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The “Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan”: A Critique A japanese translation is available.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Tsuneno Yujiro
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Summary:

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Some Japanese studies scholars recently published an “Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan,” to counter the revisionist atmosphere surrounding the “comfort women” issue in Japan. While the author agrees that historical revisionism should be criticized, he takes issue with some elements in the Letter. First, it distorts the history of post-1945 Japan by listing factually incorrect “achievements.” Second, its treatment of nationalism in Japan and other countries is problematic. The Letter seems to be the result of a compromise among people with divergent views, and the author argues that what should not be compromised has been compromised.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 13 , Issue 22 , June 2015 , e4
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2015

References

Notes

1 “Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan,” H-Asia, May 5, 2015. The full list of signatories is available here.

2 Peter Ennis, Jordan Sand, and Alexis Dudden, “Anatomy of an Open Letter: How 187 Japan scholars came together to push Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on history issues,” Dispatch Japan, May 16, 2015, retrieved May 21, 2015.

3 Abe Shinzo, “Toward an Alliance of Hope,” April 29, 2015, retrieved May 21, 2015.

4 ““Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan,” ibid.

5 Peter Ennis, Jordan Sand, and Alexis Dudden, ibid.

6 Chang Jae-soon and Roh Hyo-dong, “Hundreds more scholars sign joint statement urging Japan to acknowledge sex slavery,” Yonhap News Agency, May 19, 2015.

7 Koyama Emi, “Sekai no Nihon kenkyushara 187 mei niyoru ‘Nihon no Rekishika wo Shiji suru Seimei’ no Haikei to Nerai,” (“‘Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan’ by 187 Japan scholars of the World: its Background and Aims”), Synodos, May 5, 2015, retrieved May 21, 2015.

8 Peter Ennis, Jordan Sand, and Alexis Dudden, ibid.

9 Slavoj Zizek, “Why We All Love to Hate Haider,” New Left Review, March-April 2000, retrieved May 21, 2015.

10 Peter Eniss, Jordan Sand, and Alexis Dudden, ibid.