Abe’s words at Pearl Harbour were purely for effect, with an eye on China

Jean-Pierre Lehmann says Japanese crimes against humanity extend well beyond the attack on the US base in Hawaii, and Abe’s visit was nothing more than an attempt to cosy up to Washington

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Abe’s visit to Pearl Harbour was most certainly motivated by a desire to cosy up to Washington at a time when China is becoming increasingly powerful. Illustration: Ingo Fast

Published: 10:00am, 3 Jan 2017Updated: 10:00am, 3 Jan 2017

In the course of the Pacific War, Japan committed numerous crimes against humanity. The 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour was not one of them.

The attack on Pearl Harbour was an act of war. War material was destroyed, ships were sunk, aircraft were grounded, American soldiers and sailors were killed, an estimated 2,400, along with nearly 70 civilians.

But such is war. However, unlike what was happening almost simultaneously as the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, there was no torture, no rapes (an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong on the day of invasion), no summary executions, no “medical” experiments in chemical warfare, no human vivisection – all hallmarks of Japan’s invasion of China.

Thus, in the annals of warfare and all its extreme manifestations in the 20th century, Pearl Harbour as such was no big humanitarian deal.

Watch: Shinzo Abe offers everlasting condolences to Pearl Harbour victims

One major criticism was that the Japanese government violated the established protocol of warfare, in that the declaration of war was supposed to precede the military attack, not the other way around.

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