LETTERS: IT IS TIME FOR JAPAN TO APOLOGIZE FOR ATROCITIES

To the editor:

The 50th anniversary of Victory in Japan Day is coming soon. So is the vote on admitting Japan to the United Nations Security Council.

This is prime time to push for an apology from the Japanese government for starting World War II and an apology and compensation for soldiers tortured in Japanese prison camps, survivors of the Bataan Death March and the countless other atrocities committed by Japan against Allied troops and against civilians of occupied nations.

Germany apologized for its death-camp atrocities during the Holocaust and pays compensation to Holocaust survivors. The U.S. government paid $20,000 each to survivors of the World War II Japanese internment camps in this country. Only Japan has refused to admit its role in starting World War II and in the millions of atrocities and human-rights violations it committed.

The Japanese are an honorable people who need to admit this blot on their national history and put the matter to rest. It is the Japanese government, not the citizens, that pretends that imperial Japan did not start World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor and that Japan was an innocent victim of foreign aggression.

Put pressure on Japan through your congressman. Bring this to closure.

WILLIAM F. JUD

Fredericktown