“A grave insult to our nation and the victims of Japanese wartime military sex slavery.”
This was the gist of a statement issued by Lila Pilipina on the reported planned commemoration of the anniversary of the first Kamikaze Flights in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
“It is utterly insensitive to the plight of Filipino “comfort women” and other victims of Japanese war crimes to honor the Kamikaze which brought much destruction in the country and became a symbol of Japanese military might during World War II for peoples of its occupied nations.“
“This honoring of the Kamikaze’s role in the conquest of the nation becomes even more alarming in the light of renewed military cooperation between Japan and the Philippines, now both the US’ junior partners in its war agenda in the Asia-Pacific. The Ph-Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement ( RAA ), gives renewed license for Japanese troops to set foot again on Philippine territory and, equally dangerous, to sell, transport and store “dangerous goods” such as war weapons to the Philippines,” Lila Pilipina said.
“Japan can endlessly build their shrines in their country. But for the Philippine government and other Filipinos to be part of the installation of shrines to members of the Japanese imperial government which killed and harmed hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, bespeaks of their lack of sense of nationhood,” Sharon Cabusao-Silva, head of Lila Pilipina, said.
“It is also a betrayal of the Philippines’ interest when our own government officials acceed to the building of such shrines in exchange for billions of pesos’ worth of Japanese investments in the country – where arms sales become an increasing component. This brings us closer to war, and quietly transforms our national economy into a war economy,” Lila Pilipina concluded.#
