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Aso acknowledges responsibility on appointing ASDF chief

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-13 23:18

TOKYO  -- Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso admitted the Japanese government had responsibility to appoint an inappropriate person to be the chief of the Air Self-Defense Forces (ASDF), referring to the dismissed Gen. Toshio Tamogami who released a controversial essay on Japan's role in World War II.

Aso said before a Diet committee it is "extremely inappropriate " for an air force chief to make public a view contradictory to government stance and vowed Thursday to "reeducate" Self-Defense Forces personnel.

While Tamogami had issued similar articles in the past in an ASDF magazine, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada admitted his ministry bureaucrats had overlooked them and Vice Minister Kohei Masuda indicated it would be a problem for a top SDF officer to express such opinions even in in-house publications.

Tamogami, 60, claimed in his essay that Japan was not a wartime aggressor to other Asian countries.

The essay was made public after it won the top prize in a writing competition.

"I will take all possible measures to prevent a recurrence and to reeducate (SDF personnel)," Aso said, adding the government will review ways to supervise SDF members and educate them, as well as ways to check the contents of their opinions expressed externally.

In regard to Tamagami's argument of freedom of expression, Aso said "there is freedom of expression in Japan," but emphasized that "it's natural that remarks would be restricted depending on the respective positions."

Tamagami was dismissed on October 31. He had acknowledged he introduced the essay-writing competition to his ASDF personnel and about 90 of them joined the contest. Japan's opposition parties had required the government to assume responsibility of inappropriate appointment and lack of supervision.