There can be no Reconciliation without Remembrance

Fujita Takakage, Chairman of the Board of Directors,

?

There can be no Reconciliation without Remembrance

Fujita Takakage, Chairman of the Board of Directors,

Japanese Association for Inheriting and Developing Murayama Statement

Dear colleagues,

It is my great pleasure and honor to speak before you on this occasion on behalf of my fellow Japanese participants. First let us sincerely thank the organizers for inviting us to this important event, “Commemorative Event for the International Day of Peace 2018.”

For us Japanese, yesterday’s date September 18, and the location, the beautiful City of Nanjing, arouse agonizing memories of the 1930’s.

There are politicians in Japan who wish to wash away the bitter memories of the Japanese war of aggression, and let the young generation be “l(fā)iberated from the self-tormenting sense of guilt of just being Japanese.” We strongly disagree with such thinking.

As late German President Richard von Weizs?cker rightly stated in 1985, “There can be no reconciliation without remembrance.”

This delegation is a team of researchers, educators and journalists from Japan. It is our profession to eradicate ignorance and confront distortion of history. We have a special responsibility to emancipate ourselves and the people.

Facing straightforwardly to “inappropriate truths” is at the core of higher education, and is essentially important for creation of peace among nations. It is so easy, especially for the young and inexperienced, to fall into the pitfall of seeing one’s nation only as victims and accusing the other as if you are innocent.

We tend to pretend not to see, but in this 21st century, human race is an endangered species. The nuclear peril and climate change both threaten the very existence of our civilization. The famous “doomsday clock” ticked another 30 seconds forward this year. Now it is only two minutes to midnight.

This existential challenge can only be met with comradeship of all nations. To avoid annihilation, we must recapture the legacies from the last century, namely the attempts to overcome the war system inherent in the Western state system, such as the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Paris Pact of 1928 and the Charter of the United Nations..

In this vein let us recall that the year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan. It was signed in August and came into effect in October 1978.

The treaty clearly states that the two nations must abide by the United Nations Charter, to refrain from the threat or use of force and solve any international dispute with peaceful means. It is a written promise as is our Constitution of 1947 which renounces war as a conduct of the Japanese state.

We pledge to relentlessly endeavor to uphold these fruits of the age-old struggle, and build on them the new ways of cooperation among the people. Let us work together to tackle with problems that threaten us all.