The interesting thing about that interview is that Yomiuri failed to ask (or at least failed to print) any questions about his (and Abe's) ambitions to revise the history textbooks in line with their revisionist views on the war and its antecedents.

In 2012, Shimomura said that Abe "should declare that the Nanking Massacre did not take place and the issue of comfort women does not exist. He should fully negate the Tokyo Trials historical viewpoint, and should also visit Yasukuni Shrine." The interview was with Toshio Motoya, a real estate magnate and Abe associate whose magazine in 2008 awarded first prize to a notorious essay by Toshio Tamogami, who was appointed Air Force Chief of Staff during Abe's first term. Tamogami claimed that, "Japan was ensnared in a trap that was very carefully laid by the United States in order to draw Japan into a war." Though Tamogami was forced to resign, Mindy Kotler of the Washington-based Asia Policy Point, has discovered on Tamogami's website that Abe appeared publicly at least six times at events sponsored by Tamogami's Nippon Gambare organization.
Notably, Abe's head of the LDP Policy Affairs Research Council Sanae Takaichi was not forced to resign even though she expressed in milder terms similar ideas: "It was understood at that time [before and during the war] that our nation had to fight resolutely in self-defense for its own survival."

By the way, Nippon Gambare sents some boats to the Senkakus in April and said it would not try to land at that time in order not to cause problems for Abe in the UH elections. Let's see if they come back with the election over and whether Chinese boats also come and Chinese protesters try to land.

It should be noted that Abe himself signed a November 4, 2012 advertisement in the New Jersey Star-Ledger--just one month before the December Lower House elections--denying the Japanese government and military's role in forcing women into prostitution during World War II. So, did LDP Policy Chief Takaichi. Rather than justify the sex slavery, as Toru Hashimoto did, Abe simply denies it.

The Japanese press went after Toru Hashimoto, but has with a few exeptions like Asahi, steadfastly refrained from detailed reporting on either the statements of Abe and his aides, or on their consequences for Japan's foreign relations, not to mention the education of Japan's youth. The Yomiuri interview with Shimomura fits in with this pattern.

Richard Katz
The Oriental Economist Report