Singapore: Singapore joins fray against Japan

2005-04-23 Reuters

The predominantly ethnic Chinese city-state of Singapore accused Japan yesterday of straining relations with its neighbors for approving school textbooks that critics say whitewash its wartime atrocities.

In an unusually blunt statement, Singapore's foreign affairs ministry said Japan should not have approved the privately published textbooks, which have prompted protests across China.
"It is unfortunate that the textbook authorities in Japan had chosen to approve this rather strange interpretation of the Pacific War in Asia," the Singapore statement said.

"It has strained relations between Japan and its neighbors, in particular China and Korea. This is not in the interest of the entire region."
Thousands have demonstrated in China against the textbooks, which critics say play down the 1937 Nanking Massacre, when Japanese soldiers killed Chinese civilians.

China says 300,000 people were killed in the massacre, while some scholars put the figure at about half that. Japan's neighbors are also upset that the textbooks also make no mention of "comfort women," a euphemism for sex slaves taken by the Japanese army.

Japan occupied Singapore from 1942 until 1945 and renamed it "Syonan" or "Light of the South."
On beaches off eastern Singapore in February 1942, Japanese soldiers shot dead or beheaded thousands of ethnic Chinese Singaporeans in a massacre known as the "Sook Ching" - or "purification by elimination." The official death toll was 6,000 but unofficial figures ranged from 25,000 to 50,000.

"If there is one single event that still resonates it would be so-called Sook Ching round up," said National University of Singapore history professor Brian Farrell, author of "Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore."

During a visit to Indonesia yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized for the "tremendous damage and suffering" caused by Japan's wartime past in an apparent effort to help douse the row with China.

The apology conforms with past statements by Tokyo but such an admission in front of an international audience is rare. The statement comes eight months after Singapore riled Beijing when now Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited Taiwan as deputy premier. After that incident, Singapore took pains to assuage Beijing to limit the damage to its trade with China.

The Singapore foreign affairs ministry said World War II should not be forgotten.
"But we hope that the countries concerned can keep emotions in check and work towards a solution so that, while history is properly remembered, it does not become an insurmountable problem in the development of good relations," it added.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/World/2005/04/23/1114223710.htm