Koizumi Will Leave Behind Mixed Legacy
WASHINGTON (IPS) — When Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi leaves office in September, he will leave a legacy of forceful leadership and strong United States-Japan ties.
But his five-year rule will mostly be remembered for his "almost tragic" refusal to acknowledge the damage inflicted on Japan's reputation by his annual visits to the Tokyo shrine where many of Japan's most notorious war criminals are buried, one of Japan's most prominent political commentators said.
Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine "have done great damage, in my view, to Japan's national interests and undermined Japan's ties" to both the United States and the rest of Asia, said Yoichi Funabashi, the chief diplomatic correspondent for the 'Asahi Shimbun' newspaper and a guest scholar at Washington's Brookings Institution.
By continuing to defy the strong antipathy in China and South Korea to these visits, Funabashi said, Koizumi has managed to decrease Japan's influence in Asia, narrowed his country's political options and hurt Japan's image in the United States.
Funabashi spoke at a Feb. 27 forum in Washington organised by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA. Ironically, that foundation is funded by a fortune left behind by Ryoichi Sasakawa, a convicted Japanese war criminal and right-wing philanthropist who built a shipbuilding empire after World War II.
Both South Korea and China have suspended high-level diplomatic discussions with Japan as a result of Koizumi's annual presence at the shrine and his strong justification of the visits as strictly personal and unrelated to his position as Japan's top political leader.
The volatile nature of the Yasukuni visits was underscored on Mar. 1 by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who warned Japan in a speech commemorating a 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule that merely apologising for its past wrongdoings was not enough.
"Japan already apologised (for its past)," said Roh. "We don't request repeat apology. We're requesting Japan to turn its apology into practice." He added: "If Japan wants to become a leading country in the world, it should gain trust from the international community through its conduct in light of universal human conscience and historical experience, not just by revising its laws or strengthening its military forces."
The Yasukuni issue will be a "testing ground" for the candidates for Koizumi's position in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said Funabashi. Leading contenders for the top job, according to Japanese press reports, are Shinzo Abe, the chief cabinet secretary; Yasuo Fukuda, who previously held that position; and foreign minister Taro Aso.
Two of these men recently provided clues to how they might respond to the issue in the future.
Abe, responding to Roh's comments, argued that South Korea should consider Japan's record as a peaceful nation after World War II. "I really want President Roh Moo-hyun to take a closer look at Japan's path to protect freedom, democracy and human rights and its efforts to establish peace in the world," he said. "I think the development of the Japan-South Korea relationship in a future-oriented manner will serve the national interests of both countries."
In February, Aso provided another reminder to Asia of the LDP's narrow view of Japan's past when he said that Taiwan owed its high educational standards to Japan's half-century of colonial rule in China.
"Thanks to the significant improvement in educational standards and literacy (during the colonisation), Taiwan is now a country with a very high education level and keeps up with the current era," Aso said in a speech in Japan, according to the Kyodo News Agency. "This is something I was told by an important figure in Taiwan, and all the elderly people knew about it," he added. "That was a time when I felt that, as expected, our predecessors did a good thing."
China responded angrily. "We are shocked by and express our strong indignation over the Japanese foreign minister's remark of overtly glorifying invasion history," Kong Quan, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said in remarks carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.
While the visits to Yasukuni will continue to haunt Japan's ties with Asia, Funabashi said in his talk, Koizumi will leave other important legacies as well.
Of utmost importance, said Funabashi, was Koizumi's decision in 2001 to push Japan's military ties with the U.S. to a "really new plateau" by sending Japanese Self-Defence Forces to the Middle East and offering strong public support to President George W Bush and the U.S. global war on terror.
On the U.S. side, he noted, the closer ties were cemented by a small group of Japan specialists within the Bush administration, notably former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific Jim Kelly.
But with the departure of these officials from the Bush administrationand Japan facing a national election, the close U.S.- Japan ties could face new challenges, Funabashi argued.
For example, Bush's emphasis on military action to counter global terrorism may conflict with Japan's desire to use economic development and diplomacy as the key to end terrorist attacks, he said. Differences could also arise over each side's perception of the nuclear threat from North Korea, he said.
"U.S.-Japan ties could be most challenged by North Korea's nuclear abilities," said Funabashi, who praised Koizumi for attempting to normalise diplomatic ties with the North Korean leadership during his tenure.
Michael Green, who was senior director for Asian Affairs at Bush's National Security Council from January 2004 to December 2005, praised Koizumi for his forceful support for Bush's foreign policies. After the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, Green said, Koizumi was one of the few world leaders to place their "full national power" behind the United States and what Bush calls the "long war" against terrorism.
"That really made Japan a leader in the eyes of the U.S. public," he said. The personal ties between Bush and Koizumi were "very, very important," he added. (Inter Press Service)
