LONDON, May 27: Scarcely a day goes by in Britain, when the Second World War does not feature on the news pages. Either there is a re-analysis of an event, or the celebration of an anniversary of a battle, or a dispute over how survivors have been treated. Today was no exception. Today, as many times in the last several years, Second World War veterans took to the streets to remind people that the ghosts of the War were not yet buried. Their specific target was the Japanese Emperor Akihito, on a state visit to Britain.Emperor Akihito faced protests from British war veterans who survived Japanese prisoner of war camps. The Veterans want an apology for Japanese atrocities against POWs and compensation for their suffering. Over 1000 World War Two veterans and Prisoner of War internees delivered their insult the Emperor by turning their backs on him, as he drove down the Mall with the Queen on his way to Buckingham Palace. There was booing and hissing and several old soldiers whistled Colonel Bogey'smarch.
British veterans have been fighting a long and losing battle with successive Japanese governments for an apology for the way they were treated in POW camps and for compensations for their suffering. The Japanese have maintained, supported by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that all matters of compensation were settled by treaty 50 years ago. The Japanese, while never refusing to apologies have never done so. Two previous prime ministers of Japan, expressed their sorrow and their regret, but this failed to satisfy the veterans.
Veterans, loyal to the Queen to the last, were also annoyed by her decision, announced a few weeks ago, to award the Japanese Emperor the Order of the Garter, Britain's highest order for chivalry. Arthur Tetherington, chairman of the Japanese labour camps survivors association, demanded to know, "When, where and on what occasion was Emperor Akihito chivalrous?" A great deal of heat was generated by generated rumours that Prince Philip, who fought in East during the SecondWorld War, had been angry at the decision and was not going to be present at the ceremony.
British Prime Ministers Tony Blair, who pleaded with the veterans to give the Emperor a "warm welcome" has been accused of putting the Yen before the veterans. Blair, writing in the Sun newspaper said that while he understood how the veterans felt, Japan and Britain had to look forward, rather than back. He spoke of Japanese investment in Britain and job creation which went with it, and of "the passion for all things British" in Japan. Among the gathered veterans the view was that "in order to keep his inward investment he will say almost anything."
Mirror newspaper said, "Today we are all being asked to put money before pride ...Tony Blair... would prefer that we think of all those Japanese Yen that we earn today." Tonight, Emperor Akihito is expected to express his "feelings of profound sadness at the suffering cause by the war..," it is unlikely that this will satisfy the veterans.
Ultimateinsult: Japan
Continuing protests against Japanese emperor Akihito by former British Prisoners Of War (POW) threatens to overshadow his first ever visit here in 25 years and could damage Britain's lucrative relationship with Japan.The Japanese have taken strong exception to the British war veterans handing out what the media here described as "the ultimate insult" to the emperor, when they turned their backs as the royal carriage rode down the mall.
The former POWs, dressed in uniform with full war regalia, "booed and whistled the war tune Col Bogey from the famous film Bridge Over The River Kwai." They also burnt the Japanese flag.
As the protesters' boos and whistles echoed across the mall, just outside the Buckingham Palace, some members of the Japanese royal family looked surprised and shocked, as they rode past in open carriages.
The POWs went ahead with the protest despite the fact that the Japanese emperor, in a rare gesture, almost virtually atoned for Japaneseexcesses in the second world war.
Emperor Akihito, addressing a Buckingham Palace banquet hosted in his honour last night, said that he could never forget the suffering so many people had undergone because of the war. But he expressed gratitude to those, who despite past suffering, looked to the future.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
