Arab News Japan

TOKYO: A conservative group of Japanese, made up largely of senior academics, has issued a statement disputing the cause of the Pacific War and criticizing the phrase “Remember Pearl Harbor.”

The Experts Council Aiming for Japan’s True Independence (ECAJTI) issued an open statement to coincide with the 80thanniversary of the End of World War II that stated, “The war was initiated by American actions well before the Pearl Harbor attack. In this sense, ‘Remember Pearl Harbor’ is not based on historical truth. We Japanese resent the fact that Americans use this totally unacceptable slogan without thinking. This warning is nothing less than deceitful and an affront to Japan and the Japanese people.”

The group refers readers to the “Hull Note,” which was handed to Ambassador NOMURA Kichisaburo by US Secretary of State Cordell Hull on November 26, 1941, and describes it as “an ultimatum to the Japanese government.”

The key points of the Hull Note included: a non-aggression pact with Japan; Japan’s military withdrawal from China and French Indochina; Japan to recognize the government of Chiang Kai-Shek; and respect for territorial integrity.

Japan viewed it as an ultimatum that it had to reject, leaving no alternative but war, with ECAJTI accusing the administration of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt of dishonesty.

“The so-called negotiations had the character of a gangster-like US stringing Japan along, and honest but naïve Japan doing whatever the US said to do,” the ECAJTI statement said, adding that the US eventually forced Japan “into a war it did not want. FDR used economic and diplomatic means to goad Japan into firing the first shot.”

The statement also accuses the US of racism. “Not a few Americans loathed Japan, the only non-white nation at the time that achieved rapid industrial modernization and Westernization.” It added that America’s foreign policy conflicted with key, established Japanese rights and interests in China. 

In conclusion, the ECAJTI statement said the Allied victory in the war allowed the US to brand Japan as evil “by a brain-washing program, the War Guilt Information Program (WGIP) and through the suppression of free speech.”

“It is now time to break out of the brainwashing imposed over the past 80 years and to clear Japan’s name.”