Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Beijing: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed "profound grief" and "sincere condolences" for the "immeasurable damage and suffering" that Japan inflicted during World War II, but stopped short of issuing a fresh apology, saying future generations should not be burdened by the continued need to apologise.
Mr Abe made the remarks on Friday, in a televised address marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.
The address has become customary for sitting prime ministers on every 10th anniversary, and was closely watched in Beijing and Seoul for any evidence the conservative leader would water down past apologies.
The war's legacy still haunts Tokyo's relations with China and South Korea, whose people suffered extensively under Japan's brutal occupation before the imperial army's defeat in 1945.
"On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, I bow my head deeply before the souls of all those who perished both at home and abroad," Mr Abe said. "I express my feelings of profound grief and my eternal, sincere condolences."
In a carefully calibrated statement, Mr Abe nodded toward a 1995 landmark government apology made by then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, without explicitly repeating the same words personally.
"Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war," he said, adding that this position, articulated by previous cabinets, would remain "unshakeable into the future".
Instead, his wording reflected his previous comments that he wanted to make a statement that was forward-looking, without shirking Japan's wartime past. In comments most likely considered to be controversial in Beijing and Seoul, he said future generations should not be "predestined" to apologise.
"In Japan, the post-war generations now exceed 80 per cent of its population. We must not let our children, grandchildren, and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologise," he said.
The precise wording of Mr Abe's statement is considered a grave diplomatic issue particularly in Seoul and Beijing, who consider the nationalist Japanese leader to have revisionist tendencies and shy away from recognising the full extent of this country's role in the torture and medical experiments on prisoners and the appropriation of female civilians as "comfort women".
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Saturday that Mr Abe's speech had fallen short of Seoul's expectations.
"It is true that the prime minister's statement ... left much to be desired," she said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that vice-foreign minister Zhang Yesui, had expressed a "solemn" position to Japan's ambassador in Beijing, while an editorial carried by the official Xinhua news agency labelled Mr Abe's speech as "retrogression".
Mr Abe said Japan must never repeat the devastation of war, and uphold the principle that any disputes must be settled peacefully and through diplomatic channels, based on the rule of law.
Relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping are widely seen to have thawed slightly over the past year, but heightened tensions remain over a long-standing territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea.
Mr Abe has mentioned those tensions, and the spectre of China as a rising military superpower, to justify increasing Japan's own military spending. And despite strong public opposition in Japan, and an angry diplomatic response from China, Mr Abe has used his parliamentary majority to force through a national security bill which will allow his cabinet to reinterpret Japan's post-war pacifist constitution, effectively allowing the country's troops to fight overseas in aid of allies for the first time since 1945.
In his address on Friday, Mr Abe made specific reference to the suffering of its neighbours it invaded during the war, including China, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan, while also acknowledging prisoners of war from countries including Australia.
Japan's post-war progress, he said, had only been possible "through the goodwill and assistance extended to us that transcended hatred by a truly large number of countries, such as the United States, Australia, and European nations, which Japan had fiercely fought against as enemies".
In a statement, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he welcomed Mr Abe's comments.
"Prime Minister Abe's statement recognises the suffering by Australia and other countries during World War II," Mr Abbott said. "Australia has not forgotten this sacrifice and suffering. Those horrors teach us that the countries of our region all advance together, or none of us will advance at all."
