California Assembly Joint Resolution in 1999

BILL NUMBER: AJR 27    CHAPTERED

BILL TEXT

 

RESOLUTION CHAPTER   90

FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   AUGUST 26, 1999

ADOPTED IN SENATE   AUGUST 24, 1999

ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY   AUGUST 23, 1999

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   AUGUST 17, 1999

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JULY 14, 1999

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JULY 7, 1999

 

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Honda, Cardenas, Cunneen, Firebaugh,

Granlund, Strom-Martin, and Wildman

(Coauthors:  Senators Johnston and Speier)

 

JUNE 22, 1999

 

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 27–Relative to the war crimes

committed by the Japanese military during World War II.

 

 

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

 

 

AJR 27, Honda.  War crimes:  Japanese military during World War

II.

This measure would urge the Government of Japan to finally bring

closure to concerns relating to World War II by formally issuing a

clear and unambiguous apology for the atrocious war crimes committed

by the Japanese military during World War II and immediately paying

reparations to the victims of those crimes.  This measure would also

call upon the United States Congress to adopt a similar resolution

and would urge the President of the United States to take all

appropriate action to bring about a formal apology and reparations by

the Government of Japan.

 

 

 

 

WHEREAS, Our nation is founded on democratic principles that

recognize the vigilance with which fundamental individual human

rights must be safeguarded in order to preserve freedom; and

WHEREAS, This resolution condemns all violations of the

international law designed to safeguard fundamental human rights as

embodied in the Geneva and Hague Conventions; and

WHEREAS, This resolution vociferously condemns all crimes against

humanity and at the same time condemns the actions of those who would

use this resolution to further an agenda that fosters anti-Asian

sentiment and racism, or Japan “bashing,” or otherwise fails to

distinguish between Japan’s war criminals and Americans of Japanese

ancestry; and

WHEREAS, Since the end of World War II, Japan has earned its place

as an equal in the society of nations, yet the Government of Japan

has failed to fully acknowledge the crimes committed during World War

II and to provide reparations to the victims of those crimes; and

WHEREAS, While high ranking Japanese government officials have

expressed personal apologies, supported the payment of privately

funded reparations to some victims, and modified some textbooks,

these efforts are not adequate substitutes for an apology and

reparations approved by the Government of Japan; and

WHEREAS, The need for an apology sanctioned by the Government of

Japan is underscored by the contradictory statements and actions of

Japanese government officials and leaders of a “revisionist” movement

who openly deny that war crimes took place, defend the actions of

the Japanese military, seek to remove the modest language included in

textbooks, and refuse to cooperate with United States Department of

Justice efforts to identify Japanese war criminals; and

WHEREAS, During World War II, 33,587 United States military and

13,966 civilian prisoners of the Japanese military were confined in

inhumane prison camps where they were subjected to forced labor and

died unmentionable deaths; and

WHEREAS, The Japanese military invaded Nanking, China, from

December 1937 until February 1938, during the period known as the

“Rape of Nanking,” and brutally slaughtered, in ways that defy

description, by some accounts as many as 300,000 Chinese men, women,

and children and raped more than 20,000 women, adding to a death toll

that may have exceeded millions of Chinese; and

WHEREAS, The people of Guam and the Marshall Islands, during the

Japanese occupation from 1941-1944, were subjected to unmentionable

acts of violence, including forced labor and marches, and

imprisonment by the Japanese military during its occupation of these

islands; and

WHEREAS, Three-fourths of the population in Port Blair on Andaman

Islands, India, were exterminated by Japanese troops between March

1942 and the end of World War II; many were tortured to death or

forced into sexual slavery at “comfort stations,” and crimes beyond

description were committed on families and young children; and

WHEREAS, At the February 1945 “Battle of Manila,” 100,000 men,

women, and children were killed by Japanese armed forces in inhumane

ways, adding to a total death toll that may have exceeded one million

Filipinos during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, which

began in December 1941 and ended in August 1945; and

WHEREAS, At least 260 of the 1,500 United States prisoners,

including many Californians, believed to have been held at Mukden,

Manchuria, died during the first winter of their imprisonment and

many of the 300 living survivors of Mukden claim to suffer from

physical ailments resulting from their subjection to Japanese

military chemical and biological experiments; and

WHEREAS, The Japanese military enslaved millions of Koreans,

Chinese, Filipinos, and citizens from other occupied or colonized

territories during World War II, and forced hundreds of thousands of

women into sexual slavery for Japanese troops; and

WHEREAS, The International Commission of Jurists, a

nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Geneva, Switzerland, ruled in

1993 that the Government of Japan should pay reparations of at least

$40,000 for the “extreme pain and suffering” caused to each woman who

was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military (referred by

the Japanese military as “comfort women”), yet none of these women

have been paid any compensation by the Government of Japan; now,

therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and Senate of the State of California,

jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California urges the

Government of Japan to finally bring closure to concerns relating to

World War II by doing both of the following:

(1) Formally issuing a clear and unambiguous apology for the

atrocious war crimes committed by the Japanese military during World

War II.

(2) Immediately paying reparations to the victims of those crimes,

including, but not limited to, United States military and civilian

prisoners of war, the people of Guam and the Marshall Islands, who

were subjected to violence and imprisonment, the survivors of the

“Rape of Nanking” from December 1937 until February 1938, and the

women who were forced into sexual slavery and known by the Japanese

military as “comfort women”; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of California calls

upon the United States Congress to adopt a similar resolution that

follows the spirit and letter of this resolution calling on the

Government of Japan to issue a formal apology and pay reparations to

the victims of its war crimes during World War II; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature of the State of California requests

that the President of the United States take all appropriate action

to further bring about a formal apology and reparations by the

Government of Japan to the victims of its war crimes during World War

II; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of

this resolution to the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, the

President of the United States, the President of the Senate, the

Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each California Member

of the Senate and the United States House of Representatives.