Global peace remains elusive

A hush fell across war-weary Japan as the unfamiliar voice of their divine emperor blared out of the static of war-time radio.

Fifty years ago today, after hundreds of thousands of Japanese were vaporized by a new bomb unleashed by the Allies on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito descended from his throne and told his subjects that it was time to stop the bloodshed and accept the pain of defeat.

It would take another two weeks before Japanese Foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru would officially seal his country's unconditional surrender aboard the American battleship Missouri. But the emperor's words, recorded and broadcast to his subjects at noon on Aug. 15, 1945, were good as gold; Japan had surrendered and the war was over.

Fifty years after Emperor Hirohito told his subjects to bear the unbearable and accept defeat, some Japanese still feel no remorse for their war of aggression that killed millions of people in East Asia. Some good came out of the war, they say; white colonizers were thrown out and Asia became a place for Asians.

Japan continues to fret over an official apology for its wartime atrocities. The Japanese might have a point, otherwise all nations or races with a history of conquest dating back to Attila the Hun might be required to apologize.

For Japan, war means never having to say you're sorry, which is a cause for alarm in a world that continues to be rocked by pockets of conflict. Half a century after the end of World War II, global peace remains elusive.

The world's greatest fear is that those who feel no remorse for their past aggressions are apt to repeat them.

-- Philippine Star, Manila