Japan panel submits report ahead of Abe’s WWII statement

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry also raised pressure on Abe to unequivocally uphold former Tokyo governments’ apologies for Japan’s wartime wrongdoings including the 1993 Kono Statement and 1995 Murayama Statement, to help address history issues with Korea and other neighboring states.

Commonly referred to as “Kitaoka Commission”, after its deputy chairman Shinichi Kitaoka, the Commission’s considerations and recommendations are said to play a critical role as Abe finalizes his highly anticipated statement to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

But several panelists of the 14-member panel questioned the definition of ” aggression”. Abe has said the statement will express “remorse” for Japan’s actions, stress its pursuit of peace in the postwar era, and depict a nation looking to the future.

Last week, a government panel set up to advise on the wording of the statement condemned Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 and parts of China from 1931.

In crafting the statement, Abe has been advised by the Advisory Panel on the History of the 20th Century and on Japan’s Role and World Order in the 21st Century, a commission that met for the first time in February this year to discuss issues including the appropriate content for a seventieth-anniversary statement.

If he uses the word “apology” then China and South Korea “would have to welcome it”, Nakano said.

“The documents demonstrate intimate knowledge of internal Japanese deliberations” on trade issues, nuclear and energy policy and Japan’s diplomatic relations with the US and the EU, it said.

Previous reports suggested his remarks would ditch key phrases in a landmark statement made by then Japanese leader Tomiichi Murayama in 1995.

It also pointed out, “It must be said that the responsibilities of the Japanese government and military leaders… are very serious”.

“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 is juggling conflicting priorities in crafting the statement, expected to be approved by his cabinet one day before the August 15th anniversary. In a footnote, the report says there are some objections among panel members against determining Japan’s military moves after the Manchurian Incident as aggression.

But many of his domestic nationalist supporters want to end what they see as a humiliating cycle of apologies they say distract from Japan’s seven decades of post-war peace.

“It’s up to the prime minister to decide what kind of message he plans to issue, he said. It is inaccurate to say that Japan fought to liberate Asia”, it said, calling for “reconciliation” with China and Korea.

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Japan has come a long way toward reconciliation with its Asian victims as well as is former enemies ” the U.S., Australia and their European allies. He has said focusing on the language would trivialize the content.