.. but the policy towards war never changes

HONG KONG (JP): Fifty years ago, Japanese leaders fiddled while their country burned, literally. That is why in the wake of the atom-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito had to take the unusual step of twice directing that a consensus on the need to surrender be reached.

Fifty years later, Japanese leaders fiddle while their country burns, figuratively. The issues are not war and peace, to be sure, but credit unions and banks are failing, exports are slumping, the yen is too high and overall the economy lacks positive direction. The politicians have been dithering even over a prosaic exercise like a cabinet reshuffle, with little if any attention paid to the grave issues requiring attention.

But the issue of war and peace did manage to intrude. No sooner has the reshuffle been belatedly concluded, and on the new cabinet's very first evening in office, the new Minister of Education Yoshinobu Shimamura put his foot in it by raking over the dying embers of World War II.

Aware that Liberal Democratic Party ministers have, over the years, amassed a noteworthy record for their distortions of past history, thereby offending neighboring countries, Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama reportedly warned his new cabinet to beware of comments on the war at this sensitive moment. The 50th anniversary of the end of the war is only days away. Memories of what happened then are to the forefront in many countries where Japan's wartime record is never a happy recollection.

The warning meant nothing to Shimamura. Asked what was his view of the war at a midnight press conference, he went straight for two sore points. He doubted whether Japan was an aggressor. He saw nothing wrong in Japan forgetting about its past record.

Maybe he was trying to make the sensible proposition that mere apologies by Japan do not by themselves improve relations -- deeds are more important. But it certainly did not come out that way in his initial comments. If the basic qualification for a Minister of Education is clarity of thought and expression, then Shimamura is in the wrong job.

"I wonder if it is wise of Japan to continue to make an apology (about Japan's wartime behavior) for apology's sake, at a time when two-thirds of the Japanese people belong to a generation that has not experienced war?" Shimamura reportedly asked.

"The question of whether or not Japan started a war of aggression is a matter of point of view. Aren't all wars aggressive fights?" was another reported comment.

One reason why fewer and fewer Japanese know anything about their nation's wartime past is that their textbooks at school, ably vetted by the Ministry of Education, tell them very little, and do not stress Japanese aggression. In a negative way, therefore, Shimamura was demonstrating his qualifications for his post.

He certainly was not displaying any talent for foreign relations. Within hours of his late-night comments, South Korean newspapers were reporting and denouncing his remarks. Shortly thereafter the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that "We cannot but express regret about the fact that Education Minister Shimamura made the remarks, giving a false account about wartime aggression".

China currently tends to play down its differences with Japan, at a time when it is accentuating its differences with the United States. Still, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman could not let Shimamura's comments pass unchallenged, saying that their essence was "to cover up Japan's crimes of aggression and refuse to make introspection".

Murayama made a show of rapping his education minister over the knuckles for his indiscretion. Shimamura made a show of trying to explain what he really meant. The honne (real substance) was that Murayama is not really in charge of his cabinet, while Shimamura almost certainly feels no guilt for Japan's wartime conduct.