Chinese Dutch community protests Japan’s lack of understanding

Still no apology for WWII atrocities

THE HAGUE - A group of about 200 Chinese Dutch citizens recently held a silent protest in The Hague near the site of official Remembrance Day ceremonies. They protested against the unwillingness of the Japanese government to apologize for the atrocities committed in other Asian countries during Japan’s occupation of the region during World War II.

Demonstration organizers visited the Japanese embassy in The Hague, where they presented a petition to embassy personnel. Similar protests were held in other locations throughout Europe and the Far East, in part triggered by the recent publication in Japan of an official history textbook in which Japan’s war past again was downplayed. For decades, Dutch and other Western victims of the Japanese occupation of what then was the Dutch East Indies, have pushed for Tokyo’s official recognition, an apology and a monetary reparation. Citizens of such countries as South Korea and China also increasingly have been getting vocal in expressing their distaste about Japan’s unwillingness to acknowledge its wartime atrocities.

Japan dealt very harshly with the people of conquered nations, conscripting millions for slave labour, brutalizing civilians and particularly starving white women and children in concentration camps. It also ignored international war conventions.