Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday he would express “remorse” over World War II this month, as a government panel condemned the country’s past aggression against its Asian neighbours.
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A 60 percent plunge in the yen in the past three years is prompting automakers and other manufacturers to heed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s call to build at home and help revive Japan’s sluggish economy, lifting demand for steel that is used in cars and for construction.
“President Park is pushing ahead with the emotion-based diplomacy toward Japan from the outset of her administration, and making it clear that she does not intend to seek any progress in bilateral relations unless Japan compromises on the recognition of history”, the report said.
Mr Abe has said he will uphold past statements about the war, including then-premier Tomiichi Murayama’s 1995 landmark “heartfelt apology” for Japan’s aggression and colonialism. They share the perception that Japan has not done enough to atone for its atrocities before and during the war.
“The Japanese government must admit to having provoked wars starting with the Sino-Japanese War (in the 1890s) and apologize for the mass killing and suffering of Asian people”, it said. It could complement Abe’s possible shortcomings on history in the statement, expected on the eve of the anniversary of Japan’s surrender 70 years ago.
Abe has said he was not necessarily standing by the Murayama statement, although he later promised to keep it when China and South Korea protested. The report, referring to reconciliation with Europe and the U.S., says it is a big prerequisite for the aggressor to atone in a honest manner, but it is also important for the victim to be tolerant to accept an apology.
An initial draft did not include the word “apology”, some media reports had said, which would likely anger China and South Korea where bitter memories of Japan’s sometimes brutal past occupation and colonisation run deep.
On Sino-Japanese relations, the report says the two countries have failed to achieve reconciliation but pointed to past achievements including then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s speech in 2007 hailing the Murayama and Koizumi statements as a juncture in Japan-China dialogue.
Abe is looking to release his statement on August.
Ordinary Japanese say sumimasen countless times each day, to apologise to friends or strangers for even the most trivial accident or mistake.
The source states that the current draft of the statement to go out at the end of this week will include terms like 痛切な反省 (tsūsetsu na hansei, “feelings of deep remorse”) and 植民地支配 (shokuminchi shihai, “colonial rule”), as well as お詫び (owabi, “apology”) and 侵略 (shinryaku, often meaning “invasion” and in previous statements translated as “aggression”).
In 1998, South Korean president Kim Dae-jung responded positively to a statement by former Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi.
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“There was a detailed explanation regarding the problem of communications records collected by the US National Security Agency”.
