Japan fails to apologize to Asia

Japan fails to apologize to Asia

Japan's tripartite ruling coalition has reached a compromise
at the last minute, enabling it to keep its promise to draft a
resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ending of
World War II. The resolution must be passed before the Diet
session ends on June 18, but Jakarta Post Asia correspondent
Harvey Stockwin anticipates that, before then, more Asian voices
will condemn rather than praise it.

HONG KONG (JP): The present Japanese ruling coalition has
narrowly averted breaking up over the issue of World War II but
in doing so has avoided properly apologizing to Asian countries
for Japanese atrocities during that conflict.

The government, led by Socialist Prime Minister Tomiichi
Murayama, is now all set to pass a parliamentary resolution which
in effect says that Japan feels remorse because it copied the
European powers and the United States in seeking to possess
colonies in Asia.

The fire bombing of the Japanese Cultural Center in Seoul by
infuriated South Korean students, in a related incident, bears
eloquent testimony to a sad and avoidable reality: Japanese
politicians and bureaucrats, far from lessening the burden of
history carried by Japan for its past misdeeds have almost
certainly increased it.

When the three political parties in Murayama's coalition came
together in July last year they pledged to pass a resolution
commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ending of the war in
the Pacific.

As has been reported by the Jakarta Post, for the last three
months or so there has been a very real risk that the coalition
would break apart over its irreconcilable views of history.

Murayama's Socialist Party wanted a clear cut apology for the
past, while the largest party in the coalition, the Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP) was opposed. What were earlier regarded as
right wing views on the war are now clearly in the ascendant
within the LDP. Essentially these views boil down to believing
that Japan did little or nothing for which it needs to apologize.

Needless to say, the LDP attitudes are completely unacceptable
to countries such as China, Korea, Singapore and the Philippines.

In the last 12 months the Socialists have been forced to
abandon long held principles such as their past refusal to
recognize the constitutionality of Japan's military forces, or
their non-acceptance of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. Now they
have virtually given in over their view of the war, too.

After a protracted period of brinkmanship between the three
parties, and with the end of the current Diet (parliament)
session due on June 18, the three parties finally agreed on a
five paragraph compromise resolution late Tuesday, June 6, which
reads in full:

This Diet, in the 50th year since the war, offers its sincere
tribute to the memory of the war dead throughout the world and
victims who have suffered because of war and other deeds.

Recalling the many instances of colonial rule and acts of
aggression in the modern history of the world, we recognize those
acts which our country carried out and the unbearable suffering
inflicted on the peoples of other countries, particularly the
nations of Asia, and express deep remorse.

Transcending differences in historical views of the past war,
we must humbly learn the lessons of history and build a peaceful
international community.

This Diet links hands with the countries of the world, under
the doctrine of lasting peace enshrined in the Constitution of
Japan, and expresses its determination to open up a future of
coexistence for humankind.

We affirm the above.

Clearly, in the second crucial but highly ambiguous paragraph,
the draft resolution implies that Japan was only doing what other
powerful countries had done.

The paragraph indicates that the LDP view, that Japan, far
from fighting a war of aggression was actually fighting a war of
liberation for Asia against the white race, carried the most
weight in the coalition negotiations over the resolution.

Put another way, Murayama and the Socialists preferred to stay
in power rather than stick by their past principles.

At best, the resolution is successful as a domestic political
instrument, since it allows the Socialists to claim that it
indicates regret for what happened, while the LDP will be able to
assert that the resolution justifies the Japanese war record.

However as an instrument of foreign policy it appears
valueless. China will not appreciate the whitewash of its
(probably excessive) claim of 35 million war dead as a result of
Japanese aggression. Several Southeast Asian nations will tend to
resent the implication that Japan was a liberating force in their
history. Most important, Japan's current allies in the
economically developed world, particularly the United States,
will, presumably, not be amused by the anti-white race theme in
the LDP version of history. Above all, Americans will carefully
note that there is not the slightest bit of Japanese remorse for
what they still regard as the treacherous Japanese sneak attack
on Pearl Harbor, which brought the U.S. into World War II.

In short, the draft Japanese resolution "celebrates" the 50th
anniversary of World War II by threatening to reduplicate the
circumstances of mid-1945 when Japan stood alone against the
civilized world.

Meanwhile, in both parts of divided Korea views have been
illustrated by the wave of understandable outrage which has swept
South Korea following a speech by former Japanese Foreign
Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Michio Watanabe in which he
asserted that Japanese control over Korea 1910 to 1945 was not
colonial rule because Japan annexed Korea "amicably (by
agreement), not by force".

This travesty of the truth presented to a domestic Japanese
audience -- Watanabe did not expect to be reported in the outside
world -- was quickly followed by spirited South Korean official
and unofficial denunciations, followed by an apology from
Watanabe. But, of course, what he originally said is a natural
extension of the view that Japan heroically fought a war of
liberation on Asia's behalf against the wicked West, and
Watanabe, and many LDP leaders like him, will go on believing
that no matter how many apologies they make. In a similar vein,
some LDP leaders will continue to occasionally assert that the
Rape of Nanjing in 1937, or the Rape of Manila in 1945, never
took place.

For close observers of the Japanese scene what is deeply
disturbing is not so much the ambiguous resolution itself --
though that is deplorable -- but rather the ignorant, bigoted and
downright mendacious political and historical views which lie
behind it. For Japanese politicians to talk of "humbly learning
the lessons of history" when they perennially and arrogantly
assert a self-righteous view of the past, a history that did not
happen, is plain and simple hypocrisy.

By June 1945, with Germany already defeated, Japan fought on
regardless, refusing to admit its follies and failures.

In June 1995, Germany has long since accepted responsibility
for its past, and satisfied the world with its apologies. But in
Japan today it is as if nothing has changed.