Ishiba disagrees with embattled LDP lawmaker's view on Okinawa
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba answers a question from Akira Nagatsuma of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan at a Lower House Budget Committee meeting on May 12. (Koichi Ueda)
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on May 12 said he disagrees with Upper House lawmaker Shoji Nishida, who sparked outrage by disparaging a war memorial and claiming education about the Battle of Okinawa is 'distorted.'
'I have a different perception,' Ishiba said at a Lower House Budget Committee meeting, responding to a question from Akira Nagatsuma, a lawmaker of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
'I have a strong feeling that the Battle of Okinawa is the starting point (for the issue of) how to keep civilians out of the battlefield,' the prime minister said.
Nishida, a member of Ishiba's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said in a speech at a symposium held in Naha on May 3 that the Himeyuri-no-to, a memorial dedicated to more than 200 student nurses and teachers killed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, was 'terrible' and an example of 'rewriting history.'
He claimed the memorial, located in Itoman city in the prefecture, and history education in Okinawa wrongly imply that the Japanese military's presence led to the deaths of the nurses, and that the Americans 'liberated' the prefecture.
After his remarks were widely panned, Nishida held a news conference on May 9 and apologized for hurting the feelings of the Okinawan people.
'It was highly inappropriate to invoke the name of the Himeyuri-no-to memorial without proper explanation,' he said.
However, he said he would not retract his broader critique of Okinawa's history education, including its interpretation of the ground battle.
Criticism of Nishida's comments has been voiced not only by the people of Okinawa and opposition parties, but also from within the LDP.
Yuko Obuchi, chairperson of LDP's Research Commission for the Promotion and Development of Okinawa, said at a meeting in Naha on May 11 that Nishida's remarks 'are very thoughtless and lack knowledge.'
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