Abe Says He Will Express Remorse in War Anniversary Statement

By Isabel Reynolds and Takashi Hirokawa

Photographer: Jiji Press/AFP via Getty Images

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, waves to well-wishers while visiting Ise... Read More

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to express remorse over World War II in a statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the conflict, in a move that could help smooth ties with China and South Korea.
“The Abe administration intends to gather expertise and write a new statement to show to the world, including our remorse over the last war, our path as a democratic nation of peace and how we will contribute even more in future to Asia and to the world,” Abe told reporters today at Ise Shrine in Mie Prefecture.
This year’s anniversary will be a crucial chance to rebuild relations with China and South Korea, which have been chilled by disputes over territory and views of wartime history that predate Abe’s December 2012 election victory. Abe’s policies, including increasing the defense budget, lifting a ban on arms exports and reinterpreting the pacifist constitution to allow Japan to defend oth
er countries, have also sparked unease.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a war commemoration event last month that “forgetting history means betrayal and denying the crime means committing it once again.” While he met with Abe in Beijing in November, South Korean President Park Geun Hye has refused to hold a bilateral summit until the Japanese leader “stops denying the past.”
The new statement will come after similar documents were issued on the 50th and 60th anniversaries of Japan’s Aug. 15 surrender. Until now, it had been unclear how Abe planned to refer to Japan’s role in the war, given that his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, served in the cabinet during the conflict and was later detained as a war criminal.

‘Country of Peace’

Abe reiterated that his cabinet upholds the views of past Japanese administrations on the war, including the Murayama Statement “and will continue to do so.” Since the war “Japan has built a free and democratic nation that protects human rights and respects the rule of law. We have taken the path of a country of peace,” he said.
In his 1995 declaration, then-prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, said Japan “through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries.” He also referred to “deep remorse” and “heartfelt apology.” Ten years later, Junichiro Koizumi used the same language of remorse in his own statement.