 LDP politicians admit they censored TV program on military comfort women Asahi Shimbun on January 12 reported that in 2001, then Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo and House of Representatives member Nakagawa Shoichi censored in advance the public broadcaster NHK's TV program of a mock trial condemning the military's use of comfort women during WW II. Abe and Nakagawa on the same day admitted that they had warned NHK against broadcasting the "biased" program and even suggesting not airing it. The program broadcast in January 2001 was meant to report on an international women's tribunal on war crimes in which Emperor Showa (Hirohito) was convicted of the use of the wartime sex slavery system. But the ruling was dropped from the actual broadcast, glossing over the involvement of the emperor and the military in wartime sex slavery. Violence Against Women in War Network Japan (VAWW-NET Japan), an NGO that cooperated in producing the program on the tribunal, filed a lawsuit, complaining that the program was tampered with. In March 2004, the Tokyo District Court ordered an NHK-related studio to pay compensation. NHK was acquitted of charges. The appellate court is now in session at the Tokyo High Court. Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro on the same day defended Abe and Nakagawa, saying, "That can't be the case." Both Abe and Nakagawa are members of an association of young Dietmembers concerned with Japan's future and history education from a rightist point of view. When the association started in 1997, it was led by Nakagawa, and Abe was general secretary. The association, praising Japan's past war of aggression, many times intervened in history textbooks so that facts were distorted to fit their ideology. (end) |