Japan PM finally apologizes for WWII 65 years late

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_war_shrine

TOKYO – Japan's new liberal prime minister shunned a visit to a shrine that has outraged Asian neighbors for honoring war criminals, breaking from past governments' tradition and instead apologizing Sunday for the suffering World War II caused.

Members of the now-opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled Japan nearly continuously since the end of the war, made a point by carrying out their own trip to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The Shinto shrine — a spectacular building with sweeping roofs and a museum in its grounds that glorifies kamikaze pilots — has set off controversy by honoring the 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including Class A war criminals such as Hideki Tojo, Japan's war-time prime minister who was executed in 1948.

Among those who visited Yasukuni was LDP leader Sadakazu Tanigaki and former Prime Minister Shintaro Abe. About 40 legislators went to the shrine, but none from Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet, according to Japanese media reports.

Kan leads the Democratic Party, which took power last after winning elections on promises of greater transparency and grass-roots democracy. It is the first time since the end of World War II that the entire Japanese Cabinet has avoided visiting Yasukuni on Aug. 15, the day Japan surrendered in the war.

"We caused great damage and suffering to many nations during the war, especially to the people of Asia," Kan told a crowd of about 6,000 at an annual memorial service for the war dead at Budokan hall in Tokyo.

"We feel a deep regret, and we offer our sincere feelings of condolence to those who suffered and their families," he said. "We renew our promise to never wage war, and we promise to do our utmost to achieve eternal world peace and to never repeat again the mistake of war."

Among those listening to Kan's words were Emperor Akihito, whose father Hirohito announced the surrender 65 years ago in a radio broadcast — the first time the Japanese public had heard the real voice of the emperor, who had been revered as a living god to justify imperial expansion.

Akihito, who has never visited Yasukuni, led a moment of silence at noon, bowing deeply before a stage filled with yellow and white chrysanthemums.

The families and friends of more than 3 million Japanese who died in war, including a gray-haired woman in a wheelchair clutching a black-and-white photo of a soldier, bowed their heads in silence for a minute.

Japanese media reports identified the woman as Chiyoka Takakura, 96, whose husband died in the Philippines.

"I feel once again a deep sadness for those many who lost their precious lives and for their families," Akihito said, attending the ceremony with his wife Michiko. "I pray for the continued prosperity of our nation and for world peace."

Tomoaki Iwai, a professor of politics at Nihon University, said Kan's shunning the Yasukuni visit underlined the Democrats' liberal-leaning pacifist policies.

"His decision is in line with what would be expected of the Democrats," he said.

Kan also paid respect at a far less controversial memorial for the war dead, laying a bouquet before a grave for Japanese soldiers.

Last week, he apologized to South Korea for its 1910-45 colonial rule. Imperialist Japan committed atrocities in Asia, including forcing Koreans to fight as front-line soldiers, work in slave-labor conditions and serve as prostitutes in military-run brothels.

In Seoul, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, speaking Sunday before a crowd packing a plaza near the former royal palace, said history should not be forgotten but urged Japan and his nation to work together for a new future.

"I have taken note of Japan's effort, which represents one step forward," Lee said of Kan's apology.

while in basic training, recruits were shown a film captured from the japanese after ww2. it was a film on procedures for torturing prisoners. there was not a sound during the showing, no one breathed. i would not have thought such things would be possible except for the fun of torture. death was usually the final outcome. i wish everyone could see this, especially those who think the usa was wrong in using fission bombs to end the war. i knew i would not let myself get captured, not a chance.

i still think about the very high pressure hoses, the torches, the spikes.....especially when i'm near asians. ah, propaganda......sure works

I agree with the South Korean PM, history should never be forgotten. And I think no country understands this more than the Japanese with their tradition-steeped culture. I also agree that nations should have the capacity to forgive - not to forget, but to forgive - especially when these events happened over half a century ago. Japan at the very least has renounced war. They may not have been given a choice in the matter (Their current constitution, which prohibits the country from declaring war on other countries or maintaining a standing army except for matters of self-defense, was practically written for them by the Allies after WWII), but the actions of Kan and Akihito as described in this article means that they have at least taken a bold step in embracing a policy of peace. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone followed this example.

Some people might still distrust the Japanese for the atrocities that they caused 65 years ago, but the WWII generation is dying out, and I believe that now is the time to forgive each other - not forget, but forgive - as nations and as people. And I say each other because America also did some regrettable things, such as the internment camps and the atom bomb. These may have been necessary to end the war, but they are still regrettable.

There's a lot we can learn from each other if we can forgive each other for past actions.

About time! I did not think I would ever hear an apology in my lifetime.

My guess is this new P.M. is not popular in certain quarters.

ruveyn

Yep, Japanese ultra-patriotic organizations and the yakuza (organized crime, in their role as Japan's secret political police) won't be happy.
Don't be surprised if you hear of an assassination attempt against the guy before the end of the year.

Those racist pricks need to seriously get over themselves. They had a crack at being the bad boys of asia they gambled and lost. They'l never emerge as a dominant great power again.

Don't be so sure. The Japanese are smart, work hard and above all, they are patient.

ruveyn

My dad was out that way. He told me how he would come across the bodies of captured soldiers who had been tied to trees with wet vines and then left. As the vines dried out they would shrink and the men would be slowly sliced up.

Past tense Ruveyn

Well at least they're finally acknowledging that they did something very horrible. As much as I dislike the fact that the US dropped an atomic bomb on civilians, I get annoyed when people act like the we were the only badguys in that situation. I mean you reap what you sow right?

Hey, smartass: Doesn't calling an entire race racist constitute racism itself? Didn't really think about that did you? Well, now personally you look like the biggest racist to me.

Here's the bottom line: WWII was a cluster-fuck that almost all participating nations owe an apology for - yes even the Allies. Hitler may have slaughtered the Jews and started the war, and the Japanese may have been responsible for horrendous torture as well as unprovoked attacks in both Asia and America, but on the other side of the scale you've got Russia who didn't give a damn for their own armies, and torched half of their farmland in front of the advancing Nazi columns, and America who interned American citizens because of their Asian heritage and was largely responsible for the introduction of nuclear weapons into warfare, which is half the reason why we have so many problems in the world today and why we're a hair trigger away from blowing up the whole goddamn planet.

There isn't a single nation from that war that doesn't have something they should apologize for. End of argument.

Well said! I completely agree with that.

Better late than never.

Plenty of Japanese also served WITH the American force with distinction. Internment is quite a sensible anti-subversive tactic, especially given the fanaticism of the enemy in question. Scorched Earth tactics to prevent complete annihilation are a devastating tactic, especially given that Hitlers main use for post-conquest Russia was as a vast farm (after the reduction of the Slavic races to medieval slave level.) The officer purges of the 30s had as much to do with flagrant disregard for soldiers lives (ie military incompetence) as any desire to get people killed, and its not as if the troops would have fared much better if they had refused to fight and given themselves over to the enemy. Also, if America hadn't been first with the bomb, someone else would have achieved it. The genie was out of the bottle, its just fortuitous that one of the more genocidal participants wasn't holding it at the time.

In a fight to the death against opponents hell-bent on genocide, a great deal is excusable or explainable.

No mention of the UK and Dominions in there I notice. Maybe expending a whole empire and exhausting almost every last reserve of man-power and resources fighting a war on all fronts unassisted for half the conflict to liberate other peoples nations cuts the UK a little slack?

I'm not saying that it wasn't necessary, a lot of times we were forced into it. However, every nation involved in WWII has at least taken some action to apologize for what happened during the war. The Germans have since erected monuments and museums dedicated to educate people on the Holocaust, lest God forbid history repeat itself. The Americans have apologized to the descendants of the Japanese-Americans interned against their will during the war. And now the Japanese have apologize for their atrocities. It may be 65 years late, but now it has been said and that's really the least they can do to show their regret.

Basically, my whole point with posting in this thread has been to try to explain to people that if we as nations held grudges against other nations for things that happened more than half a century ago, then there would be a lot more international strife and the world would be even more f****d than it is now. We need to get over it. The WWII generation is dying out, and while I don't think we should ever forget it, we should at least stop harboring hatred towards people whose ancestors were our enemies when they themselves are our allies. Laz, FYI I am talking to you. If you continually hold grudges against a people for actions that happened in the past, you are only perpetuating a cycle of hatred. Perhaps you should think about that before you refer to another nation's people as "racist pricks".

Just to clarify (because these nested quotes cause no end of problems) I, Macbeth, never called anyone "racist pricks". That was someone else.