By William Underwood
June 27, 2007
The Straits Times

FUKUOKA - JAPAN The Tremendous, the new book by Foreign Minister Taro Aso, highlights the peaceful nature of post-war Japan and calls the country a 'fount of moral lessons' for Asia. It might even help Mr Aso become Japan's next prime minister.

But a 1975 book, called The 100-Year History Of Aso, sends a different message about Mr Aso's view of World War II and his vision for Japan's future.

Mr Aso oversaw publication of the 1,500-page company history as president and CEO of Aso Cement Co. Marking the centennial of the family firm, the book suggests the United States tricked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbour and glorifies the Japanese war effort with little critical commentary.

The WWII chapter of The 100-Year History Of Aso features the January 1940 address to assembled employees by company president Takakichi Aso, whose son Taro would be born later that year. Aso Mining Co was the family's core business then, supplying 'black diamonds' from the Kyushu coalfields to fuel Japan's war machine.

'In our country labour and management are one, facing in the same direction - towards the emperor,' Mr Takakichi Aso solemnly told his workforce, stressing the sacred nature of coal mining and the urgent need to boost production. 'If it is possible that anyone here does not understand this spirit of service to the nation, as a Japanese subject he should be truly ashamed.'

The book notes in a section called 'Aso Fights' that 1940 was also the 2,600th anniversary of Japan's mythical founding. It says the United States, Britain, France and Holland had surrounded Japan and were tightening the noose:

'Whether we liked it or not and even as the world busily tried to avert war, the unfortunate year of Showa 16 (1941) was just like a pus-filled tumour that resists medical treatment and bursts open. Charging into an economic war to secure natural resources became unavoidable.'

Top US leaders had detailed knowledge of Japanese military plans before the attack on Pearl Harbour, according to Aso historians. Japan was purposely allowed to strike the first blow, so that 'Remember Pearl Harbour' could become a rallying cry for Americans.

'This cleverly united American opinion for war against Japan,' the book says. 'But America lost the backbone of its Pacific fleet as a result. Moreover, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, expanding the conflict into a world war.'

Aso Mining responded to this 'most desperate crisis in Japanese history' by digging coal in record quantities. The company became like a 'kamikaze special attack production unit'.

'Coal is the mother of greater military strength,' wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo is quoted as saying.

'In response to the enemy's material offensive, we will fight by means of increased coal production,' said Japan's then minister of commerce and industry Nobusuke Kishi. 'All miners must come together in spirit and the patriotic mining industry must dash forward.'

Tojo was executed as a Class A war criminal in 1948. Kishi was imprisoned for three years as a Class A war crimes suspect but never tried. He served as Japanese prime minister from 1957 to 1960, and was a main founder of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Kishi's grandson Shinzo Abe is Japan's Prime Minister today.

Mr Taro Aso aims to become the next prime minister and is the best-pedigreed politician in Japan. His grandfather is former prime minister Shigeru Yoshida, the most powerful Japanese leader of the early postwar era, while his wife is the daughter of another postwar prime minister. Mr Aso's sister is married to a first cousin of the current emperor. His great-great-grandfather was a chief architect of the modern Japanese state.

The 1975 book recalls wartime initiatives like the 'Certain Decisive Victory Increased Production Campaign'. Government slogans included 'Planes, ships and bullets: all thanks to coal' and 'One lump of coal equals one drop of blood'.

Weekends disappeared during the move to a seven-day work week, jokingly replaced by two Mondays and two Fridays. But coal production plunged as skilled miners became soldiers and shipped out for overseas battlefields. Severe manpower shortages led to widespread use of forced labour in wartime Japan - and in Aso Mining.

Some 700,000 Korean labour conscripts were brought to Japan beginning in 1939. The Japanese military transported more than 30,000 Allied prisoners of war to Japan beginning in 1942, while nearly 40,000 Chinese arrived under similarly forcible conditions starting in 1943.

Aso Mining employed 7,996 Korean conscripts, according to one wartime government report. Recent estimates by Fukuoka-based historians peg the total at 12,000. Sixty-two per cent of the firm's Korean labourers resisted conscription by fleeing their work sites.

There were also 300 Allied PoWs at the Aso Yoshikuma mine in Fukuoka Prefecture. The evidence for this includes the Aso Company Report of January 1946 and other archival records, as described by The Japan Times on May 29.

The family company, today known as Aso Group and headed by Mr Taro Aso's brother, has never publicly commented on its PoW legacy. A spokesman for the Foreign Minister addressed the issue for the first time last week.

The Aso corporate history contains a brief cryptic reference to wartime forced labour. As Japanese miners left for military service, the book says 'people like Korean labourers and Chinese prisoners of war filled the void' in Japan's mining industry.

The Seoul government's Truth Commission On Forced Mobilisation Under Japanese Imperialism has been vigorously researching wartime labour conscription since 2005. Assisted by Japanese citizens, commission members spent a week in Kyushu earlier this year, searching mostly in vain for information about Aso Mining's use of Korean conscripts.

Shortly after Mr Taro Aso became Foreign Minister in October 2005, a South Korean Truth Commission official charged that Japanese companies were not cooperating in efforts to locate the remains of Korean workers still in Japan.

'The corporations' remains survey has been insincere,' the South Korean official said. 'It is also strange that the family company of the Foreign Minister, who should be setting an example, has provided no information whatsoever.'

The WWII chapter of the Aso history book concludes by describing the company's late-war mining venture on the island of Celebes, now part of Indonesia. Two hundred Aso employees were dispatched for the project at the request of the Imperial Navy and the Coal Control Association. The firm's hefty financial investment in the Celebes mine was lost due to Japan's defeat.

Photographs depict Aso workers doing calisthenics before entering the Kyushu mines, a site visit by top sumo wrestlers, and various aspects of coal and cement production. Another photo shows two carrier-based warplanes that Aso employees presented to the Imperial Navy through their donated labour. Lyrics of patriotic mining songs are provided.

It is not surprising that an account of Aso Mining's wartime activities includes the imperial ideology and spiritual mobilisation so central to the period. It is also true that the Aso dynasty has made many positive contributions to the Fukuoka region since 1872, not only economically but also in fields such as education and health care.

Yet the book's silence about the company's own use of forced labour, and the suggestion that Japan fought a morally just war it did not desire, are more troubling.

Mr Taro Aso left the helm of the family business in 1979, after being elected to the House of Representatives and launching his political career. His recent string of provocative comments appears to be connected to the version of Japanese history found in the company book project.

The Foreign Minister has infuriated Koreans by defending Japan's colonial rule and insisting that Koreans had voluntarily requested Japanese names. He has also described Chinese military spending as a 'considerable threat' and called for Japan's Emperor to visit the Yasukuni Shrine.

The Aso company line on World War II closely resembles the revisionist narrative now being pushed by Yasukuni's history museum. It predates by three decades the current history textbooks that, according to Japan's neighbours, seek to whitewash Japanese war conduct.

Despite his reputation as an ardent nationalist and military hawk, Foreign Minister Aso serves as the point man for Japan's 'values-oriented diplomacy'. The policy stresses democratic values such as freedom and human rights, while seeking a more proactive role for Japan on the world stage.

Readers of The 100-Year History Of Aso may sense a mismatch between the man and the mission.

William Underwood, a university professor in Fukuoka, completed his doctoral dissertation at Kyushu University on forced labour in wartime Japan. He can be reached at kyushubill@yahoo.com

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