Japan's PM snubs son of British POW

[IndianaGreen]

Duh? Japan has yet to apologize to the Koreans, Chinese, Filipinos et al for all the bad things they did in the 1930s and 1940s. Japanese school textbooks are silent on Japan's war crimes.

Japan's PM snubs son of British POW

Japan's prime minister, Taro Aso, faced fresh demands that he apologise to former prisoners of war after he cancelled a meeting with the son of a Royal Navy stoker used as a slave labourer in his family's coal mines.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Published: 6:28PM BST 19 Jun 2009


POW's After VJ Day. Patrick James McAnulty, never fully recovered
from more than three years of captivity in Japan.
McAnulty; standing in the back row fifth from the right.

James McAnulty, from Wishaw in Lanarkshire, had been told that he would be able to meet Taro Aso and make his request for an apology and compensation for his father's suffering during the Second World War. But after he travelled to Japan the prime minister's office cancelled the meeting.

"I'm extremely disappointed, although his refusal to meet with us is perhaps not surprising," said McAnulty, whose father, Patrick James McAnulty, never fully recovered from more than three years of captivity in Japan. Several months of that time were spent labouring for the company. He died in 1971.

But Mr McAnulty added: "I'm not going home down-hearted as there have been many positives from the trip, including a meeting with the head of the opposition party and a promise from the prime minister's family company that we can continue our dialogue."

Mr McAnulty was visiting Japan with Joe Coombs, 88, who lives in Sydney and was captured at the fall of Singapore in 1942 and used as a forced labourer. They visited the mine, on the southern island of Kyushu, earlier this week but were not able to meet the company president Yutaka Aso, the prime minister's brother.

"I believe Mr Aso should apologise to all the POWs, but we were snubbed by the Aso officials and I don't think we'll ever get any compensation," said Mr Coombs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/5579849/Japans-PM-snubs-son-of-British-POW.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. Interesting that Aso's family still owns its slave labor mines...

He's very connected:

"Aso, a Roman Catholic, was born in Iizuka, Fukuoka on September 20, 1940.<5>

His father, Takakichi Aso, was the chairman of the Aso Cement Company and a close associate of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka;

his mother Kazuko Aso was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's daughter.

Taro is also a great-great-grandson of Toshimichi Okubo (leader of meiji restoration),

and his current wife, Chikako is the third daughter of Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki.

His younger sister, Nobuko, is the wife of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, a first cousin of the Emperor Akihito...



My ex-husband's family, minor local aristocrats, got most of their land/business interests taken in the post-war land reform -

but the big guys often didn't seem to lose much...

[Art_from_Ark]

2. If it's any consolation, PM Aso holds the record

for the lowest approval rating of any Japanese prime minister in the post-war era.