August 14, 2010

Far right pays tribute to Japan's 'war heroes'


British and Japanese ultranationalists will shrug off protests from war veterans in an unlikely show of solidarity at a controversial Tokyo memorial today, on the 65th anniversary of Japan's surrender in the Second World War.

The British National Party member Adam Walker (pictured above, with Nick Griffin) and France's most famous Holocaust-denier, Jean-Marie Le Pen, will be among a group of European delegates to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, which venerates the militarists who led Japan's brief but disastrous rampage across Asia.

"I realise that there are war veterans in the UK who will see this as an insult, especially on V-J day, but Yasukuni is dedicated to the souls of men who died fighting for their country," said Mr Walker. "It's easy to point fingers now but these people were doing what they thought was right at the time."

Mr Walker was cleared earlier this year by the British General Teaching Council of "racial intolerance" after posting comments online calling immigrants "savage animals" and "filth" while working as a teacher in Houghton-le-Spring.

One of the most contentious pieces of real estate in Asia, Yasukuni is considered sacred by nationalists – and a monument to war, empire, and Japan's unrepentant militarism by millions of others. A museum attached to the shrine claims that Japan was lured into the war by the US and waged a campaign to free Asia from white European colonialism.

Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, who earlier this week apologised to South Korea for the colonisation of the Korean peninsula, has ruled out visiting the shrine out of respect for Asian victims of his country's past militarism. The leader of the LDP opposition, Sadakazu Tanigaki, meanwhile, plans to visit the shrine tomorrow.

But the European visit looks set to stir greater controversy. The foreign delegation, which also includes ultra-right politicians from Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Austria and Belgium, has been invited to Japan by Issuikai, a right-wing association that denies Japanese war crimes and wants to build a global alliance of nationalist groups to fight American "hegemony". Its leader, Mitsuhiro Kimura, counted among his friends the exiled Iraq leader Saddam Hussein, whom he urged to resist the US invasion of his country in 2003.

Yesterday he and other delegates attended a conference of "patriotic organisations" in Tokyo, where they discussed the perils of immigration, climate change and Islam.

One speech warned that "environmental Marxists" are exaggerating the quantity of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere in a plot to bring more immigrants into the advanced countries and destroy the nation state. "More and more climate immigrants are coming to Europe," said Thibaut De La Tocnaye, a leading member of France's National Front.

The Europeans were applauded when they advised Japan to reject mass immigration and demands that foreigners be allowed to vote in local elections. Mr Le Pen gave a speech on Islam, which he said had a "long tradition of invading other countries". "In my country they come and demand that they be allowed to build giant mosques. That's political, not religious."

Mr Le Pen waved away criticism of the Yasukuni visit. "These men are war heroes. We used to be enemies but I think we must pay respect to people who had to die for their country."

The BNP's Mr Walker, meanwhile, denied reports this week in The Daily Telegraph claiming that his trip was partly funded by British taxpayers. "The money came from Issuikai. I expect nothing less from The Telegraph. It's just a left-wing rag."

*North Korea has urged Japan to apologise and provide compensation for its harsh colonial rule, days after Tokyo offered an apology to South Korea for annexing the Korean peninsula, without mentioning the North.

North Koreans harbour deep resentment of Japan for using Koreans for forced labour and sex slaves during its 1910-45 occupation of the peninsula. North Korea does not have diplomatic relations with Japan.

Independent

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I visited Yasukuni in 2006, primarily for the military museum that is connected to it. The captioning of the exhibits is in Japanese and English. The part dealing with the history of Japan's occupation of China in the 1930's is frankly a disgrace and totally whitewashes the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing in 1937. In fact it doesn't mention it at all. This shrine and it's museum is funded by the Japanese taxpayer and it would be similar to the German Government today funding a museum of Holocaust Denial in Berlin!

The Japanese Nationalist groups are vile and every bit as bad as those in Europe. They have connections to Organised Crime and covert support among the Japanese Police. Thankfully most ordinary Japanese regard them with contempt.

Anonymous said...

Where's Godzilla when we need him?

John P said...

The part dealing with the history of Japan's occupation of China in the 1930's is frankly a disgrace and totally whitewashes the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing in 1937.
There is a school of thought that says that what was happening there should have been the trigger for world war 2 with USA, France and Russia going for it.

John P said...

Anonymous said...

Where's Godzilla when we need him?

Fighting the Mothra defending Griffins wallet

Anonymous said...

"

Mr Le Pen gave a speech on Islam, which he said had a "long tradition of invading other countries".

"
The irony of Euro Nationalists being apologists for Japanese Imperial expansion and slaughter of civilians complaining about Islam invading other countries. Also the French politician Thibaut De La Tocnaye mentioned in the article was born in Algeria- a muslim country! So clearly it is quite ok for some people to invade other countries

Anonymous said...

The Japs were evil bastards during the War, hopefully the Burma Star group will pick up on this and give the Fascists some really bad publicity?

Anonymous said...

Mmmm ! We could get lucky The thought of Griffin committing rituaql suicide ...... !

Old Sailor ... with an enormous evil grin !!!!

Anonymous said...

I wonder what WW2 British POW's who suffered terribly under Japanese rule think of Walker's cosying up to Japanese apologists?

The BNP's patriotism is fake.

Flea said...

One speech warned that "environmental Marxists" are exaggerating the quantity of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere in a plot to bring more immigrants into the advanced countries and destroy the nation state.


If there are conspiracy of the year prizes then this has to get one. Some one seriously said this? And believed it? Scary stuff.