MORI AND HAIDER - AN INTERESTING COMPARISON


  Japan is about to, once again, frolic through a mental Twilight Zone
when it comes to overseas attitudes toward its government and
politicians.  To illustrate what I'm talking about, let me compare the
case of Austrian Freedom Party leader and Governor of Carinthia, Jorg
Haider, with that of the new Japanese Prime Minister.

  When free and fair elections resulted in the participation of Mr.
Haider's party in the new Austrian cabinet recently, his past
statements, combined with perceptions regarding his positions on, for
example, immigration, aroused a gigantic furor across Western Europe
and North America.  Solemn written pledges to honor freedom and
democracy, and Mr. Haider's relinquishing of his party leadership post,
have to date failed to mollify outraged critics who brand him a "Nazi"
and an incorrigible enemy of modern internationally-held values.

NOTE:  I do not here make any judgement concerning the correctness of
the critics' beliefs regarding Mr. Haider, or of the appropriateness of
their political, diplomatic, and economic actions against Austria.  My
only point is to examine and compare them to the beliefs and actions of
the same people with regard to Mr. Mori and his party, the JiMinTo
(short for Jiyu Minshu To, or "Liberal Democratic Party").

  Both Mr. Mori's party and Mr. Haider's are closely tied to
organizations of WWII veterans - Axis veterans.  Both men have
histories of personal association and public statements seeking eagerly
to link themselves with what they characterize as the honorable and
admirable "service" of Nazi Austrian and Fascist Japanese troops.  On
the other hand, while I have heard of no case of Mr. Haider claiming
that Nazi domination was actually good for occupied countries or
peoples, Mr. Mori and his party are consistent in claiming that North
and South Korea, for example, ought to be grateful, if not financially
liable, for the blessings of Japan's 1910-45 colonization (which was
marked by massive and officially organized forced migration and
military service, slave labor, and sex slavery, and which led to the
division of the country and the agonies which have followed).

  While Mr. Haider's party is new to government, Mr. Mori's has a long
history (for all but a couple of years since 1955) of one-party control
of Japan's Diet and cabinet.  It has elevated convicted war criminals
(such as Nobosuke Kishi) to the office of Prime Minister, and Mr. Mori
himself has accompanied his party colleagues and previous Prime
Ministers on official pilgrimages to the Yasukuni Shrine, the official
state-Shinto repository of the souls of those, including executed war
criminals (such as General Tojo), who died for Imperial Japan.

  (Two related notes:  1) anyone who dies even now in Japanese military
service is enshrined at Yasukuni, even against the wishes of the dead
serviceman or his family;  2) Ryutaro Hashimoto, Prime Minister before
Mr. Obuchi, was simultaneously chairman of the "Association of War
Bereaved Families", the group that maintains Yasukuni and its war
museum glorifying the relics of Japan's crusade to establish its
divinely ordained domination of East Asia; this phenomenon would be
roughly equivalent to Helmut Kohl having been head of ODESSA.)

  Where Mr. Haider has in the past praised the Hitler regime's labor
policies (and subsequently retracted), Mr. Mori continues at present to
proclaim that Japan's schools should return to the doctrines of the
Kyoiku Chokugo ("Imperial Rescript on Education") of 1890, the essence
of which, from an examination of the historical record, was to train
boys frantic to die for the Emperor on a foreign field (after killing
as many civilians as possible), and girls ready to confront tanks and
flame throwers with pointed sticks (and to throw their own babies off
cliffs).

  Mr. Haider, so far as I can discover, has never denied that Nazi
Germany engaged in agression against other European countries and
peoples.  (Indeed, most Austrians are adamant that their own country,
the birthplace of Hitler and cradle of his belief-formation, was a
victim of Nazi aggression in the 1938 Anschluss.)  For their part, Mr.
Mori and his party have acted vigorously and consistently in
government, media, and education to ensure that the ONLY interpretation
presented in public in Japan is that this country fought only
"defensive" wars of survival, and was the main victim(!) of WWII.

  Organizations or local elected officials who depart from this line
find themselves unprotected by the (JiMinTo-dominated) police from
organized violent attack; indeed, party leaders such as Mr. Mori are
routinely associated with the funding and activities of the neo-Fascist
gangs that do the harassing, threatening, rioting, slashing, and
shooting.  (I am not aware of any group in Austria known and allowed to
engage in such activities or incitement to same.)

  While fringe "Holocaust deniers" do seem to exist in Europe and North
America, Mr. Haider and his party, so far as I can discover, have never
denied the deliberate, organized murder of huge numbers of innocent
civilians by the Nazi regime in death camps such as Auschwitz.  By
contrast, Mr. Mori and his party are the very focus of those in Japan
who deny most vigorously, for example, that the Rape of Nanking ever
occured (again, the equivalent of saying that Auschwitz never existed
at all).  All the evidence of this and other wartime atrocities is
dismissed as propaganda doctored or fabricated by the Chinese (who are
"a race of liars", according to Tokyo Governor Ishihara) and "O-bei" -
"EuroAm" (still out, you see, to persecute innocent victim Japan for
white-supremacist reasons).

  Where, then, are the sanctions and expressions of righteous outrage?
Even the Communist Chinese government, known for its vociferous
responses to statements and actions whitewashing Japanese militarism,
rushed its ambassador to smile and shake hands with a man who, even
after taking the highest office in the country, has deliberately
referred to "Shina" (militarist Japan's term, loaded with racial-
superiority venom, for China as a field for conquest and colonization -
like some Victorian imperialist referring to "Wogland").  United States
President Clinton, whose administration has denounced Mr. Haider and
punished Austria for him, is eager to welcome Mr. Mori as a guest.

  Nobody has withdrawn ambassadors, canceled meetings, or called for
suspending or banning Japanese participation in international
organizations or events.  Austria has been - and continues to be -
subjected to all of these things, even though Mr. Haider did not take a
national cabinet office (to which he was entitled by normal
parliamentary democratic process).  If these actions are appropriate
for Mr. Haider, the Freedom Party and Austria, why are no similar
actions even considered or discussed for Prime Minister Mori, the
Liberal Democratic Party, and Japan?

  I'll be happy to print any answers to that question that I may get.