Photo/Illutration Kyoko Nishikawa, president of Kyushu International University, addresses the university’s faculty members at the campus in Kita-Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, in October 2016. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Kumamoto prefectural board of education has confirmed that a university president and former Diet member defended the Pacific War as a just cause in a lecture she gave to high school students.

Kyoko Nishikawa, a former Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who served as senior vice education minister, said to the effect that Japan waged the war to help all the nations of Asia prosper and gain independence. 

At a Dec. 9 session of the Kumamoto prefectural assembly, an assembly member asked about the remarks made by Nishikawa, who is president of Kyushu International University in Kita-Kyusyu, Fukuoka Prefecture.

Yoichi Koga, head of the secretariat for the prefectural board of education, acknowledged that Nishikawa made those comments, which he said were not entirely in line with the central government’s stance and school curriculum guidelines.

Kyushu International University declined a request for an interview by The Asahi Shimbun, saying the president was not available.

Nishikawa, 76, gave the lecture on Oct. 8 during an event marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Kumamoto prefectural Mifune High School, according to officials from the prefectural board of education and the school.

All 490 or so students listened to the roughly one-hour lecture at the school gymnasium or online.

Halfway through the lecture, Nishikawa referred to the Pacific War as the “Greater East Asia War” and insisted on the legitimacy of the war, according to the officials.

The lecture was organized by a committee comprising the school alumni association, parents’ association as well as teachers and staff. The school had no prior knowledge of the contents of the lecture, according to the officials.

The education board began interviewing teachers and staff at the school in November after learning about Nishikawa’s remarks concerning the war from a prefectural assembly member who belongs to the Japanese Communist Party.

The board concluded that Nishikawa failed to give sufficient explanation in light of the 1995 Murayama statement and the education ministry’s guidelines for junior high school curriculums.

The statement, issued by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, apologized for Japan’s “colonial rule” and “aggression” during World War II, while the guidelines state that Japan caused great harm to its Asian neighbors during the war.

Nishikawa was first elected to the Lower House from the Kyushu bloc under the proportional representation system in 2000. She lost her Diet seat in 2014 and became president of the university in 2016.

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