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War Responsibility in a Japanese College Classroom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

William Underwood
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“August 6, 1945: Hiroshima. August 9, 1945: Nagasaki.” I wrote the words on the classroom whiteboard in large letters. Then I crossed out both dates and places with a big red X. “Not true,” I declared. “The atomic bombings never happened. A total fabrication.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 9 , September 2005 , e25
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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.
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Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

ENDNOTES

[1] See Mark Selden, “Remembering ‘The Good War’: The Atomic Bombing and the Internment of Japanese-Americans in U.S. History Textbooks.” Available at Japan Focus, 8 May 2005.

[2] See William Underwood, “Chinese Forced Labor, the Japanese Government and the Prospects for Redress.” Available at Japan Focus, 8 July 2005.

[3] The August 28, 2003, statement is available at the Japan House of Representatives homepage. The United States, even in cases involving American former POWs, strongly supports Japan's position that all individual legal claims have been settled by postwar treaties and other state-to-state agreements. Inconsistently, the American government played a key role in the establishment by the German government and corporations in 2000 of a major compensation fund for forced labor.

[4] United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (Pacific War). Washington, D.C., 1 July 1946. Available

[5] Evolution of the practice is described in Tanaka Yuki, “Firebombing and Atom Bombing: A Historical Perspective on Indiscriminate Bombing.” Japan Focus, 16 May 2005. Available.

[6] For a thoughtful discussion of striking a balance in this area, see Takahashi Tetsuya, “Why Must Japan Apologize for War while the United States Has Not Apologized for the Atomic Bombing? Reply to a Young Japanese.” Sekai, April 2001. English translation available.

[7] One domestic consequence of thin historical consciousness among Japanese young people is that their awareness even of atomic bomb victimization is waning, with worrisome implications for the future of Japan's peace and anti-nuclear movements. See Lawrence S. Wittner, “Reflections on Hiroshima and the Anti-Nuclear Movement.” Japan Focus, 16 July 2005. available. See also Tanaka Yuki, “The Hibakusha Voice and the Future of the AntiNuclear Movement.” Japan Focus, date not given. Available.

[8] Kamikawa's one-page English account is available from the author.

[9] Charles Burress, “Japan and the German Sackcloth: Other Countries Should Atone for War Crimes.” San Francisco Chronicle, 17 July 2005.

[10] Implications of this generational transition are discussed in Laura Hein, “Remembrance of World War II and the Postwar in the United States and Japan.” Japan Focus, 31 May 2005. Available.