Okinawa battle played down for 1st time in textbook screening

Please read the story about the rumor. Don't you think it is real?
I have a rumor that Mr. Abe will be forced to resign this summer as the prime minister after his first visit to the USA at the pressure of the US and his fellow nationalists. The US will ask him not to rewrite the Japanese textbook, and he will say "Yes" because like other Japanese PMs, he has no gut to say "No". This will infuriate the right wing politicians and force him resign.
If you get confused and can not distinguish the rumor from the fact, you will loose all your money in the stock market.

 

The above "Rumor is a rumor, not the fact" is for katsura

 

Katsura, are you trying to say the Kamikaze piolts died for the Okinawans, not for the emperor or mainland Japanese? I also like to know how many Okinawans voluteer to be Kamikaze piolt. Do you know any number?Please read this quote from the Wikipedia.


If you were a pilot durign the end of WWII,you could have died as a Kamikaze piolt.
Do you think it is right to waste young life like this?

 

I wasn't there as I was busy on Iwo Jima but after WWII I went to Okinawa to help these wonderful people to get back on their feet and I got to know just what happened as I became friends with the whole of the island. Masahide Ota is my very close friend and during the battle for Okinawa he was stationed on Shuri, but he was told to go to the airport in Yomitan to fill bomb craters so the Japanese aircraft could take off. He ran all the way (Through the night and arrived in Yomitan when dawn broke on 1 April) He was sixteen years old and eye witness to most of what happened later.
In the list of those who wrote as to just what happened there is the name of Higa - she is the girl who wrote the book "The Girl With The White Flag"-- Read her story and know she lives just to the south of Ishikawa and she is my friend of 47 years. Go to Yomitan and meet with Chibana who wrote the book "Burning The Rising Sun"-- know that all scholars who write history must be able to document every word they put to paper; which is a Hell of a lot more that can be said of many of those who blog with in disagreement with those who post the TRUTH of what really happened and is happening today.

I suggest you go to the Memorial Park at Mabuni and read the hundreds of thousands of names of Ryukyuans who died during the battle of Okinawa and know that Japan used the island of Okinawa as a bulwark to keep the Allied Forces from laying waste to Japan proper. You might also look at the Kamikase Monument and see the name of Namihira and know that he we from Owan, Okinawa. Check out the list of Kinjo's and know that one of them is my father-in-law who died in the "Typhoon of Steel that took place on April 1 1945

 

I appreciate your post with regards to Okinawa. You broaden my understanding of Japan, I congratulate your fine job assisting Okinawans in many ways.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/

I am very surprised the number 1 new media in the US, may in whole world, published this topic in the front page of the Sunday NY Times edition on April 1, 2007.

Mr. Abe and his nationalist cronies can not find a place to hide any longer.

 

The same article regarding the Japanese textbook revision by the right wing nationalists.
For the JT members who are not subscribers of NY Times and can not get the access of this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/world/asia/01japan.html

 

My in-laws were there. My father in-law (may he rest in peace) described to me the horrific things that happened here in Okinawa, and it is something that would turn your stomach. As he told me, it was the Americans who were good to the Okinawan people, and it was the Japanese that told mothers holding their crying children, "kill that child or we will".

The way I see it, wonderful people like Higasan, Ota, and Chibana are telling the truth as they saw it. They did not and do not use revisionist history, or Wikipedia as a reference. I find it deplorable for young people to get on here and blog a defense for Japan that is contrary to the truth.

What I know is what has been told to me by those that were there. So reading the posts of the misinformed on here is part comical and quite angering.

The_Marion: keep at it, as there are a lot of things this young generation could learn from you and your friends.

ciao

 

The following News media reported the Japanese Textbook Revision regarding the Battle of Okinawa.
These are only portions of the US media; Many other US or foreign newspapers not included.

1. International herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/01/asia/web-0401japan.php?page=2

2. The Seattle times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/...

3. Boston Herald
http://news.bostonherald.com/international/asiaPac...

4. San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2...

5.Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-...

6. Inquirer
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/vi...

7. ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1886312.htm

98 The Boston Globe on April 1, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/world/

 

Didn't Nobuo Terao, a former member of the Ryukyu Government state on August of last year that the said administration farbricated the "force" issue from Akamatsu so that the bearaved family members would be entitled to post war compensation? (Sankei Shinbun 8/27/06)

This statement coincides with Ayako Sone's published work in regards to her investigation on the 300 mass Suicide of Tokashiki.

 

Takuma,

The Japanese right wing nationalists and history revisionists do not consider the living witness as an evidence or proof as shown in the comfort women case.

They only bring some documents written by nationalist scholars who have the same ideas of their cronies.

With their very immature thinking process, you will never be able to convince them because their mind are set. They may truly believe the distorted history as real. In psychology, a term of "Pathological Liar" is used in those cases.

How can you convince anyone who believes the color of blood is yellow?

 

I would like to share the editorial opinion of the Asahi Newspaper with regard to the battle of Okinawa.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200704020041.html

 

Japan Times article today says it all:
"The ministry should heed what historians like professor Hirofumi Hayashi at Kanto Gakuin University have to say: that many pieces of testimony indicate that Japanese forces distributed hand grenades to local residents, strictly ordered them not to be captured by U.S. forces and told them to kill themselves when the moment arrived. He points out that irrespective of whether army unit commanders issued suicide orders, the situation as a whole clearly shows that Japanese forces applied coercion."

 

Told me, once after a trip to the newly opened "Cornerstone of Peace", his story. He was a young boy, appox 7-8 yrs old. His Father was "drafted" into the Japanese army and he hadn't seen him in at least a month prior to the invasion. During the fighting, he and his family hid in a ohaka (one of the many tombs on Okinawa) and "surrendered" when some very large men yelled in Japanese from them to come out. He was very scared. One of the men pulled a bar of chocolate out of his pocket and handed it to him. He was scared to eat it because he had been told in school that the Americans would kill them all. The Marine took the bar, opened it, took a bite, and handed it back to him. He said it was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. He has never forgotten that moment. I now join them during Obon when we go to the tombs to pray to those who have gone before. I asked my wife if her Grandfathers remains were in the tomb. She told me that they were never found and that the only thing that was in the tomb was a handfull of dirt from where they think he was posted.

 

Thanks for sharing the story with us. No matter how much certain people try to confuse the truth with who gave what order, and what is still documented etc., stories like your in-law`s tell us the undeniable truth.