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| Shinzo Abe Echoes Japan’s Past World War II Apologies but Adds None | Shinzo Abe Echoes Japan’s Past World War II Apologies but Adds None |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| TOKYO — Using the carefully chosen words that govern reckonings with Japan’s militarist past, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated his country’s official remorse for the catastrophe of World War II on Friday, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the war’s end. | TOKYO — Using the carefully chosen words that govern reckonings with Japan’s militarist past, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated his country’s official remorse for the catastrophe of World War II on Friday, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the war’s end. |
| In a nationally televised address, Mr. Abe described feelings of “profound grief” and offered “eternal, sincere condolences” for the dead. He said Japan had inflicted “immeasurable damage and suffering” when it “took the wrong course and advanced along the road to war.” | In a nationally televised address, Mr. Abe described feelings of “profound grief” and offered “eternal, sincere condolences” for the dead. He said Japan had inflicted “immeasurable damage and suffering” when it “took the wrong course and advanced along the road to war.” |
| But in a potentially contentious break with previous expressions of contrition by Japanese leaders, he did not offer a new apology of his own. | But in a potentially contentious break with previous expressions of contrition by Japanese leaders, he did not offer a new apology of his own. |
| The decision, a product of months of deliberation, appeared calibrated to draw a line under what Mr. Abe and many Japanese see as an endless and enfeebling cycle of apologies for decades-old offenses. But Mr. Abe sought to do so while still addressing lingering resentment in China and South Korea, nations that bore the brunt of Japan’s often brutal empire building in the first half of the 20th century. | |
| “Japan has repeatedly expressed feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war,” Mr. Abe said. “Such positions articulated by previous cabinets will remain unshakable into the future.” | “Japan has repeatedly expressed feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war,” Mr. Abe said. “Such positions articulated by previous cabinets will remain unshakable into the future.” |
| But, he added, there was a limit to the number of times Japan could apologize. “We must not let our children, grandchildren and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologize,” he said. It is enough, he added, “to inherit the past, in all humbleness, and pass it on to the future.” | |
| Mr. Abe has long sought to break with what conservatives call Japan’s “masochistic” approach to addressing history. Apologies dating to the 1990s have not prevented feuds with China and South Korea, which have their own reasons, political analysts note, for keeping public animosity toward Japan alive. | |
| Jennifer Lind, an expert on Asian history at Dartmouth College, said Japan had acknowledged past wrongdoing more frequently and candidly than any other country. Mr. Abe, for all his flaws as a messenger, is “trying to bring what he sees as balance back to the historical discussion,” she said. | |
| Yet Mr. Abe has also sown doubts about his commitment to the forthright reckoning with the past that he endorsed on Friday. He has appointed unapologetic revisionists to high-profile posts, including at the national public broadcaster, NHK, and has paid visits to the Yasukuni shrine, where wartime Japanese leaders who were hanged for war crimes are enshrined along with millions of fallen soldiers and sailors. | |
| In an initial commentary published online, China’s official Xinhua news agency said Mr. Abe’s speech “trod a fine line with linguistic tricks” and was insincere. | In an initial commentary published online, China’s official Xinhua news agency said Mr. Abe’s speech “trod a fine line with linguistic tricks” and was insincere. |
| On Saturday, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea said that Mr. Abe’s statement “left much to be desired” and that for Japan to win its neighbors’ trust its words needed to be supported with “consistent and sincere conduct.” | |
| Tomiichi Murayama, a former prime minister who delivered Japan’s landmark first war apology in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, was also critical. | Tomiichi Murayama, a former prime minister who delivered Japan’s landmark first war apology in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, was also critical. |
| “He used flowery words and talked at length, but he didn’t make clear why he was doing it,” Mr. Murayama, 91, said on a program on the Fuji TV network. | |
| Emperor Hirohito broadcast his surrender announcement at noon on Aug. 15, 1945, ending Japan’s four-year war with the United States and its much longer conflict in Asia. | Emperor Hirohito broadcast his surrender announcement at noon on Aug. 15, 1945, ending Japan’s four-year war with the United States and its much longer conflict in Asia. |
| Mr. Abe’s statement included an oblique reference to women and girls exploited in Japanese military brothels. The Japanese right was particularly incensed by an apology in 1993 that acknowledged that many of these “comfort women” were coerced and that the Japanese state was to blame. | Mr. Abe’s statement included an oblique reference to women and girls exploited in Japanese military brothels. The Japanese right was particularly incensed by an apology in 1993 that acknowledged that many of these “comfort women” were coerced and that the Japanese state was to blame. |
| “We must never forget that there were women behind the battlefields whose honor and dignity were severely injured,” Mr. Abe said. | “We must never forget that there were women behind the battlefields whose honor and dignity were severely injured,” Mr. Abe said. |
| He said Japan had practiced “aggression,” a term first used by Mr. Murayama that is disputed by Japanese rightists. Mr. Abe himself had previously questioned the labeling, but it has become too integral to Japan’s position to cut without being accused of revisionism. Along with “colonial rule,” “remorse” and “heartfelt apology,” it was widely seen as an unavoidable term. | He said Japan had practiced “aggression,” a term first used by Mr. Murayama that is disputed by Japanese rightists. Mr. Abe himself had previously questioned the labeling, but it has become too integral to Japan’s position to cut without being accused of revisionism. Along with “colonial rule,” “remorse” and “heartfelt apology,” it was widely seen as an unavoidable term. |
| Thomas Berger, a historian at Boston University, said Mr. Abe’s “sprawling, four-page history lesson” risked giving the impression that he was trying to dilute Japanese responsibility by portraying the war as a “kind of historical tsunami for which no one should be blamed.” | Thomas Berger, a historian at Boston University, said Mr. Abe’s “sprawling, four-page history lesson” risked giving the impression that he was trying to dilute Japanese responsibility by portraying the war as a “kind of historical tsunami for which no one should be blamed.” |
| Dr. Berger said that while the statement would be unwelcome in China and South Korea, the amount of damage it might do to relations was hard to predict. It is a particularly delicate time for China’s president, Xi Jinping, who is contending with a slowing economy and a plunge in the stock market. | |
| “China needs Japanese investment in a Chinese economy that is sinking fast,” he said. But it may also seek a scapegoat. “Xi might be tempted to allow the venting of the righteous wrath of the Chinese people against the hated and unrepentant Japanese in order to divert public opinion from domestic problems,” Dr. Berger said. | “China needs Japanese investment in a Chinese economy that is sinking fast,” he said. But it may also seek a scapegoat. “Xi might be tempted to allow the venting of the righteous wrath of the Chinese people against the hated and unrepentant Japanese in order to divert public opinion from domestic problems,” Dr. Berger said. |
| Mr. Abe also drew parallels between history and the present day in ways that seemed likely to antagonize China, even if the absence of an apology did not. | |
| A reference in his statement to Japan’s past as a “challenger” to “international order” echoed rhetoric that Mr. Abe has often used to describe China, whose increasing willingness to assert its power in the region has included challenging Japanese control over islands in the East China Sea. | A reference in his statement to Japan’s past as a “challenger” to “international order” echoed rhetoric that Mr. Abe has often used to describe China, whose increasing willingness to assert its power in the region has included challenging Japanese control over islands in the East China Sea. |
| Mr. Abe sharpened the reference further in response to questions from the news media. “Ukraine, the South China Sea, the East China Sea — no matter where in the world, attempts to change the status quo by force cannot be tolerated,” he said. | |
| “Transmitting the lessons of 70 years ago carries great meaning for the present day, not only for Japan but the world.” | “Transmitting the lessons of 70 years ago carries great meaning for the present day, not only for Japan but the world.” |