Japan PM Apologizes for WWII Aggression

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Friday April 22, 2005 2:46 PM
By AUDRA ANG

Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Japan's prime minister apologized Friday for his country's World War II aggression in Asia in a bid to defuse tensions with regional rival China, but a Chinese diplomat dismissed the remarks, saying ``actions are more important'' than words.

Just hours before Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized, a Cabinet minister and more than 80 Japanese lawmakers made a controversial visit to a Tokyo shrine dedicated to Japan's war dead. China's Foreign Ministry criticized the visits, expressing ``strong dissatisfaction over the negative actions of some Japanese politicians.''

A spokesman for Chinese nationalist groups that helped to mobilize three weekends of sometimes-violent anti-Japanese protests in China said the communist state would not be satisfied until Koizumi stopped visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which also honors Japan's executed war criminals.

Koizumi's expression of ``deep remorse'' at a summit of Asian and African leaders in Jakarta did not go beyond what Japanese leaders previously have said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4956050,00.html