Petition at Yasukuni Against Comfort Women Statue

August 15 is the day when the Greater East Asia War (WWII) ended.

On this day, many Japanese go to Yasukuni Shrine to worship the spirits of those who fought and sacrificed their lives to protect the country and the loved ones. This year, 175,000 people visited the Shrine on this occasion, increased from 161,000 last year. First worshipers arrived before 6am, and the flow of worshipers continued until early evening.

Just outside the Shrine, there were many volunteer and activist groups who raised their voice on various issues: such as, bogus reporting of pro-China NHK whose headquarters houses CCTV; similarly bogus reporting of pro-China, pro-Korea and anti-Japan Asahi shimbun; violent repression on Uygur and southern Mongol by Chinese Government; retraction of "Kono talk" which vaguely acknowledged the "coercion" of comfort women without any evidence; and petition for the City of Buena Park, CA, against placement of a comfort women statue.  

I participated in the petition against placement of a comfort women statue. From the beginning, I felt the strong reaction. Noticing the cardboard "Against Comfort Women Statue in Buena Park City", many people came up to us and signed the petition. 

Not only signing, they shared their highly passionate feelings on the issue, in the 35C-degree heat:

"We count on you!"
"We must sign this one, for sure."
"I am so outraged by this Korean lie!"
"I am also raising my voice online and through emails. Let's spread the truth together!"
"We have to fight against these fabricated stories by Koreans. This is getting just too much."
"We didn't do such things." (old gentleman)
"I know, I know, I know it very well - I don't need to read the flyer!"
"Your taking action is just great. Good luck for you! Oh, no, let's do this together!"

Such feelings were shared by all kinds of people: young men and women, mothers with babies, families with kids, middle aged men and women, old couples, old men in groups, etc, etc.

I didn't expect this much of passion, sympathy, anger, desire for truth, and enthusiasm for cooperation, from so many people. They all want to correct the situation, i.e. to put an end to the spread of Korean fabrication of "200,000 sexual slavery and atrocity by the Japanese army" - the gross lie which disgrace and humiliate Japan and the noble souls who stood up for the country (see other postings on "comfort women" to see why the Korean claims are fabricated).

Volunteers who were working on other issues were also spontaneously cooperating with our petition collection. A gentleman who was distributing flyers against Asahi was raising his voice, "Here, here, you can sign the petition against comfort women statue!". A lady working on Chinese issue brought a portable table and chair for us. Others gave us candies and water bottles, saying, "make sure you take enough water not to get heat attack!" Such spontaneous support and care were enormously touching.

People may easily think, "Japan was simply bad during the WWII" believing the Tokyo Tribunal view; however, what didn't happen didn't happen. Moreover, people must know that the Tokyo Tribunal was "the worst hypocrisy in recorded history" as decried by General Charles Willoughby. Even General Douglas MacArthur, the executor of the Tribunal, himself confessed in 1950 to President Harry Truman that the Tokyo Tribunal was a mistake.

Having experienced the power of people at Yasukuni on August 15, I felt: Japan will be ok - one day, the truth will prevail.