Japan’s emperor hears from tearful victims of second-world-war policies that separated Japanese soldiers from their Vietnamese children, and Australia pays to make Papua New Guinea detainees go away
Japan’s royal couple listened to the tearful stories of Vietnamese children who were abandoned by their Japanese soldier fathers after the second world war, a symbolic meeting in Hanoi aimed at healing wounds between the former war foes. Emperor Akihito and his wife, Michiko, shook the hands of and comforted more than a dozen children of the some 700 Japanese military men who decided to stay in Vietnam for a decade after their country’s defeat. Many married Vietnamese women and began raising families. They were ordered to leave the country in 1954 and “encouraged” by the Vietnamese government to leave their families behind.
What next? Vietnam and Japan have built up a warm relationship since diplomatic relations were established in 1973, pushed together by business ties and a mutual suspicion of China. Japan is now a top aid donor and a leading investor in the communist country.
Dozens of asylum seekers held in a detention centre in Papua New Guinea have elected to accept cash from Australia to return to their home countries, officials and refugees said, the largest exodus from the South Pacific camp in four years. Australia has ratcheted up efforts to clear the Manus Island detention centre of people who have twice had their refugee claims rejected, amid fears a deal for the US to take refugees has fallen through. Last month, asylum seekers were reportedly being pressured to take up to US$25,000 to return home or face deportation.
What next? Voluntary returns of failed refugees will ease criticism of Australia and its policy of indefinite detention for anyone who attempts to make it to Australia by boat. But finding a solution for the refugees on Manus Island, the bulk of the more than 800 men held in Papua New Guinea, will prove more difficult.
Singapore’s strict approach to maintaining religious harmony came to the fore this week after the law and home minister K. Shanmugam issued a stern warning about religious preaching that sought to pit faiths against each other. In comments in parliament on Friday, Shanmugam said authorities were investigating after a video emerged online showing a Muslim preacher purportedly saying “God grant us victory over Jews and Christians”.
