The director of the Institute for Japanese Studies under the DPRK Foreign Ministry on June 15 issued the following press statement titled “Facing up to the history and liquidating its past is a moral responsibility and duty bound by international law Japan, a war criminal state, cannot avoid”:

The day is coming closer when the Japanese imperialists, who had stained the Asian continent with blood and imposed unprecedented misfortune upon the peoples of the regional countries, knelt down and declared their unconditional surrender 80 years ago.

According to recent media, there is a heated debate in Japan on the issue of releasing its prime minister’s press statement over the past war of aggression to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat.

Conscientious organizations and personages are demanding that the government clearly clarify its stand on apology at the important historic time and, on the other hand, the ultra-right conservative politicians are strongly against it, insisting that Japan put an end to the “diplomacy of apology” with Abe’s press statement issued on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the war.

What should not be overlooked is that the present Japanese prime minister is taking a vague attitude in this regard and is trying to gloss over the issue by making public his personal views through the review of the Second World War.

The “review of the war” to be conducted by Japan is not a verification of the aggressive war crime committed by it in the past but an extremely inessential and misleading one like the institutional issue that the government failed to prevent the military’s authoritarian action and the circumstances that the military caused civilian damage at the reckless war.

In particular, the prime minister said at the Diet’s discussion on the issue of the press statement some days ago that the civilian control method, in which the “officer of the Self-Defence Forces” is not allowed to appear in the Diet under the present constitutional law, is to be held accountable. His remarks reveal the sinister scheme to pave the way for the legalization of the “Self-Defence Forces” with the “review of the war”.

Japan is trying to downplay the 80th anniversary of its defeat with specious words like the “review of the war” and “its achievements as a peaceful state”, while talking about the “termination of the diplomacy of apology” before the eyes of the international community. This is an unpardonable mockery of and insult upon the peoples of the DPRK and other Asian countries who suffered incurable wounds owing to the unparalleled hideous crimes of the Japanese imperialists and an open challenge to the international justice and conscience.

History has recorded many war criminal states which mercilessly destroyed the peace and civilization of mankind by resorting to aggression against other countries and nations, but it is only Japan which is subject to international criticism due to its persistent distortion of history and evasion of settlement of its past.

Abe’s press statement, which the right-wing conservative forces of Japan are trying to take as a “review of the past history of aggression”, runs through with shameless sophism that the next generation should not be made duty-bound to suffer the same fate of making an apology and there is no more apology for the history of aggression, far from making a frank and sincere apology for the past crimes.

However much water has flowed under the bridge, the Korean people clearly remember the thrice-cursed past crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists, who inflicted huge human, material, mental and cultural damage on Korea while perpetrating the barbarous colonial fascist rule for over 40 years after occupying it with arms.

The Japanese imperialists brutally massacred more than one million Koreans, hurled more than 8.4 million young and middle-aged people into battle sites of aggression and slave labour sites after forcibly abducting them and reduced 200 000 young Korean women to sex slaves of the Japanese army. Those were hideous unethical crimes unprecedented in history.

The Japanese imperialists made desperate efforts to deprive Koreans of their names and language to blot out the Korean nation with a history spanning thousands of years and brilliant culture out of the world map while claiming that the “the Japanese and Koreans are of the same descent” and “Japan and Korea are one”. They had no scruples about destroying and plundering the precious cultural assets and rich natural resources of Korea at random.

For the past 80 years since its defeat, Japan has seriously threatened the sovereignty of the DPRK and its right to development and existence while persistently refusing to make an apology and reparation for its crimes against the Korean people and continuously pursuing its hostile policy towards the DPRK. It has committed more crimes by encroaching upon the national rights of the Koreans in Japan, descendants of the Korean victims of forced drafting.

A Japanese media outlet once said that if the documents accusing the criminal acts committed by the Japanese imperialists in Korea and other Asian countries were piled up, they would be as high as 20 000 meters. And the data on the germ warfare of the notorious 731 Unit and other powerful evidence that are still being found disclose the crimes against humanity committed by the Japanese imperialists in human skin.

History cannot be erased by ink, burned by fire, or torn by sword.

The history of the aggressor, war criminal state, remains forever no matter how desperately Japan tries to erase its past crimes with all sorts of tricks and evade its responsibility for them, and no statute of limitations is applicable to unprecedented crimes against humanity even after 80 years or 800 years.

Facing up to the history and liquidating its past is a moral responsibility and duty bound by international law Japan, a war criminal state, cannot avoid before the times and mankind in the run-up to the 80th anniversary of its defeat when its blood-stained past is in the spotlight.

KCNA