Im british welcome to news asia laughter had with us 75 years ago today japan officially signed its surrender in world war 2 even though it had announced an end to the fighting 2 weeks before it wasnt until the 2nd of september 1905 that the surrender was officially signed it came however at the cost of some 30000000 lives in asia from targeted mass killings such as in china fighting and occupation by Japanese Forces at its peak japan controlled territory from eastern china to most of Southeast Asia but with it came suffering in the local populations and death however there were also those who were forced to work for imperial Japanese Forces such as the protagonist of our next report. For 95 year old lee had gray memories fade slowly during world war 2 the south Korean National fought for the Japanese Army afterwards he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to 20 years in prison and his home near tokyo the horrors of the time continue to haunt him. I was going to go back to korea but i couldnt because there was so Much Negative sentiment there i just couldnt live there. I had no choice but to settle down in japan and live a difficult life here go. To iraq what wrote. Like hundreds of thousands of koreans lee had gray was conscripted by the occupying Japanese Army he was put to work building what became known as the Death Railway a strategically important line connecting thailand and then burma he was placed in command of hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war and according to trial documents earned the nickname the lizard because of his brutality tens of thousands died during construction of the 400 kilometer long line with its bridge over the river kwai most of the victims were asian but many british. And americans were also killed after the atomic bombings on hiroshima and nagasaki on the 6th the 9th of august 9045. 00 japan finally capitulated on the usa 1st because of a nationwide reaction to a victory right back thats conference president calderon gives a long awaited announcement i then thats your ply april acceptance of the pops than back aeration which specifies the conditional surrender of japan and reading to the me i was proud box recorders better than yours while waiting were probably used goes to the west americans billions that ive been waiting to go completely while. On the 2nd of september 1945 the japanese government formalized it surrender on a u. S. Warship. To this day the past weighs heavily on japan i call kiting. Inflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse i earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated. Though japan surrender brought to an end perhaps the darkest chapter in its history for both perpetrators and victims the atrocities of the past live on. So what shadows do there cast on modern japan jeff kingston is director of Asian Studies at Temple University in tokyo and all top of the book japan which looks of the challenges the country is facing in its postwar period professor kingston pleasure to have you on the program sitting here in germany one cannot escape the spirit of adornment if i can call it that for germanys role in world war 2 im wondering if the same exists in japan for its part in the war. Well not really i mean its something of an unserious comparison i mean germanys an outlier among nations so germany has grasped that nettle of its history its the model tentative all nations suffer in comparison japan you know really they didnt. Exuma the unfortunate past and so emperor hirohito died in 89 and then the early ninetys there was a brief period where they began to exuma that history and the archives you lived their secrets the veterans found their diaries and they wrote about they talked about the taboo subjects such as the comfort women system of sexual slavery forced labor none jane you know at 731. 00 but this provoked a sharp backlash from conservatives and they have bent contesting this history seriously in broadleaf law culture wars sense of mid 1990 s. And the Prime Minister all day who just reside it was one of the leading revisionists who are committed to rewriting japans work time passed and we have bill a taping that error so this is the mainstream political dominant party you know favor this revisionist past of downplaying minimizing and mitigating so this is something that you would not encounter in germany. Yet this is happening in a country that does have it must be said a us written pacifist constitution is at least in the books against war and militarization it to have as a critic you pointed out sions obvious government which wanted to revise the constitution im just wondering how conservatives seem to be able to carry on with the negative of excluding what japans actions bar in world war 2. Well i think there is a sort of collective perpetrators. Right so the saying is most japanese are not voting for politicians because of their stand on history right they vote on pocketbook issues the liberal Democratic Party that has dominated japanese all tick since 1955 is you know generally as more competent on those issues so these politicians are not running on a you know lets deny the history lets you know propagate revisionist whitewashing of all of our textbooks lesser race comfort women all the textbooks as of now this is not what theyre running on but they are the ones who do gain power and they are pushing this white washing that japans unfortunate shared history with the rest of asia and how does that impact japans relations with its neighbors in prime amongst them china and south korea of course im talking about the occupation of Mainland China and the comfort from an issue with south korea how does this impact relations with these countries. Obviously the unresolved grievances of the shared history continued to reverberating 75 years after the end of world war 2 so in china clearly historical and territorial issues divide clearly that chinese would appreciate japan and coming clean a more forthright reckoning on their shared history and as south korea course there are very angry disputes about source labor and about the comfort woman and so the japanese and bassett or what are you setting off the United States couple years ago in a house to the press here his priority was to remove every single comfort woman statue in the United States it was sort of one of those wow moments like really of all the things going on by the relationship removing comfort women statues was his priority so this is a very sensitive issue or japans right wing and clearly you know right now south korea and japan are having a major dispute over forced labor and compensation and their relationship a spiral downwards over the past year and also want to talk about but for now from the wagner professor jeff kingston speaking to us from tokyo thank you so much and get. And on the other side of the world in the United States itself japanese and japanese americans face the wrath of the u. S. Government more than 100000 of them were rounded up and sent. On orders of president franklin d. Roosevelt the order was based on fears of japanese attack. But it was altered in destroying the lives of many thousands of american citizens and every evening when japan bombed pearl harbor and 941 and he taketh the time around knew immediately that he was going to have a tough time in the us as a japanese american he was torn between the 2 more in countries. That medical care for him has started between japan and the us one an example i was so surprised because i thought that means japanese People Like Us would be killed in the us of america on this. Time or became one of the estimated 120000 japanese americans who were forced into internment camps stripped of their properties and rights by the government asked them whether they would serve for the u. S. Military and swear unqualified allegiance to the United States many were forced to say yes but tamera and some others protested. Theres another to tell you got some from the both the aint there machine guns at us i mean these were american soldiers who had just returned from war and he took the japanese they were itching to shoot at us if you want to. Seen by the u. S. Government as a troublemaker temora felt alienated from his adopted home he became distrustful of u. S. News and couldnt even believe japan had lost the war it only became real what he returned to live there in 945. 00 despite the hostility between the 2 countries at that time tamera had always liked america but he says the issue of Racial Injustice needs to be better addressed or more that would be you. Know. Games i normally always go day. Same thing. Same thing with the radio not. The 99 year old has put recent news site instead he turns his thoughts to positive memories. And friendships for example that were made in times of turmoil. Once again and thats it for now be sure to check out other stories on the double dot com forward slash on facebook and twitter believe it today with images from japan in the immediate aftermath of the surrender 75 years ago all the pictures. Are back tomorrow some of them over. Im secure in the fire. Thats hard and in the end this is a me youre not a lot of the year and more we will send you back. Are you familiar with this. With the smugglers would lie and say. Whats your story ready. I mean when i was a women especially a victims of violence in rooms and take part and send us your story we are trying in all with understand this new culture. Saw another very little another year you want to become a citizen. In for migrants your platform for reliable information. Greetings from berlin and welcome to arts and culture well its a shimmer of hope perhaps as the worlds oldest Film Festival gets underway in venice the culture is Still Holding its own moving forward in defiance of the coburg 900. 00 pandemic and thats not the only reason its a watershed year thats and these stories coming up. Sound artist as upton by luck comes to terms with the sexism important to her native cameroon by colonial powers through poetry and song. And in meet the german my colleague Rachel Stewart gives us a quick tour of the fairy tale world of german castle. Oh and the venice Film Festival unveiled its official selection in late july the competition roster with over 40 percent of films directed by women was heralded as progress great progress in fact considering the event had come under fire in recent years for lack of gender parity with social distancing protocols firmly in place some 90 percent of this years festival will go ahead in person a breath of fresh air for cinema despite the masks. To says hell ford as its rarely been seen with only a handful of tourists due to pandemic the usual crowds have been staying away but people have showed up for the mosque track to citys Film Festival which opens today along with films comfort cautionary measures social distancing mandatory mask wearing and temperature taking. This podium a radical be we hope everything will go well we hope that this mosque can be fruitful. Even with. Its. E. C. M. Might see fewer hollywood stars in attendance but one Silver Lining is that the festival has done better in terms of gender parity with 8 out of 18 films in competition directed by women. Actress Cate Blanchett leads the jury. While to the swinton receives a Lifetime Achievement award the competition runs for 11 days before we find out who will take home the sears coveted golden lion. 8 out of 18 films by women directors and im joined by my colleague melissa horrid melissa has some pretty impressive gender parity there for venice so finally we might say is there did dare we hope that the golden lion might be taken home by a woman or yet could well be taken home by a woman couldnt this i mean if we think about the comparison with recent years this is a massive massive jump its a huge difference phil festival director Alberto Barbara said that the films were selected though exclusively on the basis of quality and didnt have anything to do with gender protocols interesting yeah we do have we do have a i think you are going to tell me about a couple of those yes one film that is directed by a woman and is getting a lot of boss and is also in competition is bodies i. E. Down where are you going i you dont its my well established bosnian filmmaker spawn itch the film is based on real events from the bosnian war in the summer of 1995 it follows aida who works at a camp as a translator for the United Nations and we do have a clip of that one from lets just take a quick look. Were going to work on the birth certificate let the. Record of everything that you carried. Out. What. Are your what you say and work for yourself and you can go to war with the people back in town. A very intense looking film there and its interesting that jury president Cate Blanchett also said that theyve included weve made Great Strides in terms of more Diverse Voices this year so what else can we look forward to well a film that is not in competition but one i think that is a very very exciting and interesting film is called apples its its 1st feature film its by crystal sneak who its going to premiere in the horizon section of the festival so yeah its not in the main selection but its very very timely apple says the story of a solitary man who falls victim to an unexplained pandemic that causes sudden amnesia he decides to take part in the experimental treatment to create new memories and take photos of these experiences so he has to have a one night stand and take photos of bat we spoke to the director and he said its an allegorical story that has a lot to do with technology and social media and how we are forced more and more to live that our lives have become less and less important in the documentation of our lives become more and more important so the photos become much more important than the Actual Experience its also about identity and how selective our memories are very timely stuff. At a very different festival thanks to this corona pandemic lets hope that it all goes as planned with no new infections and the venice Film Festival going on until september the 12th well keep following that story obviously and thanks very much Melissa Holroyd for coming in and speaking bringing us those insights. All this week were featuring artists whose work deals with colonialism particularly with germanys colonial past and spent her Early Childhood in in cameroon which was an african colony of the german empire from 8842916 well today as an author performer and a musician its the complex experience of living as a black woman between 2 worlds that take center stage. Sound art slam poetry. Is a tale of heartbreak and can. You. See. The same time. She says women in africa used to have more respect before european colonisers brought their sex is. Such an impact but also people mentality they were purposely raising also the culture of the people stumbling over imaginary of a black man in the 21st century. I couldnt swallow my pride i trust. In africa you know as a woman need to step back and not say so much but just be smiling and cooking and helping those whose structures i was not used so. There was 10 when she 1st left cameroon for germany one of camerons former colonizers. Mother moved with her and her brothers to pursue a ph d. At a german university. Here it was a dream lessers small African Child white culture is. Everywhere its the norm its the standard so when you know as a 10 year old that youre going to europe its like the show look at the place. But as the only black girl experience not just racism but. How to explain africanness to europeans she felt even her mothers generation had lost the answers. Moved back to cameroon singing in english french and german. And. There is. A lot this. Week. That kind of music she says couldnt keep up with the energy of cameroon. She went electronic and experimental style she still creates and now as a mother and berlin. This piece of sound art includes recordings of ghanas 1st independence leader kwame nkrumah. And conversations umbrella recorded in shared taxis and camera. Since moving back to germany says shes stopped taking responsibility for others ignorance now you know when you know even now here in germany i have conversations more with people like jim need to. And that. The legacy of colonialism is written into berlins african quarter and the 19th century was planned here that would exhibit african animals and humans to. Today by chance many africans live here comes here for cameroon and for. These days she says shes more at ease navigating her complex identity but. What i discovered with. That important its ok. Not knowing uncertainty while enjoying the journey. May be called the closer. For visitors from abroad europe is known as the land of fairy tales and many of those tales took place of course in a castle germany has its fair share of these and my colleague Rachel Stewart has visited a few. Welcomes in else because it used to be featured on the back of a 500 dont you my bill i mean as they say its a big hit on instagram not bad for a nearly 900 year old house and. There are an estimated 20000. 00 capacity germany although some of them little westaway whether remounting would say fairy tale perfection is still there youll spoil the choice. Theres even a group called costal road that stretches all the way from mannheim to by a foot and takes you past some 60 castles the glorious ross noise from shining but varia is one of the most visited castles in the whole of europe and its even said to be conspired with disney. Ok time for a quick language check on a fairy tale sightseeing tour through germany youre probably going to see 2 different words being used book and shots in general a book is fortified protected by a wall or a moat a schloss is closer to the english word palace and would have been built as a look juries residence but some medieval books have been converted and sometimes the words he used interchangeably even doubt just take both names like last book installing. It does seem to be quite an appetite for royal gossip here in germany i definitely know more about the British Royal family now than i did when i lived in the u. K. Perhaps thats because the germans no longer have rules of the writing at the end of the 1st world war all official royal titles and associated legal privileges were abolished however it was permitted that some titles could be merged into the family surnames and thats why were now able to talk to a real life count. With. Dr graf formal skin im told from school back and forth on to the center and stuff. Well visits and years of foreign owned apart from counts and tourists who else might you find in a castle. There are plenty of scooby legends surrounding germanys causes a popular apparition is the vice of a white lady whose appearance was often thought to signal the imminent death someone. Here at its castle its agnes who said to haunt the whole. The story goes that in the 15th century the counts rather rebellious doors are supposed to marry the squire who by all accounts was a bit of a jerk 2 she refused to kiss him at their engagement how do you think you took him out not so well he disappeared for a year and then finally returned to attack the cops agnes dante brothers arm and joined the battle but she was killed by her would be fiance. The legend goes that agnes is going to sometime see it in the car support more often with nines. Gives new meaning to the term damsel in distress well thats all for this time so until we meet again stay safe and ill buy. The house a view of the world. Where i come from but oh is that clear to cisco its just like with chinese food doesnt matter where i am the oldest reminds me of home after decades of living in germany chinese food is one of the things i miss the most but better taking a step back i see things i need to differentiate knowledge benefits of person as an articulation that exists to other parts of the law which havent been implemented in china thats because im not a child of people wondering if theyre going to say that but if people have the right to learn code that is this is a job a job that at the mall i see it and understood why i love my job because i tried to do it exactly it is an hour a day my name is uninsured and i work at d. F. W. 2 beethoven instead of just how soon do do do do do do do do do. Did is it was a dud a 16 month. Old. Salome romance of stolen beethoven. Of course the subconscious always one thing is clear. He took just mildly popular. I see a show or i see a song i like you should. Look how good the world sounds with the biggest composer of all time i cant even begin to imagine a world class horn player cyril willis on a musical journey of discovery. Without being told in september 16th on. This estate news live from valley in germany says a nerve agent was used to poison russias leading opposition figure lets say the valley is in a medically induced coma here. In siberia German Government says it has proof that he was poisoned but the military tops in. Time the chancellor has described as a timetable