News and notes from around the interweb:
- Kyoto hotel insists Israelis sign ‘war crimes declaration’ as condition of check-in.
JAPAN
An Israeli tourist in Japan was asked to sign a “war crimes declaration” at a Kyoto hotel as a condition for check-in after showing his Israeli passport. pic.twitter.com/niW8eYvQEt
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 26, 2025
Implicit in this approach is a belief that someone would commit war crimes but would not lie on a form.
In earlier times I heard of no such attestations that Americans hadn’t been involved in… the Manhattan Project?
And not for nothing, but Japan killed an estimated 200,000 – 300,000 civilians and solders after the fall of the capital of Nationalist China in 1937-1938 (Nanjing Massacre); Chinese civilians and POWs were subjected to vivisection without anesthesia, biological weapon testing, frostbite testing, and forced syphilis infections under Unit 731 biological warfare experiments; Japan forced prostitution of 50,000 to 200,000 women from Korea, China, the Philippines, and other occupied countries (“Comfort Women”); 60,000–80,000 POWs were forced to march over 60 miles in deadly heat without sufficient food or water after the surrender of U.S. and Filipino forces in the Philippines (Bataan Death March);
Japan deployed biological agents (plague, cholera, anthrax) and chemical weapons during the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign; and there are numerous documented cases of Japanese soldiers committing cannibalism against POWs and indigenous civilians in isolated Pacific islands like New Guinea during World War II.New Zealand has sought extensive information on the military past of Israelis.
- The plan for Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian to become once airline from their earnings call.
Our teams are working through the process to achieve a single operating certificate by the fourth quarter of this year. Work is underway to bring both passenger service systems together by early 2026… the goal of achieving a single operating certificate by the end of 2025, followed by the transition to a unified reservation system shortly thereafter.
Single operating certificate doesn’t exactly tell us when frequent flyer programs combine, and neither does a single passenger service system, but it gives us something to triangulate around. For instance, US Airways and American Airlines merged frequent flyer programs in March 2015, a couple of weeks before the two airlines moved to a single operating certificate on April 8, 2015. The US Airways brand continued flying until October 17, 2015.
- American AAdvantage systemwide upgrades for 3 or more people can now be requested online (online request no longer limited to 1 and 2 passenger reservations). Of course fewer passengers on a booking means a greater chance of clearing the upgrade – before the airport you need upgrade space available for all passengers on the booking at once.
- Uber Eats driver deported after taking wrong turn
A simple wrong turn led to a life-altering consequence for an Uber Eats driver after mistakenly driving onto a one-way toll road connecting the U.S. and Canada. …Ricardo Prada Vasquez was taken into custody and later deported to El Salvador after accidentally driving onto the one-way toll road crossing the border while delivering a food order.
…Reports indicated that Prada Vasquez had permission to enter the U.S. through the CBP One app and was awaiting an immigration appointment. However, officials stated that his status became invalid once he left the country.
- Obviously fake.
- Flying Food Group LAX catering employee files federal charges against UNITE HERE union for “harassment, intimidation, and even physical confrontation”
I’m not sure which is worse, a casual tourist being told to attest they are not a war criminal or some poor SOB having his life destroyed for taking a wrong turn. Probably the latter as it will provide great amusement for the sadists enforcing such a policy. Hotel reservations can be changed. Dealing with people who follow Kafka goes nowhere.
Both are bad.
What a bunch of morons and hypocrites….Japan is notorious for their war crimes IN WWII and concerning Israel….Israel HASNT COMMITTED ANY WAR CRIMES!!!! It’s the stark raving truth, biased and lying mainstream media notwithstanding
Just in case the question is asked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre
So glad Israelis are given hell wherever they go!
The point of the form isn’t that people who have committed war crimes won’t lie on the form. The point of the form is to force Israeli citizens to confront the war crimes being committed by their country and fellow citizens.
The concept that every citizen of a country is guilty of war crimes — aka “collective punishment” — is prohibited by the 1949 Geneva Convention. That said, how does anyone think the Japanese would react if, for example, a hotel in Seoul demanded every citizen of Japan sign a declaration admitted they were war criminals for the way that the Imperial Japanese Army treated “comfort women,” or for every AUS, NZ, UK, US, and other prisoners of war that died due to the ill-treatment at the hands of the IJA? [Note: soldiers died at the rate off 1.2% in German POW cams, but at 37% at the hands of the Japanese.
This isn’t limited to World War II, nor is it limited to Israelis or Japanese. @Gary mentioned the Manhattan Project, and one could bring up South Africa and the number of killed under apartheid, Uganda under Idi Amin and (sadly) countless other examples…is every Palestinian guilty of the war crimes committed by Hamas?
God this is bull$#|+, and the fact that I am in Japan as I write this makes me want to find out the name of the hotel and….
The fact that ICE can deport someone for a simple traffic violation is outrageous.
My wife is a Criminal Defense attorney. She had a client who had their visa revoked for a DUI arrest…even though the blood alcohol content turned out to be BELOW the 0.08% limit and no charges were filed. Nero is fiddling while Rome burns and most citizens are content to roast marshmallows…
Feels click-baity. Doesn’t everyone checking into a Japanese hotel show a passport? And then they get a form? Was there something that said *only* Israeli passport holders get the form? Otherwise it could just as easily say that Kyoto Hotel Refuses To Check In Bahamian Tourist Without ‘War Crimes Declaration.
It seems ridiculous either way.
Pet, meet kettle, the Japanese committed many of the worst war crimes during WW2. Disgusting hypocrisy.
@Jeff It’s not the pot calling the kettle black, but apples and oranges. After all, Japan was not attacked by China, the way Israel was invaded by Gaza on October 7 and it’s people subjected to the most barbaric mass rape, mass murder, and (still ongoing) kidnappings as Israel was before it defended itself. Rather, Japan invaded and occupied China unilaterally and without provocation before committing it’s barbarities – which are still celebrated in Japan at the Yasukuni Shrine to this very day. Similarly, the United States didn’t attack Japan before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor killing 2500 American young men and forcing the USA to war. Likewise, the UK didn’t attack Japan before Japan invaded Malaya, engaging in brutal mass murder and starving and torturing English and Australian POWs to death.
So this is not the pot calling the kettle black, but complete ignorance mixed liberally with racial hatred that Japan is so famous for. I imagine the owner is a supporter of the Communist Party of Japan, whose members committed the 1972 massacre at Lod Airport that killed 26 people – many of them Puerto Rican pilgrims returning from visiting Bethlehem, and who now walk free in Japan like it never happened.
A union harassing, intimidating, and physically confronting someone?
Golly! That’s never happened before.
That is ridiculous that hotel in Kyoto did that to the Israeli citizen. If you have a problem with the Israeli government that is one thing, but don’t take it out on the Israeli citizens.
Perhaps the war crimes declaration is due in part to Japanese shame over the things they did that you brought up. I’m far from certain but it may be similar to German guilt about The Holocaust and Japan wanting to avoid any appearance of complicity in war crimes.
I really don’t see where ANY American can pass judgement on any part of this story or history given the current fascist actions. I suggest that you first rid your own sh@t government, then pass judgement.
And how does that differ from the U.S. arrival card’s arbitrary questionnaire section? Same shi1.
Israel HAS done war crimes (even very recently) and so has the U.S. (plenty throughout decades) so stop crying. The Japanese hotels have their right to choose their customers just like businesses anywhere else.
I crossed that bridge in January 1982 but going in the opposite direction. Prada Vasquez should have been smart and not left it to chance when he realized he was headed out of the USA. Pull over and let the air out of a tire then call a tow truck. Have the tow truck take the vehicle but walk in the opposite direction of traffic if needed be to make sure that he stayed in the USA. Sometimes there are exits for emergency vehicles and other vehicles, such as tow trucks. Possibly call the police for directions if they are friendly. Do everything possible to stay in the USA. I am almost certain he was instructed to stay in the USA but he didn’t understand the severity. I wonder if he was admitted to Canada or was he directed to a return lane? From the maps I saw several duty free places. Maybe they had a supply entrance from ordinary roads. I’m sure some others will bend over backwards with excuses why the rules should be broken for him but he is the one that was working close to the border and made the mistake.
@jason
Wind villa guest house kyoto
windvilla.kyoto@gmail.com
The scholars and immigration law experts on here are peak internet.
@Ray — Hey, we’re working on, give us a chance!
@Christian — You’re absolutely correct. It’s called ‘truth’ and reconciliation. Not denial and move on quickly. I respect the Japanese for their collective honor here and in other regards.
@Foghorn Leghorn — I’ll remind you that unions are good for workers as they typically advocate for better wages, benefits, and working conditions, leading to increased job security and a stronger middle class. Unions also promote safer workplaces and reduce inequality by increasing the collective bargaining power of employees. Or, you can just attack them, regardless of facts. You do you, amirite!? Bah.
@Jason — I, too, enjoy me some ‘international treaties that establish legal standards for the humane treatment of individuals during armed conflicts, including prisoners of war, civilians, and wounded or sick combatants,’ such as the Geneva Convention, but I’m not sure checking into a hotel in Japan today would apply, you know, because it isn’t a war zone, but, I suppose, such invasive question of a particular nationality are uncool, regardless. Hey, speaking of ‘collective punishment in an actual war-zone…’ have any examples for us? Just curious. *wink*
Correction: illegal immigrant, one of millions that Biden released into America, was deported for being an illegal immigrant, not for taking a wrong turn. So sorry, don’t care, bye.
PS how is that travel related? So now illegal immigrant ride share drivers is travel news?
LOL what do you expect when you commit war crimes and genocide. And I say this as an American Jew.
@gary, we are living in a post-1945 Geneva convention world, The rules of engagement have changed, You sound like the same pro-genocide people saying, it is OK for Israel to raze Gaza and drop bombs on innocent civilians because the US and UK did worse in Dresden and Hiroshima. We now have International Humanitarian Law. You may think that Israel should be exempt from these laws but thankfully, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to agree.
Israel will suffer the same fate as Apartheid South Africa, increasingly shunned by the rest of the world and eventually isolated as a pariah state. And rightfully so!
Gary Leff forgot to attack the Germans for their war crimes and human experimentation during World War II.
Typical Garry having to reach 70 years back into japans past to excuse the genocide wrought by the Israelis.
You are taking to the propaganda well not so young padawan
Japan has no room to talk about war crimes. The US helped cover them up too.
Surprised by this in Japan of all places where it’s the culture to bend over backwards as a host for guests.
Also the Arab squatters on Jewish land also sometimes known wrongly as “Palestinians” are getting a lesson they finally deserve getting in what the meaning of FAFO.
@Ray
What current actions? We are happy we are finally deporting illegal invaders.
@747always
@Christopher J Raeh
@sam
There is no genocide, there are no war crimes. Israel is destroying a hostile force.
The property is the WIND VILLA HOTEL in Kyoto. Certainly not one I’d ever consider giving a yen of business to. It was covered widely in the Israeli press– https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-851607– and I have to say in a more meaningful way than what you did in your mixed-message jumbled post. While I know you have been supportive of Israel in past posts, you are conflating some VERY different things. The massive amount of horrific, systemic and government sanctioned war crimes Japan committed against civilians in Asia in WWII is well documented and inexcusable. You make multiple instances of trying to draw parallels to that and the defensive actions in the war of survival Israel has been fighting for over 18 months, a war started by an Iranian terror proxy unprovoked attack INSIDE THE BORDERS of the sovereign and UN recognized state of Israel, or more specifically the tragic and unintentional civilian casualties (which by all accounts are similar to those in all other major wars) of fighting a terrorist organization that terrorizes and brutalizes and kills its own people and intentionally embeds their terrorist weapons and infrastructure in order to use them as human shields. The war would have been over a long time ago if Israel didn’t care about war crimes or civilian loss of life.
So this is an interesting post but think about how inappropriate your comparisons are to the intentional, systemic barbarity and war crimes committed by the Japanese last century. (And BTW, the US was rounding up and interring over 100,000 innocent civilian Japanese Americans during WWII so there’s that.)
In any case. obviously civilian tourists have nothing to do with the war and I hope that even in ethnocentrist Japan there are laws against this kind of blatant and outrageous discrimination.
Do they require Palestinians or Iranians to sign a declaration they were not involved in the actual genocide of October 7th that took place in Israel or the tens of thousands of intentional attacks directly on Israeli civilian population since then?
@Ray and @1990 are a useful idiots
@Walter Berry – BS. You and your crowd have no respect for the law, the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. You just hate. Sure, people who are here illegally should be deported – after due process of law. It is tyrannical governments like yours that round people up on the street, give them no legal process, and send them to the Donald J. Trump Concentration Camp El Salvador.
I don’t know what Japanese public accommodations laws say. In the U.S., the hotel’s actions would be illegal.
@Walter Berry – BS. You and your crowd have no respect for the law, the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. You just hate. Sure, people who are here illegally should be deported – after due process of law. It is tyrannical governments like yours that round people up on the street, give them no legal process, and send them to the Donald J. Trump Concentration Camp El Salvador.
I don’t know what Japanese public accommodations laws say. In the U.S., the hotel’s actions would be illegal. I don’t think it’s necessary to blame the whole country for one hotel owner’s actions, nor to recall evil things the country did 80 or more years ago.
I love it that @1990 thinks they’re the thought police around here.
Witty, pithy comments? Not without @1990’s blessing.
Makes the Nuremberg Trials look like Judge Judy around here with @1990 being the thought Gestapo.
BAH!
@walter berry, for you, the mass slaughter of 50,000 Palestinians is fine as long as they are Arabs. Your explicit denial of atrocities committed by Israel and your disregard for laws and the Constitution say much about your racist attitude.
What about a War Crimes Declaration for anyone from Gaza, Iran, China, etc ?
@DaveS
Dealing with the illegal invaders in that way is both legal and justified. Crying about it like clowns like you continue to do won’t change what’s happening. Deal with it.
@Steven
Made up statistic from hamas mouthpiece. Either way people die in war a war Hamas and their Arab enablers started.
FAFO
No matter what happens. One thing is certain, Israel is increasingly isolated in the global community and will eventually suffer the same fate as Apartheid South Africa.
@Walter Barry you’re right, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Save the Children, the UN Rapporteur, Doctors without Borders, Yesh Din, Oxfam, Christian Aid, the World Food Programme,..etc ALL Hamas mouthpieces. Only Israel speaks the truth, everybody else is a liar. If lying to yourself makes you sleep at night, all the power to you.
@ reason
1990 is not an idiot.
Ray is outspoken. but I understand he wore the uniform. He can say what he want.
This story seems a little fishy. Expedia has nothing but glowing reviews for this property, and aside from this solitary Jerusalem Post story, based on a solitary X posting, there has been absolutely nothing in any other medium, foreign or Japanese, that I can find. It’s generally a good idea to wait to hear all sides of these story before rushing to judgement.
@aron gold
The ubiquitous self hating jew…
To all the rest, we will never have another holocaust, regardless of the collateral damage…any number is irrelevant
@doug Never Again just doesn’t apply to us Jews but to everybody. You don’t care how many die, so if millions of innocent die, that’s OK? It brings up the question: have we Jews become the oppressors?
“The point of the form isn’t that people who have committed war crimes won’t lie on the form. The point of the form is to force Israeli citizens to confront the war crimes being committed by their country and fellow citizens.” Because, yes, the Japanese have been fully transparent about the abysmal actions of their government 80+ years ago. Heck, they spend weeks on it in elementary schools. /s
“I really don’t see where ANY American can pass judgement on any part of this story or history given the current fascist actions. I suggest that you first rid your own sh@t government, then pass judgement.” Is it difficult to live in a world with no shades of gray? BTW, in a world without shades of gray, everything is black, because there is no white. But, OK, I once parked illegally, so I’ll no longer condemn mass murderers.
Could the Uber case be an attempt to skip the intermediate and costly steps? He’s here legally awaiting an appointment, but leaving violates that permission to stay, so he is expelled on what appears a technicality. I am initially sympathetic. But, was he legally allowed to work as a Uber driver? So, if you forgive the technicality (if you even could) would you not have to report him for working? Then, he’s deported for working, but after a longer, drawn out process.
I doubt that an IDF reservist would even realize they committed war crimes when they were ordered by their commanding officer to shoot anything that moves including young children…