Asia remembered the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II
yesterday with calls not to forget the heavy price paid by many to
defeat Japanese aggression.
And as Japan again apologized to its neighbors for wartime
brutality, veterans recalled the brutal conditions suffered by many
in Japanese prisoner of war camps.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard meanwhile struck a more
conciliatory note, describing Japan as a "cruel enemy" but also
praising the strength of current relations.
Australia, which lost 40,000 people in the war, remembered the
anniversary with a service at Canberra's war memorial.
Without naming Japan, Howard said the 20,000 Australians
captured in the space of a few weeks in 1942 endured years of
brutality. But he also praised the strength of current relations
with Japan.
"Our prisoners of war came face to face with barbarity of a kind
that younger generations can scarcely imagine," he said.
In a speech at a solemn ceremony in Canberra marking the 60th
anniversary of the Japanese surrender, Howard said Australian
troops became the first of the allies to defeat Japanese land
forces in the Battle of Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, in a crucial
blow to Tokyo.
Japanese marines attacked the Australian base on the eastern tip
of Papua New Guinea on August 25, 1942, but were forced to retreat
after an 11-day battle.
"Australian troops had, at Milne Bay, inflicted on the Japanese
their first undoubted defeat on land," said Howard, quoting British
Field Marshal William Slim.
"It was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the
Japanese army," Howard added.
But he also remembered the brutality endured by Australian
prisoners of war in Asia.
"In a few weeks in 1942 more than 20,000 Australians passed into
captivity only to endure years of forced labor, starvation and
brutality at the hands of a cruel enemy," Howard added. "Thousands
never saw Australia again."
Thousands of people attended commemorative ceremonies in cities
around Australia yesterday. In downtown Sydney, veterans wore their
medals as they gathered at a war memorial for a commemorative
service before many headed to veteran clubs for lunch and a
beer.
Veteran Pat Lee pinned his medals and sergeant's stripes to his
suit and topped off his ensemble with a metal combat helmet
emblazoned with the words "Lest We Forget" and a pin declaring
"G'day mate" to the Sydney ceremony.
Howard and dignitaries including Japan's Ambassador Hideaki Ueda
laid wreaths at the cenotaph at the Australian War Memorial in the
national capital Canberra to commemorate those who fought and
died.
Howard described the war as the triumph of a great moral
cause.
"This was a good and just war fought not for conquest but for
liberty," Howard said.
Australia provided the allies with one million men and women in
uniform despite having a population of only 7 million when war
broke out in Europe in 1939, he said.
Over 160 veterans and 100 New Zealand Defence Force personnel
paraded through central Wellington yesterday to commemorate the
60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The majority of veterans were transported along the parade route
in open-sided New Zealand Army trucks and some traveled in World
War II era military vehicles.
The veterans, 80 of whom just returned from a Veterans Affairs
New Zealand-hosted commemorative trip to the Pacific, followed a
100 strong tri-service (Navy, Army and Air Force) New Zealand
Defence Force Guard of Honor.
Joint statement against Japan
South and North Korea came together yesterday to celebrate the
Liberation Day marking the end of 35 years of Japanese colonial
rule.
Thousands of people filled downtown Seoul for ceremonies as a
senior North Korean government delegation visited a former Japanese
prison where many Koreans were executed during the 1910-1945
colonial rule.
In a statement issued in Seoul to mark the 60th anniversary of
Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, civilian
delegations from South and North Korea yesterday condemned Japan's
distortion of history.
"The Japanese government should stop distorting history and
cooperate in regional efforts to discover historical truths," said
the statement.
The statement denounced the recent remarks in some Japanese
circles that Japan's aggression of Asian countries and regions was
a "liberation war."
This "is completely a distortion of history which goes against
the trend of times," said the statement.
The statement also pointed out militarism is resurging in Japan
as Japan is continually expanding its armament, strengthening
military cooperation with the United States, and causing more
conflicts with neighboring countries.
"Japan should give appropriate compensation for victims of its
past wrong doings," the statement said.
The joint statement urged Japanese politicians and government
officials to stop glorifying its wartime past and apologize for its
military aggression.
Representatives of South and North Korea pledged yesterday never
to lose their homeland again as they jointly marked the 60th
anniversary of liberation from Japanese colonial rule with music
and speeches.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's speech emphasized the need
for national reconciliation.
"We are given a new calling in history," Roh told a memorial
service. "It is to put an end to a history of division and to open
a new era of national integration."
"This will pave the way for overcoming division and unification
for peace and prosperity," he told a crowd from a special stage
erected on the spot at the end of Seoul's main street where Japan's
colonial ruler held office six decades ago.
A delegation of 182 North Korean officials, civilian
representatives and athletes flew to Seoul on Saturday.
In a separate vent held at the site of the prison used by
colonial Japan to punish independence fighters during its 1910-1945
occupation, civilian representatives from South and North Korea
called on Tokyo to renounce militarism and pay compensation for
atrocities.
A North Korean delegate, Professor Jong Chi-gon of Pyongyang's
Kim Il-sung University, called Japan "an enemy unforgivable."
(China Daily August 16, 2005)