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2001 SESSION

017066820
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 657
Offered January 10, 2001
Prefiled January 10, 2001
Memorializing Congress to enact legislation relating to Japanese war crimes.
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Patron-- Landes
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Referred to Committee on Militia and Police
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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 international law designed to safeguard fundamental human rights as embodied in the Geneva and Hague Conventions; and

WHEREAS, this resolution condemns all crimes against humanity, while also condemning the actions of those who would use this resolution to further an agenda that fosters anti-Asian sentiment and racism, 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; 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

WHEREAS, leaders of a "revisionist" movement who openly deny that war crimes took place, defend the actions of the Japanese military, seek to remove modest language included in textbooks, and refuse to cooperate with the United States Department of Justice's efforts to identify Japanese war criminals; and

WHEREAS, the Japanese military, during the "Rape of Nanking," invaded Nanking, China, from December 1937 to February 1938 and brutally slaughtered as many as 300,000 Chinese men, women, and children and raped more than 20,000 women, adding to a death toll that exceeded untold millions of Chinese; and

WHEREAS, the people of Guam and the Marshall Islands, during the three year Japanese occupation, were subjected to unmentionable acts of violence; and

WHEREAS, three-fourths of the population in Port Blair on the Andaman Islands, India, were exterminated by Japanese troops between March 1942 and the end of World War II; and

WHEREAS, at the February 1945 "Battle of Manila," 100,000 men, women, and children were killed by Japanese soldiers adding to a death toll that may have exceeded one million Filipinos during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines that began in December 1941 and ended in August 1945; and

WHEREAS, of the 1,500 American prisoners believed to have been held at Mukden, Manchuria, many of the 300 living survivors 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 non-governmental organization in Geneva, Switzerland, ruled in 1993 that the Japanese government should pay reparations of at least $40,000 for the "pain and suffering" inflicted on each woman forced into sexual slavery (called "comfort women") by the Japanese military; and

WHEREAS, none of these women have been paid any compensation by the government of Japan; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly of Virginia urge Congress to enact legislation requiring the disclosure of records of the Japanese Imperial Army; and be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Congress enact legislation prohibiting the admission of aliens who commit acts of torture abroad; and be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Congress urge the Government of Japan to issue a clear and unambiguous apology for its war crimes committed during World War II and to release all records pertaining to Japanese experiments performed on prisoners of war; and be it

RESOLVED FINALLY, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation 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 Virginia Member of the Senate and United States House of Representatives.