Japan's New Prime Minister Denies Past

From Today's New York Times article :Denial Reopens Wounds of Japan's Ex-Sex slaves

So the guy with the the funky hair who loves Elvis is out - and in comes the guy with a guy who likes to rewrite history. Abe Shinzo was a political unknown when he was elected as Prime Minister of Japan - I think it was some time last semester. He hadn't really done anything of note other than to write a book called "beautiful Japan."

Japan has been making improvements in admitting it's history of war crimes during WWII; believe it or not. There was a time when a large population of Japanese people hadn't even heard of what happened in Nanking because it wasn't (and still isn't) in their school history books and was never discussed. I think now everyone knows of it, and most believe that it actually happened, but there are some who put on blinders to all the evidence and deny it ever happened, one of whom is now the Prime Minister.

As many a 200,000 women, according to the New York times article, were forced to be "Comfort Women" to Japanese occupying forces during WWII. Despite pressure to keep quiet, the dying generation of these women are speaking out and have been speaking out, giving their testimonies. No true historian can imagine away these women and all the corroborating evidence. The Prime Minister however has denied it ever happened and sometime next week a pre-existing fund that functions like reparations for these women (only 285 have taken advantage of it though, the rest protesting it because they see it as an attempt to buy them off) will be canceled.

Anyways - The Prime Minister of Japan is a disappointment, and the prospects for the upcoming French elections seem pretty dismal. A racist man prejudiced against immigrants and who wishes to re-implement religion into the French government, Sarkozy, has a chance of being the replacement for Chirac. All I'm trying to say is - There are many Bush personalities in office around the world, and it's not just the US that makes me despair for the state of politics.