A right-wing member of Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) made an odd swipe at a memorial for innocent women killed in Okinawa during World War II. After spending a few days doubling down, he’s now reversed course and retracted his controversial statement.
The Himeyuri Monument
The incident centers on the Himeyuri Monument, commemorating the lives of the Himeyuri students, or the Lily Princesses Student Corps. The group of 222 students and 18 teachers from a girls’ high school and women’s school were forced into service of the Japanese Army during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
The students were told they’d be safe and working to tend to wounded soldiers. In reality, they ended up on the frontlines working in cave hospitals, where many died due to the conflict. A number died after being told to go home, caught in the crossfire between US and Japanese troops. 45 students and five teachers died in a white phosphorus attack on a cave in Ihara. Others committed suicide as American troops approached, fearing systematic rape.
In total, 211 students and 16 teachers died. The Himeyuri Monument was erected in 1946 to commemorate the innocent dead. The Himeyuri Peace Museum hosts portraits of the victims and explains the circumstances leading up to their deaths.
“Rewriting history”
The controversial comments come from LDP Upper House member Nishida Shōji. While attending a constitutional symposium in Naha, he said of the Monument: “The background written there says that the Himeyuri Corps died as Japanese soldiers arrived, and that Okinawa was liberated after American forces entered. This is what happens when you rewrite history.”
However, no such explanation is written anywhere in the Monument or the Museum. Okinawa Governor Tamaki Denny blasted Nishida’s statement as a “striking case of misperception.” He branded Nishida’s statement “alarming.” The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly vowed to issue a resolution condemning the statement.
Nishida, for his part, doubled down. At first.
“I went to view the Monument 20 years ago, before I became a Diet member,” he told reporters at a May 7th press conference. “That’s what I remember the display saying. I don’t remember the wording, but that was the impression it left.”
He further iterated that Japanese soldiers were fighting to “protect the Japanese people” and refused to back down from his statement. “I spoke the truth. I absolutely won’t retract it.” On his X account, he apologized to his office neighbors for a “left-wing protest’ outside of his office on the 8th. He even encouraged his neighbors to call the police and lodge a noise complaint.
Finally, an apology
Nishida doesn’t have the best reputation in the LDP. During the time the LDP was out of power around the 2010s, he was known as a right-wing firebrand who actively jeered ruling Democratic Party officials.
After the LDP came back to power, he didn’t hesitate to turn his ire on members of his own party. He’s even called for his party’s Prime Minister, Ishiba Shigeru, to resign, saying that Ishiba can’t lead the party to victory in this summer’s Upper House elections. Nishida backed ultra-conservative Takaichi Sanae, whom Ishiba defeated in a party vote to become PM.
Japan’s political opposition, particularly the Constitutional Democrats (CDP), jumped all over Nishida’s comments, using them as political fodder for attacking the LDP. Judging from online chatter, Nishida also didn’t seem to have much support among the right-wing elements that would normally come to his defense. All in all, most seem to regard his comment as buffoonish.
All of these forces culminated yesterday in Nishida backing down and apologizing two days after he said he wouldn’t.
“It was incredibly inappropriate,” he now says. He further apologized for insulting the people of Okinawa.
However, Nishida still left room for the possibility that he was, in fact, correct! He said that the Himeyuri Peace Museum was renovated in 2021 and that there’s “no way to verify what I remember.”
We’ll see whether this apology is enough to quell the furor – or whether Nishida has finally gone too far and cooked his political career for good.
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Sources
自民・西田氏、ひめゆり発言撤回 拒否一転「非常に不適切」. Jiji
自民 西田参院議員“ひめゆりの塔 歴史書き換え発言”撤回せず. NHK News
Himeyuri students. Wikipedia
自民・西田昌司氏 ひめゆりの塔〝歴史修正〟発言で物議…党内でも不安視「何を言い出すか分からない」. Tokyo Sports
自民・西田昌司氏、首相の交代要求「参院選戦えない」. Nikkei
