S. Korea, China criticize ex-Japan air force chief over war essay

BEIJING/SEOUL, Nov. 1 Kyodo -
China and South Korea on Saturday denounced Japanese Air Self-Defense Force chief Gen. Toshio Tamogami who was fired the previous day for denying in an essay that Japan waged a war of aggression in Asia in the past century.

The Chinese government expressed ''shock and anger'' that a senior Japanese
Self-Defense Force officer sought to justify Japan's wartime policy, while the
South Korean government accused Tamogami of defending ''past wrongdoings.''
Tamogami's essay examined Japan's wartime policy in China and Korea, then a
Japanese colony, and concluded, ''It is certainly a false accusation to say
that our country was an aggressor nation.''
The essay was made public Friday by the hotel and condominium developer Apa
Group, which announced Tamogami had won the grand prize in a ''True Modern
Historical Perspective'' contest organized by it. The prize came with an award
of 3 million yen.
''His claim is a distortion of history,'' the South Korean foreign ministry
said in a statement.
Jiang Yu, a deputy spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a
statement posted on the ministry's website, that China is ''shocked and angered
that a serving senior officer of Japan's Self-Defense Forces brazenly distorts
history.''
The Japanese government fired Tamogami on Friday, the same day the essay was
made public.
The Japanese government told the South Korean government through the South
Korean Embassy in Tokyo that Tamogami's essay reflects his personal views, a
diplomatic source said.
The spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
condemned Tamogami but did not hold the Japanese government responsible.
Successive Japanese administrations have supported a 1995 statement by then
Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama stating Japan inflicted tremendous damage and
suffering on Asian and other countries ''through its colonial rule and
aggression.''
==Kyodo