ishiguro Norihiko; Administrative Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Muto Hiroshi; and Administrative Vice-Minister of Defense Tokuchi Hideshi
03:57 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Sakamoto, Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Harihara, Mr. Ishiguro, Mr. Muto, and Mr. Tokuchi
04:20 Speak with Cabinet Advisor Hamada Koichi
04:33 Finish speaking with Mr. Hamada
04:34 Meet with Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji and MOD’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
05:01 End meeting with Mr. Tomita and Mr. Kuroe
05:24 Interview with Yukan Fuji
05:57 Interview ends
05:58 Speak with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
06:01 Finish speaking with Mr. Kimura
06:03 NSC meeting
06:24 Meeting ends
06:25 Meet with LDP Lower House member Nukaga Fukushiro
06:43 End meeting with Mr. Nukaga
06:59 Depart from office
07:00 Arrive at official residence


Friday, October 23, 2015

Japan’s public diplomacy of churlish cluelessness

From the Yushukan
BY JEFF KINGSTON director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan and APP Member

First published in The Japan Times October 17, 2015

Enough is enough. How dare UNESCO inscribe primary sources and a wartime video about the Nanking mayhem into global memory? I fully support the Japanese government’s threats to withdraw funding from UNESCO to protest its recent decision to include a dossier submitted by China, “Documents of Nanjing Massacre,” in the Memory of the World Register. Nothing could better highlight Japan’s bumbling public diplomacy, or pettifogging about its shared history with Asia.

Perhaps the money saved could be used to establish a “Forgetting of the World Registry,” an institution that would surely do a brisk business as so many nations would love to cleanse their reputations and bury their darkest moments in such a repository. The Yushukan Museum adjacent to Yasukuni Shrine could serve as a model for such an initiative as the displays regarding Japan’s era of imperialism are meticulously scrubbed of any atrocities, while the wartime leaders who led the rampage through Asia between 1931 and 1945 — liberating tens of millions of oppressed Asians from the miseries of life, while enslaving countless others — are presented as martyrs who sacrificed their lives for a noble mission.

I think the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should make a publicized visit with a phalanx of LDP lawmakers to the museum, perhaps inviting UNESCO representatives, so everyone can see that there was no Nanking Massacre, no mistreated prisoners of war, no Unit 731 vivisection experiments on those POWs, no “comfort women” and indeed no Asian victims whatsoever of Japanese colonialism or aggression. Now that is airbrushing with verve!

At a news conference following the UNESCO decision, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga complained about the lack of transparency in the process of evaluating the documents. But truth be told, the Japanese government has a rather mixed record on this issue. Nonetheless, Suga confirmed the government’s official position that Japanese soldiers killed many noncombatants and engaged in the plundering of China’s wartime capital. So what it boils down to is Japan quibbling over the precise scale of the atrocity that it owns up to committing, caviling about exactly how many died and were raped in the Rape of Nanking.

Sure there are some reactionary Japanese who deny that a massacre ever took place, but Abe has denied denying this. Alas at the time nobody had an abacus handy to record every single Chinese soldier, hands tied behind their back, mowed down on the banks of the river by machine-gun fire, nor was anyone meticulously keeping track of the rapes and slaughter of noncombatants, but a Japanese Army Veterans Association survey of members who were actually there, which was published in the group’s magazine in 1985, confirms that atrocities were widespread. Conservative historian Ikuhiko Hata actually revised his casualty estimates significantly upward after the publication of the diary of John Rabe, a German employee of Siemens and member of the Nazi party who witnessed the outrages and tried desperately to protect as many Chinese as he could from marauding Japanese soldiers.

In terms of public diplomacy, the Abe government’s fulminating damages Japan’s reputation because it sends a message that the government is seeking to downplay or deny the atrocities committed by the Imperial armed forces in the war of aggression Tokyo instigated against China. Its denunciation of UNESCO makes Japan appear churlish and clueless while handing China a rare diplomatic victory.

Moreover, there is very little glory in hypocrisy. UNESCO also accepted two sets of archives compiled by Japan, including a submission about the mistreatment of Japanese detainees by the Soviet Union. Furthermore, UNESCO did not accept China’s dossier on the comfort women, a decision that further undermines Japan’s intemperate attack on UNESCO’s alleged bias. No complaints about lack of transparency there. And, to put it delicately, accusations that Beijing is politicizing UNESCO seem inconsistent. Is Japan alone allowed to position itself as a victim of World War II while nations victimized by Japanese imperialism are castigated for drawing attention to Japan’s misdeeds? Tokyo’s finger-pointing is just as petulant and diplomatically deplorable as Washington’s legendary UNESCO-bashing.

The Abe government has issued guidelines that require Japanese textbook publishers to present history that conforms to the government’s views, and compelled deletion of passages that don’t, but seems to have gotten carried away with its revisionist hubris in ways that tarnish Japan’s global image.

In July, the government also made a hash of the UNESCO designation of 23 Meiji Era (1868-1912) industrial sites after some very public wrangling with South Korea. Seoul had opposed the listing of seven sites honoring Japan’s modernization because they involved over 50,000 Korean forced laborers, but finally acquiesced to Japan’s proposal. This is because Japan agreed to establish an information center that would acknowledge the miserable conditions experienced by Koreans and because Kuni Sato, Japan’s ambassador to UNESCO, stipulated, “Japan is prepared to take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites.”

This meeting of minds was short lived as Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida soon thereafter asserted — quite wrongly — that “forced to work” does not mean “forced labor.” His remarks were probably aimed at smoothing the ruffled feathers of benighted LDP constituencies, but that does not make them any less fatuous and unbecoming of Japan’s top diplomat.

Earlier this year it was announced that Japan would treble its budget for public diplomacy to $500 million, apparently a response to perceptions that the governments of China and South Korea are embracing a more assertive diplomacy aimed at tarnishing Japan’s reputation. There is a worry that Japan’s diplomats have been ciphers on the world stage, adopting a reactive and ineffective approach to countering misinformation and misinterpretation of government policies and initiatives. Now they can’t complain about a lack of firepower in what is often likened to a public relations war. But based on Japan’s recent miscues, taxpayers have every right to complain that this gold-plated, brasher diplomacy is undermining Japan’s stature.

Actually, Japan’s reticent diplomacy over the years has paid dividends as polls show that Americans rate Japan more highly on history issues than Germany, a nation usually held up as the model penitent. It takes a quiet confidence for a government to acknowledge and atone for a shameful past, build a track record of peace and believe that, warts and all, global support will follow. Polls show that Japan’s self-effacing style over the years has won widespread admiration for Brand Japan, but this is now at risk from the Abe government’s swaggering public diplomacy, a shift in tone that reflects a fundamentally feeble self-esteem.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule April 13-19, 2015

Monday, April 13, 2015
AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:12 Depart from private residence
09:26 Arrive at office
09:55 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
10:27 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
10:35 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director General of Secretariat of Cabinet Office’s International Peace Cooperation Headquarters
Yamamoto Jota, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji and Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji, and Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
11:20 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Yamamoto, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Tomita, and Mr. Kuroe
11:22 Depart from office
11:31 Arrive at Iwatani Hydrogen Fuelling Station in Shiba Park, Tokyo. Attend opening ceremony, deliver address
11:46 Depart from Iwatani Hydrogen Fuelling Station
11:55 Arrive at office

PM
12:04 Ruling Party Liaison Conference
12:27 Conference ends
12:29 Film video message for the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Spine Surgery and Related Research
12:36 Finish filming
01:35 Speak with Okazaki Akiko, wife of former resident Ambassador to Thailand the late Okazaki Hisahiko
01:40 Finish speaking with Ms. Okazaki
02:34 Receive a courtesy call from Vice President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia Alvaro Marcelo Garcia Linera
02:49 Courtesy call ends
02:51 Meet with Chairman of Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum and former Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Omi Koji and LDP Lower House member Omi Asako
03:26 End meeting with Mr. Omi and Ms. Omi
04:57 Depart from office
04:59 Arrive at Diet
05:00 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:01 LDP Officers Meeting
05:25 Meeting ends
05:26 Meet with LDP Vice-President Komura Masahiko, LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu, Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro, and colleagues
05:41 End meeting with Mr. Komura, Mr. Tanigaki, Mr. Nikai, and colleagues
05:42 Leave LDP President’s Office
05:43 Depart from Diet
05:45 Arrive at office
05:56 Meet with Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)’s Director-General of Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau Sugawara Ikuro also attends
06:13 End meeting with Mr. Amari
06:18 Depart from office
06:31 Arrive at Chinese restaurant Turandot in Akasaka, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Vice-Chairman of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), President of Marubeni Kokubu Fumiya, Executive Vice-President of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation Ota Katsuhiko, and others
07:08 Depart from restaurant
07:19 Arrive at Izumi Garden Tower in Roppongi, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Governor of Kyoto Prefecture Yamada Keiji, President of Keio University Seike Atsushi, Chairman of Obayashi Corporation Obayashi Takeo, President of Nippon Life Insurance Company Tsutsui Yoshinobu, and colleagues at Sumitomo Hall within building
09:11 Depart from Izumi Garden Tower
09:28 Arrive at private residence

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:06 Depart from private residence
08:20 Arrive at office
08:27 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:37 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:40 Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters meeting
09:00 Meeting ends
09:27 Meet with Chairman of Interchange Association, Japan (the representative office of Japan in Taiwan) Ohashi Mitsuo
10:04 End meeting with Mr. Ohashi
10:05 Speak with MOD’s Director-General of Bureau of Personnel and Education Manabe Ro and Vice-Chief of Joint Staff Council Iwata Kiyofumi
10:15 Finish speaking with Mr. Manabe and Mr. Iwata
10:31 Depart from office
10:34 Arrive at LDP Party Headquarters
10:35 Enter President’s Reception Room
10:37 Meet with Yokoda Sakie and Yokoda Shigeru, the parents of Yokoda Megumi who is a Japanese citizen abducted by North Korean government
10:54 End meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Yokoda
10:55 Leave room
10:56 Depart from LDP Party Headquarters
10:59 Arrive at office
11:20 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
11:45 End meeting with Mr. Saiki

PM
01:13 Meet with Secretary-General of Headquarters for Abduction Issue Ishikawa Shoichiro
01:33 End meeting with Mr. Ishikawa
02:26 Receive a courtesy call from Minister for President’s Office of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Aung Min
02:36 Courtesy call ends
03:01 Receive a courtesy call from Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Chairman of Executive Affairs Authority of the Government of Abu Dhabi
03:37 Courtesy call ends
03:44 Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, National Policy Agency (NPA)’s Director of Security Bureau Takahashi Kiyotaka, and Deputy Director-General of Public Security Intelligence Agency (PSIA) Sugiyama Haruki enter
03:57 Mr. Yachi, Mr. Takahashi, and Mr. Sugiyama leave
04:14 Mr. Kitamura leaves
04:15 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Intelligence and Analysis Service Oka Hiroshi
04:54 End meeting with Mr. Saiki and Mr. Oka
05:04 Receive a courtesy call from the Japan Cherry Blossom Queen and Miss Japan Goddess of Greenery on the occasion of the Green Feather Campaign
05:10 Courtesy call ends
05:23 Speak with Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture Kuroiwa Yuji
05:24 Finish speaking with Mr. Kuroiwa
05:38 Depart from office
05:44 Arrive at Imperial Hotel in Uchisaiwai-cho, Tokyo. Attend the Presidents’ Conference of the Association of Japan Local Banks in banquet hall Mainoma within hotel
06:02 Depart from hotel
06:08 Arrive at office
06:09 Council on Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan meeting
06:18 Council meeting ends
06:48 Depart from office
06:56 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Asada in Akasaka, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Chairman of the board of Mitsubishi Corporation Yorihiko Kojima and President of Fujifilm Holdings Komori Shigetaka
08:44 Depart from restaurant
09:01 Arrive at private residence

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:59 Depart from private residence
09:17 Arrive at office
09:40 Meet with Sankei Shimbun’s former Director of Seoul Branch Office Kato Tatsuya
10:00 End meeting with Mr. Kato
11:30 Meet with Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Amano Yukiya. MOFA’s Director-General of Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department Hikihara Takeshi also attends
11:50 End meeting with Mr. Amano

PM
12:05 Meet with Chief Representative of Komeito Yamaguchi Natsuo
01:02 End meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi
01:26 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Vice-Minister for Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji, and Cabinet Office Director-Generals for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru, Habuka Shigeki, and Tawa Hiroshi
01:50 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, Mr. Maekawa, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa
01:51 Meet with Minister in charge of TPP Amari Akira
02:16 End meeting with Mr. Amari
02:58 Meet with Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Shiozaki Yasuhisa. Director-General of Mnistry of Health Labour and Welfare (MHLW)’s Pension Bureau Katori Teruyuki also attends
03:36 End meeting with Mr. Shiozaki
04:31 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, MOD’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi
05:03 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
05:04 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
05:17 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
05:18 The fifth Thematic Meeting of the Industrial Competitiveness Council
05:32 Council meeting ends
06:09 Receive a courtesy call from Secretary-General of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurría
06:27 Courtesy call ends
06:41 Depart from office
06:43 Arrive at official residence

Thursday, April 16, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:56 Depart from official residence
08:57 Arrive at office
09:05 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
09:40 End meeting with Mr. Kato

PM
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:56 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Drawing Room
01:00 Leave room, enter Lower House Chamber
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
02:58 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
02:59 Leave Lower House Chamber
03:00 Depart from Diet
03:02 Arrive at Lower House 1st Diet Members’ Meeting Hall. Dental appointment at dentist’s office
03:42 Depart from Lower House 1st Diet Members’ Meeting Hall
03:44 Arrive at office
03:50 Speak with Cabinet Advisor Iijima Isao
03:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Iijima
04:00 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji and Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau Saiki Naoko
04:28 End meeting with Mr. Tomita and Ms. Saiki
04:48 Speak with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine professor Peter Piot. MOFA’s Director-General of African Affairs Department Maruyama Norio also attends
04:58 End meeting with Mr. Piot
05:07 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting
05:48 Council meeting ends
05:49 Meet with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Isozaki Yosuke
06:07 End meeting with Mr. Isozaki
06:10 Depart from office
06:33 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Monday in Washington October 19, 2015


PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE USAGE OF THE OCEANS – SECURITY, COLLABORATION AND DEVELOPMENT. 10/19, 8:15am-Noon Sponsors: SAIS, Johns Hopkins University; Foreign Policy Institute. Speakers: Sally Yozell, Senior Advisor, Office of the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, U.S. Department of State; Anne Merwin, Director, Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning, Ocean Conservancy; Johnna Polsenberg, Director, Ocean Health Index, Conservation Intl.; W. David Sohier, Deputy Director Office of Oceans and Polar Affairs, Department of State; James Borton, former correspondent for The Washington Times; Wallace Gregson Jr., Senior Director, China and the Pacific, Center for the National Interest; John McManus, Professor of Marine Biology and Ecology, University of Miami; Hayday H. Al Sahtout, Director, Arabian Shrimp Co.; Magued El Sayed, First Secretary, Embassy of Egypt; Ben Zaitchik, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Jorge Duran, Chief of the Secretariat, Inter-American Committee on Ports; Carmen Revenga, Director, Global Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy.

THE MORALITY OF NUCLEAR DETERRENCE. 10/19, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: Stimson Center. Speakers: George Perkovich, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie; Michael Krepon, Co-founder and Senior Associate, Stimson Center; Thomas Moore, Independent Consultant; Elbridge Colby, Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security; Drew Christiansen, Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Global Development, Georgetown University; Moderator: James M. Acton, Co-Director, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie.

THE GROWTH OF ISIS AND THE DETERIORATION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. 10/19, 1:00pm, Lunch Sponsor: Women’s Foreign Policy Group (WFPG). Speaker: Haleh Esfandiari, Wilson Center; Moderator: Tara Sonenshine, GWU, Fee.

CHARTING JAPAN’S ARCTIC STRATEGY. 10/19, 1:00-3:00pm. Sponsor: CNEAPS, Brookings. Speakers: Kazuko Shiraishi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in charge of Arctic Affairs; Heather Conley, Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic, Director, Europe Program, CSIS; Taisaku Ikeshima, Professor, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University; Aki Tonami, Researcher, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

PIRACY, FISHING AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING: A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CHALLENGE. 10/19, 2:00-3:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS’s Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies. Speaker: Erika Techera, Dean of Law, University of Western Australia.

A PROGRESS REPORT ON PAKISTAN’S INTERNAL SECURITY. 10/19, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Ikram Sehgal, Defense Analyst and Chairman, Pathfinder Group Pakistan; Shuja Nawaz, Fellow, South Asia Center, Atlantic Council.

THE U.S.-SOUTH KOREA SUMMIT SCORECARD AND FUTURE ALLIANCE. 10/19, 2:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Katharine Moon, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Yang Chang-seok, Auditor, Kaesong Industrial District Foundation; Bruce Klinger, Senior Research Fellow, Heritage; Troy Stangarone, Senior Director, Congressional Affairs and Trade, KEI; Kim Won-kyong, Executive VP, Samsung Electronics North America; Park Jin-ho, Chief of Staff to Secretary General Hwang Jin-ha, Saenuri Party; Leif-Eric Easley, Assistant Professor, Ewha University; Moderator: Duyeon Kim, non-resident Associate, Carnegie; Katy Oh Hassig, Senior Staff Member, Institute for Defense Analysis.

EURASIA’S EMERGING CONTINENTALISM: REGIONAL AND GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS. 10/19, 2:15-6:15pm. Sponsor: Reischauser Center for East Asian Studies, SAIS Johns Hopkins University. Speakers: Tsedendamba Batbayar, Mongolian Ambassador to Cuba; Sukhee Battulga, National University of Mongolia; Jae-Seung Lee, Korea University.

click to order
AMERICA'S SECURITY DEFICIT: ADDRESSING THE IMBALANCE BETWEEN STRATEGY AND RESOURCES IN A TURBULENT WORLD. 10/19, 3:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: RAND. Speakers: David Ochmanek, Senior Intelligence and Defense Analyst, RAND, Former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Andrew Hoehn, Senior Vice President of Research and Analysis, RAND, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy; Seth Jones, Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center, RAND.

RESTLESS EMPIRE: CHINA AND THE WORLD SINCE 1750. 10/19, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speaker: author Odd Arne Westad, ST Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations, Harvard University.


PRINCIPLES AND POWER: THE FUTURE OF U.S. STRATEGY TOWARDS CHINA. 10/19, 4:30pm. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics (IWP). Speakers: James Anderson, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Marine Corps University; Frank Marlo, Associate Professor of Strategic Studies, Marine Corps Command and Staff College.
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PREDICTING THE FUTURE: A LECTURE BY PHILIP TETLOCK. 10/19, 5:30-7:00pm, Reception. Sponsor: AEI. Speaker: Philip Tetlock, Annenberg University Professor, University of Pennsylvania; Moderator: Karlyn Bowman, Senior Fellow and Research Coordinator, AEI.

OBAMA AND PUTIN: BATTLEFIELD SYRIA. 10/19, 6:00pm, Reception. Sponsor: Women’s Foreign Policy Group. Speakers: Karen DeYoung, Senior National Security Correspondent, The Washington Post; Steven Lee Myers, Correspondent, The New York Times; Elisabeth Bumiller, Washington Bureau Chief, The New York Times, fee.

CARTOONS FOR VICTORY. 10/19, 6:30pm. Sponsor: Politics and Prose Bookstore. Speaker: Author Warren Bernard, Executive Director of Small Press Expo.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule April 6-12, 2015

Monday, April 6, 2015
AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:39 Depart from private residence
09:52 Arrive at office

PM
02:13 Meet with Chief Minister of Rajasthan State of India Vasundhara Raje. Resident Ambassador of India in Japan Deepa Gopalan and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department Yamada Takio also attend
02:28 End meeting with Chief Minister Raje
02:29 Meet with Chairman of LDP Diet Affairs Committee in House of Councillors Yoshida Hiromi and LDP Upper House member Yamamoto Ichita
03:15 End meeting with Mr. Yoshida and Mr. Yamamoto
03:54 Meet with Secretary-General for LDP in Upper House Date Chuichi
04:28 End meeting with Mr. Date
04:29 Meet with Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takaichi Sanae
05:05 End meeting with Ms. Takaichi
05:40 Receive a courtesy call from participants in the New Economy Summit 2015
06:03 Courtesy call ends
06:13 Depart from office
06:26 Arrive at hotel Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in Nihonbashi-Muromachi, Tokyo. Attend Arab Week Reception in banquet hall Grand Ballroom, deliver address
06:42 Depart from hotel
06:52 Arrive at sushi restaurant Sushi Jin in Kyobashi, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with President of Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd. Asahina Yutaka and colleagues
09:01 Depart from restaurant
09:23 Arrive at private residence

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:25 Depart from official residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:39 Arrive at office
07:49 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:01 Cabinet Meeting ends
10:55 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji, and MOD’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
11:30 End meeting with Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Tomita, and Mr. Kuroe
11:31 Meet with Chairman of Nippon Seinenkan Ozato Sadatoshi
11:43 End meeting with Mr. Ozato

PM
01:17 Depart from office
01:27 Arrive at Hotel New Otani in Kioi-cho, Tokyo. Attend New Economy Summit 2015 in banquet hall Tsurunoma within hotel, deliver address
01:42 Depart from hotel
01:49 Arrive at office
01:50 Speak with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
02:03 Finish speaking with Mr. Kimura
02:32 Meet with personnel of the JA Group, including the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-ZENCHU)
02:48 End meeting with personnel of the JA Group
03:30 Receive a proposal on Energy Mix from LDP Research Commission on Nuclear Energy Policies and Supply and Demand Issues
03:44 Finish receiving the proposal
03:54 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro and Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho enter
04:57 Mr. Tanaka leaves
05:01 Mr. Aso leaves
05:04 Education Rebuilding Implementation Council meeting
05:33 Council meeting ends
05:36 MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa enter
05:46 Mr. Uemura leaves
06:01 Mr. Saiki leaves
06:02 Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, and Director of Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Shimohira Koji enter
06:13 Mr. Yachi and Mr. Shimohira leave
06:32 Mr. Kitamura leaves
06:34 Depart from office
06:37 Arrive at Sanno Park Tower in Nagata-cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Mr. Kimura, LDP Lower House member Yagi Tetsuya and colleagues at Chinese restaurant Tameikesannouheichinrou within Sanno Park Tower
07:11 Depart from Sanno Park Tower
07:28 Arrive at hotel The Prince Sakura Tower Tokyo in Takanawa, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with friends at Japanese restaurant Takanawa-Shingenchaya within hotel
08:50 Depart from hotel
09:12 Arrive at private residence

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:32 Depart from private residence
08:45 Arrive at office
08:57 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
09:41 End meeting with Mr. Seko
10:06 Depart from office
10:31 Arrive at Haneda Airport
10:58 See off Emperor and Empress bound for Palau with wife Akie
11:40 Finish seeing off Emperor and Empress
11:43 Depart from Haneda Airport

PM

12:10 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:56 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
12:59 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
01:00 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
01:01 Upper House Budget Committee opens
05:19 Upper House Budget Committee adjourns
05:20 Leave room
05:21 Depart from Diet
05:23 Arrive at office
05:25 Speak with Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Yamaguchi Shunichi
05:31 Finish speaking with Mr. Yamaguchi
05:43 Receive a courtesy call from U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter
06:14 Courtesy call ends
06:15 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
06:31 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
06:35 Depart from office
06:40 Arrive at building Kasumigaseki-Commongate in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Attend the memorial service for the late former Japan Ambassador to Thailand Okazaki Hisahiko at conference center Kazan-Kaikan within building
06:55 Depart from building
07:00 Arrive at official residence

Thursday, April 9, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:27 Depart from official residence
07:28 Arrive at office
07:32 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:23 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:53 Depart from office
08:55 Arrive at Diet
08:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
08:57 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:58 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
09:00 Upper House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:10 Upper House Budget Committee recess
12:11 Leave room
12:12 Depart from Diet
12:14 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Upper House Budget Committee reopens
03:31 Upper House Budget Committee adourns
03:32 Leave room
03:33 Enter State Ministers’ Room
03:55 Leave room
03:56 Enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
03:57 Leave room, enter Upper House Chamber
04:01 Upper House Plenary Session opens
04:53 Leave seat during Upper House Plenary Session proceedings, enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
05:02 Leave room
05:03 Make rounds to President of Upper House Yamazaki Masaki, Vice-President Koshiishi Azuma, Chairman of Upper House Committee on Rules and Administration, and ruling and opposition parties
05:17 Finish making rounds
05:18 Depart from Diet
05:20 Arrive at office
05:21 Interview open to all media: when asked about the approval of 2015 budget bill, Mr. Abe answers, “I hope to send the warm waves of economic recovery all over the country. (In the current Diet session) I want to promote reforms on issues such as Japan Agricultural Cooperatives.”
05:23 Interview ends
05:53 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of North American Affairs Bureau Tomita Koji
06:16 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Saiki, and Mr. Tomita
08:20 Depart from office
08:45 Arrive at Haneda Airport
09:19 Reception for Emperor and Empress returning from Palau with wife Akie
09:24 Reception ends
09:29 Depart from Haneda Airport
09:58 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

American POWs in Japan



The following are profiles of the nine former POWs of Japan visiting Japan October 11-19, 2015 as guests of the Japanese government

All the men are in their 90s. One was captured in a hospital on Java after his U.S. Army Air Corps B-17 squadron evacuated in March 1942. Another fought on Corregidor AND the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea. Four are “China Marines.” Another, survived the Bataan Death March, and became Rev. Jerry Falwell’s treasurer and has an award named after him at Liberty University. Three were slave laborers at POW camps at factories and mines that are now part of Japan's new UNESCO World Industrial Heritage sites.

DIALOGUE WITH FORMER US PRISONERS OF WAR IN JAPAN 2015. 10/14, 6:30pm, Tokyo, Japan. Sponsor: Temple University Japan. Speakers: Nine former US POWs - Leland Chandler, William Howard Chittenden, Carl Dyer, Arthur Gruenberg, George Hirschkamp, George Rogers, Jack Warner, Clifford Warren, Joseph Demott; Moderator: Robert Dujarric, Director, Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS), Temple University.
YOU CAN ACCESS A VIDEO OF THE PROGRAM

LELAND CHANDLER, 92, lives in Galesburg, Illinois. A farm boy from Table Grove, Illinois, he enlisted in the U.S. Army on February 4, 1941. He was 18. On April 1st , he boarded the USAT Republic at San Francisco with 2,200 other soldiers headed for Manila. Arriving on April 22nd, he was assigned to the 60th Coast Artillery at Fort Mills on Corregidor Island at the entrance to Manila Bay. There he was a member of “H” or “Harford Battery” on Herring Field, Middleside helping man 3-inch anti-aircraft guns under the command of Capt. Warren Starr. Starting on December 8th (December 7th in Hawaii), with the Japanese invasion, Corregidor was bombed four to five times a day during the six-month long siege. The Americans surrendered on May 6, 1942. Capt. Starr recorded that his “battery fired about 875 rounds of 3-inch ammunition, and obtained observed hits on 14 planes.” Like most of the 12,000 men on Corregidor, Chandler was crowded into a small open area, the 92nd Garage, to wait nearly three weeks in the tropical sun with little food or water to be sent by boat to Manila. The men were then made to wade ashore before being paraded six miles down Dewey Boulevard on a “Victory March" to the old Spanish-built prison of Bilibid. Within a few days they were moved by train and foot to the squalid Cabanatuan POW Camp. On November 7, 1942, Mr. Chandler and over 1,400 American POWs were transferred to Japan via Formosa by the Hellship Nagato Maru. Initially, Mr. Chandler was a slave laborer for Yodogawa Tekkojo (today’s Yodokawa Steel Works, Ltd.) at the Osaka 3-D Yodogawa POW Camp He was a steel cutter in the steel mill working 12 to 15 hours each day on only two small bowls of rice a day. He was transferred in mid-May 1945 to Osaka 3-B Oeyama POW Camp where he toiled as a stevedore for Nippon Yakin Kogyo (today’s Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co., Ltd. or NYK) at Miyazu Harbor until the end of the war. After the Japanese guards disappeared and barrels of food descended from new B-29s, the prisoners decided to commandeer a Japanese train to Yokohama. There the POWs were deloused and fed and put on a ship to the Philippines and then back to San Francisco. The 5’11” Chandler weighed 185 pounds when captured, but only 85 pounds when liberated. He recalls “I made up my mind I was going to live, thank the good Lord,” and when “I broke my arm when a load of steel fell on it, I had another prisoner set it and I kept working. If you didn’t work you didn’t eat.” He spent seven months recuperating in hospitals before being discharged on April 7, 1946, at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. The next day he was hired by the Rock Island Arsenal and assigned to the Moline Airport (today’s Quad City International Airport) to provide fire protection for Army medical evacuations. After this service was discontinued, he joined the University of Illinois fire department. Two years later he joined the fire department at Chanute Air Force Base (decommissioned in 1993). He retired as Fire Chief from Chanute in 1974. For many years, Chandler and his wife enjoyed travel and RV camping. He likes woodworking and tinkering with projects in the shop/garage. He volunteers with the Care Committee at Church. He runs the CD player and sound system for the nursing home chapel services by his wife. He has been married to Ruth Chandler for 66 years.
POW# 389
Philippines POW# 1-10197


WILLIAM HOWARD CHITTENDEN, 95, resides in Wheaton, Illinois. Mr. Chittenden grew up in Chillicothe, Missouri. He enlisted in United States Marine Corps in1939 and started his basic training on October 30, 1939 at Twentynine Palms, San Diego. He was sent to China on May 5, 1940 aboard the USS Henderson (AP-1) with the 4th Regiment of the United States Marine Corp—also known as the China Marines—to be a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Peking (Beijing). Chittenden was captured with the 203 other Embassy Marine guards on December 8, 1941. He was first sent with all that were now called the North China Marines to Tientsin, and then on to the Woosung POW Camp outside Shanghai. In December 1942, he was moved to Kiangwan POW Camp, another suburb of Shanghai. There the POWs repaired roads and built a huge mountain for a military firing range that they referred to as Mt Fuji. On August 20, 1943, he was transferred from Kiangwan in Shanghai to Japan with 524 POWs to Osaka. He was taken to the POW Camp Tokyo 5-D Kawasaki, which was across from the main gate of a steel mill owned by Nippon Steel Tube & Mining Company (Nippon Kokan, today’s JFE Engineering Corporation). In this primitive and hazardous facility, he worked as a lathe operator and grinder operator. In June 1945, following the American bombings of the Kawasaki area, the POWs were moved to Niigata. Chittenden found himself at POW Camp Tokyo 5-B Niigata as a slave laborer loading and unloading cargo for Niigata Sea and Land Transportation Company or Niigata Kairiku Unso (today’s Rinko Corporation) until the end of the war. He was liberated on September 4, 1945, and put on a train to Yokohama. He was flown across the Pacific to Oakland, California arriving September 12th. Mr. Chittendan was discharged from the Marines Corps on February 16, 1946, as a Platoon Sergeant. He used the GI Bill to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing in 1949, from the University of Notre Dame and where he met his wife, Peggy, who was a student at the neighboring St. Mary’s. He went to work after graduation at the national headquarters of Sears, Roebuck & Company in downtown Chicago. He was quality assurance manager for the company until he retired in 1980. In retirement, he wrote and published his autobiography, From China Marine to JAP POW: My 1,346 Day Journey Through Hell. In retirement he enjoys travel, golf, tennis, scuba diving, and spending time with his family. Mr. Chittenden, a widower, was married for 59 years and had three children, two sons and a daughter
POW# 233

JOSEPH DEMOTT, 97, lives in Lititz, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on August 29, 1939 at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois. He trained as a radio operator with the 10th Air Force, 7th Bombardment Group 22nd Squadron. Mr. DeMott was part of the 22nd Squadron that flew on the Dec 17-18, 1941 from Hamilton Field, California to Hickam Field, Hawaii. As part of Major Kenneth Hobson’s B-17 crew, he helped pioneer the “Pacific route” from Hawaii on January 2, 1942 down through the South Pacific to Australia. Form there, they went to Malang, Java to join the rest of the 22nd on January 14th to reinforce Allied forces in the Netherlands East Indies. On the 15th, the ABDACOM (Australian British Dutch American Command) was formed with the mission to defend the Malay Barrier, which was defined as a line connecting the Malay Peninsula-Sumatra-Java-North Australia. On February 3rd, during a mission over Balikpapan (today’s Jakarta), Mr. DeMott was severely wounded in his leg and sent to a Dutch military hospital in Malang. Confined to hospital bed, he was unable to evacuate with his squadron at the end of February to Australia. The invading Japanese captured him on March 8, 1942. After several months when he was able to walk without crutches, he was sent to the western mountains of Java to a large POW camp for Dutch and British near Bandoeng (today’s Bandung), near Tjimahi that sent details out to do farming. This camp was possibly the Baros 5 Camp near the plantations of Lewigadjah. In late 1943, he was sent to “Bicycle Camp” in Batavia, Java. This camp had housed the Dutch 10th Infantry Battalion in Batavia, and took its name from the battalion’s use of bicycles for transportation. There he helped build fences and dig ditches as well as work on the docks. The prisoners never received official word that the war had ended. They simply realized something had changed when their treatment improved, they were allowed to go outside the Camp, and the Japanese officers no longer carried swords. On September 19, 1945, US Army Special Forces liberated the Camp. Mr. DeMott, starved, beaten and having temporarily lost his eyesight, never lost hope. He flew back to the States via Calcutta, Egypt, the Azores Islands, and Canada. In late October 1945, he arrived at LaGuardia Airport in New York. He was hospitalized on Staten Island, New York before going to Fletcher General Hospital in Cambridge, Ohio. He was discharged from the U.S. Army on May 20, 1946 with two Purple Hearts. Returning home, he used the GI Bill to obtain a BS in Engineering in 1949, from Pennsylvania State University and became an electrical engineer. After graduation, he worked at Sylvania Electric Products Inc. as a production engineer and then in telemetry for the Applied Science Corporation of Princeton (ASCOP). He retired from RCA as design developer, but went on to work as a plant manager in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Champion Blower & Forge Co. (today’s Champion Fan) for an additional five years. In July 1979, he took full retirement. A Ham radio operator most of his life, he also enjoyed gardening. His wife of 67 years, Kate, died in August 2015.
POW# - unknown

CARL DYER, 91, resides in Oglesby, Illinois. He grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Not a fan of schoolwork, Mr. Dyer at 16 convinced the U.S. Army recruiter that he was 18 and enlisted. Sworn in on March 17, 1941 at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, he was sent immediately to California and Fort McDowell (Angel Island). Barely a month later he was on a troop transport to Manila, arriving May 12, 1941. He was stationed with at Fort William McKinley as a member of the 12th Quartermaster Regiment Philippine Scouts supplying gasoline to the troops on Bataan. After Bataan was surrendered on April 9, 1942, he escaped the next day to Corregidor aboard a fresh water barge from Sisiman Cove near Mariveles—where most of the surrendered troops on Bataan began the Bataan Death March. On Corregidor, he was assigned to the defense of Monkey Point. After surrender on May 6th, he joined thousands of other POW on a small open area, the 92nd Garage, to wait nearly three weeks in the tropical sun with little food or water to be sent by boat to Manila. The men were then made to wade ashore before being paraded six miles down Dewey Boulevard on a “Victory March" to the old Spanish-built prison of Bilibid. Within a few days they were moved by train and foot to the squalid Cabanatuan #3 POW Camp. On November 7, 1942, Mr. Dyer and over 1,400 American POWs were transferred to Japan via Formosa by the Hellship Nagato Maruto. After arriving at the Port of Moji, Mr. Dyer was sent to POW Camp Osaka 4-B Tanagawa where he was a slave laborer for Tobishima-gumi (today’s Tobishima Corporation). There he helped build breakwater for a primitive dry-dock and submarine base. This camp was noted for the severe malnutrition of its prisonsers and an excessive death rate. It was closed March 20, 1945, and he was then moved to Osaka 8-D Naruo a POW camp to provide slave labor for Showa Denkyoku (Showa Electrode Company, Ltd., today’s SEC Carbon, Ltd.) for a graphite factory. This camp was closed in May and he was transferred Osaka 5-B Tsuruga on the Sea of Japan to be a slave stevedore for Tsuruga Harbor Transportation Company (company no longer exists). After the docks were bombed in June, the POWs were shifted between a brickyard and the port. It was at the dock that he listened with the Japanese workers to the Emperor say that the war had ended. After the first food airdrops into his POW camp, he and a number of fellow POWs walked out of the camp and commandeered a train to Tokyo. From there they were flown to Manila on August 29th and then boarded USS Rodman to San Francisco arriving there October 3, 1946. After a check up at Letterman Army Hospital, he was sent home to Fort Smith, Arkansas. He spent several more months at the Hot Springs Army-Navy General Hospital before he was discharged from the Army on March 15, 1946. He took advantage of the GI Bill by taking courses on mechanics at the Fort Smith High School. Mr. Dyer first worked at the Lowell Brickyard in Chicago and then as a tractor operator at the Caterpillar plant in Aurora, Illinois. After retiring in 1985, he and his wife moved to Hawaii, but returned to Illinois in September of 2000. Mr. Dyer was widowed in 2009 after 63 years of marriage to Jean, an Army nurse he met at the Letterman Army Hospital.
POW# 459
Philippines POW# 1-9778


ARTHUR GRUENBERG, 94, lives in Camano Island, Washington State. Mr. Gruenberg grew up on Long Island, New York and Colorado. He enlisted in the Marine Corps August 1, 1940, in Denver, Colorado and took his training at San Diego’s Marine Corps Recruit Depot. He was soon sent aboard the USS Chaumont (AP-5) via Manila to Shanghai to be part of A Company 1st Battalion of the 4th Marines—best known as the China Marines—that provided security for the Americans in the international settlement. As with most of the China Marines he was evacuated (either SS President Harrison or SS President Madison) November 27-28 to the Philippines to reinforce the defenses of the Islands. Prior to boarding the ship, he volunteered to test a new typhus vaccine with the result he arrived in the Philippines sick with typhus. Sent directly to Corregidor, he recovered in Malinta Tunnel and then was assigned to the 1st Battalion as a runner and telephone messenger through the siege of Corregidor. On May 6th, he delivered the surrender message from Major General Jonathan Wainwright to Lt Colonel Curtis T Beecher who commanded the 1st Battalion on East Sector-From Malinta Hill (inclusive) to the tail of the island. Like most of the 12,000 men on Corregidor, Mr. Gruenberg was crowded into a small open area, the 92nd Garage, to wait nearly three weeks in the tropical sun with little food or water to be sent by boat to Manila. The men were then made to wade ashore before being paraded six miles down Dewey Boulevard on a “Victory March" to the old Spanish-built prison of Bilibid. Within a few days they were moved by train and foot to the squalid Cabanatuan POW Camp #1. He arrived blind due to a vitamin A deficiency. US Army Dr Samuel Bloom was able to save his right eye’s site (this eye remains 20/20), but not the left. Mr. Gruenberg was eventually able to be sent to do farm work and other labor until he contracted malaria. In July 1944, Mr. Gruenberg, along with 1,540 other POWs, was taken aboard the Hellship Nissyo Maru via Formosa to Japan. After arriving at the port of Moji, Japan, he was sent to the POW Camp Fukuoka 7-B Futase (known as Shin-Iizuka) to be a slave laborer for Japan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd, (Nippon Seitetsu, today’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation. The camp is associated with the Fukuoka-Yamaguichi area awarded UNESCO World Industrial Heritage status this past July, albeit without mention of the hundreds of POW slave laborers who toiled there. At first assigned to build air raid shelters, he eventually ended up mining coal. His camp was liberated on September 16, 1945, and the POWs were put on trains to Nagasaki where many boarded Navy transport ships to San Francisco. Returning to the U.S., he spent approximately one year in three military hospitals: Oak Knoll, California; Glenwood Springs, Colorado; and St Albans Military Hospital, New York where they operated, ultimately, unsuccessfully on his left eye. Now a staff sergeant, he was able to reenlist in the Marine Corps under a waiver in September 1946. He was first sent to Washington, DC as a guard at the Naval Shipyard’s Naval Communications Annex. In Washington, he married and had two daughters. He was eventually assigned to the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard graves registration to escort WWII dead home. In the summer of 1950, he was transferred to Camp Pendleton and then to Korea. He arrived in time to participate in the legendary battle of the Chosin Reservoir. He was one of the handful of survivors of Fox Company’s (2n Battalion 7 Marine Rgt 1st ) bitter battle from November 27 through December 2, 1950 to protect, at all costs, a thin Toktong Pass escape route through the steep Nang­nim Mountains(See: The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat).Wounded shortly after this battle, he returned to the front in May until August 1951. Discharged September 10, 1952, he eventually went to work for the Denver water department and in 1954 founded his own excavating company. Moving to Seattle in 1966, he joined the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 working on construction project throughout the fast-growing region. He retired in 1980, to travel, fish, and enjoy life. Mr. Gruenberg oral history can be found as part of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.
POW# 599
Philippines PO# 1-9596


GEORGE HIRSCHKAMP, 95, resides in Sandpoint, Idaho. Born in Germany, he came to the U.S. with his mother in 1928, and settled in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn. At 18, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in February 1938, and took his basic training at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot. He was sent to the San Francisco Naval Station for instruction on becoming a radio communications operator. He was assigned mid-1940 to the 4th Marines as part of a detachment to the U.S. Embassy in Peking to work as a radio operator—part of a small, 130-man support unit stationed there before the war. December 8, 1941, they were all taken prisoner on what was the first day of the war. They were then transferred to Tientsin, followed by Woosung and then Kiangwan, the later two suburbs of Shanghai. At Woosung, Hirschkamp repaired Japanese vehicles and helped build a huge mountain for a military firing range that the POWs referred to as Mt Fuji. In July 1945, he was transferred to Japan via Manchuria and Pusan to northern Japan. He was fist sent to Hokodate #2 Akahira to be a slave laborer for an Asano coal mine owned by Sumitomo Mining (today’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation) and then to Hakodate 3-B Utashinai, he also mined coal, this time for the Sorachi Office of Hokkaido Shipping and Mining Company, Ltd., which is today’s Hokkaido Colliery & Steamship Co., Ltd. He was liberated from this camp on September 15, 1945. The POWs at this camp learned of the end of the war when the camp commander “ lined us up on the parade ground and informed us that hostilities had ceased,” Hirschkamp recalled. “Then we all had a drink of sake. The war had ended. The next morning, we woke up and - lo and behold - they were all gone,” he continued. They had abandoned us. From then on, everything became sweet.” The POWs left the camp on September 17th, and were put aboard a British destroyer and taken to Tokyo for processing before a long ship voyage to the States. After returning from Japan, he used the GI Bill to complete his GED and study mathematics at Morton College in Cicero, Illinois. He also married the woman who waited seven years for him to return from the Marines. Mr. Hirschkamp likes to recount that “When I got home, we dated a couple times and she had the brass to ask me, ‘When are we going to get married, George?’ “I stammered and stuttered and she finally said, ‘It’s June 1 [1946] or never.’ So we got married.” He worked for International Harvester in Illinois and eventually at Ford Aerospace’s plant in Newport Beach, California. He retired in 1980 and traveled the country until his wife of 62 years, Lorraine, passed away.
POW# unknown

GEORGE W. ROGERS, 96, resides in Lynchburg, Virginia. Mr. Rogers grew up in St Louis, Missouri and enlisted in the U.S. Army August 20, 1941, at Jefferson Barracks. He arrived on the Philippines October 1 and was assigned to 4th Chemical Company. At first a clerk/typist at Fort McKinley, he was soon fighting in the defense of Bataan with L Company of the 31st Infantry Regiment (US) after Japan’s December 8 invasion. American forces were short of food, ammunition, and reinforcements throughout the campaign against the better equipped and trained Japanese. All forces on Bataan were surrendered on April 9, 1942, and most were forced on the infamous Bataan Death March. Mr. Rogers endured the 65-mile trek up the Bataan Peninsula experiencing starvation, exhaustion, and beatings while witnessing merciless murders and torture. At the Camp O’Donnell where 1,500 Americans died over four months, he was a gravedigger. In August, he was moved to Cabanatuan #3 to farm rice and vegetables as well as duty building an airfield. On top of the beatings he received from the camp guards, Mr. Rogers and his fellow soldiers suffered through extreme pain in their feet and legs due primarily to dry or dry beriberi, a disease affecting the nerves and muscles. He also survived malaria and spent six months quarantined for what was thought to be amoebic dysentery. On July 17, 1944, he was one of 1541 POWs taken to Japan via Formosa aboard the Hellship Nissyo Maru. During the 18-day trip with barely any food or clean drinking water, extreme heat, rampant illness — both physical and mental—he said,  “I almost lost it, and then … I got a peace that came over me, and I just felt everything is going to be alright, just relax”; Rogers said. “As far as I’m concerned, God was at work again.” After arriving at the port of Moji, Japan, he was sent to POW Camp Fukuoka 3-B Yawata Japan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. (Nippon Seitetsu; today’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation) to work in the Yawata steel mill for the rest of the war. Yawata featured Japan’s first blast furnace and was one the Empire’s most important armament makers. It was the primary target for the second atomic bomb. Cloud cover from aerial bombing on August 8, 1945, prevented this, but succeed in destroying key production facilities and ending prisoner work at the mill. In July 2015, the site was given UNESCO World Industrial Heritage status, albeit without mention of the hundreds of POW slave laborers—American, British, Australian, Dutch, Portuguese, Jamaican, Indian, Malay, Chinese, and Arabians at the site. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the facilities of Yawata Steel Works in July 2014, to encourage the UNESCO application. On August 15, 1945, the camp commander announced that the war had ended and the guards disappear. The camp was liberated on September 13th. Mr. Rogers returned to the U.S. a gaunt, 6-foot-3, 85 pounds. Military doctors told him that it was unlikely that he would live past 45 or 50, keep his teeth, or have children. At 96, he retains his teeth, has five children, and displays “a contagious joy.” Mr. Rogers used the G.I. Bill to obtain an accounting degree from St. Louis University. Starting in 1973, Mr. Rogers was the CFO for Reverend Jerry Falwell (founder of the Moral Majority) overseeing his Old Time Gospel Hour television ministry and the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. He became Liberty University’s vice president of finance and administration in 1999, through to Rev Falwell’s death in 2007. In 2010, Liberty University named an award in Rogers' honor. The George Rogers Champion of Freedom Award is given annually to a man or woman who served in the United States Armed Forces and went above the call of duty, displaying extraordinary heroism while serving. The award is presented at a Flames football game during Liberty's Military Emphasis Week, held near Veterans Day. A bust of Rogers stands at the gate of Williams Stadium, the home of the Liberty Flames football team, as a tribute to Rogers for his sacrifices. Mr. Rogers was married 67 year to Barbara,who passed away this August.
POW# unknown
Philippines POW# 1-06096


JACK DOYLE WARNER, 94, lives in Elk City, Oklahoma. Mr. Warner grew up in western Oklahoma and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on October 18, 1939. After basic training at San Diego’s Marine Corps Recruit Depot his first duty was at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 25 miles north of San Francisco. In the summer of 1940, he was on a 148-day voyage to Shanghai to be part of A Company 1st Battalion of the 4th Marines—best known as the China Marines—that provided security for the Americans in the international settlement. In late November 1941, Mr. Warner thinking he was returning to the U.S. found instead that he and the regiment were being sent to the Philippines to defend the island of Corregidor from a potential Japanese invasion. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed Corregidor. He was stationed at Kindley Airstrip as a rifleman with the 2nd Marine Battalion. With the fall of Corregidor on May 6th, he and most of the 12,000 men on Corregidor were crowded into a small open area, the 92nd Garage, to wait nearly three weeks in the tropical sun with little food or water to be sent by boat to Manila. The men were then made to wade ashore before being paraded six miles down Dewey Boulevard on a “Victory March" to the old Spanish-built prison of Bilibid. Within a few days they were moved by train and foot to the squalid Cabanatuan POW Camp. In August 1942, his Japanese captors forced him and hundreds of surviving American troops to strip naked to be examined by Japanese military doctors. Warner and 300 Americans picked to be the first group of POWs to go to Japan. On September 21, the POWs were sent to Formosa aboard the Hellship Lima Maru. They spent two months there, ostensibly to learn Japanese. From Taiwan, the POWs were shipped aboard the Dainichi Maru arriving in Moji, Japan on November 25th. At first, Mr. Warner was a slave laborer at POW Camp Tokyo 1-D Yokohama, providing riveter labor for shipyard and ship construction. He was also forced to repair German ships that docked outside the Yokohama harbor. However, he said the Germans fed him better than the Japanese, who limited the POW diet to small amounts of rice and fish heads. “When we went out and riveted on a German ship, we always liked that because they carried hogs on their ships and they fed us two meals,” said Warner, “We got our ration plus what they gave us and we usually carried ours back to give to our buddies.” After the docks were bombed by in May 1945, he was sent to POW Camp Sendai 5-B Kamaishi, and toiled as a mechanic repairing slag cars at iron mill works owned by Japan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd, (today’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation). At the camp, Warner volunteered to take a beating for a Navy sailor who he said was in bad shape. “I don’t know what he had done, but he was a good kid and I knew him,” said Warner. “We knew he couldn’t take it if they give him a real beating.” In August 1945, he twice escaped from the camp. Miraculously, Camp Commander Makoto Inaki (from April 1944) did not have the escapees executed, but instead had them beaten and confined to the guardhouse. The second time he escaped, the war ended and he was advised by local Japanese to return to the camp for repatriation. He and a buddy jumped the evacuation team to Sendai and made their way to Yokohama. After a series of adventures included a tour of the city sanctioned by the commanding general, they flew out of Tokyo and island hopped to Oakland. On May 24, 1946 he returned to civilian life. After returning to his home, Mr. Warner used the G.I. Bill education benefits to take vocational agricultural classes at Hammon, Oklahoma’s high school. For 17 years he farmed until 1961 when his property became part of Foss Lake reservoir. He joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Retiring in 1982, he travelled with his wife, June, to all 50 states and many foreign countries. Married 68 years, he was widowed in 2014.
POW# 4463
Taiwan POW# 972


CLIFFORD WARREN, 91, resides in Shepherd, Texas. At 16, Mr. Warren left the family farm near Houston, Texas without his parent’s permission and enlisted in the U.S. Army in February 1941. Leaving behind the family’s farm was an easy decision, considering they had already experienced three crop failures, including two floods and one fire. His parents did not know where he was until he arrived in the Philippines aboard the USAT Republic on April 22, 1941. There he immediately sent his parents a letter explaining where he was and how long he believed he would be there. He became a member of the 60th Coast Artillery Regiment, 1st Battalion Battery “D” or “Denver” manning 3”anti-aircraft guns near Kindley Field on Corregidor Island. This battery was the first confront Japanese invading amphibious forces in May 1944. Unfortunately, shelling from Bataan had killed their commanding officer in last part of April, which undermined their effectiveness. With the fall of Corregidor on May 6th, he and most of the 12,000 men on Corregidor were crowded into a small open area, the 92nd Garage, to wait nearly three weeks in the tropical sun with little food or water to be sent by boat to Manila. The men were then made to wade ashore before being paraded six miles down Dewey Boulevard on a “Victory March" to the old Spanish-built prison of Bilibid. Within a few days they were moved by train and foot to the squalid Cabanatuan POW Camp. He was placed at a work detail to build an airfield in Lipa City in Batangas Province for 18 months. Most of the men were transferred from here in March of 1944 to construct another runway at Camp Murphy. In the summer of 1944, he was shipped to Japan via the Hellship Nissyo Maru. Upon arrival he was sent to POW Camp Nagoya 1-B Kamioka, where he was a slave laborer to mine lead and zinc for Mitsui Mining Co., the predecessor of today’s Nippon Coke & Engineering Co., Ltd. In July 2015, the site was given UNESCO World Industrial Heritage status, albeit without mention of the hundreds of POW slave laborers who toiled there. The camp, reportedly was for “hard cases” who were difficult for the Japanese to manage. Mr. Warner recalls that the POWs were repeatedly told that they would be killed if and when the country was invaded. Twice, he said, the guards would take them out and have them sit on the roads alongside the mountain. Then set up machine guns at either end of the road. After awhile they would dismantle the guns and take them back to work. He thinks they were practicing what they would do if there had been a land invasion. Toward end of August the Japanese camp commander escorted the POWs south by train. On the middle of the third day they could go no further due to track damage, but American forces were waiting there to truck any POW's who arrived back to Tokyo. From there they were flown to Okinawa. He remembers being able to smell beef stew on the airfield there from the field kitchens near the beach. But the first thing he wanted was coffee as he had not had any in four years! Five days later they were flown on B-24s to the Philippines. In the Philippines he was actually able to connect with a brother, Willie Kelso Warren, who he had not seen since before the war. He went by troop ship from there to San Francisco. He turned 21 the day they sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge October 15, 1945. After two days in San Francisco, he was sent by train to the McCloskey General Hospital in Temple, Texas (today’s Olin E. Teague Veterans' Medical Center in Temple, Texas). He was to be there for three months but was soon furloughed to spend the time at his parent's in Leggitt, Texas or in Beaumont, Texas courting, Ivene, his wife to be. He was discharged at Fort Sam Houston January 29, 1946, and married Ivene on October 6, 1946. Mr. Warren tried night school at the University of Houston and working days at Ford Motor Company. Severe PTSD made this difficult. He switched to working various positions operating machinery and in 1965 went to work for Brown & Root Engineering and Construction (today’s KBR Inc.) He helped run the engine rooms for the big offshore derrick barges. Later he was in the first group of Safety Officers Brown & Root trained to meet the new OSHA safety regulations. He in 1986 retired as the #2 Safety Man for Brown & Root construction of the nuclear power plant at Glen Rose, Texas, known as Comanche Peak. He was widowed in 1990 and remarried in 1997 to Myrtle Emmons.
POW# 488
Philippines POW# 1-11350