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Kaori Maekawa spreekt over de Japanse bezetting in Indonesië en Zuidoost Azië
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1
Social political aspects of Japanese commemoration tours and recovery
of remains
Dr. Kaori Maekawa
Institute of Asian Cultures, Sophia University (Area Studies, Indonesia, Southeast Asia)
Introduction
Before giving today’s talk about the present commemoration tours to West Papua New Guinea
by Japanese, I will give a brief background on how families received the news about the loss of
their family members in West Papua New Guinea. Generally speaking, a local official visits the
family and hands over a wooden box covered with a white cloth which supposedly has bones of
the lost family member. Usually people found it was empty. What they found was a small piece
of paper confirming the approximate date of death and location or area of the person’s death.
There is an old Japanese song, “Java is heaven, Burma is hell, but it is even worse in New
Guinea since your dead body will not be recovered to be send home”
『ジャワは極楽、ビルマは地獄、死んでも還れぬ ニューギニア』
In most cases, the families of the deceased still don’t have further information about their lost
family. Families join Nippon Izokukai (Japans Bereaved Families Association) to commemorate
and praise the honor of their war dead, to support themselves, for better welfare of the family.
They also join veteran’s organizations to look for information about their lost family.
It is important to keep in mind that more than 1.13 million out of 2.4 million people who died
during the Pacific war outside of Japan are not yet recovered until today. In the case of Western
New Guinea about 53,000 Japanese were dead by the end of the war, we can estimate that
about half of them have not yet been recovered.
The Commemoration of Military War Dead in Modern Japan
Yasukuni does not have keep bones of war dead. The Holy mirror and holy sword are the
worship of Yasukuni shrine. Military war dead are considered to be military gods and have to
be enshrined at Yasukuni shrine as a “nation’s hero” according to the Meiji government policy
(since 1868). So, Yasukuni shrine creates holy name strips of the military war dead and
prepares worship for them (Chart 1).
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Chart 1. Number of War Dead enshrined to Yasukuni Shrine
Name of war (year) Number of military war dead added to
Yasukuni shrine
Satsuma Rebellion (1877) 6.971
Taiwan Expedition (1874) 1.130
Sino-Japan War (1894-1895) 13.619
The Boxer Rebellion (1900) 1.256
Russo-Japan War (1904-1905) 88.428
First World War (1914-1918) 4.850
Jinan Incident (1928) 185
Manchurian Incident (1931) 17.174
Second Sino-Japan War (1937-1945) 191.074
Pacific War (1941-1945) 2.132.699
Total
Keiichiro Kobori, Yasukuni Jinja to Nihon jin (Yasukuni shrine and Japanese) (Tokyo: PHP
Shinsho, 1998), pp.95-96.
[千鳥ヶ淵戦没者墓苑 Chidorigafuchi Senbotsusha Boen.]
The Monument and Cemetery for the Unknown soldier Chirdorigafuchi was founded in 1959 by
politicians, the Ministry of Welfare and private organization such as Nippon Izokukai (Japan
Bereaved Families Association). This National Monument and Cemetery for the Unknown
soldier holds 360,000 unidentified remains out of 1.27 million recovered remains.
Chidorigafuchi cemetery is a non-religious, semi-governmental institution to honor and
commemorate the unknown soldier from WWII.
Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for Unknown Soldiers
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Although it is considered to be a “cemetery”, legally speaking the institution is a “storage” or
“depot” for ashes run by a committee under control of the Ministry of Environment, which is in
charge of the park and use of public space.
Long before the establishment of Chidorugafuchi unknown soldiers cemetery, Yasukuni was
the sole pre-war militaristic symbol to honor and praise of the soldiers died in their service.
Yasukuni shrine takes revisionist point of
view that denies the fact of aggression
East and Southeast Asia and justified its
reasons.
In addition, Yasukuni shrine supports the
idea to recover the honor of “A-class war
criminal” in denying the legal legitimacy
of the Far Eastern Tribunal. Lacking the
formal and common commemorative
installation of the war dead including
Japanese civilians and military and more victims in Asian countries, Yasukuni remains to be sole
common place to commemorate the war dead until now.
The foreign policy of Japanese government attitude to admit the aggression in the past war
creates much complex situation at the domestic politics. The government gives close support
to the Nippon Izokukai (Japan Bereaved Families Association) which shares closest view with
Yasukuni states. Although the association members carry simple family sentiment to
commemorate their lost family, the extreme statement also exists among members that A-class
war criminal is sacrifice and victim of international politics created by the Allied countries.
When the official exhumation ceased in 1970’s, it was coincidentally same period that Yasukuni
received official nominal roll from the government in 1970 and secretly enshrined A-class war
criminals as military god in 1978. This created far more complex sentiments among Japanese
that Yasukuni equally deals military soldiers who died in hunger and the war criminals who sent
them to the battlefield. Being disappointed with the shrine’s decision, Emperor Hirohito
stopped visit to Yasukuni shrine since 1976.
Post war recovery of remain program and Yasukuni issues
As noted in the previous chapter, more than 1 million war dead still remain outside Japan. It is
an obligation for modern nation states to recover the remains of soldiers who died during
service. However, the exhumation and commemoration of the war dead came to be closely
connected to Japan’s internal politics about issues connected to Yasukuni that contradict
foreign policy to neighboring countries. Although families of the lost soldiers wish strong
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support by the government, the basic public sentiment was neglected over and over again
since 1970’s until the first decade of the 21st century.
The Japanese government came into action after the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1952. The
Ministry of Welfare started the first recovery in 1952 and continued until 1958. The first
program collected approximately 11,000 remains. The second program started in 1967 and
collected about 115,000 remains. The third program, which started 1973, was the last of the
governmental operations and collected 99,000 remains. It was ended in 1975.
(Chart 2).
Chart 2. The number of recovered remains of Japanese outside Japan
Approximate numbers of deceased Japanese outside
Japan
2,400,000
Number of recovered body 1,270,000
Number of the body still missing 1,130,000
Number of the missing at sea 300,000
Number of the remains which are recovered but waiting
for the clearance of arrangements at the local countries
230,000
Estimate of the remains which would return to Japan in
the future
610,000
(Ministry of Welfare and Labor 31 March 2011
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/engo/seido01/index.html#ikotsu
The Ministry of Welfare switched program after 1975 to form special task forces once they get
substantial and reliable information about the location and number of remains.
Marginalized exhumation programs in ambivalence
The Governments decision to discontinue the exhumation program was received in large
frustration among families concerned. But this did not attract much attention in public. The
task to recover soldiers’ remains transferred to private persons, however without
governmental, financial support.
The governments ambivalent attitude to forsake strong leadership for the exhumation
frustrated the families. As second and third generations anticipated to look for information on
their missing grand-fathers and relatives the governments foreign policy towards China and
other victims
Families organized themselves into organizations to take over the governmental task. Part of
these private initiatives were inspired by
Interestingly, families and veterans commemoration trips became more common since then. In
5
1975 the Indonesian government officially requested foreigners to stop excavating remains of
Japanese soldiers. There had been 4 exhumation projects in West Papua from 1956 to 1974.
After 1975 the Japanese government switched to build monuments at various locations rather
than exhumations. Families and veterans formed commemorating groups on a major scale to
visit these sites and hold religious ceremonies every year.
Tours shifted to Papua New Guinea and Burma and these private tours continued the task to
recover the remains of the soldiers (Chart 3). From mid 1970’s to the end of the century,
private organizations such as veterans’ reunion groups and volunteer students continued the
exhumations on a minor scale.
Chart 3. Numbers of bones(remains) to place at Chidorigafuchi cemetery (31 May 1999)
Area/ year 1959 1965
-1974
1975
-1978
1979
-1982
1983
-1996
1987
-1988
1989
-1990
1991
Northern islands 878 4 0 4 0 - - -
Japan
Mainland(Okinawa
, Iwo jima)
1860 5483 490 751 899 718 424 146
(former)
Manchuria
37024 425 0 145 - - - -
China and Taiwan 35064 2930 412 378 - - - -
Korea 51 427 378 - - - - -
Philippines 4313 43557 35732 3689 1187 2165 1182 167
Malaysia, Vietnam,
Indonesia
4598 1328 2365 14 20 20 - -
Burma, Thailand,
India
1277 95 34053 157 300 42 5 4
Central Pacific,
New Guinea,
Solomon, Bismarck
2016 68209 22033 7663 5846 1621 964 402
(former)
Soviet Union
20 17 - - - - - 27
Area/ year (cont-) 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Northern islands - - - - - - - -
Japan
Mainland(Okinawa,
341 54
64 40 16 26 10 51
6
Iwo jima)
(former)
Manchuria
- - - - - - - -
China and Taiwan - - - - - - - -
Korea - - - - - - - -
Philippines 153, 306 496 36 178 64 630 18
Malaysia, Vietnam,
Indonesia
- - - - - - - -
Burma, Thailand,
India
13 0 0 14 5 0 24 22
Central Pacific,
New Guinea,
Solomon, Bismarck
358 90 506 437 551 399 133 77
(former) Soviet
Union
26 0 32 853 1204 1929 1426 1631
Newsletter Chidorigafuchi, 1 July 1999
Commemorating comrades and visiting the battle fields were key issues to maintain veterans’
reunions. They published newsletters and journals to ask for donations from private persons
and companies to charter airplanes to Rae, Kevien, Rabaul, Sepik & Biak islands, Noemfor
islands and Hollandia.
They also collected Japanese automobiles, motorbikes, bicycles and souvenirs as well as
giftmoney for the local people and villages who maintain the monuments and who also search
for the remains. In general, Japanese veterans and families donate money at various locations
as a kind of war compensation on a private level to the local society. The bilateral peace treaty
has almost no impact on the local villages. Excavating bones of Japanese soldiers promised
rewards for next year’s foreign money, this quickly developed into new business at the local
economy.
However, the financial burden for the private people was so huge that many veterans and
families became frustrated with the government’s lack of support and sincere compassion for
these activities. These tourists requested aid for a number of times to the ministry and
politicians. They collected reliable information from local people about soldiers’ remains. The
government and local Japan Embassies, in most cases, did not take quick action to open
negotiations with the local government to accommodate the remains.
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The accusation against the government’s negligence of taking action about these matters
became serious when revisionist historians became influential in the late 1980’s and early
1990’s. The arguments quickly became a part of patriotic discourse that “every one of the
post-war Japanese must respect the “nation’s heroes” who died and were left behind in jungles
of the lost war”. Although it was, sometimes cynically, accepted by the families who lost family
members in the war, the arguments appealed to many younger generations.
Kutei Tai” Non-profit organization activities in Philippines in 2009.
Blog by Ken Noguchi at http://blog.livedoor.jp/fuji8776/archives/2009-08.html
Concluding remarks
Since the late 1990’s, long standing and newly founded exhumation groups registered as NGO’s
and became active with relatively younger generations with support from the Ministry of
Welfare and Nippon Izokukai, etc.
The Japanese Government during this period was fully dependent on the private NGO’s and
private networks on operation level. It was August 1999 when finally the government offered
financial and official support to create a special task force made up from members from each
NGO. However the competition between each group to receive official funding for the
operation weakened the focus of the broad network until now.
Finally, after 2000, the government created an official program for exhumation and appointed
several NGOs to perform assignments of these tasks in each region (Chart 4). At the same time,
for example the Papua New Guinea government officially prohibited exhumation of Japanese
soldiers by private cooperations and individuals. In the case of Indonesia, the government
opened negotiations in 2010 to create a mutual agreement with the Japanese government
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concerning the recovery of remains of Japanese soldiers.
Chart 4. Recently recovered remains of Japanese soldiers (2006-2010)
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total
Papua New
Guinea
5 94 114 415 214 842
Bismarck
islands
0 1 2 8 2 13
Solomon
islands
66 118 144 94 163 585
West Papua 35 115 108 291 216 765
Indonesia (ex.
West Papua)
0 0 0 10 0 10
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/engo/seido01/index.html#ikotsu
Rabaul 30 September 1979 http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/engo/seido01/ireihi04.html
Wewak 16 September 1981 http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/engo/seido01/ireihi06.html
9
Biak island 24 March 1996 http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/engo/seido01/ireihi11.html
10
Biak Island 1956
Madang 12 September 1983