Monthly Archives: September 2013

May 16, 2013 Program Held at the Monmouth County Library

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This program consisted of two items:

  • Showing the abridged (13 minutes) version of the documentary “Torn Memories of Nanjing,” a documentary made by the award-winning Japanese teacher and journalist Tamaki Matsuoka who invested 24 years of her life to try to find out what happened during the Nanking Massacre.  She interviewed over 250 former Japanese soldiers who were stationed in Nanking in 1937-1938 and over 300 Chinese survivors of the Nanking Massacre.  This documentary summarizes the findings of her video-recorded interviews.
  • Ms. Sharon Dolled, a Special Education Teacher at the Memorial Middle School in Howell, spoke on “Good People Facing Atrocities.”  Ms. Dolled participated in the 2012 Peace and Reconciliation Asia Study Tour sponsored by NJ-ALPHA, during which she visited China, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

January 3, 2013: Genocide Panel Discussion

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January 3, 2013:  Genocide Panel Discussion at the West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North in Plainsboro, NJ.  It was a very successful full-school-day event for 300-400 10th/11th grade world history students.  The program started in the morning with the film “Schlindler’s List.” After lunch, the panel discussion chaired by Dr. Paul Winkler with five panelists: Jerry Ehrlich, M.D. (on Darfur), Dr. Vera Goodkin (on Holocaust), Eugenie Mukeshimana (on Rwanda), Dr. Nuran Nabi (on Bangladesh), and Dr. Don Tow (on Nanking).  The students were captivated for over two and a half hours by the discussion of genocides in five different parts of the world by this panel of survivors and activists. The students asked many relevant questions, including how they can contribute to stopping genocides from reoccurring. Everyone involved thought that this event not only increased the knowledge of the students on these historical events, but may also lead to some follow-on actions by these students.

This event shows that with proper support from the teachers and school administrators, worthwhile events such as this could be held at other schools.  The event could range from a full-day or half-day program discussing multiple genocides to a one-hour program covering just one genocide. NJ-ALPHA would like to work with schools to organize more events of this type focusing on the Asian genocide.

April 17, 2012: “The Doolittle Air Raid”

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April 17, 2012:  “The Doolittle Air Raid”:  Featured Paul J. Frisco,
WWII Navy Veteran, feature writer, coordinator of Center for World War II Studies and Conflict Resolution’s Veterans History Project.  Also, Don Tow, President of NJ-ALPHA, presented a talk “Doolittle Raid:  Its Impact on China” (click here for his presentation). Co-sponsored with Brookdale Community College (BCC)’s Center for WWII Studies and Conflict Resolution, at BCC’s Student Life Center.

Testimony of General Charles W. Sweeney, the only pilot who flew on both atomic bomb missions, providing facts and arguments that history should not be rewritten depicting Japan as the victim, instead of being the aggressor (September 2013)

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In 1995 around the 50th Anniversary of the end of WWII, General Sweeney gave a testimony before the Committee on Rules and Administration, U.S. Senate at a time when there was a movement to rewrite history by depicting Japan as the victim, and not the aggressor, of WWII.  General Sweeney argued that when the facts are considered, President Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not only justified by the circumstances of his time, but was a moral imperative that precluded any other option.  For more information on General Sweeney’s testimony, see:  https://eahnc.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/senate-testimony-of-major-general-charles-w-sweeney-may-11-1995/.

Recently released document from Japanese archive reveals evidence of Japanese military-sponsored comfort women (September 2013)

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This document is a record of a war crime trial by the government of the Netherlands in Batavia (now the Indonesian capital Jakarta).  The document describes in detail how Japanese military officers took 35 Dutch women who were detained at concentration camps in Semarang on the Island of Java and forced them to serve as sex slaves at four camps in the state.  This document was supposed to be among the proof that prompted a 1993 statement by then Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono,  in which Japan acknowledged and apologized for its military’s involvement in the sex slavery.  For more information, see:  http://www.alpha-canada.org/historical-issues/released-document-shows-japans-forced-mobilization-of-comfort-women.

EditorialHas the Japanese Government Apologized for the Atrocities Japan Inflicted in Asia during WWII?

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You often hear from Japanese politicians that the Japanese government has already apologized many times for the massive and inhumane atrocities that the Japanese Imperial Army inflicted all over Asia during WWII.  So they asked “Why is another apology necessary?  How many apologies do you need before it is enough?”  For example, they point to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent statement on not revising the 1993 Kono Statement on Comfort Women (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/world/asia/japan-prime-minister-says-he-will-not-revise-1993-apology-to-wartime-prostitutes.html?_r=0).

If you look even just slightly deeper into this issue, you will come to the undoubtable conclusion that even though almost 69 years have elapsed since the end of WWII, Japan has never offered a meaningful official apology.

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