Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's meeting with the son of a late Indian judge who defended Japan during the war crime tribunals has touched off concerns that he might try to justify Japanese atrocities during World War II. Abe met Prasanta Pal, 81, in Kolkata on Thursday, while making a three-day visit to India. South Koreans and other Asian people have expressed their anger over Abe's meeting with the Indian, whose father is a hero to Japanese nationals.
We cannot understand why Abe met the son of Radhabinod Pal, the sole judge who opposed punishing Japanese war criminals convicted by the Allied tribunals. Regrettably, Abe turned a deaf ear to criticism that the encounter would anger other Asian nations, which still vividly remember wartime atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army.
A senior Japanese official said that the meeting had no ``political purpose.'' But, we must question Abe's intention behind the meeting. He should have refrained from having such an encounter considering its negative implications on Japan's wartime crimes and brutalities. Despite a strong backlash from many Asian countries and even in Japan, the prime minister pressed ahead with the encounter. There is no doubt that Abe has tried to gloss over Japan's aggression and crimes against humanity.
His remarks are seen as apparently expressing his distorted views on Japan's responsibility for the war and its shameful history. ``Your father is still respected by many in Japan,'' Abe told Pal, adding that he was one of the people who built the foundation of Japan-India relations. Pal's father was the only member of the 11-judge war tribunal to voice dissent in the process, accusing the panel of becoming an example of victors' justice.
On the part of Abe, the meeting was meaningful because his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was arrested as a suspected Class-A war criminal since he was a commerce and state minister during the war. The grandfather became prime minister in 1957 after he was released in 1948 without being indicted for any war crimes.
Abe should realize that his frequent remarks about wartime brutalities and ``comfort women'' have deepened the pain of Asians victimized by Japanese imperialism and militarism. In March, he sparked angry protests when he said there was no evidence proving that the Japanese military coerced innocent women into sex slavery for frontline soldiers during WWII.
Late last month, the U.S. House of Representative unanimously passed a non-binding resolution on the sexual enslavement, calling on the Tokyo government to acknowledge and apologize to the comfort women. Despite the resolution, Abe and other conservative and nationalist Japanese leaders refuse to accept responsibility for the past wrongdoings. We urge the Japanese government to stop shirking its responsibility and sincerely apologize for the country's wartime atrocities before it's too late.