일본의 전후책임인식과 이행에 대한 국제법적 평가

Despite the passage of 63 years after the ending of the Second World War, the issue of the Japanese wartime responsibility is far from being settled. This writing depicts the historical process through which major decision makers in the Japanese society have become so unsympathetic to the claims of the victims of war, and human rights violations, in view of the normative framework of international law. The most crucial issue in the denial of the responsibility is the victim mentality, commonly shared by not only the Japanese public, but its Government, Diet, and the Judiciary, that originated from such false conceptions and distorted understandings regarding the actual realities of the Asia Pacific War. The portrayal of the Tokyo Military Tribunal as the victor's justice, coupled with the tragic memories of the Atomic Bombing, have as a whole served the Japanese public to view themselves not as the perpetrators of the atrocities imposed upon its neighboring Asian people, but as innocent and unsuspecting victims of war, and violence. The fallacies in the post-war reparation policies, and relevant bilateral treaties are a mere natural extension of the Japan's misguided understanding of the War as applied to its external relations with the Asian neighboring states. In conclusion, it is stressed that, in order to bring about any meaningful changes in the attitude of the policy makers in the Japanese Administration, the Diet, and the Judiciary, the claims for the rectification of the normative awareness to be in conformity with the current international legal principle and human rights norms, should be put forward both rigorously, and consistently.