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Japan and the United States

The 21st century paved the way for a new phase in the United States- Japan
relationship; it marked a period of diplomatic and cultural engagements between the two
countries, a time when the nations have realized that they can play out their differences in the
past to work together toward achieving a common goal of prosperity and stability in the Asia-
Pacific region. Today, there is a strong alliance between Japan and the United States, one
that is anchored on economic, cultural and military cooperation. While some may debate on
whether the relationship is heeding more towards American interests rather than on mutual
concerns, the fact remains that the connection between the U.S. and Japan has become
favorable at the aftermath of the World War II (WWI).

No doubt, Japan was a major player in WWII. But given its long history of isolation,
it is quite surprising how Japan, a nation full of traditions and a closed culture, would wage a
war with intent on military expanding in its Asian continent. Technological advances
followed by the arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry paved the way for the opening
of Japan (Fairbank, Reischauer and Craig 1978). The initial ‘invasion’ resulted in Japan’s
adoption of a superior military force. Wary of further invasion, the Japanese strengthened its
military unit. This proved to be beneficial, especially during the first Sino-Japanese War in
1895 and the Russo- Japanese War in 1904-015, both of which Japan prevailed (1978). In
addition, efforts were being made to modernize the country. The swift success of the country
could be attributed to Japan’s homogeneity, their strong sense of Japanese pride and identity.
However, it was also this sense of identity that may have pushed Japan to WWII.

In the early twentieth century, the Japanese found themselves embroiled in a

perceived discrimination from their Western counterpart, particularly the Americans and the
British. The United States, in particular, had established a 1924 exclusion act based primarily
on race (Reischauer 1988). This clearly enraged the Japanese and some believed that the
only solution they could think of was to expand their military presence in nearby Asian
countries (1988). Buoyed by the German principles, Japan went on to become the great
aggressor.

With this new influence, Japan pursued what they envisioned as a “Greater East Asia
Co-prosperity Sphere” (Fairbank, Reischauer and Craig 1978). Resenting the European and
American control of land and people, Japan believed that Asia should only be for Asia,
meaning the French should be ousted from Indochina, the British from China and South Asia,
and the Americans from the Philippines. On the surface it would seem altruistic but in reality
what Japan wanted to achieve was to replace the Europeans and the Americans and build
their own empire in Asia. In other words, Japan was envisioning itself as the new political,
military, and industrial center in Asia.

But in the process of achieving this dream, narratives of large-scale violations and war
atrocities pervaded in Japan. These include the Rape of Nanking, the recruitment of sexual
slaves (comfort women), and the use of human beings for vivisection in an attempt to create
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biological weapons. The accounts were so disturbing that some historians went on to refer to
it as Japanese war crimes or the Asian Holocaust.

Japanese war crimes had never been as issue in the United States except perhaps with
the exception of Americans that become prisoners of war (POW) by the Japanese. However,
in 1997, Iris Chang released a book entitled The Rape of Nanking, detailing graphically the
terror of the crimes committed by the Japanese government during the war period (Drea
2006). The release of it led to investigations of the possible atrocities committed by the
Japanese. Not only did it raise awareness but it also saw a different image of the Japanese-
unleashing a dark side of the prim and proper Japanese people.

When the Japanese entered Nanking in China in December 1937, it was found that the
military killed roughly 300,000 thousand and abused 80,000 women (Zapotoczny 2008).
One author even described the Japanese as turning murder into a ‘sport’ (2008). Historical
accounts included using civilians for their bayonet practices or decapitation matches (2008).
There were also stories of skinning individuals alive, drenching them with gasoline and
burning them alive (2008). A diary of a Japanese medical doctor, Hosaka Akira, was
retrieved and in it, he recounted some of worst acts of atrocities committed by his fellow
Japanese (Drea 2006). This included the following passage (translated into English):

An order was to kill the residents and eighty (80) of them, men and women of
all ages were shot to death [at dusk]. I hope this will be the last time I’ll ever
witness such a scene...They were all praying, crying, and begging for help
(Yang, 2006).

Another account described the fate of Chinese women. It was discovered that women
were not only raped but mutilated as well (Zapotoczny 2008). In addition, it was said that
some Japanese forced fathers and sons to rape their mothers, sisters and other female relatives
to further humiliate them (2008). The discovery of Akira’s diary speaks a lot about the
violence that took place. It shows that what the Japanese military did to the civilians were
truly horrible. The brutality was something else. One would think how another human being
could do that? There is no explanation for the ruthless crimes and no amount of explanation
could ever justify what they did. What made the Rape of Nanking worst is the fact that even
though there were documentary evidence and eyewitness accounts, the Japanese refuse to
acknowledge it or even apologize for that matter. Again, this is so unlike the Japanese where
the people are so rigid and bound to culture, customs and traditions. There is a samurai code
wherein individuals that committed serious offenses kill themselves. If this was followed by
the Japanese soldiers that committed the accounted war crimes, while it would still not
cleanse or erase the sins, it would probably, at a certain degree, lessen the pain of the victims’
families. Then again, it would also not do much since the crime was already done and no
amount of exoneration could change that.

Another accounted Japanese war crime was the issue of comfort women. As with the
raping of women, the Japanese forced women, Filipinas and some Caucasians, to go into
prostitution (Drea 2006). In addition, there were narratives on the presence of a brothel
system of the Japanese Army (2006). It was noted that licensed prostitution was legal in pre-
war Japan so the people may have thought to extend this to the countries they occupied, such
as the Philippines and China. As the Japanese saw it, there was nothing wrong in these
comfort women, they were legal prostitutes and as such, should not be regarded as women.
There was even a document retrieved that stated that the presence of the military field brothel
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system in the Japanese army were “amenities” (2006). It was also stated that as early as
1932, the Japanese troops had private vendors establish comfort station to curb the spread of
sexually transmitted infections (2006).There is clearly something wrong in this way of
thinking. While it is remarkable that they have thought of setting up private vendors to avoid
the spread of venereal infections, the line of reasoning is twisted. It degrades women, which
degrades humanity as a whole. Recruiting anyone by force is wrong in all levels and forcing
them to do sexual things against their will is offensive. Sexual slavery is a crime against
humanity. Unlike the Rape of Nanking incident, the Japanese government has acknowledged
the existence of comfort women and have expressed remorse over it (“Comfort Women”
n.d.).

Perhaps the most horrible war crime attached to the Japanese during WWII was the
conduct of experiments on human subjects as biological warfare. Documents were found that
proved the Chinese allegation that the Japanese forces used chemical and biological weapons
(Drea 2006). Unit 731 of the Japanese army, as it turned out, were found to perform
experiments on human subjects from China, Korea and even Russia (2006). Several records
were finally unearthed that documented the existence of such. Furthermore, Japan’s use of
chemical warfare could have triggered America’s retaliation- the dropping of the atomic
bombs on two Japanese cities. U.S. was merely trying to prevent the application of chemical
and biological weapons on its land. In other words, the country was just trying to rescue its
people and it land from possible destruction. Using nuclear weapons is an extreme move but
at that time, the U.S. government thought it was the best move to thwart the Japanese.

WWII pushed the Japanese into a dark corner. It unleashed in them a character that
reeks of darkness and malevolence- raping women, killing civilians, using biological and
human arsenals. From the isolation image they projected for so long, WWII painted a brutal
image for the Japanese.

Works Cited
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Drea, Edward. “Introduction.” Researching Japanese War Crimes.

Edward Drea et al. Washington, DC: National Archives and

Records Administration for the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese

Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, 2006.

Fairbank, John, Edwin Reischauer and Albert Craig. East Asia Tradition and Transformation.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1978.

Reischauer, Edwin. Japanese Today.

USA: Belknap Press, 1988.

“The Comfort Women Issue.” Embassy of Japan in the United States of America.

n.d. 8 December 2009 < http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/>

Zapotoczny, Walter. “The Rape of Nanking: Reasons and Recrimination.”

Military Place Online. 2008. 8 December 2009

<http://www.militaryplaceonline.com>