Korea Under Japanese Rule - Japanese Postcolonial Responses

Japanese Postcolonial Responses

Many argue that sensitive information about Japan's occupation of Korea is difficult to obtain, and that this is due to the fact that the Government of Japan has covered up many incidents that would otherwise lead to severe international criticism. Koreans have often expressed their abhorrence of human experimentation carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army where people often became human test subjects in such experiments as liquid nitrogen tests or biological weapons development programs (See articles: Unit 731 and Shiro Ishii). Though some vivid and disturbing testimonies have survived, they are largely denied by the Japanese Government even to this day.

The Japanese Government was recently accused of the burial of non-Japanese test-subject bodies from World War II several dozen feet below buildings in Japanese urban areas (such as the bodies found under the Toyama No. 5 apartment blocks) in order to cover up wartime experiments. The government denied any responsibility. The existence of unmarked mass graves on the "west side of Tokyo is deeply troubling". The testimony of Toyo Ishii, a nurse involved in the coverup, was downplayed or ignored. After more than 60 years of silence, the 84-year-old nurse's story is the latest twist in the legacy of Japan's rampage. "These coverups and falsification of data have made accurate assessment of Japan's impact on Korea very difficult."