Survivors Of The Infamous 1942 Bataan Death March Protest Bungei Shunju Magazine Article Denigrating The Deaths And Suffering Of The Victims

January 11, 2006

SURVIVORS OF THE INFAMOUS 1942 BATAAN DEATH MARCH PROTEST BUNGEI SHUNJU MAGAZINE ARTICLE DENIGRATING THE DEATHS AND SUFFERING OF THE VICTIMS

The Simon Wiesenthal Center joined with two American survivors of the infamous World War II Bataan Death March to protest the publication of an article in a leading Japanese magazine denigrating the deaths and suffering that they and their comrades endured at the hands of their Japanese captors.   The news conference will took place at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance.  At the news conference, Death March survivors, Dr. Lester Tenney and Robert A. Brown, released the text of their protest to the Bungei Shunju magazine.   

Click here to read letter of protest.

Backgound: the December 2005 issue of Bungei Shunju featured the article,  “A Woman Retraced the Entire Route of the Bataan Death March Alone” in which reporter Yukie Sasa  walked the same 63.38 mile (102 k) route forced on some 80,000 American and Filipino POWs. Having completed the route in four days without incident, Ms. Sasa concluded that conditions on the Death March were not as severe as reported by the survivors. In her words, their testimonies were “…gathered based upon the assumption that an atrocity of the Death March did take place.” 

“If the author of this article had any interest in historic truth, she or her publication would have >contacted Dr. Tenney or Mr. Brown,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.  “We are deeply concerned that such an article was published. But it is obvious that the intent of the publication was not to recall history, but to rewrite it.”

In addition to Dr. Tenney and Mr. Brown, participants included: Japanese writer and founder of the U.S.-Japan Dialogue on POWs, Kinue Tokudome and Rabbi Cooper, who over the past two decades has frequently interacted with political, media and educational leaders in Japan about the legacy of WWII.  In 1995, Cooper led international protests against Bungei Shunju’s Marco Polo magazine whose cover story denied that any Jews were gassed at the infamous Auschwitz Birkenau death camp.  That protest led Bungei Shunju to close the magazine and reassign all 130 of its staff members.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.