Monday in Washington, November 17, 2014

THE ECONOMIC AND SECURITY FUTURE. 11/17, 8:30am-1:30pm, Breakfast. Sponsor: Economists for Peace and Security. Speakers: Richard Kaufman, Bethesda Research Institute; Carl Conetta, Project on Defense Alternatives; Damon Silvers, Policy Director, AFL-CIO; James K. Galbraith, Economists for Peace and Security; Bill Spriggs, AFL-CIO; Marshall Auerback, Institute for New Economic Thinking; Rachel Cleetus, Union of Concerned Scientists; and more.

HISTORY, POLITICS, AND POLICY: U.S.-KOREA. 11/17, 9:00am-6:00pm. Sponsor: Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Brookings Institution. Speakers: Robert Gallucci, Georgetown University, President of MacArthur Foundation (2009-2014), Dean, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (1996-2009); Han Sung-joo, Professor Emeritus, Korea University, Foreign Minister, Republic of Korea (1993-1994), UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus (1996-1997); and more. 

2014 OPEN DOORS REPORT. 11/17, 9:30-10:30am. Sponsor: Institute of International Education (IIE). Speakers: Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan; Allan Goodman, IIE president and CEO.

AID FOR E-TRADE: ACCELERATING THE GLOBAL E-COMMERCE REVOLUTION. 11/17, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Europe Program, CSIS. Speakers: Dr. Kati Suominen, Adjunct Fellow, Europe Program, CSIS; Dr. Joshua Meltzer, Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution; Mr. Fabrizio Opertti, Chief, Integration and Trade Sector, Inter-American Development Bank; Ms. Jennifer Sanford, Senior Manager, International Trade & Energy Policy, Cisco Systems.

THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF URBANIZATION. 11/17, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Project on Prosperity and Development, CSIS. Speakers: Hazem Galal, Cities and Local Government Sector Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Scott McGuigan, Global Project Development Director, CH2M Hill; Charles North, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau of Economic Growth, Education, and Environment, U.S. Agency for International Development; R. Mukami Kariuki, Sector Manager, Urban Development and Services Practice, World Bank Group; and Robin King, Director of Urban Development and Accessibility, World Resources Institute; Moderator: Daniel F. Runde, Director, Project on Prosperity and Development, and William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis, Center for Strategic International Studies.

U.S.-KOREA RELATIONS IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY. 11/17, 10:30am-5:00pm. Sponsor: Asia Program, Wilson Center (WWC). Speakers: Kisuk Cho, Director, Public Diplomacy Center, Ewha Womans University; Eugene Bae, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Craig Hayden, Assistant Professor, American University; Marvin Ott, Senior Scholar, Wilson Center; Hochang Shing, Professor, Sogang University; James Person, Deputy Director, Wilson Center; Chris Nelson, Samuels Associates International; Dong Min Lee, Yonhap News Agency; Myung-bok Bae, Joongang Daily; Paul Eckert, Asian Affairs Journalist.

PUTIN AT VALDAI: RUSSIA'S BREAK WITH THE WORLD ORDER? 11/17, 11:00am-12:30pm. Sponsor: Center on Global Interests (CGI). Speakers: Clifford Gaddy, senior fellow at the Brookings Foreign Policy Program's Center on the United States and Europe, and co-founder and senior scientific adviser of the Russian-American Center for Research on International Financial and Energy Security, based at Penn State University; Ariel Cohen, senior research fellow in Russian and Eurasian studies and international energy policy in the Heritage Foundation's Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security.

MULTILEVEL GOVERNANCE AS A FRAMEWORK FOR REGIONALIZATION AND THE QUESTION OF TIBET: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND NEW PROSPECTS FOR CHINA'S TIBET POLICY. 11/17, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: GWU Elliott School. Speaker: Tashi Rabgey, research professor in international affairs at GWU.

THE MORAL CASE FOR FOSSIL FUELS. 11/17, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Heritage. Speaker: Alex Epstein, Author, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress.

THE NEW CONGRESS AND U.S. ENERGY POLICY. 11/17, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Marshall Institute. Speakers: Scott H. Segal, Partner, Bracewell & Giuliani; Mark Mills, CEO, Digital Power Group; Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; and member of the Board of Directors of the George C. Marshall Institute; William O’Keefe, President, Solutions Consulting, Inc. and CEO of the George C. Marshall Institute.

FINANCIAL STABILITY: FRAUD, CONFIDENCE, AND THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. 11/17, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: Cato. Speakers: co-author, R. Christopher Whalen, Senior Managing Director and Head of Research, Kroll Bond Rating Agency; with comments by Paul Miller, Managing Director, FBR Capital Markets.

NATIONAL PRESS CLUB LUNCHEON WITH ALLISON MACFARLANE. 11/17, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: National Press Club (NPC). Speaker: Allison Macfarlane, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

PROJECT SAPPHIRE 20 YEARS LATER: COOPERATIVE THREAT REDUCTION AND LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE. 11/17, 5:30 -7:30 pm. Sponsors: Embassy of Kazakhstan in cooperation with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program and the National Security Archive of the George Washington University. Speakers: Andrew Kuchins, Director and Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, CSIS; Kairat Umarov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States; Richard Hoagland, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, U.S. Department of State; Andrew Weber, Deputy Head, Ebola Coordination Unit, U.S. Department of State; Member of the 1994 top-secret "Tiger Team"; Laura Holgate, Senior Director, WMD Terrorism and Threat Reduction at the National Security Council; David Hoffman, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy; Tom Blanton, Director, National Security Archive at the George Washington University.

Comfort Women issue in the Sunday New York Times

Sunday Review | OPINION
The Comfort Women and Japan’s War on Truth
By MINDY KOTLER, APP Director


Robert G. Fresson

WASHINGTON — In 1942, a lieutenant paymaster in Japan’s Imperial Navy named Yasuhiro Nakasone was stationed at Balikpapan on the island of Borneo, assigned to oversee the construction of an airfield. But he found that sexual misconduct, gambling and fighting were so prevalent among his men that the work was stalled.

Lieutenant Nakasone’s solution was to organize a military brothel, or “comfort station.” The young officer’s success in procuring four Indonesian women “mitigated the mood” of his troops so well that he was commended in a naval report.

Lieutenant Nakasone’s decision to provide comfort women to his troops was replicated by thousands of Imperial Japanese Army and Navy officers across the Indo-Pacific both before and during World War II, as a matter of policy. From Nauru to Vietnam, from Burma to Timor, women were treated as the first reward of conquest.

We know of Lieutenant Nakasone’s role in setting up a comfort station thanks to his 1978 memoir, “Commander of 3,000 Men at Age 23.” At that time, such accounts were relatively commonplace and uncontroversial — and no obstacle to a political career. From 1982 to 1987, Mr. Nakasone was the prime minister of Japan.

Today, however, the Japanese military’s involvement in comfort stations is bitterly contested. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is engaged in an all-out effort to portray the historical record as a tissue of lies designed to discredit the nation. Mr. Abe’s administration denies that imperial Japan ran a system of human trafficking and coerced prostitution, implying that comfort women were simply camp-following prostitutes.

The latest move came at the end of October when, with no intended irony, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party appointed Mr. Nakasone’s own son, former Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, to chair a commission established to “consider concrete measures to restore Japan’s honor with regard to the comfort women issue.”

The official narrative in Japan is fast becoming detached from reality, as it seeks to cast the Japanese people — rather than the comfort women of the Asia-Pacific theater — as the victims of this story. The Abe administration sees this historical revision as integral to restoring Japan’s imperial wartime honor and modern-day national pride. But the broader effect of the campaign has been to cause Japan to back away from international efforts against human rights abuses and to weaken its desire to be seen as a responsible partner in prosecuting possible war crimes.

A key objective of Mr. Abe’s government has been to dilute the 1993 Kono Statement, named for Japan’s chief cabinet secretary at the time, Yohei Kono. This was widely understood as the Japanese government’s formal apology for the wartime network of brothels and front-line encampments that provided sex for the military and its contractors. The statement was particularly welcomed in South Korea, which was annexed by Japan from 1910 to 1945 and was the source of a majority of the trafficked comfort women.

Imperial Japan’s military authorities believed sex was good for morale, and military administration helped control sexually transmitted diseases. Both the army and navy trafficked women, provided medical inspections, established fees and built facilities. Nobutaka Shikanai, later chairman of the Fujisankei Communications Group, learned in his Imperial Army accountancy class how to manage comfort stations, including how to determine the actuarial “durability or perishability of the women procured.”

Japan’s current government has made no secret of its distaste for the Kono Statement. During Mr. Abe’s first administration, in 2007, the cabinet undermined the Kono Statement with two declarations: that there was no documentary evidence of coercion in the acquisition of women for the military’s comfort stations, and that the statement was not binding government policy.

Shortly before he became prime minister for the second time, in 2012, Mr. Abe (together with, among others, four future cabinet members) signed an advertisement in a New Jersey newspaper protesting a memorial to the comfort women erected in the town of Palisades Park, N.J., where there is a large Korean population. The ad argued that comfort women were simply part of the licensed prostitution system of the day.

In June this year, the government published a review of the Kono Statement. This found that Korean diplomats were involved in drafting the statement, that it relied on the unverified testimonies of 16 Korean former comfort women, and that no documents then available showed that abductions had been committed by Japanese officials.

Then, in August, a prominent liberal newspaper, The Asahi Shimbun, admitted that a series of stories it wrote over 20 years ago on comfort women contained errors. Reporters had relied upon testimony by a labor recruiter, Seiji Yoshida, who claimed to have rounded up Korean women on Jeju Island for military brothels overseas.

The scholarly community had long determined that Mr. Yoshida’s claims were fictitious, but Mr. Abe seized on this retraction by The Asahi to denounce the “baseless, slanderous claims” of sexual slavery, in an attempt to negate the entire voluminous and compelling history of comfort women. In October, Mr. Abe directed his government to “step up a strategic campaign of international opinion so that Japan can receive a fair appraisal based on matters of objective fact.”

Two weeks later, Japan’s ambassador for human rights, Kuni Sato, was sent to New York to ask a former United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, to reconsider her 1996 report on the comfort women — an authoritative account of how, during World War II, imperial Japan forced women and girls into sexual slavery. Ms. Coomaraswamy refused, observing that one retraction did not overturn her findings, which were based on ample documents and myriad testimonies of victims throughout Japanese-occupied territories.

There were many ways in which women and girls throughout the Indo-Pacific became entangled in the comfort system, and the victims came from virtually every settlement, plantation and territory occupied by imperial Japan’s military. The accounts of rape and pillage leading to subjugation are strikingly similar whether they are told by Andaman Islanders or Singaporeans, Filipino peasants or Borneo tribespeople. In some cases, young men, including interned Dutch boys, were also seized to satisfy the proclivities of Japanese soldiers.

Japanese soldiers raped an American nurse at Bataan General Hospital 2 in the Philippine Islands; other prisoners of war acted to protect her by shaving her head and dressing her as a man. Interned Dutch mothers traded their bodies in a church at a convent on Java to feed their children. British and Australian women who were shipwrecked off Sumatra after the makeshift hospital ship Vyner Brooke was bombed were given the choice between a brothel or starving in a P.O.W. camp. Ms. Coomaraswamy noted in her 1996 report that “the consistency of the accounts of women from quite different parts of Southeast Asia of the manner in which they were recruited and the clear involvement of the military and government at different levels is indisputable.”

For its own political reasons, the Abe administration studiously ignores this wider historical record, and focuses instead on disputing Japan’s treatment of its colonial Korean women. Thus rebuffed by Ms. Coomaraswamy, the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, vowed to continue advocating in international bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, for Japan’s case, which is to seek to remove the designation of comfort women as sex slaves.

The grave truth about the Abe administration’s denialist obsession is that it has led Japan not only to question Ms. Coomaraswamy’s report, but also to challenge the United Nations’ reporting on more recent and unrelated war crimes, and to dismiss the testimony of their victims. In March, Japan became the only Group of 7 country to withhold support from a United Nations investigation into possible war crimes in Sri Lanka, when it abstained from voting to authorize the inquiry. (Canada is not a member of the Human Rights Council but issued a statement backing the probe.) During an official visit, the parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, Seiji Kihara, told Sri Lanka’s president, “We are not ready to accept biased reports prepared by international bodies.”

Rape and sex trafficking in wartime remain problems worldwide. If we hope to ever reduce these abuses, the efforts of the Abe administration to deny history cannot go unchallenged. The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — all of whom had nationals entrapped in imperial Japan’s comfort women system — must make clear their objection to the Abe government’s perverse denial of the historical record of human trafficking and sexual servitude.

The United States, in particular, has a responsibility to remind Japan, its ally, that human rights and women’s rights are pillars of American foreign policy. If we do not speak out, we will be complicit not only in Japanese denialism, but also in undermining today’s international efforts to end war crimes involving sexual violence.

NB: The print version in the Sunday New York Times is slightly shorter than the online version featured above.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule September 15-21, 2014

Monday, September 15, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
10:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
Stay at private residence throughout the morning (no visitors)

PM
Stay at private residence throughout the afternoon and evening (no visitors)

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:09 Depart from private residence
09:26 Arrive at LDP Party Headquarters
09:31 LDP Officers Meeting
09:55 Meeting ends
09:56 Depart from LDP Party Headquarters
09:58 Arrive at office
10:02 Cabinet Meeting begins
10:15 Cabinet Meeting ends
10:20 Reconstruction Promotion Council meeting
10:30 Meeting ends
10:32 Speak with Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun
10:35 Finish speaking with Mr. Shimomura
10:36 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Minister Kishida Fumio, Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji and Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Ihara Junichi enter
11:06 Mr. Saiki, Mr. Hiramatsu, and Mr. Ihara leave
11:12 Mr. Kishida leaves
11:43 Commemorative photo session with President of National Association of Chairpersons of Prefectural Assemblies and Chairman of Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly Hayashi Masao and colleagues
11:47 Photo session ends
11:48 Panel discussion with National Association of Chairpersons of Prefectural Assemblies. Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takaichi Sanae and Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan Ishiba Shigeru also attend

PM
12:48 Panel discussion ends
12:49 National Security Council (NSC) meeting. Obuchi Yuko also attends
01:09 NSC meeting ends
01:20 Receive courtesy call from All-Japan Ryokan Proprietress Group’s Sato Jun and others
01:27 Courtesy call ends
01:28 Meet with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Terada Itsuro
01:48 End meeting with Mr. Terada
01:49 Depart from office
01:57 Arrive at Imperial Household Agency. Attend Imperial Household Economy Council
02:24 Depart from Imperial Palace
02:33 Arrive at office
03:15 Meet with Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)’s Director-General of Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau Sugawara Ikuro
03:34 End meeting with Mr. Amari and Mr. Sugawara
03:51 Regulatory Reform Council meeting
03:54 Meeting ends
04:04 Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, National Police Agency’s Director-General of Security Bureau Takahashi Kiyotaka, and Public Security Intelligence Agency’s Director of First Investigation Department Tago Tsukasa enter
04:23 Mr. Takahashi and Mr. Tago leave
04:31 Mr. Kitamura leaves
04:32 Deliver notices of personnel change of Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy members to Chairman of Keidanren (Federation of Economic Organizations) Sakakibara Sadayuki and incoming President of Suntory Holdings Niinami Takeshi. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira also attend
04:40 Finish delivering notices of personnel change
04:41 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting
05:42 Meeting ends
05:44 Meet with Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Yamaguchi Shunichi
06:05 End meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi
06:06 Meet with Vice-Minister of Finance Kagawa Shunsuke, finance official Yamasaki Tatsuo, and Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu
06:26 End meeting with Mr. Kagawa, Mr. Yamasaki, and Mr. Asakawa
06:27 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
06:48 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
06:49 Depart from office
06:50 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting with former Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Shindo Yoshitaka, former Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Tamura Norihisa, and other former cabinet ministers. Mr. Suga also attends
08:17 Everyone leaves

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:44 Depart from official residence
07:55 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station
08:01 Meet with President of East Japan Railway Company Tomita Tetsuro
08:04 End meeting with Mr. Tomita
08:08 Depart from station on Yamabiko no. 127. Minister of the Environment Mochizuki Yoshio accompanies
09:32 Arrive at JR Koriyama Station
09:36 Depart from station
10:56 Arrive at municipal Kawauchi Nursery School in Kawauchi Village, Fukushima Prefecture. View nursery school. Exchange of views with nursery school teachers. Mayor of Kawauchi Village Endo Yuko and Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate Mori Masako accompany
11:06 Depart from Kawauchi Nursery School
11:07 Arrive at temporary housing in Kawauchi Village. Exchange of views with residents
11:22 Depart from temporary housing
11:26 Arrive at soba restaurant Soba Shubo Tenzan in Kawauchi Village. Lunch
11:56 Depart from soba restaurant

PM
12:06 Arrive at temporary holding area for waste in Kawauchi Village. View site
12:12 Depart from holding area
12:59 Arrive at proposed construction site for interim storage facilities in Okuma Town, Fukushima Prefecture. View proposed construction site. Exchange of views with Mayor of Okuma Town Watanabe Toshitsuna and Mayor of Futaba Town (Fukushima Prefecture) Izawa Shiro
01:09 Depart from proposed construction site
01:41 Arrive at planned construction site for prefectural middle and high school, Futaba High School’s future campus, in Hirono Town, Fukushima Prefecture. View planned construction site. Mayor of Futaba Town Endo Satoshi accompanies
01:47 Depart from planned construction site
01:51 Arrive at rice paddy in Futaba Town. Try harvesting with mechanized harvester. Sample onigiri
02:06 Interview open to all media: When asked “What were your thoughts when viewing [development in Fukushima Prefecture]?” Mr. Abe answers “The opening of Joban Expressway between Namie and Sendai will be pushed forward to December 6.”
02:11 Interview ends
02:19 Depart from Futaba Town
05:18 Arrive at office
05:39 Meet with Cabinet Advisor Hamada Koichi
05:54 End meeting with Mr. Hamada
06:16 Education Rebuilding Implementation Council meeting
06:29 Meeting ends
07:28 Depart from office
07:40 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Thursday, September 18, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:07 Depart from private residence
09:25 Arrive at Imperial Hotel in Uchisaiwai-cho, Tokyo
09:28 Attend Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) General Meeting in banquet hall Fuji, deliver address
09:36 Leave meeting
09:37 Depart from hotel
09:45 Arrive at office
10:06 Film video message for sports-related event
10:25 Finish filming
10:26 Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira and Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji enter
11:00 Mr. Matsuyama leaves
11:08 Mr. Amari leaves
11:09 Meet with MOF’s Minister Aso Taro, Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke, Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho, and Director-General of Tax Bureau Sato Shinichi

PM
12:06 Lunch with Special Advisors to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro, Isozaki Yosuke, and Eto Seiichi
01:00 Finish lunch
01:01 Speak with President of Yamaguchi Bank Fukuda Koichi
01:15 Finish Speaking with Mr. Fukuda
01:40 Industrial Competitiveness Council meeting
02:38 End meeting
03:10 Meet with Minister in charge of the Abduction Issue Yamatani Eriko
03:42 End meeting with Ms. Yamatani
03:43 Meet with Chairman of Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum and former Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Omi Koji
04:02 End meeting with Mr. Omi
04:03 Speak with Minister of State for Special Missions Yamamoto Ichita
04:08 Finish speaking with Mr. Yamamoto
04:09 Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, Administrative Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Sugiyama Shinsuke, MOF’s Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu, METI’s Director-General of Industrial Science and Technology and Environment Bureau Katase Hirofumi, and Ministry of Environment’s Vice-Minister for Global Environment Seki Soichiro enter
04:39 Mr. Kishida leaves
05:07 Everyone leaves
05:08 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Iwasaki Shigeru
05:44 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, and Mr. Iwasaki
06:13 Depart from office
06:56 Arrive at municipal Katsumi Middle School in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo Prefecture
07:06 View pupils’ self-study in supplementary night class. Exchange of views with volunteer instructors. LDP Lower House member Hirasawa Katsuei accompanies
07:25 Finish exchanging views
07:29 Interview open to all media: When asked “How will you make use of what you witnessed [today]?” Mr. Abe answers “In the next five years I want to expand learning assistance programs to 5,000, and increase the number of school social workers to 10,000.”
07:33 Interview ends
07:37 Depart from Katsumi Middle School
08:09 Arrive at official residence

Lane Evans, Comfort Women Advocate in Congress, Dies at 63

None of the obituaries written about former Congressman Lane Evans (D-IL) note that he originated the Comfort Women resolution. All mention he was a dogged advocate for his fellow veterans, but not even The Washington Post nor The New York Times nor the White House recognized that through four Congresses, starting in 2001, he introduced four resolutions asking the Government of Japan to acknowledge and apology to the Comfort Women--sex slaves to Imperial Japan's military. An 2001 Los Angeles Times op ed pointed out Evans' principled act in contrast to US government efforts to protect Japan from being held accountable for its war crimes.

In 2006, a revised version of his resolution, H Res 759, finally made it through the House International Relations Committee. This resolution was the foundation of Congressman Mike Honda’s H Res 121 that passed the full House. Mr. Honda (D-CA) took up the cause after Mr. Evans retired in 2006 for health reasons. 

To sign his memorial book and find out about funeral arrangements contact Esterdahl Mortuary, Moline, Illinois.
U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., was elected in 1982 to serve the people of Illinois' 17th District. He was 31 years old. Mr. Evans is survived by three brothers.

Lane Evans leaves behind a legacy of public service
QuadTimes, November 06, 2014

Former U.S. Rep. Lane Evans was remembered Thursday as a gentle soul who worked ceaselessly to help veterans and the common man in a 24-year political career.

Evans, who battled Parkinson's since 1995, died Wednesday night. He'd represented the 17th Congressional District in Illinois for parts of three decades and was a hero to area Democrats on both sides of the Mississippi River.

He was 63 years old and had been living at the Hope Creek Care Center in East Moline.

In a statement late Thursday, President Barack Obama praised Evans' work on veterans issues and noted his early support for him.

"Above all, Lane was an American hero, a dear friend and a beloved public servant of the people of Illinois. Michelle and I extend our thoughts and prayers to Lane’s family and friends, and the people he represented in Congress who loved him so dearly," the president said.

Phil Hare, the former congressman who was also Evans' longtime district director, said he got the call late Wednesday night informing him of his friend's passing. Hare said he saw Evans last month when U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who is retiring from the Senate at the end of this year, also paid a visit.

"I was fortunate to even know him, much less work for him," said Hare, who succeeded Evans and was close to him for years.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who entered Congress the same year as Evans, issued a statement saying, "Illinois lost one of it kindest, most caring public servants."

Durbin said that the degenerative neurological disease "trapped (Evans') body but never restrained his great spirit," and he concluded with a phrase that had long been a campaign rallying cry for the congressman's supporters: "Thank heavens for Lane Evans."

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, the Democrat who now represents the 17th District, said, "Lane will be sorely missed by all who he touched, but his legacy of service will never be forgotten."

Jerry Messer, a longtime friend and former president of the Quad-City Federation of Labor, remembered Evans as a man who always had time for constituents — so much so that having a quiet lunch at a public diner meant having to go to the Iowa side of the Quad-Cities.

Even then, Messer said, Evans didn't dine alone. "His constituents, every one of them, were his best friend," he added.

Veterans' friend
A former Marine who served during the Vietnam War, stationed in Okinawa, Evans mostly made his mark in Congress by seeking to help war veterans suffering the effects of Agent Orange and by working to advance legislation to ban landmines.

He was a longtime member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and he nearly rose to its chairmanship twice. He challenged a sitting chairman in 1994 and lost.

In 2006, he was the ranking Democrat, when his party won control of the House. But, with Parkinson's having exacted a greater impact on his health, Evans had by then already announced he would retire from Congress at the end of the year.

A legal aid attorney from Rock Island, Evans was swept into office in 1982 at the age of 31, when the country's economy was suffering and the midterm elections served as a backlash against the new president, Ronald Reagan.

Evans defeated Republican Ken McMillan of Bushnell, who was the party's nominee after he won a surprising primary victory over Tom Railsback of Moline, the incumbent congressman at the time.

Evans won the general election with 53 percent of the vote.

He was re-elected two years later, with an even higher percentage than two years earlier, as western Illinois suffered the devastating impacts of the farm crisis.

Preferred 'populist'
Evans, who was often called a liberal but preferred the term "populist," built a record of opposing Reagan-era policies. The 1986 Almanac of American Politics said he had "one of the strongest anti-Reagan voting records in the House."

It added he was "a congressman to watch."

Evans was an unapologetic backer of government programs such as welfare and Medicare, voting against GOP efforts to revamp them. And he organized like-minded lawmakers in the House.
In an interview Thursday, Harkin recalled that he, Evans, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower and Maryland state Sen. James Rosapepe came up with the idea for the populist caucus in the House, and that after the Iowan went to the Senate, Evans kept it going.

"He was a kind person and, for a Marine, he was a gentle person," Harkin said. "He had no bluster. He wasn’t given to tub-thumping speeches. He had an inherent goodness about him that everyone recognized.”

Evans often faced criticism from Republicans who said his liberal voting record didn't fit the district that included wide swaths of rural areas. Evans voted against against trade agreements such as NAFTA and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

That drew criticism from business and some agricultural interests, but it endeared him to labor unions, particularly in an area of the country that was undergoing hard times and whose blue-collar economic roots were undergoing transition.

Evans remains so beloved by area unions that pictures of him still hang in some of their labor halls.

Bustos said she was at a union hall in Sterling earlier this week and a person there asked that she supply a picture of herself for their wall. However, she said, another person quickly added, "Make sure you don't remove Lane's picture."

Still, it was Evans' work on behalf of veterans and other military matters that marked his tenure.

In 2000, only five of the 22 bills he introduced were not related to military or veterans issues, according to Congressional Quarterly.
It took years to get benefits extended to the victims of Agent Orange, but Evans persisted.

In the mid- and late-1990s, he pushed to draw attention to illnesses being experienced by Gulf War veterans.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement that on a range of veterans issues, "Lane was always in the lead."
Evans also partnered with Sen. Pat Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, to push for a ban on land mines.

Republicans who ran against Evans were critical of his votes against defense spending bills, particularly because they said that hurt the Rock Island Arsenal.

He also was one of the Democrats who voted against the authorization to go to war against Iraq in 2002. He also voted against the first Gulf War in 1991.
The criticism that he was anti-military didn't stick.

Evans was able to win re-election in the Reagan era. Even in the 1990s, when the Quad-Cities lost hundreds of Arsenal jobs and he faced three battles for re-election that, at the time, were historic for the amount of money poured into the race, he emerged victorious.

In addition to his work for veterans, Evans' office was always praised, even by rivals, for its constituent work.

After 2000, Evans never faced any real electoral challenges, but as the Parkinson's took a greater toll, he had other difficulties. He missed votes and, after the 2006 primary had passed, announced that he would retire.

At the end of that year, Evans recalled his life in politics and said he wasn't through with it. "It never really leaves you," he told the Quad-City Times.

In fact, Evans was an early supporter of President Obama's. And in Chicago, on the night when Obama was elected president in 2008, Evans was there, meeting privately with the president-elect just hours before he went to Grant Park for his victory speech.

Japan Is Turning Right

Right-wing witch hunt signals dark days in Japan

BY Dr. Jeff Kingston, Director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan.
The Japan Times, November 8, 2014
for educational use

Many Japanese and long-time Japan observers have expressed dismay about the recrudescence of self-righteous nationalism under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has emboldened right-wing extremists now threatening democratic institutions and civil liberties.

“The revisionist right in Japan with the active encouragement, if not involvement, of the Abe government has succeeded in controlling NHK news, intimidating Asahi Shimbun and now academia,” says Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University.

Abe has presided over the mainstreaming of reactionary extremism in his quest to rewrite and rehabilitate Japan’s wartime past in Asia, and in doing so instigates widespread international criticism. Any other national leader who did the same for their nation’s egregious history would merit a similar reaction.

This past week, Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo moved to fire part-time lecturer Takashi Uemura, a former Asahi Shimbun journalist, because right-wing goons had threatened violence if he wasn’t removed. The university was reportedly inundated with threatening letters and phone calls demanding the teacher’s dismissal for his controversial articles in the 1990s about the comfort women system.

What started as a clash over history has morphed into a broader political battle over national identity and Japan’s democratic values. Nakano worries that “each time a university succumbs to right-wing intimidation, ‘success’ encourages more terrorist threats.”

Reactionaries maintain that the Asahi and its reporters tarnished Japan’s international reputation, but as Hokkaido University historian Philip Seaton explains, it is the “efforts by a small but powerful minority in Japan to deny atrocities that sullies Japan’s name in international eyes.”

These reactionaries are now inflicting infinitely more damage on Japan’s reputation than a handful of newspaper articles in the 1990s. It is scandalous that the so-called Net Right (netto uyoku) of extremists, lurking behind pseudonyms and spewing ill-informed vitriol on the Internet, are eroding democratic freedoms, censoring inconvenient truths and degrading Japan’s dignity.

As Martin Fackler of the New York Times recently wrote (Oct. 29), these cyberactivists “have gained an outsize influence with the rise of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative government, which shares the goal of ending negative portrayal of Japan’s history, and with the acquiescence of a society too uninterested or scared to speak out.”

Fackler goes on to note several examples around Japan where the Net Right has imposed its agenda through thuggery.

Japan’s cyber-terrorists sound like religious extremists, threatening “divine retribution” in the form of gas canisters packed with nails. By stopping towns from erecting repentant war memorials, caterwauling on the Internet and scaring employers into firing “undesirables,” these vigilantes represent Japan in jackboots. It is like the 1930s, when ultranationalists hounded respected academics such as Tatsukichi Minobe and Tadao Yanaihara from their posts.

The Net Right embodies Japan’s 21st-century McCarthyism, from an era when communist hysteria in the United States unleashed a witch hunt that trampled on democratic freedoms.

“Defending academic freedom must be sacrosanct,” Seaton says. “To terminate the ex-Asahi reporter’s contract simply sends the message that ‘intimidation works.’ This incident could initiate a dangerous slide toward the muzzling and dismissal of researchers working on sensitive issues.”

Andrew Horvat, former president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, points out that Uemura “has been caught in the crossfire of a proxy war on the comfort women issue. The aim of the rightists is to undermine the reputation of the Asahi, a liberal paper, and he has become a pawn in this game.”

Tomomi Yamaguchi, a professor of anthropology at Montana State University, says Uemura has been on the right’s hit list from the mid-2000s largely due to vilification by Tsutomu Nishioka, a professor at Tokyo Christian University.

Satoko Norimatsu, director of the Vancouver-based Peace Philosophy Centre, speculates that Hokusei itself is a target because of its 1995 Peace Declaration, which goes much further than the Murayama Statement in acknowledging Japan’s war responsibility and obligation to atone. Back then, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama condemned Japanese aggression in Asia and called for an end to “self-righteous nationalism.”

“The Abe regime has clearly abetted this mobilization of right-wing extremists against academic, media and other institutions,” asserts Andrew DeWit, a professor of public policy at Rikkyo University. “Allowing extremists to intimidate academe will not foster the learning environment that Japanese universities require in order to become the ‘super global universities’ envisioned in Abenomics. You cannot have it both ways, winking at ultra-nationalism that targets academe while at the same time actually building globally competitive institutions of critical inquiry.”

Alexis Dudden, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut, argues that post-1945 Japan has advanced because of the ability to study, learn and teach in an open atmosphere.

“Since then, Japanese society and all who engage with it have benefited and thrived because of this fundamental freedom guaranteed in the 1947 Constitution,” says Dudden, who believes that “turning away now degrades Japan’s capacities to lead and defines a ‘safe’ society as one that cowers from bullies and sanitizes history to fit contingent political demands.”

Sven Saaler, a professor of history at Sophia University, notes that “right-wingers have been pushing their agenda constantly with violence. They have actually violently attacked journalists, newspaper offices and politicians.”

Mark Mullins, a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Auckland, warns that right-wing threats must be taken seriously.

“Recall that in 1990 Nagasaki Mayor Hitoshi Motoshima was shot by rightists for expressing his views about the Emperor and war responsibility; and in 2006, Koichi Kato, a moderate (Liberal Democratic Party) politician, had his house in Yamagata burned down for his criticism of Prime Minister (Junichiro) Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine.”

Saaler sees a broader pattern.

“In recent years, pressure by right-wing groups has led to cinemas canceling movies dealing with sensitive war-related issues; hotels canceling the reservations of conference rooms for symposia dealing with such issues; and museums canceling or revising exhibitions with sensitive contents,” he says.

The Peace Philosophy Centre’s Norimatsu thinks things are getting worse under the Abe regime.
“(There has been) widespread anti-China and anti-Korea sentiments (and) books of that kind becoming best-sellers, hate demonstrations, assaults on history by the nation’s leaders that trickle down to the general public, page-ripping of Anne Frank’s diaries, hiding of ‘Barefoot Gen’ in school libraries, assaults on protest tents in Okinawa and anti-nuclear tents in Tokyo, and public places refusing to rent space to groups that discuss issues like the Constitution and anti-nuclear power,” she says.

Amid this rightist chill, Mullins is worried that “academic freedom — and freedom of speech more broadly — is clearly threatened and is a legitimate concern for those who care about the future of democracy in Japan.”

Sophia’s Nakano laments that Abe exacerbates the situation.

“When an important principle of liberal democracy is under attack, the government should be playing an active role to condemn the attacks in strongest terms,” he says, but instead points out that it is actually fanning the fires.

Saaler’s suggests that, “The situation can be compared to Weimar Germany, where the authorities turned a blind eye to right-wing activities and let right-wing violence go largely unpunished.”

Here we remain far from descending into that Nazi abyss, but government tolerance for intolerance and hooliganism makes a mockery of the rule of law, democratic norms and the Olympic spirit.

Monday in Washington, November 10, 2014

MONEY LAUNDERING ENFORCEMENT CONFERENCE. 11/9-11. Sponsors: American Bankers Association, American Bar Association. Keynote Speakers: David Cohen, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence; Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network; Joshua J. Potter, Lieutenant Colonel (Promotable), J36, Transnational Threats Division, United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).

NEW TOOLS FOR SCIENCE POLICY - INFORMING SCIENCE POLICY DELIBERATION. 11/10, 8:30-10:30am. Sponsor: Arizona State University Office of the President and Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. Speakers: Elizabeth McNie, Research Scientist, University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science; Adam Parris, interdisciplinary expert on social and environmental change in US coastal zones.

UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND THE WEST—THE WAY FORWARD. 11/10, 9:00am-4:00pm, Lunch. Sponsor: Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Georgetown. Speakers: Professor James Reardon-Anderson, Interim Dean SFS; Professor Stephen Kotkin, Princeton University; Dr. Keith Darden, American University; Dr. Andreas Umland, Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, Kyiv; Dr. Anders Aslund, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Dr. Olexyi Horan, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy; Eric Rubin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe; Dr. Theresa Sabonis-Helf, National Defense University; Dr. Thane Gustafson, Georgetown University; Amb. Carlos Pascual, Columbia University; Dr. Edward Chow, CSIS; Dr. Angela Stent, Georgetown University; Dr. James Sherr, Chatham House; Robert Nurick, Atlantic Council; Maxim Trudolyubov, Wilson Center.

POST-ISIS IRAQ: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS. 11/10, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Foreign Policy Institute (FPI), SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speaker: Abbas Kadhim, FPI fellow.


WHY ADAM SMITH STILL MATTERS. 11/10, 12:30-2:00pm, Lunch. Sponsor: InfoShop, World Bank. Speaker: Russ Roberts, author How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness and John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University Host, EconTalk; Moderator: Ana Revenga, Senior Director, Poverty Global Practice, World Bank.

THE U-2 INCIDENT, PRESERVING COLD WAR HISTORY, AND HONORING COLD WAR VETERANS. 11/10, 5:00-6:00pm. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics. Speaker: Francis Gary Powers, Jr., Founder and Chairman Emeritus, The Cold War Museum.

THE IMPACT AND IMPLICATIONS OF IRANIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON U.S. & REGIONAL SECURITY. 11/10, 6:00-8:00pm. Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Speaker Ambassador Robert L. Gallucci, former Dean, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, former President, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Abe's Anxious Commitment

Can He Take Back Japan? is purported a book review in The New York Review of Books (November 6, 2014 Issue)of Chewing Gum and Chocolate: Photographs by Shomei Tomatsu. The book is an excuse for Ian Buruma to examine the policies of the conservative nationalist Abe Administration. He homes in on the contradiction between Abe's desire for national pride and his fear of losing American protection. Abe's government has tested and prodded the relationship. It is not indedence that that Abe wants, but unconditional love--the freedom to do anything it wants. Abe will not jettison the US, Buruma believes. Neither the US nor Japan is that independent. And this is the problem with Asia. With everything Buruma, the essay below is elegant and perceptive.

“China! China! China!” That is how a former Japanese diplomat summed up his country’s foreign policy preoccupations this summer in Tokyo. A quick glance at what’s on sale at Japanese bookstores proves him right: pile upon pile of books about the “threat” of China, the “power” of China, China’s “hatred” of Japan, the “downfall” of China, the “triumph” of China, and so on.

Smaller but still considerable piles of books in a market that is struggling like everywhere else concern a subsidiary branch of the China obsession: books about the awfulness of Korea, for sucking up to China and for hating Japan. There have even been reports of demonstrations here and there of Japanese screaming: “Death to the Koreans!”

Relations among the countries of East Asia are tense, to be sure, with Chinese and Japanese military planes stalking one another over disputed islands in the East China Sea, and the South Korean President Park Geun-hye refusing to talk to the Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo because of territorial (more little islands) and historical quarrels. It cannot be easy for Japan, which had become so used to being the wealthiest, most dynamic, most modern nation in Asia, to see China’s power grow by the day. A younger generation of Japanese, tired of being told by foreigners to feel guilty about a war most of them know very little about, appears to be receptive to a dose of nationalist reassertion.

And so the second administration of Abe Shinzo (the first lasted only one year and ended rather shamefully in 2007) would seem to have arrived at just the right time. Reelected in a landslide in 2012, Abe promised to revive the lackluster economy, and also to be a tough nationalist. There would be no more apologizing for the past or kowtowing to foreigners. Abe vowed to “take back Japan.”

This meant, for one thing, that in 2013 he would visit Yasukuni Shrine, where the souls of soldiers who have died for the imperial cause, including war criminals, are remembered. He would revise the postwar pacifist constitution, written by Americans in 1947 (in rather poor Japanese) to take away Japan’s sovereign right to wage war. A new secrecy law has been passed, making it a punishable offense to leak state secrets or to publish them. There were plans to review apologies made by former Japanese governments for what was done in World War II—plans that ran into such opposition abroad and in Japan that they had to be abandoned.

Some of Abe’s cronies have openly questioned Japanese war guilt. Hyakuta Naoki, a board member of the national broadcasting company NHK, has stated that the notorious Nanking Massacre of 1937, when at least tens of thousands and probably many more Chinese were brutally murdered by the Japanese, never occurred. The head of NHK, Momii Katsuto, has argued that the systematic use of Koreans and other foreign sex slaves in Japanese Imperial Army brothels was an entirely normal enterprise. Few are in doubt that these views reflect those of the prime minister himself.

No wonder, then, that the South Koreans are upset, and the Chinese are warning the world, for their own self-serving reasons, naturally, that Abe is about to revive Japanese militarism. In fact, Abe has never gone that far. But his stated goal has consistently been to change the postwar order, to restore full Japanese sovereignty and national pride. Not only does he want to do away with official pacifism; he also wants to give young Japanese a new sense of patriotism. The so-called “Tokyo Trials View of History,” used to promote pacifism by recalling Japan’s dark wartime past, is dismissed by Abe’s followers as left-wing propaganda. It is time for a national reawakening, a new beginning.

All this would indeed be alarming if Abe’s program weren’t so riddled with contradictions. For even though he loudly proclaims his intention to overturn the postwar order, the main pillar of that order is still very much intact. As a result of its pacifist constitution, Japan is highly dependent on the US for its security. This would be the first thing one would expect a Japanese nationalist to want to change. And some do. The former governor of Tokyo, a right-wing popular novelist named Ishihara Shintaro, for example, makes no bones about this. “Taking back Japan,” he said, “should mean absolute independence.”

But Abe has shown no such intention. Since he cannot get the requisite two thirds of the Japanese Diet to agree to constitutional change, all Abe has achieved is a “reinterpretation” of the constitution, allowing Japan to help friendly troops or United Nations peacekeepers in case of an attack, and only when specifically asked to do so. Even as he huffs and puffs about taking back Japan, Abe has done everything in his power to tighten Japan’s relationship with the US, in security and trade; he is a champion of the “Trans-Pacific Partnership,” which includes Japan, the US, and ten other countries. Even the law protecting government secrecy came about after the US exerted pressure to safeguard shared intelligence. Far from wanting more independence from Washington, the main fear among Abe’s conservative advisers appears to be American weakness, the possibility that a war-weary US would not immediately come to Japan’s rescue in case of a conflict with China—over a few disputed rocks in the South China Sea, for instance.

Dean Rusk, who negotiated the US–Japan Security Treaty as assistant secretary of state in 1951, once called Japanese strategy “schizophrenic.” Japan, he said, was like “the man who wanted to sleep with a woman one night without having to say hello to her in public the next day.” What he meant then was that Japan’s eagerness for US military protection sat uneasily with its proud and sometimes moralistic pacifism. The same metaphor could be applied to Japan today, but with a new twist. Now it is Abe’s stated aim of restoring sovereignty that doesn’t quite square with his anxiousness to preserve Japan’s status as a kind of US military protectorate.

For more than 150 years, Japan has placed itself awkwardly between Asia and the West. To understand Japan’s current problems with China, one has to understand its tortured relationship with the US, the first nation to defeat Japan in a war. Not that China’s relations with the US are any more straightforward. The Chinese, feeling hemmed in by unfriendly powers, would dearly like to drive a wedge between Japan and its Western protector. At the same time, China is probably happier with the US as a Pacific policeman than it would be with Japan as a revived military power, even though China is also making a point of defying US policies in the Pacific.

One way to understand postwar Japanese attitudes toward US dominance in cultural, social, as well as military affairs is to look closely at Tomatsu Shomei’s extraordinary photographs taken of American military bases in Japan and Okinawa in the 1960s and 1970s. They have been described as pictures of hate, but that is to miss the deep ambivalence toward the US that was typical of Tomatsu and others of his generation.

Yes, there is the nasty image, taken from below, of a US army boot about to descend on the photographer’s head, with laughing crew-cut heads peering down, as though they represented the brute force of America stomping on poor wormlike Japan. Or the less contrived and even more shocking image of a B-52 bomber swooping over a steaming rubbish dump in Okinawa with an old woman in rags looking up. But there is also something alluring about the pictures of neon-lit bars in naval towns like Yokosuka, “home of the seventh fleet,” or the black GIs striking Black Panther poses, or even the graphic panache of huge Coca-Cola signs, dwarfing a line of shabby little Japanese umbrellas. The young Japanese men in several photos, mimicking an American fantasy in their cream-colored jive suits and shades, are a little pathetic but also touching. You sense that Tomatsu understood their vulnerability because he shared their fascination. (Chewing Gum and Chocolate, a new compilation of his photographs, has been superbly edited by Leo Rubinfien and John Junkerman.)

All Tomatsu’s pictures were taken after the Allied occupation of Japan (though not yet Okinawa) was long over. Japan became independent again after signing the Peace Treaty of San Francisco in 1951. But for many men of Tomatsu’s generation the occupation was never really over; it continued inside their heads. Occupation was the title he chose for the pictures he took around the US base towns in Japan and Okinawa. Tomatsu was fifteen when Japan was defeated and the US troops arrived, casually tossing sticks of gum and chocolates at the children running after their jeeps. The rampant conquerors, who could often buy the favors of local women with a pair of silk stockings or a Hershey bar, were for young Japanese men a source of deep humiliation. But they also came with jazz music, easy manners, cool clothes, a promise of democracy, and what seemed then like vast wealth. Tomatsu puts it well:

I always say that my Occupation series is on the border between love and hate. I can neither reject nor affirm the occupation. Of course I reject it, but there are many elements that I have to affirm. Immediately after the defeat, some people called the occupying forces an army of liberation. Those words imply an affirmation, and I experienced that very feeling.

For people on the left, including members of the Communist Party, which had been banned by the wartime Japanese authorities, the occupation really was a liberation. Political prisoners were released and trade unions reorganized. Land ownership was radically reformed. Women got the vote. In fact, the new Japanese constitution was a very progressive document. Despite General MacArthur’s own reactionary views, the politics of the early years of American tutelage were those of the New Deal.

That is why Japanese liberals felt so betrayed when the cold war put an end to all this. Love turned to hate when “red purges” took place in unions, educational institutions, and even movie studios. Japan—to the huge profit of the Japanese business elite—was dragged into American wars in Korea and Vietnam. Even as Republicans like Richard Nixon publicly stated that the pacifist constitution had been a terrible mistake, it became a badge of honor for the Japanese left. And in fact mainstream conservatives, who were more than happy to let the US take care of security while the Japanese got on with business, supported official pacifism too. They did not necessarily like the Americans, but they could profit from them.

But not everyone on the right was happy. Ever since the end of the war, a vociferous minority felt not only that Japan had been robbed of its sovereignty, but that a sinister alliance of foreign occupiers and Japanese leftists had destroyed the moral foundations of the Japanese polity, including the sacred imperial institution. Taking back Japan, for them, did not mean being pro-American. Such sentiments are still heard today. Here, for example, is Sugiyama Katsumi, managing director of the Defense Research Center in Tokyo, whose words are worth quoting, not because they represent mainstream opinion, but because they reflect a small but insistent current in conservative Japanese politics:

America’s fundamental strategy towards Japan is containment. For the last seventy years the US has continued to regard Japan as an enemy country. The reason for the continued presence of US troops in Japan is not just because Japan is strategically indispensible, but because it is viewed with the deepest distrust.

Ishihara, the former governor of Tokyo, is of the same persuasion. And Prime Minister Abe’s strident opinions about constitutional and cultural revisions suggest that he is too. In fact, however, his policies show that he is still firmly planted in the conservative mainstream. He would much prefer to be protected by the US, even if that means remaining under Washington’s thumb, than to make independent arrangements with Japan’s immediate neighbors.

And so Abe has to contend with furious demonstrations from people on his left; one middle-aged man actually set fire to himself in protest against tinkering with the pacifist constitution. But he is also attacked from the right for being such a pushover, relatively politely by Ishihara, and less so by extreme right-wing groups whose khaki and navy blue sound trucks drive around Tokyo blaring wartime military marches.

Monday in Washington, November 3, 2014

OECD DATA HARVEST – AGRICULTURE POLICIES & GLOBAL MARKET OUTLOOK. 11/3, 9:30-Noon. Sponsors: OECD, Washington Center; Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA. Speakers: Ken Ash, Director, OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate; Anne Effland, USDA Economic Research Service; Jonathan Brooks, Head of Agro-food Trade and Markets, OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate; Nicholas Nelson, Director, FAO Liaison Office for North America; and Seth Meyer, Acting Chair, USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board.

KURDISTAN: FROM PAWN TO PLAYER. 11/3, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: SAIS Johns Hopkins. Speaker: Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of the Department of Foreign Relations for the Kurdistan Regional Government.

PEACEBUILDING IN SOUTHERN THAILAND SINCE THE MAY COUP. 11/3, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Asia Foundation. Speaker: Hadee Hamidong, William P. Fuller Fellow in Conflict Resolution, The Asia Foundation; and Kim McQuay, Country Representative in Thailand, The Asia Foundation.

PARADOX OF U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: ITS RISE AND DEMISE. 11/3, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: GWU Elliott School. Speaker: Bruce Gregory, adjunct professor of public diplomacy in the School of Media and Public Affairs at GWU. Read Special Report here.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM. 11/3, 2:00-3:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS; Vietnam Education Foundation. Speakers: Ms. Sandy Dang, Acting Executive Director, Vietnam Education Foundation; and Dr. Margaret Petrochenkov. Program Officer, Vietnam Education Foundation.

FROM HIZBULLAH TO THE ISLAMIC STATE. 11/3, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). Speakers: Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut; Joseph Bahout, visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at CEIP; Frederic Wehrey, senior associate in the Middle East Program at CEIP.

GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS, MEGA-REGIONALS, AND PROSPECTS FOR MULTILATERAL TRADE COOPERATION. 11/3, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (IIE). Speakers: Anabel Gonzalez, senior director of the trade and competitiveness global practice at the World Bank; Patrick Low, vice president of research at the Fung Global Institute; Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at IIE; and Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at IIE. (webcast).

COMBATING THE SPREAD OF EBOLA: THE US AID EFFORT IN LIBERIA. 11/3, 6:00pm, Reception. Sponsors: Women’s Foreign Policy Group (WFPG); New York University Washington, DC. Speaker: Helene Cooper, Pentagon correspondent, The New York Times; Moderator: Elisabeth Bumiller, Deputy Washington Bureau Chief, The New York Times.

ISLAM IN EURASIA. 11/3-4. Sponsors: GWU Elliott School Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies and Central Asia Program, Henry Luce Foundation. Speakers: Pauline Jones Luong, professor of political science, University of Michigan.

Why are Japan's female cabinet members so conservative?

The five women ABE Shinzo selected for his Cabinet on September 3rd are not evidence of women's advancement in Japanese society, as SHIRAI Satoshi (白井 聡) argues in GQ Japan. Instead, they are indicative of how fundamentally patriarchal Japanese society remains.

The extreme right views of these women are reflections--indeed, amplifications--of the Nippon no ossan (ニッポンのオッサン) worldview that defines Japanese cultural and social norms. Nippon no ossan is a derogatory term meaning "Japanese Old Man" and connotes a traditional patriarchal perspective.

The female ministers' ascension to power in Japan is not the result of their breaking down barriers. Rather, it is the result of their becoming caricatures of the Japanese ossan's ideal woman. Further, they distinguish themselves as being the most outspoken defenders of traditional and retrogressive views. As an embodiment of the patriarchal ossan worldview, they remind us that feminism requires more than the mere presence of women in a male-dominated world. It requires the overthrow of the basic social values and worldview that privilege the male perspective.

Article Excerpt (Provisional translation by George Lazopoulos):

As you might easily guess, the proportion of Japan’s female parliament members is the lowest among the developed nations, making the surest means for women politicians to advance is to conform to the “Nippon Ossan” value system and worldview that has its grip on the center of power. That is, as often happens among minority group members, excessive conformity to the majority appears. In other words, the women’s extreme right views are nothing other than the result of conforming to the average value system of an overwhelmingly Ossan-centered society. So as the Hate Speech Incident in the Tokyo City Assembly this June made clear, in the world of parliamentary politics offensive behavior toward women that violates human rights is permitted in practice (as proven by the absence of any serious punishment for any Ossan), and the appearance of excessive conformity is inevitable.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule September 8-14, 2014

Monday, September 8, 2014

AM
(Local time in Sri Lanka)
View Kelaniya Temple on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Depart from Colombo (Bandaranaike) International Airport on private government aircraft

PM
(Japan time)
08:59 Finish visit to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, arrive at Haneda Airport on private government aircraft with wife Akie
09:10 Depart from Haneda Airport
09:34 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:32 Depart from private residence
09:47 Arrive at office
09:48 Interview open to all media: When asked “What do you think of a Japanese player taking second in the US Open Tennis Championships?” Mr. Abe answers “I want our players to do their best to take first.”
09:49 Interview ends
10:02 Cabinet Meeting begins
10:13 Cabinet Meeting ends
10:18 Speak with Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan Ishiba Shigeru
10:29 Finish speaking with Mr. Ishiba
10:30 Speak with State Minister of Cabinet Office Taira Masaaki
10:43 Finish speaking with Mr. Taira
11:12 Depart from office
11:20 Arrive at Imperial Palace, register return to Japan
11:27 Depart from Imperial Palace
11:37 Arrive at office

PM
12:09 Ruling Party Liaison Conference
12:24 Conference ends
12:25 Speak with Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu, and Chairman of LDP Election Committee Motegi Toshimitsu
12:38 Finish speaking with Mr. Suga, Mr. Tanigaki, and Mr. Motegi
01:09 Meet with Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Obuchi Yuko, Commissioner of Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Ueda Takayuki, and Secretary-General of Nuclear Regulation Authority Ikeda Katsuhiko
01:33 End meeting with Ms. Obuchi, Mr. Ueda, and Mr. Ikeda
01:41 Speak with Cabinet Office’s Director-General of Decoration Bureau Kuroba Ryosuke
01:47 Finish speaking with Mr. Kuroba
01:51 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
02:49 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
02:50 Receive courtesy call from truck driver Yamane Rie, plasterer Fukuyoshi Natsuko, and colleagues (female truckers and construction workers)
03:03 Courtesy call ends
03:04 Meet with Mr. Saiki
03:28 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
03:39 Filming for event concerned with women
03:42 Filming ends
04:03 Receive courtesy call from CEO of US space venture SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk
04:14 Courtesy call ends
04:32 Council on National Strategic Zones meeting
04:55 Meeting ends
05:06 Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, and Director of Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center Shimohira Koji enter
05:19 Mr. Yachi and Mr. Shimohira leave
05:26 Mr. Kitamura leaves
06:02 Receive courtesy call from President of House of Councillors of Morocco Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah
06:23 Courtesy call ends
06:33 Depart from office
06:53 Arrive at private residence

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:30 Depart from private residence
09:44 Arrive at office
10:03 Receive courtesy call from Australia’s Speaker of the House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop
10:19 Courtesy call ends
10:35 Council for the Protection of Information meeting
11:14 Meeting ends
11:19 Ceremony to Present Prime Minister’s Commendation to Contributors for Disaster Prevention
11:37 Ceremony ends
11:38 Meet with Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan Ishiba Shigeru

PM
12:03 End meeting with Mr. Ishiba
12:06 Depart from office
12:07 Arrive at official residence
12:09 Lunch meeting with female ambassadors to Japan hosted by Prime Minister Abe
01:22 Lunch meeting ends
01:23 Depart from official residence
01:24 Arrive at office
03:05 Depart from office
03:31 Arrive at free school Tokyo Shure in Kishimachi, Tokyo. Engage in activities with pupils who had issues attending school, and have an exchange of ideas with those pupils
04:04 Interview open to all media: When asked “What was your aim in visiting the school?” Mr. Abe answers “My take-away is that there are a variety of methods to approaching education. I want to examine what support we can offer academically and economically.”
04:14 Interview ends
04:46 Arrive at office
05:00 NSC meeting
05:52 NSC meeting ends
05:53 Meet with Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Obuchi Yuko, Minister of the Environment Mochizuki Yoshio, and Secretary-General of Nuclear Regulation Authority Ikeda Katsuhiko
06:20 End meeting with Ms. Obuchi, Mr. Mochizuki, and Mr. Ikeda
06:24 Depart from office
06:25 Arrive at official residence. Dinner with LDP incoming Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu and outgoing Secretary-General Ishiba Shigeru, Chairperson of General Council Nikai Toshihiro, incoming Chairperson of Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi and outgoing Chairperson Takaichi Sanae, and colleagues
08:16 Everyone leaves

Thursday, September 11, 2014

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:24 Depart from official residence
09:25 Arrive at office
09:36 Receive courtesy call from Japan Foundation Asia Center’s First Dispatch Group of Japanese Language Partners Enda Tamao and others
09:43 Courtesy call ends
09:52 Depart from office
09:59 Arrive at Japan Fire Station Hall [日本消防会館: Nihon Shobo Kaikan] in Toranomon, Tokyo
10:00 Attend National Memorial Service for Firefighters Who Lost Their Lives on Duty in Nissho Hall, deliver address, and offer flowers
10:31 Memorial service ends
10:32 Depart from Nissho Hall
10:37 Arrive at office
10:38 Meet with Minister of State for Regulatory Reform Arimura Haruko
11:05 End meeting with Ms. Arimura
11:08 Interview with Vice-Chair of International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Jacques Lochard and other radiation specialists. Chairman of The Nippon Foundation Sasakawa Yohei also attends
11:27 Interview ends
11:30 Robot Revolution Realization Council meeting

PM
12:07 Meeting ends
12:12 Conference with President of Bank of Japan Kuroda Haruhiko commences
01:06 Conference with Mr. Kuroda closes
01:21 Depart from office
01:26 Arrive at Hotel Okura in Toranomon, Tokyo. Attend remembrance ceremony in honor of former Chairman of Cabinet Legislation Bureau, the late Komatsu Ichiro. Offer flowers and deliver address
01:41 Depart from hotel
01:49 Arrive at office
02:03 Meet with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji and Director of Gender Mainstreaming Division Matsukawa Rui
02:47 End meeting with Mr. Hiramatsu and Ms. Matsukawa
02:48 Speak with Cabinet Advisor Furusawa Mitsuhiro and Executive Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kajikawa Mikio
02:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Furusawa and Mr. Kajikawa
03:00 Speak with Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary Furuya Kazuyuki
03:10 Finish speaking with Mr. Furuya
03:36 Depart from office
03:46 Arrive at Nippon Broadcasting System in Yuraku-cho, Tokyo
04:00 Participate in radio program “The Voice: Soko made iu ka!” [ザ・ボイス　そこまで言うか！]
04:32 Finish participation in radio program
04:36 Depart from Nippon Broadcasting System
04:40 Arrive at office
04:47 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Ihara Junichi
05:16 End meeting with Mr. Ihara
05:17 Speak with Ministry of Defense’s Administrative Vice-Minister Nishi Masanori and Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
05:27 Finish speaking with Mr. Nishi and Mr. Kuroe
05:31 Meet with Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Amari Akira
05:51 End meeting with Mr. Amari
05:52 Meet with Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio and MOFA’s Director-General of European Affairs Bureau Hayashi Hajime
06:17 End meeting Mr. Kishida and Mr. Hayashi
06:33 Depart from office
06:47 Arrive at sushi restaurant Kozasa in Shinsen-cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe for Managing Director of IMF Christine Lagarde, Mr. Furusawa and Mr. Hiramatsu also attend
08:42 Depart from restaurant
08:48 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Friday, September 12, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:45 Depart from private residence
09:00 Arrive at office
09:03 Speak with Chairman of General Assembly of LDP Members in House of Councillors Mizote Kensei. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide also attends
09:18 Finish speaking with Mr. Mizote
09:19 Speak with Minister in charge of Promoting Women’s Active Participation Arimura Haruko
09:26 Finish speaking with Ms. Arimura
09:27 Speak with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira and Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office Matsuyama Kenji
09:36 Finish speaking with Mr. Amari and Mr. Matsuyama
09:47 Strategic Headquarters for Space Development meeting
09:58 Meeting ends
10:03 Cabinet Meeting begins
10:17 Cabinet Meeting ends
10:21 Joint Meeting of Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters and Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Council
10:40 Joint meeting ends
10:54 Headquarters for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan meeting
11:09 Meeting ends
11:10 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
11:41 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
11:42 Speak with MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa. Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanehara Nobukatsu also attends
11:53 Finish speaking with Mr. Saiki and Mr. Uemura
11:54 Speak with Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture Yuzaki Hidehiko

PM
12:00 Finish speaking with Mr. Yuzaki
12:44 Speak with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro
12:53 Finish speaking with Mr. Yachi
12:57 Depart from office
01:07 Arrive at Federation of Economic Organizations [Keidanren] Assembly Hall in Otemachi, Tokyo. Attend World Assembly for Women [女性が輝く社会に向けた国際シンポジウム: Jyosei ga Kagayaku Shakai ni muketa Kokusai Shinpojiumu] in International Meeting Hall, give speech
03:27 Receive courtesy call from former President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Naina Lal Kidwai and colleagues in Momoyama Room
03:47 Courtesy call ends

Ms. Zainab Hawa Bangura

03:53 Receive courtesy call from Special Representative of Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura and colleagues in Muromachi Room
04:17 Courtesy call ends
04:25 Receive courtesy call from U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy in Momoyama Room
04:55 Receive courtesy call from former Prime Minister of UK Tony Blair’s wife Cherie in Muromachi Room
05:17 Courtesy call ends
05:23 Conference with Speaker of Jatiyo Sangshad (Bangladesh’s Parliament) Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in Momoyama Room
05:42 Conference ends
06:05 Attend World Assembly for Women reception in Diamond Room, deliver address
06:51 Reception ends
06:52 Depart from Federation of Economic Organizations [Keidanren] Assembly Hall
07:29 Arrive at private residence

Saturday, September 13, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:36 Depart from official residence
08:51 Arrive at Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Tokyo. Attend a high-level round table of World Assembly for Women in cultural center Roppongi Academy Hills within Mori Tower, deliver opening greeting
10:06 Receive courtesy call from Co-Chair of Disney Media Networks Anne Sweeney and colleagues at Italian restaurant La Cucina within membership club Roppongi Hills Club
10:30 Courtesy call ends
10:34 Receive courtesy call from Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and colleagues
10:51 Courtesy call ends
11:03 Participate in subcommittee small group meeting of World Assembly for Women in Roppongi Academy Hills

PM
12:26 Subcommittee meeting ends
12:27 Depart from Roppongi Academy Hills
12:28 Arrive at hotel Grand Hyatt Tokyo in Roppongi, Tokyo. Dinner with secretaries at Japanese restaurant Shunbou within hotel
01:40 Depart from restaurant
01:50 Arrive at Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Public Hall in Hibiya Park, Tokyo. Attend assembly related to North Korean abduction issues Citizens’ Rally: “We cannot wait any longer! We want results this year!” and deliver address
02:15 Depart from Hibiya Park
02:32 Arrive at private residence

Sunday, September 14, 2014

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:18 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
08:32 Arrive at NHK Chiyoda Broadcasting Hall in Kioi-cho, Tokyo
09:00 Appear in debate programming
09:30 Finish debate
09:33 Depart from NHK Chiyoda Broadcasting Hall
09:50 Arrive at private residence

PM
Stay at private residence throughout the afternoon and evening (no visitors)

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones

Retrogressive education leads to retrogressive thinking

Japanese schoolgirl 1920

It was reported on October 23rd, that Japan's Finance Ministry will ask the Education Ministry to increase the maximum number of students per class for first-graders at public elementary schools to 40, from the current 35, in a bid to cut the education budget for next year. It would help reduce the number of teachers nationwide by 4,000, saving the government ¥8.6 billion in personnel costs per year. It is more likely this move--which is contrary to all modern pedagogy that finds smaller classes better for learning--is aimed at reducing the influence of Japan's Teacher's Union [(日教組 Nikkyōso] which the Abe Conservatives believe is has weakened educational rigor and national pride.

Redoing Japan's educational system is a priority of the Abe Administration. APP's Director, Mindy Kotler, is quoted in the article below wondering about the consequences.

Japan's Divided Education Strategy

By Michael Fitzpatrick

The New York Times, October 12, 2014

TOKYO — Japan’s simultaneous embrace of nationalism and cosmopolitanism is generating ambiguous signals from its education policy makers. They are rewriting textbooks along what they call “patriotic” lines, alienating their Asian neighbors in the process. But at the same time, they are promoting Japanese universities as globalized and open, in a bid to compete internationally.

“There is an obvious contradiction between Japan’s rightward shift on education policy and its strivings to internationalize,” said Thomas Berger, a professor at Boston University and an expert on Japanese politics.

“Japanese textbook policy is increasing tensions with Asia, undermining the willingness of Japanese to study in neighboring countries and of foreigners to come to Japan,” Prof. Berger said. “Education policy is caught on the horns of a dilemma: On the one hand, there are powerful economic and political pressures that favor internationalization — yet, in reality, Japan has been moving in the opposite direction.”

Following a rare term out of office, Japan’s conservatives returned to power last year with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at their head and an agenda to recast wartime history with a less apologetic tone. A more critical version of history, which casts Japan as an aggressor in World War II, has been replaced by material that is more “patriotic.”

Critics say the new government is trying to impose a rightist agenda on the nation’s schooling system. They point out, for example, that new state-sanctioned text books play down the death toll of the Nanjing massacre in China, which is now referred to as an “incident.”

There has been some resistance to the changes, but by and large, education boards across Japan are accepting them. One of the first boards to adopt the new textbooks was that of Yokohama, the country’s second-largest city.

At the same time, a formidable drive is underway by the same conservatives to globalize Japan’s inward-looking education system. Mr. Abe has stated that he wants 10 Japanese institutions to rank among the world’s top 100 universities. Currently only two make the cut in prominent lists like that of Times Higher Education: the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.

The government’s plans include strengthening teaching staffs at universities by hiring foreign professors, initiating a certified evaluation system and expanding resources.

There is also a move to improve bilateral relations with the very countries that the new textbooks have irked — the United States, China and South Korea.

Japan’s Asian neighbors fear that its new emphasis on patriotism will lead to nationalism and a teaching of history that obfuscates wartime atrocities. They also accuse Mr. Abe of reviving past militarism. Tokyo is “attempting to deny and even beautify” the country’s history of military aggression, a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry said this year.

China and Japan — which are also facing off over territorial claims — both say that biased history textbooks and education are among the causes of a deep-grained hostility that threatens more than 50 years of peace between them.

Even allies like the United States are dismayed at the new textbooks, said Mindy Kotler, director of Asia Policy Point, an independent research center in Washington.

“Disappointment stems from the realization that Japan’s leaders hold a retrograde, discredited and offensive view of not just history, but also of race, women, war, peace and reconciliation,” she said. “Simply put, the issue is whether or not Japanese decision makers are capable of sound judgment.”
But the government says Japan has done enough to satisfy its neighbors’ sensitivities over Japanese aggression during the war years.

The education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, denies that the government wants to enforce a particular view of history. He says Japan’s textbook examination is undertaken fairly and impartially, “based on expert and academic deliberations.” But he concedes he is looking for a more patriotic take on Japan.

“History has positive and negative aspects,” Mr. Shimomura said in an email. “We believe it is important to teach a balance of the good as well as the bad parts so that children can be proud of and have confidence in our country’s history.”