This section reveals how UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye publicly criticized Japan without awaiting official responses and coordinated closely with Alexis Dudden, a well-known anti-Japan activist. It highlights concerns within U.S. academia about the political misuse of UN authority and the lack of fairness in such actions.

2017-06-27
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Instead of waiting for Japan’s response to his claims and then reporting to the United Nations in due course, he overturned the normal and reasonable order of events and, immediately upon returning to the United States, began publicly presenting his unilateral accusations against the Japanese government.
Moreover, the individuals with whom he formed a united front were notorious activists known for attacking Japan.
On May 12, David Kaye delivered a speech at a public forum titled “Threats to Freedom of Expression in Japan” at his alma mater, the University of California, Irvine.
Standing on the stage with him was Alexis Dudden of the University of Connecticut, who has for many years been one of the most persistent and aggressive critics of Japan in the United States over the comfort women issue.
The forum itself was jointly organized by Kaye and Dudden.
Dudden is well known as one of the leading figures in anti-Abe activism in the United States.
She is a radical scholar who has seized upon virtually every possible issue to attack Japan.
In 2000, Dudden played a leading role in the so-called “Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal” mock trial held in Tokyo, which pursued the comfort women issue and went so far as to pronounce Emperor Showa guilty.
She has also criticized Japan’s sovereignty claims over the Northern Territories, Takeshima, and the Senkaku Islands as the result of “expansionist ambitions,” and has repeatedly hurled insults at Abe Shinzo, calling him a “villain,” “militarist,” and a “naked emperor.”
At the same time, she has maintained close relations with South Korea and has even advised the South Korean government on its policy toward the United States.
In 2015, Dudden also served as the organizer of a letter signed by numerous Japan studies scholars in Europe and North America, criticizing the Japanese people, government, and Prime Minister Abe for their stance on the comfort women issue—essentially acting as a standard-bearer for anti-Japan political activism.
It became clear at this public forum that Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur, had long maintained a close relationship with Dudden and that the two had worked as a team in the investigation of Japan’s media environment.
There have been voices within American academia criticizing Kaye’s actions as inappropriate.
Jason Morgan, a scholar of Japanese history who earned his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, stated the following:
“Dudden is one of the most extreme anti-Japan figures in American academia and is also known as a political activist promoting South Korean interests. The ‘debate’ in which Kaye, bearing the title of UN Special Rapporteur, openly displayed his close cooperation with Dudden demonstrates how anti-Abe forces within American academia are even using the United Nations for political purposes. It is impossible for Kaye, who clearly does not know Japan or the Japanese language, to grasp the full picture of Japan’s media and politics during a stay of only one week. Such condemnations of Japan are unfair and arrogant.”
To be continued.