"Warmonger's" grandaughter runs for public office posted 6/14/2007 4:05:41 PM | 0 kudos what's this?     report abuse tagged: news, elections, straddle

StraddleMyNose

It's a little alarming considering who's running, and the history behind this.

Yuko Tojo (who is 68 years old) is the grandaughter of Gen. Hideki Tojo who was executed when he was hung by Allies in 1948 at a tribunal. Gen. Hideki Tojo ordered the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Yuko Tojo has prayed at a war shrine for Japan's fallen soldiers-including her grandfather's every morning for the past 3 months. She has stated that she was born as Hideki Tojo's granddaughter, and as a Japanese national. She also added that she cannot see Japan go on like this, with no confidence or pride. And she added that she does not think the war dead gave their lives for a country like this. Her views are part of resurgent of a "right-wing" fringe in Japan that espouses a hard line in territorial disputes with the country's neighbors and a rose-tinted view of it's militarism. However, she may be too far to the right even for Japan's nationalists, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who have distanced themselves from her. Her grandfather was Japan's prime misiter from 1941-1944, is widely remembered as a warmonger who was behind Tokyo's invasions of it's Asian and Pacific neighbors. It was Tojo who ordered the Pearl Harbor attack that killed 2,388 American troops and brought the U.S. into World War II. His granddaughter has defended the general's legacy, contending he reluctantly took Japan to war after a U.S. oil embargo threatened the country's survival. She claims Japan did not fight a war of aggression, and that it fought in self defense, and that their children have been wrongly taught that their ancestors did evil things, that their country is evil. She also stated that they need to give these children back their pride and confidence. What she wants to do is get rid of their current military force because it's known as a Defense Forces and it is prohibited from taking offensive action.

The elections in Japan are in July.

Any thoughts on this from any of you?

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