美国《新闻周刊》(Newsweek)国际版日前刊登日本右翼激进历史学者秀颖加世(Hideaki Kase)的文章，表示日本应该重振过去帝国时期光辉荣耀，与恢复正常国家军事武装，通盘否认慰安妇的存在，更指南京大屠杀是中国人捏造出来的。世界抗日史实维护会常务副会长丁元谴责《新闻周刊》刊登秀颖加世此扭曲事实的文章，严正要求《新闻周刊》为此道歉，否则将发起一连串抵制、拒读的抗议活动。 g d! I3 n) D6 t3 K5 W5 ^ % K) N' m- n' t4 I f# I- F1 w 道歉出于贸易考虑 0 q& ?9 k' o) ]* r8 ~# z; X
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据美国《星岛日报》报道，秀颖加世在文中指出，世界各国普遍不能理解为什么日本不肯道歉，但站在日本的角度来看，日本才不懂为什么像慰安妇或是南京大屠杀等事件非得一提再提。自从二次世界大战结束以来，美军驻扎日本，监管日本政权遵守和平主义，为了彻底杜绝侵略主义，日本媒体甚至刻意夸大、捏造日本政府战间期的恶行。 4 `; [' C2 i; h
) _- f" _- |/ R6 L8 k 秀颖加世表示，日本于1945年投降后的头几年，很多日本民众都非常不能适应美国强压顺服的要求。直到1970年，由于经济起飞、日本民众享受前所未有的富裕生活，基于贸易考虑，政府倾向为过去的暴行向邻近各国道歉。1993年时任官房长官河野洋平针对慰安妇事件公开道歉。在1996年日本投降50周年纪念日上，社会党首相村山富市也坦承日军暴行对亚洲各国造成伤害和痛苦。 8 Q4 P; C- D% l% T) b7 Q' B( t8 _/ K1 r+ W9 |5 V4 V9 n
根据秀颖文章所述，由于近10年来经济衰退，道歉所获得的利益逐渐减少，加上现年53岁的保守党首相安倍执政，其阁员和助手都在二战后出生，不认为他们该为过去的历史悔过。 ! |6 W: `* h7 }" L/ Q5 N
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越逼道歉越强硬 : W: G! Z1 T1 M N0 ? c: s [. ~5 x
秀颖加世声称妓院只是商业建设，美军史料明确记载慰安妇都是妓女，根本没有所谓日本当局绑架妇女、胁迫卖淫的事情，而且其中40%的妇女都是日本人。他更进一步指出，很多日本政客开始相信，中国为了迫使日本政府在各个方面让步和妥协，于是捏造出了南京大屠杀。 4 m! C L/ y+ H0 A: [( e1 G ' V/ @, Q! K% x6 H; v9 v0 _ 秀颖加世最后说，过去十多年来，许多日本的教科书上都记录了日军在南京屠杀20至30万中国人的暴行，然而现在只剩下一本教科书提及此事，日本渴望恢复成为一个拥有武力装备和对外政策的正常国家，邻近各国和美国越逼迫日本道歉，日本将会更为强硬。 ' [' K6 S1 n: C/ u ]5 _ j. ~) u" R+ ?/ P 周刊成扭曲历史共犯 华社要求其郑重道歉 + p1 K8 L6 _- D& l7 \$ d+ O9 V/ S$ c- v# @
世界抗日史实维护会常务副会长丁元表示，对于《新闻周刊》发表上述强辩、企图抹灭历史的文章，感到非常错愕。 & P N8 `& o% d, W
# D& U0 U# B3 } O1 _6 N 丁元指出，秀颖加世和其他右翼激进分子，从来都不肯承认日军战间期的暴行，也不愿意为事情负责，除非日本面对过去历史，日本永远都不可能成为一个正常的国家。 0 E. W# `! Y8 C/ q8 j6 X2 p0 A: B1 `5 P) Q! K
他表示，秀颖加世无耻地宣扬日本删除教课书中关于南京大屠杀的历史章节，为了复苏1930年穷兵黩武的帝国主义实施校园“爱国教育”而沾沾自喜，狂妄的粉饰数万位慰安妇为妓女，宣称34万南京大屠杀凌虐而死的无辜百姓都不存在。 - Z- L }, y$ w$ K4 [- E* h8 V
- ?! @" P- m1 v% G4 H' C6 U 丁元指出，《新闻周刊》光是刊登这样的文章，就已经成为扭曲历史的共犯，枉为世界级的刊物，却不经审慎思考就唐突出刊。丁元示，为了战间期的受害者和所有人的良知，要求《新闻周刊》郑重道歉并且发表官方声明。3 L G6 E8 {, Q
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& [ J" P; z4 h- p8 ABy Hideaki Kase' g/ Y! _2 R1 F1 H3 ~% X& B1 F
Newsweek International 1 ?/ B- L/ Q3 c" MHistory is a hot topic in Japan these days, with the country's wartime behavior returning to haunt its citizens. Many Japanese are dismayed by the possibility that the U.S. House of Representatives will soon demand a formal apology from Tokyo for the imperial military's alleged use of "comfort women," or sex slaves, during World War II. This talk has taken the Japanese government by surprise, especially given its unprecedented support for Washington in Iraq and the war onterrorism., Y2 y2 i1 ]: ]( Z& z' ~- Z# w
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The world can't comprehend why Japan is reluctant to say sorry once more. But most Japanese can't understand why issues like the comfort women or the Nanking Massacre have resurfaced at all. Since World War II, the country has abided by the pacifism forced on it by the U.S. occupation. To promote such peacefulness, the Japanese media and intellectuals created an image of Japan as a warlike place that had to be prevented from rearming at all costs. To heighten the danger, the media also exaggerated or even invented wretched acts supposedly committed by Japan's imperial forces. & |# C/ | a" Q7 S% N" Z 7 {5 B, A, ^8 I: z. ZIn the first years after the nation's surrender in 1945, many of its citizens found this imposed meekness hard to take. In 1952, for example, the Diet unanimously called for the men convicted by the Allied war-criminal trials to be treated the same as those honorably killed or injured on the battlefield. Half of Japan's then population signed petitions calling for the immediate release of incarcerated war criminals, and the major political parties of the day refused to accept any war guilt.9 V* [9 |* ^. L! k3 g! l6 i
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By the 1970s, however, this resistance began to diminish as memories of the war faded and the economy began to boom. Intoxicated by its unprecedented affluence, Japan was willing to ask forgiveness of its neighbors if this proved good for business. In 1993, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologized for Japan's having coerced women into prostitution during the war. Three years later, on the 50th anniversary of Japan's surrender, the Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama acknowledged that Japanese aggression during the war had caused "tremendous damage and suffering" to many Asian countries.& ~: K- T8 T; [4 m* T) c4 |4 F
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In recent years, however, long-dormant nationalism has begun to rise again due to several factors. First, during the economic slump that extended into the early part of this decade, the benefits of apologizing became less clear. Second, the conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is 53, and the bulk of his cabinet and aides are in their 40s and 50s. Most don't understand why they should do penance for events that occurred before they were born., e+ j) G7 w" t+ k& v
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Japanese nationalism has also been revived by China's alarming military buildup and North Korea's nascent nuclear threat. And it has spiked in response to the way Japan's neighbors seem to be exploiting bad history for present gain. Seoul did not even raise the comfort-women issue, for example, when it normalized relations with Tokyo in 1965; it was Japanese leftists who finally broached the topic in the 1980s.) ]4 S! k: G B. f z
% v% \$ e9 T; d! T: _% T0 eThe fact is that the brothels were commercial establishments. U.S. Army records explicitly declare that the comfort women were prostitutes, and found no instances of "kidnapping" by the Japanese authorities. It's also worth noting that some 40 percent of these women were of Japanese origin.+ }5 K* p1 I4 R* z8 P
$ E; K/ v# j! H6 e) fMany Japanese politicians have also come to believe that the Nanking Massacre was a fabrication of the Chinese, who are using it to pressure Japan into granting concessions in other areas. More than 60 Diet members conducted several study sessions in February and March. Much evidence disproving the massacre was presented; for example, although the Chinese Nationalist Ministry of Information conducted more than 300 press conferences over 11 months after the fall of Nanking, it never breathed a word about any massacre. Nor did Chiang Kai-shek or Mao Zedong refer to it in statements on the first anniversary of the war.0 x0 O( `- [2 X5 t* y7 J
" m6 z$ a* v' \" u1 M& xDiet members are now forming a new caucus to study the facts. Whatever they find, further apologies are unlikely. The country's attitude has changed dramatically since the 1970s. In recent decades, for example, many Japanese history textbooks blamed Japanese forces for massacring 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese civilians in Nanking. Only one textbook mentions such events today. Saluting the rising-sun flag and singing the national anthem (the title of which translates as "Your Noble Reign") have become mandatory in public schools. These are small but telling signs of how Japan's sentiments have changed. The country is eager to resume its place in the world as a normal nation, with a normal defense and foreign policy. The harder its neighbors or the United States push it for apologies, the harder Japan may start pushing back.' o9 h, C$ P# e) ]% x/ {7 e5 s
( }, I& S5 W7 B9 L! L7 SKase is a historian and author who served as an adviser to Prime Ministers Takeo Fukuda and Yasuhiro Nakasone.* ]8 r" Y# w6 n
