Japanese apology accepted

Just in time to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of Asia's worst war, Japan has apologized. Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama used all his political levers, favors and pressure to get the apology.

This socialist leader of a coalition overcame heavy opposition to expressing regret from the right wing of his government. Many members of the Diet from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held out to the end.

Mr. Muruyama had made the apology a matter of principle for his government. The LDP rightists insisted Japan owed no explanation and should accept no penance for Tokyo's actions during World War II.

Those who resisted Mr. Murayama's principled call for a forthright apology for Japanese colonialism and violence are wrong.

LDP parliamentarians claimed an expression of guilt would dishonor the dead of World War II.

But the memories of these men were already dishonored by the actions of their own government throughout Asia in the 1930s and early 1940s.

The right-wingers also argued that Japan actually deserved credit for chasing western colonialism from Asia. The minds of most Asians boggle at this claim.

Japanese invasions of Asian countries from Manchuria to Burma (now Myanmar) and beyond were oppressive, vicious and brutal.

From the rape of Nanking in China to the atrocity of the death railway in Kanchanaburi (Thailand), there was little principle in Japan's wartime actions.

Western nations who colonized Asia have their own black history to try to make right.

Those Japanese who claimed imperial Tokyo was on the side of the angels in combating colonialism are acting as apologists, when they should be apologizing.

Mr. Murayama's insistence that his nation apologize for launching the violence of World War II is highly principled.

The Japanese prime minister even threatened to resign if the Diet refused to issue regrets. In the end, the Diet gave him pretty much what he wanted, after lengthy debate.

Japan will express remorse for `acts of aggression' in Asia, and for establishing `colonial rule' in many.

Asia should accept Mr. Murayama's hard-won national apology gracefully. It should then move to the far more important issues of the present and future.

It is time to put World War II behind us -- although it never will be time to forget the lessons of that terrible war.

Now Japan should be judged on its current actions and plans for the future.

-- The Bangkok Post