Japan Times
READERS IN COUNCIL
September 3, 2000
In her August 28 article, “Amends overdue for Bataan Death March,” Maryland House delegate Carmen Amedori writes: “No amount of money can recompense the (U.S.) veterans who suffered at the hands of the Japanese…I believe that the U.S. should compel Japan to do what is right by these courageous men who served in a hell of Japan’s making.”
While the treatment of the Japanese military toward U.S. prisoners of war at Bataan was indeed deplorable, as Amedori points out, the 1951 U.S.-Japan Peace Treaty exonerated Japan from any atrocities committed during the Bataan Death March. Under the same treaty, Japan’s overseas holdings were sold off and the proceeds made available to Allied governments as reparations.
Furthermore, since the signing of the peace treaty, as a sort of compensation for past misdeeds, Japan had paid out a considerable sum in the form of foreign aid to various countries, particularly to China.
Those unfortunate prisoners who had suffered at Bataan may feel that such forms of compensation are insufficient and want more signs of justice from Japan. I, for one, however, await with much anticipation for the day when the U.S. government, at the very least, admits that the indiscriminate nuclear attacks on Japanese civilians including women and children and the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities were not only violations of international law but were clearly atrocities that surpass the scale and level of Bataan.
KO UNOKI
Fujisawa, Kanagawa
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