Abe’s ‘repentance’ for WWII conduct
Print Edition
PRIME Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday expressed “deep repentance” over Japan’s role in World War II, even as he declared Tokyo’s emergence as a global security player in the face of China’s rising power in Asia.
Using the high-profile platform of a landmark speech to the US Congress, Abe insisted Japan must not avert its eyes from the suffering of Asian peoples from its wartime behavior but he stopped short of issuing his own apology, instead upholding statements by his predecessors.
With Abe’s comments on Japan’s war record unlikely to satisfy critics who had demanded he go further, the conservative premier chose to focus more on the future of the US-Japan military alliance and press skeptical lawmakers to back a long-delayed Pacific free-trade pact.
“We now hold high a new banner that is a “proactive contribution to peace based on the principle of international cooperation,’” Abe said a day after he and President Barack Obama cemented new guidelines for Japan’s military to support US forces beyond its waters. He has proposed changes to Japan’s pacifist post-war constitution to make this possible.
Abe, the first Japanese prime minister to address a joint meeting of Congress, used his speech to send a stern message to China, which is locked in maritime disputes with Japan and several other Asian neighbors, saying countries must not “use force or coercion to drive their claims.”
Abe’s speech to Congress was a moment deeply symbolic of the reconciliation between former World II enemies who are now the closest of allies.
Abe can expect intense scrutiny of his speech for how he handles history.
The issue remains sensitive for Asian neighbors, especially China and South Korea, nearly 70 years after Japan’s defeat.
Some American critics, including politicians and war veterans, had urged Abe to use the speech to make a strong public expression of contrition about World War II to erase concerns he is trying to dilute past official statements of remorse by Japanese leaders.
Abe offered a new twist to previous remarks when he spoke of his visit to Washington’s World War II memorial, saying: “With deep repentance in my heart, I stood there in silent prayers for some time.”
But he stuck mostly to his past rhetoric, expressing “deep remorse” for Japan’s wartime conduct and saying he upheld previous Japanese apologies.
He made no mention of the hundreds of thousands of women forced into prostitution at Japanese military brothels. But he made an oblique reference to the issue, saying “armed conflicts have always made women suffer the most.”
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