SHANGHAI: "We went toward the Chinese captives bound in ropes, with rifles in our hands, the bayonets shining against the sunset. One Chinese captive faced me with his hands tied behind his back, smiling. ... I, trembling, stabbed him in the chest, and he howled and fell into the tide of the Yangtze River ..." This is an episode in the autobiography of Honda Tatsutaro, a former Japanese soldier, recounting how Japanese invading troops killed Chinese captives during the War of Resistance Against Japan. On Friday the now 91-year-old Tatsutaro arrived in Shanghai and knelt at the city's war memorial in apology and penance for wartime atrocities. "I must come to China to apologize before it is too late," said Tatsutaro. "I do not want to take my sins into the grave..." After dedicating some lines of poetry to the Chinese war dead on Friday afternoon, Tatsutaro knelt before a wall at the Memorial to the Anti-Japanese War in Shanghai, and prayed. He then stood up, and turned to face the audience before reading several articles in Japan's constitution that uphold peace. After that, the repentant Tatsutaro criticized the Japanese Government led by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "The constitution forbids waging wars, and it's been so many years of peace," said Tatsutaro. "It is unacceptable that Koizumi attempts to change the constitution on the excuse of self defence," he said. "I will defend the constitution with my life." Lasting three months in late 1937, the war was fought in a suburb of Shanghai. Involving about 1 million soldiers, it was the first major combat between China and Japan during the war. Tatsutaro joined troops stationed near Nanjing, China's capital at that time. Japanese troops massacred more than 300,000 locals after conquering the city in 1937. "He is 91, and nobody forced him to come," said Xu Qin, a staff member at the memorial who accompanied Tatsutaro during his visit. "We would forgive him even if he did not kneel down, and his behaviour here is evidence of his apology," said Xu. "I was supporting him by the hand all the way. His hand was warm and I think I can understand his heart," Xu added. Editor's Note: Thanks go to Robert Schneider, a WWII veteran, for the tip regarding this story. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-05/21/content_444522.htm
Its a good public statement from an individual who ws there - and flies in the face of the Japanese government's refusal to acknowledge what happened there. It may even bring peace of some sort to survivors and maybe to the old man himself. Eric Lomax's account 'The Railwayman' tells of meeting up with the interrogator for the secret police on the Burma Railway. This man had gone on after the war to be a successful businessman but could not get what had happened out of his mind. When he retired, he built a temple of reconciliation near the Bridge on the Kwai and there he sits, telling visitors what happened there. That's brave, considering so many Japanese still deny the atrocities.
A shame he didn't take the 'honourable' Japanese way out as many other Japanese war criminals did.....lets just remember that he and his colleagues have probably had 70 years of glorious life.....where their victims had none. Too little too late if you ask me. Rgds Tim D
Hmm sounds like an attempt at self gain, and a grasp for forgiveness made by a god fearing man. I thought the japanese still used the honour/shame system, it seems strange that he waited until he had become rich from the book he wrote about his crimes, to apoligise to the people whos grandparents he killed. But if you look at it another way - if he had disobeyed orders, he would have been killed himself.
