Latest news with #PeacePreservationLaw
Yomiuri Shimbun
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Original Copy of Emperor Showa's Announcement of Japan's Surrender in WWII to Be Displayed at National Archives of Japan
The original copy of the 'Imperial Rescript of the Termination of the War' will be shown at a special exhibition held at the National Archives of Japan in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, starting Saturday. The special exhibition features about 30 valuable items, including the imperial rescript owned by the archives, to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the beginning of the postwar era. According to the archives, the decision to surrender was made at an Imperial Council meeting held in the presence of Emperor Showa from Aug. 9 to 10, 1945. The drafting of the 'Imperial Rescript of the Termination of the War' began after the decision was made. After the draft was reviewed at an Imperial Council meeting on Aug. 14, the Emperor recorded his reading of the rescript. This led to the broadcast of the Emperor's announcement of Japan's surrender on Aug. 15. The original copy will be on display between Aug. 8 and 21 during the special exhibition. Visitors will be able to observe traces of corrections, such as added words, which reveal the meticulous consideration given to the document's content and the careful selection of words to persuade the nation and military amid the chaos leading up to the war's end, according to the archives. Also on display will be the original Imperial Rescript declaring war on the United States and Great Britain on Dec. 8, 1941, as well as damage reports from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Materials on occupation policy will also be presented, including a Japanese translation of a document prepared by the Japanese government when the General Headquarters of the Allied Forces instructed the government to abolish the Peace Preservation Law after the war. 'The 'end of the war' in Japan is not just the day the war ended. It also marks the true beginning of Japan's postwar era. We hope this exhibition will provide an opportunity to consider the connection between the wartime era and the present,' said a National Archives of Japan archivist. The special exhibition will run until Sept. 15. The archives will be closed on Aug. 25. Opening hours are from 9:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on Fridays. Admission is free.
The Mainichi
19-05-2025
- The Mainichi
**********: Our 5 most-read stories from last week
We've listed our five most read stories on The Mainichi news site, from top to bottom, that were published between May 10 and 18. The first story was viewed by 24.3% of our regular readers. (The Mainichi) Buried history of sexual torture under now-defunct law in Japan recalled a century on OSAKA -- A century has passed since the promulgation in April 1925 of the Peace Preservation Law, which stripped away freedom of speech and thought in Japan. Before its abolition in 1945, over 100,000 people were apprehended under the law, and over 1,000 are believed to have died due to torture or illness. It was a dark period, during which many women were also oppressed and subjected to unimaginable sexual torture. Full story. Japan police tackle prostitution in Osaka nightlife area with Nobel-winning 'nudge theory' OSAKA -- In the bustling nightlife district near Osaka's Umeda area is a narrow street known for attracting women engaged in prostitution and men seeking their services. Locals whisper warnings such as, "Never go there," cautioning their children against setting foot in the notorious lane. Full story. 'If I enter a reformatory, I can leave home': 15-year-old murder suspect in Japan CHIBA -- A 15-year-old boy who was arrested May 12 on suspicion of murder in this eastern Japan city has told police that if he entered a juvenile detention center, he could leave home and that he thought killing someone with a knife would be the surest way to achieve that, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned from a source close to the investigation. Full story. Edging Toward Japan: Embracing the otherness of the gaijin existence By Damian Flanagan I have an old friend who tends to post slightly unusual material on social media. He is British guy living in Japan for many long years and always has himself wearing sunglasses in a kind of "gangster chic," quite often accompanied by young attractive Japanese women and sometimes accompanied by the night owls and bar flies of Osaka's night-time demi-monde. Full story. Outsiders' alleged attack on Japan school staffers reveals security challenges TOKYO -- Police recently arrested two men on suspicion of assault for allegedly entering a public elementary school in Japan's capital and injuring five staffers. The suspects, identified as acquaintances of a second grader's mother, apparently entered the school building through an unlocked gate and entrance after the woman contacted them. Full story.
The Mainichi
11-05-2025
- Politics
- The Mainichi
Buried history of sexual torture under now-defunct law in Japan recalled a century on
OSAKA -- A century has passed since the promulgation in April 1925 of the Peace Preservation Law, which stripped away freedom of speech and thought in Japan. Before its abolition in 1945, over 100,000 people were apprehended under the law, and over 1,000 are believed to have died due to torture or illness. It was a dark period, during which many women were also oppressed and subjected to unimaginable sexual torture. Kan Harada, 74, a former Kyoto Prefectural Assembly member from Kyoto's Nakagyo Ward, recalls the day when his mother, Toshiko Yamada, shared her painful past with a writer visiting their home. "They stripped her naked and pressed a cigarette against her lower body," Harada said with a detached tone. "What terrible humiliation it was." Harada was in high school at the time and hearing his mother's account for the first time, he was shocked. He was unable to ask her the details of what happened before she passed away in 1998 at the age of 87. Yamada was born in 1911 in the western Japan city of Tottori. After graduating from a local girls' high school, she moved to Tokyo, where she worked for a doctor. Her experiences there changed her life. Discrimination and a labor movement The doctor Yamada worked for would shun poor patients, refusing even to issue death certificates necessary for burial to laborers without money. Witnessing such discrimination based on people's financial status, even after death, Yamada quit her job and began working for the Musansha Shimbun, a newspaper affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party. She also worked in small factories, and became involved in movements to support laborers. The Peace Preservation Law broadly targeted communists and those involved in labor movements. In 1928, an amendment upgraded the maximum sentence under the law to death. Senji Yamamoto, a House of Representatives member from the Labor-Farmer Party who opposed this amendment was assassinated by a right-wing extremist. Many laborers attended his funeral, and police apprehended participants en masse. Yamada was among those taken in by police, and she was apprehended repeatedly after this on the grounds of violating the same law, and tortured. According to her autobiography "Nagai Tabiji" (A long journey), she was detained for over a month at a police station in Yokohama. Yamada refused to give her name or the names of her friends, and the Special Higher Police responded by striking her with bamboo swords and hitting her legs with an iron ball in a bag. She was stripped naked with her hands handcuffed behind her back, and a cigarette was pressed into her lower body. She was eventually sentenced to prison for five years. Focusing on women's and antinuclear movements After her release in 1937, Yamada married a man who had supported her through letters during her imprisonment, and the couple moved to Manchuria (now northeast China). After escaping attacks by Soviet soldiers and facing hardship, they returned to Japan, and settled in Gunma Prefecture after World War II. Yamada went on to dedicate herself to local women's movements and the antinuclear movement. "I think my mother was great for continuing to stand with vulnerable workers and never wavering in her beliefs, despite enduring terrible sexual violence and torture," says Harada. He followed in her footsteps, joining a textile company in Kyoto and eventually taking part in a labor dispute. After effectively being dismissed from the company, he engaged in activities with a local shopping district association. Following his tenure as a prefectural assembly member, he became the chairperson of the Kyoto prefectural headquarters of an alliance seeking state redress for victims of the Peace Preservation Law. He has continued to call for the government to apologize to victims of oppression and compensate them. In recent years, Harada has been concerned about the introduction of legal system changes that could potentially lead to thought control, like the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets and the establishment of the crime of conspiracy (officially the preparation of acts of terrorism and other organized crimes). "Depending on how those in power think, there is a risk it could lead to the kind of oppression we saw in the past. If we remain silent, we might once again face a dangerous era," he said. 'Erotic terror' buried in history The kind of sexual torture Yamada endured was not an exception. "Prejudices against the Communist Party and labor unions, combined with misogyny, led to many women being humiliated," says 78-year-old Kimie Oishi of the Osaka Prefecture city of Sakai, who serves as vice chairperson of the central headquarters of the alliance seeking state compensation. "The sexual torture of women under the Peace Preservation Law was absolutely vile, and was described as 'Erotic Terror.' People could not even speak of it to their families, and it has long been buried in history," she said. According to the alliance, there are women who have conveyed accounts of the torture to succeeding generations. One victim, Chiyoko Ito, a social activist from Nagano Prefecture, was subjected severe torture and died at 24 from causes related to mental illness. Her life has been depicted in numerous biographies and films. Takako Nakamoto, a proletarian writer from Yamaguchi Prefecture, wrote about being stripped naked, having a broom thrust into her, and being choked. Another woman from the Tokyo island of Hajijojima left a testimony saying she was stripped naked and molested, and tortured until she lost hearing in her left ear. Oishi notes that many women refused to turn from communism even when they were tortured in prison. "They probably were able to endure the torture because they believed that militarism would eventually end and a democratic society would certainly come. I want people to learn more about the history of such women's suffering," she says.
