Air SDF personnel visited Class-A war criminals’ tomb

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Air SDF personnel visited Class-A war criminals’ tomb

It has been revealed that some Air Self-Defense Force members have visited the tomb of seven former military and government leaders executed as Class-A war criminals under the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, and that more visits to the tomb are being planned as part of an ASDF education program.

Inoue Satoshi, Japanese Communist Party representative, revealed this fact during the House of Councilors Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on December 16.

He said, “Doesn’t this mean that what former Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff General Tamogami Toshio taught SDF commissioned officers has had a visible effect on the conduct of SDF members?”

Inoue cited an article entitled “Visiting the spirits of war heroes” reported in the May 20 issue of “Enshunada”, a newspaper published by the 2nd Service School of the JASDF Hamamatsu Air Base in Shizuoka Prefecture. The report is about a visit to the tomb of “Seven heroes of Junkoku (died for Japan)” in Aichi Prefecture.

It says that the “schoolmaster of the 2nd Service School and six SDF members visited the tomb to implement the former ASDF chief of staff’s policy of placing importance on history education,” and that the school plans to organize such visits “as part of its curriculum to teach the ASDF mission.”

Inoue pointed out that there is a widespread view in the Self-Defense Forces that the SDF is a direct successor of the former Imperial Army, as discussed on websites of SDF bases throughout the country.

He cited the cases of the Maritime SDF Maizuru Base in Kyoto Prefecture and the Ground SDF Hisai Garrison in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture. At the Hisai Garrison, its commander contributed an article to a local newspaper to mark the garrison’s 100th founding anniversary. The article boasted of the long history of the SDF with excellent successes in the Russo-Japanese War and the Sino-Japanese War.

Defense Minister Hamada Yasukazu stated that there is no continuity of the Imperial Army/Navy in the present SDF.

Inoue demanded that the government investigate any possible effects of Tamogami’s history lesson programs on all SDF units.

- Akahata, December 17, 2008