Abe expresses ‘grief’ for war, but says Japan can’t apologize forever
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan just can’t get it right. When you apologize, you apologize. Weasel words are not allowed. But that’s not what’s in the statement Abe is going to read on the 70th Anniversary of the end of WW II.
After months of calculation and consultation, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday unveiled the much-anticipated text of his remarks on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, expressing “profound grief and my eternal, sincere condolences” for all those who perished in the conflict and vowing that his country would use diplomatic and peaceful means — not force — to solve international conflicts.
Abe affirmed apologies by previous administrations, noting that his predecessors had “repeatedly expressed … feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology” and that such positions “will remain unshakable into the future.” And in a seeming nod to the comfort women issue, he acknowledged that Japan had hurt the dignity of women during wartime.
Both China and South Korea, are deeply interested in what Abe is going to say. Relations between the 3 countries have always been fraught due to the actions of Imperial Japan during WWII. Abe hasn’t done much to calm those feelings. He paid an official visit to the always controversial Yasukuni Shrine, something even the US didn’t much appreciate. There’s also been ferocious controversies over how Japan’s actions in WW II have been portrayed and taught in Japanese history textbooks. Wholesale whitewashing and revisions have taken place, much to the consternation not only of Japan’s neighbors, but the people of the island of Okinawa.
2007 passage change on forced World War II suicides
Japan orders history books to change passages on forced suicides during World War II.
In June 2007, the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly officially asked the Ministry of Education of Japan to retract its instruction to downplay the military’s role in mass suicide in Okinawa in 1945. More than 100,000 people in Okinawa rallied against the textbook changes at the end of September. According to the Kyodo News agency, it was the biggest staged rally on the island since its 1972 return to Japanese rule. Okinawa governor Hirokazu Nakaima spoke to the crowds, commenting that the Japanese military’s involvement in the mass suicides should not be forgotten.
It doesn’t help that Abe has accused South Korea of “revisionism” when it comes to the subject of comfort women. Or that he had Japanese officials pressure publisher McGraw Hill to remove a passage in one of its history text books referring to the practice of comfort woman. (For the record, McGaw Hill refused to do any such thing)
True, there’s a complete double standard operating here. China maintains strict control over what its citizens know about their own history, particularly China’s own historical atrocities, while at the same time it feels free to criticize Japan based on events that took place 70 years ago. But it doesn’t help anyone, including the US, when Abe’s political allies and appointees go around denying the Rape of Nanking ever happened. So interest in what Abe had to say about the end of WW II was profound. And the general consensus is, that he muffed it.
Abe affirmed apologies by previous administrations, noting that his predecessors had “repeatedly expressed … feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology” and that such positions “will remain unshakable into the future.” And in a seeming nod to the comfort women issue, he acknowledged that Japan had hurt the dignity of women during wartime.
But…
At the same time, he signaled his belief that the Japanese should not be expected to express remorse indefinitely and implied that Western imperialism had played a role in drawing Japan into the conflict.
This did not go down well.
But in a commentary carried prominently by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, writer Tian Dongdong said that “the apology was a diluted one at best, thus marking only a crippled start to build trust among its neighbors.”
“Instead of offering an unambiguous apology, Abe’s statement is rife with rhetorical twists,” the commentary said. “By adding that it is unnecessary for Japan’s future generations to keep apologizing, Abe seemed to say that his once-for-all apology can close the page of history.”
Abe has a point. More than one Japanese prime minister, as well as many government ministers have issued apologies for the conduct of Imperial Japan during WW II. How many apologies are necessary to close the books once and for all? Here’s the thing, the crux of the matter. Germany has done just about everything possible to make up for the horrors of the Third Reich. Nothing is hidden, and there is no pretense whatsoever. Every German knows what was done in Germany’s name during WW II. Former concentration camps are maintained as monuments to that hideousness so there can be no whitewashing, no pretending. Meanwhile in Japan, an old locomotive stands next to the museum at Yasukuni, honouring Japan’s war dead. The plaque next to it explains that it was the first engine to traverse the length of the Burma Railway. No where are the estimated 100,000 slave laborers, Chinese, Burmese, Thai, and 12,000 Allied POWS, who died building that railway, so much as mentioned. Neither are the 32 Japanese overseers who were sentenced to death as war criminals for what they did to those forced to labour. And it’s precisely this kind of revisionism that leads both China and South Korea to question just how sincere Japan’s apologies are. This is the kind of equivocation that continues to poison relations between Japan, China and South Korea, and makes for tension between Japan and the US. As one noted expert put it:
Nancy Snow, an emeritus professor at Cal State Fullerton whose research focuses on Japanese politics, said that regardless of Abe’s words, many critics perceive a gap between his rhetoric and his actions.
“Words are fine, but what of the feeling behind them?” she said. “Watch what he does, not always what he says. … He’s calling for future generations to be free of apology burdens. Well then, time to update the textbooks, not cleanse them of any wrongdoing. The world can move on when Japan fully accounts for its actions in documents of record.”
Update: Emperor Akihito has weighed in.
Emperor Akihito marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two with an expression of 𠇍eep remorse” over the conflict on Saturday, a departure from his annual script which could be seen as a subtle rebuke of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe on Friday expressed “utmost grief”, but said future generations should not have to keep apologising for the mistakes of the past. He offered no fresh apology of his own.
“Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse over the last war, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated,” Akihito, 81, said at a memorial service on the anniversary of the day his father, Hirohito, announced Japan’s defeat.
This is extremely unusual. The Emperor almost never gets involved in real politics.Wonder what this will mean for Abe’s political future?