Petition #273: What next? Any will to reconcile?

Petition #273: What next? Any will to reconcile?

His Excellency Shinzo ABE
Prime Minister of Japan

The Hague, 8 August 2017
Petition: 273
Subject: What next? Any will to reconcile?

Excellency,
In our petition 250 “What next” we wrote that your statement on Friday, August 14th 2015 failed to convince us that Japan is preparing for its future by addressing its military and political past. You admitted on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II “that Japan lost sight of the overall trends in the world.” Japan’s post war population does not know how and why Japan went into war nor that during the war the Imperial forces terrorized POW’s and civilians and violated human rights on a grand scale in the occupied territories. Your promises that Japan “will engrave in our hearts” is insufficient and offensive considering the sufferings of the victims of terror and plunder which took place. Japan started the war and its military terrorized and violated the laws of war. However you are right in stating that “prosperity is the very foundation for peace”, to which one must add accepting responsibility for past wrongdoings. Hence the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts continuous demand that Japan recognizes its moral responsibility stemming from Japan’s “wrong course advancing along the road of war.” You must now admit that you and your government failed in recognizing the past and acknowledge its responsibilities of that past.

Prime Minister,
In our 250th petition to the Prime Minister of Japan the tone and contents as of all previous petitions have been to reconcile on the basis that the Dutch victims of Japanese militarism are respected and reasonably redressed. Our message continues to be that Japan must accept moral responsibility for its military and political past during World War II. The Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts as NGO has the will and the means to reconcile on behalf of the Dutch who suffered from Japan’s military occupation of Dutch East Indies during World War II. Now two years later you have not demonstrated any will nor genuine commitment to reconcile.
Demonstrate your will now by starting to acknowledge the receipt of this 273rd petition.

On behalf of the Foundation of Japanese Honorary Debts.

J.F. van Wagtendonk
President