Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may hope to lay the ghosts to rest with a statement on Friday marking the 70th anniversary of the war’s end, but risks inflaming tension instead.
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“That position is that they should move forward for a better future through genuine reconciliation and in the spirit of cooperation based on humble reflection of past history”, he said.
Carrying on the landmark Murayama Statement is the first step to be taken for Abe if he really wants to take history in a positive direction on an occasion when peace-loving people in Asia and beyond mark the 70th anniversary of the end of war.
The dust is not settled because Abe has already let his country’s wartime-victim nations down in a speech delivered at the Asian-African Summit in Indonesia in April, which stopped short of an apology following expressions of deep remorse.
Abe has said he will not necessarily stand by the Murayama statement, although he later promised to keep it when China and South Korea protested.
Indeed, political motivations are behind claims that Mr Abe does not agree with past official apologies, despite his repeated assurances that he does, as well as suggestions that he is seeking to revise history, even though he has never denied Japan’s colonial aggression. None belonged to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party when serving as prime minister.
“Article 9 of the Constitution represents a promise with the worldwide community that Japan would never repeat its wrongdoing”, Hata said in his dictated comments.
Abe has pushed through passage of his revisionist bill at the House of Representatives and is awaiting passage by the Upper House.
Meanwhile, Murayama said, “It is unacceptable that (Abe) disregards the feelings of Japanese nationals and proceeds with his plan by force (of numbers)”.
But, as Japan’s leaders have experienced firsthand since World War II, expressing regret to other countries is not so simple.
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 colonialisation run deep.
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Despite their close economic ties, Japan’s relations with South Korea have been strained over Tokyo’s unrepentant attitude over its wartime past. As for sexual slavery during the war, then-chief cabinet secretary and later Prime Minister Yohei Kono stated in 1993 that the Japanese military was involved in mobilizing so-called comfort women which “severely injured the honor and dignity of many women…who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds”.
