Embattled Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso has been denounced by British former prisoners of war (POWs) for his connection to Allied prisoners forced to work in slave-like conditions in his family's coal mines during World War II.
Aso, under harsh criticism from Washington to Beijing for what the New York Times called his "offensive and inflammatory" attitudes, has never admitted or apologized for his firm's use of slave labor.
Nor has the Japanese government paid compensation to the hundreds of thousands of enslaved workers, or to the families of the many who died.
The British ex-prisoners of war discovered Aso's connection only through inquiries by the London-based Observer newspaper. When told, Steve Cairns, 88, of the Far East Prisoners of War Fellowship, who still suffers from injuries suffered in four years under Japanese slave labor, said: "I think it's bloody scandalous. Aso should do more than apologize, he should make reparations to those who suffered in the mines."
Arthur Titherington, 84, chairman of the Japanese Labor Camps Survivors' Association, said: "It's quite disgraceful, but it's absolutely typical of Japanese politicians from the prime minister down. Taro Aso is obviously as two-faced as it's possible to get."
"This is quite normal with the Japanese. They refuse flatly to admit to anything. I've been attempting to get a meaningful apology since 1946. Over the years they've been killing the story with silence," he said.
Yet, to Japan's surprise and irritation, its silence and indifference over this and other unresolved war crimes have now become its main obstacle to good relations with Asian neighbors.
They suffered the most from its atrocities, which began even before the 1931 invasion of northern China, and caused the deaths of millions across Asia.
Aso's coal mines exploited an estimated 12,000 Korean slave laborers as well as 101 British prisoners at its Yoshikuma pit on Kyushu island. Enslaved workers there -- and in other firms' pits -- were kept in appalling and dangerous conditions. They were starved and beaten. Many died.
Authorities in Tokyo ordered records destroyed in 1945, but three amateur historians in Kyushu have documented what happened from local sources. They found the workers were underground for 15 hours a day, seven days a week.
The aristocratic Aso headed the family firm, which is now called the Aso Group, from 1973 to 1979 before entering politics with the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. During that time he did not address the complaints of foreign former slave workers. He maintains close links to the firm. In 2001 it entered a joint venture with Lafarge Cement of France, with Aso's younger brother, Yutaka, as president of the new company. Last December the French ambassador in Tokyo awarded Yutaka the Legion d'honneur. The guest of honor was Taro.
German officials, whose country has paid US$6 billion reparations to European workers enslaved by the Nazis, say that, though family links alone do not disqualify German citizens from public office, they are obliged to show atonement or make amends. But Aso has defended Japan's iron-fisted colonization of Korea (1910-1945) and Taiwan (1895-1945), and made racial supremacist remarks reminiscent of Japan's prewar fascist period.
Aso, who is related to the imperial family through marriage and is the grandson of a former conservative prime minister, is one of three leading candidates to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September.
"Because of this," said critic Tatsuro Hanada, a Tokyo University professor, "his attitudes and behavior are a political issue and his qualifications an important subject to open to the Japanese public."
But there has been no public debate and leading Japanese newspapers ignore the Aso slave connection.
Neither Aso nor the Japanese Foreign Ministry answered inquiries about the forced labor issue.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
RSS