Kirk here with some local news (a lecture addressed to kids at Mifune High School by Kyoko Nishikawa) that has national and international implications:
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14499575
Out of curiosity, I took at look a the following Japanese article to see how her comments were summarized in Japanese:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/0651380f3c1d543ecc90d8df8d6a15ec3d6efdc3
According the Japanese text, she seems to have been telling the students that Japan was pursuing a just war because the goal of the Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was to help the people of Asia prosper economical and to achieve independence from colonial powers. Of course, it is correct to observe that that is how the Japanese government sold the war effort to the public at the time. But, if anyone believes that that was in fact the primary objective of the government as a whole, well, if you believe that I know of some swampland in Florida you may wish to purchase.
The statement was remarkable in part because she was once a senior vice education minister and her speech, given in a prefectural school (not a private school), is at odds with the Ministry of Education’s official position.
By the way, one more connection with Kumamoto is that her husband was the mayor of Tsunagi-machi:
https://www.town.tsunagi.lg.jp/common/UploadFileOutput.ashx?c_id=3&id=1093&sub_id=1&flid=2792
