Abe refuses to make direct apology
By Do Je-hae
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe failed to deliver the definitive apology Koreans have called for during his national address Friday to mark the country's 1945 surrender to the Allied forces in World War II.
Abe, who has been heavily criticized for his historical revisionism and hawkish policies, said that more than 80 percent of the country's population were born after the war and should not continue to shoulder the burden of apologizing for the country's wartime crimes.
“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.
The core message of his 25-minute address came alongside cursory expressions of regret over Japan's wartime atrocities and occupation of Korea, China and other East Asian countries.
Abe’s remark on sheltering future generations from past mistakes comes at a time when the Japanese people are increasingly showing weariness toward their neighbor's calls for a sincere apology. A latest poll in the Mainichi newspaper on Friday found 44 percent of respondents thought Japan had apologized enough for the war, while 31 percent thought it had not. Thirteen percent believed Japan had no reason to apologize in the first place.
The international media displayed keen interest in Abe’s statement.
As of 10:00 p.m. Friday, headlines mostly underlined that Abe stood by his country's past. Asian countries highlighted that his apology sounded insincere.
China's state-run news agency Friday criticized Abe's “watered-down” apology. In a commentary, Xinhua news agency said; “The adulterated apology is far from being enough for Japan's neighbors and the broader international community to lower their guard.”
“By adding that it is unnecessary for Japan's future generations to keep apologizing, Abe seemed to say that his once and for all apology can close that page of history,” the Xinhua commentary said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida telephoned Korea's top diplomat Yun Byung-se shortly after Abe's speech to explain its background.
Another glaring absence in Abe's speech was the lack of a clear apology to the victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese imperial army. The elderly women are still searching for an apology and compensation in Korea and other parts of Asia. He avoided the question of whether the so-called “comfort women” were forced into slavery. He has said in past media interviews that he sees them as “victims of human trafficking,” which has enraged many Koreans.
“We must never forget that there were women behind the battlefields whose honor and dignity were severely injured,” he said.
Abe's address also backpedalled on the scope and sincerity found in similar statements by his predecessors, such as Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono and former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in the 1990s.
The Murayama Statement, which Koreans view as a benchmark for subsequent apologies, contained “deep remorse and heartfelt apology for the tremendous damage inflicted, particularly in Asia.”
President Park Geun-hye has called on her Japanese counterpart to sincerely apologize for his country's wartime atrocities and the 1910-1945 occupation of Korea and uphold the spirit of past Japanese governments.
Korea and China displayed a keen interest in the Abe statement, as it is seen as a symbol of Japan's official stance on its past and its willingness to advance relations with countries formerly forced to endure its invasion and colonization.
Abe admitted that Japan took the wrong course in going to war and the Japanese people must “squarely face their country's past.”
“We have engraved in our hearts the histories of suffering of the people in Asia as our neighbors: those in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and China, among others,” Abe said.