Asian Labor in the Wartime Japanese Empire
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on January 22nd, 2007
Article:
FORCED LABOR FOR JAPAN
Burying the liberation myth (Jan 21 2007)
Author:
Jeff Kingston
Source:
Japan Times Online
Summary:
This article is a book review for the following book:ASIAN LABOR IN THE WARTIME JAPANESE EMPIRE edited by Paul Kratoksa. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2006, 440 pp., $ 35 (paper).
Notes:
1. Kingston mentions Japan’s troublesome relations with the rest of Asia, and how conservatives have been trying to pain a rosy picture of Japan’s war time history.
2. Quote: “For a majority of Japanese, owning up to the atrocities and excesses of Imperial Japan is not a problem … Many Japanese believe that such a dumbing-down of history only compounds Japan’s shame, prevents reconciliation with victims of Japanese aggression and deprives students the opportunity to learn the lessons of history and folly of untethered patriotism.”
Comment: I’m sure there are some Japanese who feel this way, but many? Not sure. I would guess the majority don’t have much of an opinion.
3. The book shows through 17 essays various atrocities committed by Japan. There was no Pan Asian liberation.
4. Quote: “Shigeru Sato estimates that between 1942-45 as many as 10 million Javanese worked under dreadful conditions as romusha (Indonesian forced laborers) throughout the archipelago. Many, probably over 1 million and perhaps as many as 2 million, died of disease, malnutrition, brutal work and limited medical care. Of the 300,000 romusha sent overseas, the death rate was 75 percent.”
5. Quote: “The system of military sexual slavery involving some 200,000 young women, mostly Koreans, further demonstrates the Imperial armed forces’ callous disregard for fellow Asians.”
Comment:
Sounds like an interesting book.