Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia

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Global Alliance For Preserving the History of WWII in Asia
Global Alliance For Preserving the History of WWII in Asia logo.jpg
Website http://www.global-alliance.net/

Global Alliance For Preserving the History of WWII in Asia is a non-profit, non-partisan federation of over 40 grassroots organizations dedicated to the remembrance, redress and reconciliation concerning World War II in Asia, also known as the Pacific War. [1] It is concerned about crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and issues related to them such as the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, Comfort women, Prisoners of War and Forced Labor. It aims to bring together such groups electronically, organizationally, and personally. This federation has become increasingly recognized[ citation needed ] as the leading organization safeguarding humanity and international justice with relation to World War II in Asia and the Pacific and its aftermath. It is also the first organization of its kind since previous similar groups were only focused on one or some aspects of the war.

Contents

Mission and goals

Global Alliance's mission focuses on bringing about the proper closure of unresolved issues arising from Japan’s aggression that led to World War II in Asia and the Pacific. It seeks justice for victims through punishment of those criminals that were either never put on trial or set free without fulfilling their sentence. Furthermore, it asks war reparations to be given to such victims that have been neglected for over five decades.

Besides reparation and redress, members of Global Alliance seek to preserve and disseminate the true story of the war. Revisionist theories have focused on the denial of such massacres as the Rape of Nanjing, and the actual events that took place during the war are largely unknown in Japan and the West. To address this issue, the organization has worked towards building a memorial museum in the U.S. similar to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to preserve the truth of atrocities during World War II. Finally, Global Alliance advocates expanded coverage of World War II history in the public school textbooks, and has promoted the inclusion of material on the Asian experience of the war. Prevalent focus has been given to the European experience, which was not the only region suffering large losses during the war.

Beliefs

The federation believes that historical truth will bring about justice for victims and safeguard humanity from repeating the mistakes of the past. The following beliefs summarize Global Alliance's ideology:

Demands

Based on the premise that the Government of Japan has to honor its post-war responsibilities, Global Alliance demands that through legislation enacted by the Diet of Japan, the Government of Japan must:

Activities

Member organizations

Global Alliance is open to institutional membership, while individuals can join as non-voting supporters.

Newsletter

A newsletter is published by Global Alliance mostly in Chinese but occasionally in trilingual format (English, Japanese, and Chinese). It aims to enhance communication among the federation's members, to provide a record of all their dedicated work. The newsletter includes activity reports, essays, research results, personal profiles, news clippings and photos, and other documents which are relevant to Global Alliance's cause. It has over 3000 affiliated organizations, schools, libraries, U.S. government and U.N. agencies. There is no subscription fee for this newsletter, and it is supported through donations and volunteerships.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanjing Massacre</span> Mass murder and rape committed by Japanese Army

The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted for six weeks. The perpetrators also committed other war crimes such as mass rape, looting, and arson. The massacre was one of the worst atrocities committed during World War II.

<i>The Rape of Nanking</i> (book) 1997 non-fiction book by Iris Chang

The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II is a bestselling 1997 non-fiction book written by Iris Chang about the 1937–1938 Nanking Massacre, the massacre and atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army after it captured Nanjing, then capital of China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It describes the events leading up to the Nanking Massacre and the atrocities that were committed. The book presents the view that the Japanese government has not done enough to redress the atrocities. It is one of the first major English-language books to introduce the Nanking Massacre to Western and Eastern readers alike, and has been translated into several languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comfort women</span> Forced prostitutes for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II

Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term "comfort women" is a translation of the Japanese ianfu (慰安婦), which literally means "comforting, consoling woman."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese war crimes</span> War crimes of the Empire of Japan

War crimes were committed by the Empire of Japan in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been described as an "Asian Holocaust". Some war crimes were committed by Japanese military personnel during the late 19th century, but most of them were committed during the first part of the Shōwa era, the name which was given to the reign of Emperor Hirohito.

The anti-Japanese demonstrations of 2005 were a series of demonstrations, some peaceful, some violent, which were held across most of East Asia in the spring of 2005. They were sparked off by a number of issues, including the approval of a Japanese history textbook and the proposal that Japan be granted a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Joseph Yu Kai Wong is a Canadian physician and philanthropist. He founded the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care in 1987. He served as the chairman for the United Way of Greater Toronto from 1990 to 1992 and has been honorary chair since 1994.

The Three Alls Policy was a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China during World War II, the three "alls" being "kill all, burn all, loot all". This policy was designed as retaliation against the Chinese for the Communist-led Hundred Regiments Offensive in December 1940. Contemporary Japanese documents referred to the policy as "The Burn to Ash Strategy".

Ikuhiko Hata Japanese historian (born 1932)

Ikuhiko Hata is a Japanese historian. He earned his PhD at the University of Tokyo and has taught history at several universities. He is the author of a number of influential and well-received scholarly works, particularly on topics related to Japan's role in the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.

Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders

The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders is a museum to memorialize those that were killed in the Nanjing Massacre by the Imperial Japanese Army in and around the then-capital of China, Nanjing, after it fell on December 13, 1937. It is located in the southwestern corner of downtown Nanjing known as Jiangdongmen (江东门), near a site where thousands of bodies were buried, called a "pit of ten thousand corpses".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wartime sexual violence</span> Acts of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war or military occupation

Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war, but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader sociological motives. Wartime sexual violence may also include gang rape and rape with objects. A war crime, it is distinguished from sexual harassment, sexual assaults and rape committed amongst troops in military service.

Nanjing Massacre denial is the denial of the fact that Imperial Japanese forces murdered hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians in the city of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War, an extremely controversial episode in the history of Sino-Japanese relations. Some historians accept the findings of the Tokyo tribunal with respect to the scope and nature of the atrocities which were committed by the Imperial Japanese Army after the Battle of Nanjing, but others do not. In Japan, however, there has been a debate over the extent and nature of the massacre. Relations between Japan and China have been complicated as a result, as denial of the massacre is seen in China as part of an overall unwillingness on Japan's part to admit and apologize for its aggression, or a perceived insensitivity regarding the killings. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, ranging from 40,000 to 200,000. Some scholars, notably revisionists in Japan, have contended that the actual death toll is far lower, or even that the event was entirely fabricated and never occurred at all. These revisionist accounts of the killings have become a staple of Japanese nationalist discourse.

The Historiography of the Nanjing Massacre is the representation of the events of the Nanjing Massacre as history, in various languages and cultural contexts, in the years since these events took place. This historiography is disparate and sometimes contested, owing to conflicting currents of Chinese and Japanese nationalist sentiment and national interest, as well as the fog of war.

Kim Hak-sun South Korean activist

Kim Hak-sun (1924–1997) was a Korean human rights activist who campaigned against sex slavery and wartime sexual violence. Ms. Kim was one of the victims who had been forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army between the early 1930s up until the end of the Pacific War. She is the first woman in Korea to come forward publicly and testify her experience as a comfort woman for the Japanese military. Her testimony was made on 14 August 1991. In December 1991, she filed a class-action lawsuit against the Japanese government for the damages inflicted during the war. She was the first of what would become hundreds of women from Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Netherlands who came forward to tell their stories of their enslavement to the Imperial Japanese military. She was inspired to finally take her story public after 40 years of silence by the growth of the women's rights movement in South Korea. Kim died in 1997 and her court case was still ongoing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yayori Matsui</span>

Yayori Matsui was a Japanese journalist and women's rights activist noted for her work to raise awareness of sex slaves and sex tourism in post-war Asia. In 1961 she began work as a journalist for the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, retiring in 1994 to work as a full-time social activist, founding numerous women's organizations and writing on gender inequality in Japan and on sex crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, namely against the comfort women of the Second World War. Her work culminated in the 2000 Tokyo Women's War Crimes Tribunal, a tribunal held to gain some form of justice for the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery.

Lee Yong-soo (activist)

Lee Yong-soo is a former comfort woman from South Korea. Lee was forced to serve as a sex slave during World War II with the Imperial Japanese Army. She is one of the youngest comfort women still living. However, there is a conflict with the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance over the distribution of the collected funds. In May 2020, former Korean Council for Justice Yoon Mee-hwan suggested that Lee was not a comfort woman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bahay na Pula</span>

The Bahay na Pula is a former hacienda in San Ildefonso, Bulacan in the Philippines. The site is remembered for the mass rapes and murders committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The Japanese military murdered all of the men and boys in the adjacent Mapaniqui, Candaba, Pampanga, and forced over 100 women and girls into sexual slavery, confining and raping them in the Red House.

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan is a Korean non-governmental organization advocating the rights of the surviving comfort women and lobbying the Japanese government to take actions of a full apology and compensation.

The Peace Monument of Glendale is an exact replica of the original memorial dedicated to comfort women, the Statue of Peace. The statue is located in Central Park near the Glendale Public Library in Glendale, California, United States. The Glendale Peace Monument was funded and built in 2013 by the Korean American Forum of California, a non-profit human rights organization. The installation of the memorial happened shortly after Toru Hashimoto, former mayor of Osaka, Japan, expressed that comfort women were necessary to maintain discipline within the Japanese army during World War II. The unveiling of the statue was also considered a celebration due to the passing of a 2007 United States House of Representatives resolution, which urged the Japanese government to accept responsibility for their wartime crimes.

Gil Won-ok, also known as Grandma Gil, is an activist and former Korean comfort woman who has dedicated her life to demanding redress and an official apology from Japan for the military sexual violence that affected over 200,000 women during World War II.

Tong Zeng is a Chinese scholar, social activist, and businessman. He is chairman of China Federation of Demanding Compensation from Japan, and is chairman of Zhongxiang Investment Co., Ltd.

References

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  11. Honda, Michael M. (2007-07-30). "H.Res.121 - 110th Congress (2007-2008): A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces' coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as "comfort women", during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
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