‘Apology’ from Abe could help deflect criticism
Print Edition
JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will include the words “apology” and “aggression” in his statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, NHK public TV said yesterday, an apparent nod to critics who fear he will dilute past apologies.
The closely-watched remarks — expected on Friday — will be heavily scrutinized by China and South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan’s brutal past occupation and colonization run deep. NHK said an original draft of Abe’s statement included both words.
They appear in a landmark 1995 statement by then Premier Tomiichi Murayama, who expressed “deep remorse” and a “heartfelt apology” over Japan’s brutal actions.
The Murayama Statement said Japan “through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.”
Also yesterday, the right-leaning Sankei newspaper said Abe was likely to use the word “aggression,” though not necessarily linking it to Japan’s wartime activities.
“It is likely that he will touch on (aggression) as a universally unforgivable act,” the paper said.
Abe’s statement is expected a day before August 15, the date Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945.
The nationalist premier — who has been criticized for watering down Japan’s past and trying to expand the role of Japan’s military — said last week he would express “remorse” over the war. He added that he would follow previous explicit prime ministerial apologies over the country’s past “as a whole.”
But Abe has repeatedly talked of the need for what he calls a “forward-looking attitude” that concentrates on the “positive” role Japan has played — and continues to play — in Asia since its surrender in 1945.
That has set alarm bells ringing in China and Korea who say that any attempt to tone down explicit apologies made by previous Japanese leaders should be discouraged.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said yesterday that she wanted Abe’s statement to clearly uphold past cabinets’ views on wartime history “to show the Japanese government’s mature attitude in trying to make a fresh start in relationships with neighboring countries, including us.”
Doubts persist over how Abe will refer to Japan’s wartime military aggression, a term he has questioned in the past.
Last week, a government panel set up to advise on the wording of Abe’s war statement condemned Japan’s colonizing the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and invasion of parts of China from 1931.
China says more than 20 million of its citizens died as a result of Japan’s invasion.
“The responsibilities of the Japanese government and military leaders from the 1930s and beyond are very serious indeed,” said the panel that was composed mostly of academics and journalists.
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