LDP lawmaker Shoji Nishida refuses to retract remarks over WWII exhibits
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shoji Nishida has refused to withdraw remarks he made over exhibits about the "Himeyuri" nursing corps who died in the fierce Battle of Okinawa in the final phase of World War II.
At a symposium held in the city of Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, on Saturday, Nishida said that descriptions at a monument to commemorate the Himeyuri corps of female students had rewritten history, according to informed sources.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday, Nishida said that while he had no intention of hurting the feelings of the people of Okinawa, he refused to retract the remarks in question.
In a speech during the symposium, Nishida said that he was not familiar with the current exhibits at the monument, but he said the "descriptions seem to suggest that Japanese soldiers stormed into (Okinawa), leading the Himeyuri corps to die."
"Then the U.S. troops came to set Okinawa free," he said of the descriptions.
Nishida said such stories were widely shared in Okinawa, and noted how history education, including the interpretation of the ground battle, is quite disorderly. But he did not provide any specific evidence.
While acknowledging that he made the remarks in question, Nishida on Wednesday told reporters that they were based on his impressions from a visit he made more than 10 years ago.
"It is very regrettable," he said, adding, "I'm telling the truth and I have nothing to retract."
His remarks came under fire from both within the LDP and outside the party.
Hajime Zaha, secretary-general of the LDP's Okinawa chapter, told reporters that he had no choice but to protest.
The remarks are "extremely inappropriate," Junya Ogawa, secretary-general of the leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said at a news conference.
The Himeyuri monument is inscribed with the names of 227 students and teachers mobilized for the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army.
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