US Duplicity Regarding War Crimes

“Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage, or in terrorist activities, or genocide, or between 1933 and 1945 were you involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?”

This is one of the questions that Electronic System for Travel Authorization requires South Korean visitors to answer before visiting the United States. It is the third question following, “Do you have a communicable disease, physical or mental disorder, or are you a drug abuser or addict?” and “Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offense or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance?” In other words, any foreign visitors with contagious diseases, criminal records or a history of cooperation with the Nazis cannot visit the U.S.

Within South Korean territory, it will be hard to find any Korean who helped the Nazis. The Nazis disappeared 69 years ago in Germany, which is far away from South Korea. Despite the U.S. government strictly monitoring incidences of Nazism, Germany is still one of the country’s closest allies.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni war shrine, which has been a controversial issue. There are 14 class A war criminals enshrined there. After World War II, the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals executed class A criminals who had “a joint conspiracy to start and wage war.” Therefore, Abe’s visiting the Yasukuni shrine is the same as the German prime minister visiting the location where Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess and other class A criminals are enshrined.

For the international community, it is hard to understand the U.S. government’s behavior. The U.S. government cares about German war crimes, but cares nothing about Japanese war crimes. Although the U.S. has been critical of the Nazis, the relationship between the two countries has never been damaged. The country’s positive relations are based on the understanding by both that regretting past faults and collaborating for the future are totally different things. Then why not do the same thing with Japan? It will not hurt relations between the U.S. and Japan, as it turned out OK with Germany.

The U.S. government’s indifferent attitude toward Japanese war crimes is the same kind of insult as ignoring the approximately 110,000 American casualties of World War II. It is also subverting the ruling of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals, which defined the Japanese invasion as a crime against humanity. Tojo Hideki is also enshrined in the Yasukuni shrine. Hideki used to call the U.S. a country of demons and beasts, and gave a speech while stepping on the American flag. Hideki killed many American prisoners in brutal ways. One day, for example, men under his command forced 15,000 American prisoners to walk over 62 miles for nine days without water.

Dennis Halpin, a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University said, “How can Americans ignore those who would go and pay homage to the memory of Hideki Tojo any more than they would ignore a similar tribute to Osama bin Laden?”

The U.S. government should listen to this.

South Korea wants to keep the relationship with Japan peaceful. Korean President Park Geun-hye showed a favorable stance and mentioned Japan as “an important neighbor … in the work of bringing peace and prosperity to Northeast Asia” in a speech on Jan. 6. However, due to the absurd remarks of Japan, the strain between South Korea and Japan has persisted for a year. The U.S. government bears some responsibility for this strain — it neglected to address the disrespectful behavior of the Japanese.

If the U.S. kept ignoring audacious words from Japan, Asian countries — having had favorable opinions of the U.S. — could not help but support China instead of the United States. If the U.S. wanted to prevent this, it should monitor Japanese war crimes. With the leadership that the U.S. enjoys in the sphere of world peace, the U.S. government has the power to make Japan apologize for their faults in the past.

I hope to see questions about Japanese war crimes on ESTA applications someday.