Tamogami's Article Is Wrong, But He Is Partly Right
Today, Toshio Tamogami, the Chief of Air Force Staff, testified about his controversial article in the Diet. He insisted it was right, because 58 percent of Yahoo!Japan Poll agreed to him.
But historians criticize that it includes many wrong allegations based on secondary sources. For example, it claims that Zhang Zuolin, a warlord in China who was killed by Japanese Army with bombing in 1928, was "in fact murdered by Komintern". Its source was Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang, which has many historical errors. One of them is about Zhang: Chang maintains that a GRU report alleges they killed Zhang. Probably Chang doesn't know that Colonel Daisaku Komoto confessed he killed Zhang.
However, Tamogami was fired without asking about the article. He said he wanted to be investigated what was wrong. He is right in this aspect. This kind of problems are taboo among Japanese politicians because they are afraid of provoking neighboring countries. But the historical facts are independent of political views. As this blog clarified, there is no evidence that "comfort women" were abducted by the Army.
Japan might have been an aggressor nation, but it doesn't lead to the conclusion that Japanese Army raped 200,000 women and killed 300,000 people in Nanjing. We should discuss it more frankly in Japan and with other countries.
But historians criticize that it includes many wrong allegations based on secondary sources. For example, it claims that Zhang Zuolin, a warlord in China who was killed by Japanese Army with bombing in 1928, was "in fact murdered by Komintern". Its source was Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang, which has many historical errors. One of them is about Zhang: Chang maintains that a GRU report alleges they killed Zhang. Probably Chang doesn't know that Colonel Daisaku Komoto confessed he killed Zhang.
However, Tamogami was fired without asking about the article. He said he wanted to be investigated what was wrong. He is right in this aspect. This kind of problems are taboo among Japanese politicians because they are afraid of provoking neighboring countries. But the historical facts are independent of political views. As this blog clarified, there is no evidence that "comfort women" were abducted by the Army.
Japan might have been an aggressor nation, but it doesn't lead to the conclusion that Japanese Army raped 200,000 women and killed 300,000 people in Nanjing. We should discuss it more frankly in Japan and with other countries.
Comments