Shinzo Abe, Japan’s new Rightist prime minister

This 2006 video from Japan says about itself:

Survivors angry that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima are being forgotten

Residents feel that many Japanese are beginning to forget the tragedy that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Many citizens remain angry at former Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma, who said on June 30th this year, that the dropping of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki “Could not be helped” and resulted in ending the war quickly.

The remark sparked fierce anger from residents in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which lead to the defence minister’s resignation. The bombs are said to have killed more than 140,000 people by the end of year one in Hiroshima alone.

Another video from July 03, 2007, used to say about itself:

Japan’s struggling Liberal Democrat government has suffered a new blow with the resignation of the defence minister after comments he made about the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was already reeling after a scandal over mishandled pension records.

By John Chan:

Shinzo Abe: Japan’s new prime minister

26 September 2006

Shinzo Abe is due to be installed today as Japan’s new prime minister, succeeding Junichiro Koizumi, after being elected as the president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on September 20.

He will continue Koizumi’s right-wing agenda of reviving militarism to assert Japanese strategic and economic interests abroad, while continuing a relentless assault on the social position of working people at home.

Abe, just 52, was Koizumi’s favoured heir and chief cabinet secretary.

Unlike Koizumi, who traded on his unconventional, populist image, Abe is a scion of the traditional Japanese political establishment.

As expected, he won the LDP presidency easily with 464 out of 703 votes, but he was not unopposed.

He had two rivals—Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki with 102 votes and Foreign Minister Taro Aso with 136 votes.

“I declare that I will, as the first party president to be born after [World War II], take over the flame of reform,” Abe declared, “I vow to devote myself in working with you all toward creating a new and beautiful nation.”

Abe’s “flame of reform” is full-scale economic deregulation to boost the competitiveness of Japanese capitalism.

His gospel of a “beautiful nation” is the promotion of ugly Japanese patriotism to divert mounting social tensions into reactionary channels.

Abe’s emphasis on his postwar birth was to send a message that his government will no longer be hampered by the legacy of Japan’s militarist past.

He has explicitly ruled out any apology for Japan’s wartime atrocities in Asia.

In fact, Abe has pledged to carry out an “education reform” to promote Japanese patriotism based on “traditional values”—code words for the glorification of the wartime imperial regime, its symbols and record.

He has also promised a major revision in the postwar “pacifist” constitution, which is a legal barrier of Japan’s rearmament and the deployment of Japanese troops overseas.