Hackers denounce Rape of Nanking

by MIM

In late January, hackers penetrated several Japanese government 
websites and left messages in Chinese attacking the Japanese 
government's position on the Rape of Nanking. One message said, 
"The Chinese people must speak up to protest the Japanese 
government for refusing to acknowledge the historical misdeed of 
the 1937 Nanking massacre." Japanese troops butchered over 300,000 
people during the six-week-long killing spree. The hackers' 
messages came after a meeting where Japanese ultra-rightists 
whitewashed the massacre.(1)

The Japanese government officially expressed "deep remorse" for 
Japan's actions in World War II for the first time in 1995 -- 50 
years after the end of the war. However, the government did not 
admit guilt for specific atrocities or make any moves to 
compensate victims. According to Ami Chen Mills, in an interview 
with Iris Chang, the author of ITAL The Rape of Nanking END, "the 
official Japanese position is that war-crimes issues were settled 
at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal -- after which seven Japanese 
high-ranking officers were hanged, and at subsequent war-crimes 
trials in China. The issue of reparations was settled in the 1951 
San Francisco Peace Treaty, where an approximate $15-per-head 
payment for POWs was awarded for distribution to the Red Cross. 
There were no other reparations to victims of the war by 
Japan."(2)

Chang points out: "For decades [Japan] has systematically covered 
[Japanese war crimes] up... During the rape of Nanking -- just 
that incident alone -- the number of deaths that resulted 
surpasses the death toll, the immediate death toll, of the victims 
of Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined. That's just one incident. And 
the rape of Nanking was not a unique and isolated incident. There 
were so many similar atrocities that occurred all throughout 
China. So few people even know about [them]."(2)

Exposing just one other example, over 100 Chinese have demanded an 
apology and compensation for germ warfare experiments the Japanese 
army carried out in China.(3)

The Amerikan government colluded with the defeated Japanese at the 
end of World War II to hide Japanese war crimes and protect war 
criminals for several reasons. First, the Amerikans needed a 
domestic power base in Japan that was staunchly anti-Communist and 
at the same time dependent on Amerikan aid. The Japanese fascists, 
Amerika's former "enemies," fit this bill well. Fascists and their 
collaborators were reinstated in other defeated fascist powers, 
like Germany, or territories previously occupied by the Japanese, 
like south Korea or the Philippines.

Second, war criminals bribed their way out of prosecution with 
information useful to the Amerikan war machine. Amerikan officials 
granted those Japanese responsible for the biological weapons 
research immunity from prosecution in exchange for their research 
results. (The Amerikans later used the Japanese-developed 
techniques during the Korean War.) This mirrors u.$. actions 
towards German war criminals, many of whom later played leading 
roles in Amerikan war research.(3)

The Japanese ultra-right has been on the move in the last few 
years, trying to "overturn old verdicts." The recent film "Pride" 
eulogizing war criminal Hideki Tojo also downplayed the Nanking 
massacre.(4) These lies and evasions rightfully cause outrage 
among Chinese, Koreans, and anti-imperialists around the world. We 
must do our part to expose these lies and hold the Japanese 
imperialists responsible for their crimes.

Those of us inside Amerikan borders fighting for peace have the 
greatest responsibility to expose Amerika's complicity with 
Japanese imperialists and Amerika's own growing list of massacres: 
From No Gun Ri to My Lai to Bagdhad and countless others. We must 
also combat the anti-Japanese chauvinism that Amerikan 
imperialists and labor aristocracy stir up from time to time. Such 
Japan-bashing -- aside from being viscerally repulsive to 
proletarian internationalists -- makes it easier for the 
imperialists to launch an inter-imperialist war that would 
ultimately bring huge death tolls to the international 
proletariat.

On a tactical note, MIM appeals to "hackers" and others with 
computer savvy who support MIM and RAIL's independent media 
projects to devote themselves to the painstaking work of building 
our computer infrastructure. Coding for the website and such may 
not be as sexy as breaking into the Department of Defense homepage 
-- but we don't need a bunch of politicized Kevin Mitnick's doing 
time. We do need people who see the value of building public 
opinion through independent media who are free to do such. See "In 
Praise of Underground Work," in this issue.

Notes:

1. Reuters, 25 Jan 2000.

2. "Breaking the Silence," Metro, 12 December 1996. 
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.12.96/cover/china1-
9650.html

3. MIM Notes 145, 1 Sep 1997.

4. MIM Notes 168, 15 Aug 1998.