Japan Says It Will Abide by Apologies Over Actions in World War II
TOKYO — Japan’s conservative government will abide by official apologies that the country’s leaders made two decades ago to the victims of World War II in Asia, top officials said Tuesday, backing away from earlier suggestions that the government might try to revise or even repudiate the apologies.
Japan formally apologized in 1993 to the women who were forced into wartime brothels for Japanese soldiers, and in 1995 to nations that suffered from Japanese aggression during the war. Both apologies rankled Japanese ultranationalists, and there were concerns that the hawkish current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, would try to appeal to them by whitewashing Japan’s wartime atrocities, a step that would probably infuriate Japan’s neighbors.
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This led to widespread concerns in Washington of a breakdown in ties between Japan and South Korea, two important allies whom the United States wants to cooperate as it faces a nuclear-armed North Korea and China’s fast-growing military. Last week in Washington, a former American ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, said revising the 1993 apology to the women could damage Japanese ties to the United States.
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“The Japanese government has accepted the facts of history in a spirit of humility, expressed once again our feelings of deep remorse and our heartfelt apology,” Mr. Kishida, the foreign minister, said on Tuesday. “Prime Minister Abe shares that view.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/world/asia/japan-says-it-will-abide-by-apologies-over-war.html
